DPL Blog


Time to Check Out Your Future!

The Dover Public Library has been proudly serving the community of Dover, OH, since 1902. Our current building, started in 1954 and opened in 1955, is in need of some very important updates such as modern wiring, more accessible shelving, and dedicated Teen and Local History rooms. Check out this video for our 2016 report and the highlights of our renovation plan.

While putting together this video, I had the opportunity to look back at all the great events we have had here at the Dover Public Library over the years. We’ve learned so many things about animals – snakes and lizards and turtles, oh my! – about science, about writing and publishing, even about yoga. We are so much more than books – or our building.

But when you look around the library, really look, you start to see the pieces of furniture that have been here since we opened in 1955. Tables and chairs photographed in our grand opening are still here in the Lounge and the Teen Zone. We still use a few of the same book carts; the basement shelves are exactly the same; we haven’t even gotten a new circulation desk. And these are just the things that we can see. What we can’t see is the wiring that was not designed to handle all the technology a modern Public Library uses. Without an update to the wiring, keeping up with our technology needs is going to be a real struggle.

Some would say it already is.

What most patrons don’t see is the Processing Room downstairs. Yesterday afternoon, there were five of us trying to work on our various projects at once. There were only two computers we could use to input new materials into our system to get them ready for check-out.

I look forward to the day when adding a new computer doesn’t come with added worry about where to put it or how to hook it up. Better accessibility, more space for teens, and easier access to Local History Materials will make me even prouder than I already am of our Library and of our Community.

We are more than our building, but having a building that fulfills our community’s needs definitely helps us provide the very best for our patrons.

-Liz Strauss, Teen Librarian

To learn more, or to help, please visit: https://www.doverlibrary.org/capitalcampaign/


Favorite Movies

Ugly Dachshund and Sabrina You might think that people have one particular favorite movie, but that is not the case for me! I have several that I would call my favorites, ranging from old classics to Dirty Dancing and Star Warscurrent movies. Some of my favorite titles are The Ugly Dachshund, Sabrina, Charade, To Catch a Thief, Move Over Darling, Dirty Dancing, and any Star Wars or Star Trek movie. Believe me, that list could go on! I often check out an old movie for the weekend, and if I get time, I will burrow into my sewing room with a project, pop in a movie, and relax for a couple of hours.

I am fortunate enough that I get to order our movie selection for the library, so I see a variety of genres come in. With some of the selections, it’s hard to tell if they will be good or not by their descriptions, but it is fun to read about them and develop the library’s collection. We have a wide variety of movies and TV series, and we are always up for any title suggestions you may have.

Hope to see you soon checking out our large movie collection!


Wendy Contini

Technical Services Manager

 

 

PS: If you like Classic Movies, too, be sure to join us every Monday at 2:00 PM for our Classic Movie Mondays! This week, I hear we’re watching the fabulous Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron in a classic musical set in Paris. 😉


“Napkin Notes” by Garth Callaghan

 Napkin Notes by Garth Callaghan“Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.”

-Maya Angelou

“Normal is a setting on a washing machine. Be awesome.”

-Unknown

“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”

-Mark Twain

“Dear Emma, if I could give you one thing in life, I would give you the ability to see yourself through my eyes. Only then would you realize how special you are to me. Love, Dad”

-Garth Callaghan

 

These are just a few of the napkin notes that the author packed in his daughter’s lunch bag every morning. His promise was to write 826 napkins so that Emma, his daughter, would have one every day until she graduated from High School.

He started making lunches and packing napkin notes when she was small. After Emma turned twelve, her father Garth was diagnosed with kidney cancer. The prognosis was not good. Garth was diagnosed with cancer four time and was given an 8% chance to live long enough to see his daughter graduate from High School.

I found this book to be very inspirational. The big message is to treasure what is really important – relationships and friendships that matter. Emma started to save all her Dad’s notes. There would never be any doubt what her Dad believed in and what he stood for.

Pack. Write. Connect. Life is short, and Napkin Notes by Garth Callaghan is a positive statement about hope.

 

-Jan Ridenour

Technical Services Specialist


Christmas Time is Here

God Bless Us Everyone by Annie TiptonWell folks, it’s here! The tree is up, lights are on the porch, wreaths hung on the doors. Our favorite sitcoms are planning their holiday specials and every commercial is promoting the latest Christmas sale.  If you often feel like Luther Krank in John Grisham’s, “Skipping Christmas,” and are tired of the commercialized mess of the modern Christmas season, then I encourage you to take a deep breath and to considering coming to hear author Annie Tipton on Thursday, December 15 at 6:30 PM

discuss her new book, “God Bless Us Every One! Devotional Inspiration from  A Christmas Carol.” Tipton write’s: “Alongside scenes from the beloved Charles Dickens classic, you’ll learn eternal lessons of charity, kindness, goodwill, heart-transformation, and more.”  Who isn’t influenced by the story of Tiny Tim and Ebenezer Scrooge?  I encourage you to come and be renewed this Christmas season. Annie will discuss her new book, writing, and more. Pick up a signed copy of Annie’s book for a gift for a loved one! All welcome at this free event. In the immortal words of Ebenezer Scrooge: “God Bless Us Every One!”


Mortimer the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the red nosed reinderRudolph the red-nosed reindeer here!  I am so important because I lead Santa’s sleigh!  Yeah, LEAD the sleigh!  That’s right, I’m a VERY important Moose…errr, I mean reindeer.  And I fly!  How cool is that?!  My mom was just telling me the other day, “Mortimer, you are a very important moose!”  Oh, I meant “Rudolph” instead of Mortimer.  Oh, and “reindeer” instead of moose.  Flying so much makes me forgetful.

Anyway, I want to tell you that my best bud Santa will be here at the library Thursday, December 15th for pictures and stories and ho ho ho’s!  Yea Santa!  I’m sure he will ask me to light up the whole room with my bright nose, which might be too bright for inside, so maybe not.  Still, it will be an awesome evening!  I’ll see you here at 5:45!  Oh, and don’t forget to call and sign up!  Just tell them you heard it from Mortimer the red-nosed reindeer!  No, I mean Rudolph the red-nosed moose.  No, wait…

Just come, and we’ll work out the details later…


Come Write In!

cat writing at a deskIt’s almost November! And that means it’s almost NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo? What’s that? How do you say it?

It’s National Novel Writing Month, the month when writers everywhere try to write a whole 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I’ll save you the math: that’s about 1,667 words a day, for 30 days. For a normal typist (40 words per minute), that’s about 42 minutes of straight typing per day. And it’s pronounced “Nan – Oh – Wry – Mo.” As the organization says on their website, “Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought about writing a novel.”

This year, the Dover Public Library is offering up our Lounge as a Come Write In location. That means you can stop in and use our Lounge as a quiet space to write any time during NaNoWriMo. As always, the Lounge will remain available to the public unless it has been reserved by an organization.

In addition to the Lounge being available the whole month, we’re also hosting several scheduled events for writers to meet, get inspiration, and write.

  • Tuesday, November 1, 6pm – 8pm in the Lounge: Come write your first 1,667 words
  • Saturday, November 5, 2pm – 5pm in the Community Room: Come double your daily word count with us
  • Friday, November 11, 2pm – 5pm in the Community Room: Keep up the great work and log your progress
  • Friday, November 18 from 2pm – 5pm in the Lounge: Come Write In and get inspired by other participants
  • Monday, November 28, 6pm – 8pm  in the Community Room: Sprint to the finish this week to WIN
  • Wednesday, November 30, 6pm – 8pm in the Community Room: Meet your 50,000 word goal tonight

 

 

Happy NaNoWriMo!

Liz

Teen Librarian

 


Staff Retreat 2016

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”  –Winston Churchill

Dover Public Library Staff Photo October 10 2016Last Monday, Columbus Day, the library was closed for its annual Fall Retreat. This day is so important for the library and for the library staff because it gives us all a chance to go off-site and to come together as a staff through fellowship and training. All jobs have their “moments,” of course, and the public library world is no exception. Working with the public can be difficult and keeping up in an ever-changing library landscape is and always will be challenging. But at the annual Fall Retreat, we have the chance to learn and share and grow and be inspired. This year, we visited the Schiappa Branch of the Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County. It was fun to explore their library-which seemed like a new building, despite being constructed in the 1980’s. Their staff was amazing and it was incredible and eye-opening to see how they do things. After a great lunch (you must have Scaffidi’s in Steubenville) we talked about the changes facing our library: new staff, a fundraising campaign for a big building remodel, and that ever-present thing called change. We laughed, we shared, and yes–we even cried a little. In the end, as we drove back home on State Route 250 past beautiful Tappan Lake, we felt renewed in a way that was long overdue. It is such a blessing to work with men and women at the Dover Public Library and it is moments like the Fall Retreat that make it undeniable that I am where I am supposed to be. It is an honor and a privilege to be a part of the Dover Public Library. I truly have the best staff a library director could ask for.