DPL Blog

Hey, Guess What?! You can read a book on your phone! And, you can listen to a book on your phone.

I may be a little behind on the times, but I just discovered this wonderful feature when I got rid of my dummy phone in favor of a smartphone.

Your library card is your passport to adventure, and with a smartphone, you can go anywhere, anytime.

With the Dover Public Library’s two, count ‘em, TWO, ebook collections, The Ohio Digital Library and Axis 360, the sky’s the limit to the books you can access. (Actually, the sky is not the limit, as you can download the books on the ground then take them on the plane with you.) These collections, listed under “Downloadables” and “eBooks” on our website are your ticket to books for your computer, iPad, MP3 player, Kindle, and your smartphone.

This is such a great way to continue the reading experience anywhere and everywhere you go.

If you need help with our ebook collections, we can get you started. We here at the Dover Public Library are ready to take you your reader.

Check out all our links under Downloadables to see what audiobooks, movies, TV shows, magazines, and more wait for you in our collections.

Happy eReading!

-Denise
Adult Services

Bah dah, bah dah dah dah. So many songs have been written about this most hated day of the week that you can find one to suit practically any musical taste. The first one to pop into my head when I hear the word “Monday” is the one written by John Phillips for The Mamas and the Papas. Don’t ask me why, it’s not even from my generation. I am also a fan of Wilco and John Prine; here is a link if you want to explore the variety of artists caught with “a case of the Mondays:” http://antonk.com/music/songs-about-monday/

Why am I talking about Monday? Because it is now my favorite day of the week. I get to spend my Mondays at Dover Public Library in our fabulous new local history room, The Roots Cellar, and I invite you to come to the library and check it out! We are located in the basement right next to the Book Cellar, in the old community room area. Here you will find Dover High School Yearbooks and City Directories, books on the history of Tuscarawas County, including notable places and people, genealogy books, general Ohio reference books, war rosters, and archival collections. Unfortunately these materials do not circulate, but you are welcome to come and browse the collection during The Roots Cellar’s hours:

Monday: 12:30-4, 5-8

Tuesday: 5-8

If you would like to look at something from the collection when the room is closed, no problem! Ask at the front desk and staff will be happy to retrieve a title for you to enjoy upstairs in the main reading room.

So, if you are stuck in the middle of John Prine’s loooooong Monday and want to break up the monotony, come visit me in The Roots Cellar and see what there is to learn about your hometown.

Claire Kandle

Local History & Genealogy Librarian

One of my favorite things about checking out library materials is the fact that I can check out new things, whether they are books, movies, TV shows, or magazines, for free. I love it! Not sure about that new movie? Check it out first to see if you like it. Want to catch up on the gossip magazines without paying $5 an issue? Check them out from the library! Don’t feel like spending $40 on the doorstopper that is The Goldfinch? That’s ok, just check it out from the library!

I only occasionally run into snags with this system. Maybe I’m on vacation already and can’t stop by the library because it’s in Ohio and I’m in North Carolina, or maybe I don’t think I can fit those 5 books into my carry-on and still manage to lift it over my head once I get on the airplane. Sometimes, it’s even simpler: my Sunday afternoon is suddenly wide open, and the library is closed for the day. Fortunately, the library has a wealth of digital resources that can be accessed from anywhere with a computer, tablet, or smartphone.

Axis 360 is one of my favorite digital resources the library provides. It’s like a hidden treasure trove of new, popular titles, and usually there is almost no wait time. It doesn’t have hundreds of older titles, but I’m almost always able to get the newest bestsellers with long wait lists on the print editions.  It’s my go-to for these newer titles–I was able to check out and read The Girl on the Train without any wait time at all 🙂

Another one of my favorites is Flipster. It’s the library’s new eMagazine service. The best part about Flipster: you never have to wait (ever). I use it all the time to read the more popular magazines, especially the weeklies. It’s really easy to download and print pages, which is helpful when I find a new recipe or an article I don’t want to lose. Plus, I’m able to read the Sports Illustrated articles on the latest March Madness developments before the tournament ends in a couple of weeks.

Don’t get me wrong: I still love a good, physical book. It has a heft that you just can’t beat. But when I can’t wait to get my handson a new title (this happens frequently), or I’m traveling and don’t want to increase the weight of my suitcase by 30 pounds, or when the library is closed, etc., going digital provides the solution. And the bottom line is, whether it’s print or it’s digital, as long as I’m reading, I’m happy 🙂

-Kathryn Green, Technology Manager

“What do you mean, you never read The Giver?”

Thus began a lengthy discussion with my roommate about what we had to read in school. She shook her head at me, suddenly suspicious of my education, since I had been cheated out of Lois Lowry.

Neither had I suffered through A Brave New World or Their Eyes Were Watching God. I had not read Heart of Darkness in high school, but I had to for a college course, which I think was probably worse.

In regards to Steinbeck, I have my roommate soundly beat. She never read The Pearl or Cannery Row or The Grapes of Wrath.

We both had to read To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, and, to our mutual dismay, Wuthering Heights.

Both of us had the freedom to choose what books we read for our book reports, though my roommate had to choose from a list. I almost shivered when she said that. I had no such list to go by. I distinctly remember reading Nerd in Shining Armor by Vicki Lewis Thompson (an adult romance), All-American Girl by Meg Cabot (a tween book), and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (yes, all three of them, thanks to a boxed set I got for Christmas). In other words, I used that freedom to explore all kinds of books, not just the ones that would have made it onto a teacher’s reading list. To not have had that freedom – I dread to think what I would have ended up reading.

The discussion went on to include the best stories by Edgar Allan Poe and left me with some observations about the books we have to read in school.

First of all, my librarian brain noticed immediately that the vast majority of the books we talked about have been banned or at least challenged at one point or another.

I also wondered about the reputations that some of these authors have. In school, I never read a comedy by Shakespeare. It was all tragedy, all the time. If I hadn’t been a complete Nerd and read A Midsummer Night’s Dream on my own, I’d never have known that the Bard can be funny. Likewise, if I had only been forced to read The Pearl, I would never have picked up a Steinbeck by choice. It wasn’t until I had to read Cannery Row that I recognized Steinbeck’s entertainment value and searched out more Steinbeck at the library.

I believe that what we read in our youth, especially what we read in school, has the capacity to make or break us as readers. If we like it, we’re set for life. If we have the freedom to read what we like, not just what we have to, we’ll learn the value in all reading, not just in high literature.

Part of the fun of reading is being able to explore different worlds. There really is something for everyone. Luckily for us, we have libraries to help us find the right book, even if we missed it in school.

Liz

-Teen Librarian

PS: After having this discussion with my roommate, I did, in fact, check out The Giver, and it is, as she said, awesome.

Here in the Tuscarawas Valley it really is not a big deal when you see an Amish buggy rolling down a country road. Amish patrons use our library and Amish fiction is one of the highest circulating genres at the library. Many of us have worked with or gone to school with Amish people. Still, there is no question that Amish life and culture intrigues most of us. How do they continue to live the way they do in this modern age? What is true and what is myth about their way of life? Are they really that happy? In an attempt to answer some of these questions, the library is pleased to announce that Brenda Nixon will be speaking on Saturday, March 21 at 2:00 PM. Her program is “Beyond Buggies & Bonnets: True Amish Tales.” Nixon is an English, or non-Amish, parent to Amish “runaways,” this intriguing program will present her intimate understanding of the Swartzentruber Amish Order. In fact, Nixon’s daughter is married to an ex-Amish man-the son of a bishop-and their home has become a safe house for young men and women making the transition out of the Amish community. Nixon will discuss Amish culture and topics such as rumspringa, ordnung, shunning, and Amish sex ed. The public is invited to bring their questions at this intriguing program. Call the Dover Public Library at 330-343-6123 for more information or to register for this free program. For more info about Brenda Nixon, click here.

Jim Gill, Director

It’s February, the so-called shortest month of the year. But ask anyone from Ohio and they will tell you it often feels like the longest. Why? The weather. By this point I’ve complained about it so much I’m tired of my own griping. It’s cold. So cold. And the snow. Can’t it just melt already? Margaret Atwood calls February “month of despair with a skewered heart in the centre.” With spring a mere 3 weeks away, I am positively aching for warmth and the sight of tiny crocus buds poking their eager green tongues out to taste the air. Alas, we have a bit more weather to weather. To make myself feel better I thought I would research a winter before my time (okay, just barely before my time) that was much much worse:

Make mention of this to Midwestern folks who lived through it and you are sure to hear a hair-raising tale or two. My mother, a teacher, remembers waking up to the radio on the morning of January 26: “If you are within the sound of my voice there is no school today.” She peeked out the window, saw the stop sign at the end of our street flapping violently back and forth in the wind, then hopped back into bed (I was still incubating at the time, not due for another six weeks, so I was blissfully unaware of the weather conditions). She was lucky to avoid the worst of it.

Wind gusts in excess of 65 mph caused scattered power and phone outages. Visibility on I-77 was down to zero, county roads were drifted in. No mail, no buses, no deliveries. Nothing could be done about snow removal until the wind died down, and a shortage of salt compounded the problem. Schools, state offices and airports closed. Trees fell. Windows shattered. Trailers turned over and roofs collapsed or were blown off. A barn toppled in the wind, killing the livestock huddled inside. The ”killer blizzard” also took 90 human lives, including a young couple who decided to wait out the storm in their car, refusing rescue. They were found dead the next day.

But thankfully all storms pass, the damage is tallied, and then the cleanup begins. This blizzard was particularly costly to Ohio farms, causing an estimated $48.2 million in damage. Clearing the roads was an exhausting and often thankless chore; I read an article of one county worker who plowed roads in a ‘73 Ford for 15 straight hours (in drifts four feet high and 30 feet long), getting approximately 1.5 miles to the gallon, only to be stopped by a citizen “screaming invectives” about plowing in his driveway.

While this winter has had its share of inconveniences (at times my heater sounds like a volcano about to erupt), I am grateful that this year hasn’t seen a “state of emergency” blizzard with hurricane winds (knock on wood – it ain’t over yet), and that I have a warm roof over my head and a loving family with whom I can cuddle and share hot chocolate. And I hope that we will soon see a headline like this one that appeared over 100 years ago:

Until then, I’m with Ms. Atwood: Make it be spring!

“February” by Margaret Atwood, from Morning in the Burned House. Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Looking for a way to pass the remaining cold days? Come to Dover Public Library, cozy up to our microfilm machine, and read about winters far worse than this one!

Claire Kandle, Local History & Genealogy Librarian

From purses to vases to wreaths, old books are being turned into new treasures all over the place. Here are a few of my favorite things to do with discarded paperbacks.

A side note before I start talking about destroying books to make arts and crafts: No one wants the books I use. First, the books are discarded library books, meaning they haven’t been checked out in years or are too damaged to circulate. The books are also leftovers from the annual book sale and were bound for the recycling bin before I rescued them to give them new lives as hedgehogs, angels,or poetry

1. Paperback Hedgehogs:

Paperback hedgehogs are adorable, easy, and time consuming. You can decorate them any way you want. So, make the Avengers, or just make a Hedgehog army. Make them cute or make them scary. Let your creativity run wild! Smaller paperbacks of about 100 pages work best for this, but since I mainly had thick romance novels, I just split each book into two sections, thereby making two hedgehogs from one book. The hedgehog shape is made by folding the pages in half, then folding the corners down. More detailed instructions can be found here. 

2. Book Page Angels:

Unfortunately, I have no photos of my version of this angel I found on Pinterest. These cute ornaments consist of two book pages, accordion folded, sliced a little with some scissors, and wedged together to make an angel. Then, using hot glue, I stick a decoration on the part where the two pages come together. Small wooden hearts and stars are great for this. Then I glue a ribbon or piece of yarn in the top back so it can hang on a tree. These are great for Christmas, and actually proved to be a perfect Relay for Life Fundraiser here at the library.

3. Black Out Poetry:

This is a fun activity to do with books or with newspapers. Start with a page out of a book or from the newspaper. Underline or circle words to make a poem, then color over all the other words with a black marker. You can get creative with doodles or shapes, anything that will make your words pop. You can even use white paint to go over the words you want to get rid of, then create an illustration to go along with your poem when it’s dry. For more ideas, check out this awesome Slideshare from a school in California.

For more ideas, search “Book crafts” on Pinterest. Or, if Pinterest isn’t your thing, visit the library and browse the 745.5 area. Here, among other great books on paper crafting, you’ll find The Repurposed Library by Lisa Occhipinti. What will you make with an old paperback?

Liz Strauss

Crafty Teen Librarian