Waterville Public Library

Be Creative @ Your Library

   The Waterville Public Library has plans for a busy summer.  We will have story times for 3 to 5 year olds on Wednesday June 10, 17 & 24 and July 8, 15 & 22nd.  Three year olds will meet from 10 to 10:20 on those mornings. Four and Five year olds will meet from 1 to 1:30 pm on those same days.  Please call the Library at 363-2769 so we know how many to plan for.
     Sign-up for the Summer Reading Program, “Get Creative @ Your Library” starts May 22nd.  Children ages 3 years through 6th grade may sign up to read for prizes.  Children ages 3-6 may be “read-to.”  We are also planning a “Get Creative @ Your Library” one-time half-day library camp here and at Blue Rapids with the Blue Rapids Public Library.  The date for these events will be announced later.  We’ll need lots of help and would appreciate any volunteers.
     For the adults, we have a program at 7 pm at the Waterville Community Center on Friday, June 5th.  Kate Meyer from the KU Spencer Museum of Art will give a presentation on “Picturing the Dust Bowl.”  That evening, we will also “unveil” our Picturing America Grant prints.
    We have many new children’s books for the Summer Reading Program, including our “adopt-a-book” collection focusing on the arts.
     Both the Waterville and Blue Rapids Public Libraries will be Accelerated Reader testing sites for Valley Heights Junior/Senior High School students this summer.  We look forward to seeing many students in our libraries this summer.

Here at the Waterville Public Library, we are welcoming Spring!  Although many of you get too busy to read fiction, there are some great non-fiction books that pertain to this season.  We have gardening and landscaping books and a magazine called “Garden Gate” to help you outside the house.  For the inside, we have many books on de-cluttering, organizing and redecorating.  There are many healthy cooking magazines that offer lighter fare for warmer weather.  We are subscribing to several new magazines, which should be arriving at the Library in the next few weeks. 
Reading the Library’s magazines is just one way you can use us to save money in these economically difficult times.  You can also check out our movies for no charge and use the Internet on our four patron computers.  We have several books on personal finance and frugal living.  One of my favorites is “The Tightwad Gazette” by Amy Dacyzn.
We’ve spruced up for spring with a new bulletin board and some new bookshelves.  Darin Blackburn did a very nice job on the new shelves and on painting the children’s shelves.  They look so bright and inviting.
So far, 12 people and 1 animal have “adopted” books on all facets of the arts for our special children’s collection.  We invited you to stop in and look at the books and adopt one for $15.  A contribution of any amount will be appreciated.
We had many generous people donate books, magazines, movies and audio-books in February and March.  Our thanks to Jeannette Bergquist, Helen DeWycke, Becky Gillihan, Shirley Jensen, Sandra Isaacson-Bynum, Don and Sharon King, Stuart Lamoreaux, Bevy Roepke,  Melodie Sedivy,  Ann Walter and Vicki Whitaker for helping our collection grow.  We have almost 11,000 items now!  Check out the free shelf for older items weeded to make room for the new.  (Librarians have to weed just like gardeners do.)
New novels you might be interested in checking out include works by authors James Patterson, Kristin Hannah, Maeve Binchy and Danielle Steel.  We’ve also got new children’s books, large print and audio books in both cassette and cd format.
If you haven’t been in the library lately, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  We were happy to have the Waterville Lions Club visit us for their program on April 6, and they learned a lot about all the new things going on in the Library.

We are happy to host the Waterville Lions Club Monday evening, April 6th.  We hope you enjoy your tour of the Library and come back to see us often!

The Waterville Public Library is already getting prepared for this year’s Summer Reading Program.  The theme is “Get Creative @ Your Library,” and we found an exciting set of books for children that will be perfect for this theme.  They will also be wonderful permanent additions to our collection.  There are several different series, geared to elementary students.  One is a series of 30 different artists ranging from Renaissance to modern.  There is a series on how to draw dogs, people, airplanes, cars, cats and dinosaurs.  Another series of six books covers writing and reading poetry, with interesting titles such as “from guppies to puppies” and “from nicknames to nightmares.” The last two series are on different types of music and several different crafts.
We are asking your help in adding these books to our collection.  For $15, you can sponsor one of these books.  Your name will appear as the donor on a bookplate in the front of the book.  This is a great opportunity for individuals and organizations to enrich our students’ lives through books on all these aspects of culture.  We plan to use these books to reach as many children as possible during the Summer Reading program this June and July and long after.
In a related bit of news, the Library has been awarded a “Picturing America” grant.  This includes a collection of 40 high-quality reproductions of American art and a teachers resource book.  The pictures should arrive in March or April, and we will certainly  make use of them in the Summer Reading program.  They will also be available for check out and would make great programs about the arts, as well as enhance programs about American history, social studies, literature and civics.
One last note…we are selling VHS movies for 25 cents each.  The proceeds will go toward the above mentioned set of books, which will be on display for a few weeks, awaiting sponsors.  Please visit the library, buy videos and sponsor or make a donation toward the purchase of these books.

     Happy New Year from the Waterville Public Library! We look forward to serving you in 2009. In 2008, we served 3,293 people in 5,093 transactions, which includes all check-outs, reference questions and copier and computer users!
      We added several new items to our collection in December, including DVDs Ghost Town, The Duchess, Kung Fu Panda, Veggie Tales The Wonderful Wizard of Ha’s, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, Beethoven’s Big Break and Prince Caspian.
      We had donations of many great VHS and audio book cassette tapes, and of course, we added many new fiction books for readers of all ages.  We would like to thank December donors Sandra
Isaacson-Bynum, Melody Sedivy, Bevy Roepke, Ken and Brenda Lamoreaux and Celia Ison.
      One of our new non-fiction books fits right in with many  books you see this time of year on dieting and nutritious eating…”Eat This, Not That” by David Zinczenko.   Zinczenko compares brand names and lets the reader know  which is the better buy from a nutritional standpoint.
      Another new non-fiction book fits in particularly well at this new year and time of new resolutions and
beginnings…Kevin Carroll’s “Rules of the Red Rubber Ball.”  Kevin, a former athletic trainer for the 76ers as well as a creative “katalyst” for Nike, is now a motivational speaker. Bevy Roepke, Mary Lou Roepke and I experienced one of his presentations last March at a library conference.
      He and his siblings were abandoned by their parents when he was very young. He was angry and confused and happened to wander on to a playground in Philadelphia, where he went to live with his grandparents. On that playground, he saw a red rubber ball, and Kevin credits that ball for
saving his life. To make a long story short, he learned about his talent and passion for sports from this ball, and he asks us all, “what is your red rubber ball?” What motivates you? What is your passion?
      Those attending his presentation who were willing to take risks got rewards, and both Bevy and Mary Lou were among those brave souls. Come in and see our special “Red Rubber Ball” display. Check out the book and discover your own red rubber ball.
      To quote Kevin, “this moment of discovery does not have to come in childhood. It can find us at any stage of life, as long as we’re open to new experiences, ideas and emotions.  Your red rubber ball is what grabs you by the soul. It’s what captures your imagination. It’s what you do when no one tells you what to do, when you’re alone in your room, on the playground or in your head. It’s what you daydream, and that dream can become your life’s work…if you let it.”
      To learn more about Kevin Carroll, visit his website at http://kevincarrollkatalyst.com

Mrs. Santa Claus has graciously consented to stop at the Waterville Public Library on Thursday, December 4th at 7 p.m. to do her storytime that we’ve come to love so well!  Even though she’s very busy at that time of year, she enjoys coming to read to the children.  We invite all children preschool age (old enough to sit still for a story or two) up through second grade to join her.  This year, Mrs. Santa wants to honor her friend Rudolph, so we’re going to play some reindeer games, sing some reindeer songs, and of course, hear some reindeer stories.  Each child will receive a goody bag to take home.  If parents would like to bring their cameras, they are welcome to take pictures of their children with Mrs. Santa after the storytime.

     You may have noticed the work on the facade of the Waterville Public Library.  Jerome Charbonneau is doing a wonderful job of prep work and painting.  Many people stopped to chat and compliment him as he perched high above the sidewalk on a scaffold.
     We have new things inside the library too!  “Brisingr,” the long-awaited young adult book in Christopher Paolini’s Eragon series is here.  There are two darling new picture books for children…Laura Numeroff’s “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake” and Bob Shea’s “Dinosaur vs Bedtime.”
     New adult novels include Susan Wiggs “Just Breathe,” Brad Meltzer’s “The Book of Lies,” Nicholas Sparks’ “The Lucky One” (in large print,) John Sandford’s “Heat Lightning,” Stuart Woods’ “Hot Mahogany,”  Dick Francis’ “Silks,” Karen Kingsbury’s “Sunset” and Philippa Gregory’s “The Other Queen.” 
     We also have two new novels based on the lives of real people.  Erin McGraw based “The Seamstress of Hollywood” on the life of her grandmother, who was born and lived in Kansas for several years until she “ran away” to Hollywood.  Kathleen Kent’s “The Heretic’s Daughter,” is based on her ancestor, who was the daughter of one of the first women executed in the Salem witch trials.  If you like Salem stories, try Brunonia Barry’s new novel “The Lace Reader,” the story of a family of contemporary Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back two generations.
     On the other end of the spectrum, we now have the special Centennial Edition of Louis L’Amour’s “Education of a Wandering Man.  L’Amour finished this book shortly before his death in June 1988.  Although L’Amour ended his formal schooling at age 15, he had a life-long love of learning, and this book is part memoir, part reflection on his never-ending quest for knowledge.  The Bantam publishing company also donated great book marks listing all his works, so come in and pick one up from the special display.            We would  like to thank Ray Lindsay for donating several Louis L’Amour paperbacks, which are available for check out.  How many Louis L’Amour books have you read?
     Speaking of adventure, Norman Danielson has donated the magazine “National Geographic Adventure.”  The magazine’s subtitle is “dream it. plan it. do it.”   The October issue has a modern western…”Mystery of the four corners fugitives,” as well as several other interesting articles.  I’m sure Louis L’Amour would have approved.
    We thank all the other September donors too—Shirley Wohler, Jack Bergen, June Woodyard and Bevy Roepke.

     We have exciting news to report at the Waterville Public Library!  We now have a wireless internet connection, so you or your out-of-town visitors can bring in your own laptop computer and go online.  You can even sit in front of the library when we’re closed…the connection is on 24/7.  We also increased our connection speed to 764k and added another computer for patron use, bringing our public computer total to four.
     We’ve added many new items to our collection in the past few weeks, including large print fiction, general fiction, picture books and more.  Some of the highlights of the new additions are Debbie Macomber’s 8 Sandpiper Way; Sandra Brown’s Smokescreen; Emily Richards’ Sister’s Choice and Touching Stars; Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn; Stephen Coonts’ The Assassin; Brad Thor’s The Last Patriot; Lee Child’s Nothing to Lose; Charles Martin’s Where the River Ends; Luanne Rice’s Last Kiss and Stephanie Grace Whitson’s Unbridled Dreams. 
     Two books of interest to those who like to read about Kansas are Dr. Ken Ohm’s Ducks Across the Moon and Ranny Grady’s Lou’s Dirty Dozen.  Some of you may remember the book Dr. Ohm wrote about one-room schoolhouses that came out a few years ago called “Spatzies and Brass B Bs.”  His latest book is a selection of memories of growing up on 80 acres in the Flint Hills.  The other Kansas book, Lou’s Dirty Dozen is based on the experiences of Grady’s grandmother, who raised a dozen children during the depression.
     Our thanks to recent donors Jeannette Bergquist, Jan Pope, Bevy Roepke, Marcella Roepke, Shirley Wohler and June Woodyard.  A special thanks goes to Citizens State Bank of Waterville for donating the N.A.D.A. Official Used Car Guide 2008 and the N.A.D.A. Official Older Used Car Guide 2008.

“Catch” the frog and the “Bug Ladies” invite children ages 3 to 6 to story time at the Waterville Public Library every Tuesday in July at 10:30 a.m.  Come and enjoy stories, songs, crafts and more!  See you at the Library July 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd & 29th.

Catch the reading bug this summer!  Sign up for Summer Reading begins May 21.   You can pick fun prizes according to the number of books or the number of pages you read.  We will have a special story time for 3 to 6 year olds every Tuesday in July at 10:30 a.m. at the Library.  Also, mark your calendars for July 9th…the date of a very special program for kids at the Opera House.