The Inuit at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library

In the Stone Age, the Inuit adapted to life along the Arctic edge, creating technologies to make use of marine resources in extreme climatic conditions. Now, in the postmodern era, the Inuit again face tremendous challenges adapting to globalization and climate change. With slides, lectures, films, and speakers, this series on the Inuit will look at their capacity for change and the ways in which Inuit realities impact our own worldview.
Join us on Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 7pm for the first in a six-part series.

THE NATURE OF BAFFIN ISLAND
Naturalist Nona Estrin always dreamed of going north, and in the early 1990s, she and naturalist husband Charles Johnson documented the first organized commercial walking trip to the Soper River Valley and Inuit villages of the area. The Nature of Baffin Island will feature slides of two trips they took as guides for Country Walkers, and will discuss their experiences, and the culture and natural history as it was 14 years ago, just before Baffin became part of Nunavut, the Inuit province of Canada. The evening will also include a short introduction to the series and the Inuit.

I have worked with two people to organize this series, Kathleen Osgood Dana and Kristina Bielenberg. It has been a great experience working with two people who are truly passionate about the arctic and the Inuit people. We hope that many people will be inspired by these programs.

Program support has come from: Artctic Research Consortium of the United States, the Tamarck Fund, National Science Foundation, Office of Polar Programs, an anonymous donor, The Vermont Humanities Council for the First Wednesdays program (Bill Fitzhugh)and KHL.

Where in the World is Kingdom County?

The 2007 First Wednesdays series, a Vermont Humanities Council program, debuts with Vermont Author Howard Frank Mosher on Wednesday, October 3, 2007 at 7pm at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library.

In this program Mosher tells the story of how he first came to the Northeast Kingdom and discovered a fragment of a much earlier New England and Vermont, left over from the Depression and Prohibition eras, full of wonderful stories from the lives and times of some of the last independent-minded individualists in America.

Howard Frank Mosher is the author of nine books of fiction, among them his latest book On Kingdom Mountain. He lives in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont with his wife Phyllis.
Copies of his book will be on sale.

Counting on Grace Author Visit at the Library

On Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 7:00 PM Elizabeth Winthrop will present a program with slides called THE SEARCH FOR ADDIE: SPINNING VERMONT HISTORY INTO FICTION. This program is open to the public and will be followed by a book signing.

In this talk about her creative process, Elizabeth Winthrop will tell the story behind her new novel, COUNTING ON GRACE, (Random House, 2006) set in North Pownal, Vermont. Inspired by the haunting Lewis Hine photograph of a 12-year-old mill girl in 1910, Winthrop created Grace Forcier, a French Canadian spinner who is proud to work by her mother's side as a doffer. But when Hine arrives at the mill to document the horrors of child labor, Grace becomes his secret ally, a decision that brings both devastating repercussions as well as the possibility of a different life for this one child.

In a presentation with slides that runs like a historical detective thriller, Winthrop will introduce us to Grace, while, at the same time, showing us in scenes from the life of a small Vermont town, the riveting story of her painstaking and finally rewarding search for Addie, the real child in Hine's photograph.

COUNTING ON GRACE is the VERMONT READS selection (A Vermont Humanities Council program) and the Jane Addams Peace Prize Honor Book for a novel of excellent literary quality that highlights social justice issues. In the spring of 2007, the novel was read in weekly installments every Sunday night on Vermont Public Radio. For more information call the children's room at 223-4665.

The New York Times

The New York Times web site has a "letter to readers" announcing that they will no longer charge a fee for access to parts of their site:

Effective Sept. 19, we are ending TimesSelect. All of our online readers will now be able to read Times columnists, access our archives back to 1987 and enjoy many other TimesSelect features that have been added over the last two years – free.

This is welcomed news for those of us who want to read Times' columnists such as Frank Rich, Paul Krugman, and Nicholas Kristof.

Book reviews, including the Sunday Book Review, are available for free, and the paper also a blog about books, Paper Cuts.

You can read the New York Times here at Kellogg-Hubbard the old fashion way: on newsprint.

Public Libraries and the Internet

The American Library Association (ALA) and Florida State University have just released a study on public libraries and internet usage. To quote from the ALA press release:

The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and ALA, found that more than 73 percent of libraries report they are the only source of free public access to computers and the Internet in their communities.

A growing number of U.S. employers are recruiting online. Nearly three-quarters (70 percent) of the top 100 U.S. retailers accept online applications for hourly positions, up from 41 percent in 2004, and 16 percent only accept online applications, according to a 2006 study from Taleo Research.

Nearly 100 percent of public libraries offer free public access to the Internet. However, despite increased patron demand for technology services, libraries have not seen a corresponding increase in their budgets. As a result, many libraries are challenged to provide enough computers or fast-enough connection speeds to meet community need. In fact, more than 58 percent of libraries reported that they have no plans to add computers in the coming year; less than half (46 percent) plan to replace computers. [Emphasis added.]

The Boston Globe ran an article on the ALA study on September 12.

Kellogg-Hubbard patron accesses the Internet:

Tips for Using the Kellogg Hubbard Website

http://www.kellogghubbard.org/

Our Catalog- did you like the book THE SPIRIT CATCHES YOU AND YOU FALL DOWN? Type the title into the search bar in the online catalog (or even the first part of the title), click Title, and then click on one of the subject headings. If you want to search by Author, type last name first, then first name (no comma necessary), then click Author. Want to browse a list of our DVDs? Type in DVD and click Call Number. (Watch out though- you'll get 700+ titles. You could refine your search by using Power Search; for instance, type "DVD" in the top search bar and "horses" in the second one.) Have a look at the Events tab too!

Site Index- can't remember where on the website you found the Internet Use Policy for Kellogg-Hubbard? At the bottom of every page on our site is a link to the Site Index, an alphabetical list of all the pages in our website.

Past Loves Day Celebration - Monday, Sept 17th!

On Monday, September 17 at 7pm meet the couple who originated National Past Loves Day and find out why they initiated this new holiday. Authors Kate Harper and Leon Marasco invite you to join them in the first public celebration of Past Loves Day. They will discuss where past loves and current intimacy meet in today's relationships. Reading of stories which won first and second place in the 1st Annual Past Loves Story Contest will be read. Kate and Leon will talk about their book, If Only I Could Tell You... Where Past Loves and Current Intimacy Meet.
This is what Vermont Author Tim Brookes had to say about this book:

Kate Harper and Leon Marasco have found an interesting and significant subject: not only the importance of past loves, but the nature of intimacy itself. The book would be worth reading for the interviews alone, which are both moving and profoundly thought-provoking. Denying the importance of one's past loves, it becomes clear, is not only one strike against any present love and the struggle for intimacy, it's also a strike against the unity of the self.

Join us at the library for a fun evening - complete with refreshments!