Learn How to Prune Lilacs and other Shrubs at the Kellogg-Hubbard Library

This Wednesday, June 20 at 5:30pm, Jeff Young will give a presentation on pruning shrubs followed by hands on instruction and demonstration on the library grounds. Jeff is the Lilac Curator of UVM Horticulture Farm. Young lives in St. Albans where he is the Chairman of the Taylor Park Commission and the Tree Warden. He is on the Board of Directors of the International Lilac Society. Jeff is a VT Master Gardener, who serves on the state advisory board and the Northwest Chapter steering committee. He is also the Master Gardener liaison for Shelburne Museum. Jeff does about 40 workshops a year on lilacs, flowering shrubs and trees, hedges, and park and open space development. He is retired from the federal government and now runs his own business, Lilac Torr, LLC. Co-sponsored by the Washington-Orange Chapter of the Vermont Master Gardeners and the Montpelier Tree Board. This program will meet in the East Montpelier Room, downstairs, next to the Book Sale.

Two billion served

Excerpt from a 4/17/07 press release from the American Libraries Association:

Ten years after some experts predicted the demise of the nation's system of libraries as a result of the Internet explosion, the most current national data on library use shows that the exact opposite has happened. Data released today by the American Library Association (ALA) indicates that the number of visits to public libraries in the United States increased 61 percent between 1994 and 2004.

According to the 2007 State of America's Libraries report, there were nearly two billion visits to U.S. libraries in fiscal year 2004.

"Far from hurting American libraries, the Internet has actually helped to spur more people to use their local libraries because it has increased our hunger for knowledge and information," said Loriene Roy, president-elect of the American Library Association. According the ALA report, virtually every library in the United States - 99 percent - provides free public computer access to the Internet, a four-fold increase in the percentage of libraries providing such free access over the last decade. By comparison, Roy pointed to another study released in March showing that only 69 percent of U.S. households have Internet access.

Even as libraries continue to evolve their services in response to changing needs and technologies, the report shows that people continue to go to their public library to read or check out a book in record numbers. Overall circulation at public libraries in the U.S. rose by 28 percent during the decade, partly driven by significant growth in circulation of children's materials, which grew by 44 percent. Attendance in library programs for children was also up 42 percent for this same period.

Roy pointed to the report's findings from studies in Florida and Ohio that provide a compelling case for the return on public investment in libraries. Every dollar of public support spent on Florida's public libraries produced an increase of $9.08 in gross regional product and an increase of $12.66 in total state wages. A similar study of nine public library systems in southwestern Ohio reported an annual economic impact nearly four times the amount invested in their operations. Other data in the report describes how public libraries build a community's capacity for economic activity and resiliency.

The report also highlights the library community's continued work in defense of the First Amendment against intrusive legislation, including the USA Patriot Act, and to refute challenges that would restrict the free flow of information and ideas to all adults and children.

A full copy of the 2007 State of America's Libraries is here.

What's happening in central Vermont

One evening last winter, my wife and I took the all-to-rare step of getting a babysitter and planned a night on the town. We wanted to go out to dinner in Montpelier and then to a movie or to hear music. We discovered that it was very difficult to find out what was going on in town. The local papers carried some venues and not others. There are online calendar sites, but I found them difficult to navigate.

The staff at Kellogg-Hubbard have compiled a brief list of bookstores, movie theaters, clubs, etc. that we hope will make finding out what is going on easier. We're not going to maintain a calendar, only a link to other sites.

We do this for a simple reason: to increase the number of visitors to our blog and web site. This information can also be found as a page on our website and I've added a link on the right side of this page.

If you would like to suggest an addition or if you find a bad link, please leave a comment on this post. Note that venues must be located in our service area (Berlin until July 1, Calais, East Montpelier, Middlesex, Montpelier, or Worcester).

• Bookstores
• Bear Pond Books
• Book Garden
• Rivendell Books

• Nightlife
• Black Door
• Charlie-O’s (call 802-223-6820)
• Langdon Street Café
• Positive Pie

• Theater
• Lost Nation Theater
• Montpelier Theatre Guild
• Vermont Opera Theater

• Calendars
• City of Montpelier
• Montpelier Downtown Community Association (MDCA)
• Seven Days
• Times Argus
• Virtual Vermont

• Community Arts & Performance
• Adamant Music School
• Maple Corner Community Center
• Unadilla Theatre, Calais

• Galleries and Studios
• Afterimage Photography Studio & Gallery
• Artisans Hand
• Lazy Pear Gallery
• T.W. Wood Art Gallery

• Movies
• Capitol Theater
• Green Mountain Film Festival
• Savoy Theater

• Newspapers
• East Montpelier Signpost
• Middlesex Occasional
• Montpelier Bridge
• Times Argus
• Washington World
• Worcester Grapevine

• Other
• Farmers' Markets
  

New DVDs on Parenting in the Children's Library

DVD reviews from Claire, our Children's Librarian who catalogs all the materials in the Children's Library:

The Baby Human: Geniuses in Diapers
(JDVD PARENT 155.42 B)
This award winning DVD is educational and fun to
watch. From before a baby is born until the age of
about two the DVD covers the most up to date thoughts
on how babies learn to walk, to think and to talk.
Did you know for instance that a new born baby knows
to recognize his own parents' language and proves it
by becoming animated and sucking more on the pacifier
when hearing a recording of that language? Do you
know how important it is for a child to point to an
object before the child can learn to talk? These and
many more amazing experiments are demonstrated and
explained in 150 minutes.
The Glove and Mail said, "Darn entertaining and
often very funny-and you do learn quite a bit
about the little creatures."


Happiest Toddler on the Block by Harvey Karp, M.D.
(JDVD PARENT 649.12 K)
The subtitle on this DVD is "Eliminate up to 90% of
the tantrums in just days!" and "The new way to stop
tantrums and raise a happy, secure child." Dr. Karp
has a loyal following with parents of young children.
He emphasizes "Toddler-ese" a way to communicate with
young children. Again, this is a fun DVD to watch
with his common sense approach to interacting with
children. We watch as the parents in the DVD use Dr.
Karp's suggestions and are amazed and thrilled that
the suggestions work and eliminate the problems.
(Running time approximately 69 minutes.)

Laugh and Learn about Newborn Baby Care
(JDVD PARENT 649.12 A)
How does a newborn get a bath? What do you wash
first and what do you wash last? This DVD has the
very basics in new born care. Sheri Bayles, BSN, RN,
shows new parents how to change a diaper and dress or
undress a newborn, then how to do the same things for
a 3 month old child. (Running time approximately 40
minutes.)

Visit the Children's Library to check out these DVD's,
Monday through Friday, 10am to 5:30pm and Saturday 10am -1pm.

Kellogg-Hubbard and the Town of Berlin

Berlin voters declined to support Kellogg-Hubbard on town meeting day, and the Times Argus has an article today on the library board's decision to start charging Berlin residents for a library card. (It must be a slow news day. The article is on the front page above the fold.)

Another Book Group Selection

Ruth's book group is currently reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Ruth and I sit across from each other and often share our book titles. Both of our groups wait until books come out in paperback. My group meets on Sunday mornings. We share breakfast, then discuss the book. What is your book group reading and what are some of their practices?

Which Books are You Reading?

My book group just read, The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan. This was not an easy read, but it was very good. It was amazing to read about the ecological destruction that occurred, dust blizzards that enveloped six states and eventually blew to New York, deaths of so many people due to dust pneumonia, eating tumbleweed...I learned so much from reading and listening to this book. Our book group agreed that this was a good book to read and discuss. We also agreed that if it were not a book group selection we would not have read it, excepting one member. The book that we are reading for this month is Barak Obama's Dreams From My Father. I've only read a few chapters at this point, but I'm impressed with "Barry's" early years. There are so many book groups in this area - tell us what you're reading!

May Gardening Galore Raffle Winner

 Andrea Gould is the winner of the KHL Gardening Galore Raffle. She won all of these great prizes:
$75 gift certificate from Boulevard Gardens
*Two Hours of Garden Consultation from Layne’s Garden Design
*$25 gift certificate from von Trapp Greenhouse
*Two Tickets to Goddard College Greatwood Gardens Tour and Tea
*Perennials for American Gardens by Ruth Rogers Clausen and Nicolas H. Ekstrom,donated by The Book Garden
*Gloves and knee pads from Gardener’s Supply
*Two 20-quart bags of manure compost and one 6-quart bag of Compost Plus from Vermont Compost
*$15 gift certificate from Highland Gardens (Vendor at Montpelier Farmers’ Market)
*Assorted seeds and Garden Frogs in Tub
We are grateful to the individuals and businesses who donated these items to the library for this raffle!

Lending to young adults

I just put in the mail a grant application to a small foundation to ask for funds to purchase books for young adults (12-16 year old). I included a chart that shows the increase in lending from Kellogg-Hubbard to young adults:



We have all grumbled a bit about the amount of noise and activity we see from young people after school at the library. But they are reading!

Founding of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library

I have never recovered from the financial strain of those years of bitter conflict, but I would not have back again one penny of that money, if I could get it, for as real men grow older they experience no joy comparable to that of founding institutions for uplifting generations which come after us, and besides, if I have anything to my credit in the bank above, I am sure that this constitutes a considerable part of it.

John W. Burgess, Reminiscences of an American Scholar, Columbia University Press, 1934, p. 277.

This is a quote from the concluding paragraph of chapter in a memoir by John Burgess, in which he tells the story of the stormy founding of the Kellogg-Hubbard Library. (Thank you Hilari for finding this wonderful work!) After reading the chapter, I’m inclined to think the library in Montpelier should be the Kellogg Library.

Follow this link for a brief history of Kellogg-Hubbard.