The holidays have come to an end. Twinkle lights and sparkly ornaments are once again nestled neatly in their boxes and have been stowed in the garage or attic or basement or the back of that one really deep closet in the master bedroom. Cheerily wrapped packages have been ripped open with an ooh and an ahh, the contents now a part of our collection of stuff. We filled our hearts with joy and our bellies with enough eggnog to last until summer. Finally, we welcomed the New Year with a flourish of crystal balls dropping and a countdown of hope for what’s in store over the coming months. It’s January in Maine — the calm after the storm that is the holidays, and as happens in January, the cold and snow have driven us inside, where we cozy up with a good book and a hot cuppa. All is quiet as we settle in for the winter hibernation.
Here at Libby Library, we’re not sleeping. While things may be a bit less boisterous among our shelves of books, than they were a few short weeks ago, there’s always something to do here at the library, whether it’s just borrowing the free Wi-Fi to check the current weather, or enjoying a quick game of Mahjong, happening every Thursday in our community room, or the weekly Children’s story time on Wednesday mornings in the kids’ area.
In the kids’ realm this month, we’re all about the alliteration. The next Steam Saturday on Jan. 14 will feature some flaky fun with “Snowflakes and Symmetry.” We also heard a whispering that a snowman might be hiding somewhere in the library. Kids are invited to Find Frosty all month long in Libby Library’s answer to Where’s Waldo? Each week, Frosty will find a new hiding spot, and every kid who finds him will receive a treat. One treat per child each week.
Our giant Scrabble board will return Jan. 24 and be available for play until Feb. 28. Stop by the library for a bag of tiles, make a word, and tally your points. Players can make one word per day and the sum of each daily word will be used to calculate the weekly total. Each week the player who earns the most points will win a prize.
As most folks know by now, we’ve upgraded our cataloging system. Change is always a little bumpy, but the new system has also given us some functionality we didn’t have with the old system. For those who use our virtual library offerings (Kanopy, Cloud Library, etc.), a layer of security has been added in the form of a PIN.
If you have questions about your PIN, please give us a call.
For those, like me and Inigo Montoya (from “The Princess Bride”), who hate waiting, we’ve added a self-checkout feature that can be accessed through the Cloud Library app on any smart phone. Kim will be offering an in-person tutorial program to get you all set up with Cloud Library on your phone or tablet. This training will be short and sweet, no longer than 30 minutes and offered twice in January and twice in February. Please reach out or check our website for dates and times.
And speaking of Cloud Library, did you know that Libby library card holders can now access thousands of newspapers and magazines through Cloud Library Newsstand? You can choose from over 60 languages, and so if you want to read a French publication, you’ll be able to see the content in English, which is very cool. I was thrilled to find Writer’s Digest among the magazine offerings, which means I can save $20/year. When every penny counts, a free magazine subscription means I can count on using those pennies for something else.
French author Sidonie-Gabrielle Collette, known only as Collette, called January “the month of empty pockets.” Here at Libby Library, you don’t need a pocketful of coin. Stop by to experience all the library has to offer, and as our friend Arthur the Aardvark always says, “having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card.”
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