May 2011 Newsletter

Youth Services - Summer Reading Club

Join us for the Summer Reading Club! This year the theme is - One World, Many Stories.

Along with reading great books and earning rewards for minutes read, we will have awesome programs, taking you on a journey to other lands and cultures. You may even find yourself in the animal world or even OUT of this world!

Sign up begins June 27. See you there! For a schedule of events, check out our website.

Looking for a good book to get started with? How about Blackbringer (Dreamdark)?

Book Review

Dreamdark - Blackbringer, by Laini Taylor

As a Youth Services staff member, I have been whittling down the list of must-reads recommended by both book review periodicals and fellow Juvenile and YA readers. I have been mired in teen angst, hurled through recycled adventures, and generally worn-out by stories that just don’t wow.

This book, Dreamdark, was recommended to me by a staff member. It sounded like another rehashing of fairy-tale ingredients, but because it had earned such praise, I forged ahead.

A world was crafted through the unlikely perspective of a clan of crows and their adopted faery, named Magpie. Never have I read a book so freshly inspired, with language so beautifully wrought, including the author’s own cleverly invented words. Her use of a story’s flow kept me reading, not able to put it down.

Taylor’s vision of her world is whole and three-dimensional, with colors and textures easily imagined. The story is unexpected, dark, thrilling. Characters are fully realized, believable, relatable, and amusing, including odd little creatures that endear or repulse, and some truly frightening antagonists. I would never limit this to a juvenile read. Any book lover who enjoys a gorgeously articulated story will savor this one.

This book can be described in one word – delicious.

Caroline Poppendeck, Librarian
Head of Youth Services
Steele Memorial Library

Bookmobile receives Summer Cohesion Synergy Award

Each year the Chemung County Youth Bureau and Board recognize the good work of individuals and agencies in delivering quality youth services in Chemung County. This year the CCLD Bookmobile has been awarded the Summer Cohesion Synergy Award.

The award was established in 2004 to recognize “an individual, group or organization that has best demonstrated or exemplified the overall true meaning of partnership and collaboration as it impacts the Chemung County Summer Cohesion Program.”

The bookmobile is run by Principal Library Clerk Dianne Patchett and Driver Kim Jones. They will be presented the award, along with CCLD Board member Robin Fitzgerald and CCLD Director Ronald W. Shaw at the 28th Annual Daniel Donahoe Awards Reception to be held on Monday, May 16th at the Big Flats Community Center.

Did you know?

The Chemung County Library District is part of the Southern Tier Library System (STLS) which provides services and resources to 48 local libraries in Allegany, Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben and Yates counties in upstate New York.

Steele Memorial Library serves as the central library of STLS and provides the "flagship" collection of the system. One of the roles of a central library is to provide the greatest possible degree of accessibility, in terms of both hours of operation and services. It is the major public reference and research library and provides backup for the system as a whole by purchasing materials with Central Book Aid funds from New York State. CBA funds may only be used for adult non-fiction materials, including reference, audio-visual, and electronic resources. All materials purchased with CBA funds are the property of the respective System. The central library also offers more in-depth subject expertise through its special collections and resources.

On the local front, CCLD is particularly committed to preserving, developing, and publicizing the Library's unique Chemung County Collection of local history and genealogy in physical and digital formats. 

Going Green

There was a lot of excitement last year as the District had a green roof installed at Steele Memorial Library.  The “earth-friendly” effects include absorbing rainwater, providing insulation, creating a habitat for wildlife, and helping to lower urban air temperatures and combat the heat island effect. On a green roof, plants intercept and delay rainfall runoff and the peak flow rate, reducing the erosive potential of storm water and eventually returning water to the surrounding atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration.

As the spring unfolds, we are looking forward to going up and seeing the changes on the roof. But we have also started to look at other ways we can be more “eco-friendly.” It shouldn’t be too hard as libraries are the original recyclers--we have been re-circulating books, newspapers, magazines, movies, and other library materials for years. When you check out (and return!) library materials, you are part of a long cycle of people who benefit from sharing valuable resources. As far as our facilities, we change HVAC filters quarterly for efficiency and our buildings are on timed heating and cooling to coincide with opening hours.

We are moving toward "paperless" notifications for hold and overdues for all patrons that provide us with a valid email address. Working with the Southern Tier Library System, we hope to have this project working within a few months. In addition to the paper saved by no longer printing notices, we will also reduce costs related to staff time and postage.

Our future plans include trying to find ways to recycle library materials in the form of discarded books, magazines and newspapers. We are trying to phase out plastic bags at the libraries and offer recycled bags from local grocery stores as well as reusable cloth bags for sale. Future plans could include the purchase of environmentally friendly cleaning products, LED or CFL lighting, light sensors.