Everything Old is New Again

Another wonderful display by the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum has transformed our library space once again. Jennifer dropped by and changed out the case with fascinating “new” objects you just need to stop and look at!  We always find these presentations to be so relevant and amazing…it’s hard to believe some of these objects sit in boxes, carefully preserved until Jennifer has a chance to use them again!

If you haven’t been to the library lately, stop by and take a few minutes to look in the big glass case. And bring the kids! There are plenty of wonderful items to look at a discuss. A great way to get in a little local history until the museum opens again!

Five Library Things

The library is a constantly forward-moving institution, even though many people don’t think of us in that way.  We aren’t just books and card catalogs anymore.  We’re technology and books and people. It’s always changing.  So, for today’s blog post, I’ll talk about Five Things that We’re Doing at the Library Today.

#1.  Blog posts, Twitter & Facebook

If you’re reading this, you might know we’ve been blogging for almost five years.  That’s a lot of posts. Not only do we blog to keep you up to date on things going on in the library, but we also aim to entertain and educate.  Our posts are about language, books, reading, writing and so much more. It’s something we enjoy doing, and it has made a real mark for us as a Public Library.  And for the last few years, we’ve also had a Facebook page and we’ve added our thoughts on Twitter. We’re looking into expanding our online presence into Pinterest and other social networking sites in the future, so keep your eyes here for more information.

#2. We’re adding to our Genealogy Room.

Did you know we have a Genealogy room where we keep local history, microfilm and many bits of information about Carleton Place and the people who have lived here?  We have a dedicated computer where you can search Ancestry.com for a few hours, or you could use the microfilm machine to search through old issues of the Carleton Place Canadian and more.  Order in a microfilm from Library and Archives Canada to do more focused research on your family tree or ask us how to get started.  We have a quick quiz to help us help you focus on what you’re looking for.  And we’re always adding to the room, getting more local history documented in book form or on disk, so ask us what we have available.  Even if we don’t have it ready now, it might be in the works!

#3.  Expanding Our Collections

Did you know we don’t actively purchase paperbacks?  We rely solely on the donations from our generous patrons who drop off their gently used new books and allow us to add them to our shelves.  You’ll always see new books, whether it’s in fiction, non-fiction or in the children’s area.  We put  more than 150 new books each month into our collection, which also means that we have to constantly clean our shelves of older books to make room (otherwise, we’d be bursting through the doors!). You can often find “new” books on our sale table, so don’t forget to check for a great deal when you come in!

#4.  Preparing for Summer Programs

Even though it’s only May, we’ve been preparing and thinking about our summer programs since about February.  A lot of work goes into the process, and we hope the kids enjoy it when the time rolls around.  This summer is no exception. We’re in the process of hiring our summer student and getting our decorations and programs ready.  It’ll be different this year, with posters and booklets aimed at both the middle grade readers and our youngest set (based on our Ready for Reading program).  It’s going to be a fun summer, with lots of crazy events and programs.  Keep watching in mid-June for our summer Calendar.  Just imagine what we’ll be doing this summer!

#5. Keeping up with technology

Yes, we’ve had eBooks and audiobooks available at the library for a while now, but you probably didn’t realize that we are constantly learning.   With the development of many new devices, our initial training has had to be expanded.  We’ve offered a workshop early this year to help new eBook users and we have a kids workshop in the works as well. While many people are still trying to work their way around the idea of eBooks, we’re here to help with the questions.  It isn’t easy, and with the development of wireless devices, it makes downloading eBooks both easier and trickier at the same time. Hopefully, the publishing companies will continue to work out ways to allow libraries to offer eBooks to their patrons and more authors and publishers will make their books available.  We’d love to have every book available to our patrons whenever they want it, but for now, placing holds and making wish lists will have to do.  It’s an exciting process and just another way we can offer books to the public. We’re looking forward to seeing where this will go in the future!

So, you can see, we always have plenty of new things on the go at the library. It’s an exciting place to work!

Carleton Place Local History

Carleton Place Bridge Street 1930

We have just launched a sister blog that will detail fascinating information on the history of Carleton Place.  Right now, you can still find a great deal of information in the page called Local History, just off to the right side of this blog, but we decided that because the page is getting quite large, we’d organize all of the info into a great new blog.

If you are interested in taking a look at the new blog, you can find it here at

Carleton Place Local History.

Genealogy and great reads!

Some of you may have noticed that we have a few new additions to our blog. I want to welcome Shirley and Lillian, two of my co-workers who will be regularly contributing their unique projects to our blog!

First, Shirley is now writing a few pages on our local history and her favourite genealogy websites. She has put together a list of sites that will help a budding genealogist right up to a very experienced researcher. (Check out her tips……she has some fabulous ideas to help make your search easier.) Please pop by her pages called “Genealogy” and “Local History”, located in the right hand column of this page.

And the newest addition to our library family, Lillian, will be adding her trademark wit and vast knowledge of books to a column called “So many books, so little time”, also on the left hand side of this page. In her first page, she gives readers an idea of the types of books she’ll be reviewing, and you get to know a little about her from this great introduction.

So…..keep watching for new and interesting columns and pages being added to our blog!

We LOVE books!

Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

The world can be such a negative place, especially at this time of year when we are all a little tired of the cold and snow, and everyone we know seems to be going on a warm vacation except for us. We all feel a little bit grumpy during February, which is maybe why someone decided to create Valentine’s Day. Although it is extremely commercial, it does give us something to do during this long month, even if it just means going out to to buy a card for someone. And doing something nice for someone rubs off….it makes you want to do more. Maybe we should all try being more positive, complain less and do more for other people. It might be a nice change in life to try, even for one day, to just be positive. What would happen to our world if we all did that?

This month at the library, we are all about books! Books, books and more books! Not only do we add an average of 300 new books each month to our catalogue, but that number is pretty evenly spread across juvenile and adult books. We have wonderful volunteers who come in each week to prepare the books so that we can get them circulating, and we appreciate them very much! Thanks to Anne, Jean, Glenwyn, Norm, Bev, Rexann, and Beth! Your work is so important to us! So, for those of you wondering if you’ve read everything on our shelves, pop by to see what we just put out!

The Forest of Reading program has begun and we have been visiting schools to start promoting it. This is a wonderful reading program for children in grades 3 – 8 and is the only literary award given to a Canadian author that is completely voted on by children! The books this year are fabulous as usual and we are hoping for lots of participation from our young patrons. The program will run right through until the end of April, so there is lots of time yet to start reading. If you need more information, please check out the links on this page to Silver Birch and Red Maple, or email us at cplibrarykids@yahoo.ca

We have some lovely displays this month on our large wall across from our book sale table. First, we have some gorgeous artwork by local artist Basia in our display cases that you must see when you come in. Her work has been here for a few weeks and it might not be here for much longer, so don’t miss it! Secondly, we have more of the fabulous quilts done by our patron Pam Griffin. Pam is a regular here and we love to display her unbelievable work! If you saw her quilts at Christmas, you’ll know she has a special talent and we feel so lucky to have her share it with our patrons on a regular basis!

Hey kids, Valentine’s craft night is just around the corner! We will be having our craft night on Tuesday, February 12th from 7 – 8 pm and this will be for kids aged 6-10. This should be a fun night, and for anyone who came to the last few craft nights, you know we’ll do a few crafts, maybe play some crazy games and there might be a sweet Valentine’s treat or two!

Our storytimes for the little ones on Wednesday and Thursday mornings are now filled, thanks to the wonderful response! We still accept names for the waiting lists as there might be a cancellation or two, so don’t be afraid to ask. These are popular groups and we have such a blast reading stories, playing games and doing some crafts. And of course, everyone seems to go home with a stack of new books to read!

As of January 2008, we are keeping copies of the “Lanark Log”, which is the newsletter put out by the Lanark County Genealogical Society. These issues can be found in our genealogy room and they provide many interesting tips and information to help you research your family history. If you’ve been curious about your ancestry, drop in and see what we have to offer. We have a huge assortment of local history books, the Carleton Place Canadian & Herald on microfilm and some fantastic employees who can offer some valuable research hints when doing your own family history.

What’s coming next? Well, we’re starting to really get into this whole blogging thing and we love the suggestions many of our patrons have made, so keep watching for more frequent updates on what’s happening at the library. We’ll try to post more frequently and we’re hoping to start a new feature in March called “Our Picks” which will be a recommendation by those of us that work here. We all read something a little different, so we’re hoping to suggest a few good reads to everyone. Along with that,we’re going to keep a bit of a running tally on the kids who are doing the Forest of Reading program. Stop by often to see how your school is doing!

To leave off this blog, we have some more “Recommendations for Kids, By Kids”. We would still like to have your suggestions and just because we have a huge tree up in the front where the recommendation wall used to be, we don’t want you to stop providing your favourites! Just take a look in the kids area by the windows and you’ll find our familiar display and a spot where you can leave us your pick. This month, Andrew suggested “Trains” by Patricia Hubbell

and Maddie suggested “Fancy Nancy” by Jane O’Connor.

Its nice to see our younger readers participating! Keep reading! We enjoy your suggestions!