The Daily Grin

As part of the Greater New Haven Big Read event, featuring Ray Bradbury’s book “Fahrenheit 451”, libraries in the greater New Haven area will be sponsoring “Read Alouds”. Cheshire Public Library will be holding its event Saturday May 3 from 10am-noon. Interested participants can come to the library during this time frame and take a turn reading from the book. Our challenge will be to read as much as possible in two hours! Funded and sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The April 15, 2008 issue of “Library Journal” reports that OverDrive — the company from which the Cheshire Public Library and many others purchase downloadable audiobooks — will soon offer MP3-compatible downloads. Those downloadable audiobooks will be playable on Apple iPods, and will begin to be available for purchase by libraries by the end of June.

We will be showing the film “Fahrenheit 451″ at the library on the following dates:

Wednesday, May 7 at 1:00 p.m.

Tuesday, June 3 at 7:00 p.m.

We’ll be interested to hear what you think of the book versus the movie.

The Cheshire Public Library is participating in The Big Read!

Check out a copy of Fahrenheit 451 today — we own several copies in print, CD book, book-on-tape, and even on VHS and DVD.

To see what’s on the shelf, check our catalog.

“Why don’t you forbid cell phone use in the library?  Someone was having a very loud conversation the other day, and it really bothered me.”

The Library Board discussed cell phone use as part of its review of library policies in 2007.  They decided not to ban specific technologies (cell phones, iPods, etc.), but rather to ban “disorderly or disruptive behavior” in general.  If a patron has his or her cell phone set to “vibrate” and is quietly sending text messages, for instance, that is not necessarily more disruptive than two patrons having a loud conversation in-person (which is also not banned inside the library).

The library has become a very busy place, with more than 200,000 patrons of all ages coming through our doors each year.  Sometimes toddlers have meltdowns.  Sometimes we have to speak up to communicate with our patrons who are hard of hearing.  Public libraries, in general, are not necessarily the quiet sanctuaries they used to be in decades past.  Rather, we are a hub of community activity, and sometimes it does get busy and noisy here (especially on weeks like this one, which is school vacation week).

That said, we do respect the comfort of all of our patrons.  If another patron is being excessively noisy, etc., please let us know and we will inform them of our rule against disruptive behavior.

Please click here to view the library’s policies.

The Cheshire Public Library is expecting its first shipment of a few dozen Blu-Ray DVDs.  Titles will include popular feature films such as “Dan in Real Life,” “I Am Legend,” “Michael Clayton,” and “The Simpsons Movie.”

Blu-Rays will have the same lending period as traditional DVDs (7 days, no renewals), and the same overdue fine ($2.00 per day).

Keep an eye out — the new collection will initially reside at the checkout desk.

1. “One service I’ve heard of other libraries offering that I’d love to see in Cheshire is “library elf”, where one can sign up to get e-mail reminders that books will be due soon. I am always forgetting when my library books are due–I could really use the e-mail reminders!”

We do currently offer email notification of “almost-due” items — simply give a staff member your email address at your next library visit and you’ll begin receiving emails a few days before your items are due.  You can also check your due dates, renew, and reserve materials through our website at www.cheshirelibrary.org.

2. “Need more copies of new releases.”

We’ve been working very hard to re-allocate funds to allow us to purchase more copies of bestsellers.  We currently strive for a 6-to-1 holds-per-copy ratio, which would ideally mean that there are never more than 5 people ahead of you in line for a book.  Even better would be a 4-to-1 ratio, or even a 2-to-1 ratio (which very progressive public libraries aim for).  Each year, I mention this to the Town Council at budget time!  We did receive a 6.1% increase in our materials budget for Fiscal Year 2008-2009, but of course inflation will eat up a lot of our purchasing power.  In the meantime, we do receive weekly reports of high-demand items that have long reserve lists, and we use those reports to determine how many extra copies of titles to purchase or lease, in order to ease the demand.

Of course, we are always happy to take donations of new copies of bestsellers, or of funds to help purchase extra copies (checks can be made payable to “Cheshire Library Gift Account”).

3. “Many books in the more technical areas are very dated.”

Thank you for letting us know — we’ll work to correct that.

4. “We need to have Saturday and Sunday hours all year long.”

We’d love to be open 24/7, but alas, it’s a budgetary issue.  We are fortunate that the Town Council did not cut our funding for 12 Sundays (January - March) in 2009, despite it being a very tight budget year.  By contract, bargaining unit staff are not required to work Saturdays in July and August; therefore it would again become a budgetary issue to open the library on summer Saturdays, since it would have to be staffed with part-timers (or bargaining unit members on overtime).  If and when the economy improves, perhaps we could work towards expanding our hours again (remember that until recently, the library opened at 10:00 a.m. instead of 9:30 a.m., and was not open any Sundays).  Remember to mention this to your Town Council representatives!

5. “I wish the DVD movies were organized in a different way. It is hard to find new movies. I am too short to check the upper shelves.”

We’ve heard this from lots of people — and we’re working to make it easier to access our DVDs.  We’ve installed browseable cases in the lobby, which allow you to flip through our new DVDs like the pages of a book, and we’ve made an effort to display only one DVD face-out on the upper shelves (so you don’t have to flip through cases over your head).

Our collection of Large Print materials has moved to a temporary location in the Reference Room. Please bear with us as we work through the considerable logistics of rearranging some of our collections. When all is said and done, Large Print books will reside in a comfortable spot in the Reference Room, to facilitate quieter browsing and reading.

posted by Ramona Harten, Library Director

1. “Repair entrance & handicap ramp.”

This is on the spring agenda for the Public Works department.

2. “More diabetic (sugar-free) cookbooks.”

We have purchased several titles since this request was received, including The Fix-It and Enjoy-It Diabetic Cookbook: Stove Top and Oven Recipes for Everyone; and The Complete Quick and Hearty Diabetic Cookbook.  Both were published in 2007.

3. “I was at the library trying to get some quiet time and read — there was a staff member working at the front desk and she was very, very disruptive.  Her conversation with others was extremely loud and was hardly a whispering voice as was once the rule while at the library.  My visit to the library was not very nice.”

I’m very sorry that you didn’t have a pleasant library visit.  As staff members, we often remind ourselves to “keep it down.”  While whispering may not always be possible given the acoustics of the checkout desk area, we’ll try not to be disruptive!

4. (paraphrased) “Why are there so many teens and children using the ‘adult-only’ computers in the Reference Room?”

The computers in the Reference Room are not only for adults, but for patrons of all ages.  When it’s very busy and there are people waiting to use the computers, we do enforce a 30-minute time limit for all users regardless of age.  What users choose to do during their time slot is up to them; we cannot give preference, for instance, to users doing email over those using social networking sites or doing a job search, etc.  In the near future, we expect to have wireless internet access, which may help to alleviate some of the demands on our internet terminals.

posted by Ramona Harten, Library Director

Welcome to The Daily Grin, Cheshire Public Library’s blog.  Here you will find library information, updates, book recommendations and much more from CPL staff.

The Cheshire Town Council voted on the Fiscal Year 2008-2009 budget last Thursday (4/3).  As it stands now, the budget includes 12 Sunday openings (January through March, 2009).  The budget can still go to referendum if enough residents sign a petition requesting such referendum.

posted by Ramona Harten, Library Director