Friends of the Adams County Library System JULY 2012

Between Friends is the newsletter of the Friends of the Adams County Library System. Friends of the Library PO Box 4792 Gettysburg, PA 17325 OFFICERS President Ila Verdirame Vice President Ralph Cavaliere Recording Secretary Linda Jorgensen Correspondence Secretary Michelle DeLacey Treasurer Virginia Ciliotta Historian Kathy Gardner COMMITTEES Bookstore Ellen Smith Book Sale Marian Benchoff Computer Systems Manager Clodius Willis Mail Coordinator Pat Thorson Membership Kathy Schneider Newsletter Editor Ruthe Craley Recycling Tom & Elaine Kennedy Volunteer Coordinators Book Sale Mary Beth Stamm Book Store Jane Brown WEB www.adamslibrary.org/fol EMAIL fol@adamslibrary.org CONTACT 717-2531157

Between Friends
Volunteering
Ila Verdirame, President, FOL This summer I volunteered to chaperone the middle school youth on their mission trip to Pittsburgh. Church youth groups from Indiana, Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania arrived at Wilkinsburg High School. The Week of Hope staff divided the youth and adult leaders into work crews. Each crew served at many locations including soup kitchens, food banks, recreation areas, churches and other service projects. My crew spent four days playing with inner city youth at the Boys and Girls Club. It was a very rewarding experience to build relationships and make a difference in the lives of youth. In February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 64.3 million people volunteered for an organization at least once between September 2010 and September 2011. Do you have special gifts, talents and abilities to serve in our community? Where can you help? Do you have three hours during a month to volunteer in our Friends of the Library (FOL) book store? If you are interested, please call Jane Brown, 624-2923 for more information. Can you lift heavy book boxes? Do you have time during the week of July 30 August 4 to volunteer at the annual book sale? If you have time and are willing to help, please call Mary Stamm, 338-1948. Our organization usually mails correspondence to our members four times a year. Can you volunteer a couple hours to help put address labels on newsletters? Please call Pat Thorsen, 334-3978. Do you know a lot about Gettysburg? Will you volunteer to help visiting librarians? The PaLA conference will be held in Gettysburg, September 30 October 3, 2012. If so, call Rob Lesher, 334-0163. The FOL meetings are held the first Tuesday of each month in the Eisenhower Room at the Adams County Library in Gettysburg except August and December. I invite you to volunteer your time and talents to support our community libraries. We can always use more help. We have many volunteers who dedicate many hours helping at the library. We greatly appreciate their service and hope you will become a volunteer, too.

Library Update
By Rob Lesher
Library Director

The Future is Here!

I am frequently asked about the future of the library and especially what impact Ebooks are going to have on our libraries. The simple answer is that they are going to both revolutionize and support the traditional mission of the public library. I know it sounds like a contradictory statement, but it is both a new frontier and an indication of the importance of public libraries. You may ask how this can be? Ebooks are growing in popularity. Originally launched for technology early adopters, they are now readily available and being used by a growing number of avid readers. The convenience of being able to carry dozens, if not hundreds, of books on one device is hard to challenge. However, Ebooks are really only a new format. Books, or in library terms the Codex, is a format with a long history and a great deal of familiarity for libraries to handle. Our rules nicely fit how to make Books available to the public in an equitable and efficient manner.

The new Ebook format is too new to have all the rules worked out. As a format, they are distributed in a completely different method than library users have traditionally experienced. Librarians do not have an object to handle. Therefore, the items have to be made available through an intermediary. We hire a company to do this for us. This is a new frontier for libraries. However, Ebooks are really only a new format. Libraries have dealt with new formats before and libraries will deal with new formats in the future. Librarians are experts in seeing trends in reading, determining what are the upcoming information needs of the general public, and how can classic material be made available for a new generation. Format doesnt really matter to the librarian. The mission of the library is to get information into the hands of the people who want and need it. That information will be increasingly only found in electronic formats. But, libraries will need to continue to be at the forefront of making those formats available, thereby, protecting the continuing human learning experience. This is a credit to our traditional mission just not bound by the idea of a physical item. This coming week the Friends of the Library will be having their annual Used Book Sale, What better way to celebrate the long history of the Codex than to find slightly used books to add to your personal collection of items? This book sale also makes it possible for the Library to continue to make this transition to new formats by providing it the resources necessary to build a new collection. The future is truly here, built upon our traditions.

The Friends Annual Meeting will be held Tuesday, November 13, 2012 in the USS Eisenhower Room of the Gettysburg Library from 3 - 6 pm. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend! Adams County Reads One Book 2012 What if everyone read the same book and then joined all those readers in talking about it? Adams County Reads One Book was developed to promote literacy and engage all members of our community in a lively, intellectual conversation based on our shared reading experience. The Adams County Library System is pleased to announce that A Dogs Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron is the title for this years Adams County Reads One Book program. This book, published in 2010, spent a total of 49 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. A Dogs Purpose is the story of one dogs search for his lifes purpose over the course of several lives. Surprised to find himself reborn as a golden-haired puppy after a short life as a stray mutt, Bailey decides that there must be a reason that he was reincarnated, a purpose that he must fulfill and that until he does so, hell continue to be reborn. His search for his lifes meaning leads him into the arms of 8-year-old Ethan where Bailey discovers how to be a good dog. But a long life as a beloved family pet is not the end of Baileys journey. He is reborn once again as a puppy and begins to wonder will he ever find his purpose? Publishers Weekly called A Dogs Purpose a tail-wagging three hanky boo-hooer. Another review source, Booklist, said This quickly paced, touching novel will charm all animal fans, especially those who loved Garth Steins The Art of Racing in the Rain and Vicki Myrons Dewey, the best-selling saga of a library cat. The Adams County Reads One Book selection is available in all system libraries in Adams County. All formats regular print, large print and audio are available. You can reserve your copy through the librarys website, www.adamslibrary.org. Spend your July and August reading this book with us. Special programming, including book discussions at every public library, will be held in September. Programs will be announced in August.

Friend Your Library

My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read. Abraham Lincoln
Those of you who follow the ups and downs of the Adams County Friends of the Library know that we frequently complain, lament, weep and wail, etc. etc. about the fact that while most of you support us with your continuing contributions to the Book Sale (and then come and buy them back!) and your ongoing year-round support of our wonderful Book Store, comparatively few of you actually become Members. You may have noticed that we make it very easy for you to become a Friend by sending out an application form with each newsletter. Everything you need to know about us is there, including opportunities to volunteer and all we need to know about you is your signature on a check to FOL! We worked hard this year to increase our number and are happy to announce that we have 373 current members and have raised a total of $16,530. We have divided our Annual Adams County Library Pledge of $60,000 into thirds, so you can see we are somewhat below our goal of $20,000. Thanks to the creative energy from Membership Chairman, Michele Orner and Vice-President, Ralph Cavaliere, we have been able to try out a system of indicating membership expiration dates. Just look for a month/date notation after each address. If there isnt one, please join us again as you have most likely been a Member in the past. Please consider this request. Not only are you helping to keep the Library going in these tough times, but you get a fine discount on any and all purchases at the Book Store as well. As the philosophers say: We can never have enough Friends!
Recycle Your Printer Cartridges! You can do your part to help our library! Dont throw away those empty cartridges, please bring them to the library. Place them in the designated boxes located on both floors or give them to the front desk. Sorry, but we are no longer able to recycle cell phones or any type of Kyocera cartridges.

TALKING ABOUT BOOKS

Book discussion groups are becoming very popular everywhere, according to a recent survey of leisure time activities. The Adams County Library System is offering a number of such groups and all are open to the public and all meet at the individual Libraries, where you are welcome to attend whether it is your home library or not, but a phone call ahead will help with the librarys arrangements.
Biglerville (677-6257) has an adult group discussing the Classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathanial Hawthorne on Monday, August 20 at 1:30 pm. Please call the librarian for more information. Fairfield (642-6009) will meet at 7 pm on Thursday, August 16 to discuss Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Please call the library for more information. Gettysburg (334-5716) has a program called Bring-A-Book which meets every third Monday of the month at 10 a.m. This is a round-table presentation with participants reading or discussing parts of a book they are currently reading. Adams County Reads One Book activities will begin in September. The book under discussion is A Dogs Purpose by W. Bruce Cameron. Littlestown (359-0446) will be reading and discussing a graphic novel, Asterix by Rene Goscinny on Tuesday, August 21 at noon. The illustrations are drawn by Albert Uderzo. New Oxford (624-2182) will meet Thursday, August 9 at noon. They are reading One Summer by David Baldacci. East Berlin (259-9000) meets on Tuesday, August 28 at 7 p.m. They are reading Marrying Mom by Olivia Goldsmith.

Are you a member of the ACLFOL? It's the best bargain in town.

SUPPORT ADAMS COUNTY LIBRARIES Be a FRIEND

Membership Application/Renewal
Because I believe that the Adams County Library System is essential to our communities, I am enclosing my donation to become a member of the FRIENDS in support of the Library. Please return completed form with your tax-deductible donation to

Friends of the Library, PO Box 4792, Gettysburg, PA 17325 $ 20 $35 $50 $100 Other ____________
NAME________________________________________________ PHONE ______________________ ADDRESS_______________________________ CITY, ZIP __________________________________

I would like to help the FRIENDS and the Library by volunteering:

_____ Process used books _____ Process mailings _____ Staff the Book Store ____ Work at the Book Sale Bonanza

Gettysburg Fairfield Littlestown East Berlin Biglerville New Oxford

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

Friends of the Library P.O Box 4792 Gettysburg, PA 17325-4792

Mon--Sat. 9:30AM-4:30PM Sunday-1:30PM-4:30PM

BOOK STORE HOURS

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Gettysburg PA 17325 Permit No. 257