It’s a great day in Emporia! And it’s a great day at the Library too!

We are so excited about the summer! In terms of usage, June and July are the busiest months of the year at the library. We’ll check out over 20,000 items each month, and have 20,000 to 25,000 visitors each month. That’s a lot of activity!

Already we have over 400 children signed up for our Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales summer reading program. Kids are encouraged to read at least 100 minutes a week, and keep track of their time to win special reading incentives provided by local businesses.

Teens can be part of our Creature Feature reading program. We love to see the youth of Emporia reading day and night!!

Think there’s nothing to do in Emporia? Check out the library’s schedule
(see our web page at www.emporialibrary.org)
and the community calendar maintained by the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce.
http://www.emporiakschamber.org/calOfEvents/default.asp
You’ll find hundreds of activities for kids, families, and people of all ages.

Add in the parks, attractions and features of our community that you can find using the left column of the events calendar page, and you can’t say there’s nothing to do.

Our Brown Bag Concerts begin on Wed. June 7 and continue each week through July 26. Held from 12 noon to 1 pm, the outdoor concerts feature local and regional talent with lots of programs especially for kids and families.

Check out the Brown Bag schedule at
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/library/emporia/services/specialserv/brownbag.htm

See you at the library or around town!

Sue Blechl, Library Director

Comments are encouraged!

It seems that I have not made it easy for people to share their thoughts about the library and its blog. At the bottom of each posting, you will find a heading with the number of comments posted. If you click on that, you can submit your own comment. The blog is very useful for dialogue, with comments posted, and even comments on the comments. Reading the comments should help broaden understanding and various perspectives.

If you’d like to make a suggestion directly to me rather than to the public blog posting, please use my e-mail address blechls@emporialibrary.org.

Let’s get Emporia talking (or blogging) about the library!

Sue Blechl, Library Director

What are you reading?

It’s always interesting to ask people what they are reading. I get such a variety of answers. Many people have a favorite genre – mysteries, business books, biographies, whatever – and they really stick with it. Others read many different kinds of books. Some readers have one book at a time, and they read all the way through. Others like to have several books going at once. They can choose the one that’s right for their mood. Of course, there’s no right or wrong way to read. All reading is right, if you ask me!

My reading habits are eclectic, and I have 3 or 4 books going at once. Right now I’m reading The Da Vinci Code (for the 2nd time), the biography John Adams by John McCullough and the newest William Allen White Children’s Book Award winner The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. Next I’ll be reading something to review for the library’s weekly book column in the Emporia Gazette (Saturday in the Essence section.)

So what are you reading? You can share your choices by writing a comment to this blog. If you have something great to recommend, we’d love to hear it! I get many reading ideas from others who find something so inspiring or engrossing that they just have to tell about it!

And for a little humor…
Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. P. J. O'Rourke (1947 - )

Sue Blechl, Library Director

Your library at your fingertips!

We know that you’re busy, and can’t always make the time to stop by and leisurely check out all the cool things we have here. That’s why you can search the Emporia Public Library catalog from home or office using WebCat, our online catalog. http://64.217.130.73/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/x/0/0/49

Also through WebCat, you can check your account, renew your items, place holds, make suggestions and more. You will need your library card number and PIN, the personal ID number, we assign to you. If you need assistance, contact the circulation desk at 620-340-6462.

These features give you flexibility and help to avoid having overdue materials. No one likes to pay fines, right?

Another good idea is to put your receipt for books checked out on your refrigerator with our library magnet. Then you’ll always know what items are due when.

Do you know that there is a two-day grace period on all items? This gives you a little help to bring things back without a charge. We’ve tried to keep things simple and easy.

Our two outdoor book returns also make it easy to return items. One is in the library parking lot, and the other is in the alley on the north side of the library. Enter the alley off 7th Ave.

Of course, if you have questions about our collection or our policies, don’t hesitate to ask.
We want to help!!

Sue Blechl, Library Director

Great Libraries Need Great Friends!

We are so fortunate to have an exceptional Friends of the Library group in Emporia. We recently finished our Spring Book Sale, which brought in $9,412.74. That’s about $471 more than the 2005 sale. We’ve set another new record!

We couldn’t do it without the volunteers, donors, and customers of the sale. Special thanks go to Mary Unruh and Belinda Schlesener, book sale co-chairs, and the book sorting committee members, who work weekly through the year to sort, price, and stack thousands of books, videos, compact discs, magazines and more.

We welcome your donations! Please bring them to the library and deposit in the special wooden bin near the main desk. For larger numbers, you can drive to the library’s delivery entrance on the north side (use the alley off 7th Ave. to get there), and we can unload boxes directly on to book carts.

For more information on the Friends of the Library, click on http://skyways.lib.ks.us/library/emporia/friends/friends.htm

The fall book sale is set for October 12-15, 2006.

For information on Friends of Kansas Libraries, click on
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/KSL/fokl/

Welcome!

Welcome to the first entry in the Emporia Public Library’s blog. A blog is a personal Web site updated frequently with links, commentary and anything else you like. New items go on top and older items flow down the page.

This blog will allow you to post commentary. We hope to have an ongoing dialogue about the library’s services. Comments need to be free of obscenities and in good taste.

If you have a personal comment about the library and its services that you would not want to see posted on the blog, feel free to e-mail me at blechls@emporialibrary.org.

This blog will focus on events, services, and happenings at the Emporia Public Library. Entries will be posted several times each week, so check the site often. We hope that our blog enlightens you, reassures you, and even humors you sometimes.

If you’d like to read more about blogs and why libraries use them, check out this fine presentation by a Kansas technology consultant Charlene McGuire at http://ice.emporia.edu/charlene_presentation.html.

Sue Blechl, Library Director