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FALL 2013
News from the Friends
of the Greenfield Public Library
Board Members
Friends of the Library
President
Cyndie Rothschild
Vice-President
Roma Hansis
Ellen Berson
Doni Beauregard
Ruth Bellows
Bill Buchanan
Nancy Buchanan
Dennis Finnell
Richard Gordon
Jenny Hall
Lorraine Johnson
Karen Larabee
Don McLeod
Susan Platt
Cindy Pomeroy
Steve Roberto
Rachel Roberts
Clarita Shaffer
Hope Schneider
Terry Ruggles
Emeritus:
Irmarie Jones
Lynne Rudié
Connie Towler
Martha Greene
ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Anne Dillon
Cynthia McNeilly
Douglas Reid
Marianne Snow
Newsletter Editor:
Nancy Buchanan
Production:
Nancy Buchanan
Printer: CopyCat,
Greenfield
Friends Fall Event — November 9
Greetings from the new President of the Friends of the Library. I work with
some amazingly hard-working, cheerful, and dedicated people—that’s why I’ve
been on this board for so long! I’m looking forward to a productive year as the
Friends of the Library continue to support our wonderful Library.
Presently, the Friends are busy gearing up for our annual Fall Event. If you
have attended the event in past years, you know a great deal of work goes into
preparing delicious hors d’oeuvres, gift baskets and auction items. Many depend
on this event to begin their holiday shopping. This year our theme is books and
we will feature book lamps, shelves and other book related art, in addition to an
amazing variety of creative gift baskets. A few of the handmade items that will
be available through silent or live auction include lamp shades created from children’s and adult book illustrations, colorful handmade placemats, several wooden
items in maple, ash and oak, including toy trains, bookshelves, and step stools.
Just one of the amazing gift items
designed by Board member Steve
Roberto and assembled with the
Hand-Crafted
Wooden Train.
aid of his Friendly
Elves.
When we aren’t working on the Event, the Friends are maintaining the Library grounds and preparing for our used book sales. Special thanks go to Jenny
Hall for her dedication to the flower beds that border the entrance. The Friends
funded a major shaping and thinning of the shrubs, and Snow’s Landscaping did
a fine job.
Preparation for the Fall Book Sales resulted in a flurry of activity in the barricade area of the Library basement. The Library has made the entire area available to us, so the book area is almost twice the size it once was. Moving fiction to
the new space has freed up room for more non-fiction. Don McLeod, our DH
(Designated Handyman), has cut more shelving and repositioned MANY more
shelves to optimize space. Cyndie Rothschild, Bill Buchanan, Roma Hansis,
Doris McLeod, Denny Baker, Clarita Shaffer and Dot Carey have schlepped,
alphabetized, and sorted for MANY hours.
Book sales are held roughly six times a year, adding approximately $8,500 to
the Friends treasury. The book sale crew works every week, all year, to maintain
this revenue stream. A few more helping hands would make everything go more
smoothly.
Library News — Embracing Change!
By Jane Buchanan, Head of Borrower Services
One of the things people have repeatedly said when we
survey them regarding the library is that they wish we
had quiet space, study space, space to sit and read.
Well, now we do!
But fear not! We’re not eliminating books! In fact,
if you’ve been in recently you’ll notice that we’ve at
least quadrupled our Bestseller collection, and tripled
our New Books. Our fiction collection is now two full
shelving ranges larger than it used to be. What you
won’t find are all the old, worn, and outdated books that
used to make browsing the shelves so difficult.
We know it’s confusing. A patron recently came to
the circulation desk and asked for a map. And we do
have one!
that were on the tables at the front of the Library have
now been converted to internet stations. That brings our
total number of internet-access computers to eight!
• The Periodical shelves that took up a good
chunk of space near the circulation desk were removed,
and the magazines are on shelves by the tables in front
of the fireplace where most people sit to read them. You
no longer have to jostle for position with people in line
at the circulation desk in order to get to the magazine
you want to read.
... and from the Children’s Room
And that’s just in the adult room. On the Children’s
Room side, we’ve rearranged a bit, too. In order to allow
our Children’s Librarian, Kay Lyons, to be closer to her
clientele, we’ve moved her office from the second floor
Here’s what’s different:
into the space that once housed our Young Adult col• Our Large Print collection is no longer on six
lection. The YA books are now in a nook between the
different shelving units, requiring folks to maneuver in
children’s circulation desk and the office. The rest of the
and out of them with their walkers, canes and wheelcollection has been child-sized! The shelves have been
chairs. Now it is in one aisle smack in the middle of the
lowered to make the books more reachable by children.
stacks. The shelves are lower to make
We think it has opened up the whole room and made
everything easier to reach, and the
it lighter and more inviting. A table now sits in front
entire collection can be browsed in one
of the fireplace where children can play games, read, or
stretch.
do homework.
• Where the Large Print collecIf you missed the Library’s entry in the Franklin
tion was, our New Books now are. One
County Fair parade, the beautiful dragon from the
patron came in the other day and stood
Magic Tree House Experience the Book party that
and marveled. “It’s so open! I need to
took 3rd place in the parade, adorns the stacks.
A Handy Little
do this to my house!” We’re glad we
(As does the Lion mask that was worn for the
Step Stool
could be an inspiration!
Silent Auction Item Library’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• We’ve moved the Graphic
Novel shelves so that they are up
by Steve & Friends Experience the Book party.) It’s worth a trip to
the Library just to admire the artwork that went
against the wall in the same corner
into
creating
them! And keep your eye out for informawhere the shelf used to jut out into the room. It has
tion on the Library’s next Experience the Book party,
opened up that space and made more room for anyone
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, December 28th.
standing at the beautiful new stands that now hold our
• We hope you’ll agree with us that all this
catalog computers.
change has worked toward creating a space that is more
• With thanks to Steve Roberto, we have four
open, more inviting, and easier to navigate. If you don’t,
gorgeous hand-crafted stands at the ends of the stacks
let us know. We’re happy to share our vision with you.
that put the catalogs where the books are. No longer
One patron said the other day, “You know I was
do you have to look something up at the catalog at the
nervous for a while. I wasn’t sure what you were dofront of the Library and try to remember all the details
ing. But now I get it. You were making room for more
when you get to the stacks in the back. Nor do you have
books! I’m so happy!”
to walk out from the stacks to check the catalog to find
the location of what you’re looking for. We do still have
Next Book Sale is December 6 & 7
one catalog computer in the front that is wheelchair acWe welcome your used books, in good condition.
cessible or for those who prefer to sit while they search.
We are now able to sell some special books Online and
• And speaking of computers, since most of our
are pleased that Clarita Shaffer has taken on the task of
catalogs are now in the stacks, the catalog computers
researching, listing and mailing.
New Friends Board Members
By Dennis Finnell, Friends Board Member
We’re very pleased to introduce two new Board members, Clarita Shaffer and Terry Ruggles. But you may
have met one or both already from their years of volunteer work at GPL.
For Clarita Shaffer, her earliest memory of a library
was of "a wonderful sunny room with little chairs and
tables and wonderful books." She was four years old,
and her mother would drop Clarita and her sisters off
in the kids' room while her mom went to the grownup section. Clarita has kept her love of books, and of
libraries. When she moved to Greenfield in 1977, guess
the first thing she did? She got a library card.
Thirty-five years later, Clarita says she still “loves
being able to take out books and return them. If I don't
like the ones I have picked, there are so many more
waiting to be read.” Her love of books and libraries has
been passed on to her children as well. “As soon as my
daughter could write her name,” Clarita tells us, “she
got her first card. When she got her driver's license she
spent the first day going around visiting all the nearby
libraries.”
Clarita is candid when she tells us she is unsure
about what qualities she can bring to the Board. She
goes on to say, “I am the type of person who waits to
see what is missing and fills in or adds. Or just add a
different point of view.” Recently retired after twentyfive years in the sales department at BETE Fog Nozzles, Clarita admits that she always wanted to be more
creative, wanted to cook. The Board welcomes her and
looks forward to her being more creative, cooking up
something amazing.
For Terry Ruggles, libraries
are in his blood. He can’t remember when he wasn’t around
books and libraries, including
in his paternal grandfather's
house and summer house. Terry
says, “I am sure that my mother
introduced me to the
Library or
library here in Greenfield
Kitchen Ladder
as a young boy because
Silent Auction Item she was an inveterate
reader.” And now he and his granddaughter often go to
the Library “and we pick out several books at a time for
her to read.” It’s still all in the family.
Ironically, Terry doesn't check out many books from
the Library, much to his wife’s chagrin. “That’s because,”
he says, “I tend to buy most of the books I want to read.
Many of them are then donated to the Library for book
sales.” For several years, Terry’s primary volunteer duty
at the GPL was to clean and restore all of the CDs and
DVDs in the collection.
We’re sure the Board will benefit greatly from
Terry’s broad experience in advertising, marketing, and
media, as well as his work on other boards, ranging
from “running giant concerts, to the animal shelter to
historical organizations.” And, he was born and raised
in Greenfield, and is familiar with many organizations
and people in the area.
With all of Terry’s experience, skills, and commitment to the community, its history and the Greenfield
Public Library, it’s not surprising that Terry was asked
to join the Board this past spring. We are very fortunate
to have him as a new Board member.
Hand Crafted
desk top book
holder.
From the Director
Ellen Boyer
This winter the Greenfield Public Library will apply for
a Planning & Design Grant. These grants are awarded
by the Massachusetts Public Library Construction
Program to help a library get ready to apply for a Construction Grant. Construction Grants are awarded for
building projects which include renovations of existing libraries, conversions of non-library facilities, and
construction of new buildings.
Planning & Design Grants are currently capped
at $50,000 and must be matched with $25,000 in local funding. According to the Massachusetts Board
of Library Commissioners, the grant awards will be
announced in June of 2014. After the announcement a
library has 6 months to secure its local funding match.
The Greenfield Town Council has already approved the
Library’s request for $20,000 toward the local funding
requirement for this grant.
Joe Ruggeri will represent the Library Board of
Trustees on the committee tasked with completing this
grant application. Rachel Roberts will represent the
Friends of the Greenfield Public Library. Ellen Boyer
will represent the staff.
NON-PROFIT ORG
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
PERMIT NO. 183
GREENFIELD, MA
FRIENDS OF THE
GREENFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARY
402 MAIN STREET
GREENFIELD, MA 01301
FALL 2013 NEWSLETTER
Friends Fall Event
Saturday, November 9 5 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Stoneleigh-Burnham School
Tickets available at the Library
or at the door $20.00
delicious nibblers
hors d’oeuvres
wine & beer
raffles of hand crafted items, gift baskets, gift certificates