Book Notes

PARP Comes to the Pleasant Valley Library

The library will be participating in Parents as Reading Partners, PARP, with Traver and West Road Schools from February 6^th – 24^th. The theme is “Get Under the Spell of Reading, Discover the Magic of Books.” Participating students are encouraged to come to the library and place their name on a cut out shaped like a book. These will be placed on the wall of the stairway leading up to the children’s room. For each of the three weeks students can enter a drawing, and books will be offered as prizes. Winners will be picked by grade level (K-5) each week.

SAVE THE DATE!

This year’s Spring Book Fair will be held at the Town Hall from Friday, April 28^th through Sunday, April 30^th.

Book donations accepted at the library Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays until early April. Please look for signs at the library for a specific date.

Sorry, no White Elephant table this year.

Volunteers are needed to help out, especially on Friday afternoon to move books from the library to the Town Hall, and on Sunday afternoon for takedown. Please consider donating an hour or two to help the library and pick up some great books while you’re there.

Bonus! Use the enclosed Book Buck for one dollar off any book at the sale. (One Book Buck per person, please. Not valid for Sunday Bag sale.)

PLEASANT VALLEY DAY and HOLIDAY BOOK SALES

2005 was a record breaking year for the Friends of the Library. The beautiful weather over Pleasant Valley Weekend, combined with the extension of our sale to Saturday and Sunday meant more sales than ever before. Over the two days, we made $925.40 – that’s more than $330 more than 2004!

During November and December, the Friends raised $1369.50 at their Holiday Better Books Sale. That’s an increase in more than $400 in two years! Thank you to all who made these two events a rousing success – especially all of our faithful customers and volunteers. Without your continued support, the Friends wouldn’t be able to provide our Library with the extras that make the Pleasant Valley Library so – well, PLEASANT!

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Support Our Library

Buy A Quilt Block

There is a beautiful unfinished quilt top hanging in the Library Reading Room. Why isn’t it finished? There are still Quilt-Books for sale! $25/block.

TAX FORMS AVAILABLE

The library is one of the only places in town to get tax forms. They are available online at www.irs.gov or you can pick up your forms at the library. We will have them available in our front room until April. They tend to trickle in slowly, as the IRS is really trying to push their website. We do have a book of reproducibles, so photocopies can be made if we are temporarily out of the form you need.

UPCOMING EVENTS

LIBRARY CLOSED:

February 20 - President’s Day

Pleasant Valley Presents:

February 23rd at 7 pm – HORSE STORIES with Ann Jamieson

Book Club:

February 14, 7PM

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

TV Turnoff Week: April 24-30

Internet Training Class:

April 12, 11AM

July 19, 11AM

October 18, 11AM

Spring Book Sale: April 28-30

Friends Meetings:

February 13, 7PM

March 13, 7PM

April 10, 7PM

May 8, 7PM

HELP WANTED

*The library is still looking for a paid handyman. This person would be needed for two to three hours a week and would change the light bulbs, fix broken doorknobs, change the boiler filters and things of that nature.

*We desperately need people to volunteer as shelvers. If you have some free time, and would be willing to come in an hour or two a week, please consider volunteering here.

CONGRATULATIONS SUMMER READERS

What could be better than a Popsicle on a hot summer afternoon? How about enjoying that Popsicle while you watch a magic show?

On August 19, The Friends of Library provided popsicles and lollipops to congratulate all of the children who participated in the New York Summer Reading Program “Tune In @ Your Library.” This year over 250 kids signed up to participate in the summer reading program, helping to boost library circulation during the months of July and August to over 25,000. Not only did the kids go home with sticky fingers and bright red smiles from the cherry popsicles, but they were each invited to choose a book to take home with them from our donated book bin.

PLEASANT VALLEY PRESENTS

As part of our Pleasant Valley Presents series, this month we will be hosting a program on Horse Stories. A licensed horse judge, Ann Jamieson has written a book of true horse stories “For the Love of the Horse.” She plans to have copies available for purchase and signing, and will be reading aloud from her book. This program is for ages 8 and up. Our Pleasant Valley Presents programs are always held on the last Thursday of the month. This month’s will be Thursday, February 23rd at 7 pm. Stay tuned for further programs during the year.

SAFETY NOTE

The library has had to close its front door for the winter. The brick pathway is just too icy during the cold weather and so, for our patrons’ safety, we must insist patrons use the side door, which has the added advantage of being handicap accessible. This will continue until April 1^st, whether it snows or not, so as to lessen confusion.

GOOD FRIENDS, GOOD FOOD

What do George Pataki, Hillary Clinton, Diana Gabaldon, and many of your friends from Pleasant Valley have in common?

They all have recipes in our beautiful new fundraiser cookbook, Good Friends, Good Food, which is on sale at the library right now.

The cookbook contains almost 300 family-friendly recipes, a bargain at only $8.00!

Buy more and save –

2 cookbooks $7.50 each

3+ cookbooks $7.00 each

Come in and take a look.

$.50 from each book sold will be donated to the Kathy Cormier Library Fund.

If you contributed a recipe, you are entitled to a free cookie booklet. If you haven’t received your copy, you can ask for one at the front desk.

BITS and BYTES

Computer use at the library steadily climbed in November, and then soared in December – and we think that we know why! The Friends of the Library purchased two new computers including two 17” flat-screen monitors for general library use. Installed in mid-November, the computers have appear to have helped boost computer usage at the library. At almost any given time, five out of the six computers are in use. A special thanks to Rich Harlin of Harlin Computers in
Wappingers Falls, who not only installed the computers, but gave the library a terrific deal.

To help meet the needs of many of our patrons, the library now provides a basic Internet class. Daniela held the first class on Wed., January 18^th, which was attended by no less than a half dozen patrons. There was such an interest in the class that it will be held on a quarterly basis –classes are listed in Upcoming Events.

MEETING ROOM GETS A FACELIFT

In late January, the Children’s and Meeting rooms were closed in order to give the Meeting Room a well-deserved face-lift. The library was able to arrange for the Women of the Beacon Correctional Facility to complete all of the painting free of charge as part of their community service program. A special thank-you goes out to Tom Oelschlager, of Sun Wallpaper and Paint who provided all of the supplies at cost. Our own Children’s Librarian, Julie Poplees, deserves a cheer for moving all of the furniture and supplies both before and after the renovations were made. Thanks to all who made this project a success!

SUGGESTION BOX

Is there something that you think our library needs? Or did you see something at another library and think “Wow! I wish we had that in Pleasant Valley?” We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas! Write it down with your name and phone number (and email address if you have one) and we’ll look into it! The Friends of the Library suggestion box has been placed on one of the bookshelves near the front entrance of the library. We look forward to hearing from you!

Library Buzz

“I was working at the Holiday Sale and overheard somebody talking about things a soldier in Iraq would love to have but could not find over there. I asked if there was a friend or family member in the War. No. This person read about anysoldier.com in Book Notes and liked the idea of sending a "care package" to somebody serving in the war. She went to the site, found a note from a young woman who needed lots of lotion and missed having something personal that was pretty. The lady went to the store and to the Post Office, and was a Friend in the biggest sense of the word.” - Mary Apostol

Let’s Give Them a Pat on the Back!

Congratulations to Senior Clerk Valerie Britton on her two-year anniversary with the library!

The Friends of the Library would like to thank Mary Apostol for three years as our faithful and hardworking president. What started out as three people in the meeting room three years ago has really turned into something bigger than any of us had ever expected. She has generously volunteered to continue to take minutes at our meetings until a new secretary can be found and will continue her work in the basement sorting and boxing books for our book sales. Mary- THANK YOU!

The Friends of the Library would like to thank George Greenwood for writing the history of Pleasant Valley to introduce Good Friends, Good Food.

Book Club Members would like to thank Jay Kiggins at Madison’s Pizza (A&P Plaza) for treating them to dessert at their holiday book club luncheon.

We Love our Volunteers! The Library couldn’t function without the efforts of its dedicated volunteers. Some volunteers come once a week to shelve books or work at the desk, some sort book donations in the library basement, so they don’t always have a chance to meet each other. A luncheon was held on October 16th at the Village Restaurant to thank them and give them the opportunity to get together for some lively conversation. The Library’s 2005 Volunteers were: Peggy Capell, Olive Doty, Aya Ely (pictured, left), Betty Freer, Judy Gaddis, Ruth Greenwood, Marge Groth, Monique Hagood, Donna Letteri, Nancy Lundgren (pictured, right), Shirley Sinon, Ann Stellar, Cynthia Sterling and Elayne Weinstein.

STOCK UP ON MOVIES FOR COLD WINTER NIGHTS

videocassette Finding it difficult to locate a video recording of an old favorite? Haven't made the leap to DVD's? Then, you will be glad to hear that the Friends of the Library will be holding a Video Sale during the month of February in the Reading Room. We have a great number of videos, all kinds, all topics - from exercises to travel to how-to to films to TV series and more for $1.00 each! Come to shop or volunteer, but don't miss it.

If you are interested in helping to set up for the sale, the Friends could use your help on Thursday, February 2 at 7PM. The sale opens on Friday, February 3^rd at 1PM when the library opens for business and will run through February 23^rd.

FRIENDS MEETINGS MOVED

Starting in January 2006, the Friends of the Library have moved their monthly business meetings to the second Monday of every month.

IN MEMORIAM – KATHY CORMIER

In October of 2005, family and friends gathered to pay their respects to Kathy Cormier. Kathy was a wonderful volunteer, former Board Member and delightful patron of the library. Her family graciously set up the Kathy Cormier Fund so that if people wanted to, they could donate to the library in her honor. With these funds the library has purchased many things it really needs, including a display case, paperback rack and the entire works of William Shakespeare, produced by the BBC on DVD. In addition, the Friends of the Library will be donating 50 cents from the sale of each copy the Good Friends, Good Food Cookbook to the Kathy Cormier fund. The Friends contribution will be used to add to the library’s collections in two of Kathy’s favorite areas- Mysteries and Cookbooks. Everyone at the library misses Kathy very much and is grateful to her husband and children for allowing them to honor her in this way.

BECOME A FRIEND

Just fill out this form and turn it in with your membership dues at the library check-out-desk. Please make checks payable to: Friends of the Pleasant Valley Library. Members also receive a 10% discount on our Special Logo Items.

NAME:

ADDRESS:

PHONE:

E-MAIL

Please Circle One:

$5.00 Friend $10.00 Family

$Donation of $_______in support of Friends.

Your contribution is tax deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.