Philadelphia libraries to close

I posted a few days ago about how libraries have held a prominent place in my heart. They have always been for me a place to relax, to gather, to learn, to share with friends and family. I learn there. They are a sanctuary. A few days after that post, the Philadelphia city library website posted the following:

All Free Library of Philadelphia Branch, Regional and Central Libraries Closed Effective Close of Business October 2, 2009
All Free Library of Philadelphia Customers, We deeply regret to inform you that without the necessary budgetary legislation by the State Legislature in Harrisburg, the City of Philadelphia will not have the funds to operate our neighborhood branch libraries, regional libraries, or the Parkway Central Library after October 2, 2009.

* All branch and regional library programs, including programs for children and teens, after school programs, computer classes, and programs for adults, will be cancelled
* All Parkway Central Library programs, including children programs, programs to support small businesses and job seekers, computer classes and after school programs, will be cancelled. We are exploring the possibility of relocating the Philadelphia Author Series programs to other non-library facilities.
* All library visits to schools, day care centers, senior centers and other community centers will cease.
* All community meetings at our branch and regional libraries, and the Parkway Central Library, will be cancelled.
* All General Educational Development, Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language programs held at Free Library branches will be discontinued, students should contact their teacher to see if other arrangements are being made."

Benjamin Franklin established the first library through open subscription, in Philadelphia, in 1732 before we were even a nation. And now, due to debt, poverty, and inability to pay the bills, Philly will close their libraries. Sort of ironic that the first place to close them was the first place they opened?

Music events at the library!

In these economic times we all look for inexpensive things to do. Three wholesome events are being presented at the Madison County Library on May 8, 15 & 30 thanks to the Grassroots Arts Program grant.

The Library will host three fun-filled Friday evenings right at the library. Friday, May 8th Marion Montgomery will sing the blues. On May 15th the Garnet River Gals will have you swinging as they strum the strings playing a variety of folk music. Last, but not least, on May 30th Pat Shields and the Georgia Mudcats will get everyone on their feet with homegrown Bluegrass tunes. All of these shows will be in the evening. There may be additional artists performing, as well as food to purchase. Stay tuned for more details!

Week's end round up

Yay! I've been accepted as a participant in an upcoming photography show to be held at the library. It'll be my first so I need to get the digital pics I want to submit professionally printed out and then buy some 8X10 frames. Move forward, try new things, yikes, it's nerve wracking to put myself out there with my art and photos but it's exciting too.

I put up a new entry on my agriculture and arts blog, http://madcoga.blogspot.com/ A friend of mine had sent me the photo of the cow with its head stuck in a chair and agreed to let me put it up.

The country life...the other day I went out to get pics of chickens to submit for the weekly I contribute to. I spent a pleasant half hour with some great folks and loved seeing the chicken house. Imagine, 11,000 chickens inside! I'd never seen a rooster! I loved learning about the commercial eggs versus store eggs (store eggs are not fertilized). I was thinking of where I was a year ago, the longest and pretty contentious meeting in Gray's history had just occurred - lasting till midnight with lots of negativity- and I wrote a blog entry entitled "One Tired Editor." A year later, pics of chickens! LOL!

I manned the checkout desk today at the Friends of the Library Book sale. I watched twin boys, about 7 years old, very seriously take their time choosing their books and videos. One was carrying and oversize Pinocchio hardcover that kept falling out of his hands. I offered him a bag and he was so delighted. Those two were so cute I could hardly stand it.

I've been invited to the Women's Club supper tomorrow night. The supper is taking place at 'the clubhouse.' Cool! I can't wait to see it. And I'm looking forward to meeting the women who put it on.

The Library Book Sale

I've been asked to become the Library Fundraising Chair on the Friends' Executive Board. It's fancier than it sounds. I love the folks on it, they have been great and welcoming. I was a Gray Public Library Trustee and volunteer back before I started The Monument Newspaper, and I worked to help out with their book sale too so I was interested to see how "my" new library does their sale.

Hard covers are tagged at $1 and soft covers are 50 cents. In Gray the books were less expensive but I think people will pay $1 for a hardcover, I know, I bought 8 of them!

The Friends ask a local publishing house to donate, and they receive 41 boxes of fairly new books, all hard covers. Handling all those books is hard so they've made an arrangement with the local jail, who send out inmates to unload the skid and tote in the boxes. The inmates all come away with a free book of their choice.

Expensive or rare books are sold on half.com (an ebay outlet) or librarybooksales.org for closer to their retail or market price.

The Gray library has a wonderful downstairs in which the book sale books are always at the ready arranged alphabetically on shelves. Most libraries do not have such luxurious space and this one is no exception. The day that the skid arrived folding banquet tables are set up in the meeting room and as the inmates brought in the books the volunteers were ready and we unpacked them onto the tables. The idea at first was to get them out of boxes and then when the empties were taken away the books were alphabetized.

They know what they are doing, for sure, and within three hours over a thousand books were unpacked and alphebetized. I'm staffing the checkout table Thursday night on the Friends' preview night, and again on Friday from 10-12 when it opens to the public. Happy reading and remember to support your library!