Archive of Friends of the Library Newsletters
March 2005
FROM OUR CHAIRPERSON
First - Our Many Thanks
Our thanks to the people of Levin who donated the presents to make our sad Christmas tree happy. Once again we had a present for every needy child. Our thanks to Levin Mall for allowing us a shop for our January sale. Our thanks to the Friends who rushed to set up the tables and install the books when the sudden scheduling of Boulevard Day changed our two day sale to three. Our thanks for the $2265 raised by the sale.
And this month - the AGM. This year we are losing our most experienced committee person, Naomi Dement, our treasurer, Roger Godfrey, and committee members, Patricia Priest and Vern Morris. Though they will still be helping us with promotions it does mean we need new people for the committee. How about you?
Phone 368 2328 to discuss the idea further.
For some years the Library Volunteers and the Friends of the Horowhenua Libraries have been drifting apart though their services overlap so often most people belong to both organisations. From now on Volunteers will receive the Friend's newsletter. They may be involved as little or as much as they wish in the Friend's projects
Friends of the Horowhenua Libraries have two sections - active and subscribing. Subscribing members pay an annual subscription. Active members work for the libraries and their subscription is waived. As Volunteers are workers in the libraries they will not pay a subscription…really they have been ‘Friends’ all along.
Lorraine McArthur
WOULDN'T IT BE NICE?
More space for our Levin Library is always on our Wish List. With Countdown moving out...?
Wouldn't it be LUV - ER - LY? Just a wish.
THE FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY CASH BOX
(Which does not belong to the Friends but is borrowed from very dear friends whenever we need it. Thanks Roger and Val.)
You may have noticed the elegant cash box we use during indoor sales. (For outdoor sales we use money belts). The box used to belong to the New Zealand Spinners, Weavers, and Woolcrafts Society.
In 1999 Roger was treasurer of the NZSWWS' Wool Festival. While the box was being carried across the Palmerston North Showgrounds on a pouring wet day, the lock broke - right over a drain. The drain was enriched, the Wool Festival impoverished. On such a stormy day nothing could be done but we have been told that when the weather cleared the Ground Staff were able to retrieve enough for a nice morning tea.
The NZSWWS banished the cash box but Roger mended the lock hoping it might again be useful - it is and it looks nice, but if you inspect it you will discover, never far away, a firm elastic tie which is always on the box when it is being moved - just in case.
LIBRARY SERVICES REMINDER
Rosalie is delighted to advise you that Levin, Foxton and Shannon libraries now have a much faster InterNet connection. No more long delays waiting for hotmail replies.
Come in and give it a try. Inquire about buying a prepaid code for casual use or register as an Internet Account Holder with your own login and password.
New Membership form for 'Friends'
One of the tasks that the new 'Friends' committee will be faced with is working with the library to design a better membership form and system for getting necessary information about new members of 'Friends' so that each can participate as fully, in his/her own way, as desired.
PatB's POETRY
Tired of 'user pays' -
budget strained
(beyond elasticity)
I enter the Library.
Oh Joy! A plethora
of books
July 2004
FROM OUR CHAIRPERSON
Turn out your bookcases! The Levin Library Book Sale will be held in the Levin Mall on the 29th, 30th, and 31st July. We want your spare books. Either drop them into the box at the library or phone 368 2328 for collection. While you are discarding books think of what you want to buy at the sale. Bargain books will abound.
Congratulations to Alan Smith who has been promoted to the Horowhenua Library Trust. Alan being allowed to serve on both committees simultaneously we retain a devoted committee person while gaining an advocate. Well done Alan, cannot imagine a better man for the job, good to find other people appreciate you as much as we do.
Sadly our treasurer, Francis Mouldey, is moving to Wanganui. Francis joined the committee last year after being a helpful Friend ever since arriving in Levin a couple of years ago. Thank you, Francis, for your assistance to our libraries during your sojourn.
Been to Levin Library on Sunday yet? Open from 1pm to 4pm - and this year the Friends are there! Find us with tea and coffee in the sunny corner by the fire door. Tell us what you expect from your library. Let us know how you can help us and how we can help you. Children enjoy a story with Clyde Dawson (and this month there has been face painting as Shrek characters).
Special Note for Foxton Friends - The Horowhenua District Council has considered our plea to move the construction of the new Foxton Library forward from the scheduled year of 2007. It has adopted the following resolution "That the Foxton Library building be inspected to confirm the condition is suitable for the planned replacement timetable." We would all like to be reassured. I am sure Foxton Friends will be happy to make themselves available to point out problems when the inspection is made.
BRANCH NEWS -Tokomaru
Great news here. Tokomaru has received notice that they can have permanent use of the ex-dental clinic at Tokomaru School and plans are already underway for turning it into a really nice branch library ('They really are - I saw the plans!', says Clyde) Numbers of new members are growing nicely, too.
You can renew books from home via the library web page at www.library.org.nz and check availability of books as well. Just ask for a password next time you're in the library, and you're ready to compute. You can still renew by phone at 368 1953.
If you have an email address, it would be a great help if you could advise the newsletter editor at clydawson@xtra.co.nz
January 2004
FROM OUR CHAIRPERSON
Here we are, it's almost the end of another year ...
And for 'Friends' it's been a very productive year, starting with the Large Print promotion last May, 124 new large print books have been added to the shelf.
June was our Mid-Winter Madness in the Mall. This was one of the most successful book sales we have held - over $5000 was raised in just 3 days.
Sept saw Foxton have its book sale during Spring Fling (to kick off the plans for Foxton's new Library the theme for the parade float was Bob the Builder - a huge success with young and old as was the book sale itself).
Shannon had both it's recently scheduled book sales rained out unfortunately.
None of these events just happen ..they are the results of long hours and and hard work from my great committee and I thank you all for your help and support.
Two things the' Friends' are looking at for the library are: 1) a gate at the top of the stairs at Barbara's request; and 2).. to have a second bookcase made to match the one the lib has to house the rare and special reference books.
Roger has seen that the gate is now in place and the quotes for the bookcase will be dealt with in the New Year.
All you 'Friends' have been busy in all sections from repair, shelving, new issue prep, home deliveries - my sincere thanks to you all.
All that remains now is for me to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. If you're travelling ... safe journey. If staying home ... sit back, relax, read a good book.
Last minute news is a book sale 'Yarns for the Beach' outside the library on Monday, 5 Jan '04.
BARBARA URQUHART, Chairperson
JUST IN FROM ROSALIE
Plans for a bigger library for Foxton are still alive. The Foxton library extension is slotted in to Council's Long Term Community Council Plan, tentatively scheduled for 2008. It seems a long way ahead, but there is lots of preliminary work to be done if we're going to make the most of this opportunity to build Foxton the library it deserves.
ROSALIE BLAKE
Head of Libraries, Horowhenua Library Trust
FROM KIRI
The Saddest Christmas Tree became the Happiest Christmas Tree full of presents for the children. The response we have had to this is just amazing however. Thank you all for your generosity which has made this really successful.
If you notice the shelves are not looking so full it is because we are in the middle of weeding of the old stock. There are many books that are now long past there shelf life or the reading patterns of people have changed. Fiction books can sit on the shelf for months and not be taken out so they simply have to go. A lot of the non-fiction books can become out of date and can even provide the wrong information as in the case of some medical books. At the end of all this weeding we hope that the Library shelves will look less cluttered and more inviting to the book browser.
The staff at the Library would like to say a big thankyou to all the Friends for all the help that you have given us over the past year and we wish you all a Happy and Safe Festive Season.
A QUOTE FROM LORRAINE
May I draw your attention to a quote which came over in the 'Word of the Day' email a few days ago: "To sit alone with a book spread out before you and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare." Kenko Yoshida, Essayist (1283-1352)"
'WORDSMITH' is a great websiteâ¦you can sign up for a free Word of the Day email (no pop-up ads) â¦different word theme each week and weekly recaps of members' feedback comments. Well worth a look-see.
Homelink
Remember that there is a home delivery service staffed by volunteer couriers of books to those who arenât able to get to the Libraries.
And some snippets from the archive of Friends Newsletters:
February 2003
FROM OUR CHAIRPERSON
Dear Friends
We are nearly at the end of another yearly cycle. It is the Annual General Meeting of our Group on 11th March, 2003. I am hopeful that we will have a good turnout. I will of course report on the past year at that time.
However it is appropriate at this time to reflect on my three years as Chairperson of our group. In that time we have had some real challenges and in all instances I feel we have acquitted ourselves well. This is in no small part due to the enthusiasm of those of you who are the 'Friends'. We are a diverse group bound by our love of books and enthusiasm for the service provided by the library. There are those of you who work in the library to ensure that the library services are delivered more effectively. There are Roger and Myra in Foxton who accept responsibility for the physical welfare of books. There are others who assist in a myriad of ways but we all care about books. Together we have made a difference. Well done.
Alan Smith, Chair
VOLUNTEERS AND FRIENDS
You will have seen them in the library wearing a plastic badge saying Horowhenua Library Trust Volunteer and wondered who they are.
What is the difference between a Horowhenua Library Trust Volunteer and a Friend of the Horowhenua Libraries? Often nothing at all, most Volunteers are also Friends. Until this year both organisations liased with Anne Green but with her retirement the responsibility has been split.
Become a Friend by filling in the required form, contacting the secretary (Lorraine McArthur 368 2328) or asking librarian Kiri Hayes. Become a volunteer by contacting librarian Wendy Frazer.
Wendy will interview you to discover your talents, then set you to work where they can best be used within the library. Friends make a note of what you are able to do and contact you when you are needed, usually at irregular intervals for book sales but occasionally for other jobs. How much we appreciated the magnificent turn out to put the Levin Library back together after the moving about - a hundred percent of Friends (only those on holiday or ill did not attend) assisted; and in several cases even brought along spouses and friends who were not members but were prepared to help in the grand work.
Volunteers are frequently able to devote several hours a week to the library, Friends help when they can. In our busy modern lives it is often easier to fit in the odd couple of hours work when needed than to take on permanent weekly hours. Volunteers and Friends are needed to help run the Horowhenua Libraries and both groups flourish.
Lorraine McArthur, Secretary
NOSTALGIA FROM ALAN
The Thruppenny Library
I think that mine was a well read family! Well, at least we read a lot. I think that type of thing is in your genes. Mum was heavily into the romances and she and I shared the English Women's Weekly. Dad was into Westerns. For a time I was also into Westerns. They were M-A-N's stuff. As I discovered the plots were pretty much the same. Taciturn cowboy, an anything you can do I can do better feisty heroine who just happened to need help, and a smattering of baddies including the one who had won the heroine's trust and was going to do her wrong. All played out against the background of the American West with six guns, Winchester rifles, box canyons, homesteaders, a sheriff and his posse and concluding with the triumph of good over evil and the goodie getting his gal. The books that Mum and Dad read did in fact have a lot in common. And of course you borrowed them from a threepenny Library.
Do you remember those threepenny libraries that used to abound in our towns? They were shops that were crammed with books - popular books that you could borrow, after you had become a member, for the price of thruppence. There was a section for Romance, another for Westerns and as I remember it another for Detective novels. In the area of South Dunedin where I lived I can think of at least four such shops. It was one of those types of enterprise that seems to have disappeared completely from our towns though on reflection they have been replaced by the video shop.
Dad would send me down to the Library to get him a new lot of Westerns. You would return the ones that he had just read and then the trick was to find ones that he had not read. Some of you will remember how this was done. Each reader had a special mark. Dad put GT at the bottom of page seventeen - his brand. To find him a book I had to find one that did not carry his brand on page seventeen. It wasn't easy. Dad could read two a week and more if he was not busy. We had an Uncle Billy who used to come and visit and he could read one of Dad's cowboy books in an hour. In time I discovered that he read the first chapter, one in the middle and then the final chapter. But he always had an opinion on the books that he had read. "That was a jolly good yarn" he would say, or "A bit far fetched!"
For my part I grew up reading all sorts of stuff including Romance and Westerns, and I must confess that if a book does not grab me at the start I resort to Uncle Billy's trick - the first chapter, some of the middle and the ending.
There's nothing like a good read.
Levin library phone number 386 1953
Levin library fax number 367 9218
Foxton library phone and fax number 363 5571
Shannon library phone and fax number 366 0004
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