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Bulletin: Library Trustees Revise Town Article

After an intensive round of work with architects, estimators and members of the financial advisory committee, the Edgartown Library board of trustees has new numbers for the cost of building our proposed new library. After this work, the bond issue that would be needed to begin the project as currently designed would be not $4.1 million, but $5.4 million. 

The library  trustees met with the board of selectmen and the financial advisory committee to discuss this new development. You can read the Vineyard Gazette's account of that meeting here.  The result was an agreement to work out some "fast track" alternatives for the annual town meeting in April.

On this web page, we have been posting information over the past two weeks to help voters understand the scope of the library project.  Our intent is to make available, on this page, all the resources you might need to be informed. Posted below are links to documents covering a variety of topics: from a timeline of the Edgartown Library project going back 35 years, to a document prepared for the financial advisory committee detailing the impact that a larger library will have on operating costs.

We want to hear your questions. Please tell us, at your next visit to the library desk, what you'd like us to add to the resources posted here. We promise to do our best to provide the information you need for an informed decision this April. If you'd like to email your request for information, please use this handy link.

A Blast from the Digital Past

We were delighted to read, in the weekly historical column of the Vineyard Gazette (entitled Chronicle), a news item from January 1985 reporting that the Edgartown Library had just become the first public library on Martha's Vineyard to purchase an exciting new piece of technology -- a desktop computer terminal.

Linda Norton, then director of the library, was quoted as promising patrons, "As soon as we learn how to use it, we'll teach you how to use it." The Gazette reported that the librarians "have mastered neither the machines nor the jargon that surrounds them, but they have found the secret of the learning attitude, and they are both confident and enthusiastic about these new additions."

Little did we know, 25 years ago, how important public computer access would become to our library patrons. We now have 14 public computers, and could use more if there were room, and the library's wireless Internet access is in nearly constant use. Deborah MacInnis, our Children's Department librarian today and also back in 1985, was right when she declared, a quarter-century ago: "I can see now how they're addictive."

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Library Program Series Explores the Island Plan
On Six Wednesdays in February and March

After a four-year process that involved hundreds of Islanders, the Martha's Vineyard Commission on Dec. 10 formally adopted the text of the Island Plan. But many Islanders have little knowledge of what's inside this document, which the MVC describes as "both a blueprint and a call to action" for the next 50 years.

On Wednesday, Feb. 3, the Edgartown Public Library's series of programs exploring the Island Plan got off to a lively start with guest panelists Henry Stephenson, Judy Federowicz and Chris Scott. The series, entitled Island Plan 101, the series continues on Wednesday, Feb. 10, with a discussion of the Plan's section on the Vineyard natural environment. Our guest this Wednesday will be Tom Chase of The Nature Conservancy. (You can read more here about the six-week series in the Martha's Vineyard Times.)

Programs will be held weekly at 7 p.m. in our Children's Department, downstairs at the library, through March 17, skipping the week of winter school break. Check this space for announcements of programs as the dates approach, or download the poster below for a complete listing.

Meet Oscar: Enjoy Winning Films
In Weeks Leading Up to Annual Awards

As every avid film aficionado knows, the 82nd annual Academy Awards ceremony will be held the night of Sunday, March 7. To whet your appetite and entertain you between now and then, we've put together a series of five winning movies for screening here at the library on Tuesdays, through March 2.

All film nights start at 6 p.m. and are free. The series got off to a great start on Feb. 2 with a screening of Casablanca -- presented with a tasty table of Moroccan desserts on the side. Thematically appropriate refreshments will be served for all the films in this series, and everyone is welcome. For more details, call the library desk at  508-627-4221 .

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Remembering Howard Zinn

Historian Howard Zinn opened his People's History of the United States with the story of Christopher Columbus encountering the Arawak Indians of the Bahama Islands and writing of them in his log: "They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

Perhaps Columbus wasn't quite as nice a guy as we were led to believe in third grade. But Howard Zinn, who died Jan. 27 at the age of 87, devoted his life to teaching the true history we weren't taught in grade school. You can read his AP wire service obituary here.

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The Incredible Expanding Language Learning Service

The Edgartown Public Library is proud to announce that on behalf of our patrons, we have expanded our subscription to the online language-learning service, Mango.

We've been offering the Mango Languages service free to our all our patrons since early in 2009. This January we have expanded our contract with Mango so that our patrons now have access to all 36 language courses offered by the service. Mango Languages provides solutions to your language learning needs that we hope you'll find fun, fast and convenient.

Recently, the Cape Cod Times took note of the service in this feature story, which quotes Vineyard Haven library patron Myra Stark as saying, "The wonderful thing about Mango is that it puts you in control of your language learning. You click on an arrow when you want to go ahead. You can stay where you are and repeat and repeat and repeat. And it's both visual and auditory."

Mango’s online language learning system focuses on teaching actual conversation skills. Each lesson combines real-life situations and audio from native speakers with an easy-to-follow interface and simple instructions.

This service is available to you, as a library patron, from any internet connection — at the library, a coffee shop, or at home. All you need to log in is your 13-digit library card number.

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Don't Shoot the Messenger, But It's That Time of Year

The black wire frame is back out of storage, conveniently located near our computer banks and nicely filled with useful forms for capital gains, IRA contributions and earned income credits.

Yes, folks -- it's time for all the paperwork involved in tallying what Franklin Delano Roosevelt once called "the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society."

If you're having a bit of trouble getting into the right mood for all the festivities of tax season, may we suggest a visit to the IRS Youtube page? There you can find entertaining video snippets on subjects from homebuyer credits to the vehicle tax deduction. Enjoy!

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In Our Stairwell: Artist at Work

At the bottom of the stairway leading down to the Children's Room, a graceful monarch butterfly takes flight, and bright summer flowers bloom. It's all the work of librarian and artist Donna Blackburn, who puts in an hour here, an hour there, making this entryway more attractive.

This mural project is very much a work in progress, Donna says. But we think it has already brightened up its corner of our library considerably. And we invite you to drop by from time to time this winter to see how Donna's painted garden is growing.

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Erich Segal and Robert B. Parker

The literary world lost two celebrities on Tuesday, Jan. 19 -- Erich Segal, 72, and Robert B. Parker, 77.

Mr. Segal, a classics scholar who taught at Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Oxford, was the author of the Love Story, the novel immortalized on film by Ryan O'Neal, and co-author of the script for the psychedelic Beatles film, Yellow Submarine.

Mr. Parker (pictured at left), the mystery writer who created the character of Spenser, the tough Boston PI, was as prolific as he was well-read -- publishing 65 books over 37 years. (We checked the Edgartown shelves on hearing the news, and found 32 titles in our mystery room.) In addition to his 37 Spenser novels, he wrote 28 other novels featuring Jesse Stone, chief of police in the fictional Massachusetts town of Paradise, and Sunny Randall, another Boston PI.

His agent said Mr. Parker died of a heart attack at his desk, working on another book.

What's New at the Library? Look to the Shelf-tops

Here on the website, it's impossible to keep up with the flood of new material being catalogued and put into circulation each week at the Edgartown Library. A sampling of our new arrivals is posted on the link in the right-hand column of this page, "New Stuff You Can Request," but there's much more, arrayed atop the shelves in the central space beneath the skylight.

This week we've launched yet another display. On the shelves across the back of the circulation desk, we're putting up the newest of the new: Items here are fresh out of the shipping boxes, and this display will be refreshed every week. Next time you're at the library, draw yourself a cup of hot coffee and be sure to peruse these displays.

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DVDS for a Winter Night

The Edgartown Library, after the closing of Hollywood Video at the post office square in early November, suddenly found itself the largest source of movies in town. (Our prices have always been the best, but now our selection is, too.) The closing had the almost immediate effect of boosting our circulation of DVDs and games.

Recently, we've begun acquiring a few video titles in the new, super-sharp Blu-Ray format. Patrons who've watched them tell us the picture quality and sound are amazing, if you have the right equipment. And there's the rub: if you take your disk home and try to play it on a conventional DVD player, you'll find that Blu-Ray discs are incompatible with regular DVD machines.

We're being conservative at this point about investing in Blu-Ray titles, since few of our patrons have upgraded to this new format. Meanwhile, time marches on, and we're marching  our collection of older VHS tapes gradually out the door. Look for them on the give-away shelves in the entrance hallway next time you visit.

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Morning Coffee Is Served

The rush of summer is past, and for the duration of this cooler, quieter season in Edgartown, we've revived the tradition of morning coffee at the Library. Just bring your mug (or we'll provide a cup) and find yourself a comfy chair for some quiet time amid our collections.

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We Have Fish

This handsome new aquarium in our Children's Department, a gift from the Edgartown Wastewater Treatment Plant, was installed last week and now has been stocked with a variety of fish.

This aquarium has an important teaching point about the importance of water treatment. It is filled entirely with water that is the final product of the cleaning process at our Edgartown plant. The Edgartown Wastewater Treatment Plant performs what is called tertiary treatment, which means that its effluent meets basic drinking water standards. The Edgartown plant's effluent typically tests at less than 5 mg of nitrogen per liter, although it's permitted to release effluent at levels of up to 10 mg. The plant's suspended solids also test at less than 5 mg per liter, even though the state permit allows as much as 30 mg.

How they accomplish all this is pretty technical -- on the plant's website, you can read about the primary clarifiers, activated sludge process with separate anoxic and aerobic basins (the Modified Ludzack-Ettinger process), secondary clarifiers, ultraviolet disinfection, rapid infiltration basins, sludge processing facilities, and odor control collection and treatment systems.

Or if you prefer, just stop by the library and visit our happy tankful of fish.

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New Shipment of Audio Players: They're Tiny, and They're Cool Blue

Overdrive, the service used by the CLAMS library network to connect our patrons with free audiobooks, has released version 3.2 of its software, Overdrive Media Console. The upgrade includes several slick new features, but most importantly, Overdrive Media Console now lets you transfer most audiobooks to your iPod® and iPhone™. You can use any PC loaded with the iTunes software to load books into your portable player or phone; the Overdrive media wizard may ask you to adjust your file settings to allow faster transfer, but will always politely remind you to set them back afterwards.

Our initiative of selling inexpensive WMA audio players here at the library, begun back in March, continues to be a thumping success. We've connected more than 70 patrons with this new audiobook service since early spring. The Sansa Clip players in our latest shipment have a storage capacity of 2 gigabytes each, and we're still offering them for the same $30 donation to the Edgartown Library Foundation. This bargain includes a free tutorial, here at the library, on using the Overdrive service to download books and music to your home computer. If you bring in your laptop, we'll even help you install the software.

To learn more about the Overdrive service, visit this link

We Have the Flu -- the Facts, That Is -- Right Here at the Library

In English the operative word is "atchoo!" and in Portuguese, it's "atchim!" Whichever language you're fluent in, we have handy stacks of "Flu Facts" pamphlets available, for free, in the entrance hallway of the library.

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Knitting Group Meets Friday Mornings:
Donations of Yarn Are Welcomed

One of our favorite signs of the changing seasons here at the Edgartown Library is the reappearance, after the busy summer, of our Friday morning knitting group. These ladies begin arriving at about nine, before we're officially open (we let them in by the side door), and they share conversation and knitting tips until late in the morning. Over the last two years, our knitters have made dozens of creative costumes for the teddy-bears we have for sale in our front lobby, adding hundreds of dollars to the library building fund.

We wanted you to know about this group, both because it's open to new knitters -- you'll find these veterans both knowledgeable and friendly -- and because we'd like to encourage patrons to donate any spare yarn they may have at home. It will be put to good use clothing our teddy bears.

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Introducing Our Newest Resource:
Free Access to Online Map Database

On behalf of all our patrons, the Edgartown Library has subscribed to a new service, A to Z Maps Online. This service has compiled more than 60,000 maps -- all of which are available for personal use, without concerns over royalties or copyright infringement.

When you visit A to Z Maps, just enter your 13-digit library card number in the window entitled "Library Bar Code Login," and you'll have access to an amazing number and variety of map resources. Even the historic birds-eye map of Edgartown that hangs in our library's front hallway is available in high-resolution from this site.

If you have any questions about using A to Z Maps, please ask at the library desk and we'll try to help. (And if you're curious about that image at left, it's a precipitation map of Italy.)

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Recycling Project Raises $14,000

A volunteer program begun in 2007 has now passed the $14,000 mark in funds raised for the campaign to build the new Edgartown Public Library -- all of it raised by recycling cans and bottles, five cents at a time. If there's a better example of how little efforts can add a lot to advance the campaign for a new Edgartown Library, we'd like to hear it!

A friend of the library expansion project has kindly volunteered to manage this program, with collection bins set up at sites around the Island for returnable bottles and cans, and all proceeds going toward the new building fund.

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Circulation Numbers Tell Story of Library's Busy Year

Fifty-eight thousand, six hundred and two: That's the number of books circulated by the Edgartown Public Library in the fiscal year that began July 1, 2008 and ended June 30, 2009.

Fiction and nonfiction titles are about equally represented in the year's circulation statistics. In the nonfiction category, biographies and history continue to be among the most popular books. Books on cooking are also big -- we lent out more than a thousand cookbooks over the course of the year, and another 752 in the related category of home economics.

Not surprisingly given the sort of year we've just lived through, books on economics were quite popular, with 313 titles going out. And plenty of people just wanted to get away from it all: We circulated 907 science-fiction and fantasy titles, and our more than a thousand travel books. In addition, the year saw continued growth in circulation in what we call the "nonbook" categories. More than 4,000 audio books were checked out, and our circulation of DVD titles topped the 25,000 mark.

One of the most dramatic statistics is in our lending of materials to patrons of other libraries in the CLAMS network. Over the course of the year, we shipped out 10,187 copies to other libraries. That's about 40 books for every day the Edgartown Library was open. What a change from just a generation ago, in 1976, when the library trustees proudly announced in their annual report that the Edgartown Library filled 38 interlibrary loan requests that year.

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Learning Express Gets an Overhaul, And It's Free to Our Patrons

No matter which acronym you're studying for -- ACT, SAT, GRE or any of the others -- you’ll want to sign up for the online test-preparation service, Learning Express.

The Edgartown Library subscribes to this service, which on Feb. 9 launched a major site redesign and now is much friendlier for users. Now all our patrons can enjoy free access to practice tools to help prepare for dozens of important tests, from real estate exams to the U.S. citizenship test.

Learning Express also offers free online courses which you can take at your own pace, in academic subjects from math to writing, reading comprehension and even English language skills. It only takes a minute to register -- just use your library card number as your user name, and your four-digit library PIN as a password.

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Budget Cuts Threaten Libraries Statewide

On Martha's Vineyard, one of the favorite subjects for political debate is local control versus regional cooperation. We like to think our public libraries have found the perfect sweet spot -- lively community centers on one hand, yet knit together in an efficient network, CLAMS, that gives our patrons access to more than a million and a half titles at the click of a computer keyboard.

But now, even as people turn increasingly to libraries for free materials and services in these tough economic times, cuts to library budgets are endangering their certification with the state -- and without certification, it's not possible for patrons to borrow outside their own systems. The state's reasoning is simple: It wouldn't be fair to let one town gut its library budget, then let that town's patrons get a free ride by ordering their books, videos and music from communities that are being more responsible.

Could loss of accreditation happen here? Not any time soon. But as this excellent story in the Boston Globe reports, one state requirement is that towns must increase their library budgets each year by 2.5 percent, compared with the average spent in the three previous years.

The Edgartown Library budget is flat-funded this year, at the request of town leaders. We're still above the state's minimum threshold -- but each year of flat funding brings us closer to the brink.

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Campaign for the New Library:
Watch the Foundation Video

You'll Be Styling with Our Prize-Winning Logo

Not long ago, the Edgartown Library's logo won top honors in a statewide competition held by the Massachusetts Library Association. Now you can be styling in a comfortable cotton polo shirt with the library logo embroidered on the front. Just visit the library and contribute $30 to the Edgartown Library Foundation, and one of these handsome shirts can be yours.

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Our New Microfilm Scanner
Is Ready to Assist You

The furnace puffback that closed our main library building for the first half of 2008 took its toll on our electronic equipment, and one of the machines we didn't replace until recently was the microfilm reader.

Now, we're pleased to report, the Edgartown Library has a slick new Canon microfilm scanner, driven by an attached PC, that can make digital files with just a few clicks from our collection of Island newspapers dating back to 1846. These files are perfect for printing, for storage or for emailing to your computer at home. For help with your microfilm research projects, just visit the library front desk and we'll get you started.

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We Gladly Accept Reservations

On the side wall of our main service desk at the Edgartown Library is a vivid illustration of perhaps the most dramatic paradigm shift the last decade has seen in the world of public libraries. Here, a set of red steel shelving is packed, from floor to ceiling, with books, videos and music requested by our patrons and delivered here from other libraries in the CLAMS network, from across Massachusetts and even from across the United States.

It's fortunate -- especially since thanks to our space constraints, the Edgartown Library's collection has grown by fewer than a thousand volumes over the past 30 years -- that our patrons are becoming ever more savvy about requesting the materials they want, and letting our staff deliver it for them.

If you want a particular title, simply look it up in the CLAMS catalog and request it. Our busy network of drivers will deliver it to Edgartown, and on the day it arrives, you'll get a call or an email from us. This service is free, and it's growing -- last year, Edgartown handled more than 20,000 interlibrary loan requests.

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