Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Online Book Clubs




Do you want a little taste of a book before you pick it up at the library or put it on hold?



Look for the Online Book Clubs logo on our website to link to the book clubs or click on the link below. You can sample 1-11 new books each week with our new Online Book Clubs.

After you read some of the book you can go to our catalog and see if it's in or place a hold on it.

You can also visit an online discussion group and talk with other people all over the country who are reading the first few chapters of the book you are reading.

The clubs start on Monday. Each day you will receive an email with a portion of this weeks book for each club you have joined.

Try it out and please let us know what you think.

-vicky

Newington Skates! Photos






Saturday, February 24, 2007

Art of War


The Evening Book Discussion Group is reading The Art of War by Sun-Tzu. Wikipedia has an interesting biography of Sun-Tzu.

The group will meet in our Lienhard Room, Thursday March 1 @ 7:00 p.m. Drop by and join the discussion.

-vicky

Family Storytimes

Family storytimes for March begin with Birthday Bash. Come Thursday March 1 @ 6:30 p.m. to find out who's birthday will be celebrated.

March 8 - Lucky Number 3
March 15 - Happy St. Patrick's Day
March 22 - Spring Stories
March 29 - Backyard birds

The whole family is welcome to come to sing songs, and hear stories about the weekly themes.

-vicky

Vacation Week

The Children's Department was very busy during February Vacation last week. As well as their usual programs, they had at least one special event every day. A program based on the book Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type for kids in K-2. Over 100 children in grades K-6 came to two sessions of floor hockey on Wednesday. On Wednesday there was also a science program for K-2. Newington Skates! continued to be a big success. 400 people came to the Connecticut Skating Center for 2 hours of skating. Friday @ 11:00 a.m. featured a movie matinee about a sign-language-speaking, hockey playing chimp. MVP.

If you miss all the fun last week make plans to visit the Lucy Robbins Welles Library during April Vacation week.

-vicky

Friday, February 16, 2007

Library Closed Monday Feb., 19

The library will be closed on Monday February 19.

We are open Saturday 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 1:00 p.m. -5:00.

We will reopen after the presidents day holiday at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday February 20.

-vicky

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Survey Results

51 people answered our survey.

60% of the respondents were between the ages of 30 and 60.

75% were women.

60% like the new design. 2% are neutral and 20% don't like it.

95% like to be able to search the catalog from the home page.

65% found a new service because of the new design.

Thanks to all who have filled out the survey. If you haven't already filled it out why don't you fill one out now. Click here to take survey .

-vicky

Response to survey comments

Thank you to all of the people you responded to our survey about our library web page. We appreciate your input and will discuss all your suggestions and soak up your praise!

"I think you have a glitch in the catalog search on the home page...."
"... I don't like only being able to search the Newington library."

We have fixed the glitch in the search the catalog box. And when Sue gets back from vacation I will ask her about adding the ability to search all libraries directly from the that search box.

"I could not easily link back to the home page and found this VERY frustrating."

Our homepage has been in a state of change over the past month. We have had problems with it not being available and we are having problems with the JavaScript on the page. We are close to a solution to that problem. All this to say that the ability to go back HOME will be on every page very soon.

"Hard to find your phone number."

Our address and phone number should be on every page. As I fix the JavaScript on each page I will also check to make sure the address and phone number are there.

"Would like to be able to place a hold while I'm in my account."

Yes I agree that moving around in your account, in renew books and placing a hold are cumbersome. It would be lovely to be able to log in into our catalog like we log into Amazon.com and it would keep our information thus cutting down the number of times we have to put in our account information. I will bring this suggestion to our network meetings.

I'll close with one positive comment.

"great design, cool graphics and very user friendly! congratulations!!"

Thank you again for your input about our page. Please feel free to call us or to email us anytime with your comments and concerns. 860-665-8700 or refdept@newington.lib.ct.us.

-vicky

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Library Closing 5:00 p.m. Valentines

The Lucy Robbins Welles Library will be closing at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb., 14, 2007.

We will open tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.

-vicky

We Are Open Today!

Although the weather is nasty outside, we are open today - February 14th. We are currently planning to be open until 9PM tonight. If we need to close early due to the weather we will be sure to post our closing time here.

Sue S.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Time Travel

Do you believe in time travel?


Ronald Mallett and I do!


More info coming soon.....


-vicky

School Vacation Week

We have activities planned
for school vacation week, Feb 20-24,
so you don't have to!

Tues., Feb 20 - 1:00 p.m. - Stories and more!
Wed., Feb 21 - 11:15 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. - Floor Hockey
Wed., Feb 21 - 2:00 p.m. - AIR-Tastic
Thurs., Feb 22 - Noon - Newington Skates!
Thurs., Feb 22 - 2:00 p.m. - Fun and Food for Teen and Tweens
Fri., Feb 23 - 11:00 a.m. - Movie and Raffle
Sat., Feb 24 - 11:00 a.m. - Get Hooked on Crochet!
Sat., Feb 24 - 12:30 a.m. - Play for All!
Check the Children's activities page for more information.
-vicky

SmartPower=Clean Energy

Thursday Night, Feb 15 come find out how to use clean energy in your home or business. Bob Wall, Regional Director of SmartPower will discuss currently available electricity options from sun, wind and water.

Admission is free.


-vicky


Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Tax Forms


The tax forms are in at Lucy Robbins Welles Library.



Stop by and pick them up in the alcove between the reference room and the magazine reading room. Or if you prefer you can down load forms and instructions at these websites.

Federal Tax Form and Publications

State Tax Forms and Publications

-vicky

Family Storytime

If you have kids and you haven't been to our family storytime you are missing a fun evening!

The children's librarian leads the group in songs, sometimes with motions. She will tell stories and involve the whole family in other interactive activities. This month's themes are Valentines Day, Chinese New Year and the zoo.

6:30 p.m. every Thursday night.

Registration is not necessary.

Call the children's department for more information.

-vicky

Webpage down Tuesday 1:30 p.m.

Hi all,

Our web page is down again. The DNS server at our web host is down. Cleartel is working to resolve the problem.

Please call us if you want to renew, reserve a book, reserve a museum pass, place a hold or any other service you usually use the web page for. 860-665-8700.

-vicky