Friends of the Library Book Sale This Weekend!

That nip in the air this week is a clue that fall is here and winter is just around the corner! And the holidays are coming up in just a couple of months! The Friends of the Hussey-Mayfield Library are holding their fall book sale in the Lora Hussey Room this upcoming weekend, and what a perfect time to puruse and purchase some used books, movies, audiobooks and music for yourself or a friend -- and support the Friends of the Library at the same time.

The book sale dates are Friday through Sunday, October 1st - 3rd. Friday evening, Oct. 1st, from 5 to 7 PM is the preview night. Be one of the first to see everything the Friends are selling for a $5 cover charge. Children age 11 and younger are just $2.50.

Return on Saturday, Oct. 2nd from 9:30 AM - 5 PM to shop some more. Between 3 - 5 PM, fill a brown paper grocery bag full of items for just $10 a bag! And for the best bargain of the weekend, come to the final 4 hours of the book sale on Sunday, Oct. 3rd from 1 - 5 PM, where you can fill a brown paper grocery bag for just $5!

The Friends will also be selling Discover Indy coupon books for $25 at the sale. What an incredible deal that will pay for itself the first 2 or 3 times you use a coupon! Buy one for yourself and several for friends and family -- your holiday shopping can all be taken care of in one stop!

If great prices on used items isn't enough to bring you in to the Friends of the Library book sale, then perhaps knowing that more than 95% of what the Friends earn at their book sales goes right back to the Library to support programs and services will tempt you to shop -- what better reason than that to come to the book sale?

See you at the Library this weekend in the Lora Hussey Room at the Friends of the Library Fall Book Sale!

Summer Reading Prize Room 2010

Summer Reading Prize Room 2010
Originally uploaded by HMMPL YOUTH

Over 1,564 Children recorded over 47,000 hours of reading during June and July 2010!

Each age group recorded the following average TOTAL number of hours read during the eight week 2010 Summer Reading Program:






Birth-Preschoolers (414) read an average of 21 total hours or 23 minutes/day
Kindergartners (123) read an average of 24 total hours or 26 minutes/day
1st Grade (212) read an average of 29 total hours or 31 minutes/day
2nd Grade (222) read an average of 29 total hours or 31 minutes/day
3rd Grade (201) read an average of 33 total hours or 35 minutes/day
4th Grade (196) read an average of 42 total hours or 45 minutes/day
5th Grade (196) read an average of 41 total hours or 44 minutes/day


We are collecting responses from our Summer Reading Survey until the end of September. Included in those responses are tips from parents to promote reading at home. Here are a few tips from our Summer Readers.

"We set aside reading time as if we were having a nap for a young child. It is quiet time for Mom and relaxing on a hot afternoon for the kids. We also keep the reading logs in a folder in the kitchen where a sibling can easily see how his sister is doing and vise versa. A little friendly competition helps."

"Let them see YOU read!"

"When it is reading time...parents TRY to put aside chores and sit down and read WITH the kiddos. Nothing is more motivating than your children seeing you read at the same time. It could be the paper, a cookbook, book or other medium...but somehow if everyone slows down and reads at the same time, good things happen!"

"We began reading to our children as babies. Make it fun and comfortable. Don't force it if they aren't in the mood. Let the children see you read, too."

"Reading out loud together as kids are moving into chapter books, I think, makes the transition less intimidating."

"Make it a nightly ritual. Sit outdoors with them as you read."

"Make it a habit, a part of everyday life. Have accessible books in the home the children can read."

"Have just a few books at eye level for the kids to choose, and change the titles often. Too many books to choose from (ie, an entire bookshelf) can be overwhelming for preschoolers.
Just sit with them with books and read at whatever pace they want, tell them everything they are seeing on the page, and let them munch on them!"

"We read for quiet time in the afternoon, evening and bedtime. We took a tape player on car trips and listened to books on tape."

"Buy child a 'bookmark timer'"

"Our kids see us reading, and since they often want to emulate us they have picked it up since they were babies. We also let them take turns picking books to read after nap time. It becomes a prize to see who gets to pick the story.

"Audiobooks also count for reading time and if you're in the car a lot, it counts!"

"We regularly read before bed, both naps and nighttime. That way, it never gets skipped, no matter how busy our day is. We also use Tumblebooks online instead of TV and we use lots of books on tape/cd."


We know that great parents, teachers, and child care providers walk through our doors at the Hussey-Mayfield Library and  choose baskets and bags of reading materials each week. They motivate us to insure quality programming and materials to check out.  The reading and circulation  statistics support  this.  If you would like to add to the 2010 Summer Reading Survey follow this link below.

2010 Summer Reading Survey- Click Here!

Bring on the ebooks!

Ebooks are coming to Hussey-Mayfield, and I'm glad. Many people prefer the characteristics of a physical book over reading text on a screen, but not I. For years, nearly all my reading has been on a laptop computer. Fiction has been the only exception.

Even that started to change after I made two discoveries. The first was that I could buy a lot of ebook titles on the Web for about $10 each. The second was that Amazon would give me for free a PC version of their Kindle e-reader software. Now I can read ebooks on my laptop computer – which is with me most of every day -- without having to buy a piece of hardware that can be used only to read ebooks. It was just a matter of downloading the Kindle for PC software from Amazon. (By the way, Hussey-Mayfield's coming download service will use different software, not Kindle. The library will provide complete information about what you will need to use the new download service.)

Since reaching a certain age (you youngsters will know it when you get there), the size and legibility of text have become more important to me. With an ebook, I can adjust the size of the typeface and the width of the text to whatever is easiest to read. There’s no such adjustment on a physical book.

When I started grad school last January, I began looking for ebook versions of the assigned textbooks. I succeeded with about half the books that I needed.

Those e-textbooks are much easier to read than a physical book when you want to take notes on what you're reading. I just launch the ebook in one window and open a new document in my word processing program in another window. I size the window of the ebook to fit in half or two-thirds of my computer screen, and I size the document window to take up the rest of the screen. Now I can read and type notes without moving my eyes from my screen, or even from the text I’m reading if I don’t care about typos in my note-taking. When I have to take notes while reading a physical book, I’m constantly shifting my attention from the book to my pen and paper and back again.

I’m sold on ebooks. What has been your experience with them? Like me, are you looking forward to borrowing an ebook online from your favorite library?

Hobbit Birthday Party

Leave it to a librarian to find what most people consider a normal day and turn it into a celebration complete with cake (because I really like cake). September 22 may be a regular day to most people, but to J.R.R. Tolkien fans it is the day the two most popular hobbits in history, Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, celebrate their birthdays. For those of you who do not know, Frodo and Bilbo Baggins are main characters of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which was made into a set of pretty awesome movies nearly a decade ago.

If your mind works anything like mine, you are probably still wondering about the cake I mentioned earlier. Our Hobbit Birthday Party is Saturday, September 18th at 11:00 a.m. Teens in grades six and up are invited to munch on ring shaped food (donuts and the like) as you learn how to write your name in Elvish before having your hands on a number of hobbit-sized activities, including hobbit bowling and orc archery. And at the end (I know you’re still wondering where the cake comes in) we will join so many other J.R.R. Tolkien fans around the country by raising our glasses for the 2010 Birthday Toast. And of course, there will be birthday cake because I love any excuse to give teens cake. There is still room to join in the festivities, but registration is required and dressing in hobbit gear is encouraged.

Where to find all the lorem ipsum you can take

This post is pretty geeky, I admit, but I just couldn't resist the topic. If you don't care about writing, publishing, typesetting, printing, graphic design, Medieval history, Roman philosophers, Latin or the Web, you should just move on now.

I love the Web for a million different reasons. Here is just one more: The American Library Association's online newsletter points readers to a website that explains what lorem ipsum is. You've probably seen the phrase before. "Lorem ipsum" are the first two faux words in a block of dummy text frequently used in laying out the pages of books and publications. According to American Libraries Direct, "Lorem Ipsum is dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. It has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s when an unknown printer took a galley of Latin type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book."

Not only that, but "the text actually comes from a garbled version of sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Ends of Good and Evil) by [Marcus Tullius] Cicero, written in 45 B.C." The ALA newsletter editors know this, presumably, because they found a website that describes the history of lorem ipsum.

But wait, there's more! The website -- yes, it is called "Lorem Ipsum" -- will actually give you as much lorem ipsum dummy text as you can take. When it comes to lorem ipsum, the site says it is "the first true generator on the Internet. It uses a dictionary of over 200 Latin words, combined with a handful of model sentence structures, to generate Lorem Ipsum which looks reasonable. The generated Lorem Ipsum is therefore always free from repetition, injected humor, or non-characteristic words."

Thank goodness there's now a reliable online source of reasonable-looking lorem ipsum free of that bothersome injected humor!

Yes, it rained...but not on our parade!

The Fall Festival weekend started off a bit damp, but we didn't let that ruin our parade.

How could we when Batman decided to join forces with the Library?!? Library Staff--Directors, Librarians, and even a Board Member--gathered around the BATMOBILE to work some of that Mayfield Mayhem out in the community.

We marched all the way through Main Street with Batman behind the wheel. Batman knows that you must have knowledge, wisdom, and intellect to outwit a villain and the Library is a great place to learn new skills, gain knowledge and collect information!

If you need to outwit a villain, or are just looking for some entertainment, visit the Library!

And if it is Superheroes you want, we have Batman books, Spiderman books, Superman books; but we believe that EVERY BOOK HAS A HERO, so we will help you find the perfect one!

Kids! Every Story Has A Hero -- Show Us Yours at the Parade Tomorrow!

Watch for Super Heroes marching down the street with a little beat!

Guess who your friendly librarians will be. Show us one of your super heroes while we pass you on the parade route. We will try to give our library friends some extra candy.

Find your Hugo winner at the library

They announced this year's winners of the Hugo Awards for science fiction and fantasy literature the other day at Aussiecon 4, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention, in Melbourne, Australia (I guess they move the announcement site around). The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi tied with The City & The City by China Mieville for Best Novel of the year. I just checked the catalog in Evergreen, and there are several copies of The Windup Girl available at the library. Now would be the time to check it out before the other sci-fi fans start liniing up for it.

Wow! Cool Shoes!

I thought my shoes were cool -- Converse One Stars covered with silver sequins. You may have heard me brag: “They sparkle, just like Edward.” (For those of you not familiar with the popular Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, in her books, vampires cannot go out in the sun because they sparkle and become irresistible.) While I still think my sparkly shoes are pretty awesome, I will admit that my shoes fall a close second to those of Zionsville seventh grader, Lukas Janavicius. It all started last spring, here in the Library, when I found Lukas in one of our Duct Tape Days programs.

Using duct tape that is every color of the rainbow, teens made wallets and boxes. We even took the scraps and packed them into a duct tape ball. Little did I know that as I was showing and explaining to teens how to make duct tape fabric. Lukas’ mind was twirling with ideas.

“Thirty minutes after I got home, I’d made my first pair of shoes,” Lukas says.

There was more than just the one pair. Lukas worked hard to make these actual functioning pieces of his wardrobe. He added foam padding for comfort and reinforced the eyelets so the shoelaces would stay in place.

Like everyone who has an awesome new piece of gear, Lukas proudly wore his new kicks to school and it wasn’t long before kids began asking Lukas for their own custom pair of duct tape shoes. That’s right; Lukas was taking orders for duct tape shoes! So check out those feet walking down the middle school halls, they might be wearing shoes made out of duct tape. And, just think, the whole idea stemmed from a one-hour program at the Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library.

Don’t feel left out, you too can find inspiration at the Library! Our next Duct Tape Days event, for Teens in grades six and up, is planned for Wednesday, September 8 from 4-5 PM. Plan on making your school supplies waterproof and virtually indestructible by covering them in duct tape. You may bring your own, but items will be supplied at the program. Registration is required, so register here today!

Weekend Downtime

Upgrades to the Library’s online catalog
will be installed this weekend!

That means our customers will not be able to access the catalog, or their personal Library accounts, during the process. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you will stop by next week to enjoy our upgraded Evergreen Indiana system!
We will be offline from 7 PM Saturday, September 4 until 8 AM Tuesday, September 7. We encourage you to access your Library Account any time before Saturday night to check your due dates and renew items.
Customers will still have access to the Library homepage and the free online databases you can find there, such as Chilton's Automotive Repair Guides and World Book.

Don’t forget, the Library will be closed Sunday, September 5 and Monday, September 6 in honor of Labor Day. Materials returned to the Library Sunday and Monday will be checked in by our Circulation staff to reflect a return date of Saturday, September 4.
Thanks for using the Library and we’ll see you Tuesday!

Are you overdue for a Library Card?

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month and in the spirit of educational access for all, the Hussey-Mayfield Memorial Public Library and a number of Zionsville merchants are teaming up to provide prizes for visitors who register for a new Library Card by September 30.

Those in possession of a Zionsville Library Card not only have access to all of the Zionsville Library’s collections and services, but also to the materials of more than 70 other Indiana libraries. Students are able to use a number of research databases through the Library’s website as well as any number of reference books, educational films, and audio books.

Register for a new Evergreen Library Card and spin the “Wheel of Fortune” to win a prize. Bring your driver’s license, Indiana State Identification Card, or government-issued Photo I.D. showing your current address. Additional documentation, such as a utility bill, is required when the current address is not on the presented identification.

Register today to read tonight!

Library love

I love libraries and librarians. I have for decades, since my first visit to the Brownsburg Public Library and my introduction to Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Sharp (whom I could never refer to as Lois and Jean, even as an adult). Those wonderful ladies have passed on, but the library building is still there on Main Street, though mysteriously much, much smaller than the first time I entered it. Brownsburg's current library is housed in a much more modern and appropriate building. I'm sure the librarians there are as smart and helpful as Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Sharp.

The smart and helpful librarians I've come to know lately are at Hussey-Mayfield, the Zionsville Public Library. I'm grateful to them and to Jake Speer, the library's new director, for letting me write an occasional post on the library's blog site.

After a career in corporate marketing and communications, mostly at IBM in the New York City area, I'm now studying at IUPUI to become a librarian. This blog is an opportunity for me to share what I'm learning about the library world in general and the Zionsville Public Library in particular. More than that, I hope the blog will also be an opportunity for me to learn from you, the library's customers.

Libraries, including this one, are constantly changing to meet the needs of the communities who depend on them. I'm eager to know from you what you like about your library, what you'd like to see improved, and what you want from your library in the future. So please find the "Post a comment" box on this page and tell me what you think. (If you don’t see where to post a comment, just click on the headline of my blog post and you’ll be taken to a version of this blog page that does have a comment box at the bottom of the page.)

Meanwhile, I get to do what the Hussey-Mayfield librarians are too modest to do: Urge you to nominate your favorite librarian(s) for an I Love My Librarian Award. The Carnegie Corporation of New York and The New York Times are inviting "library users nationwide to recognize the accomplishments of librarians in public, school, college, community college, and university libraries for their efforts to improve the lives of people in their community. Nominations are being accepted online at ilovelibraries.org/ilovemylibrarian through Sept. 20," according to the press release.

Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Sharp, if you're still keeping an eye on me, I'll tell you that you both would be my nominees.