Season of Giving

Rohian Cover

We are entering a season of giving, beginning with Thanksgiving, when we give thanks for the bounty provided over the preceding year, and continuing through New Year's Day, when we give up something we think we no longer need or take on something we believe will be good for us. While the library can "give" to you in the form of self-improvement, recreational reading, music CDs and movies, have you thought of giving something back to the library? 

For example, do you have an old copy of the Rohian gathering dust at your house?  The library collects the Virginia high school annual for patrons to use within the library.  We have most years, but there are several years missing from our collection.  Check our list of missing years to see if your copy of the Rohian is one of those we could use. 

Funding Factory Logo

Another way the library can be helped is with items that are discarded regularly--used inkjet and toner cartridges, old cell phones, and even out of date laptops can be donated to the library, which in turn sends them to Funding Factory.  Funding Factory "pays" the library for the donated items by adding funds to an ongoing account.  From that account, we buy items such as printers and other equipment that the library needs to run smoothly.

Giving Tree

The Friends of the Virginia Public Library can also use support.  The Friends are very instrumental in raising funds for programming, among other things.  Without their support, we would not have many of the monthly programs we provide, nor would the annual Summer Reading Program be nearly as successful as it is.

However, this can not be sustained without donations from the public as well as without new members.  Donations can be made to the Friends at any time, but this year they are going to have a tree with donation envelopes at the library.  People can specify what they are donating money for, from the Summer Reading Program and other programs to book and media item purchases. 

If you have any items that the library can use, or if you would like to more actively support programming at your library, take the time to do so @ your library!

--Susan Hoppe, Adult Services Librarian

Reading Weather

Has this early cold weather been keeping you inside?  If you are like me, you want to sit in front of a warm fire with a good book, sipping your favorite hot drink.  Fortunately for all of us, the library has plenty of books.  In fact, we have new books going on the shelves every week, with about 1,000 books added to the collection since June.  

If you are a non-fiction fan, we have new books on biography, history, gardening, business, cooking, and many other subjects.  If you are interested in biographies, you may want to borrow John Quincy Adams:  American Visionary, by Fred Kaplan.  If you lean more toward entrepreneurship, take a look at Invent It, Sell It, Bank It!, by Lori Greiner.  We have Wood Heat:  A Practical Guide to Heating Your Home With Wood, by Andrew Jones, for those learning more about heating with wood.  For those of you interested in reading the Bard, we have a new set of Shakespeare for your reading pleasure, as well.

Are you more interested in fiction?  We have plenty of that, as well.  There is a new set of essential Charles Dickens titles on the shelf waiting for you to discover it.  In newer fiction, we have The Beekeeper's Ball, by Susan Wiggs.  In science fiction, Brent Weeks has a new title in the Lightbringer series:  The Broken Eye.  Prefer a good mystery?  Check out the newest title by Stuart Woods, Cut and Thrust.  There are many other good fiction gems waiting for you, as well.

Prefer a different format?  We have many of these new titles on both digital audio and compact disk in our Media Department.  Some of them are also available as downloadable audio- and e-books from OverDrive.  Even more tantalizing, many of today's movies are based on books.  You can look for either the movie version of your favorite book or the book version of a great movie in our online catalog. 

The library has thousands of titles for you to choose from in formats that include books, DVDs, magazines, online resources, and more.  Relieve the early freeze blues with some good reads from your library!

--Susan Hoppe, Adult Services Librarian