Just when you thought that life would settle down for the summer, we change things again. On July 1, all of the laws passed by this year’s General Assembly session take effect. Among those regulations is included a law requiring us to filter our computer access. We have chosen to use a program called “Cyber Patrol” and it has been installed now on all of our publicly accessible computers. This means that our Internet Acceptable Use policy has also changed. Please see the front desk for a new one, if you would like to read it. Or, you can access it now, thanks to the glories of our computer age.

We only have one more change planned for this summer, and I think that most of our reading patrons will appreciate that one a great deal. I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag, but I will say that our Friends have been very generous to us this year, and every member of the staff is looking forward to the next big thing!

Dora just returned from the ALA conference in Washington loaded down with goodies for all patrons, including a fantastic collection for our young readers.

For our readers in grades 2 – 5 we now have the “Carol Marsh Mysteries”.  Carol Marsh uses real kids, set  in historical sites and add fun adventures.  One set of books visit sites around the United States and a second set takes readers all around the world.

Carol Marsh also has books for our beginner readers.  The first set “Criss Cross Applesauce” has three friends (Leah Criss 7, Sara Cross 8 and Aimee Applesauce 9) who have set up a detective agency.  Join them in their adventures.  Of course if our young men feel these are just for the girls, we have another set by Carol that might appeal more to them, “Three Amigos”.  This time it is 3 boys (Weng-Ho 7, Grant 8 and Seve 9). These 3 are mischievous, charming boys who become and stay  best buddies by reaching out to others and keeping an open mind.

We’ve had a great first week. Check out the photos from this week’s programs!

We just received a new book of Barbara Kingsolver “Animal, vegetable, miracle”  This book is a first non-fiction work from this author.

When Kingsolver and her family move from suburban Arizona to rural Appalachia, they take on a new challenge: to spend a year on a locally produced diet, paying close attention to the provenance of all they consume. “Our highest shopping goal was to get our food from so close to home, we’d know the person who grew it. Often that turned out to be ourselves as we learned to produce what we needed, starting with dirt, seeds, and enough knowledge to muddle through. Or starting with baby animals, and enough sense to refrain from naming them.”–From publisher description.

I have not had a chance to read this new work but it seems like it will be quite interesting. 

The Marshall Bullock Summer Reading Program begins on Tuesday with a big Juneteenth Celebration. Eunice Woodruff Jones, a professional storyteller from

Okay, I know that everyone is expecting some great work of high-brow fiction as my first book post, but believe me, this isn’t it. I mean, come on, this is SUMMER even for us at the library. My fun book of the week is one of the new books here, Eloisa James’ Desperate Duchesses. I admit it; I read Regency romance novels.

One of the things that I like about James’ books is the attention to detail. The situations in which her characters find themselves may not be the most accurate, historically speaking, but she does attempt research into the period. She usually ends her books with a postscript about whatever facet she researched.

Desperate Duchesses about vile dukes, errant earls, devilish duchesses, and innocent (or not so innocent) maidens. It’s funny in places and fun all the way around. In other words, it was a great way to spend an evening of mental bubblegum and fluff. If you like historical romances then you might like to try Eloisa James. She’s not as accurate as Georgette Heyer, but she is a lot of fun to read.

Welcome to the Library’s new website! I hope you like the opportunity to see first hand what we are doing. A quick introduction to some of the features…

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On the left sidebar: Click on Hamner Library to get to the old page. Click on Catalog to get to our catalog, and click on Upcoming Programs to get to our online calendar. we’ll add more links as we go.

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On the right sidebar: Click in the bottom white square to ask us a question on Meebo. If we are available, we’ll answer you right away. Don’t worry about the confidentiality of your question, either. Meebo is not a chatroom, so only YOU and the staff member on duty can see what you are asking.

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Other things on the site are changing, too. Look for updates from Susan about new arrivals, a wiki with virtual reference materials, information about our upcoming programs, and other interesting things. You can also comment on our entries. We only ask that you remember that this is a public space, and modify your language appropriately.

Enjoy our site!