Library and Donations......what a combo!

Saturday morning at the Liberty Hill Public Library, two lovely people walk in carrying boxes. “Merry Christmas,” exclaims the gentleman. Merry Christmas indeed! Kay and Jim Baker had come with two large boxes of audio books on CD for donation to the library. I can not express the feeling in my heart over their generosity; I can only hope my words said half of what I felt. Their generous donation of 89 audio books has given the library a much needed boost in that particular collection area. With 183A and Parmer open, we are seeing many members who commute into Austin come looking for materials to listen to while driving.

It is through donations that the library was established. It is through donations that the library will continue to flourish. As many in Liberty Hill are aware, the funding for the Library is entirely through sales tax revenue generated by the businesses within our district boundaries (which follow the ISD boundaries). This means that of that 8.25% sales tax you pay shopping within the LHISD boundaries, that .25% comes back to fund your public library. We are not a city, county or state associated library, so no funding comes from any of those sources, only the sales tax revenue and any grants and donations received.

Our website (www.lhpl.org) will soon have a page dedicated to our growing donation programs. While the library gratefully accepts donations of books, there are other methods of donating if you desire.

Memorial and Celebratory Donations: Consider honoring someone special. Congratulate a graduate, honor an anniversary, thank a co-worker, or present a memorial. The Library accepts monetary donations for the purchase of Library materials to honor the memory of individuals or celebrate a special occasion. Bookplates are placed in the materials acknowledging the honoree and the donor. Notification is sent to the memorial family or the honoree, and the opportunity to reserve the material for the first viewing when the item has been received and processed.

Adopt an Author: Yes, you can “adopt” one or more of your favorite authors! To adopt, you agree to sponsor the purchase of one copy of each title by that author for a year. We will purchase the books for you at cost (usually a 40% discount), accepting reimbursement upon arrival. For adopting an author, you get the privilege of being first to check out each of your author’s books. Each adopted book will have a bookplate with your name.

Consider how you would like to support your local library. Oh, a last note. As the Bakers left the library, they asked me if they could take the empty boxes home with them. “To refill them and bring them back to you again.” Liberty Hill, your support is awesome. We are so blessed by your generosity. Come by your library and see what we have for you.

What's in my Book Bag?

Lately I've been reading through the House of Night Series, geared toward young adults. For fans of vampire books and Twilight, here's a series you may enjoy. Currently a series of six, book seven will be released shortly......join me reading this one!

Where does the Library Funding come from????

The economic times are hitting everyone hard, even your local public library. Computer use at the library has doubled in the past year, which is a good thing. HOWEVER, it has doubled due to the increasing numbers of people looking for jobs. The library has free high speed internet for your use. If you have a laptop, you can use the free Wi-Fi service. The Wi-Fi is available daily until 11:00 pm so that even if the library is closed, please feel free to sit at a picnic table or in your car and jump on the internet.

People often ask how the Liberty Hill Public Library is funded, where our money comes from. The paper seems to be a good place to share this information with our rapidly growing community. About seven years ago a group of citizens proposed a bond issue to create a library district, which follows the Liberty Hill ISD boundaries. The proposal was for ¼ percent sales tax, which passed. What this means is that ¼ of a percent of all SALES taxes collected within the Library District boundaries (which follow the ISD boundaries) is returned to the Liberty Hill Public Library. This is where our operating funds come from. We are not funded through property taxes, nor are we a part of the Liberty Hill city or Williamson county. We are a completely independent entity in that sense.

My reason for telling you this? To promote Liberty Hill! Each time you shop locally, rather than running to Georgetown or Cedar Park, you are supporting your library. As you can guess, sales are down recently and as a result, our income has suffered. The library needs your help. Keeping sales within Liberty Hill will help. Current book donations will help. Check out our website (www.lhpl.org) and make a donation through PayPal. We are planning a larger library for the future, but keeping our current library operating is our current focus.

If you haven’t been to the library, pull into Foundation Park and head for the building at the back. We’d love to meet you and introduce you to all our DVDs and current book releases, just waiting to go home with you. Do you commute to work? Our audio book collection has been touted as “one of the best around,” pick up something to listen to on your commute.

Support your Liberty Hill Public Library. We are here to support you in any way we can.

LH Library supports our schools

As the school year nears, it's time to remind all you Liberty Hill-billies that your public library supports your schools. We realize each school has it's own library, but we still are able supplement and help out. The elementary students annually participate in the Bluebonnet Reading program. As your public library, we have all the Bluebonnet books and they are labelled as such and on a special display. We hope to help more children read more of these items by having them available.

Junior High students encounter the LoneStar reading list, all titles which can be found in your public library as well, again, labelled.

We also support the schools by having the AR reading levels and points on our books. This will aid you and your child in picking out books they can test on and in reading at appropriate levels.

Starting Wednesday, September 2, story time resumes. We will be meeting at our usual 10:30 am on Wednesdays in the library. All are welcome to join us as we spend time in September talking about books, libraries and school.

Remember, we are here for YOU. Suggestions are more than welcome and if you haven't been in to visit lately, PLEASE DO!!!

Library Changes

As most of you know, Lynda McClain has retired as Director of the LH Library. I am currently serving as Interim Director as I finish my Masters Degree in Library Science, at which point I will assume the Directors Role.

All this means that we now have a new staff member to introduce you to if you haven't already met her. Susan Rozmiarek joined the library staff almost six months ago on a part time basis. Slipping effortlessly into her new duties made Susan an easy choice to fill the role of Library Assistant on a full time basis.

As we go through these staff transitions, we hope to remain a smooth running operation. As always, stop on in with book suggestions, to use the computer or just to get caught up on the local news. We love knowing all of you and seeing your smiling faces!

New online features

The online catalog for the LH Public Library has been enhanced. Pictures of the book covers have been added, along with reviews, annotations and more information. Just click on the links to see the information.

Did you know you can search the Georgetown Public Library catalog while searching ours? Do your initial search. Once results come up you can check the MODIFY box and then check on Georgetown and APPLY. Then conduct searches. The first column indicates if the book is in Liberty Hill, the second column, Georgetown.

Now, how do you check those books out of Georgetown......have a TexShare card? Once you have had your LH card for 90 days and have established a history of on time returns, you are eligible for a free TexShare Card. Taking the TexShare and your LH card to a participating library (around here everyone participates) will enable you to receive that library's card AT NO COST. Usually you pay a non-resident fee, not with the TexShare.

Just stop by the library and pick yours up!

The House of Night Series

I'm behind, I just finished reading Marked by PD Cast & Kristin Cast. The first of the House of Night Series, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as will fans of Twilight, I believe. Check out the website above and get a taste for this series.....book six coming in October.

New Movies at LH Library

Check out our shelves....the two newest movie titles available on DVD are Benjamin Button and Something about Harvey.

If you are browsing our catalog online, did you know that if you hit that "what's hot" button, you can see items that have been added in the last month. Have you tried it yet?

Jungle Jim coming to the LH Public Library

Jungle Jim will be joining us at the library for our Summer Reading Kick Off, "CATCH THE READING BUG". What a perfect start....centipedes, millipedes, Madagascar hissing cockroaches....and MANY MORE!!!

Join us Thursday, June 18
6:30 pm
In the Pavilion by the Library

The Midnighters is here!

The Midnighters series by Scott Westerfeld is now at the Library. Stop by and check it out or go to our site online at LH Public Library and reserve it for yourself.

The Luxe Series for Young Adults is available now!

The Luxe Series has arrived, courtesy of Dana Clark who made the donation. This Young Adult series will appeal to those who like the Vampire Diaries, Twilight, Gossip Girls. We have the first three in the series; Luxe, Rumors, Envy. Book four is due out in October 2009.

Click on the link above to check out their website.

Michael Moore's take on librarians

In the Austin American Statesman for May 19, 2009 was an article about school libraries. The opening quite I LOVE:

'(Librarians) are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them.' -Michael Moore

Eternal by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Eternal Trailer

Summer Reading

Register Online for Summer Reading Yes that is right! At the LH Public Library, we really are on the cutting edge of technology. For the second year, you can register for Summer Reading in the middle of the night in your jammies. I'll even send you a confirmation......but not in the middle of the night, sorry, that's my time. ;)

Our theme this year is "Catch the Reading Bug" for the kids, "Metamorphosis" for the teens, and for adults it's leaning toward "What's the Buzz". Any suggestions on adult program titles?

Keep an eye out for more info on events.

Vegetable Plants at the Library

Stop by the Library to pick up vegetable plants for your garden. Yes, you read that right. Local organic gardener, Lisa Cousins, has generously agreed to have her plants and flower seedballs for sale inside the Library.

There are dozens of varieties of tomatoes, peppers, squash and more. Plants are just $2.50 each, with a portion of each sale going back to the library for our building project. Seedballs are $5.50 per dozen, easy to just toss!

Come in soon.....plants are sure to go fast at these prices!

What's in my book bag

First, I apologize for not blogging more often (Kylie). I have heard about it, so I guess someone is reading this. Renewed commitment to all of you. Second, keep in mind that I'm also working on my masters and not reading as much. We have a new employee that will be jumping on here and sharing blog time with me, so the frequency of postings WILL increase.

Now.....inside that bookbag.....drum roll please.......Boys That Bite by Marianne Manusci. This is aimed at young adults. Identical twin sisters, sophomores in high school, are extremely different in everything but their looks. One twin has signed her soul to a vampire and in a confusing situation, the wrong sister is bitten and is turning into a vampire. The premise of the book is good, however the quality of the writing is not on the level of the Twilight books or Tantalize. Very "sophomoric". While an enjoyable story line I think much more could have been done with the book. I'm neutral on recommending this one.

I don't think you want to hear comments on my text books for school so I'll refrain from sharing wtih you, but I am sneaking in Mercies by Toni Morrison for a review next.

2009

As the new year has started, the library is looking forward to much excitement.

Story time has resumed at 10:30 am every Wednesday.
Summer Reading plans are underway. A new library building is in the works.
Books arrive weekly.

So much is happening at our library, if you haven't been in recently, stop by. We have elevation and interior renderings of the proposed building and plenty of reading materials, of course!