Friends of the Libraries of Towns County Newsletter

Comments from FOL President Janice Cochran

The April Book Sale was a huge success. Many thanks go to everyone who worked diligently countless hours to collect and display the volumes of books for sale. The proceeds will certainly be put to good use for needed library materials and projects.

When asked "What is the world's most precious resource?" Of course, you answer immediately, "children". Yes, children are the link to the future and their society will be determined by the influence of parents, grandparents, the educational system and community action. Even though school is out children will keep learning and the summer reading program provided by the library is an excellent extension to "keep those wheels turning."

We hope to see many happy and laughing children around the library participating in the Summer Reading Program. This program is a wonderful opportunity for children to have access to books and activities during the summer. The program this summer is "Be Creative at the Library" directed by Linda Foster. Members can help by spreading the word to children you know and encourage them to come to the library and sign up for the program. Contact the Mountain Regional Library for more information. (See the Reading Program schedule elsewhere in the Newsletter.)

Now a few summer suggestions for Friends of the Library:

• Summer is the time for traveling-take along a book
• Summer is the time for visiting friends-share books you have read with friends, get ideas and suggestions from a friend.
• Summer is the time for yard sales--look for books.
• Summer is the time to clean out-take books to the library for the September book sale. Ask friends and neighbors to add to the collection.
• Summer is the time for grandchildren to visit-plan a trip to the library with them.
• Summer is the time to volunteer-find time to volunteer at the library.

Have a safe and happy summer.

Officer Roster

President	Janice Cochran
Vice-President	Doris Tilley (706-379-1306)
Recording Secretary	Jean Caputa (706-379-2496)
Corr. Secretary	Maureen Gustafson (706-379-2637)
Treasurer	Jane Manuszak (706-379-3538)
Book Bunch	Barbara Hale (706-379-3296)
Membership	Jan Roberts (706-994-0958)
Newsletter	Linda Dye
Publicity	See below*
Scrapbook	Shirley Heide (706-379-3861)

Book Bunch Info from Barbara Hale

Dan Peace and Gigi Smith

The April Book Bunch selection, Confederates in the Attic,by Tony Horwitz, became more meaningful, thanks to Dan Peace, who came all the way from Birmingham to share with the group. He told of his own experience with other Civil War buffs and of their visits to battlefield sites. Dan also told about his meeting with Tony Horwitz and the time spent in his company. What an exceptional meeting for the Book Bunch!

A special thank you goes to Gigi Smith for surprising the group with Dan's visit.

Bring your lunch or just come listen to the discussion - see you at the Mountain Regional Library at noon.

• The May 20 Book Bunch selection is The World Below by Sue Miller with Barbara Hale as discussion leader.
• The book Snowflake and the Secret Fan by Lisa See with Marilyn Pierce as discussion leader takes place on June 17.

The Book Bunch cordially invites you to join them on May 20 at noon at the Library. (See info above or call Barbara Hale at (706)379-3296). Also please join the Friends for our next meeting on June 2 at 5:30pm at Mountain Regional Library.

Welcome New Members!

Friends of the Libraries of Towns County welcomes the following new members who joined at the April Book Sale: Karen & Keith Beaty, Joyce & Gene Hall, Debbie Thomas, Joan Freisen, Tom & Joy Lockman, John & Joan Willis, and Elaine Vickers.

From Our Butterfly Garden

Photo Courtesy of Bet Courey

On your way to the library look at all the many flowers in the Butterfly Garden. Butterflies need the flowers as food for larvae or nectar for the adults. This is a perfect site with shelter, sun, and drainage for the plants and you can duplicate any of the plants in your own garden.

The following people helped with planting and general landscaping work on the Butterfly Garden in April: Eleanor Armstrong, Linda Jones, Lorraine Newton, and Doris Tilly. We are very grateful to Steve Howell for putting the landscape timbers in place. The comment was made that "Now the garden looks finished."

From Director Donna Howell's Desk

What a busy Spring! Library use continues to grow - books checked out, computers used, wireless sessions, just people coming in! WiFi (wireless public internet) use at the Towns County Public Library increased in April by 92% over April last year. This service is partially funded by the Friends and the Lake Chatuge Rotary and appears to be very popular.

The new shelving the Friends paid for has been installed and the collection has been reorganized and shifted. I hope you notice the improvement in openness, ability to find materials, highlighting of new collections and newly discovered gems, and in general much less clutter. This could not have been done without a lot of work by our library staff - especially Jean, Sandi, Michele, and Sarah. They really went above and beyond in moving all those books! And thanks to my wonderful husband who came in after hours and helped move furniture to get things ready for the library staff to move. I'd also like to thank everyone who answered our brief patron survey and gave an opinion on how things need to be arranged.

Speaking of surveys, the annual statewide PINES user survey was completed last month. The results are in - PINES is a hit! A whopping 95.6% of respondents said they would recommend PINES to a friend and 82.9% use PINES at least weekly. As PINES celebrates its 10th anniversary, these are positive numbers indeed. Peter and I are taking part in the PINES Annual Meeting and the inaugural Evergreen Conference in Athens next week where we hope to see a hint of what the next 10 years will bring.

We are making real progress on the Towns County Public Library Building Project. We have almost completed the building program - the document that will guide the architect and details every space inside and outside the library. Debbie and I are very excited! We are beginning to make site visits to libraries to look at ideas for use of space, lighting, furnishings, decoration, outdoor areas, staff work spaces, and all those other things that make libraries work well. It is always good to have plenty of inspiration!

Debbie is showing once again that spirit of adventure we admire so much. She has volunteered to be the pilot project for a new format for audio books called Plawaways. These are self-contained audio book s - no player needed - that may contain up to 80 hours of material! They do require either headphones or earbuds. You may use your own or purchase a set from the library to keep to re-use. Debbie has several titles ready to check out - so take a look at them, give them a try, and let us know what you think.

I would like to thank Elaine and Linda for taking part with me in the first ever Pages in the Park sponsored by the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy on April 25th Elaine and I were available to provide information about the library and the summer reading program and to do library card sign ups. Linda did a fabulous job entertaining everyone in Mayor's Park - young and old - with her stories. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed being outdoors for the day and supporting such a great cause. Thanks to Candace Lee for her organization and helping with set-up.

And once again, thanks to all our Friends for the wonderful recognition of our library staff on National Library Worker's Day, April 14. The Moschetto's gift certificates, hand crochet bookmarks and thank-you cards were very much appreciated. Thanks for being such great Friends!

Since our towns County libraries suffered a $12,000 cut to the state materials budget, these funds will insure that best-sellers and high demand items continue to reach our library users. Thank you!!

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