Manchester City Library

Our fall library card campaign is ready to roll on September first…

September brings more than fall weather with it as we plunge into our fall library card campaign with a lawn party at the Main Library on Saturday, September 6th from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

A magician, Mr. Phil, and face painter, Cedar will be on hand to entertain all who attend. There will be relay races with prizes and a performance of the Acting Loft’s fall production of Oliver at 12 PM. Jason Hoffman of Big J’s Dogs and Coca Cola of Manchester will provide refreshments.

The primary goals of our campaign are to highlight the variety of resources and programs available to the people of Manchester through their libraries, and to encourage those without library cards to get them. We’ve also partnered with 33 Manchester businesses to promote what they have to offer the community. From September 1st through September 30th, Manchester library patrons new and old can enjoy discounts and special offers at these establishments. All you have to do is show your library card! Please see our flyer listing all participating businesses and the discounts they will be offering.

But wait, there’s more! You can earn one raffle ticket per day just by visiting your Manchester libraries to borrow materials. Those signing up for their first library card will receive 3 raffle tickets and a free insulated travel mug sponsored by the Manchester City Library Foundation. Raffle prizes are a Wii sponsored by Merchant’s Auto and a gift card sponsored by Hannaford’s. The winners will be drawn at the end of the day on September 30th.

Anyone who lives, works, attends school, or owns property in Manchester is eligible for a library card, so don’t be caught “cardless” this September! Shuffle on down and take advantage of our One Card…Endless Possibilities program!

Note: The following was originally published in the Libraries’ spring newsletter.

Spring has arrived at the library, and that means the return of some of our favorite annual events: National Library Week (April 13th-19th), the Teddy Bear Picnic on April 22nd, and our annual Foundation Author Fundraiser on May 21st. The libraries will be a hopping place this spring as we have tons of programs lined up for you to enjoy.

The library is also issuing a challenge this spring: we need and want more library users! The Robert & Karin Finlay Foundation recently offered $25,000 to the public library that registers the most new cardholders by November 1st, 2008. We are asking for your help to please spread the word about library services to your family and friends. Encourage them to come to the libraries for that valuable library card.

Our library patrons are our best way of spreading the word about the services we provide. Not only do we have books, DVDs, and music CDs; we also have resources available 24 hours per day from our website. From home you can utilize our databases for research or homework and you can even download a book to listen to. Help us with the reward by encouraging your family and friends to become library cardholders today!

Denise van Zanten
Director

It is with great pleasure that I get to announce the release of the Libraries’ Spring Newsletter. The newsletter is produced quarterly by a few of our bright staff members so thank you to Amy, Karyn, Steve, Ruth, and Deb who does the layout and graphics. It’s truly a ton of work and they do a really wonderful job.

I even did my part by outlining a few of the recent changes on the website.

We’ve been busy all winter adding some Manchester Library goodies to the wide world of the Internet. Among the most exciting is a blog to help us provide updated, casual, library-related news as well as details about upcoming library events. The information there also shows up on the front page of the website. This means that you’ll find an accurate, up-to-date list of events in both library buildings right on our front page.

These are some more of the changes we’ve made:

• If you’re a blog reader, you can subscribe to library news and library events via our RSS feeds. If you prefer to have your information by email [news email or events email], you can do that, too! There are links for both RSS and email at the bottom of the news and events columns.
• In order to show off the richness of daily life inside the library, we’ve joined 375 libraries worldwide in the 365 Library Days Project. The concept is simple: we’ve committed to post a library-related photo for every day of the year. You can see the photos in a banner on our website or track our progress at Flickr.
• If you have been frustrated by the number of clicks it takes to get from our front page to the screen to search the library’s collection, you’ll be happy that there is now a search box right on the homepage. Underneath that is a link to renew your books online with your library card number and a PIN (be sure to obtain your PIN through at the circulation desk first).