Red Sox Raffle Tickets - $2!

The Friends' annual Red Sox raffle will not only offer you a choice of two great games to attend, but two chances to win. We have two sets of tickets this year.

The first two tickets are for Friday night, July 3rd against the Seattle Mariners. The second two tickets are for Sunday afternoon, July 26th against the Baltimore Orioles.

The seats are along the third base line, two in a Field Box and two in a Loge Box. The raffle tickets are currently available at both Circulation Desks in the library for only $2 per ticket. You will have the opportunity to buy raffle tickets for one game or for both. As in the past, they will also be sold at other places in the Hampton area. The winner for the July 3rd game will be drawn at the Library on June 20th. If you are not the lucky winner, you can try again for tickets to the July 26th game.

The Friends are so pleased to be able to offer the opportunity to Red Sox fans to watch a game at Fenway Park while at the same time supporting the Lane Library. Please join in the fun and share the good news with your family and friends.

"Stress Injuries" lecture June 10th at 6:30 PM

Throughout history, hand, wrist and arm disorders, including what we call today "Repetitive Stress Injuries" and "Cumulative Stress Disorders" have been a problem for all types of people and all types of trades. Even the term "Carpal Tunnel Syndrome" has been referred to by dozens of names over hundreds of years and has afflicted people as diverse as stagecoach drivers and telegraph operators. But all have one thing in common ... pain and discomfort.

Join OSHA and Applied Ergonomics specialist Steven M. Jones on Wednesday evening, June 10th at 6:30 PM for an entertaining lecture on the history and causes of this problem, and more importantly the proactive steps people can take to help prevent such injuries at home and in the workplace. Steve has written a 20 page illustrated booklet on repetitive stress injuries entitled "Stagecoach Hands", which will be available free to all who attend.

Steven Jones holds two advanced degrees from Southern Connecticut State University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has published articles on musculoskeletal injuries, and is an authorized instructor in HAZMAT, CPR/AED and First Aid, the National Traffic Safety Institute, and the Brain Trauma Foundation. He is a resident of Hampton, NH.

This lecture is free and open to the public, with time set aside after the lecture for questions from the audience. For more information, please contact Darrell Eifert at 926-3368.

Children's Room Summer Reading Program

“Summer Time—and the Reading is Easy” is the theme of our 2009 summer reading program—and you’ll see how true this is when you visit us the Lane Children's Room from June 24th through July 29th!

Our summer reading program is actually two-fold. One part is that children from pre-K to 5th grade keep track of their reading throughout the six weeks of our program with reading logs we provide. Every hour of reading earns a raffle ticket for our random prize drawing on Wednesday, July 29th, as well as a paper star with the reader's name on it to add to the Children's Room wall. Three hours' worth of reading earns a mini-prize.

The other part of our summer reading program is story times and performers. Every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., we will hold a drop-in story time. This story time is aimed primarily at children ages 4-7, but all are welcome. No sign ups are required for this.

At 10:30 a.m. we will have performers in the Lane Room. Admission is free, but sign ups are required, as these are popular events, and we must ensure that we don't go over the maximum number of people allowed in that space. Master magician Peter Boie kicks off our program on Wed. June 24th at 10:30 a.m. More details to follow soon on our other performers!

SIGN UPS for the summer programming begin on Monday, June 8th. Please note that we can't count any reading done prior to our actual start day of Wed. June 24th.

We look forward to seeing you in the Children's Room!

COME CELEBRATE NATIONAL CHILDREN’S BOOK WEEK AT LANE MEMORIAL LIBRARY!!

Please join us on Wednesday, May 13th for a double treat:

Local author/illustrator Kristie McCadden is coming to the Lane Room from 4-5 p.m. to read and talk about her charming book The Twelve Days of Spring . She will also have copies to autograph and sell! An exciting addition to your own library, or a great gift for birthdays and upcoming holidays!

At the same time, we will host our second annual BRING A TOY TO THE LIBRARY FOR AN OVERNIGHT VISIT!! If you bring a toy to the library, we will keep it in the Children’s Room overnight and take a photo of what your toy did while it stayed here. Will you teddy bear read a book? Will your doll play on the computer? Will your stuffed giraffe find a new friend among the puppets?

Pick your toy up the next day and find out!! (We’ll be sure to tag it with your name and address so it will go back to the right house).

Both events are free and do not require sign ups.

If you have any questions, please call the Children’s Room at 926-4729.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Read the book... then see the movie The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

In 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby was the 43-year-old editor in chief of Elle magazine, the father of two young children, known and loved for his wit, his style, and his impassioned approach to life. In one instant his whole life changed when he suffered a rare kind of stroke. After twenty days in a coma, Bauby awoke to a body that had all but stopped working, a state known as locked-in syndrome. The only part of his body he could move was his left eyelid, which he used to communicate to his doctors that his mind was clear. It was with his left eyelid, and the assistance of an incredibly patient nurse, that he was able to dictate his story letter by letter, word by word. He died two days after the slim book was published in France. The book is beautifully written and gives you a good sense of what this man’s life was like: “Vincent’s car slips into the hospital parking lot. Brilliant sunshine. This is where my visitors, hearts in mouths, need fortitude to brave the few yards that separate me from the world… I try to compose features atrophied by paralysis into what I hope is a welcoming smile.” We have the English translation of the book as well as the movie. The movie follows the book closely, and if you haven’t seen it, check it out soon. It’s one that will stay with you long after the credits roll.

I found my grandfather's photo on Ancestry.com!

The other day I was delving deeply into Ancestry.com to discover its hidden gems, and much to my surprise a photo of my grandfather turned up! His name was Ivan Waller, and he died at the age of 36, so I never knew him. Still, what a treat to see his photo from a 1926 yearbook from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

If you haven’t discovered Ancestry.com for researching your family tree, come on in and give it a try. It’s easy to use – you simply put your ancestor’s name in the search box and the program retrieves all kinds of documents. Census records through 1930 are included, as well as hundreds of books and databases. Ancestry is weighted heavily toward American, Canadian, and British genealogy, but other ethnic groups (such as my grandfather, who was Norwegian) are represented as well.

To find pictures, click on the ‘Photos & Maps’ tab before doing a search. The program has random yearbooks from around the country, historical postcards, photos of headstones, and family photo collections just to name a few. I discovered this photo area of Ancestry.com long after I had initially used it to find my ancestors. The photos won’t show up if you do a regular search under the ‘Historical Records’ tab, unfortunately. So make sure you choose the ‘Photos & Maps’ tab. I hope you have good luck like I did!

M. F. Bloxam to speak on Saturday, May 9th

The Lane Memorial Library is pleased to present a series of three lectures titled The Path to Publication on consecutive Saturdays beginning May 9th at 1 p.m. in the Lane Room. The first will feature M. F. Bloxam of Portsmouth, author of the acclaimed new mystery Night Battles. Chosen as a finalist for the Foreward Magazine 2008 Book of the Year Award, Night Battles has already garnered high praise for its rich literary style and gripping story line. Bloxam will discuss her background research for the book, the fiction writing process and her ultimately successful search for a publisher.

On May 16th at 3 p.m. we will host an editor and publicist from PublishingWorks in Exeter, who will discuss how to best submit a work for publication, what an author might expect in terms of editing assistance, and how to promote a book once it's published.

We will finish on May 23rd at 2 p.m. with guest speaker Sally Stoklosa from Barnes and Noble. She will talk about her work with local independent publishers as well as discuss how large chain stores make purchasing and stocking decisions.

All programs are free and open to the public. For more information, contact Darrell Eifert, Head of Adult Services, at 926-3368.