Sidewalk Art Contest Coming

The Friends of the Pleasant Valley Library are adding a new event to this year's Pleasant Valley Days, the annual celebration in the hamlet that includes a parade and displays at Cady Field.  On Saturday, September 17 (rain date September 18) the Library Friends are staging a fundraising contest for the best sidewalk chalk art.  

Entry forms are available at the Pleasant Valley Library now—ask at the desk. Participants may bring their own pavement chalk or can accept chalk from the contest sponsors.  Each artist will be assigned a sidewalk square in Redl Business Plaza (next to the post office).  On Saturday the sidewalk drawing will take place between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., after which the art will be judged in three categories--Junior High, Senior High, and Adult.  If on Sunday, the sidewalk art can be completed between 8:00 and 12:00 to finish before the Pleasant Valley Days parade.  

The winners will receive prizes donated by local merchants.  Because this is a fundraiser for the Library, entrants will be charged a (tax-deductible) fee--$5 for Junior High, $8 for Senior High, and $10 for Adult. The profits will be used to purchase supplies or materials for the Library that are not included in the basic Library budget. All drawings will remain on the sidewalks until rain and sunshine erase them.

Tomatoes in the Library

In May of every recent year, after the Book Fair is over, the Friends of the Pleasant Valley Library who start tomatoes from seed sell their excess in the Library Reading Room to benefit the Friends, which means to benefit the Library.  This year we started with plants from Barb Shapley, president of the Friends.  I know I bought a Sun Gold and a Green Zebra.  If you did not know that these were tomato plants, it would sound very weird.

I always buy a couple of plants or more that Barb started.  Usually I have a lot of plants that I started myself on sale, but this year there was what amounted to crop failure.  However, I salvaged a few that I started and planted the tiny plants in the garden about a week ago (along with the Sun Gold, the Green Zebra, and three plants I got at the Northern Dutchess Botanical Garden).  To my delight and surprise, the little plants I had started quickly caught up to the others.

Therefore I am adding the remaining plants to the sale, starting tomorrow (Tuesday, May 31) afternoon.  There are not many and they are still small, but they are two heritage varieties, Goldie and Rutgers, so they have good genes.  Because of their small size, these are priced at 50 cents a plant.

Also we have Mystery Tomatoes.  In return for help that he got from Daniela, a patron donated a half-dozen four-packs of quite large tomatoes, but he does not know what variety they were.  A four-pack will go for $2, or 50 cents a plant, a definite bargain.  And the grower will get a surprise when the tomatoes fruit--will they be cherries, will they be red or gold, will they be paste tomatoes, will they be beefstakes?  Take a chance.

Finally some non-tomato news.  We have a number of spider plants, a popular house plant, that will be added to the mix at $1 per plant.

Future of eBooks in Libraries

For some time now the Mid-Hudson Library System has offered eBooks on loan, which can then be read on a Nook or some other eBook  readers.  As I noted earlier, Amazon has announced that they, too, will make eBooks available to Libraries for reading on the Kindle starting later in the summer. But some book publishers are re-thinking their policies for eBooks, and the new thoughts are not beneficial to library lending.  Harper Collins has started the new trend by saying that they will limit eBooks sold to libraries to 26 loans, after which the book will self-destruct.  Obviously Harper Collins has concluded that a popular book, taken out for two-weeks at a time for a year, had fulfilled its duty to its purchaser (although, given the timeline, perhaps I should say renter instead of purchaser).   Other publishers will sell rights to libraries to use an eBook for an unlimited time but--and Harper Collins does this, too--only one person may check out an eBook at a time.

It has been observed that the form of book we commonly think of as a book, which is more properly known as a "codex" (many single sheets bound together so that a reader turns pages to read it), is an outmoded technology.  The book itself has gone through many technologies--cuneiform tablets, papyrus scrolls, parchment scrolls, the codex, and now the eBook.  They are all ways to create a book. The technology for books goes through thousands of years, but we have similar examples of change in our lifetimes--a recorded song might be on a wax cylinder, on vinyl, on an 8-track tape, on a cassette, or on a CD, but it could still be the same song by the same artist. The question libraries now face is whether the codex will be like the vinyl record, still revered and collected by some, or like the 8-track tape, relegated to garage sales.  In either case, the era of the codex seems to be winding down, and the library as we know it will have to change.  Looking at another outmoded technology, consider the ice house and daily delivery to the icebox, which vanished when everyone could buy a refrigerator and even make their own ice.

I believe that the library will undergo a slow change into something else.  There is already ebrary.com, which is not local but which offers short-term rentals of books.  I already can download practically any title that is no longer copyright protected into my cellphone as well as my computer (I am not yet the owner of an eBook reader, thinking that the eBook reader may be the 8-track tape of book delivery).  I don't know exactly where the library is headed, but it will have to change.

Book Fair Report

The annual Pleasant Valley Friends Book Fair was last weekend, and the Friends are prepared to declare it a success.  After expenses the profit reached about $4,355 (including some plant sales that took place after the Fair was over).  The Plant Sale accounted for at least $286 and might have been higher if the late, wet spring had made it more difficult to get all the available plants out of the ground--so wait 'til next year.  Betty Lorentzen, the Bake Sale Queen of Pleasant Valley, made $106.25, helped by generous donations of cookies, brownies, and other treats by various contributors.

Many people helped set up the sale.  I cannot list them all.  Barbara Shapley, as president of the Friends, was the director of the operation, obtaining tables, scheduling everything, and maintaining a constant cheery presence throughout.  Sybil Alderman was another constant presence, and Marilyn Smith, who also helps sort books, was a great help.  A group of eight men from the Mid-Hudson Addiction Recovery Center's Bolger House moved most of the books out of the basement, helped by various other folk from time to time.  Library Trustee Sally Harding provided a trailer that hauled most of the books from the Library to Town Hall--we filled it so full, we nearly broke it I think. Joe Lukaitis ran back and forth with his pickup full of books as well.  Mary Bunch provided most of the plants for the Plant Sale and was present most of the time to advise purchasers on how to deal with their new plants (with me subbing inadequately for Mary for two or three hours in the afternoon).

Sunday was an exciting close to the Fair.  From 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 dozens of customers loaded bags of books for $4 a bag--but we still had books left over.  There were more donated books this year than ever before.  Volunteers from Adriance and Bethel (CT) libraries took as many excellent books as their vehicles would hold.  Sadly, we still had to toss the least popular books into a dumpster.

Coming Soon: Your Library on Kindle

There are two approaches that have been tried with software--(1) keeping total control over a new technology and (2) letting everyone who wants to be in on the deal use it freely. Although these are totally opposite, both seem to work.  A familiar example today is the way Apple has chosen option 1, for example with the iPhone, compared to the way Google has chosen option 2 by allowing any phone manufacturer to adopt the Android software.  Either way is successful, provided you actually have software the people want, but a company may have problems if it has not made a clear choice.

In the field of eReaders, the Kindle has been one of the success stories.  Amazon started off with a strategy similar to Apple's, using software that was closely held.  Other eReaders were more open from the start.  Although there are different softwares behind such eReaders as Sony and the Nook,  they are relatively easy to adapt to each other, so most eBooks were available for all eReaders--except for the Kindle, which was still very proprietary.  Seeing this, when library systems such as the Mid-Hudson began to make eBooks available for borrowing, they used the system that could be read on most eReaders.  The Kindle was out. There was a similar problem with the iPad, which could not read books from libraries directly, but soon App suppliers provided work-arounds to allow iPad users to access library books.

Finally Amazon recognized that it was making a mistake.  Libraries buy a lot of books, and the eBooks from Kindle were locked out of that market.  Amazon announced yesterday that it would allow libraries to offer books on Kindle later this year.

Library use of eBooks is growing rapidly--the New York Public Library said that the rate of borrowings this year was up 36% over a year prior.  Publishers are still trying to work out how adding eBooks to the mix will affect sales.  Harper Collins has put a limitation of 26 loans (one year of two-week check-outs) for an eBook before the library system will have to repurchase the book. Simon and Schuster and Macmillan are not allowing libraries to lend their titles as eBooks at all.  My view is that all publishers will have to come around, just as Amazon has, because of the number of books that libraries buy each year--although limitations on use similar to the one from Harper Collins may also become more widespread.

With all the complications, if you have wanted to get a Kindle but were probably going to buy a different system because of the library situation, that limitation will not stand in your way much longer.

Hard Times for Libraries

Tony Pugh of the McClatchy newspaper chain has written a disturbing essay about the troubles nationwide that libraries face because of local and state budget reductions. One of the most disturbing examples of how this is working comes from Troy, Michigan. An anti-tax group promoted the idea that the library could stay open by cutting waste, but when the funding vote lost it quickly became apparent that since the library could not run a deficit, it would have to close (decided by a local court). Patrons who want library services now have to go to one of the neighboring towns and pay from $100 to $200 for a card with borrowing privileges.  Similarly, a new library building in San Jose, California, has not been able to open because there is no funding to run it.

When citizens are asked directly to fund local libraries, they usually accept the idea of taxing themselves to provide an important service.  Even in 2009, when the nation was in a serious recession, 84% of all library budgets passed and more than half of library construction projects received voter approval. The problem seems to be when library funding must come from general revenue that is administered by state or local officials who are not specifically concerned with libraries.

Here from Mr. Pugh is a summary of the current statistics:

...public libraries' critical role as neighborhood information hubs hasn't shielded the nearly 17,000 of them across the country from budget scalpels.  After spurring a surge in public library use nationwide, the tough economy is forcing many branches to cut staff, hours and programming right when many cash-strapped people need them most. As in previous downturns, Americans turned to their libraries during the Great Recession for free children's programming or to borrow books, movies and music. In 2008, when the economy was in free fall, a record 68 percent of Americans had a library card, and library visits and borrowing spiked as well. However, a whopping 72 percent of public libraries reported budget cuts this year; 43 percent cut staff as well, according to a recent survey by the Library Journal.

More on Library Friends Activities

Sometimes patrons of the Pleasant Valley Free Library wonder what becomes of the money made from sales of donated books and other events run by the Friends of the Pleasant Valley Library. The uses vary a lot, but all net income goes to support the Library in ways that exceed the regular budget, which is based on government funding (primarily at the Town level), income from fines, and direct donations. Some of the past Friends' support has gone to the computer in the Children's room, special sets of books such as travel guides, help with unexpected building repairs or improvements, ways to display books, and--when the Library had trouble meeting expenses--support for the regular budget.

The expenditures of the Friends are worked out in conjunction with the Library Director, who helps identify needs that cannot be funded from the regular operating budget.  Recently the Friends have supported purchase of a Nook eReader, which is available to demonstrate to patrons how to use such a device and how to borrow Library books using it, and a collection of activities for the Wii game player that can be used for healthful exercise.  This spring and summer the Friends have already agreed to sponsor a summer reading program for adults, a set of gift cards to be used in a Teen reading program, and the Battle of the Books, a competition of teams from various libraries based on reading specific titles.  There also will be a surprise that I am not allowed to reveal at this time.

At the meeting on Monday night (April 4) the Friends also agreed to purchase two bookcases, one just for media.  Also the Friends will pay for the manufacture of a new batch of sturdy canvas tote bags, which will feature the Pleasant Valley Library logo.  These will be sold for $6 each, raising additional money for library use.

The primary source of funding is sweat equity by volunteers and the annual book fair.  All year volunteers work in the basement of the Library, sorting and boxing donated books and media.  Several times each year some of these boxes are brought out for sales at holiday time, in late winter, and in September, but these small sales together bring in about half the income of the book fair, April 29-May 1 this year.  The book fair is a great opportunity to build up your own library at little expense, as well as to purchase perennial plants for the garden that alway thrive because they are adapted to the local climate.

There are a few other Friends activities each year.  On May 21, the annual sale of tomato plants started by the Friends will begin, just at the right time to set them out in your garden (or just by the doorstep if you have no garden).  These plants are started and donated by members of the Friends, not purchased for resale, so every cent spent by patrons goes back to the Library.  Last year the Mah Jong tournament was such a success, it is certain to be repeated this year.  And the Friends always are interested in new ideas for local fundraising.

If you are interested in joining the Friends, you can catch some of us at the Book Fair and we will be happy to accept the remaining Friends income--dues of $5 a year for the members.  But we value participation more than the dues.