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New Hanover County Public Library is migrating today!
That means we're very very very carefully moving the catalog and all the records about who's borrowed what from one highly sophisticated but outdated software package (called an Integrated Library System, or ILS) to an ILS with amazing cutting edge 21st century features.

Needless to say this is a delicate and complicated procedure. It's been a dozen years since we last did this, and the staff all hope it doesn't need doing again before we retire.

If you visit today you WILL be able to borrow materials as usual. Some other library business may have to wait until tomorrow, however, because records are in transit over the data lines.

If all goes well the virtual dust will have settled by the time we open at 9 am tomorrow morning, and you'll find a new, beautiful, user friendly online catalog at www.nhclibrary.org. The staff have been training intensively on the new system all week and are ready to go, and we think you're going to like it as well as we do.

Two things for library users to notice:

Please make sure you give us your email address, because the new ILS will notify you by email when materials are ready for pickup, and it will send reminders when loan periods are about to run out.

As of tomorrow, your password for accessing your library account will default to the last four digits of your library card number. You can reset it to a password of your choice when you log in online.
Huge Used Book Sale Opens This Weekend!

The Friends of the Library fall Used Book Sale is September 25 to October 1, and it's a benefit event for the Library. Don't miss it!

 

What's for sale? all sorts of surplus used hardback and paperback books for adults and children, plus cassettes, CDs, DVDs, and videos, donated by community recyclers! 

 

What are the prices like? $1 to $3 at the beginning of the sale, 10 cents apiece by the last day of the sale 

 

Where is it?  Northeast Regional Library, 1241 Military Cutoff Road, Wilmington

 

What's the schedule?

Friday, Sept 25, 6 to 9 pm, for members of the Friends of the Library. Not a member? Join at the door for $15 for admission.

 

Open free to the public:

Saturday, September 26, 9 am to 5 pm  

Sunday, September 27, 11 am to 5 pm 

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, September 28, 29, 30, 9 am to 6 pm 

Thursday, October 1, 9 am to 1 pm

  

Who's in charge? Friends of the Library

 

Learn more: www.nhclibraryfriends.org  or 910.798.6301

Read North Carolina Novels
Did you notice that little bounce the economy took this past weekend? That was me and my husband and a bunch of other readers, buying books at the North Carolina Literary Festival. Not to mention food and gas and hotel rooms. You're welcome, it was totally our pleasure.
 
Because stalking authors is fun for librarians and the kinds of people who marry them, Bill and I spent Saturday and Sunday in Chapel Hill, listening to a pile of writers talking with a pile of readers. There were hours of events in a dozen venues scattered all over the Carolina campus. Bill targeted graphic novels and science fiction, while my goal was to push beyond my old favorites and size up some authors I'm not already in love with. That means I missed Doris Betts, Lee Smith, Fred Chappell, Pamela Duncan, Allan Gurganus, Daniel Wallace, Kathryn Stripling Byer, John Hart, Elizabeth Spencer. Yes, they were all there and admission was free and life is full of hard choices.
 
So who was wonderful? In nonfiction, some horticulture professors from NC State who explained how we can all easily reduce water pollution by making rain gardens. A UNC poli sci professor who explained why the US has such a weird relationship with Cuba for at least the past century. The gooiest brownie I ever put in my mouth, prepared by a chef / cookbook author I didn't even get to hear and hope I've identified correctly. And a human behavior / business type professor from Duke whose research finds that a banker is twice as likely as a politician to lie to you or steal from you (Bill's all-festival favorite).
 
Fiction is chancier and we were very lucky to hear Elizabeth Strout, who just won the Pulitzer for her novel Olive Kitteridge, which some library book clubs will be discussing soon. Strout says fiction matters because it exercises our imaginations in an effort to understand other people, cultivates the capacity for compassion, and breaks down the isolation we were all born with. "Fiction is generous," Strout remarked, "It says we're all essentially in the same boat." 
 
Nobody who writes fiction in North Carolina makes me laugh as hard as Michael Malone, and I made an old favorite exception to hear him talk about his new novel, The Four Corners of the Sky. Besides, he stole some plot for it from The Wizard of Oz. "Comedy says 'Yes' to life," Malone says. "Life is messy, by comedy says 'Yes' to it anyway." 
 
I didn't actually hear any poets this weekend but I bought a book of poetry by Ruth Moose, who I first met as a short story writer a long long time ago, because she cleverly named it The Librarian and Other Poems. And I got a copy of Long Story Short, a collection of short short stories by 65 authors with ties to North Carolina compiled by Marianne Gingher. If you missed the Festival, this anthology is the one book you could read to meet almost everyone who was there and then some.
 
After hearing eight stimulating presentations crammed into two days and wishing I could have heard twenty more, and trying to catch up with a campus and town where I spent seven years almost three decades ago, my brain and senses were completely saturated. "Are you all right?" Bill asked. "You look a little glazed." He drove, and I slept all the way home. As I always do when I've been on a big trip, I feel like a little girl in a poem by Eleanor Farjeon that I know from a collection some cousins gave me when I was a very little girl,
 
Jill came from the fair with her pennies all spent;
She had had her full share of delight and content . . .
 
I hope to see you at future NC Literary Festivals! In the meantime, to keep up with who's writing what in the Tar Heel State, visit Read North Carolina Novels or your library.
Get Ready for TLC @ Your Library!
On September 25 your Library is moving to a new computer system by The Library Corporation, or TLC, that will offer you many exciting new benefits! 
 
For example, you'll be able to get friendly e-mail notifications when it's time to pick up a reserve, and BEFORE it's time to return or renew items!!!
 
Get your library card record ready for TLC by emailing us the following information: 
  1. your name
  2. your library card number
  3. your best email address for library messages
  4. your best phone number for library messages
  5. your "home" library, meaning the NHCPL location where you prefer to pick up your reserve items
 
Library Hours
People are starting to ask, "Now that Summer '09 is ending soon, may we have our regular Sunday NHCPL hours again?"  We really wish we could! The Library staff know that students and their parents need the Library open evenings and weekends.
 
Unfortunately, however, we're all going to have to live with reduced Library hours until the economy picks up enough for the Library budget to be restored. All New Hanover County services have been affected by the recession, and there's not money to staff the Library for all the hours that it's needed.
 
Where can students find help when the Library's closed? There are great Library resources on our web page that are available 24/7. One of them is Homework Help, where students from grade school to college can chat online in real time with academic tutors and get help understanding their assignments. NC Live is a library of research databases that never closes. Check out our long list of E Resources, and ask a librarian for help getting started using them! Many of them do require your NHCPL Library card number for access.
New Resources @ the Library
NHCPL has recently added several new databases to our E Resources page. Let us know what you think of them! Live Homework Help will also be available 24/7 and they have added a Resume Help section to coach adults with writing or updating a resume. Click on Adult Career Center to check out this resource.
Caroline got caught reading to Rilley on the porch!
Caroline's grandmother reports:

"Caroline (age 9) and I always go the Carolina Beach library with a BIG bag first thing to check out a week's worth of books to read right after we get unpacked.

The funny thing about this was that every time Rilley (age 3) got in the swing, she wanted Caroline to read to her...those books were re read many times!"

 

Go, Caroline!

 

Caroline Got Caught Reading on the Porch
Using Library Elf

Library Elf is a free service that many libraries use.  It is not maintained or controlled by New Hanover County Public Library. Library Elf emails reminders before library materials are due. To register go to:

http://www.libraryelf.com/

1.       Select “Sign Up” – fill in the email address where you want to receive notifications and create your own password

2.       Select New Hanover County Public Library, enter library card number, and your account pin (this is the password you use to renew your books on line)

The next two steps should be setting up your email notification preferences.

There is an option to upgrade the service for a fee.

 

Remember, you can check your library account online anytime, http://srvvtls2.nhcgov.com/cgi-bin/chameleon?skin=patronlogin, or www.nhclibrary.org and select Renew Materials/My Account. You just need your 14 digit library card number and your password. Call 910 798-6301 or 910 798-6302 if you do not know your password.

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New Hanover County Public Library is migrating today!Use SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Huge Used Book Sale Opens This Weekend!Use SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Read North Carolina NovelsUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Get Ready for TLC @ Your Library!Use SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Library HoursUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Book lover, tree lover . . . let's learn to be green!Use SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Gabriel Got Caught Reading in Bed!Use SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
New Resources @ the LibraryUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Caroline got caught reading to Rilley on the porch!Use SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Using Library ElfUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Newsweek Magazine's 50 Books for our TimesUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Jake got caught reading in his bath!Use SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
What Are You Reading?Use SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Caught Reading! digital photo contestUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Libraries as a ResourceUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).
Impact of LibrariesUse SHIFT+ENTER to open the menu (new window).