Supporting Your Library

Libraries are able to stir the spirit, warm the heart, and enliven all those who enter.  They are a portal for knowledge and a refuge in times of emergency.  As charitable giving approaches the end of the calendar year, please remember your local library's contribution to you and your family's well being.  

Bernardsville Public Library is one of those libraries that has been there for you - open and operating - even in times of crisis.  Most recently, during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Bernardsville Public Library maintained its regular services while functioning as a warming center and community gathering place.  

Throughout the year Bernardsville Public Library schedules a variety of free programming for all ages, provides reference and learning resource assistance, and offers the latest in loanable materials including i-Pads, e-readers, dvds, books, and online databases.  Most important to some visitors, we offer a welcoming smile and a hello.  Please consider a contribution to your local library.  It is an investment with good returns.  To donate to Bernardsville Public Library, please follow this link http://www.bernardsvillelibrary.org/support/.  We thank you.

Under the Banner of Heaven

Saturday Samplers, a Bernardsville Library book group, will discuss Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer at its next meeting this Saturday, Dec. 1, at 3:30 p.m.  New members are always welcome to attend Saturday Samplers meetings.

Under the Banner of Heaven is an examination of an extremist religion born and bred in America, that of the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints, an outgrowth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, otherwise know as the Mormon Church.

Centering on a savage murder by two Fundamentalist brothers in 1984, the narrative of this fascinating nonfiction book follows the Mormon faith from its inception to the splintering off of polygamous sects which have spread throughout the American southwest, Canada and Mexico.  Mormonism as practiced by the modern LDS  is also brought under the glare of Krakauer's far-reaching, well-researched book.  The intertwining of faith, zealotry and delusion makes Under the Banner of Heaven a very compelling and thought-provoking book.

Bernardsville Library Maintains Its 5 Star-Rating

Bernardsville Public Library is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a 5-star rating by Library Journal for the fifth consecutive time.  Over the past five assessments from 2009 to 2012 (two editions having been published in 2009), Library Journal has selected a list of America’s Star Libraries whose performance it rates 5 stars based on criteria such as expenditures to population size.  Five stars is the highest rating used by Library Journal.  

The journal’s rating table includes libraries nationwide that have earned any number of stars from 1-5, but this year Library Journal celebrated the consistent winners of 5 stars over 5 editions.  Bernardsville Library is included in this select group.  Below you will find Library Journal’s thumbnail profile of our library.

E-Readers, Loaded and Ready to Loan

According to Pew Internet, a project of the Pew Research Center, people are eager to try e-book readers and would like to borrow these e-readers from local libraries.  One of Pew Internet's charts (shown) tabulates the level of e-reader interest sorted by age, ranging from 60% positive interest for teenagers to 25% for seniors.  The chart further demonstrates that there is an interest in learning how to use e-readers and how to download books onto them.  It appears that these people may not be aware that their local libraries offer such devices and services.

In all of these cases, Bernardsville Public Library has been at the forefront in e-book technology made available to our library users.  We offer many types of loanable e-readers pre-loaded with numerous book titles, we hold classes to help people learn about these e-tablets, and we provide take-away information on how to download books from our library website. Our users continue to enjoy the e-book experience at Bernardsville Public Library, and we, in turn, have increased our inventory of loanable material to meet their growing demand.

Starting out with a Sony e-reader a number of years ago, we have expanded our e-reader inventory to include the Nook, Kindle, Kindle Fire and iPad.  All these devices are in demand thanks in part to the fact that we have customized them with many popular book titles.  A search of our library catalog for Nook or Kindle will disclose the long list of book titles contained on each device.  There is even a Kindle Fire just for children and teens with appropriate books for that age group.  Further, our website provides many online instruction sheets which will guide the new user easily through the steps for operating e-readers and downloading e-books.  Clearly, public interest in e-readers is there, as Pew Internet's research demonstrates, and libraries like Bernardsville Public Library have responded.

"An Evening with Bill Moyers"

The Friends of the Bernardsville Public Library proudly present an extraordinary benefit for the library,  "An Evening with Bill Moyers," on October 26th, 7 p.m. at Dolce in Basking Ridge.

Famed broadcast journalist and author Bill Moyers currently hosts "Moyers & Company" on PBS, and his website BillMoyers.com addresses topical issues and matters of concern to many.  A resident of Bernardsville, Mr. Moyers will speak on the topic of the media's effect on democracy at this very special benefit on the 26th.  Copies of his numerous books will be available for purchase and signing as well.  Tickets are on sale at the library until October 21st.  For further information, please call 908-766-0118.  

Bernardsville Library is grateful to The Friends who fund important library services such as free English-as-a-Second-Language classes, children's programs, and Sundays at Three concerts.  The Friends of the Bernardsville Public Library also provide additional computers, books and materials for the library, thereby enhancing the services and value we provide to our community.

Seen On Pinterest: Our Book Group Bags

More than three years ago, Bernardsville Library initiated a new library service for its patrons – book kits put together specifically for area book groups to borrow.  Referred to as book group bags, these kits contain ten paperback copies of a popular title along with an author biography, literary notes, and starred reviews - all contained in a sturdy canvas bag.  The selected books include new and older fiction, nonfiction, and memoirs or biographies known to inspire good discussion among groups.  A generous donation from an area resident has sustained this library service and made it possible to add new book group bags every year.

In library, we offer a handout listing the book titles for these book group bags, but another way to quickly see what we offer is to go to our Pinterest page on which we have a board for book clubs.  There, you and your book group members will be able to see all the book covers and easily come to a decision on what to read next.  All that’s necessary is for one member with a Bernardsville Library card to check out the bag (for six weeks) and return all the items intact by the due date.  The reading is up to you!

The Hare with Amber Eyes

Bernardsville Library’s book group, Memoirs and Coffee, will discuss Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with Amber Eyes on Tuesday, September 25, at 10:30 a.m. in the Community Room.  This book discussion group meets monthly and is open to new members who like to read memoirs and biographies.  The discussion is led by library staff member Pat Kennedy-Grant who has made extra copies of The Hare with Amber Eyes available at the circulation desk.

Edmund de Waal’s curiosity was piqued when he inherited a collection of netsuke, tiny Japanese carvings. What were they? How did they figure into his family’s history? He would come to learn that the netsuke were all that remained of his Viennese family’s vast art collections, destroyed in the Nazi persecution of Jews. Five generations of towering success and wealth for the Ephrussis family were stripped away in World War II, yet the netsuke had been miraculously saved by a maid who sewed them into a mattress. De Waal’s book, The Hare with Amber Eyes, explores family history under extraordinary conditions and the little miracles that endure such destruction.

Transitioning?

Summer ends, children return to school, and it might just be time for a change in your life.  Maybe you’re ready to transition into or out of a career.  Perhaps you are looking for some fulfilling way to spend a few hours a week outside the home. Let Bernardsville Library assist you in finding opportunities for full and part-time employment.  There are numerous online resources accessible from our website which may prove very useful to you.  For New Jersey residents you'll find a special menu, NJ Work Tools, offering information and links for job seekers including veterans.  Bernardsville Library's website also offers many business resources which are searchable online, such as Reference USA, Ferguson Career Guidance, and EBSCO BusinessSource Premier.  Don't forget The Job and Career Accelerator tool and its test preparation platform, both of which are designed to get you on the fast track.  For those able to come into our library, we also make available the Foundation Directory Online, which a librarian will access for you.  In fact, our librarians are eager to help you in your career search, so please seek out our guidance.  We'd love to work with you!

The Briny Deep

Neither sailors nor readers want to find themselves "in the doldrums" - languishing in a torpid state, going nowhere - yet August is a time of year when readership can be affected by the weather.  We're halfway through a sweltering summer and exhausted by it.  We need a bit of sea spray and a cool, off-shore breeze to revive us.  We need to read some nautical tales!  


To find the right book for you, try Bookmarks Magazine's reading list, 101 Crackerjack Sea Books, which includes book jacket illustrations along with good annotations.  You'll find all the classic sea stories among its many recommendations, but as this list was complied in 2006, please keep in mind subsequent notable books such as Simon Winchester's Atlantic or Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea.  Still, it's a good start. And starting is what it's all about when getting out of the doldrums.

Chocolate: Why Stop At The First Page?

Admit it; you were just thinking about chocolate, weren't you?  Now you might be able to enjoy it even more!  Publications such as The Longevity Factor: How Resveratrol and Red Wine Activate Your Longevity Genes and The French Women Don't Get Fat Cookbook  advocate for the gustatory pleasure and health benefits that dark chocolate potentially offers.  Now learn about it for yourself at Bernardsville Library's "Chocolate Seminar" to be held Thursday, August 2nd, at 7 p.m. in the library.  Daryl L. Minch from Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Somerset County will present a program on the history of chocolate and its role in our well-being.  Recipes and tastings will top off the evening.  Please register online for this program and then stop by the circulation desk for some reading suggestions on this very yummy topic.

A Life From A To Z

The next meeting of Bernardsville Public Library’s book discussion group, Memoirs and Coffee, will be held on Tuesday, July 24th at 10:30 a.m. in the library’s Community Room.  Pat Kennedy-Grant,  Readers’ Services Manager for the library, will lead the discussion of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life (2005) by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

In Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, Ms. Rosenthal has ingeniously adapted a centuries-old format for conveying knowledge into a poignant, wise, often funny, fully realized memoir.  Using mostly short entries organized from A to Z, many of which are cross-referenced, Rosenthal captures in wonderful and episodic detail the moments, observations, and emotions that comprise a contemporary life. Start anywhere and see how one young woman’s alphabetized existence can open up and define the world in new and unexpected ways.

 According to her website, ”Ms. Rosenthal is a person who likes to make things – children’s books, adult books, short films, salads, connections with the universe, something out of nothing, wishes.”  In The New York Times, her award-winning children’s books were described as “radiating fun the way tulips radiate spring: they are elegant and spirit-lifting.”  As for her adult work, Amazon named Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life one of the top ten memoirs of the decade.  A contributor to the TED conference and NPR, she is currently the host and creator of Mission Amy KR.com produced by WBEZ.  She lives with her family in Chicago.

Elegies for the Brokenhearted

Christie Hodgen, author of Elegies for the Brokenhearted,  is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and an award-winning writer. Her father (shown above with her daughter) is John Hodgen, a poet and college teacher.  A 2006 interview by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette with Christie and her father can be read here.  As John Hodgen notes, Christie has always been quite observant, and that quality stands out as a strength in her writing.

Certainly the characters in Elegies for the Brokenhearted are beautifully observed portraits of flawed or wounded individuals leading marginal lives, lives most of us might overlook or ignore.  Her narrator, Mary Murphy, does not overlook them, but rather speaks to the ways, large and small, each of five dead people have shaped her own life. These five people may have known her for only a brief time (a college roommate) or all her life (her mother), but each one has impacted Mary’s own course through a difficult upbringing.

While never having experienced a scatter shot life of poverty and marginalization herself, Hodgen creates such memorable, well-formed characters existing on the fringes of society that the reader might think otherwise. The voices given her characters are embued with as much depth as her descriptions of them, each character perfectly identifiable by dialogue and cadence of speech.  Perhaps it was the influence of poetry in her upbringing that gave Hodgen the ability to lift heavy topics to a lyrical, captivating sphere, a place where the reader will not want to look away, but rather savor each story, each elegy.  Elegies for the Brokenhearted was recently discussed by the library book group, Saturday Samplers .  
~Evelyn Fischel~

Pinterest Interests

Bernardsville Library is on Pinterest @http://pinterest.com/bvplnj/ with many interesting boards for you to explore.  

Pinterest is an online, image-based way to share creative ideas and photos using a bulletin board format.  Libraries use Pinterest as yet another way to enhance their Web presence and to promote themselves.  Our bulletin boards cover topics such as Jersey Authors, Library Displays, Adult Programs, and school-required/suggested Summer Reading lists, to name just a few.  We also feature some entertaining boards such as Edible Books! and Book Related Crafts.  In all we currently have 59 boards, with more being developed all the time.  We invite you to spend some pleasant browsing time on our Pinterest boards.  Feel free to re-pin and "like" any of them!

Wildflower

Journalist Mark Seal reported on the remarkable life and violent death of naturalist Joan Root in a 2006 Vanity Fair article, but quickly realized that a magazine piece could not do justice to her story.  In 2009 he published his biography of Joan Root entitled Wildflower: an extraordinary life and untimely death in Africa. Bernardsville Library's book group Memoirs and Coffee will discuss Wildflower at its next meeting to be held Tuesday, June 26, at 10:30 a.m.  New members are invited to attend, and copies of the book are available at the circulation desk.

Stiff Upper Lip

Royalists, are you feeling rather flat after the finale of the queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration this week?  All that pomp and circumstance, all that ceremony and tradition, over and done with so soon. Well, if you're lucky enough to  live in our vicinity, pop on over to Bernardsville Library's very own British Collection for your fix of all things British in the medium of film. Click here for more information about the British Collection. Then put the kettle on for a nice spot of relaxing tea.