Cook Memorial Library

Book it for Cook! Ordination Rock 5K Family Race on July 4th

Jay — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:23:35 +0000

The Ordination Rock 5K Family Race on July 4th through Tamworth Village
starts at 8:30 am.
Race day Registration & number pick-up: 7:30-8:00 a.m. K.A. Brett School, Tamworth, NH
Click here for Registration Form
Spread the word! PDF of 5K Poster
Start: Ordination Rock – outside Tamworth Village up Cleveland Hill Road
Finish: K.A. Brett School
Course: A scenic run through quaint Tamworth Village to include Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm (Binsack Trail), Captain Enoch Remick House, The Tamworth Historical Society, The Barnstormers Theatre, & Cook Memorial Library; winding over the Swift River, turn by Tamworth Veterans’ Memorial and a straight final run down Rte 113 to the School.
Safety: Medical aid provided courtesy of the Tamworth Rescue Squad. Course safety supervised by/courtesy of the Tamworth Police Department.
Water Stops: In front of the Tamworth Historical Society building & at the finish line.

This race benefits Cook Memorial Library.
Send by mail or drop off Registration Forms at: Cook Memorial Library, 5K Race, 93 Main St, Tamworth NH 03886
Any questions? Call 603-323-8510 or email: chris@tamworthlibrary.org. Suggested Donation of $15: checks must accompany registration and be made out to “Cook Memorial Library.” NO REFUNDS

Artist(s) of the Month(s): May & June

Jay — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:54:30 +0000

Oil by Elaine Klement

Mabel Doyle and Elaine Klement are the Artist(s) of the Month(s) for May and June. They call themselves M&E Expressions. Mabel Doyle lives in Wakefield, NH and paints with oils and pastels. Elaine Klement lives in Center Conway, NH and works in oil, watercolor, and acrylics. During May, their art will be on display, and in June they will show their interpretations of some Masters, Impressionists, and other early art.
Come and view their paintings and learn more about these two women.

Found at Auction

Jay — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:27:17 +0000

Photo, courtesy of John Maloof’s collection

We all love Antiques Roadshow and American Pickers. Here’s a story I stumbled upon which really fires the imagination.
Found at Auction: The Unseen Photographs of a Legend that Never Was
Vivian Maier was a nanny who took photos as a hobby. Read this extraordinary story of the chance discovery of her work. Amazon says,

A good street photographer must be possessed of many talents: an eye for detail, light, and composition; impeccable timing; a populist or humanitarian outlook; and a tireless ability to constantly shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot and never miss a moment. It is hard enough to find these qualities in trained photographers with the benefit of schooling and mentors and a community of fellow artists and aficionados supporting and rewarding their efforts. It is incredibly rare to find it in someone with no formal training and no network of peers. Yet Vivian Maier is all of these things, a professional nanny, who from the 1950s until the 1990s took over 100,000 photographs worldwide—from France to New York City to Chicago and dozens of other countries—and yet showed the results to no one. The photos are amazing both for the breadth of the work and for the high quality of the humorous, moving, beautiful, and raw images of all facets of city life in America’s post-war golden age. It wasn’t until local historian John Maloof purchased a box of Maier’s negatives from a Chicago auction house and began collecting and championing her marvelous work just a few years ago that any of it saw the light of day.

John Maloof’s new book, Vivian Maier: Street Photographer collects the best of her incredible, unseen body of work. A new documentary film called ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ will be released in 2013.

May Film: Silver Linings Playbook on Tuesday, May 21st, 5 pm

Jay — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 21:17:32 +0000

May Film: Silver Linings Playbook on Tuesday, May 21st, 5 pm

In lesser hands than director David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook could have been a typically cringe-inducing throwaway Hollywood rom-com. As it is, this unusual and deeply affecting story of crazy love is a bold observation about the joys and tragedy of life lived by deeply flawed characters facing triumph and adversity against a backdrop of painfully familiar family dysfunction. It’s also a tremendous achievement in formal structure, with a flair for storytelling that’s as moving as it is delightful. Bradley Cooper plays Pat, an until-recently undiagnosed bipolar person who’s just home from a lengthy stay in a mental institution and doing his darnedest to get his head and his life back on track. His concerned parents, vividly embodied by Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver, have plenty of troubles of their own when they warily take him in and tiptoe around the eggshells of a psyche that still veers wildly from seeming self-control to scary bouts of mania. Pat has a plan to win back the unfaithful wife whose restraining order is still in force because of the violent episode that sent him away after he nearly killed her lover. Interjected into this wobbly family scenario is Tiffany, a friend of a friend who is embroiled in her own turmoil of mental instability following the recent death of her husband. Jennifer Lawrence is a charming revelation as Tiffany, flexing sensitive acting muscles that are as toned as her lithe form. She throws herself into the role of a depressed, promiscuous young woman who needs Pat in her life about as much as she needs another personal tornado to rip her apart. But the movie magically reveals that these two disturbed souls have a destiny that’s never really in doubt; although the whirlwind turns the movie takes to get them there are often breathtaking. Russell liberally adapted the movie from Matthew Quick’s 2008 novel, and he deftly imbues the story with a vibrant sense of place (suburban, blue-collar Philadelphia) and each character, no matter how tangential to Pat and Tiffany’s journey, with quirks and nuances that brilliantly reveal their essence. The subject of mental illness has rarely been portrayed with such honesty and candid respect. Constantly keeping us off guard, Silver Linings Playbook soars from darkness to a kind of screwball comedy that is as tender and touching as it is unpredictable. There are several tour-de-force moments that Russell constructs with the surest hand of direction, dialogue, and the talents of his cast. A key scene unfolds in a small living room where eight people are crammed together, each adding important pieces to the whole, and which thrums with a masterfully rhythmic pace. Another sequence follows the buildup to one of Pat’s manic outbursts with a dizzying and increasingly stressful manifestation of the madness careening around in his head. It seems hard to believe that a love story with real humor, real pain, and genuine resonance that gets from point A to point B–it begins with a lone figure mumbling to himself and ends with a jubilantly staged ballroom dance–can succeed with so few missteps. But Silver Linings Playbook turns it all into an absorbing reality wherein life stumbles heartwarmingly toward what real love is all about. –Ted Fry

Perennial Plant & Book Sale on Saturday, June 1st, 9 am to 1 pm

Jay — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:05:49 +0000

At left are some of our trusty workers who make this sale happen.

The Perennial Plant & Book Sale will take place at the library on Saturday, June 1st, from 9 am to 1 pm. This event is co-sponsored by Altrusa and The Friends of Cook Memorial Library.

All plants will be donated by your friends and neighbors from local home gardens. If YOU have any perennials that need thinning please keep our sale in mind. Pot them up by mid-May so they have time to perk up again before the sale.

COME JOIN US FOR PLANTS, FRIENDS, PLANTS, BOOKS, RAFFLE, GARDENING BOOKS, PLANTS, CONVERSATION, PLANTS

Paying it Forward Day on April 25th This story will warm you better than coffee on a cold winter day

Jay — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 15:41:46 +0000

Photo from March 2012 Washington Post report on the homeless.

We enter a little coffeehouse with a friend of mine and give our order. While we’re approaching our table two people come in and they go to the counter: ”Five coffees, please. Two of them for us and three suspended”.
They pay for their order, take the two and leave.
I ask my friend: ”What are those ‘suspended’ coffees ?”
“Wait for it and you will see” he answered.
Some more people enter. Two girls ask for one coffee each, pay and go. The next order was for seven coffees and it was made by three lawyers – three for them and four ‘suspended’. While I still wonder what’s the deal with those ‘suspended’ coffees I enjoy the sunny weather and the beautiful view towards the square in front of the café. Suddenly a man dressed in shabby clothes who looks like a beggar comes in through the door and kindly asks: “Do you have a suspended coffee ?”
It’s simple – people pay in advance for a coffee meant for someone who can not afford a warm beverage. The tradition with the suspended coffees started in Naples “caffe sospeso”, but it has spread all over the world and in some places you can order not only a suspended coffee, but also a sandwich or a whole meal.”

I got the idea for this post from a Facebook post that went viral at the end of March. I tried hard to find the original source but I couldn’t. Perhaps I could say that it belongs to everyone now because it has been paid forward so many times. Which is my whole point. Pay it forward is asking the beneficiary of a good deed to repay it to others instead of to the original benefactor. The concept of ‘Paying it Forward’ is old, but the phrase may have been coined by Lily Hardy Hammond in her 1916 book In the Garden of Delight, according to Wikipedia.”Paying it forward” has become a world-wide phenomena since the book by Catherine Ryan Hyde became a bestseller in 2000, and the movie came out in 2001. In 2012, people from 52 countries participated in Pay It Forward Day with individuals working on proclamations in 36 states & 41 cities. YouTube is filled with thousands of videos

http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/the-pay-it-forward-restaurant-one-diner-sparks-a-chain-reaction-of-kindness-2545634.html

National Library Week is April 14-21

Jay — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 10:25:47 +0000

In honor of National Library Week, we’ve compiled some interesting facts about New Hampshire and its libraries.
The beginning chapter of the NH State Library was established in 1717 and it is generally considered to be the oldest such institution in the United States.
In 1833 the first free public library in the United States was established in Peterborough, NH (in photo above). In addition Peterborough was the first Free Public Library in the world to be supported by taxation. The Boston Public Library which was America’s first large public library was not legally established until 1852, nineteen years after tiny Peterborough.In 1849, New Hampshire was the first state to pass a law permitting towns to appropriate money for the purchase of books and the maintenance of a building for the use of its people, thereby giving New Hampshire libraries assurance of some measure of public support.

The Tamworth Social Library, one of the four earliest social libraries established in the state, was founded by Parson Samuel Hidden in 1796 and was supported in its entirety by the pioneer members of this small, wilderness village. Then, in 1891, the New Hampshire legislature approved the Free Library Act, appointing a State Library commission and authorizing benefits to New Hampshire towns for the purpose of establishing free, public libraries. In February 1892, the Tamworth town warrant included an article “…to see if the town will vote to accept the provision of law, chapter 8, section 21-26, in regard to having a public library in town.” For more info, http://tamworthlibrary.org/about/history

Today there are 234 public libraries in NH, and 192 of them are current members of the NH Downloadable Books Consortium. There are approximately 121,169 public libraries in the United States, and 150,000 librarians employed nationally.

In 2012 our operating expenditures totaled $142,467.00, and according to the library use calculator, we totaled $473,084.00 in delivered library services and circulation.
Please support your local library.

Steve Grasse’s Plans for the Tamworth Inn

Jay — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:19:49 +0000

The Tamworth community is invited to send comments on the architect’s drawings and plans for Quaker City Mercantile’s new and rehabbed buildings on the Tamworth Inn site. are posted on the wall at the Lyceum in the Village (also viewable in attached pdf) and Steven Grasse, Jamie Oakes et al encourage us all to come in, or open this PDF, take a look and provide feedback within the next week to: info@tamworthgarden.com
The following is a summary of the meeting at the Lyceum on August 14th, 2012:

At 10 am this morning, community members filled the Tamworth Lyceum in order to hear Steve Grasse’s presentation about his plans for the Tamworth Inn. Because the Inn is eligible for designation as a historic property on the National Register of Historic Places, the property must be reviewed and documented photographically before a “Memorandum of Agreement” can be signed with the State of NH, and permits can be obtained. Plans can be set into motion only after all permitting is completed. All parties concerned anticipate that the signing of this agreement will take place by the end of September, and groundbreaking is likely to begin in spring of 2013.
The existing building contains three segments. The exterior of the westernmost section will be preserved and restored to appear much as it does now (the interior will be gutted), and in exactly the same location. It will be raised up and a new reinforced concrete foundation will be built underneath it, with granite facings added to preserve its historical appearance. Mr. Grasse hasn’t decided what this building will house, but he mentioned the possibility of a small pub & restaurant featuring locally produced foods.
The other two sections to the east will be torn down completely. A new building in a similar architectural style will be constructed to the east of the preserved building, with a twenty foot space (required fire separation) in between the two. This new building will house a distillery and tasting room, a small ‘parfumerie’ for production of perfumes, botanicals and essential oils, and a shop space. Pollution control and water use for these businesses will be carefully addressed. The existing septic system is inadequate and definitely will be replaced.
The “garden barn” behind and to the west of the Inn will be restored as it was when first built and will be moved slightly east to move it further from the property line on the west. It will be made available for community events such as the Tamworth Outing Club contra dances.
Mr. Grasse, who is the owner of the Tamworth Lyceum, intends to make it possible for community members to express their concerns and opinions online as the renovation process for the Tamworth Inn unfolds.

Tuesday Film Night in April: Rust and Bone

Jay — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:29:19 +0000

Rust and Bone is our film for April. It will be shown on Tuesday, April 16th at 5 pm. Here is the trailer.
Rust and Bone: French with English subtitles; Rated R
From the director of the multi-award-winning ‘A Prophet’ comes a gripping tale of two souls finding strength in each other after tragedy reunites them. Marion Cotillard (Academy Award winner, 2007, Best Actress, La Vie En Rose) gives a tour-de-force performance as Stephanie, an orca trainer whose life is transformed when tragedy strikes during a show. Faced with unbearable circumstances she turns to Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts, Bullhead), a street boxer fighting his own battle with life-changing events. As their stories intersect, they navigate a gritty relationship in a world where love and courage appear in many forms.
We will provide the popcorn!

New automation system coming in June

Jay — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:08:40 +0000

We will be going live with a new automation system in June 2013. In order to migrate the data and be ready for opening on Tuesday, June 3rd, the library will be closed on Friday, May 31st and Saturday, June 1st. This change is necessary as our current system, InfoCentre, has seen no development since 2008, and will soon no longer be supported. The new system, Koha, is an open source system which was developed by librarians and originated in New Zealand. The name, Koha, comes from a Māori term for a gift or donation. Koha has a good track record and very positive reviews from the world-wide libraries that use it. This new software will improve access for borrowers to their accounts (including borrowing history, holds, wish lists, etc.) and to library materials of all kinds (including e-materials). Koha will also give staff more control over the data and much better reporting features. In continual development, Koha is much better equipped to accommodate to the rapid changes in library technology and services.

Cook Memorial Library has contracted with Bywater Solutions to migrate the data from InfoCentre to Koha, provide training on the new software for library staff, host the system on mirrored, frequently backed-up off-site servers, and provide ongoing technical support, including managing upgrades to the software. To reduce the price of the contract with Bywater Solutions, the Trustees of the Cook Memorial Library, along with Trustees of the Madison Public Library and the Jackson Public Library, have formed a cooperative purchasing group, and librarians have negotiated a reduced cost for migration, training and annual hosting fees.

The Friends of Cook Memorial Library are strong supporters of this library automation initiative and have contributed considerably toward its cost.

Please come in for your new library card and patron ID number. Koha requires 14-digit patron numbers so we hope to have every patron changed over to the new numbers by May 15th.