THE BREWER TIMES

The Newsletter of the Brewer Public Library January 2003

TOM BACHMAN RETIRES

After thirty years of service as Director of the Brewer Public Library, Tom Bachman is retiring this year. To recognize Mr. Bachman's distinguished career a reception is being held in his honor on Saturday, January 25, 2003 at 2:00 P.M. in the Colonial Room (upper level) of the library. Refreshments will be served and the public is encouraged to attend. Congratulations, Tom Bachman, and thank you for your many years of service to the library and its community.

Change in Friends Monthly Meeting Time

Starting in January, The Friends of the Library will be meeting at a different day and time. Please note: The Friends will meet the fourth Monday of the month at 4:30 P.M. The next Friends meeting will take place on Monday, January 27, at 4:30 P.M. If the new time is inconvenient, please contact Kathy Bastian, 647-4948.

GENEROUS DONORS!

Brewer Library would like to thank the Lions Club for donating a number of up-to-date books about diabetes. We'd also like to thank Francis and Betty Durst for a cash donation of $1,000 to be used for books for both the general and children's collections. The Library and Friends are making a plaque which will list the names of major contributors, unless anonymity is requested. All donations are most appreciated!

STAR SPANGLED GRANT WILL IMPROVE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

The Friends of the Library recently received a very generous grant of $6,000 from the Star Spangled Celebration Allocations Committee. The grant application stated that the library would like to use funds allocated through this grant to institute the following services for the Greater Richland County Area:

1. Provide a computer loaner service for the community. This will be geared to senior citizens, who can borrow a computer system and modem for 3 to 6 months.

2. Provide web sites for community organizations. The Brewer Public Library will be getting a Web Server as part of the Gates Foundation Grant. The Friends will be providing the technical expertise to manage this server and the library computer network. The library plans to provide web sites for community organizations such as the Sister City Project, Richland County History Room, Brewer Science Library, and others on this server. Part of the funds from the Star Spangled grant will go to develop these web sites and the infrastructure to support them.

3. Provide a computer screen projector and Internet access in the meeting rooms in the library basement. Funds will be used to purchase the screen projector and the network infrastructure.

Thanks to the generosity and fa-sightedness of the Star Spangled Allocations Committee, the community will greatly benefit from these advancements in library technology services. And, thanks to all the individual community members who worked so hard to make Star Spangled Celebration an event that keeps on giving.

New Due Date Reminders

Beginning January 1, 2003, the Library will begin using white due date slips instead of the orange and blue cards we've used for so long to remind people when library materials are due. This means that Gary Johnson's job of stamping cards will no longer be needed, so he'll be finding other meaningful work in the community. We'd like to thank Gary for his many years of conscientious service and wish him the best in the future.

Story Hour

Children approximately 3 to 5 years old are invited to participate in story hour on Friday mornings in the basement of Brewer Public Library, at 9:30 am or 10:30 am. Topics for January include:

January 3 - Birds and Bird Feeders

January 10 - Teeth

January 17 - Thumbelina

January 24 - No Story Hour

January 31 - Balloons

Kindergarten through 3rd Grade children will have a candle-decorating story hour Saturday, January 18, at 10:00 am.

BOOK LOVERS TAKE NOTE: TREASURES STILL AVAILABLE!

The following items are a few of the volumes available from the Friendshop, located in the lobby of the library, and the Annex, located on the upper floor. Please ask library staff for assistance.

THE COMPLETE WORK OF ROBERT BURNS. 6 Volumes. Gebbie Publishers, Philadelphia, PA. Illustrated. 66 etchings, wood cuts, maps. 1886 cpr, 1908, (1909 Perkins) Collector's Item. Good Condition.

THE CONDUCT OF LIFE. Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1860, 1883, 1888 cpr. Riverside Publishing, Cambridge, MA.

NATURE, ADDRESSES, AND LECTURES. (VOL. 1) of Emerson's Complete Works. 1855, 1876, 1883 cpr. Riverside Publishing, Cambridge, MA.

REPRESENTATIVE MAN. (VOL. IV) of Emerson's Complete Works. 1876, 1883 cpr. Riverside Publishing, Cambridge, MA.

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN. James Joyce. Boxed. Illus: Brian Keogh. Heritage, N.Y. 1964. Fine Condition.

MOO!

Join the Campus-Community Shared Reading Experience

The campus-community shared reading project featuring the novel MOO by Jane Smiley will culminate in a lecture by Jane Smiley on Thursday, January 30, 2003 at the Coppertop Theater, University of Wisconsin - Richland Center, at 7:00 P.M. Participants still have time to read MOO, Jane Smiley's darkly comic novel set at a Midwestern agricultural campus, before the lecture. Please plan on attending this special event!

Nabokov in the Millennium Spotlight

In a 1963 interview Nabokov said, "I am an American writer, born in Russia and educated in England, where I studied French literature, before spending fifteen years in Germany. I came to America in 1940 and decided to become an American citizen and made America my home." Vladimir Nabokov distinguished himself in his native Russia as an important writer, than went on to become one of the most brilliant writers of his adopted home, the United States. He is most famous for his popular and critically celebrated book Lolita, a controversial "confession" of a middle-aged European obsessed with twelve-year-old Lolita- "the loveliest nymphet." The book also chronicles the vulgarity of many aspects of American culture in the 1940's.

The Library of America has published an authoritative three volume set of Nabokov's work which the Brewer Public Library has acquired as part of its Millennium Collection of classic American Literature. Novels and Memoirs 1941 -1951, Novels 1955 - 1962, and Novels 1969 - 1974, all edited by Brian Boyd, include novels corrected according to the author's own copies, film adaptations, and more.

Nabokov's work is paradoxical; on the one hand it richly evokes a realistically textured portrait of life in its many guises, and on the other hand it playfully weaves word play, parodies, and blizzards of self-referential devices that constantly remind the reader that the writing is writing, and not life itself.