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The Yardarm
News and Views from the Yarmouth Port Library
www.YarmouthPortLibrary.org
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| Holiday Hours |
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Christmas Eve: 10 AM to 2 PM
Closed Christmas Day and
Saturday, Deember 26
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New Years Eve: 10 AM to 2 PM
Closed New Years Day and
Saturday, January 2
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"What do I read after I've read all the books written by my favorite author?" is a popular question at Yarmouth Port Library. Our dedicated and discerning patrons are passionate readers who are loyal to their favorite authors. But where can an avid reader find books for that lonely in-between time while waiting for the next book in a series, or one written by a well loved author, to be published?
Yarmouth Port Library, along with most CLAMS Libraries, has a resource tool that is designed to assist readers in their quest to find books that match the readers' taste. In their own words, "Novelist is a fiction database that provides subject heading access, reviews, annotations, and much more for over 120,000 fiction titles. It also includes information such as Author Read-alikes, Book Discussion Guides, BookTalks, and Feature Articles. Novelist Plus s available each time you search a title in the CLAMS catalog as well. This is an excellent way to learn more about the authors, find similar reads, and other books in a series."
Novelist is easily accessed through the Yarmouth Port Library website. Click on the tab, "Research and Reading" and a drop down menu appears. Click on "Resources for Readers" and Novelist is the center icon. Simply enter your library card barcode number and login. Novelist is a great browsing tool for genre fiction, best sellers, author and more. It is also user-friendly for those who may feel timid using a computer.
Many readers are delighted to discover that Novelist is also a resource for non-fiction books and contains a wealth of non-fiction materials including Biography, Sports, History and Travel.
Take a look at Novelist. You will be glad you did!
Margaret Kistinger
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| The Children's Corner | Lynn Lesperance
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The holiday season is upon us already? How can that be? Ah, well, since there's no denying it, here are a couple of ideas to get your families into the spirit:
Our December 4th Generations! music and movement program with Denya LeVine will be held here at the library due to scheduling conflicts at the church. There will still be plenty of room for young children, their caregivers and older neighbors and friends to join in. It's at 10:30. We always have a rousing good time. Experience it for yourself!
We will be having our last storytime session of 2015 on December 15th at 10:30. The theme, of course, will be Holidays. We'll enjoy stories, songs, craft and a snack. If you are looking for a nice, low-key way to celebrate December, please stop by. The first themed storytime of 2016 will be "Winter" on January 15th.
Wishing you all a joyous, peace-filled season!
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| From the President | |
Ann Petrou
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Holiday season is upon us and there is a lot to be thankful for at the Yarmouth Port Library. The continued support of the community around us enables us to survive.
First of all, we have to thank those who faithfully donate to our membership drive every year. That money goes directly for our operating expenses.
Then a big thank you goes out every year to the people at Jack's Outback II who host and provide the delicious food for our annual spaghetti dinner.
This year we are having a Holiday Gift Basket Raffle and many of our local businesses and friends have donated to that. I want to thank all of them for their continued support of our efforts to keep library services alive on the north side of the Cape. A complete list of the donors and their contributions is below.
I also want to thank my dear friend and Yarmouth Port resident Liz Flynn. She came up with the idea of the raffle and helped obtain many of the wonderful prizes. It is not easy to solicit donations but she said "if you believe in a cause, it is easy to ask for help." That made it easy for me to go out and ask all of you for donations because I believe in the Library and what it has to offer to all.
Finally, I want to thank the golfers at the Cummaquid Golf Club for their generous donations. We recently received a $2,000 donation from the Cape Senior League and a $500 donation from Scotch Ball. I am not sure what Scotch Ball is-at first I thought it was a man's name! Thank goodness Jean Paquin set me straight or I would be trying to find the address of someone named Scotch Ball for the thank you note.
Here's looking forward to 2016!!
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| Membership Campaign 2016 | Les Peat
For the Membership Committee |
As this issue of the Yardarm goes to press, membership renewal notices will be going out to all members. We hope that everyone will renew, and that those of you who have not yet joined will do so. (Click here for a membership form if you not receive a reply envelope in the mail.)
This is the fifth year of our membership program, and in each of the first four years, we have met or exceeded our goals; the goal this year is once again $40,000. From the start, memberships have been an important source of funding for the Library's operations, providing about 27% of the operating budget.
We would also remind you that in 2016 we will be celebrating the Library's 150th anniversary of providing uninterrupted service to the village of Yarmouth Port, and at the half-way point of our 150th year, we face new challenges. Although we did not have to make too many unbudgeted outlays in 2015, we did have to spend over $1,600 to repair a leaking roof, and the cost of snow removal was more than double the $2,500 budgeted. Moreover, our Building & grounds maintenance reserve is still depleted after the annis horribilis of 2014. We therefore hope that each of you will consider moving up to a higher category this year to help us remain on track, and if you do make a larger gift, you will receive a premium of our popular and distinctive Yarmouth Port Library merchandise.
Once again, we thank you in advance for your generous support.
Terms of Membership
We wish to clarify the terms of membership once again. All memberships in the Yarmouth Port Library are for a calendar year - not, as with some other organizations, beginning and ending on the anniversary of joining. Current renewals and new memberships are for calendar 2016. We are sending out renewal notices in the current year so that anyone wishing to make a year-end gift for tax purposes may do so, but we will accept 2016 membership payments until June 30th of next year. Anyone who joins after June 30th will be considered a 2017 member.
Should you inadvertently send a duplicate payment later in the campaign (and every year some members do this), please be assured that we will contact you before processing the payment - we don't want to take advantage of mistakes. If you are ever in doubt about the status of your membership, please call me at 508-362-7660 before writing a check - I can quickly check the status for you.
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| Holiday Gift Basket Raffle | |
Holiday Gift Basket value is now more than $1,400
Chances are $3 each, two for $5 at the Library
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Purchased your tickets for the Holiday Gift Basket Raffle yet? Time is running out!! The last day to buy tickets will be December 6th at the Christmas Stroll. The winning ticket will be drawn December 8th at the Library. The lucky winner will have a basket of great prizes to keep for himself or use for gifts for friends and family!
One stop Holiday shopping-what could be better than that!
Gift Basket Contents:
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GIFT CERTIFICATES
Agway, So. Dennis - $35
Cummaquid Golf Club - $400
Design Works - $50
Dunkin' Donuts - $30 + bag of coffee
Happy Fish Bakery - $15
Old Yarmouth Inn - $30 & beer glass
Oliver's & Planck's Tavern - $50
Cummaquid Golf Club - $400
Optimist Caf� - $25
Panera, Mashpee - $50
Peterson's Market - $25
Ross Coppelman Goldsmith - $75
Royal II Restaurant - $50
Stop & Shop, So. Dennis - $20
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GIFTS & VALUE
Yarn Hound - Learn to knit & sundry bag - $25
Armchair Cottage - wine cork - $15
Cape Cod Life Magazine subscription + Alberto's $50 gift cert. - $144
Carolyn Blackburn Designs Tote - $40
Cosmetique - mani-pedi - $60
Ericerf Wood Design - 2 frames - $55
Just Picked - wine coaster & cork rest - $22
Karen Alexander Designs - bracelet - $40
King's Way Golf Club - Golf for 2 - $110
MarGem - Cyndi Cayson & Ron Platt at Harvest of Barnstable - blown glass pendant - $30
Ted Weissberger - pen - $25
The Barn & Co. - coasters & ornament - $20
Yarmouth Pizza by Evan - 2 lg. pizzas - $26
Yarmouth Port Library - hat & mug - $20
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Sally White: Library Child
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Celebrating the Yarmouth Port Library
In March of 1866, a committee was formed to start a subscription library in the Town of Yarmouth. Their work was the beginning of the Yarmouth Port Library you know today. The evolution of the Library and the library building is an interesting story. We are presenting various aspects of how the Library came to be what it is and some, we think, interesting things you may not be aware of culminating in a celebration of the Library's 150th anniversary in 2016.
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Ralph Menconi
The Yarmouth Port Library will turn 150 years old in 2016, and to celebrate that important milestone we will have several programs and stories that look back at significant events and people in the library's history. One of YPL's most important personages was Martha White, who served as librarian for 54 years from 1936-1990. During most of her years as librarian, Martha and her family lived in an apartment upstairs in the library. Her daughter Sally White, who remains a Yarmouth Port resident, wrote an amusing account of life in library entitled Memories of a Library Child, for a 1999 issue of Prime Time magazine. Here are some excerpts and anecdotes taken from Sally's entertaining Prime Time piece:
Sally writes of the "unique experience" of living in the library, and expresses her joy as a child at being able to get reference books at any hour to do her homework, even when the library was closed. Sally had the first choice of any new books to read, and also was able to choose among older books being discarded. She and her cousin had exciting games of hide-and-seek in the library, "running up and down the winding iron stairs... and hiding in the alcoves with only one dim light on..." A favorite play area was a third floor bedroom, called "the tower room," which has since been removed. Sally recalls the unpaved driveway that circled the library where she "knew every bump" as she drove "around and around practicing her driving skills for the test at the Registry."
Living upstairs in the library was not without its challenges, however. A tour led by a library volunteer almost intruded on Martha in the bathtub, and Sally was awakened one vacation morning by a workman installing a new window in her bedroom that she had not heard about. More ominously, her mother stopped working downstairs after hours when a stray bullet came through the window and into her office door one night-- "a random act," according to the police. On other occasions, "a huge white owl perched on a bookcase knocking over books and scattering papers...and a family of raccoons took up residence in the attic without consulting the library board," Sally wrote humorously.
"The library was expanded in 1958, and my mother moved into a house she already owned in town," Sally recounts near the end of her piece, and goes on the say, "I believe she was the last resident librarian on the Cape." Sally remembers her unique home fondly, and credits her lifelong love of books to her years as a "library child."
Our thanks to Sally White and Prime Time magazine for these delightful childhood memories!
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| YPL in the Community | As a patron of the Yarmouth Port Library, you have seen how dedicated the staff and volunteers of the Library are. What you may not be aware of is the effort they devote to other community organizations and the breadth of the projects they are involved in.
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As an example of what is being done, Ann Petrou, the Library Association president, has been turning herself into an accomplished amateur archaeologist at Taylor-Bray Farm. Starting in mid-October, intense archaeological fieldwork was undertaken at the Farm in Yarmouth Port under the sponsorship of the Taylor-Bray Farm Preservation Association. The work is the latest phase of a project begun in 2009 which is revealing much about the people who have inhabited the Hockanom section of Yarmouth for the last 10,000 years.
2015 is Ann's second year working at the Farm. Why is she doing this? In her words, "I had always wanted to take part in an archaeological dig and Taylor-Bray Farm offered a very convenient venue for me. Last year I signed up for one or two days a week but once I got that trowel in my hand, there was no getting rid of me."
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| | (Left) Paleo-Indian Agate Basin point & (right) Taunton River Bifurcate Base Point |
Right at the start, Ann and Laurel Wilson uncovered two of the most significant artifacts found. One is the Paleo-Indian Agate Basin point base, about 10,000 years old. The other is a Taunton River Bifurcate Base projectile point, about 8,000 to 10,000 years old. Discovering both in the same space is considered significant by the supervising archaeologists, Craig Chartier and Dan Zoto. "That was a great bond for Laurel and me and I really enjoyed my time spent working with her."
"Being involved at Taylor-Bray Farm is more than giving back to the community. It is trying to piece together the story of a life, whether it be that of the early settlers to the area or the mysterious lives of those who were here long before them," says Petrou.
One other thing; it appears Ann has found a new BFF at the Farm! She and Rusty have formed a lasting bond over apples and carrots.
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Library Etchings
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Donald Knaub
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The Yarmouth Port Library holds three important 19th Century etchings:
George Washington Standing by Desk, 1870 (framed 28"x36")
Published by William Pate (active in the 1850's) after a painting by Peter Frederick Rothermel (1812-1895). Rothermel was a Pennsylvania painter who depicted many historical subjects
The Departure of the Pilgrim Fathers for America A.D.1620 (framed 38"x30")
Painted by Charles Lucy (1814-1873), engraved by John McRae, after an original oil painting now in Pilgrim Hall Museum, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
The central figure is minister John Robinson, leading them in prayer. Robinson had to remain in Holland and died before he could join his congregation in Plymouth. English history painter Charles Lucy won a prize for this painting at the Westminster Hall competition in London in 1847 and exhibited it at the Royal Academy in 1848.
The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers in America A.D. 1620 (framed 38"x30")
Published by Caldwell &Co, Engraved by John Mc Rae
This print depicts the arrival of the Pilgrims at the present Provincetown harbor on November 21, 1620. The Mayflower (seen in the background) brought 102 Pilgrims to Massachusetts, where they founded Plymouth Colony. Unlike the Puritans, the Pilgrims were Separatists who opposed the jurisdiction of the Church of England. Some of the prominent passengers on the Mayflower included Myles Standish, John Alden, William Bradford, William Brewster, John Carver and Edward Winslow.
The Yarmouth Port Library had the three etchings, which have suffered some minor damage during their stay at the library, reviewed by the Cape Cod Framing and Restoration Company in Dennis, Mass. The damage is repairable through a process used by their Art Rescue team. The Library hopes to raise funds to restore the etchings.
It turns out that an interesting aspect of these etchings is the period frames which house them. The frames are datable to the period of 1860 to 1880. This was determined by an examination of the gold leaf pattern on the frames. During this historical period, gold leaf was put on frames over a silver base and over time the silver tarnishes showing very small black specks where the silver was exposed to air. After 1880 a base of copper was used to avoid the tarnishing aspect of the silver base.
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All events are at the Library except as noted.
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Christmas Stroll
Dorothy Halmstad
The Yarmouth Port Christmas Stroll sets off Sunday, December 6th at 1pm. The Library will open its doors to one and all offering seasonal cheer. Be sure to join us.
Tickets for our exciting raffle will be sold and items made by our knitting group will be on sale. For more information visit the Library website.
This is a fun way to find out more about the Library if you have not been a Library member.
If you would like to help and you can bake tasty cookies or make some tea sandwiches, sign up at the Library. Please help. We would really appreciate it.
Knitting for the Library
Dinah Wolff
Just in Time for the Holidays! Starting with the Christmas Stroll on December 6th, the Library's knitters will again be selling small hand-knit items, such as hats, mittens, socks, and scarves, to benefit the Library. Now in its third year, this sale has increased in popularity, so in addition to the efforts of the Library's Knitting Group, we welcome donations from anyone in the community. If you're interested in participating, please bring your hand knit donations to the Library, and give them to anyone behind the Circulation Desk.
We ask that you label your items with your name, size, yarn content, and any relevant washing instructions. Thank you in advance for helping to support our Library.
The Library's Knitting Group meets on 1st and 3rd Mondays at 9:30 AM in the Reading Room. We welcome knitters of all levels. For information, contact Dinah Wolff at 362-7660 or by email at [email protected]
YPL Book Club News
Leslie Altman
Meetings are the third Thursday of the month at 3:00 PM
in the Reading Room of the Library. Books are chosen by the group and a discussion takes place for about one hour with refreshments. This is a lively group with many varied opinions and reading interests. Join us; newcomers are always welcome.
No meeting in December
Selection for Thursday, January 21
From the New York Times book review: 
Our Souls at Night, [Kent Haruf's] final novel, opens with an evening visit that Addie Moore pays to her longtime neighbor, Louis Waters. Both are widowed - Addie is 70, Louis about the same - and Addie makes the surprising proposal that they begin sleeping together, without sex, just to talk in the dark and provide the sleep-easing comfort of physical company. They don't know each other all that well, but Addie has decided to ask at once for what she really wants. It's an odd premise, but we get to watch these two, night by night, pass through phases of awkwardness, intimacy and alliance.. Read more.
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| Elephant Sanctuary of Tennessee | |
Lisa Budge Johnson will speak about the Elephant Sanctuary of Tennessee Friday, January 15, 2016 at 3:00 PM in the reading room of the Library.
|  The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, is the nation's largest natural-habitat refuge developed specifically to meet the needs of endangered elephants. It is designed for old, sick or needy elephants who have been retired from zoos and circuses. It provides three separate and protected, natural-habitat environments for Asian and African elephants.
Did you know it is not natural for adult female and male Asian elephants to live together? Learn why and much more about elephants and the work being done at the Sanctuary. |
| Thank You, Jack's Outback II | |
The Library's annual benefit Spaghetti Supper had a unique flavor this year, in addition to the delicious meal, with Guido Farina playing Italian favorites on the accordion. Thanks to the library volunteers who served and cleaned up, and to Donna Barratta and crew at Jack's Outback II the library made over $2,000. from this event. Sincere thanks to all who helped his event a success.
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| The Gift of Music |
The Yarmouth Port Library would like to thank loyal patron Carole Simonds for her generous donation of two tickets to the Cape Cod Symphony's Holiday Program. A drawing for all of the Library volunteers was held and Charyn Tietge, former Board of Trustee President, corporator and all around hard worker, won the tickets. Charyn, we hope you enjoy the concert. Thanks again to Carole.
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| New Acquisitions | |
At the Yarmouth Port Library
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Fiction
All the Stars in the Heavens by Elizabeth George
A Banquet of Consequences by Adriana Trigiani
Death by Water by OE Kenzaburo
Depraved Heart by Patricia O Cornwell
The Diamond Caper by Peter Mayle
The Golden Age by Jane Smiley
Golden Lion: A Novel of Heroes by Wilbur Smith
The Grave Soul by Ellen Hart
The Guise of Another by Allen Eskens
Host by Robin Cook
The Lake House by Kate Morton
Mrs. Engels by Gavin McCrea
Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen
Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham
The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Hay
The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks
The Silent Boy by Andrew Taylor
The Spy House by Matthew Dunn
The Survivor by Vince Flynn
Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
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Non-Fiction
100 Recipes: The Absolute Best America's Test Kitchen
A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction by Patrick Kennedy
Destinations of a Lifetime, National
Geographic
The Devil's Chessboard by Talbot Allen
Hemingway in Love: His Own Story by A.
E. Hotchner
Hitler's Art Thief by Ronald Hildebrand
Junior Seau: The Life and Death by Jim R Trotter
Keep Moving: And Other Tips by Dick Van Dyke
Keeping an Eye Open: Essays by Julian Barnes
The Magic of Math by Arthur Benjamin
My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem
Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon
PT 109: An American Epic of War by
William R Doyle
The Witches: Salem 1692 by Stacy Schiff
Poetry
Felicity: Poems by Mary Oliver
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Yarmouth Port Library
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Library HoursClosed Sunday and MondayTuesday 1 - 5 PMWednesday 1 - 7 PMThursday 1 - 5PMFriday 10 AM - 4 PMSaturday 10 AM - 2 PM
Library Director:
Margaret Kistinger
Associate Librarian Children's Services:
Lynn LesperanceTelephone: 508-362-3717Fax: 508-362-6739email: [email protected] |
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