Friends of the Belfast Free Library add to the DVD Collection

Our wonderful friends group, recently made a generous donation to the library, to be used to purchase DVDs, particularly BBC and other popular series. Here is a list of titles that have been added: (and some you can look forward to in the future)

Inspector Lewis - Season 1

Foyle's War - Seasons 1-5

Upstairs, Downstairs - Seasons 1-3 Original series

Upstairs, Downstairs - 2011

South Riding - Complete mini-series

Downton Abbey

The Tudors - Season 1

House of Cards - mini-series

Wives and Daughters - mini-series

Enchanted April

Pride and Prejudice - 2005

Pride and Prejudice - 1995

Ajami

Glee - Season 1

Spirited Away

My Neighbor Totoro

Princess Mononoke

Howl's Moving Castle

The Business of Being Born

PFC 2

The Fighter

The Way Back

Get Low

Coming Soon:

Upstairs, Downstairs - Seasons 4-5

The Tudors - Seasons 2-4

Deadwood - Complete Series

Today's Special

True Grit - 2011

Treme

To find out more about a particular DVD listed above or to place a hold on an item, click on the title to access the online catalog record.

Summer Reading Challenge 2010

DIVE INTO A GOOD BOOK

Welcome to the Summer Reading Challenge for 2010.

Here's how it works:

Pick up a reading list at the library and read books from the list. If you don't see any books that interest you on the list, choose your own books, they just have to have a water theme to qualify. For every book you read, fill out a slip like this:

Put one slip for each book you read into the box that is in the Summer Reading display area. On September 3rd, we'll draw one slip and the person whose name is on it will win dinner and a movie for two. The more books you read, the more chances you will have to win.

COME ON IN AND JOIN IN THE FUN!

Adult Summer Reading Challenge 2009

The new summer reading list will be available in a week, so be sure to stop by and pick up your copy or print one from the website. The theme this year is "Maine Reads" and will feature fiction and nonfiction books about Maine. Most are also written by Maine authors and include writers from the past and present. Read as many as you can from the list between June 15 and August 21, and for each book you read, enter a drawing for a gift certificate. Check out the Summer Reading Blog at http://bflsummerreading.blogspot.com/ to participate in discussion of the books, Maine writers, or Maine in general. I'm really looking forward to a great summer of reading - in fact, I'm already reading one of the books on the list, "Water Dogs" by Lewis Robinson.

A Photo From the Garden

New Library Website

We've updated our website and hope you will find that it gives you easier access to our online services. Though we are still working on the content for the site, here are some of the functions that are available now.

From the tool bar on the left, you can:

• Search the BFL , Minerva and MaineCat on-line catalogs.
• Check your own record and see the status of your ILL requests or renew items
• Search the MARVEL databases for journal and newspaper articles, encyclopedia and dictionary entries, and literary, biographical, scientific and historical information.
• Access this blog to read and comment on the various postings by library staff members.

From the Genealogy page (under Services) you can:

• Connect to various on-line genealogical resources
• Search HeritageQuestOnline, a premium genealogy site that includes U. S. Census records, Revolutionary War pension records and a large collection of digitized local and family history books (requires a valid BFL card to access).

Look for the calendar, gallery news and upcoming Friday Night Flix, on the Events & Exhibits page and look for finding aids to some of our Special Collections by clicking on the Services button.

Soon, you will be able to download audiobooks from the website to listen to on your home computer or ipod/MP3 player. Watch for this feature to be available in the next week or two.

So, please take a few minutes to try out these features, explore the pages and let us know what you think.

Betsy Paradis, Reference Librarian

http://www.belfastlibrary.org/

Happy New Year!

Your friends at the Belfast Free Library wish you all a bright and joy-filled 2009.

The Thanksgiving Holiday

The library will be closed November 27-28 in observance of Thanksgiving. We wish all of our library friends a warm and happy holiday celebrated with family and friends.

Here is an early Thanksgiving Proclamation issued by Governor Edwin Chick Burleigh, in 1889. This image is from the Maine Memory Network website. If you would like to see an enlarged version of this image visit the MMN website at http://www.mainememory.net and search for Thanksgiving.

Governor Burleigh was the father of Vallie Burleigh Williamson, wife of Belfast native Joseph Williamson, Jr. Robert Williamson Jr, the grandson of Vallie and and Joseph Jr., donated family papers to the library in 2000 and some of the family letters were published in 2003 in The Williamson Family Papers Volume I: The College Years, 1844-1852. Copies of this publication are available to be checked out (or purchased) at the library.