Au revoir

It is with mixed feelings that I (Mel) announce my departure from Cumberland County Public Library to accept the position of Library Director for the Elizabethton-Carter County Public Library in Elizabethton, TN. As many of you know, my husband, David, and family have continued to live in Jefferson City, TN, while I have been in Cumberland. The original plan for David to relocate to Cumberland as soon as possible after our youngest child graduated from high school just didn't work out, and "as fate would have it" this new & exciting opportunity in Elizabethton came through. While I will be very glad to be close(r) to home and no longer face a 700+ mile round-trip just to see my family, I will also miss the people here and can honestly say I have thoroughly enjoyed my time as Director of Cumberland County Public Library. It is truly the home of good books & great folks!

If you know of someone with an MLS/MLIS who is looking to serve a small, rural community in the heart of Virginia, please direct them to the Library's home page, where they will find a link to the job posting for a new Director of Cumberland County Public Library.

And if you are ever in the Tri-Cities area of East Tennessee, please stop by & say hello!

Friends Annual Meeting & Potluck Supper

The Friends of the Cumberland County Public Library will hold their annual meeting and potluck supper on Wednesday, October 20th, at 7 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of Payne UM Church. If anyone needs a ride, please call the Library!

Held on the Homefront: German POWs in the U.S. 1943 - 1946 -- update

The BUSeum from TRACES will be at the Cumberland County Public Library on FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, from 11 AM until 5 PM. The public is invited & encouraged to stop by and tour this mini-museum on wheels!

Held on the Homefront: German POWs in the U.S. 1943 - 1946

A "Buseum" -- museum (on wheels) -- display of the 660 camps across the U.S. that housed nearly 380,000 German POWs. Virginia had 35 such camps. The display offers "an unusual, rich story brought to life in the BUS-eum, a 40-foot school bus converted into a mobile classroom and museum. The exhibit consists of 15 narrative display panels illustrated with dozens of photographs and documents, DVD documentaries, artifacts, and much more. See still images at http://traces.org/Buseum_3_tour/Buseum_3_Scenes.html ...."

The Friends of Cumberland County Public Library have agreed to sponsor a 6-hour showing here at the Cumberland County Public Library. Dates & times are still being worked out, but we are focusing on either November 18 or 19th. Mark your calendar & keep your eyes & ears open for additional information!

Catalog's New "Name"/Location

The Library's Destiny program has been moved to a new & improved server as of 9:20 this morning. The biggest change patrons might notice is the new domain name: http://destiny.cucps.k12.va.us/vopac/servlet/presentsearchform.do?site=201. I've updated the library's homepage to reflect this new address, but it may take a day or two for the update to be distributed for world-wide access, so if you try to log-in and get an error message, that may be the problem. The new server will allow us to continue to implement improvements & upgrades to Destiny for at least several years into the future.

Many thanks to John Lore at CCPS for his long-suffering work on this project!!

NetLibrary e-books available!

Better late than never??? I learned just yesterday that CCPL has access to over 16,000 e-books on NetLibrary through a purchase made by the Library of Virginia. The most recent acquisition is of a job-search & related skills collection, which was made available only a few months ago. But in investigating our lack of access to that set, I learned that a larger collection had been purchased in 2004.

Access to the books, which have to be read on-line, is now established and the titles have been added to the library's catalog. E-book results will show in any other search you do, along with our physical holdings. To read the ebooks, you will either need to be on a computer in the library, or have first created a free NetLibrary account from a library computer. Once you've created your free NetLibrary account, you'll be able to read the ebooks from any computer with internet access.

Many of the books are non-fiction, but there are some fiction, including some juvenile fiction like 13 Mississippi Ghosts and Jeffrey. I hope you'll take the time to look at this valuable resource!

Thursday, Feb. 11, hours

We opened on time this morning, but will be closing at 6 p.m. this evening so that staff can get home before dark. Back roads are still very treacherous today, covered in packed snow & ice which, for those large sections that are tree-lined, won't see any significant melting until the temperatures stay above freezing for more than just the "heat of the day." And since 3/4 of the library staff and the vast majority of our volunteers live on those back roads, we will continue to close early to get everyone home safe with at least a little daylight to see by.

Library is OPEN

Deanna and Mel are in! We'll likely be open until 5 p.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 10

The library is officially closed today. I'm going to try to make it in around 11 a.m., assuming I can get out of my driveway and down the road. If I do, we'll be open for a couple of hours, maybe as late as 4 p.m.

Closing early; BOS rescheduled

We are closing at 6 p.m. this (Tuesday, Feb. 9) evening. Tomorrow's schedule will be determined by road conditions in the morning. Please call the library to see if we are open before making the trip in!

Also, the County Board of Supervisors meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. this evening has been postponed until next Tuesday (Feb. 16).