As the library staff and the Friends both wound down their fiscal years last month, some year-end purchasing took place. Each year the Friends approve certain projects that the library staff proposes, but each project is scheduled for funding during a specific quarter of the year. Fourth quarter projects included new equipment for the childrens room and Book Clubs in a Bag for adults and young adults.

In the childrens room theres the crawl-through climber, a worm-like structure that invites exploration, a new display unit for the bin books, and a floor mat and vinyl blocks that will be used primarily for our lap-sit storytimes (storytimes for children who are not yet one year old). Also, Ms. Kathleen will be enjoying a swell new cart for transporting the many things she needs for the six storytime sessions she does each week.

The Book Club in a Bag idea is one that Richard Groves, our public services librarian, and Bethni King, our young adult librarian, have been discussing for some time. A Book Club in a Bag includes ten paperback copies of a book along with general suggestions for organizing a book club and specific discussion questions for the book in the bag. Bags will be checked out for two months’long enough for club members to have plenty of time to read the selection before it will be discussed at their meeting. Titles that are available include some classics and some recent bestsellers’fifteen titles in all. Watch for publicity about this program when the bags are ready to be checked out.