There's Something Here for Everyone!

Here’s what’s new:
ADULT FICTION
Fresh Disasters by Stuart Wood
The River Knows by Amada Quick
The 6th Target by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
The Good Guy by Dean Koontz
Sunrise by Karen Kingsbury
The Alibi Man by Tami Hoag
Deep Storm by Lincoln Child
Whisker of Evil by Rita Mae Brown
Hard Truth by Nevada Barr
Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy
Body Surfing by Anita Shreve
The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith

ADULT NON-FICTION
Stealing Your Life by Frank W. Abagnale

YOUNG ADULT
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

EASY READERS
Fancy Nancy by Jane O’Connor
Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy by Jane O’Connor
Bad Dog, Marley by John Grogan
An Egg is Quiet by Dianna Aston
A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston

AUDIO BOOKS
Night by Elie Wiesel
Wisdom of Our Fathers by Tim Russert
Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick
American Gospel by Jon Meacham
Patriotic Fire by Winston Groom
War on the Middle Class by Lou Dobbs
The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis
10 Days that Unexpectedly Changed America
The Innocent Man by John Grisham
Marley and Me by John Grogan
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley

DVDs
Adventures of Milo and Otis
Night at the Museum

Whew! That is quite a list. My fingers are tired, and there must be something there for everyone.

More new stuff for Homer Library

HOMER LIBRARY NEWS

Have you been to the new Homer Village Hall lately? If not, you haven’t seen the progress. The new book drop is in place. Once the brickwork is done, the audio-video drop will go up. The dry wall has been applied in the auditorium/future library. Soon we will be painting.

New books on CD have arrived, and more are on the way.

The Summer Reading Program starts June 6 at 1 p.m. It will continue each Wednesday in June and July, except for the Fourth, at the same time, and last for one hour. Our theme this year is Mission Read: To the Library and Beyond. Each week there will be crafts, games, sometimes treats, and a reading promotion. Children who read during the summer will have an easier time when school starts again in the fall.

The final distribution for this school year of books from the Reading is Fundamental Program took place on May 15. Each child in grades K through 4 received a free book of his or her choice. This is the last federally funded distribution for Homer. From now on, we will have to fund it ourselves. Previously, the federal program provided 75% of the cost.

A BOOK YOU MUST READ

Stealing Your Life by Frank W. Agagnale is shocking. The author deals with identity theft, and details all the many ways your identity can be stolen. Even the identity of companies and the dead have been stolen. Your deceased loved ones can be victims, but it is the decendents who will pay the price. He gives ways that you can protect your identity.

Borrow it from your local library, or buy a copy. But whatever you do, read this book.

Back soon with cheerier news!!

Book drop, summer program, audiobooks

The new book drop is up! Please make it easy for us! Use it rather than the one at the old building. The new one is a drive-by type. We've made it easy for you!

The summer reading program begins June 6 at 1 p.m. and continues every Wednesday in June and July except for the Fourth. The theme this year is: Mission Read: To the Library and Beyond. Games, crafts, food and a reading promotion are all part of what we do at the programs.

More audiobooks are filling the shelves. Take one with you on a long road trip. It sure can help the miles go by! If you like to read in the car, as I do, while hubby (or wife) drives, we're got plenty of new books to take along.

Book Drop

The new book drop is in place at our new location. Please don't use the one at 101 North Main Street anymore.

The book drop is only for print material. Please do not put DVDs, CDs, etc. in it. An AV drop will be going up soon.

Lots going on here

Lots going on here!

The Summer Reading Program begins June 6 at 1 p.m. and will run through July 25. This year’s theme is Mission Read: To the Library and Beyond. Children ages 5 to 10 are invited to participate. We will be having games, crafts, a reading promotion and prizes, especially on the last day. Because the Fourth of July falls on a Wednesday, we will not meet that day.

Work on the new library continues. The book drop will soon be in place. In a month or so, the painting will begin in the sanctuary. We can use help with that project. Contact a librarian or board member if you would like to help.

The work on the sidewalk on East Second Street out to the new village hall is ongoing.

The new printer/scanner/copier has arrived and is available for use.

Our new books this week are Whisker of Evil by Rita Mae Brown, Hard Truth by Nevada Barr, Sunrise by Karen Kingsbury, Deep Storm by Lincoln Child, The Alibi Man by Tami Hoag, Body Surfing by Anita Shreve, Invisible Prey by John Sandford, Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy, and How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman.

We are open from 2 to 7 p.m. weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Our phone number is 896-2121.

New stuff in April

What’s new in the Homer Library this week?

The first shipment of audio books has arrived and is on the shelf. Most of the books are on CD. A few are cassettes. The library won a grant to purchase them, and that money can only be spent for audio books. That’s how grants work.

Our new adult fiction includes Daddy’s Girl by Lisa Scottline, Obsession by Jonathan Kellerman, The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian, No Legal Grounds by James Scott Bell, I Heard That Song Before, Hide by Lisa Gardner, The Woods by Harlan Coben, Deception by Randy Alcorn and Past Perfect by Susan Isaacs.

The Champaign County Farm Bureau Women’s Committee has donated a book, Barns of Champaign County 2006.

Our new DVDs are Sweet Home Alabama, Blue Collar Comedy, Bewitched, Along Came Polly, The Stepford Wives, and The Valley of Light, a Hallmark production.

Our new children’s books are My Tooth is About to Fall Out by Grace Maccarone and Piper by Emma Chichester Clark.

Book Sale Soon!

As part of the village wide garage sales, there will be a book sale in the old village hall on May 5. In addition to books, there will be a variety of other items, including some furniture. Be sure to stop in.

No fines this week!

In honor of National Library week, now through Saturday, April 21, we are not charging any fines. Bring back an item due last week, or last year. Either way, there are no fines due. What a deal!

What's new? How can you help?

WHAT’S NEW THIS MONTH IN THE HOMER LIBRARY??

Would you like to help make a difference in Homer? Do you see unmet needs here? Do you have ideas to improve our community? Then you should join the Homer Community Improvement Association. They meet each first and third Thursday at the Homer Bank at 7 p.m.

We are in the process of replacing our old VHS tapes with DVDs. You can help, either by donating cash to help with the purchases, or by purchasing them yourself. If you choose the latter, be sure to check with us first to see what titles are needed.

New DVDs include Happy Feet, The Nativity Story, Eragon, Christy – the Complete Series, Rocky Balboa, and The Pursuit of Happyness.

Our new adult titles include Obsession by Jonathan Kellerman, Hide by Lisa Gardner, Past Perfect by Susan Isaacs, Daddy’s Girl by Lisa Scottoline, I Heard that Song Before by Mary Higgins Clark, The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian, Lethal Justice by Fern Michaels, and No Legal Grounds by James Scott Bell.

April 15 to 21 is National Library Week. Once again, we will be holding a fine free week. If you have books overdue a day or a year, you can return them during that week without having to pay fines. What a deal!

New DVDs

Do you need something to watch while you wait for the weather to warm up and dry out? We've got some new DVDs. Try Eragon, based on the book by the same name. Or Rocky Balboa with Stallone. Or Christy, the complete series of the television show of the same name. Lastly, we have The Nativity Story. All are ready to be checked out.

Book Drop

The new book drop arrived yesterday. It will be several weeks before it is installed. It will offer great convenience to library users and staff. On order is an AV (audio/video) drop, which will sit next to the book drop. We look for it to arrive next month.

Bids were opened last week. Work on the lighting should begin around the middle of next month. Progress is being made!!

What's New in Homer Community Library??

Each year a special calendar is published, giving important dates of Homer individuals and their loved ones. Birthdays and anniversaries of residents, their children, and grandchildren can all be listed on the calendar. You can buy a calendar for $3.00 plus $1.00 for each listing. Extra calendars are $6.00 each, unless you add a second family to the list and want a calendar for those listings.

Contact the librarian at 896-2121 or a library board member for more information or to reserve a calendar.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins was honored recently with this year's 2007 Rebecca Caudill program award. This book is available in the Homer Library.

Progress report on the building project: Sara Essig, KC Jones and others have diligently worked on the demolition. Bids were opened this week for the electrical and dry wall work. That work should begin soon. The book drop and AV drop are ordered. We look for them to arrive in a few weeks.

Our newest books are Shadow Dance by Julie Garwood, Web of Evil by J.A. Jance, Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein, Sisters by Danielle Steel, and The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun.

Marnie Hess graciously filled in for Chris, who was in Oregon following the birth of a grandson. She recommends that the day before the spring time change is not a good time to fly east, crossing two time zones coming home, for a total loss of three hours.

Is the library open??

Sometimes, you may not see any vehicles in the parking lot during hours when the library is open. That does not mean that no one is here. Sometimes, the car may be in the shop, we got a ride, or Chris walked here. If you drive up to the door, you can easily check to see if the door is unlocked. Or, if the weather is bad, like recent snowstorms, call first to see if anyone is here. Our phone is 896-2121.

Fire fund

On February 13, the day of the blizzard, a local family lost their home. In part, it was because the fire trucks couldn’t get through the drifts in time. The home, which was only about five years old, was a total loss. The McKees have two children, a son and a daughter. Susan McKee is a Scout leader and both children have participated in library programs for several years. Susan was one of the Scout moms who served the meal to all those who helped us move last month.

A fund has been set up for the family at the Sidell Bank. People are asked to mail contributions to the Fire Relief Fund, Sidell Bank, P.O.Box 50, Sidell, Ill 61876. Contributions may also be dropped off at the Homer Bank, a branch of the Sidell bank.

What's new in Homer this week??

HOMER LIBRARY NEWS

What’s new in the Homer Library? We’ve got new books coming in all the time. Already here are Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge, High Profile by Robert B. Parker, Family Tree by Barbara Delinsky, About Alice by Calvin Trillin, and Ever After by Karen Kingsbury. Our new DVDs are Remembering Marshall, Facing the Giants, Flicka, Flyboys and One Night with the King. A new picture book, (donated by a local resident,) The Deaf Musicians, tells how a newly deaf piano man learned how to be a musician again and formed a band of deaf people. The book won the Schneider Family Book Award.

New books arriving this week include Shadow Dance by Julie Garwood, The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun, Bad Blood by Linda Fairstein, The Ravenscar Dynasty by Barbara Taylor Bradford, and Web of Evil by J. A. Jance.

For the young people, the following books will be arriving: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, the Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz, The Secret Order of the Gunn Street Girls by Elise Primavera, and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine.

If you are a Homer resident and have a library card, you need to come to the library and get your card renewed if you haven’t already. All Homer resident cards expired in January. Any outstanding fines must be paid at that time, also.

What are you reading? I am reading Yukon Quest by Tracie Peterson, a series of three books in one. As our temperatures drop outside, I am reading of a trek up into the Yukon during the Alaskan gold rush, through an area that is winter most of the year. Brr. Makes me cold all over again, but thankful for a warm home and all its comforts.

Below, you can see pictures from the move, January 13, 2007. The first picture shows us moving out. The second shows the work involved in moving in, as books are being put on the shelves in the new location.

The Move January 13, 2007

HOW ONE SMALL CASH POOR LIBRARY PREPARED FOR THE MOVE DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON, MOVED IN ONE WEEKEND WITHOUT SPENDING ANY LIBRARY MONEY, OPENED ON TIME THE FOLLOWING MONDAY AND LIVED TO TELL THE STORY

We sure didn’t have much money, and we couldn’t afford our own building. But when we heard that the former church, built in 1997, was for sale, we thought of the potential that was there. Our present location left a lot to be desired. It was a historic building, to be sure, built in 1902, with an intact opera house in the second floor. However, our library occupied too small a space for the population we serve, the heating and air conditioning needed to be upgraded, and it was not accessible. We had worked with a library building consultant and an architect to draw up a building plan for renovation of the building, which would include enlargement of the library. But we never could come up with enough money to do the work.

So, the former church sure looked like the answer. Our former location was actually a community center, and the village officials bought the church with the idea that it would be the new community center, including the library. And we have enough money set aside that we can afford to do what we need to do in the new location.

Once the plan was approved, we had serious work to do. To move a library, you need to plan and organize. You need people, time, boxes, tape, markers, scissors, muscles, and cameras to record the progress. Our board president and our director began about nine weeks ahead of the move, planning and organizing. Others pitched in as they were able. We were assisted for several days by a relative from Kentucky. Three heads are better than two, especially when two are sisters. We weeded out one fourth of the collection and set those books aside for a sale. We went through every object in the library, and almost every paper in every file cabinet, threw out magazines and catalogs, put older books in storage, putting unwanted items for that upcoming garage sale.

Each shelf, file cabinet, piece of furniture and unboxed item was labeled with color coded sticky labels as to where it was to go in the new location. Boxes were appropriately labeled as to room number, number of shelf or spinner and starting and ending authors or titles in the box.

The night before the move, we closed the library two hours early. The board members, directors and others spend five hours packing up the remaining collection and other items.

The volunteer fire department volunteered, or was volunteered, to move us the half mile to the new location. The husband of one board member was able to secure a furniture van. Boxes came from everywhere – the local grocery store, a moving business, and several board members who were present or former business owners. Local businesses provided food, which was served by the Girl Scouts.

Moving day, January 13, 2007, was damp, with a forecast of an ice storm. Thankfully, it was nothing worse than light rain. The movers started by 9 a.m. and had everything out to the new location by 11:30. We had as many community members helping us reshelve as we had space for them to work. By 4:30, everything was shelved and ready for a Monday opening.

Much remains to be done, and we will be moving again, once our permanent location in the building is ready for us. But then, we will only have to move down the hall.

This move brought out the best in some of the residents of Homer. Not everyone who helped us uses the library on a regular basis, but they recognize the value of the library to the community as a whole.

Our Upcoming Move

Weather permitting, the Homer Library will close January 12 at 5 p.m. to pack up. The move will take place Saturday, January 13. We plan to reopen Monday, January 15 at the normal time of 2 p.m. To make this happen, we are asking those who are familiar with the Dewey Decimal System and are good at alphabetizing to help us reshelve materials on Saturday evening.

Because some confusion will result, we are suspending fines for one week, from Saturday, January 13 to Saturday January 20. That will be a good time to return those overdue books and other materials, no matter when you checked them out. Fines will again begin to accrue on January 22.

More news here!

Have you seen the winning bookmarks that the school children made? All the entries are on display in the hallway outside the library or inside on the table. The winning bookmarks are available in the library to anyone who wants them. Help yourself to one or more.

Have you been in the library lately? If you have, you’ve seen that we are hard at work preparing for the move. Everything on, under or beside the sale table is still only one nickel each. That includes videos and music CDs. Help yourself to a bargain.

Is there an Illinois Veteran in your family? The State of Illinois is sponsoring an Illinois Veterans’ Project, to honor veterans and save the history of their service in the military. Participation forms can be picked up at the library.

The newest DVDs are Superman Returns and Ice Age: The Meltdown. Our new books are Ricochet by Sandra Brown, Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris, The Bancroft Strategy by Robert Ludlum, Wildfire by Nelson DeMille, Coach Tex Winter: Triangle Basketball by Ann Parr, Whispers of Winter by Tracie Peterson, Glad Tidings by Debbie Macomber, Ready for Love by Debbie Macomber, and A Woman’s Place by Lynn Austin.

Also new are two employees, Brenda Stineman and Marnie Hess. Marnie has extensive library experience and will be here on a regular basis, and Brenda will fill in as needed. Holly Humphrey has moved on to other activities. If you see her, please wish her well and thank her for her service here.

It is not too late to register your interests in non-fiction audio books. We have not ordered them yet. Pick up a survey form in the library, or go to our blog to get the url of the survey. It is two parts on the internet. Thanks to all who have participated so far. Our blog can be found at homerillinois.blogspot.com