See you in 2007!

As of 5:00 p.m. today, Friday, the Library is CLOSED for the holiday weekend. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, January 2nd at 9:00 a.m. From all of us at the library, have a safe and happy New Year's celebration, and we look forward to having you visit us throughout 2007!

One more piece of Harry News before the New Year

As we head toward 2007, we may be seeing more snippets of interesting news related to J.K. Rowling's final "Harry Potter" book as she nears it's completion and it's publication. An article was posted yesterday talking about how the British postal service, The Royal Mail, has already begun putting in place plans for properly distributing the book once a publication date is released, to be sure that everyone gets the book as promptly and quickly as possible.

Even though there is no date for the book's release, it remains at the top of Amazon.com's pre-order list. Have you reserved a copy yet?

Future Marathon Themes...

Based on the response so far, we think that the Movie Marathon has been a successful concept, and we're thinking ahead to the possibility of doing it again in the future. If you have suggested themes for us to build movies around, please let us know!

Final Movie Marathon Rundown

We thank you for your attendance so far this week at our movie marathons, and we invite you to close out the week with our "Snow" theme tomorrow, at the following times:

9:30 a.m.-- Cool Runnings

11:15 a.m.-- Snow Dogs

1:00 p.m.-- Ice Princess

2:45 p.m.-- Snow Day

Wednesday's Movie Rundown

We hope that you're joining us during the course of today for our Christmas movies. Tomorrow, Wednesday, is Disney day with the following films being shown:

9:00 a.m.- Cinderella

10:20 a.m.-- The Little Mermaid

11:50 a.m.-- Beauty and the Beast

1:20 p.m.-- Aladdin

3:00 p.m.-- Emperor's New Groove

Warm wishes to you and yours!

From everyone at Lancaster Public Library, we wish you the most wonderful holiday season, and a successful start to 2007! For information on our holiday hours and schedule, please see our post from yesterday.

Harry Potter Title...

The title of the final "Harry Potter" book has been released today. Book 7 will be called "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Scholastic confirms.

Library Funding Restored!!

On Tuesday, we mentioned to you that Lancaster County's library funding for next year may have been cut in the 2007 budget. We are very happy to report that at yesterday's meeting, the commissioners reversed course and approved a budget that provides the full amount of funding that was originally expected. We thank them for this move, and hope to continue to provide great services to you and your families throughout 2007.

For more information on the county budget, check out this article posted this morning at Lancaster Online:

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/28858

Holiday Schedule

In order to allow library staff to celebrate the holiday season, there are some adjustments to the library's regular hours.

Tomorrow, Friday, December 22nd, the Leola Branch will be CLOSED, the Mountville Branch will close at 12:30 and our main location here on Duke Street will close at 1:oo p.m.

All locations of the library will be closed on Saturday the 23rd and Christmas Day, Monday, the 25th.

Next Tuesday through Friday, the 26th to 29th, all locations will be open only from 9:00 a.m-5:00 p.m.

The library will again be closed for the New Year's Holiday on Saturday the 30th and Monday January 1st.

Movie Marathons to Start Tuesday

During the week between Christmas and New Year's, many kids are off from school, and families are looking for something to do. Next week, the library has your solution, as we present movie marathons on different themes each day Tuesday through Friday. On Tuesday, all of our films have a holiday theme. The brief descriptions of each film are from the Internet Movie Database (at www.imdb.com) a great source of move information anytime!

Here's the rundown for Tuesday's films:

9:00 a.m.-- It's a Wonderful Life (An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would had been like if he never existed.)

Appx. 11:15 a.m.-- Miracle on 34th Street (A department store Santa tries to convince a little girl who doesn't believe in Santa Claus that he is Santa Claus, and winds up going on trial to prove who he is.)

Appx. 1:oo p.m.-- Scrooge (An old bitter miser is given a chance for redemption when he is haunted by ghosts on Christmas Eve.)

Appx. 2:30 p.m.--White Christmas (After leaving the Army after W.W.II, Bob Wallace and Phil Davis team up to become a top song-and-dance act. Davis plays matchmaker and introduces Wallace to a pair of beautiful sisters (Betty and Judy) who also have a song-and-dance act. When Betty and Judy travel to a Vermont lodge to perform a Christmas show, Wallace and Davis follow, only to find their former commander, General Waverly, is the lodge owner. A series of romantic mix-ups ensue as the performers try to help the General.)

All four of these films are rated "G" for enjoyment by your whole family! We hope to see you here!

Library Funding Cuts

The Library System of Lancaster County and our library are both in the news today, as part of the 2007 Lancaster County Budget Process.

Read this article from today's Lancaster Online for information:

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/28779

More on the story will appear on tonight's "Fox 43 News @ Ten" as well, featuring interviews with our director, Debra Rosser-Hogben, and our system administrator, Susan Hauer.

Some box office numbers...

For their opening weekend, two movies, one for teens and one for families, placed 2nd and 3rd in box office totals, with only the Will Smith film "The Pursuit of Happyness" taking the first spot. "Eragon" brought in $23.4 million dollars, and the newest remake of Charlotte's Web brought in just over $12 million.

Did you or your family members see either film? If so, please share with us what you thought.

Eragon Movie Really Panned

As we've glanced around the Internet today, we're finding that the reviews of "Eragon" based on the novel by Christopher Paolini, are very bad. The highest rating we were able to find was a B-, but a lot of the other reviews are in the D and D- categories. The film opened today.

Do you plan to see the film this weekend, or during it's theatrical release? If so, visit this post again after you've done so and leave us your review.

Please remember to shop tomorrow!

For those of you now in the last phase of your Christmas shopping (only 9 more shopping days as of today) we remind you that if your holiday lists have someone looking for a book or other item that our partners at Barnes & Noble may have available for sale, tomorrow, Saturday, is the day to shop. Remember to take your voucher (which we hope you picked up at the library, or you can download a new one here: http://www.lancaster.lib.pa.us/lcl/lib/lcl/bnbfvoucher_0001.pdf) so that the Youth Services Department here at the library can benefit. We'll be putting any book fair funds to good use in 2007, so we look forward to your support tomorrow!

We know some Grammy Nominees!

It's not every day that you can say that you know anyone up for a major award, but the guys from Trout Fishing in America, who played at our Memorial Day concert in Long's Park earlier this year released a new CD this fall, called "My Best Day." And, in their most recent newsletter, they shared the word that they've been nominated for a Grammy for their work! Winners will be announced on February 11, 2007.

The concert was a great, "best day" for the library, and we wish them a lot of luck!

A few cool candids...

Here are a couple of photos from Wednesday night's snowglobe making program, where families of all age ranges participated and had a good time.

Another holiday film

As part of our busy December, we'll be showing "Prancer" this coming Monday at 6:30 p.m. to complete our holiday Movie Monday series.

Movie marathons are coming later in the month (more details on those next week) and in January, our movie nights become "Fairy Tale Theater."

Craft Series to Conclude...

Last night, we had a terrific response to our Snowglobe Making activity, with 30 people in attendance here at the library.

Families are invited to return next Wednesday, as we revive the annual tradition of making gingerbread houses at the library before the holidays. The gingerbread house making will start at 6:30 p.m. Pre-registration by next Tuesday is strongly, strongly encouraged so that we make sure to have enough supplies on hand. Pre-register your family by calling 239-2124.

Holiday Toy Recall

Just as an FYI for parents, Wal-Mart has issued a recall on a holiday toy. Check this link for more information...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16205505/

What's your choice? Email or IM?

A new study released last week indicated that more teens prefer to communicate via IM than via email. We're just curious, is that true for you too?

New Teen Space is in place!

The library is proud to announce today that we are just about completed with the process of relocating most of our Young Adult Materials to our new "Teen Space" on the 2nd floor near the elevator in the rear of the building. Be watching this space through the week for new pictures of the space and other information!

Don't be left Home Alone

As we continue our holiday movie series, the library will be showing Home Alone starring MacCaulay Culkin on Monday, December 11th at 6:30 in the Bates Auditorium. Join us for this newer holiday classic and get yourself in the holiday spirit.

Holiday Craft Series Continues

12 people were here for our first ever Cookie Icing Night on Wednesday. Our "holiday craft and activity series" will be continuing next Wednesday, December the 13th, with your chance to make a homemade snow globe! We hope you'll join us for this event!

Happy Birthday, Santa...just a day late!

Did you know that yesterday was Santa's official birthday? One of our groups of librarians, the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) have put together some very cool web links with information on one of the most famous people in the world. Take a look through some of them!

The Saint Nicholas Center, http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=23,
is certainly the Virgin Mother-in-Law of all Nicholas sites, with excellent historical, cultural, and artistic resources, including a kids section. A must for any internet stocking.

http://www.livius.org/ne-nn/nicholas/nicholas_of_myra1.html
The second-best site in the English speaking realm for information on the origin and evolution of "Saint Nicholas, Sinterklaas, Santa Claus" in the historical record and popular imagination.

The American Antiquarian Society has a fantastic online exhibit of the transformation and history of St. Nick, and Christmas in general, in the United States, with images of many rare and famous book covers and artwork.
http://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Christmas/index.htm

Did you know that Rev. Clement Moore LIED about the authorship of "The Night Before Christmas?" One Henry Livingston was the actual author, and you can read excerpts from the Don Foster book which proved this, here:
http://www.iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/sources/authorunknown.htm

The site also has a page of evidence for this literary hoax the Clement foisted upon a zillion editions of that poem. It has news articles from when this fraud was uncovered, as well as poetry by Livingston and Moore for students to decide for themselves.
See: http://www.iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/writinghenryjr.htm

It turns out that Livingston was the first person in the 13 Colonies to use the politically-incorrect phrase "Happy Christmas,"in a letter to his future wife in 1773:
http://www.iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/writing/letters/tosally73.htm

Another urban myth refuted: The modern image of Santa Claus - a jolly figure in a red-and-white suit - was created by Coca-Cola?
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp

Speaking of "The Real Thing," this site got permission from Coke to post many of the Santa advertisements which have appeared in the last 75 years.
http://www.hillmanweb.com/xmas/xmascoke.html

Create a Cool Christmas Cookie!

As part of this year's holiday celebrations, come to the library on Wednesday, December 6th at 6:30 p.m. for your chance to hand decorate and ice Christmas Cookies. It promises to be a lot of fun!

Make it a Muppet Holiday!

Our Monday Muppet Movie Nights have been a success thus far. We invite you to join us this Monday, December 4th at 6:30 when the Muppets celebrate the holiday with "A Muppet Christmas Carol," being shown in the Bates Auditorium.