By Pamela West-Finkle
Spring is just around the corner and I know our gardeners are eager to get their hands in some dirt. The Andes Library will be participating in the annual Countywide Seed Swap and we have a bunch of packets of seeds leftover from last year if you’re interested in taking some or leaving some. March is the time to get those seedlings started indoors!
For those of you who have trouble getting any corn to grow in your gardens due to pesky crows digging up the seedlings in our rocky Catskill Mountain soil, I would like to share a strategy I used last year. I planted about four dozen corn seedlings indoors. As I started sowing the rest of my garden and planting my other seedlings in mid-to-late May, I moved the corn seedlings to a protected area outdoors to get them acclimated, then transplanted them when they were about three inches tall. For the first time in my thirteen years in Delaware County, I had a corn crop because the plants were bigger than the crows wanted to bother with. Corn is my favorite food, so I was thrilled!
You may notice a new face working in the library a few hours per week. Kari Haugeto has moved back to the area and will be helping us with our barcode project. New York State has mandated that all libraries must have their collections online by January 1, 2021. We currently have over 15,000 items in our library that have to be barcoded and catalogued by our staff, a number of volunteers, and the Four County Library System. Kari will be helping Gloria and me do the extra work necessary and we will be looking for computer-savvy volunteers. If you are interested in volunteering a few hours here and there to help with the project, your assistance would be greatly appreciated! Once we have processed all of our items, our collection will go online via www.4cls.org and you will be able to search our entire catalog and order items from home. Our checkout procedure will also be streamlined, and we will be circulating our books, movies, and CDs to other Four County Libraries as well.
PATRONS ALERT! One of the first things we have to do, however, is find out which of our Andes patrons already have a barcoded Four County library card, and which ones do not. We will be updating our patron list, issuing barcoded cards to those patrons who do not have one (most will probably be sent to you in the mail), and renewing the privilege of those who already have a barcoded library card. Many people do not know that your Four County privilege expires after three years and must be renewed by a librarian. If you try to order something via the Four County website and it does not arrive at our library within a week or two, please call us to be sure your privilege is not expired.
To keep updated on what’s going on at the Andes Library, our new website is officially live. Next time you’re surfing the web, check out www.andeslibrary.org. We’ll be adding some things in the coming months, but there’s a calendar for our programs, clubs, groups, and events, and general information about our library. Coming up in April, we have Johanna VanDeusen of Franklin Eyewear coming on Saturday, April 7th from 10 am to 12 pm to provide a free Eyeglass Repair and Adjustment Clinic. As long as the frame is able to be repaired, there is absolutely no cost to you.
In case you like to file your own paper copy of your New York State taxes, we received a box of 2018 forms and instructions. They are currently located in a box next to the steps leading up to our DVD room. Please help yourself. Also, we have received our new audio circuit collection from Four County. If you are an audio book enthusiast, stop by to peruse the new selection.
Lastly, the Andes Library staff, Board of Trustees, and volunteers would like to extend our deepest condolences to our Board President, Judy Garrison, and her family for the loss of John Telford Gregg on February 1st. He will be greatly missed in this community and at our library. We have several copies of his book Local Stop In the Promised Land if you would like to check one out.~