By Pamela West-Finkle 
The talk of the library has been our lengthy winter and how sick everyone is of the snow. The good news is, Summer is right around the corner and so are some of our favorite library events and programs!
Please save the date for our Annual Indoor-Outdoor Party, Sunday, June 3rd from 2 to 5 pm. Come and enjoy sweet and savory treats and the company of friends in the library, out on the deck and in the gazebo. Most likely there will be impromptu music as well—especially since this year’s Summer Reading Program theme is “Libraries Rock!”
Speaking of our Summer Reading Program, we are very excited to announce that we received two Youth Programming grants from the O’Connor Foundation. The grants are paying for three all-ages family concerts (including our own Ira McIntosh), as well as a host of music workshops for kids ages preschool to high school. I am also registering both adults and area youth to sign up for our Libraries Rock Bingo card to earn prizes and incentives. I plan to visit Andes Central School in May to talk about all of our wonderful summer programming, but anyone in the community is welcome to sign up and participate.
Also in May, the Andes Public Library is pleased to once again host Sharon Ruetenik’s Writers in the Mountains workshop The Journey From Theme to Images to Poem. The class will take place on Monday evenings 6-8pm from May 7th to June 18th, skipping Memorial Day. Go to www.writersinthemountains.org to register, or contact Jean Stone at 607-326-4802 or jtstone@catskill.net.
You may have noticed the library has been getting a little facelift. When Dale Kirby came to do some repairs to the front siding, he discovered quite a bit of rotting underneath. When weather has permitted, he and his crew have been doing a wonderful job restoring the siding to the part of the library that dates back to the 1850s.
Another big thank you goes to Mark Unthank for upgrading our Kiosk. In addition to having full digital access to e-books, audiobooks, online magazines via Flipster, and now Project Guttenberg, we will soon have two hundred public domain audio books in both English and Spanish available for permanent download (meaning you own that copy, unlike the Overdrive e-books and audio books that have to be available for check out and then disappear from your electronic device at the end of the check-out period). If you would like a demonstration, please make an appointment with me Monday through Thursday. Also, if you use the kiosk and download any of the public domain audio books, please sign the purple notebook with your name, date, and title of your download so that we can keep track for our state report numbers.
We have many wonderful new books in the library. Gloria has been busy with acquisitions and according to many of our patrons we have one of the best new book selections available. Always remember, whatever we don’t have, we can order from the Four County Library system. Deliveries are on Mondays and Wednesdays, and sometimes Gloria just orders a copy for our library for everyone’s enjoyment.
Kari Haugeto has also been a wonderful asset to the library. We have started our barcode project and she will be in the library weekly. If you’ve never received a barcoded library card, you might be getting one in the mail soon as she’s diligently going over our list of over 800 patrons to update everyone’s accounts and issue cards to those patrons who don’t have one. Soon, we will start processing our 15,000 items and adding barcodes.
Hope to see you at our Annual Party, Sunday June 3rd! ~