Monday, February 19, 2024

Literary Soul Mates - Year 2

 

2-16-2024

I have a note in my calendar that reads “Literary Soul Mate”. I thought it was a reminder to write about Claudia Felske’s traditional Valentine’s Day gift to her AP Students. It wasn’t, but I will anyway.

Last year I mentioned receiving a Valentine’s cookie from a nameless friend in honor of Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice and why I like him. At the time I didn’t mention her name partly because making the cookies for her students was a meant as a surprise. Given the students in AP English Lit are mostly seniors and any future students they would tell have a year to forget, it might have actually stayed a surprise. I wasn’t going to publish it in the newspaper.

This year, however, is Claudia’s final lap through the school calendar. She retires this June, so I may announce it from the rooftop. I also posted the question on Facebook: Who is your literary soul mate? If you don’t already follow ETLPL, now’s a great time to start doing so.

While you’re online, this weekend is also our current website’s swan song. You may bid it farewell. Lisa and I, mainly Lisa, have been transferring the information from our current site and reorganizing a bit. The new site looks a little cleaner and hopefully requires few clicks to find information. Gone will be the rotating display in the center of the home page. Instead, there will be focused announcements and a more prominent weekly calendar of events. The library’s IT and our web developer will begin the handoff Monday morning at 8:00. They predict a two hour turn around time, so the new site should be up when we unlock the doors that day.

I’m hoping one piece of news on the main page will be the number of community surveys were completed. Last week I challenged the community to exceed the under 50 expectations and reach triple digits. At 2:00 on Monday, we had 93 completed. I have faith seven more will have been turned in by the time it closed this morning.

The Strategic Planning Committee’s next step will be to analyze the data from those surveys which will include comparing it to our service population’s demographics and identifying common themes. Sounds like fun doesn’t it?

We’ll follow that up with long term goal setting.

My short-term goal is to finish the autumn puzzle that has been in the library since, well, autumn. Part of the picture is a very colorful tree that is making finishing it difficult. Once that’s done, there are plenty of puzzles left from our puzzle exchange to replace it. The shelving to house a permanent swap were assembled by Lisa’s husband Jim. On February 1st, the puzzles were moved down there. Anytime a patron wants to donate or exchange a puzzle, we can open that room.

Reading Now: A Killer in the Family by Gytha Lodge

Listening to Now: Hounded by Kevin Hearnes (Book 1 of Iron Druid series)

 

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