New Magazine Subscriptons

Periodically Speaking
We've recently added 10 new titles to our collection of circulating periodicals. New titles complement already popular titles on topics you've indicated you most enjoy. Add a magazine to your checkout selections!

Travel: Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, Travel and Leisure
Cooking: Easy Home Cooking, Taste of Home
Crafts/Craftsmanship: McCall's Quilting, Fine Woodworking
Home Finances: Smart Money
Picture Perfect: Popular Photography
Your Home and You: Ladies Home Journal, Real Simple

Each issue, excepting the most current, may be checked out for 14 days. Outdated issues are eventually deposited in the library's drop-and-swap bin located in the lobby.

In Memoriam

Former Governor William A. O'Neill, 1930-2007

East Hampton's favorite son, Bill O'Neill, died Saturday in his East Hampton home at the age of 77 and after a life led in public service.

From Around Our State

Hartford Courant: "Titan" of State Politics

CT State Library: Roster of CT State Governors

Gov. O'Neill Archives: CCSU Oral Histories

CT Post Online: Former Governor William A. O'Neill

WTIC News Radio: William Atchison O'Neill

News from the Books and Reading Front

It's All In How You Read It
On November 19th, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) released "To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence" a compendium of over 40 studies that indicate we, as a nation, spend less time reading than we did 20 years ago and as consequence -- we read less well.

On the tail of the NEA's report came the November 26th issue of Newsweek and its cover story featuring Jeff Bezos, e-commerce pioneer and Amazon's CEO. Bezos describes the Amazon Kindle, a potentially transformative e-reading device.

All in all, it's been a week or more of leading-edge news about the state of books and reading in our nation. We certainly have much to say about the news but we're far more interested in your views.

Post a comment on how you read it.

Friday Story Hour Update

Cool Shoes Story Hour
As many of you know, the library hosts a Friday afternoon story hour led by Rae "Cool Shoes" Strickland. Children ages 3-5 are invited to drop in with their caregivers and participate in a rousing round of well-told stories aimed at helping young children acquire a range of ready-to-read literacy skills.

Cools Shoes Take a Second Step
On Friday November 16, our Cool Shoes story hour became a collaborative effort. JoAnn LePage, coordinator for the East Hampton Early Childhood Council's Second Step Program, joined our Friday afternoon team and enhances our ready-to-read emphasis with Second Step's larger ready-for-school focus. So come on down to the library on Friday's at 1 p.m. and enjoy the coolest ways to use your preschool shoes to step, step, step forward on your way to kindergarten!

About Second Step
Second Step, a violence prevention program, teaches the pre-kindergartner empathy skills, self control/anger management skills, and non-aggressive problem solving skills. Each lesson's topic is addressed through stories, discussion, role play, music, puppetry, and games. The 15 -20 minute award winning curriculum offers lessons such as calming down strong feelings, dealing with not getting what you want, and fair ways to play. Second Step is designed to teach children from their earliest years to understand feelings, to make positive choices and to keep anger from escalating into violence.

Calling All Kindergarteners!

You're Big, You're Strong, You're Especially Special... and Ready to Read!
Being in Kindergarten means it's that special time when you can learn new things, make new friends, and get your first card at the East Hampton Public Library!

Come on down to the library with your parents, get your very own library card -- and take home a special little treat to mark the milestone. Then go pick out lots of books to celebrate you -- the mighty Kindergartener!

Library of Congress Enters the Blogosphere

207 Years Old and Growing Younger by the Day
The Library of Congress, 207 years-old on April 24, 2007, is made of sturdy stuff. Widely known as a leading provider of reputable online content -- the LOC web site features 22 million digital items and receives 5 billion hits a year -- the LOC is not surprisingly among the first federal agencies to join the blogosphere. Both the Smithsonian and National Endowment for Arts are also experimenting with blogs.

Matt Raymond, the Library's Director of Communications, writes for the LOC's blog, which also features contributions from the Librarian, curators, and other Library staff members. The blog features "new" information about LOC activities and "old" information that draws attention to the LOC's extraordinary digital collections and LOC web site features that deliver reputable content.

Raising the Blogger Bar
"Given the presence of some 70 million blogs worldwide -- and the exponential increase in blogging as technology makes it easier to access the Web, even with wireless devices and cell phones -- it's crucial that the Library of Congress be part of the collective conversation taking place," Raymond said. "Some of the top blogs have far greater readership than even some top newspapers and magazines," he said. "Blogs are expected and even demanded by people who surf the Web." Raymond all noted the LOC will strive to interest other bloggers while maintaining a high standard of content and conduct.

Quotes appeared in the LOC's June 2007 Information Bulletin

A Whole New Look and...

A Very Stylish Parking Lot
As many of you know, both the library and the Senior Center are proud to call the East Hampton Community Center 'home'. We collectively serve thousands of residents each year and are a port-of-call to many who enjoy and count on our services.

The next time you visit the library and/or Senior Center, please take a moment to notice our new look. We've installed two-sided signs in the front parking lot noting our long-time presence on Main Street. Each side, Senior Center and library (library side shown above) is ready-made to convey our service purpose and our service commitment to you. New signage was funded by grants and donations. We welcome your comments.

Logos and signs designed by Greco Design, East Hampton CT

Poet of the Month

November's Featured Poet
William Wordsworth (1770-1850), a poet of the English Lake District, said at 31 that his life had been “unusually barren of events.” He was a walking poet, like Wallace Stevens, and also like him he sought to wrest meaning out of life through creativity as a function of the imagination. The London of his time was awash with disorder, as reflected in this poem addressed to John Milton:

London, 1802
Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.
Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Further Reading: Negrotti, Rosanna, William Wordsworth : a biography with selected poems; Mahoney, John L., William Wordsworth, a poetic life; Sisman, Adam, The friendship : Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Coming in December: Walt Whitman

Content developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson