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I would like to introduce you to Barbara Hawkes the new Development Coordinator at Topsham Public Library. Barbara and her family have recently moved back to Maine and when she heard of the opportunity here, she applied. You will see from her experience that she has worked in a variety of areas that are real assets in her role as Development Coordinator.

Before the return to Maine, Barbara was living in Naples, Florida where she served at Hodges University as Director of Lifelong Learning, Director of Community Outreach, and as an academic librarian with English as a Second Language responsibilities. Prior to her work in the academic world, Barbara spent twenty years in Portland, Maine conducting research in the environmental engineering field, and for ten years after that she was awarded a grant to help family services organizations and  government departments work together to help children transition to kindergarten.

It is evident that Barbara is adept at working with public and private sectors and helping them work together toward a common goal. As a matter of fact, that is one opportunity she likes to tackle: “I enjoy bringing different groups together that don’t know each other.” And that is what being a Development Coordinator offers her. She likes to engage with people and get the broader community involved. She wants to develop relationships with the business community in order to partner with and support the mission of Topsham Public Library.

In these times, where money is tight, being a development coordinator has its challenges, but Barbara is ready. She is looking for ways to partner and leverage resources. And problems, well Barbara likes to look at problems “and find the opportunities in them.”

As well as her responsibilities here, Barbara keeps busy with her twelve year old twins who both play hockey, so whether she likes it or not, these days Barbara is a bit of an early bird to get that much coveted ice time. She also likes to relax by walking and practicing yoga when she has the time.

Although she bemoans how little time she has to read for fun (don’t we all), her recent favorites include All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. And like us all, Barbara has a chink in her armor – a sweet tooth. She prefers chocolate to vanilla, cake over pie, and a doughnut instead of a muffin. Oh, and ditch the salad, her dark side wants the fries.

If her path had taken a different turn, she would have wanted to be a journalist and/or a writer. Poetry would have a major place in her writing. She has written poetry and when she was an undergraduate, she had five of her works were chosen for her collegiate poetry publication.

We are glad to have Barbara on board, and we hope you give her a great Topsham Public Library welcome!

April is fast approaching, and if you are not aware, April is Poetry Month. Below you will find my feeble attempt at rhyme, and after your eye-rolling and guffaw suppression is over, come to Topsham Public Library and pick up a collection of real poetry.

As I sit here at my desk

I consider the cold white mess

And I will not give in to despair

Cuz  spring is in the air! 

Tulips, daffodils and crocus 

will soon raise their colorful heads

and I will grab the closest book

and read it through in the flower beds. 

Through Spring, summer, fall, and winter

and winter, and winter, and winter

Topsham Public Library stands 

for one and all to join and re-enter. 

The Tuesday Mayhem Society cordially invites you to join them on Saturday, March 31, 2018 at 1pm at Topsham Public Library for an afternoon of murder, madness, and strange fiction. Come hear some of Maine’s brightest stars of dark literature as they share stories and poetry in their second annual literary celebration.

Authors will include Peter N. Dudar and Morgan Sylvia. Dudar is the Bram Stoker Award-nominated author of A Requiem for Dead Flies and the Solstice Award-winning novella Where Spiders Fear to Spin and proud member of the New England Horror Writers and a founding member of the local writers group, The Tuesday Mayhem Society. His latest novel, The Goat Parade, was released in February and is available now in trade paperback and on Kindle.

Sylvia is an Aquarius, a metalhead, a coffee addict, a beer snob, and a work in progress. A former obituarist, she is now working as a full-time freelance writer. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in several places, including Wicked Witches, Wicked Haunted, Northern Frights, Twice Upon An Apocalypse, and Endless Apocalypse. In 2013, she released Whispers From The Apocalypse, a horror poetry collection. Her first novel, Abode, was released from Bloodshot Books in July 2017. She also writes for Antichrist Metalzine.

The event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

At the circulation desk, we are often asked if we keep a record of what people have read. Sometimes people forget if they’ve read a certain book or not, or they’ve read a great book and cannot remember the title, and people just want us to help them remember.

Topsham Public Library does not keep records of what patrons have checked out. Once a person returns an item, and the item is checked in, the item disappears from the patron’s record and we cannot see what they have checked out in the past. Privacy is important and to protect the privacy of our patrons, we do not keep track of what people have checked out.

If you are like me, you need some way to remember what you’ve read so that you don’t check out the same book over and over again, or to help you remember a really good book you’ve read. I have little notebooks. Right now I have 3 full notebooks and I’m half-way through my fourth. There are problems with this. The main problem I have is remember where I put my notebooks. Not only do I have to keep track of where my notebooks are, but I don’t carry those notebooks with me, so they do me no good when I’m at the library or the bookstore and the notebooks are at home.

I have decided to try something new. goodreads is an app that keeps track of what you’ve read. Not only does it keep track of what you’ve read, you can keep a to-read list as well, so you’re not wasting time figuring out what to read next or trying to remember a title that you’ve been wanting to read.

goodreads has been around for years, but I have been hesitant to sign up because I liked my notebook system and I try to stay away from technology if at all possible. My decision to try goodreads has also corresponded with my attempt to simplify. My house is littered with little pieces of paper covered in titles that I want to read but haven’t got to yet and the papers are multiplying like mice and it looks cluttered and messy and aaaaaaaaaaaggggghhhhhhhhhhhh. I need it all in one place. goodreads also lets you rate what you’ve read using a 5 star system, and if you enjoy writing reviews of the books you’ve read, you can do that too.

Now, goodreads is an app, so they try and get you to connect with social media, and to add friends but I won’t have it. You do not have to connect your goodreads account to social media if you don’t want to. If you want to, they make it easy for you, but I have not opted for that. And know, if you do write a review, that review may be seen by any goodreads user who looks up that title.

Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes. So far so good.

Do you have a system to keep track of what you’ve read? What is it? Are there other apps that help you keep track of your reading out there that you like?