Plans for the new year

Like everyone else in the world, we're well into planning for 2010 at the Tumbler Ridge Public Library. From the sounds of things, patrons and staff alike are in for a very good beginning to the year.

First, Sharon and I have been ordering books like crazy since we received the go-ahead from the library's accountant late last month. A handful have been delivered (in record time no less), but the majority of them will be arriving in early 2010. These books comprise our choices from *two* quarterly hotlists published by United Library Services (our main book supplier), a dozen smaller brochures from various publishers/distributors, and titles we've stumbled upon over the course of the last few months. While the books from these orders arrive, Sharon and I will be going through our non-fiction section to identify gaps in the library's collection and then ordering books to fill the gaps.

Second, I received a call from IT North (the library's tech support company) yesterday. Our new patron computers are ready to be installed. Regular users of the library probably know that our current patron computers are getting pretty old (the majority of them are still Pentium-IIIs) and that it's definitely time for an upgrade.

Third, the library's seventeeth Itchy Feet season will begin in the new year. We had over a dozen Itchy Feet presentations last year (including a stellar one by yours truly), and they provided an excellent respite from the winter doldrums.

Finally, the library's children's programming will start up again in mid-January. Wednesday Club, Lapsit, and Storytime will return to provide the weekly recommended allotment of library fun for children.

We've got an exciting start to the year ahead, so stop by the library early and often in 2010.
Merry Christmas folks!

--Jacob Fehr

=====Coming Attraction=====

Stay tuned for A Very Special Storytime on January 29th.

Featuring the King of Itchy Feet 2009, the Illustrious Impresario of ILLs, the Overlord of Overdues, the Charismatic Captain Amazing, the library's Head of Technical Services himself:

Jacob Fehr

in his first storytime ever with Sharon in attendance.


The Theme: Hockey (to coincide with the Olympic torch passing through TR that weekend)
The Books: The best hockey books in the library's children's collection PLUS Jacob's favourite children's story
The Craft: a Jacob original craft

9:30am - Daycare Storytime
10:30am - General public Storytime (pre-registration for 2010 storytime sessions is on now)

Thoughts on NOT spoiling Christmas for children

[Please note, the opinion expressed in this blog post is my personal opinion as a human being, not a library technician, and is not endorsed or approved by the Tumbler Ridge Public Library, its staff, manager, or board.]

I recently heard about the kerfuffle at the Christmas concert last night. For those who are unaware, a man stood up unannounced (and indeed, was not part of the program) and began reciting a lengthy poem describing how Santa Claus is a marketing creation while event organizers tried to figure out who this man was and what he was doing.

This did not occur during an adult conversation of the over-commercialization of Christmas, or during a roundtable discussion about the cost of Christmas. This occured at a Christmas concert where Santa was seeing children down the hall...

Here my response to that man:

*Beginning of extreme sarcasm*

Fantastic! Would you like to kick some puppies for an encore?

*End of extreme sarcasm*

Even if the modern view of Santa was a marketing creation as this man claims, Santa STILL represent an ideal that we can and should aspire to. Santa is an unselfish person who works extremely hard to bring joy to others and asks for nothing in return. That's something we should be celebrating, not denegrating, particularly during this time of year.

Now, I fully acknowledge the rights of this individual to have his own opinion. I also acknowledge his rights to pass his beliefs about Santa and Christmas on to his own family.

However, this man does not have the right to attempt to destroy Christmas for children in Tumbler Ridge. We live in an age when children seem to lose their innocence younger and younger every year. A belief in Santa Claus is one of the precious few things that allow children to remain children for a few brief years, and to try to take that away from these children and their parents is inexcusable.

--Jacob Fehr

Various Announcements

There are quite a few things going on in the library in December, so I thought I'd write a quick post about them. If you're a regular visitor to the library's website (tumblerridge.bclibrary.ca), you've probably already read about them, and may feel free to skip down to my previous blog post.


Holiday Hours @ the Library
Thursday, December 10: 10am-5pm (closed early for staff + board Christmas party)
December 24 - December 28: Closed
December 29 - December 30: 10am-5pm
December 31 - January 1: Closed


Food + Fun for Fines
December 1st to 15th

The library is continuing its holiday tradition of forgiving overdue fines in exchange for a donation to the Tumbler Ridge Foodbank.

1) Bring in non-perishable food items or a new, nonwrapped toy to the library

2) Ask a library staff member to clear your overdue fines.

Please note: Fines related to lost books, damaged books, or processing fees will not be forgiven due to the nature of these fines.


Musical Christmas Pajama Party
Join us on Tuesday, December 15th at 6:30 for the library's annual Musical Christmas Pajama Party. The evening will include

Music with

• Brian Bray
• Kelly McManus and Georgia LaPrairie-McManus
• The Top of the Hill Gang
• Crys White and her marmots

a Craft with library staff

a visit from Santa

Pajama attire is strongly encouraged.


Book Launch + Sale

On December 17th at 7pm, the library will play host to the book launch and sale of

The Forgotten Explorer:
Samuel Prescott Fay's 1914 Expedition to the Northern Rockies
by Dr. Charles Helm and Mike Murtha