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Lines from the Library (October 2002)
By Frankie Shaw It occurred to me the other day that this little spot is much more than a public lending library. It is a meeting place, a place of connections. Here, we not only connect people to the pleasure of books, but we also connect people to information; we connect children to far away lands and experiences beyond their imagination; we connect family to family; we connect friends to friends and we connect neighbour to neighbour. Since we opened up to the World Wide Web our connecting capabilities have been made doubly apparent. A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail from someone out in Cyberspace, who had bought two original wills at a flea market in Grand Bend. These original wills were in the name of Donald Stewart, who died in 1897, and Alan Stewart, who died in 1921. The sender of the e-mail was enquiring if we knew of anyone by the name of Stewart, since she would like to connect the wills with the family. It just so happened that I was seeing Don Stewart and his son Neil the very next day, but upon enquiry, sadly, the wills did not belong to that particular Stewart family That very evening John ....came into the library, mentioning the fact that he had really enjoyed his book and that the protagonist reminded him of an oldtimer from Puslinch by the name of Stewart. Well, to cut this story short in the interests of space, we were indeed able to connect the family with the wills, and so all ended happily and to our satisfaction. We have many enthusiastic users of our new on-line library service, and the traffic in items passing through this library has increased considerably, now that library users in Wellington County have discovered the joys of browsing and surfing and requesting their selections to be sent for them to pick up at the most convenient library. Janet and I are still concentrating hard, with noses turned to the computer screen, with the result that we are getting many ribald comments from our regular ( and familiar) friends. New books to take note of this month. Non-Fiction Coloroso, Barbara. The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander. Fleiss, Paul M. Circumcision; untold facts on America's most widely performed and mostly unnecessary surgery. Johnson, Steven. Emergence; the connected lives of ants, brains, cities and software. Kornfield, Jack. The Art of Forgiveness, Loving Kindness and Peace. Kushner, Harold. Who needs God? Moyer and Pantel. Canadian Bed and Breakfast Guide. Reeve, Christopher. Nothing is Impossible. Walsch, Neale Donald. New Revelations. Fiction Carceterra, Lorenzo. Street Boys Crombie, Deborah. And Justice there is none. Bock, Dennis Olympia. Drabble, Margaret. Seven Sisters. Govier, Katherine. Creation. Johansen, Iris No-one to Trust Kellerman, Jonathan. Murder Book King, Stephen. From a Buick 8. McDermid, Val. Last Temptation Miller, Sue. The World Below. Perry, Anne. Death of a Stranger Potok, Chaim. Old Men at Midnight. Sebold, Alice. Lovely Bones Smith, Martin Cruz. December 6 Sparkes,Nicholas. Nights in Rodanthe. Trevor, William. Story of Lucy Gault Wright, Richard B. Sunset Manor. Whatever your preference, enjoy your library! -Frankie You can read more about the Puslinch Library by going to A Puslinch Diary. You can read previous Lines from the Library here: September 2002 August 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 February 2002 November 2001 October 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001 |