Hello and welcome to the May 27th edition of the Blue Hill Public Library’s weekly newsletter. It’s ten weeks into this library closure and we can finally see the very early beginnings of a return to normal life at BHPL.
Beginning next week the library will open up for contact-free curbside services
(details below).
While this is a very modest start, getting here has been a series of decisions that balance out the community’s welfare (giving or not giving people a reason to leave home in a pandemic), the health and safety of our staff (each with different needs and considerations - not an easy conversation), evolving guidance we have been receiving from the Maine State Library and the Governor’s office, and our heartfelt desire to do whatever we can to be a ‘port in a storm’ for our community. Unfortunately, in this kind of storm, being a port seemed like it could do more harm than good.
Beginning Monday the public services staff that you know and love will begin working in 2 teams to help fulfill your material requests. “Team Fern” and “Team Adelaide” will alternate days, don and doff (a new word for me) PPE, while others will work from home when possible.
It’s still a far cry from where I’d like to be, but this pandemic has taught me that impatience (my natural state) is futile and our community is flexible and understanding of the circumstances.
So now, finally and for real, to some extent anyway, I can say:
See you at the library,
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Rich Boulet, Library Director
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Curbside Pickup Begins June 1
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n keeping with Governor Mills’ plan for reopening and other libraries in Hancock County, Blue Hill Public Library
will begin loaning items through curbside pickup and home delivery on Monday June 1
.
Curbside pickup is being offered on a “call ahead” basis. Patrons can now place holds on items
in our online catalog
or by calling us at 374-5515 Monday through Saturday from 9:00 AM to 5:00PM. As soon as materials are available patrons will be contacted for pickup arrangements.
Not sure what you want to read, watch or listen to next? Give us a call and our staff will do their best to help you find something that appeals to you. We also have a boatload of new arrivals to choose from. You can browse
the list here
and place holds accordingly.
The library will also accept and complete requests for printing, but not for photocopying. Print requests should be emailed to
[email protected]
. Similar to loan items, our staff will contact you to make pickup arrangements. At that time we can take payment via credit card only with a minimum charge of $2. Credits towards future purchases are not offered.
Enhanced and contact-free home delivery and pickup services will be available for those who are unable to visit the library for medical or quarantine reasons.
Items that are currently on loan to patrons are all due on June 15th
, though renewals may be possible. Returning items can go in the book drop anytime. Larger items labeled “not for book drop” can be returned in a designated outside bin after the library reopens.
The library will be taking precautions with returned items as well. All loaned items will be quarantined for three days upon return, after which they will either be shelved or made available to the next patron.
To our patrons, we thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate this odd, dystopian nonfiction. We are
thrilled
to be back at the library and to make collections available to our community again! And yes, we still do miss you all.
We look forward to the time that we can see you in person and talk with you again. We hope to be open for limited in-person services in July, or whenever stage 3 of Maine’s reopening plan is enacted. More details on in-person services will be released at a later date.
Questions? You must have some. Please email
[email protected]
and one of us will be in touch ASAP.
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When you get here, check out our awesome crabapple tree in full bloom!
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New Titles List Now Available
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This Just In.....Thanks to Tradewinds
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We want to offer a big "thanks" to Tradewinds Market Place in Blue Hill, who just donated a big pile of paper bags to get us started on our curbside pickup service!
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Recorded versions of the weekly technology workshops that the library has been offering are available for those who weren’t able to join live. Find videos to guide you through “digital decluttering,” using Gmail, and Google Drive & Docs by visiting the “
General Services
” page on
www.bhpl.net/wemissyou
. Here are the direct links:
If you have any questions after watching one of these feel free to contact us at [email protected] or 374-5515 x11. Weekly tech workshops will be taking a break for a few weeks or so until we get curbside service up and running.
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We would like to recognize the many graduates who are having to find alternative commencements, most especially Lucy Morison, one of the exceptional young people who helps us here at BHPL. Hiring primarily high school-aged kids to help with shelving and other tasks is one of the delights of working here (and some of us feel so, so old when we think of what stage in life some of the earlier ones are in now!) and Lucy has been no exception. Her optimism, colorful approach to fashion and undying earnestness has brightened our days each time she has clocked in for another shift.
Whatever is next, Lucy, your future peers will be lucky to count you among them.
-Rich Boulet
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Friday's Online Trivia: Video Games
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Everyone is invited to join us
on Friday, May 29th from 1:00 to 2:00 PM
for this week's online trivia event. Test your knowledge of video games with 20 challenging questions. Are you ready to take on this mission? Go to
www.kahoot.it
or download the Kahoot! app on your smart device and enter the game PIN, that we'll announce via
Facebook
and
Instagram
shortly before 1:00 PM to join.
This is a library sponsored event and there is no charge. Trivia is a weekly event that will have a different theme each week and all ages are welcome. If you have questions or suggestions for trivia themes, you can contact Kendall at
[email protected]
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Online Storytime with Claire: 2 More!
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This week we have two more installments of our video series, Online Storytime with Claire. Watch Youth Services Librarian Claire Malina read the stories,
A Way with Wild Things
by Larissa Theule and illustrated by Sara Palacios (on the left below, posted on Thursday 5/21), and
Sleep Like a Tiger
by Mary Logue and illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski (on the right, below, posted yesterday, Tuesday, 5/26).
Each story time starts with a special song and kids can sing along. The stories will each be available for one week, and more stories will be added each Tuesday and Thursday. These installments of Online Storytime with Claire are also available for viewing at
www.bhpl.net
. Settle in and enjoy!
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The first Blue Hill Public Library Plant Sale that I volunteered to help with was in 2015. It was a beautiful late May day. The birds were freezing in the trees. The sun was hiding behind the clouds. The brisk north breeze was efficiently blowing the falling snow off of the many perennials lined up on the library's front lawn in hopes they would be adopted and transplanted to a warmer part of the country. I was in a T-shirt, definitely ignoring my introduction into middle age. I have been a member of the Plant Sale committee every year since then, co-chair and chair for the past few--I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Unfortunately something has happened to the world this year and we all will be missing the sale. However, I look forward to meeting with fellow committee members next February to kick off the 2021 Plant Sale and hope to see many of you gathered together on the front lawn of the library on that Saturday in May when hundreds of plants will once again be for sale to benefit our library. And yes, I will be wearing a T-shirt (if the sun is shining and the temp is above 65 degrees).
-Greg Forrest, BHPL Board Member and Plant Sale Organizer
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Museum Spotlight: Francis Hamabe
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The Flying Wallendas
, a very large painting hanging in the library’s main room, is very much cherished by the local art and library communities. It is by Francis Hamabe (1917-2002), a dynamic artist with a long association with Blue Hill, starting in 1950 when he was a curator of exhibits at the Pavilion Gallery in Blue Hill. Later he painted designs for Rowantrees Pottery and also taught at the Blue Hill Consolidated School.
Hamabe was well-known around the state, having held positions at the Farnsworth Museum, the Bangor Children’s Art Center, University of Maine campuses at Machias and Orono, and
Downeast
and
Maine Life
magazines. In the 1950s he began making his own puppets and putting on puppet shows all over the state, at libraries, fairs and other venues.
Hamabe was perhaps most well-known for his screenprint posters, especially a series he did of Maine coastal towns, depicting in each the various things that the town was known for or produced. He showed his abstract oil paintings and Sumi ink drawings in exhibits around the state.
We are very grateful to have Hamabe’s
Flying Wallendas
and are pleased that we can display it for the public to enjoy. Many years ago Hamabe had asked an associate at University of Maine at Orono to store it for him and it remained in that Stillwater barn for over 40 years. In 2013 it was donated to BHPL by one of Hamabe’s friends. Library Director Rich Boulet retrieved it from that barn full of dust and cobwebs and Rick Sawyer helped frame and hang it where it can be found today-- talk about a barn find!
Frank, as he was known by his friends, loved the circus and was inspired by the daredevil stunt performers, the Flying Wallendas and also by
Calder’s Circus,
an installation by the sculptor at the former location of the Whitney Museum of American Art at 75th & Madison in New York City.
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I got a couple of bird questions this week, one describing a bird that turned out to be a Gray Catbird. Happily, the person figured it out before I could respond, using the online app Merlin. You can
use Merlin on Cornell's "All About Birds" website or download a free app from an app store. You put in whatever features you observed, like colors of feathers, and size or outline, and location, and it gives you some photos of what your bird might be.
Another question was from a person who got dive-bombed by a hawk that then perched nearby screeching at her! (Probably she was getting close to the hawk's nest.) She found that it sounded like one of the Sharp-shinned Hawk recordings on the
All About Birds website. I told her some other possibilities of hawks in forest settings in this area-- Cooper's, Broad-winged or Red-shouldered Hawks, and suggested checking their sounds and images just to be sure. If you really get into birding it is worthwhile to get a bird ID app for your phone or ipod-- then you can look at images and listen to the sounds right in the field. I use the Sibley app but there are a number of good ones.
We checked our bird boxes at Cooper Farm this week and one set of bluebirds was almost ready to fledge, with chicks getting up and looking out of the hole, and the other set, that I think will fledge in the next several days were feathered and resting quietly. The swallows had almost all laid eggs and some were so protective they did not leave the nest when we looked in. One looked out of the hole at us as we approached and reluctantly left after staring at us at point blank range. At another nest, when a feather blew out, the Tree Swallow swooped down and caught it, and returned it to the nest as we were leaving! Most of the nests were very cushy- and even artistic-looking with lots of feathers lining the nests and curving up over the eggs.
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Upper left: one of the cushy Tree Swallow nests. Above left: bluebird chicks that will probably fledge in the next several days. Above right: Tree Swallow mom not leaving her nest even when giants peek in the side.
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Storytime Fan Sings Welcome Song
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One of our "Storytime with Claire" fans sings the welcome song, which Claire sings at the beginning of each storytime.
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Stuff to do-- Staff Picks
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New J.K. Rowling Book!
From Claire: This is a new book--
Ickabog--
for adults that will be published
on this website for free
by J.K. Rowling, in installments over the next several weeks. Enjoy!
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From Susan: A Print Book
The Unexpected Spy
-- new in our collection --provides insight into what life was like for a young female operative in the days, months and years surrounding the 9/11 terrorist attacks - it was engrossing.
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The Art Show that Would Have Been
Here are some wonderful examples of artwork from around the peninsula that would have been in the April Student Art Show at BHPL, and are now in a virtual exhibit on the library's website.
Check
bhpl.net/student-art/
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to view more artwork in this virtual student art exhibit that now has over 450 works posted!
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Mixed media seahorse, Adams School
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Soft batik sculptures, Penobscot School
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Calligraphic line drawing inspired by Vincent Van Gogh, 7th grade, Blue Hill Consolidated School.
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