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BIXBY BULLETIN NEWSLETTER
April 2024
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I’m pleased to announce that your Bixby Library is one of only three libraries in the state, and one of 85 in the nation, to be awarded a second American Libraries Association Accessibility Grant. The first grant enabled us to engage our five-town community on how to make our library and its resources more welcoming and accessible. Not surprisingly, better access between the parking level, the main level, and the second floor was at the top of your list.
There’s no question that our beloved building is playing an invaluable role as a welcoming community gathering place for all ages and stages of life, that will only increase over the coming years. We want to be sure that whatever we do in the near term allows us the flexibility to meet evolving community needs we look to the next hundred years.
With the first grant, we identified the top priorities and with the second ALA grant we will develop a plan to address these priorities. The Board of Trustees has engaged Vermont Integrated Architecture to develop a preliminary master plan for our beloved building. We’ve shared your input with the VIA team, along with ideas from the library staff and volunteers who serve you day in and day out. We’ve been inspired by the work of others in the area who are making their buildings more accessible and more functional, including the Vergennes Opera House and the Ilsley Library. We will continue to learn, while charting the path that makes the most sense for our mission and our community. And we’ll be looking to you for your guidance, support, and help along the way, so stay tuned.
Onward!
Warmly,
Library Director
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What's New at the Library? |
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Celestial Soirée Countdown: 8 WEEKS |
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The time has come to gather your friends, pick out an astronomical outfit, and purchase your tickets to the Bixby's summer fundraiser and party of the season: a Celestial Soirée. Join us on Friday, May 31st, for a night to remember under the storied stained-glass dome in the magnificent marble rotunda.
Click here to secure your tickets to the soirée; it's shaping up to be an unforgettable night!
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Volunteer Appreciation Month |
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April is Volunteer Appreciation Month, and we have a lot to celebrate here at the Bixby. Our books, programs, and services are made available to you thanks to the support of our team of 70+ volunteers. We are thrilled to work with the most volunteers since before the pandemic, with seven new volunteers in 2024 alone.
The next time you see a volunteer behind the Circulation Desk, hosting a program, or researching in the History Room, say thank you! The Bixby's volunteers bring the magic to the library.
If you are interested in joining the Bixby Volunteer Team, click here to learn more and fill out a volunteer application.
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Seed Lending Library & Gardening Books Galore |
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Celebrate National Gardening Month with the Bixby's Seed Lending Library! Fun fact: the Seed Library is fashioned from an original Bixby Library card catalog.
At the Seed Library, Bixby cardholders can borrow free vegetable, flower, and herb seed packets to plant in their gardens. At the end of the season, save some seeds and return them to the library or donate seed packets for others to use. Click here to view a complete list of available seed packets.
We also have a beautiful collection of gardening books on display to help you cultivate the garden of your dreams. Check out our display right next to the Seed Lending Library.
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A haiku for National Poetry Month:
Open a book and
fly on the wild wings of words
in your library
Feeling stirred to create your own poem? Check out our Blackout Poetry display in the Community Room, where you can take inspiration from great authors' words to create your own masterpiece. Stay tuned by the Children's Room, where each week of April will feature a different poetry style, including acrostics, haikus, and even shape poems.
You might be a poet and not even know it!
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Volunteer Spotlight: Silas Towler |
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Silas Towler has served as a Ferrisburgh representative on the Bixby Library's Board of Trustees since 2015. A retired finish carpenter with a long involvement in the Ferrisburgh Historical Society, Silas utilizes his expertise to maintain and improve the historic building left to us by Mr. Bixby.
"These days, the Board, with some community members and an architect, is tackling the Library’s physical access and ventilation issues. Hopefully, this will develop a designed plan to make it easier to get inside, easier to get around once inside, and to improve energy efficiency and comfort levels. Stay tuned!"
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Why do you volunteer at the Bixby?
In Vermont, there is a grand tradition of volunteer service to one’s community. Our communities run on volunteer service. It has always been so. Like the expression goes, “participatory democracy only works if you participate." To keep all our cultural, educational, governmental, religious, and recreational institutions going, it is my feeling that we need to participate. Besides, it’s fun. You get to interact on an intellectual level with people you would otherwise never meet. And, you can make a difference.
What is one of your favorite memories of volunteering at the Bixby?
The Bixby Library is an amazing building that has quite a few remarkable ‘period’ details: the marble stairs, the bookstacks behind the circulation desk, with the glass ceiling/floor above. Being involved with the maintenance and upkeep of the Library allows me to go where few people get to travel. One of the favorite thrills of my volunteering at the Library is that I get to go in the attic and stand next to the stained glass dome. It looks and feels like the world’s biggest lampshade.
What do you like to read?
I mostly read non-fiction. American history and culture have always fascinated me. I also occasionally dip into what I call ‘literary tv”. Jack Reacher, Walt Longmier, JD Box books, Nevada Barr, and shoot ‘em ups in exotic locations.
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Thank you, Silas, for your dedication, sense of humor, and the valuable expertise you bring to the Bixby Library.
If you are interested in joining the Bixby Volunteer Team, click here to learn more and fill out a volunteer application!
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April is National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate poets and the importance of poetry in our culture.
The Bixby has an extensive poetry collection for all ages, including works by Poet Laureates and Vermonters, anthologies, and poetry-writing guides.
Curious about poetry but not sure where to start? Check out The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón, the current US Poet Laureate. Visit our display in the lobby to discover something new!
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Amber Lay, Assistant Director/Adult Services Librarian
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April is here, and so is the solar eclipse! Don't miss your last chance to receive free eclipse glasses at our Last Chance Eclipse Program on Saturday, April 6th. We will have crafts, eclipse tips and tricks, and, of course, eclipse glasses. We also have kids' books available in the children's room for you to read to your kids and explain what will happen on April 8th.
After all the excitement from the eclipse has settled down, we will have a Sensory Saturday program for young kiddos on Saturday, April 13th, in the Otter Creek Room (that's the secret basement room accessible by heading down the ramp at the back of the library). Sensory Saturday will offer a variety of sensory experiences in an unstructured format. |
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In addition to the fun of National Poetry Month, April is also William Shakespeare's birthday! You may remember our past display challenges:
Who wrote it: Shakespeare or Taylor Swift?
Who wrote it: Shakespeare or Ed Sheeran?
This year's challenge will be:
Who wrote it: Shakespeare or Justin Bieber?
Sound easy? Come in on April 23rd and see for yourself.
The Bixby Book Club is reading, or for most of us, re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird. This year, we've had a particularly wonderful variety of book suggestions to discuss. This is another one I'm really looking forward to.
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In April, we are showered with opportunities to engage our creativity at the Bixby Library.
Pick up a tiny paintbrush and paint a mini canvas, create a collage from magazines, books, and stickers, color in an LGBTQIA+ coloring page, or just come for the pizza! The Queer Joy Club is open to everyone, regardless of age or orientation.
Celebrate French music with a free concert from Addison County’s own Va-et-vient. These musiciennes will take you through the centuries from France to Québec and New Orleans with lively dance numbers, touching love songs, kickin’ Cajun and Créole tunes, and rollicking Québecois favorites.
Everyone has a story worth telling. What's yours?
Whether it be a tale from your travels or a memory close to home, we invite you to share a story at the Bixby Library's noncompetitive StorySlam on Thursday, May 2nd, from 5:30 to 7 PM. All are welcome to share a five-minute story at this open-mic event.
Need a little help crafting your story? Don't even know where to start?
Come and workshop a five-minute tale with us on Thursday, April 27th, from 5:30 to 7 PM. Storytelling teacher and local legend Chris Wyckoff will instruct us on what makes a good story and how to take that story from your mind to the stage!
Click here to reserve your five-minute story slot and sign up for the workshop!
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A couple wins the lottery and builds their dream home out of glass. One day, Nicole returns home to find her husband lifeless in the pool. She immediately runs next door to the “Manor House” for help. And so begins a story full of plot twists, with characters who constantly keep the reader guessing.
This book weaves between different points of view, journal entries, and flashbacks, contributing to the story's quick pace. The Bixby also has The Perfect Girl by the same author, which I think I need to read next…
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This short novel centers on a young New York City artist who wakes to a droning in her ear and is later diagnosed with Sudden Deafness. Through a stream-of-consciousness account, we join the narrator on her search for the cause through tests, clinical trials, and hypnotherapy while trying to adapt to the changes this syndrome brings to her life and relationships. This smart debut is a meditation on silence and observation. I recommend reading this in one sitting!
Amber Lay, Assistant Director/Adult Services Librarian
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This graphic novel from our children's collection is a girl power-centered take on the story of Athena. It's a great introduction to Greek gods or for kids who loved the Greek mythology in Rick Riordan books and can't get enough. The graphic novel introduces many Greek gods, starting with Athena's origin story and following many of her adventures. The illustrations are excellent and the dialogue is fun and accessible for kids and adults.
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News from the Bixby's Historical Collections |
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Has all the anticipation for the Celestial Soirée made you feel like dancing?
Us too! As we gear up for the Bixby's annual fundraiser and party of the season, we take a trip down memory lane to enjoy dance cards and party invitations from the Bixby's small but mighty collection of local ephemera.
Dance cards were trendy throughout the nineteenth century as guides to keep social gatherings within the bounds of expected etiquette and as mementos of good times. Generally, a lady carried her card with her throughout the night; if a gentleman wanted to dance with her, he could ask and hope to be penciled in for a specific number, ensuring that no one person got an inappropriate amount of attention and that people of different genders could spend societally-acceptable social time together in community.
In addition to dance cards, the Bixby's ephemera collection contains event posters, greeting cards, maps and pamphlets, and other materials that may not have been intended as lasting records of Addison County history but nonetheless tell us loads about the social and cultural lives of folks from past centuries.
Click here to secure your ticket to the Bixby's Celestial Soirée, a modern social hop where elegance meets the dance floor.
Anna Hurd, Bixby History Team
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Eclipse Experience with the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired |
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Monday, April 8th
Waterfront Park in Burlington
Statehouse Lawn in Montpelier
Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury
The Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired (VABVI) is hosting eclipse events around the state on April 8th utilizing the LightSound devices created by a team at Harvard. The device converts light into data and data into sound. The sound emitted by the device changes as the light input changes, and in that way, the eclipse becomes accessible to someone with impaired vision.
Contact VABVI for more information at 802-863-1358 or email general@vabvi.org.
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Maple Broadband Presents: An Evening of Film, Food, and Community |
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Friday, April 12th, 6 PM - 7:30 PM
Vergennes Opera House
120 Main Street, Vergennes
Join Maple Broadband for an evening of film, community, and complimentary treats from local businesses. See how Vermonters are coming together to solve a statewide problem in the documentary screening of Connecting Vermont's Grassroots Efforts for Rural Broadband.
This free event features appetizers and treats from 3 Squares Cafe and Daily Chocolate, a "Maple Broadband" flavored ice cream from lu.lu, and a raffle for a $500 Vergennes Green Gift Certificate!
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"One Room Schools of Ferrisburgh" Historical Society Presentation |
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Sunday, April 14th, 2 to 3 PM
Ferrisburgh Community Center
Charlie Langworthy will present a slide show titled "One Room Schools of Ferrisburgh" upstairs in the Ferrisburgh Community Center. Come and see what the schools looked like before consolidation. Hint: it was a much simpler time!
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Addison County Solid Waste Management District's Repair Fair |
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Saturday, April 20, 2024, 10 AM - 2 PM
American Legion, 49 Wilson Rd, Middlebury, VT 05753
Give your stuff a second chance and get it repaired! The Addison County Solid Waste Management District is hosting this free event, where residents can learn basic repair skills, enjoy refreshments, and build a culture of repair with their neighbors.
Click here to register to have your item fixed at the repair fair.
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New Electric Vehicle Charging Stations |
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One Credit Union
48 Green Street, Vergennes
Good news for electric car owners, residents, and visitors. Vergennes is happy to report the availability of new Level 2 and Level 3 chargers located in the One Credit Union parking lot, on the corner of Green and School Street!
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If you enjoyed our newsletter, forward it to a friend near or far! |
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Library Hours:
Tuesday-Thursday: 10 am-7 pm
Friday-Saturday: 10 am-3 pm
(802) 877-2211
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