Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Travel Guides


This time of year, as the gray days of winter drag on, many of us think about traveling to other places. Right about now, I would love to spend a week in a warm tropical haven, soaking up some sun and eating exotic foods, just to get through until Spring. If you are planning a vacation for this winter or anytime of year, you will probably find our travel guides useful. If you haven't found the guides in the library yet, they are all in the non-fiction section between 914 and 919. One of my jobs is to try to keep our collection of these guides current, and it's not always easy. You can help by letting me know what guides you would like to see in the collection. Do you find a particular publisher's guides to be more useful than others? Is there a location that we don't have guides to that you would like to see added or are there guides that should be updated? It's not possible to include every new travel guide in our collection, but with your help, I think we can make it useful to all of you world travelers out there, and to those of us who just like to dream about traveling one day.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

February in the Kramer Gallery

“The Season’s of Belfast” by Debbie Flood in the Kramer Gallery for February.

“The Season’s of Belfast” Belfast artist Debbie Flood is a collection of watercolor paintings that all have a common theme: Belfast in its different seasons. Seasons from long ago are depicted through the Belfast’s past series, seasons from now and the past in Debbie’s life are depicted through images of her children at play on the shore at the Belfast City park, sliding in the snow at their grandmother’s Belfast home, steamers from a summer day, picnicking with family, and star fish caught in tidal pools. Fall scenes that reflect something that has been lost, but found again in the full circle of life. All the paintings in this exhibit encircle the theme of nature and the seasons of our lives in Belfast. The exhibit will be on display in the Kramer Gallery of the Belfast Free Library February 4th through March 3rd 2008.
To find out more about Debbie Flood go to her website at
www.debfloodart.com

Watercolor: "Brooding on the Shore"

Thursday, January 17, 2008

What's in Special Collections, anyway?


If you've never ventured up to the top floor of the library, you might be surprised to find a great space with a good collection of local history and genealogy materials. The floor to ceiling windows on this floor offer a spectacular view of the bay and provide a pleasant spot to do research, study or connect to the wi-fi network. Included in the book collection are town histories, family histories, census records, Maine history and genealogy periodicals, and general Maine history volumes. All of the Republican Journal, Waldo Independant, and Village Soup Citizen newspapers are archived here, as are some other Belfast newspapers that are no longer published. Belfast school yearbooks and Belfast city reports as well as reports of other Waldo County towns are housed in this area. For genealogists and family researchers, the library subscribes to HeritageQuest Online and Ancestry Library Edition which I am happy to get you started on. I also maintain a surname file, which you are welcome to consult and add to if you have local family information that you are willing to share. If you have a reference question of any sort, you will find me in my office on this floor. I am here to serve you as Reference and Special Collections librarian, so feel free to consult with me at any time. Hope to see you soon.
Betsy

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Welcome to the BFL Blog

Hi Everyone!Thanks for joining us at our new Belfast Free Library Blog. We will be using this format to keep you informed of library news and events, to answer questions about the library and library services, and hopefully, add some fun to your on-line library visit. Several staff members will be contributing to the blog, and we hope you will participate by adding comments.