Friends of T. B. Scott Free Library Officers: President…….………. Denise Latzig Vice-President……. Marie Marrier Treasurer………. Lori Anderson-Malm Secretary………... Laurie Cottrell Board Members/Committee Chairpersons: Book Sales……. Sarah Litzer & Lynn Muhvich Kiosk Book Sales…… Joyce Kasper Library Liaison…….. Stacy Stevens Membership………… Denise Latzig Newsletter Editor…….Sarah Litzer Publicity……………… Members at Large

Barb Adams Mike Weckwerth

Ranndy Markewycz Annual Dues Individual $5 Family $10 Patron $25 Business $50 Life Membership $100 Friends of T. B. Scott Free Library 106 W. First St Merrill, WI 54452 715 536-7191 E-mail us: tbscottfriends@gmail.com

October 2015 -- Issued Quarterly

TB Scott Library Employee Spotlight

Things are always changing and our library is no exception. We’ve seen staff members leave or retire, and we’re seeing new people join the team in their stead. We want you to know who’s there to assist you at the library, so we’re going to shine a spotlight on a different library employee in each newsletter. We’ll start by asking a few questions of one long-time library employee, so that you – our Friends of the Library – can get to know the staff a bit better.

Linda Schuster, Head of Youth Services Linda has lived in Merrill for 45 years and has been with the TB Scott Library since 1998. She and husband Gary have two children, Matt and Jessica plus a cat named Max. Linda was lured to Merrill from Moose Lake, Minnesota to teach Music at Merrill Junior High.

What is your favorite book? “The last book I read. If I had to choose, I’d pick the children’s book Millions of Cats, and my comfort book is The

Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.”

What book are you reading right now? “Go Set a Watchman, although I read mostly ‘Young Adult’ books and cozy adult mysteries.”

What is your favorite class ever taken? “Music Theory!”

Do you have any hobbies? Reading (of course!) and watching the Packers”

What is your favorite holiday? July 4th

Tell something not many people know about you: “My college major was French.”

Your choice between an e-reader and a real book? “Real book.”

What might be the title of your autobiography? “Bloom Where You are Planted.”

What do you like most about working at the library? “The variety, patrons, co-workers and – most of all – working with kids and making a difference in their lives.”

IntroducIng…

“Little Free Libraries”

Little Free Libraries are popping up all over the world, including right here in Merrill, Wisconsin! A Girl Scout troop has installed Merrill’s second Little Free Library next to Blooming Wishes in downtown Merrill. The first Little Free Library is in Merrill’s Normal Park. A Little Free Library is a “take a book, leave a book” free book exchange.

The Little Free Libraries idea started in Hudson, Wisconsin in 2009 when Todd Bol mounted a wooden container designed to look like a school house on a post in his yard as a

tribute to his mother, a book lover and school teacher.

The Little Free Libraries movement has grown rapidly with 32,000 Little Libraries throughout the world, in 70 countries and all 50 states. To locate Little Free Libraries all over the world, go to http://littlefreelibrary.org and use the locator map.

Little Free Libraries promote literacy and the love of reading. Nothing could be better for all of us book lovers!

Save the date!

Fall Used Book Sale Oct. 29-30-31

Next Board Meeting

4:15 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015 Board Room, 3rd floor of the library

All of our meetings are open to both members and prospective members, and we encourage you to

attend!

Did you know… … that you can check out this tool from

the library??

Watts Up Meter

Have you ever wondered how much electricity your 1980s boom box is using? What about that lava lamp? Or maybe just that spare freezer in the garage…. Well the library has a tool that you can check out and use to figure out why your electric bill is higher when the kids are home from college, etc.

The WPS Watts-Up Meter can be checked out and taken home to see how much your household electrical appliances cost to operate. All you have to do is plug the meter into the outlet, then plug your electrical appliance into the meter and you will get readouts of how much electricity is being used. It will even calculate the cost to run that appliance based on your local rate. We tested it on an electric blanket – there are all kinds of uses! It will even register “phantom” electricity used by those instant on / always ready appliances – you’ll see that they use electricity even when you have them turned “off” and that can be very eye-opening!

Check out the WPS Watts-Up Meter today and learn about your own energy usage!

Normal Park Little Free Library

Blooming Wishes' Little Free Library

From the Treasurer’s Desk

It’s hard to believe it’s already autumn – where has the summer gone? The Friends of the Library board has been busy throughout the spring and summer months. Here are some of the activities that received funds from the proceeds of the book sale and kiosk book sales:

The Friends of the Library sponsored Genevieve Davis, the speaker for our annual program which was held in May. We also contributed funds to the youth summer library program as well as the adult summer reading program. Expenses for the newsletter, including printing and postage, are also funded by the Friends of the Library.

Our book sales are the largest source of income and we provide snacks for all of the wonderful volunteers who help throughout the sale, so we cover our own expenses. We would not be able to provide any funds for services or products for this wonderful library without the fantastic response we have from our book sales!

We are now also generating some income from the sale of historic elm tree pens made of wood salvaged from the majestic elm that once graced the front of the library. Locally produced by Dick Wagner and etched by Premier Printing, the pens are a great gift item and are available at the circulation desk at the library – come take a look!

As always, all of the money generated from our book sales and pen sales stays in Merrill at the T.B. Scott Library, providing support for Friends’ activities, library programs and user services at the library – our library!

Thank you for your continued support –

Lori Anderson-Malm Treasurer – Friends of the Library

Crazy Daze Book Sale Report

Thank you to all supporters, shoppers, donors and volunteers – this was the most successful Crazy Daze sale in several years, netting around $800! In general, Crazy Daze gives us an opportunity to promote and sell our “overloaded” categories of books. We will continue to follow this strategy, determining the categories each year based on information from our Super Crew volunteers. For this year’s sale, we had excellent publicity support, between the local media and the library itself and the library staff even posted updates on the Facebook page – did you see us??

Thursday’s sale opened with a huge crowd, and though the weather seemed iffy, it actually turned out to be very nice for shopping. Lots of paperbacks were sold outside and we ran all sorts of creative specials inside and out, including an hour each day during which Harlequin-type romances went for “a dime a dozen...” Really! People seemed to enjoy “the hunt” for the special sale books so we will do that again – with a Halloween theme – for our upcoming sale.

Lynn Muhvich, who recently joined our board, took over the coordination of volunteers and we had fantastic helpers who all worked very diligently! If you weren’t called and would like to be on our contact list, please shoot an e-mail to tbscottfriends@gmail.com, or call Sarah or Lynn.

Thanks again to our “Super Crew” volunteers who work behind the scenes ahead of time, sorting and boxing donations as they come in: Ranndy Markewycz, Nancy Zeitz, Susanna Gilk and Cheryl Kulawinski. (If you would like to join our Super Crew for the next sale, contact Sarah!)

Our Fall Used Book Sale is coming up fast.

Friends “preview” night is as always, the Thursday evening before the sale. We set up a membership table so this is a great time to catch up and pay your dues. The official sale dates are October 30 and 31, but Friends can shop early on the 29th. Be sure to bring your membership card and join us Thursday evening when there are even light refreshments – for Friends only!

Sarah Litzer and Lynn Muhvich Friends of the Library Book Sale Co-Chairs

“COVER TO COVER”

– submitted by Judy Weaver Cover to Cover recommends for your reading pleasure…

… Emma Donoghue’s breakthrough book, Room. Though it was a hit with the book sellers last year, we chose to study her book of short stories Astray –

as in “off of the proper or desirable course of development” (Webster). Ms Donoghue is a Dublin woman who immigrated to Canada. Though she states she has never been sorry, it is perhaps this experience which has inspired stories in the book filled with characters who moved away from their birth countries, their loved ones, and impossible situations. What happens when the inner compass is set ajar? There are fourteen stories here of people in transit – all actually left behind some historical record on which Donoghue bases their fictional characteristics, conversation, emotions and rationalizations. The letters of Charles Dickens inspired one story; other reports were found in the Times of London, the New York Times, Tucson Star and other historical publications. The Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro is another tale brought to life by fictional characters but based on a true incident. Inspired by the very real grandiose personality of Boston art collector and museum founder Isabella Stewart Gardner who died in 1924, author Shapiro conceived a contemporary novel around the unsolved theft of 13 masterpieces (including works of Degas, Rembrandt and Vermeer) in 1990. Shapiro studied all aspects involved in creating, collecting and curating works of art and felt the passions and ambitions which persist in all facets of this sub-culture. “What would any of us do to secure our ambition?” Shapiro asks, then creates our heroine Claire Roth, tempts her with fame and fortune, and turns her loose on the Boston art world.

Back in the late nineteenth century and up until the 1950s, the sports world was fascinated with ROWING – nine men in a custom designed wooden shell competing with strength and precision on open water. Author Daniel James Brown writes brilliantly about The Boys in the Boat: nine outstanding young University of Washington men – smart, hard-working, cooperative, ambitious and willing to give their all for a chance to prove themselves at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Brown’s inspiration is Joe Rantz – his neighbor and born memoirist. With Joe as the story anchor, the book takes flight. The reader is introduced to the art of rowing – its history in England, its popularity with the East Coast schools, and as communication and transportation developed, the entry of hardscrabble western students into the fray. The boat builder from London, the coaches, the journalists all play important parts in the saga of how this freshman team in Seattle grappled four years to become the force that vanquished the international competition in 1936, astonishing the Nazis and the rest of the world. This ordinary size book is also a marvelous historical background source as Brown describes the economic and climatic catastrophes that influenced this era. It was a time of economic depression in America, aggravated by sandstorms and drought that affected the whole nation and Europe as well. The Olympic extravaganza of 1936 was meant to show the world the power of the new Germany under Hitler – the threat of war was but on the horizon. Cover to Cover, sponsored by the T.B. Scott Library, was founded in November 1996 by enthusiastic readers and Library staff! Two of the original members are still active with the group – Doreen Bashore and Marge Piikkila. Our coming month’s book is always posted on the kiosk near the elevator on the main floor. We meet the third Thursday of each month at 1 p.m. in the Community Room. You are welcome to attend!

"It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish."

S.I. Hayakawa (1906-1992)

American Academic and Political Figure

(libraryquote.org)

The Friends of T.B. Scott Library’s

Fall Used Book Sale! Three Big Days!

Thursday, October 29 /6:00 p.m.-7:45 p.m. Friends Only…Join on the spot & Be A Friend for only $5.00!

Friday, October 30 / 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday, October 31 / 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Spooky & Special Sales Every Hour!

Check “T.B. Scott Free Library” on Facebook &www.tbscottlibrary.orgto learn more

Featuring All Books and Genres!

Library Community Room Featuring Fiction, Fiction, and More Fiction!

T.B. Scott Free Library, 106 W. First Street, Merrill, WI 715.536.7191

Looking for a great gift or memento – choose a Historic Elm pen, fashioned from the trunk of the tree that once graced the front of the library!

Four different styles of these pens are now available at the circulation desk or at the Merrill Historical Society’s gift shop for $25. All proceeds go to Friends of T. B. Scott Library.

Highlights – Here’s what you’ll find inside your newsletter:

New: Library Employee Spotlight

Two Little Free Libraries now in Merrill

New: Did you know…?

From the Treasurer’s Desk

Crazy Daze Book Sale Report

“Fall Used Book Sale- Save the date! October 29-30-31 – Please share our poster!

Cover to Cover” News

Historic Elm Pens available now! (See below)