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Book Voyagers Program for Children
The Manchester Public Library will have a fall Book Voyagers program for children in grades 1-4; this bilingual program is sponsored by Connecticut Humanities and the fall theme is "Picture This Story". The four-book series is a joyful celebration of the many ways people communicate: pictures, gestures, speech, and written language. The series is in Spanish and English, offering an opportunity to experience two languages. The program will be held on the following Thursdays: October 24, November 7, November 21, and December 5 at 4:00 p.m. No registration is required and the first 20 children will receive a free copy of the bilingual book presented that day. For more information, please contact (860) 643-2471 or visit our website.
Coffee and Conversation: Practice Your English Language Skills
On select Fridays each month from 2-3 p.m. stop by the Mary Cheney Library for "Coffee and Conversation". Enjoy a cup of coffee and light refreshments while you practice your English language skills. There will be a specific theme or topic and participants will learn new phrases and words. English language learning teachers from Manchester Adult Education as well as library staff will be on hand to lead the conversations. For specific dates and additional details please call (860) 645-0821 or visit our website.
Two New Book Clubs Begin This Fall
In October two new book groups will be starting: The Diverse Voices Book Club and the Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Club. The Diverse Voices Book Club will read fiction and non-fiction works that discuss relationships between people of varying races and ethnicities, meeting on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings every other month. The Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Club will meet monthly on Thursday evenings and will focus on science fiction and fantasy works of fiction. For specific dates and book titles, click the Special Programs link under the "Adult Programs and Services" section of our website or stop into the library for more information.
Why Don't Libraries Have More Ebook Copies Available to Borrow?!?
Except for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt of Boston, none of the other major publishers will sell newer ebooks to public libraries for us to then turn around and loan to our resident readers. Those are the types of titles that you can typically find in the Libby app for our 'Overdrive' ebook lending platform. For all the newer, currently popular titles, some of the other publishers, such as Random House, will temporarily LEASE us ebooks for varying amounts of time while others (Macmillan and its divisions such as Minotaur, Tor/Forge, Picador, Henry Holt, Farrar/Straus/Giroux) refuse to do even that until the titles are already a few months old. From all of the publishers, their leased titles are expensive - typically around $55 per copy, compared to an average of $18 for a hardcover print copy (libraries get discounts off the list price of print books). Just like a printed book, we are only allowed to loan each ebook copy out to one customer at a time. Some of the leased titles expire and disappear from our Overdrive/Libby catalog after 24 months while others disappear after either 26 or 52 checkouts. Publishers have watched for several years in a row as their sales of ebooks have dropped steadily; to the surprise of many, the majority of readers have continued to prefer printed books.
When we as a library buy a physical printed copy of a book, we can do what we want with it - we can write in it, we can loan it out to one person after another without limitation, and we can keep it as long as we have space for it. The publishers have no say in what we can do with a physical item. However, ebooks are more similar to a software license and we are bound by the terms of the owner. To those of you who do try to borrow the newest of ebook titles from our library, we're sorry that we sometimes don't have those newer titles or don't have very many copies of newer ebooks.
A herd of cows...a flock of sheep...and a mess of ebooks.
U.S. Census Job Fair
A representative from the U.S. Census Bureau will be available on Saturday, October 5, 2019 from 12-3 p.m. at the Mary Cheney Library to explain the importance of the 2020 Census and to answer all of your questions and help you apply for a job for the Census. Computers will be available for attendees to apply at the fair. For more information, please call (860) 645-0821 or visit our website.
Mary Cheney Sunday Hours
Mary Cheney will be open on Sundays from 1-5 p.m. from October 20, 2019 through April 5, 2020.
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