Director’s Corner

The Times, They are A-Changing

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Dutch sailors ate so many dodos that the dodos became extinct. Will librarians also become extinct? Extinct, not by Dutch sailors, but by Google? It is true that some librarians should vanish. They are the ones who sit behind an imposing desk, serving as gatekeepers to the library, forcing everyone to adhere to strict rules of conduct.

Library

Action Again at KML

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This report will be brief, as Town officials have chosen to provide a monthly update on the library project. Readers will find the update on the followng page of this issue. During some months recently, there seemed to be little happening at the old library on Main Street, the place that Library Director Jackie Hemond likes to call “the Big House.” But important planning was going on in offices elsewhere. There was a spurt of activity at the start of February when a quantity of books exposed to PCB contamination were removed. Then in the first few weeks of March, Suffield carpenter Brian Doyon removed attached wooden shelving, exposing the walls to allow the planned PCB remediation.

Library

Science Saturday Begins

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Wendy Mitzel, part-time Teen Outreach Coordinator for the Kent Memorial Library, has opened a program of Science Saturdays for middle and high school kids. Library Director Jackie Hemond said she hopes to offer the program monthly, on the first Saturday of each month. The first session, on March 3 at the Suffield Senior Center, lasted three hours in mid-day, with lunch provided. With the help of a grant from the Friends of the Library, Wendy was able to buy two iPads and two Sphero Minis, plus enough imaginative accessory material to make two five-by-seven-foot obstacle courses and one smaller course. When the free app is installed in an iPad, the action of the Sphero Mini (a clever, app-enabled robotic ball a bit bigger than a golf ball) can be controlled with finger motions on the iPad screen.

Library

DPW Update – Kent Memorial Library

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In mid-February, National Library Relocations, Inc., completed the task of cleaning and packaging approximately 30,000 books, DVDs and audio books to be held in storage until the Kent Memorial Library completes the polychlorinated biphenyl (PBC) abatement process. An additional 40,000 books (either outdated or in poor condition) were discarded. Wood panels and shelving assemblies have been temporarily removed in order to allow for the encapsulation procedure. The panels and shelving will be reinstalled upon completion. On March 6, 2018, EnviroScience, the Town’s civil and environmental engineering consulting firm, submitted the modified remediation plan to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their review and approval.