Library looking forward to a page-turning 2009

    Happy New Year from the Reference Desk at Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library! Despite the dreary economic news of the past year, patrons and guests of our services in Presque Isle make the library a very productive and exciting place to be.     Stephenie Meyers’ “Twilight” series and James Patterson’s “Alex Cross” series are among our most requested books. As a matter of interest, our top circulating books are as follows: 1) Sue Miller’s “The Senator’s Wife” and Debbie Macomber’s “Twenty Wishes” at 35 checkouts each; 2) Harlan Coben’s “Hold Tight” and Danielle Steele’s “Honor Thyself” at 34 checkouts each; and 3) Gordon Campbell’s “Missing Witness”, Sara Paretsky’s “Bleeding Kansas”, and Sarah Graves’ “The Book of Old Houses” at 32 each. For the roughly $12 the library spends on each book like this, that’s $420 of reading value for our patrons. Not a bad return on investment!
    We also processed 95 passport applications and performed 11 notary services, including a wedding held at the library. Working in conjunction with other libraries around the state and country, Turner Memorial handles an average of five Inter-Library Loan requests per week. Punctuating the value of libraries in economically challenging times, we have two patrons with checkouts numbering over 5,200 – the highest is 5,264! Calculating that usage with the average $12 per book value, and that is $63,168 worth of book usage!
    The library is pleased to announce a partnership with the Children’s Discovery Museum in Bangor that will allow our patrons to check out a free pass for up to four people for one day’s visit to the museum. The pass is valid for one family per day, so please do see us as soon as possible if you would like to use the pass for your family. This is a great opportunity for both patrons here in our area and for the museum as well. We at the library would love to be able to form more partnerships like this in the coming year, hopefully featuring area businesses.
    Computer usage has increased a great deal. People stay in touch with family and friends, students access their school accounts and take tests online, job-seekers write resumes and search for employment opportunities – the convenience of free access seven days per week has truly been a great help to many.
    Gaming is also increasing in popularity. The library has a Wii console that is popular with both our youth and our senior citizens. Our chess board is also seeing a great deal of lively competition. If you’re not a snow bunny, and some of us aren’t, the library is full of enlightenment and entertainment opportunities.
    Thank you to all our library friends, and we look forward to serving you in 2009!
    Lisa Shaw is the Reference Librarian at Presque Isle’s Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library. She can be reached at 764-2571.