From our Director - Summer Recap ...
Staff Spotlight - Jeanette Andrews ...
Volunteer Spotlight - Don E. Lee ... Reference Department News - Wireless & E-Resources ...
Miss Ellanie - Pearl, Jeanette and Devon ...
Friends
Calendar of Events:
Adults I Young Adults/Teens I Children I Roslyn Branch
The Ab Lib from Fall 2006 Vol. 5, No. 3
From our Director
It’s clean slate time. The real start of the year is September, regardless of whether you’re in school or not. Today I took my younger son off to fourth grade (where have the years gone?) and summer recess is over. I remember the week before I started fourth grade very clearly: I visited my new classroom and the teacher had set up a table full of new, shiny books. I saw Elizabeth Enright’s The Four Story Mistake and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.
Our patrons are still reading the Elizabeth Enright, Mary Nash, Louisa May Alcott, Irene Hunt and the authors you may remember from your childhood. Don’t assume those books are too dated for your own children. Give them the opportunity to read what you read! I love that my son is reading the Mrs. Coverlet books, as I did. And it is striking (and reassuring) to realize how much I remember of the contents and the illustrations.
I have to admit we’re all breathing a sigh of relief that our very busy summer is over. Hectic doesn’t begin to describe it. Summer Reading Club registrations were up 16% this year – 1,310 children were enrolled! Also:
- More than 100 children enrolled in Science in the Summer.
- 29 children read weekly to the beautiful therapy dogs at “Doggone Good Readers.”
- Abington READS! young adults volunteered a total of 421 hours reading to our young readers.
Roslyn READS! young adults volunteered 94 hours.
- 1,800 to 1,900 patrons visited the library each Monday in August.
Can we top this summer? We’ll certainly try.
- Nancy Hammeke Marshall
Beautiful Book of the Month: Voices: African American and Latina Women in Pennsylvania Share Their Stories of Success.
Volunteer Spotlight – Donald E. Lee
Read more about him abg.mclinc.org
Don Lee gets things done. In 1996, he walked into the library and told our director that we should have a WWII lecture series, in which veterans tell their stories. She said, “Yes, you’re right. Will you head it?” And, as no one else would, like the little red hen, Don said, “Then I will.” And he did. Don handled all the coordinating from 1997 until the end of 2005. Brandon Traister now heads the program and Don acts as consultant.
Don was born in 1924, at home, before the doctor got there. He grew up in Doctor’s Inlet, Florida, which consisted of two stores, half a dozen houses, a brick yard and a schoolhouse. Don, his siblings, Glenn, Bruce, Roweena and Kenneth, and their parents lived in the back of the family owned-and-operated Lee’s Grocery.
As a country boy in the ‘20s, Don found little use for shoes. The privy was 100 feet from the house. “We always had guns around the house,” Don recalled, “and we learned to handle them naturally, like most any country boy would.” There once was a hammer, nail and bullet incident. “Mother sure did have a lot of excitement in raising four boys,” Don remarked.
The Great Depression hit the family store hard. When Don’s father drilled an artesian well and constructed a pool, locals helped and were paid half in groceries and half as credit on past-due bills. Until the mid-‘30s, the Lee’s house was the only one for miles to have electricity, thanks to their father’s hydraulic turbine. Running the power lines was Don’s introduction to electrical work.
In WWII Don was a Navy Seabee. “Fortunately for me, much of my Navy time was spent in a V-12 college training program at GA Tech in Atlanta.” And after he was sent overseas, “When the battle in the Pacific moved north,
I went south,” Don said with a grin, “to the Advanced Base Construction Equipment Overhaul and Repair Depot.” When worn-out bulldozers, cranes or trucks came in, the detachment tore them down and rebuilt them. Eventually, Don was commissioned Ensign (CEC) USNR and assigned to ABCEORD 1007 as OIC Electrical Shop.
After the war, with a BS in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech, Don headed north to work at Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Eventually his career would move from locomotives to aerospace at the General Electric Space Division. On his first Sunday in Pennsylvania, walking to the Methodist Church, he came across a Lutheran Church. As he was late and figuring it can’t be that different, he popped in, leading him to what he calls the most important event in his life. There, he met Betty Yeagley. She overheard that Don was a Georgia Tech grad, and as she had never dated one, she decided to do something about that. They married the following year and, 50 years and two daughters after, Donna Jean and Barbara Ann, they’re very happy.
Don has turned to consulting rather than supervising the WWII Lecture Series as it cuts into his “loafing time.”
With such a life, he deserves a good, long loaf.
– Karen Burnham
Staff Spotlight – Jeanette Andrews
Read more about her at abg.mclinc.org
Recounting Jeanette Andrews’ life is like taking an American history class.
She was born in Manhattan in 1924. During the Great Depression they were poor, but her father always worked. Her mother sewed Navy uniforms in a sweat shop. In her day, all the latest dances came naturally to Jeanette. The jitterbug, shag, polka, a lively Polish dance called the oberek, tango, line dancing, and of course, waltz – she was in high demand to dance them all. During WWII Jeanette was Rosie the Riveter. She was photographed in a defense plant for a military magazine. If any reader knows of a photo of a raven-haired beauty in heels next to a flux machine, we’re looking for a copy. She also soldered and ran the drill press.
A war bride, Jeanette stayed at the defense plant for a year after marriage then followed her husband to Kansas. She worked in a five-and-dime and played Chinese checkers and ping pong with the soldiers at the USO. They transferred (by cattle train) to a little house with lilacs in Minnesota. She enjoyed seeing how beautiful this country and its people were. Then they went to Louisiana. It had the biggest, most aggressive bugs she had ever seen. One day she hopped on a bus and sat in the back. At first she didn’t realize everyone was yelling at her to move to the white section. “Who would think of such a thing?” Jeanette exclaimed.
In the ‘50s, she and her husband and their three children, Ronny, Terry and Pam, moved to a farmhouse in upstate New York. They had apple, cherry, plum and sickle pear trees; strawberry and raspberry bushes; a vegetable garden and 45 rosebushes. Jeanette canned, baked, filled the house with roses and picked grapes in a local vineyard. After the children grew up and Jeanette divorced she waitressed to make ends meet. There she had an encounter with Paul Newman you have to hear from her.
In 1986 Jeanette followed her daughter and grandchildren, Lauren and Daniel, to Pennsylvania and began work in the library office and Roslyn Branch. She literally cut and pasted the events calendars together, which evolved into the website http://abg.mclinc.org and this newsletter. She types, files, copies, helps the bookkeeper and so much more. “In high school my favorite class was typing. I always wanted to be a secretary. I love keeping things in order.”
– Karen Burnham
Reference Department News
For more information http://abg.mclinc.org
WE ARE NOW A WIRELESS HOT SPOT!
Abington Free Library now offers wireless access to patrons during regular business hours. If your laptop is set up for wireless access, you can now go online at the library. Bring your library card and be sure to have a password set up in your patron account and you are ready to get connected!
PLEASE CHECKOUT OUR WONDERFUL E-RESOURCES
(follow the link http://abg.mclinc.org/information/index.htm)
The Abington Free Library has purchased subscriptions to two new electronic databases. Historical New York Times (1851 - 2003) supplied by ProQuest Historical Newspapers is now available to Abington residents. Historical research, personal interest, and a wonderful glimpse of our world are now at your fingertips. In addition, we have added Mergent Online [canceled in 2007] with access to U.S. Company Data, U.S. Company Archives, Mergent Equity Research Reports, Factsheets Plus, Factsheets Express, Institutional Holdings, Insider Trades, Expanded Long-Term Debt, Executive Biographies, and Competitor Reports.
Don’t miss our ongoing subscriptions paid for by Abington Free Library: Facts on File Science Online and World News Digest Online. We also offer our own valuable resource – the Abington Collaborative Project – an effort to create a site that provides valuable source listings for major subject areas. The project is the result of collaboration among librarians and the web page developer at the Abington Township Public Library and students and teachers at Abington High School. Students can use the site to improve their information-seeking abilities as well as to help them progress in independent research, thus developing necessary college skills.
Finally, the state and county provide resources that can be accessed at our library. These include Ask Here PA 24/7 Reference; POWERLibrary databases; LearningExpress Library; The Philadelphia Inquirer (1981- ); and ReferenceUSA.
Please stop by and ask about these amazing resources – or just jump online with your library card and explore our e-resources web page or give us call at the Information Desk.
– Mimi Satterthwaite, Head of Reference
Miss Ellanie
For more information: http://abg.mclinc.org
I’d like to take a moment to say goodbye to some valued and beloved staff members.
First, we must recognize Pearl Wilensky. She passed away last June. She was a very young 88. In last fall’s newsletter Lois wrote in the Staff Spotlight, “Pearl Wilensky is our longest running star, having been here for 32 years.” Among her other duties
here, Pearl would call a borrower if a book was long overdue. She was often heard to say brightly, “Are you coming in today to return the book, dear?” A few years ago, when the snow was particularly heavy, the person at the other end of the line said, “I can’t come in. I’m 72.” Pearl’s response: “I’m here and I’m 85.” We all miss her smile, her warm, crisp humor and her kugel. We will always feel her love.
Jeanette Andrews is featured in this issue’s Staff Spotlight. She has worked here for 20 years, a week and a day. She started in the library office when it was downstairs, a dingy storage area with pipes overhead, but nothing improves ambience like friends. And she’s made many over the years. She taught us line dancing and some Polish phrases. We all wish you the best.
Devon Weidemann is one of our brightest young-stars. She started as a teenage page and came back a few years later as an aide at the circulation desk. In the meantime, she had finished Penn State in two and a half years, in part by taking 44 AP credits in with her. Wow! She majored in history with a minor in French and is now leaving for a year in France. She will be living in the city of Nancy and teaching English in a French high school.
- Miss Ellanie (as told to Karen Burnham and Lois Odabas)
Friends of Abington Libraries - News & Views
To learn about our activities, call 215-885-5180, ext. 36, http://abg.mclinc.org/friends/index.htm
SILENT AUCTION – You are cordially invited to bid all through the month of September on the
unique, small collectibles, accessories, jewelry and miscellaneous items on view in the display case.
See the large doll at the Circulation Desk!
VISIT OUR BOOKCELLAR – Lower Level Abington Free Library. See our new arrivals daily! Our wide range of fiction and nonfiction books along with video and audiotapes, CDs and DVDs await your purchase. Hours: Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri: noon-4 p.m.; Wed: noon-8:30 p.m.; Sat: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
THE FRIENDS INVITE YOU TO BECOME A MEMBER!
Come meet our sociable group and enjoy the comradery and satisfaction of helping our libraries to grow.
Attend our next meeting at Abington Free Library, on Saturday, Nov 18, at 9:30 a.m.
The Friends is a volunteer group of individuals dedicated to supporting our libraries.
Proceeds of all sales benefit the libraries. - Friends of Abington Township Public Library, Bill Tinsman, President
Roslyn Branch Library
For information: 215-886-9818 or http://abg.mclinc.org/roslyn/index.htm
2412 Avondale Avenue, Roslyn, PA 19001
ROSLYN BOOK SALE!
Sponsored by the Friends of the Library. All book-sale-books are 25¢. Ongoing.
PAJAMA PARTIES FOR AGES 3-6
Sept 18, Oct 16, Nov 13, Dec 11 from 6:30-7 p.m.
STORIES + SONGS + FINGERPLAYS + CRAFTS
Children are invited to wear their pajamas and bring a stuffed animal.
Registration begins Sept 5.
BOOK DISCUSSION FOR AGES 8 AND UP.
Sept 25 from 7-8 p.m.
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo.
The book may be obtained through the library hold system.
Registration is required. Registration begins Sept 7.
FALL STORY TIMES FOR AGES 2-6
Ages 3-6 Mondays at 1:30 p.m. Sept 25, Oct 9, 16, 23, 30, Nov 6
Ages 2-3 Thursdays at 11 a.m. Sept 28, Oct 5, 12, 19, 26, Nov 2, 9
Registration begins Sept 11.
MASTER GARDENER PROGRAM
Oct 9 from 7-8 p.m. Join Master Gardener Tom McGeehan as he presents the program “Pond Basics: Design, Installation and Maintenance Fundamentals”
Light refreshments will be provided. Registration begins September 25.
HALLOWEEN PARTY
Oct 30: 6-6:30 p.m. ages 2-5; 7-8 p.m. ages 6-12.
Wear a costume! Stories, songs, games, crafts and refreshments!
Registration begins Oct 9.
BABY DAYS FOR AGES 8 MONTHS TO 2 YEARS
Nov 14, 21, 28, Dec 5 and 12 at 11 a.m.
Babies and caregivers will sing songs, read stories, and do finger plays.
Registration begins Oct 30.
Please arrive on time for the program.
We urge that each child obtain a library card. Your child will enjoy choosing books each week and having you read to him or her at home. Have your MCLINC card ready when checking out books.
If you are unable to attend one or more sessions, kindly call the library in advance. This will
allow others on the waiting list to attend the program as well as prevent waste of craft materials.
All Roslyn programs are free!
Children's Department at Abington Free Library
For information please call 215-885-5180, ext. 28. http://abg.mclinc.org/childrens/index.htm
FALL STORY TIMES
Two six-week sessions: Session I from the week of Sept 11 to the week of Oct 16.
Session II from the week of Nov 6 and to the week of Dec 11.
TWO-YEAR-OLDS: Thursdays, 10:15-10:45 OR 11-11:30 a.m. Parents/caregivers attend with their children.
Advance registration is required. Session I registration begins Sept 5. Session II registration begins Oct 30.
THREE-YEAR-OLDS: Mondays, 10:30-11 a.m.
No advance registration required. Children may attend independently or with parents/caregivers.
FOUR- AND FIVE-YEAR-OLDS: Thursdays, 2-2:30 p.m.
No advance registration required. Children are encouraged to attend independently.
DROP-IN STORY TIMES FOR CAREGIVERS AND CHILDREN (all ages welcome)
Every Tuesday from 11-11:30 a.m. Starting Oct 3 to May 22, 2007 (No sessions on Oct 31, Nov 7 or Dec 26)
Story times led by the Jenkintown Kiwanis Club in cooperation with the Children’s Department staff. Discover new stories and enjoy old favorites. No registration required. Parents/caregivers must attend with their children.
DOGGONE GOOD READERS
A reading program for ages 7-9 in partnership with the Abington Memorial Hospital Animal-Assisted Therapy team and Therapy Dogs International. Register starting Monday, Sept 25.
Three Saturdays: Oct 7, Nov 4 and Dec 2, 10:15-10:45 OR 11-11:30 a.m.
Bring your own book or use one provided by the library.
Children will take turns reading to the dogs in small groups.
WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS: (See the top of page one for details)
Oct 24, 7-8 p.m. or Nov 13, 10-11 a.m. Location: The Parenting Center at Abington.
TODDLER STORY TIMES (ages 12-23 months)
For children who are walking independently and their parents/caregivers
Four Wednesdays: Nov 15, 22, 29 and Dec 6, 10:30-11 a.m.
Registration begins Nov 8 for Abington Township residents, Nov 12 for everyone else.
Young Adult/Teens at Abington Free Library
For information: Linda Jones, Young Adult librarian, 215-885-5180, ext. 13,
You may also ask at the adult information desk or go to http://abg.mclinc.org/teen_website/index.htm.
COLLEGE ADMISSION WORKSHOPS
Workshops leader: Byron L. Goldstein, Independent College Admissions Counselor
A workshop for high school seniors (and their parents) applying to college now…
How to Create the Best College Admission Application
Oct 12, 7-8 p.m. Signup begins Sept 18.
A workshop for high school juniors and younger and their parents …
How to Successfully Navigate the College Admissions Process …
especially Ivy League and High Level Colleges
Nov 2, 7-8 p.m. Signup begins Oct 16.
For trusted, valuable websites, check out the
Abington Collaborative Project abg.mclinc.org
Adult Programs at Abington Free Library
For information: 215-885-5180, ext. 15, http://abg.mclinc.org/calendar/allEvents.htm
WWII LECTURE SERIES
Every third Tuesday at 3 and 7 p.m.
Sept 19, A German Jew in the U.S. Army,
Jerry Nothman
Oct 17, Tempered Steel, Charles Byler
Nov 21, Merchant Marine Sailor, John Corbett
Dec 19, Battle in Stalingrad, Mikhail Rabinovich
SOCRATES CAFÉ
Every second Wednesday from 10:30 - noon
Every fourth Friday from 7 - 8:30 p.m.
Giving Philosophy Back to the People
DAYTIME BOOK DISCUSSION GROUP
Every first Thursday at 1 p.m.
Oct 5 - Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons: A Novelby Lorna Landvik
Nov 2 - The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
Dec 7 - Mona in the Promised Land by Gish Jen
No registration required. Walk-ins welcome!
OLD YORK ROAD GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
Every second Tuesday, 7-8:45 p.m.
Check out our website!
ADULT LITERACY EVENTS - 215-885-5183
Tutor Training from 6:30-8:45 p.m.
Sept 18 and 19.
Tutor Support Meetings at 7 p.m.
Sept 27, Oct 16, Nov 20, Dec 12.
RUTH R. ABEL MEMORIAL SEMINAR
Sept 27 - American Splendor.
DVD may be borrowed from the Library Office.
Nov 1 - March by Geraldine Brooks.
Books are available in the Library Office for $8
7 p.m. in the Shorday Room. Dr. Richard Tyre is our discussion leader. Registration is a must!
TRAVEL SERIES
Burton Klein will present a series of six lectures:
Sept 7 – Why Dublin …
Sept 14 – Somewhere in Time …
Sept 21 – The Heart of Country (Music) …
Sept 28 – Grand One-Day Trips …
Oct 5 – Resplendent Hotels …
Oct 12 – The World of Underground …
Come hear this world traveler speak at 10 a.m.
Be entertained while you learn!
GUITAR WORKSHOP SERIES
THIS PROGRAM IS FULL. .
Instructor Richard Kaufman.
Session I – These Mondays at 7 p.m.
Sept 11, Oct 9, Nov 13, Dec 11,
Jan 8, Feb 12, March 12, and April 9.
Due to popular demand,
Richard Kaufman and the Library are pleased to announce an additional Guitar Workshop Series:
Session II - These Wednesdays at 7 p.m. (November’s date is a Friday)
Sept 13, Oct 11, Nov 17, Dec 20,
Jan 10, Feb 14, and March 21.
Those already on the waiting list will be
called first to attend Session II
THE ART OF LOOKING AT ART
Sept 28, 7 p.m.
Dr. Sheldon Weintraub,
docent and comedian,
will advance our understanding of viewing art.
END OF LIFE DECISIONS
Oct 24, 7 p.m.
Janet Hull, R.N. will share her expertise
on improving the end of life experience.
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