MORRISVILLE LIBRARY NEWS December 7, 2001
by Mary Brown

Tis the season to be jolly at the Morrisville Library . It's time to come in and have some fun bidding in the final moments of our wonderful Holiday Silent Auction. The program room is packed with fabulous gift items you can bid on until Saturday, December 13th at 1 p.m. ( Watch out for those last minute bidders -- the "snipers"! -- hanging around at 12:59 to slide in their last minute high bids! ) We hope you don't miss your big chance to put in a winning bid on some of the beautiful collectible dolls, the signed watercolor paintings, the oriental rug, the hanging quilts, the gift certificates, the dish garden from Brookside Greenhouse or any of the many auction items on display. A few of the really nice things that have no bids to date: the four blown glass ball ornaments, the crocheted afghan in fuschia/purple/green, the signed watercolor painting of winter birds, the large decorative glass jar of doggie treats, the large soft-bodied dolls and the carnival glass compote. Many other things are going for very reasonable prices and are real auction bargains as well . Barb has a partial list of the items up for Silent Auction and their current high bids on the library web site. You can check this out at http://www.midyork.org/Morrisville/bids.html


When the auction ends, those with the highest bid on each item will be contacted by phone. Then they can come in to honor their bids and pick up the "treasure" or "treasures" they have won. All proceeds from the auction will go to the library.
The annual Holiday Open House was a festive event last Friday. Many thanks to the Friends of the Library who always make this occasion such a special treat.


It is not too late to give a Christmas present to the library this year. How about adopting a magazine for the library? We'd love someone to give us a subscription to Better Homes and Gardens, Country Living, Newsweek, Gourmet, Parenting, Consumer Reports, Teen, Sports Illustrated for Kids, Seventeen or any of the other magazines that the library wants (but can't afford) to offer its patrons. Or, if you get a subscription to a magazine, consider giving each nearly-new issue to the library as soon as you read it. We also would love gift givers to adopt new books; Traci has a notebook full of selections that would be great to put under the library's Christmas tree.
Early with a Christmas gift was Jean Van Ingen who just adopted, Jackdaws, Ken Follett's new suspense thriller about a ragtag, all-female band of British agents, code-named Jackdaws, sent to blow up a key telephone exchange in France on the eve of D-Day. Thanks, Jean.


On Sat. Dec. 22nd, the library will be hosting a program for children ages 5 and up (younger than 5 will need a helper to accompany them). Michele and Traci will be helping kids make holiday ornaments! We will start at 10:30 am and finish around 11:30. All are welcome. Come join in the fun!


Now the sad news: The library will close down from Dec. 24 until Jan. 2, 2002, due to severe budget constraints. We need to conserve money, and thought that closing down during the holiday week would help us conserve energy costs as well as the day to day costs of running the library. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause to our patrons and community. It is not our wish to close our doors during Christmas vacation, but due to increasing costs of running the library, and no increase in funding, we have to cut even more corners than we have previously. Hopefully, with the help of our community, the library will not have to resort to closing to cut costs in the future, and a more workable budget will be voted upon come spring.


Last but not least, our computers which are on the MidYork network (the PC next to the fax, the desk terminal and the iMac) rather than on RoadRunner got a telecommunications upgrade last week; this will increase our network speed and help us serve our patrons more efficiently. Also, Steve Forbes and Linda Manfredo came down from Mid-York and fixed the Gates printer by installing a new network card, which makes us all very happy.


As you finish up your Christmas shopping, be sure to come in and bid on some of the super gift items in the silent auction. You have until one o'clock on Saturday to bid. And while you're shopping, think of putting the library on your gift list too.  



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December 10, 2001