Quilt Show!

May 1, 2, & 3rd the Middleburgh Library will be hosting its first Quilt Show. Over 100 quilts will be displayed inside the library as well as in area businesses and at the Best House. There will be vendor demonstrations, door prizes and raffles.

The show is a fundraiser for the library and will bring hundreds of quilt enthusiasts to the area. The library will be closed for regular business for the entire weekend to accommodate the show. Admission is $5.00.

May 1st 10:00am - 7:00pm
May 2nd & 3rd 10:00am - 4:00pm

April is National Poetry Month

Celebrate National Poetry Month! Local Poet R.A. Pavoldi will present an interactive program entitled Poetry, a Second Language at the Middleburgh Library, Saturday April 18th at 11:00 am. Looking at poetry in a different way, Ron will discuss how poetry is used as an alternative language to interpret the world.

Ron Pavoldi, a self taught poet, has been published alongside Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winners. His poems have appeared in Hanging Loose, The Christian Science Monitor, PRIMO:A Taste of Italy in America, FIELD and ARS Medica: A Journal of Medicine, Health and the Humanities published by Mount Sinai Hospital, Department of Psychiatry. He received an International Merit Award in Atlanta Review's International Poetry Competition 2005, and in 2003, was chosen by James Tate as a finalist in The St. Louis Poetry Center's 43rd Annual National Poetry Contest.

In this program, Ron shares his broad knowledge and love for poetry with the goal of introducing others to the depth and breadth of poetry and how it is relevant to our everyday lives. Please register by calling the circulation desk at (518)827-5142.

Kerry Mendez Comes to Middleburgh!

Saturday March 7th at 11:00 am, garden designer, Kerry Mendez will be presenting her program: Proven Tips for Jump-Starting your Garden in the Community Room.

Kerry is the owner of Perennially Yours in Ballston Spa, NY, and is dedicated to teaching people of all ages the art of low-maintenance perennial gardening. As a garden consultant, designer, writer, teacher and lecturer, she focuses on time-saving gardening techniques and workhorse plant material as well as organic practices. Over 7,000 people have taken her classes. She has been in People, Places & Plants, Fine Gardening, How-To Gardening, Garden Gate, Better Homes and Gardens' Garden Ideas & Outdoor Living and Saratoga Living magazines. She has also been a featured guest on HGTV with Paul Tukey from People, Places & Plants and was the 2004-2005 perennial host for Capital News 9’s In The Garden television segment. Mendez writes garden columns for Life@Home (inaugural issue February 2008, produced by the Times Union), The Chronicle, and Saratoga Today as well as freelance pieces for regional and national magazines. She was one of three selected women featured in a ‘momtreprenuers’ special on Channel 6 CBS television. Mendez conducts almost 200 home garden consultations annually around the Capital region. She is a self-taught gardener with over 20 years of experience and a ‘passionate perennialist’ that enjoys mixing humor with practical information for creating low-maintenance perennial gardens. She is a member of the Perennial Plant Association, national Garden Writers Association, and a federated garden club. For more about Kerry Mendez and Perennially Yours, please visit www.pyours.com.

The Government, Lincoln & The Slave Trade

On Saturday February 21st @ 11:00am, Author Ron Soodalter will discuss his critically acclaimed book, Hanging Captain Gordon in a special presentation here at the Library. Despite having passed a series of stringent laws banning the Atlantic slave trade, the U.S. government did nothing to enforce them, from the presidency of George Washington to the Civil War. Finally, one man - a young slave ship captain and family man from Portland, Maine - faced the gallows, and it fell to Abraham Lincoln to either pardon or hang him. The author will examine the reasons behind the laws, and America's shameful negligence in enforcing them. With thousands pressuring him to pardon the slaver, and thousands more seeking the man's death, Lincoln was forced to make a hard decision.

Booklist says of Soodalter's Book "His fascianting and disturbing account of this obscure epidode in our history is a story replete with political intrique, cynical opportunism, and, of course immense tradgedy, revealing just how thoroughly the curse of the "peculiar institution" of chattel slavery had infiltrated every aspect of American life. This outstanding work will interest both specialist and general readers."

This speakers in the Humanities Event, which is free and open to the public, was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and its affiliate The New York Council for the Humanities. Please register for this event by calling (518)827-5142.

Food For Fines

Make a difference this holiday season by donating canned goods and non-perishable items to our food drive. Bring your items in anytime between December 1st and 23rd and leave them in the Food for Fines bin. As added incentive, bring your items in during the week of December 7th - 13th and we'll waive your fines up to $2.00.

Thanks for your generosity!

The Holidays Are Near.........

The library is gearing up for some special events this holiday season. We will again be open for Miracle on Main Street on December 12th at 6:00pm. Join us for the festivities and for the drawing of the winning name for our American Girl Doll Raffle.

The following day, December 13th at 12:30, we are delighted to host a lecture Saint Nicholas: The Saint who Became Santa, by food historian Peter Rose. Her engaging slide presentation will delve into the history of the life of the Saint; explain the various changes in his veneration and relate how he was brought to America by the Dutch in the Seventeen Century, and again, transformed into Santa in the 19th. The talk encompasses such subjects as literature, religion, the fine arts and Dutch food ways to describe the extraordinary story of his generosity that had a lasting impact on us all.

Peter Rose is an author, columnist, lecturer, and food historian who has lectured on a variety of topics related to Dutch-American culinary history at among others, The Smithsonian Institute, The National Gallery of Art, The Culinary Institute of America, New York University and The New York Historical Society. She is also the 2002 recipient of The Alice P. Kenney Award for research and writing on the food customs and diet of the Dutch settlers in New Netherland. For more information, visit her website at www.peterrose.com. This Speakers in the Humanities event, which is free and open to the public, is made possible through the support of the New York Council for the Humanities a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

After the lecture, walk on over to the Best House for their annual Victorian Tea. There is a $5.00 donation, but well worth it to see the beautiful decorated Christmas Trees. Cookies and tea will be served. Happy Holidays!!

Our Newest Volunteer

Indy the therapy dog will be donating his time in the Children's room on Tuesday afternoons starting November 11th at 3:30. Children who are just beginning to read, who need reading practice or who just need a confidence boost are encouraged to take part in this new program.

Indy and his handler Karen Van Dyke, will provide non-judgmental listening ears for young readers. Indy is a gentle giant, but you may want your child to get to know him first. Stop by, say hello and sign-up for a 15 minute block of reading time at the circulation desk. You may bring your favorite book with you if you like.