The trustees of the Meredith Public Library and the Meredith Select Board want to update library patrons and taxpayers on the status of the project to expand and renovate the Meredith Public Library.
 
“It's been a busy and productive summer,” says Ann Butler, chairman of the library board of trustees. Butler notes that “A publicly funded building project takes far more planning and coordination than would be involved in building a home or even a privately funded commercial building.  There's been ongoing dialog with town officials and town committees since the spring as we follow the steps that are required by the town.” Those discussions have been cordial and productive notes Butler.
 
Jonathan James, chairman of the select board and a Meredith library trustee, concurs. Noting that all but two of the seven library trustees were elected for the first time in March he says, “The current board of library trustees has been working with town officials to get an understanding of the process that needs to be followed in a town funded project.” He’s also eager to let the public know that the select board and the library trustees are in agreement that the library will be staying in its current location and that the expansion and renovation needs to happen to meet the current and future needs of town residents.
 
The project has already come before the capital improvements planning (CIP) committee and will again be before the CIP committee in October.  “There are several projects in the next few years that need to be scheduled in a way so as not to significantly impact the town’s tax rate,” says James. 
 
Although still subject to change in the next few months, the current thinking is that the library trustees will be seeking funding at the town meeting in March of 2019 for the design phase of the project.  This phase involves the library trustees sending out through the town a formal request for qualifications (RFQ) for an architect in the project.  James notes that this phase of the project can only start if the money is approved at town meeting. 
 
Once the RFQ responses are back, the library trustees will formally select an architect to move the project from the conceptual phase it’s currently in to the design process.  It is the design process that will eventually result in the development of the detailed plans used for the construction and renovation of the library.
 
Butler states that public input will be a key part of this design process.  “The trustees are planning on using a charrette process and surveys to get as many people as possible to participate.  We will be updating the public regularly as the planning process moves forward.”  Following the formal design process, the funds for construction and renovation will be requested in a warrant article at a town meeting. James notes that the current thinking is that this will be in 2020, although he notes that this may change. 
 
Although the exact timing of the process is still pending based on the work of the CIP committee this fall,  the town and the library trustees agree that the project will have owner’s project manager (OPM) who will oversee and manage the project from beginning to end.
 
While it is anticipated that a large percentage of the library project will be funded through a bond sought by the town, efforts are already underway to seek donations and grants to reduce the cost of the project.  As is common these days with library building projects, an independent charitable 501(c)(3) organization known as the Meredith Library Fund is being formed.  They seek private and corporate donations and grants to reduce the taxpayer’s cost for the project.  Butler notes that this entity is an independent organization from the library, the Friends of the Library and the town, but has the full support of the library trustees and the select board.   Questions regarding the fund should be referred to the Meredith Library Fund president Jim McFarlin.

For more information please visit our Virtual Story Time page! The first three episodes are now live! 

We want to hear from you! We are conducting a patron satisfaction survey for 2018. Follow the link HERE, fill it out, and be entered to possibly win a free Kindle Fire! 

We are excited to announce a great service that will allow you to easily keep track of everything going on in Meredith! Burbio.com is a FREE website and app that puts school, library and other local events all in one calendar. You can create a personalized event feed and even sync events to your Google or iPhone calendars!  You'll also be notified when events change or get cancelled.  

Sign up at Burbio.com or download the free iPhone  or Android App and follow the calendars that interest you. 

Click HERE for Meredith Public Library's Burbio Feed.
​
(If you are involved in a group or organization and want to get your events on Burbio, please contact: groupsupport@burbio.com).

New Hampshire Downloadable Books has added 25 "simultaneous, unlimited checkout magazine titles" to their collection. You can either read this via the Libby App or on your PC using the Read Now function. For full instructions on how to check out and use e-magazines, please consult the NHDB's instruction handout.

To access the OverDrive catalog from our website, hover over the "Catalog" menu and then click "Ebooks, Eaudio,  Emags"  from the drop down menu. 

Things to note:

*The format of these emagazines will not work with a black and white kindle.
*Checking out magazines does not count against your three checkout limit for other downloadable titles.
*Works best on the Libby App or on PC through the NH Overdrive's website.

On Tuesday, May 1 at 10:00AM, the Meredith Public Works Department will be removing a time capsule from the Meredith Public Library lawn, 91 Main Street, that was buried in 1968.  

"The time capsule will be officially opened on July 4, 2018 at 2:00PM at the Chase House.  The Common Man is donating an ice cream social for the first one hundred people.  Carl Johnson, Jr. will be emceeing the opening and we will have a slideshow displaying events from Meredith's 200th Anniversary in 1968," said Meredith Public Library Director and Time Capsule Committee Chair Erin Apostolos.

The Time capsule was buried in 1969 as the final celebration of Meredith's 200th anniversary in the previous year.  Citizens of Meredith in 1968 chose to put items in the time capsule that largely commemorated the events celebrated in the 200th.  Those events will be explained at the July 4 opening.

"We are also inviting everyone who was present when the time capsule was buried in 1968 to the library lawn at 1PM on July 4 for a group photo and to escort the capsule to its official opening at the Chase House," said Jonathan James, Chair of the Meredith Select Board and member of the Time Capsule Committee who will be donating the use of one of his antique vehicles for the occasion.

The time capsule is being removed on May 1 because the Friends of the Library will be planting a festive Red, White and Blue garden to help commemorate Meredith's 250th anniversary. Since the time capsule is currently in the garden bed, it will need to be removed prior to the planting of the garden so as not to disrupt it.  It will be securely stored in one of the Town's vaults.  

The library is also inviting anyone who was involved in the 200th anniversary of the Town in 1968 to contact Linda Hough at the library.  We are looking for people who might be interested in a short interview about their experience as part of an Oral History Project.  These interviews will be transcribed and then placed into the new time capsule which will be opened at Meredith's 300th anniversary.  Please call 279-4303 or email us.

The Dewey Decimal System. Taught to most of us sometime in elementary school, is a numeric way of finding non-fiction books on the shelves of libraries. There is an organizational method to those numbers, seemingly cryptic except to those in the library-know, but not very user friendly to those wishing to browse our shelves of non-fiction.

Some public libraries have decided to switch to the bookstore model of organizing books, where words such as TRAVEL replace the Dewey number 910, HISTORY replace 930-940 & GARDENING replace 630 to make their shelves more user friendly.

After some debate, we at the Meredith Public Library decided to experiment with switching some of our popular non-fiction collections to the bookstore model (called BISAC) to see what our faithful library patrons think of it. Joyce has been working tirelessly researching BISAC and making the switch and so far has completed Travel, History, Cooking and Gardening.

So for example in our Cooking section, all cookbooks will have the main heading of COOKING on their spine label. Then there are subheadings. So if you are looking for Italian cookbooks, the spine will look like:

Taking a trip across the pond? The spine label would look like this:

Need to learn about Germany's past? The spine label would look like this:

We are still working on the best way to organize the shelves since most of our books are still in Dewey and it makes it confusing to see both systems being used. We are still working out some kinks. New non-fiction books, regardless of their spine label, are still shelved with new non-fiction on the main floor.

So, we welcome your feedback. What are your thoughts on using the bookstore model over Dewey? Would you like to see us switch all of our non-fiction books over to the bookstore model of change back to Dewey?

We are looking for ways to make our collection more accessible to everyone, so your input would be most appreciated. While checking out your books, please give your opinion at the front desk and this information will be forwarded to me.

-- Erin Apostolos, Library Director.