Through the years we’ve had calls asking if we have yearbooks for local high schools. We always had to say no. That changed this week when a patron brought in a cart full of books for us. We found shelves in our Genealogy Room for these treasures. We posted a picture and announcement on Facebook and Instagram with a promise to let you know what volumes we are missing. Here we go:

Seneca High School, these are the years we HAVE: ’49. ’53, ’54, ’57, ’59, ’60, ’61, ’65, ’66, ’68, ’69.

Nemaha Valley High School, these are the years we are MISSING: ’75, ’76, ’78, ’83, ’84, 2011, 2012, 2013

B&B High School, these are the years we HAVE: 1986, 1987, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2014.

A complete set of Nemaha Central yearbooks has been donated to the Library!

I you have any missing volumes and are ready to part with them, the library would be happy to have them on our shelves. These items are not for circulation, but you are welcome to stop in and enjoy during regular library hours.

The Board and Staff of Seneca Free Library would like to thank everyone who supported the Library on Match Day. We will share more when we have official word from the STEP Foundation.

Nemaha County STEP Foundation will be holding Match-Day, August 26 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm in the library Community Room. This year the library will be one of the entities eligible for receiving funds.

Donations to the STEP Foundation can be made *that day in person, *by mailing the funds made payable to STEP Foundation,  in care of P.O. Box 165, Seneca, KS 66538, or *online at www.stepupnemaha.com. Online transactions must be completed on August 26 only.

The library is using any funds received to pay for restoration work on the bell tower of the old stone church. You can contact the library or any STEP Foundation member with questions about Match Day.

The purpose of Match Day is to help area non profits raise monies for their funds.

Each fund will be eligible for matching funds (dollar for dollar) for up to at least $2,000. per organization/agency. [Some may have additional matching funds.]

PHOTO: The Library Board finalized plans they’ve been working on to establish a new fund that will be eligible to participate in Match Day. Pictured from left to right in front are Board members Bruce Hermesch and Donna Zinke, STEP Board President Marceil Hasenkamp; standing in the back row is Library Director Kate Haynie, Board president Cathy Enneking, and Board member Michael Philbrick.

We sometimes forget that not everyone understands our language when we talk about holds, requests, NEXT, KOHA, and so on. Even though there will not be a quiz, we will know whether or not you have been paying attention. We have decided to start Library Lingo Explained in our biweekly column in the Courier Tribune and copy them to our website, so here it is;

We will begin with: NEKLS = NorthEast Kansas Library System, a consortium of 14 counties of NE Kansas. Seven regional library districts were formed in Kansas in the 1960s. Within NEKLS there are 117 member libraries. NEKLS provides our software and hardware service, training and maintenance; tech support; grant funds; continuing education for librarians; website support; and more. Oh, and they oversee the statewide Courier Service.

 We continue Library Lingo with NEXT, which is the name of our shared catalog system. Our system was formerly called NExpress; that’s why it is on some of your library cards. It was upgraded a few years ago. There are 52 libraries in Northeast Kansas in the shared catalog.  These 52 NEXT libraries are similar to a branch library system; sharing resources but remaining autonomous. The shared catalog allows access to so much more than just a single library could offer. There are over one million items in the shared catalog for our patrons to borrow – imagine how many shelves that would take?  Not all libraries in Northeast Kansas are part of NEXT; Topeka – Shawnee, Johnson County, Wyandotte, and Lawrence Public are just a few of the libraries that are not in our shared catalog. Not all regional library systems have shared catalogs, so we feel very fortunate to be a part of NEXT. If you are interested in learning more about the shared catalog and how to use it, just ask the librarians. We will be happy to help. It just takes a few seconds to make sure your account is set up on our end in order for you to begin searching for and requesting items. If you are having trouble using your current account please let us know so that we can get you back online.

The permits are here, waiting for you to decide on a date to travel Kansas!

Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks has teamed up with Kansas Public Libraries to offer free park passes to library patrons. Seneca Free Library is participating so our patrons can get free one day passes to any of the 28 State Parks in Kansas. Permits are good for one day only and expire at 2:00 pm the following day. Pick up a pass, stick it on your windshield, and away you go! What a great time to explore our state! This program runs through December 31, 2022, but don’t wait that long because the number of passes will be limited. 

Kansas State Parks offer many activities. Use the link below to search for State Parks and read information about what each has to offer, its history and more.

https://ksoutdoors.com/State-Parks/Locations

How long is a permit good for? A permit is good for 1 [one] day in the Kansas State Parks and all permits expire the following day at 2:00 PM.

Is the permit only valid at a specific park? No, the permit is good at any Kansas State Park, so a patron could visit more than one State Park in the allotted time frame.

How does a library issue a permit? 1. A patron goes into a participating library, presents a library card, and requests a permit. 2. The librarian asks patron to SPECIFY THE DATE they will be visiting the Parks. It could be the date the permit is issued or a future date. 3. The librarian will issue a valid permit with date of park visit written on it. 4. Patron uses the permit on this date to visit Kansas State Parks. 5. Once the patron has finished with the permit or the permit has expired, the permit should be recycled or discarded. There is no need for return.

https://ksoutdoors.com/State-Parks/Library-Program

 

 

 In September we will be collecting canned vegetables for the Nemaha County Food Pantry. Donations can be left at the library during normal business hours. If you have large donations it is best to deliver directly to the food pantry. We can help facilitate a drop off time if needed.

Paper goods and personal hygiene products are always needed also.  Thank you!

Here is a full list of items each family receives, each month:  1 breakfast item, 4 cans of vegetables, 1 can beans, 1 package of rice, 1 pasta and sauce, 1 jar of peanut butter, 1 box of crackers, 2 cans of fruit, 1 can of tuna or chicken, 2 cans of soup, 1 dessert, and a pound of meat.

 These items are always needed at the Food Pantry. We focus on particular items each month as a way to bring attention to the need:  Paper products [toilet paper, paper towels, Kleenex], personal products, boxed cereal, oatmeal, pancake mix, syrup, canned vegetables, rice, pasta and sauce, peanut butter, boxed crackers, canned fruit, canned tuna, canned chicken, boxed tuna and chicken helper, canned soups, jello and pudding mixes, cookies, cake mixes and frosting, pie mix, etc. They also accept laundry detergent, dish soap, shampoo, bath soap.

Opened and outdated products are not accepted at the Pantry.

What will you find when you log in to Flipster? In the NEWS category you will find TIME, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. Under Lifestyle you will find Reader’s Digest, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, Midwest Living, Men’s Journal, FabUplus Magazine, and Countryside & Small Stock Journal. Looking for magazines about Hobbies? How about Beadworl, Casual Game Insider, Comics & Gaming Magazine, The Family Handyman, HGTV Magazine, Audubon, Interweave Knits, Sew News, Old House Journal, Minecraft World, PC Gamer, Quilter’s World, Crochet, Internet Genealogy, Interweave Crochet, Knitscene and Creative Knitting. The Family category includes Ladybug, Girl’s World, Animal Tales, BAZOOF, and Cicada. Other categories are Entertainment. Science, Literary, Business, Cooking; Travel, Home & Garden, Health, Sports, Automotive, Cooking, Teens, Consumer and Bridal.

Inky could give you a BIG hug now! Look at how long those arms are now!

We had 171 readers sign up to read this summer and 50 finish the program by coming in to collect their certificate and the Ice Cream Party invitation. 1,733 books were read by those 11 and under. Those choosing to read by hours recorded over 106 hours or 6,403 minutes. What an amazing group of readers we have. We had 10 readers join the Bonus Round and logged in more impressive numbers.

This is the most we’ve had sign up for several years. We were excited to have the live programs in our Community Room again this year. It’s like we are back to normal or something. It was great.

We had a great time decorating for the Oceans of Possibilities theme this summer and, surprisingly, they still look pretty good. Children have enjoyed looking at our creative work all summer. We only hope we can meet our high standards next year when the theme is All Together Now.

The week of July 18 was the last week to play our Summer Trivia Game. We had 15 patrons participate this summer. Each week we gave a prize to the high scorer. The overall winner is Kylee who won with the high score of 30 points and walked away with the grand prize.

Thank you to everyone who participated. The first questions were asked the week of May 31, so we appreciate everyone remembering to come in each week. And no one had to walk the plank!

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Our adult patrons are invited join in on the fun of Summer Reading! We have a trivia game for you to play this summer. Here are the details:

Each week there will be a new set of 5 questions from 5 different categories that coordinate with our summer reading theme: Pirates, Our Blue Planet, Oceans Alive, Sea Stories, and Explore New Depths.

Each correct answer earns one point; answer all five correctly and get a bonus point!

5 points per week x 8 weeks of questions = 40 points

1 bonus point per week = 48 possible points

Trivia will begin May 31 and new questions will be revealed each Monday in June. Each week’s game will end on Saturday at closing time. Players must come into the Library to answer the questions…UNAIDED.

Use yer cell phone or read our books an’ ye’ll be walkin’ the plank, Matey!

Jolly luck to ye’.

to join a book club. We are looking for a few {or more} good people to join in the fun of discussing great and, sometimes, not so great books. It happens.

Do you know our library organizes 2 book clubs?

Our Tuesday night Club was started in 2003. We have a list of the books they’ve read each year! This club often selects items recommended for book clubs, and they try to accommodate the members’ preferences. Occasionally, they push out of their reading comfort zones for a less typical genre like historical fiction or true crime. They meet the 3rd Tuesday of the month here at the Library at 6:00 PM. They take a break for the holiday season and don’t meet in November or December.

“Our group would welcome some young blood, some diversity. We encourage any enthusiastic reader to join us. We are not an intimidating group. Our discussions are more like book reports than literary reviews. We have plenty of laughs and have built some solid bonds of friendship.” the fearless leader of the group commented.

The Books and Brew, as in COFFEE, Club meets the second Wednesday of each month at 10:00 AM. They are back to where they started, meeting at the Cornerstone Coffee Haus. This group reads mystery novels and is learning a lot about how not to commit crimes, or how to commit the perfect crime. This group has been meeting since December of 2010.

For both groups, we request the books early enough so members can pick up the books for the next month’s meeting when they meet. That is our plan, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Members can request regular print books, large print or audio books. If they have a device and electronic resource they prefer to use and the book is available there, that works too.

Talk to the librarians about how to join one or both of our book clubs.