Library News

Did You Know?

• Linebaugh Public Library System is pleased to announce E. Roy Lee has been named Employee of the Month for June. Lee is the Youth Services Assistant at Linebaugh Public Library, where he has worked for two-and-a-half years.
  
  Lee was selected by his coworkers for this honor because of his efforts to provide services and programs for teens. Lee oversees the library's Teen Advisory Board and is in charge of planning all teen events and activities at the library. Through his community partnerships and efforts to promote teen events, Lee has been successful in getting more teens to come to the library and participate in programs. In addition to his work at the library, Lee is actively involved with local theater. He has written and performed in several plays, and will perform in the upcoming staging of Play It Again, Sam at the Encore Theatre Company in Mt. Juliet. Lee also assists with The Play's the Thing!, a new play reading group which meets monthly at Linebaugh. 
  
  The LPLS Employee of the Month is sponsored by Jeff’s Family Restaurant of Murfreesboro.
   
• The Christy-Houston Foundation awarded more than $280,000 to LPLS for the implementation of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, to help boost efficiency and allow staff members to spend more time working one-on-one with its patrons. Along with the RFID system, the library will be able to purchase some much-needed items that were not funded in the normal operating budget. "We want to say, many thanks to the Christy-Houston Foundation for their generous donation. Their forward thinking will allow our library system to provide faster, more dependable service to our patrons by providing this latest technology," said LPLS Director Rita Shacklett. Grant funds will also be used for:
  • new materials for all LPLS branches. Up to $20,000 will be spent to purchase books, audiobooks, and DVDs to replace existing materials which are out-of-date, worn out, or have been lost.
  • a new microfilm reader/printer for Linebaugh Library's Historical Research Room, to replace the current 10-year-old machine.
  • a new service desk for the Youth Services Department at Linebaugh Library.
  • a DVD cleaner, to extend the life of the library system's DVD collection.
  • a new public copy machine for Linebaugh Library.
  • replacement computers and other equipment.
     
• Linebaugh Public Library System will purchase two series of books that will help children progress in the challenge of reading. Made possible in part by a grant from The Richard Siegel Foundation, these high-quality books will help all children learn to read more easily, especially those with dyslexia. “We currently only have a small collection of ‘high interest/low level’ books at our Linebaugh branch,” says Youth Services Librarian Joan Hemphill. “With this grant, we will expand the collection here at Linebaugh and extend it to our Smyrna, MGL, and Eagleville branches, as well as on our Bookmobile.” The books will include those appropriate for beginning readers in grades K-3 -- phonetically decodable beginning reading books that tell rich and engaging stories -- to books targeting children in upper elementary and junior high schools who display high interests in reading and low ability levels for their ages -- books with lower difficulty levels and age-appropriate subject matter, ranging from literary classics to contemporary themes.
   
• Linebaugh Library was named as a Finalist for the 2009 Ruthies Awards for Favorite Place to Take the Kids and Favorite Movie Rental Place. Thanks for showing your support for your local library!
   
• Get a glimpse at the history of Linebaugh Public Library. An article about Linebaugh's past, including photos of previous library buildings, is featured in a 2009 issue of Tennessee Libraries.
   
• LPLS's new gaming program series debuts in August 2009 and will run through Summer 2010. LPLS was awarded a $5000 Community Building Through Video Games in Libraries grant, which will be used to purchase video gaming equipment and offer programming at both the Linebaugh and Smyrna branches. Programs are being presented in conjunction with the Rutherford County YMCA and the Smyrna Senior Center, with assistance by our Teen Advisory Board. For updates on the gaming programs, be sure to become a fan of Smyrna Gamers on Facebook, join the Teen Advisory Board group on Facebook, or follow LinebaughTAB on Twitter.
   
• Plan to be out of town for a few days? You can now suspend your holds through our online catalog. Suspending your holds allows you to keep your place in line, but the hold won't become available until you're available to pick it up. After you enter your library card number, you can choose to edit some or all of your holds to enter suspension dates. You can also choose an expiration date for your holds -- if you will no longer need an item after a certain date, set that as your expiration. If the book becomes available for you before that date, you will be notified. If not, the hold will automatically cancel.
   
• LPLS received level funding this year from the local city and county governments -- meaning the library system received no budget increases nor budget cuts. LPLS will not be cutting hours or services, unlike other libraries this fiscal year. "In these tough economic times, many libraries are having to reduce hours or lay off staff," said LPLS Director Rita Shacklett. "We are not facing those kinds of difficult decisions, and for that we are fortunate." To offset some increased costs (such as utilities and insurance), the library system has had to cut back in other areas of its budget. "Usually all staff receive at least a cost-of-living salary increase, but we were not able to give any employees a raise this year," Shacklett said. The library has already implemented several cost-saving measures, such as its recent switch to electronic courtesy notices (see below) and changing to more energy-efficient lighting. LPLS is jointly funded by Rutherford County and the city governments of Murfreesboro, Smyrna and Eagleville. "It is important to us to be good stewards of our community's money, while continuing the same quality of service we offer to the residents of Rutherford County," Shacklett said.
   
• As of July 1, 2009, LPLS no longer prints and mails courtesy notices. Eliminating printed overdue notices will save the library system nearly $10,000 annually, roughly the cost of 500 new books. Library patrons may add email address to their accounts if they would like reminders about overdue materials. Patrons who sign up for email notices will receive a courtesy reminder two days before materials are due and when items are one week, two weeks, and three weeks late. We will also email you when a reserved item is available for pick up. If your email address changes, please update us with the Change My Address form. You will need your library card number.
   
• Thousands of best-selling and classic audiobooks on R.E.A.D.S are now compatible with the iPod, iPhone, iPod touch, iPod nano, as well as the Zune and other popular MP3 players. Recently Tennessee R.E.A.D.S expanded compatibility with two popular audiobook formats: WMA and MP3. Transfer these audiobooks to your Apple devices or other MP3 players with a simple upgrade of the free software OverDrive Media Console.  
   
• Find us on Facebook! LPLS is now on Facebook. Become a fan to receive regular updates about upcoming events and library news.
  
  Linebaugh Public Library System on Facebook
   
  You can also follow the Linebaugh Reference Department on Twitter. Get updates on today's events and today in history, plus other information. Ask us questions by putting @linebaugh_ref in your tweets.
   
• LPLS is now offering Online Book Clubs. Sign up and you'll receive a five-minute selection from a chapter of a book each day. By the end of the week, you'll have read 2-3 chapters. The book clubs give you a chance to sample a book before you check it out from the library. No matter what your reading interest, there's a book club for you! The Online Book Clubs are sponsored by the Friends of Linebaugh Library.
   
• Friends of Smyrna Public Library has re-released Walter King Hoover's A History of the Town of Smyrna in January. This long out-of-print book is now available for $40. See our book release webpage for more information.
   
• Tired of waiting weeks to check out the latest bestsellers? Get them while they're hot with Hot Reads! Thanks to the Murfreesboro Breakfast Rotary Club, Linebaugh Library has expanded its offerings in the Hot Reads program, to offer more copies of more titles. For $2 you can rent new books at Linebaugh Library for 1 week. Hot Reads are available on a first come, first served basis and cannot be placed on hold. Additional copies of these titles will be available for normal checkout or to place on hold. The $2 rental fee must be paid when the item is checked out. Hot Reads cannot be renewed. Overdue Hot Reads will be fined $.30 per day. Get your hands on popular authors such as Janet Evanovich, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, and Nicholas Sparks with Hot Reads! Please tell us what you think about this new service.
   
• The Friends of Linebaugh Library now have a Café Press store, where you'll find a variety of shirts, hats, stickers, tote bags, and much more. Join Mattie the Toucan in encouraging everyone to read and to support your local public library. These items are a great way to support LPLS and make great gifts for readers no matter where they live!
   
• BookFlix is an interactive literary resource that builds a love of reading and learning in a fun, online environment. BookFlix pairs classic video storybooks with nonfiction eBooks to reinforce reading skills and develop essential real-world knowledge and understanding. This resource also has educational games, author profiles, vocabulary, and more. Requires Flash and audio. (Check to see if your computer meets the requirements.) For grades PreK-3. You will need to enter your library card number to use this service.
   

• LPLS's online bookstore, MyLibraryBookstore, carries about 1 million book titles, plus all the latest DVDs and CDs from dozens of genres, just like other online bookstores. The benefit to using MyLibraryBookstore is that proceeds from your purchases directly benefit the Linebaugh Library System.

   

• Have you seen our zines? Linebaugh Library's zine collection can be found on the second floor, near the Periodicals. Zines can be checked out for 2 weeks. Available zines can be found in iBistro, our online catalog. For more information about what zines are or about the library's zine collection, please visit our Zine Collection page.
   

• Thanks to Rutherford Books from Birth, your preschool age children can receive free, age-appropriate books every month! You can now register your children online; you can also register for this program at any of the Linebaugh Library System branches. The simple act of reading books to your children on a regular basis gives them a big boost toward a successful education. Rutherford Books from Birth, in partnership with the Governor's Books from Birth Foundation and Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, want to give you free books to read to your children. Visit the Rutherford Books from Birth website to find out more!
   

• Give us your ideas! In 2005, Dubberly Garcia Associates of Atlanta developed a Master Facilities Plan for the Linebaugh Library System. As of October 2005, the Linebaugh Library System was 72,000 square feet shy of the state minimum standards for Tennessee. This plan calls for adding several new facilities, including constructing a new main library. The Executive Summary of the Facilities Plan, as well as a PDF of the full Plan, are available for public review and comment. The Library System has now contracted with Dubberly Garcia to develop a Building Plan for the new main library and branch libraries. We hope you'll join Project 72,000: Building Better Libraries, and that you'll be a part of planning the future of libraries in Rutherford County.
   

• Linebaugh Library System offers adaptive technology services to the disabled, elderly, and visually impaired. As the result of a federal grant, Linebaugh Public Library and Smyrna Public Library have added adaptive computers, which includes software to magnify text and images and verbally communicate to the user. The computer is equipped with a large-print keyboard, trackball mouse, large screen, scanner, and adjustable table and chair to make it accessible for patrons with physical impairments. Both libraries also offer the InSight magnifier, which magnifies materials using a large video screen. For more information or assistance in using these machines, please visit the Reference Desk at either library or read our Adaptive Technology brochure (PDF). Linebaugh Library, in partnership with the League for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, also offers services for the deaf and hard of hearing. A sign language interpreter is available at Linebaugh Public Library each Wednesday from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. to assist with: interpreting phone calls, help interpreting documents, help on computers, help finding information in the library, help finding local resources. The library also offers access to IP-Relay on public Internet computers, available during all normal library hours. For more information, please email the Linebaugh Library Reference Department.
   

• Check out the Linebaugh Library System's Bookmobile!
   

• Linebaugh Library has Wireless Internet access. Find out more!