Saturday, February 05, 2011

 

New Year, New Changes

Chambers County Library System – January 2011

On January 31st we said goodbye to our County Librarian, A. Lynette Parsons. For the past 15 years she has been the driving force behind the County libraries and retires leaving behind a legacy of inspired employees who with her guidance have dedicated themselves to providing wonderful service to the public. Taking her place is Valerie Jensen, Assistant County Librarian who has been with the system for 15 years. As part of the transition, Kathy Fielding has moved full time to run the Technical Services department, which is the 4th unit of the library system. Tech Services handles all the ordering of library materials and supplies, as well as the many behind-the scenes operations. Kathy has been with CCLS for 9 years, and will continue to serve as the library system webmaster in addition to her new duties. Adrienne Cain has been hired as the new Assistant County Librarian. She begins her life with CCLS on February 1. She hails from Arlington, and received her Master's in Library Science from UNT in Denton. She most recently served a stint at NASA, digitizing and cataloging space photos.

In January, Valerie Jensen and Houston Area Library System(HALS)/Lay Representative Lise Olesen traveled to Silsbee to the annual Geographic meeting where the system budget and long range plans for HALS were discussed. This is an opportunity for libraries in the area to gather and give their input to the Houston area coordinators regarding the needs of their communities and libraries.

At the Chambers County Library in Anahuac, Library Technician Melba Gmelch had her first Job Center orientation. Several job seekers came to heed her advice on interview skills, creating resumes, filling out job applications and more. Melba is also leader of the Library System’s book club held each month at the library in Anahuac and most recently she started holding a monthly book club discussion at the new Wellness Center as part of the library’s ongoing outreach programs.

On January 11th, Mary Abshire of the Juanita Hargraves Memorial Branch in Winnie held her first Genealogy for Beginners” program. Mary eagerly shares her experiences with her own genealogy research and assists patrons who are just starting out or have been searching a while. The Winnie library is starting a regularly scheduled Genealogy Interest Group (GIG) to meet on the last Saturday of each month at 11 a.m

Another Winnie library employee, Scott Crawford has begun taking courses towards a degree in Library and Information Science. Scott began courses mid January and we’re proud he’s chosen this profession to earn a degree.

Thanks to a grant from the Houston Area Library System, Young Adult author, William Hill visited Anahuac Middle School and the West Chambers Branch Library in Mont Belvieu. Mr. Hill has done previous programs at the Library System and treats those attending to a running lesson in how to get ideas, using words creatively, and developing story lines.

The West Chambers Branch held its first overnight “Teen Lock-in” on January 14th. Library Technician Missy Parham, braved a night with 20 teens and several adult chaperones who kept the teens occupied with videogames, board games, and more. A great time was had by everyone involved and the teens look forward to their next adventure with Missy.

Santa seemed to bring a lot of our patrons eReaders for Christmas. As a result, our Overdrive audiobook downloads have doubled for the second month in a row. The Houston Area Digital Media Catalog is part of the Chambers County Library System’s digital media services offering thousands of bestselling audiobooks, videos and ebooks. The Mont Belvieu library is holding a “Donuts and Downloads” program to assist anyone who needs help with transferring digital content to their device. Call the Mont Belvieu library for more information, 281-576-2245.


Members of the Chambers County Library System Book Club at their 3rd anniversary celebration

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?