Not a Runner? Not a Problem.

The 12th Annual Hubbardston Library 5K Road Race/Walk is scheduled to take place on Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 9:00 AM Sharp. Rain or Shine.

Even if you're not participating in this year's event you can look like you did! For a limited time, these indigo blue, 100% cotton, long sleeved t-shirts are being made available to the general public for only $12.00 each. Order forms are available at the Hubbardston Public Library until Wednesday, August 26. Don't get left at the starting line, order your tee shirt today.

Getting Up to Speed

The week of August 24, 2009 the Hubbardston Public Library will begin implementing our winter schedule. We are currently advertising for a paid staff position to help cover our new expanded hours. The library interim schedule (until our position is filled) will be:

Monday 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Wednesday 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

Thursday 1:00PM to 5:00 PM

After our new staff member completes their training period, we will increase the library's hours to include Thursday until 7:00 PM and add Saturday hours from 9:00 AM to Noon to our existing schedule.

We are also in the process of reinstating some of the library's previous library programing.

Look For:

• Story Hour each Wednesday from 10 to 11 beginning September 16


• Book Discussion Group for Adults will meet on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7 PM beginning September 17


• Coffee House Musical Series will continue on the first Thursday of the month from 6:30 PM until 7:30 PM beginning in October.

Thank You Ezra Jack Keats Foundation and Josephine Amato

After 8 weeks of digging, planting, weeding, composting and all other means of gardening, the Children's Victory Garden Project has come to its conclusion. The participants in this program took part in designing a garden, learning about plants, creating whimsical art and donating to the local food pantry. The Library owes a BIG Thank You to the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation for funding this socially relevant project for Hubbardston's Youth.

The Children's Victory Garden and Art Exhibit was brought about through the hard work of our own Library Trustee, Josephine Amato. The Victory Garden Art Exhibit is currently on display at the library. Please stop by and see the photographic display.

Hubbardston Library to Sport a New Look

The Trustees of the Hubbardston Public Library are delighted that the Town of Hubbardston fully funded the Library’s operations for Fiscal Year 2010 at its Annual Town Meeting in June. So now that they are able to devote their energies to something other than simply trying to keep the library open, they’re addressing an issue that has been on the back burner for the past couple of years—the state of the library hedge.
The barberry shrubs that define the front yard of the library building were originally donated by a group of Hubbardston residents and teachers at the beginning of the last century. They were designed to be a living fence to separate the Library grounds from the foot traffic from the newly built school building. The barberry species surrounding the building have since been classified an invasive species by the United States Department of Agriculture. Gaps have formed in the shrubbery, but because it is an invasive species it is not possible to purchase replacement plants. It therefore seems prudent to get rid of this hedge, since without ongoing maintenance it quickly becomes an eyesore.
Having voted to remove the hedge, the Trustees are open to considering various landscaping ideas that Town residents may have for the front of the library. The next Board of Library Trustees meeting will be at the Hubbardston Public Library on Monday, July 27, at 7:00 pm and the public is invited to attend. The Trustees welcome any suggestions on possible solutions to establishing a border around the front lawn of the library, whether it will be plantings or donated decorative metal fencing. It is important to note that any expenditure toward landscaping of the library grounds would come out of an existing special trust fund to be utilized for this purpose, not from the funding voted for library operations under the town budget.
So if you’d like a say in what the Hubbardston Public Library should look like, please attend the next meeting of the Board of Trustees on July 27.

Blast Off to a Starship Adventure at Your Library

Reading can take you anywhere you want to go. This year it can even take you on a Starship Adventure. !
Sign up has begun for 2009's Statewide Summer Reading Program:
A Starship Adventure at Your Library.
Our goal as always is to keep children reading over the summer and utilizing their library as well.
Children who sign up and agree to read over the summer can earn free ice cream at Calico & Creme, be eligible for discount passes to area attractions and enter into drawings for fun prizes.
It's free and it's at the Hubbardston Public Library so stop by and sign up today.

Starship Adventure at your library is sponsored by your local library, the Massachusetts Regional Library Systems, and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.

LIBRARY CERTIFICATION

The Hubbardston Public Library is working with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners to regain our certification. At this writing we have no official word to share with you as to a date. We have worked hard to insure that all minimum standards of library service have been maintained over the past year. We know these efforts will aid us in regaining our certification sooner rather than later. We'll keep you posted.

We're Back!

We're so thrilled to be back among the funded Departments of the Town of Hubbardston for FY 2010. The staff and trustees wish to thank all those who worked so hard to keep the library a part of Hubbardston's past, present and future. Over the course of this difficult year so many good and noble people stepped up to the plate in support of our library and we wish to recognize them. We also acknowledge with gratitude the hard work and determination of the Finance Committee and Select Board in presenting a balanced budget which included the library.

As the library begins this new chapter in it's 135 year old history, we want to encourage all our patron's to tell us what they want their library to be in the future. We want to hear from you.
We have a long road ahead of us but we'll get there if we work together.