MembreOGPLibrary

Thank you for taking time to look at this page. We no longer actively update this LibraryThing since the library is now automated on LibraryWorld.com For the most current look at our catalog please visit us at www.goshenlibrary.org
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And thanks again for your interest.

January 2014
This September will mark my "seventh inning stretch"...
With the support of Friends of the Library, corporate assistance and private involvement, the Board of Trustees and I have nearly completed all of the goals we planned nearly seven years ago. This summer will see the construction of new book stacks for the Children's Corner; these will house the new additions received from CLiF (Children's Literacy Foundation)and Libri grants...over three-thousand dollars worth of books for our young patrons - from pre-school through eighth-grade. Thanks to a great Trustee Board, CLiF & Libri!!

We continue to provide after-school student services for grades 2-12; two adult book groups - one afternoon & one evening a month; pre-school and Teen Council and TeenReads every month and numerous educational and cultural programming throughout the year. This year we also begin offering patrons access to Overdrive Ebooks through our state consortium. The digital age has been embraced by many of our patrons including quite a few of our seniors, some who first learned how to use computers at our Computer Comfort for Seniors classes. This year we will hold our fourth annual Summer Reading Camp - a full week of programs, activities, excursions and yes READING from 9AM until 4PM, six days in August...it's great fun and I am proud of it's success.

While budget constraints continue to be a difficulty for all libraries, we have been graced with tremendous support from out tax-payers and our summer/winter vacationer community. Goshen is a lovely town with many amenities to offer year-round and seasonally....maybe we'll see you for a visit this year!

July 2010
Nearly three years into my service here at the OliveG and I feel pleased with the progress made thus far. In the summer of 2009 we raised enough funds to convert a storage room into a computer lab and research/reference room. A local pharmacist donated three computers, the owner of a regional cement/gravel company provided the library with a digital projector and the librarian with a new laptop. Wireless satellite service is free to patrons and visitors. The use of the new space is heartening, and patron traffic is much increased. This summer's project is the rebuilding of a 20' wall of shelves dismantled during the 1995 foyer addition. Designed to echo as closely as possible those original to the building, the new stacks will allow us to finally house sections on Animal Husbandry and Environment. They will be dedicated to the matriarch of a local farming family this November during our 102nd anniversary celebration.
We are also in the process of "cleaning" the Little-Reader's collection and improving the Youth and YA selections. While "little-kids" programs are fewer, our summer reading program tripled in size this year. We also began an after-school homework help session...students can come to us directly from school (right off the bus) and are picked up by parents after work. We also organized a Teen-Advisory group with the local middle and high school students; they help with our web page and cataloging up-grades and advise the librarian on current titles of interest to their age group. Those juniors and seniors who log 80 hours a year of volunteer service can apply for a small scholarship toward book purchases in their freshman year at college. This year The Friends of the OliveG awarded two such prizes.

We continue our efforts to nurture all levels of readers and listeners, increase patronage through imaginative outreach and encourage active involvement with the library within the community. We have been able to present three Humanities Council events a year through the New Hampshire Humanities-to-Go grant program. And this year we began a three-year project to collect personal reminiscences from our senior towns-folk regarding their memories of the library and it's numerous librarians of the past.

This librarian's goal continues to be:
Provide a broad range of exceptional authors, books, music, movies and events to the varied personalities and age-groups of our Town and surrounding communities.
Create a safe and inviting space for all of the residents of Goshen; it's various committees and civic groups.
Support our residents in their continued pursuit of better jobs, recreation and life-style.

HISTORY OF THE OLIVE G PETTIS LIBRARY
On June 9, 1803 the Goshen Social Library was incorporated by NH Legislature. The outcome of that original ambitious endeavor failed to make any permanent mark in Goshen's history. The library, as a town supported institution, was established at Town Meeting on March 12, 1889. This was in response to a donation from Sarah Halladay Deming of her beloved mother's "extensive and cosmopolitan" private collection of 450 books. The library officially opened on January 1, 1809 and was housed in various buildings in town over the years until all but 30 volumes were lost to fire in December 1901. The family caring for the collection at that time rebuilt and with community support and donations from the personal collections of Goshen residents a collection was rebuilt...the catalog of 1905 contained over 500 titles. In the summer of 1906, Mrs. Halladay Deming's son, Henry H. Halladay, offered 800 new books and financial assistance to the town for the construction of a permanent library. An unimproved property (also destroyed by fire) was donated by Mr. Elias W. Pike...the same site, once owned by John V. Gunnison, had quartered the original collection in 1890. With the completion of the building the library "came home" on November 18, 1908. Additional volumes were later donated in 1923 by Marilla Zeroyda Parker, a teacher and graduate of Colby Academy, New London, NH. While the main structure remains almost entirely as original, a small addition was added in 1999 in order to accommodate indoor plumbing and an entrance foyer.
In June 2009 a 9X10 storage room was successfully converted into a Computer Resources, Research & Reference room.
(adapted from History of Goshen, New Hampshire by Walter R. Nelson; 1957)

I am Cynthia Reardon Phillips...librarian at the Olive Graves Pettis Memorial Library...a tediously long name for a lovely and gracious one-room rural library. In previous lives I was a materials and inventory control manager (with the Bell Telephone system), a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Primitive Arts and Cultures in Rhode Island, and a night-calfer ranch-hand in Wyoming.

I was hired as "librarian" for Goshen, New Hampshire's rural OPL (one-person-library)in September of 2007. I moved to the country, blew up the TV and my hubby and I are trying to make a good home...