Library

Washington County Free Library's Noteworthy Sundays at Your Library Concert on Sunday, Feb. 10, will feature Jeff Smith, a singer-songwriter and guitarist whose work has been featured on “The Young and the Restless.” Smith's interest in recording and creating music was sparked by the 1960s British invasion groups, the subsequent resurgence of blues music, and the links to country and folk music. The free concert is at 3 p.m. at the Leonard P. Snyder Memorial Branch Library at 12624 Broadfording Road in Clear Spring.

Lots of smiling faces and wagging tails highlighted Washington County Free Library's Animals at the Library homeschool program on Feb. 8. It was all about animals as the event attracted 119 children and parents, as well as one guinea pig, one pet rat, a 12-pound white rabbit, two cats and eight dogs. Presentations were given by the Cocker Spaniel Adoption Center and by the Humane Society of Washington County.

Memorial Recreation Center Inc. is holding an open house for its newly renovated library on Sunday from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. The library, on the upper level of the center at 109 W. North Ave., was recently painted and redone by Girl Scouts from Troop 40052 as their Silver Award project, said Teresa Harmon, assistant to the executive director of the recreation center. Light refreshments will be served.

Washington County Free Library's Noteworthy Sundays at Your Library Concert on Oct. 14 features Take Two Variety Band. The free concert starts at 3 p.m. and will be held at the Clear Spring Leonard P. Snyder Memorial Branch Library. The library is at 12624 Broadfording Road in Clear Spring.  To reserve a seat, call 301-739-3250, ext. 123, or 301-842-2730. Take Two Variety Band performs music from the Big Band era, Dixieland jazz, country standards, 1950s and '60s rock 'n' roll and blues.

The Washington County Free Library has propsed a $13 million expansion that would increase its usable space from 38,000 square feet to 65,000 square feet. Read the full story in Wednesday's Herald-Mail newspapers.

Byrd earmarks library money By DAVE McMILLION / Staff Writer, Charles Town SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D) has designated $400,000 for a major expansion of the library at Shepherd College. The funding, if approved by Congress, will help offset construction cost increases for the project, which has been on the drawing board for about three years, said college President David L. Dunlop. The library must be expanded and renovated to meet the needs of the growing college, Dunlop said.

The Washington County Free Library is seeking old family Bibles and church records that were used to note the dates of births, marriages and deaths. Such information is used by people researching family histories and is sometimes the only written record of that history. Marriages have long been recorded in local courthouses, said John Frye, director of the Western Maryland Room at the library. But births and deaths went unrecorded by the State of Maryland until 1898, he said.

By KERRY LYNN FRALEY Staff Writer When Phyllis McCleaf first came to Washington County in the mid-1960s, most of the county's elementary schools didn't have central libraries. And the ones that did didn't have librarians, said McCleaf, who spent her first five years as a classroom teacher at Sharpsburg Elementary School. In the fall of 1969, she was one of a handful of people chosen to fill several new elementary librarian positions, serving two schools each. Now every elementary school in the county has both a library media center and its own library media specialist, said McCleaf, who remembers her title changing in the 1970s.

scottb@herald-mail.com The Washington County Free Library this winter is not having the problems it did last winter with homeless people spending time in the library, Executive Director Mary Baykan said Monday. Baykan credits the operation of a temporary day shelter for the homeless this winter with solving the problem that occurred last winter. Some patrons last year complained they were unable to find seats because of homeless people who spent all or part of the day at the public facility.

Smithsburg residents Denari Grady, left, 8, and her brother, Darius Grady, 11, relax while reading books Wednesday afternoon at the Washington County Free Library's Smithsburg branch during its opening day. The library is in Smithsburg's Veterans Memorial Park.

The Berkeley County Building Commission advanced a bond ordinance to second reading Thursday that would allow officials to obtain up to $700,000 in financing to complete the new Hedgesville, W.Va., public library building. The bond ordinance for the county's public library system, along with another ordinance that proposes bond refunding to reduce county debt incurred from construction of the county's judicial center, are on track for final approval June 6. The building commission Thursday separately adopted a resolution that will allow the county to shave off nearly six years of payments on debt incurred from the ongoing public safety building project.

The Washington County Free Library will launch a free magazine subscription service Wednesday. Zinio is a free online magazine service to which the library is subscribing for Washington County residents. Anyone with a library card can access the service free of charge. “We are excited to be able to offer this new service to our customers,” said Bill Taylor, reference librarian at the library. “It gives the reader a selection of online magazines to chose from that can be read on a laptop, a desktop computer a tablet or even a smart-phone.” There are 55 different publications from which to choose, ranging from Bloomberg Business week, PC magazines, and food publications to celebrity gossip magazines such as US. “The Zinio interface is very well designed with a table of contents, allowing the reader to maximize their reading experience,” Taylor said.

Officials hope to complete the first phase of the new public library building in Hedgesville, W.Va., by obtaining about $700,000 in financing through the Berkeley County Building Commission. Fundraising for the branch library continues, but the financing would expedite completion of the two-story building, Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library director Pamela Coyle said last week. The library system has asked the building commission to help facilitate financing because they are prohibited by law from borrowing the additional money, Coyle said.

Bookmobiles Edgemont Road area, 2:15 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 1. Call 301-739-3250, ext. 155, for stop locations.  Seminole Drive at Jefferson Boulevard, 3:15 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 1. Call 301-739-3250, ext. 155, for stop locations.  Woodland Trailer Court, 1:30 to 1:45 p.m. Thursday, May 2.  St. James Village, 2 to 2:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2.  St. James North area, Lyles Drive, 2:45 to 3:15 p.m. Thursday, May 2. Call 301-739-3250, ext. 155, for stop locations.

In the next two weeks, a contractor will begin cleaning up the site of the former town dump, marking the first physical step toward construction of a new $3.5 million Shepherdstown library. Snyder Environmental of Charles Town, W.Va., won the $718,000 contract to clear trees, remove buried garbage and do preliminary site work at the 4.5-acre brownfield, said Libby Sturm, president of the five-member Shepherdstown Public Library Board of Trustees. The members are appointed by the Shepherdstown Town Council.

Mayor Daniel Murphy gave an encouraging report Tuesday night about business growth in town but asked county officials for help in bringing back another business and pitched an idea for a new library. Evolve Composites, which manufactures heating and air-conditioning condenser pads, Handi-Block lightweight deck piers and other products, has moved into the former Fleetwood building. Murphy said the company has been doing well and is expected to increase its work shifts. Also, local businessman Jerry Spessard has invented a device that automatically will call balls and strikes at home plate in baseball games and he plans to start manufacturing the devices in a building next to Evolve Composites, Murphy told the Washington County Board of Commissioners during a meeting at town hall.

Another extension has been granted to the contractor for the Washington County Free Library system's central library, delaying its opening likely until mid-summer, library officials said Tuesday. Three approved extensions had been granted through the end of May, but another is needed, library Board of Trustees member John Schnebly said at the State of the Library meeting and budget presentation, which was attended by the Washington County Board of Commissioners and the Hagerstown mayor and City Council.