599 Dunbar Free Library, Grantham, New Hampshire

 Second visit for the day is at the Dunbar Free Library which is located in Grantham.

The entrance is full of information. I noted the yellow sign which prompted me to dash back to the car and get a mask. The table here by the entrance held a couple of bags waiting to be picked up by patrons who were reluctant to enter. At least, I think that's what they held.

It's always good to be appreciated, so I was glad to be masked. 

Wow, look at this wizardly chair! There must be some major Harry Potter fans in the area!

This early childhood space looks like a nice environment for the smallest patrons. I imagine that the classic rocker is pressed into service for story times.

If you look very closely at the top of the picture you'll see that the white doll is actually a marionette. See her controls?

Here is an array of kids' books, and just a peek at a stack of small, colorful chairs.

What caught my eye here is the scalloped edge above the top shelf. And somewhere here there is a small foreign language collection. Languages I spotted are Spanish, German, French, Italian, Hebrew, and Japanese. Just one or a few  titles in each language. When I lived in Minnesota and visited small town libraries there, I might see whole shelves of books in the languages of the many immigrants. Until I saw the collection here, it hadn't occurred to me that I haven't seen anything but English in New Hampshire. Perhaps when I get to the larger cities, like Manchester and Nashua, that will change.

The rabbit reading chair is very cute. Look closely at the chair back to see what the rabbit wants to eat!

The Dunbar Library is participating in the New Hampshire version of 1000 Books Before Kindergarten...the tote bag with the fawn is one tip-off, and of course the hundred-markers to show progress. 

Periodicals, a computer, and I think that is the media collection in the background.

It looks like a bear came to the library for Halloween and decided not to leave. If the bear cares to read a newspaper, he has a choice of national (Wall Street Journal) or local (Valley New).

If I were going to work on a jigsaw puzzle, I would want a set of these nesting boxes to help with sorting pieces. But my cats and I have different ideas about puzzles; the cats won.

When I started the blog a little over ten years ago the smallest libraries had at least one computer for patron use. Some large libraries, like Minneapolis, had many dozens. The computers each had a big, blocky box for the CPU and such, plus a full-sized keyboard and stand-alone monitor. Over the decade librarians made room in the building and in the budget for more and more computers. Now the tide seems to have turned: Want to use a computer? Ask for the laptop!

11/7/2022