I am happy to report that the goal of raising $47,000 for our annual campaign has been met! You'll notice that on the top of the colorful "stack of books" on the library lawn that we've used as our thermometer for this fundraising effort, there is now a book standing upright to signify the close of the campaign for 2007. Thank you to all who contributed and made it a success. We are very grateful to everyone who helped us with this important endeavor.

We are now in the process of updating our patron records - your library cards - and need your help. If you have not already done so, the next time you are in the library please let us know whether any of your information has changed. Do you have the same address? Is the best way to get hold of you through your cell phone? We are also collecting email addresses, which we use to let you know when your books are almost due. You can then be sure to return them on time, or renew them. We can also send overdue notices via e-mail.

We already updated some cards in 2007, so just check with us to be sure that yours is up-to-date. In fact, feel free to give us a call just to take care of this little task. Once your card is updated, we will give it an expiration date one year from now. Then in one year's time we will again check to make sure the information hasn't changed.

Eventually we will delete cards that have not been used in several years. We don't want to delete anyone who still wants to keep his or her card, but the database now has about 4000 names, and many are obsolete; for instance, people who have moved away. Please help us clean up our records!

It's been a while since I listed new books. Just because they're not in this column doesn't mean we haven't gotten any; we purchase new ones all the time, plus we add donations. We add new children's and young adult titles regularly as well as adult. There is a list in the library and also on the web site, but you should know that not everything we've gotten is on those lists. That's just the major monthly book order, and if we add a title or two incidentally during the month, they might not get added onto the lists.

We will be purchasing the items that were selected from our Angel Tree Wish List and adding them to our shelves soon. But here are just a few new titles we now have: "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg, "Complete Reflexology for Life" by Barbara and Kevin Kunz, "The Elephanta Suite" by Paul Theroux, "A Free Life" by Ha Jin, "A Life Decoded" by Craig Venter, "Rhett Butler's People" by Donald McCraig, "Shooters" by W.E.B. Griffin, "Watchman" by Ian Rankin, and "Antony and Cleopatra" by Colleen McCullough. And of course, if there's a book you want and we don't have it, you can easily order it for free from another library through interlibrary loan.