FROM THE DESK OF THE STATE LIBRARIAN

Summer has been a busy time for the State Library. On, Tuesday, September 5th, the New Hampshire Downloadable Audio Book Consortium went live with 862 downloadable titles. Some 23 New Hampshire libraries partnered with the State Library to bring downloadable audio books to their patrons in this first round. More than 500,000 New Hampshire residents now have access to these downloadable books. Ten additional partners will join the consortium and will go live in early October. Working with OverDrive, headquartered in Cleveland, each library in the initial group developed a system to certify their patrons to use the system. We are expecting more libraries will come online after the first of the year.

This year's annual trip to Washington organized by the State Library was a big success. Forty-two librarians from public and school libraries traveled with us this year. The first stop for the group, after arriving at Union Station, was the new American Indian Museum. This magnificent museum was opened in 2004. We then had lunch with Congressman Bass at the Capitol building; after lunch we attended a meeting at the Library of Congress with Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress. Dr. Billington told us what the library is working on to improve services in the future and discussed the pros and cons of Wikipedia, he gave a very interesting perspective on the use of the Internet from a scholar's view point.

For the last four years, the Department of Cultural Resources has produced the New Hampshire Living Legacy Calendar. On September 28th, the Department launched this year's calendar highlighting 14 New Hampshire libraries: Bedford Public Library; Franklin Public Library; Keene Public Library; Laconia Public Library; Lebanon Public Library; Manchester City Library; Nesmith Library, Windham; Peterborough Town Library; Plaistow Public Library; Portsmouth Public Library; Richards Free Library, Newport; Rye Public Library; University of New Hampshire Library, Durham; and the Wilton Public-Gregg Free Library, Wilton. Each of the library partners has its image on the front of their calendars to help make them more saleable. Citizens Bank has sponsored the production of the calendar for the last four years. The generosity of the Citizens Bank Foundation has allowed the Department of Cultural Resources to build a fund through the sale of the calendars to support international cultural exchanges.

- Michael York, State Librarian