TEEN NEWSLETTER August 2020   Dear Teens,   August is almost upon us already! Looking ahead, there will be more game times, a book club meeting, and the end of the Beanstack Summer Reading Challenge.   Update on Teen Summer Reading:   After our new fiscal year started, I have good news! I am able to give everyone (well, up to thirty teens) a prize for just participating in the Beanstack Summer Reading Challenge. I will still be doing the Random Book Raffle for those of you who have completed certain activities in the challenge, but I thought you all needed a little something as this is a weird summer and you’ve still decided to take on the challenge. It will be a “Welcome Back to School” care package with a few nerdy and fun items thrown in. Currently I have 14 readers signed up, meaning there are still 16 care packages up for grabs if you sign up and do a little reading this month (which you probably have to do anyway for School Summer Reading). The challenge ends on August 28th, and prizes will be distributed after that time. Register and log your pages read using the link found HERE.   Oh, and don’t forget about your school summer reading! Click HERE to view middle and high school lists.   List of Teen August Events:   Teen D&D: Delve into the Dungeon of the Dwarfs (8/7 @ 1-5pm) Beginners Welcome. Limited Spaces. – Register HERE. Teen Games! (Chutes & Ladders/Candyland) (8/11 @ 3:30-5pm) – Register HERE. Teen Games! (Code Names) (8/18 @ 3:30-5pm) – Register HERE. Teen Book Club: Grimm’s Fairy Tales (selections) (8/20 @ 3-3:45pm) – Register HERE.   Stay safe and have fun! Best, Katy Teen Librarian

The Ipswich Library is holding a Pop Up Children’s Library and Story Walk® on Friday, July 31 from 10 a.m. to noon at the community space in front of the Winthrop School! Local educators will share different pages of the Story Walk®, an outdoor reading experience created from the book, Whose Vehicles Is This?We will also be setting up a special pop-up Children’s Library during this event. From chapter books to board books, there will be plenty of items for attendees to browse and checkout! Finally, children can take home a STEAM crafting kit. All parts are included to make a wind-powered car from recycled materials. Please note, masks will be required during this event. We ask that attendees use hand sanitizer, which will be provided by the library, before participating and practice safe social distancing from library staff and each other. Library staff will be on hand to help organize families as they enter the book area.

May, 8, 2020   Dear Patrons,   The staff and I look forward to the day we can reopen our doors and welcome you back into our beautiful library, but we’re still unsure when that will be. Although the Town Hall is reopening to the public soon, the Library and the Council on Aging will take a little longer, as our services and uses of our spaces are a little more varied.   At the library, we are working on a phased reopening plan that allows for an incremental restoration of services. In each phase, we will adapt our services in order to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of our staff members and our patrons. We will coordinate our reopening plans/tasks with the Town of Ipswich, the Merrimack Valley Library Consortium, and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. Please check our website’s News page, and follow us on social media for the latest updates.   In the meantime, the staff is all still hard at work finding new ways to deliver services to you, and learning new skills to make our library the best it can be. Do not hesitate to reach out to any member of our staff for assistance!   Stay safe and well, Patty DiTullio, Library Director pditullio@ipswichlibrary.org   Some quick reminders! All due dates have been extended, and we have no overdue fines, so you are welcome to keep any books you have as long as you like. Our website has tons of resources that are available to you any time of day or night! Click here for an overview. Need us to look up your card number, reset your PIN, or apply for a new card? Get help here! Since the closure, the 36 libraries in our network have contributed over $200,000 toward new ebooks and audiobooks, and you can also borrow form every other network in the state. Learn more about Overdrive here. The children’s room has been creating online offerings for you, including our popular Mother Goose Storytimes! Explore over 200,000 digitized pages of Ipswich newspapers dating to as early as 1872 (a recently completed grant project).