NOVEMBER 2022      

News from the Director’s Desk

We are very thankful to our many friends this month.

Many thanks to Meryl Menon who was intrigued at Maryann Ott’s description of the library and decided to donate three gorgeous rugs to us. We were lucky, as they arrived two weeks after our flood, which would have soaked them. Meryl came in for the carpet installation, and was as thrilled as we, that they looked like they had found their home. They are lovely and have added to what we hope is a welcoming and cozy atmosphere for our reading areas.

A library member, Kevin Thomas, stopped by the library one Saturday to renew his membership and casually asked if we had a need for chairs. Incredibly, we had just been discussing our need for furniture. A long-time library fan, he offered us some Windsor chairs and two overstuffed chairs for our reading room, so much more comfortable than our folding Ikea plastic chairs. He also gave us some ottomans that offer terrific extra seating for our jazz night. Many thanks to these two wonderful people for their unexpected generosity.

Senator Martin Looney was our guest at a thank-you event for his work on our bond

funding, and we were grateful to all of you who came to show your support.

October was a fun month, and we have some terrific events coming up for November.

December 2nd will bring us a great performance by Yale’s own Alley Cats! Hope to see

you all soon!

Best,

Jan Swiatek

Friday Happy Hour Jazz | Fridays in November | 5:30-7:00 p.m.

• Friday, November 4 -- George Coleman
• Friday, November 11 -- Chiaroscuro Records
• Friday, November 18 -- Local artists known to any of us but not so much by the wider public. Dixieland revival? 60s avant- garde? Who knows?
• Friday, November 25 -- The day after Thanksgiving: an appropriate time for “leftovers”: all of the good things brought out earlier in the month that we just didn’t get to

Join a congenial little group up on the third floor of the Institute Library to listen to recordings you forgot about or never knew about and stick around a bit to discuss the music! BYOB beverage and treat 

Friday Happy Hour Jazz is presented in concert with and support from Jazz Haven. 

Please consider making a $5 donation when you come to Friday Happy Hour Jazz. 

The evenings will start at 6:30 and end around 8:00. We've got a couple of tables available, and decks of cards. 

Sew Sew Social: The Sewing Bee at the Institute Library

Sew Sew Social is moving to Wednesday evenings!

A slight reboot, so as to reduce Thursday evening conflicts. 

We meet on the first and third Wednesdays of the month, from 5:30 – 7:30 PM.

That's November 2nd and 16th, this month (and December 7th and 21st). Just ring the doorbell and we will let you in. Bring your latest project, or revive one you let get away from you! Absolutely free and open to all -- old, steady hands and people who barely know what they're doing should all feel welcome! 

No registration necessary. Light refreshments served. So what, come sew!

Gallery @ The Institute Library

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Curators Martha Lewis and Rashmi Talpade have opened a remarkable and magical exhibit in the Gallery Upstairs @ The Institute Library. Come visit! Open all hours that the Library is open. 

A p.s. from the Operations Manager:

I would not dream of speaking for any of you, but I personally have begun my holiday gift-giving planning, and it will not surprise you that a couple people on my list will be getting Institute Library memberships as Christmas or Chanukkah gifts this year. With a background in retail, I've long been in the habit of stockpiling gifts early so that no matter when the holidays actually arrive, I'm ready. Gift wrap, ribbon, Scotch tape are laid in; bags of gifts are hidden around the house.

The problem with this, I admit, is that sometimes I hide the gifts so well I forget where I put them, and as a result some people get their gifts in, you know, February. But we shall not dwell on these domestic comedies of errors. 

You, too, can give friends and loved ones gift memberships to the Institute Library. Using this link you can purchase a membership to the Institute Library, and we will be happy to mail a note of welcome and a membership card to the lucky recipient. The nice thing about a membership to the Institute Library is that it takes up almost no room in the house, you don't need to worry about leaving it alone at home for hours on end, and there's no guilt about it being immoral, illegal, or fattening. 

You can go buy the new Cormac McCarthy book (list price: $30), or the new Barbara Kingsolver book; you can buy the new Nick Dawidoff book. And then you have them forever, which some people love. But if you don't love adding to the weight of your bookshelves, if you think of your bookshelves not as permanent installations but rotating carousels, then a membership to the Institute Library is a bargain! A $30 gift membership gives someone access not just to the new Cormac McCarthy and Barbara Kingsolver and Nick Dawidoff, but also to thousands of wonderful, weird, hard-to-find titles -- books published now, books published a hundred years ago. Dorothy Whipple, as discussed recently at Biblio.com? You bet your bippy: on the shelf.

Membership means full entrance to the world of the Institute Library, its programming, and its general gestalt, and there's nothing else like it in Connecticut.

If you have any questions about books, or anything else we may be able to help with, email the Library: Home@InstituteLibrary.org or me directly: Eva@InstituteLibrary.org. Onward, y'all.

--Eva Geertz