The Stick Library goes Bilingual - la brancheothèque devient bilingue

In the better-late-than-never news category, I am happy to report that the Stick Library now has signage in French. [Dans la catégorie des nouvelles, il vaut mieux tard que jamais, je suis heureux d'annoncer que la brancheothèque a désormais une signalétique en français.]

The Stick Librarian wishes to thank our friend Aline for the French name and she apologizes to her translator friend Patricia-Anne for taking so long. But the Librarian's assistant bears some of the responsibility for it taking so long. [La branchothécaire souhaite remercier notre amie Aline pour le nom français et elle s'excuse auprès de son amie traductrice Patricia-Anne d'avoir mis autant de temps. Mais l'assistant du brancheothécaire porte une part de responsabilité dans cette lenteur.]

 Previously in Stick Library news:

• Manon's Stick Library
• Preparing for Stick Library season
• The Stick Library Reopens
  

The Stick Library Reopens

 I am happy to announce that yesterday, the Stick Librarian reopened the Stick Library here at the corner of Lebreton and Louisa.

The library assistant has been instructed to not add any sticks from the inactive stacks to the lending portion of the library without informing the librarian because she will be carefully tracking the annual statistics this year.

Previously in Stick Library news:

• Manon's Stick Library
• Preparing for Stick Library season
  

Preparing for Stick Library season

With the upcoming reopening of the Lebreton-Louisa Stick Library, the Stick Librarian was concerned that the branch's stacks were getting low.

Unfortunately for some neighbours, but fortunately for the library patrons, a recent windstorm brought down an old tree and the librarian was able to source replacements that just needed a little work this morning with a pair of loppers and an electric saw.

The library assistant/retired urban lumberjack lopping a branch

Sawing a branch

The Stick Librarian is happy the stacks are ready for a new borrowing season

  

Manon's Stick Library

Manon had a brain wave this spring to further redirect the many dogs that come by from messing with her garden. [You might recall a previous effort from 2021] In addition to having a water bowl, she decided to add a stick library.

I was very happy to help her with a sign.

The first version was done with felt tip pens on yellow paper with a plastic cover. It did the job, but within a few weeks, the sunlight had faded it.

Manon decided she needed a better sign. She found a blank wooden oval at Dollarama and asked me to do the lettering with acrylic paint.

The Stick Librarian chalking directions featuring Stick Library Sign Mark I

How we made Stick Library Sign Mark II

Although I have a steady hand with felt tips and pencil crayons, I'm pretty useless with a paint brush. So I made stencils. 

Here's what I did:

1. Scanned the oval and uploaded the image so I could have the exact shape and size in GIMP (free image manipulation software)
2. Gave the wooden oval three coats of bright yellow acrylic paint - letting it dry between each coat
3. Used GIMP to mark out the text with a nice sans-serif font, including the curved bits (had to Google to find out how to curve a line of text with GIMP, but it wasn't too hard).
4. Printed it on a sheet of paper 
5. Taped a clear plastic sheet over the paper. 
6. Making sure to do it in stencil fashion, used an exacto knife to carve out the letters in the plastic.
7. Taped the plastic stencil sheet over the sign
8. Painted the letters with black and purple acrylic paint. 
9. Removed the stencil
10. Filled in the empty bits of the letters and covered over where the paint spilled outside the stencil lines (mostly)
11. Glued on the butterfly, flower and heart pieces that Manon had painted
12. Graciously invited Manon to paint the rim with the colour of her choice, which happened to be silver
13. Sprayed it with three coatings of a UV-protective coating
14. Attached the wooden oval to a piece of wood I spray painted yellow a long time ago and attached a rare earth magnet from a discarded hard drive to the wood so the sign would stay attached to the metal bucket (I've had both the wood and the magnet at least 15 years - illustrating why one should never throw anything away that might be useful some day)

A month later, the new sign is still looking very bright.

Impact of the No-Late-Fee Policy?

Keep those old computer parts!

While I'm a big fan of libraries encouraging access by not having late fees, I'm afraid that Manon's adoption of the no-late-fee policy means that sticks are seldom returned and the collection is getting depleted. If you have extra sticks hanging around, you'd be welcome to drop them here.

Or we'll just wait until the next derecho

Another impact

It might be my imagination, but I've noticed that when we're out on the patio in the evening, people walking by with their dogs seem to be smiling at us more than they used to.

My new collaboration - Garden Sign

I am very happy with my latest artistic collaboration. It is with my next door neighbour, five-year-old Elly.

Elly and Manon have a joint garden. It is really nice. But it suffers from the many dogs who relieve themselves on it. Elly and Manon decided to put in a sign asking the dogs to behave differently and use the water bowl they installed.

They decided what words they wanted on two signs. I cut two pieces of pressed board and inked on the words with a Sharpie. Then Elly applied her design skills to colour the letters and add attractive images. I sprayed on polyurethane to add water protection and affixed the signs to an old broom handle.

This morning we planted the sign. Manon put out the water bowl and a refill can and Manon and Elly did a formal ribbon cutting to launch the sign.

The ribbon cutting ceremony

[By the way, if you have any comments for Elly, I will pass them on.]