New Canaan Library Rebuilding Update: Feasibility Study Finished

New Canaan Library now has projections of how much money might be raised for its widely anticipated building project—a figure that will be lined up with the high-level architectural renderings that the library already has to help decide what a rebuilt facility may look like, officials say. Asked for an approximate timetable for next steps, Director Lisa Oldham said the library expects to have preliminary site plans to share with the community by the end of June 2015. “We now need to take those two pieces of information [conceptual renderings and recently completed feasibility study], go back to the drawing board and see where they meet in the middle,” Oldham said. Guiding principles of the project include sensitivity to the community’s clearly expressed desire to preserve the original stone façade and pillars that face Main Street, as well as considerations such as space use and flexibility, she said. “The structure of this building does not enhance our ability to do our jobs,” Oldham said.

Online Auction: Getting a Jump on the New Canaan Library Book Sale (This Week)

New Canaan Library this year added a new component—an online auction of rare books on eBay (including this first edition of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little Town on the Prairie,” with dust jacket—to its popular, annual book sale. An important part of the library’s fundraising efforts, the volunteer book sale—with books, audio books and DVDs all donated by local supporters—will run in the Adrian Lamb Room 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 12 to 4 p.m. Sunday (all books are $5 per bag on Sunday and there’ll be a special sale of children’s books in the H. Pelham Gallery on the main level). Bibliophiles can pay $15 to get into the very first two hours of the sale (9 to 11 a.m. Friday)—a period when organizer Karen Willett says 50-plus early birds, including a lot of dealers, will get in to snag great buys they can resell at a profit. Library Director Lisa Oldham described Willett as “the volunteer who came to us last autumn to run the winter book sale and who has taken this production to new heights,” and we had a chance to put some questions to Willett about the popular book sale. Here’s our exchange.

VIDEO: New Canaan Library’s ‘Books, Blues & BBQ’ Draws Hundreds

New Canaan Library’s Books, Blues & BBQ, May 30, 2014
More than 300 supporters of New Canaan Library donned their best checkered button-downs, boots and jeans for the organization’s third annual “Books, Blues & BBQ” fundraiser. Dancing to some great music from the band Tangled Vine, party-goers fed on Dinosaur BBQ and mingled beneath massive canopy tents in what Ellen Crovatto, director of development at the library (and a very good sport—see end of video above) called a “record-breaking” event in terms of attendance. “Fortunately the skies were kind and it didn’t rain for too long,” Crovatto told NewCanaanite.com midway through Books, Blues & BBQ. “We’ve had tremendous community support and across an entirely wide range of demographics.”

Asked what makes the event so popular, Crovatto said: “I think it’s a casual event that unites people around the concept of supporting the library, its programs and collections. And it’s almost a community celebration in terms of what the library offers in its cultural offerings.”

Q&A: Talking to New Canaan Library about Sunday’s Talk with David Jaffe

New Canaan Library’s “Conversations with Business Leaders” series connects New Canaanites who lead large companies, with fellow residents, for a talk, question-and-answer session and gathering. New Canaan’s Hazel Hobbs, who chairs a committee that finds speakers for the series, said the general idea is for these prominent community members to talk about their business experiences. Past speakers include Chase Carey (News Corporation) Jeffrey Immedlt (GE) and guest speakers George Bodenheimer (Disney Media Networks and ESPN) and David Calhoun (The Nielsen Company). At 5 p.m. on Sunday, the library is presenting New Canaan resident David Jaffe, whose rise in retail from within Dress Barn 22 years ago (he became CEO 10 years in) to his current position as president and CEO of parent company Ascena Retail Group Inc.—a specialty retailer of apparel for women and tween girls that does $5 billion annual in sales and has nearly 4,000 stores in the United States and Canada—is an inspirational story, said library Director Lisa Oldham. A father of four in town who serves as a trustee on the Connecticut Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, among other interests, Jaffe’s background includes business degrees from Wharton (go Quakers) and Stanford, Chemical Venture Partners and Merrrill Lynch.

Landscaping To Start This Week at New Canaan Library Pocket Park

New Canaan Library is poised to start landscaping in the corner lot at South Avenue and Maple Street, officials say, and this week will begin leveling the area with topsoil as it pursues plans to create a pocket park for residents. When that’s done, the visible corner lot will also get grass seeding, Belgian block around its edges and a sprinkler system, Library Director Lisa Oldham said. As it works separately to create a widely anticipated rebuilding plan for New Canaan Library—creating a more flexible, updated space for users while preserving physical parts of the institution held dear by New Canaanites—the library is converting the .27-acre lot, acquired last year, into something aesthetically pleasing and useful. Down the road, the pocket park at South and Maple will get wireless technology so that people enjoying it can download books to mobile devices, Oldham said. What’s needed for that technology is just a weather-safe, secure way to keep the wireless device (called “LibraryBox”).