Fall Schedule Changes, Including Sunday Hours!

Sunday, October 15th will be the first Sunday of the season that the library will be open. The library will be open from noon-4pm throughout the winter, except for a few holiday weekends.

The library will be closed for Columbus Day on Monday October 9th, and for Veterans Day on Saturday November 11th. Due to a staff training event, the library will open late at 11am on Saturday, October 28th, and eBook classes will be cancelled that morning.

For Thanksgiving, the library will close early at 1pm on Wednesday November 22nd, and remain closed on Thursday November 23rd and Friday November 24th. The library will be open regular hours on Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend.

Art in the Stacks: Margaret Emerson

The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library are pleased to present an exhibit of abstract paintings by Margaret Emerson, on display on the lower level of the library during regular library hours throughout the month of September, 2017.

Margaret Emerson is a retired nurse educator who began her new career as a painter when she moved to Martha’s Vineyard in 2009. Margaret is a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association and shows her work at the Old Sculpin Gallery in Edgartown as well as the Island Gallery in Vineyard Haven. Her latest paintings are abstract works, many reflecting nature.

Margaret Emerson’s show at the Vineyard Haven Library features abstract paintings completed in
2016 and 2017. A highlight of this show is the painting hanging in the stairwell, “Hillary’s Glass Ceiling, Ready, but Never Dropped at the Javitz Center - Election Night, 2016,” which incorporates pieces of the actual “glass ceiling” planned for the Hillary Clinton election party. Margaret was given these pieces by a friend who worked on Hillary’s campaign and helped with the clean up of the party that never happened.

The Vineyard Haven Public Library's "Art in the Stacks" space features rotating monthly exhibits and is managed by the Friends of the Library. The library also has a permanent collection of artworks that are displayed throughout the year, including 12 paintings by Vineyard artist Captain John Ivory. Artists interested in showing their work may contact the library at (508) 696-4210.

Register for Philip Weinstein Seminar on Classic Short Stories

Philip Weinstein, the Alexander Griswold Cummins Professor of English Emeritus at Swarthmore College, will present the next in the ongoing program series "Islanders Read the Classics", with a six-part seminar on classic short stories. This free seminar will be held at the Katharine Cornell Theater in Vineyard Haven. 

In order to allow the library to prepare class materials and communicate with students, please register in advance at the library or by visiting our website at www.vhlibrary.org.


7pm Wednesday, October 4, 2017 
Herman Melville: Benito Cereno, Billy Budd &  Bartleby the Scrivener

7pm Wednesday, October 18, 2017 
Leo Tolstoy: The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, Master and Man (The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, Pevear/Volokhonsky translation)

7pm Wednesday, November 1, 2017  
Anton Chekhov: A Boring Story, Ward No. 6, Rothschild’s Fiddle, The Man in a Case, The Darling, The Lady with the Little Dog, In the Ravine, The Bishop (Stories of Anton Chekhov, Pevear/Volokhonsky translation)

7pm Wednesday, November 15, 2017 
Henry James: The Turn of the Screw, The Beast in the Jungle 

7pm Wednesday, November 29th, 2017
James Joyce: Dubliners (entire) 

7pm Wednesday, December 13, 2017 
Franz Kafka The Judgment, The Metamorphosis, A Hunger Artist, A Country Doctor, Jackals and Arabs, A Report to an Academy, In the Penal Colony (Selected Stories, Muir translation)

The "Islanders Read the Classics" series is presented by the Martha's Vineyard Library Association in partnership with the Martha's Vineyard Times. Participants are encouraged to read the books in advance, however it is not required. Copies of the books may be requested through your local CLAMS library.

Save the Date for the Friends Fabric & Yarn Sale

The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library are planning a Fabric and Yarn Sale to benefit the library on Saturday, October 21st from 10:30 AM to 3:30 PM.

This will be a de-stash and re-stash event! Please help us get it going by donating fabric, yarns and needles for the sale. Drop items off at the library Tuesday, October 10th through Thursday, October 19th, during regular library hours.

Yarns, fabrics, and needles will be available at bargain prices. Most quilting cotton with be $1/yard and wool yarn as little as $1/skein. From 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM, fill a bag for $10! All proceeds will benefit the library.

Please spread the word to fellow fabric and yarn lovers!

CRISPR and Genetic Editing: Uncharted Waters

On Wednesday August 30 at 6pm, Vineyard Haven Public Library will host a panel discussion, "CRISPR and Genetic Editing: Uncharted Waters." Leading scientists and bioethicists from Harvard, MIT, Stanford and the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole will discuss the astounding new techniques that make editing DNA, for scientists, nearly as easy as editing an email. Along with vast potential for curing disease, feeding the world and eliminating pollution come vexing issues of fairness, safety and morality. This presentation is part of the library's "Pushing the Limits" series, funded in part by a grant from National Science Foundation and Califa Library Group. The event will be held at the Katherine Cornell Theatre at 51 Spring Street starting at 6pm, and is free and open to the public.

Included on this panel will be Dr. Sheila Jasanoff from Harvard's Kennedy School, one of the world's leading bioethicists. Simply put, her job is to think and talk about the ethics of the work being done with gene editing. Prof. Kevin Esvelt from the MIT Media Lab and is director of the Sculpting Evolution group, which invents new ways to study and influence the evolution of ecosystems. His current project is developing mice that are immune to Lyme and releasing them on Nantucket. Professor Paul Aluru, of the Biological Labs at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, is in the field of “environmental epigenetics,” which involves studying how environmental factors interact with DNA, “turning genes on” or “off”.  The WHOI is one of the premiere institutions in the world for this kind of research. Professor Jeantine Lunshof, Assistant Professor at the Department of Genetics, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands, and currently a visiting professor at Harvard, is a philosopher and bioethicist, based in the synthetic biology laboratory of Dr. George Church. As an “embedded” ethicist, Dr. Lunshof works with scientists at all stages of their research to help identify potential areas of concern. Professor Emeritus Paul Levine from Stanford will open with introductory remarks about the short history of genetic engineering from the '70s. John Sundman will moderate the panel. His background includes writing and speaking at various institutions about CRISPR.

Library Eclipse Viewing Party

On Monday, August 21st, for the first time in nearly a century, a total solar eclipse will be visible across North America. The total eclipse viewing corridor, called the "Path of Totality" will stretch across 14 states, with only a partial eclipse visible in Vineyard Haven beginning at 1:28 pm and ending at 3:59 pm. We will celebrate at the library beginning at 12:30pm, with activities, live-streaming of the Path of Totality, and refreshments. All ages welcome!

The library will have a limited number of eclipse viewing glasses to share with attendees during Monday's event at the library. Other safe methods of viewing the eclipse include making an eclipse viewer, such as this example from Boys Life magazine: http://boyslife.org/hobbies-projects/projects/153637/how-to-make-a-solar-eclipse-viewer/, or a pinhole projector, printable from NASA's website: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/2d3d-printable-pinhole-projectors

Many organizations will be streaming eclipse coverage online, for some examples visit http://lifehacker.com/the-best-livestreams-for-watching-the-2017-total-eclips-1797481957

Art in the Stacks: ‘Artists in Art’ by Elizabeth R. Whelan

The Friends of the Vineyard Haven Library are pleased to present ‘Artists in Art’, an exhibit of paintings by Elizabeth R. Whelan. The exhibit will be on display on the lower level of the library during regular library hours throughout the month of August.

‘Artists in Art’ is a body of work which celebrates 24 Martha’s Vineyard artists, most of whom live and work on the island year-round. Local artist Elizabeth R. Whelan decided to paint their portraits and stage a promotional art event this past July as a thank-you to the art community for the support she received while moving from the commercial art to the fine art world in recent years.

To differentiate the portraits from others she has created, Elizabeth Whelan used acrylic paints, household brushes, and palette knives, in a loose but still mostly realistic style. The artists are depicted at various points in their art process, and each painting pulls from that artist’s color palette to create the scene.


Now the portraits can be seen as a group at the Vineyard Haven Public Library ‘Art in the Stacks’ exhibit, where they will be on display for the month of August, 2017.

The Vineyard Haven Public Library's "Art in the Stacks" space features rotating monthly exhibits and is managed by the Friends of the Library. The library also has a permanent collection of artworks that are displayed throughout the year, including 12 paintings by Vineyard artist Captain John Ivory. Artists interested in showing their work may contact the library at (508) 696-4210.