Picture this ... I am sitting in the bleachers on a cold Tuesday night. The wind is blowing. I am sitting huddled up in my hooded jacket as close to my teenage son as he would allow because I am freezing.

My son, Allen, is trying to do his Algebra II homework as I watch my younger son, Billy, practice baseball on the field under the lights. Occasionally I help my son figure out how to do an algebra problem, then return my attention to the practice. All at once a foul ball is hit straight toward me. Being the girl that I am, I duck behind my 6-foot-tall teenage son. He is so absorbed in his homework, he has no idea the ball is coming. Luckily the fence is tall enough to stop the ball and we all are saved. Next time I’ll bring my pink baseball glove so that my son can do his homework in peace.

I can’t say enough about the hospitality from the community here. This week I received a very nice invitation to the Lambdin’s home for a small get-together. I also received an invitation to a picnic and Easter egg hunt held by the McGuirts for me and my children. I even got invited to an English Tea that will be given in May by Trish Terrell and a group of her lady friends. Dr. Foster, the dean of Library Services at the Mary Livermore Library at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, invited me to a benefit that is sponsored by the Friends of the Library UNCP Foundation. The author, Celia Rivenbark, will be featured. The benefit is on April 17 and tickets can still be purchased by contacting the Mary Livermore Library.

I would like to apologize to the public for the library’s Web site being down for the past week and a half. This problem has also caused my e-mail to not work as well. Apparently the company that owns the library’s Web address has moved to Australia and cannot be reached. Thankfully there is a man named Bill Tubbs who comes to the rescue! He volunteered his time to find out what the problem was and got it fixed. Our Web site address has changed slightly: www.robesoncountylibrary.org. I can receive e-mail again. Hooray! The library and I would like to give a big thank you to Bill!

This week two of the library employees went to a free workshop held by the State Library and the Employment Security Commission in Fayetteville. This job search workshop taught our staff how to help the public with job-searching skills. These two employees brought back free books that we will put into our reference collection but will be housed on a table in the computer/Internet area. These books include: “Resumes for Dummies,” “How to Say it on Your Resume,” and “Next Day Job Interview.” The library also has a resume-writing program that is now located on all of the computers in the Robeson County Public Library System. The library will also provide handouts of Web sites that patrons can go to in help with job searching. Please look for these in the upcoming weeks as soon as we can get the books processed and the brochures printed.

I would like to thank Blake Proctor and Carol Anne Lewis for donations of books that were given to the library this week. Also, I would like to thank Indian Health Care and the Seventh Day Adventist Church of Lumberton for their generous donation of a complete set of brand new books of Bible Stories to be added to the children’s collection.

— Tina Stepp is the Robeson County library director and can be reached at (910) 738-4859 or tstepp@robesoncountylibrary.org.