Thank you: Delaware County Orange Branch opening a huge success

Thank you Delaware for help­ing us to cel­e­brate the open­ing of the Delaware County Dis­trict Library’s Orange Branch. The open house was a huge suc­cess, with more than 1,000 vis­i­tors enjoy­ing the activ­ity and excite­ment of the rib­bon cut­ting cer­e­mony and tours the splen­did new facil­ity. Since the Orange branch opened on May 15, it has been a busy place. You have checked out 8,340 books, DVDs, audio books and mag­a­zines, and more than 900 res­i­dents signed up for library cards, prov­ing that old expres­sion, “If you build it, they will come.”

The hours for the orange branch are the same as the main library and the Pow­ell branch: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fri­day; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sat­ur­day; and noon to 5 p.m. Sun­day. Thanks to the pas­sage of the library levy in 2009, we were able add hours last year to give you more time to visit the library. When you visit the Orange branch (I hope you visit often) don’t for­get to stop by the cof­fee shop located in the lobby. Called “the java box,” the café serves a vari­ety of gourmet cof­fee, cap­puc­cino, latte and other hot bev­er­ages, with each cup instantly ground and brewed from pre­mium selected beans. You can get a tasty muf­fin to go with your cof­fee, or a hearty lunch. The menu includes pani­nis, que­sadil­las, sand­wiches and sal­ads. (Remem­ber: Drinks with lids are per­mit­ted in the library but please keep food items in the lobby area.) Are you a Friend of the Library? If you are, you get a 20 per­cent dis­count off your pur­chase at the­jav­abox, too. If you haven’t stopped by the new Orange branch, I hope you’ll plan a visit soon. The build­ing is spec­tac­u­lar, the cus­tomer ser­vice is excel­lent, and the cof­fee is wonderful.

What horse won the first Triple Crown?

Sir Bar­ton, a chest­nut thor­ough­bred colt became the first win­ner of the Amer­i­can Triple Crown in 1919. Sir Barton’s four wins were accom­plished in a space of just 32 days, and he was voted the 1919 Horse of the Year, Amer­i­can racing’s high­est honor. How­ever, in 1919 there was no such thing as the Triple Crown because the first recorded use of the term to refer to the Ken­tucky Derby, the Preak­ness and the Bel­mont began in 1923. Sir Bar­ton was offi­cially rec­og­nized by the gov­ern­ing body as the first Triple Crown win­ner in 1948. Check in Famous Amer­i­can Horses for more information.

What is sterno?

Sterno, the flam­ma­ble gel in a can referred to as “canned heat” has been around since 1893 and takes its unusual name from the company’s founder, S. Ster­nau, accord­ing to Inven­tors and Inven­tions. The prod­uct hit its stride dur­ing World War I, when the Ster­nau Com­pany ran a mar­ket­ing cam­paign sug­gest­ing sol­diers going to Europe could use Sterno to heat water and rations, ster­il­ize sur­gi­cal instru­ments and pro­vide light and warmth in the cold, dark trenches. Soon, just about every dough­boy had cans in his duf­fel bag. Sterno gel is a con­coc­tion of var­i­ous chem­i­cals, includ­ing ethanol and methanol.

Do you have any infor­ma­tion on the Vidocq Society?

The Vidocq Sociey, founded in 1990 is an unusual, exclu­sive crime-solving orga­ni­za­tion that meets monthly in Philadel­phia, Pa. Mem­bers of The Vidocq Soci­ety honor Eugène François Vidocq, the bril­liant 18th cen­tury French detec­tive by apply­ing their col­lec­tive foren­sic skills and expe­ri­ence to “cold case” homi­cides and unsolved deaths. At Vidocq meet­ings Vidocq Soci­ety Mem­bers (V.S.M.’s) are foren­sic experts, FBI pro­fil­ers, homi­cide inves­ti­ga­tors, sci­en­tists, psy­chol­o­gists and coro­ners who try to solve from around the world free of charge and in com­pli­ance to their motto Ver­i­tas ver­i­ta­tum (Truth gen­er­ates truth). Their web­site is vidocq.org.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked.

Posted by Mary Santos on May 21 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.