Breaking the summer slide Hobbs Library hosting annual Summer Reading Program Andy Brosig News-Sun Research has shown students, particularly in the younger grades, can lose as much as three to four months of learning each year over the summer holidays. Nikki Lawless, library director for the Hobbs Public Library, and her staff are fighting that loss of learning with the …

Change expands access to Hobbs Public Library Andy Brosig/News-Sun The Hobbs Public Library Board of Directors on Tuesday voted to approve policy changes that will expand access to library materials across the state line. Library Director Nicki Lawless presented the proposal to the board at its regular November meeting, recommending residents of Gaines County, Texas, be added to the list …

Hobbs Library hosting eclipse day event Andy Brosig/News-Sun Activities will be out of this world Oct. 14 when the Hobbs Public Library hosts a viewing event for the upcoming annular solar eclipse — and they want you to be involved too. Library Director Nicki Lawless filled the library’s board of directors in on the plans during its monthly meeting Tuesday. …

Andy Brosig/News-Sun The Hobbs Public Library could have a new director as soon as the middle of May. Bob Hamilton, interim library director, told the HPL Board on Tuesday the city has made an offer to one of the three finalists for the position. City Manager Manny Gomez told the News-Sun on Wednesday Nicki Lawless, a librarian from the Pueblo …

Andy Brosig/News-Sun Bob Hamilton said his job as reference librarian at the Hobbs Public Library has several things going for it. Topping the list is giving him the opportunity to slake what he described as an “insatiable thirst for knowledge. “Sometimes people will ask me questions,” Hamilton told the News-Sun. “I’ll find their books and see what they’re interested in. …

Veronica Silvey and her 9-year-old son (seemingly soon to be 100) Gregory, have been named Hobbs Public Library Patrons of the Year. The Silveys are part of an HPL tradition that began in 1960. Members of the library staff nominate patrons and when all nominations are in, library stafff vote again, for the recipients of the award. The executive director …

Observing 80 years of service to the community, Hobbs Public Library officials celebrated on Tuesday. “We’re all proud of our library,” said Library Director Sandy Farrell on Monday. Libraries have changed over the years, from card catalogues that Farrell says she remembers fondly to modern computer-based catalogues. Books galore are supplemented with DVDs and audio material, a computer lab and a …

The Hobbs Public Library’s patron of the year approaches the essence of a Renaissance man. He started school in a one-room school house in Illinois. “The teacher taught grades one through eight in that room and you could hear what she was teaching the older students, so you got to learn a lot before you got into that grade,” Parker …

Hobbs Library Family of the Year At 11 months of age, Asaph Gomez doesn’t know what being a member of the Hobbs Public Library’s family of the year is all about. He does know he likes the cog toy with which he plays every week when his older sisters visit the library. Asaph’s sisters, Hadassah, 4, Havah, 3, and Hannah, …