ENTHUSIASTIC AND FULL OF GREAT IDEAS -- Margaret Gleeson, the new Children's Librarian at lane Memorial Library, Hampton, prepares material for "Reading ... the Best Game in Town," the statewide reading program. Ms. Gleeson began her new position June 19. -- Atlantic News Photo by Tom Donaldson

Margaret Gleeson, the recently hired Children's Librarian at the Lane Memorial Library, started her new position June 19. And she is full of program ideas that, according to Library Director Catherine Redden are "wonderful!" Ms. Gleeson has jumped into the statewide program "Reading the Best Game Around!" and contacted many of the local businesses for support and prizes that will be awarded to the young people who read the most this summer. There will be a kick-off of the "Readathon" summer reading program with bright T-shirts as awards for progress. "Monday's Readers" is a program planned for children who have completed kindergarten readiness for the first grade. There will be a three -session "Science Series" for all ages, with talks on the salt marsh and its living creatures.

Kite making and a marble tournament will be only part of the exciting hands-on programs offered. The "Summer Story Hour" will continue with "Hip Hop Pop Line Dancing" and a "Puppet Making Workshop." Ms. Gleeson exudes the same enthusiasm as her programs would indicate. She cannot contain her excitement about the "great library (Lane Memorial) and the great facility.'' "She said, "I can't think of one thing at this point that I would need."

Ms. Gleeson has a background well suited for the position. She has a degree from the University of New Hampshire in Early Childhood Education; a certificate for teaching elementary education from Rivier College in Nashua, NH, and a Masters' Degree in Library information and studies from the University of Rhode Island. Her work experience qualifies her well for the position at the Lane Library: she has worked in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine as a kindergarten teacher, a reference librarian and children's librarian. In September 1993 she went to Ireland for a vacation and while there she met her husband-to-be. In August 1994, she packed up all of her belongings and moved to Ireland where she married the man she had met a year before. She lived in Ireland for 17 months and was what the Irish call, "a play group leader," or as we would say, a nursery school teacher.

She and her husband moved back to the United States at that time and she is happy to be in the Hampton area. The Nashua native is in the process of buying a house and is excited at the prospect of working in a New Hampshire town similar to Nashua as it was when she was growing up there.