MASSENA - The Massena Public Library is holding another fundraiser that they hope will not only bring in some funding, but also encourage reading among children and adults alike.

They’ll be raffling off an adult holiday basket and children’s holiday basket, both filled with an assortment of books, and a separate raffle is for a Nexus 7 tablet.

“The idea is you pick them up and put them under the tree. For anyone who loves books, there’s an assortment of books,” library Director Elaine Dunne-Thayer said. “The library is looking at different opportunities to raise money. This is the beginning of it.”

The children’s basket contains some selected Christmas titles, she said.

“We’re hoping this will add to peoples’ collection of Christmas titles,” she said. “They’re wrapped up nicely. You just put them under the tree.”

They also have a Nexus 7 tablet that will be raffled off. They had raffled off a basket that contained a Kindle earlier this year.

“We ran one (fundraiser) through the latter half of the summer and into the fall. We had such a great response that we thought we’d run another one,” Ms. Dunne-Thayer said.

She said the tablet seemed like a better item to raffle off.

“The Friends of the Library wanted us to purchase an e-reader again. We looked at various readers and thought a tablet might be a better idea. We have the tablet as its own little raffle. We were originally going to throw it into the adult basket, but it seemed like there was a lot of stuff in the basket. It can stand on its own. I think it’s a great little gift,” she said.

Tickets are $2 each or three for $5 and are on sale at the library front desk. The library closes at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and Ms. Dunne-Thayer said they’ll do the drawing an hour or two before closing.

She said they hope the drawings will encourage reading, whether it’s the old-fashioned way with an actual book or the modern way by downloading the book to a tablet or Kindle. Both options are available at the Massena Public Library.

And for those who aren’t familiar with downloading and reading books on one of those machines, help is on the way, she said.

“In January we’ll be offering courses in using a tablet or Kindle to download a book,” she said. “We’re trying to promote the services that the library does offer.”

Massena Public Library patrons also have access to ebooks available at the New York Public Library, she added.

“Because we’re New York taxpayers we can all get a card to the New York Public Library. You can do the whole thing on line. You can get a card and use their downloadable collections, and it doesn’t cost you a dime,” Ms. Dunne-Thayer said.

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