A week of vacation!

Vacation is just over the horizon! What are you planning to do?

REACH is offering two great programs in the library's Children's Department during Vacation Week.

On Tuesday, April 22, "Northern Berkshire Grows" - plant some seed to nurture and watch, and they'll be planted in the library's garden when the weather gets warm enough. At the same time you can learn about Community gardening!

Then on Wednesday, April 23, "Healthy Kids on the Mooove! presents "Cowabunga Calcium. Can you guess what this will be?

Both programs will run from 11 a.m. to noon. They are free and open to everyone!

Meanwhile, I'm heading out of town for a relaxing week with friends. Let's all enjoy great vacations!

The Robert Frost program last night was lots of fun -- wish more of you had been there! Which reminds me, the local Poetry Slam is coming up on April 22 at 6 p.m. here at the library in the third floor meeting room. Whether you are a poet or an appreciator, do join us -- it's sure to be a fun time. And the winner of our slam goes on to compete in the Regional Slam!

kc

Goodreads, too

Librarything looks like a great way to share your book reviews and keep track of what you've read. Another good site is Goodreads , which several library patrons use as well. Please share with us which you prefer, and why.
kc

LibraryThing

A couple of our fans put us as their library on LibraryThing, so we went to check it out. We set up an account, and hope you will become "friends" and share your book reviews and suggestions with us. We also are posting the book for the next Book Discussion, and you can add your reviews there as well.
Here's the link:
http://www.librarything.com/
jswidget.php?reporton=naplibrary&show=random&header=
1&num=5&covers=small&text=all&tag=alltags&css=1&style=
1&charset=&version=1"

Any other LibraryThing users out there? How do you use it? What do you think about it?

kc

We like this one!

The Jane Austen Book Club, a movie based on Karen Joy Fowler's 2004 novel, is making the rounds among the library staff, and the in-house reviews have been excellent! You don't need to know a lot -- or anything! -- about Jane Austen's books to enjoy this movie. Some claim it is a "chic flick" -- but many men enjoy it as well, and Austen fans will delight in the references and parallels.

We have one copy of the book and one copy of the movie (DVD) at the library, and can order the movie from other libraries if ours is out. Give it a look and let us know what you think!

napl

Who is your favorite Sleuth?

This month's Book Discussion was to talk about our favorite sleuths or investigators. Not too many folks showed up, so we thought we'd open up the question to our blogfolk: Who do you like best? Why?

We'll post ours after a few of you have posted -- we don't want to influence anyone too much ;-)

kc

Ceiling leak

Materials in the vault will be unavailable until further notice, due to several leaks in the vault ceiling.

kc

Library Closed Mon., Feb. 18

Hear ye, hear ye! The library will close for Presidents' Day on Monday, Feb. 18. Pick up your books and videos early, and avoid the rush!

New Chess Program for Youth

Our high school intern has begun an after school chess program for teens! It meets every Wednesday through March from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the Young Adult area upstairs. Teens of all ages and chess experience are welcome. Come check it out!!

Tech Challenge: Online Genealogy

We held our first session about using Ancestry.com and FirstSearch this week. We should have waited. There were several technical problems logging all 8 computers onto our licensed Ancestry site, so we really couldn't do what we had hoped. Instead, we worked with folk on FirstSearch, the LDS free website, and did some demonstrations on Ancestry.

The good news is that we have fixed the problems. Our next class should work out better. We've offered a few spots in the next class to folks attending the first class, since it was a bit of a bust, but there are several registration slots still open. We will begin taking registrations on Monday, Jan. 28 at 662-3133. The class itself will be held Tuesday, Feb. 5 from 6 to 7:30.

Yes, even librarians are not infallible ;-)
kc