10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know You Can Do at the Library

September 16, 2014October 7, 2014 / Mary / Leave a comment

Sure, everyone knows you can check out books, audiobooks, movies, and music but did you know you can learn how to use a computer? Put on a puppet show with your kids? Take a cooking class? Today’s libraries are full of a wide variety of interesting, fun, and even unusual things to do.

Here’s a small sample:

Watch a Movie. For free.

We show movies nearly every week at our library. From classics like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Some Like it Hot to blockbusters like Divergent and Frozen, you can watch a wide range of shows. BYOP. (Bring Your Own Popcorn.)

Love the movies? We have DVDs and Blu-rays available for checkout and an ever-growing streaming video collection from Overdrive.

Build with Legos

Builder’s Brigade occurs twice a month. (Check out the Builders Brigade blog.) Kids and their parents get to express their creativity by building amazing Lego creations, which are then displayed in the children’s room. And for those who cannot wait for Wednesday afternoons to roll around, we have a stash of Legos always available at the Children’s Room at the Lego table.

If you are looking for some creative ideas for Legos try The Lego Ideas Book: Unlock Your Imagination.

Play Minecraft

Want to become a really super Minecraft player? You can borrow The Ultimate Player’s Guide to Minecraft from the library.

Schedule a computer lesson

We offer one-on-one lessons for beginning computer users. If you need help learning to navigate the Internet or would like a basic course in email or how to use Microsoft Word, contact our Reference Department to schedule an appointment. It won’t be painful. We promise.

If you can’t wait, you can peruse Teach Yourself Visually Android Phones and Tablets or Kindle Fire HD The Missing Manual

Go to a concert

On various evenings and weekends throughout the year, talented musicians and singers perform in the Mary Baldwin room. All concerts are free and open to the public, courtesy of the Friends of the Library. Check out our Calendar of Events for upcoming shows.

In between shows, you can find nearly every type of music in our collection from The Magic of Lang Lang (classical piano) to Diary of a Madman (Ozzy Osborne)

Try an Exercise Class

From Zumba for Kids to an introduction to the martial art of Hapkido, the library hosts a variety of fitness programs throughout the year. It’s a great way to sample an exercise program before actually enrolling.

Don’t know what to try? Check out Fitness for Dummies, which describes a variety of exercise programs from cardio training to yoga.

Change Your Lifestyle

Learn to mediate. Hear about the benefits of detoxification. Enjoy an evening delving into the characteristics of introverts versus extroverts. Talk to a professional decorator. Learn about nutrition.

Some good titles to get you going: Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening or The Clean in 14 Days Detox

Join a Drum Circle

Children (and adults) can learn the fundamentals of music while playing interactive rhythm games with drums and hand-held percussion instruments from around the world. And have the fun of making a lot of noise in the library!

If you love world music try the Putumayo Presents World Groove CD.

Food, Food, Food

Attend cooking classes and demonstrations. Meet cookbook authors and local chefs. And samples, samples, samples. Learn some new cooking skills, discover new recipes, and try out tasty treats.

While you’re at it, you can also peruse our cookbook collection, which offers everything from America’s Most Wanted Recipes to Weber’s Big Book of Burgers.

10. Grab a Cup of Coffee

Or tea or even a cup of hot chocolate. Our coffee bar has something for everyone. And what could be better than sipping the hot beverage of your choice while browsing for a good book. Or movie. Or audiobook. Or CD. Or graphic novel. Or…

Well, you get the idea.

Revisiting Fiddler on the Roof

August 23, 2014October 7, 2014 / Mary / Leave a comment

My family and I recently saw a live performance of Fiddler on the Roof. It was my daughter’s first time seeing the play and as we discussed it afterwards, I marveled at how my perspective of the show has changed over the years.

I first saw Fiddler in the 1970’s when I was a young girl. I always identified with Tevye’s daughters and their hopes and fears as they dealt with their roles in their traditional village and the changes overtaking their world.

Upon seeing the play again, as the mother of a twenty year old, I discovered that my perspective had shifted. When as a girl I could not understand Golde’s preoccupation with planning her daughters’ futures, as an adult I now saw her point of view. It’s not the “can my daughter make a good match” aspect of Golde that I mean; it’s the concern over the future of a beloved child.

When I was younger I watched as Hodel, the second daughter, boarded the train for Siberia so she could be with the man she loved, and I saw nothing but the romance and the adventure. Now as a parent watching that scene, I cringed at the thought of sending a child off to a far away place, perhaps never to see her again.

And the songs! My sisters and I would often sing the Matchmaker song. Now, as I watched the play, it was Do You Love Me that held my attention and Sunrise, Sunset that brought tears to my eyes.

My daughter was enthusiastic about the show and wanted to see the movie to compare it to the stage production. She borrowed the DVD from the library, along with the Broadway soundtrack.

We spent an enjoyable evening later that week watching the film version and had an animated discussion about Tevye’s daughters and the choices each made. I watched my daughter as she focused on Tevye’s daughters and thought of a stanza from Sunrise, Sunset. Swiftly fly the years…

If you would like to revisit Fiddler on the Roof or perhaps see it for the first time, you can find the movie, soundtrack, and the musical score all at the library.

At the Library: Puppy Love

August 16, 2014October 7, 2014 / Mary / 2 Comments

Once upon a t dog ime (just a few months ago on a Saturday, actually) a family came in to the Cheshire Public Library to use the library’s computers. They wanted to fill out an application to adopt a dog from a rescue shelter in North Carolina.

The family (dad, mom, son, and daughter) was excited about adopting this dog. They showed his picture, which included his name, to Cara, the librarian on duty. She agreed the dog was a cutie.

It was near closing time, and the application was a long one. The family needed to provide a lot of information and had to make a few calls to get names and phone numbers for references. Cara tried to disable the computer reserve system, which automatically shuts off all computers at closing. To her dismay, the computer shut off before the application was submitted.

“Did we get the dog?’ the little girl asked excitedly.

She did not realize they had just lost all their information. The application had to be submitted by 5:00PM on that same day. The family did not have a working computer at home.

The library was closing so the family left knowing they missed the application deadline.

Feeling bad about what had happened, Cara returned to her computer, found the website, and after some searching located the dog the family wanted to adopt. She sent an email to the animal shelter, explaining what had happened, describing how the entire family had come in together to fill out the application and how much they wanted the dog. She asked the shelter to not make any decisions until Monday when the family could return and use the library’s computers to submit an application.

She thought about the family and their dog for the rest of the weekend. She never expected to hear back from the shelter.

But hear back she did. The woman from the shelter who responded to her email was impressed that she had taken the time to contact them about the family and was delighted that the entire family had been so involved with the application process. She agreed to wait for the application.

In the meantime, the family found a friend with a computer and submitted their application that weekend.

A few days later, the family returned with flowers for Cara. The shelter had told them what she had done for them. In addition, the shelter said that her description of their family and their excitement for owning the dog, plus the fact that Cara had thought highly enough of the family to send the first email, were the best recommendations that they could have had. The shelter knew, the woman told them, that they were sending the dog to a good home.

So a rescue dog has a new family and a family has a new pet to love.

Librarians can make a difference in your life.

If you’d like to learn more about adopting a dog, try our non-fiction shelves under 636.7!

At the Library: Books and Bunnies

August 2, 2014October 7, 2014 / Mary / Leave a comment

If someone asks me what I do as a librarian, I know just what to say. I get to hold bunnies.

To be specific, I held a lovely bunny named Milkshake. He and his brother Truffle were visiting the library as part of Story Stars, a program from Teaching Creatures. Rae, the presenter, read two stories to the kids, one about a bunny and another about a gecko. Milkshake and Truffle then made their appearance along with Tika, the leopard gecko.

Tika was small and spotted and not afraid of the crowd at all. She crawled happily over Rae’s hands and then delighted everyone by eating a snack of live mealworms.

Milkshake and Truffle hopped around on a small tarp in the center of a circle of young children. I did my best to take pictures and learned that the phrase “quick like a bunny” is not just a myth. I have several nicely blurred images of two rabbits scooting across the floor. I did, as you can see, manage to get one nice shot of Truffle.

But then came the highlight of the program. Rae picked up Truffle to let each child have a chance to pet him. I got to pick up Milkshake.

I had never held a rabbit before. I had seen rabbits, petted them, and looked up information about them, but never got to hold one. He was soft and warm and surprisingly solid in my arms, just like a newborn baby.

I am a librarian. I provide information. I can navigate online databases. I am a social media maven. And I get to hold bunnies.

To take a look at upcoming programs at the Cheshire Public Library, check out our Calendar of Events.

At the Library: Online Language Courses

July 22, 2014October 7, 2014 / Mary / Leave a comment

Hola, amigos! Comment allez-vous? Rydw i’n iawn diolch.

Wait a minute! Rydw i’n iawn diolch? Yes. That’s Welsh for “I am fine.”

Welcome to Transparent Language Online, a language-learning service with over 80 language options including English for speakers of other languages.

Accessed via the Cheshire Public Library website, library (“la bibliothèque” in French) cardholders can learn everything from Afrikaans to Zulu. Transparent Language Online features listening, reading, speaking, and writing exercises, as well as pronunciation analysis, vocabulary exercises, conversational language courses, and video grammar lessons. C’est vrai!

It has great features like Quick Start. Here, you’ll find a series of 10 simple lessons that will teach you 100 of the most useful words and phrases that form the foundation of your chosen language. The program will automatically track your progress, so you can start and stop any time without losing your place. This section is really useful. Kan du hjälpa mig? (“Can you help me?” in Swedish.) Molim te. (“Please” in Croatian.) An bheori. (“Beer” in Irish.)

And then there’s Vocabulary. The list in the sidebar shows the many subjects you have to choose from such as Asking for Directions, At the Hotel, and the all-important Bathroom. One of my favorite vocab lists? Dessert! Ah, what I wouldn’t give for some il cioccolato right now!

Reference. This is an assortment of useful tools to help you learn more about your language of choice: Grammar Tips, a Quick-Help Grammar Reference list, and History, which has interesting tidbits about the language. If you are studying Latin, you will discover that much of English vocabulary comes from ancient Rome, and our everyday communications are peppered with Latin phrases like et cetera and per capita.

Learned Items. Here, you can keep track of the vocabulary terms you’ve mastered and refresh your memory of learned items that you have not recently practiced. Each learned item is classified as “fresh” (meaning that you have practiced it recently or mastered it through repeated practice) or “stale” (meaning that it may be at risk of being forgotten). And let me tell you, being fluent in a language beats carrying around a kamusi (“dictionary” in Swahili).