National Library Card Sign-up Month

Two days from now marks the beginning of National Library Card Sign-up Month. It's a great time to bring in your friend, neighbor, relative or child to get their very own library card! It'll be the smartest card in your wallet and it's the best deal in the County. For more information about getting a card, stop by the library, or call or email us with the info listed above.

If you already have a card (which will probably be most readers of this blog), check out the ALA's list of 52 ways to use your library card. You may have checked out books to read, but have you worked on your resume/browsed our cookbooks/asked an impossible question at the reference desk/looked at our sheet music?

-Alan

Free Family Movie

Join us this Saturday, August 28, 10:30AM for our Free Family Movie! We'll be showing Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

If you like the movie, click here to request a copy of the book. (And if you can't make it Saturday, click here to request the DVD!)

-Alan

Back to school

"Throughout my formal education I spent many, many hours in public and school libraries. Libraries became courts of last resort, as it were. The current definitive answer to almost any question can be found within the four walls of most libraries."
— Arthur Ashe (1943-1993)

As kids prepare to go back to school, remember that the People's University is open year-round! Now is as good a time as any to use your public library to become a lifelong learner.

For starters, try our Modern Scholar series. (Click here for a list of titles.) These are mini-courses complete with a booklet and classes on audio CD taught by professors at top colleges. Topics range from film appreciation to religious history, the Civil War, and much more.

If you're interested in trying a course on the computer, visit our database page and click on "Learning Express Library." From there you can take interactive computer courses on Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and more. Learning Express Library also offers free courses on workplace skills, including business writing, resume design, and practice tests for various licensed occupations.

And, finally, you can always use a library computer to take a free course from Yale, MIT, or elsewhere. Happy learning!

-Alan

The Who With the What?

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was first published in the US a couple of years ago, but it was only recently that the series really became a phenomenon. (Click here to request the first title.) With a wonderful Swedish film adaptation of the book, and an American remake on the way, it seems like everyone wants to read Stieg Larsson!

Here's your chance to be ahead of the curve -- or to read something with a little less hype. Unbeknown to US readers, Henning Mankell has been writing suspenseful, addictive, hugely successful crime fiction for years now. In Sweden he's second only to Stieg Larsson in popularity, and there's a British TV series based on his detective Kurt Wallander, yet you can pick up a copy of his latest, The Man From Beijing, at the library today.

To read more about the Scandinavian [fictional] crime wave, click here. Otherwise, come check out Henning Mankell before everyone else does!
-Alan