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The Mystery of Orchids - Paris Public Library

Edgar Allan Poe wrote stories filled with mystery, terror and wonder. No plant fills gardeners with more terror than orchids. The Friends of Paris Library invite you to Paris Public Library on March 23 at 6:30pm as Dick Wells of Hilltop Orchids guides us through the mysteries of these wonderful flowers.

Dick Wells has been growing orchids since 1954. He was in high school when he was first struck by the beauty and elegance of orchids. He and his wife Sandy own Hilltop Orchids (www.hilltoporchids.com) in Cloverdale, Indiana.

Their original plan was to operate a small business to support Dick's 'orchid habit' - one small 8 X 10 foot greenhouse. Somehow he must have given it too much fertilizer, because it's now over 9600 square feet of growing space with 65,000 plants and a propagation lab. Their hybrids have been nationally awarded and recognized.

In addition to selling beautiful orchids, Hilltop Orchids offers support and assistance to the hobby grower by providing orchid supplies and offering hands-on workshops. A selection of orchids will be available for purchase after the program.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. Paris Public Library is located at 207 S. Main, Paris IL. For more information about the Mystery of Orchids or the Big Read, visit www.parispubliclibrary.org or call 217-463-3950.

The Big Read comes to Paris Public Library

Paris Public Library and other Wabash Valley libraries focus on the works of Edgar Allan Poe during the Big Read. Poe has been internationally popular for 150 years as one of the classic authors of American literatureóa master of the short story, a magician of the short poem, and an inventor of the modern detective story. 

Beginning Feb. 25, pick up a free copy of The Best of Poe at the library, while supplies last. You are invited to join these discussions of his work:

2nd Tuesday Book Club (March 8, 5:45pm in the north meeting room) will discuss The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, and poems Dreams, The Raven, The Bells, and For Annie.

Brown Bag Book Bunch (March 17, noon in Gibson Room) will discuss The Purloined Letter, A Tale of The Ragged Mountains, Hop Frog, and poems A Dream within a Dream, The Bells, and The Raven.

Join our Big Read trivia contest. Starting March 1, pick up a question sheet at the library or download one at www.parispubliclibrary. Multiple choice hints to the answers will be found on ravens located throughout the library. Completed answer sheets with the most correct answers will be entered in a drawing for a free Friends individual membership. Drawing is March 31, 6pm.

What better way to celebrate the Big Read than a chance to buy books? The Friends of Paris Library will hold a "one-day-only" used book sale in the Gibson Room on Saturday, March 12, from 10am to 4pm. Hardbacks, paperbacks, children's books, and more will be offered at bargain prices.

The Friends of Paris Library invite you to join us in the Gibson Room on March 23 at 6:30pm as Dick Wells of Hilltop Orchids (www.hilltoporchids.com) guides us through the mysteries of these wonderful flowers.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. For more information about the Big Read, visit www.parispubliclibrary.org or call 217-463-3950.

The BIG BLEED kicks off Library’s BIG READ Month

Marshall Public Library wants you to be part of The BIG READ throughout the month of March.  Interesting programs, book discussions, and displays will take place at the library revolving around this year’s selected book, The Best of Poe:  The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado, and 30 Others, by Edgar Allan Poe. Stop by the library for a free copy of the book to read and share!

 
The first of several fun and interesting activities planned for the month is “The Big Bleed” blood drive on Tuesday, March 8th.  Indiana Blood Center Blood Mobile will be parked in front of the library from 1:00 to 3:00 PM.  Individuals who would like to donate blood are asked to call the library to register for a time.  A person must be at least 16 years of age, weigh at least 110 pounds, pass a brief mini-physical and medical history review, and follow normal eating patterns before donating.  Picture ID is required.  You can safely donate whole blood every 56 days.  Indiana Blood Center supplies Union and Regional Hospital and the major trauma centers in Indianapolis with 100% of their blood needs. 


The BIG READ is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest. Vigo County Public Library has received a grant through this initiative and has invited our library to join them in providing book discussions and programs revolving around this year’s classic works by Edgar Allen Poe.

 
For more information on this or other library programs, please call the library at 217/826-2535 or visit online at www.marshallillibrary.com.

Free Tax Assistance Available at Library

Free tax assistance is again available at Marshall Public Library to taxpayers with middle and low income, with special attention to those ages 60 and older.  Volunteers have been trained through the AARP Tax-Aide program in cooperation with the IRS and will provide this confidential tax preparation service at no charge.  Assistance is by appointment only and will take place in the library.  This service will continue through April 18th.

 
Persons interested in receiving free tax assistance should call the library at 217/826-2535 to schedule an appointment beginning on January 15th.   Assistance will be available during select hours each week.  Please bring last year’s income tax forms and all supporting documentation.  The volunteers will not complete business or farm returns.

Library A Week

Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School Library

2011 no. 7

Library Profile

Library Name: Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School Library Location: 1008 Fairview,Urbana, IL Type: School Mission: The mission of the Urbana School District library program is to ensure that students and staff are effective users of ideas and information as specified in standards set by the American Library Association and the Common Core Standards for Language Arts. Furthermore, the USD libraries practice policies and procedures that enable them to function for the benefit of all their patrons. Library Website: http://www.usd116.org/king/library.html LTLS Directory Page: http://www.lincolntrail.info/jun.html Member Since: 1982 An interview with Natalie Sapkarov.

What is unique about your library?

Our students visit the library twice a week - once for a 30-minute library lesson and again for a 15-minute library checkout. Because we have a large ESL population, our collection includes foreign language materials in over 15 languages. In total, our collection boasts more than 30,000 materials for students and teachers to use.

What are the primary goals and objectives of your library?

Library lessons focus on literature appreciation and library skills. Students will leave King School with a love of reading and an ability to find, use, evaluate, and create information effectively.

What cooperative efforts are you currently doing?

Library lessons reflect the classroom curriculum whenever appropriate. For example, as fifth grade students are studying the Civil War in social studies, we will read Civil War stories during their library lessons. This year, I have also worked with teachers to enhance their research projects, teaching note-taking and outline lessons to 4th/5th grade ESL students and compiling websites for students to use during their research. The library is also a meeting place for many special events, including our recent National African-American Parent Involvement Day luncheon. At the end of February, we will also have an African-American Read-In to celebrate Black History Month. Additionally, in the fall, the library hosts a Family Reading Night.

Tell us a story about your library.

This week, first and second grade students will vote for their favorite Monarch Award nominee! The Monarch Award is a reader’s choice award for K-3 students in Illinois, and we have been reading the books on the nominee list since the beginning of the school year. While we review the Monarch Award candidates that we have read this year, we will also be having a popcorn and juice voting party! Students enjoy telling each other about their favorites and look forward to this treat all year long

If money were no object, what services would you add?

I would love to create a Playaway collection for students, as we currently do not have an audiobook collection beyond our book & cassettes for teacher checkout. Along the same lines, I would also like to create an e-book collection of popular titles since students have shared that they do have e-readers at home. Perhaps the most ambitious project I have in mind stems from a workshop I went to at last year’s Illinois School Library Media Association Conference, which is creating a Kindergarten Play curriculum. The idea is to pair literature with real-life situations for students to role play. For example, read Pete’s a Pizza! and allow students to pretend they are in a pizzeria, with students acting as restaurant patrons and waiters, complete with aprons, table settings, and of course, pizza ovens and pizzas!

What is popular in your library?

Diary of a Wimpy Kid - all of them! Star Wars Pokemon SpongeBob Dork Diaries Dying to Meet You The Secret of the Painted House

How does your library use online tools to connect to your users?

From third grade up, every student learns to use the library’s online catalog. In fourth and fifth grade, students learn to use the World Book Encyclopedia Online and FactMonster website to find information. The library’s website provides a highlighted resource for students and their families - the International Children’s Digital Library. We also provide Links for Teachers, Links for Students, and Lab Links for students to use in the computer lab. During library lessons, I often integrate technology into the curriculum, using our SmartBoard for students to interact with. Just today, I taught 4th/5th grade students about the Coretta Scott King Award, and we watched video clips of an interview with Coretta Scott King to gain some background information about her life.

Request a visit to your library If you would like to set up a special date for us to visit your library contact LTLS Consultant Michelle Ralston Library of the Week is published by Lincoln Trail Libraries System, 1704 W. Interstate Dr., Champaign, IL 61822 217-352-0047  -   [email protected] Executive Director: Jan Ison, Editorial and Design Team: Michelle Ralston and David Lottes

EIU 2011 Undergraduate All-Student Show Awards Presented at Tarble Arts Center

Eastern Illinois University students to receive awards for the 2011 Undergraduate All-Student Show and honors selected by the Art Department faculty will be announced at a public awards reception 2-4pm on Sunday, February 27, at the Tarble Arts Center.  The awards presentation begins at 2:30pm.  Admission is free and the public is invited.   The All-Student Show will remain on exhibition at the Tarble through March 27.

Online Data Management Planning Tool Helps Researchers Meet Funding Requirements

A group of major research institutions is partnering to develop a flexible online tool to help researchers generate data management plans.  This effort is in response to demands from funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), that researchers plan for managing their research data.
 
The partners in this project include the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of California Curation Center (UC3) at the California Digital Library, the UCLA Library, the UCSD Libraries, the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Virginia Library, DataONE, and the United Kingdom’s Digital Curation Centre (DCC).

Library A Week

Urbana High School Library

2011 no. 6

Library Profile

Library Name: Urbana High School Library Location: 1002 S. Race, Urbana, IL Type: School Mission: Gladly would we learn and gladly teach. Website: http://www.usd116.org/uhs/library LTLS Directory Page: http://www.lincolntrail.info/jun.html Member Since: 1982 An interview with Matthew Murrey.

What is unique about your library?

The space of the library is unique and interesting. We are on the third floor and our space has the roof of the old gym. It is a very open space, which lets me see what is going on. Some students complain about the stairs to get to the library, but it doesn’t seem to keep them away.

What are the primary goals and objectives of your library?

Our goal is to support the teaching efforts of our teachers, the academic growth of students and to foster curiosity and a love for reading in all patrons.

What cooperative efforts are you currently doing?

I always try to advertise teen events at the public library, such as; the Manga Club and Girl Talk. I work with teachers all year. The teacher takes the lead, but I provide resources in both print and digital forms for the subject they are teaching. We will be doing a collaborative unit on the science of Natural Disasters soon and a collaborative unit on Lesson Before Dying with pre-reading study topics.

Tell us a story about your library.

The library is a very popular place at lunch. Many students spend their free time in the library. It is not all reading and research and that is okay! I am glad that the students feel comfortable enough to come hang out in the library. I put books out on the tables that I think the students might be interested in and hope that sometimes it helps people to find a book. Last year I received a very nice letter from several lunchtime students thanking me for allowing them to hang out and apologizing if they were too loud.

If money were no object, what services would you add?

It would be most beneficial to add another fulltime librarian. It would allow us to do classroom visits to assist with IT issues, do more one-on-one assists with students in the library and add flexibility and creativity. We could also do overlapping hours to create far greater after-school scheduling.

What is popular in your library?

The internet of course! Graphic novels and drawing books are heavily used. Many kinds of fiction, especially various series such as Twilight and House of Night, Kimani Tru, and Drama High are very popular as well.

How does your library use online tools to connect to your users?

We have a website that students can use to access our catalog, subscription databases, class project pages, and other online information.  We promote these resources whenever possible, and provide instruction on their use for both students and staff.  On our website, visitors can take a virtual tour by clicking on our Flickr page, and I've recently added a link to a blog where I post brief reviews of books I'm reading.

Request a visit to your library If you would like to set up a special date for us to visit your library contact LTLS Consultant Michelle Ralston Library of the Week is published by Lincoln Trail Libraries System, 1704 W. Interstate Dr., Champaign, IL 61822 217-352-0047  -   [email protected] Executive Director: Jan Ison, Editorial and Design Team: Michelle Ralston and David Lottes

The BIG READ returns in March!

Marshall Public Library wants you to be part of The BIG READ throughout the month of March.  Interesting programs, book discussions, and displays will take place at the library for both adults and children revolving around this year’s selected book, The Best of Poe:  The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado, and 30 Others. Stop by the library for a free copy of the book to read and share!

Danville Library to Host China Program March 7

The second in an annual series of programs relating to the Silk Road will be held at the Danville Public Library on Monday, March 7, with “The Traditional Music of China”, presented by Dr. Eric Simonson.  The free program will be held in the first floor Meeting Room of the Library beginning at 6:30 p.m.  The program is free, but seating is limited.  People interested in attending are encouraged to call the Checkout Desk at 477-5220 to reserve a seat.           

Dr. Simonson, DACC music professor, will speak about the major genres and instruments of traditional Chinese music.  Among the topics he will touch on will be Abing (a legendary pipa virtuoso), folk song traditions, instrumental ensemble music, Jingju (or Beijing Opera), Suzhou Tanci (Ballad Singing), and solo music for qin and erhu.