It’s a new year; we have new things happening at the libraries. Here are a few:

Storytime Days @ East Side and Hillyard

East Side’s storytime will now be on Thursdays and Hillyard’s storytime will now be on Wednesdays.  Toddlers at 10:00 a.m. and Preschoolers at 10:30.

Play & Learn Storytimes

We’re adding a Play & Learn preschool storytime to Indian Trail so now three libraries will offer Play & Learn (Shadle, South Hill and Indian Trail).  Play & Learn is part storytime, part play time – feel free to stay for just the stories or for the whole time to play with the library’s toy collection and have time to interact. You can find the schedule here on our website .

After School Build-A-Thon – Every Week!

Each week we’re hosting building days at the libraries.

We have a wide variety of cool building toys which we’ll have out once a week at each branch. We’ll rotate the toys around so you get to try new ones too. Check the calendar to see which day is play day at your closest library.

Email Receipts

We’ll now be emailing a receipt for your checkout or renewal whenever you use the library. You may still request a paper receipt but the email receipts are pretty handy since they have an option of adding your due dates to your calendar*. If we don’t have your email please be sure to share it with us.

* The calendar reminder should work with most email clients that have a calendar app. Web-based calendars won’t work as well but you’ll still get the email reminder.

New Faces

With the added hours we have had to add some staff. Staff members have also switched locations in many cases. Don’t worry, we have really nice staff so if you see someone new at your favorite branch you’ll be greeted by a friendly face. Take a moment to welcome them to your branch since they will still be getting familiar with new faces and locales.

Microsoft IT Academy

Free, high-level online courses in Microsoft products either in the library or from your own computer. These are certification level courses ranging from simple classes like MS Word to very complicated classes like SQL Server Administration! Once you’ve completed these classes you can be certified in the subject – definitely looks good on a resume. Learn more here.

Longer Computer Time

A frequent request has been for longer Internet computer sessions and we’re happy to say, “yes!” All of the hour-long reserve-able Internet computers will now be 1.5 hour long stations.

Happy New Year!

Help us celebrate the expanded open hours at East Side, Hillyard and Indian Trail by attending one of the Open House events at each of those branches on Tuesday, January 7.  We’ll have snacks and do-it-yourself crafts out all day and then at 4:00 pm we’ll turn up the volume with music at all three branches.  It’s going to be hard to be at three places at once so you’ll have to choose:

• Ruby Devine (toe-tappin’ folksy blues) – Hillyard Library
• Jenny Edgren (from the Spokane Folklore Society) – East Side Library
• Blue Water Strangers (bluegrass, pictured above in right-hand column) – Indian Trail Library

Join us! – Tuesday, January 7 – all day for crafts and snacks, 4:00 pm for music.

The 300 to 309 numbers of Dewey Decimal are social sciences, issues and history. As you might imagine, such broad subjects as social issues and history make for an extremely diverse (and interesting) section filled with a wide array of books about everything from hippy communes to writings by George Washington.

Let’s start with the basics of social sciences with Introduction to Sociology  by Norman Goodman. Once the basics are covered, you can really venture into any direction which interests you. That’s the daunting and beautiful aspect of this section: it covers A LOT. Want to learn about hippies (who doesn’t?) it’s here: Droppers: America’s First Hippie Commune. What’s the natural progression after living with a big group of like-minded people? It could very well be living all alone! Which leads us to hermits of course. Yes, there is a book called Hermits: The Insights of Solitude.

But don’t fret if your job – or addiction to social media – won’t allow you to become a hermit. We can all find a little reassurance in this book about pop culture – Everything Bad for you is Good for You: How Today’s Pop Culture is Actually Making us Smarter. Lest you start to feel too good about pop culture, Future Shock, and How the Other Half Lives are all in this area. While 308 and 309 are no longer used, the library does have various writings of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in the 308s. These can give you insight to the life (the social sciences) of yesteryear which just might be a nice break from the 21st century’s hectic pace.

This month we have three song suggestion from a library customer who wrote in with her suggestions. Many thanks to Marnie for sharing her downloads with us! If you would like to share song suggestions with us do so by emailing news@spokanelibrary.org.

Some people approach the library with a list. They know that they want and they go to those books and nothing else. I’m a wanderer. I like to browse the aisles letting titles and covers catch my attention, lead me to something new or remind me of something I want to try.

I approach Freegal the same way–trolling through the new releases and browsing by categories. Sometimes I’ll do an Internet search of random categories to find artists or song names of interest, then check to see if they’re in Freegal. My three songs suggestions evolved from a search for “best song covers.”

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings have been putting out tight, retro-tinged r&b for years. Their new album, Give the People What They Want, is a coming soon attraction but the available single “Stranger to My Happiness” will have even new listeners waiting with a fan’s eager anticipation.
Download: Stranger to My Happiness

After burning it up with Jones et al, cool down the pace by turning to the smooth soulfulness of Meklit and Quinn. These two San Francisco based artists joined together in 2012 for an album of covers and original songs that have the perfect beat for a relaxed weekend.
Download: Slow
Finally, here’s a choice for young and old alike: Jessica Mauboy. Mauboy was the 2006 runner up on the Australian Idol program. She has a number of catchy pop hits but this year she also took on a lead actress roll in the charming film, The Sapphires. Loosely based on real events, the movie follows the experiences of four aboriginal singers who form a girl group similar to The Supremes and perform as entertainers for troops during the Vietnam War. The Sapphires soundtrack is filled with enough great covers of sixties classics to use up your Freegal allotment for a whole month!
Download: I’ll Take You There

Enjoy,
Marnie (a library customer)