See these happy people? They are proudly showing their winner’s trophy, which is engraved:

Champion

Library Trivia

www.tscpl.org

Each 1st place team also won $40 in gift certificates from the Chandler Booktique and the Friends of TSCPL, plus beautiful blue pens featuring the library name and logo.

On Friday night, the first place team bested 27 other teams to work together and correctly answer 79 questions out of a possible 100. The second and third place teams tied with a score of 78 correct answers, and their estimated score was used as a tiebreaker.

On Saturday afternoon, the first place team bested 10 other teams to work together and correctly answer 78 questions out of a possible 100. The second and third place teams scored 76 and 74 respectively.

The library hosts trivia weekends quarterly and you can find the next event on our website at www.tscpl.org or our calendar of events calendar.tscpl.org.

• The Library’s Annual Sports Trivia is offered Saturday July 14, 2012 from 3-5:30
• Our next regular trivia weekend will be July 27-28, 2012 (Friday night at 6:30 and and Saturday afternoon at 3pm).
• Registration begins June 1, 2012 by calling 785-580-4540 to reserve a table for your team.

Trivia Night is hosted by Thad Hartman, Lissa Staley and Brian Adams. We can help you learn how to organize your own trivia night, including freely sharing our previously used questions with groups hosting events around the country!

Tips for sellers 

• Enlist plenty of help for the sale
• Clean items before the sale—be careful if they are fragile
• Advertise: use the newspaper, online posting sites like craigslist and freecycle, signs, church bulletins, etc.
• Make sure to have plenty of signs with big clear lettering pointing folks to your sale.   One day for a sale is usually long enough.
• Collect plenty of tables and clothes racks to display your items
• Supplies to have on hand: Ziploc bags for small items, poster board to make signs, price stickers (it’s nice to have color coded ones), tape, and money to make change.
• Make big signs or use boxes for items that will all be the same price: i.e. Jeans-$1 each.  Be sure to group like items together.
• Books can be helpful guides to weed out valuables before a sale, but never expect to get book value at a garage sale.  Overpricing is a common mistake—Price things to sell.
• Make a “free” box of small toys for kids to play with while their parents shop
• Have bags and packing materials on hand for your buyers
• Make sure you have a plan for the day of the sale.  Who will man the money table when, at what time you will start reducing prices (you might even want to post a sign), how you will handle breaks, etc.
• Start your sale on time, never early , it annoys those who play “fair” and show up at the right time.
• Consider offering free coffee for the early morning folks.  This may be a good day for your children or the neighborhood children to operate a refreshment stand —but only if it won’t create extra stress on you!
• Have a plan for your leftover items.—such as donating them to a charitable organization

The Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library has a new and improved ereader display where you can test some of the newest ereaders and tablets.

The ereader display is located in the Reference Room towards the back of the Library. Staff are nearby to help answer your questions or give you a demonstration on the devices.

You can use any of these devices, and more, to check out ebooks from the Library!

New and popular ebooks and digital audiobooks are available for your smart phone or ereader right now, free from your Library, using our OverDrive ebook service.

Go here for more information about getting ebooks from the Library.

Devices to try include:

• Amazon Kindle Fire™
• Amazon Kindle Keyboard
• Barnes & Noble Nook Color™
• Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet™
• Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch™
• iPad
• Sony eReader

Current studies show that most people actually use their cellphones to read ebooks! What device do you use to read ebooks?

What can you expect to find? Popular guidebooks by Lonely Planet, Frommer’s, Fodor’s, Moon Handbooks, National Geographic and Let’s Go are scattered throughout this geographically organized collection.

Travel memoirs evoking a strong sense of place, phrase books, travel bags, DVDs, and alternative guides such as the Off the Beaten Path series complement the more traditional guides and help you plan an escape you will never forget.

For an outdoor-focused getaway, choose to visit a National Park detailed in National Geographic’s new Guide to National Parks of the United States.  Woodall’s North American campground directory is a valuable, time-saving resource for RVers. For pet-friendly places to stay, Traveling with Your Pet: The AAA PetBook lists AAA-approved lodging.  Road trippers will appreciate Rand McNally’s road atlas for US, Canada and Mexico, shelved at the end of the travel section.

 Nontraditional guides present unique perspectives and often detail lesser known attractions not found in the more popular guidebooks.  Graphic USA: An Alternative Guide to 25 US Cities, is researched, written and illustrated by artists living in those cities.  Discover Native America is an exceptional historical and cultural overview of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.  Marci Penner’s 8 Wonders of Kansas! Guidebook is a must-have for Kansas travelers.

Travel bags for destinations such as Kansas City, Minnesota, Chicago and even Alaska can be reserved and checked out for three weeks.  Pick up a brochure of your favorite attraction and add it to the bag to share with others.

Thinking about a European vacation? Lonely Planet’s Europe on a Shoestring: Big Trips on Small Budgets is a good starting point. If Paris is your dream getaway, pick up Blue Guide’s Paris to learn about the famous museums, art and architecture you’re about to explore. Reduce cultural barriers and check out the phrase books for languages such as German, French and Italian. These easy-to-transport books are at the beginning of the travel section.

If you’re considering volunteering during your vacation, prefer eco-friendly lodging or desire to travel to some faraway, exotic locale, spend time flipping through the books on the Places to Go shelves for inspiration.  Armchair travel enthusiasts will want to pick up a copy of Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust to Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers, the Best American Travel Writing series, or watch a DVD about a place that intrigues you.  Travel memoirs–often adventurous–are fun beach reads.  Many can be found in the Travel Stories section. Some authors I suggest are Jeffrey Tayler, Bill Bryson, Kira Salak and Tim Cahill. 

Take a trip to the library this summer, save money on planning expenses, and share your stories with us!

But, let’s face it – there may be times when an item that you desire is not on the Bookmobile. In those instances, you can actually request to have the item sent to you at your particular Bookmobile stop!

How?

It’s easy! Just follow the steps required for placing an item on hold, and choose “Send it on a Bookmobile” for the delivery type. You can select your preferred Bookmobile stop from the drop-down menu and then confirm your reservation request.

You will be notified by email or telephone (depending on your account information) when the item is available for pick-up. We will hold the item at that Bookmobile stop for two weeks to allow you plenty of time to pick it up.

Please note that due to the large quantity of Bookmobile holds that we are limited to transporting only the holds on the Bookmobiles for the stops we are visiting that particular day (i.e. you can only pick up holds for the Wednesday Prince of Peace stop on Wednesdays – those holds will NOT be on the Bookmobiles on other days).

Questions?  Feel free to call us at 580-4400 or use the online chat feature on our website.

Children’s author Jon Scieszka (Stinky Cheese Man, Time Warp Trio) saw that boys were reading less, but he also saw that teachers and librarians weren’t doing a good job finding books boys would want to read. So he started Guys Read, a national web-based organization to get more boys reading by showing them that there’s plenty of fun, awesome stuff to read.

The library is getting in on the act as well. I’m starting a Guys Read field office. What’s a field office? I’m glad you asked! It’s kinda like a local chapter of the Guys Read organization. Here’s the official description:

Hang out, snarf snacks and meet new characters – real and fictional – at our book club just for gents age 8- to 12-years-old. No parents, no girls allowed…
JUST GUYS.

Read awesome books dudes will dig – explosive action and farts! Then talk ’em over with the guys, play games, wolf down some food and meet new friends. Score a members-only bookbag and receive books on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign up with secret password: GUYS READ.

How cool does that sound?!

Here’s how it’ll work: Meet up on the second Saturday of the month, 2-3 p.m., in Youth Services. We’ll have snacks and get to know each other with an ice breaker. Next we’ll talk about the book we read together and any other books we might have read separately. Then we’ll do some kind of activity, like making something we can use or whatever — but it’ll be somehow related to our book.

Books will be signed out to boys, but don’t worry, the boys’ library cards do not have to be in good standing. All that we ask is they return books to the Youth Services desk as soon as they’re done reading it so other boys can have have fun too.

Oh, and we have a limited number of bookbags, so boys should be at the first meeting if they want to score one.

Speaking of the first meeting, it’s important! We’ll be picking a name for our little field office and signing a charter for the club. And if boys can’t make it, they can sign the charter next time.

For more information, surf over to these sites:

• XYZ Magazine’s article about our new field office: Boys Will Be Boys
• Guys Read’s official website

It will take more than leg work to solve the case and even though forensic pathology was just beginning Inspector Day hopes Dr. Kingsley can bring some understanding to the obscure clues left behind. Time is of the essence as the pressure builds to find the killer, but unknown to the inspector and the doctor is that the murderer is watching them and is prepared to kill again. The Yard is the first novel in a new series by Alex Grecian who is the author of the graphic novel series Proof.

We know you moms and dads are busy, so we’ve made it easy to participate with an online program at summerfest.tscpl.org and we will provide buzz-worthy reading prizes to encourage early literacy skills.

6 Reasons to Sign Your Pre-reader Up for Summer Reading

1. If your child hasn’t gotten a library card, this will be your first step. Come in and fill out a Read With Me library card application and get a free t-shirt for baby. Already have a library card for you our your child? Skip to step 2.
2. Surf over to summerfest.tscpl.org to sign your tot up for summer reading. There you may download a Bee a Reader reading tracker (also available at the library) to get on your way to raising a reader.
3. On the tracker, you’ll see that we’ve come up with some fun and easy ways to build reading skills – such as how to hold a book properly and even how to clap to a beat. By accomplishing items on the tracker, you are taking baby steps toward literacy.
4. As your child reaches certain milestones, bring him to the library to get his prizes, including his own book to keep and a canvas tote to carry it in – plus a chance at the grand prize, a handmade baby blanket.
5. Moving beyond summer, register for library programs that set the stage for developing a love of reading later in life. Regular programs like our educational and interactive storytimes are, for many, the gateway to becoming a reader for life. Programs like Baby Bookworms build skills to help your child get ready to attend school. See page 13 for kids’ programs. We also hold annual special storytimes to observe occasions like April’s Week of the Young Child and November’s Kansas Reads to Preschoolers Week.
6. Parents can research their own raising-a-reader activities. Check out books, DVDs and magazines, like Jackie Silberg‘s Baby Smarts: Games for Playing and Learning and 125 Brain Games for Toddlers and Twos and Johnson and Johnson’s Your Baby From 6 to 12 Months. You will find the Parenting collection in the Kids Library – just ask for a tour!

3 Buzz-worthy Prizes

• Achieve 10 literacy skills and receive a booklet of rhymes
• Achieve another 10 literacy skills and receive the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear
• At the conclusion of 30 activities or skills you earn a Bee a Reader tote bag

Whether you are thrifty or not it’s a wise move to use the library’s Book Group in a Bag service, which provides 10 copies of the same book at no expense to you or your club members.

“It’s so nice having multiple copies available for our book club. The staff who helped me get the books and answered questions were very patient and helpful,” said Mary Napier, book club member.

Bags are stocked with titles ranging from the classics like Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury to best-selling current books like Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Our nonfiction bags include The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

View our 125 different titles at bgib.tscpl.org. While you’re there, create an account to log in and get started reserving bags of books for your group.

“I recommend Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks because it is based on a true story from history. Your group can delve into the historical facts behind the story while also enjoying the fictional story that gets you emotionally involved with the characters,” said Librarian Deb Bryan.

Many book clubs want to distribute copies well in advance of their meetings. Good news: the Book Group in a Bag kits check out for six weeks, which allows you to hand out books at one monthly meeting and collect them the next. Bags can be reserved in advance, making planning what to read next a snap. Lissa Staley, librarian and resident expert on leading book discussions, recommends reserving your titles early because this service is popular.

“We have a variety of titles to choose from. Most of the books that we select are character-driven, which aids in the discussion and gives members something to relate or react to,” Lissa said.

In the bag you will receive notebooks with the author’s background and book discussion questions to help if discussion gets off topic or you don’t have time or know-how to come up with your own. If you want more information on leading a book group, meet with our book group experts, Deb and Lissa. Your request can be made via our Speaker’s Bureau at http://tscpl.org/speakers-bureau.

“We can provide ideas and inspiration for your group, and you can adapt it to your group’s needs,” Lissa said.

If you would like to recommend a book title be added to our Book Group in a Bag service, call 580-4555 and talk to a librarian or log on to our Digital Branch at http://tscpl.org/catalog/purchase-suggestion.

In college, Carter’s art professors had emphasized abstraction, the “high art” forms of painting and sculpture, and had dismissed media like fibers, sewing, and other “craft” media. Carter wanted to do important work, and that was what the men were doing. She worked in painting and printmaking, since those were “important.” Her drawings often used small marks, close together, that Carter thought of as “stitch marks.” It wasn’t until many years later that she began to allow herself to work with cloth, real stitches instead of pencil marks, and turning collage into fully formed three-dimensional pieces.

Carter’s mother made clothes for the family, and embellished the clothes with beads, decoration; she made them beautiful. When Carter started doing that with her work, she felt at home. Including very personal things, things like photographs, letters, postcards, notes and lists, and enclosing them into the art made them even more close to Carter’s feeling of home.

One of Carter’s pieces is called “Multi-Tasking Apron.” It is very long, and would wrap around one’s body several times. Some of the pockets are open, some are sewn shut, some have personal notes or items tucked into the pockets. When we were putting up the display, two young men from Topeka High’s photography class came by to work on their project. They talked to Carter for a while, and she told them about the apron. One of the boys asked “Can you imagine wearing that?” The other responded, “Man, can you imagine going through airport security in that?”

We’re regarding this exhibit as a mini-retrospective, a small version of an exhibit that features an artist’s whole career. Some of Carter’s earliest 3-D works hang from the ceiling, and it is fun to walk through the exhibit and see works in progress, and also works that continue that inquiry into what it means to live with one’s own history. The exhibit is on display through May 18.