Grand Opening Events at the New Library!

As you know, we are closing on March 19th at 3:30 pm.  We are very excited about moving into our new library!

Did you know that there will be a three day celebration of events for the new City Center’s Grand Opening?  There will be parades, musical groups, tango lessons, a marathon, face painting, and more!

For a special treat check out fitness speaker Shirley Archer on Saturday, April 18th from 10:00 to 11:00 am.  Shirley was featured on America’s Next Top Model, has written several books and articles, and  served as Associate Director of the Health Promotion Resource Center at Stanford University.

We hope to see you at the library and at our Grand Opening celebrations!  For more information on what will be happening at your new library check out our event calendar.

See you out the new library!

Annya

OK…Time’s Up!

The move is just a few days away, and we have started packing our stuff to relocate. Moving is a challenging and difficult experience. I find that I waiver between being logical and emotional about it. It’s sad to see the old library go, but it has served West Palm Beach well for more than 40 years, and we know the new, larger library will meet the city’s growing needs even better than the last.

As far memories are concerned, I need to remind myself that it is the people that made the memories in the building – not the building itself, and we can make new and even better memories in our next house. But still I will miss this place for a long, long time.

Thanks.

Manju

Books on CD are GREAT!!!

Hello, and just a  quick blog from a very busy librarian here at the West Palm Beach Public Library, where we are surrounded by moving boxes and counting down the deadline until we move into our beautiful and spacious new library building just a few blocks away!  Speaking of being BUSY (and who isn’t these days?) it reminded me of how much I LOVE to listen to Books on CD.  They have been around for quite a while now and we have had a wonderful assortment of them in our library for a long time, but every now and then I discover a library user who is not familiar with them.  If you’ve never tried listening to one of the really great and popular books that everyone is talking about and you don’t have the luxury of a nice quiet read, be sure to give Books on CD a try!

I recently “read” Angels and Demons by Dan Brown on CD.  It is fantastic.  The narrator Richard Poe portrays each character uniquely with his different voice modulations.  Timely item, with the movie coming out soon!  I really appreciated the references to librarians in this book:  “the toughest librarian in the world” (priest guarding Vatican Archives), the Reference Librarian with power to regulate oxygen levels in the hermetically sealed (and claustrophobic) reading vaults, the detailed analysis of various cataloging arrangements  for multitudes of anonymous and untitled documents, including philosophies of cataloging! 

It’s great to feel like a character in a book is someone you can relate to – almost a virtual friend!  When I drive home after an eventful day of work, I am so pleased to be in the company of all the intriguing characters in these terrific Books on CD. 

Be sure to check out the large collection of Books on CD in our library collection, and when you go into the Library’s online catalog, under Featured Lists, you can see a list of “Recently added books on CD.”  Happy reading and happy listening! 

Esther Fawn Van Allen, Reference Librarian

Join the Club!

One of the most popular types of programs at the library is the book club.  We offer the Second Saturday Book Club on the second Saturday of every month, the Mystery Lovers Book Club, and a Spanish Language book club (Amigos de Nuestra Literatura).

While we’re closed from March 19 (at 3:30pm) to April 13, there will be no book clubs, but I’ve found a great alternative!

Booksprouts is an online book club resource.  Once you sign up, you can A) search for or start a book club in your area that meets in person, or B) join or start your own online book club.  Each book club has an online meeting area and a message board to share your thoughts and questions with other members.

The website is quite self-explanatory and easy to use.  It’s still in Beta, so if you use Booksprouts and have any feedback or suggestions for the website developers, they’d love to hear it!

**Britta**