I Belong At the Library Because...

I hope you were able to stop by and see us at the library last week; it was National Library Week! The display board I put up at the beginning of the week, entitled "I Belong at the Library Because..." got a lot of responses! Thanks to everyone who participated and answered with their reasons of why they belong at their library.



We got almost a hundred responses. I collected all the sticky notes and pulled out some of my favorites to share on this blog. Enjoy!

• "The library makes me feel at home."
• "Good value for tax dollars spent."
• "I love the library! Books are my life!"
• "The librarians are so nice and I love to read."
• "God's gift to humanity is a great library with terrific librarians. Thanks so much for all you do."
• "I love books, Scrabble group, everything about the library."
• "Haven for nerds like me. :)"
• "I like butterfly books."
• "I am a teacher, and the library is my greatest resource!"
• "I love books and playing with the train table."
• "I like to read and the librarians are so so so awesome and nice and cool all at the same time!"
• "Good dvd selection, book sales by Friends, use copy machine, research."
• "It is a good place for homework and free time."
• "When I get home after a trip to the library, I feel like I've been on a shopping spree... sometimes I even pick things out for family members in addition to myself...and it's free! Thank you!"
• "Reading is simply the best way to spend time."
• "I love playing with the kids who come here."
• "I love picking out books and tapes. I also love story time!"
• "They are very helpful for an 81-year-old lady."
• "I love horse books."
• "Wow! Friendly, fun, kind to people who need more information! Great."

How encouraging to see people enjoying their community library! Thanks to YOU for making this the best place ever to work. We all belong at our library.

Want to write some more about why the library is important to you? Write an essay for the chance to win a NOOK Color in a county-wide library contest. Click here for more information.

On behalf of the ACL,
Laura

A Whole Week For the Library!

It's National Library Week! This whole week is devoted to celebrating the library, library workers, and everything the library does for communities around the world.

April is School Library Month. Today is Library Workers Day, Wednesday is National Bookmobile Day, and Thursday is Support Teen Literature Day. It's a lot to take in, I know! Though most of the world won't even notice this week, library geeks like me love it. I don't need official days to celebrate my library, but it's fun to have them!

The theme for this year's National Library Week is You Belong At Your Library. So why do YOU belong at Abington Community Library? What brings you here? What keeps you coming? I set up a display board right in front of our circulation desk for you our patrons to let us know. Fill out a Post-It note with the reason for why you belong at the library and stick it to our board. I'll be writing a blog post using some of the more unique answers!



On Thursday, we'll be celebrating PA Forward Day here at the library. PA Forward is an action plan created by the Pennsylvania Library Association to promote five essential literacy skills. These skills are Basic Literacy, Information Literacy, Civic & Social Literacy, Health Literacy, and Financial Literacy.

Now, we already have programs that fit with all of these literacies. We have a great variety available to you. If you've noticed, we've started putting the literacy logos on our flyers, such as Civic & Social Literacy on my Afternoon Book Club flyer. PA Forward's goal is to show everyone that "libraries are ideally positioned to become the community centers of information, technology, and learning that will fuel educational and economic opportunity for all citizens" (PA Forward).

On PA Forward Day on Thursday, you'll be able to check out different tables promoting each literacy. We hope that more and more, people will realize how the library can provide essential services free of charge. Take advantage of your library!

Happy National Library Week!

Laura
On behalf of the ACL

Tell Me a Story!

Happy World Folk Tales & Fables Week! What a great week to revisit some of your favorite stories from when you were a kid. Try introducing them to children you know, as well as discovering some new stories on your own.

When I was little, I was fascinated with stories from around the world explaining how things came to be. I also loved tricky characters like the spider Anansi from Africa, and Brer Rabbit from the South.

These short fables are effective because they get their points across quickly and cleverly. It's great that they use mostly animal characters, too. Kids today can learn the same moral lessons as kids years ago did, with the same stories.

Cool, right? Check out some kids' books below, available in the Lackawanna County Library System:

• Goha: The Wise Fool by Denys Johnson-Davies (a story from the Middle East)
• My Grandmother's Stories: A Collection of Jewish Folk Tales by Adele Geras
• The Welsh Fairy Book by W. Jenkyn Thomas
• The Barefoot Book of Giants, Ghosts and Goblins: Traditional Tales From Around the World by John Matthews
• African American Folktales: Stories from Black Tradition in the New World by Roger D. Abrahams
• Favorite Irish Folk Tales by Seumas MacManus
• Mysterious Tales of Japan by Rafe Martin
• The Brothers Grimm: Popular Folk Tales by Jacob Grimm
• Folk Tales and Fables of Europe by Robert R. Ingpen

Laura
On behalf of the ACL