Poets Jack Marshall and Gerald Fleming

On Tuesday, June 11, Second Tuesdays Poetry Series had a rare treat. Two poets, Jack Marshall and Gerald Fleming, shared poems from books published this year by Sixteen Rivers Press. The open mic was equally entertaining with a wide range of voices. You may listen to the featured readers in the Youtube below:

Call in the Dewey Detectives!

Can’t find the book you’re looking for? Move over, library staff! Call in the agents from Albany’s #1 Dewey Detective Agency.

Over 200 fourth and fifth graders have learned a thing or two about the old “Dewey Gum Shoe” after recent visits to the library. (See the photos below and the entire album on Albany Library’s Facebook page.) They will be happy to help you conduct your library search, especially if it involves the hunt for Wooly Mammoths or increases their Monthly Allowance!

The class visits featured a tour of the library, including an inside peek at the book drop! Next we looked at the library’s online resources with a stop at the helpalicious Homework Page. http://guides.aclibrary.org/homework and a demo of our Digital Worldbook. (Thanks again to Gardener and Margaret Young for the bequest that transformed our meeting room into an audio-visual showplace!)

Once the show and tell was over, the kids got down to business. Albany’s Dewey Detectives drew a topic from a hat, decorated a cupcake to help them solve their case, and looked on our web catalog for a Dewey clue to guide them to a book on their topics.

The gooey part followed the Dewey part. After cupcake consumption, students checked out books with their new library cards. These info-seeking aces are ready for any case that comes along. Just ask ‘em.

more photos at

Albany Facebook album

Chabot Space and Science Center Needs You!

The Chabot Space & Science Center is planning some informal group sessions (1 hour each) at Chabot for parents and kids, to ask them questions that will help formulate plans for an upcoming outdoor exhibition. They would like to recruit parents with kids ages K-12. Please help with the recruitment by posting the attached PDF and graphic to a blog post and to Facebook. I’ve also combined the two (info and graphic) into one PDF if that works better for you.

If you have any questions, please contact the Creative Content Producer at Chabot Space & Science Center. Her name is Camella Bontaites, email: CBontaites@chabotspace.org

Thank you for helping make the upcoming programs a success.

We Want to Hear What You Think

ChabotEvalInfo

Albany Arts Committee Seeks New Poet Laureate

The city is looking to fill the position of poet laureate for a term beginning in Fall, 2013. The brochure below is prepared by the Albany Arts Committee, the group which oversees the application process and makes the final selection of the poet. (Please do not contact library staff about this opening. See application and contact information in brochure.)

AlbanyPoetLaureateBrochure

Poetry Writing Workshop Takes the Stage

Christina Hutchins, local poet and former Albany laureate, leads an excellent poetry writing workshop on the first Wednesday of each month. On April 9, four workshop members joined Christina as featured readers for our Second Tuesdays Poetry night.

The poets’ styles range widely, as you can see in the youtube below. If you are interested in participating in the workshop, just drop in on the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm.

April_9_wkshop_reading

Victims Rights Awareness Week 2013

On April 26, Albany Library hosted groups raising awareness for Victims Rights Awareness Week.  The information fair was coordinated by Kelli Sage of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Children and adults passing through the lobby on their way to the library stopped and picked up information and spoke with the presenters. One ingenious display gave children a chance to write about their own experiences as victims and how they stood up for their rights in difficult situations. The Albany event was part of a series of consciousness-raising fairs, hosted by different Bay Area libraries.

DA-VRW-2013 flyer DA-VRW-teen flyer

Cristina Campbell and our Native Plants

Last month’s Brown Bag Speakers Forum featured Cristina Campbell, a volunteer at U.C. Botanical Garden. Since retiring from her work as a university librarian, she has worked in a volunteer capacity at the Garden, propagating California native plants.

Ms. Campbell introduced us to the Garden and its role as a lab for the university’s botany and environmental education programs. Read more about the garden: http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu

Cristina’s talk was filled with detailed information about specific plants and the history of the garden’s efforts to conserve native species. (Plants are labeled native if they grew in a region prior to European contact and survived the introduction of new species brought by settlers and explorers.) She described the local habitats where these plants will thrive, encouraging gardeners to plant natives that are well-suited to our soil conditions and micro-climates.

Our Discover and Go program offers free day passes to the U.C. Botanical Gardens. Check it out online at http://guides.aclibrary.org/discover?topic=Library&cat=DiscoverGo

Of course, our own library is surrounded by a border of beautiful plants–some of them natives. See the geraniums and ceanothus intertwined below.