We can provide great reading material all summer long.  Did I mention fun, as well?

What:  Dig Into Reading! Summer reading at the Alexander County Library and the Bethlehem Branch.

Watch the video: DIG INTO READING!

Dates: June 16 – August 3, 2013

Cost: FREE

Ages:  Birth to 18, but there will also be a program for adults

Requirements: None, but can report time read. Programs are optional and free to attend.  We will hike at Rocky Face Park and go “creeking” at Emerald Hollow Mine, to name a couple of programs.

What can I read?  -  If it is print, you can read it!  Manga, graphic novels, Internet articles, and closed captioning on the TV  included.  Isn’t that cool?

Reading levels will be noted on the wall at each library.  Each participant who attends a program or reports time to the library will receive a goody bag and this year’s stadium cup.

Be sure to sign up at the main library in Taylorsville or at the Bethlehem Branch.  We look forward to seeing you this summer!

Rules SRP 2013 Main Library      Rules SRP 2013 Bethlehem

Time Record Sheet 2013 Main Library      Time Record Sheet 2013 Bethlehem

This Year’s Choices:

Take a looks at NCknows:

Live Online Help from Librarians-
When You Need It

With NCknows, you can connect to a librarian through your computer at any time. By typing messages back and forth, we will be able to give you answers, articles and more. It’s easy and safe. We are open 24/7 except for Sat/Sun midnight-8am.

NCknows can help you:

• Find answers to your research questions.
• Connect you to business, consumer health and other information specialists.
• Take advantage of NC LIVE, North Carolina’s collection of online articles, statistics and information.
• Connect to the wealth of NC Libraries around the state

Just click on the link at the right hand side of the Alexander County Library website to open an NCknows chat.

E-Reader Club meets this Thursday, March 21st, at 2:00pm in the Main Library.

If you are thinking of purchasing an e-reader, if you have a new e-reader – a Nook, a Kindle, a tablet – and would like a little help getting started, or if you’re just looking to share what you know, pick up tips and tricks, and find new sources for free e-books, join us Thursday.

Add digital reading to your repertoire (as painlessly as possible)!

A little sample from page 7 of Irish Blessings: With Legends, Poems & Greetings – found by call number 398.2 Irish, on the shelves of the Alexander County Library.  Start your Spring off right with a few folk or fairy tales from our collection.  (And, don’t forget to wear your green!)

Mission Statement

The mission of the Alexander County Library is to improve the quality of life in Alexander County by providing the best library services, collections, and programs possible in accordance with the library’s role as an educational institution.  

Happy Friday!

-The Library Staff

BBL Poetry Reading

 About the author:  (a few notes from Wikipedia)

“Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an African-American poet, novelist, and playwright of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Much of his popular work in his lifetime used a Negro dialect, which helped him become one of the first nationally-accepted African-American writers. Much of his writing, however, does not use dialect; these more traditional poems have become of greater interest to scholars.”

“Dunbar’s work is known for its colorful language and a conversational tone, with a brilliant rhetorical structure.”

“Dunbar became the first African-American poet to earn nation-wide distinction and acceptance. The New York Times called him ‘a true singer of the people — white or black.’”

Excerpts from the text:

From “A Hymn, After Reading ‘Lead, Kindly Light’”

“Lead gently, Lord, and slow,
For oh, my steps are weak,
And ever as I go,
Some soothing sentence speak; 

That I may turn my face
Through doubt’s obscurity
Toward thine abiding-place,
E’en tho’ I cannot see.”

~

“Silence”

“‘T is better to sit here beside the
sea,
Here on the spray-kissed beach,
In silence, that between such
friends as we
Is full of deepest speech.”