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My daughter has spent most of her holiday break reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She is a Harry Potter fan and asked me the other day when the library would be holding its next Harry Potter party. I told her unfortunately she would have to wait until October. The annual Harry Potter party held in October has become a favorite at the library. For one day, the entire library is turned into the magical world of Harry Potter with games and activities for Harry Potter fans of all ages. The purpose of the party is to celebrate one of the...
November is Picture Book Month, an international initiative that celebrates picture books throughout the entire month. For many people, picture books are their first experience with art and literature. A picture book that stands out from my childhood is Margret and H.A. Rey’s “Curious George Takes a Job.” In this book George, a curious brown monkey, escapes his zoo cage and wanders the city causing mischief and working different jobs including chef, window washer and movie star. It’s a delightful story that I have been able to share with my...
One of my favorite Disney movies is “Mary Poppins.” I’m not entirely sure why I enjoy this movie. I don’t typically enjoy musicals and the mix between live actors and cartoon animation is somewhat odd. Maybe it reminds me of my childhood since I watched it several times while growing up. Or maybe it is the catchy tunes: “Chim chiminey chim chim cher-oo,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” “Feed the Birds.” (A sing-a-long version of “Mary Poppins” was released in 2001.) Or maybe it is simply the story I enjoy of the magical umbrella-wieldi...
September is Library Card Sign-up Month -- a time when libraries across the country remind parents that a library card is the most important school supply of all. The observance was launched in 1987 to meet the challenge of then Secretary of Education William J. Bennett who said: “Let’s have a national campaign...every child should obtain a library card - and use it.” Since then, thousands of public and school libraries join each fall in a national effort to ensure every child does just that. During the month of September, the Sweetwater Count...
A couple weeks ago my son and I went backpacking in the Medicine Bow National Forest. I’m not much of a fisherman. I try, but end up spending more time untangling the line and agonizing over what type of bait to use than catching fish. My idea of relaxing is reading a good book while sitting on a large rock overlooking a clear lake. As a consequence, my son packed a fishing pole and I packed a book, which was no easy task. How do you choose just one book? Typically I like to bring three or four books with me on a trip because I never quite k...
Several years ago I worked for the Sheridan County Public Library in northwest Wyoming. One of my job duties at the library was to visit the Sheridan VA Medical Center each month and provide a program about the library’s online services that could be accessed from the medical center’s computer lab. This was before eBooks or streaming movie services or digital library collections, so I spent a lot of time talking about information rich databases that provided access to newspaper and magazine articles. The audience listened because they were pol...
Last weekend, the rain finally cleared and we saw the sun. Is it safe to say summer is officially here? We certainly think so at the library and officially started the library’s summer reading program for children, teens and adults on Monday. If you haven’t already, stop by the library and sign up for the reading program and learn about all the fun activities and events the library has planned to keep people of all ages busy this summer. We have story times, middle school and high school activities, children’s events every week at Exped...
It is Reading is Fun Week. Started in 1979 by Reading is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s oldest and largest children and families’ literacy nonprofit organization, this week is a time to recognize the pleasures found in books. Last year the Pew Research Center published a research study on readers and reading habits in America. Pew researchers discovered that nearly a quarter of American adults had not read a single book in 2013. In fact, the number of non-book readers has nearly tripled since 1978. In 1978, Gallup found that 42 percent of adu...
A few years ago, a student essay contest was hosted in New York City with the topic “A World Without Libraries.” More than 50 students from elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools submitted essays sharing their views about what the world might be like without libraries. Some of the students’ observations included: 1. “A library is a need in our community. That is what I’m trying to explain to you. A library has knowledge and we can never get too much knowledge.” 2. “So a world without libraries would be a dump. People won’t...
Monday was Read Across America Day. Sponsored by the National Education Association, Read Across America is “an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading.” The program was first hosted in 1998. Today you will find every place from schools to libraries to community centers hosting local events to celebrate and promote children’s reading on or around March 2, the birthday of beloved children’s author Dr. Seuss. Our local libraries celebrated Read Across America last week wi...
By Jason Grubb Sweetwater County Library System We are an entire month into 2015. How are your resolutions holding up? Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s 2015 New Year’s resolution is to read a new book every other week “with an emphasis on learning about different cultures, beliefs, histories, and technologies.” So far he has read “The End of Power” by Moises Naim and “The Better Angles of Our Nature” by Steven Pinker. Naim’s book explores the notion of power and how it is shifting in the 21st century among countries, busine...
This Christmas, my five-year-old son received a tablet designed for kids. As I was loading it on Christmas morning with learning games and interactive books, I couldn’t help but think of how different Christmas morning was seven years ago when my oldest son was five. That morning I spent the time assembling a dinosaur mountain playset that had several tiny pieces that needed to be put together before dinosaurs and cavemen could do battle. How things have changed. Seven years ago, I couldn’t have purchased a tablet for my son, and def...
Growing up in Green River, I never traveled far for Thanksgiving. My grandparents often played host and lived in Rock Springs; it was a short 25 minute drive. Short, but not without drama. For some reason, the holiday always brought out the mischief in me and my brothers. Maybe it was because we were hungry. My parents, in an effort to make sure we ate well at grandma’s house, kept things light Thanksgiving morning. We thought we were starving by the time we climbed inside the family car midafternoon with the delicious smelling food my m...
This weekend we are celebrating the Harry Potter books by hosting a Harry Potter Party from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Sweetwater County Library in Green River. Fans of all ages are invited to dress up as their favorite Harry Potter character and come enjoy crafts, snacks, games, activities and more. When the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, hit bookshelves in the U.S. in 1998 I wasn’t a fan. Many people were not, including several publishers who rejected J.K. Rowling’s manuscript. Some publishers thought the book was t...
