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Books & Libations: A New Way to RA

Wine glasses being clinked

In this adult evening program, participants learn about six spectacular books and sample six amazing local beverages at tasting stations.

Each book is paired with a beverage matched in tone and intensity to the book. Program partners have included wineries, coffee roasters and tea shops. 

Titles selected for this program are usually “under-performers” in our community — books that were highly reviewed but haven’t circulated well. After the program, most circulate much better and for an extended period of time: circulation stays elevated on each title for up to two years.

Creating an Adult Speaker Series (in a Tiny Library with Zero Budget)

Man standing behind a microphone

My library is in the tiny town of Fenton, Iowa. To garner a bit of perspective about just how tiny we are talking, the nearest gas station is 13 miles away, groceries and job opportunities are 30 miles, and we are equal distance from Des Moines and Minneapolis/St. Paul, which will take you 2.5 hours of interstate, if you don’t stop to see the sights.

No school in town. No elder care facility. No bustling main street. Remote, yet we still pursue quality programming. 

Books & Bites

Three people standing behind a table with food to prepare

Books & Bites, a delightful cooking demonstration presented by St. Johns County librarians, combines our love of literature and food. We take a popular title, book or TV show, and look at historical events that surround it. 

Topics have included "Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania," paired with the menu from the ship; "True Grit," paired with campfire cooking; and "Before We Were Yours," paired with Southern cuisine. We have offered the program since 2015.

The Path to Healthy Aging: Partnering with Aging Councils and Agencies

Older adults touching palms

Together, Area Agencies on Aging and Councils on Aging constitute the public infrastructure designed to support America’s older adults. As such, they are natural partners for public libraries seeking to develop programs that lead communities “on the path to healthy aging,” as the ALA Health Literacy Toolkit puts it.

Health Programs through Partnerships: A Case Study

Woman rolling up yoga mat

New research by a San Jose State University scholar finds that most health programs offered by a major U.S. public library system are developed through community partnerships. San Jose Public Library not only works with partners to develop programs offered at the library, they also participate in regional health campaigns. Keep reading to learn how they do it, and to get inspired to try something new at your library! 

Trivia Night

Trivia Night

The West Linn Public Library holds an every-other-month Trivia Night in our Community Room. We do not require registration but ask people to form teams of two to five people and just show up. People who do not come with a team are welcome to join another team as long as it remains five people or less. The program is targeted to adults, but all ages are welcome, and we usually have at least one family with kids that shows up. 

Interfaith Discussion about Holy Books

A group of presenters from different faith backgrounds.

As the central event from a series of programs focusing on South Asian culture, we presented an Interfaith Discussion about Holy Books from different religions, hosted at the Sikh Temple in Palatine. Speakers from Buddhist (Tripitaka), Christian (Bible), Hindu (Gita), Jewish (Torah), Muslim (Qur'an) and Sikh (Guru Granth Sahib) faiths discussed their holy books, with a question-and-answer session afterward.

Paint by Sticker

Paint by Sticker lion

Stickering is a fun alternative to the coloring craze, and it requires few supplies. I purchased three "Paint by Sticker" books — two for children and one for adults — to use at the event. Participants were invited to pick out whatever image they wanted from the books and go to work!

The children's images took about 30 minutes to complete, and the ones for adults took approximately an hour.

Watch the video below to see how painting-by-sticker works.

Afternoon Book Tasting

Table and chairs with book shelf behind it

This readers' advisory program, held in a local café with drinks and appetizers, functioned on a wine tasting model. Attendees were given RA profiles for books, heard a brief introduction to RA, and spent the evening sampling and discussing a series of titles from four genre/style categories.

Media Literacy at Your Library Training

Join the ALA Public Programs Office and the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University for a one-day workshop to learn how your library can help adults in your community become eagle-eyed news consumers.

Media Literacy at Your Library Training will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, June 21, as part of the 2019 ALA Annual Conference (June 20 to 25).

In this intensive one-day preconference, participants will:

Hypertufa Pots

Finished hypertufa pots

Hypertufa is a building substance that has been popular with hobby gardeners since its creation in the 1930s. It is made from a mixture of peat moss, perlite, Portland cement and water. It can be formed and shaped to create pots, planters and statuary for gardens. 

In this program, patrons watched a live demonstration of the hypertufa mixing process, then used the mixture to create their own pots for their home gardens. This program is designed for adults only.

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