Friday, December 19, 2014

STEAM grant awarded

Building STEAM with El Dia de Leer


 The American Library Association (ALA) has awarded Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Library  a mini-grant to celebrate El Dia de Leer (Reading Day).  The grant will promote the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) concept.       
       Martinsburg is one of twenty libraries nationwide to receive this award. It is funded by ALA,  The Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC), and the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.
  What will this grant bring to our community?
· Author visits.
· Science education provided through a partnership with NASA.
· Community Cultural Fair.
· Museum Program.
· Free Books for                          participants.
All of these activities will incorporate English as a Second Language (ESL) students to become active members of our library community as well as encouraging every child to excel in academic and artistic pursuits.
As part of this grant, Youth Services Director Jane Levitan will travel to ALA’s Midwinter Conference to attend a Forum on Diversity.  For more information, contact the Children’s Department at 304 267 8288.


Thursday, December 18, 2014

Hedgesville Public Library's Dog

      

 Laurel is a Sheltie, so she’s not very big, but she IS a retired agility champion,  a certified therapy dog, and she wants you to read her a story! Call the library for details--304 754 3949


Wednesday, December 17, 2014

December Page to Screen


Neil Patrick Harris--book review

In Neil Patrick Harris' _Choose Your Own Autobiography_, you are the star.
YOU are Neil Patrick Harris, and you decide how your life will go. Will you, NPH, host the Tonys four times? Will you spend your life serving sandwiches at Schlotsky's?  Will you star in Cabaret, Company, and How I Met Your Mother? The choice is yours!

As a preface, Harris notes that he was always enamored of Choose Your Own Adventure books, so he chose the format for his autobiography. I cannot claim to share his love of the format; as a child, I tended to steer clear of Choose Your Own Adventure because I worried I was missing something.
Being a fan of Neil Patrick Harris, though, I wanted to read this despite the page-flipping. I played along with the CYOA format for awhile, until I reached "The End" about three times, then went back and read sequentially.
Nothing is lost in either approach. Readers who want to just read it straight through should have no trouble; it's pretty easy to tell when you're on a chapter that didn't really happen (spoiler alert: Neil Patrick Harris has not actually died yet).

As I've mentioned before on our blog, I love celebrity autobiographies, and this one was no exception. I enjoy watching Neil Patrick Harris--I particularly love him as a Tonys host, and I was glad How I Met Your Mother didn't overshadow his stage career in this book--but I didn't know much about his life. This autobiography is candid but not graphic, and, in a refreshing change from many celebrity memoirs, free of angst; instead, Harris is plainly grateful for the many privileges and pleasures life has brought his way. Whatever pages you flip once you get it open, reading this book is definitely an adventure worth choosing.
--
Hannah Wilkes

Musselman-South Berkeley Community Library

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Holiday Closings


Recipe Party


Window Art at Martinsburg Public Library

Once again , thank you to staff member and in- house artist, Wayne Hilliard.  In his eightth year of painting panels, Wayne’s collection continues to delight the public. These panels are hung in the Queen Street  windows of the Martinsburg Public Library.                              

The uniqueness of Hilliard’s paintings are two-fold. First, they can be enjoyed by patrons and staff in the library and by people on the street or in cars. Depending on the time of day and the light source, the character of his works change. Stop by to see his creations this holiday season.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Holiday Reception

Join us for a Holiday Reception hosted
by the Martinsburg Public Library on
Thursday, December 18th from 6 - 8 PM
 
 
Experience the Library as it is decorated for Christmas...
Enjoy the treats prepared by our library staff

Friday, November 7, 2014

INTERNATIONAL GAMES DAY--November 15, 2014 from 10 to 3
at the Martinsburg Library

             In the 21st century, libraries are about much more than just books. In 2007 the American Library Association, in partnership with Nordic Game Day and the Australian Library and Information Association, created International Games Day to reconnect communities through their libraries around the educational, recreational, and social value of all types of games! It has gradually grown from a U.S.-only event to  a world-wide happening. Today International Games Day is an initiative run by librarians and volunteers from around the world!                                                                                                                                                                         
  On Saturday, November 15, 2014, more than one thousand libraries around the world will showcase gaming programs and services in support of IGD14!


You could win an XBOX ONE!
Enter a  random drawing to win  a
XBOX ONE
Donated by
Best Buy,
the Commons, Martinsburg
MUST  BE  PRESENT TO WIN!
  

Activity Guide:

Join us on the Mezzanine for Card Games:   



                   



Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic: The Gathering, and more.      Bring your own deck or just watch the action!                     


On the Main floor you’ll find:
Chess, checkers, and a variety of board games available to play all day.

Head to the Martinsburg Room:                                                   
 Watch our Halo 2 Anniversary Xbox One tournament                                          
 sponsored by Best Buy in Martinsburg!                                         

The tournament is a Slayer free-for-all as players compete for all sorts of prizes!                           
                              
Want to compete?  
Register for the  tournament on the Library’s website:  
martinsburg.lib.wv.us  then go to Calendar
                                                                              
Space is limited participants MUST preregister online!

 If you have trouble preregistering, call the library at 304 267 8933.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Ghosts of Martinsburg


    
 
 
 
Ever wonder about the ghosts of Martinsburg? Who are they?  Where are they? 

Learn more about the city’s paranormal  activity as Justin Stevens  shares his passion about ghosts.

Join us at the Martinsburg Public Library on Thursday, October 23 at7:00PM for a walk and talk about the Ghosts of Martinsburg.
Sign up at the Martinsburg Public Library
For more information call the Martinsburg Public  Library
at 304 267 8933; ask for Kelly.

 

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

From the Director's Chair


From the Director’s Chair


As winter and the holiday season approach, sedentary activities, such as sewing, crafting, and reading become more popular. School has started and students are reading textbooks and researching various topics.  All of these activities increase library usage.

This is also a perfect time to focus on life-long learning, one of the library’s missions. With Hedgesville Day, the Apple Harvest Festival, and the anniversary of the founding of the Martinsburg Public Library all falling in October, this month is the perfect time to delve into local and state history.

The Martinsburg Public Library has a collection of almost 2,500 local history and genealogy titles in the C.E. Campbell Beall Local History & Genealogical Research Room. This room is named for a local businessman and community leader who was president of the Martinsburg Public Library Board for 44 years, as well as chairman of the West Virginia Library Commission for 40 years.  A strong advocate for public libraries, he was instrumental in the construction of the Martinsburg Public Library building in 1967, its addition in 1981, and the creation of the combination of a high school and public library, the Musselman-South Berkeley Community Library, in 1998.
The local history collection is a combination of local, county, state, and regional history as well as genealogical information. Some items deal with the history and peoples of Virginia, as West Virginia was part of that state until 1865. Other items focus on the surrounding counties in  the nearby states of Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Many items in this local history collection are original source material. The microfilm collection includes newspapers of Berkeley, Jefferson, and Morgan Counties in West Virginia from 1791 to the present.  None of these materials are circulated, although copies may be made on copiers or microfilm printers or saved onto a USB drive.
We also have a circulating collection of almost 1,000 items that address West Virginia history and biography and works written by authors from the state. These materials, located in the West Virginia collection  (WV Shelf) on the top floor of the Martinsburg Library,  may be taken home and read at your leisure. For example, if you prefer short stories, read
Doors by Charleston native, William Hoffman. To learn more about our diverse culture, read Memphis Tennessee Garrison: the remarkable story of a black Appalachian woman, by Memphis Tennessee Garrison. Peruse this collection to discover the many unique and surprising titles that reflect the talent and impact of West Virginians on history over the decades.

Our branches also have a local history and a circulating West Virginia history collection which continues to increase as interest for this type of information grows stronger. Each branch tries to focus on  topics specific to that area. North Berkeley Public Library concentrates on the information surrounding the Battle of Falling Waters while Hedgesville Public Library  houses the history of Hedgesville. The Musselman-South Berkeley Community Library focuses on the apple industry. All four libraries are continuously looking for quality material to add to their collections.
From its various industries to its role in the United States Civil War, Berkeley County and the surrounding areas are rich in history.  This month, read to explore and to appreciate your West Virginia heritage—either by birth or by choice.

 

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Help the Library






If you use Amazon.com for any of your normal or holiday shopping, you can help the library by signing up to have a percentage of your total eligible sales  donated to the Martinsburg-Berkeley County Public Libraries (MBCPL).

It’s simple. Go to smile.amazon.com then type in or select Martinsburg Public Library Comm A Corp Created By Ord Of Council as your charity. Continue to shop from smile.amazon.com, and Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible Amazon.Smile purchases to the MBCPL.

Thank you in advance for helping support the libraries in Berkeley County.

 

Staff Picks: Box Girl

Box Girl
by Lilibet Snellings
2014

Box Girl by Lilibet Snellings is a quirky little book that is fun to read. 

Recent college graduate Snellings, unable to find a job and caught up in an unfulfilled love affair, decides to move with some of her friends to Los Angeles. Like many young people before her, she assumes she will enjoy the warm climate, sunny beaches, and eventually get some acting (or at least modeling) jobs.

Reality quickly sets in Snellings and her friends are forced to move from one outrageously expensive apartment to another and are compelled to work at a variety of very odd jobs. One of these odd jobs is as a box girl at the Standard Hotel. 

Ostensibly a work of art, the box is a large glass box, decorated differently at various times of the year, in which a young woman sits for hours at a time. She is allowed to read, sleep, and cruise the Internet, but she must not interact with or look at any of the guests or hotel staff. And yes, she is allowed to get out to use the restroom! 

At first, Snellings just considers it an odd (but easy!) job. She doesn't think about the social or sexual implications, or about any feminist objections to the "art." A job is a job, after all. But as time goes on (and she has plenty of time to think about her life and listen to those outside the box) she grows more philosophical. She finds hundreds of ways to justify the box in her mind, but admits that when one hotel guest creepily whispers to the desk clerk, "Is she for sale?" it shocks her to her core and makes her realize just how some might be perceiving her and her time in the box. 

This memoir is not just about the box, however, as she recounts many other adventures in Los Angeles, and some of the experiences prior to her move, including what led to it. Ultimately, she decides that the box is a work of art, at least in the sense that it is a reflection of the person looking at it. It can be a reflection of ugly sexism to some or fascinated curiosity to others, but always different. 

Overall, this is a thoughtful, and funny, book written by an intelligent young woman.

You can find this book in our New Section with the call number 702.81 Snel.L.

Marian
Librarian
Martinsburg Public Library

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Hedgesville Days @ the new Library


Founded in 1835, Hedgesville is older than the state of West Virginia.

Celebrate the heritage of Hedgesville with arts and crafts, church tours, Civil War historic presentations,  children’s  area, food & treats, drawings, live music and much more…

Saturday ~ October 11

9:00am - 4:00pm
Visit the Hedgesville Public Library  to learn more    about this historic town.   Admission is free !

 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Mini-Ren festival


Mini-Renaissance Festival

 

       The North Berkeley Public Library will host a Mini-Renaissance Festival on Saturday, October 25  from 10:00am - 2:00pm. Members of the Shire of Sylvan Glen (local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism) will demonstrate medieval martial arts and weaponry as well as medieval arts and crafts.

       Patrons can observe Medieval Armored Combat and Rapier Tournaments scheduled every half hour during the event. Thrown weapon competitions, including knives, axes and atlatl will be held on the hour. Tournament participation is limited to Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) members. The public can observe from the viewing area.

SCA members will discuss medieval life with visitors and answer questions relating to costumes and weapons. Choral, spinning and illumination demonstrations will be given throughout the day and there will be displays of costumes and beading.

The public is welcome (but not required) to come dressed in their best medieval-period clothing, but please leave all weapons at home.

Sponsored by: the Friends of the North Berkeley Library and the Shire of Sylvan Glen.

 
North Berkeley Public Library is a branch of the Martinsburg - Berkeley County Public Libraries.