Now Available : KiteFest T-Shirts

The Friends of the Library are now selling KiteFest T-Shirts.  The shirts are $10 each and are available in Youth sizes XS - M and adult sizes S-3X.  All proceeds of the shirts benefit the Friends of the Library.

Africam

Recently we came across a really cool website.  It's called Africam and it allows you to watch real time web cams that are placed on game preserves in Africa.  There are four cameras in different places and you can choose to watch one camera at a time or monitor all four.  Just this morning, I saw three giraffes, an elephant, and several small deer on the Tembe camera.

Africa is about 8 hours ahead of us, so about 10:00 a.m. our time it is beginning to turn to dusk in Africa.  Although we've observed more animals during daylight hours, the cameras do work at night and we have seen herds of elephants during nighttime hours.

 

Africam allows you to take snapshots of the animals you see and save them to your computer.  You can also view videos of animals that appeared on camera during hours you might have missed.  We have had the most luck seeing animals on the Tembe camera, but have noticed a few animals on all the cameras.  You can also sign up to be alerted when animals are on camera so that you don't have to monitor the site constantly. 

We have really enjoyed watching the animals on this site.  Hope you do too! 

www.africam.com

Marvelous Mondays! : Playing with Air

This week's Marvelous Monday was an experiment with air.  We took a hair dryer and tried to see what would float in the air stream.  We used balloons, one with a weight in it and one without.  We also used a ping pong ball.  The ping pong ball floated above the hair dryer and when we took an empty toilet paper roll or paper towel roll and placed it over the ball we were able to create a vacuum and send the ping pong ball shooting into the air.

 

Next week, we are going to experiment with color changing milk.  Come by about 4:15 to join the fun!

This is experiment is from Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes, by Steve Spangler.  Both of Mr. Spangler's books are available at Franklin County Library.

New Movies!

Today we added several new movies

 

 

And several more.  Be sure and check quickly.  New movies get checked out fast!!

New York Times Best Sellers List

Fiction

1.       A Week in Winter, by Maeve Binchy

2.       Gone Girl , by Gillian Flynn

3.       Tenth of December, by George Saunders

4.       Guilt, by Jonathan Kellerman

5.       A Memory of Light, by Robert Jordan

6.       Private Berlin, by James Patterson

7.       Suspect, by Robert Crais

8.       Touch & Go, by Lisa Gardner

9.       The Dinner, by Herman Koch

10.   The Night Ranger, by Alex Berenson  

Nonfiction

1.       American Sniper, by Chris Kyle and Jim DeFelice

2.       My Beloved World, by Sonia Sotomayor

3.       Coolidge, by Amity Shlaes

4.       The Future, by Al Gore

5.       Killing Kennedy, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

6.       Killing Lincoln, by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard

7.       Francona, by Terry Francona

8.       Drinking and Tweeting, by Brandi Glanville

9.       Long Shot, by Mike Piazza

10.   No Easy Day, by Mark Owen with Kevin  Maurer 

 

Highlighted titles are available at Franklin County Library.

Chance's Corner: Gone Series

One of my favorite Young Adult (YA) series we offer at the Franklin County Library is the New York Times bestselling Gone series by Michael Grant. It has it all... Action! Suspense! A little bit of love. And of course, superhuman teenage angst fueled drama. I'm not talking Twilight here. It's more along the lines of William Golding's Lord of the Flies and Stephen King's Under the Dome.

As it stands, five books detail the constantly-evolving saga of the kids left behind in the small California coastal town of Perdido Beach. The cause of their isolation is unknown, but what the kids do know is that their parents and other adults poofed! into thin air and a large dome-like structure cuts their town off from the rest of the world. Soon several kids develop different and dangerous powers, creating divisions, rifts, and hostile factions within the community they now call the FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone). But, what they really have to worry about is the true evil lurking beneath their very feet.

On April 2, 2013, the Gone series is coming to an end with the sixth installment Light. So now is the perfect time to catch up or re-read the wildly popular series.

What is a library?

"The Franklin County Library is a gateway to our heritage and to our future"*



 

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines a library as a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials are kept for use but not for sale.  While our library certainly meets that definition it is so much more.

• We are a meeting place for community organizations.
• We are a resource for answering all sorts of questions.
• We host fun activities for all ages.
• We provide useful, current information for individuals, businesses, and organizations.
• We provide resources for life-long learning and leisure pursuits. 
• We are a gateway to the Internet through computers available for the public and through wifi.
• We are a resource for learning to use current technology.
• We provide quiet areas for work and study.
• We are a place to find entertainment. 
• We have a collection that is constantly changing and growing to stay current and relevant to our community. 
• We have a staff that is a friendly resource for information and assistance in a variety of areas.

 

A library, our library, is so much more than a place where books sit on shelves and molder. We are a living, growing place where literacy and education are foremost goals.  

 

*Franklin County Library Mission Statement

 

 

 



Now Available...

Some old and new selections about kites in our children's section.

Today is President's Day!

In honor of President's Day here are a few things you might not know about our past presidents.

• George Washington, our 1st President, only went to school off and on and only until he was 15.
• John Adams, our 2nd President, was the first president to live in the White House.  Construction was not complete and neither he nor his wife, Abigail, liked it much. 
• Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd President, formed the Republican party, but years later the Republicans began to call themselves Democrats.
• James Madison, our 4th President, had one eye that was far sighted, and one eye that was near sighted.
• Elizabeth Jackson, mother to our 7th President Andrew Jackson, hoped her son would become a Presbyterian minister.  However, young Andrew never mastered spelling and grammer, so his mother resigned herself to the fact that he would never be a minister.  Jackson was also the first president to be born in a log cabin.
• Andrew Johnson, our 17th President, never went to school.  His wife, Eliza, taught her husband to write and helped him with his reading.
• Chester Arthur, our 21st President, had two bathrooms and an elevator installed in the White House.
• The only wedding of a President in the White House took place in the Blue Room at 7 p.m. on June 2, 1886. Grover Cleveland, our 22nd and 24th President, married Frances Folsom who was 21 when she married the 49 year old president.
• William Taft, our 27th President, was the only president to keep cows on the White House Lawn.  He was also the only man who served as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
• Calvin Coolidge, our 30th President, inspected the White House staff and stressed economy.  He once wondered if six small hams were too much for 60 dinner guests.
• Harry S. Truman, our 33rd President, had read all of the books in the Independence, Missouri Library by the time he was 13 or 14 years old.
• John F. Kennedy, our 35th President, was a naval lieutenant during WWII.  His PT boat sank due to Japanese fire, but JFK rescued his crew.  Kennedy swam for five hours with the strap of one crewman's life jacket between his teeth.
• Gerald Ford, our 38th President, is the only man to have been both vice-president and president without having being elected to either office.
• George W. Bush, our 43rd President, was a cheerleader during high school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.

Facts are taken from The World Book of America's Presidents and The Look-It-Up Book of Presidents.  Both books are available at Franklin County Library.

Author Profile - Lisa Genova

 Lisa Genova is a Harvard-trained Neuroscientist. She is the author of three books, Still Alice, Left Neglected, and Love Anthony. Her books all deal with disorders of the mind and are hauntingly real.  

Still Alice is a story about a woman who is a Harvard professor, a successful mother, and wife to a respected scientist.  At fifty years old, she is shocked to learn that her memory loss is not a symptom of her middle age.  Rather, she is faced with the much more ominous diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's Disease.  Her story is told from the first person point of view and vividly describes her efforts to come to terms with her diagnosis and navigate her changing relationships with her husband, children, and career.

Left Neglected details the life of a very busy mother, wife, and professional.  In an instant her world changes when she is in a horrific car crash.  Her brain injury manifests itself as the condition known as Left Neglect.  She has no awareness of the left side of her body, or the left side of anything.  When she is asked to draw a clock she draws only the right side and feels that it is complete.  She has to learn to consciously be aware of her left side and faces many challenges as she tries to reenter her life.

Love Anthony is a story about how one boy's short life can leave a lasting impact.  Anthony suffered from autism.  He didn't speak, hated to be touched, and almost never made eye contact.  However, in the year after his death his life helps bring healing, both to his mother and to another woman dealing with her own loss.

All of Ms. Genova's books are available for checkout at Franklin County Library.



 

Fun Facts for Valentine's Day

More than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are sold for Valentine's Day each year.

On average, men shell out $130 each on candy, cards, jewelry, flowers and dates. That’s more than double what women commit to spending.

About 8 billion candy hearts will be produced this year; that’s enough candy to stretch from Rome, Italy to Valentine, Arizona 20 times and back again.

About 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged in US each year. That's the largest seasonal card-sending occasion of the year, next to Christmas.

Worldwide, over 50 million roses are given for Valentine's Day each year.

Women purchase 85% of all valentines.

In order of popularity, Valentine's Day cards are given to teachers, children, mothers, wives, sweethearts and pets.

73% of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.

Men buy most of the millions of boxes of candy and bouquets of flowers given on Valentine's Day.

In the Middle Ages, young men and women drew names from a bowl to see who their valentines would be. They would wear these names on their sleeves for one week. To wear your heart on your sleeve now means that it is easy for other people to know how you are feeling.

The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.

Richard Cadbury invented the first Valentines Day candy box in the late 1800s.

Alexander Graham Bell applied for his patent on the telephone, an "Improvement in Telegraphy", on Valentine's Day, 1876.

The oldest surviving love poem to date is written in a clay tablet from the times of the Sumerians around 3500 BC.

In Medieval times, girls ate unusual foods on St Valentine's Day to make them dream of their future husband.

Source: www.stvalentinesday.org

Happy Valentine's Day!

If you're in the mood for something romantic, come check out these movie night selections.

Dear John.  Will John and Savannah's relationship stand the test of time?

The Notebook.  Allie's upperclass parents don't approve of Noah.  The young couple must fight for their love.








 
Leap Year.  Love blooms in Ireland.

These and many other romantic selections are available at Franklin County Library.  Sabrina, Midnight in Paris, Montana Sky, Some Like It Hot, and Breakfast at Tiffany's are just a few of the romantic movies available.

New York Times Best Seller List

Fiction

1. Until the End of Time, by Danielle Steel
2. Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
3. A Memory of Light, by Robert Jordan
4. Private Berlin, by James Patterson
5. Tenth of December, by George Saunders
6. Suspect, by Robert Crais
7. A Deeper Love Inside, by Sister Souljah
8. Speaking from Among the Bones, by Alan Bradley
9. The Fifth Assassin, by Brad Meltzer
10. The Racketeer, by John Grisham

Nonfiction

1. My Beloved World, by Sonia Sotomayor
2. Francona, by Terry Francona
3. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, by Lawrence Wright
4. Killing Kennedy, by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard
5. Killing Lincoln, by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard
6. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham
7. No Easy Day, by Mark Owen with Kevin Maurer
8. To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, by Daniel H. Pink
9. A High Call, by Adam Makos
10. The World Until Yesterday, by Jared Diamond

List is published by the New York Times every Sunday.  Highlighted titles are available at Franklin County Library.

Did you know?

The library:

1. Has wifi for public use.
2. Has magazines for checkout.
3. Has travel videos.
4. Has a typewriter for public use.
5. Hosts GED classes.
6. Offers notary services.
7. Has a video magnifier for the visually impaired.
8. Has tax forms.
9. Offers copy and fax services.
10. Building is 100 years old this year!!!

Save the Date!

KiteFest is coming!!!

For more information please visit:

www.kitefestmv.com

Introducing Marvelous Mondays!

Julie demonstrates a dollar bill folding trick.

Beginning this week, every Monday afternoon at about 4:15 the library will be conducting short activities that will include science experiments, crafts, tricks, and much more.  Come next Monday and see what we're up to.  You never know what's going to happen at the library!!!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Franklin County Library Blog!

We are very excited about the coming weeks at the library and will be documenting all the fun here.

Look for:

•       Exciting Events
•       Author Bios
•       Book Reviews
•       Recipes
•       Crafts
•       Staff Picks
•       .... and much more!

Check out our:

Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Franklin-County-Library/181512421887791?fref=ts

Website
www.franklincolibrary.com

Pinterest Boards

http://pinterest.com/fclmv

 

Check back often for more exciting happenings at the Franklin County Library!