SGC Admin: From our inbox to you…  May happenings at the Whitby Library… 🙂

The How-To in 10 Festival and Roadshow Returns!

Love to learn new things but never seem to have enough time? Come to the How-to in 10 Festival and Road Show at the Central Library on Saturday, May 2, from 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm for the opportunity learn new skills in about 10 minutes at more than 25 activities. You are guaranteed to have a great time learning from the experts. Easy, fun, convenient and free!

This year, learn how to: print a 3D cookie cutter, preserve memories, take a selfie, do henna for health, communicate with American Sign Language, write your name in Chinese, tie a fishing lure, strum a ukulele, make jewelry, play a guitar chord, prep like a chef, make a raw vegan appetizer, say hello in 10 languages, focus on the food groups, tie a knot and so much more!

Check out the full list of activities at the How-to in 10 website. While you’re there, don’t forget to check out the How-to in 10 events happening in Clarington, Oshawa, Port Perry, Pickering andUxbridge.

The event is sponsored regionally by Veridian Connections and Ontario Power Generation.

Doors Open Whitby 

Celebrate Whitby’s heritage on Saturday, May 2 by joining us forDoors Open 2015 and tour unique historical sites, many of which are not normally open to the public.

  • Brooklin United Church is celebrating its 175th anniversary with live music from 1:00 to 2:00 pm and a display of vintage memorabilia in the hall.
  • The Station Gallery is showcasing Second World War posters from the Wildman Collection to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the war. These compelling images give a fresh glimpse into Canada’s wartime atmosphere.
  • A display of a working HO-scale model of the Old Whitby Harbour, including the Whitby Junction Station (now the Station Gallery), grain elevators, the pump house and other buildings from the late 1800s to early 1900s will be located at the Port Whitby Marina.
  • The John Watson House, a private home at 1733 Dufferin Street, is participating in Doors Open Whitby for the first time. Don’t miss your chance to see inside one of the oldest homes in Port Whitby along with its stunning gardens.

View the Doors Open Whitby brochure for more exciting places you can visit. For other Doors Open locations and dates throughout the province, visit the Doors Open Ontario website.

As always, admission to Doors Open Whitby sites is completely free, so there’s no better time to experience what Whitby has to offer!

 Did You Know?
You Can Get Investment Insights with Value Line

It’s always a good idea to do some research before investing in the stock market, and the better your research (hopefully) the better your return. And there’s no better place to research stuff than at your library.

The Central Library carries the Value Line Investment Survey, both the original and small to mid-cap versions. Value Line prides itself on providing investors with the most accurate and independently researched information available. Company profiles are comprehensive, with plenty of raw data as well as recommendations. Ask for Value Line at the Reference Desk on the second floor of the Central Library. And while you’re here, check out our collection on investing in stocks.

Upcoming Programs
Green Your Home This Spring at the Central Library 
Tuesday, May 12
7:00 to 9:00 pm
Meeting Room 1B

Spring cleaning! Time to sweep out the winter doldrums and open the doors for summer. Many of us are aware of the harmful, environmentally unfriendly chemicals in household cleaners, but did you know that accidental poisoning by these cleaners is one of the leading causes of preventable injury and death among children under the age of five in Canada? The safest prevention is to avoid purchasing these types of products altogether. In this seminar, you’ll learn about common harmful chemicals in household products, how to decrease health and safety risks in your home and about simple, safe cleaning alternatives made from products you probably already have on your shelves.

Registration is required. Register for Green Your Home This Spring online or by contacting any branch.

More Adult Programs at the Central Library

Read With Me at the Central Library 
Tuesday, May 5, 12, 19, 26
11:00 am to 12:00 noon

Join us in May as the popular Read with Me at your Library returns to the Central Library. Joan Gajadharsingh, the Early Literacy Specialist from the Ontario Early Years Centre, will be back sharing stories with children up to 12 months and their caregivers.

Registration is required. Register for Read With Me online or by contacting any branch.

More Children’s Programs at the Central Library

Pinterest for Beginners at the Brooklin Branch 

This workshop will cover the basics of setting up and using aPinterest account. We will explore how to use Pinterest, including what “pinning” is, how to create and organize your pins and much more.

Whether you already have a Pinterest account and want to learn more, or need assistance setting up an account, this workshop can help.

Registration is required. Register for Pinterest for Beginners online by clicking on the links above or by contacting any branch.

More Adult Programs at the Brooklin Branch

Super Smash Brothers Brawl Wii Tournament at the Brooklin Branch 
Wednesday, May 13
7:00 to 8:00 pm

The Brawl to end them all! Think you’re the most elite Super Smash Brothers player in Brooklin? Prove your worth as the fiercest competitor in the mushroom kingdom at the Brooklin Branch Super Smash Brothers Brawl Tournament. Defeat your adversaries and claim your title. Teens in grades 7 to 12 are welcome to join the fun.

Registration is required. Register for the Super Smash Brothers Brawl Wii Tournament online or bycontacting any branch.

More Teen Programs at the Brooklin Branch

Mother’s Day Movie Night and Craft at the Brooklin Branch 
Wednesday, May 6
6:30 to 7:30 pm

Children and their caregivers are invited to join us for the special Mother’s Day movie, Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear: Mother Bear’s Special Day.

This film follows the spirited adventures of a curious, imaginative and inventive Little Bear and his childhood friends. As Little Bear explores the world under his mother’s watchful eye, curiosity and imagination lead to exploration, experience and independence. (Description from Amazon.ca).

After the film, make a gift to take home to mom. All ages are welcome!

This film is rated G. Closed captioning will be available for this film.

Registration is required. Register for Mother’s Day Movie Night and Craft online or by contacting any branch.

More Children’s Programs at the Brooklin Branch

Seniors’ Social Drop-In Wednesday at the Rossland Branch 
Wednesday, May 13
2:30 to 3:30 pm

Your library catalogue goes beyond simply searching for a title or author. Join us for for Hidden Treasures of Your Library and we’ll show you how you can discover, explore and connect with the library community. Learn all the tips and tricks of your library catalogue in this one hour demonstration.

Registration is not required. Just drop in!

More Adult Programs at the Rossland Branch

Pet Rock Mother’s Day Craft at the Rossland Branch
Thursday, May 7
3:45 to 4:45 pm
We know moms are busy, but pet rocks are easy to take care of. Come and craft with us as we make beautiful pet rocks that you can give to the special lady in your life for Mother’s Day. Your pet rock can double as a cute garden ornament or paper weight for mom.
 Book Marks 
There are some contemporary authors who pay homage to authors of the past by breathing new life into well-known fictional characters, particularly in the mystery field.
For instance, you can find many incarnations of Sherlock Holmes. Laurie R. King has a series featuring Mary Russell, a gawky 15-year-old orphan with an intellect to match Sherlock’s.
Carole Nelson Douglas has a series from the Sherlock canonfeaturing Irene Adler as the protagonist.
And Anthony Horowitz has recently released Moriarity after writing about Sherlock Holmes himself in the 2011 book The House of Silk.
It’s not just detectives getting the reboot, though. You can findJane Austen solving crimes in Stephanie Baron’s Jane Austen mystery series. And you can read about Austen’s characters in any number of reinventions (including Pride and Prejudice and Zombies)
However, no one had tackled Agatha Christie, until now.  Christie fans recently welcomed back the famous sleuth Hercule Poirot in Sophie Hannah’s The Monogram Murders. This is Poirot’s first appearance since Curtain (he has appeared in 33 novels and 564 short stories).
The Monogram Murders begins with Poirot meeting a woman in a café who claims to be in danger of being murdered, but, strangely, begs him not to try and stop the killer. The plot may be a bit hard to follow sometimes, but it felt as if an old friend were back: Poirot’s mannerisms, cryptic comments and the use of his “little grey cells” were very much present. Those who, like so many mystery fans, cut their teeth on Agatha Christie and have read all the Poirot stories will certainly enjoy reading him tackle new cases.
If you are a Christie fan give it a go. If nothing else, you may end up wanting to go back through the series.
Taxi Wins at the Berlin International Film Festival

It’s award season, and this year’s winner at the Berlin International Film Festival is director Jafar Panahi’s Taxi.

Though it may be some time before this title is released to DVD, we have several of this Iranian filmmaker’s other films including his recent documentary This Is Not A Film. This is the first of three films he has created since being convicted of producing “propaganda against the regime” by the Iranian government, imprisoned and banned from fiilmmaking for 20 years.

Bring the Web to You with RSS Feeds 
Once upon a time, it wasn’t that hard to be “An Informed Person.” You might read the daily paper, maybe a news magazine. And at the designated times in the evening, you would watch the TV news. Maybe you would also have access to some sort of trade journal that would be helpful for work.

Then everything exploded. With a few clicks, you can go from a detailed essay in The Walrus to celebrity news on TMZ to a top 15 list of something to a 3000-word description of the latest stem cell research. You can look at newspapers in Germany or your cousin’s blog. Where before we had scarcity, we now have abundance. But with abundance comes the problem of keeping up.

This is where news aggregators come in. News aggregators, also known as news readers or feed readers, combine all sorts of web sources into one place for easy reading. News aggregators use something called RSS feeds (RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) to stay up to date. They’re pretty easy to set up: you sign up for an account with an aggregator and add (or subscribe to) the RSS-enabled sites you’re interested in reading. After that, you just sit back and the reader tells you when the site is updated and what was added. You can take a quick look at the summaries of all of the sites you like and decide what you’d like to read. Using a retro comparison, it’s kind of like a personal newspaper on subjects you like. To extend the metaphor, it saves you from going through stacks of newspapers to find the articles you want. If you’re a visual person, here’s a video that explains how RSS feeds work.

Readers have been around for some time. RSS feeds were a big thing a few years ago, and the now-discontinued Google Reader was huge. They aren’t in the forefront like they once were, but they’re still well used and very useful. There are lots of good news readers out there, and most are also available as apps, so you can follow your sites on the go. Here are a few to check out: Feedly,Newsblur and FeedReader. Happy online reading!

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