Learning at the Library

School has started, and our young people are embarked on an exciting journey of exploration and discovery. Don’t let them have all the fun of gaining new knowledge and mastering new skills.  The Ridgefield Library is your center for lifelong learning.  Here are a few ways you can take advantage of this resource.

Learn a language.  Our new online language learning program Pronunciator makes it easy for you to go from beginner to advanced proficiency in over 80 languages, from Italian to Icelandic.

Learn at your own speed.  Lynda.com offers thousands of online video tutorials covering business and computer skill topics.  Take a full course or just search for the answer to a specific question about how to do something in Excel or WordPress.

Learn from the best.  Our Great Courses collection includes audio (and some video) lecture series by highly rated professors who are experts and excellent educators on everything from astronomy to French literature.

Learn from each other. Book discussions, our Adult Maker Group and other interactive programs offer wonderful opportunities for participants to share their own insights and knowledge, enriching the learning experience for the whole group. 

On the Road with the Ridgefield Library

I’m getting ready for a vacation trip to Canada, and the following services from the Library have been a great help.

• A dedicated section of travel books and DVDs, covering destinations around the world, has hints for where to go and what to do.
• I can brush up on my French with language learning materials on CD and accessible online with Mango.
• Luckily, my travel documents are in order, but if I needed passport processing, the Library is a very convenient and friendly alternative.
• A long train trip will allow me to catch up on months’ worth of The New Yorker downloaded through Zinio without having to haul a lot of paper copies around.
• Thanks to eBooks from Hoopla and Overdrive, I will be able to keep up with book group assignments, again without carrying weighty tomes.  With selections like Vanity Fair and Huck Finn, this can add up to a lot of pounds of baggage!
• Lists prepared by the library staff have given me some great ideas for themed reading.  A pamphlet on “Crime in a Cold Climate” has some perfect suggestions for a trip to Canada!

Wherever you may be traveling, make the Library your first stop!

Job Hunting Resources @ the Library

Are you in the market for a new job? Are you thinking about updating your resume or looking to improve your interviewing skills?

The Ridgefield Library has many career resources to help you. JobNow is an online resource that offers a variety of templates to create a resume, plus a lab to submit your resume anonymously for feedback from industry professionals. JobNow also includes interview practice with a live coach, interview tips, and career assessments. Lynda.com is an online learning resource with videos on many job topics including resume writing, cover letters, and job search strategies. Lynda.com helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creativity skills to achieve personal and professional goals.

JobNow and Lynda.com are available on computers in the Library as well as from our website www.ridgefieldlibrary.org. Click on Research & Reference and navigate to the College, Careers & Job Search webpage to get started.

Contributed by Reference Librarian Christie Mitchell

Celebrating Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye"

September 27 through October 3 is Banned Books Week, and this year the Library is commemorating the occasion by partnering with Ridgefield High School to present a day-long read-aloud of JD Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” a work that has been challenged consistently since its publication in 1951 on the grounds of language, content and tone. At the same time, the book has consistently found a place on the required reading lists of many high schools, including in Ridgefield. 

In a survey this fall, students at RHS chose this title for a new project called Books Building Bridges.  A joint effort by the Library and the school, this project will engage students and adults in activities to bring together readers across generational lines in exploration of a classic work of literature. In addition to classroom discussion, students will participate with adults in intergenerational book chats, and other enrichment activities for all ages will be held at the Library.

The project kicks off on October 1^st with the read-a-thon, organized by RHS library media specialist Kerry Baldwin, which will begin at the school at 9 AM and then move to the public library at 3 PM, where the public is invited to attend to read or just listen. For more information, go to ridgefieldlibrary.org.

Online Learning with Lynda.com

Do you want to keep up to date on the software you use?  The Ridgefield Library’s newest online resource lynda.com is for you.  This powerful learning tool offers over 3,400 video courses for professional and personal development.

These instructional videos, taught by experts in their fields, can be accessed anywhere an Internet connection is available.  Topics offered include business and management skills, software training, design and web development, 3D and animation, and computer programming.   You’ll also find a wealth of instruction on photography and multimedia editing. Videos are searchable by topic and can be viewed in short segments. 

Seeking a job or professional advancement?   Lynda.com is a powerful tool for information on job search strategies, designing a resume, preparing for an interview, and managing your career.  Once you’ve finished a course, upload a Certificate of Completion to your LinkedIn profile.

All you need to get started is a Ridgefield Library card.  We will be offering training sessions on using lynda.com on June 17th, June 18th, and June 19th in the Library’s Donofrio Family Technology Center.   To register for one of these sessions or to start learning, visit our website at www.ridgefieldlibrary.org.  

Contributed by Dorothy Pawlowski, Head of Adult Services

Take a Trip to Ireland without Leaving the Ridgefield Library

Wish you could travel to the Emerald Isle for St. Patrick’s Day but not able to get away?  A trip to the Ridgefield Library can be the next best thing.

Irish writers are renowned for their storytelling, and we have a wide selection of novels, memoirs and poetry, from the contemporary coziness of Maeve Binchy to the innovation of James Joyce. Many of these classics and popular favorites are also available as audiobooks with entrancing narrators like Donal Donnelly, Marcella Riordan and the late, great Frank McCourt reading his own memoirs.

If you find yourself inspired by those lilting brogues, you can learn to speak like a leprechaun yourself with Mango Languages, the Library’s online language learning program, found on our website.  Try out their special short course called “St. Patrick’s Day Irish” which gives an introduction to the names of people, places, food and drink.

Those of Irish heritage can explore their family history with Ancestry Library Edition or Heritage Quest, useful tools for genealogy research. You can browse our music CDs for favorites from the Celtic repertoire. And, of course, you can admire the lush pictures in scores of travel books or serve up delectable Irish soda bread from recipes found in our cookbook section.

Céad míle fáilte to the Ridgefield Library!

New Series for Writers

As part of the Library’s mission to help both experienced and novice writers hone their craft, we are presenting a brand new series of workshops and talks aimed at writers of all levels.  The series, sponsored by the Friends of the Library, is called Write It! and will continue throughout the year.  

Starting on January 16 Phyllis Ross will return to the Library to present a three part workshop aimed at the beginning writer.  This is strictly for those budding writers who have no prior workshop experience. On February 9 author and editor Adele Annesi will present a program called Life Lines, which will focus on the art of non-fiction writing and then on April 6 she will present a program called The Art of the Essay.  This program will be of special interest to high school students trying to put together that perfect college essay.  Professor Michael White, from Fairfield University, will discuss From Idea to Book on March 6. More workshops are scheduled for the fall, with a workshop on writing for a teen audience and a program on screenwriting in the works.  Also in the fall we are very excited that the New Ridgefield Library will be hosting the second annual Ridgefield Writers Conference. 

Contributed by Adult Program Director Lesley Lambton.

Summer Is Definitely for Reading in Ridgefield!

The numbers are in, and we are proud to announce that a record number of people took part in Summer Reading this year at the Ridgefield Library.  What started as an activity for 180 children in 1988 engaged 1,807 children, teens and adults in 2013, 6% higher than the previous record set in 2011 and nearly 150 people more than last year.

These readers devoured 51,117 books, an average of 28.3 each, in just seven weeks.  Our “Fiction of Relationship” online course or MOOC, with its 10 classic works in 10 weeks, certainly contributed to these totals, but most of this can be attributed to good old-fashioned hunger for knowledge and adventure on the part of readers of all ages. Children going into grades K-5 recorded 41,634 books using our online reading log program; teens (grades 6-12) listed 8,972 items, and adults contributed 511 entries.

Many thanks to the Friends of the Library for their ongoing generous support of Summer Reading; to Deborah Ann’s Sweet Shop, Piccolo Pizza, The Toy Chest, Books on the Common and Parks and Recreation for providing prizes;  and to library staffers Carole Clark and Kathy Cherniavsky for creating incredible raffle baskets for Adult Summer Reading.

Library Launches Tech Fridays

We’re excited to announce a new monthly program called Tech Fridays.  Would you like to use one of our electronic databases or download an eBook but feel stymied by the learning curve involved?  Do you want to learn about social media tools or how to find apps for your phone or tablet?  Then Tech Fridays are for you.  Each month we’ll highlight a 21^st century tool offered by the Library, or one readily available online, with the goal of helping our patrons become empowered users of these resources.

The first of our Tech Fridays will take place on October 26th.  Drop in anytime between 2 and 4 PM when staff members will demonstrate and answer your questions about OverDrive, the library’s downloadable eBook and audiobook service.   On November 30th, Reference Librarian Christie Mitchell will focus on tools and websites related to personal finance.  After a break for the holidays, Tech Fridays will be held from 2 to 4 PM on the fourth Friday of each month.  Future programs will include How to Do Research, Technology for Seniors, Social Media, and Teens Teach Tech.  If you have a technology topic you’d like us to cover, contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski with your suggestions.

This entry was contributed by Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski.

Literature Resource Center @ the Library

Whether you are just curious or have an assignment concerning authors and their works, the Ridgefield Library has a resource for you. Literature Resource Center is the world's most current, comprehensive and reliable source for online literature research. It is rich in critical, biographical and contextual materials supporting interdisciplinary approaches, information literacy and the development of critical thinking skills. Users will find the information they need on authors and their works from all time periods and from around the world.
While particularly useful for high school students and undergraduates, its convenience, ease of use and credible resources will be appreciated by graduate students and faculty as well as the general reader or book discussion leader.

Included in its content are biographical entries, criticism and overviews of frequently studied works from compilations like Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism and Children’s Literature Review. One will also find many full-text poems, interviews and lists of authors and works sharing characteristics such as genre, setting, time period and themes.

LRC offers the ability to print, email or download articles, and citation tools are easily available. It can be found on the Library’s website on the Literature section of the Research & Reference pages.

Contributed by Reference Services Head Victoria Carlquist

Baby & Me Joins Children's Program Line-Up

Looking to accommodate the very youngest patrons, the Ridgefield Library is adding a new program called Baby & Me.  Planned for caretakers and infants through age 12 months, fun activities will enhance language enrichment through songs, rhymes, movement and books, of course!  Research shows that the development of early literacy skills through early experiences with books and stories is critically linked to a child’s success in learning to read. Adults will learn methods to encourage early literacy through ideas presented in Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library, a program that models parent behaviors that increase phonological awareness and vocabulary development in the young child. Information and resources will be also shared regarding infant health and well being. The Baby & Me program is limited to the caregiver and infants under 12 months (no older siblings please) and will be an excellent supplement to our popular Mother Goose program. There will be special time for babies and caretakers to visit and network. Registration for children’s programs including Baby & Me will be held in Children’s Services from Dec. 6 – 12. Registration is by a lottery system. Programs will begin the week of Jan. 3. 

Contributed by Diane Antezzo, Children's Programmer