Mother's Day @ The Library

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and the Ridgefield Library can help you celebrate.

Sunday the 14^th is the Run Like a Mother 5K Race.  Even if you are not an athlete, we urge you to turn out to support those who are running.  Sponsorship proceeds from the race support the Library’s Noreen L. Papa: Mothers Live your Life fund, which offers informative and inspirational programs and resources dedicated to health and wellness, particularly for women.

The Library Store in the Library’s Bossidy Commons has a selection of gift items such as bound journal books, canvas book bags and decorative magnetic bookmarks, all certain to please the avid reader.

The Friends of the Library book sale starting on Friday the 12^th offers many lovely gift quality books for mom, from miniature volumes of poetry and inspirational quotations to beautifully illustrated coffeetable books on a wide range of topics.

Mom doesn’t need any more “stuff” in her life?  Buy something for the Library in her honor instead.  Our online Wish List catalog includes options such as supplies for children’s craft programs, new audiobooks or popular fiction, refreshments for Books & Breakfast and many more, at various price ranges.

Planning for the Holidays @ the Library

The Library will be closed on Thursday, November 24^th and Friday the 25^th for Thanksgiving but will be open regular hours on Wednesday and also on Saturday and Sunday. Don’t forget also to visit Books on the Common for Library Days Friday through Sunday of the holiday weekend.

The annual Holiday Stroll organized by the Downtown Ridgefield merchants association will take place on Friday, December 2^nd and Saturday the 3^rd, with lots of seasonal fun for the whole family.  Two long-time favorite activities will return to the Library on Friday evening – horse and carriage rides and the Ridgefield Music and Art Center’s RMAC ‘n’ Cheese music and food offerings around the firepit.  On Saturday, we will host Drop-in Storytime at 10:30 AM with a “frozen” theme and music at 1:30 by wind and brass players from the Western Connecticut Youth Orchestra.  Stroll on by!

Registration for preschool storytimes and after school activities to start in January will begin online  December 1st.

Finally, now that it is finally beginning to be wintry, we want to remind everyone that the Library makes weather closing decisions independently of the schools or town agencies.  You can see the details on our website at www.ridgefieldlibrary.org.

Get Ready to Read this Summer

On your Mark, Get Set…Read! No matter what happens at the Summer Olympics in Brazil, we expect to set new records in reading right here in Ridgefield this summer, with the annual Summer Reading Program, which begins June 13th.  Pre-schoolers, elementary school students, teens and adults are all invited to take part and earn prizes, enjoy entertaining programs and more.  The formal program runs through July 30^th, but you can continue to log your reading and collect prizes until the day before school starts. Find out all the details at www.ridgefieldlibrary.org.

June 13^th is also the beginning of our summer schedule.  From then through Labor Day, the Library will be closed on Sundays; the rest of our schedule remains the same as always: Monday – Thursday, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM, Friday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM and Saturday 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM.  And don’t forget to visit our “virtual library branch” online 24/7 at www.ridgefieldlibrary.org for eBooks, downloadable audiobooks, music and video, research databases and much more.

Other highlights of the summer include RidgeCon on August 12 and 13 (our 2^nd annual celebration of popular culture) and writing contests for children and adults (details to be announced shortly). See you at the Library!

Library Days Return to Books on the Common, with Some New Twists

The annual Library Days at Books on the Common will take place Thanksgiving weekend.   Just show your Ridgefield Library card at the cash register, and 15% of the proceeds of your purchase will be donated by the bookstore to the Library.  As a special thank you, all participating buyers will receive a specially designed bookmark; these limited edition keepsakes are being made by community members in conjunction with an exhibit by artist Ruth Root at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.  Those purchasing goods in excess of $100 will be entered in a special drawing to receive a signed bookmark created by the artist herself.

November 28 is also Small Business Saturday, and the bookstore will have additional promotions and special programs on offer. So many reasons to visit Books on the Common and support the Library that weekend!

Store hours are Friday 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM, Saturday 9:30 AM – 6:00 PM and Sunday 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM; call 203-438-9100 for more information about the store.  Ridgefield residents who do not have one may register for a library card at the Circulation Desk; all that is needed is proof of residence.  Contact The Aldrich at 203-438-4591 or aldrichart.org for information about the Ruth Root exhibit and related activities.

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.

Announcing Alice

It has been 150 years since the publication of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll (aka Charles Dodgson), and we can’t resist!  Our staff is smiling like the Chesire Cat as we put together a roster of Alice-related activities this fall for all ages.  We will start with a field trip on October 7^th to the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City, where we will tour their special exhibit “Alice: 150 Years of Wonderland, ” guided by exhibit curator Carolyn Vega. The culmination of our adventures will be a presentation on November 22^nd by author Gregory Maguire called “Green Witches, White Rabbits and Wild Things,” in which the author will talk about his own novel “Wicked,” his new book “After Alice” and his friend Maurice Sendak.

In between you can enjoy scholarly lectures, a book-to-film comparison, a Mad Hatter tea party, book discussions for children and for adults, and much more, in a series we are calling “Curiouser and Curiouser.”  If you are curious about Alice or the man who created her, please join us for our journey down the rabbit hole, sponsored by the Friends of the Library. Watch our website for full details, coming soon.

Ridgefield Library for: Questions and Answers

Close observers may have noticed that the Library has gone trivia crazy in the past few months. We have done Downton Abbey trivia, wild game trivia, literary trivia and Academy Award trivia.  We have challenged teams of young people at our popular Teen Trivia afternoons and older contestants at the Library’s celebrity bartender night at Gallo Ristorante. For the Run Like a Mother 5K Race, we offered questions for both kids and their parents on the topics of famous mothers, running and other sports, and health.  What is behind this obsession with trivia at the Library?

We think it is a natural fit.  After all, questions and answers are the stock in trade of reference librarians. As a matter of fact, many of the questions we have incorporated into our quizzes come straight from the inquiries made by patrons at the Library’s service desks (for example, triskaidekaphobia is the answer to a frequent question on certain Fridays).

Look for history and children’s book trivia at the Keeler Tavern Museum Family Day on June 13th and 1970s and superhero trivia at Summerfest in July.  And you can challenge our librarians any time by dropping in to the Library with your questions!

We’ve Got an App for That!

More and more Library patrons rely on their smartphones and other personal devices while on the go.  We are pleased to announce that now they can stay connected with the Library with the new “Biblio” app.

Compatible with all web-enabled phones and many other devices, Biblio offers a menu of links to frequently-used Ridgefield Library content and services, in most cases formatted or optimized for the mobile environment. Please note that some services require you to download their own apps first in order to interface with Biblio.

You can access our catalog and the My Account feature for renewing, reserving and seeing what you have checked out.   See a book somewhere and want to know if we have it?  Just activate the built-in scanner and point it at the book’s ISBN barcode.

You can download eBooks and eAudiobooks from OverDrive directly to your device. There is also a calendar of all our myriad programs and events.  Look up our hours and other information or contact us on the fly by automatically linking to your device’s phone and email features. Finally, learn the latest news with handy interfaces for Twitter and Facebook. 

Just search for “Bibliomation” in the app store on your device, and you’re ready to go – and take the Ridgefield Library with you!