Latest additon to the library's local history collection

Yesterday Daniel and Mary Miller donated a copy of History of Monroe County with Illustrations to the Chili Public Library’s local history collection. It is a beautiful book published in 1877 and includes many illustrations, portraits, and descriptions of public buildings, businesses, and scenery. Shown here is Mr. Miller presenting the book to the library with the book open to a two page illustration of R.P. Hubbard’s farm located in North Chili. Visit this link at http://www.libraryweb.org/~digitized/books/McIntosh_History_of_Monroe_County.pdf to see the online version of this important book, digitized by the Central Library.

Summer Booksale in August

The Chili Public Library Summer Booksale sponsored by the Friends of the Chili Public Library will be held on Friday, August 15 from 9am-4pm. The sale is open to the general public. On Thursday, August 14 from 5-7pm there will be a Friends Only Preview Sale. Friends memberships are available at the door. There will be plenty of good books to choose from so be sure to put the date on your calendar!

Gates Chili Middle School Career Fair

Dear Librarian,

“Thank you for coming to the Career Fair. Your job was very different from the others in many ways. You get the most books of the ones I’ve seen. You get to enlighten children’s by reading to them… “

This is how the letter starts out I received yesterday from a 6th grade Gates Chili Middle School student. Each year the school coordinates a career fair for over 1,000 middle school students. This year the event took place May 8th. Throughout the day the students spoke to participants from different careers. The students asked the participants to describe their jobs, what education they had in school, what skill sets are required for their job, etc.

I found the kids to be inquisitive and well behaved. Patricia Cipolla did a great job coordinating the fair. The library had a career table with plenty of handouts (bookmarks, program guides) to give away, and samples of career books from the library. I had two clerical staff join me (Deb Amesbury and Carol Fogarassy), and one of my pages Declan related to the kids his experiences as well.

Some of the kids admitted to being active readers, while others said up front they don’t like to read. Kids will always tell you what’s on their mind. But even for the non-readers after talking to them we found common ground on topics they found of interest and we suggested they try us out. Overall it was a great experience for both students and participants.

CPL Teen Photo Contest - 73 photos and counting!

As of today the Chili Public Library has 73 photo entries from teens all across the county. What a great response from a group of talented teens. Be sure to come and see the show of photos Satruday, May 31 at 3 pm and cast your vote for the "viewer's choice".

Big Read Book Discussion

Chili Public Library’s Big Read on May 6th was a successful program with 20 people in attendance and some great discussions! We also had an in-library Big Read survey asking patrons if there was a specific book they could save from book burning what would it be? The responses were interesting and the Bible was the winner. Feel free to leave your comment of what book you would save from book burning.

The book under discussion was Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. For those present we had Fahrenheit 451 t-shirts, bottled water, fireballs, and spicy salsa with chips!

The next adult book discussion on June 3rd is Widow of the South by Roberts Hicks, and on July 1st the discussion is Wild Swans by Jung Chang. The CPL Book Discussions are sponsored by the Friends of the Chili Public Library. The program is free and open to the public. No registration is necessary.

First Robotics Demonstration - 5/10/08

Welcome to the 21st century and beyond. This Saturday you will get a chance to have a hands-on look at robots. At 10a.m. and 1p.m. in the library’s multipurpose room, students from the Churchville-Chili High School will be demonstrating the robots they’ve created and entered in FIRST Robotics competitions.

FIRST is a worldwide program to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication and leadership.

Churchville Chili High School has two FIRST Robotic teams and has won FIRST's highest honor the Chairman's Award, twice, and the Engineering Inspiration Award for the creation of a second team.

Coloring Contest at CPL

We have talented artists in our midst. Children's Librarian, Jenn Lindsey and Rebecca Czologz, 8, pose with Rebecca's winning coloring picture in the 6-8 year old category in the Chili Public Library's recent coloring contest. There were three age categories, - all three winners received a gift card to Borders. Come to the Children's area this week and see all of the children's entries.

Earth Day at the Library

Yesterday, several library staff during their lunch hour took part in this year’s Earth Day festivities, collecting up to 12 bags of refuse. Most of the litter was found down the embankment and in the creek on the eastside of the Town Hall/Library Complex. Terry Spurling and Pat Tindale organized the cleanup.

There were plenty of plastic bags and soda bottles to pick up. Other finds were a library card, hubcap, and a fire extinguisher. During our clean up it even began to lightly snow, but that didn’t last long as the snow pellets melted as soon as they touched the ground. Pat with her hip boots on came across a large and not too happy garter snake.

After the cleanup we felt glad knowing the area was left cleaner than we found it. Thanks to David Lindsey and his highway crew for picking up the bags soon after we were finished.