Tuesday, April 18 10:00am-7:00pm Get Your Game On Calling all gamers! Looking for something fun to do with the kids during spring break? Come get your game on at the library with a variety of cool board games and giant games such as Snakes & Ladders and Jenga! This program is free to attend. Children under the age of 8 years must be accompanied by an adult or older responsible sibling. Drop in any time between 10am-7pm to participate. Wednesday, April 19 1:00pm-3:00pm Early Earth Day Go green and celebrate the earth! Join us for our Early Earth Day program where your child will learn more about the environment in a fun and exciting setting! Children will collect stamps from various game and craft stations. Once they have filled their stamp book they will receive a small earth friend gift. One lucky child will win a Farmer’s Garden Terrarium and a $10.00 Chapters gift card! This program is open to all ages and is free to attend. Children under the age of 8 years must be accompanied by an adult or responsible older sibling. Drop in any time between 1-3pm to participate. Thursday, April 20 1:00pm-3:00pm Pokémon Party Pokémon fever is still going strong at the Strathmore Municipal Library! Children of all ages are invited to a party celebrating all things Pokémon! Games, crafts, and a special Pokémon Scavenger Hunt await all our young Pokémon Trainers! In addition to all these exciting events, the library will also be dropping lures every hour all day long! This program is free to attend and requires no registration. Children under the age of 8 years must be accompanied by an adult or responsible older sibling. Drop in any time between 1-3pm to participate. Friday, April 21 1:00pm-3:00pm Friday Fun Film Join us for our Friday Fun Film program as we show the hit movie, Sing! Rated G. At the end of the film we will draw for one lucky participant to take the movie home with them! Participants will be treated to popcorn and drinks. This program is free to attend and no registration is required.
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Garden Sign Class Fundraiser - Tuesday, April 25
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Spring is here! Join Debrah Schiller (The Dueling Moon), as she teaches you how to create your own decorative flowerbed/garden sign. All supplies are included for this crafty class. To reserve your spot, please register in person at the Strathmore Municipal Library. We accept cash or cheque. Open to participants 14 years and up. All proceeds will go to help increase programs and services for the library. Registration closes at 5:00pm on Saturday, April 22. Limit of 10 people per session. $40.00 per ticket. There are two sessions available: 4:00pm to 6:00pm and 7:00pm-9:00pm.
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WE HAVE WORMS! - April 3-23
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This year, in honour of Earth Day, the library will be home to a few wiggly worms! These wonderful worms come to us from Green Calgary in their own functional vermicomposting bin. Stop by the library each day to see how these worms turn food scraps and newspaper into healthy living soil.
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Director's Corner - Alexis McKenzie
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I have now been working here at the Strathmore Municipal Library for 9 months – and I’ve got just one month left! It seems like the right time to reflect on this incredible library that I’ve become a part of. I have worked at many different libraries, and this one stands out when it comes to the amount of services and events offered. Allow me to tell you about some of my favourites: Did you know that we offer free one-on-one tech tutoring? All you have to do is make an appointment and our tech tutor, Karla, will sit down with you for up to an hour to help you with any technology questions you might have. This could be everything from setting up an email, to using Overdrive, to getting more comfortable with light web browsing. I am full of pride that our library is able to offer this service and I have seen the positive effects it has had on the community. Another resource that I think we excel at is our inter-library loan service. What this means is that if you want a book and our library doesn’t have it – don’t give up! We have access to all libraries in Alberta (and sometimes beyond!) and we can often bring in just about any book you desire. If it comes from afar or if there’s a long wait list, it can take some time to get here, but patience is a virtue and the price can’t be beat! My favourite e-resource that we have is Hoopla. I am someone that loves Netflix but doesn’t like paying for it… however the luxury of on-demand movies is hard to give up. Enter Hoopla: free movies, music, eBooks and more! Keep in mind, you are limited to borrowing only five items a month; however a benefit of Hoopla is that you can download movies for offline viewing: perfect for long flights or car trips this summer. While Hoopla is my ultimate favourite online resource, I want to make sure Consumer Reports gets an honourable mention. Through our library website, when you log in to Consumer Reports with your library account, you can access the reports for free! Consumer Reports normally cost $7/month to access so I consider this a great perk. Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that April is National Poetry Month. A year ago when I was working at a bookstore I was surprised by the number of people coming in for this Canadian poetry book: “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur. What blows me away about this book is that it was written by a young Canadian woman – she was just 22 years old when she published this bestseller! I’ve seen young people come to the bookstore in droves to pick up this book. Kaur’s poems are about violence, love, loss, and femininity. “Milk and Honey” might be something you or your teen is interested in checking out! As I enjoy my last month at the library, I hope you’ll pop in to say hello!
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The Strathmore Municipal Library runs on a tight budget, but thanks to numerous funders, the library is able to maintain a high level of customer service. As you can see from the charts below that the majority of our funding comes from the Town of Starthmore and the largest expense goes to wages and benefits. Only a small portion of our expenditures goes to programming which is a testiment to our creative and thrifty staff. To see more highlights from 2016, pick up a printed copy of our Year in Review or view it online at www.strathmorelibrary.ca/yearinreview.
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"Thank you so much for the wonderful bunch of programs you have. My kids love geting their punches. We have been enjoying coming in looking for the elf. Thank you for making my little ones happy." -- Facebook Comment
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Books with Baby: Pre-Reading Skill - Heather Ulmer
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Most of us are aware that sharing books with the young people in our lives is very important, but did you know that even newborn babies can benefit from being exposed to written material? Pre-reading skills can be practiced with your child from birth. Print motivation is creating interest in books and it is essential for babies to enjoy books and learn that reading is fun. Print awareness is also a skill that babies can practice. As they age, babies will start to learn how books work and how to handle them. They will start to notice print and even learn to follow the words on a page. Many babies will likely want to chew on their books, and, although we do not encourage this with library books, it is important to develop a positive relationship with books. At times it may be beneficial just to let them play with the book in a way that they are comfortable with. Reading also helps to develop vocabulary. This is connected to phonological awareness, which is being able to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words. Babies and young children will start to associate images with spoken words and will consequently learn the names of things. Letter knowledge will also eventually develop, which involves knowing letters are different from each other, have different names and sounds, and recognizing letters everywhere. As babies develop into toddlers, they will also have improved narrative skills if they are read with on a regular basis. They will be able to describe things, events, and tell stories. Books are also a wonderful tool to help young minds develop their imagination. For more information on how to share books with your baby or learn about literacy activities, you can ask for a “Books with Baby” handout at the library, or check Booker’s Buzz next month for another article.
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Art Exhibition - Joe Desjardins
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The library is pleased to welcome back local photogapher Joe Desjardins for our next art exhibition. Joe has been a wildlife and nature photograher for over three decades. Teaching has become a large part of Joe's photography life, as he often teaches classes privately and through Wheatland Education. Joe is an award-winning, published, and National Accredited photographer whose bear photography graces the cover of the Canadian Geographic Bears calendar for 2017. He has garnered national accreditations in equine, landscape, nature wildlife, and other displines of photography through the Professional Photographers of Canada. Visit Joe's website at www.joedesjardins.ca to learn more about his workshops and to view his stunning portfolio.
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The Great Family Treasure Hunt returns May 19!
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May 15 is the International Day of Families and to celebrate we are bringing back our popular Great Family Treasure Hunt! What better way to connect with your family than working together to find hidden treasure. Pick up you treasure map at the library and follow the clues to find treasure hidden in the Lambert Park & Centre, Kinsmen Park, and Downtown Strathmore. Complete the hunt to be entered into a draw for a family photo shoot (including 10-15 edited images of a USB for you to print) by River & Reeds Photography valued at $200.00! Other prizes will also be awarded. This program is free to attend and will run from 1:00pm to 4:00pm. See you there!
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