A library card is also one of the most important back-to-school supplies!
Students can connect online with tutors, tap into tools to help with homework, or check out books for fun and learning. Library card holders can even borrow a telescope, Wi-Fi hotspot, or Nature Backpack.
Some of our most popular homework help offerings are:
HelpNow: Live online tutoring daily from 1-11 PM.
Encyclopedia Britannica: Online encyclopedia articles, multimedia, primary sources, and games for grades PreK to 12.
PebbleGo: Resources on animals and biographies for grades PreK to 3. Resources on states and American history for grades 3 to 6.
The best resource of all - our staff! Need help finding reading materials or information for a project? Our staff is here to assist.
After 120 years, the library's original tile roof is scheduled to be replaced later this month. The clay tiles will be replaced with new French tiles by Ludowici, the same company that made the original tiles in 1902.
Construction does mean a few inconveniences. Here's what you need to know:
Workcould begin as soon as Monday, September 26. Planned work days are Monday through Saturday, and the project will take 3-4 weeks to complete.
There will no parking (including the handicap parking space) on the 4th Street surface lot. The parking lot will be restricted for contractor use and equipment.
Outdoor programming on the 4th Street Lawn will be moved inside during the replacement.
The project could be noisy, especially in the fiction areas on the upper level. While is it not a safety hazard to be on the upper level, it will be a louder environment than normal. If you would prefer to avoid the noise, consider placing holds on adult fiction materials and picking them up from the holds shelf on the lower level or in a Library Locker on the parking ramp level.
Remembering Queen Elizabeth II
Immerse yourself in the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II. We've compiled some of the best books written about her, the crown, and the royal family to celebrate Britain's longest-reigning monarch. Click on the book covers to learn more or to place a hold.
Preserve your treasured pictures and documents. Bring photos or documents important to you or your family history to be scanned with professional equipment. Staff and volunteers will assist in scanning and provide you with digital copies.
You can also contribute to Stillwater's digital legacy. We'd like to grow our collection of house deeds and pictures for house history research. Bring Stillwater-area house photographs, blueprints, drawings, plans, deeds or other house-related documents. A copy of them may be added to the St. Croix Collection of the Stillwater Public Library.
Scanning days are Saturday, October 1 and Saturday, October 15 from 10:00 AM-2:00 PM. Registration is required. Sign up for a one-hour timeslot.
Experience the past, present, and future of our Native American community.
Join us on Tuesday, October 4 from 6:30 - 8 PM to learn about Native communities in Minnesota. Amber Annis (Cheyenne River Lakota), Director of Native American Initiatives of the Minnesota Historical Society, and her team will provide an overview of the work that they do across Minnesota and beyond to share their resources and provide access to the Historical Society. They will discuss the work being done to strengthen the representation of Native nations and communities in Minnesota.
The Native American Student Alliance of Stillwater Area High School (NASA) will be in the Gallery demonstrating educational trunks of artifacts, cultural, and historical information created by the Native American Parent Advisory Council of ISD #834 (NAPAC) for use in elementary classrooms. Two videos showing the work of these two groups will be shown.
This program is presented in partnership with NAPAC and Stillwater's Friday Study Club.
Stillwater's Original Name
Recently, a local history buff asked us what the Stillwater area was called before the 1840s. A staff member dug deep into the question and learned that the Dakota called the area Hogan Wanke Kin, meaning "the place where the fish lies."
Stillwater's name is commonly attributed to pioneer lumberman John McKusick, who is said to have chosen the name both to reflect the settlement's location on the "still waters of Lake St. Croix" and in a nostalgic gesture to a same-named town in his native state of Maine. Long before McKusick and company arrived in the early 1840s, however, the Dakota and Ojibwe had known the place by other names.
The Dakota called the place Hogan Wanke Kin, an area which encompassed not only the St. Croix River but also Lake St. Croix as well as a large sandbar across from present-day Afton, Minnesota." The name, meaning "the place where the fish lies," was derived from a legend in which a man was transformed into a giant fish (either a catfish or a pike, depending on the version) and then into a sandbar. In English, Hogan Wanke Kin has been variously rendered as Hogan-wahnkay-kin, Hogan-wauke-kin and Hogan-wan-kee.
The Ojibwe name for the place was Giigo onh-zhagomod with the slightly different meaning of "where the fish floats." The Ojibwe origin legend is very similar, again involving a man transformed into a giant fish and found floating in the lake, with his ultimate transformation into "a piece of land crossing the lake there" (i.e., the sandbar). In English renderings, Giigo onh-zhagomod is harder to recognize, appearing as Kee-go-shagewa-minnie and Kegan-Shaw-Ga-Nut but the phonetic similarities are apparent to the ear.
Sources include: History of Washington County and the St. Croix Valley; Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota; Washington County Historical Society at https://www.wchsmn.org/afton; A Birch Canoe Voyage to Ka Ka Beeka or The Dalles of the St. Croix; "Nookomis Gaa-Inaajimotawi: What My Grandmother Told Me," Oshkaabewis Native Journal 1, no. 2; and "How Stillwater Came to Be," Minnesota History 24, no. 3. The 1916-1917 photo of birch bark canoes is from the Minnesota Digital Library. It was taken by musician and music educator Stella Prince Stocker. She studied American Indian music among the Ojibwe people in Minnesota.
Calling young farmers, merchants, mathematicians, and aeronauts! Explore and play in our new discovery area located in the Storytime Room on the lower level of the library.
The Imagination Station is back and decked out for fall with a theme of apples. Sell and shop at our farm stand. Try out the cash registers, weigh apples on the scale, make change, and so much more. Bring your imagination! The apple-themed station will be up through November.
We've also added a brand new flight lab to the space. Test your flying skills while exploring the STEM concepts of air currents and wind. Discover what goes aloft and what stays grounded.
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Stillwater Public Library 224 Third St N | Stillwater, Minnesota 55082 | 651-275-4338