Around The Library in September — a photo essay

Click on the photo to see it up close and get the details.

Environmental Issues – Green Consuming

Tomorrow, Wednesday September 9 at 7 p.m. we’ll start off our fall Environmental Issues Series with a program on Green Consuming.  Presenter Holly Mooore Kowalski is a library trustee and local activist.  She has won a local reputation as the “Recycling Lady,” but tomorrow she’ll kick off our series talking about green consuming – looking at the shopping choices we make and how that contributes to our carbon footprint or to a healthier environment.  Learn how to save money and save the Earth at the same time.  Join us in the McMahan room.

Avon Lake Water Quality

Join Joe Reitz, Avon Lake City Engineer and Al, the infamous alligator from the sewer, to learn about the City’s work to preserve water quality and what you can do to assure that you, your family and your neighbors will continue to have fresh, clean water to enjoy. Joe and Al have an entertaining and informative presentation to share and there will be ample opportunity for questions and discussion. Clean, pure, highly potable Avon Lake water will be served.

Poets on Trees

 

Still on our Earth Day theme:

Poet Joyce Kilmer famously wrote, “I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.”  Odgen Nash rejoines here.

Please keep in mind our program on Farms and Foods of Ohio tonight at 7:30, here at the Library.  Learn how to find the freshest foods close to home and get tips for cooking it in the most delicious way from author and cook Marilou Suszko.

Pied Beauty

I think of this as an Earth Day poem:

Pied Beauty

GLORY be to God for dappled things—

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Be sure to check out our Earth Day display of books on the Avenue in the Library and tomorrow night (Wednesday, April 23) at 7:30, come hear local author and culinary instructor Marilou Suszko tell us about her new book, Farms and Foods of Ohio, and the wonderful fresh food to be found right here in our bountiful state. Marilou shares her many marvelous stories of farms, farmers and good, wholesome food. She’ll tell us where and how to find the best local food, and give us great ideas about preparing it. Eat local, read local! Of course, we’ve got this book in our collection for you to check out.

Better World Books

Our Library is proud to participate in the Better World Books program. Whenever we remove older books from our collection to make room for new titles, we’re very conscientious about finding new homes for those books that are in good condition and keeping them out of the landfill.

We donate most of our used books to our Friends group.  This wonderful group of volunteers runs a used book sale in our lobby all year long and uses the proceeds to fund Library programming.  You’re welcome to come in anytime the Library is open and browse these books to find any you’d like to adopt.  They’re “sold” for any donation you’d care to make at our Circulation desk.  Your donations purchase the materials we use in our children’s storytimes, speakers’ fees for adult programs, summer reading prizes and a whole lot more.

Some fine books nevertheless go untaken.  Many of these the Friends are able to sell through Better World Books.  This for-profit “social enterprise” sells books discarded from libraries, providing those libraries with needed funds and further donating a significant part of the company’s profits to literacy programs throughout the US and abroad.  Since the company’s founding in 2003, it has raised more than $4.14 million for literacy programs and libraries, kept 6200 tons of books out of landfills and achieved 1725 tons of carbon offsets through carbon-neutral shipping. 

So far, Better World Books made $1200 for literacy programs from books contributed by Avon Lake Friends of the Library.  As our partnership with Better World is refined, we’ll begin making some money for our own programming too.

By the way, you can peruse Better World’s stock and place your order, with low-cost and carbon-neutral shipping, here.