New Year, Lots to Do

If you're lucky, or careful, by now you have probably stopped putting '09 on your correspondence and started adding in the required '10. If you're more like me, you have learned by now you can squeeze that 1 in before the zero and usually it doesn't look too bad.

Speaking of squeezing things in, there are a few more note-worthy events going on this month at the library.

The Prairie Writers Guild will be finishing up their tour of the Jasper County Public Library system this month with a stop in Rensselaer on Monday, Jan 18 at 6:30 p.m. Members were at DeMotte in November and Wheatfield in December, reading from the 2009 edition of From the Edge of the Prairie.

This book, which has been in publication since 2004, has become a place to showcase some of the best writing of the community. This year in addition to guild regulars, the works of several students are featured in its pages, as well as the poetry of Norbert Krapf, the Indiana Poet Laureate in 2008.

Books will be available for purchase, and you can get yours signed by the authors.

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For those with an artistic bent, the DeMotte Library this month is offering an opportunity for patrons to explore the world of oil painting with an all-day (10 a.m.-4 p.m.) class on January 23. The class, which costs $55 for materials, is geared at those of all skill levels. Even if you've never picked up a brush before, you will leave at the end of the day with a finished project.

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DeMotte is also hosting a reading program all month long. See how much your family can read and compete against other families for prizes. For more information, or to get a log book, stop in at the library and see how much time you can rack up with the written word.

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For the younger patrons, there are programs at each location. Teens can check out DeMotte's West Room Writers; younger siblings can check out the Library Kids and Third Thursday program at Rensselaer; and Wheatfield Library is offering some unique storytimes for tots ages 3-5 next week themed around pirates and Strawberry Shortcake.

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All of these stories can be found at our website myjcpl.org.

Whatever you decide to do with all the time in the month or the year that you have left, think on the recent buzz in the library world from New Bedford, Mass., where a patron returned a book that was 99 years overdue. The full story can be read here, but the short fact is, it is never too late to do something worth doing.