Scholar visits Faith Library

On August 29, South Dakota Humanities Council Scholar Greg Garon visited the Faith Public/School Library to start a group book discussion.  Ten individuals came to listen and visit with the scholar.  Greg who has lived in Timber Lake for the past 30 yrs. is formally a high school teacher and has taught in Timber Lake, Wisconsin and Chicago.  He and his wife now enjoy the slow town life of western South Dakota.  When Greg is not traveling for the South Dakota Humanities Council, he enjoys going on hunting trips. 

The South Dakota Humanities Council is sponsoring this event by paying for a scholar to come to libraries who receive grants specifically for the humanities.  Also, the books that we are using are courtesy of the Council. Thanks to the Council, the Faith Public Library has received a grant to assist with the summer reading program for the past two years.  Many mini grants can be applied for through the Council for libraries and communities. 

Greg shared with us what to look for while reading a book for discussion – some points to consider are:

·         Factual points that the author is revealing

·         Is what the author sharing true or his/her perspective

·         Is the book enjoyable and what are you getting out of the book (context)

·         Having an opinion and being able to share is valuable

·         Not all books can lead to a great discussion

Greg encouraged us to read the book and share with others.  Write notes and thoughts while enjoying the book.  Bring others to the discussion even if they have not read the book to listen and bring perspective.

Our final book discussion for this book – “The Journey of Crazy Horse” by Joseph M. Marshall III will be Oct. 3 @ 6 PM.  Some copies are still available at the Faith Library. 

Scholar comes to Faith Library

Greg Garon from Timber Lake is coming to the Faith Library on Monday, Aug. 29 to start a book discussion.  Please come to the library from 6-7 PM.  You can pick up your copy of the book and do not have to have read the book until our final discussion on Oct. 3.  Please come join us for the unique experience!  This opportunity is sponsored by the South Dakota Humanities Council.

Overdrive Coming

What is this?  A great opportunity to get books - ebooks and audio right from your home computer.  Thanks to the Faith School District, who purchased a three year subscription for this great service.  You can get the books that you want to read immediately.  Our staff is currently training and getting the system up for overdrive.  More info to come in Sept. 2011!

A Combined Library - here to serve you!

The Faith Public/School Library is a wonderful place for everyone!  It is a city and school library.  What a great way to use resources and everyone wins! Our library is accessible to everyone from students to public patrons.  The library open hours are Monday, Tuesday and Thursday 8 AM – 7 PM; Wednesdays 8 AM – 4 PM and Fridays 8 AM – 3 PM.  In the summer, the open hours are Mondays through Fridays 9 AM – 1PM and special evening hours in May through July- Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays 5-8 PM.

There are two librarians.  The library supervisor is hired by the school and serves the public a few hours per week on city budget.  The City hires a library assistant part-time to serve patrons in the late afternoon to evening.  Both staff members make it work to provide the community with the resources and technology.  This staff is here to serve our community members and provide the needed assistance for finding information, resources, teaching how to use technology and finding that favorite books to read.  If they don’t have the book, they can order it for you from another library.

Special events happen through-out the year.  The Faith Public/School Library holds two book fairs.  One in November and a Buy One, Get one Free Book Fair in March.  There is always a planned Family Event for family fun activities, games and prizes!  The Summer Reading Program is also at the library in the summer for six weeks.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, preschool to eighth grade children are invited from 9 – 11 AM for storytelling, games, activities and fun!  Monday evening offer a time at the library for the adults to get-together and discuss books or do activities.  Please contact the library for more information.  Thanks for supporting our library!

How to tell a great story!

Storytelling is a form of ancient art.  Anyone can be a great storyteller with great communication skills.  There are suggested skills for a storyteller found at: How To Tell a Great Story: Ten Tips For Story-Telling Success http://www.suite101.com/content/how-to-tell-a-great-story-a37508#ixzz1JLDPkBc6  Some of these include:

·         Start with a phrase that will catch your audience’s attention – “Once on a dark night..” or “Did you hear about the cat that had no hair?”

·         Avoid repeating yourself or filling space with ums or other distractive words.  Giving the audience a little break helps them to absorb what you are saying

·         Know your audience – make sure that you develop your story to your audience so it interests them.

·         Plan how you are going to tell your story with a beginning, middle and ending.  You want to make the story exciting to your audience.

·         Keep your audience’s attention by providing details to your story.

·         Keep your story short and not too long.  You do not want to lose your audience’s attention.  The story should be long enough to cover the plot but not too long, where everyone forgets what happened at the beginning.

·         Use appropriate humor – laughing or making your audience laugh is a great way to get your audience involved.  Remember, don’t offend anyone and think about what you are going to say before you say it.  Practice telling your story to someone else for their feedback before performing for others.

·         Tell your story by expressing yourself.  Change the tone of your voice, adding hand gestures or props such as puppets, costumes.  Be dramatic in your storytelling.  If you can, don’t stand in one place.

Bibliographies:

Do you know what a bibliography is?  A short definition of a bibliography is to cite where you find the information for research.  What is the proper way to do a bibliography citation?  There are many ways, but the most preferred method is MLA style.  A bibliography must show the author’s name, title of book, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, and page used for research project.  An annotated bibliography even adds more with written brief information of the source and an evaluation.  This description is about one hundred fifty words in length.

There are many reasons to have bibliographies: to give credit to the author to use the resource; respectfully borrowing one’s ideas or writings;  offer additional information to your readers;  to give the readers the opportunity for accuracy (is the information correct);  and it is often included in an assignment to reference the sources found in a bibliography page.

How do you write the correct bibliography?  One should cite information differently based on the source.   A periodical will also have to include the title of the article as well as the title of the periodical.  For an online resource, the entire web address needs to be included.  Some online resources such as ProQuest(an online data base for articles and publications) offers a tool for students to build an online bibliography list. 

Your best bet is to also ask your teacher the proper way that he/she expects you to write your bibliography. 

This resource provides many ways to cite information correctly and give you an opportunity to answer other questions, too.  Please take a look @ http://www.aresearchguide.com/11guide.html#bib

Periodicals

What are they and how do you use them for resources?  Periodicals are magazines and newspapers that are printed on a timely basis.  You can find current events, articles, stories and author’s opinions. The Faith Library has many periodicals for your viewing needs.  Newspapers can be viewed on site.  The Rapid City Journal and Aberdeen American Paper can be viewed on a daily basis at the library.  The Rapid City Journal is one day late due to the mailing of the paper.  The Aberdeen American News comes each day in the mail.  Newspapers can a great source of current events. 

There are many magazines which may come weekly, bi-weekly and/or monthly.  The periodicals (magazines) that the Faith Public/School Library has for adults are: Better Homes and Gardens; Body & Soul; Country Home; Country Woman; Family Circle;  Family Fun; Field & Stream; Health; Hot Rod;  Parenting; Seventeen;  Sports Illustrated; Taste of Home; Time and Western Horseman.

The magazines available for children are: Highlights (language arts); Sports Illustrated for Kids; National Geographic for Kids and Ranger Rick.  The Kindergarten and First grade classes enjoy checking periodicals out weekly, more than any other class!

Many periodical subscriptions can be found online and viewed from there.  It may not have as many pictures as the printed version, but you can read the text.

Magazines can be checked out for two weeks.  Remember, that magazines are even more fragile than books, so take care of them.