The Bookletter

April 1999

The Mary H. Weir Public Library’s Page-Writer Workplace Literacy Project, funded by a grant from the United Way of Middle Tennessee and the Dollar General Foundation in partnership with the West Virginia Department of Human Services, Weirton United Way, West Virginia Northern Community College, Regional Educational Service Agency, Change, Inc., Personnel Temporary Services, Weirton Area Literacy Council, Weirton Business and Professional Woman’s Club, and the Weirton Lions Club is continuing to provide job skills and employment experience to the Community Work Experience Program, or CWEP, participants.

Since January, the CWEP participants have been scheduled for 712 hours of library work experience and training to help them ready themselves for future employment opportunities. The participants receive help in developing writing skills and creating resumes. They may also receive private tutoring. Two of the CWEPs trained by the library have already found employment and are no longer with the program. In addition, several new participants have joined the program.

The collection of annotations of new books, CD’s, and videos that the CWEPs have been writing is growing daily. These annotations are published on the library’s web page at http://weirton.lib.wv.us. They will give the public an overview of the content of new material available at the library.

Another project that CWEP participants are instrumental in completing is the obituary index that will soon be available on the library’s web page. CWEP participants are extracting information from obituaries printed in the local paper and creating a yearly alphabetical index. Work is currently being done on obituaries from the early 1930’s.

National Library Week

Beyond Words – Celebrating America’s Libraries

The Library will be observing National Library Week April 11 through April 15, 1999. This year’s theme is "Beyond Words – Celebrating America’s Libraries." Several special activities are being planned for the week.

The public is invited to join us in honoring volunteers on Thursday, April 15 at 10:30.

A Book Sale will be held Monday through Friday from 10:00 to 4:00. Donations are welcome.

As part of the celebration of National Library Week, the Mary H. Weir Public Library will be waiving fines during that week.

Saturday, April 17, will be the start of a two week series of events to coincide with A&E’s presentation of Horatio Hornblower, a series of four programs based on Captain Horatio Hornblower, the second of C. S. Forester’s novels. Each event will take place on a Saturday from 10: 30 to 12:00. Map Making and Ship Drawing Contests will be held with the best entries to be posted on the library’s web site.

All students visiting the library during National Library Week will receive a library book bag and a bookmark.

Children’s Services

Spring Story Hour began the first week of March with 65 Children ages 3 to 5 enrolled in four sessions. The children meet once a week for an eventful hour filled with songs, finger plays, stories, movies, and crafts. Each session has a theme. The themes for April are Arbor Day, Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, Manners, and the Circus. It’s not too late to join in the fun! Classes meet in the activity room of the library every Tuesday at 1:00 and 6:00 and Wednesday at 1:00 and 6:00. Children may be registered by calling the library at 797-8510 and asking for the Children’s Librarian, Mrs. Sandy Reardon.

Proposed City Charter Available

Copies of the proposed city charter are available at the library. In addition, the proposed charter is available online. To locate the charter from the "West Virginia Northern Panhandle Community and Information Resources" page (http://weirton.lib.wv.us), click on Hancock County on the map located on the right side of the page, then click on the city of Weirton on the same page. This will bring up a page with links on the left. Click on "Weirton on the Internet" then click on "Weirton Community Development". This brings up "Welcome to the City of Weirton." At the bottom of this page is a link to "Election 1999." Under this link is the "Proposed Charter for the City of Weirton."

April is National Poetry Month

April is poetry month and although there are many books available on the subject, there is another resource available that may surprise many library patrons. Web Feet, a monthly resource guide to academically oriented Internet sites recommends several Internet sites for locating poems and information about poets.

British Poetry 1780-1910: A Hypertext Archive of Scholarly Editions (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/britpo.html) allows the user to access full text of such classics as Beowulf, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Charge of the Light Brigade, and Leaves of Grass.

Modern British Poetry (http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/) contains works of such poets as Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, James Joyce, Alfred Noyes, and D. H. Lawrence.

The Romantic Era (http://members.aol.com/ericblomqu/romantic.htm) includes a wealth of information about poets of that era and includes an audio clip of the poem Ozymandias.

In addition to the sites recommended by Web Feet, there are many other interesting sites related to poetry on the Internet. These sites might also be of interest:

The Academy of American Poets (http://www.poets.org/poets/default.htm)

Poetry Magazine ( http://www.poetrymagazine.com/)

National Poetry Month (http://www.poets.org/npm/index.cfm/)

Children’s Poetry Links from the Allen County Public Library (Ft. Wayne, Ind.) (http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/Childrens_Services/poetry. html)

The John Hancock Pen Club and the Northern Lights Poetry Society are sponsoring a POETRY NIGHT READING & RECEPTION at the Library on Monday, April 26 from 7 to 8 P.M. Bring your favorite poem or an original poem that you’ve written to share at the "Open Mike."

Bestsellers at the Library

The Testament - John Grisham

Southern Cross - Patricia Cornwell

Inner Harbor - Nora Roberts

Send No Flowers - Sandra Brown

Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

A Sudden Change of Heart – Barbara Taylor Bradford

Seize the Night – Dean Koontz

Critical Mass – Steve Martini

Vector – Robin Cook

Ransom – Julie Garwood

Ashes to Ashes – Tami Hoag

Message in a Bottle – Nicholas Sparks

Periodical and Journal Resources

Looking for a periodical or journal? A list of periodicals available at the Mary H. Weir Public Library is now available on the library’s web site in the Reference section. This list includes the publication dates that are available and the location within the library where the specific periodicals are kept. Periodicals listed in blue print have links to that periodical’s own web site.

If you cannot locate what you are looking for in the library’s collection, the West Virginia Library Commission has provided another valuable resource to all of the libraries in West Virginia. The UMI Proquest Database of periodicals is available over the Internet but only at locations that subscribe to the service. Through this service, the Mary H. Weir Public Library can search and access hundreds of periodicals. Many of these are available in full text version, which means that the article may be printed out from the computer at the library.

During the first two weeks of March, 109 library cards were distributed to patrons.

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