Library Celebrates 41^st Anniversary

Rock ‘N’ Read at the Library

Reference Librarian Contributes to Stumpers!

Need Vacation Planning Help? Check the Library!

Students Display Social Studies Projects

Literacy and Lifelong Learning Program Notes

Congratulations!

Public Service Hours

The Bookletter

June 1999

Page Writer Project

Many of the Page Writers’ annotations of books, CDs, and audio cassettes that have been recently added to the library’s collection are now appearing on the Mary H. Weir Public Library Web Page at http://weirton.lib.wv.us under "Library News." Although over 400 annotations are now available on the site, there are many more in the process of being entered and edited. In addition to writing the citation and the review, the Page Writers are also using the card catalog to check for discrepancies in the citations. Readers may notice a few errors and duplicate listings in the early entries. This is part of the process of debugging and learning how to use the new computer program created by and for the Page Writer Project.

A new Page Writer was added to the group in June. Jamie has joined Nancy, Patricia, Avery, Cynthia and Cynthia. Since the Page Writers have been working at the library, they have learned typing, searching the card catalog, locating information for annotating books, formatting an annotation, filing books according to decimal sequence, and locating information through internet searches. They are also learning some basic word processing.

On June 15 and June 22, the Page Writers and public attended a workshop jointly presented by West Virginia Northern Community College and the Mary H. Weir Public Library. Topics for the workshop included resume writing and filling out job applications. The workshops were made possible by the Page Writer Work Place Literacy Grant from the United Way of Middle Tennessee and the Dollar General Foundation. The project provides employment experience, work skills, and community service while increasing the literacy of the participants. The West Virginia Department of Human Services,

Weirton United Way, West Virginia Northern Community College, Regional Education Service Agency, with Change, Inc., Personnel Temporary Services, Weirton Area Literacy Council, Weirton Business and Professional Woman’s Club, Weirton Area Lions Club, and the Mary H. Weir Public Library are partners in the Page Writer Literacy Project.

Library Celebrates 41^st Anniversary

The Mary H. Weir Public Library celebrated its 41^st Anniversary June 2 with a presentation of "YiaYia’s Bundle" by Pamela Makricosta of the library staff. The presentation describes her grandmother’s flight from Asia Minor during the Christian Holocaust of 1914-1922. Since there was little time to prepare, each family member could carry only a small bundle of possessions. At the end of the presentation, the items from Pamela’s "Yiayia" Panagiota’s bundle were displayed.

The Literary Department of the Weirton Woman’s Club and the John Hancock Pen Club provided refreshments.

Rock ‘N’ Read at the Library

Have you ever seen a jukebox at the library? The Mary H. Weir Public Library has one this summer, thanks to Tri Area Amusement, to help celebrate the summer reading program, Rock ‘N’ Read at the library. Registration for the Summer Reading Program began on June 7^th. Sessions for 7 through 12 year olds are held on Mondays at 1:00. The 3 to 6 year olds meet on Wednesdays at 12:00. The program runs for six weeks.

The library has recently received a set of Bill Cosby’s Little Bill Books for Beginning Readers from Jell-O. Told from Little Bill’s point of view, these books discuss honesty, creativity, working for wants, the value of money, friendliness, truthfulness, and trust through believable stories. The books show a supportive multigenerational family unit and cultural differences between friends. This series also gives examples of dealing positively with fear, disappointment, and mistakes. The books in the Little Bill Series are written at an early elementary level. The titles include: One Dark and Scary Night, Shipwreck Saturday, Money Troubles, Super-Fine Valentine, The Meanest Thing to Say, The Treasure Hunt, The Best Way to Play, My Big Lie.

Reference Librarian Contributes to Stumpers!

Our reference librarian, Lois Fundis, recently had several of her submissions to the Stumpers-L list printed in a book called Stumpers! edited by Fred R. Shapiro. Stumpers-L is an e-mail discussion list for reference librarians. Librarians belonging to the list can write in about particularly difficult reference questions that they have encountered and other reference librarians will take up the challenge and attempt to answer those questions. The Stumpers! book is a collection of interesting, frequently encountered questions taken from the archives of the list. In addition to several questions to which she contributed portions of the answer, Mary H. Weir Public Library’s reference librarian also contributed a question and wrote the forward to the book!

Need Vacation Planning Help? Check the Library!

The library has many resources that can help with your vacation planning. Planning a car trip? Maps and driving directions are available from several Internet sites including Yahoo’s map site and Map Quest. If you enter a destination, you can print out a map of the area, or if you enter the address of the starting point and the address of the destination, you can print out complete driving directions including mileage and exits for each road along the way. To help pass the time in the car, the library has audio books available. From classics to popular fiction and children’s books there are many to choose from.

If you plan to stay in the tri-state area, there are many books available describing things of local interest. From the trolley museum in Washington, Pennsylvania to the sites at Canaan Valley, there are books in the collection that let you know what is of interest in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. If you are a camper, information on West Virginia’s State Parks are listed at the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources web site. Another web site that has information about West Virginia’s State Parks is the Southern West Virginia Convention and Visitor’s Bureau site. This site also contains a calendar of events. If you want to take a trip back in time, it might be interesting to take a look at West Virginia: A Guide to the Mountain State one of the excellent guides developed by the Writer’s Project of the Works Project Administration during the Depression.

If your plans are more exotic, the Fodor’s, Mobil, and Lonely Planet travel guides may be helpful. The library has many editions covering a variety of locations. If you do plan to leave the country, the Mary H. Weir Public Library has language tapes available in approximately twenty different languages to help you prepare for your trip.

Whatever your summer plans include, the Mary H. Weir Public Library has something to help you get where you want to go.

Yahoo’s map site - http://maps.yahoo.com/

America’s Best Online  - http://www.americasbestonline.com/

Southern West Virginia Convention and Visitor’s Bureau -  http://wvweb.com/

Students Display Social Studies Projects

The patrons of the Mary H. Weir Public Library were treated recently to a display of some of the award winning social studies projects from the Social Studies Fair at the Sacred Heart of Mary School. Students displaying individual projects were:

Stand Up For Steel - Jenna Fulmer and Melorie Jo Dziatkowicz

Literacy and Lifelong Learning Program Notes

Interested in increasing your reading comprehension and vocabulary? Another Page is a series of 15 half-hour video lessons and five student workbooks designed to do just that. The videos and workbooks have been made available to the Literacy and Lifelong Learning Program at the Library from the West Virginia Library Commission in Charleston. This series builds on the basics of reading, writing, and comprehension skills presented in the Learn to Read videos, which are published by Kentucky Educational Network. Both Another Page and Learn to Read have been successfully used by our participants in pre-GED preparation and the English as a Second Language Classes.

Other new materials available include HORIZONS: Mathematics which covers math basics, decimals, fractions, and how to use a calculator, and HORIZONS: Literature which includes autobiographies, news stories, and poetry and covers the topics of plot, dialogue, setting, and character.

We’ll meet Again – Mary Higgins Clark

Vittorio the Vampire – Anne Rice

Congratulations!

The members of the Weirton Area Literacy Council (WALC) honored three participants in the Literacy and Lifelong Learning Program in 1999. Those honored were:

They will compete with other honorees at the West Virginia Laubach Literacy Biennial Conference this month at Jackson’s Mill.

Public Service Hours

During the summer, the library will be open Monday through Thursday from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. and Friday and Saturday from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. The library will be closed on Sunday until September 12, 1999

Dr. Javersak signing the History of Weirton, West Virginia at the Mary H. Weir Public Library

Return to top of Page

Return to Bookletter Index