Blog

We were closed Monday January 26 to make changes to the children’s area. We were so excited to get started that we didn’t take ‘before’ or ‘during’ photos. Here are the ‘after’ photos. What do you think? We have rearranged to make it more family and user friendly. No longer are the DVD racks the first thing children seen when they enter the Library.

We are not finished yet! We took down the paper race track for 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten, can you guess what are plans are for that? Don’t worry, we kept track of which marker everyone at was on the road. Mostly for now we are going to enjoy the change and take our time deciding just how we want to use all this open area!

We would like to send heartfelt thanks to some people who helped make it all possible. To Carla Hajek for helping us with our vinyl letters and signage, Lynn and Gail Lierz for drawing a floor plan, and the crews from Fairview Mills and City of Seneca who provided manpower to move the shelves. We appreciate all of your support.

October 20, 2014

Northeast Kansas Library System Partners with Hoopla Digital to Give Patrons Online and Mobile Access to Free Movies, TV Shows, Music and Audiobooks. Library cardholders can now borrow dynamic content directly from their smartphones, tablets and PCs

LAWRENCE, KS Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS) today announced public availability of thousands of movies, television shows, music and audiobooks, all available for mobile and online access through a new partnership with hoopla digital (hoopladigital.com). Cardholders of public libraries in the NEKLS region can now download the free hoopla digital mobile app on their Android or IOS device or visit hoopladigital.com to begin enjoying thousands of titles from major Hollywood studios, record companies and publishers  available to borrow for instant streaming or temporary downloading to their smartphones, tablets, computers and Apple TV.

hoopla digital gives patrons access to a broad range of digital content that includes movies, TV shows, music and audiobooks, says Mickey Coalwell, Library Development Consultant at NEKLS. With the new service, patrons only need a library card to access this content on the hoopla app or web site at no charge. It’s instant gratification for library users — there is no waiting period for popular titles, and hoopla’s automatic return means no late fees.

Northeast Kansas Library System is the first library system in the state of Kansas to partner with hoopla digital. Dorothy Bramlage Public Library in Junction City and Hays Public Library, along with Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, offer the service to their cardholders. With hoopla digital, it is our mission to help public libraries meet the needs of the mobile generation. We’ve worked for years to create a best-in-breed service that is fun, fast and reliable. And we continue to secure content deals to expand the offering of movies, TV shows, music and audiobooks, said Jeff Jankowski founder and owner of hoopla digital.

About hoopla digital

hoopla digital is a category-creating service that partners with public libraries across North America to provide online and mobile access to thousands of movies, TV shows, videos, music and audiobooks. With hoopla digital, patrons can borrow, instantly stream and download free dynamic content with a valid library card. All content is accessible via hoopla digitals mobile app and online at www.hoopladigital.com. hoopla digital is a service of Midwest Tape a trusted partner to public libraries for over 20 years.

 

We had a successful summer here at the library. Two hundred eighty one young readers signed up for the reading program. There was great attendance for all our performers, story times and science activities. Of those 281 readers, 92 remembered to turn in their reading logs before the deadline. An ice cream party was held for those children who remembered the July 31 deadline. Thank you for making your Library an important part of your summer. Let us know, what was your favorite part of Summer @ your Library? Was is a performer, a craft your child make, a book you discovered?

Some of our adult readers are still working on their B-I-N-G-O cards, they have until the end of August to get a Bingo or Blackout their card.

Here are pictures from our Ice Cream Party:

Join us on Saturday, November 8

at 10:00 a.m.

for a fun and easy sewing project.

Here is what you will need to bring:

• Sewing machine
• Fabric in 2 coordinating patterns: the outside needs to measure 6 x 11 for one piece, and 13 x 11 for the other {plan to cut those out here}
• Lightweight fusible interfacing measuring at least 6 x 11
• Coordinating thread
• Washable ink marker (or suitable substitute)
• Ribbon” 1 yard to coordinate with your fabric
• Basic sewing supplies: shears or rotary cutter and mat, measuring tape or ruler, pins

If you have any questions about the project or supplies needed please contact the library @ 785-336-2377 or by email at librarian@www.senecafreelibrary.org

Space is limited, so please let us know that you are coming to sew with us.

We'll be waiting on pins and needles for you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, there is no beach party involved in this

B-I-N-G-O.

But there is still lots of fun for our ADULT PATRONS to look forward to.

The BINGO card tells you what kind of book to read,

when you’ve read that book, we’ll stamp your card.

When you get BINGO, turn the card in for a surprise!

We’ve pulled a few books to help you get started.

Look over the BINGO card in the photo, then run to the library to get started.

The voting ended Thursday night,

the votes were tallied first thing Friday, May 23rd.

RADAR is the name chosen by a landslide!

Thank you to everyone who took time to come in to vote.

We couldn’t have decided without your help.

The headline speaker for NEKLS Innovation Day, April 30 in Topeka, was Garry Golden, an academically trained Futurist.  He  talked about the future of libraries and ways we can better serve our communities. What we found most interesting had nothing to do with keeping up with technology. He told us about research at Rice University with families with young children.  The study involved families from different socio-economic status; high-income, middle, low, and families who were on welfare. You can read about the research on the link above. Basically what they found is that children in welfare families heard an average of 616 words per hour, while those from working class families heard around 1,251 words per hour, and those from professional families heard roughly 2,153 words per hour. Over the time of birth to a child’s 4th birthday, the “word gap” that children hear and experience is roughly 30 MILLION WORDS. The significance is not only that children in poverty heard over a third fewer words than their high income counterparts, they studied the kind of words, words of encouragement or discouragement. The children who heard more encouragement were ahead developmentally not only at age three or four but a later study, following some of the same families, shows that success followed children through ages 9 and 10.  {information taken from Rice University study site}

Community leaders in Providence, R.I. were so struck by the results of the study that they  “distributed small recording devices” essentially word pedometers” that tuck into the vest of a child’s clothing. These will automatically record and calculate the number of words spoken and the number of times a parent and child quickly ask and answer each other’s questions.” {copied from NPR.com/closing the word gap} The NYTimes also has an article about the effort in Providence also.

How does all this tie in with our Library? Over a year ago we started our 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten program, encouraging  parents and families of young children to read, read, read to their babies and toddlers. We can now point to this study to confirm our goals to have children not only learn to love books, but to stimulate their growing minds with word, color, rhythm of the spoken word and more.

When we heard just a little about this study at the library conference, we felt the results validated what we set out to accomplish with our pre-school reading program. We’ve shared 3 articles here for you to read, you can find many more if you search “word gap” online. We hope that parents, grandparents, care-givers, and anyone who works with children will take time to learn more about this “word gap” and will also make reading and talking to children a daily priority. We invite you to stop by the library and enroll your children in our reading program.

State Librarian, Jo Budler, and NorthEast Kansas Library System executive director, Jim Minges, stopped by our library this morning, the third stop on their 6 library tour today. Jo has been traveling across the state visiting as many libraries as she can, today it was our turn. After Kate gave them the grand tour, they stayed to have lunch with us. We enjoyed meeting her and having a chance to get to know her just a little.