Cake Pop Clock

The staff of the library is a great staff. Last fall, I pointed high up on the wall in front of the big window on the north side of the building and said: "It looks so BARE up there. A big clock would look great, wouldn't it?" I even drew a sketch. But after that, I have to admit I didn't do a whole lot more to make it happen.

But Reference Assistant Sue Rada (pictured leftmost above) heard me and coordinated a bake sale effort with Circulation Clerks Diane Bergeron (center) and Brandi Kinderman (right). On their own time, they created the cutest, most delicious little sports-related morsels and mounted them on lollipop sticks. After making and selling over 200 of them (at $1.00 each), the clock is bought and paid for (it came from Korger's.)

It will be up and keeping time by the middle of next week. Come in and see it!

AARP Information

Starting February 2nd, the American Association of Retired Persons will be at the Chippewa Falls Public Library to help elderly and low-income filers with their tax returns.

CLICK HERE FOR A PDF OF THE COMPLETE SCHEDULE

This year, the AARP volunteers in our community will have a telephone number that filers can call to make appointments, BUT ONLY DURING THOSE TIMES WHEN THE VOLUNTEERS ARE ON-SITE. That number is 715-404-5414.

Should you ask them to help you with YOUR taxes, be kind enough to bring the following:

-2010 tax return

-2011 tax forms and preparation booklet

-W-2 forms

-All 1099 forms, including Social Security Statement

-All forms mentioned on the AARP intake sheet (available at library)

-Any other income, payment or tax-related documents which may apply to your tax return

-Social Security numbers for you, your spouse and your dependents

-Some form of identification

Call the Chippewa AARP representative at 715-829-2245 between 9am and 8pm for more information.

Special thanks to the following AARP Facilitators: Sandy Bowe, Kathy Cloutier

AARP Preparers: Dennis Buttke, Deb Cornett, Nancy Thornton, James Plowman, Dick Turner, Sue Wynimko, John Spaeth, Bruce Miller, Paul Nicolai.

Silica Sand Information OR, "Frac Facts"

Here is some information from the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey on Silica/Fracking Sand in our state:

Frac Sand in Wisconsin

Silica Sand in Wisconsin

Depth to Bedrock of Chippewa County

Potential Yields of Wells in the Sand and Gravel Aquifer of Chippewa County

These links were sent to me by Ms. Carol McCartney of the UW Extension service.

Fight Christmas Break Boredom @ the Library!

Thursday, December 29th
1:30--3:30pmhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Is your child or a child you know a fan of the Big Nate book series? Youth in grades 3 & up or ages 9 - 12 can join the library staff for some creative fun on December 29th.

That day, kids can:

--Make an interactive comic book

--Create an 'All About Me' super-sized poster

--Play Big Nate trivia games

Register at the purple desk in the children's area or call 715-723-1146, ext. 109.

December Holiday Events

December 7th--Holiday Storytime & Crafts--10:30 - 11:30 AM

Ages 3--6

Chippewa Falls public Library invites young children to a fun craft and storytime program. Register in the children's section or call 715-723-1146 ext. 109

December 12th--Santa Visit, Holiday Puppet Show & Crafts--6:15 - 8pm

For families with children 2 - 18
Crafts and Treats While Supplies Last

Try some holiday crafts or make gifts, visit with Santa, eat some treats. No registration required. Ask for more information about this event at 715-723-1146 ext. 109.

Mayo Clinic Needs Volunteers!

Mayo Clinic, that noble network of not-for-profit health providers, needs your help. They are looking for volunteers to be greeters, to help with events and to help with clerical duties. It's one way the clinic keeps costs down, apparently.

If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering, contact Karen Elwood at 715-568-6812 or email her at elwood.karen@mayo.edu. If a responsible teen in your life needs service hours, this could be a good opportunity.

There are volunteer opportunities at locations in Bloomer, Chippewa Falls and Colfax.

Wanna See What You Missed?

Give A Kid a book: Bins Out Now!

When you come by the library, be sure to keep your eyes open for the Give a Kid a Book Bins at the front desk. From now until just before Christmas, you can put donations of new children's books (reading level infant through high school) or children's audiobooks in the bins and we'll see to it that the Friends of the Chippewa Falls Public library forwards your donations to The Spirit of Christmas of Chippewa County.

Or, if it's easier, you can donate cash or checks to the cause. If you donate cash, just put it in an envelope labeled "Give a Kid a Book" and give it the desk staff. If you donate a check, make it out to The Friends of the Chippewa Falls Public Library with "GAKAB" in the memo line. We'll take care of the rest.

I know, I know. It's early to think about Christmas. But times are tough this year, and it takes some lead time to get this right.

DONATE!

Chippewa Falls Trick-Or-Treating

Bring your kids downtown this afternoon to trick or treat (and don't forget to stop by the library!)

Downtown Businesses: 3 - 5

Neighborhoods: 5 - 7

Fall Colors

Stop by the library and check out the display of fall quilts, left with us courtesy of the The Chippewa County Piecemakers' Quilt Guild. You'll recall the group left some quilts here last spring and the display was well-received.

The quilts hang majestically above the reference collection, housed in what was once the "lounge."

Enjoy!

Unclaimed Property Outreach Event

Representatives from the Wisconsin State Treasurer's Office will be here at the Chippewa Falls Public Library on October 21st from 4:30--5:30 pm to help attendees navigate the state's unclaimed property database.

Donating Online

I spoke with Ms. Melinda Haun of the Community Foundation of Chippewa County this morning, and she let me know that credit card donations to the foundation's participating funds are now easier than they've ever been.

For example, if you wanted to donate to, say, the Chippewa Falls Public Library Endowment Fund, you'd just click here and follow the prompts. Under "designation," you'd enter "Chippewa Falls Public Library."

And that would be that. I thought the public might want to know.

Pure Water Days Team Trivia Contest 2011

Sure, it's early, but I want everyone who reads this to have plenty of time to spread the word to the trivia hounds in their lives.

On Sunday, August 14th, from 1:30 to 3:30 pm, we will host a trivia contest here at the Chippewa Falls Public Library at 105 W. Central St. The contest is to benefit the Friends of the Chippewa Falls Public Library.

Teams must consist of at least three, but can be no larger than six. Team registration is $25.00. Those who register singly as "free agents" will pay $5.00 each and will be assembled into teams on-site.

The contest will be four rounds long with the questions becoming progressively more difficult as the game continues. If two teams are tied, there will be a tiebreaker round. The questions were written by the staff of the Chippewa Falls Public Library; we did the research necessary to stump the best and brightest of Chippewa Falls.

So, if you think you and your friends are pretty smart and would like to prove it, call 715-723-1146 ext. 111 for more information. Pre-registration is requested for pre-assembled teams, and registration can be done in person at the Chippewa Falls Public Library. Entrance fee is due at time of registration.

Whichever team wins this one will have a year's worth of bragging rights.

Save the Date! Friends Book Sale Coming Before We Know It!

PRESS RELEASE:

The Friends of the Chippewa Falls Public Library will hold their annual book sale on Friday, June 17th and Saturday, June 18th this year. The book sale will be held in a tent in front of the library at 105 West Central St. and will begin at 9am and continue until 3pm on both days.

The Friends expect to do better business than usual in 2011.

“A very nice lady on the West Hill donated thousands of beautiful books to The Friends this year, all at once and all in fantastic shape,” says library director Darryl Eschete. “I think that when the public sees the offerings this year, they’ll be as pleasantly surprised as I was.”

The books for the sale are either donated by the public over the course of the year or are discards from the library’s collection, Eschete says. The Friends don’t have an exact figure for how many books will be offered this year, but Eschete says it is thousands.

“This is the most books I’ve seen in one of these sales,” says Jan Joas, Treasurer of The Friends. “It’s overwhelming.”

This year, the sale will be part of “Discover Downtown,” a two-day sidewalk sale meant to encourage shoppers to visit the commercial area of downtown Chippewa Falls.
Prices will range from 50 cents for used paperbacks up to five dollars for hardbacks in like-new condition. All proceeds from the sale benefit the Friends of the Chippewa Falls Public Library, a non-profit charitable organization that raises money for the library and literacy-related causes in the area.

O Captain! My Captain!

A new movie out now--which I have yet to see--dramatizes the travails of Mary Surratt, the sole woman charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. As I continue to be optimistic about America's intellectual life, I think/hope that we are about to see a resurgence of interest in the Lincoln presidency and assassination and, perhaps, The Civil War and Reconstruction. This year marks the sesquicentennial of The War, after all.

We've set up a display here at the Chippewa Falls Public Library bringing together as much material as we could find in the collection regarding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and we hope you'll come by and browse...If you don't have time and want to learn more about Lincoln, the war that brought him to power, his assassination and the trials that ensued, we've sorted through some good online sources, too.

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln's Papers at the Library of Congress

The White House's official Lincoln biography.

Biography.com--Abraham Lincoln

The Assassination

PBS' American Experience: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln--It doesn't get much better than this.

Ohio State University--Thumbnail Biography of John Wilkes Booth

Geoffrey Elliott's Abraham Lincoln Blog--The 145th Anniversary of the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

The Trials

The Law Library of Congress has several documents in full-text PDF, all focusing on the trial of Lincoln's assassins.

The University of Missouri at Kansas City's Lincoln Conspiracy Page--huge, fascinating, complete with trial transcripts.

An Analysis of the Proceedings by the University of Pittsburgh's Law School

Second Annual Pure Water Paddlers Exhibit

Above you see Mr. Mark Vincent of Chippewa Falls putting the finishing touches on his (animal-product-free) baidarka, which is now on display here in the library. Mark is a member of the Pure Water Paddlers, a local group of...well, paddlers, who enjoy taking canoes, kayaks and rafts out on the lovely lakes and rivers in this part of the country.

Along with the boat display, we have gathered all the material we could find in our collection on kayaking, canoeing and rafting.

Contact the Paddlers today, if you want to learn more. The link to their website is above, and they have a Facebook page.

MORE Catalog Search: Kayaking in Wisconsin

MORE Catalog Search: Canoeing in Wisconsin

MORE Catalog Search: Build a Boat

Visual Poetry: Judging Underway

Above you see local photography expert/photo contest judge Drew Kaiser and our own Librarian to the Stars Joe Niese discussing most earnestly the photographs entered by Chippewa County teens into our Visual Poetry Photography Contest. The results of the judging will be posted here. The winner will receive a certificate, a free Take and Bake Pizza from Papa Murphy's and the right to note the win on their college entrance forms.

Reminder! Save the Date!

http://chiplib.blogspot.com/2011/03/coming-april-12th-honey-dewdrops.html

Tax Season in Full Swing

Above you see volunteers from the American Association of Retired Persons helping people with state and federal taxes at the Chippewa Falls Public Library this morning.

These kind folks will be here on pre-scheduled days through April 14th.

Get your schedule HERE.

FYI...

1. Herb Kohl's Regional Representative Coming December 20th

U.S. Senator Herb Kohl’s Regional Representative, Marjorie Bunce, will be in Chippewa Falls on Monday, Dec. 20th to meet with constituents from 4 to 5 p.m. at the Chippewa Falls Public Library, 105 W, Central Street, in the Large Meeting Room. No appointment is necessary.

"If you are having a problem with a federal program or agency, or have an opinion on an issue before Congress, please let me know by meeting with my Regional Representative, Marjorie Bunce,” Kohl said.

Ms. Bunce can also be contacted at Kohl’s regional office at 402 Graham Ave., Suite 206, in Eau Claire, WI 54701. The telephone number is (715) 832-8424.

2. Christmas Parade
The library's float in the Chippewa Falls Christmas Parade was well-received. I was given helpful tips along the way, as I played the role of driver. People instructed me to:
a) Wave
b) Smile bigger
c) Honk!
d) Put the truck I was driving in first and give it no gas,
e) Turn up the radio.

Next year, I will know from the get-go exactly what is expected of a float driver. That's assuming we put a float in the parade next year. Anyway, kudos to the library staff for giving their own time, money and creativity to come up with a design and make it a reality.

3. Give a Kid a Book

I just returned from Border's Books #138 in Eau Claire where I helped the Friends of the Library buy over 150 books to give away as part of Give A Kid a Book. Children's Librarian Colleen Crowley and Children's Library Assistant Karen Tregoning lent their expert hands, as well. The books we bought today, when added to the books and money donated here at the library, will mean that scores of kids in our area will be opening books as well as gifts on Christmas morning.

4. Remember Pearl Harbor

A few years ago, while hosting a monthly forum for World War Two veterans, I was told by one man in the audience that it pained him, as a veteran of the Battle of Wake Island, that Pearl Harbor and the sneak attack thereupon on December 7, 1941 were fading from public memory, especially since 9/11.

If you know a veteran of World War Two, thank him (or perhaps her) today.