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September 2022

Main Street is getting busy again and the Library is no exception! It’s a little bittersweet to see summer coming to an end, but we’re excited to celebrate the arrival of fall by having a magic show, welcoming back our UW-Platteville students, and making lots of new library cards to celebrate Library Card Sign-Up Month.

Closings

The Library will be closed Sunday, September 4 - Monday, September 5 for Labor Day.

The Library will be closed Friday, September 16 for staff in-service.

Sunday hours (1 p.m. - 4 p.m.) resume Sunday, September 11.

September events

Reading is MAGIC

It’s our annual end-of-summer party and this year we’re thrilled to have T. J. Regul, the Quad City Magician, entertaining us at the Broske Center! If you finished the youth Summer Library Challenge (ages birth-17), you’ll also be able to pick up your prizes after the show.

Spruce up your library card

Has your keychain card been loved to pieces? Did your wallet card vanish on you? Bring in your old card or an ID and replace your library card for free during September in honor of Library Card Sign-Up Month.

Don’t have a library card?

Haven’t used the library in years? Just moved to town? We can’t wait to welcome you to the library! Your first card is always free.

Have a program idea?

Do you have a great suggestion for an event you’d like to see at the library? Would you like to share your knowledge about raising chickens, baking bread, fermenting foods, learning latch hook, or whatever your area of expertise is? We’d love to hear from you! Ideas for any season are more than welcome, and we’re currently booking December, January, and February events.

Let’s talk books

Stop by the library to pick up a copy of one of this month’s book club titles:

• New date! Kid’s Book Club is moving to Thursdays and reading books from the Cam Jansen series by David A. Adler

• Teen Book Club is reading the Villains series by Serena Valentino

• Adult Book Club is reading The Mystery of Mrs. Christie by Marie Benedict

Community baby shower

We’re thrilled to host the Platteville Elks Club first-ever diaper and book give-away.

Plant swap

Start saving seeds and digging up bulbs! Our spring plant swap was such a success that we’re having a fall swap, too.

Time for a story

Make the most of the fall before winter arrives and join us in City Park for Fall Family Storytime on Tuesday mornings. Watch our Facebook page for weather announcements.

Call our Dial-a-Story at 877-907-8081 to enjoy a short tale before bed, while you’re brushing your teeth, on the drive to school, or whenever you’re in the mood. New stories are added regularly, and a new story in Spanish is added each week. ¡Un cuento nuevo en español cada semana!

Kids programs

We’ve got weekend fun for our preschool and school-age friends, including science experiments for little kids and summer games and treats in Harrison Park for the grade school crowd.

Getting crafty

Get creative with an adult program to make your own chalk paint and a teen program to make your own personalized socks.

Delve into the past

Trade tips, share stories, and learn about resources for doing your own research into the past at our newly formed monthly Genealogy and Local History Table.

Health and wellness

Feeling stressed? Join Nicholas Martinez, owner of Snap Fitness Platteville, for a workshop on stressors, stress triggers, and sleep hygiene.

Get help with homework, job searches, and veterans’ assistance

We’re excited to launch three new online resources with funding from the Southwest Wisconsin Library System. These programs are available with your library card.

HelpNow: Get help with homework, interact with a live tutor, form online study groups, practice standardized tests online, send your paper to the writing lab, and access free lessons and resources.

JobNow: Search for a job, send your resume to the resume lab, get personalized feedback from a live job coach, prepare for your interview, and take career assessments.

VetNow: Get live help for VA benefits eligibility, veteran benefit resources, personalized resume review, and live academic tutoring.

Looking ahead

Keep an eye out for lots of October events, including:

• Local author John Armbruster talking about Gene Moran, a WWII gunner from Gays Mills who survived a four-mile fall without a parachute only to land in Nazi hands

• Social media Josh Klemons presenting Master Your Social Media in 20 Minutes a Day

• Annual 1000 Books Before Kindergarten party

• Fall Paper Shredding Drop Off

• Fall Plant Swap

• Cricut cardmaking for beginners

• Main Street Monthly Mingle

• Sweet Treats on Main

• Adult Coloring with Audiobooks

What’s making us happy?

Back in June, we asked library staff what they were looking forward to this summer. Here’s the updates on how those plans went!

• Erin, Youth Services Manager: I'm looking forward to Lifest music festival in Oshkosh in July! Update: My favorite band at Lifest was For King and Country, although a surprise acoustic set by Matthew West was pretty great too. The best part of the whole week was that 3 of my 4 sisters were able to attend the festival and we all camped together!

• Jessie, Director: I'm excited about our Hula Hooping Under The Sea program on June 11. Danielle's positive energy is contagious and her hooping skills are really fun to see in action! Update: The hooping program was great! It was fun to see all of the kiddos and grown-ups (including my own husband!) practicing new dance and hoop moves.

• Karina, Patron Services Manager: I want to try at least one new foraged recipe this summer. Update: This year’s new recipe was candied pine cones - I think I waited too long and my pine cones were a little bit too woody, but I’m looking forward to using the spruce syrup for some winter bakes or drinks!

• Lydia, Youth Services Library Specialist: I'm looking forward to spending my summer evenings reading in the hammock 😎 Update: I read Family Of Liars, the long awaited prequel to E. Lockhart's We Were Liars. The perfect summer read full of twists and turns and family secrets.

• Mela, Outreach Coordinator: I’m looking forward to growing into my new position and being outside gardening. Update: I really marveled at the wild growth from all the wonderful rains and the produce from the volunteer gourd and tomato plants that came up in my planned garden. Letting it all grow together created quite an interesting, diverse and bountiful mix.

• Nancy, Adult Services Library Specialist: I want to start a reading project/personal goal and find a book to enjoy by an author from each of the 50 states or books set in each state. I tend to read a lot of British authors so I'm trying something different. I’m starting off with the new title: Madison Chefs: Stories of Food, Farms and People by Lindsay Christians. Update: I have added Idaho author Louisa Morgan to my list by reading two in her series: The Great Witch of Brittany and A Secret History of Witches. This fiction follows female family members that either do or don't inherit the skills of healing lore, seeing the future, etc. Lots of persecution, discrimination but characters are interesting. I am also caught up on Indiana author Anna Lee Huber’s newest A Perilous Perspective, book 10 of the Lady Darby series.

• Rachel, Adult Services Library Specialist: I am looking forward to camping and spending time with my family "unplugged." Update: We camped at 3 Wisconsin State Parks and 3 privately owned campgrounds this summer. Our favorite was camping on Lake Michigan and looking for sea glass.