Wanting to help prevent the summer slide for your children or find a beach read for yourself this summer?
The Washington Public Library is hosting a “Fill a Bag for a Buck” book sale today through Saturday as part of the Ridiculous Day sidewalk sales. Library Director Bryna Walker says they are asking for a $1 donation for every bag filled, but additional donations are always welcome, “And this is presented by the Teen Advisory Board so they reap the benefits of this. So keep that in mind as you’re purchasing or donating for that because it does go to their programming and we have a huge teen advisory board right now.”
The Washington Public Library is continuing its tradition of noontime concerts with a virtual event next week.
Library Director Bryna Walker says this performance is provided by the University of Iowa’s Arts Share program which coordinates workshops and performances in underserved communities across Iowa, “The quartet is called, the acronym is YANA, and it’s an acronym meaning You Are Not Alone and this is a group that is under a professor Elizabeth Oakes at the University of Iowa and it consists of four highly artistic doctoral students in the musical arts. So we are going to record them and then we’ll have it on our YouTube and we’ll be putting it on our Facebook on May 18th at noon. So we’re kind of keeping it consistent with a noon concert each month.”
While the children’s area of the Washington Public Library remains closed due to an interior display window that fell in the facility last month, patrons are still welcome to browse in person.
No one was seriously injured by the window that fell from the upper floor atrium and shattered on the first floor, spreading glass shards throughout the building. Library Director Bryna Walker says four shelves of books each from the children and adult collection areas had to be discarded, and the children’s area and baby garden is taped off, “The reason for that is because carpet needs to be replaced throughout the library, because of glass shards that could possibly be coming up from underneath even though we vacuum every day. So just because kids roll around on the floor we closed that area off and we shifted all the books to the junior fiction section.”
The Washington Public Library has both virtual and in-person events for adults this week.
The monthly Sticks & Strings event will take place at noon this Friday in Central Park. The public is invited to bring their knitting, crocheting, quilting or other projects to work on, bring a lawn chair to social distance, and wear a face mask if you prefer. Library Director Bryna Walker says later that evening adults can log on to Zoom for an adult spelling bee, “This is an idea that we got from another library that had a lot of success with this and we find that spelling bees are fun in school but we never think of it as an adult activity and so we are going to do this and we have a list of easy words then some harder words and then very difficult words.”
Those interested in some nautical U.S. history will enjoy a speaker hosted by the Washington Public Library tomorrow.
Library Director Bryna Walker shares the program will focus on the outer banks of North Carolina, “The person that’s doing it is Laura Keyes and she’s somebody that has been presenting on historic topics for over 10 years. And she’s basically talking about the outer banks of North Carolina which is sometimes called ‘The Graveyard of the Atlantic,’ because of the centuries of shipwrecks and disasters. And so it’ll be an illustrated lecture on Zoom that will share not just the history but also the beauty of the lighthouses that guard the outer banks of North Carolina.”