Sunday May 2nd is not only the date of the House and Garden Tour, the 5K Challenge and the Sheep and Wool Festival, it is also Soapbox Derby Day.
Birch Avenue, between Cedar and Dogwood, starts around 11 AM.
Troop 33 2008-09 Schedule (has the 2010 dates)
Library Weblog: House and Garden 2010
Takoma Park 5K Challenge
Yes, there will be a rummage (tag, yard, garage) sale on the library lawn, Saturday May 8.
As it is sponsored by the Independence Day Committee, not the library, please contact them directly with your questions.
Sunday May 2nd: This year the annual house and garden tour will celebrate the Hodge's Farm area. The library is on the Eastern edge of what was once a 60 acre dairy farm, and on the day of the tour $20 tickets will be sold on the library lawn.
Advance tickets are less expensive, $15, and available at the Takoma Park Silver Spring Food Co-op, Now and Then, Mark’s Kitchen , and The Culture Shop (which is in DC). Or you can purchase tickets online for $16 using PayPal. Just bring your PayPal receipt to the library lawn to exchange it for your ticket.
All the important information.
Note: The Sheep and Wool Festival is the same weekend, as usual. Saturday and Sunday at the Howard County Fairgrounds. This is the 37th annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and the 37th annual Takoma Park House and Garden Tour. Both are held the first weekend in May.
Today is Earth Day
Also:
Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day© (We have had some helpers in the library)
A holiday in Iceland: Sumardagurinn Fyrsti (The First Day of Summer). It's a Viking thing.
See R 394.26 Chases's Calendar of Events
and R 394.26 The International Book of Days
And what is the earth doing today?
Volcanoes Dewey: 551.21 | maps
Earthquakes Dewey: 551.22 | maps
Annual tree give-away today. The saplings are outside the library now, on the wall along the sidewalk at the Philadelphia Avenue entrance.
Also this morning: French program for children.
The Friends of the Library will sponsor their second session of Moby-Dick chat tonight. You are welcome to come even if you missed the first round. Their web site has several good links, including one to the NPR American Icon audio files. And their discussion board has still more links.
The Falmouth Public Library in Massachusetts is holding a big Moby-Dick extravaganza including lectures, a 24 hour read-aloud, and many other events. Their site has lots of leads to other Moby materials, including a movie list.
Most of the Takoma attendees at the previous discussion were reading the book in one of several print editions or listening to an audio recording. You might also be interested in looking at the several free digital versions.
Power Moby-Dick is annotated. And addictive, at least to those of us who always loved great, crazy footnotes.
Project Gutenberg offers the text in your choice of several formats, including HTML, plain text, and EPUB.
Public Literature has an online text with embedded audio.
Here is an HTML version that seems particularly easy to read.
If you are using a computer that is filtered you may be unable to access this digital version, which is interesting in that you can see a cloud of chapter titles showing which are being read most frequently. It is also partly annotated, but oddly.
If censored, you will probably not be able to visit online the Plattsburg State Art Museum which has the original Rockwell Kent illustrations.
The Apple iBooks version is also supposedly bowdlerized.
Oddities (for footnote lovers):
The scanned text of a book for outfitting a whaling voyage, owned by the Smithsonian.
One drawing for every page of Moby-Dick. Scroll down.
The picture above is from Wikimedia Commons which also has a picture of the studio where Melville wrote Moby-Dick and a Library of Congress map of the voyage.
Update: Look for Jack Aranson's one-man stage play. A gem, and available on DVD.
"Years from now acting classes and scholars will be studying this film for its power in bringing the immortal words of Herman Melville to life." IMDB: Moby Dick (1978) (streaming trailer)
And if you can get to Dallas by May 16th, go to the opera. Moby-Dick, an new opera by Jake Heggie
Follow Ishmael on Twitter. @TweetMeIshmael (you can follow us too, if you wish, @takoma))
On this beautiful daffodil / tulip / plum blossom afternoon, the computer rooms are indeed open, and June is there to help anyone who needs help.
A recent study shows that 1/3 of Americans, age 14 and over, use public library computer facilities, and the most common use is for education.
2/3 of those using them are helping a friend or family member with a need for health facts, a job search, or something similar. And so the number of people who get crucial information from library computers is much greater than the actual number of people logged on.
Those most likely to use library computers are people living in households below the poverty line, particularly teens and young adults, ages 14 to 24, 2/3 of whom use public library computers for educational purposes.
1/4 of Americans traveling use library computers. Indeed we see people from all over the country, actually from all over the world, and like most public libraries we offer free wireless connection. For those visitors without laptops we sell guest passes for our computer stations ($5 for two hours).
Associated Press summary of the Gates Foundation / University of Washington study results
Actual study report (Look for the curious result concerning people changing their diets after using library computers.)
Note: In our experience, users under age 14 usually are not using the computers for education. They are having fun.
Our Takoma Park Maryland Library will once again host résumé training sessions this spring.
April 28 — One or two page résumés for the private sector and non-profit agencies
May 12 — Federal and SES résumés for government jobs
June 9 — One or two page résumés for the private sector and non-profit agencies (repeat)
Please bring 10 to 15 copies of your existing résumés and the group will help you critique and reorganize it.
To sign up for one of these sessions, please go to the library registration page.
Event registration - Takoma Park Maryland Library
The workshops will be led by Takoma Park resident Gabe Heilig, an authority on job search techniques and an author-editor who has produced several books for ARCO, including Federal Civil Service Jobs and the Civil Service Handbook.
Who is living at your place today, April 1? If you haven't sent in your census form, please do so immediately. Everyone, absolutely everyone, needs to be counted so that Takoma Park receives its fair share of services. The results are absolutely confidential and if you don't mail it in, someone will come knocking on your door to get the information.
If you have questions call:
301.763.4636 or 800.877.8339
or stop in at the census desk at the community center:
Monday and Wednesday evenings 6– 8, Tuesday and Thursday mornings 10–1
After you have posted your form, you can celebrate census day by coming to the library and looking at the incredible, five-volume Historical Statistics of the United States. Great stuff.