Gaming, Genealogy and Veterans Events

Whatever your area of interest, there's a very good chance you will find an appealing event at Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library.

This past Saturday, October 25, Turner Memorial Library had a booth along with the Aroostook Medical Center Library, at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Health Fair. Hundreds of people came by our table to get library READ bags, bookmarks, informational brochures, and apples kindly donated by the Presque Isle Regional Vocational Center School Farm.

We had seven people in attendance at our last Turner Writers Group meeting. The next one is scheduled for Monday, November 10, at 6:00 pm.

Two area Vietnam Veterans will speak to the public about their harrowing war experiences on Thursday, November 13, at 10:00 am in the Multi-Purpose Room. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient Peter Main, as well as Marine Veteran and former Navy Chaplain Jim Morgan will gives talks, and a representative from the Caribou Veterans Center also plans to be on hand. The library also plans to show attendees the D.A.V's site in Second Life. There are two sims for the general public to visit and two sims that are for veterans only.

The Library Book Club has two meetings scheduled for November. The first will start earlier than usual, at 4:30 on Thursday, November 6, where Dr. Nan Amadeo, emerita, will show a William Faulkner film and give a talk. The club then will discuss Faulkner's As I Lay Dying at 6:00. The Book Club will also meet on Thursday, November 20, at 6:00 pm to discuss Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn.

Library Genealogist Ann Cushman will be giving a presentation to all those interested in the basics of genealogy on Saturday, November 22, at 10:00 am in the library's Multi-Purpose Room. Please do let the library know if you plan to attend. You can send a message here or call (207) 764-2571 or e-mail me at lisashaw@presqueisle.lib.me.us.

The ALA and Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library are teaming up to bring you National Gaming Day @ your library on Saturday, November 15, from 12 noon to 6:00 pm. We plan to have a Nintendo Wii on hand as well as a couple of PS2s. Pizza and drinks will be served.

The library recently received a generous donation of several Reader's Digest large print books. Library members are greatly enjoying this new collection.

Have a safe and happy Samhain/Hallowe'en!

Technology and Health Fairs

Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library was very pleased to be able to have a booth at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Tech Fair on Friday, October 10. There were several excellent presenters in attendance. The library was able to showcase our virtual library in Second Life, which caught the attention of several people passing by. We also were able to let people know about a new link we have set up, which will be available in the Online Services section of the library's website, which links to many, many free and/or open source utilities and applications on the Internet. You can access that link below:

Free Web Utilities Reference Link

This is something we will be able to update continually with a couple of simple mouse clicks. If you have any questions or comments about the tools or sites that are listed there, please do let us know.

Our Seniors Group is next meeting on Wednesday, October 15, from noon until 2 pm. Our presenter this week will Michelle Sandelier, who is Vice President of the Clan MacKay. We thank her very much for the last-minute scheduling. The group will meet in the Multi-Purpose Room.

The library will also be having a booth along with The Aroostook Medical Center on Saturday, October 25, from 8 in the morning until 12 noon at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Health Fair. We have several wonderful prizes and give-aways lined up, with deepest thanks going to the Presque Isle Elks Club for making that possible.

For those who have inquired, we are still making plans to show the film “Quid Pro Quo” and have a discussion following that with a community educator from the Aroostook Mental Heath Center. Please watch this space for a date and time.

We are also working to bring our next featured artist into the Multi-Purpose Room and Art Gallery, hopefully in time for the holidays. Again, please watch this space for further details as we get them.

Finally, you will notice an item at the top of each blog entry now which says “Listen Now.” We are trying a new feature on our blog which translates text to audio, which can then be played straight from your computer or added to an mp3 player or iTunes. We are in hopes that this might be of some help to those who like to keep up to date on the go or who might have issues with vision. Odiogo offers this service. Again, we welcome your feedback as always.

Events!

Busy days at Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library. We recently celebrated Banned Books Week, an annual observation of books which have been challenged or banned over the years, as a reminder of the needed diligence for intellectual freedom and access. Our thanks to WAGM-TV for visiting the display in our multi-purpose room.

Today some of our staff had the exciting opportunity to speak with some librarians live from Bogota, Colombia, through Second Life, who are interested in learning more from us about virtual librarianship. This wonderful opportunity was made possible by the US Embassy.

The library will be having a booth at a couple of upcoming events at the University of Maine in Presque Isle: The first will be on Friday, October 10, from 10-5 for the Tech Fair; the second will be on Saturday, October 25, from 8-12 for the Health Fair, and we will be joined by TAMC. The Presque Isle Elks Club has made several VERY generous donations for prizes and giveaways - especially for young people - with a health and wellness theme. We thank them deeply and hope that you will come along and visit Miss Sue and Lisa Shaw at the booth.

The Senior Club will be meeting on Wednesday, October 15th, from 12-2. As usual, lunch will be provided, and we are awaiting final confirmation on a very exciting musical performance!

We thank you all for your continued membership at the library. There is much going on behind the scenes to make this a valuable and exciting place to be. Check our website for upcoming events, and please do let us know when there is something that YOU would like to see!