Birmingham Public Library Blog

The World Fantasy Awards nominees have been announced, and local (for a while, at least) author and past Alabama Bound attendee and speaker Caitlin Kiernan is included for her book The Red Tree . Kiernan was born in Dublin, Ireland, but spent much of her childhood in Leeds, Alabama, and her teen years in Trussville. She worked at the Red Mountain Museum and attended The University of Alabama at Birmingham to study geology and paleontology. She started writing fiction in 1992 and published her first novel, Silk , in 1998. The awards will be presented at the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio, October 28-31, 2010. Nominees for Best Novel: The Red Tree by Caitlin Kiernan In Great Waters by Kit Whitfield Finch by Jeff VanderMeer The City & The City by China Mieville Blood of Ambrose by James Enge Locus Online has the complete list of nominees.

Don’t let the plot of The Unknown Woman fool you into thinking it’s an Italian The Hand That Rocks the Cradle , because it’s not. Yes, a woman worms her way into a nanny job for the wealthy Adacher family through some devious means, but she has a good reason, and that reason is slowly revealed as Irena's past as a blonde hooker and her present as a mousy brunette converge. In the Ukraine Irena worked as a prostitute for a sadistic pimp nicknamed Mold (he’s buried many bodies in his career, get it?), but she escaped with her life and something else equally important to her. In a small Italian town she rents an apartment across from the building where the Adacher’s live, and begins to gain access first to their building, then their apartment, and finally their lives. As with any trauma victim, innocuous daily events can trigger painful memories. Images of Irena's past as a sex slave flash across the screen: masked and naked at an auction, hogtied and beaten, and eventually hand...

Tutor.com presents three career webinars this fall at the Birmingham Public Library. From finding writing resumes and finding jobs online to interviewing skills, these webinars cover topics essential to finding the job you want. Free of charge. Central Library Wednesday, September 29 at 2:00 p.m. in the Richard Arrington Auditorium Find Hidden Job Leads Online and at the Library There is a wealth of free and low-cost information available to job seekers. Learn what research and job information tools are available, both online and elsewhere, and how to incorporate these tools into your job search strategy. Central Library Wednesday, October 27 at 2:00 p.m. in the Richard Arrington Auditorium Write a Resume That Gets the Job Learn to write a resume that hiring managers will notice by transforming your lists of job duties into success stories. Find out how to write a powerful profile and skills summary, and how to prove that you have the “right stuff.” Central Library Wednesday, December...

On August 26, 2010, Powderly Branch Library held a Grand Re-opening . Didn't make it to the grand re-opening? Watch the video above to view some scenes from the Grand Re-opening, click here for a virtual tour of the updated and expanded building , or drop by Powderly Library to take a look.

Downloadable electronic books (eBooks) are now available for checkout at www.jclc.org . Up to five eBooks may be checked out with a valid library card for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one days. Download titles to a PC or MacIntosh, or an e-Reader such as the Sony Reader, the Barnes and Noble Nook, or Borders Kobo eReader. The Amazon Kindle and Apple iPad are not compatible for the library service. The digital eBook collection was started by the Hoover Public Library. There are currently 698 titles to choose from, but the collection is expected to grow as more libraries in the cooperative add more eBooks. For a list of compatible eBook readers, click here .

The US Open starts in the Big Apple on Monday. This has been a very interesting tennis season and I can’t wait to see who emerges from the tournament with the trophy. Rafael Nadal took a break after his Wimbledon victory so he could be healthy for the hard court season. He didn’t get a chance to play in the Open last year due to injury, so he is hungry to win the Grand Slam title that has eluded him so far. He is also the French Open champion, so if he wins at Flushing Meadows, he will have 3 of 4 Grand Slam victories this season. This summer, there has been a lot of speculation about whether Roger Federer’s best days are behind him. Since he only won one Grand Slam this year (Australian Open), people are talking like his career is over. Anyone who writes off Roger Federer will be doing it at his own risk. He lost the final to Andy Murray at the Rogers Cup in Toronto (5-7,5-7), but he played a tough match against Mardy Fish in Cincinnati. Neither could break the other’s serve until...

The Powderly Branch Library Grand Re-opening is today at noon. Curious about Powderly Library 's new look, but can't be there in person? Take a virtual tour by clicking the image above. The updated building features a community meeting room, new computer lab, expanded Books-by-Mail area, and contemporary furnishings. See a related video from the Birmingham News here.

Yes! We are doing it again. During the month of September any Jefferson County library patron may bring in donations for our food drive and have overdue charges waived for participating. Our food drive benefiting local food banks is open to anyone, even if that someone doesn't have overdue books. For those with late materials however, this is a golden opportunity to take a bite out of library overdue charges and help someone else at the same time. One dollar will be waived up to a maximum of $10 per patron for each dated canned or packaged food item the patron donates. These waived fees applies only to fines for overdue materials, not lost materials.