Birmingham Public Library Blog

What: Steps to Starting Your Business When: 3rd Tuesday of each month, February-June 2018 Time: 12:00-1:00 p.m. Where: Central Library, Linn-Henley Research Library, Arrington Auditorium, 4th floor The Birmingham Public Library, in conjunction with SCORE  and the City of Birmingham’s Office of Economic Development, will again be hosting the monthly seminar Steps to Starting Your Business, in 2018. The seminar is scheduled to be held on the following Tuesdays from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m., in the Arrington Auditorium, which is located on the 4th floor of the Linn-Henley Research Library:  May 15, June 19 . Each seminar will cover the same topics, but those who are interested are welcome to attend more than one day. Topics covered will include crafting a vision statement, identifying sources of funding, determining the legal structure of your business, devising a business plan, and investigating sources of business and economic information. Please register for the semina...

by Mary Beth Newbill, Southern History Department , Central Library May is Jewish American Heritage Month and the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and several other government agencies are joining together to honor and celebrate Jewish Americans. First proclaimed by President George W. Bush on April 20, 2006, each successive president has declared the month of May to be a time when we reflect on the accomplishments and contributions of Jewish Americans. President Donald Trump issued the 2018 proclamation on April 30. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) will be streaming interviews with three Holocaust survivors this month. The first interview took place on May 3 and the other two will be on May 9 and May 10. Viewers can watch them live or stream them later at their convenience on the USHMM website. The Birmingham Public Library’s Southern History Department has plenty of resourc...

What: Bards & Brews/JCLC 40th Birthday Bash When: Friday, May 4, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Where: Homewood Public Library Details:  Free and open to the public. Free beer samples will be available to those 21 and above; you must be 18 to enter. Bards & Brews, the Birmingham Public Library's (BPL) popular spoken word poetry/craft beer event, will travel to the Homewood Public Library to join in on the celebration of 40 years of the Jefferson Country Library Cooperative (JCLC). In 1978 the JCLC was established to link all locally-funded city libraries in the county. Today, 22 member libraries—with 40 locations—offer countywide sharing of countless services and resources with the "One County, One Card" system. The 40th Birthday Bash kickoff event will be held from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Bring the entire family for fun on the bounce house, food trucks, face painting, and more! Read more about the cooperative at  https://bplolinenews.blogspot.com/2018/04/jefferson-county-libr...

The Great Give is an online fundraising campaign that will kick off Tuesday, May 8, and run through May 9, benefiting the Public Libraries In Jefferson County as the library cooperative celebrates its 40th anniversary. All funds raised through The Great Give will help to further the significant work of the 40 municipal libraries in the Jefferson County area. To promote the campaign on social media sites, the 40 Public Libraries in Jefferson County will be utilizing the hashtag #TheGreatGive. “We encourage Jefferson County residents to give $40 this year as we celebrate 40 years of cooperation with what is now the 40 libraries in our cooperative,” said Pat Ryan, executive director, Jefferson County Library Cooperative. “The Library Cooperative works behind the scenes to coordinate the services that link 40 libraries with one card for everyone in the county. The core services made available to all county residents through the library cooperative are as follows: Delivery se...

What: Employment Readiness Bootcamp When: Monday, May 7, 2018, and Monday, May 21, 2018 Time: 1:30-3:00 p.m. Where: Central Library, Linn-Henley Research Library, Regional Library Computer Center, 4th floor Details: There will be two workshops: (1) Personal & Career Strength Test/Resume Rehabilitation and (2) New Age Online Application Drill/Interview Performance Training. Free and open to the public; no registration necessary. Choosing a career is not any easy undertaking. Likewise, once you’ve chosen a career, finding a job can be a pretty difficult task as well. When you consider that throughout your lifetime you spend more hours at your job than you do anywhere else, you really need to put the time and effort into making good decisions in regards to career selection and job searching. This is not only true for young people who are entering the job market for the first time, but also for adults who are either reentering the job market after an absence, looking for a ne...

by Ellen Griffin Shade, Avondale Regional Branch Library Making paper beads has become one of our favorite crafts at the Avondale Library. It’s simple, inexpensive, and endlessly versatile, and the resulting jewelry is gorgeous. If this sounds like your idea of fun, you’re in luck! Avondale Library has paper bead rollers available for check out from the Avondale Crafting Collection. The bead rollers come with instructions, and you supply your own paper, glue, and sealant -- Clear nail polish works great! You can use almost any kind of paper, and it’s a great way to recycle old magazines, gift wrap, even junk mail. Different kinds of paper create different results, and it’s interesting to experiment with different sizes, textures, and shapes. Bead rollers must be picked up and returned at the Avondale Library Circulation Desk. Call 226-4000 or drop by the circulation desk for more information. And if you’re interested in a hands-on tutorial, we’ll be hosting ...

by Alisha Johnson, Ensley Branch Library In an effort to interact less face to face, we are often tempted to take short cuts with the way we communicate with one another. Taking this approach can lead to some very undesirable results and could possibly be the end of a friendship, business partnership, or even employment. One of the ways that we have grown very accustomed to communicating is via email. We use this tool in our personal lives as well as our professional lives. It is very important, that while taking advantage of this resource, we consider our audiences and how we present ourselves to them at any given moment. Like many things, there are rules that one should follow when putting thoughts on paper to convey a message. One should make sure that the reason for writing is very clear in the subject line of the email. Some people make a determination on whether to open an email or not based off of the subject line. Also, depending on your audience, you want to ensure that...

The new streaming offering features educational, enriching, and entertaining content with age-based ratings from Common Sense Media. The popular on-demand video streaming service Kanopy , available to Birmingham residents with a JCLC library card for free, now includes Kanopy Kids: thoughtful entertainment for children aged preschool and up. Parents can trust in a curated selection of educational and enriching videos on Kanopy Kids with developmentally appropriate, age-based ratings from Common Sense Media , as well as additional parental controls to keep kids safe. Kanopy Kids highlights films and TV series that inspire and inform, helping children develop empathy, mindfulness, and self-esteem through entertaining and educational videos. Kanopy Kids features approximately 500 children’s titles at launch, with more than 100 to be added each month. Both Kanopy and Ka...