January 2021

Library Closed

All St. Mary's County Library locations are closed today.

YA First Chapter Fridays

Trying to find your next awesome read? Listen to the first chapter of some great books recommended for teens and tweens by library staff. We hope you get hooked and want to read the rest!

Find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube!

Library Closed

All St. Mary's County Library locations are closed today.

Trivia Mondays

Register with an email address to receive the link to a trivia game and test your knowledge! The game is multiple choice questions and speed matters!

Registration for each week ends at 5 p.m. on Mondays. After 5 p.m., registrants will be emailed a link to that week's trivia. You will have until Thursday at 5 p.m. to complete the game, then you'll receive an email with the full results. Trivia uses Kahoot, accessible through any internet browser, no account needed.

Nonprofits in St. Mary's County: What, Who & How

What do nonprofits do? Who are some of the nonprofits serving in our county? How did they get started and how can I get started too?

Join our panel discussion with the Nonprofit Institute from the College of Southern Maryland along with representatives from three county nonprofits.  We'll be highlighting the stories of our hometown nonprofits and explaining the resources available locally to anyone trying to get a new nonprofit started. The featured nonprofits will be: Boundless Expectations - specialized educational services; Christmas in April - home rehabilitation; and Friends of the Library- community organization support. 

A Zoom meeting link with be emailed to all registered participants the day before the event. Registrants will be able to participate through chat. We're looking forward to having you with us!

One Shot Roleplaying Game: The Hunt for Black Fang

Welcome to town of Sandpoint! Come visits our quaint beaches, ancient ruins, and... dangerous monsters?!

Recently, a fearsome and mysterious creature, known only as Black Fang, has been attacking the farmlands surrounding the town, and the mayor is growing desperate. She has put a bounty out on Black Fang for any adventurers brave enough to stop this menace.

This adventure utilizes the rules from Pathfinder 2nd Edition, and is designed for 1st level characters.

No experience required. Pre-made character sheets, with a brief overview of the rules, will be provided. Microphone required.

Southern Maryland JobSource Mobile Career Center

Job seekers can stop by to get job counseling and resume help,search for jobs, and get registered with the Maryland Workforce Exchange.

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the following rules apply:

Mask Required for entry
Only one job seeker at a time in the vehicle
6 ft Social Distancing will be enforced.

Virtual Mystery Book Club

Each month we will discuss a different mystery novel. This month's title will be The Lake House by Kate Morton.

From the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Secret Keeper and The Distant Hours, an intricately plotted, spellbinding new novel of heartstopping suspense and uncovered secrets.

Living on her family's idyllic lakeside estate in Cornwall, England, Alice Edevane is a bright, inquisitive, innocent, and precociously talented sixteen-year-old who loves to write stories. But the mysteries she pens are no match for the one her family is about to endure. One midsummer's eve, after a beautiful party drawing hundreds of guests to the estate has ended, the Edevanes discover that their youngest child, eleven-month-old Theo, has vanished without a trace. What follows is a tragedy that tears the family apart in ways they never imagined. Decades later, Alice is living in London, having enjoyed a long successful career as an author. Theo's case has never been solved, though Alice still harbors a suspicion as to the culprit. Miles away, Sadie Sparrow, a young detective in the London police force, is staying at her grandfather's house in Cornwall. While out walking one day, she stumbles upon the old estate now crumbling and covered with vines, clearly abandoned long ago. Her curiosity is sparked, setting off a series of events that will bring her and Alice together and reveal shocking truths about a past long gone yet more present than ever. A lush, atmospheric tale of intertwined destinies, this latest novel from a masterful storyteller is an enthralling, thoroughly satisfying read"-- Provided by publisher.

You can find The Lake House in our catalog here!

The Mystery Book Club meets via Zoom on the 2nd Friday of the month at 7:00pm (unless otherwise noted).

Teen Craft Corner

Follow our 3 Instagram craft sessions that are really easy, and will add a new touch to your personal style. https://www.instagram.com/stmaryslibrary/

Trivia Mondays

Register with an email address to receive the link to a trivia game and test your knowledge! The game is multiple choice questions and speed matters!

Registration for each week ends at 5 p.m. on Mondays. After 5 p.m., registrants will be emailed a link to that week's trivia. You will have until Thursday at 5 p.m. to complete the game, then you'll receive an email with the full results. Trivia uses Kahoot, accessible through any internet browser, no account needed.

Southern Maryland JobSource Mobile Career Center

Job seekers can stop by to get job counseling and resume help, search for jobs, and get registered with the Maryland Workforce Exchange.

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the following rules apply:

Mask Required for entry

Only one job seeker at a time in the vehicle

6 ft Social Distancing will be enforced.

Common Thread Online

Join fellow crafters who love all things fiber - virtually! Registration is required (with an email address). You'll receive an email with a link to join the Zoom meeting before the program.

Open to knitters, crocheters, quilters, embroiderers, cross-stitchers, and any other kind of needleworkers. Work on your current project and chat with like-minded makers. All skill levels welcome.

If you require an ASL interpreter or other accommodation for this event, please contact us at virtualservices@stmalib.org with as much notice as possible, but no later than five business days before the event date.

Swing Dance for Solo Movers

Enjoy a midday break with movement and music from the 1920s through the big band era!

Lauren Borchard will teach versions of classic swing dance steps configured for solo movers, and include a little history too. Add your own flair as we Charleston, swing, and boogie to music from masters including Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton!

Winter Bird Feeding: Learn how you can help the birds survive winter!

Barb Whipkey, of Wild Birds Unlimited in Lexington Park, MD, will share tips on how to help our backyard birds survive during the cold winter months.

The life of a bird in the winter is more stressful than many people think.  Days are often windy and cold.  Nights are long and even colder.  Although we know that birds can survive without our help in winter, studies have shown that birds with access to bird feeders during the colder months survive at a higher rate than those without access to feeders. It has even been suggested that feeding birds in winter is as beneficial to humans as it is to birds.  Join us for an evening of bird feeding tips and learn how you can attract a variety of birds to your backyard feeding stations when the cold winter weather has you stuck inside.  

Mindful Storytime

Practicing mindfulness may increase children's ability to focus, self-regulate, and lead a happier life. Join us for a storytime that incorporates simple yoga and mindfulness practices in fun ways.

Recommended for preschool and young elementary-age children with their adult caregivers. Please register with an email address to receive the link to this live Zoom event.

Tech Thursday for Seniors: Intro to Facebook

This program is for adults ages 50 and above.

Learn how to use the popular social media site to safely connect with family and friends. You will leave this hands-on class with your own free Facebook account. You’ll leave this training with the knowledge on how to navigate confidently through the website. If you do have a pre-existing account, it's recommended that you bring your username and password. Register with an email address to receive a link to join the online event.

Author Talk with Romance Author Sarah MacLean

New York Times and international best-selling romance author, Sarah MacLean will talk about the Romance genre and about her experience as a writer.

A leading feminist advocate for the romance genre, Sarah’s expertise about the genre has been featured in numerous articles and interviews. She is also the co-host of Fated Mates -- a weekly podcast focusing on the power and purpose of the romance genre. Now in its third season, Fated Mates is the most-listened to romance podcast in the country.

Register to receive the link to the Zoom meeting the day before the event.

If you require an ASL interpreter or other accommodation for this event, please contact us at virtualservices@stmalib.org with as much notice as possible, but no later than five business days before the event date.

Pint-Sized Playtime Ideas

Come get fun, new sensory play ideas for babies and toddlers! Demonstrated activities may be messy but will include easily accessible supplies.

Video will premiere at 9 am on Facebook and Youtube.

Isabel Wilkerson on "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents"

Isabel Wilkerson discusses her critically acclaimed book "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents."

In this brilliant book, Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Sponsored by Friends & Foundation of Howard County Library System and Maryland Libraries Together. Copies of Caste are available to borrow from SMCL or purchase a copy from Books with a Past.

ASL interpretation provided. 

For more information on this Speaker please visit prhspeakers.com.

Please register with an email address to receive an immediate registration confirmation. You will receive a second email 24 hours prior to the start of the event with the information to join by computer, tablet, or phone. 

Author photo credit: Joe Henson

ABOUT ISABEL WILKERSON
Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize winner and the National Humanities Medal, is the author of The New York Times bestsellers The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. A gifted storyteller, Wilkerson captivates audiences with the universal human story of migration and reinvention, as well as the unseen hierarchies that have divided us as a nation, in order to find a way to transcend them.

She has become an impassioned voice for demonstrating how history can help us understand ourselves, our country and our current era of upheaval. In her writing, Wilkerson brings the invisible and the marginalized into the light and into our hearts. In her lectures, she explores with authority the need to reconcile America’s karmic racial inheritance — a notion she has expressed in her widely-shared Op-Ed essays in The New York Times.

Wilkerson captivates audiences with the universal story of migration and the enduring search for the American dream, the origins of our shared commonality. She draws a direct link between the leaderless revolution known as the Great Migration and the protest movements for social justice today, both of them responses to unacknowledged and unaddressed history.

The Warmth of Other Suns tells the true story of three people among the six million who made the decision of their lives during the Great Migration, a watershed in American history. Wilkerson spent 15 years working on Warmth, interviewing more than 1,200 people to tell what she calls one of the greatest underreported stories of the 20th Century. In addition to the National Book Critics Circle Award, the book won the Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, the Anisfield-Wolf Award for Nonfiction, the Lynton History Prize from Harvard and Columbia universities, and the Stephen Ambrose Oral History Prize and was shortlisted for both the Pen-Galbraith Literary Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. The Warmth of Other Suns became a New York Times and national bestseller. It was named to more than 30 Best of the Year lists, including The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of the Year, Amazon’s 5 Best Books of the Year, and Best of the Year lists in The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, among others. It made national news when President Obama chose the book for summer reading in 2011. In 2012, The New York Times Magazine named The Warmth of Other Suns to its list of the best nonfiction books of all time, and in 2019, TIME Magazine named it one of the “10 Best Non-Fiction Books” of the decade.

Her latest book, Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, was published in August 2020 to critical acclaim, with Dwight Garner of The New York Times calling it, “An instant American classic” and Oprah choosing it for her monthly book club pick. Picked as a Time’s 2020 must-read book, the book examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how a hierarchy of social divisions still defines our lives today. Wilkerson brings the past’s complexities to vivid life through her passionate research and her profound gift for connecting with audiences of all backgrounds. Caste is being adapted into a Netflix film directed, written, and produced by Ava DuVernay.

Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of The New York Times in 1994, making her the first Black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African-American to win for individual reporting in the history of American journalism.

She has lectured on narrative nonfiction at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University and has taught at Princeton, Emory and Boston universities. She has lectured at more than 200 other colleges and universities across the United States, Europe and in Asia. Her work has garnered seven honorary degrees, most recently from Bates College and Southern Methodist University. She has appeared on national programs such as CBS’s 60 Minutes, NPR’s Fresh Air, NBC’s Nightly News, MSNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, and others.

In conferring Wilkerson the 2015 National Humanities Medal, the National Endowment for the Humanities honored her “for championing the stories of an unsung history. Her masterful combination of intimate human narratives with broader societal trends allows us to measure the epic migration of a people by its vast impact on our Nation and on each individual life.”

Library Closed

All St. Mary's County Library locations are closed today.

Trivia Mondays

Register with an email address to receive the link to a trivia game and test your knowledge! The game is multiple choice questions and speed matters!

Registration for each week ends at 5 p.m. on Mondays. After 5 p.m., registrants will be emailed a link to that week's trivia. You will have until Thursday at 5 p.m. to complete the game, then you'll receive an email with the full results. Trivia uses Kahoot, accessible through any internet browser, no account needed.

Take and Make: Snow Stick

Stop by and pick up a craft kit with everything you need to make your very own, one of a kind, snow measuring stick. Then sit back and wait for snow!

Craft kits will be available at all libraries by curbside appointment, while supplies last. Make a curbside appointment here

Maryland Workforce Exchange Workshop: Resumes and Cover Letters

St. Mary's, Calvert, and Charles Counties are collaborating on a joint partnership with the Maryland Department of Labor. Join us for monthly virtual classes relating to employment and training.

Offered by the Maryland Department of Labor, American Job Center, this is an interactive workshop with information on how to navigate the MWE website and set up an account, as well as basic resume and cover letter writing help.  Looking for a job, or a better job?  Don't miss this free class.  There will be an opportunity for one-on-one help as well.  Registration closes one day before the event.

Job search help is available on https://mwejobs.maryland.gov/vosnet/Default.aspx

Creating an account on Maryland Workforce Exchange before the workshop is recommended, but not required.

For more information email:  tanya.wallace@maryland.gov

Story and a Side

Join Ms. Sue and other librarian friends as we read a story, sing silly songs and share fun activities.

Watch on Facebook or YouTube!

Maryland Workforce Exchange Workshop: Professional Interview Skills

St. Mary's, Calvert, and Charles Counties are collaborating on a joint partnership with the Maryland Department of Labor. Join us for monthly virtual classes relating to employment and training.

Hone your interview skills with the Maryland Department of Labor, American Job Center! This is an interactive workshop with mock interviews and advice for in-person as well as virtual meetings.  Registration closes one day prior to the event.

More job-seeker help is available on https://mwejobs.maryland.gov/vosnet/Default.aspx

Having an account on Maryland Workforce Exchange before attending the workshop is recommended, but not required.

For more information email tanya.wallace@maryland.gov

Zines! Publishing on the Edge

Join us online for a history and how-to with Yago Cura, Bilingual Outreach Librarian for Los Angeles Public Library!

Hosted by the Ruth Enlow Library of Garrett County.

Co-hosted by: 

Montgomery County Public Libraries
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Baltimore County Public Library
Prince George’s County Memorial Library System
Washington County Free Library
Worcester County Library
Anne Arundel County Public Library
Caroline County Public Library
Somerset County Library
Howard County Library System
Carroll County Public Library
Harford County Public Library
St. Mary’s County Library
Queen Anne's County Library
Talbot County Free Library
Cecil County Public Library
Dorchester County Public Library
Calvert Library

Virtual Romance Book Club

Each month we will discuss a different romance. All books will be available in both eBook and audiobook format on Hoopla. January's title is Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen

Teen Stress-less Kits

Are you feeling a little stressed? We're bringing some chill to your day with our Stress-Less Kits!

Included are treats and a fun project intended to help you take a break, catch your breath, and keep the calm. Register with an email to be notified when your kit is ready for pick-up. 

Art with Jamie Naluai

Complete an acrylic on canvas art project in this two-part series!

Materials List:
Canvas- either a canvas board or a wrapped canvas- preferably larger than 8x10.

Acrylic paint:
Titanium white (large)
Ultramarine blue
Crimson red
Burnt sienna 

Brushes:
1 inch flat brush
1 Small round brush - (either size 2, 4, 6)
1 Large round brush - (either size 8, 10, 12)

Pencil
Paper towels
Masking tape
Paint palette 
Cup of water
Old toothbrush

The ABCs of Black History: Storytime with Author Rio Cortez

Join us for a special storytime with author Rio Cortez. "The ABCs of Black History" celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy.

Join us for a special storytime with author Rio Cortez. Letter by letter, The ABCs of Black History celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy. Watch live on Facebook or YouTube. 

Watch the program live on Carroll County Public Library's Facebook page. 

Presented by A Likely Story Bookstore and Carroll County Public Library in partnership with Allegany County Library System, Calvert Library, Charles County Public Library, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Howard County Library System, Prince George's County Memorial Library System, St. Mary's County Library, Talbot County Free Library, and Washington County Free Library. 

Special thanks to Workman Publishing. 

Author Talk with Talia Hibbert

Talia Hibbert is a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and voracious reader. She'll be joining us to answer questions about her romance novels, writing process, and favorite books.

Register to receive the link to the Zoom meeting the day before the event.

If you require an ASL interpreter or other accommodation for this event, please contact us at virtualservices@stmalib.org with as much notice as possible, but no later than five business days before the event date.

Trivia Mondays

Register with an email address to receive the link to a trivia game and test your knowledge! The game is multiple choice questions and speed matters!

Registration for each week ends at 5 p.m. on Mondays. After 5 p.m., registrants will be emailed a link to that week's trivia. You will have until Thursday at 5 p.m. to complete the game, then you'll receive an email with the full results. Trivia uses Kahoot, accessible through any internet browser, no account needed.

Cemeteries: Tales From the Crypt

Archaeologist and historian Dr. James G. Gibb, will give a presentation exploring some of the variation seen among Maryland cemeteries.

Join archaeologist Jim Gibb for an informative lecture covering Maryland cemeteries.  He will show photographic examples of cemetery documentation and restoration, and share some of the information and history he has learned from studying local cemeteries.  

Register to receive the link to the Zoom meeting the day before the event.  

If you require an ASL interpreter or other accommodation for this event, please contact us at virtualservices@stmalib.org with as much notice as possible, but no later than five business days before the event date.

Common Thread Online

Join fellow crafters who love all things fiber - virtually! Registration is required (with an email address). You'll receive an email with a link to join the Zoom meeting before the program.

Open to knitters, crocheters, quilters, embroiderers, cross-stitchers, and any other kind of needleworkers. Work on your current project and chat with like-minded makers. All skill levels welcome.

If you require an ASL interpreter or other accommodation for this event, please contact us at virtualservices@stmalib.org with as much notice as possible, but no later than five business days before the event date.