Looking forward to 2012 Library Events

The Silver City Volunteer Library continues to organize diverse community events and programs.The library collection includes thousands of books in storage, with hundreds of new titles being rotated to the accessible selection in the School House library area on a quarterly basis. Residents are invited to borrow from hundreds of new books (many thanks to recent contributors Darlene and John Cobbey, Christy McGill, and Lyon County Libraries). For more information on the library, please contact Quest Lakes at 847-0742.

Vastly Expanded Science Fiction and Fantasy Section: Those who have been asking for science fiction and fantasy novels will be happy to hear that the library has added hundreds of new titles in that category, including series from Marion Zimmer Bradley, David Eddings, Zenna Henderson, Raymond E. Feist, Andre Norton, Jennifer Roberson, Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon, and Mercedes Lackey, among many others.

New Fiction: In other new adult fiction, the library has had a recent donations of hundreds of mysteries by dozens of authors, including Raymond Chandler,Tony Hillerman,Walter Mosley,Nevada Barr, Haruki Murakami, Steg Larsson,Carl Hiassen,Ruth Rendell, Ngai Marsh, Patricia Highsmith,Elmore Leonard, Dorothy Sayers,etc.

New Section on Jobs and Careers: if you’re hunting for a new job or changing careers, check out half a dozen new titles in this category.

Enlarged Section on Art History and Classics: The library now has an enlarged section on art history, including works on Picasso, Wahhol, Escher, Goya, Gaughin, Klimt, van Gogh, O’Keeffe, Judy Chicago, and Aubrey Beardsley, as well as an enlarged collection of classics by authors such as Edith Wharton, Dickens, Steinbeck, Joyce, Faulkner, Jules Verne, E.M. Forster, and Charlotte Bronte.

The library is also fortunate to have a timely addition of new titles on Latino-American history and issues, including:

Border Visions: Mexican Cultures of the Southwestern United States by Carols Velez-Ibanez

On the Line: Life on the U.S. Mexican Border by Augustra Dwyer

Transformations: Migration, Family Life, and Achievement Motivation Among Latino Adolescents by Carola Suarez-Orozco

In the Barrios: Latinos and The Underclass Debate by Joan Moore

Patrons may also choose from current periodicals, films, and other nonfiction

Kids’ Books: In juvenile fiction, there are lots of new titles as well. The library also carries a large reference selection for young readers on science, animals, religions of the world, and history thanks to donations by Lyon County Libraries and other donors, including the Crawford family.

Please feel free to borrow books during any Silver City Community Events, including the monthly soup dinners, town council meetings,community garden meetings, weekly Tai Chi classes, Silver City Community Partner events, summer program, etc.

Silver City Community Partners and volunteer library are partners of Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey. For more information about the Coalition, please see www.healthycomm.org or www.facebook.com/healthycommunitiescoalition

Silver City: A Community of Book Lovers

"Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time."- Edwin P. Whipple

Silver City Librarian Wins Award

By Karen Woodmansee, Virginia City News

(January 15, 2008) - Recreating the Silver City Volunteer Library after the fire at the Silver City Schoolhouse community center in 2004 destroyed the original has earned a local activist some recognition.

Quest Lakes, of Silver City, who worked to restore the library in the tiny office of the Silver City Volunteer Fire Station, was recently given a plaque and special citation award by the Nevada Library Association in recognition of her efforts.

She said now the library is bigger and better than it was in the Schoolhouse.

“There was really wasn’t a library before the fire,” she said. “What we had were 3 bookshelves, and it was mainly things people donated.”

She said the town used to have Coffeehouse Fridays, where there would be soup to eat and books to discuss, along with musicians and occasional board games.

But Lakes said people in the small historic town loved to read so much that the loss of the books was among the first things lamented after the fire.

Those books were destroyed, mostly from smoke and water damage, save one children’s art book that had been inside a metal cabinet, Lakes said.

Though she didn’t have any library training, Lakes said her mom was a librarian and books were important enough for her to start a new collection to be housed in the fire station that serves as a temporary community center.

“Now we have a really wide range, a lot of best sellers, a complete set of Nevada Revised Statutes that Joe Dini donated and encyclopedias donated by Lyon County Libraries,” she said.

The children’s offerings range from preschool picture books to the latest in the Harry Potter series. The library even had two Harry Potter Parties that were attended by every kid in town.

“We also have a lot of other fantasy series, like the Golden Compass series and the Hobbit series,” she said.

For adults, there are journals, Civil War history books and the latest mysteries.

There are also periodicals for adults and children. Lakes said there are two older computers at the library, which is only open on Sundays at least until the Schoolhouse reopens.

“We already have volunteers to help us move things and we’ll get some other computers,” she said.

Books and materials are donated from all over, she said.

“We’ve gotten a lot from local residents and Lyon County Libraries,” she said. Other places that donated books were Community Chest in Virginia City, Community Threads and Things in Dayton, Soroptimists and even Barnard College in New York.

She said the volunteer library has received some funding through Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties, and that funding has helped the library’s programs, all of which are free.

“As small as we are, we have all these programs, art and cultural programs and book signings,” she said.

Even Sue Fawn Chung, an expert on Chinese-American history, flew up from Las Vegas to give a lecture last summer, she said.

Lakes, who was nominated for her award by Lyon County Library Director Diane Brigham and is quick to credit others for the library’s success, in particular the local fire department, the Silver City Task Force and local residents.

“Silver City is a town of book lovers, and it seems as if we’ve had donations of books from just about every household,” she said.

Field trip to Nevada Museum of Art

Silver City Library has a number of books on Egypt, including Curse of the Pharaoh's: My Adventures with Mummies by Zahi Hawass, who coincidentally,gave a lecture on recent achaeological discoveries in Egypt at the Nevada Museum of Art a couple of weeks ago.

If you haven't gotten a chance to see the museum, or its latest exhibit, take advantage of Free 2nd Saturdays when entrance to the museum is free:

Explore ancient Egyptian beliefs about life, death, and the afterlife in To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures The new exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art features more than 100 objects including mummies, statuary, sarcophagi, coffins, gold jewelry, and elegantly-crafted vessels, the exhibition includes some of the greatest masterworks of Egyptian artistic heritage. The exhibition also helps to explain the process of mummification, the conduct of a funeral, and different types of tombs—answering questions at the core of the public’s fascination with ancient Egypt.

Silver City Summer Reading Program

Ask Sara R. about the kids' summer reading program 2011. The theme is "One World, Many Stories." There are lots of great kids books at the library that might fall under this theme. To name just a few:

Guide to Japan for kids
Hush: A Thai Lullaby by Min Fong Ho
Rain Forest by Helen Cowcher
What Life was Like on the Banks of The Nile

Ready for Summer 2011?

The volunteer library will coordinate programming with Silver City Community Partners (formerly called the Silver City Task Force). Silver City Community Partners are planning the annual free summer program which will include multi-generational gardening, cooking, and Arts experiences again this summer. Watch for updates at the post office and School House bulletin boards as well as on this blogspot, and the Silver City Facebook group page.

Silver City Plans a Summer Full of Family Fun

The Silver City Community Partners, formerly known as the Silver City Task Force, has organized a packed schedule of free community events this summer. The tightknit community of Silver City works together to offer an annual free summer youth program as well as intergenerational cooking lessons, , cultural events, a volunteer library with a summer reading program, and a community garden.

Annual Youth Summer Program: The annual summer youth program will take place this year at the Silver City School House and Park from June through Aug. 20. Plans include:

*free art lessons by well-known Nevada artist Alison Harris at 10am on June 20, June 27, and July 11 at 10am (free and open to all kids ages 4-15)

*kick off to the summer reading program with the theme, ‘One World, Many Stories”, followed by terracotta pot painting in the park Wed June 22 at 10am

*bring your terracotta pot and meet in the park to plant spider plants from Beautiful Food Farms Wed June 29 at 10am. The day will start with stories in several languages for the summer reading program theme, “One World, Many Stories”

*Silver City middle and high school students’ night: pizza making and board games on June 28 at 7pm

* job skills workshop for anyone ages 16 and up with Ashle Overlock of Community Chest on Thursday, June 30 at 6:30pm

* special projects for the Silver City community garden, including a scarecrow making party on Saturday July 16 at 2pm

* Tune into Kids Fair at the park with educational activities for children and their parents by United Way’s Nevada Early Childhood Education Project and by Michelle Wise Bellard, NASA Solar System ambassador, on July 25 at 10am (free and open to all children)

*bicycle repair for all ages with Chris Brown on Mon August 8 at 10am in the park

*Silver City families’ annual field trip to Shakespeare at Sand Harbor at Lake Tahoe on August 10 at 10am

*Silver City families’ field trip to Nevada Museum of Art and the Egyptian Treasures exhibit on Saturday, Aug. 13 (time to be announced)

Funding from Silver City’s Volunteer Fire Department, Healthy Communities Coalition, local recycling, and donations of time from many volunteers make the children’s program possible this year.

Monthly Community Soup Dinners: Chefs will take a break this summer from the monthly community soup and salad dinners that are organized by lead chef Cashion Callaway and funded, in part, by Healthy Communities Coalition and matched by local donations and volunteer labor. Soup and salad dinners will resume the first Friday in September and feature ingredients from the local community garden.

Community Garden Committee: The community garden committee meets on Sundays at 10am at the garden across from the Silver City School House. This season they’ve added soil amendments, fencing, sprinklers, planter boxes, seedlings, etc. The garden is funded, in part, by Healthy Communities Coalition and matched by local volunteer labor and donations of materials and skills.

Library: The Silver City volunteer library is open during all events. This summer’s reading program theme is “One World, Many Stories” and will include stories in German, Spanish, Chinese and Sign Language on Wednesday mornings by guest readers.
Group Meets on Third Thursdays at 6:15pm: The Silver City Community Partners is a partner of Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey, and activities are funded in part by the Coalition, and by donations, volunteer labor, recycling, and fundraisers. To find out more, come to the next meeting on the third Thursday of each month at 6:15pm at the Silver City School House with group leader Sara Ross.

Borrow a new book at Soup Dinners, T'ai Chi, & Town Meetings

RSVP on the sign in sheet at the Post Office, then join the town for participatory Soup Dinners on the first Friday of each month at 5:30pm. Bring a side dish or contribute an ingredient to Cashion's fabulous soups and salads when you can. The meals are funded, in part, by Healthy Communities Coalition (http://www.healthycomm.org/), and made possible by the volunteer labor of fabulous head chef Cashion Callaway, with help from Bonnie Brown, Sarah L, Kelly K, etc. and with dozens pitching in with set up, clean up, side dishes, etc.

When you're at the soup dinners, town meetings, or Ron's new T'ai Chi classes, feel free to borrow up to 10 books, periodicals, and films, and give it your best shot to get them back within 3 months.

We've gotten some terrific additions to the library collection this month, including:

Bad Sports: How Owners ARe Ruining the Games We Love, Dave Zirin, 2010

Boomsday by Christopher Buckley

The Well-Adjusted Dog by Dr. Nicholas H. Dodman

100 Amazing Science Fair Projects You Can Make Yourself

The 39 Clues: Maze of Bones by RIck Riordan (youth fiction)

Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants and Natural Selection by Sarah Hrdy

The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality by the Dalai Lama

Charlie Wilson's WAr by George Crile

Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of A New China by Philip Pan

The library has a large collection of films, including Room with a View, Laurel Canyon, Husbands and Wives, Willy Wonka, etc.

The library also has current issues of Bon Appetit, Natural History, Ms, etc.

Silver City Library: Wild Books

Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack.

- Virginia Woolf