Friends of the Library Say So Long For Now by Sula Combs
Dr. Queen got everyone to share their
memories of the library and summer camps.
Friends of the Library gathered to wish Dr. Deborah Queen happiness in her new job as the Director of the Beaumont Botanical Garden, tell her how much they will miss her, and how much they look forward to visits from her in the future.
The beginning of the evening was dominated by two humongous pizzas. However, they were quickly diminished by the numerous (and hungry) Friends.
The beautiful cake, decorated with a beautiful garden border and the inscription “Bloom where you are planted,” went just as quickly.
Everyone crowded into the workroom, that scene of so many exciting gatherings, and took turns sharing their memories of those experiences and the many outdoor adventures led by Dr. Queen, memories of puppy camp and playing in the river, memories of taking the dogs to Medina County Health and Rehab Center to visit with the residents, memories of horse camp, of happy, funny, unexpected times, discoveries, new friendships and new understandings.
At the end of the evening everyone gathered in the lobby under the arch which proclaims the library to be “A Portal to Past, Present and Future Knowledge,” to have a picture made. It is appropriate to see Dr. Queen here in the midst of friends. She has made the library into a true community center where people of all ages feel welcome and find information and activities to suit them. The Friends plan on continuing the new programs and summer camps she instituted and adding to them.
National Night Out by Brent Walker
The library has traditionally gone to National Night Out at the Witte museum as an end of summer party for the children and parents. This year we will combine our party with a citywide event to build community.
When:
August 4th, 2009 From: 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm Where: Castroville Public Library
Please join us so that we can start planning for the Texas Night Out, scheduled to take place on October 6th, 2009. (October celebrations will be neighborhood based rather than city wide.)
Activities:
Senior Citizens Survey - Do you need light bulbs changed? Smoke alarm batteries changed? Tell the library and we will schedule junior friends of the library to help you.
Community Survey – Do you have a special or unique hobby or interest? Please inform the library and we may be able to create a way for you to teach others your hobby or invite others to join in a community group for your interests.
Computer Games will be available for playing. There will be a demonstration of Wii Fit. In many ways computer games have become more physically engaging. If you haven’t seen some of the new ones please come to see them demonstrated.
Movie – Brent Walker will show clips from movies to demonstrate cultural norms among dragons, elves, vampires, and other rare and odd culture groups.
Frisbee Golf set up behind the library try your hand ? Can you make par?
Dogs – The junior friends of the library have dogs available for adoption. Trained, kid friendly, crate trained, spayed or neutered.
Nip and Tuck will be available for questions and information about the program.
Name tags will be provided so we can all get to know each other. Meet neighbors from your area of town to plan your neighborhood celebrations on October 6, 2009.
AAAOG- Info (Info for seniors) available at the library.
TV- Digital Conversion Boxes information – home assistance
No More Cassettes
by Gerardo Flores
Doris Keller searches for the cassette tapes
Technology has made several strides in recent years and the Castroville Public Library must do the best it can to keep up with it. First came computer updates, then the latest version of Microsoft Office, and now every cassette tape audio book have been removed from the Audio section, leaving only CD's for the patrons.
They were removed on Friday, August 29, 2008. Doris Keller and Doris Uhl sorted out the cassettes from the CDs and spent two hours removing them all from the shelves. Four more hours were needed to withdraw all of the cassettes from the system.
The removal of these cassette tapes, which had been the majority of the audio books at the library, turned the Audio section a shadow of its former self. Dr. Queen has already begun searching for popular audio books in CD formatting to purchase to replenish the Audio section.
As for the withdrawn cassettes, they are on sale for a dollar per audio book. All proceeds go to the Friends of the Castroville Public Library. Please no more donations of cassette tape audio books because the library does not plan to add anymore into the system. This affected the Audio section only. There is no word yet when or if the Junior Fiction’s cassette tape audio books will go through the same process anytime soon.
SWTJC by Gerardo Flores
By now you must have seen or heard about the Southwest Texas Junior College offering classes at the library and at Medina Valley High School. How did Castroville get a junior college to begin a partnership?
The drive to establish Castroville as a distant learning site all started when Mayor Robert Lee expressed an interest to Dr. Queen. She began with a call to Hector Gonzales, the Dean at Southwest Texas Junior College (SWTJC).
The Dean directed Dr. Queen’s attention towards Jacquelyn Reyes and Carol Serna. While Dr. Queen was collaborating with the college, Richard Jackson, the community education director for the MVISD School district, helped by communicating with Mr. Stansberry, the superintendent for MVISD.
College Registration is open
at the Library
Other MVISD supporters have included Holly Haby, Teresa Haby, Paula Tschirhart. All three entities, the library, SWTJC, and MVISD met together to make a few arrangements.
Both the library and MVHS would offer one room each for the distant learning classes to take place. The library would host Carol Serna’s summer algebra class, and then both the library and MVHS would split up eight additional courses between them in the fall.
Only six of the courses had sufficient enrollment to establish. The majority of the classes will be held at night between 6:00-8:30 pm. Hats off to Mayor Lee and all the planners.
Film Festival by Gerardo Flores
On August 16, 2008 the Castroville Public Library reviewed several admissions to the first annual Film Festival. The top three videos are listed below:
1. Lauren Fly with her admission of “That Time”
2. Matt Moore with “Only One Who Knows”
3.Alicia Geurin with “Matches”
Congratulations to these top entries. They will be used as representations of good filmmaking. Thank you to all that entered in the film festival.
The three top videos of the first ever Film Festival here at the library
Office 2007 by Gerardo Flores
All Computers were given the latest version of Office to date.
Shortly after the original scheduled update on the 27th of June, the public computers for the Castroville Public Library got a second update on the 3rd of July. This update however was to add Microsoft Office Professional 2007 on all computers. Now all patron computers have the Office program. It should be noted that with this new program, comes new file extensions. For example the new Microsoft Word 2007 file extension is docx. To make any file compatible with older versions of Office, one has to save them under 97-2003 file extension (for example, Microsoft Word 97-2003 document).
Computer Updates by Gerardo Flores
The Castroville Public library has made a few changes
The whole day on June 27, 2008 all of the patron computers weren’t available. The reason: badly need upgrades to the Castroville Public Library’s public computers. The updates included adding several programs (i.e. Adobe Reader), updating existing programs (i.e. Java updates), and even removing some programs (i.e. Deep Freeze). The biggest update however was the addition of three new programs: Time Limit Manager, Fortres101, and Clean Slate. These three programs function together to provide quality computer usage. Time limit manager allows the librarians to manager the time a patron is allowed. A patron must first ask a librarian for a pin with looks like the following:
For recreational purposes, patrons are given 30 minutes of computer time and shall be sent to a recreational computer. If the patron is working on a project (for example job searching) that patron is given an hour at a workstation computer. If needed the librarians shall provide more time (workstation computers only). Fortres101 allows the librarians to manage what certain computers may or may not do. For instance, the workstation computers are block from www.myspace.com and www.youtube.com. Clean Slate is the equivalent to Deep Freeze. Once a patron has run out of time, all work that has not been saved either online or on a USB flash drive shall be lost.
