New York City’s 206 public libraries play important roles in communities across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Since New York City’s neighborhoods are very diverse and each library is unique, the Charles H. Revson Foundation is asking: How does your local library help your community? What makes your local library special?

The strongest nominations will explain why a library branch should win this award, using specific examples and personal stories or anecdotes.

Five outstanding neighborhood libraries will each win a cash prize of $10,000. Nominate your neighborhood library today!

these are just so darn cute!!!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/19-wonderful-vintage-school-library-posters

The Bloomberg Administration’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposes slashing funding to libraries citywide by $106.7 million. Read more here: Albor Ruiz – New York City’s public libraries need their patrons to stand up against mayoral budget cuts (Daily News).

And while you are at it PLEASE sign a petition to let your city council member know that you love your library.

Queens Library

Brooklyn Public Library

New York Public Library

• computers and WiFi service;
• job search assistance;
• story time activities;
• technical skill programs;
• cultural events.

Learn more about the city budget issue by reading the Library’s preliminary budget testimony to the City Council. AND PLEASE EMAIL YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS!

[REPOST] Join Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) on Saturday, May 11 for Bike the Branches—a one-day bike ride to benefit the Library. Experience the borough and BPL like never before, while connecting with family, friends and fellow Brooklynites as you bike our network of 60 neighborhood libraries that serve each community.

Choose your own route and set your own pace as you visit as many of our branches as you want, or follow one of our suggested routes to take a tour of Brooklyn’s storied waterfront, literary history, culinary highlights or architectural gems. Sign up to ride as an individual or with friends and co-workers, and ask your friends and family to sponsor your ride for BPL.

Get your “passport” stamped at as many branches as you can visit between 10am and 5pm. Throughout the day, stop in at select branches to recharge and enjoy entertainment and fun activities, and top off the day at Central Library’s Finish Line Celebration from 5-7pm—you won’t want to miss it!

Register today to Bike the Branches and support Brooklyn Public Library with a rewarding day of wellness, literacy and community.

While searching for inspiration to satisfy my sweet tooth recently, I checked out “Baked Elements” by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito of Baked/Red Hook fame. I was most certainly inspired (hello booze, peanut butter, and malted milk powder), but something else also caught my attention. The authors’ photo wasn’t set in their bakery, but at the reading room of the New York Public Library on 42nd Street. Furthermore, librarians are acknowledged in their “thank yous”, so these gentleman bakers must have done research there, to boot! This GQ article will get you their recipe for Bourbon, Vanilla, and Chocolate Milkshakes. You’re welcome.

http://peoplesbudgetnyc.com/

The Central Library Plan (CLP), at enormous cost to New York City and its taxpayers, would irreparably damage the 42nd Street Research Library – one of the world’s great reference libraries and a historic landmark. The CLP would demolish the library’s historic book stacks, install a circulating library in their stead, and displace 1.5 million books to central New Jersey. The new circulating library would replace the Mid-Manhattan Library (at 40th and 5th Avenue) and SIBL (Science, Industry and Business Library, at 34th and Madison), which would both be sold off. Take action to stop the Central Library Plan and save the 42nd Street Library!  Please join us for a week of leafleting at the 42nd Street Library culminating in a rally on Wednesday, May 8th, during the meeting of the New York Public Library Trustees at the 42nd Street Library. Click here for more info.

When? Wednesday, April 24, 10:30 am – 12 pm

Where? Brooklyn Public Library Central Library, Dweck Center

Stop by the Big Brooklyn Playdate to enjoy fun games and activities that delight young children and encourage early literacy. Come to play and leave ready to turn ordinary objects in your home into your child’s favorite toys. The Big Brooklyn Playdate is just one wonderful way to play at the Library; Read, Play, Grow! programs are ongoing at many neighborhood libraries this spring. Visit bklynpubliclibrary.org/first-5-years for more information.

Created By Emily Lloyd of http://shelfcheck.blogspot.com/

Yeah, libraries rock. First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the United States each April, typically the second full week. Happy week fellow librarians and lovers of libraries everywhere.