Celebrate National Mentoring Month by Becoming a Mentor

ITHACA—The Tompkins County Public Library and the Ithaca Youth Bureau’s One-to-One Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ithaca and Tompkins County program invites you to learn about becoming a mentor at their first-ever Mentoring Mini-Fair, Thursday, January 31, 2008 from 4-7:00 PM in the Library’s Ezra Cornell Reading Room.

If you are over 18 and interested in making a difference in the life of a local student aged 6 to 14, the Mentoring Mini-Fair is the perfect place for you to learn what it takes to get involved.

The Mini-Fair will feature information about the application process, which programs need volunteers and the opportunity to meet real “bigs and littles”. Refreshments will be available and the fair is designed to work around busy schedules-- participants may stay for a few minutes or a few hours.

For more information, contact Carrie Wheeler at (607) 272-4557 extension 248.

Ithaca High School Quintet to Perform at Library

The Tompkins County Public Library will host Ithaca High School’s jazz quintet, the Players, as part of its Music on Sundays series, Sunday, January 27, 2008 at 2:00 PM in the Library’s Ezra Cornell Reading Room.

Directed by Ithaca City School District teacher Jim Scarpulla, the Players are: Zack Knewstub and Josh Jacobsen on piano, Owen Erikson on drums, Walter Stinson on bass and Mike Strupp-Levitski on alto sax. The quintet plays instrumental pieces from many periods in jazz history

This performance is free and open to the public.

Music on Sundays is made possible by the Tompkins County Public Library Foundation through a grant from the Brooks Family Foundation.

Robert Rogers Puppet Company

Come to Tompkins County Public Library to delight in the performance of The Robert Rogers Puppet Company in the Borg Warner Room on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 from 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM. The puppets are beautifully crafted and bring to life the tales that are performed.

This free program is made possible through a grant from the Brooks Family Foundation. It is recommended for children five years and older. For more information please contact Youth Services at (607) 272-4557 ext, 275.

Library Needs Volunteers

The Tompkins County Public Library is looking for volunteers to help empty book bins and shelve audio-visual materials.

Volunteers would be asked to dedicate their time-usually one to two hours per shift- to a regular, recurring schedule. Day, evening and weekend shifts are available—with daytime hours comprising the most immediate need. Up to two people can work at any time, so it may be possible to volunteer with a friend and help keep your favorite titles on the shelves.

This opportunity involves moving books from return bins to carts so that they may be checked back in by Library clerks and re-shelving audio materials. AV materials make up more than 40 percent of our total circulation, so this is a vitally important task.

Volunteers for this position must be able to stand for the duration of their shift, push a cart and lift books and AV materials. Training will be provided.

For more information about this or other volunteer opportunities at the Library or to apply, complete an application online at http://www.tcpl.org/volunteer.html#application or contact John Cohen at jcohen@tcpl.org or at 272-4557 ext. 226. Applications may also be picked up at the Library.

Library and Cornell Center for Materials Research to Offer Program on Magnets

Families are invited to explore how magnets interact with different materials, learn about the magnetic field and investigate the relationship between electricity and magnetism during the next Families Learning Science Together Program at the Tompkins County Public Library.

Families Learning Science Together is sponsored by the Library and the Cornell Center for Materials Research. Each FLST encourages families to share the love of learning by exploring a different scientific subject.

The program on magnets will be held Saturday, January 19th from 1:00 to 2:00 PM in the Library’s Thaler-Howell Program Room.

Reserve a spot today by contacting Kevin at outreach@ccmr.cornell.edu or call 254-8256. This is a free program open to the public, but space is limited.

A Year of Art at the Library

The Tompkins County Public Library is pleased to announce its 2008 Series A year of Art at the Library.

January through March features a very different exhibit – Unnamable Name – an installation within the book-stacks organized by Ithaca/NY City -based artist Todd Ayoung. Twenty artists, working locally and internationally and using a variety of different media, were asked to create work for underused non-art spaces inside the library which address the repetition, persistence and notion of the "unnamable", as a sighting between identity, or the naming of a category. The opening reception will take place from 3:30 to 6:30 pm on Friday January 18 in the book-stacks and the Borg Warner Community Meeting Room. You are invited to walk the stacks, meet the artists, and enjoy original interpretive music by Chris White in the Borg Warner Community Room at 5:30 pm.

The second exhibit, Streetscapes, curated by British graffiti artist Jay Potter will be on display during April and May. Streetscapes, an inherent appreciation of urban culture in all its dangerous, poetic, authentic and sometimes rebellious glory, will feature a collection of work that draws on creativity and inspiration from our urban surroundings. Using a mixture of diverse media, artists will explore the influence of sincere, straight-from-the-gut expression. The exhibition will include paintings, working sketches, stencil art, sculpture, found objects, collage, installation, graffiti and other mixed media.

June brings Visual Culture at Ithaca High School with the return of our annual student art exhibition. The exhibition is curated by members of the High School art faculty and will include two and three-dimensional artwork, ceramics and photography.

The summer exhibit – Manipulated Reality : Photography will be on display July through September. Curated by David Watkins Jr., the exhibit will feature the work of ten photographers. The emphasis will be on how photographic images can be changed/manipulated for good, ill or art. Each artist will be able to show a small body of their work. A panel discussion at the opening reception will explore the artistic value of this manipulation.

The last exhibit of the year, Quilted Masterpieces, curated by Maureen Jakubsson and Aafke Steenhuis will be on display from October through December. The exhibit will feature the work of some of the area’s most innovative quilters and include unique as well as traditional designs.

2008 – A Year of Art at Tompkins County Public Library is made possible in part by a grant from the Community Arts Partnership. For further information about each exhibit, dates of opening receptions, please go to www.tcpl.org/exhibits.

Unnamable Name Exhibit – January through March 2008

Unnamable Name – January through March 2008
An installation within the book-stacks organized by Ithaca/NYC based artist Todd Ayoung

3 Hitches - the image on the right is taken from the video Double Take, by Johan Grimonprez. A clip from this work-in-progress is included in the exhibit.

The library’s 2008 Series A Year of Art at the Library opens with a very different exhibit – Unnamable Name. Search for the exhibit within the book-stacks.

Unnamable Name is a group exhibition organized by the Ithaca/NYC based installation artist Todd Ayoung that includes works by visual artists working locally and internationally and using a variety of different media. Artists were asked to create work for underused non-art spaces inside the Tompkins County Public Library that addresses the repetition, persistence and notion of the "unnamable", as a sighting between identity, or the naming of a category.

Participating artists include: Martha Rosler, Phill Niblock, Johan Grimonprez, Elisabeth Cohen, Jane Jin Kaisen, Ayisha Abraham, Greg Sholette, Rit Premnath, Kim Asbury, Buzz Spector, Dread Scott, Janet Koenig, Toby Greenberg, Katherine Liberovskaya, Kenseth Amstead, David Diao, Jacob Tell, Mierle Ukeles, Jenny Polak and Jeff de Castro with a Catalogue essay by Jelena Stojanovic and opening music by Chris White.

The opening reception will be held in conjunction with the Light In Winter Festival and take place from 3:30 PM to 6:30 PM on Friday, January 18th in the book-stacks and the Borg Warner Community Room. Walk the stacks, meet some of the artists, and enjoy original interpretive music by Chris White in the Borg Warner Community Room at 5:30 PM.
Chris White will perform a live improvised soundtrack on electric cello to Samuel Beckett's "film" (1965) in the Borg Warner Community Room at 5:30 pm.

Learn, Love, and Laugh with the Tompkins County Public Library’s Mother – Daughter Book Club

The Tompkins County Public Library invites all girls ages ten through 13 and the special women in their lives to join the Library’s Mother-Daughter Book Club.

In addition to reading and discussing wonderful books each month, participants will have the benefit of being led by acclaimed children’s author Emily Rhoads Johnson. Roads Johnson is the author of Spring and the Shadow Man, A House Full of Strangers and Write Me If You Dare.

“What a bonus to have an author of children’s literature offer insight into the selected novels,” Adelle Leise, youth services librarian, said.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club provides a wonderful opportunity for participants to learn about themselves and others by discussing literature. There is no right or wrong answers during Club meetings, simply open discussions where all input is valued.

The group will meet once a month for seven months in the Thaler/Howell Room. The fourth meeting will be held on January 13, 2008 from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM.

The title to be discussed for January is, A Girl Named Disaster, by Nancy Farmer. A complete list of the titles selected for the group can be found at www.tcpl.org/youth/programs/motherdaughter.html.

Registration for the Club is appreciated but not required. For more information, contact Adelle Leise at (607) 272-4557 extension 277.

The Mother-Daughter Book Club is made possible by the Tompkins County Public Library Foundation through a grant from the J.M. McDonald Foundation.

Depression: Resiliency Across the Life Span -- Annual Conference on Depression

The fourteenth annual conference on depression, Resiliency Across the Lifespan, is coming Wednesday, January 9, 2008, 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., at the Borg Warner Rooms, Tompkins County Public Library, 201 E. Green Street, Ithaca. The conference is free and open to the public.

A keynote talk will be given by Ellen deLara., PhD, LCSW-R. Her research is in adolescent development and school violence, with expertise in bullying from a systemic perspective. Author of many articles, her book on this topic, co-authored with Dr. James Garbarino, is And Words Can Hurt Forever: How to protect adolescents from bullying, harassment, and emotional violence. Dr. deLara is on the faculty of the School of Social Work, Syracuse University and is a faculty fellow, Family Life Development Center, Cornell University. She is in private practice in Ithaca.

The conference offers workshop sessions on children’s depression; Circle of Courage, a treatment modality used by Franziska Racker Centers’ Counseling for School Success program; Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT); and Powerful Tools, a support strategy for family caregiver of older adult family members.

To register, please call the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County, 273-9250; for accommodation of a disability in order to attend please call the Finger Lakes Independence Center, 272-2433 (v/TTY), call by Friday, January 4th.

Conference sponsors: Family anf Children’s Services Homecare Program, Finger Lakes Independence Center, Mental Health Association in Tompkins County, Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service, Tompkins County Office for the Aging, and the Tompkins County Public Library.