Non-resident Fee Increase

The Homer Library will be raising the fee for non-resident library cards beginning July 1, 2014. We would like to give our current non-resident patrons a break on the cost. If you renew your membership before July 1st, you can do so at the present rate of $35, and we will extend your membership for a full year from your current expiration date. After July 1, 2014, the non-resident fee will increase to $37.00. This increase is being made to keep up with rising costs, and to equalize non-resident fees with fees that residents pay through their property tax bills.

If you live inside the Homer Village limits, you pay property taxes that support the library.  If you are a resident and don’t have a library card, why not? You are already paying for the same benefits that our paid non-resident card holders receive.

For the most part, the Homer Community Library is supported by the real estate taxes of property owners who live within the boundries of the Village of Homer. However, we are considered to be the designated library for everyone within the Homer School District who does not pay taxes to another library. Paid memberships are required of patrons living in Homer Township (outside the Village limits) and for those families living in Allerton, Broadlands, and Longview. If  you live in Vance Township or in the Sidell Library limits check with those libraries to see if  you are eligible for a card from them – you may be paying taxes to support one of those libraries.  If you do have a library card from another area library you can still use the Homer library as a reciprocal borrower.

For others whom the Homer Community Library is their designated library, a small membership fee is required if they wish to borrow items from the Library. This fee is calculated by determining the average tax that a property owner in Homer pays for library privileges, currently $37.00 a year. The fee covers all family members living under the same roof.

For less than the cost of a restaurant meal, or the price of two books, your Homer Library Card will provide you with access to more than 24,000 items which you can borrow—or enjoy at the Library. These items include over 2400 movies, many current magazines, the use of 5 desktop and 2 laptop computers, audio books, large print volumes, 21,500 plus books, hundreds of CDs, and reference works along with Mango – an on-line language learning program with over 40 languages to choose from. Also, as a member of the Homer Community Library, you’ll gain access to the Illinois Heartland Libraries System, enabling you to borrow from dozens of regional libraries.

Whether you are a resident or a non-resident we hope you will take advantage of the great benefits the library has to offer.  We’d be happy to give you a tour of our collection – just come on in during open library hours.  The Homer Community Library is open Mon., Tues., Thur., & Fri. from 2-7pm; Weds. 9am-2pm; and Sat. 10am-2pm. If you’d like more information call us at 217-896-2121 or email us at homerlibrarian@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events!

June 2014 Events

Homer Community Library

May 31  All Day!

Find Us at Homer Soda Fest
The Library will be holding a fundraising toss-game and raffle at Homer Soda Fest! You will have the chance to win many prizes including a Kindle, $50 and $25 gift cards, and a wine tasting at Wyldewood Cellars. 

For more info on Soda Fest go to: http://homersodafest.wordpress.com/

June 3  1pm

Summer Reading Program Kicks Off
This is the first day of our 6-week Summer Reading Program, ‘Paws to Read’. For more info, just ask the librarian.

June 7  2-4pm

40^th Anniversary Open House
40 years ago the Village of Homer voted on a tax referendum to make us an official tax-supported public library! Join us for cake and punch and see how much has changed in the last 40 years.

June 11  1pm

Movie Matinee:   The Monuments Men
Based on the true story, an unlikely World War II platoon is tasked by FDR with going into Germany to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves. How could these guys - seven museum directors, curators, and art historians possibly hope to succeed? But as they  found themselves in a race against time to avoid the destruction of 1000 years of culture, they would risk their lives to protect and defend mankind's greatest achievements.
Rated PG-13                                        runs 118 min

June 20  7pm

Free Family Movie Night:  The Lego Movie

This story follows Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared.
Rated PG                          runs 1 hr 40 min

Lot's of New Stuff at the Library

We have started off the month of May with a bang  - or at least a large order of books! We have new books in for every age group and both fiction and non-fiction.  

We have the newest releases from popular authors such as Stuart Woods, John Sandford, David Baldacci, Richard Paul Evans, and James Patterson.  We also have two recent best-sellers in adult fiction from authors you might not recognize as well; Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.  We are also adding new mysteries in our paperback collection.  If you haven't checked out the Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries by C.S. Harris you might find them interesting. They take place in Regency England - a place where gentlemen duel with pistols at dawn, fortunes are won and lost at a turn of the card, a decades-old war has turned Europe  into a ravaged battlefield, and in London, a child of six can be hanged for stealing a handkerchief.  This is the world of Sebastian St. Cyr, heir to an earldom, disillusioned Army officer, and now detective. As the author writes, "Think Mr. Darcy with a James Bond edge..."

We are also adding to our young adult collection.  We are keeping up with the series we currently have an are adding new ones frequently.  We have the newest additions to both the Chronicles of Nick by Sherrilyn Kenyon and the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer and have just added the first two books of the Virals series by Kathy Reichs.  We are also adding many of this year's Printz award winning and honor books.  The Michael L. Printz award is an American Library Association literary award that recognizes the "best book written for teens, based entirely on its literary merit".  

We haven't forgotten our younger patrons, either! We just got in some cute picture books including the newest Mo Willems book, The Pigeon Needs a Bath.  If you aren't familiar with Mo Willems, he does two really popular sets of books, the Pigeon books and the Elephant and Piggie books.  And there is so much new in our Junior collection that I am going to save that update for a future article.

Don't forget, Friday May 16th is our Free Family Movie Night. This month we will be showing The Nut Job.  An incorrigibly self-serving exiled squirrel finds himself helping his former park brethren raid a nut store to survive, that is also the front for a human gang's bank robbery.  This movie is rated PG and runs 86 minutes. The movie starts at 7pm. -- 

Events for May

I am a little late getting this posted so we have already had our Madeline Tea Party.  It was a lot of fun and I think we all learned a little something about table manners!  Here are the rest of the events for this month.  And just a heads up..... June 7th will be our 40th Anniversary Open House so save the date and join us for some cake and punch!

May 2014 Events

Homer Community Library

May 3  2pm

Madeline Tea Party
Do you remember the Madeline books? “In an old house in Paris that was covered with wines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines…” The first Madeline book was published 75 years ago – help us celebrate her 75^th birthday!

May 13  7pm

Library Board Meeting

May 14  1pm

Movie Matinee:   Philomena
When she fell pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee (Judi Dench) was sent to the convent to be looked after as a fallen woman. She cared for her baby for three years until the Church took him from her and sold him, like countless others, to America for adoption. Coerced into signing a document promising never to attempt to see her child again, she nonetheless spent the next fifty years secretly searching for him, unaware that he was searching for her from across the Atlantic. Rated PG-13                                        runs 98 min

May 16  7pm

Free Family Movie Night:  The Nut Job

Surly (Arnett) is a mischievous squirrel with a mission: to find the tastiest nuts for winter. When he discovers a whole store filled with his favorite food, he plans a heist of nutrageous proportions. But the place turns out to be owned by ruthless bank robbers, so it’s up to Surly and his furry friends to stop the nearby bank heist and save the town.
Rated PG                                      runs 86 min

What's Going On at the Library

It has been a loooooong time since I've updated the blog.  It seems like an easy enough task but somehow it always gets pushed back to the end of my To-Do list.

We've been really busy here.  Circulation is up which means there's a lot more shelving to be done! And we've been buying/sorting/processing new and donated materials.  We put in an order for newly released books generally twice a month, new movies once a month and new (or needed) cd's for our Hunter Music collection at least once a month.

We have also gotten in a TON of donations of all varieties: books, movies, and music cd's which we've been sorting and processing.  Because our shelves are pretty full we are being fairly selective on the donations we catalog and put in the collection.  Which means....

WE HAVE A TON OF BOOKS FOR SALE!
Through the entire month of March we are running a 'cleaning house' book sale. New items go out on the sale tables at least once a week.  Hopefully we will get a lot sold before April 1st comes around.

We will also continue our practice of having a book sale during Homer's Town Wide Garage Sales. These will be held the first Friday and Saturday of May so if you didn't get the chance to get out here for this book sale, you have another opportunity coming right around the corner!

We are still keeping up with our monthly event schedule.  We have our Movie Matinee on the 2nd Wednesday of every month at 1pm.  These movies are geared to the interests of local retirees. We also have our Free Family Movie Night on the 3rd Friday of each month at 7pm.  We keep these movies to rated G or PG so parents can bring their young kids.  It is a great way to take your kids to a movie and see if they are ready to sit through the whole thing - if not, you can just get up and leave without worrying about the $8-10 you would have spent on a ticket at a regular theatre.

We are also getting ready for our Summer Reading Program.  This year's theme is "Paws to Read" so will be heavily animal oriented.  This program is open to all kids going into kindergarten through 5th grade.

We also have been working on a lot of behind the scenes projects such as writing grants, sending in required reports to the library system and the state, and also trying to get our collection uploaded to OCLC for easier access for other libraries.

If you haven't been in for a while, come on in and see what's happening.  There is always SOMETHING going on at the Homer Community Library.

November Events

November 2013 Events

Homer Community Library

Nov. 12  7pm

Library Board Meeting

Nov. 13  1pm

Movie Matinee:   Parkland
PARKLAND recounts the chaotic events that occurred in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Written and directed by Peter Landesman and produced by Playtone partners Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, Bill Paxton and Exclusive Media's Nigel Sinclair and Matt Jackson, PARKLAND is the ferocious, heart-stopping and powerful true story never told of the people behind the scenes of one of the most scrutinized events in history.  
Rated PG-13                                        runs 133 min

Nov. 15  7pm

Free Family Movie Night:  Monster’s U
Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are an inseparable pair, but that wasn't always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn't stand each other. "Monsters University" unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.
Rated G                                      runs 1 hr 35 min

Nov. 21  7pm

Family Reading Night
Join us for a Pajama Party after the library is closed! We will dim the lights, pop some popcorn and read our favorite picture books.

Newly Added Titles This Fall

I thought I should start adding our new items to our blog.  The list is usually too long to send to the paper in whole and I know many of you do not get our monthly email letting you know what's new.  If you would like to get the email please contact us, otherwise, here are the new titles we've added this fall.  This one does not include music cd's.  I will post a separate blog with those and try to add them to this one in the future. 

Adult Fiction & Non-Fiction
W is for Wasted	Sue Grafton
The Longest Ride	Nicholas Sparks
Docor Sleep	Stephen King
Gone	James Patterson
Chile Death	Susan Wittig Albert
Wormwood	Susan Wittig Albert
Nightshine	Lynn Viehl
Starry Night	Debbie Macomber
Holly Blues	Susan Wittig Albert
Mourning Gloria	Susan Wittig Albert
southern comfort	fern michaels
Storm Front	John Sanford
Blindsided	Fern Michaels
Sycamore Row	John Grisham
Doing  Hard Time	Stuart Woods
The Wolves of Midwinter	Anne Rice
Jumpstart to skinny	Bob Harper
Talent Code
Killing Jesus	Bill O'Reiley
Videos
Great Gatsby
Epic
The Croods
Unfinished Song
We've added about 2 dozen donated movies.
Easy Books
Hello, My Name is Ruby	Philip Stead
The Day the Crayons Quit	Drew Daywalt
Junior Fiction & Non-Fiction
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
Sphdz Book 4	Jon Scieszka
Darkwing	Kenneth Oppel
The Wyrum King	Tony DiTerlizzi
Path of Beasts	Lian Tanner
Tentacles	Roland Smith
Chupacabra	Roland Smith
Julie of the Wolves	Jean Craighead George
Young Adult Fiction & Non-Fiction
Michael Vey 3 : Battle of the Ampere	Richard Paul Evans
Mouse Guard: The Black Axe	David Peterssen
Fault in Our Stars	John Green
The Moon & More	Sarah Dessen
Collosus Rises - Seven Wonders bk 1	Peter Lerangis
Reason to Breath	Rebecca Donovan
The Scorch Trials	James Dashner
House of Hades	Rick Riordan
The Death Cure	James Dashner
Revealed	P.C. Cast
Barely Breathing	Rebecca Donovan
Allegiant	Veronica Roth
Audiobooks
A Foreign Country	Charles Cummings
Narnia Audiobook set	C.S. Lewis

It's a BIG, BIG, BIG Book Sale!

The Homer Community Library will be having it's twice a year BIG book sale on Saturday, October 5th from 8am until 2 pm. We have hundreds of books to choose from including quite a few children's books this time around. We have a lot of books by John Grisham, James Patterson, Nora Roberts (and J.D. Robb), along with quite a few other popular authors. There are both hardback and paperback books, some have been donated and others have been taken out of the library collection. The book sale will be in the library at 500 E. 2nd St. If you've never been to the library this is a great opportunity to come in and see what services we have to offer.

While you're here, stop in for the Village Hall garage sale and buy a street sign!

It's That Time Again - Banned Book Week!

We love banned book week here at the Homer Library- not because we love the idea of banning books but just the opposite - we love to show our patrons some of the absurd reasons books have been challenged or successfully banned from other school or public libraries.

As one high school student noted, "Jailing books shuts out ideas" and "Free People Read Freely".  I like both of those sentiments.

Here at the Homer Community Library we want you to Celebrate Your Freedom to Read!

 

In honor of Banned Book Week, the Homer Community Library is once again spotlighting books that are frequently challenged or banned.  We are beginning our annual Banned Book reading incentive on Sept. 23rd and encouraging our patrons to read one (or many!) of the books that are found on the American Library Association's list of frequently challenged books. Every time you check out a book from this list we will add your name to a drawing for a $25 gift card.  We will continue this reading incentive through the end of December.

 

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Libraries and schools around the nation use this week to highlight the value of free and open access to information. This is a great opportunity for the book community to come together in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular.

 

Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship.  The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read.  You might be surprised at what some people think should be restricted.

 

This year we are proud to partner with the local school district and will be displaying  Banned Book posters made by Freshmen students at Heritage High School. Come on in and see some student art work and learn more about what the your local library has to offer you!

Lots of Movies at the Library!

Did you know that the library offers much more than just books?  The Homer Community Library is here for both your educational and entertainment needs.  To this end, each month we purchase a few movies just released to DVD to add to our movie collection.  We currently have over 2000 movies, 1500 of them on DVD. Yes, this does mean we still have some favorites on VHS tapes so if you still have that old VCR, there is somewhere you can come and find something to watch!  Anyone with a valid library card can check out movies.  There is no charge to check them out but, be careful – there is a $1.00/day late fee if you don’t bring them back on time!  Regular movies circulate for 2 days and non-fiction movies (this would include exercise DVDs) circulate for 2 weeks. 

The library also has a movie license which allows us to show movies on-site.  This is why we are able to hold our two monthly movie events.  We usually show movies newly released on DVD for both our Movie Matinee and our Family Movie Night.  We try to keep the rating for our matinee to PG or PG-13 and our family movie to G or PG.

 Our Movie Matinee is held on the second Wednesday of each month at 1pm. On Sept. 11^th,  the library is showing the newest version of The Great Gatsby for our Movie Matinee. The Great Gatsby follows Fitzgerald-like, would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby, and across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her philandering, blue-blooded husband Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles. This movie is rated PG-13 and runs 142 minutes.

Our Free Family Movie Night is held on the third Friday of each month.  This month, Sept. 20^th, we are showing Epic. Epic is an animated adventure comedy that reveals a fantastical world unlike any other. From the creators of Ice Age and Rio, Epic tells the story of an ongoing battle between the forces of good, who keep the natural world alive, and the forces of evil, who wish to destroy it. When a teenage girl finds herself magically transported into this secret universe, she teams up with an elite band of warriors and a crew of comical, larger-than-life figures, to save their world...and ours. This movie is rated PG and runs 103 minutes.

If you have questions about our movie collection, events, or anything else, please give us a call at 217/896-2121 or email us athomerlibrarian@gmail.com.  We will be happy to assist  you.

Homer Library Begins 2014 Calendar Fundraising Effort

Beginning August 12th and continuing until completion about December 10th of this year, the Homer Library will once again produce and sell the "Homer Community Library Calendar.” Begun in 1965 by the Homer Lions Club, the Calendar became the Library’s primary fundraising activity in 2006 when the Lions Club disbanded. Since then the Calendar has raised $27,640.43 in much needed funds for the Library, according to figures provided by K.C. Jones, Library Treasurer and Calendar Chairperson.

A volunteer project, the Calendar netted $3602.24 last year. Subsequently, this profit was used to pay 12.18% of the Library’s FY 2012 expenses. Real estate taxes plus a State of Illinois per capita grant contributed another $18,982.28 in income, or 70.82%—nearly all of which was used to pay for Library salaries, the online catalog service fee, and membership in Illinois Heartland Library System. The remaining 17% of Library expenditures were paid from income generated by membership fees; fines; printing, copying and fax services; monetary donations; sales of discarded materials; and fundraising efforts other than the Calendar. For comparison, a recent newspaper article mentioned that the Champaign Public Library receives 92% of its income from taxes. The same report also said that they required an infusion of cash from the City of Champaign in order to meet their commitments. In contrast, thanks to the generous participation of Homer residents in Library fundraising efforts, especially the Calendar, the Homer Library has continued to operate in the black—even in these trying times. However, without Calendar income, it would not be possible for the Library to maintain its current level of support for programs and purchases of new materials, including books, movies, music CDs, magazines, and reference works.

For the past several years, more than a third of yearly Calendar income has been allocated to the “Reading Is Fundamental” (RIF) program. This now defunct federal program was designed to improve child literacy by giving, in our case, 400 to 500 books per year to kindergarten through fourth grade students in Heritage School District. Thanks to Calendar income, the Library has been able to continue this popular program despite the lack of federal assistance. Fortunately, children's book publishers have continued their RIF discounts. But the Library doesn’t know how much longer they will continue to do so since their federal aid has also ended. For this reason alone, the Library staff hopes community support for this yearʼs Calendar will meet or surpass this year's goal of $4000.

Although the Library is the sole recipient of Calendar income, everyone in Heritage School District can benefit from Calendar funds. According to Illinois State law, Homer is the official Library for the other communities and townships in Heritage School District because they are without a Library of their own. Heritage School District residents who live outside the Village limits of Homer may obtain a Homer Library card for just $35—the average amount Homer residents pay for Library privileges as levied on their real estate tax bills.

The Calendar will be mailed in mid-December, as it was last year, to every household, business, and farmstead in the Village of Homer and South Homer Township. These mailings, at just 14.5¢ each, are made possible by a U.S. Postal Service program that encourages mailings to every household in a given zip code. In the next month or so, a Library volunteer will be calling on families who have recently moved to Homer to ask if they will contribute their listings to the Calendar. Listings consist of anniversaries and birthdays of Homer family members that are printed on the relevant dates of the Calendar, along with meetings of civic and religious organizations. The charges for listings are the same as last year: one or two listings; just $6.00; additional listings are $1.00 each. If anyone wants an extra Calendar, a donation of $10.00 will be very much appreciated.

Previous Calendar patrons will be sent an email or postcard that shows their current listings. Patrons who wish to resubscribe to the Calendar just need to send in or drop off payment at the Homer Library for the amount billed. The deadline for payment is September 30, 2013 and checks should be made payable to the Homer Library. Changes and or corrections to listings, or new requests to be added to the Calendar, may be sent to Homer Library, Attn: K.C. Jones, 500 E. Second St., Homer, IL 61849. Patrons with questions may telephone K.C. at 531-7856, or email him at caseyjonz@comcast.net The Library requests that past patrons and advertisers please reply promptly when they receive email and postcards regarding the renewal of Calendar subscriptions. Doing so eliminates future mailing costs, insures that funds raised are used for Library support and not for postage, and provides the Library with the funds to pay Calendar production costs.

The staff and Trustees of the Homer Community Library wish to sincerely thank all those Calendar patrons who have in the past so generously supported the Library’s annual Calendar fundraiser—some for many years. They also ask that you please help make this a successful fundraising year by keeping or adding your listings to the 2014 Calendar or by making a donation.

Book Sale Money Helps Us Buy New Stuff!

The library is having its semi-annual Big Book Sale. We always have a small book sale up but from now until May 5th we will have extra tables with books, movies and some Great Courses audio books. We have books for all ages, toddler to adult and both fiction and non-fiction. Every time you purchase books from our book sale you are helping us to buy new books and movies for the library. We work on a really tight budget, so every penny helps!

This time of year is a big time for new releases in both books and movies. Most of the Academy Award nominated movies are being released on DVD and and book publishers are gearing up for the summer reading season.

We’ve recently cataloged several new books and movies we think you’ll enjoy. For adult fiction books we have Whiskey Beach by Nora Roberts, The Guardian by Beverly Lewis, Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner, Chance by Karen Kingsbury, Starting Now by Debbie Macomber and we should be getting in David Baldacci’s Day of Doom very soon.

We have started a couple new series in the junior collection – The Wide-Awake Princess series by E.D. Baker and the Dear Dumb Diary series by Jim Benton. We got in a fantastic book for older kids/junior high age: “How They Croaked – The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous”. This is a 2012 Notable Children’s Book award winner and give great history lessons while detailing the ends of notable figures through history such as Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Christopher Columbus, and Marie Antoinette. This is actually a really fun book for all ages, not just kids.

For new movies we just got in Lincoln, Life of Pi, Argo, The Hobbit, and Rise of the Guardians. We’ve added about two dozen ‘new to us’ donated movies and six more Disney movies that we didn’t have, including: Up, G-Force, The Secret of the Wings, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

The Homer Library Celebrates National Library Week with Fine Amnesty

The Homer Community Library is joining other libraries nationwide in celebrating National Library Week, a time to highlight the value of libraries and the services they offer to a community.

Service to the community has always been the focus of the library. While this idea hasn’t changed over the years, how we serve our public has changed a great deal. Libraries today are more than repositories for books. While the library is still a great place to read quietly, do homework, or use our computers, it is also a great place for people to gather to reconnect and engage with each other and will their community.

The Homer Community Library serves the Village of Homer, South Homer Township and the Heritage School District by providing books for all ages (with elementary and junior high level books marked with their Accelerated Reader levels), audio books, movies, public computers, printing/copy/fax services, and programs for all ages throughout the year. Every month we offer a Movie Matinee for our retired patrons and a Third Friday Movie Night for our families with kids.

Every year the Homer Community Library celebrates National Library Week by holding a fine amnesty period. This year our amnesty will go from April 8-20th. You know that library book you just realized you’ve had out for months and is WAY overdue? Or that video that you now have a $10 fine for? Now is the time to return these items and we will forgive your fines! We really just would like the items returned. If you are too embarrassed to bring it in and face the librarian (although very few of us actually bite) you can drop off items in the outside drop boxes. Just please return DVDs to the DVD box and not the book drop! We really dislike losing a patron over some overdue items so take advantage of fine amnesty so we can go back to serving your library needs.

April is Poetry Month!

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? Started by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when schools, publishers, libraries, bookstores, and poets throughout the United States band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of organizations, including the Homer Library, will participate through readings, book displays, workshops, and other events.

The Homer Library will have books on poetry for all ages on display as well as copies of some of our favorite poems. Are you a poet? We'd love to display some works by local poets and are hoping to be able to display some of the poems done by Heritage students like we've done in the past. Are you a poet and just don't know it? Visit our poem activity table and have fun with poetry related mazes, word games, and drawing activities. And, of course, we will be encouraging patrons to check-out poetry books by offering a reading incentive prize drawing at the end of the month - every time you check out a poetry related book you can enter to win!

Arts 4 All!

Did you know that March 11-17th is Illinois Arts Education Week? It is a great time to appreciate all of the fine arts – dance, drama, music, and the visual arts! The library is a great place to discover the arts through books, movies, and cds.

There is a lot of information on the arts in the library for all ages and not just in the non-fiction collection. There are many Easy picture books that introduce young children to colors and textures and many books for children on how to do arts and crafts.

We also have some wonderful junior fiction books that incorporate the arts. One of my favorite is “Chasing Vermeer” by Blue Balliett. In this book, kids are able to explore a whole new world of adventure and art when a precious Vermeer painting disappears and eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder need to combine their talents to solve an international art scandal. You can even find the arts in the 39 Clues adventure series. In the book, “One False Note”, Amy and Dan Cahill are in the lead to find thirty-nine clues that safeguard a great power, and are in possession of a coded sheet of Mozart's music that will help them find the next clue while their relatives follow in close pursuit. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get every kid who reads this book to also check out one of our Mozart music cd’s?

We, of course, have a large collection of art and art history books in our non-fiction collection but we also have dozens of Great Courses lecture series in either non-fiction audiobooks or dvds. These include lectures on different musicians and musical genres, artists and art history, drama, and even courses on how to listen to and understand great music. We also have several award-winning musicals on dvd and a great collection of classical music on cd.

The arts don’t have to be intimidating – don’t forget that current movies are also part of the arts. This week we have both of our movie events. On Wednesday, March 13th we are showing The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel at 1pm and on Friday, March 15th we are showing Wreck It Ralph for our Free Family Movie. Come on out and enjoy some art at the library!

Knitting is coming to the library!

The library is partnering with some ‘crafty’ Homer area residents to offer knitting lessons. Starting in March, the Homer Craft Club with meet on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month at 6pm. The Club will offer a quiet place to meet and work on your crafts (all crafts - scrapbooking, jewelry making, knitting, crocheting, quilting, etc.), get new ideas, and maybe even get the motivation to start something new. AND, a couple of the members are willing to teach knitting as part of the library’s programming. The class will be open to all ages but we will have to limit the number of kids to make sure we have enough teachers. If we have anyone under 13 interested, just please call the library and sign up ahead of time.

For the first 45 minutes of the first 4 meetings, a member (or two) will be available to teach some basic projects. The first project will be making a hand-knitted wash cloth. These are great to use in the kitchen or give as gifts. Each participant will need to bring some yarn (a ball of Lily’s Sugar ‘n Cream cotton yarn is suggested) and a short pair of size 9 or 10 knitting needles. The supplies should not cost you more than $5-6. The library will try to have some supplies on hand for emergencies. We will also display some of our knitting books to get you motivated to try for even bigger and more complex projects! The first knitting class will take place on March 8th. We are looking forward to working with the Craft Club on other ventures. For more information on the knitting class you can contact the Homer Community Library at 896-2121 and for more information on the Homer Craft Club you can visit their FaceBook page at www.facebook.com/HomerVillageCraftClub.

Did you know the Library also has a Facebook page? Search for Homer Community Library and ‘like’ us for updates on programs, additions to our collection, and other fun library facts.

The Newberys Are Coming! (and a whole lot more!)

There's a lot happening at the library this week! The latest award-winning books for kids and teens have been announced and we have begun are annual reading incentive program to get kids and adults to check out and enjoy one of the many Caldecott, Newbery, YALSA award-winning books that we have at the library. Each time you check out one of these books you will have your name entered into a drawing for a pair of headphones. We will run this program until the end of April so come on in and pick up a Newbery! We will be getting in many of this year's winners over the next two months but have dozens of previous winners to choose from now.

This Saturday, February 9th is the second installment of our "Digging Deeper" gardening program. It is not too late to start attending if you are interested. The program will start at 10am and go for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

We have both of our monthly movies showing this week. On Wednesday, Feb. 13th at 1pm we will be showing "The Lucky One" for our Monthly Movie Matinee. Based on a Nicholas Sparks book, U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault returns from his third tour of duty in Iraq, with the one thing he credits with keeping him alive--a photograph he found of a woman he doesn't even know. Learning her name is Beth and where she lives, he shows up at her door, and ends up taking a job at her family-run local kennel. Despite her initial mistrust and the complications in her life, a romance develops between them, giving Logan hope that Beth could be much more than his good luck charm. -- (C) Warner Bros

On Friday, Feb. 15th we will have our Family Friendly Movie Night. This month, in honor of the Newbery's, instead of showing a recently released family film, we are going back to one of my childhood favorites, "The Secret of NIMH". This movie, based on the award-winning book, "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert O'Brien, follows the story of some runaway rodents with an earth shattering secret. Mrs. Brisby, a mild-mannered mother mouse will do anything to save her family from Farmer Firtzgibbon's plow. Unfortunately, Mrs. Brisby will need an engineering miracle to save her home and for that she must face a mysterious rat, fend off a ferocious cat and claim a maic amulet! But when Mrs. Brisby discovers the astounding secret of NIMH it could change her life forever. A timeless tale of love, courage and determination, this movie will transport the whole family into an enchanting world where the bravest hearts live in the meekest of mice. I hope everyone enjoys this movie as much as I did and maybe it will inspire someone to pick up the book it was based on. I remember immediately re-reading this book when I first finished it because I became so involved with the characters I couldn't bear to let them go.

January 2013 Library Event Calendar

This month’s display of books includes two different displays of picture books and junior books – one featuring Pirates! and the other featuring winter and snow.

Jan. 8 7pm Library Board Meeting

Jan. 9 1pm Movie Matinee: Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson makes films about small worlds in which big things happen: love, heartbreak, calamities, death. In his latest, the wondrous storybook tale “Moonrise Kingdom,” a girl and a boy, both 12, run off to a remote inlet on an island where most of the adults seem disappointed and more than a little sad. The girl and the boy are very serious — about love, their plans, books, life itself — and often act older than their age. She wears bright blue eyeliner; he puffs on a corncob pipe. You wonder what their hurry is, given that here adulthood, with its quarrels, regrets and anguished pillow talk, can feel as dangerous as the storm that’s hurtling toward the island, ready to blow it all down. — Manohla Dargis Rated PG-13 93min

Jan. 12 12:30-2 “Digging Deeper” Garden Program

This is the first of 3 programs. With guest speaker, Laura Wetzel, from Urbana, the group will meet at the Homer Village Hall on the second Saturday of January, February, and March from 12:30 - 2pm to learn more about growing annual veggies and perennial food crops. Topics of interest for beginner to advanced gardeners will include soil preparation, composting and fertilization, raised bed gardening, and much more.

Jan. 18 7pm Free Family Movie Night: Ice Age: Continental Drift

Scrat's nutty pursuit of the cursed acorn, which he's been after since the dawn of time, has world-changing consequences - a continental cataclysm that triggers the greatest adventure of all for Manny, Diego and Sid. In the wake of these upheavals, Sid reunites with his cantankerous Granny, and the herd encounters a ragtag menagerie of seafaring pirates determined to stop them from returning home. -- (C) Official Site Rated PG 1hr 34 min

Did you know you can search our card catalog from home?
Go to http://opac.libraryworld.com

It will ask for the library name, type in Homer Library

There is no password so just click on “Login” Now you can search our card catalog to see if we have a particular item andif it is available for check out. You can also ‘Request a hold’ and we will receive an email asking us to hold that item for you!

2013 Gardening Series is Coming!

We know it seems like winter has just begun but it is never too early to start thinking about spring!

The Homer garden group along with the Homer Community Library is preparing another three-part series of gardening programs.

With guest speaker, Laura Wetzel, from Urbana, the group will meet at the Homer Village Hall on the second Saturday of January, February, and March from 12:30 - 2pm to learn more about growing annual veggies and perennial food crops. Topics of interest for beginner to advanced gardeners will include soil preparation, composting and fertilization, raised bed gardening, and much more.

Come and join us during these dreary winter day to start planning your garden for 2013!

There Be Pirates!

Her Ladyship, Captain Linda, has arranged some spine-tingling, heart-chillin, swash-bucklin fun for ye.

Set yer sails for 500 E. 2nd Street in Homer on Friday, December 28th.

We'se be expectin ye to be here by 10:00 bells and ye can go back to yer lovely mums around noon.

We'll turn ye into a pirate before we're done or my name ain't Captain Linda!

Shiver me timbers, I forgot to tell ya, don't be late or you'll walk the plank for sure!

Remember - all young pirates are welcome to come even if ye don't live in Homer or have a library card. And if any of ye land-lubbin adults would have some time to spare that day, we'll be puttin ya right to work on one of these pirate activities. Call the library if ye think ye can help! 896-2121