Posts by Susan

April Events for Adults

  April showers, bulb plants emerging through soil, Earth Day celebrations…April is also the home of National Library Week, and we've been busy planning a plethora of enjoyable activities for you. From literary occasions to lunchtime meditations to book discussions to informal crafting circles, you'll find plenty of ways to love life with your library this April.     FEATURED EVENT: An Afternoon with Author Esmeralda Santiago Sunday, April 6, 2pm Auditorium Join us at the White Plains Public Library for a special afternoon with award-winning author Esmeralda Santiago! Known for her powerful memoirs, including When I Was Puerto Rican
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Categories: Events, Featured, and Homepage.

Happy Irish-American Heritage Month!

Readers seeking shamrock green reading material this Irish-American Heritage Month will find riches to explore. The Emerald Isle boasts an expansive and varied literary tradition. Writers who hailed from Ireland include the mystical poet W.B Yeats, stream-of consciousness novelist James Joyce, absurdist playwright Samuel Beckett, and satirists Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. The widely popular fantastical classics Dracula and The Chronicles of Narnia series were penned by Irish authors Bram Stoker and C.S. Lewis, respectively. More recent authors include Edna O'Brien, whose novels stirred controversy in their depiction of women's experience; Maeve Binchy, whose novels and short stories often
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Categories: Authors & Books and Homepage.

Celebrate Women’s History Month With Us!

     Even though women gained the right to vote in August of 1920, the legislators who proposed that Congress establish a Women's History Week (the precursor to Women's History Month) in 1980 chose a week in March. Taking into account the heat of August, they envisioned March's cooler weather and cherry blossoms for their marches. Also in March's favor was the existence in March of International Women's Day, celebrated since 1910. The founders' image of marching especially resonates with the theme of this year's commemorative month, “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations.” Though women helped found and build
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Categories: Authors & Books, Events, Featured, and Homepage.

New WLS Mobile App is Now Live!

The new WLS mobile app has launched and is ready for you to use! Enjoy the convenience of using the catalog from your mobile device. Be sure to remove the former WLS mobile app from your device. Then go to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to find WLS Mobile (published by ByWater Solutions), and download. Log in with your library card number and your pin (the last 4 digits of the phone number we have on file for you, unless you have changed it to something else). Experience the seamlessness of having the library catalog with you wherever
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Categories: Featured, Homepage, and Library News.

Canned Food Drive

You may notice that calendars mark February as National Canned Food Month. Why is this the case? The answer dates back to the inspiration for its invention. In February, 1795, the French government required a way to feed its troops in enemy territory and offered a cash prize for an invention that would ensure both food preservation and transportability. After fourteen years of experimentation, confectioner Nicholas Appert claimed the prize with a method that involved putting food in jars, sealing, and then boiling them. (Shortly thereafter, an innovation of using tin cans – more durable and less likely to explode
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Catalog Spotlight: Reading History Option Now Available to You

Do you keep a reading log? Maybe you jot down titles of novels you’ve enjoyed so you can recommend them to friends. Or maybe you refer to a list of cookbooks you've perused so you can re-find an interesting recipe. Or maybe it gives you a sense of accomplishment to see all the books you've read and revisit the thoughts that led you to them. It may interest you to know that our catalog now gives you the option to record your reading history! This is an optional service that you will need to opt into, as the default setting
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Categories: Library News.

Featured Resource: Estante

What video streaming platform do library patrons in Latin America use? They use Estante. And with your library card, you can too! Providing a plethora of Spanish language entertainment – from action-adventure movies to TV series (including telenovelas!) to recorded live performances to children’s cartoons, and more – Estante offers something for everyone and every viewing occasion. Use the “Advanced Search” to find content by country and subtitles, if desired. (The collection includes some content with English and/or Spanish subtitles.) Rely on Estante’s expertly curated collection for premium entertainment. Grab your library card and click here to take your viewing
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Categories: Homepage.

Featured Resource: Mango Languages

Have you always wanted to learn Swahili? Maybe you have a need to use Spanish in a business setting? Are you looking to learn English? Learning platform Mango Languages offers courses for over 70 world languages and dialects. It also provides specialized courses in Spanish for business, legal, medical, and more contexts and English as a second language for speakers of 21 different native languages. The self-paced courses focus on conversation, through a user-friendly interface that allows you to see and hear the words at the same time and the ability to replay the audio as many times as you
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Categories: Uncategorized.

New Resource: The CIA’s World Factbook

Are you looking to travel internationally or launch a product in another country’s market? The CIA’s World Factbook is a useful resource with which to begin your research. It provides basic intelligence on over 260 country/territory entities around the world, including population, demographics, government, economy, energy, geography, environment, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues. Though earlier editions were classified for U.S. policymakers and officials, the CIA now makes The World Factbook publicly available on the internet, where it finds widespread use among students and academic researchers. Go to Resource
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Categories: Homepage.

The Dia:Beacon: Museum Pass Available Now!

What effect do environments we walk through have on us? And if they affect us, are they in a sense art? You may find yourself asking these or similar questions when you visit the Dia:Beacon museum, which as a White Plains Public Library cardholder you can now do with our new Dia:Beacon Museum Pass. The Greek word “dia” means “through,” and this museum celebrates conceptual art about space and environment. Operated by the Dia Art Foundation, the Dia:Beacon offers works from the ‘60s to the present. Its collection features many long-term exhibits including Andy Warhol’s “Shadows” (1979), a series of
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Categories: Featured, Homepage, and Library News.