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2024 Staff Favorites: Music and Movies

The White Plains Library Staff have assembled their favorite movies, music and television. It's a wonderfully wide-ranging list and should help with your holiday shopping or just some entertainment for yourself. Enjoy! Below you'll find a list with links to the catalog or resource where they're available as well as a blurb on why staff enjoyed it. On the Screen: The Booksellers  This documentary presents a lively view of New York’s antiquarian, rare-book scene and the fascinating, passionate collectors and dealers who inhabit it. The film is directed by D.W. Young and narrated by actress Parker Posey, with insightful comments
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.

2024 Staff Favorites for Adults

The White Plains Library Staff have assembled their picks for the year, featuring literary fiction, audiobooks, fantasy, music, and more. It's a wonderfully wide-ranging list, full of lots of surprises, and should help with your holiday shopping or just some entertainment for yourself. Enjoy! Below you'll find a list with links to the catalog as well as a blurb on why staff enjoyed it. Adults AI Prompt Writing by Emma Grimberg Whether you’re creating stories, art, or music, this guide shows you how to harness the power of AI prompts to bring your ideas to life in a whole new
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.

2024 Staff Favorites for Kids and Teens

The White Plains Library Staff have assembled their picks for the year for kids and teens! It's a wonderfully wide-ranging list and should help with your holiday shopping or just some entertainment for yourself. Enjoy! Below you'll find a list with links to the catalog or resource where they're available as well as a blurb on why staff enjoyed it. Kids: Elephant and Piggie Series and more by Mo Willems My first-grade son, who recently switched from a frustrated reader to an excited reader, devours Mo Willems' books – especially the Elephant and Piggie Series. He insists nightly that he reads one Elephant and
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, and Homepage Kids.

‘Wicked’ at Your Fingertips

Are you off to see the Wizard?  Or have you already seen Wicked, and now you can't stop humming Defying Gravity? Never fear, you can fully immerse yourself in all things Wicked for free with your library card on hoopla!  Listen to the film's soundtrack starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, or reminisce with the original Broadway cast recording featuring Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel. Read or listen to the book by Gregory Maguire that the movie is based on, and get ready for the forthcoming sequel by reading Maguire's Son of a Witch.  They even have a documentary about the stage production,
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Categories: Featured, Homepage, and Library News.

Local Food Pantries

Below is a list of active local food pantries. Schedules vary. Alcance Latino 346 S. Lexington Ave, White Plains, NY 10606 (914) 458-5088   El Centro Hispano 295 Central Ave, White Plains, NY 10606 First and Third of the month 3:00 p.m. (914) 289-0500   Grace Episcopal Church 33 Church St, White Plains, NY 10601 (914) 949-2874   Ridgeway Alliance 465 Ridgeway, White Plains, NY 10605 (914) 949-3714 Make the Road New York 46 Waller Ave, White Plains, NY 10601 (914) 948-8466 Salvation Army 16 Sterling Ave White Plains, NY 914.949.2908   Ecumenical Food Pantry Thomas H. Slater Center 2
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Categories: COVID-19, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.

Westchester Women: A Window into their Worlds Fiber Art by Heather G. Stoltz

Women often live multiple lives at once, trying to be the perfect mother, daughter, employee, boss, friend, and community member all while hiding challenges in one realm from those in another. Those carefully constructed walls came crashing down in 2020 when the pandemic forced everyone inside where those walls became windows and the different aspects of their lives began to merge together. This exhibition gives a glimpse of what was happening in some women’s lives during those tumultuous times. See how a women ranging from a priest to a doctor to a small business owner juggled the various aspects of
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Categories: Events, Featured, Gallery, Homepage, and Library News.

Featured Resource: The Shelf

What video streaming platform do library patrons in Latin America use? They use The Shelf. 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 – The Shelf 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 The Shelf’s expertly curated collection for premium entertainment. Grab your library card and click here to
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Categories: Homepage.

Short Story Book/Film Discussion – Fall/Winter 2024-25

Join White Plains Librarian and Fulbright Scholar Barbara Wenglin for our Zoom Story and Film Series using the rich anthology, Stories of Books and Libraries (ed. Jane Holloway, Everyman's Pocket Classics, 2023). Copies of the anthology are available to reserve through the Catalog with one held at the Reference Desk for reading in the Library. These vibrant and varied selections by diverse authors pay tribute to the written word in works published throughout history, to their readers, and to the intriguing places that house them. Click on these remaining dates for story and film selections:  12/5, 12/19, 1/2/25, 1/23/25 (final film
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Categories: Book Discussion and Homepage.

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.

Greater Mental Health of New York

Mental health is a vital component of overall well-being, influencing how individuals think, feel, and act in their daily lives. Despite its importance, many communities face significant barriers in accessing the mental health care they need. Financial constraints, social stigma, and a lack of local resources often prevent individuals from seeking help, exacerbating the challenges they face. In response to these issues, the White Plains Public Library and Greater Mental Health of New York have instituted a weekly service that enhances community well-being through accessible mental health resources. Every Tuesday, from 12:30-4:00 p.m., two peer specialists are available in the
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Categories: Featured and Homepage.

Forward & Out

Forward & Out is composed of 49 episodes, was made for the LGBTQ+ community, and was produced by the White Plains Cable station. The show was produced from 1993 through 1996, and was broadcast from January 1994 through January 1997. At its peak, Forward & Out was broadcast via cable and over-the-air to 1.2 million households in primarily the NY/NJ/CT area and as far away as Philadelphia. The show’s mission was to stimulate pride and raise self-esteem within the LGBTQ+ community by promoting a positive image, and to encourage greater tolerance and acceptance of LGBTQ+ people. Forward & Out hosted
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Categories: Featured, Homepage, and Local History.

How to Fight Censorship & Book Bans

On Monday, April 24, 2023 the first national Right to Read Day was held. Organized by the American Library Association (ALA), and kicking off National Library Week, Right to Read Day was established as a call to action in response to the past few years of attacks on access to, and even the existence of, certain books – overwhelmingly those with BIPOC and LGBTQ+ characters, themes, and information (check out the top 13 challenged books of 2022 to see what I mean). While ALA’s Unite Against Book Bans, and other organizations, highlighted going to the library and checking out banned
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, and Library News.

Artist Juliana Lemin Display

A display by artist Juliana Lemin is on view in a case outside the entrance to the Edge, our space for teens. Juliana Lemin is a 15-year-old Sophomore at Edgemont HS. She expressed her creativity in art since she was very little. When Juliana was five, she started taking art lessons with a Russian art professor Elena Nenastina. Later she began to study with another artist and renowned art teacher, Leonid Shoshensky. Juliana uses various media including chalk pastel, oil on canvas, watercolors, and graphite pencil. She is a published artist. Her works were represented in “Celebrating Art” catalog for several years. In
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Categories: Featured, Homepage, Library News, and Teens.

Most Popular 2023 Checkouts

Below is a list of the 2023 top ten most popular fiction, nonfiction, films, children's books, and YA titles based on the number of times they've been checked out from our collection. We told you what our staff loved last year, well, here's what was most popular among your fellow Library patrons. I'm sure you'll notice a few trends – our patrons really love Colleen Hoover, memoirs, Karen M. McManus, Dog Man, and Disney! Fiction Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (All available formats) Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (All available formats) It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover (All
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Meet Erika Peiffer

Please join me in welcoming our newest staff member, Youth Services Librarian Erika Peiffer. What interested you in becoming a librarian? I was working in television news for about four years, but I had the desire to have more of a direct interaction with the community (and maybe a work schedule that did not require me coming in at 3 in the morning). I was always passionate about information and news literacy and a good friend who was working on their Master in Library Science (MLS) encouraged me to look into librarianship. After starting my MLS and changing gears working
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Categories: Director's Corner, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

2023 Staff Favorites

The White Plains Library Staff have assembled their picks for the year, featuring literary fiction, audiobooks, fantasy, music, and more. It's a wonderfully wide-ranging list, full of lots of surprises, and should help with your holiday shopping or just some entertainment for yourself. Enjoy! Below you'll find a list with links to the catalog as well as a blurb on why staff enjoyed it. Fiction Chain Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah All available formats From the opening page you are hooked, violently, by this book. In this dark, dystopian future, prisoners held within the privatized penal system fight to
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Artificial, yes. Intelligent? hmmm…

An overview of Artificial Intelligence (AI) from a high level and critical perspective. Using Image Creation powered by Bing/DALL-E 3, the featured image to the left was generated with AI ∙ November 1, 2023 at 2:51 PM. I found my first encounter with an AI chatbot, ChatGPT, rather interesting. Below are my two questions and ChatGPT's responses from that encounter. You might be interested to know that my second question was paraphrased from the 1942 movie, The Man who Came to Dinner. User Should artificial intelligence act as the ultimate arbiter in identifying something as misinformation? ChatGPT Artificial intelligence (AI)
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Categories: Featured, Homepage, Technology, and Uncategorized.

Greenburgh Nature Center Pass Now Available

The White Plains Public Library is pleased to announce the addition of Greenburgh Nature Center in Scarsdale, NY to the Museum Pass Program. The Library pass provides free admission for two adults of the same household and all children under 18 to the Manor House, which is home to the Live Animal Museum, and its grounds. The Manor House is open Tuesday-Sunday, from 10am-4pm. There is a lot to see and discover within the walls of the historic Manor House. The first floor features animals and a greenhouse. Upstairs, visitors can come up close and hands-on with live animals from
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Categories: Featured, Homepage, and Library News.

Our Annual Report

In the past year, the Library has grown in every way imaginable while we continue to support our Strategic Plan. Our strategic goals infuse everything we do: promote equity, diversity and inclusion; expand community engagement; renew our infrastructure; improve sustainability; and learn from our experiences with COVID. We have acquired more content than ever, although you may not notice as much of it is digital. We’re circulating a range of items, from hotspots and laptops to museum passes. But more significantly, we’ve expanded our programs, with White Plains residents coming together to learn English, become citizens, discuss books, experience 360-degree
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Categories: Director's Corner, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.