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Foundation Gala

Foundation Gala

The Foundation’s 2023 Gala, Celebrating the Freedom to Read, will take place on Saturday, March 25th, from 7:00-10:00 p.m.  Please join us for dinner followed by a an entertaining program, (finally) together in the Library! The Foundation is honoring White Plains resident Oren J. Teicher, former CEO of the American Booksellers Association, Board member of National Coalition Against Censorship, and 2019 recipient of the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. In keeping with the theme, the Foundation is thrilled to welcome special guest Kerri Maher. She’ll be talking with us about her new
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March 20, 2023 10:02 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Events, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Foundation, Library Foundation, and Library News.
Tags: author events, author events in White Plains, Foundation, Foundation Gala, fundraising, gala, White Plains Library Foundation, and White Plains Library Foundation Gala.

“The Gratitude Project” Exhibit

“The Gratitude Project” Exhibit

Artist: Hilda Green Demsky “The Gratitude Project” Painting and Poetry Exhibit Interpretive oil paintings inspired by responses of 36 United States Poets Laureate to The New York Times inquiry “What people in their State would be thankful for” during the Covid pandemic. Demsky's exhibit will be on display in the Library's Gallery from April 3rd through April 28th, with an opening reception on Saturday, April 15th, from 2:00–4:00 p.m. Demsky will also give an Artist's Talk on Sunday, April 23rd at 3:00 p.m. This exhibit is part of the Library's celebration of National Poetry month. When thirty-six United States poets
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March 20, 2023 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Events, Featured, Gallery, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: art exhibit, art exhibit in white plains, art gallery, covid-19, Hilda Green Demsky, national poetry month, Observances and Celebrations, and poet laureates.

Women’s History Month Books & Films

Women’s History Month Books & Films

Celebrate Women's History Month with one of our staff selected books and films. See our staff curated Libby list here. Books She Came to to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar Library Catalog: Print / CD Audiobook Libby: eBook / Audiobook National Book Award nominee Erica Armstrong Dunbar presents a fresh take on this American icon blending traditional biography, illustrations, photos, and engaging sidebars that illuminate the life of Tubman as never before. Not only did Tubman help liberate hundreds of slaves, she was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the
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March 1, 2023 9:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: Observances and Celebrations, staff picks, staff recommendations, Women's History, and womens history month.

Kanopy Goes British

Kanopy Goes British

Looking for some of the best of British programming? We know how popular British TV series are, especially mysteries. So we’re very happy that the streaming video collection Kanopy is adding many new titles from the BBC Studios. To access the new BBC Studios collection, just go here. What will you find? The Inspector Lynley series, the classic Father Brown, the very popular Death in Paradise, Maigret, and more. Plus science fiction, thrillers, and comedy. So make a good strong cup of PG Tips, crack open a box of shortbread biscuits, and let it snow!
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February 28, 2023 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: BBC Studios, Kanopy, mysteries, streaming TV, and television.

Homework Help and Resume Assistance

Homework Help and Resume Assistance

Are you looking for a tutor for your child? Do you need help preparing for college entrance exams? Maybe you need assistance writing a resume or looking for a new job? With Tutor.com you can get expert assistance with all of the above and much more at no cost to you with your White Plains library card. Here are just a few of the resources available through Tutor.com: Connect with a live tutor on a variety of subjects from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Submit a paper for review – tutors will get back to you in 12 hours. Drop
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February 14, 2023 2:46 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Evergreen, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: homework help, job search help, library resources, resume help, tutor.com, tutoring, and tutors.

Igloo Virtual Experiences

Igloo Virtual Experiences

Attention all patrons! Get ready for a journey like no other as the Library invites you to explore new and exciting virtual experiences with our newly installed panoramic video room, the “Optimum Technology Room,” which uses technology installed by Igloo Vision. Thanks to the support of Optimum and the White Plains Library Foundation, we are now able to bring you 360 virtual reality content without the need for a headset. You'll be able to experience 360 videos, interactive immersive apps, 360 slideshows and more, all projected onto three walls in the room. Join us on Tuesday, February 7th at 12:15
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February 6, 2023 3:57 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Classes, Events, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Igloo, Igloo Room, Optimum Technology Room, and virtual reality.

Short Story Book Series: Spring 2023

Short Story Book Series: Spring 2023

Join White Plains Librarian and Fulbright Scholar Barbara Wenglin via Zoom to explore compelling selections from the rich anthology, Stories of Fatherhood, edited by Diana Secker Tesdell (Everyman’s Pocket Classics, c2014).  In varied settings and cultures, the collection gathers more than a century of timeless stories about having, becoming, loving and losing fathers. A copy of the book is on hold at the Hub/Reference Desk for reading in the Library with circulating copies available to borrow through the catalog. Zoom Register Here for full series and attend when you can! Thursdays from 2:00 – 4:15 p.m. March 23 “A Little
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January 31, 2023 11:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Book Discussion, Events, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: Barbara Wenglin, book groups in Westchester, book groups in White Plains, Short stories, short story book discussion series, and short story discussion groups.

Edward Steinberg Photo

Edward Steinberg Photo

Edward C. Steinberg (1942-2018) worked for White Plains from 1970 to the mid-1990s in the Urban Renewal Agency and later as Commissioner of Planning. He helped build the Galleria, the Transportation Center, the Public Safety Building, the Westchester Mall, and the Federal Courthouse. He was also a photographer, and recently his widow donated three of his photographs to our local history collection. One is of the Transportation Center, one shows workers pouring cement, and the other the demolition of a building.  Part of the pouring cement photo is shown below (it doesn’t say what building it was for, unfortunately). Feel
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January 24, 2023 10:59 am | by | 2 Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage, and Local History.
Tags: local history and white plains collection.

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide

Volunteers from AARP will prepare taxes free of charge on select dates beginning February 1st through April 17th. Appointments are required. Just one appointment is needed. To make an appointment, call 914-348-3467 or email 500177589@aarpfoundation.org (please note: if you call and leave a message, when the call is returned the number will not say AARP so please pay attention to the above number and answer the call). At your scheduled appointment time, please bring the following: 1. Copy of last year's federal and state tax return 2. W-2 forms showing income from your employer 3. 1099-R forms showing pension or
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January 24, 2023 10:25 am | by | 7 Comments
Categories: Events, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: AARP Foundation Tax Aide, AARP Tax Aide, tax help, tax prep, and tax preparation.

English Conversation Group

English Conversation Group

English Conversation Group Thursdays 2:00–3:00 p.m. Community Room Our English Conversation group returns in February. The Library is offering adults who speak English as a second language the chance to meet and converse in English. This program is free and open to learners age 18 and up who want to improve their English conversation skills. Attendees are welcome and encouraged to bring conversation topics. Refreshments will be provided. No registration required. For more information, contact Austin at 914-422-6922. Grupo de conversación en inglés Los jueves a la 2:00 p.m. La Biblioteca Pública de White Plains ofrece a los adultos que
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January 24, 2023 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Español, Events, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: english as a second language, English Conversation, english conversation group, and Grupo de conversación en inglés.

Lunchtime Meditation 2023

Lunchtime Meditation 2023

Our popular Lunchtime Meditation series returns to Zoom this January. This wellness program includes brief beginning instruction followed by meditation. No experience is needed. A variety of guest instructors will lead the program from 12:00–12:45 p.m. on the following Wednesdays: January 25: Sharon Lewis February 1: Seth Segall February 8: Daniel Lauter February 15: Sharon March 1: Seth March 8: Andrea Deierlein March 15: Russ Michel March 22: Sharon March 29: Dan Cayer April 12: Seth April 19: Andrea April 26: Sharon May 3: Andrea May 10: Seth May 17: Sharon May 24: Dan June 7: Seth June 14: Andrea
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January 18, 2023 9:36 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Events, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: lunchtime meditation, lunchtime meditation at the library, Meditation, meditation classes in White Plains, mindfulness, Wellness, wellness classes in white plains, Wellness programs, and Wellness Wednesdays.

Most Popular 2022 Checkouts

Most Popular 2022 Checkouts

Below is a list of the 2022 top five 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, Dog Man, and Disney! Fiction The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Library Collection / Libby) It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover (Library Collection / Libby) Verity by Colleen Hoover (Library Collection / Libby)
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January 17, 2023 1:58 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: book recommendations, books, end of year lists, film, patron favorites, top checkouts, and tv.

Booklist Reader

Booklist Reader

Need help deciding what to read next? Then pick up a free copy of Booklist Reader. The Reader includes new titles, available in print and audio, top graphic novels, books on a theme–like traveling on foot–plus books for teens and children, including picture books and biographies. Included in every issue are interviews and profiles of authors and illustrators. Copies of the Booklist Reader, a publication of the American Library Association, can be found in the Hub area on the first floor as well upstairs in the Trove. Many of the titles in the Reader are owned by the Library, but
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January 11, 2023 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: book recommendations and Booklist reader.

Rotary Club Events

Rotary Club Events

The Rotary Club of White Plains holds many of its programs at the Library, and everyone–Rotarians or not–are invited to attend. Follow the newsletter to keep up with presenters and dates. All programs take place in the Library's auditorium on the second floor, adjacent to the gallery. The speaker for January 17th is Robin Davies-Small, Executive Director of YesSheCan, Inc. Yes She Can Inc., a Westchester based non-profit founded in 2013, is dedicated to helping young women with autism and related disabilities develop transferable job skills and workplace social skills – through authentic work experience. We serve teen girls in
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January 4, 2023 9:59 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Events, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: Rotary Club, Rotary Club of White Plains, and YesSheCan Inc..

Banned Books Photobooth

Banned Books Photobooth

Get caught reading a Banned Book in the Library's Lobby! Take a “mugshot” holding your favorite banned or challenged book with our “crime” sign in front of our backdrop. Post your selfie to social media using the hashtag #WPFreedomtoRead OR upload your photos to our website here. We'll add your “mugshots” to this page and our gallery as they come in. We'll also have a pop-up photobooth at upcoming #WPFreedomtoRead events where staff can take your photo. “Mugshot” Gallery:
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December 31, 2022 11:26 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Events, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: #WPFreedomtoRead, banned books, Banned Books Photobooth, Banned Books Week, and library staff.

Meet Donna Gehlmann

Meet Donna Gehlmann

Please join me in welcoming our newest staff member, Youth Services Librarian Donna Gehlmann. What interested you in becoming a librarian? I have always loved books and reading. Going to our public library as a child with my mom and sister is a happy memory for me. I have volunteered at my son's school (in the libraries) and seeing the joy on all the children's faces when they come to the library has left an impression on me! Why did you decide you wanted to work with youth? I was a 2nd grade aide for three years and loved being
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December 20, 2022 3:52 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Director's Corner, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.
Tags: Donna Gehlmann, library staff, Meet the Staff, and staff interview.

2022 Staff Favorites

2022 Staff Favorites

The White Plains Library Staff have assembled their picks for the year, featuring mystery, audiobooks, fantasy, 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 or resource where they're available as well as a blurb on why staff enjoyed it. Fiction Murder at the Savoy by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Library Catalog This is the sixth novel in the Martin Beck series, Beck being the go-to detective in Sweden's National Homicide Squad
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December 14, 2022 10:00 am | by | 6 Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage, and Local History.
Tags: staff favorites, staff picks, and staff recommendations.

Book ‘Em 2022-2023

Book ‘Em 2022-2023

Join us for the return of Book ‘Em, our popular crime fiction book group. This season we'll be reading the best in crime fiction from 2022 and early 2023, ranging from traditional mysteries to thrillers to suspense. We will continue to meet on Zoom; check our online calendar for the link. Book ‘Em meets from 2:30-3:30 p.m. To request or check out a title, click on your preferred format. We hope to have more copies and formats available in the future. Some titles have yet to be published so we will add catalog links as they become available. Click here
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November 25, 2022 10:51 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Book Discussion, Director's Corner, Events, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: Book 'Em, book discussion, book group, mystery, mystery book discussion, mystery book group, and mystery books.

Opening of Optimum Technology Room

Opening of Optimum Technology Room

This morning, the Library hosted a ribbon cutting for our new Optimum Technology Room, which uses Igloovision, software that provides an immersive experience. Imagine being in a room in which the walls serve as your computer display, effectively putting you inside a wrap-around 12k television. Or think of a room as a giant walk-in Virtual Reality (VR) headset, except one in which the immersive experience can be shared with one or more others. This is the concept behind the Igloo, an immersive workspace created by Igloovision. Any kind of digital content can be shown on the walls of an Igloo:
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November 16, 2022 11:08 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Director's Corner, Featured, Homepage, and Library News.
Tags: Altice, Optimum Technology Room, press release, technology, and white plains library.

Daughters of America: Digest of the Day

Daughters of America: Digest of the Day

Recently a member of the local Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) chapter viewed the Local History Room’s file on the DAR.  She noted that the last item in the file belonged to the Daughters of America, not the DAR, and was curious what that group was. The item in question is a 36-page booklet called Digest of the Day, published in 1930 by the Daughters of America’s Martha Washington Council No. 8 in White Plains. According to The International Encyclopedia of Secret Societies and Fraternal Orders, the Daughters of America was “a female auxiliary to the Junior Order of
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November 12, 2022 9:48 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage, and Local History.
Tags: Daughters of America, local history, white plains collection, and white plains history.