Keeping you up-to-date on what's happening at your library. We invite you to join in the conversation!
MARCH 31, 2009
Need to catch up on your Oscar winners?
Once upon a time, I would make it a point to see all of the movies that were nominated for major categories at the Oscars. In the last few years, though, I haven't managed to see them all before the ceremony. If you're like me and missed them in the theaters, why not watch them now and see if you agree with the Academy's choices? Many of the major nominees are already released and available on DVD at the library, and others are on order.
Most of these titles are in hot demand and you will need to place your name on a hold list to borrow them. To place a hold, call the library at 693-5800.
In our collection now: Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture winner, Best Director winner) Milk (Best Actor winner Sean Penn; nominee for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor) The Visitor (Best Actor nominee Richard Jenkins) Rachel Getting Married (Best Actress nominee Anne Hathaway) Changeling (Best Actress nominee Angelina Jolie) Frozen River (Best Actress nominee Melissa Leo) Tropic Thunder (Best Supporting Actor nominee Robert Downey, Jr.) The Dark Knight (Best Supporting Actor winner Heath Ledger) Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Best Supporting Actress winner Penelope Cruz) Bolt (Best Animated Feature nominee) Kung Fu Panda (Best Animated Feature nominee) Wall-E (Best Animated Feature winner) Man on Wire (Best Documentary Feature winner)
Coming Soon: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (release date May 5) Doubt (release date April 7) Frost/Nixon (release date April 21) The Reader (release date April 14) Revolutionary Road (release date June 2) The Wrestler (release date April 21)
During February we added more than 450 new items to our collection. Here is just a sample:
Fiction Lauren Graff, Delicate Edible Birds Slavenka Drakulic, Frida’s Bed Helen Garner, The Spare Room Robert B. Parker, Night and Day Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care Lewis Robinson, Water Dogs Dana Stabenow, Whisper to the Blood Olen Steinhauer, The Tourist Paul Waters, The Republic of Vengeance Elie Wiesel, A Mad Desire To Dance
Non-Fiction Mark Bauerlein, The Dumbest Generation Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum, Keeping Bees and Making Honey Stephen Johnson, The Invention of Air Stephanie Klein, Moose Ann Mendelson, Milk Phyllis Montana-Leblanc, Not Just the Levees Broke David Reed, Mortgages 101 Eric Sundquist, King’s Dream Neil DeGrasse-Tyson, The Pluto Files Jena Waginrich, Made from Scratch
Biography Brad Gooch, Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor George M. Marsden, A Short Life of Jonathan Edwards
Books on CD James Patterson, Run for Your Life Stuart Woods, Mounting Fears
In honor of Youth Art Month in March, Canton Public Library will display the artwork of the talented artists in every level of the school system. The art will fill the Children’s Room of Canton Public Library from March 3rd to April 15th. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, March 11 from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM. Light refreshments will be served.
The exhibit will feature approximately 100 pieces from students in kindergarten through grade 12 and will include a variety of media, from three-dimensional ceramic and sculptural pieces to two-dimensional work including watercolor, colored pencil and more.
Deborah Beaudoin, the art teacher at Canton Intermediate School who is organizing the show, said, "This is a wonderful opportunity for the Canton community to see the fabulous work that our students create within our schools. The YAM Art Exhibit also demonstrates the sequential growth of our students as they excel through the grades. We are fortunate to be in a town where the arts are valued and supported."
The schools represented in the show are Cherry Brook Primary School, grades K-3, with art teachers Kezia Hearn and Ellen Raposo; Canton Intermediate School, grades 4-6, with art teacher Deb Beaudoin; Canton Middle School, grades 7-8, with art teacher Linda Klusek; and Canton High School, grades 9-12, with art teachers Renee Hughes and Roselyn Marino.
Ms Beaudoin added, "Canton Public Schools have a strong art curriculum in line with both the State and National Visual Arts Standards. Students are exposed to a variety of media, techniques, artists and art movements."
Stop by the Children’s Room and be prepared to be impressed. Students and parents will have a bigger exhibit space than the refrigerator, and library patrons will be treated to the lively, colorful, and creative work of our schoolchildren.
"Kill-a-Watt" electric use meter available for loan
Folks are counting their pennies these days, and Canton Public Library now has available another weapon in the arsenal for saving money. Through the generosity of a patron, the library has received a “Kill-a-Watt” electricity usage monitor.
The device enables a homeowner to determine the power consumption of an appliance by the kilowatt-hour. The electrical expense can be figured out by the day, week, month, or year. The device also evaluates the quality of the electrical power being supplied by the utility company by monitoring voltage, line frequency, and power factor. The unit features a large LCD display.
The Kill-a-Watt meter may be checked out from the library using your library card, just as you would check out a book. The meter circulates for one week and is available at the Circulation Desk. Any questions? 693-5800.
Canton Public Library’s display case will feature a model of the packet boat the DeWitt Clinton, which traveled on the waters of the Farmington Canal in the early 1800s, carrying canal passengers between New Haven and Northampton, Massachusetts. The model is part of the gallery exhibit “The Farmington Canal in the Farmington Valley.” The De Witt Clinton is on loan from the New Haven Museum and Historical Society.
Library hours are Monday-Thursday 10:00-8:00, Friday and Saturday 10:00-5:00, and Sunday 1:00-4:00. For information: (860) 693-5800.
"The Farmington Canal in the Farmington Valley" exhibit in the Gallery
Today, canal travel conjures images of floating through exotic landscapes, far from the demands of office and commerce. Two hundred years ago in the Farmington Valley, however, canal travel meant speedier travel than could be had by stagecoach along rutted and often muddy roads. Canal barges were also a spur to commerce and manufacturing.
For the months of March and April, Canton Public Library’s Gallery will feature an exhibit titled “The Farmington Canal in the Farmington Valley.” The exhibit recreates, with maps, photographs, and paintings, the remarkable feat of engineering and hard work that brought canal travel to the towns of Farmington, Avon, Simsbury, and Granby in the early 1800s. And although the Farmington Canal did not pass through Canton, the town nevertheless took advantage of its proximity to the “port of Avon.”
The Farmington Canal, which in fact ran from New Haven to Northampton, Massachusetts, was in use for only twenty years and was superseded by the railroad. During its heyday, however, it fostered commerce, manufacturing, and travel. With packet boats transporting passengers and barges transporting freight, the Canal wound through the Farmington Valley landscape and brought the wider world a bit closer.
Included in the exhibit are copies of the original engineering drawings for the entire Connecticut portion of the Canal. The exhibit also features aerial maps showing the route of the Canal through the four towns. Photographs and paintings capture life on the Canal and the structures built—bridges, culverts, aqueducts, and towpaths—to accommodate a canal passing over rivers and through the landscape.
Although the railroad and the automobile wiped out much of the Canal, a few vestiges remain. And the rails-to-trails network in the Farmington Valley, which incorporates some of the Canal’s route, takes bikers, joggers, and skaters through the same landscape once enjoyed by canal-goers on Sunday outings.
The exhibit is made possible in part through the generosity of long-time canal enthusiast Arthur W. Sweeton, III, whose interest in railroads and canals has served as inspiration for the show. The exhibit has benefited greatly from the expertise and collection of Dr. Carl Walter, who has spent nearly two decades accumulating anything and everything about The Farmington Canal.
Dr. Walter, along with his colleague Ruth Hummel, will be giving a talk on “The Farmington Canal in the Farmington Valley” at 2:00 PM on Sunday, March 8, followed by an opening reception for the exhibit. Dr. Walter will then be available at the library for questions and conversation on three more days during March: Monday, March 9 from 10:00 AM-12:00 NOON; Tuesday, March 17 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM; and Wednesday, March 25 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
The exhibit will run from Monday, March 2 through Thursday, April 30. Canton Public Library is at 40 Dyer Avenue in Canton. Library hours are Monday-Thursday 10:00-8:00, Friday and Saturday 10:00-5:00, and, through the month of March, Sunday 1:00-4:00. For information: (860) 693-5800 or www.cantonpubliclibrary.org
