Cranbury Public Library

Pilot program : Introducing our new library coffee cart!!

dbaldwin — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:04:57 +0000

The library is proud to be offering a new pilot program here to make you morning and afternoons with us just a little more pleasant. Starting today, between the hours of 10am-2pm, the library coffee cart will be available for you to purchase a cup of flavored coffee, or tea, while you are here! A cup of coffee or tea from the cart is currently priced at $1.25 and the Keurig K-cup container (flavor of your choice) can be purchased at the circulation desk.

As part of this program pilot, the coffee cart will be available for your enjoyment everyday, Monday-Saturday, between the hours of 10am and 2pm.

If you have any comments or suggestions as we launch this program, please let us know!!

Have you tried our new TumbleBooks yet?

dbaldwin — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:00:02 +0000

We are really excited this month to announce our newest online resource for children from pre-K on up to 3^rd grade : Tumblebooks!! This product provides you access to more than 300 interactive book titles, both fiction and non-fiction. These interactive titles, accessed from your web browser, provide audio narrative, animation, and other interactive features that really make the books come alive for young ones, and really fun to use for both you and your children. Many of the titles are from major publishers and will be easily recognizable to you!

As if that were not enough, currently fifty of the titles provided can also be used on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch (with fifty more to come!) Note, that for Android mobile device users, you should be able to access the full collection of Tumblebooks if you have Adobe Flash enabled on your device, otherwise the Apple compatible titles for sure.

The service additionally comes with more than 200 online educational games and puzzles to go along with the books providing hours of fun while also reading and learning! Finally, there are also books available in languages such as Spanish, French and Russian, along with bilingual (Spanish/English) books for children who speak and read in a foreign language, or live in a bilingual household.

To access this wonderful new resource, click on the TUMBLEBOOKS logo on the right sidebar or in this post. Happy reading!

Children’s Book Week @ The Library – May 6-12!!

dbaldwin — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:34:22 +0000

Be prepared to have fun and celebrate reading during Children’s Book Week at the Cranbury Public Library, May 6-12.

Monday, May 7 - Toddler Story Time (10am) and Reading with Rover (3:15-3:45pm)

Stay and play with other 12-36 month olds and their caregivers and share stories, songs, and reading readiness activities during our Toddler Time. Then, for the older kids, register to read with a special pooch visiting the library who loves to hear stories during Reading with Rover!

Friday, May 11 – Fun on Friday (3:30-4pm)

Special Children’s Book Week craft. Grades K-5, while supplies last

The following programs will be going on all week!

“Wrap Yourself Up in a Book”

Surprise yourself with a special read from our selection of wrapped books! Yuo won’t know what it is until you check it out!

Green Light… Go!

Children recommend books to their peers in a special display. Green Light… go check out this book!

The @ Your Library Podcast – May 2012 (Episode 2)

dbaldwin — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:55:44 +0000

In this month’s podcast, I cover the full slate of library programs for May, some tech news and notes from the prior month, as well as our newest service : Tumblebooks.

Links referenced in this month’s podcast episode:

Announcement of WWDC and Apple iOS update

PC World – Best Free Mobiel Apps, Free Software and Web Services (2012 edition)

Fifth-generation WiFi is coming

Facebook “Likes” Instagram for $1B

Enjoy the podcast! And remember, you can subscribe to our podcast using this feed:

http://cranburypl.posterous.com/rss.xml

Or, subscribe via iTunes using this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/podcasts-from-cranburypl/id514719675

Featured Program : Savvy Investment Matters for Her

dbaldwin — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:27:55 +0000

Saavy Investment Matters for HER

Tuesday May 15 at 7pm at the Library

Ann Marie Woods, Regional Vice President for New York Life/Mainstay Investments, will show women how to take a more active role in their finances. No registration is required for this program.

Opportunities for FREE Financial Training with Morningstar

dbaldwin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:23:09 +0000

Through our financial database, Morningstar (to use it, see the logo on the right sidebar), the following FREE seminars are being offered to any who are interested in attending via their computer. Feel free to take advantage if the mood suits you.

How to Create a Portfolio You Don’t have to Babysit

Wednesday, April 25
5:30pm Central Time
Morningstar Headquarters
Morningstar investing experts Christine Benz and Paul Justice will lead this session. They will discuss how to find an appropriate stock, bo nd, and cash mix given your time horizon and personal situation, how to select low-cost, high-quality investments to populate your portfolio, and how to keep your emotions from having a negative impact on your investment results. The presentation will also include sample “no babysitting required” portfolios for investors at various life stages.

If you’re interested in attending the session live in Chicago, please register here by April 17. If you or your library patrons are interested in viewing the session from home, we will be streaming the event live from this link: morningstar.com/goto/moneysmartweek

Please note, you do not need to register for the online session and the link will not work until the day of the event.

Morningstar Investment Research Center Training Sess ion

Thursday, April 26
3:00pm Central Time
Online
This webinar will provide an overview of the Morningstar Investment Research Center database’s most popular features and will last approximately one hour, with ample time for questions. To join the training session, please visit this link on the day of the event: morningstar.com/goto/mswmirctraining

You may listen on your computer speakers or dial 1-800-549-9585. Use conference code 400 519 7.

Share these events with your library community by printing our Money Smart Week Flyer found here.

Please let me know if you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you at Morningstar’s Money Smart Week events!

Friends Annual Membership Meeting, Thursday April 19th @ 7:00pm

jmurphy — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:23:41 +0000

April is the month of the annual Friends Membership program at the Cranbury Public Library. This year’s speaker is Pam Hersh, VP of Community Affairs at the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro. Join us on Thursday, April 19 at 7:00 p.m. as she talks about the new hospital and other health-related facilities that will be opening in Plainsboro this May. The opening of the medical center will have a large impact on the area in many ways. This is a great opportunity to get all your questions answered about the new facilities! Representatives from the new Princeton Fitness & Wellness Center will also be on hand to provide information on their new facility and special wellness “gifts”.

The Friends meeting will start off the evening, and members will vote on the new executive board for the 2013 fiscal year. Plan to join us for this special event.

Doug Baldwin Receives Special Recognition

jmurphy — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:31:55 +0000

Cranbury Public Library Celebrates Employees

On March 30th the Board of Trustees of the Cranbury Public Library hosted a Staff Appreciation Event to thank the library employees for their outstanding service during the past year. This year the Board also recognized employee Doug Baldwin for his excellent service to library patrons. Doug began working at the Cranbury Public Library in January 2008. Since then he has taken over all the library technology responsibilities from computers to Webpages.

With all the new technology now available at libraries, Doug’s job keeps him hopping. Doug has moved the library from teaching traditional computer classes to offering ‘Tech Hours’ and’ Computer Classes on Demand’. These formats allow him to meet one-on-one with patrons to help them with a specific hardware device or software program. His latest program, iPhone and iPad Tips and Tricks, drew a large audience. The library is pleased to be able to offer top quality technology services to our users and Doug is behind it all.

Check out our newest online resource : eSequels

dbaldwin — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 13:34:52 +0000

The library is excited to debut its newest online resource which we were fortunate enough to win in a drawing at the Public Library Association conference this year. The resource is called eSquels and it is actually a really nifty little tool for searching for books! With eSqeuels, you can search for books by title and author to see what series they have written, in chronological order by the date of publication. However, some of the other really cool options include the ability to search for books by a specific location, as well as by a specific character.

This tool is a great way to discover additional reads, reads you may have missed, or just to make sure you did not miss a book in a series you love! Give it a try today!

To access eSequels just look for their logo here on our webpage on the right hand side in the gray sidebar area. Or, just click the logo in this post!

Let us know what you think of it as well here in the comments section!

The @ Your Library Podcast is Here .. Listen to Episode 1 Now!!

dbaldwin — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:00:42 +0000

Hi all,

We are going to be using a new way to engage with you to let you know about literature, tech, local interests, and programming .. and that is through our brand new library podcast.

You can listen each month to find out about programs going on, tech news, news about books, as well as other features such as online tools of the month, local interviews, and other segments.

We hope you enjoy our podcast. You can subscribe to our podcast using this feed:

http://cranburypl.posterous.com/rss.xml

Or, subscribe via iTunes using this link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/podcasts-from-cranburypl/id514719675

Without further ado, listen to our inaugeral episode below