FCPL logo

GENERAL/BUSINESS NEWS   
                                                                October/November 2013 
Top
Frederick County Public Libraries
Greetings!

 

Business is booming at Frederick County Public Libraries, and we are pleased to share a wide range of programs and offerings that highlight the mission of the library system--to connect people with new ideas and experiences in a comfortable, welcoming environment.

 

For example, many people are turning to us this month to learn what healthcare reform means for them, and we have numerous resources to guide patrons as they plan for the future. Our goal is to be your go-to place for accurate information on important topics of the day.

 

Learn more about healthcare and much more in this issue. We look forward to seeing you at the library!

 

In the event that this newsletter was forwarded to you by a friend and you would like to continue to receive information about library programs, services, and events, we invite you to sign up here for our email newsletter.

Sincerely,
Darrell Batson, Director
Frederick County Public Libraries
In This Issue
Healthcare Reform Resource Guide
Royalty Comes to Frederick
50 Years of Literacy
FCPL Satellite Galleries
Catoctin Furnace: Portrait of an Iron-Making Village
News from the GSRC
Get to Know: John Wysong
Keep in Touch

FREE ADULT

COMPUTER CLASSES

Open Office Draw

Part I and Part II 

 

Open Office Writer  

Part I and Part II 

Register by clicking on each session.

C. Burr Arts Public Library

Downtown Frederick

 

Computer Basics 

Three-part computer class

Register at Thurmont Information Desk

or call 301-600-7212

Thurmont Regional Library

HEALTHCARE REFORM RESOURCE GUIDE

HEALTHCARE REFORM IN MARYLAND

FCPL librarians have selected the following resources to help you understand the new healthcare reform. You can access the links below or go to the FCPL website and access the same links as well as a video Heath Reform Hits Main Street by the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation.

 

Maryland Health Care Reform
State of Maryland's guide to Health Care Reform and how it affects individuals and families, seniors and small business owners

 

Maryland Health Care Reform Guide from Enoch Pratt Free Library 

 

Maryland Health Connection
The marketplace for individuals, families and small businesses to compare and enroll in health insurance, as well as determine eligibility for Medicaid and other assistance programs, federal tax credits and cost-sharing reductions. Enrollment through Maryland Health Connection is scheduled to begin in October 2013, with insurance coverage beginning January 1, 2014.

 

Maryland Health Benefit Exchange Connector Program
The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange has launched the Connector Program, in accordance with the Affordable Care Act and Maryland law, to provide target populations with in-person education, eligibility and enrollment assistance.

 

Western MD Connector Agency (Allegany, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Howard, Washington)

 

ROYALTY COMES TO FREDERICK
ONE MARYLAND ONE BOOK 2013

Royalty came to the Weinberg Center in the shape of King Peggy. The 2013 One Maryland One Book selection was King Peggy: An American Secretary, Her Royal Destiny, and the Inspiring Story of How She Changed an African Village by Peggielene Bartels and Eleanor Herman. Bartels' visit was sponsored by Frederick Reads and the Maryland Humanities Council.

 

King Peggy appeared on stage in full regalia and began the evening by recounting her unique story. King Peggy's journey began when she was startled awake by a long-distance call. It was her cousin in Ghana with incredible news: Peggy's uncle Joseph, king of a beautiful village on the west coast of Africa, had died, and sacred rituals revealed Peggy to be the next king of Otuam. Thinking it was a joke, she almost hung up. How could a secretary in Washington, D.C., an American citizen, be an African king? Not to mention that she was a woman. But it was true, and, in an instant, Peggy's life was forever changed.

 

An audience of 350 people gathered to hear her speak on September 13. There were several high school groups in attendance, who had read King Peggy in their English Literature classes. The students and other audience members took part in a lively question and answer session after the show. King Peggy brought down the house when she answered the final audience question, "If you remarried, would your new husband also be a King?" Her answer was, "No, just a husband!"

King Peggy greets students from
Senecca Valley High, Gaithersburg, MD
at the Weinberg
King Peggy at the Weinberg
 Photo courtesy John F. Mitchell
Alexandra enjoyed meeting a female king.

A large number of audience members remained after the show to have their books signed and their pictures taken with King Peggy. Frederick resident Tonya Tyndell-Chubb posted on the Frederick Reads Facebook page, "What a great night. Thank you to Frederick Reads for making this possible. King Peggy was a great book and it was a blessing to introduce my daughter to her. My uncle and his church help bring fresh water to King Peggy's village by digging wells. I was able to share with my daughter the beauty of reaching outside of her comfort zone to help others. She was able to meet a female king and make a personal family connection to a book."

 

Locally, the One Maryland One Book author tour continued at Tuscarora High School. English teacher, Scott Slaby, was able to bring King Peggy to Tuscarora to the delight of over 400 students. King Peggy received a warm welcome from the faculty and students who had made large banners to welcome her.

 

Book groups held at the Walkersville and Middletown branches of Frederick County Public Libraries used the One Maryland One Book selection for three separate book clubs and children's librarians shared stories from Africa in their Read Around the World program.

 

King Peggy wrapped up her guest appearances on September 28 at the Baltimore Book Festival.

 

Several of the events were covered in articles in The Frederick News-Post.

 

"King Peggy Author to Come to Frederick" by Frederick News-Post staff

"Author and Female King to Share Her Story at the Weinberg Center" by Kelsi Loos

"King Peggy Shares Her Incredible Journey with Tuscarora Students" by Raches S. Karas

 

For more information about the author, please visit the web sites of Frederick Reads and the Maryland Humanities Council.

 

Submitted by Val Atmonavage

C. Burr Artz Public Library
 
50 Years of Literacy
A Special Anniversary Event

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the Literacy Council of Frederick County will host an evening with David Brooks, well-known journalist, commentator, and author, at the Weinberg Center for the Arts on Wednesday, October 23, at 7:30 pm.

 

An Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times since 2003, Brooks is also a frequent commentator on National Public Radio, PBS Newshour, Charlie Rose, and NBC's Meet the Press. He served as senior editor at The Weekly Standard and was a contributing editor at Newsweek and Atlantic Monthly. Writer David Warren identifies Brooks as the sort of conservative pundit that liberals like, someone who is "sophisticated" and "engages with" the liberal agenda.

 

Brooks is the author of Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There and On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense, both published by Simon & Schuster, and The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement, published by Random House.

 

All proceeds from the October 23 event and the Meet and Greet opportunity that precedes Brooks' presentation will support Literacy Council of Frederick County (LCFC) services. LCFC is dedicated to combating adult illiteracy and ensuring that all adults in Frederick County have the written and oral language skills necessary to support themselves and their families to become better citizens. Since its inception in 1963, LCFC has helped more than 7,500 adults learn to read and write and to speak English.

 

It is estimated that some 17,000 Frederick County adults (both American born and international immigrants) currently lack basic literacy proficiency. At present, more than 100 trained volunteers are providing free, one-on-one basic literacy and English as a Second Language tutoring sessions to the LCFC's more than 150 enrolled students. However, more tutors are needed in order to fully respond to requests for assistance. Learn more by visiting frederickliteracy.org.

 

Event tickets are $30; tickets to the Meet-and-Greet reception are $75. To purchase tickets or for further information, contact the Literacy Council of Frederick County at 301-600-2066 or visit frederickliteracy.org.

 

Written by Marlene England

for FCPLs fall 2013 BookMarks publication
FCPL SATELLITE GALLERIES

Thanks to the ongoing partnership between FCPL and The Delaplaine Visual Arts and Education Center, library patrons in Brunswick, Urbana, and Thurmont can enjoy exhibits by local and regional artists.

Cam Miller photography exhibit at
Urbana Regional Library

  

Brunswick Public Library

Through October 31: Cam Miller, Photography.

November through January 2014: David Vogin. Digital collage

 

Thurmont Regional Library

Through October 12: Kelly Heck. Photography

November 6 through January 2014: Cam Miller. Photography

 

Urbana Regional Library

Through October 31: Michael Douglas Jones. Mixed media collage.

November 4 through January 2014: Brenda Duke Murphy. Children's book illustration.

 

For more information, visit fcpl.org and delaplaine.org
CATOCTIN FURNACE: PORTRAIT OF AN
IRON-MAKING VILLAGE

The Thurmont Center for Regional Agricultural History and The Catoctin Furnace Historical Society are co-hosting a special event promoting the history of the Catoctin Furnace. The evening will consist of an overview of furnace history as well as an introduction to local historian Betty Anderson's newest book: Catoctin Furnace: Portrait of an Iron-Making Village. Posthumously published, it is a meticulously researched and extensively referenced social, economic and technical history of the furnace.

From 1774 until 1903, the Catoctin Furnace produced munitions and household goods as well as pig iron sold to other manufacturers. Gathering information through extensive oral history of folkways that have vanished, the author pays special attention to education, religious observances and traditional life ways including foods and social customs. In addition, she covers the century following the closure of the iron furnace, the inclusion of the village on the National Register of Historic Places, and the mid-20th century grassroots historic preservation movement that resulted in the rescue of the village from planned highway construction.

 

The evening includes a PowerPoint summary presented by the author's daughter, Elizabeth Anderson Comer who edited the manuscript, followed by a question and answer session. The book will be for sale. The program is on Thursday, November 7 from 6:30 pm-7:45 pm. in the Community Room of The Thurmont Regional Library.

 

Submitted by Linda Frydl

Thurmont Regional Library

NEWS FROM THE Grant Seekers Resource Center,

A Foundation Center Cooperating Collection

  

Upcoming Training:

Join Pat Anderson, FCPL's Grant Seeker's Resource Center Librarian, for a tour of the Foundation Center's premier database, Foundation Directory Online (FDO). FDO is the largest searchable collection of nonprofit funders online. In this workshop you will learn to create effective searches to find grant makers that that are a targeted match for your nonprofit organizations mission, focus and the type of support you need.

 

Introduction to Finding Funders will take place in the C. Burr Artz Public Library's Trust Room from 12 to 1 pm on November 13th. This workshop is casual and interactive. You are welcome to bring a brown bag lunch. Register here at the Grant Seekers Resource Center website or call the Information Desk at 301-600-1630 x3.

 

Not available? Contact Pat Anderson to set up an individual orientation to Foundation Directory Online, a searchable database available at the C. Burr Artz Public Library, to find funders for your nonprofit organization.

 

Name Change:

The Foundation Center has renamed its Cooperating Collections. The Grant Seekers Resource Center is now called a Foundation Center Funding Information Network.

 

Submitted by Pat Anderson

C. Burr Artz Public Library

GET TO KNOW: JOHN WYSONG

John works with library patrons of all ages as a Library Associate - II at FCPL's Point of Rocks branch. He has worked for FCPL for almost three years.

 

I've also been employed as... a restaurant busboy/dishwasher, a cook for Burger King, an MCPL library page, a Blockbuster Video employee, an office file sorter/currier, a Mount Saint Mary's Library Circulation Clerk, an interpretive ranger for the National Park Service, a substitute teacher for Montgomery County Public Schools, a data management technician/office worker, and an FCPL Library Associate I - Substitute.

 

In school I've studied... different things, but I majored in Fine Arts and Communications. I really enjoyed taking darkroom photography classes.

 

People might (or might not) be surprised to discover that I... don't really care for watching sports, try to read my horoscope daily, enjoy staying in hotels, and broke my femur in the third grade.

 

When I'm not working, I love to... succeed at being productive in painting/drawing. I also like spending time outdoors. Just the other day, I stopped by a farm on my day off and saw some pigs, chickens, geese, cows, goats, and a peacock.

 

My favorite foods are...cheesecake, Ben & Jerry's "Chubby Hubby" ice cream, pineapples, green tea, black coffee, good beer, pulled pork, Popeye's fried chicken/biscuits, burritos, sushi, top-shelf cheese and crackers, shrimp, and various pastas.

 

I most look forward to... Halloween, local carnivals, certain seasonal changes, taking long trips, and special occasions.

 

I think I'd love to travel to...France, Japan, the UK, and what's left of the North American Wilderness.

 

My favorite movies are... Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, The Crow, Purple Rain, Dawn of the Dead (the 1970's version), and Southlander.

 

The best gift I ever received was... a box of 132 Prismacolor colored pencils and an electric guitar (received on separate occasions).

 

If there were more hours in the day, I would...be a different age than I am right now. I would try to use the extra hours of daylight to be more productive. Hopefully I would spend more time out in nature. Maybe I would watch the longer sunsets.

 

Submitted by Emily Dolly

C. Burr Artz Public Library
Back to top
Keep In Touch
If you would like to receive updates from time to time about events at your library, make sure to subscribe to this email newsletter.

Thanks, See you around the library!


Find us on Facebook    Follow us on Twitter