All Posts
“Palaces for the People”: Spaces and places for all of us
Posted in Explore and Discover on April 23, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Rachel Edmondson I often hear people refer to Spokane as a big city with a small-town feel, and I think this is one of the reasons many people enjoy living in Spokane. However, when talking with customers and friends, I also hear more and more about how people don’t know their neighbors anymore. How […]
Tags: civic life, community, grandparents, inequality, kids, libraries, library, neighborhoods, neighbors, nonfiction, Palaces for the People, parents, parks, places, polarization, public life, schools, social, social infrastructure, social science, society, spaces, teachers, together
Spring brings kittens and puppies and poetry, oh my!
Posted in Explore and Discover on April 16, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Susan Goertz April come she will when streams are ripe and swelled with rain. –from “April Come She Will” composed by Paul Simon This time of year the song “April Come She Will” inevitably gets stuck in my head. If I just shared my earworm with you, then you may want to check out […]
Tags: animals, April, books, cute animals, humor, music, National Poetry Month, Pets are Wonderful Month, poems, Poet Laureate, poetry, poetry slam, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month, reading, spring
Literary field guide: Local authors at the 2019 Get Lit! Festival
Posted in Explore and Discover on April 11, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Caitlin Wheeler In the past 20 years, the Get Lit! Festival has hosted a whole slew of authors of exciting written work: Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Smiley, and Tim O’Brien are just a few. This year is no exception. At the 2019 festival, you’ll find the opportunity to hear from Roxane Gay, Tommy Orange, Kaveh […]
Tags: author, book list, books, festival, fiction, Get Lit!, guide, Inland Northwest Collection, literary, literary festival, literature, local, music, nonfiction, poet, poetry, prose, reading, writer
From the Library of Things: Machine sewing at your fingertips
Posted in Explore and Discover on April 2, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Melissa Rhoades Did you know you can borrow a sewing machine from the Library District? Our Library of Things offers two Elna eXplore 320 sewing machines to check out for up to seven days at a time. One is available for pick up at the Spokane Valley Library and the other can be picked […]
Tags: adults, arts, books, clothes, crafts, creativity, economical, Elna, environmental, fabric, hobbies, Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center, hoopla, how-to, kids, Library of Things, overdrive, quilting, resources, sewing, sewing guides, sewing machine, sewing notions, teens, textile arts, textiles
Tell a new financial story with these digital resources
Posted in News on March 26, 2019 at 6:00 am
Managing money and investments can be a challenge. We have digital resources to help make personal finance and investment management easier and more cost effective. These digital resources are available to library cardholders living in-district at no additional cost. We have online courses if you want to understand how to balance your household bud […]
Tags: budgeting, credit, credit scores, digital library, digital resources, finance, financial, financial literacy, financial strategies, Gale, gale courses, investing, investments, LinkedIn Learning, money, morningstar, online courses, personal finance, strategies, tips, training
Project Memory: Your old photos and home movies transferred to digital
Posted in Explore and Discover, News on March 12, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Dana Mannino Is your family history collecting dust in a closet? Have a box of slides from Grandpa’s 1978 trip to Europe? How about those little 8mm film reels in their tiny cardboard boxes? If you have photos, film reels, or slides stashed away, now is the time to pull them out! Perhaps Mom’s […]
Tags: 120 film, 35mm, 8mm, adults, audio recording, cassette, cassette tape, CD, digital mp3, DVD, film, Hi8, home movie, jpg, LP, mp4, pdf, photo, photography, Project Memory, record, records, slides, Super 8, teens, transfer, VHS, video, video recording
Indoor activities for families with young kids
Posted in Parents and Teachers on February 20, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Abra Cole If you’re feeling like the parent of Ralphie from the movie A Christmas Story every time you try to get yourself and your kids bundled up to go outside, know that you are not alone. When the temperatures drop into (or below) the 20s, my family doesn’t spend as much time outdoors […]
Tags: activities, caregivers, cars, clean up, cotton balls, dancing, early learning, finger painting, flour, grandparents, indoor, infants, kids, loose parts, magnets, miscellaneous, parents, play, Play-Doh, pom-poms, preschoolers, rice, tape, teachers, toddlers, trucks, water
It’s electrifying: Digital resources and staff picks for student scientists
Posted in News on February 14, 2019 at 6:00 am
Discover the many ways electricity and electrical circuits are part of our lives. No matter a student’s grade level, our digital resources offer videos and articles for engaged learning. Plus the books in our collection provide new scientific experiments kids can do at home and for school science fairs. SIRS Discoverer Find magazine articles, […]
Tags: book list, books, digital resources, electrical engineering, electricity, kids, parents, science, science experiments, science in context, science projects, SIRS Discoverer, staff picks, STEM
What to read next: Recommendations for kids by kids
Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on February 12, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Rachel Edmondson In my years of helping kids find books to read, one thing has remained the same—kids always want to read the same books their friends are reading. Often, a new title has gained traction. It’s also not uncommon for older series to suddenly come into popularity again, based on word of mouth. […]
Tags: book list, book recommendations, books, children, kids, kids books, reading, recommendations, tweens
Celebrate the Lunar New Year with family, food, and festivities
Posted in Explore and Discover on February 5, 2019 at 6:00 am
By Susan Goertz Congratulations! You made it to 2019. I hope the year so far is treating you kindly. If your resolutions are starting to fall by the wayside, or the glum weather is getting to you, don’t worry. There is another chance for a fresh start—the Lunar New Year! As you know, the modern […]
Tags: Chinese Chunjie, Chinese New Year, cookbooks, cooking, dragon dance, family, hoopla, kids, kids books, Korean Seollal, Lunar New Year, new year, Nian, parents, picture books, reading, Spring Festival, Tibetan Losar, tradition, Vietnamese Tet
