Maker Corner: February

Over the past few years, we’ve been developing and expanding our reach into the world of making, by offering both programs and resources.

What exactly is making? Well, we actually helped craft a formal definition for it for library staff across the nation. But the short answer is pretty simple: it is the process of being willing to get your hands dirty and learn while you create whatever you want to make to accomplish a task or just have fun. Do you cook?  Do you craft? Do you invent? Do you build? Do you fix things? You are a maker! 

In fact, some are even talking about making as at the core of a new type of literacy: invention literacy  (i,e, the ability to look around you and figure out how human-made things work). Like any type of literacy, you can never be too old or too young to start your making journey and nurturing the growth mindset on which all making depends. You also can never have enough tools in the forms of books to get your creative juices flowing.

So, this year we plan to highlight all of the various making resources we have–which range from needlework to Legos to more. February is all about yarn . . . mostly, as we cover knitting, crocheting, and macrame resources.

Amor Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow

Count Alexander Rostov is lucky to escape the tumultuous Russian Civil War with his life. When a Soviet tribunal sentences him to, essentially, house arrest in the Moscow luxury hotel he’s been living in, Rostov knows he’s been spared, but life as he knows it is still over. That is, until he meets an unusual little friend. . . .

Book Buzz: Romances Galore, Dual-Timeline Historical Fiction, WWII Nurses, Serial Killers, Mining Mayhem, and Storytellers

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For February, we’re looking at four different romances (right in time for Valentine’s Day!), historical fiction that spans from the Civil War to World War II, a true crime memoir from a cold case specialist, and audiobook novels about turn-of-the-twentieth-century labor strikes in Colorado and the intersection of secrets and stories.

Walk A Mile In My Shoes: February

This year, our theme is “Walk A Mile In My Shoes.” The idea that you can’t understand someone (and shouldn’t judge them) until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes is a pretty common sentiment. And research has shown that reading fiction is one way to really get such a walk going. So, that’s what we are going to do this year: use fiction (and some nonfiction when we just can’t resist) to take walks in someone’s shoes. We hope you lace up those sneakers and join our journey. For February, we’re going to be looking at a growing issue in Carroll County–homelessness.