Barrington Area United Way Round Up Arrives at the Library

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July 23, 2012

The Barrington Area Library is proud to host a portion of the Barrington Area United Way's Round Up public art exhibit for the second time. The colorfully painted horses are now grazing at various locations throughout Barrington and four horses have found a temporary stable at the library. Look for tabletop ponies in our Adult Services, Youth Services and Circulation departments, with a larger horse in the courtyard windows of our atrium. The art exhibit lasts throughout the summer, and the horses will be available for purchase at an auction later in the year. See www.bauw.org for more information.

Meet our four-legged friends:

Forever Young, sponsored by the Barrington Area Council on Aging. Artist George Stevens.

Best in Dog and Pony Show, sponsored by Quintessential Media Group (and featured in Quintessential Barrington). Artist: Carol VanderMey.

Soaring, sponsored by the Conroy Family. Artists: Lauren Conroy and Sigrid Neptun.

Get Off the Beaten Path, sponsored by the Barrington Area United Way Board of Directors. Artist: John Harff.

Barrington Area Library Trustee Richard J. Ryan Receives Honorary Citation

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June 22, 2012

Long-time Barrington Area Library Trustee Richard J. Ryan has been awarded the ALA Trustee Citation by the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).

The ALA Trustee Citation, established in 1941 to recognize public library Trustees for distinguished service to library development, honors the best contributions and efforts of the estimated 60,000 American citizens who serve on library boards. Ryan is one of two recipients this year.

Ryan has served as a Trustee of the Barrington (Ill.) Area Library for a total of 33 years. He served as board treasurer from 1974 to 1980 and board president for 25 years from 1985 to 2010. He is currently fulfilling a six-year term that ends in 2015. Even before he was elected to the board in 1974, he served on the Barrington Area Development Council’s ad hoc library committee and acted as co-chair of the library coordinating committee for publicity. In 1991, the library broke ground on a 31,000-square-foot addition and renovation project for the library he had help to build in 1978. Ryan is now working with the Board of Trustees and library administration on a planned renovation of the library building.

A statement of support submitted to ALTAFF by current Library Board President Don Minner praised Ryan for his persistence in seeing projects through to completion, his tirelessness in advocating for the library within the community, and his openness to new ideas and services within the library. In 2011, Minner and the other trustees bestowed upon Ryan the honorary title of President Emeritus. Executive Director Detlev Pansch notes that Ryan is both an engaged board member and enthusiastic library user, checking out materials several times a week, greeting staff members by name and often attending monthly staff meetings to acknowledge service milestones of longtime employees. As Minner stated to ALTAFF, “Richard J. Ryan’s decades of work on behalf of the Barrington Area Library can be seen and felt in every part of the building and its grounds, and experienced in all of its collections and services.”

Recipients of the ALA Trustee Citation will be announced at the Opening General Session of the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif, on Friday, June 22, 2012. More information about the ALA Trustee Citation is available on the ALTAFF Web site: http://www.ala.org/altaff/grants_awards/trustees/trusteecitation

Reading Is So Delicious! Summer Library Club

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May 21, 2012

Summer Library Club was delicious - but all good things must come to an end. Summer Library Club 2012 ended on Friday, August 3.

We thank the Friends of the Barrington Area Library for their generous support of our Summer Library Club.

What's Cooking?

Preschool Club (Birth - Kindergarten)
Go to the Preschool Club Web site.

Student Club (Grades K-8)

Go to the Student Club Web site.

Young Adults (Entering grades 9-12)

Go the Young Adult Club Web site.

Adults

Go to the Adult Club Web site.

Delicious Barrington Dining Spots

Did you enjoy the posters in our Adult Services department this summer? These magazine cover replicas featured some of our favorite Barrington spots for dining, shopping and relaxing. THANK YOU to these local businesses who answered our invitation to help with this project - we think it was a great effort to promote reading and eating right here in Barrington. Featured below (click for full-size images): Barrington Country Bistro | Cook Street Coffee | Egg Harbor Cafe | McGonigal's Pub | Millrose Country Store | Norton's U.S.A. | The Onion Brewery | Wool Street | pl8 | SweetPea Cakes

El día de los niños, el día de los libros

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April 23, 2012

El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day), April 30, is the culmination of the year-long, daily celebration of children, families, and reading. The celebration emphasizes the importance of advocating literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

The Barrington Area Library celebrated with with a week of fun, Spanish language activities for children, including storytimes, crafts and a scavenger hunt. Assistant Librarian Barbara Alvarez also visited some local school children who shared Spanish language stories in the two videos below.

Youth Services Assistant Librarian Barbara Alvarez visited Ms. Guerrero's class at Roslyn Elementary School, too, and they shared a Spanish language favorite, Book Fiesta.

Youth Services Assistant Librarian Barbara Alvarez recently visited Roslyn Elementary School, where teacher Blanca Moran and her Kindergarten students read us a story. Check out the video!

Want to learn more about el día de los niños/el día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day)? Visit the official Web site from the American Library Association.

Free and legal music downloads are here

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April 02, 2012

The Barrington Area Library is proud to introduce Freegal, a new service providing free, legal music downloads to Barrington Area Library cardholders.

Beginning Monday, April 2, 2012, patrons with a valid BALibrary card can go to the Freegal Web site and download three free songs each week. Songs are provided from the Sony Music catalog, a huge collection of music spanning many decades and genres and hundreds of thousands of songs. Popular artists like Adele, Bruce Springsteen, Beyoncé and Kelly Clarkson are available, along with bands like Foster the People, Train, Mumford & Sons and The Fray. Familiar classics by Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand can be accessed with one click of the mouse and the eclectic listener can browse genres from acapella to zydeco. Classical music is available as well.

"We think this will be incredibly popular with our patrons, who have been asking for downloadable music for quite some time. Freegal offers the wide variety of popular music our patrons want, along with ease of use and compatibility with lots of devices," said Head of Adult Services Rose Faber. Songs are downloaded in the mp3 format, with no DRM (digital rights management), so they can easily be transferred from home computer to mobile devices.

Try Freegal today! Click the Freegal link and type in your full library card number and start listening to great music in minutes. Have questions about Freegal? See the FAQ section on the Freegal Web site or stop in and talk with an Adult Services librarian.

Trouble accessing Freegal?

1) Make sure your Barrington Area Library card is still valid. Not sure? Stop by the Hospitality Desk.

2) Getting an "About Freegal" screen? Try clearing your browser cache, or, if using Internet Explorer, change to Compatibility View.

To change to Compatibility View:

As soon as you enter the Freegal site, click the Compatibility View icon in your toolbar.

It looks like the icon that is circled in red in the image to the left.