Wii Teen Break – On Wednesday January 5th, we will be offering a new drop in program for teens, 12 years and up. The LaMarsh Room at the Victoria Avenue Library will be set up with four stations and participants will be able to play a variety of different Wii games at each station. The program is free and no registration is required. Stop by between 7 – 9 pm and bring your friends. In future we will be offering programs for older adults too! We were able to purchase the Wii equipment through a special Provincial funding program for public libraries, from the Ministry of Culture. “Credits” were allocated which could be spent on resources in designated program areas. It has enabled us to acquire some items we would not have been able to afford otherwise. All four of our libraries also received new “Early Literacy Stations” during the year through this funding. New databases such as Ancestry.com were made available free to all residents in their libraries. We were able to offer the “Overdrive” downloadable audio...

The countdown is on and many of the Christmas themed books for baking and cooking, decorating and those classic film favourites on DVD are on loan. The young ones are still in school for most of the week, and that means they will get their Break this year after Christmas and extended into the New Year. Our Children’s staff have come up with a week of activities to keep the kids occupied the week of January 3 to 7 at all of our locations. There are Story times, “snow” games and crafts (without the snow) and movies scheduled. One of the highlights will be the free Marvellous Movie Day featuring “Guardians of Ga’Hoole” on Friday January 7 at the Victoria Avenue Library. There will be two showings 10:30am and 2pm. Please note this is recommended for kids 6 years and up. Registration and a Loonie is required for all events. Pick up one of the program sheets at any location or click on this link http://nfpl.info/Programming...

Snow’s here and it’s looking a lot like a White Christmas! Those 3-week books that were checked out today will be due back after Christmas is over and done with, believe it or not.

City Historian’s Presentation and Book Signing City Historian Sherman Zavitz will be hosting a special evening of Christmas Lore in Niagara, on Monday evening, December 13th, at 7pm in our LaMarsh Room. This is always a popular event at our Library. Following his talk, he will be signing and selling copies of his books, featuring “It Happened at Niagara – Stories From Niagara’s Fascinating Past,” which is the revised and extended edition of the book originally published in 2008. There will also be some of his earlier titles available: “Looking Back: Niagara Historical Notes” and “Looking Back: The Niagara River – Ontario Shore”. A portion of the sales is donated to the Library, and goes towards the purchase of new books and audio-visual materials. There is currently a link on our main webpage to the complete listing of...

On Monday December 13, City Historian Sherman Zavitz will be coming to host a special evening of Niagara lore. He will also be selling copies of “It Happened at Niagara”. More details to follow next week.

Join us on Sunday, December 5 for the Victoria Avenue Library’s annual musical open house. Stop by the LaMarsh Room between 1:30 – 4:30 pm for some light refreshments and enjoy the sounds of the holiday season with music by Chime FX, Melodia, Second Stringers, and SilverTones. Over the past week, all our libraries have been decked out in holiday style, by our staff to be ready for our open houses. The music, crafts and entertainment are all organized in house as well. Our Library staff is an amazingly talented bunch in so many ways, and we invite you all to join in the fun. The focus turns to the Chippawa Branch Library on Monday December 6, for their open house from 6 – 8 pm. Registration is required for the Craft part of the program. ...

Spotlight on author William Thomas Another special event, next week Friday December 3, features a return visit from local favourite William Thomas. Familiar to most for his columns in the local papers, he invites all to laugh along as he talks about his hometown of Wainfleet, and his most recent books “The Dog Rules Damn Near Everything” and “Never Hitchhike on the Road Less Travelled.” He will have copies available for sale. Admission is $5 per person and may be purchased in advance at any library location. Some tickets will be available at the door, subject to availability. Proceeds are for the Niagara Falls Public Library to be used towards new book purchases. The evening begins at 7pm in the LaMarsh Room. For more information, please call the Library at 905-356-8080. All of William Thomas’ books are available to borrow. Check the website and Catalogue for more titles and to reserve any copy you may have missed.

Talking about the Earthquake in Haiti Join our own staff member,...