Art of the Story Festival performer spotlight - Kim Weitkamp

We're excited for the upcoming 9th annual storytelling festival - Art of the Story. There are some great performers coming to Washington County April 13th to 20th. We want to highlight all of the storytellers in turn, and next up is Kim Weitkamp, a nationally known storyteller, humorist, singer and songwriter.

The Oregonian said: "Kim studs her storytelling performances with bits of musical Americana that match the sweet and gentle tones of her narrative." 

Her material has been played on NPR affiliate stations as well as Sirius Radio. Kim travels the continent full-time performing in theaters and at festivals.

This is a funny and heartwarming video featuring clips from one of Kim's performances at the Snow Theater in Idaho. Like what you see? Check out the Art of the Story performance schedule to get all the details.

Oregon Career Information System will be unavailable on Saturday, 3/30

The Oregon Career Information System (Oregon CIS) will be unavailable on Saturday, March 30th from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. This is due to repair work at the University of Oregon, which maintains this resource.

Oregon CIS is a valuable online resource full of Oregon-specific information about jobs, careers, education and training. See all of WCCLS' job search and career resources here.

Documentary film showing & discussion at West Slope - "The Forgotten Eagles"

Escuadrón 201 - "Aguilas Aztecas" ("Aztec Eagles")

On Wednesday, April 3rd, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, join Sig Unander at the West Slope Library for a documentary film and discussion.

Sig will be introducing a film called The Forgotten Eagles, a documentary about a Mexican fighter squadron - known as the  "Aztec Eagles" - who fought alongside the United States in World War Two.

Registration for this program is required. Please contact the West Slope Library to register or for more details.

Featured resource - nonfiction e-books and encyclopedias for homework and research

You may know that WCCLS member libraries have great nonfiction reference books to help you research a topic or complete a homework assignment. But did you know that WCCLS offers access to these great reference books in e-book form? Access them anywhere, anytime, from the WCCLS website.

This collection of e-books is called Gale Virtual Reference Library. The books in the collection cover a wide range of subjects, from law and medicine, to history and literature.

There are also lots of e-books for kids in the collection, with titles covering subjects like castles and space exploration.

Find Gale Virtual Reference Library at the WCCLS website and log in with your library card handy!

Art of the Story Festival performer spotlight - Rick Huddle

We're excited for the upcoming 9th annual storytelling festival - Art of the Story. There are some great performers coming to Washington County April 13th to 20th. We want to highlight all of the storytellers in turn, and we're starting with Rick Huddle, a performer from Portland.

“He’s like David Sedaris and Ira Glass had a baby and Carol Burnett raised the little guy.”

Rick's work exposes the tender, humorous and, at times, outrageous collision of inner psyche versus personal relationships. His openness, humility, and compelling presence draw the audience into the story as if it were their own. His characters relate to people with their infectious uncertainty, confusion, and desire for connection.

Check Rick out in a funny, sweet, and musical performance for adults at a festival in Portland a few years ago. Like what you see? Check out the schedule of Rick's and all the other great performances.

Website will be unavailable Tuesday, 3/26/13

The WCCLS website will be unavailable on Tuesday, March 26th at 9:00 pm, for approximately one hour. This is in order to perform scheduled maintenance.

While the site is down, you can still access the following:

• WCCLS online catalog
• Your account
• Library2Go
• WCCLS events calendar

Thank you for your patience! If you have questions or comments, you can reach us at webmaster@wccls.org.

Community Resource Fair in Tualatin, Saturday 3/16

The Tualatin Public Library is hosting their Community Resource Fair on Saturday, March 16th, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. Visitors to the resource fair will be able to talk to representatives from local business and organizations, and learn more about the services they offer.

Free face painting!

Groups such as Boys and Girls Aid, Red Cross of Oregon, FACT Oregon, Families for Independent Living, Ride Connection/Tri-Met, Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, and more will be on hand.

There will also be free face painting by UB Painted, and giveaways and fun crafts for the kids.

Learn more at the Tualatin Library's website.

We have a winner for the 2013 Teen Summer Reading Art Contest!

We are proud to announce the winner of our 2013 Teen Summer Reading Art Contest - Kait Baird! A ninth-grader at the Beaverton School District’s Arts & Communication Magnet Academy, Kait has been awarded top honors for her unique design depicting a person catching fish with very special bait - a book! Kait's design will appear on all countywide Teen Summer Reading publicity this summer.

Kait Baird's winning entry

This is the fourth year that WCCLS has encouraged young artists to submit designs representative of our summer reading theme. Over 40 pieces were submitted and on March 12th, a panel of teen librarians met to review feedback collected from local Teen Library Councils.  The vote was unanimous - Kait Baird’s piece best represented the 2013 Summer Reading Program and the "Beneath the Surface" theme.

Kait was awarded Honorable Mention in the past two contests. “It has been a real treat watching Kait’s artistic style develop over the past few years,” said Rick Samuelson, Youth Services Librarian with WCCLS. “She is quite a young talent!”

Second Place - Zoe Ahrednt

The Second Place winner of the contest this year is Zoe Ahrendt, from Liberty High School in Hillsboro. The judges also awarded an Honorable Mention to Ashleigh Imwalle of Tigard High School. Kait will receive a $150 gift card to Powell’s Books. The Second Place and Honorable Mention winners will receive gift cards for Dick Blick Art Materials.

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to all the Washington County teens who participated in this year's contest!

Honorable Mention - Ashleigh Imwalle

Library2Go tip - make sure you get the loan period you want

The new interface for Library2Go has rolled out, and one thing that is a little different is how and where you tell Library2Go how long you want to check a title out for.

The best thing to do is to go in to your Library2Go account and set the default loan periods for your account - 7, 14 or 21 days for ebooks and audiobooks. That way you just do it once and don't have to think about it again. We have instructions on how to do that on our Library2Go help pages here.

You can also adjust the loan periods for your account as you are checking out a book, but not for titles that you had on hold and are now checking out. Just below the Borrow button for a title, you will see a line of text that tells you how long you will have the book for. If you would like to change that, click on the Change link underneath.

Unfortunately, once the title is checked out to you, we are not able to adjust the loan period on that title.

Have other questions about how to use Library2Go? Check out our help pages. Wondering about how best to search or browse in the new interface? Take a look at our guide that walks you through the process of searching or browsing, as well as placing holds and checking titles out.

Changes coming to Library2Go next week

On Monday, March 11th, you will notice that Library2Go looks different. OverDrive, the software company that powers the Library2Go service, is bringing some changes.

Here are some of the things that will change:

• The look of the website will be updated
• One-step checkout - it will be less clicks to check out a title
• A new (additional) way to download books right to your browser, no extra software needed
• You will be able to return any title you check out, as long as you haven't downloaded it yet
• Create a wish list in your account, and see suggestions of other books to read based on the books you have checked out in the past

Here are some things that won't change:

• You will still be able to download books to your mobile device using the OverDrive app
• To transfer books to an e-reader or MP3 player, you still download to your computer and transfer using Adobe Digital Editions (ebooks) or OverDrive Media Console (audiobooks) 
• Downloading Kindle books will also still work the same as it does now
• You will still log in with the same library card number, and any checkouts or holds you have now will stay on your account even when the look of the website changes

WCCLS has been working hard to update all of its Library2Go Help pages to make sure they reflect all the new changes coming to Library2Go. Look for updated content on our help pages later in the day on Monday.

Check out this video, created by OverDrive, to get a sneak preview of the changes that are coming to Library2Go on Monday. We hope you find the new Library2Go a little easier to use!