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September is Library Card Sign-Up Month! |
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Start your job hunt at the library
Things seem finally to be looking up economically, and while this is good news for most, there are still many out there whose jobs remain casualties of this short but bitter recession.
The loss of a job can be devastating, especially for those who have worked at the same place for years and now find themselves adrift in a sea of unfamiliar technology, faced with the prospect of not only having to compile a resume for the first time, but sending it out electronically to companies who don't accept mailed applications.
The good news is the Wallkill Public Library can help you with every step of the job-hunting process. And it's really not as intimidating as it looks.
For those who need to begin at the beginning (with a resume), the Web can be a huge help. Hop onto one of our public access computers: free resume samples can be found on such sights as www.freeresumesamples.org, www.coverletters.com/, and www.howtointerview.com. Microsoft Word also has resume templates to help users format their own resume. Once you've created the document in Word and saved it, parts can be cut and pasted into online resume posting sites and building tools.
Once that's done, you can post your resume on a number of sites (simultaneously, of course, if you choose to). The more popular ones include Monster, Jobster, www.nyjobzone.org, and www.careeronestop.org. If you're at a loss as to how to do this, the Riley Guide (www.rileyguide.com) offers great advice on how to go about using multiple formats and posting on the Web.
The Internet can also be indispensible when it comes time to start looking for a job. Job listings can be found on dozens of sites, including the New York State Job Exchange (www.americasjobexchange.com/ny), which is searchable by zip code and distance; www.indeed.com, which is a metasearch site (meaning it searches many sources); monster.com; and links to your local newspapers (www.newspaperlinks.com).
The State Library has also recently partnered with the Department of Labor to create a Web site that showcases many of the library and information centers people use in their employment searches. You can find that site at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/outreach/careers.htm.
Don't forget that our own Web site (www.wallkillpubliclibrary.org) can be an immense help. The Ulster County InfoPortal, which is located under the heading "Online Research Tools," offers two useful sites. Gale Vocational, Careers, and Technical Education contains information about finding the right career, searching for a job, or enrolling in a school. Gale Testing and Education Center offers practice tests for Civil Service exams, vocational, military, and standardized tests, plus an online resume builder.
While the World Wide Web can be an intimidating place, once you familiarize yourself with it you'll realize in a lot of ways looking for a new job was never easier.
For those who prefer the aid of a helpful book, there are many from which to choose. What Color is Your Parachute? Is constantly being updated and is as useful and popular now as it was when it came out. You'll find A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future plus Refuse to Choose!: a Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love on the shelves of the Wallkill Public Library. Other titles you'll want to keep an eye out for include Damn Good Resume Guide, 150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs, and 100 Fastest-Growing Careers: Your Complete Guidebook to Major Jobs with the Most Growth and Openings.
Book of the Month
Brooklyn, by Colm Toibon
Brooklyn tells the tale of Eilis Lacey, following her from her native 1950's Ireland to the borough of the title, where she tries to carve out a life for herself in a city as unlike her home as Eilis is to the fellow borders in her landlady's house.
There are moments in the book that stay with you for a good while after you've stopped reading. Eilis' passage to America on a ship battered by storms and rough seas makes you want to reach for the Dramamine yourself. Her homesickness upon receiving letters from the family she left behind is just as vivid, guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye of anyone who remembers leaving home for the first time.
Personal stories of emigrants - particularly Irish ones - are pretty popular in the world of fiction. What makes Brooklyn unique is Eilis' character - her perhaps outwardly understated but emotionally raw and candid outlook on all that's going on around her at any given time. If you were to look at her, to meet her, you might think her unexceptional, maybe even average. Her thoughts betray another person altogether - a brave, modern-day heroine who pushes on despite her personal misgivings and emotional turmoil. It's what makes Eilis, and ultimately the book, so engaging.
New in September
The following are either on the shelves or coming soon to the Wallkill Public Library:
Fiction
· Drawn in Blood, by Andrea Kane
· Evidence of Murder, by Lisa Black
· Blood Game: An Eve Duncan Forensics Thriller, by Iris Johansen
· Evil at Heart, by Chelsea Cain
· Murder at LongBourn, by Tracy Kiely
· Daughters of the Stone, by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
· Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
· Year of the Flood, by Margaret Eleanor Atwood
· Hidden Man, by David Ellis
· Hothouse Orchid, by Stuart Woods
· Day After Night, by Anita Diamant
· Plum Pudding Murder, by Joanne Fluke
· Vanishing Act, by Fern Michaels
· No Time to Wave Goodbye, by Jacquelyn Mitchard
· Pursuit of Honor, by Vince Flynn
· Hell's Kitchen Homicide: A Conor Bard Mystery, by Charles Kipps
· Crush, by Alan Jacobson
· In Their Blood, by Sharon Potts
Nonfiction
· My Journey with Farrah: What I've Learned About Life, Love, and Friendship, by Alana Stewart
· Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove Cookbook, by Debbie Macomber
· Nurtureshock: New Thinking About Children, by Po Bronson
· Have a Little Faith: A True Story of a Last Request, by Mitch Albom
· Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of the Murder That Rocked New Orleans, by Ethan Brown
· Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear, by Max Lucado
· Christmas is Good!: Trixie's Guide to a Happy Holiday, by Dean R. Koontz
· Don't Say I Didn't Warn You: Kids, Carbs, and the Coming Hormonal Apocalypse, by Anita Renfroe
Biography
· American Rebel: The Life of Clint Eastwood, by Marc Eliot
· Official Book Club Selection: A Memoir According to Kathy Griffin, by Kathy Griffin
· I Appreciate It: My Life, by Andy Griffith
· Time of My Life, by Patrick Swayze
Audiobooks
· Hothouse Orchid, by Stuart Woods
· Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
· Hidden Man, by David Ellis
· Unhallowed Ground, by Heather Graham
· Last Song, by Nicholas Sparks
DVDs
· Monsters vs. Aliens
· Mysteries of Pittsburgh
· Earth
· Seventeen Again
Remember to get carded
September is Library Card Sign-Up Month! Those with cards are able to borrow books, films, audiobooks, CDs, magazines, and other materials - not just from the Wallkill Public Library, but from any of the many libraries within the Ramapo Catskill Library System. Card holders also have access to online databases such as the Ulster County InfoPortal, where users can learn a language via the educational software Mango; download audiobooks; get homework help for their kids, and much more!
All you need to get your card are two forms of ID that show your current physical address, such as a driver's license, utility bill, or rent receipt. One of the IDs must have your picture on it. Children between the ages of 6 and 17 can get cards too, of course, as long as a parent or guardian is present with proper identification.
So put all that money you spend at Barnes & Noble and Blockbuster back in your wallet. Come in and pick up a card today!
Banned books banner reading
September 26 to October 3 is Banned Books Week. Celebrate your freedom to read by taking out one or two of these classics - all of which have been challenged or banned at some point in history:
The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (banned or challenged for language, vulgarity, taking the Lord's name in vain, sexual references)
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (banned or challenged for promoting racial themes, language)
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker (banned or challenged for sexual and social explicitness, rough language, violence, and racial and religious issues)
Ulysses, by James Joyce (burned in US and other countries)
Beloved, by Toni Morrison (banned or challenged for violence and sexual material)
The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding (banned or challenged due to violence, sexual content, racism, and demoralizing humans)
1984, by George Orwell (banned or challenged for being pro-communist and sexually explicit)
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov (banned or challenged for obscenity)
Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck (banned or challenged for profanity, lack of patriotism on the part of the author, blasphemy, indecency)
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller (banned or challenged for sexual reference)
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley (banned or challenged for variations on the theme of lacking in moral content and promoting promiscuity)
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway (burned in Nazi bonfires, banned in several US cities)
As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner (banned or challenged for obscenity, abortion references, and sexual content)
A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway (banned in several US cities)
Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad (banned in several US cities)
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston (banned or challenged for sexual explicitness and language)
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison (banned or challenged for violence and vulgarity)
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison (banned or challenged for racial issues and obscenity)
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (banned or challenged for racial issues)
Native Son, by Richard Wright (banned or challenged for language, violence, sex, and profanity)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey (banned or challenged for encouraging criminal behavior, corrupting youth, and containing passages of depraved acts)
Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut (banned or challenged numerous times...was burned in North Dakota as late as 1973)
Source: American Library Association
Wallkill Public Library
P.O.
Box C
7
Bona Ventura Ave.
Wallkill,
NY 12589
(845)-895-3707
http://www.wallkillpubliclibrary.org/
E-mail:
wak@rcls.org