SMCitizen column, July 31, 2009

Freedom Public Library
By Carol Jones
for July 31st issue

The “Ultimate Showdown” brings screams and shouts

Playing the Ultimate Showdown keeps the FLYP sessions exciting to the kids as well as the staff.

As of Thursday, July 23rd, the original 64 fictional characters had been narrowed down to the Final Four: Phineas and Ferb vs. Curious George; Aslan vs. SpongeBob Squarepants. The kids will decide the winner at the last FLYP session on Thursday, July 30th. We'll let you know the Ultimate Champion in the August 14th issue.

In case you or your kids miss the Showdown, go to Erin Arnold’s library blog for details: http://librarianwearschucks.blogspot.com



Photo: Peggy, left, displays quilt donated by Freedom Quilters, with Margee Styles, right.

Quilt raffle for Pediatric Cancer Research

The Freedom Quilters group, who meet monthly at Freedom Public Library, put their nifty needles to work and created a quilt which they donated for raffle on behalf of one of their members, Margee Styles, for the Amanda Styles Cirelli Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Research.

Amanda Styles Cirelli (Mandy), age 29, succumbed to cancer in December 2007. Mandy was the oldest of twins; the second child of four born to Margee and Eric Styles. She was an elementary school teacher whose love for children was the deciding factor her husband and family used to focus on a pediatric cancer foundation. Their oldest daughter, Tammy, heads the foundation. Go to the website at www.ascfoundation.com.

The queen size quilt is on display at Peggy’s Heirlooms of Tomorrow, Circle Square Plaza, 7651 SW State Route 200. Tickets are $1 each at Peggy’s until September 15 when the quilt will be moved to the Metropolitan of Glen Cove, NY, for the drawing. Peggy’s is open Monday thru Friday, 10 to 4; on Saturday until 3.

The Friends book sale is coming

With September just around the corner, plans are progressing for the Friends book sale. Donations of many kinds, all in good condition, are gratefully accepted: games, jigsaw puzzles, books on tape, CDs, videos, and, of course, books, books, books. Contact the person listed below and we will be glad to pick up your donation.

- Kermit Clark for Oak Run, Palm Cay and Pine Run - 861-0353
- Casey Edkins for Marco Polo villages - 854-9972
- Carol Jones for On Top of the World communities - 873-8565
- Pat Babski for Sun Valley - 237-8214
- Carol Bristow for all others - 572-4259

Artsy Craftsy autumn

The Friends of Freedom Public Library has an Arts and Crafts show planned for October. In the afternoons of all four Tuesdays, unique displays will fill the meeting room, from paintings and quilts to authors and their books -- and who knows what else? The Friends invite the library’s creative groups to exhibit their work. Information will follow as the time grows near.

Ask Arnold

Thanks to Arnold, our Computer Coach, for another useful bit of computer information.

Here’s how to copy all or part of a document and transfer it to another document, or even to an e-mail.

- Select the portion to be copied. Place the mouse pointer at the end of the part you want to copy, hold the left mouse button down and drag the mouse pointer to the beginning of your selection. With the mouse pointer in the selected portion (highlighted), press the mouse right button. A menu will appear. Left click on Copy.

- Now place the mouse pointer in the place, other document, or e-mail where you want to put the selected copy, and right click. Again, a menu will come up. Left click on Paste. Your selected copy will appear.

If you want to move the selection instead of copying it, use Cut instead of Copy. The selection will be deleted from the original document and will appear in the new document when you Paste it.

Note: You can only Copy or Cut and Paste one selection at a time. If you Cut and forget to Paste, the material you removed by Cutting will be lost. The best way to learn is to practice the procedure a few times. You won’t hurt anything and you can delete your practice runs.

Library Hours

Freedom Public Library is open six days a week, Monday through Saturday, closed on Sunday. Open times are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. For questions, or to arrange an appropriate time for your group, call Heather Ogilvie, 438-2580.

SMCitizen column, July 17, 2009

Freedom Public Library
By Carol Jones
for July 17, 2009

“The Ultimate Showdown” progresses

“Holy rusted metal, Batman!” We have to choose a winner!

The Ultimate Showdown game battles are well underway to the delighted shouts and screams of our young participants during the Thursday and Saturday Florida Library Youth Program (FLYP) sessions.

The game is a bracket-style tournament created by Erin Arnold to select youngsters’ favorite Ultimate Champion out of 64 fictional characters. Of course, the winner must be chock full of Heart, exhibit oodles of Smarts and Originality, be a Game-Changer and, oh yes, receiver of the coveted Coolness Bonus.

If a participant misses a FLYP session during the summer, it’s easy to catch up. Just sign in to Erin’s library blog and track the game’s progress: http://librarianwearschucks.blogspot.com

The game is now in the second stage, aptly named “Sweet Sixteen” for the 16 characters left. The winner is far from decided.

Heather’s schedule of summer reading fun with FLYP

Following are the events planned for the FLYP sessions.

Tuesday, July 21, 6-7:30 p.m. -- FLYP Little: Pajama Party! Have you seen ART? The wonderful world of color and design, visual arts in stories, poems, songs, and crafts. Refreshments will be served.

Thursday, July 23 - 2-4 p.m. -- Dance and Move! Footloose and Fancy Free in the library. How DO you dance?

Stupendous Saturday, July 25, 2-4 p.m. -- Arts, Film and Fooling Around - Just when you thought you couldn’t get any smarter, along comes another fabulous adventure in surreptitious education through entertainment! Refreshments will be served.

Tuesday, July 28, 6-7:30 p.m. -- FLYP Little: Pajama Party. Dancing into Dreamland. Who dares to dance? Creative movement in stories, poems, songs and crafts. See a star, or be a star. The spotlight is on you! Refreshments will be served.

Thursday, July 30, 2-4 p.m. -- FLYP Finale! No Contest Talent Contest! Our fabulous finale offers an unparalleled opportunity to perform before a wildly enthusiastic audience! ALL TALENTS ARE WELCOME! No talent? No worries! Just bring your unique self and we’ll provide the talent. Everybody wins. Refreshments will be served.

Writers group

Reminder: For the July 18 meeting only, the Freedom Writers group of Florida Writers Association (FWA) will start their meeting half-an-hour early. Bring your work-in-progress and join us from 10 a.m. until noon for a lively critique session. Membership in FWA is not required to attend.

Artists and Photographers

Oak Run’s Artist of the Month of July, Bernard Brizee, exhibits a fine array of watercolors in the library’s art corner. Stop by and enjoy his rendering of Old Quebec City and Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.

The Shutterbugs display their winners in the Advanced category of last November’s contest. Many interesting photos also decorate the walls and columns. This group never runs out of unique ideas for pictures.

Library Hours

Freedom Public Library is open six days a week, Monday through Saturday, closed on Sunday. Open times are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. For questions, or to arrange an appropriate time for your group, call Heather Ogilvie, 438-2580.

SMCitizen column, July 3, 2009

Freedom Public Library
By Carol Jones
for July 3, 2009

Patrons, come for Ice cream with The Friends

With the summer temperatures reaching record levels, what better treat could you ask for than a cold dish of ice cream! On Thursday, July 16, from 6 to 7:30 p.m., The Friends of Freedom Public Library will offer patrons exactly that: a dish of cold, creamy ice cream. Choose your flavor and enjoy it with or without selected toppings. There’s no charge! Just stop in on your way into or out of the library and spend a few minutes with Friends.

New face on staff

Welcome! to the newest member of the library staff, David Freudenburg. David and his wife Claudia moved from NYC to Ocala last August. He joined the Freedom staff on April 5, 2009.

For the past 25 years, David was employed at Martin Luther High School as library media specialist and band director. Then he decided to relocate. Here in Ocala, he follows his foremost outside interest of playing the organ at church. With a Masters in music from Queens College, NYC, he has played one kind of instrument or another for 30 years.

He considers his new position an enjoyable one. “Freedom Public Library has so many people of all ages who are passionate about reading,” he says. “It’s wonderful to be a part of it.”

Freedom Book Club

On Friday, July 17, from 1 to 2 p.m., the Freedom Book Club will discuss “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson. From 2 to 3, they will finish “A Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, chapters 24-26.

Writers meeting change

The Freedom Writers group of Florida Writers Association will begin and end their meeting on Saturday, July 18, a little earlier to allow FLYP adequate set-up time. For this meeting only, the time will be 10:00 a.m. to noon.

Ask Arnold

Once again Arnold provides information on one of our most useful as well as frustrating pieces of equipment: the computer.

There are a number of keyboard shortcuts which you may find easier than using the mouse. Here are the most common.

Shift + arrow key = Select. Selects text for copying or deleting. Use the arrow keys and place the cursor at the beginning or end of the text you want to select. Hold down the shift key and use the arrow key to move the cursor over the text. The desired text will be highlighted.
Ctrl + C = Copy. Copies the selected text: Hold down the Ctrl key and strike the letter C. You have just copied the text to the clipboard which is a section of memory on your computer.
Ctrl + X = Delete. Deletes selected text: Hold down the Ctrl key and strike X. Your selected text will disappear.
Ctrl + V = Paste. Pastes the text you copied: Place the cursor where you want the text. Hold down the Ctrl key and strike V. Your copied text will appear.
Ctrl + A = Select All. Selects the whole document. Hold down the Ctrl key and strike A. The whole document will be selected, Be careful with this one because if you strike another key, your document will disappear and all you’ll have left is the last key you struck! But there is a life saver, as follows.
Ctrl + Z = Undo. Undoes that mistake mentioned above. Hold down the Ctrl key and press Z. You will go back one step and your highlighted document will reappear.

Practice these steps and your typing will go faster. It does not matter if the keystroke letters are in capitals or lower case. But remember, you cannot copy or delete the text if you have not selected it, and you can't paste text if you have not copied it.

Library Hours

Freedom Public Library is open six days a week, Monday through Saturday, closed on Sunday. Open times are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. For questions, or to arrange an appropriate time for your group, call Heather Ogilvie, 438-2580.