Watch our SummerFest video below:

Summer readers earn rewards, like free bowling passes and chocolate. There are five programs that fit everyone in the family. Complete the following to receive an certificate of accomplishment and be eligible for grand prize drawings. Sign up here:

• Pre-reader: (birth to 18 months) 30 activities or be read to 12 hours
• Kids: (toddlers to middle school) read to 12 hours
• Teens: (middle school to 18-years) read 12 hours
• Adults: (18 and older) read 8 books
• Group: a perfect option for daycares and camps (not eligible for grand prizes)

After reaching the 12-hour milestone, kids and teens will receive a free book and a certificate. Summer reading is a great activity that helps combat the learning loss that naturally occurs when students go on summer vacation.

“Reading for some fun incentives at their library pays dividends for children, parents and teachers. We’re helping students maintain or improve their reading levels,” said LeAnn Petrie, Youth Services supervisor. “Over the last few years the library has partnered with several school districts to measure reading levels of students at the end of the school year and when they return in August. It shows that by requiring as little as 12 hours of reading during summer, there is an impact on a kid’s learning and reading skills and scores.”

Petrie said reading is reading whether it’s a comic book, listening to audiobooks or other reading-related activities and count towards reaching your reading goals.

SummerFest also includes entertainment for all ages. Free summer activities include:

Featured Programs (all ages unless otherwise indicated)

• June 2           10:30-1:30 p.m. – Sail into Summer
• June 6            9:30,11:00 a.m., & 6:30 p.m. – Sal Cruz Drumline:
• June 9           2 p.m. – Sunflower Music Festival – free performance
• June 12         7 p.m. – Easy Star Gazing
• June 27         4 p.m. –  Megan Leigh, Country Pop singer
• July 11          9:30, 11:00 a.m., & 6:30 p.m. – The La La’s
• July 14          3-4 p.m. – Playful Pianists from Around the World
• July 28         10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. – Dream Big Game Day & Biggest Storytime Ever

Every Week

• Readapalooza (grades 2-5): 10-11:00 a.m., Tuesday & Thursday
• Stories and Crafts (3-5 years): 10-11:00 a.m., Tuesday & Thursday
• Games, Brain Challenges and Crafts (5-12 years): 1-3 p.m., Monday, Wednesday & Fridays
• Friday Flicks: 2-4 p.m.
• Stories and Music with Kyler: 10 a.m., Saturday
• R.E.A.D. Dogs: 2 p.m., Sunday

Come aboard the Adventuremobile, the kid’s bookmobile, and meet a new critter each week. The schedule is in the June/July edition of ConnectNow Library News, and is also online at www.tscpl.org.

Watch and share our Summerfest Music Video online on our YouTube channel.

Summerfest programming and prizes are sponsored by The Friends of the Library and The Library Foundation, and many community partners who make this reading initiative possible.

The library will be closed May 28 in observance of Memorial Day, but we’re always open at www.tscpl.org and customers can sign up for summer reading here.

Local growers will sell their goods each Monday from 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. beginning June 4 through Oct. 8. Purchase items such as farm-fresh vegetables, herbs, flowers, bedding plants, eggs and other seasonal produce, and ask questions of the vendors, who include Shane Root of T&S Root Farms and Ed and Leah Shaw.

While their parents shop, children will enjoy a new craft activity each week.

The Monday Market is a Capital City Wellness initiative, a state program that aims to promote healthy eating and exercise, especially among Downtown Topeka employees. Customers are encouraged to walk to the market, if possible.

Meet librarians who will help you discover more information inside, whether it’s a new recipe from our collection of cookbooks or a gardening book on what herbs grow best in Kansas’ soil. Customers can also pick up recipes at the library’s booth at the market.

This year marks the fourth annual Monday Farmers Market @ your library®.

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library is 21st-century, landmark library, and features the Alice C. Sabatini Art Gallery, the Millennium Café, the Chandler Booktique Gift Shop, meeting rooms, and free computer and Internet access and training.

Library hours are Mon. through Fri. 9 am to 9 pm, Sat. 9 am to 6 pm and Sunday 12 pm to 9 pm.

Donations may be left at the book deposit box located on the loading dock driveway on the northwest side of the library (easiest access is from 10th and Garfield Street). Donations of less than one box may be left at the Information Desk or the Chandler Booktique at the library.

All year long, volunteers sort books and other items in preparation for the annual book sale. Proceeds from the book stores and the annual book sale go to fund library programs, services and resources.

For more information, contact the Friends of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library at 785-580-4445.

The Chandler Booktique is open Monday – Friday 10am – 6pm, Saturday 10am – 5pm and Sunday 12-5pm.

• Sign up for Text: another new way to receive library notifications including due date reminders, holds, and fees.
• Easy find & search: behind the scenes, a smarter search feature provides better results. A sleek, modern interface provides easy ways to narrow or expand your search or browse for related items.
• Explore and discover: if you’re not sure what you’re looking for, browse the popular titles or click on the most circulated authors, see what new videos are available, and see what is on-order.
• Keep track: with many different lists, like what you have checked out, what you want to read later, or music or movies you want to enjoy. Next time you can’t remember a title, you can check your lists!
• Online speed: It’s now even easier to place holds and renew items online!
• Create: instead of using the library card barcode numbers to log in you can now create a unique username to access your account.
• New kid’s catalog: a catalog especially designed for kids–it’s OK if Mom & Dad want to use it too.

It is expected to take seven days to migrate information from the old system to the new system (May 17-23) including 280,000 bibliographic, 120,000 patron and 475,000 item records to be transferred. The library’s old catalog will be visible, but not up-to-date. Customers will still be able to check out at the library and on the bookmobiles, but will not be able to place holds on materials.

From May 17 – 23, customers will be able to:

• check out materials at the library and bookmobiles
• retain your place in the holds list
• view the library’s catalog (it just won’t be up-to-date)
• return materials from the DVD dispenser at the desk
• get help from librarians finding materials on shelves
• get help from librarians for questions and information
• sign up for new library cards
  

From May 17 – 23, customers will not be able to:

• place new holds on materials
• check /log into their library account
• pay late fees
• check out movies and games from the DVD dispenser
• renew items online

While sales of ereaders and tablets skyrocket, libraries are having trouble getting ebooks from the largest publishing companies. These publishers are adding restrictions and price increases, or simply not selling ebooks to libraries at all:

• Penguin recently ended ebook lending to public libraries.
• HarperCollins has a 26-checkout limit on each ebook. Then, the library has to buy it again.
• Random House allows unrestricted access to ebooks, but recently raised prices.
• Macmillan, Simon & Schuster and Hachette don’t sell ebooks to libraries at all.

This means that library customers can get a print copy of a book from a library, but can’t get that same book in an ebook format. But that’s not what library customers want; they want books, in all formats.

“Libraries and librarians put books in the hands of readers millions of times in just one year. We have relationships with readers and are a trusted source for finding great stories and information,” says Gina Millsap, Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library CEO. “Libraries buy lots of books and serve as the outlet for readers to discover a new genre or author, and then make purchases of the books they want to own.”

According to the American Library Association (ALA) there are more than 169 million library cardholders nationwide, comprising of 57.1 percent of the population. In 2009 public libraries total collection expenditures amounted to $1.3 billion, of which 12 percent was spent for electronic material, such as ebooks.

Libraries are seeking the opportunity to work with publishers to develop a business model for ebooks that allows authors and publishers to thrive while ensuring that libraries can build collections for their community of readers.

Library Renewal is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization with a mission to support libraries in e-content research and distribution cosponsoring this initiative. Millsap, as well as David Lee King, TSCPL’s Digital Branch director, serves on its board.

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library is a 21st-century, landmark library, and features the Alice C. Sabatini Art Gallery, the Millennium Café, Chandler Booktique, meeting rooms, and free computer and Internet access and training.

Library hours are Mon. – Fri. 9 am to 9 pm, Sat. 9 am to 6 pm and Sun. 12 pm to 9 pm.

El Día offers visitors free snacks, free books and exposure to different cultures. Check out the library’s Spanish-language materials and sign up for summer reading, where you can earn more free stuff just for reading the books and authors you love.

El Día Schedule of Events | Cambio de horario (all events in Marvin Auditorium)
6:00 pm – Book Pick-up | Entrega Recepción de Libros
6:05 pm – Dennis Rogers, Native American Dance Performance | Dennis Rogers presenta espectáculo de danza Nativa Americana
6:25 pm – Abuelita Mary Valdivia Reads Llama Llama Red Pajamas | La abuelita Mary Valdivia lee Llama Llama Rojo Pijama
6:35 pm – Rosie Cutrer, a Multicultural Storyteller | Presentación de Rosie Cutrer – cuentista multicultural
7:00 pm – Craft Time – Create a craft you can eat! | Tiempo de Manualidades- ¡crear una manualidad que te puedas comer!

About 500 individuals participate in our program each year, and many are Hispanic or Latino. All activities are presented in English and Spanish.

Día was founded in 1996 by Author Pat Mora to link children’s books, languages and cultures. Día means “day” in Spanish and is a family literacy initiative celebrated every year. It’s an opportunity for communities across the country to practice DÍA = Diversity in Action.

This program made possible by a generous donation from Marianna and Austin Nothern to The Library Foundation.

Marvin Auditorium will take on a fair feel with tables for sponsor organizations, including the Kansas Historical Society, Professional Archaeologists of Kansas, Kansas Anthropological Association and, of course, the library. Dan Rowlinson, Kansas Anthropological Association member and flintknapper, will demonstrate flintknapping (making stone tools), answer questions and explain how those tools would have been used.

Bring your questions for professionals, learn how you can go on an archaeological dig and browse our display of related books. Come and go as you please and bring the kids. Don’t forget to stop by the display in the rotunda to see artifacts courtesy of the Kansas Historical Society.

Most of the action will be in Marvin Auditorium, but make sure to take the kids throughout the library for more vendors, crafts and music.

The first 200 attendees will receive a free lilac bush and marigold seed packets ready for spring planting. You may also choose to take home other vendor giveaways.

From 1:00-3:00pm bring in your old electronics you no longer want and drop it off with Asset LifeCycle to be recycled. Just for today these items are taken for FREE: Desktops, telephones, keyboards, mice, printers, laptops, fax machines, copiers, scanners, cameras, toner cartridges, cellular phones. These items will NOT be free and do have a fee associated: Monitors, $10, televisions, $20, televisions in a wooden housing, $30.

Shawnee County Master Gardeners will be showcasing native grasses and flowers. Demonstrations are scheduled throughout the afternoon; you will be able to visit booths with more eco-friendly information needed for daily living. Live music, urban chickens and bicycles will inspire the ecologist in all of us and entertain the kids.

The library has materials and resources on living green, and staff will be available to help you browse the Lawn & Garden neighborhood.

The Green Fair is a family-friendly event and the kids will enjoy eco-friendly crafts and games, live animals, and live music.

Opening reception will be 5:30pm April 6 during Topeka’s First Friday ArtWalk. The exhibit features a mix of new and previously exhibited artwork and a “touch table” so visitors can actually feel what Carter feels as she’s creating. Learn more about the artist and her artwork during Carter’s Artist Talk Sunday, April 29 at 2pm in Marvin Auditorium 101A.

Carter, a mixed media artist and University of Kansas art professor, is nationally known for working within and across disciplines in the arts. One of her themes is the issue of recovery, represented in the torso forms inspired by breast cancer survivors. The majority of the artwork leaves plenty open to interpretation.

The pieces exhibited fall into three main categories: mixed media construction, painting/drawings and digital drawings, the latter of which depict bags, bodies and books. Visitors who look closely will see surprises tucked into the works, like a hand-scribbled to-do list from the artist or an inspirational quotation.

“One of the habits of my art practice is to look around me and notice what things surround me and how they are connected to me and to others,” she said. “I draw from the patterns of what I observe in the environment, one’s behavior, recurring things.”

Carter is adept at re-circulating items that most people would think of as trash and elevating those items’ status to art, said Sherry Best, Sabatini Art Gallery director.

The interdisciplinary artist grew up surrounded by decorative objects, antiques, statuary, cloisonné and Asian art that her father would acquire through his independent delivery service. “Our home was like a mini-gallery,” she said. She was fascinated by her parents’ collection and developed an affinity for her mother’s stitchery, decoration and notes. This set the stage for the craft Carter would hone as an adult.

Enthusiasts of Carter’s technique can hone their own skill at two classes on wearable art, offered on a registration-only basis, May 10 at 7pm and May 14 at 4pm. Attendees will create their own small piece of wearable art. Supplies provided. Call 785-580-4515 to register.

The exhibit ends May 18. For more information about this project, visit the exhibit’s webpage.

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library is a 21st-century, landmark library, and features the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery, the Millennium Café, Chandler Booktique, meeting rooms, and free computer and Internet access and training.

Gallery hours are the same as library hours: Mon. through Fri. 9 am to 9 pm, Sat. 9 am to 6 pm and Sunday 12 pm to 9 pm.

Pyko led a collaborative research project with Auburn-Washburn school district to measure before and after summer reading scores, demonstrating that more than 80 percent of summer readers improved or maintained reading skills and scores. Rochester Elementary and Shawnee Heights Elementary were able to replicate that success.

“It is not about doing something just because it feels good — we need to be able to measure it to assure it enhances the quality of life for our community,” Pyko said in the article.

Pyko is a mentor and literacy chair for the local branch of Rotary International and Leadership Topeka graduate. She holds a Master’s of Library Science from Emporia State University.

She will be featured along with the 52 other Movers & Shakers in the March edition of Library Journal and celebrated at a special luncheon in June during the American Library Association’s annual conference in Anaheim, Calif. The print feature’s companion website is sponsored by OCLC and available at www.libraryjournal.com/movers2012.

Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library employees are no strangers to the “Movers and Shakers” award. Previous winners include:

David Lee King, 2008

Gina Millsap, 2007

Dennis Wilson, 2004

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library is a 21st-century, landmark library, and features the Alice C. Sabatini Art Gallery, the Millennium Café, Chandler Booktique, meeting rooms, and free computer and Internet access and training.