Summer Reading Program Kick-Off at Smyrna Community Center

The Chattahoochee Nature Center taught young library patrons about the music of nature during today's Summer Reading Program Kick-Off. The kids learned to identify local bird and raptor calls and frog sounds, and also learned how bats use echolocation to find prey. 

We also met a tiny Eastern Screech Owl who lives at the Center. (see below)

Today's event was sponsored by The Friends of Smyrna Library.

Thank you, Colonial Dames XVII Century

What a nice surprise! Maryanne McCurdy of the Nicholas Wallingford Chapter of the Colonial Dames XVII Century popped by the library today to drop off a check. They selected some titles from the library's "Wish List" for us to purchase for the genealogy collection. We'll post pictures of the new books when they come in. Thank you, Colonial Dames XVII Century!

New Music Makers Collection

The Smyrna Public Library launched the "Music Makers" collection today. These are percussion and string instruments that you can check out. 

This new collection was sponsored by the Charyn Darby Foundation. Let's make some noise this summer!

Music CD Pop-Up Sale Underway

Need more music in your life?

The Friends of Smyrna Library have a music CD pop-up sale in the library atrium today and through the weekend. CDs are just $.50 each (double sets are $1)!

2018 Summer Reading Program Participant Number 1

You're looking at our first 2018 Summer Reading Program participant! Sign up begins today, so drop by the library and join the fun. Libraries Rock!

FOSL Expands Youth Nonfiction Collection

The Friends of Smyrna Library underwrote funding to purchase 340 new nonfiction titles in advance of the Summer Reading Program.  The first batch is now ready for check out! 

Not a Friend of the Smyrna Library? Join our group.  Your donation to the Friends of Smyrna Library is tax deductible and helps fund the Summer Reading Program and the purchase great new titles like the ones pictured!

First Sunday Lecture: Popular Birds of Smyrna: How to Attract Them and How to Spot Them

Thank you Ms Jackson-Van Detta for all the information yesterday about making your backyard a welcome habitat for birds.

First Sunday Lecture
Popular Birds of Smyrna: How to Attract Them and How to Spot Them

Speaker: Kathryn Jackson-Van Detta, owner of Wild Birds Unlimited of Vinings

Kathryn Jackson-Van Detta, Audubon Certified Master Birder, presented the amazing world of our backyard birds. She talked about the more than 20 species of birds commonly found in our Smyrna backyards, year-round. From the plucky and idiosyncratic Brown-Headed Nuthatch to the glorious Eastern Bluebird, Kathryn discussed how to identify our local birds by sight and song, as well as how to create habitats at your home to attract and foster our local birds.

Speaker Bio: Kathryn Jackson-Van Detta owns Wild Birds Unlimited of Vinings Nature Shop, along with her husband, Jeff. Kathryn grew up in the Perry, Georgia, area, and Kathryn's interest in wildlife generally and birds in particular was encouraged by her maternal grandmother. Kathryn made her first career as a law office manager. She then graduated with honors from Georgia State's Robinson College of Business, and seriously considered setting up an insurance agency -- until she found the opportunity to open a Wild Birds Unlimited Store in the Vinings-Smyrna area, which was a lot more fun! Kathryn and Jeff live and feed the birds at their home in the West Cooper Lake area of Smyrna. Kathryn is a Master Birder, certified by the Audubon Society, as well as a Certified Bird Feeding Specialist, as certified by Jim Carpenter, the founder of Wild Birds Unlimited.

The First Sunday Lecture series is sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library and Smyrna Library.

Congratulations, Ms. Rebecca!!!

Congratulations to Ms. Rebecca on five years of service with Smyrna Public Library. You can celebrate by signing up your child for Summer Reading, starting Friday, May 18!

Libraries Rock! Summer Reading Program Announced

Are you ready to rock?  Smyrna Library is celebrating music this summer, and they have lots of fun in store. 

Reading every week throughout summer is the best way to prevent “Summer Slide,” which is the loss of academic skills over the break. Smyrna Library makes reading and visiting the Library fun with prizes, puppet shows, crafts, STEM activities, and surprises.

Early sign-up begins Friday, May 18, at Smyrna Library. The Kick-Off event is Friday, May 25, at 11:00 am in the Community Center.

Abstract Acrylics by David Marchione Opens at Smyrna Public Library Art Gallery

The May/June 2018 Art Gallery exhibit has opened – Abstract Acrylics by David Marchione.  Mr. Marchione’s exhibit is on display through June 30. The Art Gallery is located on the 2nd floor of the Smyrna Public Library. 

Artist Statement:

I use line, color, bisected space, and unreliable perspective in my painting to create a visual field that draws the viewer in. My goal is to bring my audience back to a work to discover previously missed pockets of color and dynamic movement. I enjoy playing with space and forcing the eye to move around the canvas by disrupting the surface, breaking it apart, and rearranging it in whatever way suits me.

My palette is representative of a wide range of visual cues and value associations, but, as with my line work, the color is informed mainly by the mood I’m trying to convey. My goal is to speak to the viewer without words and to paint without narrative, but to remain the artist at the center of my paintings.

The Art Gallery exhibits are sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library.

Clay Ladies by Judy Robkin Opens at Smyrna Public Library Display Gallery

The May/June 2018 Display Gallery exhibit has opened – Clay Ladies by Judy Robkin.  Ms. Robkin’s exhibit is on display through June 30. The Display Gallery is located on the 2nd floor of the Smyrna Library. The Display Gallery exhibits are sponsored by the Friends of Smyrna Library.

Artist Statement:

I have been working in clay for the last 20 years, beginning with the wheel but quickly moving to handbuilding. I love the freedom and unlimited possibilities of non-functional pieces and am drawn to forms which express something unexpected.

BIO

Judy Birnbrey Robkin is a native Atlantan whose work has been shown in galleries around the Southeast, including the RaifordGallery in Atlanta, Bellagio in Asheville, NC, and Off the Wall in Santa Fe, NM. She has worked with a variety of clay techniques throughout her career and is currently immersed in a project entitled "Ladies (& gentlemen)," a series of intricately handcrafted ceramic women and a collection of whimsical men in bowls. Judy launched the arts program at the Weber School where she taught drawing, painting, sculpture and photography. As a ceramics instructor at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina, she taught hand building, Raku and other firing techniques.

Revealing the personality that is hidden under the headdress or behind the shawl, I attempt to unearth the simple yet elegant woman emerging from the clay. Just as our lives are textured by time and experience, layered through joy, love, loss, and surprise and colored by world events and personal experience, so too are my "Ladies" - textured, layered and colored.

I use a range of stains, glazes, underglazes, and oxides through multiple firings to build up the color and enhance the marks and textures embedded in the clay. I rarely start a piece with a specific face in mind. For me, the excitement begins as I see the personality emerge from the clay and culminates when the viewer identifies with an individual "lady."

FOSL Bookstore Clearance Sale to Run from May 1 to May 13

The Friends of Smyrna Library Bookstore is running a CLEARANCE SALE from May 1 to May 13. All books will be priced for only 75 cents, $1 or $2.  A large selection of fiction, nonfiction, cooking, crafts & decorating, audio books and more are available. More stock will be added when shelf space frees up.

The self-service bookstore is located in the library and is open during library hours. Turn left at the staircase when entering from the parking lot and it’s up against the brick wall. Books with green dots are 75 cents, red dots are $1 and yellow dots are $2. Please pay with small bills at the Circulation Desk. Thanks for your support!