110th Anniversary Kickoff Tomorrow

In 1895, Matilda Greathouse Alexander opened a reading room in memory of her daughter. Look at what her dream gave Mt. Vernon!

At our anniversary kickoff, held tomorrow night, February 1st at 6:00pm, we'll be unveiling beautiful commissioned watercolors painted by Robert Pote. We'll also be selling limited edition prints. Stop by for refreshments and learn about this special anniversary year, and find out about events and programming that will be taking place to celebrate this milestone.

We're proud of our 110 years as your library!

AARP Tax Dates

The following are the dates that AARP Volunteer Tax-Aide will provide tax assistance to the elderly. All sessions will be from 1pm to 4pm, and will be held in the Alexandrian Public Library meeting rooms.

• February 8th
• February 22nd
• March 8th
• March 22nd
• April 5th

Staff at APL are unable to answer tax questions or provide tax advice, and we are not affliated with the AARP program. However, APL does has a variety of federal and state tax forms available - they are located inside the library near the Indiana Room.

To download forms directly, you can visit:

http://www.irs.gov - Federal Forms

http://www.in.gov/dor - Indiana Forms

For more assistance, contact the Evansville IRS office at (812) 471-6635.

Incredible Internet Guy

"Tired of cruising online aimlessly like a bored teenager?"

Each week, Ken Leebow (a computer consultant and writer), selects one topic and presents high-quality Web sites related to it on his website, the Incredible Internet Guy.

This week, he has chosen to explore the world of music on the internet. The site also includes an archive of earlier IIG topics for you to browse.

Puzzled Over What To Do Tonight?

Feeling the need to test your brain, or to put your vast vocabulary to work?

CrosswordPuzzleGames offers 32,400 free crossword puzzles online and fun tools for people who enjoy word games. You can even create your very own crossword puzzle, or get help solving that one clue you just can't get!

If you'd like a little more social stimulation than a crossword puzzle, stop by APL tonight for the first "Friends of APL" meeting of 2005. All members, and potential members, are welcome to attend. We're always looking for input, ideas, and assistance! The meeting will begin at 6:30pm.

It's YOUR library...be a part of it!

Mount Vernon Reads Kickoff!

Tomorrow (January 19th) at 12pm, the Alexandrian Public Library will be revealing the title of its inaugural "Mount Vernon Reads" book!

Stop by on your lunch hour to find out the book title, hear a bit about our yearlong celebration, listen to selected readings from the book, and even play some bingo for prizes!

Mount Vernon Reads will also be featured in a full page spread in tomorrow's edition of the Mount Vernon Democrat, so be sure to check it out. Copies of the book will be available starting tomorrow afternoon. Regular print, large print and audio editions are all available.

We're looking forward to all of Mount Vernon reading together!

Hungry? Let Us Help...

Cookbook Central, a part of the Epicurious site, features "veteran food writer Irene Sax tries out and reports on the best of the new cookbooks. Each review includes the added bonus of a tested recipe and cooking tips." Archives are available back to 1997, and there is also several "best of" lists.

APL has a wide variety of cookbooks in our nonfiction collection...if we don't have the gem you're looking for, we can certainly Interlibrary Loan (ILL) the book for you - free of charge!

10 x 10

10x10 is a site that "collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time."

The site displays a new collage each hour of 100 ranked images and words harvested from the news at Reuters, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and The New York Times Web sites.

It "leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, form a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life."

The site also includes archives and explains the process by which it finds the 100 images every hour.

A fascinating visual display of our news and times...

Poetry on Demand

Sure, everyone's heard about illegal downloading of mp3s, but what about legal downloading?

It's not music, but PENNsound (a part of the University of Pennsylvania) has a large variety of digital recordings of poems (currently 1,500 and growing) available for free on their website, which just launched on January 1st. Users can right click to save the high quality mp3 files, and PENNsounds hopes to continually add new authors and works.

So grab your iPod and download a few fantastic pieces of poetry today!

Your Congressional Class, 2005

It's time to greet the 109th Congress, and wish them luck as they lead us into another political session.

We’ve got some new people to recognize who have taken office in Washington.

Congress.org (from Capitol Advantage, a provider of grassroots solutions and advocacy) is a nonprofit site that provides an easy interface to finding out more about both state and local officials.

Visitors can "use our ZIP code search engine to sort through pages of biographical information on national and local elected officials or candidates for office. Similar functionality is available for locating local media, bills and legislation, rules and regulations open for public comment, and much more."

Want to think back fondly on a different Congress? Why not peruse the Congressional Biographical Directory, where you can find Congressmen from as far back as 1774.

New Year's Resolutions?

Now that we're five days into the new year, have you stuck to your resolutions yet? In a recent survey of top resolutions, we've found that APL can help anyone along the way!

Spend More Time with Family and Friends

Why not bring the family to an APL program, stop by the Indiana Room to work on your family tree, or take part in Board Game Night - held the second and fourth Thursdays of the month at the library (beginning January 13th at 5:00pm). Bring your competitive spirit and a few friends or family!

Fit in Fitness

APL has loads of fitness videos on both VHS and DVD, as well as books about yoga, tai chi, pilates and more!

Tame the Bulge

APL stocks hundreds of cookbooks, covering a variety of diets, skills and tastes. Simply search our holdings in AlexCAT.

Stop Smoking

We have videos, audiobooks and printed books about kicking the habit, as well as books about the health downsides of smoking.

Enjoy Life More

What better way to relax or learn something new than to stop by your library! We have thousands of books on almost any topic, offer both entertaining and educational programs to all ages, stock the latest and greatest blockbusters in our DVD/VHS collections, and have a fantastic Friends of the Library group that get together to socialize and help the library in a variety of ways. APL is definitely good for life!

Get Out of Debt

By searching AlexCAT, you can find a variety of books on debt reduction, money managing, budgeting and even finding money to start a small business. As always, stop by the Adult Services Information Desk if you need assistance in finding these materials.

Learn Something New

This is an easy void for APL to fill! We stock hundreds of books on any number of hobbies - from knitting to woodworking to how to tie a good knot - and offer programs on learning new hobbies, such as yoga or scrapbooking. Stop by or call APL to see what the latest "new" thing is!

Help Others

APL is always looking for new members of our Friends of the Library! Our Friends help in so many ways, from running our annual booksale to boxing books, coming to library programs (and sometimes bringing a few goodies with them!), raising money for library programs and being good advocates for the library in Posey County. Joining is easy and a bargain (only $5 per person), and is a huge help to YOUR library.

Get Organized

Not only do we have books on organizing your life and everything in it, but we can even teach you the Dewey Decimal System, used for organizing all our collections at APL. If that's not organized, we don't know what is!

Happy 2005!

Indiana Room Open House

Since genealogy is the second most popular pastime in America, we're guessing a few people have made New Year's resolutions to grab those family trees and keep digging.

Let APL help!

We will be hosting an Indiana Room Open House tomorrow (January 5th) from 9am to 8pm, complete with a genealogist available throughout the day to help, a new database to trial, handouts, access to all our Indiana Room materials and of course, refreshments!

Registration is not required, so just stop by the Indiana Room and let us help you get started on that family tree!