Blog Entries

Find Your Voice at Ames Public Library

by Jill Philby

Here it is—the end of May and June is doing its best to bust out all over! At your home, June may mean ball games or gardening, suddenly having a houseful of children all day, every day instead of at school, or it might just mean spending time in a lawn chair reading and relaxing. But at Ames Public Library, June 1 means our “Find Your Voice!” summer reading challenge has begun!

I like to read! Can I participate? Absolutely! Everyone can sign up to participate—adults, teens, children, and even infants and toddlers. We want everyone to participate because we ... Read Full Blog

8 > 2

When it comes to legs, the protagonists of most novels settle for two.  This is a case of chronic underachievement.  More is better.  In E. B. White’s classic “Charlotte’s Web,” even four legs aren’t enough for Wilbur the pig to avoid an impending dinner date.  It takes eight-legged Charlotte the barn spider to find a solution.  Though smart, Charlotte is truly a spider.  She catches, kills, and relishes meals of flies, she has more than four hundred children, and she has only a short life to share with Wilbur and friends.

If you have fond memories of... Read Full Blog

Conversation Circles

By Chelsie Gohlmann 

Interested in practicing your language skills and connecting with others? Come join one of the Ames Public Library's Conversation Circles programs! Our programs provide a welcoming environment where language learners of all levels can improve their skills by chatting with others in their chosen language.

Conversation Circles: English is led by myself and my colleague, Ellen, every Monday from 12:30-1:30pm. It is the only Conversation Circles program that is facilitated by library staff; whereas, the others are all volunteer-led. The main focus of this ... Read Full Blog

Keeping Up with the Kiddos

by Tracy Briseño

My children are voracious readers. I love that they are often deep in a book, entranced, pulled in, and thoroughly engaged. I am thankful that they have a plethora of trusted adults in their life to recommend new titles, from teachers and librarians to grandparents, aunts, and uncles. They also share recommendations with friends.

When my children started reading I wanted to read what they read, have them read what I enjoyed as a child, and be involved in all their reading decisions. Now, three children later, I know I would hold them back.

Instea... Read Full Blog

Connect with Fellow Readers at a Library Book Club

Clelia Sweeney

This week I wanted to highlight one of our mainstay library services: book clubs. We have three monthly adult book clubs, each run by a librarian on staff. We also offer a monthly homeschooling book club for youth during the school year.

028: Real Reads is our book club for recently published, popular non-fiction. The name is a reference to the Dewey decimal classification for “Books and Reading.” Recent popular choices include “Empire of Pain” and “Four Lost Cities”. Our librarian Cathy started this one in January 2017 and has continued to run it since. I pinch-... Read Full Blog

Playful Families…Step Into Storybooks!

by Brianne Anderson

I cannot tell you how many times my children have run upstairs and asked me to zip/snap/buckle them into some kind of dress-up outfit. They describe to me amazing stories about the adventures the three of them are taking, all while never leaving the basement. Children’s imaginations are incredible and seeing how the kids cooperate (and many times NOT cooperate) together is not only amazing to see, but it actually builds their cognitive and social development.

Creative play time is so important because it gives kids the chance to direct their own time an... Read Full Blog

Repair Café at Ames Public Library

by Ellen Wanamaker

Do you have a bicycle lingering in your garage with a flat tire or a dangling chain? A piece of jewelry missing a clasp? A jacket that needs mending? Perhaps your espresso maker is making weird noises? Possibly you’ve got a rototiller that isn’t tilling? A beloved old laptop with a stuck DVD drive? You get the picture. Many of us have things at home that need repair, and this weekend you can drop in to a free Repair Café at the library to get help from local volunteers.

The Repair Café will be held at Ames Public Library on Saturday, April 22nd from 10 a... Read Full Blog

Autism Awareness Month Books

by Ethan Atwell

April is Autism Awareness Month. The annual celebration is not only meant to bring awareness to autism, but also the opportunity to create unity and collaboration by highlighting stories of autistic individuals. I’ve created a list of youth books to read featuring autistic individuals below.

Picture Books:

“My Brother Charlie” by Holly Robinson Peete. Callie is very proud of her brother Charlie. He's good at so many things, but sometimes he is quiet and seems far away. “The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin” by Julia ... Read Full Blog

First Amendment Days

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” These 45 words establish five freedoms essential to American democracy and culture.  It is too easy to take these freedoms for granted, and so the Iowa State University Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication and the Ames Public Library are hosting the First Amendment Days in April to recognize and appreciat... Read Full Blog

Battles at the Ames Public Library

by Danielle Ziegler

Over the years, you may have noticed a yearly program at our library called the Battle of the Books.  This is one of my absolute favorite programs! In short, 5th and 6th graders compete in trivia battles about books they have read.  However, there is a lot more to these book battles.

Each year, library youth staff get together to decide what books should be featured on the upcoming year’s battles.  These are fun meetings with lots of discussions, as we all keep track throughout the year of books that we think would be great for battle.  I... Read Full Blog

Author Fair

by Megan Klein-Hewett

Ames is fortunate be home to a robust community of writers, and author support is one of the many goals of Ames Public Library. One new way the Library is supporting our writing community is through our inaugural Author Fair.

Join fellow writers and book lovers on March 25th for a free afternoon celebrating the craft of writing. Learn from writing professionals and meet local authors in an afternoon celebrating the craft of writing. All Author Fair events are drop in, so feel free to explore any or all of the afternoon’s events.

Starting at ... Read Full Blog

Trowel and Error

By Alissa Dornink

There are twelve days before the start of spring as I’m writing this, and I’m watching it snow as we’re under another yet another winter weather advisory. The last weekend of milder weather had gotten my hopes up that we had moved on from the snowiest parts of winter, even though I’ve lived through enough seasons to know better. I had even gotten out in my back yard and made progress cleaning up some of the rogue sticks and leaves and filled in some of the holes the dog has dug. I kept staring at my garden while doing that, making and revising plans for when it gets war... Read Full Blog

Quick Kids’ Reads

Spring break will find me winging my way across the country to visit my sister and her kids! Since I only have a few days with them, I’ve been gathering books that are high-interest, yet short enough that we can actually finish them. I learned my lesson on a previous family visit where we had to beg my sister-in-law to let the kids stay up late to finish a book, and another visit where my niece and I barricaded ourselves into a tiny guest room for most of a day to finish another one. You really can’t just leave a giant chicken wandering through the streets, or leave a broccoli-colored boy i... Read Full Blog

A Serpent at the Opera

by Jill Philby

Birds sing.  Whales sing. Cicadas, mice, and katydids sing.  But did you know that serpents sing?  The one and only Sid the Serpent will be singing here at Ames Public Library in OPERA Iowa and Des Moines Metro Opera’s family-friendly production of “Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing” on Saturday, March 4, at 2:00pm in the Farwell T. Brown Auditorium. 

Wait.  Opera?  Family-friendly?  Sure!  After all, what is opera but good story-telling, music, theater, art and dance all rolled into one.  And a good opera does what a... Read Full Blog

Library Staff Day

by Sheila Schofer

As spaces full of books, technology, programs, and helpful, knowledgeable staff, people readily recognize libraries as places of learning for the public. Ames Public Library certainly embraces this concept through our mission We Connect You to the World of Ideas. We see ourselves as a learning organization for our community and our employees.

Staff development is a specific focus area identified in the library’s strategic plan. Library staff are involved in continuous learning in a variety of ways, through conferences, community training and online webina... Read Full Blog