Technology Tailgate

Put on your black and gold, and come tackle the new technology available at the Peters Township Public Library at a “Technology Tailgate” being offered on Saturday, October 24 from 1 to 3 p.m. in the library’s main lobby.

Staff members wearing Pittsburgh Steeler shirts will offer hands-on demonstrations of the library’s new materials. The Young Adult Department will offer patrons a chance to play the Madden NFL 10 video game, one of the many video games available for 7-day checkout. The Children’s Department will be holding an “Out with the Old” Mega-Sale of VHS tapes and cassettes, and will demo new interactive children’s books. Online resources for the whole family will be presented by the Reference Department staff, including the library’s online catalog, Rosetta Stone Language Learning, ConsumerReports.org, e-newsletter and Twitter account.

The library’s many books and DVDs about the Pittsburgh Steelers will be on display for checkout and light refreshments will be available. Please stop by for a few minutes (or more)and find out what your library has to offer to you and your family!

Senior Crime Prevention University

Every year, across Pennsylvania and the United States, senior citizens fall victim to many kinds of consumer fraud, especially home improvement, telemarketing, foreign lottery and sweepstakes scams. With 2.5 million residents over the age of 60 and the third highest percentage of senior citizens in the nation, Pennsylvania is a desirable place for con artists. With that in mind, the Attorney General expanded efforts to educate more seniors how to better protect themselves against fraud through his Senior Crime Prevention University program, which will be offered at the Peters Township Public Library on Tuesday, October 13 from 2:15 to 3:45 p.m. Register for this free program at the library’s circulation desk, call 724.941.9430 or email Carrie Weaver.

The presenter for this program will be Senior Supervisory Special Agent Richard Shaheen, who has spent 22 years serving the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as an Agent for the Office of Attorney General. He began his career with the Attorney General’s Office as a Special Agent with the Medicaid Fraud Control Section and after 13 years was promoted to Supervisory Special Agent in Medicaid Fraud. He was again promoted, this time to Senior Supervisory Special Agent in the Education and Outreach Unit.

As a recent victim of check fraud myself, I am looking forward to the information that will be presented by Special Agent Shaheen. If you are not a senior citizen yourself, please share this information with family, friends, or neighbors who would benefit from this valuable program.

The G-20 Summit: Outcomes, Prospects, and Implications

Dr. Schuyler Foerster will deliver his final presentation as President of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh at the Peters Township Public Library on Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. His topic, The G-20 Pittsburgh Summit: Outcomes, Prospects, and Implications, will open the 2009-2010 series. The upcoming World Affairs Council programs will be part of the series The Economics of Power - Rising Powers in a Changing World, which will focus on the world's emerging powers and examine the current economic climate as the global marketplace attempts to work its way back to recovery.

In his October 1st program, Dr. Foerster will discuss what emerged from the G-20 Summit held in Pittsburgh on September 24-25, 2009. He will also highlight conclusions reached concerning the current economic climate, recent developments that may be encouraging or cause for concern, and the impact of the G-20 Summit to the Pittsburgh Region. To attend this program, please register at the library's circulation desk, call 724.941.9430, or email Carrie Weaver.

In recognition of his long-term commitment to the Peters Township Public Library, a farewell reception for Dr. Foerster will be hosted by the library in the main lobby from 6:15-7:00 p.m., prior to the evening's presentation. The public is invited to extend their best wishes to Dr. Foerster as he begins his new assignment as the inaugural Brent Scowcroft Professor of National Security Studies at the United States Air Force Academy Department of Political Science and Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies.

Library Technology Fair this Saturday

Learn all about interactive books, Playaways, downloadable audiobooks and more at a Technology Fair to be held at the Peters Township Public Library on Saturday, September 12, 2009 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the main lobby.

Staff members will offer hands-on demonstrations of the library’s many new materials. The Young Adult Department will introduce over 50 new video games to be made available for 7-day checkout, and a free pair of earbuds will be given to persons attending the fair. Online resources to be featured will include the library’s online catalog, Rosetta Stone Language Learning, ConsumerReports.org, e-newsletter, and Twitter account. The self-checkout system for books will also be highlighted.

“We want to ensure that all of our patrons are aware of the many free services that our library has to offer,” says Pier Lee, Library Director. “We want them to be comfortable using these new devices and take full advantage of them in their busy lives, especially as we begin a new school year.”

No registration is required for this event.

RITA ® Award-winning romance author at PT Library

Fans of romance novels will have the opportunity to meet
award-winning author Gwyn Cready, who will be at the Peters Township Public Library on Thursday, September 24, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. Cready will discuss “Time Travel, Jane Austen, and the Road to Becoming a Romance Writer”.

Cready was honored in July at the Romance Writers of America Conference in Washington D.C. when her second novel “Seducing Mr. Darcy” was selected as the Best Paranormal Romance for 2009. Pittsburgh is the setting for this novel, and the book’s time-traveling heroine works at the National Aviary. Readers will recognize many of the other Pittsburgh landmarks used throughout the book. Cready’s first novel was “Tumbling Through Time”, which Janet Evanovich calls "Funny and sexy .. a reading adventure you don't want to miss." Her next book, “Flirting With Forever” is due out in March 2010.

For more information on Gwyn, visit her website. Register for this free program at the library's circulation desk, call 724.941.9430, or email Carrie Weaver. A book sale and signing will follow the program.

Ferguson's Career Guidance Center

Looking for a new career or just starting out in the job market? Planning for college and trying to choose a major? The Peters Township Public Library has an excellent resource available for you to use for help in all these areas!

The Ferguson's Career Guidance Center is a comprehensive career research database, broken down into three main sections: Job and Industry Profiles, Job-Hunting and Workplace Skills, and Career and Industry Resources. The Job and Industry Profiles section, organized into 16 Career Clusters created by the Department of Education, contains information on nearly 3,400 jobs and 94 industries. The Job-Hunting and Workplace Skills section provides invaluable advice on applying for a job, acing an interview, behaving professionally in the work environment, and more—with more than 90 sample résumés and cover letters included. The Career and Industry Resources section includes more than 55,000 entries on scholarships, internships, and more, divided into easily browsable categories with searchable records.

Starting to think about college? The database includes a College Planning and Financial Aid section with a College Planning Timeline, advice on Choosing a College, and Financial Aid Directories for undergraduate, graduate, and vocational education.

Learn more about this excellent resource available to Peters Township Public Library patrons! Visit our home page and click on the Online Databases link on the right side of the page. From there you will see a link to Ferguson's Career Guidance Center. You will need to provide your library bar code number to access this site.

Doug Oster's Fall Gardening Secrets

Garden columnist and radio host Doug Oster will visit the Peters Township Public Library on Saturday, September 5 at 10:00 a.m. He will discuss how to put your garden to bed in the fall, preparing the garden for spring planting now, tips for planting perennials in the fall, secrets to bulb planting and more.

Oster is co-author of Grow Organic: over 250 tips and ideas for growing flowers, veggies, lawns and more. A book sale and signing will follow the program.

Doug Oster is the co-host of KDKA radio’s Sunday morning program The Organic Gardeners and is the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Backyard Gardener. His column is distributed regionally by the Associated Press and nationally by Scripps Howard News Service. He also works as writer, producer and on air talent for WQED-TV's OnQ program contributing stories related to gardening. Doug fills the same role at WYEP-FM's Allegheny Front program. He appears on KDKA-TV's Pittsburgh Today during their gardening segments. Doug's "Grow Your Own" gardening/cooking column is syndicated nationally through the Los Angeles Times News Service. He is also founder of Cultivating Success, a garden program for adoptive and foster children.

Register for this free program at the library’s circulation desk, call 724.941.9430 or email Carrie Weaver.