Learn the ins and outs of online banking

According to a recent survey, 73 percent of online households – 58 percent of all U.S. households – reported paying a bill online at a biller or bank website in the last month.* Have you hesitated becoming part of this trend and would like to learn more?

The Peters Township Public Library will host Kristen Painter, Branch Manager, Washington Financial Bank/Valley Brook, who will discuss how online banking makes it easy and convenient to check account activity, transfer funds, and pay bills. Learn how to easily navigate these features on Tuesday, February 7 from 7 – 8:45 p.m. The fee for this program is $5 and advance registration is required at the library circulation desk.

Kristen Painter has over 20 years of experience in the financial industry. She graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, the Pennsylvania Bankers Association School of Banking and Leadership Washington County.

"Making Sense of the Civil War" program filled within a week!

Peters Township Public Library will host a five-part reading and discussion series which will focus on making sense of the American Civil War. The library is one of more than 150 sites throughout the country that will host the reading and discussion series, a 2012 project of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. Additional support in Pennsylvania is provided by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. Registrations for the program opened on January 9 and quickly filled within a week.

Peters Township Public Library is one of four Pennsylvania libraries chosen to partner with Pennsylvania Humanities Council. Readings selected for the program will provide a glimpse of the vast sweep and profound breadth of Americans’ war among and against themselves, and include:
• March by Geraldine Brooks
• Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam by James McPherson
• America’s Wars: Talking about the Civil War and Emancipation of Their 150th Anniversaries, a forthcoming anthology of historical fiction, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biography, and short stories, edited by national project scholar Edward L. Ayers.

Program books are provided to participants through funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Library Association and through the Pennsylvania Humanities Council for Peters Township Public Library participants.

Dr. Elaine Parsons, Civil War scholar and Associate Professor of History at Duquesne University, will lead all five discussion sessions. Dr. Parsons received her PhD at Johns Hopkins University. Her work focuses on social movements and popular culture in the nineteenth-century United States, with a focus on the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. She is currently completing a book about the Ku Klux Klan, entitled “Constructing the Kuklux: The Ku Klux Klan and the Modernization of the Reconstruction-Era South.” Dr. Parsons is the recipient of a Harry Frank Guggenheim Fellowship for the study of violence in culture.

Local musicians offer “An Evening of Jazz”

Ease into winter with “An Evening of Jazz” at the Peters Township Public Library on Thursday, January 26 from 7:30-8:30 p.m. in the library lobby. This free program will be hosted by the library’s Senior Advisory Council and feature accomplished local musicians Lee Robinson and Joseph Sheehan. Register to attend online or call 724-941-9430.

As a jazz saxophonist, digital sound artist and music experimenter, Peters Township resident Lee Robinson presents music with an exciting perspective. His focus is to transform his listeners of all ages with “sound.” He has been able achieve this goal by collaborating with poets, actors, visual artists and a computer programmer for a variety of exciting projects, including an impromptu jam with Drepung Monks on their visit to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts to build a Mandala for peace in 2002. Traveling with his musical group he has performed in New York City, Toronto, Ontario, and Saitama City, Japan.

Joseph Sheehan is a composer, pianist, and educator rooted in classical, jazz, and world music traditions. Sheehan leads his own ensemble, Kinetic. A prolonged trip to Ghana, West Africa, to study traditional drumming, song, and dance had a profound effect on his musical language and philosophy. He aspires to create music that connects with audiences in deep and fulfilling ways. In Pittsburgh he has been active as a pianist in many several groups, and also as an educator, teaching music at Duquesne University and CCAC Boyce. He holds degrees in composition from Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) and Duquesne University.

Learn to eat well for your health

Is one of your New Year’s Resolutions for 2012 to eat better for your health, for more energy, or to lose weight? Sample delicious foods to help you on your mission at “Fabulous Recipes for Vibrant Health” on Thursday, January 12 at 7:00 p.m. at the Peters Township Public Library. Registration is required. There is a$10 program fee for the plentiful food samples. Register at the library circulation desk.

Presenting the program will be Janet McKee, Board Certified Holistic Health Counselor and a certified member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. The recipes to be sampled at the program are part of a collection of over 100 recipes that promote energy, vitality and longevity that McKee has complied and self-published. The cookbook includes recipes from appetizers to desserts like Blueberry Banana Superfood Protein Smoothie, Butternut Squash Soup with Fried Sage Leaves and Vegetable Stew with Spicy Sauce and Grains. Copies will be available for purchase at the program for $15. Cash, check or credit cards accepted. No Amex, Discover or debit cards.

“I want to help people understand how easy and enjoyable it is to take control of their health and to live a vibrant life. Knowing that preparing and enjoying delicious foods that are good for the body and which help us to prevent and sometimes reverse illness is something I want everyone to know, “says McKee.

Janet McKee is a board certified Holistic Health Counselor and a certified member of the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. After working in the corporate environment and obtaining her MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, Ms. McKee pursued a career in health and wellness by attending the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in affiliation with Columbia University. She has a private practice where she helps her clients reach their personal wellness goals. She works with individuals as well as groups and teaches how food and lifestyle choices affect one’s overall health and well being.

Local teachers create program to inspire young readers

If you are a parent, teacher, or librarian struggling to find ways to motivate young children to read, three local teachers may have some of the answers you are seeking in their newly released book Personalized Reading: It’s a Piece of Pie. Nancy Hobbs, Kristen Sacco and Myra R. Oleynik will visit the Peters Township Public Library on Sunday, December 11 from 1-3 p.m. to discuss the PIE program featured in the book.

The three highly experienced teachers, one of whom is a school librarian, have found that the best way to encourage children to read isn't by offering them prizes through point systems. By showing elementary students the benefits of books through the PIE program—Personalized, Independent, Enrichment—teachers, librarians, and parents can motivate them to keep reading for the best reason: they've learned to love it. Utilizing the PIE program will teach students to make selections at an appropriate reading level, expand from choosing titles in the same genre or from the same author, and recognize and abandon a book of low interest to them. Within each chapter are explanations of the theories behind each step and practical ideas that teachers and librarians can implement collaboratively in the classroom and library. Parents will discover the top ten ways to help their children self-select books and how they can help to foster a love of reading in their children.

To attend this program register online, visit the circulation desk, or call 724.941.9430. Copies of Personalized Reading: It’s a Piece of Pie, normally sold for $35, will be available at the event or to order for the special price of $25, cash or checks made payable to “Friends of the Peters Township Public Library.” Coordinating with the PIE-theme for that day, the library will also be hosting a Gingerbread House Making Contest with The Pie Place during that afternoon from 1-3 p.m. Call the library at 724.941.9430 for further details.

Nancy L. Hobbs is a third grade teacher in the Peters Township School District in Washington County, PA. Hobbs is a former elementary school administrator in both Indiana and Pennsylvania, and has taught grades K through 6. Hobbs earned her master's degree from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, and her doctorate in administrative and policy studies from the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.

Myra R. Oleynik is K–3 library media specialist for 800 students at Bower Hill Elementary School, Venetia, PA, recently named Outstanding Library Media Center by the Pennsylvania School Librarians Association. Oleynik is also K–5 library media specialist in the Peters Township School District, Washington County, PA—a role she has had for 15 years—and was an elementary classroom teacher for 13 years. She holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Grove City College, Grove City, PA, and an MLS degree from the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. Oleynik is a Keystone Technology Integrator and Pennsylvania Teacher Excellence honoree.

Kristen M. Sacco is a third grade teacher in the Peters Township School District in Washington County, PA. She has seventeen years' experience teaching in both Pennsylvania and Nevada, and has been an elementary school guidance counselor in the Las Vegas, NV area. Sacco earned her bachelor's degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, and a master's degree in elementary school counseling from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV.

Local author’s book reveals presidents as students and teachers

A new book by professor of education and chair of the Education Department of Washington and Jefferson College explores the student and teaching experiences of presidents and first ladies from George and Martha Washington to Barack and Michelle Obama. Dr. James McMurtry Longo will premier his new book From Classroom to White House: The Presidents and First Ladies as Students and Teachers at the Peters Township Public Library on Saturday, December 10 from 10-11:00 a.m. A book signing will follow the event. Seating is limited and registration is requested. To reserve your seat, please register online, visit the library circulation desk, or call 724.941.9430.

During his more than a decade of research, interviews, and travel, Longo discovered that few White House residents made model students. President Eisenhower, who was not always the best student, once wrote, “One cannot always read a man’s future in the record of his younger days.” Teachers reported that John F. Kennedy could “seldom locate his possessions,” found George H.W. Bush “somewhat eccentric,” and dubbed a sixth-grade Bill Clinton “a motormouth.” In addition to chronicling the school days of these historic figures, this volume also relates their teaching experiences, the educational issues they addressed during their White House years, and the intricacies of education at their time in history, providing an informative overview of American schooling over time.

Half the presidents and first ladies taught, but Professor Longo believes that if by some magical time machine all the presidents and first ladies could be transported back to their days as students - they would be a teacher’s worse nightmare. Stu Bryer of WICH radio in Norwich, Connecticut has called the book “fascinating” and a “must read”. Another reviewer wrote, “This is a book that gives hope to any parent of an underachieving child – and a big tip of the hat to teachers that make a difference in a student’s life.” Bill Bertenshaw from WOR Newsradio in New York said, “Great book…hard to put down…I learned more about history and the presidents and first ladies from this book than all the history classes I took in school.”

Dr. James McMurtry Longo is an award-winning teacher, storyteller, Fulbright scholar, and Chair of the Education Department at Washington and Jefferson College. He grew up in St. Louis, majored in History at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, worked as a public school teacher for over a decade, and earned his doctorate in education from Harvard University.

Longo has taught on three continents where he has lectured on the educational experiences of White House residents from Austria and Brazil, to Costa Rica and England. This is his seventh book. His previous book, Isabel Orleans-Braganza-The Brazilian Princess Who Freed the Slaves, was nominated for Yale University’s Frederick Douglass Book Prize for the “Most outstanding non-fiction book in English on the subject of slavery and abolition.”

Download Free Music from Freegal

The Peters Township Public Library is offering you a way to add to your music collection for free through Freegal Music .Once you register at the library with your valid Peters Township Public Library card, you can download 3 songs per week for free.

Freegal Music is an online database that provides access to songs from Sony Music. The music files are DRM-free and do not expire, and the songs are compatible with PCs, Macs, iPods, iPads and other MP3-compatible devices. Offering over half a million songs to download in all types of music genres including classical, country, rock, jazz and pop, Freegal adds new music daily to the collection.

“By providing our patrons online access to Freegal, we are able to offer them a broad range of music that they can pick and choose from to add to their personal music collection,” said Pier Lee, Library Director. “Like our eReaders and Playaways available for checkout, this is another free service we offer so our library patrons can experience the latest technology - at no cost to them.”

To register for your free subscription to Freegal, bring your valid Peters Township Public Library card with you to the Reference Desk on the second floor of the library. A staff member will process your request and, once you have confirmed your account via email, you can begin adding songs to your own collection. For more information, call the library at 724.941.9430.