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To gain a better understanding of what led to this conflict and what is currently happening we have compiled a list of books and other resources the library has to offer. 

People still in Sudan and Sudanese refugees in neighboring countries are in dire need of medical supplies and other assistance. 

At the end of the resource list are suggestions for ways to help the humanitarian effort to bring aid to the innocent civilians. 

Continue Reading "Learn About Sudan, Understand the Conflict, and How to Help" →

If you love audiobooks or even if you are just discovering them, the SYNC audiobook program provides interesting titles with professional narration.

This program is targeted toward teens, but anyone over 13 years old can access. 

Each week the SYNC program provides two thematically paired audiobooks for checkout and use with the Sora app. Sora is the student reading app from Overdrive. 

Once the titles have been downloaded to your shelf in Sora, you can listen to them again and again.

Continue Reading "Curated Audiobooks! Two Free Downloads a Week from May - August" →

National Poetry Day was founded in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets to celebrate the art of poetry and its impact on our lives. This year, the Des Plaines Library will be celebrating National Poetry Day by inviting our staff to read some of their favorite poems. These videos will be shared on our Facebook, Instagram and TikTok pages, and you can also watch them in the player below:

 

The walk up the stairs at the Des Plaines library starts with the bustling first floor customer service area.

As you move up and land on the second floor there is a burst of color of the youth and children's materials.

Keep on going to the third floor and you are entering the adult world of make-believe, also known as fiction.

One more floor and you've arrived at the fourth floor. Non-fiction lives here. 

Continue Reading "The Fourth Floor: Where Work and Entertainment Meet" →

For those of us who work at the Reference desk (fourth-floor public desk), this is not an uncommon phone, email or in-person question around the start of any given semester.

Mostly from college students, but there's the occasional one in high school.

It's a subject that can cause substantial panic.

As a public library, we don't own much in the way of textbooks. The good news, however, is that we can steer you to other places that do.

It's a competitive industry, and textbooks sites can offer a range of options: buy a new or used copy. Or, rent one.

Continue Reading "Textbook Travail?" →