Saturday is Rose Pruning Day

Ron Serven, Park Manager of Lacy Park will present his annual Rose Pruning Workshop at 9:30 AM on Saturday, January 14 in the Public Library's auditorium. If you want a great display of your roses in the spring, you need to spend a little time out in the garden this month to get your rose plants ready. With the warm, sunny days we're having, you don't want to wait. Pruning isn't hard work, and when you know what you're doing, it is even fun. Ron demonstrates and explains what to do and he will answer all of your questions. Reservations are not necessary. Call (626) 300-0777 if you have any questions about the program.

Following this session, there will be an opportunity for hands-on pruning with Ron in Lacy Park, where they have plenty of roses. You can join Ron between 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM. Bring a pair of pruners and maybe gloves to this one. Everyone is welcome to attend one or both of these programs. For information about the hands-on training in the Park, call (626) 304-9648.

Barks and Books

Elementary school children are invited to the San Marino Public Library to practice their reading skills by reading a book about books to a live gentle dog. This special program is made possible by volunteers of the Pasadena Humane Society. The first reading session will take place on Saturday, January 21st from 11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Additional reading opportunities are scheduled for the 3rd Saturday of each month. Space is limited and reservations are required and must be made in person. For more information, please call 626-300-0777.

The New Way to Search the LA Times Online

The San Marino Public Library has just added a new way to find articles written in the Los Angeles Times-over the Internet! Our subscription covers the last 20 years, all the way back to 1985.

How can you search this terrific database from home, work, or school? Point your browser to the Library home page: http://sanmarinopl.org. From there, choose "Online Reference Resources". Scroll down and click on "Los Angeles Times". Your login is the 14-digit barcode number on the back of your library card, typed in with no spaces.

Want to reach beyond the LA Times? Click on "America's Newspapers" to search back in time and around the nation, in everything from the Pasadena Star News to The New York Times.

Are You Listening?

Audio books, whether on tape or CD, are more popular than ever and the library continues to add new titles every month in both formats. Sixteen new tapes hit the shelves in December. They run the gamut from Rose Conners' court room drama, False Testimony, to Jonathan Lethhem's memoir, The Disappointment Artist, to Camel Club, David Baldacci's latest thriller mixing Arab terrorists, nuclear threat, and political intrigue.

San Francisco figures prominently as a setting on both the fiction and non-fiction fronts. Sarah Tallman's second top-drawer mystery set in 1880s San Francisco, The Russian Hill Murders again features Sarah Woolson, the proto-feminist attorney first introduced to readers in The Nob Hill Murders. Simon Winchester takes on the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fires which destroyed much of San Francisco in his most recent non-fiction offering, A Crack in the Edge of the World. This one is filled with eyewitness accounts, vivid descriptions and crisp prose.

Borrow New DVDs

The San Marino Public Library has purchased new DVDS in all your favorite categories! We have 53 new feature and animated films for children, young adults, and the whole family. We also purchased 38 new nonfiction films, including an assortment of National Geographic DVDs on popular topics such as the weather, the animal kingdom, and Ancient Egypt. Among instructional DVDs, the library bought several cooking DVDs from the Culinary Institute of America, as well as home repair DVDs from Hometime.

And due to the success of last summer's television program Dancing with the Stars and patron requests, the library acquired several dance instruction DVDs including Discover Dance: Latin, Discover Dance: Ballroom, and a Country Line Dancing for Beginners. In addition, we purchased one of the most popular documentaries in 2005, Mad Hot Ballroom, the story of a ballroom dance program in New York public schools that won audiences over nationwide. To complete our ballroom dance DVD collection, we also acquired director Baz Luhrman's (of Moulin Rouge fame) 1992 indie hit, Strictly Ballroom, an ugly duckling story set in Australia's ballroom dance scene.

The library has continued to improve our collection of classic films, including The Birds, Laura, and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. New films for young adults include Napoleon Dynamite, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Princess Diaries 2, and Ella Enchanted. Popular children's films are also included; The Incredibles and Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events are so popular they are rarely available in the library!