Celebrate Puzzle Day

Thursday is International Puzzle Day.The Libraries will be celebrating with jigsaw and other puzzles to pique patrons' interest. Stop by and try to put a few pieces in a jigsaw puzzle--it's the perfect winter activity!

According to Wikipedia, "a puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity." Folks over a certain age will remember the Rubik's cube, a novelty toy/puzzle that was a hot gift late in the last century. But the puzzles that most folks are familiar with are jigsaw puzzles, and the ones often seen in newspapers, such as crossword puzzles, acrostics and Sudoku.

The first jigsaw puzzle was created about 1760; a British engraver glued a map onto wood and cut out the countries. For many years puzzles were popular, though limited to educational use, until well into the 1800s. International Puzzle Day was created by American game companies in 1995; you aren't surprised, are you?!

On Thursday, Lebanon Library will have a collection of jigsaw puzzles on the tables, including some appropriate for children. There will also be a few crossword puzzles and Sudokus. Stop by and use a puzzle to keep your brain sharp. There will even be several Russell County-themed puzzles!

Wildlife and Wilderness

During December, Lebanon Library will be hosting a tabletop exhibition on the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Coupled with the fact that it's also hunting season, we thought it was a good time to share the 62 years of Virginia Wildlife magazine with you.

Last year, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) and the Library of Virginia announced a partnership to digitize and make available every issue of Virginia Wildlife from January 1959 to December 2012. This is the state's leading magazine on hunting, fishing, boating and wildlife. In addition to current information, it includes historical facts, photographs and recipes for wild game and fish.

Look for the magazine via the DGIF website or via the Library of Virginia's Internet Archive website. You can read online, as pdf, an epub, Daisy and several more formats.

The project was made possible through the LYRASIS Digitization Collaborative-a Sloan Foundation grant-subsidized program. A partnership with the Internet Archive scanned all the items from cover to cover.

So if you want to get outside, don't worry if the weather outside is frightful. Just click and enjoy the wildlife outside from inside!
 

National Young Readers Week...Celebrate!

National Young Readers Week is an opportunity for parents, teachers and others to encourage and celebrate reading with young children. Schools may fire up their youth by accepting the Principal Challenge; the principal reads from the first bell to the last bell--all day! Parents can take the pledge to read to their children, because parents are the first teachers.

In fact, it is the 30th year that National Young Readers Week has been celebrated. Begun by Pizza Hut and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, the "Book It" program has been a reading incentive program for more than a generation!

Check out this link for parents: National Young Readers Week. There are lots of resources for parents, like read aloud tips, printables and the Parent Pledge.During the week, there are stories that children can listen to online.

Celebrate by reading with a child. Read in a silly place or way...like standing on your head. Make a point of reading to your child and make a point letting your child see you read. Read the recipe aloud. Read the instructions aloud. Children will mimic you. If they see you reading, they will know reading is a thing that adults do; they will understand that it's an important skill.

And don't stop celebrating when the week is over. Make every week one in which you celebrate reading.

Confederate Camp Coming to the Library!

Has all the talk about the sesquicentennial of the Civil War gotten old for you? In 1864, the war dragged on for most Americans, too. The thought that the war would be quickly over had become a foolish memory. Americans endured hardships while the war dragged on and they looked at casualty lists for familiar names.

Our Southern Appalachian Mountains were not in the thick of it, but neither were they bypassed by the war and its ravages. October 2nd marked the 150th anniversary of an engagement at Saltville. And in early November 1864, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected president of the United States of America. A few days later, in nearby Bulls Gap, (Hawkins County) Tennessee, there was also a skirmish nearly 150 years ago.

November 1 the lawn of the Russell County Public Library's Lebanon Library will be the site of a Civil War Encampment. The Sons of the Confederate Veterans chapter will be camping on the lawn and visitors are invited to see how the soldiers would have lived and worked, cooked and slept 150 years ago. If the weather is poor, displays will be in the Library's Cumbow Meeting Room. The Encampment will coincide with the re-dedication of the monument in the center of town.

To learn more, check out the website This Day in the Civil War. Or stop by and check out the book Bluegrass Confederate: the Headquarters Diary of Edward O. Guerrant. Capt. Guerrant served in eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee. While you are at the library, read the latest issue of the magazine Civil War Times or check out earlier issues.

Virginia's History in Handwriting - Help Transcribe It!

Do you like reading about history or do you enjoy working on word puzzles like crossword, Scrabble, or Words with Friends? If so, then Virginia has a project for you! The Library of Virginia has launched
Making History: Transcribe. This is part of the Virginia Memory collection. Basically they are inviting the public to look at handwritten historical Virginia documents online, and to type those documents to make them easier for others to read and search. Instructions for how to set up an account and join in can be found here:
http://www.virginiamemory.com/transcribe/about  If you can't make out every word that's OK, you can type the ones you're sure of and either guess or skip on the ones you aren't sure about.

Here at RCPL we have a similar project but on a smaller scale. Staff and volunteers have worked the past few years on transcribing the diary of Thomas T. Dickenson, a 19th century Castlewood farmer. He began his diary just as the Civil War was beginning. Being a farmer, he began most entrys with the weather of the day, and the work he did. However, he also notes historic facts and community news. If you would be interested in helping with this project, contact us at the library. Below are some examples from May, 1861.

Transcription of each above:
May 12:  Cloudy and warm—Josie and I went to baptism meeting; then to her Pa’s for dinner.  May had a calf.
May 13:  Clear AM Rain PM-- Put straight fence around yard.  R. P. D. here --sent corn to mill.
May 14:  Variable—sheared the sheep.  29 altered and marked the lambs
May 15:  Clear—put up posts and made a yard gate.  Jule had a mule.  Sandy sow had 6 pigs.
May 16:  Cloudless—Went to Father’s, made gate irons and put them on -  Commenced plowing corn.  Father here.
May 17:  Clear and cool—worked the road.
May 18:  Clear & warm. A portion of citizens of Castles Woods met at John Banner’s to form a home guard.  [Good?]
May 19:  Clear AM –Rain PM-Josie and I started to Lebanon to the training -  went as far H. B. Gray’s.
May 20:  Rained all day—did not train any.  North Carolina seceded by a vote of the Convention.
May 21:  Rained –Trained.