Early Voting Schedule

Ocee Library, East Roswell, and Milton libraries
March 27 – April 14, 2017
8:30 AM – 6:00 PM
No Saturday or Sunday Voting 

North Fulton Service Center  (Room 232)
7741 Roswell Road

Sandy Springs, GA 30350
March 27 – April 14, 2017
8:30 AM – 6:00 PM
Saturday voting - April 8, 2017 
8:30AM -6:00PM

Library Value Calculator

Use this handy calculator to find out the value of your library. This updated version includes materials as well as programs, museum passes, meeting room use, etc.

Libraries, museums, the arts, and humanities are in danger of losing funding. Please advocate for libraries now! 

London

Tower Hill Tube Station, London

Please Act Right NOW!

The time is NOW! If you’re a librarian, a library worker, anyone who cares about libraries, does business with a library, or if you depend on your library for accurate information, then your Congressperson needs to hear from you – and at least five more people that you mobilize – TODAY! At least $210 million in federal library funding is on the budget-cutter’s chopping block. Our champions in Congress need your help to save it and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the agency that distributes most of those funds to every state in the country. Everything you need is at ALA’s Legislative Action Center now.

As detailed in the ALA Washington Office blog, the President of the United States effectively proposed eliminating all federal library funding and closing IMLS – the small, respected agency that administers $183 million of those funds through the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). He also asked Congress to wipe out $27 million for Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL), which school libraries use to buy books and other materials for the nation’s poorest children. But our library champions in Congress have mobilized to fight back and they need your help to succeed.

Today, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ3) wrote to every Member of the House of Representatives asking them to support LSTA, and Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX30), Don Young (R-AK), and Jim McGovern (D-MA2) circulated a similar letter asking support for Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL). Both letters urge their House colleagues to sign letters to the Appropriations Committee supporting library funding. The first so-called “Dear Appropriator” letter asks the Committee to fully fund LSTA in FY 2018 and the second does the same for IAL.

We know from many past funding fights that these Representatives’ requests of their colleagues simply will not be enough. Members of the House need to hear from their constituents before the April 3rd deadline. Please call your Representative and ask them to sign both the LSTA and the IAL “Dear Appropriator” letters our champions have circulated, otherwise the powerful Appropriations Committees will not make LSTA and IAL a priority, dramatically increasing the odds that they will be cut or eliminated next year.

ALA’s Legislative Action Center has everything you need to identify your Member of Congress and to tell him or her by email, tweet or phone to sign the LSTA and IAL “Dear Appropriator” letters to protect those critical programs in the FY 2018 federal budget.

We MUST save federal library funding and IMLS! If not you and your fellow library lovers, who? If not right now, when? Please, act right now! 

To read my full statement about the President’s draconian budget proposals, please visit ALA's website.

Julie Todaro, ALA President

Ocee's Namesake Honored

Fulton County District 1 Commissioner Liz Hausmann, the Fulton County Public Works Department and the City of Roswell will dedicate a pavilion on the Johns Creek Environmental Campus (JCEC) to the late Fulton County Commissioner Dr. Robert E. “Bob” Fulton. Dr. Fulton helped develop the campus in collaboration with the City of Roswell and other surrounding communities. The official dedication and ribbon cutting are scheduled to begin Friday, March 24th at 11:00 a.m. at the Johns Creek Environmental Campus; 8100 Holcomb Bridge Road; Alpharetta, GA 30022.

As Commissioner representing several North Fulton County communities, Dr. Fulton worked to bring several major improvements to his district including the construction of two regional libraries, Spruill Oaks and Ocee, transportation improvements, the acquisition of park land, funding for Johns Creek Greenway Park, and Newtown Park.

Voices of Muslim Women

Voices of Muslim Women from the U. S. South 

Film Screening and Public Lecture     

Thursday, March 23. 7:00 p.m. 
Join us, in collaboration with the GSU English Department for a screening of Voices of Muslim Women from the U.S. South. Moroccan born filmmaker Dr. Maha Marouan, associate professor of African American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Pennsylvania State University, explores Muslim culture through the lens of five University of Alabama Muslim students, who must navigate issues of race, gender, ethnicity, and class on a daily basis. Dr. Maha Marouan will lead the film screening and accompanying lecture followed by a post screening question and answer session.  

Auburn Avenue Research Library
101 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta 30303 

404.613.4001

What Book Lovers Lose If...

the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, and Corporation for Public Broadcasting are eliminated. Here are a few of the programs that would shrink or cease to exist. Read the Book Riot article to learn more and find out how to advocate for these organizations.

• The National Book Festival
• NEA’s Big Read Program 
• Creative Writing Fellowships 
• Open E-Books App 
• Fellowships in Translation 
• Chronicling America 
• Tons and tons of prize-winning books
• Poetry Out Loud e
• Many regional book festivals 
• The Student Poets Program
• Shakespeare in American Communities, 
• Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network 
• Blue Star Museums
• Museums for All Initiative 
• Humanities initiatives at community colleges 

100 Classics by Women

Book Riot has compiled a list of 100 must-read classics by women authors for Women's History Month. Here are a few to get you started:

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft 

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton

Oh Pioneers by Willa Cather

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 
Pinjar: The Skeleton and Other Stories by Amrita Pritam

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys 

Turn it Around

"Illustrating the Gender Gap in Fiction"

An Ohio bookstore has shelved books written by men backwards (spines in) for Women's History Month/International Women's Day. They were surprised to finds less than 40 per cent were written by women.

“If this exercise encourages people (myself included) to ask questions and to improve our habits, I think we have learned something and it is successful,” Logan told HuffPost. “The novels by men will continue to be bought, sold, read and loved, but hopefully the women’s words will gain an extra footing on the shelf.”

e-library tips

The Dos and Don’ts of eBooks-as succinctly reported by Debbie Mack, the Library System’s Electronics Librarian:

·         Do not search for an eBook or eAudio book in the library (materials) catalog, go directly to the Overdrive link

·         The same is true for Hoopla: go directly to the app- Hoopla items are not in the catalog.

·         Overdrive checkouts are being increased to 10 items this week, instead of 5. You may return early and check out extra titles.

·         There are 10 checkouts per month in Hoopla for ALL materials, it does not matter if you return early. That means ten of any format in total.

·         Coming soon..Freegal, the largest library downloadable portal for music. Be on the lookout for it.

·         Do become familiar with GALILEO magazines, we will be reducing some of the digital magazines to conserve cost. 

·         Do be on the lookout for a simpler eResources page, which will feature a strictly alphabetical and subject approach. 

Yoga update

Angela Young will be at Ocee this Wednesday at 10:15 to teach a Tai Chi class while Patricia is at the monastery. Next Sunday, March 12, there will be class as usual at Ocee at 4:30. Then Patricia's Wednesday and Sunday classes will be on break since the meeting room will be used for Special Elections voting at Ocee.

Her Story

March is Women's History Month 

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.

The 2017 theme for National Women’s History Month honors women who have successfully challenged the role of women in both business and the paid labor force. Women have always worked, but often their work has been undervalued and unpaid.

March Programs at Ocee

Phone 770.360.8897 to register or for more info

small, Small WORLD Art Program 
Tuesday: March 7, 10:30am. 
Grab your passports and join us as we travel the globe as part of Johns Creek Art Center’s newest learning adventure: small, small World. A: 2U, RR

Coding@Ocee 
Wednesday: March 8, March 22, 6:00–7:00 pm. 
Learn basics of Java, including basics of programming, conditions, “loops”, and arrays.  A: TW/T, RR, SL

Teen Manga and Cartooning 
Saturdays, March 11, 12:00–1:30 p.m. 
Techniques and secrets employed by modern day professional Manga, aka, Game Concept Artists, and Animators.  A: Tw/T, RR, SL

STEM@OCEE 
Saturday: March 11, 4:00–5:00 p.m. 
A program especially for elementary students. The initial program will be a hands-on demonstration of the basics of electricity and science. All events will be educational, entertaining and fun. A: 5U. TW/T, A

CAST Free Math Tutoring 
Sundays: March 5, 19, 26, 2:00–4:00 p.m. 
Bring an assignment or a math topic you are struggling with. First come first served basis. A: 5U 

Music for Babies to Preschool with Miss Gail 
Tuesday: March 14, 10:30 am. 
Babies and preschoolers with their parents attend entertaining and educational programs.

Read Across America

Today is designated "Read Across America Day" in honor of Dr Seuss. Visit Seussville for printables and ibtimes for some words of wisdom from the Dr.

Thanks to Fulton Co Commissioner Liz Hausmann and the Fire Dept for participating in Ocee's celebration!

Voting at Ocee

Ocee library will be used as a polling place for the upcoming Special Elections mid March through late April. Please check (770.360.8897) with the library to see if programs have been cancelled or moved.

For your future TBR list

Penguin Random House will publish books authored by both Barack and Michelle Obama. No release dates have been announced, however The New York Times reports "The publisher plans to donate one million books in the Obama family’s name to First Book, a nonprofit organization that provides books to disadvantaged children, and Open eBooks, the Washington-based partner for the 2016 White House digital education initiative. The Obamas also plan to donate part of their advances to charity, including the Obama Foundation."