Thursday, August 30, 2012

Saturday Crafters, a monthly craft group organized by Bernardsville Public Library, will meet on Saturday, September 22 at 3:00 pm. Individuals are invited to bring their own handwork projects to the Library and work together in a comfortable, communal setting while enjoying the benefits of shared tips and conversation. They can also take advantage of the many books available at the library on different types of crafts.

There is no charge to attend the meeting, and no sign-up is needed. For more information, call the library at 908-766-0118

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Check Before You Invest: How to Be an Educated Investor

With so much riding on financial decisions, it’s important to be an educated investor because being an educated investor can protect you from becoming a victim of financial fraud. Just as investors are different, so are investments and what may be suitable for one may not be for another. It’s important to consider your own tolerance for risk and be aware of common investment scams and misleading sales practices and tactics. Arlene Ferris-Waks, Supervising Investigator, and Theresa A. Hendricks, Investigator, for the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General’s Bureau of Securities located in Newark will discuss these topics and more at the next C.A.R.E.S. meeting at Bernardsville Public Library on Thursday, September 20 at 10:30 am.

Ms. Ferris-Waks has worked at the New Jersey Bureau of Securities since 2004. She presently supervises the Bureau's Complaints and Investor Education Outreach Units. Previously she supervised the Bureau's Broker-Dealer/Investment Adviser Examinations Unit. She has been licensed in the securities business and holds a Master's Degree in Library and Information Science from Queens College in Flushing New York. She graduated cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Before joining the Bureau, she worked for the NYSE AMEX and several brokerage firms.

Investigator Theresa A. Hendricks is has worked for the Bureau for over 20 years in multiple capacities including conducting enforcement investigations, examining broker-dealer and investment advisory firms, and reviewing issuer agent registration and exemption filings. Ms. Hendricks received her Bachelors of Science in Criminal Justice from Rutgers University and a Master's Degree in Public Administration from Rutgers School of Public Affairs and Administration. She is also an alumnus of Leadership Newark, a professional development program.

This program is part of the library’s CARES (Community Assistance Resource & Educational Services) series, a locally administered umbrella program that delivers informational sessions pertaining to local, county, state and federal programs. Its objective is to inform and educate local residents and support the goal of healthy, fulfilling and happy lifestyles. All CARES events will be presented by subject matter experts who will be able to answer all questions pertaining to their topics.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Historic Photos Reveal Somerset Hills Of A Century Ago

A Man & His Camera: Photograhps by Fred Pitney Crater

Throughout September one can see surprising, beautiful and historic century-old images of the Somerset Hills on display during a shared exhibit at the Bernardsville Public Library and in the Peapack-Gladstone Municipal Building. Included will be more than 80 photographs taken by Fred Pitney Crater, who lived in Peapack-Gladstone in the first decades of the 20th century. With his camera he captured people, places, vistas and events from the area with artistry and skill.

The photographs were printed from century-old negatives in the Local History collection of the Bernardsville Public Library which were previously inaccessible to the public. The Crater Collection now numbers close to 500 negatives, all donated to the library by family members and friends.

In Bernardsville, the Crater photographs highlight bucolic agricultural scenes, well-known buildings, and community life: Horses and carriages await the arrival of “The Millionaire’s Express” outside the Bernardsville railroad station. Athletes jump through barrels at what appears to be the Far Hills fairgrounds. A photo taken high above Ravine Lake shows a miles-long view across the distant hills. Two massive oxen pull a wagon through a barnyard—the cat at their feet seeming completely unconcerned.

The exhibition also includes several scenes from farther afield, including a view of Grant’s Tomb taken from across the Hudson River when the West Side was a bare palisade; a log cabin in Chester, New Jersey, which was built before the Revolutionary War but was still being lived in when the photo was shot; and roadside action shots of the Vanderbilt Cup auto race in Long Island.

The Peapack-Gladstone exhibit includes images from that borough exclusively, as part of a centennial anniversary celebration of the borough’s founding. The photographs include shots of the Firemen’s Carnival, a young couple in a carriage trotting along “Lover’s Lane,” and many still-recognizable buildings and streetscapes, including sweeping views of the Blairsden and Natirar estates. The exhibit is sponsored by the Peapack-Gladstone Historic Preservation Commission and the borough’s 100th Anniversary Committee as one of a number of celebrations taking place in the borough throughout the centennial year.

“Fred Crater had a great eye for the telling detail,” says Local History Committee Chairwoman Pat Bankowksi. “There is a photograph of the Peapack Base Ball Club where the nine players and their coach are standing outside a building. It was only while examining the photographic details that we noticed the young boy peeking out of the window behind them.”

An opening reception for the Bernardsville Library exhibition will be held Sunday, September 9, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the library’s community room, where the Crater photographs will be view on during regular library hours unless a meeting is in progress. For additional information, contact the Bernardsville Public Library at 908-766-0118 or visit www.bernardsvillelibrary.org.

In Peapack-Gladstone, the photos will be on display during normal business hours throughout September at the Municipal Building on School Street. For additional information, visit the borough’s website at www.pgborough.com .

Photo: Fred Pitney Crater captured this early 1900s scene along Mountain Top Road in Bernardsville. The building is the Upper Lodge at “Blythewood,” the estate of Henry Kunhardt until 1916 when it was sold to Col. Anthony Kuser and renamed “Faircourt.” The iron gates still stand, at the corner of Mountain Top and Overleigh Roads.
Bernardsville Public Library’s next session of English-As-A-Second-Language (ESL) classes will begin on Monday, September 10. Classes will be offered on Mondays and Thursdays at both 3:00 pm and 7:15 pm and will run for ten sessions (through November 15). There is no charge to attend and students may sign up for more than one timeslot if they wish. Limited childcare for children aged three and up is available during the evening sessions.

At the first session, students will be divided into small groups based on their native language and their facility with English. On Mondays, they will practice conversation and role play daily tasks that have to be executed in English. On Thursdays, the format will be based on lessons and practice. Trained community volunteers teach the classes. Community members who would like to volunteer as teachers are encouraged to call the library at 908-766-0118.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link under Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

50 Book Challenge Group to Meet

Reading fifty books in fifty-two weeks may seem daunting, but share the goal with a supportive group and it can be a lot of fun. Community members are invited to come to the next meeting of the 50 Book Challenge at Bernardsville Public Library on Saturday, September 15 at 3:00 pm. The meeting, which will include animated discussion, snacks, and reading suggestions, will take place in the library’s Community Room. There, ambitious readers will trade notes on their progress as well as book recommendations. New members are welcome at any time during the year and can prorate the number of books to the end of this year.

The fifty books in fifty-two weeks are suggested, not required, for participation in the program. Each reader will choose which reading “counts” as part of the total. There are no limitations as to what formats can be read: downloaded books, audiobooks, e-books and graphic novels are all acceptable.

For more information and resources for the 50 Book Challenge, go to the library's homepage, www.bernardsvillelibrary.org, and click on 50 Book Challenge. You can sign up from this webpage or by calling the library at 908-766-0118.

Tech Update: Cloud Storage

Learn how cloud storage can benefit you--the positives as well as security risks--and how to protect yourself and your files in this Tech Update at Bernardsville Public Library on Wednesday, September 12 at 7:00 pm.

While cloud storage sounds like it has something to do with weather fronts and storm systems, it really refers to saving data to an off-site storage system maintained by a third party. Instead of storing information to your computer's hard drive or other local storage device, you save it to a remote database. This seminar will give you the advantages of using cloud storage for your data, and a variety of options for different types of files will also be discussed. This seminar will be taught by an instructor from Programs Plus, a software training company.

There is no charge to attend the program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Saturday Samplers Book Group to Meet

Bernardsville Library’s book discussion group, Saturday Samplers, will meet on Saturday, September 8 at 3:30 pm to discuss The Bayou Trilogy: Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, and The Ones You Do (2011) by Daniel Woodrell.  [The author will not be present.] 

The book consists of three novels featuring Detective Rene Shade, an ex-boxer turned cop dealing with murder investigations, corruption scandals, and gangs of ex-cons in the Louisiana swamp town of Saint Bruno.  "Old fans and new readers alike ought to be grateful....The novels showcase Woodrell's evolution as a writer....Woodrell's The Bayou Trilogy supplies all the pleasure of hard-boiled noir: laconic cynicism, casually colorful characters and a hero whose feet of clay make his dedication to law and order all the more admirable," wrote the reviewer in the Chicago Tribune. 

The author of eight novels, Daniel Woodrell was born and now lives in the Missouri Ozarks.  He left school and enlisted in the Marines the week he turned seventeen, received his bachelor's degree at age twenty-seven, graduated from the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and spent a year on a Michener Fellowship.  His five most recent novels were selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and Tomato Red won the PEN West award for the novel in 1999.  

Led by Evelyn Fischel, Saturday Samplers is a book discussion group dedicated to sampling various kinds of literature, including short stories, nonfiction, new and old novels, and even teen fiction.  Its goal is to search out interesting, noteworthy, and sometimes overlooked books.  Readers can find information about the group and about the books and authors on the reading list at http://saturdaysamplers.blogspot.com.  No sign-up is needed to join the discussion.  Call the library at 766-0118 for more information.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Library Summer Reading Club Finale

As the Bernardsville Public Library’s Summer Reading Program, Dream Big, Read!, draws to an end, children are feverishly reading to meet their goals of 5, 10, 20, 50 books and entering them onto the online reading tracker.  The program's closing finale will be an ice cream party, sponsored by the Friends of the Bernardsville Library, on Monday, August 20 at 6:00 pm.

This year, 365 readers registered for the summer reading program–64 of them teens–and so far those 365 readers have read 3,556 books!  Throughout the summer, the Youth Services Department ran story times and craft programs related to the theme.  One week, there was even a portable planetarium set up in the library Community Room.

"People may wonder what the children are reading," said Youth Services Librarian Lia Carruthers.  "In addition to the schools’ required and suggested reading, our readers are reading Mo Willems (everything by him), Dan Gutman’s My Weird School series, the Flat Stanley books by Jeff Brown, the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary, the Alvin Ho books by Lenore Look, the Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo, the Fly Guy books by Tedd Arnold and much more.  Our teens are reading Jodi Picoult, Gaston Leroux, Kate Brian, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Peter Abrahams.  The list goes on and on."  Ms. Carruthers invited families to stop by Bernardsville Library, and the Youth Services staff will be happy to suggest a book appropriate to a child’s age, reading level and personal interests. 

Attendance at the ice cream party is free, but advance registration is required at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org.  Follow the link under Kid Stuff, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

The University of "Can-Do"

The next session of "The University of Can-Do,” led by inspirational speaker Andrea Mastrobattista, will meet on Wednesday, August 22 at 7:00 pm at Bernardsville Public Library. "Do you have a goal that you think you can't make happen?" asks Ms. Mastrobattista, "Well, you can, because you have what it takes to accomplish it."

This workshop runs throughout the year, and each month participants will discover how to cultivate and maintain the "can-do" determination to make a dream come true. This month's session will focus on obstacles we all experience as we work to accomplish our goals. One of the biggest roadblocks is self-inflicted…procrastination. Attend this workshop to find out how to get yourself into gear and stop procrastinating. Participants will also continue working on individual vision boards, or create one if they haven’t made one yet.

There is no charge to attend the library workshop, but advance registration is requested. Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org, and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.