Tag Archives: events

Chatham County Public Libraries Receive Funding to Develop Youth Coding Programs

Chatham County Public Libraries (CCPL) has received $500 from the American Library Association (ALA) to help plan and implement coding activities during Computer Science Education (CS Ed) Week 2018 (December 3-9) and beyond. Sponsored by Google, CCPL is one of 250 school and public libraries from across the country to receive this micro grant as a part of ALA’s Libraries Ready to Code initiative.

Library Director Linda Clarke said, “In addition to books and literacy, we see computational thinking and computer literacy as vital 21st Century skills. As a learning hub in a fast-growing county, Chatham County Public Libraries aim to engage users of all ages in technology use and learning.”

Using the micro grant funding, library youth services staff intend to pursue more opportunities to educate youth in basic coding across all three branches, using a variety of coding toys purchased with grant funds.

“Libraries are the cornerstones of our communities,” said Google program manager Nicky Rigg. “We are proud to include Chatham County Public Libraries in our CS Ed Week activities this year. We hope these libraries will join the growing number of libraries excited to offer CS programs that help youth create, problem solve and develop the confidence and skills to succeed in their future careers.”

“ALA is pleased to provide microfunding to Chatham County Public Libraries and other Ready to Code libraries,” said ALA President Loida Garcia-Febo. “We hope this microfunding will not only generate enthusiasm for CS Ed Week, but spark year-round programming to develop critical thinking and digital skills youth can draw on over a lifetime.”

The 250 libraries selected for CS Ed Week funding will each host activities based on Google’s free CS First curriculum, which uses video-based instruction to introduce CS to kids through block-based coding. Libraries will pursue projects that reflect Ready to Code themes critical for advancing youth learning, especially for building computational thinking literacies. The Ready to Code team estimates that the CS Ed Week funding will support more than 60,000 youth all around the country taking part in coding activities throughout the week.

To celebrate Computer Science Education Week, Chatham County Public Libraries will offer two Google CS First SCRATCH-based coding classes for children ages 7+. Programs will be held on Monday, December 3, at 4:00 pm at the Chatham Community Library in Pittsboro and Thursday, December 6, at 4:30 pm at the Wren Memorial Library in Siler City.

Classes are free, but registration is required. Please contact the library at (919) 545-8085 to sign up.

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Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize: The 300-Year Voyage of Queen Anne’s Revenge

Chatham Community Library will host a program on Blackbeard’s famous ship, Queen Anne’s Revenge, on Saturday, December 1, at 1:00 pm in the Holmes Meeting Room.  The program will be facilitated by Chatham County resident and co-author of Blackbeard’s Sunken Prize: The 300-Year Voyage of Queen Anne’s Revenge, Linda Carnes-McNaughton.
In 1717, the notorious pirate Blackbeard captured a French slaving vessel off the coast of Martinique and made it his flagship, renaming it Queen Anne’s Revenge. Over the next six months, the heavily armed ship and its crew captured all manner of riches from merchant ships sailing the Caribbean to the Carolinas. But in June 1718, with British authorities closing in, Blackbeard reportedly ran Queen Anne’s Revenge aground just off the coast of what is now North Carolina’s Fort Macon State Park. What went down with the ship remained hidden for centuries.
Having played a vital role in the shipwreck’s recovery and interpretation, Carnes-McNaughton discusses the ship’s first use as a French privateer and slave ship, its capture and use by Blackbeard’s armada, the circumstances of its sinking, and more based on a wealth of artifacts now raised from the ocean floor. Carnes-McNaughton is the current Program Archaeologist and Curator at Fort Bragg’s Cultural Resources Management Program.
This program is free and open to the public. Funding is made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Chatham Community Library.

Native American Heritage Celebration on November 10

In recognition of Native American Heritage Month, Chatham Community Library will host a special performance by Ryan-Dial Stanley & Friends on Saturday, November 10, from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm in the Holmes Meeting Room.

Dial-Stanley, a member of the Lumbee Tribe, is a well-known flutist, storyteller, and traditional dancer. Mr. Dial-Stanley has been a student ambassador for the UNC American Indian Center and powwow co-chair of the Carolina Indian Circle. He has traveled across the state of North Carolina presenting programs on the history and culture of the Lumbee Tribe. Mr. Dial-Stanley will bring other Native Americans who will provide a program of cultural enrichment and instruction in interactive crafts.

This special event includes music, dance and storytelling from 11:00 am -12:30 pm and craft instruction beginning at 1:00 pm.  Light refreshments will be served. This event is free and open to the public.

Funding for this program is made possible by the generosity of the Friends of the Chatham Community Library.

Library Hosts Free Health Insurance Enrollment Sessions

Chatham Community Library will host free health insurance enrollment sessions beginning Tuesday, November 6, from 9:15 am – 2:15 pm, continuing each Tuesday through December 11th (not available on Tuesday, November 20). Meet one-on-one with local enrollment Navigator, Martha Samaniego, of NC Legal Aid.

Nine out of ten North Carolina residents who enrolled last year received financial help in paying for their coverage. If you enrolled last year, it’s important that you check out your options again this year. New plans and prices are available that may better fit your needs and budget.

Appointments are required and can be made by calling 1-855-733-3711 or by registering online at www.getcoveredamerica.org/Connector.

Enrollment appointments will take place in the Library’s double-study room.  Chatham Community Library is located at 197 NC Hwy 87 N on the Chatham County campus of Central Carolina Community College.

PlayMakers Repertory Presents Shakespeare’s Macbeth on Sept. 20

Chatham Community Library will host a free performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth on Thursday, September 20, beginning at 6:30 pm in the Holmes Meeting Room.

PlayMakers Repertory Company will bring their mobile touring company for a sizzling 90-minute performance of the Bard’s psychological thriller. In this production, brilliant young general Macbeth has pulled off a glorious victory in battle, but before he can return to King Duncan’s court, he encounters a most enticing prophecy. Spurred on by his ambitious wife, Macbeth sets his sights on the throne, but as blood begets blood, he soon learns there is no rest for the wicked.

Through partnerships with area non-profits, community organizations, and local schools and libraries, in locations across the Triangle, PlayMakers presents professional-quality, bare bones productions of Shakespeare plays and more, cut to ninety minutes or less connecting with new audiences in their own spaces, truly meeting them where they live. By revealing theatre to be accessible, relevant, and vital, PlayMakers Mobile builds a new audience for these timeless plays and allows PlayMakers to foster new relationships throughout the region.

Library to Host “Titanic: Ship of Dreams” Program on September 13

Chatham Community Library will host Titanic: Ship of Dreams on Thursday, September 13, at 6:30 pm in the Holmes Meeting Room. This program will be presented by Dr. Melinda Ratchford, an NC Humanities Council Road Scholar.

Take a glimpse into 1912 and the 2,228 amazing people who boarded the most luxurious and largest ship in the world and sailed off into immortality. Having traveled to all the sites that have connections to the R.M.S. Titanic (Belfast, Southampton, sinking site in North Atlantic, Halifax, NS et al.), Dr. Ratchford takes the audience on a voyage in time to learn about the Titanic, as well as to see her extensive collection of Titanic memorabilia. She will “introduce” listeners to the young Robert Spedden and his Stief bear, Polar; the world’s richest man and his beautiful new wife who had to leave New York society under a cloud of shame; and the elderly man and wife who tested the vow of “til death do we part”. This program will offer the chance to experience the world of courage, fear, love, and cowardice that is still alive over one hundred years after the Titanic’s sinking.

A native of Kannapolis, NC, Dr. Ratchford received her B.S. in Social Science and a Sixth Year degree in Curriculum from Appalachian State University.  She received her Masters in Library Education from UNC-Greensboro.  She also attended UNC-Chapel Hill where she received her Doctorate in Education. Her avocation has been a 60-year interest in the study of the R.M.S. Titanic and her history.  She has given presentations to over 225+ groups on the topic.

This program is brought to you in conjunction with the NC Humanities Council and is free and open to the public.

RBG Film Screening & Discussion Slated for September 8

Chatham Community Library will host its first screening of the new film RBG on Saturday, September 8 beginning at 1:00 pm in the Holmes Meeting Room.  The screening and discussion will be facilitated by District Court Judge (15B) Sherri Murrell.

RBG is a 2018 American documentary film directed and produced by Betsy West and Julie Cohen, focusing on the life and career of United States Supreme Court of the United States Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. After premiering at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, the film was released in the United States on May 4, 2018.

Judge Murrell served as an assistant public defender in Chatham and Orange counties before being elected in 2016.

This event is free and open to the public. Funding for this program is made available by the Friends of the Chatham Community Library.

Chatham Community Library to Host ANTI-Bullying Workshop

Every day, more than 16,000 kids miss school because of bullying. 45% of kids experience bullying before age 18. And 38% of kids believe that their school doesn’t take bullying seriously. 

Children entering grades K-5 and their parents/caregivers are invited to attend a 90-minute anti-bullying workshop presented by Bullyproof Pittsboro.

In this 90-minute interactive parent/child Bullyproof America workshop, presenters Alex Changho and Cat Zohar will clearly define what bullying is, and what it is not.  They will help simplify the situation by providing clear boundaries for understanding how bullying takes place, what kids can do when bullying takes place, and how parents can help their kids be more empowered to deal with bullying.  Alex and Cat teach these lessons through foundational martial arts techniques and skills that have been proven to boost self-esteem and confidence in children.  

The workshop also includes anger management and self-control practices that help keep emotions in balance when frustration and sadness set in from bullying.  These skills are essential to controlling the imbalance of power that occurs as a result of bullying.  Participants of a Bullyproof America workshop will leave with usable skills and knowledge to help better prepare them for a positive school year and how to respond appropriately in a bullying situation.  

The ANTI-Bullying Workshop will be presented at the Chatham Community Library, 197 NC Hwy 87 N, Pittsboro on Saturday, August 25, at 1:00 p.m.

Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Katy at (919) 545-8085 or [email protected].

Friends of the Library to Celebrate 50th Anniversary!

 

 

 

 

The Friends of the Chatham Community Library will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a gala open house at the library on Saturday, May 19th from 2:00 to 4:00 pm. Activities will include children’s entertainment (face painting, balloon animals), live music, historical displays, free books for adults and children, a plaque dedication and more! Refreshments will be served.

The Friends got its start officially on October 3, 1968, when an organization committee meeting was held to revitalize an informal group of Friends which had been started as early as January 28, 1928. At that time, 12 Pittsboro citizens formed the McNeill Book Club. One of its members, Margaret (‘Maggie’) Horne, became Pittsboro’s first librarian 14 years later.

When the group met in 1968, the members felt that Pittsboro deserved better than the series of makeshift libraries which had served the citizens up until then, such as (1) small collections in homes, academies and schools in the 19th Century, (2) a bookmobile in the 1930s funded under the Works Progress Administration, (3) small collections in the basement of the Siler City Town Hall in the 1940s and (4) a bookcase in Maggie Horne’s living room from 1942.

Later, the library was housed in the Pittsboro Jaycees Community House and the basement of the County Agricultural Building. During all this time, there had been an informal group of supporters who met occasionally to discuss ways of improving the library’s structure and services.

During the meeting on October 3, 1968, the participants agreed that Pittsboro finally needed a library that was larger than “any extra, one room in any existing building anywhere in Pittsboro”. Marvin Reeves, perhaps influenced by his wife Myrtle, a McNeill Book Club member since 1947, saw this need, and he did something important to meet it.

In his 1969 will, Reeves left $20,000 for a new library building, and this bequest was the spark that inspired the overwhelming interest in and effort leading to the building of the Pittsboro Memorial Library. This facility on West Street served the community well until the new Chatham Community Library was built on the campus of Central Carolina Community College, which opened to the public in September 2010.

Black History Month Film Series Begins Feb. 7

Chatham Community Library is celebrating Black History Month with a four-part film series beginning on Wednesday, February 7 at 12:00 pm in the Holmes Meeting Room.

 

 

 

Films in the series include:

Day Date Film
Wednesday February 7 4 Little Girls (1997). Directed by Spike Lee, this film documents the “notorious racial terrorist bombing of an African American church during the Civil Rights Movement.” It won an Oscar in 1998 for Best Documentary.
Wednesday February 14 I Am Not Your Negro (2016). In this film, “writer James Baldwin tells the story of race in modern America with his unfinished novel, Remember This House.”  Directed by Raoul Peck, I Am Not Your Negro was an Oscar nominee for Best Documentary.
Wednesday February 21 What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015). Directed by Liz Garbus and Hal Tulchin. This film documents the life and legend of Nina Simone, “an American singer, pianist, and civil rights activist labeled the “High Priestess of Soul.” The film was an Oscar nominee for Best Documentary in 2016.
Monday February 26 13th (2016). This film offers “an in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequality.” Directed by Ava DuVernay, it was an Oscar nominee in 2017 for Best Documentary.

Black History Month, also known as African-American History Month in America, is an annual observance in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and in the Netherlands where it is known as Black Achievement Month. It began as a way for remembering important people and events in the history of the African diaspora.

These events are free and open to the public. Feel free to bring your lunch!