Blog Entries

Mayor visits and tours at library locations, over 100 programs for all ages, a signed proclamation from the Frederick County Board of Supervisors, prizes, and community events help celebrate this month. 

We have a new series of free technology workshops called Tech Tuesdays at Bowman Library starting September 17^th every Tuesday at 11AM. The workshops are led by George Williams from Senior Technology Services and are free and open to the public.

Our next author talk is Private Confederacies: The Emotional Worlds of Southern Men as Citizens and Soldiers on September 14^th at 2PM at Handley Library. Author James J. Broomall will show the crisis of the war and a forced a reconfiguration of the emotional worlds of the men who took up arms for the South. The talk will also focus on returning to civilian life and how Southern veterans questioned themselves as never before, sometimes suffering from terrible self-doubt.

Friends of the Handley Regional Library Announce Genealogy and Local History Bus Trip to DC on September 25^th.  Researchers and sightseers will have a choice of three destinations – The DAR Library, The National Archives, or the National Gallery of Art. The Schrock Tour and Charter Bus will depart from Solenberger’s on Berryville Avenue (Rt. 7) in Winchester and will leave promptly at 8:00AM, arriving back in Winchester around 5:30PM. The cost of this trip is $25 a passenger and is open to the public.

College student Matt Geczy worked on a number of projects for the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives this summer and wrote this blog post to share his experience. 

We have a new program sponsored by the Lord Fairfax Soil and Water Conservation District, Conservation in Your Watershed & In Your Backyard. Free and open to the public, the program is on September 19^th at 6:30PM. Attendees will learn how to identify problem areas on their land, how to prevent runoff and explore different land management options like livestock, native/pollinator habitat, conservation landscaping, beekeeping and more - all designed to make your land more productive and environmentally friendly. 

The Friends of the Handley Regional Library System announce the Winchester Arts and Music Festival in September partnership.   Free and open to the public, the festival runs multiple dates in Winchester at Handley Library and surrounding venues on September 7^th and September 20-23. 

Special Preview Night

September 7^th is a special preview day exclusively at Handley Library with a reception at the Fellowship of the Tea for festival attendees. 

About the Festival

Are you struggling to make the most of your smartphone or tablet? Don't worry, our Tech Tuesday sessions are here to save the day! Whether you're an iPhone/iPad user or prefer Android devices, our upcoming sessions are designed to empower you with the skills you need. Best of all, these sessions are absolutely free! So, mark your calendars and bring along all your burning tech questions.

Your local library is making it easier than ever to geek! We all know it can be hard to find our people and even harder to keep up with our favorite fandoms on a budget. Now the library is expanding our collections, not just for teens, but for adults too. Keep an eye on our catalog for our ever-expanding collection of games, graphic novels, movies, books, and shows. And keep an ear to the ground for our upcoming programming that was developed with you in mind.
 

It's been a fantastic summer! I hope everyone had as much fun as your library Youth Service staff and volunteers did. At the end of the season the staff (and puppets!) take a brief break from storytimes as we prepare for the next exciting set of storytime themes. Meanwhile, we welcome all of our pint sized participants to keep heading over to the library each week to enjoy some informal play times with blocks and other activities! While you're there, the library staff will be present to help you select some great books to take home. 

     Life can be tough sometimes, and it is really easy to feel overwhelmed by all of the challenges and negativity that the world throws at you. No one should have to wade through all of it without some encouragement. No one should feel alone. So if you are needing a little extra inspiration, come to the Bowman Library to find some with one of our new displays. Whether you need a pick me up, food for thought, some motivation, or just someone to tell you that you can make it through the day, we hope that you can find that here.

Handley Regional Library System, along with the Friends of the Handley Regional Library System, announce the next book drop-off date at Bowman Library on August 17^th from 9AM-12PM. Participants can bring gently used books, CDs, DVDs and electronic games. Donations will become part of the Fall Used Book Sale in October. Volunteers will be onsite to assist. 

Add this to your calendar here.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Archosauria
Subclass: Ornithodira
Scientific name: Dinosauria

More commonly known as DINOSAURS!

This is our final storytime of the summer season before we take a short break to prepare some great fall themes and we thought we'd end with a bang! Or perhaps a ROOOOAAARRRRR!  

Do you have a pet? Do you wish you had a pet? What would be your perfect pet? Explore the answer to these questions this week at the Handley Regional Library System!

One Book One Community announces events to be held this fall in conjunction with the 2019 selection, “My Beloved World” by Sonia Sontomayor. Events are free and open to the public.  Copies of the book will be sold at the events.

This is the 17^th consecutive year Winchester and Frederick and Clarke counties have read the same book during the same time period to promote reading as a meaningful part of everyday life while uniting the community around a common activity and discussion of important issues.

The events are scheduled as follows: