Blog Entries

Have you always wanted to check out a Youth Services program at Handley Library, but you’d been a little nervous about how to get yourself and all your kids from the car into the building? Maybe you’ve found our plan your visit page, but you still have questions? I get it, it’s a daunting task; street parking, stairs to the entrance, and a difficult to find elevator. Maybe you’ve lugged a car seat up those winding stairs a few times, but never found the elevator!

The Friends of Handley Regional Library System has partnered with a new non-profit organization called MoveMentation to offer tai chi classes at our libraries. MoveMentation was started by Adrian VanKeuren of Tai Chi Healing Energies. Tai Chi, at its core, is a movement medicine.  Originally a martial art originating in China, tai chi combines slow, continuous, mindful movements with deep breathing.

As we kick off a new year with new reading goals, I am highlighting some of my favorite reads of the past year. In my new role as Teen Services Associate, I'd love to hear from you. What are some of your favorite reads of 2024? Click here to share some of your favorite reads from the past year or so. I'll put together a spotlight featuring our teen Patrons' Picks! In the meantime, take a look at some of mine. 

Come to our first Archives After Hours event of the year on Thursday, January 30 at 5:30 pm.  This event’s focus will be on our local World War I veterans and the Handley Plaques. 

New Years is a great time to pick up hobbies and join clubs.  Got an interest in the past?  Wondering about who your ancestors were?  Why not join Family History Hunters?  Family History Hunters is an informal monthly meeting for genealogists of all levels of experience.  The group meets on the second Thursday of each month to discuss a topic related to studying your family history to make genealogical research more successful.  The upcoming topics include… 

January - Beginners Genealogy

February - Googling your Ancestors 

Submissions are closed for 2025, but please feel free to still fill out the form below if you're interested in participating next year!

Get ready to participate in How-To Fest 2025! 

Handley Library is inviting individuals, community organizations, and businesses to participate in our 2025 How-To Fest in September, where patrons come to learn a little about a lot. If you have knowledge to share or a cause to advocate for, this call is for you!

During my time as a parent patron of storytime programs, I’ll admit; if I walked in to the children’s room, and it was playtime instead of storytime, I was disappointed. Who wouldn’t be? Likely it took a lot of effort to get yourself and your children out the door- maybe there were tantrums, blowouts, and last minute outfit changes. You ran a marathon this morning, and you want one of the rockstars who works in the Youth Services department to entertain you and your kids for 30 minutes!

Are you ready for some thrilling updates? Handley Regional Library System has expanded our streaming video resource offerings, Kanopy, and there’s never been a better time to dive in!

What’s New?

Kanopy now offers access to over 30,000 new titles, including:

NOTE: Registration begins on December 28!

Winter is the perfect season to cozy up with a good book, and the Handley Regional Library System is excited to announce our 2025 Winter Reading Program: Be a Reading Machine! This engaging program runs from January 2 through January 31 and is open to readers of all ages.

At Handley Regional Library System, we proudly serve as a cornerstone of knowledge, community, and innovation. Our mission is to empower individuals and enrich our region through access to resources, programs, and opportunities for all. But to continue this mission, we rely on the generous support of people like you.

Here are six compelling reasons to consider financially supporting Handley Regional Library System today:

Although I am the newest member of the Youth Services team, I have been attending the programs offered by the Children’s Department for over a year as a parent! With a current 19 month old, I have spent the last year exploring the storytime and STEAM programs offered here, so I will be writing a series of posts exploring my transition from Parent Patron to Staff Member.

The Juvenile Read-Along collection boasts more than 600 titles. Recently, many Read-Along chapter books have been added to the catalog, ranging from classics: Ramona the Brave and The Mouse and the Motorcycle to new favorites: The Wild Robot and The Last Kids On Earth. Books from some of your favorite series are now available in Read-Along format, such as Big Nate, and The Adventures of Captain Underpants. Several titles are available in Large Print.

Libby, the popular library reading app from OverDrive, is changing how people connect with books. If you haven’t tried reading with Libby through the Handley Regional Library System, now is the time! Here are 10 reasons why downloading Libby will be your best literary decision yet.

Are you a fan of the classics and looking for a new book to read? Or maybe you’re reading a classic for school and stuck on the old-timey language? Either way, the library has a great selection of classic rewrites that will expand on stories you already know or help you relate to more modern characters and conflicts. Check out our selection of classic rewrites that will make you fall in love with stories based on authors like Shakespeare and Jane Austen!

Many locals will be familiar with the connection to prisoners of war camps the Winchester area has had throughout history: the Hessian prisoners brought here during the Revolutionary War and the German prisoners during World War II.  Many may be unfamiliar with the story of a small group of 20 men from Philadelphia, PA exiled out of the commonwealth and sent to Winchester for months during the Revolutionary War.  Norman Donoghue’s new book Prisoners of Congress: Philadelphia’s Quakers in Exile, 1777-1778 examines that topic. 

There's one more chance to attend our popular Archives After Hours event this year.  The final one will be held on Thursday, October 24 @ 5:30 pm.  If you haven't heard, each Archives After Hours event begins with a presentation concerning special items found within the collection and an explanation of how those items can help the researchers that visit the space. 

Halloween is a fun holiday for many kids. You can dress up in a fun costume and go trick-or-treating, collecting lots of candy. But what if you had a food allergy, which causes your immune system to overreact to certain food proteins? Trick-or-treating might not feel like a possibility with the high risk of being exposed to an allergen. FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) decided to help change that with the Teal Pumpkin Project. 

Have you ever thought about all the photos on your phone: photos of loved ones, silly moments that bring you joy, and milestones in your life?  Can you find the photo you want to show someone quickly?  Do you worry what could happen to those photos should the phone break?  Do you have a plan to preserve those photos for the future? 

Digital photography has made it so much easier to make memories, but also brings new challenges when it comes to organizing and preserving these digital images for future use.

Looking for a new way to enjoy your favorite magazines? With Magzter, you can access over 4,000 digital magazine titles for free through the Handley Regional Library System. Whether you're into lifestyle, tech, entertainment, or niche hobbies, there’s something for everyone—and in multiple languages!

Here are five reasons to start reading digital magazines today:

Here are two catalog search features that you might find useful- Subjects and Tags.

 Sleep is very important for everyone, especially your developing little’s brain. As soon as you get a routine into action, it often feels like your little starts going through a regression.

Thursday September 12 is Video Game Day and we can help you celebrate.  

Video Games

Our teen book spotlight this week is focused on graphic novels!!!  Graphic novels are incredibly visual stories that can feature pretty much anything fiction and nonfiction.  Done in the style of comic books, there is a huge variety of choices; literally something for everyone so even if you have never read one before, you will definitely be able to find something.  For our talk this week, we have a great selection of nonfiction, fantasy, historical, humor, and realistic to get you started.

Our Middle Grade book spotlight this week is focused on graphic novels!!!  Graphic novels are incredibly visual stories that can feature pretty much anything fiction and nonfiction.  Done in the style of comic books, there is a huge variety of choices; literally something for everyone so even if you have never read one before, you will definitely be able to find something.  For our talk this week, we have a great selection of retellings, fantasy, historical, humor, and realistic to get you started.  These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the sea

Do you know the story of Rebecca Wright and Thomas Laws?  They aided Union General Philip Sheridan with information regarding Confederate General Jubal Early’s troop movements in and around the Winchester area.  Rebecca Wright, a Winchester school teacher with loyalty to the union, would collect intelligence about troop movements and pass that information along to Thomas Laws.  He was an enslaved man who would carry that intelligence to Union scouts.  The information provided by Rebecca Wright and transported by Thomas Laws was crucial to Sheridan’s decision to attack Wi

Are you researching your family’s history?  Have you hit a brick wall in your research?  Do you have tips/strategies that you can share with others?  If so, Family History Hunters is the group for you!

A major thing that helps us in life is our executive functioning skills. Our executive functioning skills are essentially our ability to do planning, organization, and then follow through with that planning and organization by acting on it.

Get ready to learn all about the environment and how you can do your part with Smokey Bear’s Reading Challenge. Running from August 10th to November 30th, the challenge is available to all ages and accessible on your Beanstack account. 

Our teen book spotlight this week is taking a look at Mysteries!!!  There are so many different types of mystery books available that there is literally something for everyone’s tastes!  Some are straight mystery/detective stories while others are more suspenseful and thrilling; mysteries are usually cross genre as well meaning that not only is there a mystery element, but there may also be some fantasy, science fiction, or historical elements as well.  We have a great selection this week from realistic to fantasy, murder mysteries and crime solving so you will either find so

Our middle grade book spotlight this week is taking a look at Mysteries!!!  There are so many different types of mystery books available that there is literally something for everyone’s tastes!  Some are straight mystery/detective stories while others are more suspenseful and thrilling; mysteries are usually cross genre as well meaning that not only is there a mystery element, but there may also be some fantasy, science fiction, or historical elements as well.  We have a great selection this week from realistic to fantasy, murder mysteries and crime solving so you will either

When you think of youth programming at the library, you probably think about storytimes and puppets and all sorts of things for younger kids. But did you know that the library offers programs for teens, as well? Read on to learn about a few of the activities you can get involved with! 

Bowman Library 

Winchester, VA — The Handley Regional Library System is proud to announce the impressive statistics from the 2023-2024 fiscal year, underscoring its vital role in the community and its ongoing commitment to providing accessible resources and services to patrons of all ages.

Over the past year, the Handley Regional Library System's three locations—Handley Library, Bowman Library, and Clarke County Library—welcomed 365,992 visitors, reflecting the vibrant engagement with our libraries. Key highlights from the year include:

Historical Fiction

Discover quick listen historical fiction favorites that explore the complexity of the human condition, like The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, on @hoopladigital. https://www.hoopladigital.com/collection/5558

Mystery

Check out @hoopladigital's quick-listen mystery, suspense, and thrillers that will keep you on the edge of your seat. https://www.hoopladigital.com/collection/5552

Did you miss out on Hungry for History last year?  If so, you don't want to miss it this year.  Across Winchester and Frederick/Clarke County museums and historic sites in our community will offer a variety of programs and special events such as presentations, cooking demonstrations, hands-on activities, children’s activities, food tastings, special handouts and giveaways, displays of historic recipes, agriculture related programs and more.  To kick off the Hungry for History week, Stewart Bell Jr.

The Stewart Bell Jr. Archives is happy to announce a new database to help family researchers: American Ancestors.  From the New England Genealogical Society, this search engine provides access to 1.4 billion+ searchable records from the US and around the world.  Our membership also allows patrons to have access to the American Ancestors magazine and the New England Historical and Genealogical Register, two of genealogy’s leading print publications. 

Confidence starts with the caretaker. We are our young's first teacher and mentor. We model behavior and many other things to our children daily. Confidence can be hard even for adults, because of all the different situations we are exposed to--breastfeeding, conflict, new situations, work, etc. And although everyone can't always be confident all the time, we can try to assert ourselves consistently to lay boundaries and advocate for ourselves.

There are so many new YA non-fiction books covering such a wide variety of topics that you are guaranteed to find something that interests you! Here are a few examples:

The Book Club is BACK!

After a long hiatus, we are ready to bring the book club back! The Book Club will be open to all adults (ages 18 and up) and will meet monthly to connect readers, discuss books, and introduce new authors and stories.

Bowman Library is your go-to destination for fun and engaging games that cater to all interests and ages. Whether you're a word wizard, a strategic mastermind, or just looking for a good time with friends, we've got something for everyone. Check out our exciting lineup of game-themed programs!

Scrabble Club

Wednesdays, 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Are you a knitting enthusiast, a crochet aficionado, or perhaps someone who loves embroidery or latch hooking? Whether you’re a seasoned crafter or just starting out, we have the perfect gathering for you! Join us for our Sit and Stitch program at Handley Regional Library System, where you can bring your work in progress, share tips and tricks, and enjoy the company of fellow crafters.

Regulating our emotions can be a very daunting thing. Now imagine being a child and doing it. Our brains are not fully developed until about 25 years old, because our prefrontal cortex is still figuring our the decision making piece, and emotions are heavily tied into that. But much of that is started in the early years. You can help your kiddo figure things out by setting them up for success with emotional intelligence.

Waiting patiently for the next book in your favorite YA series? Find out which books have already been released and are available at the library and which you’ll have to wait a little bit longer for. Be sure to check out our Suggest a Title feature on the Handley Regional Library website that allows you to request books not yet in the library’s catalog.

Our teen book spotlight this week is on some of our favorite staff pick reads!!!  To help us kick off these summer months filled with reading, we are sharing some of our favorite books so you can have some amazing titles to help you get started or to help you get out of a reading slump if that is where you find yourself. We have a great mixture of nonfiction, realistic, first in a series and more so there is something for everyone or maybe something to read outside of your book comfort zone!

Our middle grade book spotlight this week is is on some of our favorite staff pick reads!!!  To help us kick off these summer months filled with reading, we are sharing some of our favorite books so you can have some amazing titles to help you get started or to help you get out of a reading slump if that is where you find yourself.

Problem solving is something parents/caregivers are faced with numerous times everyday. Even things as simple as questioning 'what am I cooking for dinner?' 'Do I have all the ingredients?' 'Now what?' Each of these questions from one simple task of cooking a meal to actually feeding our kids (and ourselves) count towards solving problems. All of these questions are part of our organizing and planning, then initiating system--executive functioning.

Are you ready to embark on a summer filled with adventure and discovery? Join us for the Rally for Reading, the exciting kickoff event for our Youth Summer Reading Program, themed “Adventure Begins at Your Library.” This year, we’re thrilled to host our kickoff celebrations at each of our three library branches. Mark your calendars and get ready for a season of fun, learning, and exploration!

Summer is the perfect time to dive into new books, and our Adult Summer Reading Program (ASRP) is here to make your reading even more rewarding! Here are five compelling reasons to join the fun this summer:

Our teen book spotlight this week is all about featuring some more amazing YA nonfiction titles!  It can be easy to think that nonfiction is boring but these titles are the complete opposite of that thought; we have everything from true crime to war history and