2008 Florida Library Association Library of the Year!

The Pasco County Library System has been named the Florida Library Association 2008 Library of the Year! What an honor!




Left to right: Pasco County Assistant County Administrator, Dan Johnson; Pasco County Library System Director, Linda Allen; and Florida Library Association President and Executive Director of the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, Charlie Parker.




A handful of 2008 Florida Library Association award winners. Left to right: Chair of the 2008 FLA Awards Committee, Harold George; Library of the Year Award - Linda Allen from the PCLS; Leader of the Year Award - Bradley Ward from NEFLIN; Chavez-Hernandez Libraries Change People's Lives Award - Kathleen Mayo from the Lee County Library System; Friends, Foundations & Boards Award - Bettye Stevens-Coney from the Leesburg Friends of the Library; and the Public Library Web Site Award - Edward Kilroy from Osceola Library System. Not pictured: Betty Davis Miller Youth Services Award winners from the Clearwater Public Library System.

Thank you for all of the support you've given us! You've all made this a wonderful year for us, and we truly appreciate it.

Friends of the Library East Side Luncheon

PCLS just celebrated its first annual East Side Friends Luncheon at the Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club in San Antonio! The food was great and local Florida Scholar Betty Jean Steinshouer entranced her audience yet again, portraying Florida favorite Marjory Stoneman Douglas!


Here comes the new President of the Friends of the Pasco County Library System, Loraine Cors, checking in with Assistant Director, Stephen Kershner!



Libraries’ Director, Linda Allen thanks the crowd at the East Side Friend’s luncheon for joining us and supporting libraries.



The talented Betty Jean Steinshouer arrived in character as beloved Floridian and writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas.


Douglas’ passion was to raise awareness about the Florida’s Everglades and encourage people to contact their representatives and let them know how important the Everglades and libraries are to Florida.

Douglas is just one of many characters found in the talented Ms. Steinshouer’s repertoire. For more information on this performance and her other characters you can visit her website at: More on Betty Jean

If you would like to join the Friends of the Library you can
go to this link: Friends of the Library and download
an application to become a Friend, or you can stop in and inquire at your local
branch!

Painting Horses at the Hudson Regional Library

Saturday, March 15 Patrons at the Hudson Regional Library were treated to a fun program with Juliet, a pinto Paso Fino mare and her people Cheryl Ward and Sam Sharnik. Juliet is just one of four horses that paint in the Ward/Sharnik household. Each horse has their own distinct painting style – Romeo, a Paso Fino gelding paints in deliberate, delicate strokes, while Juliet paints in broad strokes with lots of strong colors. Examples of her work and pictures of the lovely Juliet are below.

Juliet and Romeo will also make an appearance at the New River Library in Zephyrhills on Saturday, April 19 @ 1PM. Their books, DVDs, and artwork will be available for purchase!

Cheryl and Juliet check out her art and decide if they should use another color!

Juliet demonstrates all the different techniques she uses when painting her masterpieces.

Juliet uses lots of brilliant color and broad confident strokes to create her art.

Described by her people as a “gem”, Juliet works the crowd with her friendly personality!

Juliet, satisfied with her work, shows it off to the crowd.

Contact the New River Library at 813-788-3380 for details if you'd like to see Juliet and Romeo in person on Saturday, April 19th!

Winter Adult Reading Program Winners!

We'd like to thank everyone who participated in our first ever Winter Adult Reading Program, all 161 of you! Our readers read a total of 1,939 books. Wow! That's awesome.

Here's Diane Dare, the Grand Prize winner of our prize drawing, receiving an MP3 player from PCLS West Side Coordinator Margaret Griffith.




And here's Fredda Barlow, the winner of a Macy's gift card, receiving her prize from New River Branch Manager Dotty Chandler.



Here's a list of our prize winners and their prizes:

Diane Dare - MP3 player

Karen Roesler - Publix gift card

Joan Drolle - Publix gift card

Frank Brandon - Publix gift card

Fredda Barlow - Macy's gift card

Lucille Adler - Darden gift card

Margaret Santos - Darden gift card

Jan Gernaat - Starbucks gift pack

Doris Bareiss - Starbucks gift pack

Timmi Barker - Staples office organizer



We'd like to offer a big Thank You! to all of our very generous sponsors:

Darden

Macy's

Publix

Staples

Starbucks

Friends of the Library West Side Luncheon

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt joined us for a lovely visit at the Spartan Manor on Friday, Feb. 15. Portrayed by Will and Sue Wills, the Roosevelts performed in front of packed audience for the annual Friends Luncheon!





Loraine Cors, a former Librarian for the PCLS and current President of the Friends of the Pasco County Library System, addresses the audience talking about the importance of supporting our Libraries. Thanks Loraine!




Meet Helen Wunderley - Wonder Volunteer! At 91 this year, Helen has been volunteering for the Pasco County Library System for 10 years and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon! Helen was honored at the luncheon by Libraries Director, Linda Allen, with a plaque of appreciation. Thanks for all of your hard work Helen!

Spiderwick Chronicles Sneak Preview

Here's the video we created from our first ever PCLS Sneak Preview.

In partnership with Nickelodeon Movies and the Regal Hollywood 18 Theater we had the opportunity to present an advanced screening of The Spiderwick Chronicles on Wednesday, February 13th. Despite the fact that it was a gray and rainy day, and despite the fact that it was a school night, over 220 people showed up to share in the experience. It was awesome to see so many enthusiastic library supporters enjoying themselves! As you can see, everybody had a great time.






Thank you Nickelodeon Movies!

Thank you Hollywood 18!

A Wii Gift to Our Library

GolinHarris, the folks that do the PR for Nintendo of America, contacted us here at the PCLS and gave us 3 free Nintendo Wii systems, controllers, and copies of Mario Galaxy to use in our all-ages gaming endeavors. Is that not cool? We’re also in line for early releases on some of their new games. We'll keep you posted.

A big Thank You! to the folks at GolinHarris and Nintendo of America for their generosity and support.

Special thanks go to Paul Stonebridge, librarian extraordinaire, for coordinating the whole deal. You rock, Paul! (And even better, you rock for the PCLS!)

Reunited!

Yay! The dog from our previous post and his owner have been reunited.

A big Thank You! to everyone who helped us save the friendly pooch! We are very grateful for your assistance.

Help Us Find This Dog's Owner!

Do you recognize this dog? He showed up at the Hudson Library on Friday and spent the afternoon greeting our patrons. He's friendly, energetic, and very, very happy! He's got beautiful golden eyes, looks like he weighs about 70 lbs. and is in good health; he's been well taken care of. It looks like he's some kind of Lab mix.

If you can help us find his owner or are interested in adopting him, please call the Hudson Library at (727)-861-3040 or Pasco County Animal Services at (813)929-1212, (352) 521-5194, or (727)834-3216.

He's currently at the shelter now. Help us save him!

The water on the ground is from his water bowl. Just in case you wondered. :)

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back In The Lobby. . .

Another festive holiday outfit.



It's all about the details. (If you suddenly feel the urge to sing Rudolph the Red Hosed Reindeer, we'll understand.)