It’s spring! April is mere days away as is some great programming at the library.

Liberal Memorial Library is starting the month off with a book discussion of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” on Thursday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m. in the Cooper Clark Room. Harper Lee won the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for the novel.

We had a nice turnout during the Kansas Reads program and are going to continue the book and a movie series during the evening hours. Those who came to the program suggested Harper Lee’s classic after conferring that it was a nice segue into the series particularly given the fact that Truman Capote and Harper Lee were childhood friends.

Two weeks later on Thursday, April 17 at 6:30 p.m. in the Cooper Clark Room there will be a showing of the 1962 film starring Gregory Peck.

Library and Lunch continues this month on Tuesday, April 8 at 12:00 p.m. with a discussion of “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult. It’s an interesting and thought provoking read about a thirteen year old girl who was specifically designed to be a perfect genetic match for her sister who suffers from a rare form of childhood leukemia. I’m looking forward to a lively conversation about the novel!

The movie version is currently being filmed and directed by Nick Cassavetes starring Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, and Joan Cusack. The release date on that is tentatively 2009.

Don’t forget to stop by for story time with Carol on Thursday, April 3 and April 17. Preschool story time is from 9:15 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. for children ages three to five; Toddle in story time is from 10:20 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. for those 19 months to 36 months; and Lap sit story time is from 10:55 a.m. to 11:15 a.m. for the little ones through 18 months.

National Library Week is April 13 – 19 with the theme of “Join the circle of knowledge @ your library.”

Don’t forget to have your poetry entries in to the library by April 14 at 8:00 p.m. for the Annual Poetry Contest being held in May. The categories are children, young adult, and adult. Two copies of all poems are required.

Gaming for Teens will also take place this month on Tuesday, April 22 at 4:00 p.m. Stop by and try out some Guitar Hero. We have some great photos from the last event that will be up shortly.

The library is also looking to form a Teen Advisory Board for input from our teen patrons on what they want to see in the library. What kind of programs are you interested in having? What books are you interested in reading? What films are you interested in watching?

To join the Teen Advisory Board, you should be between the ages of 12 and 18. If you’re interested in joining, send a message to the Teen Zone myspace page which you can locate through www.myspace.com/lmlibrary, send an email to me at paulinap@lmlibrary.org, or call the library.

On Wednesday, April 16 at 9:30 a.m. there will be A Very Beginners Computer Class in Spanish for those who speak minimal or no English and wish to learn the basics of computer use. There is a limit of four individuals so call the library today.

On Wednesday, April 23 and Thursday, April 24 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. there will be A Very Beginners Computer Class (in English). There’s a limit of four individuals per class so call or stop by the library to sign up. Most importantly, bring questions with you! We can cover whatever you want to learn.

All three classes will start off with the basics of logging into a computer, how to use a mouse, create an email account, and create and send email. If you’re comfortable with how that works, we can go further and play around with discovering news mediums online, how to online shop, and make online payments. It’s all up to you!

Like Carol mentioned in an earlier article, the layout of the library is changing. The adult computers have been moved to make room for a young adult space for our teen patrons. We are almost done! If you have any questions or cannot find a particular item in the young adult or the non-fiction sections please ask one of the staff.

If there is any form of programming that you would like to see at the library let me know by stopping by or calling. I look forward to seeing many of you in the library this month!!