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The Cat's Meow Los Gatos Library Newsletter
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September is finally here! The Los Gatos Library will be putting our online programs on pause for the first two weeks of September but make sure to catch us on social media www.facebook.com/losgatoslibrary and Instagram: @los_gatos_library to stay updated with all the upcoming news from the library.
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What's New Programs are taking a break - We are pausing all Storytime programs for 2 weeks
- Enjoy some classic art programs and story time on Facebook and Youtube
The 2020 Census is ending this month. - The Census is ending early this year and it will be another 10 years before you can fill out another one
- Complete the 2020 Census online, by phone or by mail before the end of this month
Don't Forget to Register to Vote! - Check your voter status, confirm your mailing address, and sign up for ballot tracking notifications here https://voterstatus.sos.ca.gov/.
- To register to vote for the first time, go to: registertovote.ca.gov the form is available in Spanish, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese!
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The Los Gatos Library invites Los Gatos residents to contribute pieces of their lives that document town life during the COVID-19 pandemic to tell the story of Los Gatos during this time of sheltering in place. We are interested in seeing your journeys in staying at home through all the various at-home projects, gardens, hobbies, homeschooling, community service, chalk art, and more. Curated submissions will be made available in our digital collection on History Los Gatos here. Submissions must be digital and may include: Photographs Letters, emails, postcards, and other correspondence Blog posts or social media posts Notices, posters, or signs Creative art such as drawings, paintings, chalk art, poetry, etc. Journal and diary entries
Any person who resides in Los Gatos is welcome to submit materials. We are all in this together, along with the whole world, and we are proud that Los Gatos remains a safe and healthy place for its community. To submit your materials, start here.
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Represent Los Gatos: Oral History
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We are recording the stories of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) of Los Gatos and we need your help to make our Local History Room collection reflect the diversity of our community. BIPOC stories are underrepresented in our local history and it is our mission as a memory institution to change this. Please share your story and take part in this oral history project., Feel free to email library@losgatosca.gov or fill out the Represent LG oral history form to participate in this project here.
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Community Workshop: Police Practices and Reforms Monday, Sep 8th, 7pm 2020 All community members are encouraged to join the discussion. A panel including the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Chief of Police, Town Attorney, and Town Manager will be available to listen, learn, answer questions, and identify a path forward, together. Facilitated by the Honorable LaDoris Cordell is a retired judge of the Superior Court of California and former Independent Police Auditor for the city of San Jose. She is an advocate for improving transparency into charges of police misconduct. She was the first female AfricanAmerican judge in Northern California and the first female African-American Superior Court judge in Santa Clara County. Password: 908590 Call in
1 (636) 651-0008 1 (877) 336-1839 (US tole Free) Conference Code: 969184
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ESL Conversation Club Wednesdays at 11am Sep 2020 Looking to improve your English language skills? Join our ESL Conversation Club for adults on Wednesdays at 11 AM over the Zoom platform! Click here for the link to join. Password: 033836 or Call in 1 (215) 861-0674 1 (888) 398-2342 (US Toll Free) Conference code: 589749 :
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Monday Morning Virtual Book Club Monday, Sep 14th, at 11:00 AM Join in on the morning virtual book club discussion! We'll be discussing The Enchantress of Numbers by Jennifer Chiaverini over Zoom. Find the book on CloudLibrary or place it on hold today! Click here for the Zoom link Password: 833651 Or Call In 1 (215) 861-0674 1 (888) 398-2342 (US Toll Free) Conference code: 589749
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Tuesday Evening Virtual Book Club Tuesday, Sep 15th, at 6:30 PM Please join us for an evening virtual book club discussion! We'll be discussing the memoir, The Second Mountain by David Brooks. The book is available on CloudLibrary and Hoopla Digital for all to enjoy. Click here for the Zoom link. Password: LGLbc or Call In 1(215) 861-0674 1(888) 398-2342 (US Toll Free) Conference code: 589749
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Landscaping for Wildfire Protection Thursday, Sep 24, 6:00pm Zoom Join Barbara Hunt, UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County for this talk on lanscaping for wildfire protection. Living in the wildland-urban interface, people and homes are at risk from wildfires. It doesn't take a Camp Fire to destroy homes: a small grass fire can still result in a house being burned to the ground. While there are no guarantees your home will escape, landscaping around your home can help protect it. Learn about how wildfires spread, Defensible Space, plants that resist fire, and what you can do right now and into the future to protect your home as much as possible.
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Mail Art Party Tuesday, September 29, 3:00 PM Letters are a fun way to connect with friends and family, and what better way to make it even more fun than making your mail into art? Join our librarians on Facebook Live for a mail art session. Get some paper, envelopes, stamps, pens, markers, stickers, anything else you may have lying around the house, and prepare to make some beautiful mail art with us! The recipients of our mail will be super lucky!
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Classic Library Storytimes
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While we are taking a break from programs enjoy these out of the vault classic Storytimes on Facebook. These are our most popular story times over the last few months, and feel free to share the ones you enjoy too.
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Reaching Out to Those Who Live Alone to Reduce Isolation. Dear Neighbors, As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, many of us are feeling the pressure of being separated from our families and friends. Due to this long period of social distancing, many people may be feeling isolated -- especially those who are older, have chronic health conditions, depression, or other serious conditions. If you are able, please check on your family members, friends, and neighbors who might need extra help at this time. A personal visit (with social distancing) is the best approach and could make a world of difference for someone who is feeling helpless and alone. If distance is an issue, please contact their local law enforcement and request a well-being check, if you think someone might need assistance. If you or a loved one needs support for their emotional well-being, there are resources available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: • Are you in crisis? Call the Suicide and Crisis line at: 1-855-278-4204 • Need someone to talk with? Call the Friendship Line at 1-888-670-1360 Please do not hesitate to take action if you or someone you know needs support or assistance. Thank you for all that you are doing to support your family and community. Stay well and be safe. Office of Emergency Management
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Voting and the Census: Recommended Reads from our Librarians
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With the impending September 30th deadline for completing the Census, which determines how much federal funding all states get (billions of dollars per year for California), as well as the upcoming November elections, it is important to educate ourselves so that we can be aware of the ways the Census and local, state, and federal elections affect us from day to day. The following titles available at the Los Gatos Library have been selected by our librarians to help you stay informed and provide a better understanding about our political systems and our own place in those systems as individuals and as a community. Place a hold on these titles today and get them through Patio Pick-Up!
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Only 40% of eligible Americans voted in the 2016 presidential election. Why? Erin Geiger Smith dives into that question and provides us with not only a history of voter participation and suppression in the United States, but also a series of tools that readers can use to get energized about voting. This book includes checklists that explain how to prepare for election day, as well as easy ways to get your friends, family and neighbors out to the polls.
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by Andrew Whitby The idea of taking a national count of all individuals living within the borders of a nation is not new—it is a task that has been taken up by governments around the world for thousands of years. Data scientist Andrew Whitby traces this history, and the ways that counting people has shaped society as we know it. He also makes an important case for the political power that comes with this decennial count in the United States.
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by Tommy Jenkins, illustrated by Kati Lacker This new, illustrated guide to the American voting system is a beautiful way to introduce people to voting in graphic novel form. There is no need to read through a dense history book to understand American democracy. Accessible to readers of all ages, this history of voting in America is written and illustrated in an easy-to-read, clearly drawn way that is enjoyable, informative, and inspires you to get out and vote.
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In this new book, New York Times editor Jesse Wegman makes the case for abolishing the electoral college in favor of a more direct voting system based on the popular vote. This book is great for anyone wanting to learn about the controversial origins of the Electoral College, the ways that it has shaped presidential politics, and how the principle of one person, one vote can be made a reality.
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by Melissa Nobles Melissa Nobles, Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at MIT lays bare the politics of race and citizenship in both the U.S. and Brazilian censuses. The ways that Americans and Brazilians categorize race are similar, and this can be seen clearly through the race categories provided on the census since its inception in both countries. Although written in 2000, the takeaways from this study are important to hold in mind as we approach the end of the 2020 census.
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by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed This Young Adult novel is about two classmates paired by their parents to volunteer as door knockers for a local election. Part local activism, part high school romance, and totally helpful in showing young people ways to get active in their community, even if they are too young to vote.
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Meet Kerry, she is one of our library specialists, and works the adult and children's desks. Kerry buys all the sci-fi/fantasy books, is in charge of the zip books program and she does a fair amount of cataloging and processing new books. Her favorite genres are historical fiction, sci-fi, fantasy and classic women writers like Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, the Brontes and is a huge poetry fan. Be sure to check out these titles online or place them on hold.
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Lady Hotspur By Tessa Gratton STRIKE FAST, LOVE HARD, LIVE FOREVER This is the motto of the Lady Knights--sworn to fealty under a struggling kingdom, promised to defend the prospective heir, Banna Mora. But when a fearsome rebellion overthrows the throne, Mora is faced with an agonizing choice: give up everything she's been raised to love, and allow a king-killer to be rewarded--or retake the throne, and take up arms against the newest heir, Hal Bolingbrooke, Mora's own childhood best friend and sworn head of the Lady Knights. Hal loathes being a Prince and is mired in guilt and regrets, drinking away every night instead on the Throne of Misrule. She yearns to live up to the wishes of those she loves best--but that means sacrificing her own heart, and so Hall would rather disappoint everyone until the moment she can rise to prove those expectations wrong. And between these two fierce Princes is the woman who will decide all their fates: Lady Isarna Hotspur, the passionate and bold knight whose support will turn the tides of the coming war--or bring their kingdom to its ruin"--
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The Mirror and the Light Hilary Mantel If you cannot speak truth at a beheading, when can you speak it?" England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn is dead, decapitated in the space of a heartbeat by a hired French executioner. As her remains are bundled into oblivion, Thomas Cromwell breakfasts with the victors. The blacksmith's son from Putney emerges from the spring's bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry VIII, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen before Jane dies giving birth to the male heir he most craves. Cromwell is a man with only his wits to rely on; he has no great family to back him, no private army. Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry's regime to the breaking point, Cromwell's robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future. But can a nation, or a person, shed the past like a skin? Do the dead continually unbury themselves? What will you do, the Spanish ambassador asks Cromwell, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?
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The Westside W. M. Akers Six months ago, the ruined Westside of Manhattan erupted into civil war, and private detective Gilda Carr nearly died to save her city. In 1922, winter has hit hard, and the desolate Lower West is frozen solid. Like the other lost souls who wander these overgrown streets, Gilda is weary, cold, and desperate for hope. She finds a mystery instead. Hired by a family of eccentric street preachers to recover a lost saint’s finger, Gilda is tempted by their promise of “electric resurrection,” when the Westside’s countless dead will return to life. To a detective this cynical, faith is a weakness, and she is fighting the urge to believe in miracles when her long dead mother, Mary Fall, walks through the parlor door.
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Talk About Voting With Your Kids
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Votes of Confidence: A Young Person’s Guide to American Elections by Jeff Fleischer
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I Voted! Making a Choice Makes a Difference by Mark Shulman
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One Person, No Vote: How Not All Voters are Treated Equally by Carol Anderson
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Duck for President by Doreen Cronin
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Vote for Me by Ben Clanton
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Retro Tech With the Library
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Have any video tapes, cassette tapes, negatives, photos, or slides lying around your house? Email library@losgatosca.gov in order to get more information about how to get your 20th century media digitized by library staff, for free, and with minimal in-person contact
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Los Gatos Library Patio Pick-Up
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We are so excited at how well Patio Pick-Up is working, and so grateful for our patrons making it worth while! Pick-ups are available Monday-Friday 10 am - 5 pm.
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