Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)

PUA provides up to 39 weeks of benefits to qualifying individuals who are otherwise able to work and available for work within the meaning of applicable state law, except that they are unemployed, partially unemployed, or unable or unavailable to work due to COVID-19 related reasons, as defined in the CARES Act. Benefit payments under PUA are retroactive, for weeks of unemployment, partial employment, or inability to work due to COVID-19 reasons starting on or after January 27, 2020. The CARES Act specifies that PUA benefits cannot be paid for weeks of unemployment ending after December 31, 2020.

For more information and to file a regular unemployment claim, click here.

Computer Skills Training

Chester County Library now has online instructions for Basic Microsoft Word and Excel available for you.

While the library cannot currently provide our popular in-house classes and 1-1 tutoring sessions, we can provide you with our Basic Microsoft Word and Basic Microsoft Excel instructions. These are instructional documents only. You will need Microsoft Word and/or Microsoft Excel available on your computer to follow the instructions.

We miss you and we hope to be back soon with in-house workshops.  We are in the process of developing virtual computer training.  Please stay tuned.  We hope these instructional documents will help with brushing up your skills or help you learn something new!

If you have questions related to Microsoft Office, staff from John W Jacobs Technology can try to help you.  Please email us your questions to ccljtc@ccls.org.  We will respond your emails.

Also, check the following resources:

MS WORD           MS EXCEL

Virtual Program: Libby: Ask Me Anything

Maybe you’re finding yourself with more free time now that all of your social events and outings have been canceled. Maybe you just need a break from it all. Either way now might be a great time to pick up a good book, and we still have you covered with our digital collection on Libby.
If you’re new to Libby, need a refresher, or have a specific question, join us on Friday afternoons at 3 PM for virtual learning sessions.  Registration is required.
A Zoom link will be emailed to registrants 2 hours before the program starts.  Make sure to check the email address you registered with to receive the link.  You do not need a Zoom account to attend the virtual program.

 

Virtual Program

Free online business courses – Tesseract

With the current pandemic, most of the workforce across the globe are working from home. This brings a whole new set of challenges for organizations to mitigate, from productivity issues to information security, and business continuity is becoming the primary problem for many organizations.

Tesseract Learning wants to help in any way they can. They are releasing free eLearning modules to help you maintain employee wellbeing, productivity, and business continuity.

Find the courses here.

Open Hearth’s Rental Assistance Program

Open Hearth’s Goal Achievement Program (GAP) is their homelessness prevention program that provides short-term, decreasing level rent payment assistance to those who are at risk of becoming homeless due to an unforeseen, short-term financial crisis. 

Thanks to the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation, they have an additional pool of funds to help those impacted by COVID-19 to keep them stably housed during this health and economic crisis.

Eligibility: 

  • Renter residing in Northern Chester County or Western Montgomery County
  • Must have an active lease agreement
  • Must have a source of income or guarantee of imminent income (this could be a layoff letter or an unemployment compensation letter) – proof of income for entire household from past 30 days required

Eligibility Screening

Contact Housing Programs Manager – Rebecca Rush – at (610) 792-9282 x. 207 or rrush@openhearthinc.org

Find a Good Book to Read (Part 2 of 3): Title Read-alikes

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Have a favorite book? Wishing you could find something like it to read next?

Here are a few ways to find find new books to try, based on a favorite book title:

NoveList Plus: You can start your search for title read-alikes here! Access NoveList Plus through the Library by visiting chescolibraries.org, selecting “Tools and Research” from the ribbon of choices at the top of the page, selecting “All CCLS Databases,” and then NoveList Plus. Enter your library card number when prompted.

Once you’re in NoveList Plus, use the search box at the top of the screen to search by title (hover over “Keyword” to select “Title”). Enter the name of a favorite title, select “Search,” and you’re on your way! From the main page for your book, you’ll find:

  • A list of “Read-Alikes” (other titles you might enjoy) on the right-hand side of the page. Select “View All” to see the complete list, along with reasons why NoveList Plus thinks you might like those titles.
  • “Lists and Articles” related to your book, to connect you with even more reading ideas.
  • A “Search For More” option (towards the bottom of the page) that lets you create a customized search for more title ideas, based on criteria you select.

Want to know more about a title that NoveList Plus suggests? Search for your new title idea in NoveList Plus, and then scroll down that title’s page to read professional reviews and more.

Here’s a brief video from NoveList for a helpful recap of how to find both Title and Author Read-alikes.

In addition to NoveList Plus, many libraries publish their own read-alikes on their websites, and no two lists are likely to be the same! Here are examples of the types of Google searches that can help you find more lists to peruse.

In these search examples, the titles are in quotes so that they’re searched as a complete phrase:

“Where the Crawdads Sing” library read-alikes

“A Gentleman in Moscow” library read-alikes

In this example, the author is included since the title is short, and may not be unique:

Outlander Gabaldon library read-alikes

Happy exploring! Earlier this week we discussed finding Author Read-alikes; stay tuned for more on finding reading ideas by book genre.

No holds eAudiobooks – ready for download!

We have a collection of no holds audiobooks ready for easy download to your device. To help you choose, here are three you may like.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante – download here

Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times bestselling “enduring masterpiece” (The Atlantic) about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples.

Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship.

This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence. Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez – download here

One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize–winning career.

The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.

Love and lust, war and revolution, riches and poverty, youth and senility, the variety of life, the endlessness of death, the search for peace and truth—these universal themes dominate the novel. Alternately reverential and comical, One Hundred Years of Solitude weaves the political, personal, and spiritual to bring a new consciousness to storytelling. Translated into dozens of languages, this stunning work is no less than an account of the history of the human race.

The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman – download here

Jan and Antonina Zabinski were Polish Christian zookeepers horrified by Nazi racism, who managed to save over three hundred people. Yet their story has fallen between the seams of history.

Drawing on Antonina’s diary and other historical sources, bestselling naturalist Diane Ackerman vividly re-creates Antonina’s life as “the zookeeper’s wife,” responsible for her own family, the zoo animals, and their “guests”: resistance activists and refugee Jews, many of whom Jan had smuggled from the Warsaw Ghetto.

Jan led a cell of saboteurs, and the Zabinski’s young son risked his life carrying food to the guests, while also tending to an eccentric array of creatures in the house (pigs, hare, muskrat, foxes, and more). With hidden people having animal names, and pet animals having human names, it’s a small wonder the zoo’s code name became “The House under a Crazy Star.” Yet there is more to this story than a colorful cast. With her exquisite sensitivity to the natural world, Ackerman explores the role of nature in both kindness and savagery, and she unravels the fascinating and disturbing obsession at the core of Nazism: both a worship of nature and its violation, as humans sought to control the genome of the entire planet.

Want something different? Visit our full collection of No Holds Audiobooks here. And for more information, see our post on Simultaneous Use eAudiobooks here.

When is your favorite time to listen to an audiobook?
Leave a comment – we’d love to hear from you!

Online Credit Repair Workshop

Open Hearth, Inc. is hosting its next financial workshop, Good Credit, How To Get It!, on Wednesday April 22nd at 6:00 PM. This workshop continues their Spring 2020 series of financial workshops that provide financial literacy to those who attend. Join their FREE , VIRTUAL workshop to learn how the credit system works; how to establish good credit quickly; and how to fix issues that went wrong.  

You will also learn how to design your personal repayment and repair schedule.

You won’t want to miss this!

Register TODAY @ www.tinyurl.com/nrec939

Questions? Email talexander@openhearthinc.org or call 610-280-1033.