Our Adult Book Groups are a mix of in person, hybrid, and virtual programs. Please see our July titles and dates below. The online/hybrid groups are being held via Zoom. We are requiring registration for the online/hybrid book groups in order to send out the Zoom meeting information. Click on the date below to register. Information on our adult book groups can also be found on our website: https://bit.ly/chescolibs-bookgroups.
The Page Turners and Whodunits groups will return in September.
Registration is required for all online book groups. Registration will close at least 2 hours prior to the scheduled start time of the book group. A Zoom link will be emailed to registrants 2 hours before the book group 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 book group.
These programs support the PA Forward Civic and Social Literacy Initiative.
On Thursday, June 27th, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., Henrietta Hankin Branch Library will hold a special intergenerational screening of Cycle of Memory, followed by a live virtual discussion with the filmmaker, Alex Leff. This award-winning documentary is about the filmmaker and his younger sibling’s bicycle adventure to find the memories their grandfather lost to Alzheimer’s. Their grandfather, Mel Schwarz, escaped the Great Depression on a bicycle adventure he would remember for the rest of his life. Guided by old photographs of the 1945 trip, his grandchildren search for places he had visited, now aged by time. But while searching for Grandpa Mel’s past, the two siblings are confronted with their own fraught history. If they are going to complete the turbulent journey, they will have to face their own emotional potholes and tumultuous relationship.
Cycle of Memory explores the importance of intergenerational connection, healing painful pasts, and leaving a meaningful time capsule for the future. Selected to be part of many film festivals nation-wide (including Sunset Film Festival of Los Angeles, Long Island International Film Festival, Knoxville Film Festival, Miami Jewish Film Festival and the Art of Bklyn Film Festival to name a few), this film’s unique perspective on Alzheimer’s disease and dementia has been resonating with diverse audiences, from Millennial caregivers to Senior Centers and Councils on Aging. Specifically, family members who have lost a parent to Alzheimer’s and have children of their own have been finding that the film’s uplifting message, emphasizing what can’t be forgotten, provides a blueprint for families to hold on to their connections despite aging and memory loss.
The event, which is co-sponsored by the Henrietta Hankin Branch Library together with Eagleview Landing Senior Living, will begin at 5:30 pm with light refreshments and the free raffling off of some prizes to in-person participants. The screening of the 72-minute long documentary will begin at 6:00 pm and be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, who will address the audience virtually via Zoom. Participants are welcome to join us virtually if they are not able to make it here in person.
We thank the Friends of the Henrietta Hankin Branch Library for their generous support in making this event possible. Registration is required. To register, visit https://ccls.libcal.com/event/11716130 or call the library at 610-344-4196. Henrietta Hankin Library supports PA Forward Health and Civic and Social Literacy.
Join author David H. Moskowitz to discuss the newest title in his The Creative Positivist Series, The Judge and the Incorrect Decision.
Each book in this series of four is designed to introduce and then expand upon Moskowitz’s legal theory of creative positivism.
Moskowitz explains, “Creative positivism is a legal philosophy that is an extension of the legal positivist theory presented by H.L.A. Hart in his classic work The Concept of Law…I present the foundation for creative positivism and the principles of creative positivism in The Judge and the Incorrect Decision. Accepting that judges make incorrect decisions, as I have defined them, and that these incorrect decisions make new legal rules is the central theme of creative positivism.”
The Board of Trustees of the Chester County Library System/Chester County Library are hosting their monthly board meeting as a hybrid offering. If you have always wanted to attend a meeting but haven’t had the time, this is your opportunity. Please click on this link at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 18 to join the Chester County Library System Board Meeting virtually; or attend in person at the Henrietta Hankin Branch Library, 215 Windgate Drive, Chester Springs, PA 19425. The Chester County Library Board Meeting will immediately follow. Find the Chester County Library Board Packet here.
If you are a person with a disability and wish to attend this meeting and require an auxiliary aid, service, or other accommodation to observe or participate in the proceedings, please call Chester County Library’s Administration Office at 610-344-5600 or email ddadoly@ccls.org to discuss how we may best accommodate your needs.
CHESTER SPRINGS—Museums are extremely important to our society for the way they bring out the extraordinary (and ordinary) stories of our past, stories that define our culture. This can be especially significant for African American history and culture which has been largely overlooked in the past. On Thursday, June 20th, from 6:00-7:30 p.m., in the Annex, Henrietta Hankin Branch Library is pleased to share fascinating clips from “Discovering 18th & Vine in Kansas City, stories of American history and culture,” in which host Crosby Kemper (Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services) travels to two museums in Kansas City, Missouri, that chronicle that community’s contributions to a pair of uniquely American pastimes: the Negro League Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum.
After the screener, enjoy some light refreshments and join in a discussion with a panel of guests from some of our own local museums: Christopher Miller, Executive Vice President of the African American Museum in Philadelphia; Kathryn Lynch, Collections Manager for the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia; and Ellen Endslow, Director of Collections/Curator at the Chester County History Center, West Chester, PA. Panelists will share their impressions of the screener as well as stories from their own experiences in chronicling local African American history and culture. All of the museums that our panel represents are part of the Museum Pass Program of Chester County Library and Henrietta Hankin Branch, so participants may be inspired to go and visit some of the special exhibits discussed.
“Discovering 18th & Vine in Kansas City: stories of African American History and Culture,” is part of the PBS series, Visions of America: All People, All Stories, All Places. Henrietta Hankin Branch will be hosting screeners and discussions on other episodes from this series in the fall in partnership with PBS Books.
Fans of baseball, jazz, and museums alike are sure to enjoy and gain valuable wisdom from attending this special event. To register and learn more about our amazing guest panelists, visit https://ccls.libcal.com/event/12200561 or call the library at 610-344-4196. Henrietta Hankin Library supports PA Forward Civic and Social Literacy.
Our Adult Book Groups are a mix of in person, hybrid, and virtual programs. Please see our June titles and dates below. The online/hybrid groups are being held via Zoom. We are requiring registration for the online/hybrid book groups in order to send out the Zoom meeting information. Click on the date below to register. Information on our adult book groups can also be found on our website: https://bit.ly/chescolibs-bookgroups.
Registration is required for all online book groups. Registration will close at least 2 hours prior to the scheduled start time of the book group. A Zoom link will be emailed to registrants 2 hours before the book group 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 book group.
These programs support the PA Forward Civic and Social Literacy Initiative.
The Board of Trustees of the Chester County Library System/Chester County Library are hosting their monthly board meeting as a hybrid offering. If you have always wanted to attend a meeting but haven’t had the time, this is your opportunity. Please click on this link at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 21 to join the Chester County Library System Board Meeting virtually; or attend in person at the Downingtown Library, 122 Wallace Avenue, Downingtown, PA 19335. The Chester County Library Board Meeting will immediately follow. Find the Chester County Library Board Packet here.
If you are a person with a disability and wish to attend this meeting and require an auxiliary aid, service, or other accommodation to observe or participate in the proceedings, please call Chester County Library’s Administration Office at 610-344-5600 or email ddadoly@ccls.org to discuss how we may best accommodate your needs.
Join us at the Henrietta Hankin Branch Library on Thursday, June 6, 2024, from 5:30-7:30 PM for a “Books for all Readers” community workshop. This workshop is designed to inform educators, parents, and caregivers about the science of reading and ways to help early and struggling readers become skilled readers with the help of decodable books.
Decodable books are simple books written for beginning readers and contain specific grapheme-phoneme correspondences that students have learned. This provides learners with the opportunity to use their developing segmenting and blending skills to read words and develop automaticity, which is the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly, leading to independent reading success.
In November 2022, State Sen. Katie Muth (D-Chester/Montgomery/Berks) announced a $125,000 grant to establish a collection of decodable books in every public library across Senate District 44 and to offer training and professional development on these collections for librarians and our community members. The funding for this initiative comes from Pennsylvania’s allocation of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. The 10 libraries in Senate District 44 eligible to receive decodable text collections include Atglen Public Library, Chester Springs Library, Henrietta Hankin Branch, Honey Brook Community Library, Parkesburg Free Library, Spring City Library, and the Phoenixville Public Library in Chester County; Lower Providence Community Library and Royersford Free Public Library in Montgomery County; and the Boone Area Library in Berks County.
“Learning to read is a fundamental human right. The process of learning to read and achieving adequate literacy skills is a unique process for each individual learner. Ensuring availability of phonics-based resources in both our classrooms and community libraries for young learners to practice decoding – a necessary skill for reading comprehension – will enhance structured literacy efforts implemented during explicit instruction,” Senator Katie Muth said. “Through this program, librarians across SD44 have already participated in several training sessions on decodable book collections that improve and promote fluency and accuracy, and help kids practice their phonics skills they have learned and build on those skills to master essential reading competencies. The next step in the program is the June 6th community event and I am really looking forward to seeing everyone at the library!”
The workshop being offered at Henrietta Hankin Branch Library (located at 215 Windgate Dr, Chester Springs, PA 19425) will focus on using decodable books in libraries as resources to support skilled reading for all children. Teach My Kid to Read (teachmykidtoread.org/), a 501(c)(3) non-profit, will present this information. Cigdem Knebel from Simple Words Books will also share her story and present a system she created to assess the quality of decodable books.
After the workshop, attendees are invited to view a display of examples of decodable books, sign up for giveaways, and interact with the presenters.
“Every school community is working to ensure that all children are reading on grade level by third grade, and the library sees lending decodable books as another tool to support these new readers and their teachers and caregivers,” said Joseph L. Sherwood, Executive Director of the Chester County Library System. To register for the workshop, please visit https://ccls.libcal.com/calendar/HankinBranchLibrary/communitydecodables.
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