Crystal Murphy Music Presents: Extraordinary Joe – The Quest for Color

April 11, 2025 ~ mkolb76 ~ Leave a comment

at Henrietta Hankin Branch Library

A Vibrant Musical Puppet Show Inspired by the 2025 Longwood Gardens Community Read!

Crystal Murphy Music, in collaboration with the Murphy Murpets, invites families to a joyful and imaginative journey with Extraordinary Joe – The Quest for Color, a musical puppet show inspired by The Extraordinary Gardener, a 2025 Longwood Gardens Community Read selection.

This engaging 1-hour program is specially designed for children ages 3 and up, accompanied by an adult. Young audiences will delight in a magical blend of original music, puppetry, interactive movement activities, and an extraordinary take-home craft that extends the experience beyond the show.

Event Details:

Monday, April 28, 2025

1:30 – 2:30 PM

Henrietta Hankin Branch Library, 215 Windgate Drive, Chester Springs, PA

Registration is required at: https://bit.ly/HHBCrystalMurphyPuppetShow

Please note: Space is limited. By registering, you’re reserving a valuable spot. If your plans change and you can no longer attend, kindly let us know so we may offer the opportunity to another family.

This program proudly supports PA Forward’s Basic Literacy initiative and is part of the Longwood Gardens Community Read — promoting community engagement and literacy through the shared experience of storytelling.

The mission of the Chester County and Henrietta Hankin Branch Libraries is to provide informational, educational and cultural services to the residents of Chester County so that they may be lifelong learners. The Henrietta Hankin Branch Library is located at 215 Windgate Drive, Chester Springs, PA. For hours or more information, visit our website at www.chescolibraries.org.

CCLS/CCL Board Meeting

April 11, 2025 ~ mkolb76 ~ Leave a comment

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, April 15, to join the Chester County Library System Board Meeting virtually; or attend in person at the Chester County Library, Burke Room, 450 Exton Square Parkway, Exton, PA 19341. 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.

Databases Series: Candid/FDOP

April 7, 2025March 25, 2025 ~ rmanuel191 ~ Leave a comment

Hello! My name is Tom, and I am the Candid Community Co-supervisor here at the Chester County Library. Today I’ll be guest starring and introducing you to one of the library’s databases that is all about grant seeking. A library database, for those who are unsure, is essentially just an online resource that the library pays for so that you can access it for free with your library card!

I’ll be discussing the Foundation Directory Online Professional database from the company formerly known as The Foundation Center, now called Candid. The Foundation Directory Online Professional (FDOP) is a global resource that provides information on 302K+ funders, 28.8 million awarded-grant records, 2.2 million recipient profiles, and 1.5 million key decision makers. It provides detailed profiles of funders, grants, recipients, and companies. Funder profiles and grant information are updated daily. Candid’s premier fundraising tool gives grant-seekers unprecedented access to the largest amount of clean and coded philanthropic data that currently exists. By combining exhaustive data with intuitive search functionality and informative data visualizations, this tool makes fundraising quick and efficient.

The FDOP is a premier resource for our over 800 local area nonprofit organizations who are looking to expand their funding base. It has a user-friendly but powerful search engine that quickly scans and retrieves customized results for your mission or program.

The Foundation Directory is currently only available on our desktop PCs at the Chester County Library.

This post is number seventeen in this databases series! If you missed the previous installments, you can view them here.

Calling All Creatives: Design Our 2025 Library Sticker & Magnet!

April 7, 2025 ~ mkolb76 ~ Leave a comment

Submissions Open April 7 – May 3

Were you lucky enough to get your hands on one of our stickers or magnets unveiled last year? They ended up being harder to come by than a Kristin Hannah library book! We were astounded by the excitement these stickers and magnets generated and we were even more humbled that so many people want to share their library pride. Thank you for being such vocal supporters of the Chester County Library and the Henrietta Hankin Branch!

Looking back on the success of last year’s sticker launch, we would like to start a new tradition of annual library stickers. But we’re librarians, not graphic designers, like some of YOU are! We want to see the creativity and artistry of our library-loving patrons, especially since this year’s National Library Week theme is Drawn to the Library. And what’s the biggest draw to the library? Well, you tell us—in your designs!

Submissions will be accepted from Monday, April 7 – Saturday, May 3 at https://forms.gle/VtjrY1yWoLG5duew5. Designs must fit within a 1:1 square (stickers will be 2” and magnets will be 4” when printed). Submissions must also incorporate the library’s website URL “chescolibraries.org” somewhere in the design. A selection of no more than four designs will be chosen by a panel of librarians. Winners will be announced no later than May 19, 2025.

Click here to see the full contest rules. All images submitted must be the work of the individual submitting them. It is the entrant’s responsibility to ensure that any submissions do not infringe upon the copyright of any third party or law. Entrants must attest that the design they submit is their work and that they own the copyright for it.

For more information, contact Kelly Quigg, Chester County Library Community Engagement Librarian, at kquigg@ccls.org.

Good luck, designers!

Friends of Chester County Library Spring Book Sale Returns This Weekend, April 11-13, 2025

April 7, 2025 ~ mkolb76 ~ Leave a comment

(Exton, PA) – The Friends of Chester County Library are excited to announce their highly anticipated Spring Book Sale, taking place from April 11-13, 2025. This annual event offers a fantastic selection of books, music, and movie CDs and DVDs at unbeatable prices. A dedicated children’s section will feature a wide variety of books in a separate room.

Sale Schedule:

Friday, April 11 | 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. – Exclusive early access for Friends of the Chester County Library members. Not yet a member? You can join at the door starting at 5:00 p.m. or sign up in advance by completing the membership form available at the Library or on our website.

Saturday, April 12 | 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Open to the public, featuring a diverse selection of books and media at incredible prices.

Sunday, April 13 | 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. – Bag Sale Day! Fill a provided bag for just $10—or $7 with a 2025 Friends membership. Individual books will also be available at half-price.

Accepted payment methods include cash, checks, PayPal, and Venmo. All proceeds directly support the Chester County Library, helping fund programs, resources, and services for the community.

Mark your calendars and don’t miss this wonderful opportunity to stock up on great reads while supporting your local library!

Looking ahead: Our Fall Book Sale dates are currently scheduled for October 3^rd – 5th, 2025.

2025 Reading Challenge! April

April 1, 2025March 26, 2025 ~ rmanuel191 ~ Leave a comment

An image of a post-it on a blue background with the text "April: A book written by an Arab author" written on it along with a silhouette of a lantern.

Welcome to the fourth month of the Chester County and Henrietta Hankin Branch Libraries’ 2025 Reading Challenge! The challenge is open to all readers reading at a Young Adult or Adult level in any format.

Each month, there will be a new reading prompt to follow. The reading challenge prompt for April is “A book written by an Arab author.”

Need inspiration for what to read? Check out a few suggested reads below! See the full list on our catalog here. Make sure to also visit the library to explore our interactive book display.

If you need even more inspiration for books to read or listen to, feel free to request Personalized Reading Suggestions or check out the NoveList Plus database.

No registration is necessary to participate in the challenge. To get started, simply pick up a physical tracking log at the Reference Desk or print one out at home using the link provided in the Resources section of the Reading Challenge page at https://bit.ly/CCLReadingChallenge2025.

Happy reading!

The book cover for "As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow" by Zoulfa Katouh.

The book cover for "River Spirit" by Leila Aboulela.

Creating Cartoons and Comics!

April 1, 2025April 1, 2025 ~ cmviola ~ Leave a comment

Jason Rodrigues is a comic illustrator and drawing instructor. He currently teaches drawing to children and adults in group classes and private instruction throughout the greater Philadelphia region. He is also a Sketch card artist for Upper Deck and Topps. His love for art came from reading comic books as a kid and now Jason wants everyone to experience the joy of drawing and visual storytelling. To register for this event, 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.

Henrietta Hankin Branch Library will be capping off a week of fun and activities for National Libraries Week this year with a visit from comic illustrator and drawing instructor, Jason Rodriguez. Join us on Saturday, April 12, from 11:00am-12:00pm for an introduction to the secrets of making cartoons and comics. Come one, come all to learn the importance of moving the reader from one panel to another and how drawing emotive characters tells a story.

Databases Series: ChescoPIN

March 31, 2025April 1, 2025 ~ rmanuel191 ~ Leave a comment

Hello! My name’s Rebecca. For those who haven’t been following this series, I am the Information Literacy Librarian here at the Chester County Library. (You might recognize me as the librarian with the purple hair!) Welcome to this series here on our blog where every week (or thereabouts) I’ll be introducing you to one of the library’s databases. A library database, for those who are unsure, is essentially just an online resource that the library pays for so that you can access it for free with your library card!

Today I’d like to tell you a little bit about ChescoPIN. ChescoPIN is a portal that holds most of Chester County’s online public records databases or provides links to other county portals that hold the relevant records. For records housed directly through this portal, it allows users to search these databases, organized by county department, by entering values in the appropriate fields of the forms provided on the website. The county departments with records housed directly through ChescoPIN are the Prothonotary, the Assessment Department (real estate), and the Tax Claim Bureau. For records housed in another county portal, it will link directly to the relevant portal, where you can then search that specific database. The county departments with records housed in other county portals are the Recorder of Deeds and the Pennsylvania Judiciary (criminal records).

For those who have used ChescoPIN before or who are looking for the Register of Wills and Orphans’ Court/Marriage Licenses, please note that these will have been moved to a new portal by end of day today (Monday, March 31). ChescoPIN will continue to link to this new portal once the move has been finalized. The new portal can be found here.

Find ChescoPIN on our website by going to chescolibraries.org –> Tools and Research –> All CCLS Databases –> C –> ChescoPIN

This post is number sixteen in this databases series! If you missed the previous installments, you can view them here.

Databases Series: Computer Learning Resources

March 24, 2025March 21, 2025 ~ rmanuel191 ~ Leave a comment

Hello! It’s Rebecca, back again! I hope you enjoyed or learned something new once again from Mikaila, our Business and Career Librarian, who wrote last week’s post about another of our business databases. For those who haven’t been following this series, I am the Information Literacy Librarian here at the Chester County Library. (You might recognize me as the librarian with the purple hair!) Welcome to this series here on our blog where every week (or thereabouts) I’ll be introducing you to one of the library’s databases. A library database, for those who are unsure, is essentially just an online resource that the library pays for so that you can access it for free with your library card!

This week, rather than writing about a single database, I’d like to write a bit about a couple of databases that include resources covering a single topic – basic computer skills. I talked about LearningExpress Library already earlier in this blog series, which has a few basic computer courses included in among everything else it offers. So today I’ll talk about DigitalLearn and PA Online Learning.

DigitalLearn is a project of the Public Library Association that has free, easy-to-follow tutorials on basic computing, being safe online, job skills, social media, and more. They’re simple, list their skill level, and show the time it takes to complete upfront. Some of the relevant learning courses include Navigating a Website, Intro to Email, Introduction to Google Maps, Getting Started with Telehealth, Intro to Facebook, Online Fraud and Scams, Applying for Jobs Online, Cloud Storage, and Using Healthcare.gov to Enroll in Health Insurance.

PA Online Learning is a free growing collection of tutorials on how to use software, social media, and library resources, such as POWER Library. Tutorials are a nice mix of videos, images, and text and are relatively comprehensive, providing the basics and then building off of those basics as you move through the course. Some of the relevant learning courses include Computer Basics, First Steps with Digital: iPads and Tablets, Gmail – Email from Google, Google Chrome, Google Search, How to Zoom, Tech Talk: Passwords, LinkedIn – Social Networking for Job Seekers and Professionals, Instagram – Share Your Moments, and Searching for Jobs Online with Indeed.

Find DigitalLearn on our website by going to chescolibraries.org –> Tools and Research –> All CCLS Databases –> D –> DigitalLearn

Find PA Online Learning on our website by going to chescolibraries.org –> Tools and Research –> All CCLS Databases –> P –> PA Online Learning

This post is number fifteen in this databases series! If you missed the previous installments, you can view them here.

Databases Series: Statista

March 17, 2025March 11, 2025 ~ rmanuel191 ~ Leave a comment

Hello! My name is Mikaila. I am the Business and Career Librarian at Chester County Library, and I am back once more as a guest star on this series! Today I’ll be introducing you to another of the library’s business databases. A library database, for those who are unsure, is essentially just an online resource that the library pays for so that you can access it for free with your library card.

The business database that I’ll be discussing today is called Statista. Statista is an international database that focuses on market and industry analysis. While Reference Solutions can hone in on data surrounding your individual business and community, Statista looks at the big picture of how your business engages with the larger scale industry. With Statista, you can view data on over one million market and consumer statistics covering 80,000 topics, 170 industries, and over 150 countries. For E-commerce businesses, Statista can be invaluable in gathering the marketing and consumer insight that may be difficult to garner in such an expansive playing field. Whether it’s to better understand your market or provide research for your business plan, you can download statistics, reports, market insights, and forecasts and surveys at your leisure.

Find Statista on our website by going to chescolibraries.org –> Tools and Research –> All CCLS Databases –> S –> Statista

This post is number fourteen in this databases series! If you missed the previous installments, you can view them here. If you would like to read Mikaila’s first guest post, the one on another of our business databases called Reference Solutions, you can find it here.