Athens County Library Services

Today, gargantuan creatures of old visited two libraries for Book Camp.  Greater intelligence was gained in the effort to bring museum-sized knowledge to the library!

The Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery came to the Nelsonville and Athens branches, bringing interactive, hands-on education about our prehistoric friends.  Enormous as well as intricate puzzles were laid out. Definitions and keywords peppered artwork stations with outlines and stamps of dinosaurs. An excavation pit was waited outside where multiple children gathered to discover hidden dinosaur bones. The Museum has been housed in the University Mall for the past 2 years, but becomes a museum-on-wheels for special events like this.

Lawrence Witmer, PhD, and the team from Witmerlab came to display cast molds of dinosaur bones, educating others how to "flesh out the past".  Witmerlab has previously partnered with Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery, but this evening's purpose was to bring dinosaurs to both youth and adults, teaching all to ask, "What do the bones tell?"  Mostly, we've understood there will always be gigantic amounts to be discovered about dinosaurs.

Many Thanks to our Book Camp 2013 program sponsors: The O'Bleness Foundation, Friends of the Athens Public Library, and the Rocky Community Improvement Fund!

Summer is a good time to take advantage of nature's bounty!  Twice a week in Glouster and Coolville, portions of food education will accompany food tasting.  This week's topic was vitamins!  Food colors were discussed, as well as knife safety and cutting techniques.  Everyone was encouraged to try as many foods as possible, and most were taken.  The vote for the favorite food today was... dates!  Then, ranges of orange juice were tested for the highest portion of Vitamin C -- from fresh squeezed, to store bought, to concentrate, to soda.  Guess which one won?  :)

This program, Live Healthy Kids, occurs in Glouster every Tuesday at 11am until July 23, and every Thursday at 12:30pm in Coolville until July 25. 

Throughout the last ten years that the annual Bike Rodeo has been at the Community Center, 2,000 helmets have been given away alongside bicycle saftey education.  Since that time, only 4 helmets have been broken in accidents.  Dr. Jay Shubrook says, "We'd like to think we were responsible for saving those lives." 

Today's Rodeo started out with rain, but it didn't dampen the free fun had by all. We had two of our Book-a-Bike bikes for community members to test -- the popular recumbent and the tag-a-long.  

The Bike Rodeo is presented by the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine and the Student Association American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians.

Couldn't have asked for better weather for an Open House.  :)  Many folks dropped by from 1 - 4pm at the Athens branch to celebrate what we love best: our local community. Events throughout the afternoon: creating wood block prints with Skip French;  reading outdoors while strolling on a Book Walk; testing gardening skills by making paper pots for seeds with Kira Slepchenko, and exploring the science of grafting with Troy Thompson; listening to pianist Bob Montalto's lovely tunes; and snacking on local foods.  Thanks to all for helping us celebrate our favorite thing -- you!