Recent Articles

MCPL and JCPL both held Family Science Nights in April to celebrate National Science Month.  The planetarium was enjoyed by many as were the various hands-on activities such as earthquake makers, geoboards, circuit boards, & 3-D pens to name a few. These planetarium programs are supported by grant funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Federal Library Services and Technology Act as administered  by the State Library of NC, a division of the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources.

Rainbow cookies, a rainbow cape, rainbow bracelets and Young Adult books were seen at the Macon County Public Library recently.  What do they have in common?  A proud group of LGBT Teens coming together for support and social activities.  Macon County Youth OUTright has been meeting at the library for the past few months.  Jennifer Harr, jenharr@youthoutright.org, from the Asheville Youth OUTright group, travels to Macon to meet with teens to talk about LGBT issues and to plan activities.

In continuation of our previous article, several updates have happened or will be happening across our region.

The County Community Clubs of Macon County are conducting a survey to help assess the Internet needs of the county. "The goal of the initiative is to identify underserved areas and work to attract Internet service providers offering expanded service and higher speed options." This survey will run until June 1, 2017 and copies of the survey are being distributed by the Macon County Public Library.

NASA resources are coming to western North Carolina, thanks to a new nationwide outreach program. Fontana Regional Library has been selected as one of only seventy-five libraries in the country to participate in the NASA@ My Library initiative. The program is designed to increase and enhance science, technology, engineering, and math learning opportunities around the country, especially for geographic areas and populations currently underserved in STEM education.

The Marianna Black Library Planning Committee put on another fundraiser to build a new library in Swain County on April 17th, at the Fryemont Inn, in Bryson City. There was a wine tasting and plenty of food provided by the Fryemont Inn, and there were over 60 items to bid on from more than 35 local artists, collectors and businesses! Over 100 tickets were sold for the event and a great time was had by all those who attended. Best of all, we raised over $5,000 to put towards a new library in Swain County!

Jackson County Public Library has partnered with Vaya Health to bring a mental health screening kiosk to the citizens of Jackson County. The goal of the kiosk is to increase awareness about common and treatable mental health conditions, to reduce stigma surrounding mental health and asking for help, and to increase access to quality care through local treatment referrals.

A much needed bandwidth increase became a reality for the Nantahala Community Library (NCL) in February. It’s now 10 times faster! NCL’s 1.3 Mbps frame relay connection became a 10 Mbps fiber connection.

The difficult terrain and remote nature of the Nantahala Community Library has prevented telecommunications companies from tackling the installation of high speed Internet. Finally, in November 2015, a company called BalsamWest FiberNet submitted a proposal that would make this possible.

On Saturday, May 6 the North Carolina Writers’ Network-West and the Jackson County Public Library sponsored the NCWN-West “A Day for Writers” Conference. The event drew NCWN-West members and non-members alike and included workshops on writing poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, YA and children’s writing, and marketing and publishing. City Lights Bookstore was on hand to sell books to attendees and panelists.

Audiobooks are a great way to still get your reading done while you’re doing other things! You can listen while driving, exercising, gardening, or cooking – you name it. Audiobooks promote literacy in children and adults, expand vocabulary, and make a long car journey fly by.

A new traveling exhibition, Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness, which examines concepts of health and medicine among contemporary American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian people is opening at the Jackson County Public Library. A special opening ceremony will kick off the exhibit on June 23rd at 6 PM.