Events Calendar

Come experience Anji Play! In this award-winning program, kids play, adults watch and learn and then everyone talks together about the play. This educational approach, rooted in children choosing their own play, was created in Anji County in China and Madison Public Library is a pilot site for developing an out-of-school Anji Play model. Messy clothes recommended. Open to all ages. No registration required.

*Note: this event takes place at the Lussier Community Education Center, 55 S. Gammon Rd

Drop-in to join other neighborhood families for a casual library playdate, featuring play, hands on activities, and great books! For kids of all ages, with their caregivers. Coffee and tea will be provided.

We are here to mend anything you need including clothing, coats, and other fabric-related repairs. Sewers from the Sewing Machine Project will be available to mend your things for free every Thursday. Work is done on-site, first come first served.

A happy blend of stories, fingerplays and songs that help preschool children develop print and phonological awareness, vocabulary, letter knowledge and narrative skills. Groups and younger siblings welcome!

MOST Action Team Community Meeting

A memory screen is a wellness tool that helps identify possible changes in memory. It creates a baseline so future changes can be monitored. Specialists from the Aging & Disability Resource Center will provide these free 20-minute, confidential memory screenings and will have information about memory, memory clinics, brain health and local resources that are available. Call 608-246-4547 to sign up.

Nutritious meals are offered to those 60 and older. The suggested minimum contribution is $4.00 per meal but participants are encouraged to pay what they can afford. If you are under age 60 and do not meet the nutrition program eligibility guidelines, you are required to pay the total cost of your meal which is $10.23. Transportation is available by a $1.00 donation round trip. The meal is served at noon and participants must arrive on time. Meal and bus reservations or cancellations should be made by noon the preceding business day by calling 238-7368 ext. 8

Presentado por University League en asociación con la Biblioteca Sequoya. Todos son bienvenidos, los libros y las discusiones están completamente en español. Por favor, obtenga un plan de lectura en el escritorio marcado con “Ask Here” (Pregunte Aqui)

Presented by the University League in partnership with the Sequoya Library. Everyone is welcome, books and discussion are completely in Spanish. Please pick up a reading schedule at the "Ask Here" desk

Need help with basic computer or Internet skills? Looking for assistance downloading library eBooks and audiobooks? We offer free one-on-one sessions Thursday afternoons and Tuesday and Saturday mornings! Call 246-4547 to make an appointment.

By appointment only. Free assistance from VITA volunteers to help you fill out and file your Wisconsin and Federal personal income taxes. Call 246-4547 to reserve a half-hour appointment.

Join us on the first Thursday of each month to discuss a variety of types of books from fiction to nonfiction, and enjoy themed snacks!

NOTE: THE MEDIA LAB WILL BE CLOSING EARLY TODAY AT 5PM DUE TO THE WEATHER.
The Media Lab at Central Library is a free space to explore digital media production in the realms of stop motion animation, 3D world design, green screen video, audio design and graphic design. Drop in and explore the lab or work on projects with the expertise of our media lab staff.

Lab Staff For Today:
2-5 Rob- Expertise in audio recording

Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

The Bubbler and the Media Lab are supported by grants from Madison Public Library Foundations and The Friends of the Madison Public Library.

The Personal Archiving Lab at Central Library is a collection of equipment that can be used to digitize at-risk analog materials, like home movies, video tapes, audio cassettes, photographs, and more.

Stop by the Central Library every Tuesday or Thursday for a tutorial on how to use the library's Personal Archiving Lab, then make an appointment for your personal archiving project. Call 266-6350 for more information or to make an appointment.

The Personal Archiving Lab supports the following formats: VHS and VHS-C tapes, DVDs (not BluRay), audio cassettes, MiniDV and Hi-8 tapes, photographs (including negatives and slides), and other paper-based documents.

The Personal Archiving Lab is funded by a gift from Marvin J. Levy.

Learn to knit or bring your current project. Supplies provided. Children under 7 must have an adult present.

Bring a favorite book (or find one at the library!) and read aloud to a furry friend. Time slots available on a first come, first served basis.

Enjoy reading with community volunteers! Intended for school aged children who would like to practice their reading skills.

Free one-on-one coaching sessions for writing projects of any kind, including resumes and cover letters, school assignments, personal letters, applications, forms, newsletters, articles, memoirs, poems or any other kind of writing. Basic computer help, such as setting up email accounts, searching for jobs online, or filling out online job applications, is also available.

Call 246-4548 to make a 60-minute appointment.

Madison Writing Assistance is a free service provided by the UW-Madison Writing Center and is made possible through the generous support of The Evjue Foundation, the UW Anonymous Fund, Altrusa International of Madison, and the UW-Madison Writing Center.

Trying to launch or increase your profile and visibility as a freelance writer? Learn how to connect with different media outlets (print and digital); the pros and cons of freelancing; and insightful tools for how to start building those crucial connections on a local and national level by using effective self-promotion via social media, other web-based platforms and direct interactions in your community. Attend all three sessions, or choose one or two that interest you.

Jan 17: Pro Pitches
Jan 24: Digital Content & Promotion
Feb 7: Writers' Panel (Rescheduled from Jan 31)

About the instructor: Rachel Werner is the digital editor of BRAVA, a magazine created by women for women. She's also a fitness instructor, health coach, blogger and a 2016-2017 national WomenRide4Change Ambassador.

Bring a favorite book (or find one at the library!) and read aloud to a furry friend. Call the week of to register for a 15-minute slot, or simply drop in!

In the SCALE tutoring session, you will work with a tutor every week on a lesson that is written just for you. You can study with a tutor 2 hours per week. Your tutor will help you study so that you can continue your education and/or improve your employment.

Call Ezi for more information or to register for the class session, (January 24, 2019 through May 2, 2019), at 608-244-3911 ext. 10 More classes at Literacy Network, http://www.litnetwork.org

Meets most Thursday evenings! Middle and high school students can meet other aspiring authors, bounce ideas off one another, share your stories, and feel the creativity flow! Writing club will be led by local author Carole Madrzak.

Upper elementary (4th and 5th Grade) and middle school students are invited to Kids Code Madison, a weekly, drop-in coding club. A volunteer-led program, youth can program their own interactive stories, games, and animations using programs and tools like Scratch and Python. Special note: Programming activities are not appropriate for younger elementary school kids.

Central Cinema Cinesthesia presents The Silence of the Lambs.

Join us around the fireplace to discuss "Kindred" by Octavia Butler. New members always welcome.

Synopsis: Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin. -- Amazon.com

"The bestselling author of Overthrow and The Brothers brings to life the forgotten political debate that set America’s interventionist course in the world for the twentieth century and beyond.

How should the United States act in the world? Americans cannot decide. Sometimes we burn with righteous anger, launching foreign wars and deposing governments. Then we retreat―until the cycle begins again.

No matter how often we debate this question, none of what we say is original. Every argument is a pale shadow of the first and greatest debate, which erupted more than a century ago. Its themes resurface every time Americans argue whether to intervene in a foreign country.

Revealing a piece of forgotten history, Stephen Kinzer transports us to the dawn of the twentieth century, when the United States first found itself with the chance to dominate faraway lands. That prospect thrilled some Americans. It horrified others. Their debate gripped the nation."

Peace and Justice Book Circle meets monthly on the 1st Thursday of every month from 6:30 to 7:45p.m. at the Goodman South Madison Library, 2222 S Park St., Madison. Everyone is welcome to join the conversation if you are interested in the topic regardless of whether or not you have read the book.

Canceled Due to Weather 2/7/19 11:30am - From Ha Jin, the National Book Award-winning author of Waiting, a narratively driven, deeply human biography of the Tang dynasty poet Li Bai—also known as Li Po. In his own time (701–762), Li Bai’s poems—shaped by Daoist thought and characterized by their passion, romance, and lust for life—were never given their proper due by the official literary gatekeepers. Nonetheless, his lines rang out on the lips of court entertainers, tavern singers, soldiers, and writers throughout the Tang dynasty, and his deep desire for a higher, more perfect world gave rise to his nickname, the Banished Immortal. Today, Bai’s verses are still taught to China’s schoolchildren and recited at parties and toasts; they remain an inextricable part of the Chinese language. With the instincts of a master novelist, Ha Jin draws on a wide range of historical and literary sources to weave the great poet’s life story. He follows Bai from his origins on the western frontier to his ramblings travels as a young man, which were filled with filled with striving but also with merry abandon, as he raised cups of wine with friends and fellow poets. Ha Jin also takes us through the poet’s later years—in which he became swept up in a military rebellion that altered the course of China’s history—and the mysterious circumstances of his death, which are surrounded by legend. The Banished Immortal is an extraordinary portrait of a poet who both transcended his time and was shaped by it, and whose ability to live, love, and mourn without reservation produced some of the most enduring verses.