Bestselling Author Cheryl Strayed's Half-Sister Found - Thanks To A Library Book!

In case you missed it, Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of the memoir, "Wild," was recently contacted by her long-lost half-sister. The sister recognized that they shared a father from Strayed's description of him, even though he was not named in Strayed's book. That's pretty cool as it is. But did you know that this serendipity was thanks to a public library?

Know Your Library #2

A newsletter about the books of the TAOS PUBLIC LIBRARY

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     Our library has, in addition to reference materials, periodicals, computer access, DVDs, VHS, CDs about 63,000 books. Using the Dewey Decimal System of classification  we’re giving you just a taste. (The Dewey Decimal System, incidentally, was not invented by philosopher John Dewey, but by librarian Melvil Dewey in 1876.) Each month, we’ll review a non-fiction book and a novel. For September, we’re up to the 100s—the big artillery, since this classification includes philosophy and psychology—names such as Plato and Aristotle, Freud and Jung, among others. If you want to stretch those brain cells, turn right upon entering the library and march to the last row.

Lecture This Saturday: New Mexico's Livestock Heritage

Bill Dunmire, author of six books on New Mexico, will speak and show slides from his latest book: New Mexico's Spanish Livestock Heritage: Four Centuries of Animals, Land, and People.

Saturday, September 7th, 1:30 pm, in the Taos Public Library community room.

Adventures With "Cattle Mutilations"

Adventures de Taos lecture series concludes this Saturday, August 31st, from 1:30-3:30, with Phaedra Greenwood's talk and slide show about unexplained animal deaths and the UFO connection.

Adventures de Taos Lecture: Alternative Building

Join us this Saturday, August 24th, as visionary architect, Mike Reynolds discusses alternative building techniques. From 1:30-3:30 in the community room.

How do you explain to people what an Alternative Building is when they do not understand the status quo? Stick-frame housing built with no consideration of the surrounding environment, relying on pumped in water, heat, air con-ditioning, electricity and pumping out its own waste at a rate the municipal systems are not able to deal with. This model for housing is horribly outdated and can and will fail at any time from interruptions in the grid, shortages of fuel and through depleting our natural resources.

Libraries Now Luxury Hotel Amenities

The next time someone questions the vitality of libraries in the age of Google, you can cite this article from the July 29 New York Times which reports that luxury hotels are now including libraries as one of their amenities. And, apparently, the public is going for it.

New! Mango Language Program

Taking a trip? Always wanted to learn a language or brush up on a language you learned years ago? Taos Public Library now offers Mango. Opening an account, which will track you progress, is easy to do, using your library card number. Once logged on, your personal dashboard includes: learning hours, courses studied, and lessons completed.

Check out this new database on the Taos Library's home page, or stop by the library to ask us how it works.