Now @ MPL...

Calling all teens! Visit Center Street Library next Tuesday night and wrap holiday presents. You can wrap your own or help others wrap theirs. All the festive wrapping materials will be provided and refreshments will be served. So come on down to the Center Street Library at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 15th. Wrapping presents has never been so much fun!

Milwaukee Public Library hours will be changing for 2010. Be sure to check out the MPL Web site to see the new hours for your favorite branch! You will also find information on library holiday closings and furlough days. Remember that the new hours take effect on December 27, 2009!

On this day in history, in 1775, English novelist Jane Austen was born. She lived a quiet life, externally, but internally, she was an acute observer of human behavior. Her novels, including Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility, have not only withstood the test of time, but have inspired such diverse works as Bride and Prejudice, Clueless, and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.

Once upon a time, before cheese logs and 3G networks, can you remember eagerly anticipating the holidays? In the book The Bells of Christmas, award-winning author Virginia Hamilton tells the story of twelve-year-old Jason Bell as he waits impatiently for his visiting relatives to arrive in 1890 near the historic National Road in Ohio. Jason's Christmas Eve sky is Smurf-blue with no hint of snow--- and fair weather is the worst when your favorite cousin is hoping for a sleigh ride...But the holidays often bring wonderful surprises for everyone.

Check the availability of The Bells of Christmas at your neighborhood library. See the wooden sculpture that was fashioned after the book cover at King Library. Read this story to your children and feel the warm lantern light of home.
Happy Holidays.

OverDrive eBooks can be downloaded and viewed on mobile devices such as the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble 'nook' and the iPhone/iPod Touch. The initial collection of OverDrive eBooks contains over 200 titles.

The Milwaukee Public Library has been working on its own digital collections over the past few years. If you haven't checked those collections out, make sure that you do. They are full of great historical photos of Milwaukee.

Other collections of great historic photos exist at other institutions. The Wisconsin Historical Society, in particular, has great digital photo collections relating to Wisconsin History.

With over 35,000 images from all over the state, this is a wonderful collection.

Search their collection to see what other historic photos you can find.

Come join us this Saturday, December 19, at the Central Library's Betty Brinn Children's Room for family friendly holiday fun! Featuring Ken Baron, this holiday concert includes interactive singing and dancing. The concert begins at 10:30 a.m. Come join us for lively holiday entertainment!

Looking for ideas for homemade gifts this holiday season? Try this recipe for fudge from the December 11, 1975 edition of the Milwaukee Sentinel.

Chocolate Fudge Velvet

3 squares unsweetened chocolate, cut in pieces
1 cup milk
3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, optional

Combine chocolate and milk in heavy saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until milk is scalded and chocolate is melted. Stir in sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. If sugar crystals form on sides of pan, wipe them off.

Cook without stirring until mixture reaches soft ball stage or 236 to 238 degrees on candy thermometer. Remove from heat; add butter without stirring. Let stand without disturbing until mixture cools to about 110 degrees or lukewarm.

Add vanilla. Beat until candy loses its gloss and starts to thicken. Stir in nuts and pour quickly into lightly buttered 8 inch square pan. Mark in 36 pieces while still warm and when cold and firm, cut. Makes about one and one-half pounds.

On this day in 1912, the Parisian literary review, Nouvelle Revue Francaise, rejected an excerpt from Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust. This semi-autobiographical novel is now considered one of the masterpieces of Western Literature.

If someone wishes you a Happy Hogmanay, do not be alarmed. It is merely the Scottish way of saying Happy New Year!

One of Scotland's traditions that has spread around the world is the midnight singing of Robert Burns' poem Auld Lang Syne, set to a traditional Scottish folk melody. To learn more about Robert Burns or to read some of his poetry, take a look at the library catalog!

All Milwaukee Public Libraries will be closed for the holidays.

The schedule is as follows:
December 24th and 25th - closed
December 26th - open
December 27th - closed
December 28th-30th - open
December 31st & January 1st - closed
As a reminder, MPL's new hours go into effect on December 27th.

Would you like to learn Spanish, French, Japanese, German, Mandarin Chinese, Italian, or English as a second language for Spanish speakers? Thanks to your local public library, now you can. Mango Languages database will debut in all Milwaukee County Federated libraries (including all city of Milwaukee public libraries) on January 1, 2010.

Mango Languages offers online language instruction with a conversational focus on several languages and English-language learning in native languages. Users can save their progress and return later by submitting an email address and password. You'll be able to access the database remotely.

On January 1, 2010, click on the MPL website's Recommended Links to access Mango Languages.