The sky’s the limit this year for the Ohio County Public Library’s annual OCPL Week. From Saturday, April 27, to Friday, May 3, OCPL Week will see the library “Shooting for the Moon!”
An annual event, OCPL Week aims to increase public awareness of all the great services available for free at the Ohio County Public Library. “This includes offerings like free downloadable e-books, music, magazines and movies, as well as free meeting rooms for the public to use, home delivery of library materials to homebound patrons, Story Time and Toddler Time for children, and Lunch with Books and People’s University programs for adults,” said Director Dottie Thomas.
This year’s OCPL Week, themed “Shoot for the Moon,” will act as a launching pad, promoting the upcoming summer reading program, “A Universe of Stories,” which celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Throughout the week, patrons will be able to bring in late materials all week long without paying late fees, those who check out library materials will be entered into contests for a chance to win daily giveaways, and those who hunt down a rocket in a space-themed scavenger hunt within the library receive a special prize. All patrons who enter the “I Love my Library to the Moon and Back” contest will be entered to win the grand prize giveaway of a $100 Amazon gift card, to be announced Saturday, May 4.
The OCPL’s Annual Book Sale will also be taking place throughout the week. The doors to the Book Sale open at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 27. Craft books, cookbooks, large-print and regular print fiction, westerns, mysteries, non-fiction and children’s books, as well as audio CDs, music CDs, DVDs, magazines, and, this year, even board games will be for sale on the lower level of the library.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Children’s Book Week, OCPL Week will also feature a new Wheeling-based children’s book and plenty of programs for kids.
At 6 p.m. Monday, April 29, Tony M. Music will return for an out-of-this-world family night in the library auditorium. A full-time children’s music entertainer, Tony integrates music, literature and storytelling into a fun, educational and interactive experience.
At noon, Tuesday, April 30, author Cheryl Harshman and illustrator Bob Villamagna will launch their new children’s book, “Once a Mouse,” created for the Wheeling 250 celebration at the library’s weekly Lunch With Books program.
Regular children’s programs will continue throughout the week. At 10:30 a.m. on Monday, April 29, and Friday, May 3, Toddler Time, the library’s story and music series geared toward infants to children age 3, will take place in the library’s auditorium.
At 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 30, and Wednesday, May 1, staff will lead children ages 3 through preschool age in reading “Quiet Bunny” by Lisa McCue, putting on the finger play “Hippity-Hop Hippity-Hay” and making a bunny mask craft at “Story Time,” in the children’s department.
The library’s latest People’s University series, “Wild, Wonderful & Weird Wheeling Stories,” continues with Class 4, “Weird Stories of Wheeling in the Civil War,” presented by Jon-Erik Gilot, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 30. From a pillaged statue to a raid that never happened, Gilot will unleash a lightning round of bizarre Civil War stories.
As OCPL Week comes to a close, the winner of the big giveaway, a $100 gift card to amazon.com, will be announced Saturday, May 4. This also starts the T-minus four weeks countdown to the “Universe of Stories” Summer Reading Program. Starting Saturday, June 1, OCPL patrons, both young and old, will be challenged to “Read to the Moon.” Each minute of reading logged by both children, teens and adults will count as one mile. The daily distance read to the moon will be tracked through July 20, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Spaced-themed children’s programs, Monday Night Movies and special displays will take place at the library throughout the “Universe of Stories” Summer Reading Program, which runs through the end of July.
OCPL Week also celebrates the library online offerings that are available anywhere with an internet connection. With a library card, patrons can borrow downloadable books, audiobooks and videos from the West Virginia Downloadable Entertainment Library Initiative (wvdeli.overdrive.com), Hoopla (hoopladigital.com) and the rbDigital Gateway. Also available through rbDigital are streaming video (Acorn TV; Spanish language telenovelas and movies; art and music instruction videos; The Great Courses classes; live concerts; and personal development videos), language learning modules in over 120 languages, online ACT and SAT Test preparation and downloadable magazines (available for permanent checkout). For a full list of downloadable and online resources, visit the library’s website at www.ohiocountylibrary.org.