Celebrate open access to information and your freedom to read during Banned Books Week, September 25 though October 2.

"Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week." (ALA, 2010)

Find a Frequently Challenged Classic to read and celebrate your freedom!

Photo credit: florian.b on Flickr

Come to Oak View Library for a 6 week reading and play group for parents and children (age 5 and under).  Read Me a Story & More is designed to help parents choose what and how to read to their children and activities that bring it all together.

Presented by The Nan Tolbert Nurturing Center, Ojai Neighborhood for Learning and the Ojai Valley Libraries, this event is being held on Tuesday mornings at Oak View Library from October 12 through November 16, 10am to 11am.

Pre-registration required. For more information, please contact Julie at the Ojai Library (805) 646-1639 or The Nan Tolbert Nurturing Center at (805) 646-7559.

Register today for the new ProQuest Genealogy News & Notes, a free, quarterly newsletter featuring genealogy stories, research tips and content updates for ProQuest's online genealogy resources.

View the inaugural issue and sign-up to receive the next issue - due out November 2010. Remember, you can access ProQuest's Heritage Quest database from your home computer (in our eLibrary). Ancestry is available in-library only.

Don't miss out - your family's story awaits! Only those who sign up will receive future issues.

National Hispanic Heritage Month, from Sept. 15 through Oct.15, celebrates and recognizes the contributions Hispanic Americans have made to American society and culture. Mid-September was chosen to honor five of our Central American neighbors who celebrate their Independence days in September.

We have celebrated Hispanic Heritage nationally since 1968, when President Lyndon Johnson approved Hispanic Heritage Week (later expanded into the month by President Reagan.)

For fun activities, reading lists and more information, please see ¡Colorín colorado! pages in English and Spanish.

Have you seen our new catalog features? We've added several new features to the item information page in our Library Catalog:

1) Shelf browse shows titles that are found on the same virtual shelf in our system-wide eLibrary (see the blue arrow in the picture at left)

2) Tags! Linked, natural language tags now appear below the Copy/Holding information (see the green arrow). These tags are clickable.

3) Similar book titles along with Other editions and translations appear under Item Information in the left column (see the red arrow). These titles are linked within the catalog.

We are still working on the catalog pages - keep an eye out for more. We're interested in what you think!
Let us know!

You can still support our Ventura County Library Adult Literacy program by shopping at Barnes & Noble online through Sept 17th!

Visit bn.com/bookfairs and support READ Ventura County Library Barnes & Noble Bookfair from the comfort of your home through 9/17/10 or enter Bookfair ID 10267466 at online checkout at bn.com/bookfairs.

Have you received exceptional assistance from a librarian? Has your library made a difference in your life? The 'I Love My Librarian' award encourages library users to recognize the accomplishments of exceptional librarians.

You can nominate your librarian for the third year of the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award!  Nominations for 2010 stay open through September 20.