All Posts
Anticipation and inspiration: Getting ready for spring gardening
Posted in Explore and Discover on February 27, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Abra Cole It’s nearly Go Time, my gardening friends! We’ve almost made it through the winter, through the snow and the ice, through the below-freezing temperatures. We have watched last summer’s plants freeze and die back, disappear under a blanket of snow, and get stomped on (along with other indecencies) by neighborhood cats. We […]
Tags: adults, composting, composting with worms, DIY, events, family, food, garden, gardening, health, hobbies, kids, Master Gardeners, plant sales, plant starter, plant starter exchange, plant starts, pruning, seed libraries, seeds, teens, tweens, urban farming, weeding, worms, youth
Beat cabin fever with these creative and (mostly) free activities
Posted in kids, Parents and Teachers on February 20, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Rachel Edmondson If your family is like mine, then February is peak cabin fever season. While we still bundle up and go outside occasionally, we don’t last long when the weather is so chilly. This leaves a lot of time spent inside trying to keep ourselves entertained. While we love reading books, watching movies, […]
Tags: activities, baking, blanket fort, cabin fever, cookbooks, cooking, crafts, dance, decorate eggs, family, flashlight tag, food, hobbies, hoopla, indoor, indoor fort, kids, library, movies, music, parents, recycling, STEM, tag, teens, tweens, upcycling, young learners
St. Pancras Station sparks imaginations
Posted in Explore and Discover on February 13, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Melissa Rhoades What do filmmaker Christopher Nolan, the Spice Girls, and science-fiction author Douglas Adams have in common? They all found artistic inspiration in a building long considered an eyesore—a building I fell in love with at first sight. Ever since borrowing books about castles as a grade schooler, I’ve been fascinated with buil […]
Tags: Batman Begins, books, castles, Channel Tunnel, Chunnel, digital library, Douglas Adams, gothic, London, magical, movies, neo-Gothic, science fiction, Spice Girls, St. Pancras Station, The Secret Garden, towers, train stations
Strange, weird, and wonderful: Libraries across the world and right here
Posted in Explore and Discover on February 7, 2018 at 6:00 am
by Nathaniel Youmans Welcome to the weird world of libraries. What’s the strangest library you’ve never heard of? Let’s find out! At the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., you can “check out” (though not to remove from library premises!) wool shawls and sweaters hand-knitted by the librarians to keep patrons warm in the libra […]
Tags: Atlas Obscura, bizarre, libraries, library, rhombicuboctahedron, strange, technology, weird
Create a unique 3D object at Spokane Valley Library
Posted in News on February 1, 2018 at 6:00 am
3D printing has changed the way we look at objects, such as toys and tools, and the technology used to create them. Now you can create a unique 3D design that we print for you at Spokane Valley Library. In this evening workshop, you’ll learn the basics of 3D design using Tinkercad software and how […]
Tags: 3D, 3D design, 3D printer, 3D printing, 3D printing software, adults, classes, DIY, hobbies, services, technology, Tinkercad
Billie Holiday and the books to read for awareness and insight
Posted in Explore and Discover on January 30, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Susan Goertz During my freshman year of high school, I was given the assignment to write a report on an important American. Although I had almost no exposure to her at that point—and I can’t remember what instigated the choice, except maybe the happy accident of hearing her on the radio—I selected the singer […]
Tags: adults, African American History Month, Alicia Garza, American literature, Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, authors, Bell Hooks, Billie Holiday, booklists, books, Claudia Rankine, Eve Ewing, fiction, Lady Day, Michelle Alexander, Morgan Parker, N. K. Jemisin, Nisi Shawl, Nnedi Okorafor, nonfiction, Octavia Butler, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Poet Laureate, poetry, reading, Roxanne Gay, science fiction, Sonia Sanchez, Toni Morrison, Tracy K. Smith, Zora Neale Hurston
Destination Nashville: Unexpected discoveries and musical adventures
Posted in Explore and Discover on January 23, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Jane Baker The vibrant hues of fall were just beginning to fade when I experienced Nashville for the first time this past November. The sky was a cloudless sapphire blue—a perfect time to visit before the starkness of winter. It was cold by Tennessee standards the week I was there, though thirty degrees warmer […]
Tags: Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Grand Old Opry, Honky Tonk Highway, Madame Tussauds, Music City, Nashville, Parthenon, Tennessee, Tennessee Centennial Exposition, Tennessee Predators, Tennessee Titans, travel
Staff Picks: An eclectic booklist from The BookEnd
Posted in Explore and Discover on January 17, 2018 at 6:00 am
by David Wyatt Since May of last year, The BookEnd at the Spokane Valley Mall has showcased popular and bestselling titles with something for every taste. On any given day of the year, you are sure to find a book to grab your interest. And just like our customers, The BookEnd staff love our collection. […]
Tags: adults, book list, books, cookbook, crafts, fiction, graphic novel, memoir, mythology, nonfiction, photography, recipes, science fiction, staff picks
Library of Things: Check out more than books at the library!
Posted in News on January 11, 2018 at 6:00 am
Of course, you probably already know you can check out music, movies, magazines, and audiobooks at the library. But did you know we have telescopes, educational toys, and tools for check out? Over the last few years, the Library District has been adding more and more non-book items to our collection to help our customers […]
Tags: Avista Energy Efficiency kit, blocks, bottle cutters, family construction zone blocks, LEGO, Library of Things, ready for school kit, skull replicas, Smithsonian, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, Snap Circuits, telescope, tubs of LEGO bricks, upholstery kit, video, video production equipment
In anticipation: Romances to read in 2018
Posted in Explore and Discover on January 10, 2018 at 6:00 am
By Stefani Miller As we start a new year, I look forward to publishers announcing the release dates for new books. Whether it’s another installment in a favorite series or a second novel from a 2017 debut author, each month in the new year is a fresh opportunity to get my hands on a brand […]
Tags: adults, booklists, books, digital library, reading, romance, romance genre, romance series
