Shelf. Life

There are lots of free services available to download and stream music, but Freegal is my favorite. If you can get past the goofy name—it comes from Free + Legal music streaming—I'm sure it will join your regular app rotation. When Freegal first launched, I used it to look up my favorite songs and bands, and with more than 15 million songs in their...

Bette Davis gets credit for saying that "getting old is not for sissies," but the late actress was unlikely the first to make the observation, and certainly won't be the last. My mother, more of a Vivien Leigh fan, has her share of occasions to impart this bit of wisdom. Age 76 and in otherwise remarkably good health, mom is coping with dement...

A day without coffee is almost unheard of in our household, but it wasn't always like that. The search for the perfect cup of freshly roasted beans has gradually grown during the past five years. In 2015, we traveled to a coffee farm in Costa Rica, where we sipped that yummy liquid gold throughout the day and soaked up all we could about the farm-t...

April is National Poetry Month, and I am going to honor it by writing poetry, again. You see, I used to scribble poems in a spiral-bound journal when I was an angst-filled teenager. It was a cathartic process. The poetry was, I'm sure, quite bad. But that really didn't matter now that I look back on it. It was a way to express myself, connecting th...

This month, library staff has finished a few titles, started new ones, and awed over movies new and old. Take a listen to: Legendary by Stephanie Garber (Young Adult) If you liked Throne of Glass and The Night Circus , you'll enjoy this mystery of two sisters, their missing mother, and the magical world of Caraval. Available in print and audio. The...

Melody Warnick will be at the Kool Family Community Center at 6:30 p.m. Thursday to talk about her book, This Is Where You Belong. Her visit is part of Willard Library's Love Where You Live program series. I hope you will come out and join us. Besides hearing Melody's story of how she grew roots in her adopted town of Blacksburg, Virginia, we will ...

I was an avid knitter when I hired in at Willard. I knit everything from socks to shawls. I even attended a couple of knitting conventions in Chicago. Nearly three years ago, I had my daughter. Life got exponentially busier! This working mama, like most, rarely has time to do anything extracurricular. I order books for the crafting section, and the...

Foreign movies, like books, offer the ultimate escape from the norm of daily life. Let's travel the world and go back in time with these great foreign movies: White God ( Fehér isten, 2014). This Hungary present-day film follows the life of Hagen, a mixed-breed dog. He is abandoned on the streets of Hungary after the father of his beloved owner, Li...

If I ask you to imagine a library activity, you probably think of something inside, right? This winter, Willard Library offered indoor story times with partners from the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary and Leila Arboretum . As we move into spring and summer, we will have some outdoor experiences for all ages, too! What is That Bird? Check out (literally) Wi...

You're in that weird place between your last great read and your future great read. Check out what some of your favorite Willard staff have been reading, listening, and watching to help you out of "that place." During the past month, we've listened to: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo Follows Harlem teenager Xiomara Batista, a Dominican girl fr...

February is Love Your Library Month, but here at Willard, we feel the love all year long! My favorite chair at the library is at the Information Desk. When I'm out slinging books and answering questions, I hear from area residents and guests to our community that they appreciate the study rooms at downtown Willard, the vibe of the Helen Warner Bran...

A new resource, MyFreeTaxes, is available to help people who earned less than $66,000 last year file their 2018 taxes online. We are really excited about this new website, which has been made available by a partnership between the United Way and H&R Block. The library will continue to be a resource for people to pick up their federal, state, an...

As a child, one of my favorite places to visit was the library. The thought of using my very own library card, and checking out a book or two of my choice made me feel so grown up. Going to the library provided me with opportunities to experience a whole new world through books, which always has been very exciting to me. My childhood visits to the ...

Recently I've been invited to be the "mystery reader" at several local elementary schools, and as I'm selecting my books to share, I always think back to the teachers and parents who read to my classes. Turns out, this isn't something I've ever outgrown; I still like it when people read to me! My kids read to me every day for a few minutes at bedti...

This month, Willard will debut the Love Where You Live Series with the goal of fostering "A proud, inspired Battle Creek." We hope you'll enjoy these fascinating programs: A Special Evening With Richard Rothstein: The author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America will discuss how American governments in th...

Life in the circus, soldiers' K-9 companions, British royalty and Mr. Rogers will be among the topics of Noon Films when the documentary series returns on Thursday at Willard Library in Battle Creek. The Noon Films offer people the opportunity to learn something new while enjoying the camaraderie of other movie fans. It's a good excuse to get out a...

"How Do Dinosaurs" will be the theme of three special costume character programs to launch the winter story times at Willard Library. A lot of youngsters love dinosaurs and the How Do Dinosaurs books by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague so we will kick off the preschool winter programs with story times about dinosaurs. The three story times, which will in...

If you know me at all, you know I love coffee, birds, and book lists! January is a great time of year for readers because of all the "Best Books of 2018" lists that start circulating online. I'm going to throw one more list on the stack, just in case you are thinking about setting a Reading Resolutions for the New Year to explore a new genre.Here a...

Welcome! Willard Library is committed to creating a community of readers and a world of possibilities. The name of this new blog playfully reflects an important component of this philosophy: the intersection of your life with library services. A book on a shelf is an object; an open book in your hands is a collection of ideas or adventures. With th...

Willard Library recently donated books about Sojourner Truth to area schools to celebrate Sojourner Truth Week in late November. "The Sojourner Truth Institute approached Willard because we had partnered with the library earlier in the year, and it was a fantastic partnership," Kimberly L. Holley, director of the institute, said. "Since this was ab...