The COVID-19 situation may have temporarily closed our doors at White Bear Road and in the Village at Bell Rock Plaza, but we’re still offering a tremendous slate of online services including access to our robust digital collection. And it certainly can’t stop you from participating in our annual Read Around Sedona initiative!

It’s our fourth annual Read Around Sedona, and we’re excited to feature Dragonfly’s
Question by local sustainability leader and author Darcy Hitchcock. This initiative invites the community to collectively read the same book, and Hitchcock’s novella is a perfect choice for this goal. It’s also perfect for Earth Month, as the book looks closely at sustainability.
 
The novella tells the story of a father and daughter who have opposing views on sustainability, and their discussions make the topic more approachable than it often seems. Hitchcock is the author of 10 nonfiction books on sustainability, but she loved writing Dragonfly’s Question, her first work of fiction. “The muse hijacked me to write this novella,” she said.
 
If you haven’t checked out Dragonfly’s Question, Hitchcock’s book is available for .99 cents on Kindle through Amazon.com, and the paperback is available for $9.95, plus shipping, at Lulu.com. The proceeds from your purchase will be donated back to the Library.
 
Hitchcock is scheduled to read and discuss her book on Tuesday, April 28, at 10:30 a.m. in the community room. If our doors are not yet open, we hope to host an online forum with the author. Either way, the discussion will be informative and heartfelt, focusing on the story, the issues, and how fiction can be pivotal in community change. Stay tuned for details.
 
A special Read Around Sedona program is planned for Earth Day, April 22, from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Library with Master Gardeners from the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension in Yavapai County. We will re-schedule this fun day if we have not yet resumed normal programming at the scheduled time.

To learn about what else your library continues to offer, please see the list below. Digital options are vast. Visit our website at sedonalibrary.org.  If you have questions about our services, please email reference@sedonalibrary.org. 

You can access Sedona Public Library’s digital collections from your ereader, tablet, smartphone, or computer. Borrow ebooks, audiobooks, and digital magazines for FREE. All you need is your library card and PIN.

LIBBY AND OVERDRIVE
OverDrive provides thousands of ebooks and downloadable audiobooks. The Libby app is the easiest way to access OverDrive. It's available for Android, iOS, and Windows 10.

KANOPY
The online streaming service Kanopy (and Kanopy Kids) is offering unlimited access to select films for 30 days starting March 16. Enjoy a selection of over 30,000 films, including new releases, independent and international cinema, classic movies, and documentaries.

TUMBLEBOOKS FOR KIDS
TumbleBooks are talking picture and chapter books that teach kids the joy of reading in a format they'll love. Graphic novels, videos, games, and puzzles included!

RBDIGITAL MAGAZINES AND BOOKS
RBdigital brings you digital versions of over 130 popular and specialty magazines to read on almost any device.

FOR TEENS
We have plenty of online things to do and places to go for teens. From homework help in numerous topics to comics and anime sites, as well as music and sports sites.

ONLINE TOOLS AND DATABASES
Many informational databases can be found at sedonalibrary.org/tools--databases.html.  You’ll just need to enter your zip code for access to most of them.

Please visit our website often, where we will keep you posted with digital opportunities, updates, and other news. In the meantime, get a copy of Dragonfly’s Question, enjoy our services online, and continue to support the library you love.

​Sedona Public Library
Column for March 27, 2020
Written by Anne Marie Mackler, Development Director 

It's the second annual national day of giving for libraries, and we've again joined hundreds of libraries across the U.S. to participate in this campaign! Thursday, April 23 is Library Giving Day, and from now until then, your gifts are doubled with $25,000 in matching gifts from two generous supporters. Please join us for this day of celebrating all things Library.

Gordon Reiter, a Village of Oak Creek resident, and one of our matching donors for Library Giving Day, appreciates the services the Library offers and the broad impact the Library has on the entire community. He says, "I am so glad to help with anything that makes the community better."

When you champion your library, you guarantee the broad array of services and resources that we make available, for free. You secure the breadth of our collection, currently at 83,000 items. And you support the cost to provide access to 1.2 million items within the Yavapai Library Network.

Our other matching gift donor, who remains anonymous, noted, “Everyone in this town comes through the Library at some time. I believe the community feels that this is truly their library, a community resource for all.” These matching dollars confirm what we know, Sedona Public Library is the cornerstone of our community.

Every day, within its beautiful rock walls, people of all ages, backgrounds, and from near and far, connect with one another and with our services, technology, and programs. Our visitors learn new things, discover new interests, seek new trails, and get started on the path to new careers and more.

We are always updating our offerings based on community needs. We now host the long-running, popular Poetry & Prose program in our community room, and we’ve added a monthly non-fiction book club. We’re looking at regularly offering the popular Saturday Crafternoon and a Drum Circle. And we’re making use of the lovely east side of the building, in front of the fireplace, where we host the American Creed Community Conversations and PFLAG.
 
This is only the list of some of the new things we offer to the 179,000 visitors who come through our doors every year. We are conveniently located to make sure that our services are available to all. In West Sedona, we have our main facility on White Bear Road and a permanent children’s exhibit, StoryWalk, at Sunset Park. We have a service center in the Village of Oak Creek at Bell Rock Plaza, and of course, we’re available online at sedonalibrary.org.

Everything we do, new or old, here or there, in person or electronically, all requires the support of our generous community. Please help celebrate and support your public library on April 23, Library Giving Day, when we will host a lively day of pop-up poetry featuring local poets Mary Heyborne and Christopher Fox Graham, as well as local students, staff, board members, and volunteers. Come join the fun and refreshments, read a poem, and make a gift!

Consider dropping a check in the mail, or dropping by, we’d love to visit. It’s easy to give online, too, at sedonalibrary.org. Thank you in advance for your support, and thank you to our matching gift donors!

Sedona Public Library
Column for March 20, 2020
Written by Anne Marie Mackler, Development Director 

EVENT POSTPONED. FUTURE DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED. PLEASE CHECK OUR EVENTS CALENDAR FOR ADDITIONAL CANCELLATIONS.

​On Wednesday, March 18, at 6 p.m., Sedona Public Library presents two authors on a joint national tour for their new books.  The program features readings from Ginger Gaffney’s Half Broke and Pam Houston’s Deep Creek followed by audience questions and book signings.
 
Pam Houston is not only a fabulous writer, but she is a delightful and fun speaker. We are thrilled to be bringing her back to Sedona.
 
In Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country, Houston describes her life on her ranch in Colorado—how she was, and continues to be shaped by the land, people, and animals there. Born in Pennsylvania to an actress mother and abusive father, Pam made her way west after college, making her living guiding white-tailed deer and Dall sheep hunts, running rivers and Class 5 rapids, and ski bumming.
 
The LA Times writes of her memoir: “Good writing can make you envious, no matter how foreign the terrain. Other times, you read a good memoir and find yourself wanting to track down the author and become friends. A third kind of book is so insightful and evocative, you shelve it beside other favorite and instructive titles. Deep Creek might just do all three.”
 
Pam’s stories have been selected for volumes of The O. Henry Awards, The Pushcart Prize, Best American Travel Writing, and Best American Short Stories of the Century.  She teaches in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts, is Professor of English at UC Davis, and co-founder and creative director of the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers.
 
Ginger Gaffney’s memoir Half Broke is about her volunteer work on an alternative prison ranch in northern New Mexico where, for 18 months, she helped inmates train and care for horses as a way of getting their own lives back on track.  It was recently selected as a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
 
The horses and prisoners both arrive at the ranch broken in one way or many— the horses often abandoned and suspicious; the residents, some battling drug and alcohol addiction, emotionally, physically, and financially shattered. Ginger Gaffney’s job is to retrain the untrainable. With time, the horses and residents form a profound bond, and teach each other patience, control, and trust.
 
 “Ginger Gaffney is a writer’s writer, a bold and original talent. This poignant, positive story of human and equine transformation subtly combines the author’s own healing with the challenge of teaching difficult people to work with deeply scared horses. The characters leap off the page and into your heart. Savor this book and then buy one for your best friend.”  Anne Hillerman, author of the best-selling Leaphorn, Chee, and Manuelito mysteries.
 
Sedona Public Library is proud to partner with The Literate Lizard bookstore, which will offer books for sale during the event on Wednesday, March 18 at 6:00 p.m. in the Si Birch Community Room at Sedona Public Library, 3250 White Bear Road.  For more information about this free program call 928-282-7714 or visit sedonalibrary.org. 

​Sedona Public Library
Column for March 13, 2020
Written by Virginia Volkman, Library Director

Don’t miss this opportunity to attend two library programs in the Village of Oak Creek during March. Grab your calendar and take note of these dates:

Wednesday, March 11:  Join us for an Arizona Humanities Speaker Program, "The Vanishing Trading Posts,” at 1:30 p.m. at the Church of the Nazarene, 55 Rojo Drive.
Speakers Chris Glenn and Sandy Sunseri will present a snapshot of a way of life in the Southwest that has disappeared. In a little over one hundred years after they were founded, trading posts in the Four Corners faded away. Stories of trading-family dynasties, as well as the cross-cultural exchange between Anglos and Native communities, are discussed against a background of the social and economic changes that resulted in the posts' demise.

​Chris and Sandy are docents at the Museum of Northern Arizona and have been speaking about the land and people of the Colorado Plateau since 2012.  Their presentation was created from in-depth research and interviews.

This program, generously funded by Arizona Humanities and Friends of the Sedona Library, is free and open to the public.  Donations are always welcome!

Tuesday, March 31:  Iris Yang, a local author, will be the featured speaker at the Library’s community book discussion at 1:30 p.m. at Sedona Winds Retirement Community, 405 Jacks Canyon Road. All are welcome!

We will be discussing Iris’s first book, “Wings of a Flying Tiger.” The novel tells the story of Danny Hardy, one of the heroic Flying Tigers, a group of American volunteer pilots who helped China fight Japan in World War II. When Danny bails out of his fighter plane into a remote region of western China, he has multiple injuries and is being pursued by Japanese troops. After villagers take him in, the serenity of their community is forever shattered. Love, sacrifice, kindness, and bravery all play a part in this epic tale that takes place during some of the darkest hours of Chinese history.

During a recent interview, Iris explained her interest in the Flying Tigers: “I didn’t know anything about the Flying Tigers until I came to the U.S. As a Chinese, I’m thankful for the Flying Tigers’ bravery and sacrifice.  As a U.S. citizen, I’m honored to write books about American heroes.”

Iris and her books have been featured on National Public Radio. In 2019 she was the guest speaker at the Flying Tigers WWII Veterans Reunion. She welcomes opportunities to speak to groups to share her stories. Contact the author at www.irisyang-author.com. 

For more information about these programs, please call 928-284-1603. Sedona Public Library in the Village is at Suite 51A in Bell Rock Plaza. Library hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
 Sedona Public Library is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Visit the Library’s website at www.sedonalibrary.org to view the events calendar or to make an online donation. 

Sedona Public Library
Column for March 6, 2020
Written by: Cheryl L. Yeatts, Manager of Sedona Public Library in the Village