WDFPL  staff members have missed seeing the smile of Ann Dow, a true West Deptford Public Library friend lately.  She has been staying close to home this summer due to health issues. 

Ann continues to visit us online.  Feel free to check out her latest poem on the library’s West Deptford Reader Reviews blog.

The WDFPL staff sends you refreshing wishes for good health and happiness, Ann!
Be careful and try not to get too wet:-)

Saving to a floppy disk is becoming a lost art.

  dictionary.zdnet.com

How do you save information?

“Writing a poem is discovering” are Robert Frost’s words of wisdom.

Here is another poem Taylor Carmen wants to share with us.

I’ve been called strong
And it makes me laugh
That other people could see me like that

For someone like me
Is put in her place
When a marble of true strength looks her in the face
 
For I’ve had my moments
Although not by choice
When some hollow courage may ring in my voice

And what I have done
May look big to most
But means very little when looked at up close

You see strength shows
In how we react
To great life struggles we didn’t expect

We’ve all had our troubles
They come and they go
But mine are not close to the struggles you’ve known

And I have noticed
The truth is shown
In the way you take it when issues hit home

 Where I would crumble
 You can still stand firm
So for that my respect and strength you have earned  

This summer I am sure many WD residents are relaxing in the sun.

Interestingly, one young lady is thinking deeply.   

I believe in karma
And that mine’s pretty good
Although sometimes I wonder how it is I could
 
The rule is pretty simple
The good should get good back
But lately things have happened that make me question that
 
For if this rule was perfect
It could not be true
That such pain could fall upon a heart as good as you
 
You face so many hurdles
And none of them are fair
I have little I can do but show you that I care

You do not deserve this hurt
Your spirit’s kind and good
And I would do most anything to change it if I could

But no matter what I do
There’s one thing that I know
You’ll be fighting most of this tough battle on your own

So I’ll give you some space
To figure all this out
But I’ll be where you can find me if your heart’s weighed down 

Thanks for sharing, Taylor! 

The Gloucester County 4-H Fair is always a lot of fun and although I was not able to attend this year’s festivities, I enjoyed seeing what was happening through the lenses of the Gloucester County Times photographers. 

 Tim Hawk, Jonathan Wells and many others did a wonderful job of capturing the action in close up and personal ways. 

I was also surprised by the talent of this summer’s interns, including this staff photo by Chelsea Sexauer. 

Learn more about 4-H @ WDFPL

The 4-H story [videorecording]
    Palmer, John.

The West Deptford Police Department, in conjunction with the township committee and West Deptford Municipal Alliance, will host National Night Out at the RiverWinds Community Center Tuesday, Aug. 4 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.  That’s tonight!

The night of fun will include food, demonstrations, EMS and fire equipment and a display by the Gloucester County SWAT unit. The department’s K-9 will conduct a demonstration and there will be a free concert.

Tonight teens are also welcome to stop by the library at 7:00 p.m. to create beach bags from recycled plastic bags and/or enjoy sharing favorite books with friends during WDFPL’s Pizza and Paperback session.

Every morning the West Deptford Free Public Library has a variety of newspapers delivered for those who shy away from home delivery or may want to explore the news from different angles. 

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting Health & Science section.  Karen Knee may be slighted by the fact that I am not sharing her comprehensive tips from various ornithologists including Daniel Klem Jr., who has researched protecting the bird population from bird-window mishaps for three decades.  The article in very well researched and informative.  WDFPL already has decals on large windows to discourage birds from flying into them. 

The WDFPL staff can confirm that Karen Knee’s article is correct in the suggestion to use window clings or decals as deterrents for flying birds.  A few years ago, I would be holding computer class when a bird would fly right into the window of the computer lab causing distraction and also welling up negative feelings of “not doing enough” in computer class participants.  Sometimes the birds would fly on following impact and sometimes not.  Chatter would insure resulting in lost instructional time and focus.  Posting window decals was a quick, inexpensive way to solve the problem and avoid interrupting nature’s flow inside and outside the library.

Today, it was actually the Philadelphia Inquirer Personal Health side column (Section E page 2) that caught my eye while reading the newspaper.  The circular icons/graphics may have drawn my gaze to the information; however I found the content valuable enough to share here.

Headline and content as follows:

Caffeine, high-tech gadgets leave teens sleepy at school

Did your teen agers’ grades drop last year because they had trouble staying awake during class?
A study by Drexel University researchers’ published the journal Pediatrics suggests that teens are consuming too much caffeine to fuel late-night jags on computers, cell phones and other high-tech gadgets. 

Details of the study can be found at … wait, I just clicked on http://www.philly.com/ and I can’t find this information.  There is so much to see when viewing the newspaper’s web site.  Hmmm,  WDFPL is having a program entitled Honey, from Hive to Table tonight at 7:00 p.m., still there is a part of me who would love to see Tracy Chapman at the Keswick tonight. 

Moving into the grey area of reposting newspaper content…

“The researchers asked 100 suburban Philadelphia middle and high school students to fill out questionnaires on their caffeine intake, technology use and sleep habits.
Most of the adolescents had late-night access to technology, including 90 percent who had a cell phone in their rooms at night.

The researchers concluded that too much caffeine and technology left many teens sleep-deprived at school.

“Even though we know adolescents are on a different time schedule than adults, we still need to get them less wired at night,” said Christina Calamaro, and assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel.

“Parents need to discourage teenagers from drinking caffeine past noontime and keep TVs, computers, and especially cell phones out of kids’ bedrooms.” - Josh Goldstein 

Wow, easier said than done.

Wait , I did find the article online under the Living tab. 

Usability might be more challeging for newspapers online. 
I appreciate efforts to rise to the challenge. 

Oh well, time for a cup of coffee.  It is before noon!

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas A. Edison

These photos share the back story on WDFPL’s Butterfly Garden. 

The breeze, the trees, the honey bees - All volunteers!
 - Juliet Carinreap