Top question this week: Where are the Newspapers and Magazines?

As many of you have noticed, we've made some changes up on the palatial second floor reference area of Rochester Public Library over the President's Day weekend!

All of the new magazines, newspapers, new nonfiction items, and foreign language materials have been moved over to the rotunda area (to your immediate right as you reach the top of the second floor). Magazines have been consolidated into new spinning racks and the new non-fiction items are displayed face-out on the wall so that you will more easily be able to judge our books by their covers (although we're sure you'll judge them on their merits as well).

Now you can read the Post Bulletin, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other newspapers and magazines while taking in the semi-breathtaking view of downtown Rochester in the sunshine.*

Nonfiction VHS tapes, books on CD, and books on cassette have moved over into the former magazine area (to your immediate left as you reach the second floor). Once you get over the immediate shock of not being able to find your favorites in their same places, let us know what you think of the new layout.

*Actual experienced sunniness may vary. Only guaranteed during the daytime on cloudless days. Tanning oil not provided by library.

Thank you for visiting us at the Healthy Living Fair!

We had a really great turn out at the Healthy Living Fair. Thanks to all the city and county employees who stopped at our booth with questions (and even checked out some items at our booth!)

For those of you who haven't got library cards yet, we hope to see you soon at the library to sign up. We had several positive comments about the new web site design and got lots of good suggestions/questions - can you get more downloadable audio books, does the library have wireless internet (Yes, we do!), and others.

We hope to see you at the library for all of those exercise videos, healthy diet books, lifestyle change books (and even chocolate cookbooks which falls in that grey area in "healthy", but definitely makes a positive statement in the "living" column!)

What's your favorite exercise activity? Tai chi, yoga, and pilates are the new trendy subjects popular at the library. Check out books, DVDs and healthy living magazines at the library.

Did you know the library has deposit collections at Rochester fire stations? Sorry, just for firefighter reading, not the public.

LIVE! Healthy Living Fair

We are in the throng of city and county employees, and a lot of our exercise and cookbooks have been popular. Lots of healthy (and slightly less-than-healthy) folks here checking out all of the exhibits at the Civic Center. Free yogurt abounds, and there are more heart shaped balloons here (perhaps because of Valentine's Day) than one generally sees.

Lots of traffic here over lunch and at least one comment that Hershey's kisses may not be completely within Health Fair guidelines.

More later...

RPL Live blogging at the Healthy Living Fair on Feb 14!

Okay, we've got this spiffy new Reference blog to compliment our spiffy new website, so now those we're going to do something we've never done before - live blogging! We'll be at the Mayo Civic Center during the Healthy Living Fair for city/county employees describing the action, live! And some of you thought libraries weren't exciting.

Okay, the deal is this: If our internet connection is alive and well for the RPL Reference Mobile Specialty Laptop, we will post some live blog entries for your digital consumption. If not, well, maybe we'll write some things down and post them later and pretend they're live.

You're saying, I don't know if I want to read a blog from the Healthy Living Fair, is there anyway I can prevent this?

YES! Stop in at our booth at the Healthy Living Fair at the Mayo Civic Center this Valentine's Day from 10:00AM to 4:00PM and keep us busy at our booth. Pepper the Reference staff with your questions about our online reference resources related to health and well being.

From the Health & Wellness Resource Center to MedlinePlus, we can show you were to get the skinny on getting skinny and other vital health issues.

Either way you win: either scintillating live blog reports or great health information from your library. Come down the the Mayo Civic Center on Valentine's Day and put us to work.