December will bring a flurry of activity at Catawba County Library System with free craft workshops and open houses.

On Tuesday, Dec. 2, patrons age 9 and older are invited to paint glass balls beginning at 6:30 p.m. at St. Stephens. Please pre-register by calling 256-3030.

Sherrills Ford Branch is hosting drop-in crafts from 6-7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, 16 and 23. Youngsters age 2 and older are invited to make decorations to celebrate the holidays. A variety of materials will be available.

Beadwork will be the focus during craft time at the Maiden Branch on Dec. 11. School-age children are invited to make bracelets and necklaces beginning at 3:30 p.m. that Thursday.

Library holiday parties and open houses include:

            Newton-Open House 4-8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15

            Sherrills Ford-Friends tree lighting and Santa visit, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6

             Southwest-Open House, 9-2 Saturday, Dec. 20 & 2-6 Sunday, Dec. 21

             St. Stephens-Christmas party with Santa, 3-5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12

Catawba County Library System, with seven locations, is a service of Catawba County Government.

Jolly St. Nick will appear at several locations of Catawba County Library System as the library ushers in the holiday season.

Scheduled visits include:

            Main Library Newton-6:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15

            Claremont-9 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10

            St. Stephens-3:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12

            Maiden-11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 13

            Southwest-10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 17. His clone will appear at the same date and time at Sherrills Ford.

If you miss Santa’s appearance, you may wish to read a book about him or watch a Santa-inspired video. Check available materials on the library website at http://catawbacountync.gov/library

Want to include a book in your travel plans this year?

Audio books can be downloaded from the library website, thanks to a service available through the Catawba County Library System.

Materials can be downloaded for use on MP3 players or CDs from the library website, http://www.catawbacountync.gov/library/ 

Portability and availability are the big advantages because you don’t have to go to your library to check out the books you want. When you board a plane, pack your trunk or carry your things into Grandmother’s house, your books won’t weight you down.

The download service, free to library patrons, allows individuals to download books to take on a road trip or anywhere they’d like to listen to a book. Full instructions are posted on the main web page.

On the list are literary classics, fiction and nonfiction titles, best-sellers, inspirational works and more.

Library patrons can select from two services- Overdrive (North Carolina Digital Library) using your Catawba County Library System card number or NetLibrary, using the NC Live password which can be obtained by calling the library.

Overdrive allows seven-day checkouts and the ability to burn titles to a CD or MP3 player with no expiration. NetLibrary offers 21-day checkouts, but licensing agreements do not allow transfer of the books to be copied onto a CD.

The Main Library is located at 115 West C Street in Newton. For more information, call 465-8292.

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December will bring a variety of items to display cases of the Catawba County Library System.

Scheduled next month are:

Claremont-Native American items

Newton-Christmas items, Canned food drive

                   Genealogy: quilting items

Maiden- Annie Ramseur’s tote bags and unique crafts

Sherrills Ford-Bows by Daisy Schenone

St. Stephens-Books about Southern Christmas traditions

Southwest-Barbie doll collection

The library system serves some 70,000 registered borrowers throughout the county.        ¼/p>

NEWTON-Mom’s advice: wash your hands, exercise, rest, fresh air and healthy eating- hold true for flu season.

The very latest on disease and health issues is available free through NC Live, available through the Catawba County Library System website. This free service allows access to articles and images that may be from any computer at www.nclive.org  NC Live simplifies electronic searches by directing you immediately to reliable sources that may be hard to find or otherwise available to paid subscribers. Thanks to support by the N.C. General Assembly, NC Live’s many resources are available free to North Carolina residents and students. The required password is available from the library.

Through NC Live, you can consult up-to-date medical advice through such sources as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, MedlinePlus, the Merck Medical and more.

NC Live is just one health resource available through Catawba County Library System. The library also has numerous books and videos available.

Treatment of influenza the disease is explained simply in the young adult book, The Common Cold and the Flu  by Nathan Aaseng (YA 616.205 AAS)

Many discussions of flu include the question of bird flu or the great pandemic of 1918.

Recent fictional accounts of the white death include Divining Women by Kaye Gibbons and The Given Day by Dennis Lehane, Dreamers of the Day by Mary Doria Russell, The Last Town on Earth by Thomas Mullen, and Wickett’s Remedy by Myla Goldberg. The last three are available on CD.

For outstanding nonfiction accounts of this human disaster, consider Flu by Gina Bari Kolata (614.518 KOL), The Great Influenza: The Epic Story o the 1918 Pandemic by John M. Barry (614.518 BAR) or The Devil’s Flu by Pete Davies (614.518 DAV).

Finally, actor Brad Pitt narrates the DVD Bird Flu, How Safe are We?

For other library offerings, check the website at www.catawbacountync.gov/library or contact Lynne Bolick Reed, library services coordinator, at 465-8292.

Catawba County Library System will observe the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, Nov. 27 and Friday, Nov. 28. Library materials may be picked up before or after those dates, but they may be dropped off at any time.

All library facilities will close at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26 and resume regular business hours on Saturday, Nov. 29.

The Main Library is located at 115 West C Street in Newton. Other facilities include Claremont, Conover, Maiden, St. Stephens, Sherrills Ford and Southwest branches. For more information about branches and programming, call Lynne Bolick Reed at 465-8292.

School-aged children can dabble into a bit of colonial history Nov. 20 when Catawba County Library hosts a tea in Newton at 4 p.m.

Lidia Miller and Tammy Wilson of the library staff will don colonial dress and serve tea to youngsters in commemoration of North Carolina’s birthday, marking ratification of the U.S. Constitution. The “time travelers” will discuss colonial-era clothing and the historic event on Nov. 21, 1789 when our state became the nation’s twelfth.  Tea and light refreshments will be served.

For more details, contact Youth Services at 465-8668.

October brought an infusion of about 200 new fiction titles to Catawba County Library System.

Fans of Ron Rash will be happy to learn that his latest work, Serena, was among them. Rash read from it last month while visiting Catawba Valley Community College.

Other popular authors represented include Anne Perry, Robin Jones Gunn, Jonathan Kellerman, Mickey Spillane and John Updike, among others.

The county library collection has some 200,000 books and more than 62,000 volumes of adult fiction. The Main Library is located in Newton.

Children’s DVDs figure into the mix of newly acquired movies at Catawba County Library System.

Among the juvenile titles are three Goosebumps films, Holly Hobbie & Friends Vol. 1, Bratz: Girlz Really Rock, Where the Wild Things Are, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Corduroy: And More Stories About Caring. Barney’s 20^th anniversary video is also among the new titles.

Last year the library system reported more than 164,000 video check-outs for all ages.

To view available materials and/or place a hold, log on to www.library.catawbacountync.gov /

Looking for a specific historical highway marker?

How about unusual gravestone inscriptions?

The Rhodes Room at Catawba County Library has these and more.

Benjamin Jowett, the English scholar and theologian, once quipped, “Nowhere probably is there more true feeling, and nowhere worse taste, than in a churchyard.” Eccentric Epitaphs by Michelle Lovric bears this out. This small volume was recently acquired by the Rhodes Room local history collection.

North Carolina Historical Highway Markers was published by the state Division of Archives and History about 30 years ago. The newly-acquired 10^th edition is a quick reference for historical sites as of 2007 and can offer a field day (quite literally) for history buffs who want to seek out specific sites.

 If you’ve ever spent time in Blowing Rock, her history will intrigue you. The 1989 book, A Village Tapestry by Barry M. Buxton, joins an array of town and county histories of North Carolina.

Have a retired teacher or principal in your family? You may find them mentioned in The History of North Carolina Retired School Personnel by Alma Browning. Written in 1978, the book covers 17 years of the organization founded in May 1961.

Among other new acquisitions: The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina by Arthur H. Hirsch, Sketches of the Past Down on the Farm by Betty Carolyn Huffman Molinare and History of the Order of the Eastern Star in North Carolina Volume II. Obscure, yes, but to a dedicated researcher, such resources can offer clues about long-lost kin.

The Rhodes Room, located at the Main Library in Newton, is a repository of local history, genealogical materials and references for North Carolina and other states. It’s a goldmine for history buffs and family researchers made ever more valuable as materials are expanded and updated periodically.

To browse all library holdings, log on to www.catawbacountync.gov/library/  . The room is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.