Teens, get your poetry on at the Flow Tactics Teen Open Mic every 3rd Saturday from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.at the YMCA Youth Center, 2400 7th Avenue North (near Phillips Academy). Admission is free. The sessions are for high school students only. To sign up to perform or for more information, e-mail johnpaul@reallifepoets.org. This month's program is scheduled for Saturday, March 16.

Flow Tactics is sponsored by The Real Life Poets, the Mayor's Office Division of Youth Services, YMCA Youth Center, and the WORD UP! Student Poetry Slam Committee of the Jefferson County Library Cooperative. WORD UP! is an annual poetry slam for Jefferson County high school students hosted by the Birmingham Public Library.

In the past two days, a generous and anonymous donor has issued a $500 challenge grant to help BPL raise $7,000 for "Flow Tactics," the poetry and performance workshops serving Birmingham youth.


Young Birmingham poets at a recent competition.
This donor is someone close to the "Flow Tactics" program and someone who knows what these young poets are capable of sharing with the city of Birmingham, the state of Alabama, and the world. 
Your donations will be matched 100% until the challenge is met!


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Our spring Library WishList mini campaign raise money for the Birmingham Public Library's "Flow Tactics" poetry program.


Flow Tactics is a poetry and performance workshop that began two years ago by poet and community activist, John Paul Taylor, director of the nonprofit group Real Life Poets. He was asked by librarian Haruyo Miyagawa to help teens eager to improve their skills for BPL's popular annual WORD UP! Student Poetry Slam for Jefferson County high school students. 

The Result:
John Paul hosts two-hour workshops one Saturday each month at the Central Library. The workshops have continued and now average 20 young poets-in-training per session (they are very popular and growing every month). Workshop goals include raising teens' commitment to reading, writing, and performing poetry while expanding performance opportunities beyond Birmingham and giving back to the community.



Our Goal:
Our goal is to raise $7,000 by May 5. The $7,000 will be used for direct costs such as instructor fees, promotional expenses, and materials and supplies. Part of the donations will be used to help some of the young performers travel to Chicago for a national poetry and performance competition called Brave New Voices. No team from Alabama has ever competed at the annual competition, and we all have great hopes that the Birmingham team will be accepted as the first. Check them out on Facebook. These performances are very impressive: 



How You Can Help: 
You can help us by contributing to this worthy cause for these talented young people. Also, please share our tweets and posts and spread the word to your email/ friends lists. During the course of the campaign, we will share several videos of students performing, such as the one here:


You may donate online or mail your donation to BPL at this address:

Birmingham Public Library 
Library WishList
2100 Park Place
Birmingham, AL 35203

As a service to the community, the Birmingham Public Library provides copies of current Federal and Alabama tax forms, instructions, and publications. Basic forms are available at most library locations; a more extensive collection of forms is available in the Government Documents Department in the Linn-Henley Research Library. Please contact your library to ensure that any forms you need are available.

Check back for updated information in the coming months.

Update:  The form 1040 instruction books for the federal tax forms have arrived and
may be picked up in Government Documents or Microforms at Central Library.

Tax forms and instructions may also be downloaded from the Internet.

Federal Forms
IRS forms and publications
Request IRS forms by mail

State Forms
Alabama Department of Revenue

General Resources
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - This governmental site has United States federal income tax forms, information, and tips. Includes warnings about tax frauds and scams, information about filling online, and the ability to track the status of your refund.

Yahoo! Finance: Tax Center - Tax forms, estimators, calculators, preparation, guides, tips, terms, calendars, rates, rules, news, and state tax profiles. Includes a basic "Beginner's Guide" for those new to preparing U.S. taxes.

Free File Home: Your Link to Free Online Filing - This IRS site is about Free File, an "online tax preparation and electronic filing through a partnership agreement between the IRS and the Free File Alliance, LLC. In other words, you can e-file... free." This site explains eligibility requirements for this free service, steps to get started, and a list of related FAQs.

Free Tax Return Preparation For You by Volunteers - Information about the Internal Revenue Service Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) Program, which "offer free tax help if you qualify. ... In addition to free tax return preparation assistance, many sites also offer free electronic filing (e-filing)."

***
Impact Alabama (IA) - IA provides free tax preparation services for households earning less than $50,000 a year with one or more children or $20,000 year without children. You must call 1-888-99-TAX-AL (1-888-998-2925) for an appointment; no walk-ins will be assisted. IA is sponsored by SaveFirst. [NOTE: There will be tax prep assistance available at Five Points West Library when the dates are confirmed. Please check back for updates.] Assistance is not available when the Library is closed for the holidays.

Smithfield Library
1 8th Ave W
Birmingham, AL 35204
(205) 324-8428
January 21-March 9
Mondays and Tuesdays from 12:00-8:00 p.m.
Saturdays from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
March 11-April 15
Mondays and Tuesdays from 12:00-5:00 p.m.

West End Library
1348 Tuscaloosa Ave SW
Birmingham, AL 35211
(205) 226-4089
January 23-March 9
Wednesdays and Fridays from 12:00-5:00 p.m.
Saturdays from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

In this historical year when Birmingham remembers the Civil Rights struggle of 1963, Karl Friedman, then a practicing attorney in Birmingham who had already served in many positions of leadership in the general and Jewish community, recalls for us how the Jewish people and community responded to the momentous events that were taking place as the African American community fought the battle for equal rights. Wednesday, March 13, noon.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Birmingham's civil rights struggle, the Birmingham Public Library is sponsoring the Year of Birmingham, a 12-month series of lectures, documentary films, performances and panel discussions.

Feed your body and mind at BPL's Brown Bag Lunch programs. You bring the lunch and we'll bring the drinks. Central Library, Linn Henley Research Building, Arrington Auditorium, 4th floor. For more information call 226-3604 or visit www.bplonline.org.

With St. Patrick’s Day upon us and the popularity of genealogy reaching new heights, now seems like an ideal time to explore one’s Irish heritage. The Southern History Department has plenty of resources, both in print and online, to help you get started.

Learning about the history of Irish immigration to the United States is a good first step. The website the Irish Genealogy Toolkit has a good overview of Irish immigration, including a handy chart detailing the number of immigrants by county for a small period of time. While the Irish have been moving to American almost from the beginning, the most well-known wave of Irish immigration took place during the mid-nineteenth century. The infamous Potato Famine occurred from 1845-1852 causing the deaths of one million people and spurring just as many to leave Ireland for other lands. An excellent source to begin your research with is the The Famine Immigrants, a multi-volume set listing the name, age, sex, occupation, date of arrival, port of embarkation, and the name of the ship of Irish immigrants to New York from 1846-1851.

If you suspect you have an Irish ancestor, census records can often confirm this for you. Beginning in 1850, the census asks for the place of birth of every individual and several later ones ask for the place of birth of their mother and father. Don’t forget to check county histories for information about early settlers to a particular area and their origins.

The website familysearch.org and the database ancestry.com both have numerous indexes relating to Ireland. Familysearch.org is a free database and the Library maintains a subscription to ancestry.com that can be accessed in any location of the Birmingham Public Library. Our new subject guide Irish Genealogy/Ancestry has links to even more resources and web sites. Enjoy.

Submitted by M.B. Newbill
Southern History Department
Central Library

Little Green: An Easy Rawlins Mystery
Walter Mosley

Easy Rawlins is back (even though his death seemed assured after the deadly car crash that ended his last Easy novel, Blonde Faith) and working on his next case. True to form, the tough WWII veteran survives and soon his murderous sidekick Mouse has him back cruising the mean streets of L.A., in all their psychedelic 1967 glory, to look for a young black man, Evander “Little Green” Noon, who disappeared during an acid trip. Fueled by an elixir called Gator’s Blood, brewed by the conjuror woman Mama Jo, Easy experiences a physical, spiritual, and emotional resurrection, but peace and love soon give way to murder and mayhem.

For those of you who are not familiar with him, Walter Mosley burst on the literary scene in 1990 with Devil in a Blue Dress, the first Easy Rawlins mystery. A native of Los Angeles and a graduate of Goddard College, he holds an MFA from CCNY and lives in Brooklyn, New York. He is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, a Grammy Award, and PEN America's Lifetime Achievement Award. Walter Mosley’s mystery novels have often been compared to those of Raymond Chandler, mainly because they share vibrant settings on the seedy side of Los Angeles in the middle decades of the 20th century.

Eleven books later, Easy (Ezekiel) Rawlins is one of a small group of private eyes in todays’ crime fiction who can be called unforgettable. So for Easy fans, May 14 will be a great day. We can all share in the return of this Mr. Mosley’s signature and most popular character.

Release date is May 14, 2013, but you can reserve a copy in advance.

Submitted by Lorraine Walker
Five Points West Library

Well, cold and flu season is still here. I got proof of that over this weekend. On Thursday and Friday of last week, I battled a sore throat and over the weekend, it became a full-fledged cold. I’m not the only one trying to muddle through; my co-worker has a cold too. I keep saying, “I’m sorry,” because I believe I gave her a cold. She’s very kind and said, “Oh, this is going around everywhere.” I still believe I gave her a cold but….

Anyway, enough about things I can’t change. I decided to put together some resources on what to do about colds, flu and sinus problems.

Books
100 Questions & Answers about Influenza

100 Questions & Answers about Sinusitis and Other Sinus Diseases

Ah-choo!: The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold
Food Cures: Breakthrough Nutritional Prescriptions for Everything from Colds to Cancer

The Merck Manual Home Health Handbook

Prescription for Natural Cures: A Self-Care Guide for Treating Health Problems with Natural Remedies Including Diet, Nutrition, Supplements, and Other Holistic Methods

Websites
Medline Plus:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/commoncold.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/flu.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/sinusitis.html

Health and Medicine Databases available through Birmingham Public Library:
http://www.bplonline.org/virtual/databases/default.aspx?p=2&q=13#db

Health InfoNet of Alabama:
http://healthinfonet.org/Pages/HealthInfo-Resources.aspx

I hope this helps you keep healthy. Gesundheit!

Submitted by Maya Jones
West End Library

The Birmingham Public Library and the Birmingham Holocaust Education Center will offer three Brown Bag Lunch Programs in March examining the history of the Holocaust. The programs will be held at noon in the Arrington Auditorium of the Central Library.

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Our spring Library WishList mini campaign is underway! This is a grassroots campaign that relies on social media and word of mouth to raise funds. We will be raising money for the Birmingham Public Library's "Flow Tactics" poetry program.


Flow Tactics is a poetry and performance workshop that began two years ago by poet and community activist, John Paul Taylor, director of the nonprofit group Real Life Poets. He was asked by librarian Haruyo Miyagawa to help teens eager to improve their skills for BPL's popular annual WORD UP! Student Poetry Slam for Jefferson County high school students. 


The Result:
John Paul hosts two-hour workshops one Saturday each month at the Central Library. The workshops have continued and now average 20 young poets-in-training per session (they are very popular and growing every month). Workshop goals include raising teens' commitment to reading, writing, and performing poetry while expanding performance opportunities beyond Birmingham and giving back to the community.





Our Goal:
Our goal is to raise $7,000 by May 5. The $7,000 will be used for direct costs such as instructor fees, promotional expenses, and materials and supplies. Part of the donations will be used to help some of the young performers travel to Chicago for a national poetry and performance competition called Brave New Voices. No team from Alabama has ever competed at the annual competition, and we all have great hopes that the Birmingham team will be accepted as the first. Check them out on Facebook. These performances are very impressive: 




How You Can Help: 
You can help us by contributing to this worthy cause for these talented young people. Also, please share our tweets and posts and spread the word to your email/ friends lists. During the course of the campaign, we will share several videos of students performing, such as the one here:


You may donate online or mail your donation to BPL at this address:

Birmingham Public Library 
Library WishList
2100 Park Place
Birmingham, AL 35203

Award-winning poet and community activist John Paul Taylor will lead free adult poetry workshops on the first Tuesday of every month from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Gifts of a Wordsmith will take place on the library's second floor in the Story Castle. The next workshop is scheduled for March 5.

The class will cover how to get your thoughts down on paper, overcoming writer's block, copyright issues, self-publishing, how to perform, and more. The Friends of the Birmingham Public Library will fund the workshops.

Taylor is one of the founders of Real Life Poets, a nonprofit creative writing program based in Birmingham. This summer he presented two workshops as part of BPL's adult summer reading program. Participants enjoyed the adult classes so much that they wanted to see them continue.

"We offered it this summer and the people wanted it back. That's why I wanted to do it,'' Taylor said. "We know it works. But it's cool when your community says, 'This is valuable.' ''

For more information on the adult poetry class, contact Taylor at johnpaul@reallifepoets.org or 205-585-8271. The Real Life Poets website is www.reallifepoets.org. The BPL contact is Haruyo Miyagawa, 205-226-3670. Her email address is hm@bham.lib.al.us.

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The 85th Academy Awards were like old home week for many of the nominees.  All of the winners in major categories have crossed the Academy Awards stage in the past, or at the very least, been nominated for an award.  Not surprisingly, a handful of films accounted for most of the wins.
The Best Picture award went to Argo.  Ben Affleck wore many hats for Argo, taking on the starring role, directing the film, and producing it.  /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} This is the second Oscar® for Affleck who picked up his first award along with Matt Damon in 1997 for Good Will Hunting (Best Original Screenplay).
Quentin Tarantino knows a few things about writing screenplays.  He won his second Best Original Screenplay award this year for Django Unchained.  /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} He received his first Oscar® back in 1994 for Pulp Fiction. 
Actors nominated with Daniel Day-Lewis for the Best Actor award probably keep their fingers crossed because he is formidable in this category.  Day-Lewis has been nominated five times for this award and his current win for the movie Lincoln marks his third victory.  /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} He won his first Oscar® for My Left Foot back in 1989 and picked up his second for There Will Be Blood in 2007.
Speaking of formidable opponents, Christoph Waltz is making his presence felt in the Best Supporting Actor category.  In Quentin Tarantino films, Waltz is two-for-two.  His performance in Django Unchained gives him a matching pair of statuettes.  He won his first in 2009 for Inglourious Basterds.
/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway were both first-time Oscar® winners.  Lawrence won the Best Actress award for her performance in Silver Linings Playbook, based on the novel by Matthew Quick.  Hathaway took home the award in the Best Supporting Actress category for Les Mis /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} érables.  Lawrence was first nominated for Best Actress in 2010 for Winter’s Bone.  Anne Hathaway was nominated for Best Actress for her 2008 performance in Rachel Getting Married. 
Director Ang Lee is no stranger to the Academy Awards.  Like Daniel Day-Lewis, he has been nominated five times (three Best Director nominations, two Best Picture nominations).  In fact, he was nominated in both the Best Picture and Best Director categories this year for Life of Pi /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} , taking home the Oscar® for Best Director.  He was also nominated for both categories in 2000 for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} His first Oscar® win came in 2005 for directing the movie Brokeback Mountain.
It’s exciting that so many talented people are working in Hollywood and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for them.  I only saw three of the nine movies nominated for Best Picture this year, but I plan to watch several more.  I was thrilled that Daniel Day-Lewis and Christoph Waltz won because they were both excellent in their respective films.  I hope your nominees won, but if not, there is always next year.  See you at the movies.  Did I just steal someone’s line? 

John Paul Taylor Award-winning poet and community activist John Paul Taylor will lead free adult poetry workshops on the first Tuesday of every month from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Gifts of a Wordsmith will take place on the library's second floor in the Story Castle. The next workshop is scheduled for March 5.

The class will cover how to get your thoughts down on paper, overcoming writer's block, copyright issues, self-publishing, how to perform, and more. The Friends of the Birmingham Public Library will fund the workshops.

Taylor is one of the founders of Real Life Poets, a nonprofit creative writing program based in Birmingham. This summer he presented two workshops as part of BPL's adult summer reading program. Participants enjoyed the adult classes so much that they wanted to see them continue.

"We offered it this summer and the people wanted it back. That's why I wanted to do it,'' Taylor said. "We know it works. But it's cool when your community says, 'This is valuable.'''

For more information on the adult poetry class, contact Taylor at johnpaul@reallifepoets.org or 205-585-8271. The Real Life Poets website is www.reallifepoets.org. The BPL contact is Haruyo Miyagawa, 205-226-3670. Her email address is hm@bham.lib.al.us.

On Friday, March 1, Bards & Brews travels to the Five Points West Regional Library for this open mic event. The Birmingham Public Library’s (BPL) popular poetry performance/beer tasting series begins at 6:30 p.m. with live music, and poetry performances start at 7:00.

Performer/comedian/all around artist Chris Davis will host the event in place of usual emcee Brian “Voice Porter” Hawkins. Chris is probably best known as a performer in and host of Fresh Ground Comics, a monthly showcase of stand-up comics at The Red Cat coffee shop in Pepper Place. The program is free of charge and open to the public.

Craft beer will be available for sampling courtesy of Highland Brewing Company, and light refreshments will be served. Attendees must be 18 years or older to be admitted, and 21 years or older to be served. IDs will be checked.

Bards & Brews is usually held on the first Friday of the month at various locations around town. The April 5 session will be held at the beautiful Birmingham Botanical Gardens and will be a SLAM. Check out the Bards & Brews page on Facebook for more information. This program is made possible by grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

On Friday, March 1, libraries and schools will be participating in the 16th Annual Read Across America. This program focuses on building a nation of readers. There are programs throughout the country to motivate children and teens to pick up a book and read! Read Across America is held every year on the weekday closest to Dr. Seuss’s birthday, March 2.

For more information, check out the following websites:

NEA's Read Across America

Seussville

Submitted by Vincent Solfronk
Youth Department
Central Library

The Regional Library Computer Center (RLCC) March computer class schedule is now available, and registration is open to the public for the free courses. Please note that class times have been changed to 10:30 am - 12:30 pm.

In addition to the basic core course (which consists of Keyboarding, Basic PC, and Basic Internet), we are offering classes teaching email, introduction to social media software, and Apache OpenOffice.org programs. Apache OpenOffice.org is the leading open-source freeware office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. It can rival the older versions of Microsoft Office and can be downloaded and used for any purpose completely free of charge. The RLCC is offering OpenOffice.org classes every other month, alternating with Microsoft Office 2010 classes. (Microsoft Office 2010 classes will be offered in April).

Here are brief descriptions of all classes offered for March 2013:

Keyboarding: This beginner class is designed for people who have not had formal training in keyboarding. It is intended to introduce you to the basics of working with the computer keyboard and the mouse. Participants need not have any previous computer experience to take this course.

Basic PC: This beginner class introduces people to the computer: basic PC terms, components, hardware, peripherals, desktop features, and using a computer. Participants need not have any previous computer experience to take this course.

Basic Internet: This beginner class introduces people to the history of the Internet, how to access and surf the Web, what web browsers are, what search engines are available, and basic search methods. Participants need to have taken Keyboarding and Basic PC or have some PC, mouse, and keyboarding experience to take this course.

Email Workshop: This intermediate class is a practical workshop which helps people set up email accounts and learn to maneuver their way through email browsers. While there are many different email services available, we have chosen to work with Gmail and Yahoo! Mail, because they are free and are two of the more popular email services available. Participants need to have taken Keyboarding, Basic PC, and Basic Internet or have some PC, mouse, keyboarding, and Internet experience to take this course.

OpenOffice.org Writer: This intermediate class teaches people how to use the OpenOffice.org word processing program. People will learn how to design and produce text documents that can include graphics, tables, or charts. Word Processing with OpenOffice.org Writer is taught in three parts. Participants need to have taken Keyboarding and Basic PC or have some PC, mouse, and keyboarding experience to take this course.

OpenOffice.org Calc: This advanced class introduces people to the OpenOffice.org spreadsheets program. People will learn to organize and manipulate data (numbers, text, times, currency, percentages, formulas, etc.), as well as work with a grid, columns, rows, and cells. OpenOffice.Org Calc is taught in two parts. Participants need to have taken Keyboarding and Basic PC or have some PC, mouse, and keyboarding experience to take this course. It is recommended that participants take OpenOffice.org Writer prior to taking this course.

OpenOffice.org Impress: This advanced class introduces people to the OpenOffice.org program used for creating multimedia presentations. People will learn to create slide presentations, using text, images, and effects. The class is taught in two parts. Participants need to have taken Keyboarding and Basic PC or have some PC, mouse, and keyboarding experience to take this course. It is recommended that participants take OpenOffice.org Writer prior to taking this course.

Introduction to Social Media: The March Social Media class will focus on FACEBOOK. This advanced class introduces people to the history, elements, and software used in social media interactions.  This class focuses on the three most popular social media software: Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook. Participants need to have taken Keyboarding, Basic PC, and Basic Internet or have some PC, mouse, keyboarding, and Internet experience to take this course. An email account is needed for this class.

UPDATE 2/26/2013: The following classes are full. (Registration will no longer be taken for these classes.):

• Keyboarding
• Basic PC
• Basic Internet
• Email
• Word Processing Part 1
• Word Processing Part 2

Submitted by Farah A. Ferguson
Public Computer Services
Central Library

Beginning Monday, March 4, the neighborhood libraries in Ensley, Inglenook, North Avondale, Powderly, Woodlawn, and Wylam that have been operating under a winter schedule will return to regular operating hours.

The neighborhood libraries will continue to close each day from 12:00-1:00 p.m. for lunch. All are closed on weekends and on Wednesday mornings in order for staff to get behind-the-scenes work done, perform community outreach activities, and participate in training as well as system-wide meetings.

Under the direction of Bobby Stringer, the G.W. Carver High School Choir will sing spirituals and traditional songs from the civil rights movement. The school's drama department will perform excerpts from the play, The Ballad of Birmingham. Wednesday, February 27, noon.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Birmingham's civil rights struggle, the Birmingham Public Library is sponsoring the Year of Birmingham, a 12-month series of lectures, documentary films, performances and panel discussions.

Feed your body and mind at BPL's Brown Bag Lunch programs. You bring the lunch and we'll bring the drinks. Central Library, Linn Henley Research Building, Arrington Auditorium, 4th floor. For more information call 226-3604 or visit www.bplonline.org.

Teens at Central Library lounge in the teen corner after school.
Are you a teen with nothing to do? Have no worries, BPL has plenty to offer you! If you are looking for a way to express your voice, you can participate in our Flow Tactics Teen Poetry Workshops, which are held the first Saturday of every month from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the Central Library. If you want to hang out with some unusual animals, you can find them at several of our locations. Need help with a school assignment? Come visit us and we will get you on the right track. Want to just hang out with your friends? We have a place for that too. Like football? This summer you can hang out with Jerricho Cotchery from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

To stay up to date with all your local library has to offer, click on the badge below and like us on Facebook.


Submitted by Katie Williams
Youth Department
Central Library

Flow Tactics Teen Poetry Workshop for grades 6-12 is held the first Saturday of every month, 2:00-4:00 p.m., in the Youth Department Story Castle at Central Library. March's workshop is scheduled for Saturday, March 2.
John Paul Taylor of Real Life Poets, Inc. is the coordinator. For more information, call Taylor at 585-8271 or email him at johnpaul@reallifepoets.org.

On February 27 and 28, the Birmingham Public Library will partner with Cities For Life and the American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation to present "Healthy Living, Healthy Eating.'' The purpose of these events will be to spread the word about a new website, www.mydiabetesconnect.com, and show people how to use it. The website was designed to help promote healthy lifestyles, reduce the risk of diabetes, and encourage diabetes management in Birmingham.

A doctor and a nutritionist will speak at these events. There will also be a 20-minute YMCA exercise class, free T-shirts and pedometers, healthy snacks, and more. Both events are free.

The first event will be held on Wednesday, February 27, at 10:30 a.m. at Five Points West Library, 4812 Avenue W. Another one will be held at the Central Library, 2100 Park Place, on Thursday, February 28 at 6:30 p.m.

Cities for Life is a diabetes management program in Birmingham that is led by the American Academy of Family Physicians with support from Sanofi US. This new website is the program’s most recent offering to help people living with diabetes or at risk for diabetes in the community.

Dr. Andrea Cherrington, of UAB’s Division of Preventive Medicine, will guide audience members through the site and answer questions about how Birmingham residents can locate programs and services near them on: healthy eating, physical activity, healthy families, support and education, healthcare, and research opportunities. A representative from UAB will provide information about free classes and health evaluations at UAB HealthSmart. Cooper Green dietician Ann Heard will give healthy living and eating tips. YMCA instructor Russell Lee will lead an exercise class.
For more information, call 267-6673.
Submitted by Chanda Temple Director of Public Relations for the Birmingham Public Library