Saturday, February 27, 2021 at 7 PM EST – 9 PM EST

Join us for Howard County Library System's Evening in the Stacks: Serata Virtuale - an exquisite tour of Italy, from the comfort and safety of your own home.

Emcee for the evening, Elsa M., host of "Midday Maryland", will host our journey to Italy with our tour guide Lindsey from Hooked on a Bite. Our tour includes a visit to a winery, a chef demo, truffle hunting, and more. HCLS is proud to partner with local vendors for this year’s event who have curated our meals and wine pairings. Select your Escursione from our touring packages listed below. All guests will receive Benefici, compliments of our Sponsors.
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• Aperitivo: This experience is designed for young professionals and our out-of-town supporters. Pre-order and pick it up la cena from our local restaurant partners: Tino’s or Aida Bistro.
• Esperienza: Enjoy access to a private cocktail hour; la cena,delivered Italian dinner for one from La Prima Catering, and a libro of your choice.
• La Dolce Vita: Perfect date night experience. You will both enjoy access to a private cocktail hour; la cena, delivered Italian dinner for two from La Prima Catering, vino, and a libro of your choice.

Event proceeds will help the Library fund two critical programs during the COVID pandemic: learning activity kits for students K-12 and access to Chromebooks and hotspots for our neighbors without internet access.

"We are proud to sponsor Evening in the Stacks each year, and support our wonderful Howard County Library System. On behalf of the Friends & Foundation Board of Directors, I invite you to join us and look forward to seeing you "in Italy, ciao!" - Mickey Gomez, Friends Board Chair.

Click here to get tickets

Friends,

​This year’s enforced social isolation has been a challenge for many. People naturally seek connections, and the library has always been a place to make them – whether at a children’s early literacy class or an adult author event. When Howard County Library System (HCLS) closed its doors in mid-March due to the pandemic, it saw an opportunity to expand community engagement and focus on improving local wellbeing through a series of “Pandemic Pivots.”
 
Here are five important ways Friends & Foundation of HCLS has supported HCLS through this challenging year, so the Library can better support YOU:

• Safety: Special funding for PPE allowed staff to execute contactless pickup of materials. This keeps Library staff and the community safe while providing books and other materials. Returns came pouring back into the branches when HCLS re-opened in late June, and customers reserved more than 70,000 items in the first month of contactless pickup. HCLS missed you, too!

 

• Access for All: Public computers with free online access and free wifi for personal devices are among the many reasons libraries continue to be valued so highly in communities around the country. The need is even greater with local public-school education happening virtually for now and many people looking for a job or reliable health information. 

 

• Economic Success for Immigrants: Project Literacy helps adults pursue English language literacy and employment goals, and COVID-19 has particularly affected low income families and immigrants who do not speak English fluently. In April, tutors made the transition to virtual learning and introduced a new class: English Conversation for Parents. This new class helps parents assist their children navigate virtual learning from home. This long-standing HCLS program received a $100,000 planning grant from IMLS (Institute for Museum and Library Services) to expand classes to skilled immigrants.

 

• Student Success and School Readiness: Through HiTech, HCLS provided extra math classes and fun STEM activities during the summer to help mitigate “summer slide,” a time in which students may lose crucial skills when schools are closed. Additionally, HiTech turned its summer carnival into a Carnival in a Bag this fall, giving student hands-on activities to complete at home while interacting with instructors and other kids virtually.

 

• Equity: HCLS started a Libraries Stand Against Racism online directory of resources about anti-racism and racial equity, and increased programming and collaboration in this space. In August, HCLS removed late fines from most materials and cleared all accounts of past due amounts. Our community is stronger and healthier when everyone has access to the materials they need to pursue their educational, career, family, and life goals. Going fine free is aligned with HCLS’ commitment to equity and positions the Library to more fully live its mission of providing high quality public education for all Howard County residents.

 
The success of the Library’s “Pandemic Pivot” this year is directly connected to the support from the Friends & Foundation of HCLS. Please consider a donation to the Friends & Foundation of HCLS to help our continued support of these expanded and added services.

​You can donate through our new website: friendshcls.org.
 
Thank you!
 
Mickey Gomez, Chair
Friends & Foundation of Howard County Library System

Dear Friends,
 
As we head toward the Thanksgiving holiday and take stock of what we are grateful for, we want to take a moment to thank all of you.
 
Without your support of the Friends & Foundation of HCLS, we wouldn’t be able to support the many fantastic programs of the Howard County Library System.
 
It’s because all of you – our #Friends – that we are able to ensure that we have programs like:

• Battle of the Books
• HCLS Spelling Bee
• HCLS BumbleBee
• HiTech STEM classes and events
• Notable Author Events
• HCLS Project Literary Graduation
• Rube Goldberg Challenge
• Summer Ready Kickoff and Clubs
• Children’s Discovery Fair
• Teen Time
• Online Homework Assistance
• Enchanted Garden
• Family Movie Nights

 
While this past year with COVID-19 has been challenging and has changed how we are currently interacting with our fabulous Howard County Library System, we are so grateful for their incredible efforts and ability to pivot during the pandemic.
 
And, we know you are too – because we are hearing from you:
 
“We are most grateful for the library’s efforts during the COVID outbreak to keep the community engaged. The contactless pickup has been very valuable to our family in supplying us with lots of reading material. This has helped ease the burden of being less active in the community day-to-day. We are proud to be a small part of helping to keep these programs going. Cheers.”
 
And:

"Giving to Friends of HCLS is rewarding to us. I've enjoyed taking advantage of the Library's current borrowing scheme with its contactless pickup.  That's certainly very innovative of the staff and is part of what makes HCLS the best system in the country."

Thanks to you all for your ongoing support.

This holiday season we are very grateful for you.
 
Sincerely,
 
Mickey Gomez, Chair
Friends & Foundation of HCLS Board
www.friendshcls.org

We are excited to announce a brand new Friends & Foundation of Howard County Library System website! 

This updated platform will make it easier for our donors and supporters to learn more about us, what we do, and how to donate and support our efforts to both celebrate and fund a variety of exceptional HCLS programs and initiatives.

It will also give those who care about our library system a simple, powerful path to both discover and amplify upcoming events and ways to get involved across a variety of social media platforms. 

Our new blog, created to share ongoing and timely information, will help spotlight current events that affect Friends, HCLS, and our community.  
 
We invite you to join us in supporting HCLS and the many programs we fund. Each and every one of us are touched by and benefit from our remarkable Howard County Library System.

Together, we are all Friends of the Library.

We hope that this new website makes it easier for us all to support an organization that we know makes a real difference in our community.

- Mickey Gomez, Chair, Friends & Foundation Board of Directors

A Message from HCLS President and CEO Tonya Aikens

My heart aches at the cruel and inhumane acts routinely inflicted upon my Black brothers and sisters and all people of color. Tears stream from my eyes because statements like this continue to be issued in the aftermath of senseless killings like those of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. I wail as committees are formed to check the box so we can bird watch in public parks and not endure what Christian Cooper endured. My gut wrenches because conversations must be held to see that our children have the protections denied Aiyana Jones at seven years of age. My soul is in a state of unrest to see people of all races and ethnicities in harm’s way and being harmed as they peacefully protest in support of respect, equal justice and equal treatment for all. The statements, committees and conversations should and must continue, but we must also move past them, standing against racism and hatred each time it is in our midst, and strategizing and enacting change until America’s promises ring true for all citizens.

Learning of one another, our shared history, and the peaceful steps we can all take is essential to reaching this goal. In line with its mission of high-quality education for all, Howard County Library System (HCLS) dove into the topics of systemic racism with the Undesign the Redline exhibit and Color of Law author Richard Rothstein event (in person and on our HiJinx podcast), and racial justice with Waking Up White author Debby Irving and educator Lisa Gray. 

HCLS condemns racism, hatred and violence. Today, HCLS invites you to join us in committing to and engaging in an educational pursuit for justice.

Public libraries across the country have the responsibility to advance social equity. HCLS stands united with the Urban Libraries Council and the American Library Association in condemning racist incidents and behavior that targets individuals and communities.

HCLS is one of more than 160 North American public library systems that have shown their strong commitment to ending structural racism by signing ULC’s Statement on Race and Social Equity, which asserts that “libraries can help achieve true and sustained equity through an intentional, systemic and transformative library-community partnership.”

The American Library Association unequivocally condemns racism and endorses recent statements by the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel Peace Laureate once said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

I implore you not to be neutral. The cost for neutrality is simply too high. It’s incalculable. I invite you to take the deep pain felt in our community and use it to fuel positive change. Peacefully learn, grow, share, support and act. Our talented team will continue to add to the list of materials below curated for all ages in various formats. Read. Watch. Listen. Share. Act.

Sincerely,

Tonya Aikens
President and CEO
Howard County Library System

Statements from HCLS Board of Trustees
Statements from the Friends & Foundation of HCLS Board of Directors

ANTI-RACIST TITLES 

Read 

• An Antiracist Reading List  from Howard County Library System
• Anti-racist reading list from Ibram X. Kendi
• Social Justice Books – Young Adult Fiction
• Social Justice Books for Young Adults and Middle Grades
• Children’s books to support conversations on race, racisim and resistance

Watch 
https://www.kanopy.com/category/29286

Learn
What White People Can Do for Racial Justice

Dear Friends,

We miss you! And we know that you miss us, too!

It may not feel like a time to celebrate, but during this National Library Week we wanted to take a moment to thank you for turning - now more than ever - to the virtual and online resources offered by HCLS.

Online resources such as TeenBookCloud, TumbleBookCloud Junior, and ScienceFlix saw average increases in use of nearly 900% in March. Visits to our e-resources pages for elementary school students are up 725% since March 16. In that same time period, page views for the research page increased 75%, and online-classes page views are up 222%.

We appreciate how much you value the Library. Despite the mandate to close our physical spaces, the Library continues to focus on connecting customers to e-resources, and creating new ways to provide virtual programming. If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for our eNewsletter here, and check back to hclibrary.org for new content weekly.

The Library has launched two reading challenges: Play, Create, and Learn for ages 5-13 and Social Distance Reading Challenge for ages 14 and up. Both track reading, offer fun educational mini-games to earn points and unlock badges, and provide mission lists full of activities. Already more than 1000 people have participated, and more are joining each week. Get started at readsquared.

Consider learning a new language through AV2 world languages. With the ability to easily switch between English, Arabic, French, German, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, and Tagalog, readers can experience the text in their own language, as well as any language they’d like to learn.

Or try Storyline Online to stream a video of celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside animated illustrations. David Harbour from Stranger Things reads Snappsy the Alligator, by Julie Falatko or Betty White reads, Harry the Dirty Dog, by Gene Zion. Each title includes an activity guide.

HCLS brings people together, provides education for all, and is the heart and soul of our community. HCLS has been here for 80 years, and we will continue to be here, offering creative, fun, inspiring, and energizing ways for you to learn and grow and expand your horizons, even during such challenging times.

Stay safe and well and we look forward to seeing you in person when the doors re-open.

Sincerely,

Mickey Gomez
Chair