Tag: first2know

By: Deborah Megoulas, ESA Youth Services Manager 

If you are a parent of a child 5 years old or younger, then the Parent Early Literacy Workshop is meant for you. As your child’s first teacher, the impact you can have by creating an early literacy-rich environment is great. Early literacy experiences provide the foundation for lifelong learning and academic success.  There is much you can do during these early years to help your children begin school with the language and skills they will need to be ready to learn how to read.

In this workshop, you will learn what early literacy is, what the six knowledge and skills areas are, and practical ways for helping your child develop each of those skills through the practices of reading, talking, playing, singing, and writing.  Language development begins at birth, and so does the significance of nurturing vocabulary, phonological awareness,  print awareness, and comprehension skills.

This parent workshop is based on an Early Childhood Educator Workshop we presented in 2025.  In that workshop, early childhood educators learned ways to provide enriching storytimes and other literacy-rich activities.  Feedback from that program let us know that parents would benefit from  a similar workshop. Since research shows that children who start behind typically stay behind, helping parents learn about early literacy and how they can provide early learning opportunities can make an important difference.

The Parent Early Literacy Workshop will be held on Saturday, November 7, 2026, from 10:00 AM until 12:00 pm.  We understand that not everyone will be able to leave the kids at home, so if you need to bring them, that’s okay. However, the Library will not be able to provide childcare during the program. We will have coloring sheets and books available in the room for any kids who do attend. Breakfast of coffee and bagels will be served.

By: John Grayshaw, Library Manager 

Banned Books Week is coming up from October 4 to 10. It’s a time when libraries highlight novels that have recently been challenged to illustrate an uncomfortable truth. People who fight to ban or censor books think they are valiantly protecting the public. Often the target of such challenges is school libraries where the intention is to shelter young minds. But librarians don’t see such actions as heroic.

Ray Bradbury wrote the novel “Fahrenheit 451” (1953) about censorship. In the story, in a dark future, firemen don’t fight fires; they start them, and what they burn is any books they find because they are filled with dangerous ideas.

In some ways, this is a metaphor, as Bradbury said in the novel’s Coda (included since 1979): “There is more than one way to burn a book, and too many people in this world are running around with lit matches.”

In June of 2023, Central York School District (CYSD) made history as the first in the US to prohibit banning library books. It passed a policy that created several categories for books in the district’s library system based on readers’ ages. Parents can restrict their children’s access to those age-based categories and request that books be categorized by content. But the books remain on the shelves!

During Banned Books Week in 2024, board member Aelia McMillan posted on X, “The freedom to read and the freedom to learn are making our school community stronger than ever.

Previously, when the district banned books in 2020 and 2023, the community found out and protested. Students formed the Panther Anti-Racist Union. Community members and students spoke out regularly at school board meetings asking for the books to be returned.

Students protested outside before school hours, holding signs that read: “My voice matters,” “Enough is enough CYSD,” “Committed to fighting racism,” and “Education is not indoctrination.” They also chanted, “Put the books back.”

“We believe the current policy sets an example and puts the District ahead of the curve in regard to the similar discussions now taking place at school districts across the state and country,” said district spokesperson Robert Sutherland via email to the York Dispatch.

 

According to the American Library Association, here are some of the most commonly banned books from 2010-2019:

The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Bone series by Jeff Smith

–

Here are some of the most commonly banned books from 2000-2009:

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

–

Here are some of the most commonly banned books from 1990-1999:

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

Forever by Judy Blume

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea

The Giver by Lois

Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine

A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

–

For a last word on censorship, we return to Ray Bradbury and the Coda of Fahrenheit 451.

“Some five years back, the editors of yet another ant

hology for school readers put together a volume with some 400 (count ‘em) short stories in it. 

How do you cram 400 short stories by Twain, Irving, Poe, Maupassant and Bierce into one book?

Simplicity itself. Skin, debone, demarrow, scarify, melt, render down and destroy. Every adjective that counted, every verb that moved, every metaphor that weighed more than a mosquito-out! Every simile that would have made a sub-moron’s mouth twitch-gone! Any aside that explained the two-bit philosophy of a first-rate writer-lost!

Every story, slenderized, starved, bluepenciled, leeched and bled white, resembled every other story. Twain read like Poe read like Shakespeare read like Dostoevsky read like-in the finale- Edgar Guest. Every word of more than three syllables had been razored. Every image that demanded so much as one instant’s attention-shot dead.

Do you begin to get the damned and incredible picture?

How did I react to all of the above?

By “firing” the whole lot.

By sending rejection slips to each and every one.

By ticketing the assembly of idiots to the far reaches of hell.”

By: Ann Marie Megoulas, Information Services Supervisor 

Interest in family history has grown dramatically in recent years, thanks in part to the internet and to genealogy websites like Family Search, MyHeritage, and Ancestry.com. This is certainly true among an increasing number of visitors to The Library, who like millions of Americans, have become interested in exploring their roots and in uncovering connections to the past.

Libraries have long been a trusted source for genealogy research. Offering both traditional research materials (print books, published family history accounts, local church records, newspaper archives, and more) and free access to modern genealogy databases like MyHeritage and Newspapers.com, The Library is an ideal place to begin or expand your genealogy journey.

This October, the Dauphin County Library System is hosting two fun, informative genealogy events that give you even more reasons to plan a visit.

Discover Genealogy Resources at Your Library, and Beyond will take place on October 8th at the William H. & Marion C. Alexander Family Library. This program will offer a tour of the free genealogy resources available here at The Library. Registration is required. To learn more, click here.

Our second Annual Genealogy Fair will be held at the East Shore Area Library on October 10th. The Genealogy Fair begins at 10:00 AM and will include two presentations from outside experts as well as opportunities for personal genealogy consultation appointments with knowledgeable staff. To learn more about the various sessions, please view their full descriptions on our website or on page 10 of the Compass, our program guide. You can find a link to the digital copy of Compass at the bottom of our website homepage.

I am especially excited that our first speaker is Rhonda R. McClure, a senior genealogist with American Ancestors. She will be introducing the genealogy resources that are available here in Pennsylvania. As one of the original thirteen colonies, Pennsylvania has a wealth of resources available to those lucky enough to have ties to this area.

Our second speaker is , a genetic genealogist and public historian. He will be discussing genealogy’s use in solving crimes and will explain how it has been used to help solve some of Pennsylvania’s oldest cold cases. Whether you are more interested in the true crime or genealogy aspect of this discussion, it is sure to be an intriguing event.

Please note that each Genealogy Fair session has its own description and separate registration, so be sure to register for all sessions that you wish to attend. You can register online at https://www.dcls.org/events-programs/,  or click here to view an itinerary that includes registration links. These sessions may fill quickly, so do not wait too long to register.