street exhibit

Are you a local history buff or simply interested in Ann Arbor's early days? Check out the on-line tour of permanent sidewalk exhibits located at sixteen landmark sites in our city. Locate the actual street exhibits by using a map provided on the site. You'll find the on-line tour and a look into the past at http://www.aadl.org/aastreets.

Summer is a good time to learn – and AADL has a great resource to help you: LearningExpressLibrary. This collection of interactive online practice tests and tutorials is designed to help students and adults pass academic and licensing tests. Categories include Advanced Placement, Math Skills, Reading Skills, Writing Skills, and SAT Preparation.

Downtown exterior

Looking for place to gather your book group, hold a study group or have a small committee meeting? Consider the Library! We have two study rooms on the second floor of the Downtown Library that hold eight to ten people. Each has tables on which to spread out your papers and a door to close, keeping your conversations private. We also have study rooms at our Malletts Creek and Pittsfield Branches, which hold two, three or even four people if you don't require that much space. All of them are available on a first-come first-served basis and all of them are free!

freespace

Looking for a place to have a small meeting and can't afford to rent a room? Check out the aadlfreespace on the 3rd floor of the Downtown Library. It holds up to 32 people. You can reserve this room for meetings for free up to four times in a calendar year and make your reservations on line. Reservations must be made at least two weeks in advance. You will need an AADL library card to make the reservation. Date availability is shown as well on line. Can't get to a computer? Call 734-327-8323 to make your reservation.

In the spirit of the 1950s folk music revival, the AADL Library Songsters program brings folk musicians, storytellers and dancers into our public schools to teach these traditional arts to students. This year Banjo Betsy Beckerman taught fourth graders at Angell and Pattengill how to write Michigan history songs; Glen Morningstar Jr. brought "Dancing Through American History" to Burns Park, and Lee Knight showed storytelling to sixth graders at Slauson. At the end of each three-day residency, students came to the library to perform their creations for each other or parents. They had a good time learning history, and some go to hear live folk music at places like The Ark or Crazy Wisdom Tea Room. AADL has a excellent collection of folk music recordings, histories and songbooks.

Learn where to look for a job, how to create a resume and beef it up, and how to ace the job interview. Join us in the multipurpose room of the Downtown Library this Sunday, March 4 from Noon to 4 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

Register at the Downtown Youth desk or call 327-8301.

Don’t miss Duct Tape! Re-Mix at Pittsfield Tuesday, Feb. 27 from 1-3 p.m. We’ll provide the tape - in a bunch of colors from camouflage to pink - and you do the rest. Make what you want and meet other tapeheads. We’ll have duct tape books like Got Tape?: Roll out the fun with duct tape on hand for inspiration.

You can now find all your favorite Mystery, Sci-Fi, or Fantasy authors all in one place at the Downtown Library. The formally all paperback section is now interfiled with the hardbound books. Romance and Western books are now interfiled in the general fiction area and can be identified by a label on the book spine. We hope you enjoy the ease of browsing these collections.

Please visit our book display on the 2nd floor reference section of our Downtown location. Throughout the month of February, browse our book display of titles representing the history of African Americans in the U.S. All books from the display can be borrowed for your reading pleasure.

Americans are not accustomed to designing single-family homes for the probability that someone close to them will have mobility problems in the future. At a recent meeting of Senior Advocates of Washtenaw (SAW), a workgroup of Blueprint for Aging, Carolyn Grawi, Sue Hart and David Esau introduced the concept of visitablility. The goal is for anyone living in or visiting your home to be able to enter, move about, and use the bathroom.

AADL is barrier-free, and has books that address this concept: Design for Assisted Living, Design for Dignity, Beautiful Barrier-Free, and Building Design for Handicapped and Aged Persons. Go to concretechange.org for more information.