Job Seekers Workshop at Library on October 20

Department of Labor To Co-Sponsor “Job Search Strategies”

The Stratford Library Adult Services Department will offer a special workshop for job seekers on Tuesday, October 20 starting at 10 am. “Job Search Strategies” is hosted by the Connecticut Department of Labor’s Bridgeport Office in conjunction with the Adult Services Department of the Stratford Library.

The workshop will discuss job search strategies for the 21st century. New tools and techniques will improve one’s chances for success in today's job market. The program is presented by Michael Shavel, a career counselor from Bridgeport's Department of Labor. Following the workshop, there will be options for hands-on job searching practice. Inquire at the Stratford Library’s Reference desk about reserving a p.c. in their new, on-site Career Center. The library workshop is free and open to the public but seating is limited and advanced registration is required. It will be held in the Library’s Lovell Room between 10 am and noon on October 20th. To register, call the Stratford Library’s Adult Services Department at 203.385.4164.

Pink Ribbons

Have you noticed lots of people wearing pink lately? October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. The library has a display up with books & lots of pamphlets (& magnets)about all aspects of breast cancer - prevention, finding doctors, treatment options, emotional help and survivor stories. The Breast Cancer Network of Strength has kindly given the library a big box of information for us to pass along to you. Topics include- "What You Need to Know", "Breast Cancer Prevention" and "When the Woman You Love has Breast Cancer". The Breast Cancer Network of Strength is also looking for volunteers to help with various aspects of their services- we have volunteer applications at the library or you can contact Anita Patel, the volunteer coordinator at the Branford, CT office: 312-873-2757 or email apatel@networkofstrength.org

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During the month of September, you can show your library card and save! See the list of terrific deals available at the various businesses.

Happy Savings!

Labor Day holiday

The Stratford Library will be closed on Saturday, Sept. 5, Sunday Sept. 6, and Monday Sept. 7 in observance of Labor Day. We will reopen on Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 10 am.

(Above: the first celebration of Labor Day, in New York City)

The first Labor Day was celebrated in New York City on Sept. 5, 1882, when some 10,000 workers assembled to participate in America's first Labor Day parade. After marching from City Hall to Union Square, the workers and their families gathered in Reservoir Park for a picnic, concert and speeches. This first Labor Day celebration was initiated by Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and labor union leader who a year earlier co-founded the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, a precursor of the American Federation of Labor.

McGuire had proposed his idea for a holiday honoring American workers at a labor meeting in early 1882. New York's Central Labor Union quickly approved his proposal and began planning events for the second Tuesday in September. McGuire had suggested a September date in order to provide a break during the long stretch between Independence Day and Thanksgiving. While the first Labor Day was held on a Tuesday, the holiday was soon moved to the first Monday in September, the date we continue to observe.

New York's Labor Day celebrations inspired similar events across the country. Oregon became the first state to grant legal status to the holiday, in 1887; other states soon followed. In 1894 Congress passed legislation making Labor Day a national holiday.

You can watch an early motion picture by Thomas Edison of a 1904 Labor Day parade on the Library of Congress's American Memory site.

--This article originally appeared at the Library of Congress's "Wise Guide" page.

Summer Reading Program for Adults

Over 100 adults participated and over 475 books were read in our first-ever summer reading program for adults. We send hearty thanks to all the businesses and organizations helping to make possible the fabulous prize incentives.

Many participants told us that the program really did encourage them to read more this summer. Some individuals expressed their appreciation that the program allowed them to model good reading habits to their children - Mom or Dad was in a summer reading "club", too. Other people told us they were thrilled just to have a fun outlet for their steady reading habit. If you didn't join this summer, we hope you'll keep it in mind next year!

Shakespeare on a summer day

Three plugs for Shakespeare today.

First, the library just bought a set of 25 DVDs, all of Shakespeare's major works, produced by the BBC in the 1970s and 1980s. You can see Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Bob Hoskins, Sir John Gielgud, Dame Wendy Hiller, and even John Cleese in these made-for-tv movies, which were done with that expertise in the dramatic tradition that only British actors have.

Second, the Hudson Shakespeare Company will return to the Stratford Library on August 22nd with a free performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor. The 2 pm show will be outdoors, weather permitting, or indoors in the library's Lovell Room if the skies look threatening. The comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor is Shakespeare's only play to deal with his contemporaries -- the Elizabethan middle class.

And finally, if you like to go down to "the city," you might sign up for sword and unarmed combat classes, which the Hudson Shakespeare Company's fight choreographer regularly offers in New York City. Roman swords, found objects, rapiers, cudgels, broadsword, quarterstaff... you name it, Michael Hagins can teach you to wallop someone with it (theatrically, of course). The Hudson Shakespeare website can tell you more about these classes, which are recommended for general fitness as well as for aspiring actors.