Different times: A digital board outside the Nicholson Memorial Library promotes a summer reading program in 2014.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, leaving people across the country stuck indoors, Garlands library system saw an opportunity to bridge a gap.

Kathleen Cizek, the public services administrator for the citys Nicholson Memorial Library System, says Garland libraries stepped up online programming and services and bulked up their digital holdings.

Weve been able to reach a much larger audience with our online programs, and hopefully that includes new viewers who realize all their Garland libraries have to offer them, Cizek said.

The library system offers programs, services and online readings for people of all ages and interests.

After the pandemic forced libraries to shut their doors to the public, library staffers sprung into action to transition in-person services and programs for virtual use.

The team worked tirelessly, first launching online story times on Facebook Live. On Fridays, for instance, the library holds family story time at 10:30 a.m.

The staff then focused on expanding special programs online, including yoga classes for youngsters and adults, the popular Pajama-rama story times in the evening, online craft courses and book clubs.

Other newly available programs include adulthood transition courses for teenagers and online performances for seniors.

Programs like online story time helped give kids and families a sense of normalcy amid a period of confusion and concern.

I think publishers and authors recognized that, too, Cizek said. Without their generous support allowing librarians everywhere the opportunity to use their books in online story times, we wouldnt have been able to use the books that kids know and love and take comfort in hearing their favorite librarian read to them.

Meanwhile, libraries worked to beef up their virtual holdings, including e-books, audiobooks, magazines, newspapers, videos and digital comic books.

Garland residents can register online for a library card, which makes it easier to access literature and other holdings in a time of social distancing.

These materials meet the demand of our patrons any time, but they were especially useful during the time the doors to our physical libraries were closed, Cizek said.

Libraries have since reopened at 25% capacity and are now operating with reduced hours, and the library system has instituted new measures aimed at protecting public health and supporting patrons.

Books are quarantined for at least 72 hours after being returned, and the libraries are not charging late fees for items that were returned after their due date because of the pandemic.

The libraries are also offering curbside pickup and returns, which helps keep in-person capacity down and promotes social distancing.

For more information about the current hours of operation at each branch, visit the Garland library systems website.

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Garland libraries are reaching residents online during the coronavirus pandemic - The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the bipartisanAccelerating Connected Care and Education Support Services on the Internet Act (ACCESS the Internet Act), which includes funding for libraries.The $2 billion legislation addresses immediate gaps in internet access necessary for distance learning and telehealth. The distance learning provision will fuel a two-year, $200 million hotspot pilot program for libraries, to be administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. A minimum allotment of $1.6 million per state will allow states, tribes, and territories to purchase and distribute internet-connected devices to libraries in low-income and rural areas. The bill includes funding for the Department of Education, the Veterans Administration and the Federal Communications Commission.

ALA President Julius C. Jefferson, Jr., praised the legislation, saying, The American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to see the introduction of Senator Manchins and Senator Cornyns solutions to keep their communities connected and Wi-Fi hotspots are in high demand as people pivot to learning, working, seeking healthcare, and many day-to-day tasks online. With so many households still without broadband at home, libraries are key to addressing digital inequities the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare.

The ACCESS the Internet Act is a timely step in the right direction and ALA commends the Senators for recognizing that investment in libraries is the most effective way to put the broadband provisions to work. This bill alongside legislation to ensure libraries are fully staffed will help millions of under-connected Americans during this critical time.

Ensuring that libraries have affordable, high-capacity internet access is a critical priority on ALAs national advocacy agenda. Throughout the pandemic, libraries have been striving to ensure their communities remain connected by loaning Wi-Fi hotspots, extending their Wi-Fi signals beyond their walls, and delivering Wi-Fi access into the community with mobile vans and partnerships with community organizations.

In addition to advocating for funding to expand internet access through libraries, ALA is urging Congress to support the Library Stabilization Fund Act (S.4181 / H.R.7486), which would address financial losses due to COVID-19 and bolster library services, allowing libraries to continue to provide essential community services, including distance learning, telemedicine, e-government services, digital collections and legal information.

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ACCESS the Internet Act to enable libraries to lessen broadband gap in rural and low-income communities - ala.org

Staff report, San Angelo Standard-Times Published 3:21 p.m. CT Aug. 10, 2020 | Updated 11:58 a.m. CT Aug. 11, 2020

Casey Dees works with a 3D printer at the Stephens Central location of the San Angelo Public Library system to produce supplies during the covid19 pandemic Thursday, June 11, 2020.(Photo: Colin Murphey / San Angelo Standard-Times)

SAN ANGELO Tom Green County Library will receive a $50,000 federal grant to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Senator John Cornyn announced Monday, Aug. 10, 2020.

The grant is a part of the $2.6 million Texas received from the Institute for Museum and Library Services as part of the CARES Act, which Cornyn supported in March.

These funds will help allow Texans to safely utilize local library services and resources, Cornyn said. I applaud area leaders in San Angelo for their work to obtain these grants and for putting the safety of Texans first as we continue to persevere through the COVID-19 pandemic.

More: San Angelo 3D printers produce PPE supplies to help during coronavirus pandemic

Tom Green County Library will use grant funds to install permanent hot spots throughout the community, with a particular emphasis on rural, outlying communities.

The library will work with San Angelo ISD and the county's rural school districts to identify areas where students who receive free and reduced school lunch services reside, targeting those areas for public, communal hot spots.

Placing hot spot stations throughout the community will get Internet services closer to where people live and work, allowing them to complete online tasks without the need to come to, or in, the library's four walls.

Grant funds will also support expansion of the librarys popular hot spot lending program, the purchase of PPE, and 3D supplies to develop protective gear in-house.

If you appreciate locally driven journalism, consider a digital subscription to GoSanAngelo.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for news updates. Submit news tips to News@GoSanAngelo.com.

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Tom Green County Library to receive $50k grant to create wifi hot spots - Standard-Times

Older magicians were tearing their hair out, and the younger ones were getting hooked, Arch said.

Besides, Cole said, magic is best learned from books, not television or, heaven forbid, the internet.

Thats how he learned as a kid in St. Louis, checking out books from the school and public libraries.

He has been a professional magician for 21 years, performing at parties, classrooms and restaurants such as the Upstream Brewing Co. and The Good Life. In schools, he visits libraries beforehand, assesses magic book collections and then promotes those titles in his presentations.

I tell them, This next trick is on page 785. If you want to learn this trick, youll have to read it, he said.

A member of the Omaha Magical Society, Cole has a fair collection of books himself.

When I pass away it will all be at UNO, I guess, he said with a laugh.

Magician Pete Petrashek shows off some of his props, in 1990.

Arch said the future of magic looks bright. The society has about 60 members; the oldest is magician Pete Petrashek, who turns 95 next week. He worked well into his 80s, performing for thousands of Omahans over the years. And as a cameraman for what now is WOWT-TV, he worked with a another young guy who dabbled in magic and was about to become famous as a talk-show host. That guy, of course, was Johnny Carson.

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New 1,200-book collection magically appears at the UNO library - Omaha World-Herald

Edtech startup BibliU has raised over 550K as part of a Series A extension funding round, supported by Angel Investment Network(AIN), the worlds largest online angel investment platform.

The British startup is a digital education platform that provides students with digital access to their textbooks and libraries across all their devices. The campaign funding round, an addition to itsapprox. 7.2 million Series A, was in response to a surge in demand due to COVID 19. Completed in eight weeks, the funds will be used for new technical hires to support demand from Universities. The startup is scaling rapidly with 60+ new pilots across the globe.

Founded in 2014, the company now has over 100 university customers including Oxford, Imperial, University of Phoenix and Coventry University. The company has digitised content from more than 2,000 publishers including: Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Oxford University Press. The content is licensed directly to universities, who can then provide access to students and include the costs in their existing tuition fees.

According to David Sherwood, CEO and co-founder of BibliU: BibliU has seen rapid growth across the globe over the last few months, and we believe COVID has pulled the transition to digital learning forward by at least 5 years. We have always existed to assist universities with this transition, by providing an unmatched student experience in a cost-effective way. BibliU is the perfect intersection for universities that are looking to create a seamless distance-learning experience, and do so in a way that introduces operational efficiencies to their workflows. Were thrilled that AIN was able to assist us in this rapid extension to our Series A, and are excited to see where this round takes us.

According to Sam Louis from Angel Investment Network, who led the raise: BibliU sits at a fantastic intersection of traditional learning structures and digital evolution. The business has broad reaching applications, a strong business model and most importantly, it delivers real value to its users. EdTech is a tough area to gain real traction and I think what BibliU has stands apart from many of the others which is why weve seen such great uptake from investors. The COVID lockdowns have now accelerated adoption of digital learning and hopefully this will lead the way for more sustained growth in the EdTEch space and of BibliU.

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London-based startup BibliU raises 550K Series A extension to bring digital libraries to more Universities - EU-Startups

The universe sometimes has a cruel way of reminding us of our past. But the human spirit usually finds a way to not only cope, but ultimately prevail.

For Rebecka Reinhard who we last caught up with in late June over her excellent single No Release it was a simple guitar pick found randomly on the street that carried a billboard-sized reminder. That pick, and the name is displayed, triggered an unwanted memory; but it also served as a cathartic catalyst for her new single, the appropriately titled A Pick.

So I found this pick. A guitar pick, Reinhard says. It was lying on the ground, face down and I obviously went to pick it up and when I flipped it over it had my exs name on it, in big black letters, just staring at me like a bad joke. I was still kind of in the process of getting over this person but instead of throwing the pick away I pocketed it and went home and wrote a song about it.

Reinhard adds: Being a true Pisces, shredding the pick until it was all worn down and the name had started fading, I felt like that was the most vengeance I would get. And I felt pretty OK with that. A Pick encapsulates that feeling I often get, of not getting things done the right way or being able to make sense of an overwhelming reality but faking it the best I can, hoping no one will notice.

Much like No Release, this new track will be featured on Reinhards new EP, Whale, due out August 21 via Crowds And Power. Listen to A Pick below.

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Rebecka Reinhard turns a bad memory into motivation on 'A Pick' - Vanyaland

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Posted by Mike Florio on August 11, 2020, 12:14 PM EDT

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Every NFL player is motivated. Some are more motivated than others.

So who are the most motivated for 2020? That topic was the subject of Mondays PFT Live draft.

Simms and I drafted three each and discussed several others. Feel free to discuss the wisdom of our selections and to articulate your own below.

Tune in to NBCSN every weekday for another edition of PFT Live, with the live showing from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. ET and a re-air from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET. Starting August 24, the live show heads to Peacock, a free service that is available on smart TVs, computers, tablets, and cell phone devices.

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Who are the most motivated players for 2020? - NBC Sports - NFL

LA Clippers guard Lou Williams said opponents should beware of a motivated Montrezl Harrell once the Clippers power forward is able to rejoin the team inside the NBA bubble.

"He's back, ready to work," Williams said of Harrell, who is currently in quarantine on the NBA campus in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. "Obviously Trez is a high-energy guy, he is a guy that plays at a high level, extremely physical player, extremely emotional player.

"With some things on his mind, I feel sorry for the other guys on the other team."

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Harrell returned to the NBA bubble in the middle of the night Sunday. The Sixth Man of the Year finalist left the team on July 17 and recently lost his grandmother. Harrell has posted numerous messages on his social media accounts detailing how emotional the death of his grandmother was while also sharing messages about how motivated he is.

Harrell is one of three key Clippers who left the team briefly in July to tend to an excused family emergency. Patrick Beverley and Williams had also departed the bubble after losing loved ones.

Williams said he understands what Harrell is going through and he's ready for the Clippers to be whole again just before the start of the postseason.

"Obviously when Trez gets back, our group will be in full swing, our team will be in full swing," Williams said. "... I think you see us play well in spurts, then with the minutes and everything, I think our coaching staff, they're getting ready for the big picture.

"Mentally we're getting ready for the big picture. I know there's another level there. I know we have another place that we can tap into. I think guys are getting ready for that."

Clippers coach Doc Rivers said he's looking forward to the possible return of Harrell this week. Pending NBA testing protocol and clearance, Harrell could potentially come out of quarantine before the Clippers' regular-season finale against Oklahoma City on Friday.

"It would be kind of nice to have our normal rotation at least one time in the bubble," Rivers said when asked whether Harrell could be expected to play Friday. "We have to be the only team that has not had their normal rotation one game this entire bubble stretch. It's been tough in that way. But hopefully we can get it for one game."

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Clippers' Lou Williams says opponents should beware of motivated Montrezl Harrell - ESPN

CHICAGO - Amanda Sousa from the womens nonprofit, Women Employed, shares with The Real Chi the purpose behind a womens movement and how it can be influential in a pandemic.

As a manager of engagement for Women Employed, Sousa informs and empowers people as she engages with supporters both online and offline to help them understand issues of gender inequity that Women Employed is working to address. She contacts legislators and educates those lawmakers networks in their communities. After organizing for over five years, she said she loves her job and it feels great to be a part of the change that Women Employed is making.

It's important for everyone and especially young people to be involved with politics and advocacy because we have the power to shape our world," she said.

Women Employed's goal is to influence the systems that have a tremendous impact on women's economic equity, especially for women of color and women in low paid occupations.

Sousa recalled one of her proudest moments working at Women Employed was in 2016 when the organization led the fight to win paid sick time for half a million workers in the city of Chicago and Cook County. The laws went into effect in 2017 and made it possible for workers to take time off when their loved ones are sick or when they are experiencing sickness themselves without worrying about missing a day's worth of pay. They advocated because people were in fear of their position being terminated, getting their hours cut for taking time off to take care of family or even their own well-being. Looking back on her work from that time, Sousa said, "That was a really proud moment to get to see all those years of advocacy come to fruition with that law passed in Chicago and Cook County."

There was motivation behind creating an organization such as Women Employed. Sousa said, "Women Employed was founded in the '70s by young women experiencing gender discrimination and harassment in their workplaces in downtown Chicago. They decided that they weren't going to stand for it anymore." In the women activists opinion, women often get the message that they should be nice and play by the rules and not make noise, but women's voices are powerful, especially when they join together.

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An advocate shares her motivation behind being apart of women's movement - The Real Chi

By: Lifestyle Desk | New Delhi | Published: August 10, 2020 7:00:10 am

Carrie Green started her first business when she was only 20. In her TED talk, she explains the challenges she faced in controlling her negative and inhibiting thoughts, and how she overcame them to achieve success.

Green recounts how in the initial stages of opening her first online business, she was extremely motivated and excited. But as her business flourished, negative thoughts overtook her mind. She was overwhelmed with the feeling of self-doubt. She says, People are missing out on incredible opportunities all the time because of what is going on their head, because they are making bad decisions based off a really bad frame of mind and these wonderful ideas, and these incredible potentials stay locked up inside, and you never do anything with them.

She reveals how Michael Gerbers book The E-Myth helped bring her out of this rut. She says, I realised that I had to figure out what it was that I wanted to achieve; why I wanted to achieve it; why it actually meant something to me.

ALSO READ |You will never look like an influencer, no matter how hard you try

I had to figure out the kind of person that I needed to become, in order to make it happen. And then, I had to program my mind to make it happen. I had to program my mind for success.

Green divulges that as soon as she took control of her thoughts, it became much more thrilling to set goals and then complete them.

I realised if I could get my mind to be certain, I could make something happen, that somehow I would figure out a way, and I always have. Because success is no accident. Living an incredible life is no accident. You have to do it on purpose, she says in conclusion.

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Motivation for the week: Programming your mind for success - The Indian Express