What is Library Codelab?

Library Codelab is a technology series based on the concepts of accessibility, collaboration and fun.  Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and community partners will offer monthly meetups for adults to explore different coding languages through projects and hands-on practice. We offer resources, motivation and access to a community of coders in a non-intimidating environment. At each meeting, we focus on a different coding language or concept and work together on a project.

The meetings are intended as an introduction to a concept, so you understand it enough to supplement the class time with self-paced learning (such as Codecademy, Udacity, Lynda.com). For example, in our JavaScript 101 class, we'll introduce you to JavaScript, use W3Schools to practice together, build a JavaScript function that produces a pop-up on a webpage, then respond to user input. We will meet monthly at different locations throughout Charlotte.

Who is Library Codelab for?

This group is meant for adults with an interest in coding or those who have tried to learn on their own but want or need more support as they learn. If you don't feel ready to attend some of the major Charlotte tech Meetups (Charlotte Devs, Code for Charlotte, Queen City Bytes, etc.) but still want to learn, this is the group for you. Our group allows you to learn from other beginners and ask all the questions. It can also be a great environment for getting a taste of different coding languages to help you decide what you might like to deep dive into. It's really meant as a first step into the world of learning to code.

Do I have to know how to code to join?

Absolutely not. You do need to have relatively good computer skills and a love for technology—but you don't have to know anything about coding before you come. At each meeting we tackle a topic as if we’ve never seen it before, but if you have, it can be great review and help you grasp a topic completely. Most members have tried to learn code on their own, or are at least familiar with HTML, but have struggled with learning it alone or aren’t sure where to go next in their coding journey. Join us at our next meetup to explore all that Library Codelab has to offer!

Upcoming events

Library Codelab: Intro to Web Concepts & Tech Careers​ –  Beatties Ford Regional Library, Randolph Room – 2412 Beatties Ford Rd.

This introductory workshop covers the fundamentals of web development in layman terms. This is a no-code workshop. It covers basic concepts like the difference between a client and a server, the difference between backend and front end code, and the typical web development team. The course also includes a brief overview of modern web concepts including cloud/DevOps.

Other Info

The final 30 minutes of the workshop will be dedicated to a round table discussion and open Q&A about tech careers/working in the field. If you have questions around getting started, resources, languages and tools to use, this will be a great time to get them answered. The presenters of this portion of the session currently work in the field and have non-traditional (bootcamp and/or self taught) backgrounds. Their experience includes front end, full stack development, and distributed database knowledge. This class is for people with little technical experience, or those just starting to explore opportunities in the technical field.

Register here  January 25, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Library Codelab: Intro to Web Concepts & Tech Careers – Beatties Ford Regional Library, Community Room B

Join us at this program if you are familiar with web concepts, but would like the opportunity to have an intimate, round-table discussion specifically on careers in technology.

Other Info

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS: Cristina Veale is a Developer Advocate at DataStax, QCB Organizer, and Engagement Director of Fleurix Conference. The first meetup she ever attended was an Intro to Web Concepts course(!) which spurred her interest towards frontend development. Cristina has been developing web applications, teaching, and advocating for underrepresented groups in technology for the past five years and counting. Louise Clark is a front end developer at Duke Energy. She decided to switch careers and become a developer after more than a decade of teaching Latin American history at local universities. Louise also has three kids who think it's entirely possible she might code the next Minecraft game someday.

Register here  January 28, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

Library Codelab: Intro to Programming with QC Bytes​ – Independence Regional, IB Community Room – 6000 Conference Dr.

Queen City Bytes is partnering with Charlotte Mecklenburg Library to bring you a Winter Coding series! Snacks will be provided. You are encouraged to bring your own laptop and charger. Variables? Loops? Syntax? It sounds complicated, but programming is simply providing instructions to a computer. Similar to a person following a recipe, a computer needs to be told step by step what to do in a way it can understand. In this workshop you will learn more about the basics of programming and logic. Attendees will gain exposure to creating flow charts, writing code snippets, and a general approach for building a program.

Other Info

This workshop is designed for those completely new to programming. A laptop is recommended, however the library will be able to provide one if needed. All resources will be shared via the library's mailing list and on www.meetup.com/qc-bytes.

Register here  February 1, 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Library Codelab: Intro to Programming/Open Lab – Plaza Midwood Library, Community Room, – 1623 Central Avenue

Curious about learning to code, but don't know where to start? Join us for this introductory class focused on how the web works, programming logic and and intro to common programming languages. No computer is needed for this class. Beginners are welcome.

Register here  February 5, 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Want to learn more?
Join our email list here or find us on Meetup here.

Charlotte Pride Festival and Parade 

Every third weekend in August, Charlotte Pride holds its annual Pride Festival and Parade. Since Charlotte’s first Pride Parade in 2013, it’s grown bigger, better and has attracted hundreds of thousands of people. In 2018, 165,000 people attended Pride. This year, over 200,000 attended with over 6,000 participants. 

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library  

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library prides itself on being a welcoming place for all—a place where we celebrate diversity and inclusion. As part of that mission, the Library started participating in the Pride Parade in 2018 by being one of the many groups to walk in the parade. Our group photo of that day gained the most likes on Instagram of all the library posts up to that point. During the parade, it was clear by the amount of people excitedly shouting, “It’s the library!” that our participation was important to our community.

This year the Library also held a Pride Summit at Beatties Ford Regional Library on August 13, organized by Viviette White. The Summit brought community members and organizers alike to the library. Participants met established and emerging leaders from organizations such as One Voice Charlotte, PFLAG Charlotte, Atrium Health and the Library for an afternoon of learning, networking and the kick-off of Pride week at the library. This event was the first of its kind and hopefully the first of many more LGBTQ+ events in the library system.  

This year, 25 staff members and their families from different library locations participated in the parade and represented the system by walking. One of the participants said, “I’m so glad I was able to participate. Seeing how supportive and appreciative the community was makes me glad the Library is involved. I can’t wait to participate next year!” Those who were not able to attend the parade aided in various way leading up to the event. Thank you to all who supported our efforts to bring Library resources to the Charlotte community and helping us build a stronger community!  

Happy Pride! You are welcome here. 

Beyond the Parade:  

Although Charlotte Pride is over for this year, the Library provides the community with many LGBTQ+ resources and materials throughout the year. Here are a few: 

Library Booklists 

During the parade we handed out bookmarks with book recommendations for children, teens and adults. You can view those books here.  

The American Library Association’s Rainbow Books List is a curated bibliography highlighting books with significant gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer/questioning content, aimed at children and youth from birth to age 18.

The first and most enduring award for GLBT books is the Stonewall Book Awards, sponsored by the ALA’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table.

Community Resources and Organizations 

Time Out Youth is a Library partner and an organization that provides a safe space for LGBTQ+ youth to be their authentic selves.

PFLAG Charlotte provides support for parents and caregivers of LGBTQ youth. They have some great resources available here.

For more information on Charlotte Pride, check out their website. They host a lot of other events throughout the year as well.

This blog was written by Abs Keller

Summer is the perfect time for fun, mystery reading but, admittedly, it can be tough to get your hands on the in-demand mystery books. For instance,  the psychological thriller The Chain by Adrian McKinty, with its strong buzz, has a long request list for Library customers. While that particular title may be a late summer—or fall---option, best-selling writer Kate Atkinson’s new title Big Sky, a continuation of the Jackson Brodie (detective) series is a great read while you wait!        

What other options do mystery lovers have for the remainder of the season?  We suggest revisiting some of selections released earlier this year that might have been overlooked. Here’s a list of nine novels offering a variety of stories from the grittyJ.D. Robb police procedural in Connections in Death with Lieutenant Eve Dallas to the witty English mystery The Golden Tresses of the Dead: a Flavia de Luce novel by C. Alan Bradley which spotlights a 12-year-old sleuth.

For the devoted, or even the occasional, mystery summer reader, there are always new characters to discover or series to revsit for the next case.

This blog was written by Lawrence Turner

How valuable is your library card? Library card holder Angela Glennon was surprised to find out just how much money she saves on one of her weekly trips to Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

When Glennon’s children were babies and toddlers, she considered the Library to be their escape, a free place to go where they could have adventures in books, attend fun children’s programs and meet other young families.

As her three children grew into voracious readers, the library became even more essential to Glennon and her family. They all look forward to their weekly trips so they can stock up on new books. They appreciate the knowledgeable staff members who help them find books on whatever the children are obsessed with that week— it’s ranged from snakes to The Magic Tree House, from horror stories to American history and from butterflies to picture books with photo-realistic illustrations. Glennon says, “No request is too crazy for those dedicated librarians!”

With the American Library Association’s Library Value Calculator, Glennon found out she saved her family $660 in just one visit. That visit included attending adult and children’s programs, checking out more than 30 books and using a library computer, as well as asking the staff reference questions. Upon seeing her total value, she remarked, “That's a lot of money and value per visit! I'm sure the total amount varies each time and whether we attend a program that week, but, as a family that has maxed out our library card in the past, I'm sure there have been trips where we've saved even more money. Obviously, we could never afford to purchase all those books, so we're always happy to use the library!”

Even though Glennon’s focus is on her family, she’s also attended many Library-sponsored adult programs. Through them she’s met interesting, wonderful people, acknowledging she’s learned so much more in a group than she could on her own.

Just like Glennon, you can find out how much you can save with a Charlotte Mecklenburg Library card by clicking here.

Know someone who doesn’t have a Library card but should? Send them here today so they can start saving money and enjoy all the benefits: sign up for a library card.

This blog was written by Darcey Mesaris.

September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month. As a librarian and lifelong learner, I can think of a million reasons to sign-up for a library card but, in my opinion, the most important reason everyone should have a library card is this: access.

I still remember the awe I felt walking into my hometown library as a young kid to get my first library card. With that precious new card, I was able to wander the streets of Paris, learn how volcanoes erupt and get stranded on a desert island. I learned so much from materials I wasn’t able to find anywhere else. Later, as a struggling college and graduate student, I saved money on required reading and internet service, thanks to my library card. As a voracious reader, my library card also provided me opportunities to explore a multitude of resources to educate myself on whatever random topic I am currently obsessed with learning. Even before I became a librarian, one of the first things I did upon moving somewhere new was to sign-up for a library card, as I wanted to enjoy the benefit of access.

Throughout my career in libraries, I witnessed firsthand the power access to information and resources provides to the community. For instance, one of my regular customers found himself unhappy in his career and wanted a change. He came in daily after work to use the computers to job search and update his resume. He would also check out books in areas of professional development, such as leadership and self-confidence. We guided him to our online databases where he could take classes on time management and other business skills. After four months, he returned one evening to proudly announce he had secured a new job. Even after achieving his goal, he remained a frequent library user as he still needed access to business resources (like Reference USA that are free through the library) to help him continue to succeed.

Another customer who used her library card to access the public computers since she did not have one at home, came to the reference desk, in tears, asking how to sign out of the computer.  After offering her help, she explained she was trying to create the program for her wedding service on one of our computers and feared she’d lost all her work. She wanted to leave before she felt any worse.  

I told her I was not going to let her leave in tears and helped her make her program. She spent nearly three hours on that program and when she left, with a hardcopy of the program in her hands, she beamed with joy.

Throughout my years as a librarian, I’ve helped so many people feel the same joy I did when I first signed up for my library card. My customers have traveled the world, expanded their knowledge and entertained themselves, all with one little card.  So many people educated themselves at the Library -  all because of the access their library card gives them. This is more than just books, and goes beyond to resources, services, programs and people who truly care about the people in their communities. And all of this is FREE.  The access a library card provides is unparalleled.

Sign up here for your own Library card.

This blog was written by Darcey Mesaris

What’s one more thing to add to an already hectic schedule during your final year of college? An internship. Sure, the idea of partying and celebrating your forthcoming freedom from school seems enticing, but snagging an internship (when a student works for an organization -- paid or unpaid, providing an opportunity to gain valuable experience, learn new and useful skills and make priceless connections) is beneficial in the long run. An internship can last anywhere from three to six months, so it doesn’t take up your entire final year of college. Think about all the things that you’ve learned as a student and the advantage an internship will provide when you finally enter the workforce.

Here are some great reasons to consider an internship:

• Gaining valuable experience - This is your chance to “try out” the job or career of your choice. You also gain skills that you can only learn on the job and you’ll have the opportunity to demonstrate them. The individuals you work with during your internship can vouch for your skills and experience as professional references in the future.
• Spruce up your resume - This is important. College is a great way to start the journey to your dream career by participating in clubs and organizations, but viable experience as an intern could catch the eye of a potential employer, giving you an edge over others in the job market.
• Developing skills – Despite feeling like you’ve learned everything, your skillset is limited when you first finish school. An internship will help develop and enhance both soft and hard skills. Today’s employers are just as interested in your soft or transferable skills as they are in job-specific skills. 
• Building relevant relationships - Networking is a vital skill to have in the job market. The relationships that you build while interning are critical to your future success.
• Meet your mentor – You’ll need direction and one of the best ways to get that is to acquire a mentor. Many people meet their mentors during their internship. Mentors are experienced and trusted advisers -- they are among the key relationships you’ll form because they work with you to ensure your growth and success. Mentorship is not a one-way relationship -- it requires give, take and nurturing to be effective.
   

Interested in interning? Learning more about finding an internship is as easy as visiting your college career center. The staff can help you succeed by connecting you to resources. Your school also may have a partnership with large corporations and medium-sized businesses to offer internships to students just like you.

It’s important that students seeking to move into the workforce after school take advantage of internships because they create opportunities for individuals long after completion. Finding a job fresh out of school can be tough, so the more experience you can add to the work experience section of your resume, the better.

But, don’t be mistaken. Internships are not all fun and games. They are meant to test your ability to work a job and give you hands-on, industry-specific experience. An internship is a real-time, and real-life, simulation of what you’ve learned in class.

Now, take the first step into your future and sign up for an internship!

This blog was written by De'Trice Fox

Did you know? Of the top 100 grossing films of 2018, women represented only:

• 4% of directors
• 15% of writers
• 3% of cinematographers
• 18% of producers
• 18% of executive producers
• 14% of editors

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library recently formed a partnership with Girls Rock Charlotte (GRC), a non-profit organization that has been working to change the statistics of women's roles in film. GRC’s mission is to amplify the confidence of girls and gender diverse youth through the power of music and film. Last year was their first summer to host a film camp, giving youth ages 11-18 the opportunity to learn a new career and become the voice of the next generation in filmmaking. This year, the camp was hosted by Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

The partnership began at Independence Regional Library branch with a series of Screen Writing 101 workshops.  The scripts for the films were chosen by camp leadership such as GRC Executive Director, Kelly Finley,  and a Women’s and Gender Studies professor at UNCC. Finley met with Charlotte Mecklenburg Library's Chief Innovation Officer, Seth Ervin, to discuss the camps innovative approach to creating job opportunities for young people and making a positive change in the film industry. Ervin has also brought other film making opportunities to the library for teens and adults, including a partnership with the Unconventional Film School.

Finley’s vision for the camp is to create a curriculum that can be shared to other Girls Rock organizations across the country. Finley said about the library partnership, “It was inspiring to see our young filmmakers not only discover the art and skills of filmmaking but also to discover how the library has the resources and staff to help them pursue their projects and aspirations."

During the week of July 28 – August 3, girls and female filmmaker volunteers gathered in meeting spaces at Main Library and ImaginOn to learn the roles of director, camera, editor, art director, lighting, sound and more. Staffing the camp with all women filmmakers was especially difficult. Jolly Dale, a producer for "The Walking Dead" and the GRC Film Camp Director said, “Finding female film professionals is difficult in general because there just aren’t that many of them. Finding female film professionals to also give up their time and employment for a day or more to volunteer with GRC Film Camp is even more challenging - because those few are in high demand in the industry. With Film Camp, we’re trying to grow the percentage of women working in media, and in the process, effect change in how women and women’s issues are represented on screen.”

In addition to the filmmakers who helped lead the camp, campers had the opportunity during lunch each day to meet local women in media such as news anchors Michelle Boudin, Ruby Durhan and Lisha Scott from WCBC, and Christine Moore, a director who has worked on projects such as The Wire, CSI, and Treme.

In just the span of one short week, thirty-two campers filmed, edited and premiered four three-minute short films. The screening took place at Spirit Square just six short days after the camp began. To learn more about Girls Rock Charlotte, please visit their website, or to learn more about filmmaking programs happening at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, please visit our online calendar. Below are the completed films:

 

Ria

"RIA" was written by Alice Loder, who attended the library Screen Writing 101 Workshop at the library last May. A sophisticated script about a young woman who has chosen to go “off the grid” by getting rid of all her worldly possessions. This script utilized spaces through out Main Library, including The Mecklenburg Room inside the Carolina Room.

Shush

Written by Jillian Ruvalcaba, "Shush," was filmed entirely in The Loft at ImaginOn. The script highlighted themes of bullying and being open to new people. 

The Burning Haunt

"The Burning Haunt," written by Holly Walker, was the most difficult film to shoot in terms of location as it utilized locations at Main Library, The Loft and the Children’s Theater in ImaginOn. The main character in this script encounters a ghost who died in a fire after being locked in a bathroom at school.



The Perfect Girl

The final film titled "The Perfect Girl," written by Jada Bennett, was filmed entirely at Main Library. This crew was made up entirely of campers who attended last year’s film camp. The campers on this crew all aspire to attend film school and have a career in film. The script is about a young girl who struggles with body dysmorphia.  

Resources:

https://womenandhollywood.com/

https://www.girlsrockclt.org/

https://vimeo.com/channels/1291690

This blog was written by Lonna Vines. Vines is a Children’s Librarian at Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and a member of leadership for Girls Rock Charlotte. She performed as the Assistant Camp Director, Cast Coordinator and Library Liason during the week of camp. 

Welcome (back) to North County Regional Library!

We missed you, too!

North County Regional Library will re-open on Monday, October 7, 2019 at 9 a.m.

The branch, which was closed in July 2018 for renovations, is an essential connector in the community. The Library will offer services, programs, Wi-Fi and computer use, along with a wide selection of books and audio visual materials including DVDs, CDs and audiobooks. Thank you for your patience during our renovation.

What's new at North County Regional Library? 

North County Regional Library (located at 16550 Holly Crest Lane, Huntersville, 28078) increased by 1,860 square feet to nearly 24,860 square feet and now includes redesigned spaces for children and teens, including a new Teen Loft, a makerspace room, an expanded community room, individual and group study rooms and collaborative spaces, a vending café, and a patio and terrace. Features include free Wi-Fi, audio-visual capabilities and a public computer lab. A new exterior book/materials drop is part of the new traffic flow in the parking lot. The North County Regional Library is also updated with an efficient checkout system using radio frequency identification (RFID) and an automated materials handling (AMH) unit.

We also welcome a new branch leader for North County Regional Library – Amanda Corbett. She is excited to meet all of you and welcome you (back) to our beautiful new facility.

Library Hours

Starting October 7, North County Regional Library will resume normal operating hours. The Library will be open Mondays through Thursdays 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; and Sundays 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Hours may vary in summer. 

Library Holds and Pick-ups

As of October 7, North County Regional will once again receive and distribute reserved items. When you’re in Bibliocommons reserving an item, you can choose a location from the drop-down list. Note: North County Regional will not be added back in until October 7, so if you try to add this location before that date, the location will not appear. 

Returning books and materials to North County book/materials-drop

One of North County Regional's newest features is an exterior drive-through book/materials drop with a new traffic flow in the parking lot to accommodate this improvement. (Book/materials drop open October 7.) Please watch for and follow the directional signs.

There were also major upgrades to the HVAC system to ensure efficient operations and user comfort. Public funding for the North County Regional project was approved in 2014 by Mecklenburg County and cost approximately $6.78 million. The project was managed by Mecklenburg County’s Asset and Facility Management Team, the architect was McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture and Optima Engineering, and the builder/contractor was Encompass Building Group. The North County Regional renovation is the second of several projects for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library system; Morrison Regional Library was renovated and re-opened in 2017, and South County Regional Library is scheduled to close later this year for renovations.

When’s the celebration?

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library will host a Fall Fest and Grand Re-Opening at North County Regional Library with a ribbon cutting ceremony and lots of activities inside and outside the branch on Saturday, October 26, 2019, beginning at 10 a.m.

Click here for details!  

See you at North County Regional soon!

Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has been involved with the Charlotte Journalism Collaborative since its beginning in the summer of 2018. The Library’s Innovation department set out to see if a public library could leverage its staff, resources, and digital presence to make a difference in the local news ecosystem.  It turns out that yes, it can.

The Charlotte Journalism Collaborative (CJC) is made up of several key journalistic partners and institutions including: The Charlotte Observer, La Noticia, Queen City Metro, Qnotes, WCNC, WFAE, The Knight School of Communication at Queens University, Free Press, and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. This CJC is committed to delivering ‘solutions journalism’ to the local community around the affordable housing issues within our county. 

Solutions journalism is a discipline in journalism that seeks to cover a more comprehensive view of reality, not just covering the problems in the community, but taking it a step forward to showcase the solution, implementation, results and gained insights as communities rally to solve key issues in the community.  The data around this practice is impressive as seen in the reporting from the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin– readers of solutions journalism pieces usually find the quality of the article to be better, show greater engagement and increase interest in the topic, as well as boosting their positivity. It should also be noted that the CJC is an official part of the Solutions Journalism Network whose mission “is to spread the practice of solutions journalism and rebalance the news so that every day people are exposed to stories that help them understand problems and challenges and show potential ways to respond.”

So what have we been working on? Through the Digital Branch platform, the Library is hosting the Collaborative’s website at www.charlottejournalism.org. There you will find a showcase of solutions journalism pieces around affordable housing, highlighting the solutions our community is working on to remedy this systemic problem. More stories will be posted and be sure to follow the library’s social media for more updates.

The CJC is also planning to host a community conversation about affordable housing on October 13, 2019 at ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center to highlight local people who are making a difference in the affordable housing conversation, along with groundbreaking solutions.  If you know someone who is making a difference in this area, please consider nominating them as an Affordable Housing Hero during the month of September.  Nominated members of the community will be recognized and celebrated at the October 13 event.