This program has been discontinued

Library card users can now get special savings at local Canton businesses thanks to Check Out Canton, a partnership between the Canton Economic Development office and the Canton Public Library. Local businesses supply special offers that can be checked out with a library card, just like the Museum Adventure Pass program. Take a pass from the Check Out Canton rack and present it at our Checkout Desk. You'll be issued a voucher good for one week.

Offers include a buy one, get one free ticket from the Village Theater at Cherry Hill, savings on catering, carpet cleaning, veterinary care and more. To see the current offers and availability, search the online library catalog. One pass per library card per week, no holds on passes.

CANTON, MI — The doctor is checked out at the Canton Public Library. So is the Civil War living historian, the scrapbooker and the homeschooling expert.

Thanks to a new Living Books program offered at the Canton Public Library, patrons can now check out a person with knowledge of, or experience with, a variety of topics for a one-on-one discussion and exchange of ideas. The living books include a doctor of naturopathic medicine, a licensed professional counselor, a Christian seminary student, gardener, and others.

Marcia Barker, program specialist and one of the Living Books organizers, says the goals of the program are to celebrate and promote diversity, encourage understanding and respect, challenge stereotypes and prejudices and have fun learning about each other and sharing personal knowledge.

You could help the Canton Public Library get $500 and win yourself a one-of-a-kind experience with Free Press Sports Editor Gene Myers in the Free Press Reader Envy contest. Vote for Gene and you could win an experience that includes a tour of the Free Press building, sitting in on a news meeting in which decisions are made for all sections of the paper, lunch at a downtown spot, watching the sports section come together, and other surprises. Plus, if Gene wins, the library will get a $500 donation. Enter the contest at the Free Press website. Deadline for entry is July 31, 2010. Review the contest rules.

Would you like to take the kids to see Jim Gill live at the Village Theater on June 24 at 11:00AM? You can enter to win 5 tickets on our Facebook page or through Twitter. Just post your family's favorite Jim Gill songs or tweet them to @CantonLibrary and we'll draw a name from the entries.

The fine print: One post per user name counts in the drawing but you can list as many favorites as you'd like. Posts must be made by noon on June 22. The winners will be posted on our Facebook page and listed on our website, or call the Children's Department at (734) 397-0999, option #5, for results.

The hCard is now available at the Canton Public Library. This card gives you one whole year's worth of savings on restaurants, movie tickets, hotels, groceries, and more. Plus, use it at pharmacies to save on prescription drugs for your entire family. You can even save when you shop online or purchase gift cards. And best of all, the hCard membership is just $20 annually and proceeds benefit the library. The hCard is available at the Checkout Desk or buy it online at our donation page. For more information on the great shopping savings offered by your hCard membership, visit the hCard site.

This Memorial Day weekend, remember the active US troops by participating in a supply drive, held May 29 at the Canton Public Library. The library will accept donations of bug repellent wipes, any size or brand, or new, unsharpened pencils, which will be packaged by the Michigan Military Moms and shipped to troops overseas.

The supply drive was the idea of library pages Laurie Conlen, mom of an Army lieutenant stationed in Afghanistan, and Linda Hampton, who lost a brother in the Vietnam War. They saw the power of the community's response to the library's diaper drive, which netted 17,000 diaper donations for the Detroit Area Diaper Bank, and suggested a drive for the troops.