Malkia Newman, a Mental Health Educator and advocate, talks about her life experiences as a person diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder.

Meet Malkia Newman and ask her your questions as part of our Living Books program. To learn more, drop by our Meet & Greet on Saturday, September 25, from 1:00-3:00PM.

David Tennies is a Civil War Living Historian and reenactor. Unlike many reenactors, Mr. Tennies portrays a civilian role, as Michigan Senator Jacob M. Howard.

Meet Mr. Tennies and ask him your questions as part of our Living Books program. To learn more, drop by our Meet & Greet on Saturday, September 25, from 1:00-3:00PM.

Storytime registration begins Monday, August 30. Storytimes begin the week of September 13. Children must have their own library card to register for storytime. Check out this video to see some of the fun activities we do in storytime.

We have storytimes for various ages:

• 4 months - Not Yet Walking
• Walkers - Not Yet 2 years old
• 2 - Not Yet 4 Years Old
• 4-5 year olds

For families planning to bring children of multiple ages, please sign up for the Family Storytime.

We'll be kicking off our Living Books program on Saturday, September 25, from 1:00-3:00PM in the Community Room.
This program lets you "check out" a person with a specialty or other interest to learn more about the subject. It's going to be a lot of fun and a great learning experience. See you there!

Canton has single stream recycling, which means all recycle items are placed together into a single bin at curbside for pick-up. But what happens after the items get to the recycle center? Michigan Radio has a video tour of Ann Arbor's new recycling facility.

Over the past few months we've been hard at work on a new sorting system, which you can now see through the glass doors on the way to the Children's section.

Items returned through the outdoor book drop are identified and checked back in, then the belts and rollers put them in the appropriate bins with others of their type. This means fewer hands have to touch items to get them back on the shelves.

This, along with other improvements, equates to faster turn-around of items, getting you the books and more you want - quicker than ever.

Funimation has come up with a new contest this summer: make a video proving you're the biggest Fullmetal Alchemist fan and you could win a free ride to Comic-Con International (San Diego)! Check out how to enter. Also, this summer, Tokyopop is touring across america to find "America's Greatest Otaku," which they will be filming reality-tv style. If you think you might be that "greatest otaku" and want to get on film then check it out!

We wanted to show just how fast and easy it is to self-check your items:

Did you know you can use our copiers to digitally scan documents for free? There are two main options:

• Scan to email - get a file sent to your email address
• Scan to flash drive - plug in and go

Below are some quick videos to get you started.

Scan to Email

Scan to Flash Drive

If he were still alive today, Dr. Seuss, (Theodore Seuss Geisel) would have celebrated his 106th birthday on March 2. The Canton Public Library and Canton Leisure Services threw a big party to celebrate this wonderful author. The party included Seuss-style stories, songs, crafts and snacks. Check out the pictures from our Seussical event or see the event as an action movie trailer.

Annual Report 2009

The Canton Public Library connects your community.

This has been a transformative year for the library. We embarked on a new Strategic Plan, working with local Canton firm K2 Communication Plus to conduct focus groups with patrons, online and paper surveys, and research into the current and projected population of Canton. This work will guide us through the next three years as we focus our efforts and your tax dollars to provide the programs, collections, and services that you need most. Out of this Strategic Plan came our new Mission Statement, revised Core Values, and new logo, all of which reflect the diverse, dynamic, living organism that is your public library.

On Tuesday, Google announced Buzz, a new product that performs functions similar to twitter, friendfeed, facebook, and foursquare, all rolled into Gmail and integrated into many other Google products. To catch up on the hubbub, check out this video:

And these blog posts:

The Swedish film version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson’s phenomenon of a debut thriller, is set to open in U.S. theaters on March 19. Yes, it’s a subtitled flick.

Did you see this morning's Today Show feature about using energy meters to suss out the energy vampires lurking in your home?

If those energy meters seem like a pricey investment, consider checking out one of the library's Kill-a-Watt meters free of charge.

On June 11, the Today Show ran ran a segment on the important role libraries play during the recession.