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03/20/2025 - 1:02pm

By, Roya Koutchekinia, Library Intern (A picture of my mom's Haft-seen)

The Persian New Year, Nowruz, is a 3,000-year-old spring festival celebrated by millions worldwide. Rooted in Zoroastrianism, it is celebrated in many countries other than Iran,  including Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. 

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03/14/2025 - 2:52pm

Have you ever thought about how easily you’ve found a book in our catalog or placed a hold on an item to then retrieve it the very next day? Maybe you’ve wondered who keeps track of all the books purchased and which magazines are missing from the collection. That would be none other than our Head of Technical Services Librarian, Steven Dunlap. And now after almost 7 years, Steven will be retiring at the end of the month (M...

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03/06/2025 - 2:16pm

As we prepare to say goodbye to winter, we also come to the end of our first-ever Winter Read Program, which wrapped up on March 3rd.

The program was meant to inspire your reading and perhaps introduce you to new authors and stories. We’re so excited to have been able to offer it for the first time this year and hope those who took part enjoyed the experience.

User Services Librarian Jessica Jaramillo is keen to hear from you, our members. She enc...

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02/28/2025 - 10:51pm

From my personal study of chess, I have found that we not only have a large number of chess books -- in the Mechanics' Institute Library as well as in the world in general -- but also an extensive variety of ways these chess books teach the game. I have occasionally had chess player members ask me for advice about chess books: which ones are the best for beginners? (Beginner in the sense of someone just starting to get ser...

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02/26/2025 - 12:04pm

PRINT BOOKS

FICTION

Robert. Coover The public burning Fic Coover 1997
Julia Armfield Private rites : a novel Fic Armfield
Brittany Newell Soft core : a novel Fic Newell
William S. Burroughs Queer...

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02/26/2025 - 11:57am

PRINT BOOKS

NON-FICTION

Applied Sciences

Nick Jackson Beyond flavour : wine tasting by structure 663.2 J124

Arts, Architecture & Crafts

Sanaz Mazinani Signal to noise 779.092 M476
James Michael Buckley City of W...

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02/21/2025 - 5:17pm

This coming Tuesday, February 25th from 6:00-7:30 pm, the Mechanics' Institute will be hosting a Game Night in the Library. Members and guests are invited to gather on the 2nd floor of our beautiful library. Game Night will kick off with a short talk about the featured game of the evening, followed by a friendly competition among attendees. This session we celebrate one of the oldest bo...

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02/14/2025 - 4:11pm

As I prepare for my upcoming retirement, I recently applied for Social Security benefits. As a warning to fellow Mechanics’ Institute members in my age range, I then received an email after I applied for benefits that read simply that I needed to call a phone number 877-772-3794, to talk to someone about "reviewing your earnings record." I did a web search before calling and found a...

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02/02/2025 - 1:39pm

Mechanics’ Institute Top Lists of 2024

Mechanics’ members are enthusiastic readers across all genres and subject areas. Below are the most popular print checkouts in various categories for all of 2024.

Top 10 fiction

1....

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