Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 8.37, it's the Wednesday morning, FLX Morning, and we're joined in Zoom by Jessica Winnem with the Geneva Public Library, good morning.
Jessica Winum: Good morning, how are you?
Paul Szmal: Doing well, it's always good to talk library. I love the new pictures on the front of the website and I know almost all of those smiling faces.
Jessica Winum: Yes, yes, we just redesigned our website and hopefully everything's easier to find and new pictures and so I'm glad that you like it and it's got a much easier address for everybody to remember, gplny.org. And connecting people and enriching lives is the theme on the front page, so check out some of those new pictures and new features.
Paul Szmal: How did Trunk or Treat go this year?
Jessica Winum: Oh my gosh, so much fun. I think we had total with kids and adults about 500 people.
Paul Szmal: Wow.
Jessica Winum: Yeah, and it was the weather was beautiful. It's always a fun event, but I think every year it gets more fun. So it was just a blast. So everybody was there, we are so glad that you came. And if you didn't make it this year, there's always next year. So gave out lots of treats. We always appreciate all the organizations that came. There were prizes for scariest, most original, and oh, I can't remember the other one. You always ask me questions I'm not prepared for. I get all prepared and then you throw me, you throw me these.
Paul Szmal: I know, see I didn't, I didn't stick to the script. That's my fault.
Jessica Winum: You never stick to the script.
Paul Szmal: So let's talk about one of the things on the script then. You put together voter education packets this year. There's a lot, you know, I mean, for example, some races you vote for two or more candidates like some of the judges and things. So what kind of information was in those voter education packets?
Jessica Winum: Yes, so we had the opportunity to apply for some grant money from our OWL library system. So we got a $100 grant from them. And with that, we chose to put together some packets with information. So we printed off sample ballots so that you could see what, you know, you always get to the poll and you, yes, you're like, who am I voting for? Or sometimes, you know, but like you said, there's other offices that you may not know that you were voting for when you get there. So I printed off town of Geneva and city of Geneva ballots. And then also I put in some slips of paper so people would know where their polling places were. I also put in the text of what proposition one was going to be because on the ballot, it just said, you know, basically, do you vote yes or proposition one or no.
Paul Szmal: I was surprised by that because I expected to see, I had seen the full text before and in doing interviews and things, but yeah, I was surprised that it wasn't actually on the ballot.
Jessica Winum: Yeah, exactly. And I put it in English and Spanish because we have a lot of people who speak Spanish in our area that we cover as a library. So I put it in English and Spanish. And then we call them, you know, voter survival guides. So I put some snacks in there. We put some little rice crispy treats and some lifesavers and then some information about the library, some bookmarks. And we designed some stickers that said, I'm an educated voter thanks to Geneva Public Library.
Paul Szmal: Oh, neat. So and some pens and some sticky pads and things like that.
Jessica Winum: So we put together a hundred. I have to go in. I haven't been into the library yet to count how many are left over. And next time there are elections, I'm going to make some time to take and distribute them in other places outside the library because I think that if I would have been able to take them to some banks and maybe City Hall and something that would have been able to, you know, get them out there for more people. So this was a first-time project. You know, every time you do a project, you say, okay, let's reevaluate. There was a lot of people who appreciated that we were able to do the voter education. Obviously it's nonpartisan. We are totally nonpartisan about education. So we always want to try to get that information out there to more people. So yeah, but it was a good project.
Paul Szmal: Sounds great. Now, as you mentioned, there's a significant Spanish-speaking population in and around Geneva. So let's learn Spanish together. That's an in-person class this afternoon.
Jessica Winum: Yes. It meets twice a month, and it's for all ages. So if you're a family, I think right now it's mostly adults who are gathering together, but any age. So if you wanted to come with your kids, you could come. And our Spanish-speaking library clerk is the one who teaches it. So it's very basic. You can be at any level. There's people there who have a more firm grasp of Spanish, but there's people who are just starting, and it's really conversational. So she gives out worksheets, and it's just they gather in a group, and they have so much fun together that they have decided to meet. When they don't have class, they meet outside of class on the alternating Wednesdays, kind of in an informal way. And I'm so glad that Morales is the name of the clerk who teaches it, and she works regular hours down on the ground floor, which is an important service for us to start as a library because we have a lot of people who come in who don't speak English, and we try to fumble along with chat GPT or Google Translate. But it does make our Spanish-speaking patrons so much more comfortable when they have somebody who can speak Spanish and help them with their applying for a phone application or rental assistance or job applications if they have somebody who can speak Spanish. So they can make appointments with her always also. But this is a class that she's teaching. She also will do Spanish story times in the summer, lots of different programs.
Paul Szmal: So yes, that's Wednesday tonight, and then it's alternating Wednesdays. And this is a good place to plug the OWL program, because I'm sure you have a decent amount of Spanish material in the library, but whatever you don't, people can get through the OWL system.
Jessica Winum: Yep, that's right, exactly. So there's a rotating collection that goes around. We get a lot of support from our system. So we do have, and that's one of the other things that Mara does, she orders Spanish materials. In fact, if you come into the library and you come into the main door, if you go to the right past the stairs and you go into where the magazine room is, there's a big shelf and that's all the Spanish materials that we have, except there's children's materials mixed in. And if we don't have something that people are interested in, then they can always ask requests and we'll order it. But then we also have this rotating Spanish collection that the OWL system has, yes.
Paul Szmal: Another class coming up next Wednesday. It's Youth Yoga. That's next Wednesday from 430 to 530, grades 3 through 8. Tell us how we introduce kids to yoga.
Jessica Winum: Yes, so this is one, we had a donor come and give us some money to start some youth health program classes, health and wellness programs for kids. So Youth Yoga is going to be starting, this will be the first classes, like you said, Wednesday, November 13th at 430. So parents are stressed, kids are stressed. Yoga is a great way to help you center and develop mindfulness, flexibility, strength.
Paul Szmal: November 13th at 430. And then as I, I'm going to skip ahead for you. So Saturday, as part of this wellness series, November 23rd at 1130, there's going to be a kid's self-defense class.
Jessica Winum: Yeah, that's cool.
Paul Szmal: Yes, definitely. So if, so whether, so, you know, if you're not into yoga, hop into self-defense. It's fitness, boosting self-confidence. For both of these classes, registration is required. So go back to the website, gplny.org, and you can find them on the, on the website there. And for that self-defense class, just wear nice loose clothes so you can move around and everything and slip on or easy to take off shoes for that part of it as well. But again, that is on the 23rd.
Jessica Winum: And here's a craft for adults. These are cool. I've seen people do this. Make a, you take a book and rumple up some of the pages and make it into a turkey.
Paul Szmal: Yes. Oh my gosh. I have like a Pinterest board full of crafts to make out of old books that are so fun. And Susie is our craft guru. She's making so many awesome things. So this is going to be, it's a turkey and it will be perfect for your Thanksgiving table. So she'll share classes, book up. So she has to do two different sessions. Now if you grabbed a paper newsletter, the date in that one is wrong, but I believe the, the e-newsletter that went out and the calendar online is correct. So the first session is going to be November 14th at 3 p.m. and the second one is going to be Thursday, November 25th at 5 p.m. So she likes to do an afternoon session and then an evening session to be able to accommodate everybody. These classes fill up super fast. So make sure that you go on and register so that you can get in there and make your turkey. And this is definitely something that can be, if you take care of it, an heirloom piece that you can pack away and then get out every Thanksgiving.
Paul Szmal: You have a really neat science fiction and film fanatics club that meets regularly. And the next topic is going to be exploration and colonization of other planets. That is on Friday, November 22nd.
Jessica Winum: Yes. So this is one of our newer programs that's been getting, it's growing month by month. So every one month they do a film. This month they're going to be reading books. So there's three books listed and you don't have to read all three of them. You can just read one or you can read all three. The topic this month is space exploration and colonization, which is a really interesting topic, I think. So the books you have to choose from are Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson, The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, and Leviathan Wakes by James A. Corey.
Paul Szmal: Sorry, this is four books. I can't count today. It was a long night.
Jessica Winum: Or Sevenses by Neil Stephenson. And this program is run by our librarian, Cheryl. So if you have any questions about this, all you have to do is go to the website and go to the event and just send her an email and you can ask her anything about, because I don't know anything about these books. So I just know that it sounds really interesting and they have really interesting conversations. So it's going to be in the community room on Friday, November 22nd.
Paul Szmal: And then backing up a bit, Saturday, November 16th, there's a genealogy research roundtable that you run in the story room, and of course that's changed a lot with all the websites and everything, but you're going to go back old school and talk about using newspapers in your research.
Jessica Winum: Yes. Now this is old school that goes into new school, because so many newspapers are accessible online right now. So yeah, I can talk ad nauseum about this program, but so my genealogy roundtable, it's kind of a unique format and you can be at any level, beginner or advanced or in between. I talk about, I give a little, I don't know, talk about a little class on a topic, and then we go around, we ask questions. It's very learner friendly. So like you said, I'll be talking about newspapers. Newspapers are such a great way to learn clues about your ancestors and so many neat things about them. So for instance, I have a grandmother who ran, she owned a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Rapid City, South Dakota in the fifties when that, yeah, that wasn't a thing that women did. She always took me to watch the Greyhound races. She was quite the woman. So when I went back and looked at the newspapers about her, I found all these. She also owned a dress shop for years and years and years. So I went back and I was able to find all the ads for her store. She used to belong to PEO, which is a women's organization that promotes education for women. So there would be little things in the newspaper about the topics when she hosted a meeting, the things that she presented on. So you can find so many little things that give you a light into the kind of person that your ancestor was, particularly if you knew them in a different way when you were growing up with something.
My other grandmother, so there's a class that I've been wanting to give at the library that I haven't gotten around to giving, which is sort of learning how to do handyman things, which, you know, fixing a toilet or painting a picture, using drills, which typically isn't something that women know how to do. This is because I always have to rely on my husband on how to do these things. So in looking up these articles, I found that my great grandmother offered these same kinds of classes at a local high school where she lived for the exact same reason. So it kind of struck me. I thought, wow, I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. So yeah, so these are the kinds of things. So I'm going to be showing you where to find the newspapers, how to search the newspapers, lots of different things. So and of course, we have the Geneva newspaper, the Finger Lakes Times, and all its entities on microfilm. We're the only place that has that.
Paul Szmal: So I was going to say, when I started doing sportscasting back in the 1970s, I would go to the library and get newspaper microfilm to find out about teams.
Jessica Winum: Yep, yep. That's how we have to do it. And one of my projects is going to be trying to get that digitized here over the next year.
Paul Szmal: So yes. Great programs coming up. Check out the new look and the new address for the library website now, GPLNY. Easy to remember, Geneva Public Library, New York, gplny.org.
Jessica, thanks for the great information as always. Appreciate the visit.
Jessica Winum: Thanks for having us, Ted.
