Paul Szmal: Welcome back to FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. It's 838. Time for a visit with our friends from the Geneva Public Library. Susan Flick doing the honors for us this morning. Susan, good morning. How are you today?
Susan Flick: Good morning, Paul. I'm great.
Paul Szmal: Wonderful, wonderful. There are so many activities here. I wanted to go ahead and get right into the list and talk about some of these different activities and presentations that are happening at the Geneva Public Library. Starting on Thursday, March the 20th, if we go in chronological order, there is a Fair Housing Info Session with Law New York. What can you tell us about that, Susan?
Susan Flick: Well, there's going to be attorneys there from Law New York, and they're going to talk about fair housing rates. They'll highlight information on how to avoid denials of housing based on involvement in your income or criminal justice, prohibited actions, how to spot discrimination, and help you out with that. And that is from 5 and 545, I should say, until 7 o'clock on March 20th. And I do want to emphasize that all of the activities that we're talking about, am I correct in saying, Susan, that these are free to attend?
Paul Szmal: Absolutely. Everything we do at the library is free to attend.
Susan Flick: All right. So, moving on to Saturday, March the 22nd, a program called Crafting the Narrative with Ariane Rizal of Syracuse University, talking about the role of public relations in the suffrage movement. So, what will that be about, Susan?
Paul Szmal: So, Ariane reached out to me. She's actually from Geneva. She and I were in high school together. And she's a professor now at Syracuse University. And she's going to talk about how movement leaders like Susan B. Anthony crafted compelling narratives and managed to get that out in the public so that people would understand the play of women's suffrage and how they employed media as a tool. And I think it'll be a really interesting discussion.
Susan Flick: That should be interesting. Coming up on Monday, March 24th, Seedling Resilient Gardens with Cornell Agritech.
Paul Szmal: Yes. I'm really excited about this one. They've been doing a lot of studies there on resilient gardens and specifically to make disease resistant cucumbers and tomatoes. And they're going to discuss how to plant your garden so that you can avoid those diseases and what kind of varieties to choose and even planting plants that will deter any kind of insects or diseases that can be introduced.
Susan Flick: I can identify with that. As a kid, we used to have a family garden. And I remember one year we got infested with tomato worms and it was terrible.
Paul Szmal: Terrible. Yeah. And I understand, too, there's going to be somebody there from Fruition Seeds that is going to be helping to assist in the presentation.
Susan Flick: Yes. Petra from Fruition will be there to share seeds that will help you sort of get on your way for your own garden at home.
Paul Szmal: We're talking with Susan Flick from the Geneva Public Library here on FLX Morning. The next one is called Scheren Schnitt for Adults, which is actually a German word. What does that word mean?
Susan Flick: It means tiny cuts, like tiny little scissor cuts.
Paul Szmal: Okay. So this is a form of arts and crafts then?
Susan Flick: Yes. Yes. So there'll be several different patterns. Most patterns in this type of craft are sort of symmetrical. They're the same on either side. And you'll be using teeny tiny scissors and blades to cut out the pattern. And then you'll have a lovely piece of paper behind it to make it show really pretty. I do want to mention that with this particular program, which is on Saturday, March 29th, there is limited space, so registration is required.
Paul Szmal: How would people go about registering for that particular event, Susan?
Susan Flick: So if they're computer savvy, they can register right on our website. They just go to our calendar and pick that particular event, and then they just register there. Or if you prefer, you just give us a call, and we'll sign you up for you.
Paul Szmal: You know, it amazes me the variety of topics and the variety of disciplines that are covered by a lot of these presentations that happen at the library. And I know you mentioned you have a relationship with with Arian dating back to your high school years, but where do the ideas come about? Do people actually come to you with the ideas for presentations, or do you have like a kind of a brainstorm collective that decides on different topics, and then you go out and solicit people to do presentations based on those topics?
Susan Flick: Well, honestly, it's both. People reach out to me asking if this would be something I would be interested in having at the library, and more often than not, I am. I like to be able to offer a wide variety of things for people to come to, and sometimes I reach out to people to say, hey, would you be interested in collaborating to do a program at the library? As a matter of fact, for the Sharon's Net, one of the women that comes to my regular craft classes during the month is very proficient in it, and she offered to do this for me. So I thought, how wonderful to build these relationships with people that, you know, want to help as well.
Paul Szmal: And I think it shows just how vast a resource the Geneva Public Library is. It's not just about books.
Susan Flick: No, no. We have so much going on. Our children's programming has like double, tenfold, and it's so great to see so many kids. It's so great to see the parking lot full, people coming in to do their taxes. I mean, there's so much to offer there.
Paul Szmal: Now, there's something I wouldn't expect. Going to the library to do your taxes. How does that work?
Susan Flick: Well, going back, oh geez, going back, oh geez. So I've been with the library since 91 on and off. I think I left for a few years of college there. But we have been offering AARP tax help for at least the last 20, 25 years. And it fills up so fast. Everybody comes to get their taxes done. And we're lucky to partner with Blueprint as well because they also have their own tax program that we can offer free tax help for people. They take your paperwork, they look it all over, and they free file for you. And it takes the guesswork out of that type of stuff for people that have no idea to do what they have to do.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, believe me, the tax world does get pretty complicated in a hurry if you start diving into it on your own. So it's great that there are programs available to help people with that. Can you tell me about some of the other regular programs that are continuing on here, Susan?
Susan Flick: Sure. So we have three separate, I'm sorry, four separate book clubs at the library every month. I myself run two of them. I run the adult program, the adult book club. The last Tuesday of every month, we all read the same book and we come to discuss what we thought. And I also run the bring your own book book club. So it's BYO book club. And we meet at Empire Coffee and Donuts on the third Wednesday of every month. And that one's a little different. Everybody gets to read whatever they want. And then we all come together to talk about what we read that month. It's more of a love of books type of book club. We have the anti-racist book club that is via Zoom every month. And that's run by Nicole at the library. And then we also have the science fiction fanatics book club run by Cheryl. And that is, it's also a film series. So one month, they'll do a book discussion. The next month they'll do, they'll show a film and it's all science fiction.
Paul Szmal: Ah, interesting. And all of these, all of these under the umbrella of the Geneva Public Library folks.
Susan Flick: Yes, it's pretty wonderful. And we just had our brand new reference librarian start Monday. So if you're interested in meeting her, Hannah started Monday and we're so excited to have her.
Paul Szmal: Well, I appreciate the information, Susan. Thank you very much for joining us this morning. And if people want to find out more about activities here at the Geneva Public Library, how can they get ahold of the library either online or by phone?
Susan Flick: So we're at gplny.org. You can find us there. Or if you want to give us a call at 315-789-5303. We can answer any questions you have.
Paul Szmal: Wonderful. Thanks so much for joining us, Susan. Appreciate it.
Susan Flick: Thanks, Paul. Have a great day.
Paul Szmal: You too. It is 848 on FLX Morning.
