Join Us for Library Night at the Charleston Battery

Join the Friends of the Berkeley County Library and the Friends of the Charleston County Library for Library Night with the Charleston Battery on Sept. 9th at 7 pm! Library Night will feature an ad on the program, on field photo at half-time, PSAs read during the match, a text to give campaign throughout the match week, a crossbar challenge against a Battery player at half time, and more. Come on out and show your support!

As a Special Treat

For any new members signing up by September 2, 2017, your name will go into a drawing for 2 tickets to this match!! Membership envelopes are available at all library branches or you can join online here.

Get Tickets

http://www.charlestonbattery.com/tickets

Battery Library Night

Free Movies Under the Stars Returns to Moncks Corner Recreation Complex this Spring

Moncks Corner, SC – The Berkeley County Library System and the town of Moncks Corner are pleased to partner once again to host another round of free outdoor movies at the town of Moncks Corner’s regional recreation complex.

The Town and the Library first partnered in the spring of 2016 to test the program in at the Town’s new Regional Recreation Complex, which had just opened a few weeks prior to the first movie event. The first event drew close to 800 people and cemented the program as a value to the community.

“The partnership with the Berkley County Library to make the movie nights possible is a perfect example of what can be done when local governments work together for the benefit of the constituents they share. Events like these are what bring us together as a community and our recreation complex works so well for them because of its location and design.” Moncks Corner Mayor Lockliear comments.

“The partnership of the two organizations has worked beautifully with the Library assisting with the equipment, set up, and licensing of the movie, and the Town assisting with the venue, staff support, and promotion; however it is with great appreciation to the community sponsors who have stepped up to help fund these events, that has really made this program a possibility” said Berkeley County Library’s Marketing Coordinator, Kristen Lanier. “We don’t have to look far or hard to find a local business to help fund these events. We often have them calling us wanting to participate. They are so excited to give back to the community. I love it.”

The spring movies begin with Disney Pixar’s “Finding Dory” on Friday, March 31 sponsored by Atlantis Heating & Air.

The second movie is Disney’s “Moana” on Friday, April 28th sponsored by Moncks Corner’s newest restaurant, DIG 17A, who will be serving as the food vendor for the event to introduce some of their favorite menu items to the community.

The last of the movies is Illumination’s “SING” on Friday, May 19th sponsored by Berkeley Community Mental Health Center in recognition of May as Mental Health Month.

All movies are free! Just bring a lawn chair or blanket and come enjoy a family-friendly movie at no cost. Gates will open at 7 pm and the movie will begin promptly at dark. We kindly request you not to bring in outside food or drinks. There will be food trucks and movie concessions available for purchase.

In case of bad weather:

Last spring’s events were often rescheduled due to weather. For this reason, all the movies this year are scheduled for a Friday, with that Saturday reserved for the rain date. Follow the Town of Moncks Corner’s or the Library’s Facebook accounts for updates if you have any concerns about weather cancellations. Notices will be posted no later than 3 pm on the date of the events.

Gene Brunson, BCLS Library Director

Berkeley County Library System Welcomes New Director Gene Brunson

We are excited to say that after a nationwide search, the next director for BCLS is one of our own. Please join us in welcoming Gene Brunson as the new director of BCLS. Gene has served BCLS as

Gene Brunson, BCLS Library Director

Gene Brunson, BCLS Library Director

the Technology Director for more than 22 years. His extensive background in the library industry started when he was a freshman at the College of Charleston working as an intern for Charleston County Library where he worked for the next four years in various departments of the library and served as a regional manager for Charleston County Library System under his mentor, Cynthia Hurd, one of the Emanuel AME victims.

He has also worked in the school library at MUSC and in the medical library at USC School of Medicine while he earned his Masters of Library Science and Information from USC. In his introduction to County Council members on Jan. 9th, BCLS board chair Patricia Richards explained the unanimous vote for Brunson.“Gene was a fabulous fit for the position as director because … he not only handled all the technology but he touched virtually every aspect of the library,” Richards said.

From cataloging, to shelving, to reference, and working on the bookmobile, he has done it all. Under his leadership, BCLS will continue to move forward, setting the standards for the “library of tomorrow.” When Brunson took office in January he wasted no time assessing the critical needs of BCLS, which included meeting with department heads of county administration. He also began looking for new opportunities to expand and add library services to new and vastly growing communities. In his first meeting with BCLS’s leadership team, which consist of all the library branch managers and department heads, he asked each of them to describe their idea of their “library of tomorrow.”

Leadership members took turns writing down their thoughts and then placed them into a box. Brunson then gathered the box and ceremoniously “threw” the box out the door, thus encouraging his team to work together and to think “outside the box” or realize “there is no box” at all. The ideas generated by this exercise will be revisited as a team, with all BCLS staff members, other library systems statewide and throughout the nation, as well as with community members and county administration in an effort to take the BCLS and Berkeley County to the next level of library services.

Storyboard America Will Host Workshops at 3rd Annual TLC

Join us at the 3rd Annual TLC for Storyboard workshops! Whether you consider yourself a writer or not, you have a story. Storyboard workshops take the scary out of writing. We offer pathways and creative tools to help you get to your own memories, to still points in your life that help you share yourself with others. It all begins with a single moment….. Read More

About Storyboard America (source: storyboardamerica.com)

Storyboard grew out of Susan Kammeraad-Campbell’s conviction that humans are hard-wired for story, that our need for story is as compelling as our need for food and companionship. What began as a project of her publishing company Joggling Board Press has developed into a library-based initiative that is currently being tested and piloted in South Carolina and Ohio. The vision is to create Storyboard communities across the country. Says Kammeraad-Campbell, “Our stories help us make sense of our world — they tell us who we are and who we can be.”

Storyboard is still in the pilot stage, and we invite you to get involved on the ground floor. Ultimately this space will evolve into a highly interactive community of story writers and readers, lovers of words who will not only be able to submit their stories, but will be able to interact, comment, and work with others to transform their stories into work to be shared in published anthologies and on public radio.

Storyboard. It’s not a widget. It’s a movement. It’s a way to help people think more deeply about themselves, about their own stories. Writing about defining moments of our lives is different than experiencing them, different than talking about them. Writing opens the door to contemplation. And contemplation is a path to shape perspective, to find meaning, to gain understanding, and to build more united communities.

 

 

Berkeley Career Express Launch

Berkeley Career Express Program Kicks Off With a Bang!

The Berkeley Career Express program launched in its first community, The Town of St. Stephen, on Jan. 9th with over 50 people interested in participating in this continuing education program! In brief conversations with attendees, several were interested in getting qualified for current job openings in the area while some were wanting to get their GED or improve their WorkKeys scores. Some attendees had a certificate or degree but needed their record expunged.

Channel 2 broke the story the morning following the launch praising the program for helping rural residents to find jobs. Read more….

Later that night, Channel 2 ran a follow-up story on Berkeley Career Express and discussed a new task force that was developed to help expunge records for residents seeking employment. The officer and attorney mentioned in the segment were part of the community discussions that initiated Berkeley Career Express.

It is not sure if the task force was also an outcome of these community discussions or not, but it is exciting to see the community rallying together to get people jobs! BCLS is excited to contribute to such a wonderful program and wishes it much success. Even if 1 person out of 100 gets a job or a raise from completing Berkeley Career Express, we have won!

**BCE is a program assisting unemployed or underemployed residents of the St. Stephen, Cross, Alvin, or Long Ridge communities who are dedicated to pursuing further education and career training. As part of the program, participants with a BCLS library card in good standing will be able to check out a mobile internet kit to use at home and in the community classrooms during their 8-week enrollment.  

See the website for full details

Winter Celebrations @ Your Library

The books have been read, the pages have been tallied, and now we want to celebrate! Bring your family and enjoy a time of celebration about families, community, and diversity at each of our locations.

Hanahan’s Winter Celebration is all about the love of reading and the people in your community. This festival will be held on Saturday, Feb. 4th, at 9:30 am. Sangaree is taking an international twist by celebrating the end of the Chinese New Year with a Chinese Lantern Festival. Come enjoy stories and make your own decorative lantern to take home! The library is hosting this event on Saturday, Feb. 11th, at 9:30 am.

The day before Valentine’s Day, Goose Creek invites you to show your creative side as you express what love means to you. This celebration will be held on Monday, Feb. 13th, at 5 pm. Daniel Island is taking a journey around the world. Enjoy games, puzzles, crafts, and more at every place you “visit.” Don’t forget your passport to the celebration on Wednesday, Feb. 15th, at 3:30 pm.

Moncks Corner’s staff will be celebrating Black History month with their very first “pop-up” choir! Joining them will be children reciting speeches, poems, and other works of literature. This event will be held on Sunday, Feb. 19th, at 3:00 pm. And finally, at St. Stephen, learn about fairy tales from around the world as you make your own shadow puppets based off these stories. This last Winter Celebration will be on Thursday, Feb. 23rd, at 4:30 pm.

You won’t want to miss our multi-cultural celebration of stories, reading, and community. Here at BCLS, new experiences are just a book away.
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