ArtWorks is looking for a cover artist for the Fall 2011 issue!

ArtWorks is looking for a talented youth artist to feature on the cover of our Fall 2011 issue!

Who can submit? Any young person in kindergarten through sixth grade.
How to enter: Download submission form at www.wvculture.org/arts.

Mail original artwork with completed form by June 1st to:

ArtWorks Cover Contest
c/o Cicely Bosley
West Virginia Division of Culture and History
Culture Center
1900 Kanawha Blvd., E
Charleston, WV 25305
Questions? Email cicely.j.bosley@wv.gov

Library Employment Opportunities

The following employment opportunities are available in the state.  Please click on the link for more information regarding the position.

State Librarian of West Virginia

Library Director, South Charleston (WV) Public Library

Don't have a lot of time to read short stories? Listen to them instead!

Finding time to read can be a real challenge but audiobooks can help!  To continue with this month's theme for Short Story Month, here are a brief list of short stories the Library Commission has in audiobook format.

Staff Pick of the Week

May is National Short Story Month

Two short story collections by the acclaimed author of Room

Touchy Subjects by Emma Donoghue

In this sparkling collection of nineteen stories, the bestselling author of Slammerkin returns to contemporary affairs, exposing the private dilemmas that result from some of our most public controversies. A man finds God and finally wants to father a child—only his wife is now forty-two years old. A coach’s son discovers his sexuality on the football field. A repressed young woman finds liberation in her roommate’s bizarre secret.

Many of these stories involve animals and what they mean to us, or babies and whether to have them; some re-imagine biblical plots in modern contexts. With characters old, young, straight, gay, and simply confused, Donoghue dazzles with her range and her ability to touch lightly but penetrate deeply into the human condition. (from the publisher)

Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins by Emma Donoghue

Thirteen tales are unspun from the deeply familiar, and woven anew into a collection of fairy tales that wind back through time. Acclaimed Irish author Emma Donoghue reveals heroines young and old in unexpected alliances—-sometimes treacherous, sometimes erotic, but always courageous. Told with luminous voices that shimmer with sensuality and truth, these age-old characters shed their antiquated cloaks to travel a seductive new landscape, radiantly transformed.Cinderella forsakes the handsome prince and runs off with the fairy godmother; Beauty discovers the Beast behind the mask is not so very different from the face she sees in the mirror; Snow White is awakened from slumber by the bittersweet fruit of an unnamed desire. Acclaimed writer Emma Donoghue spins new tales out of old in a magical web of thirteen interconnected stories about power and transformation and choosing one's own path in the world. In these fairy tales, women young and old tell their own stories of love and hate, honor and revenge, passion and deception. Using the intricate patterns and oral rhythms of traditional fairy tales, Emma Donoghue wraps age-old characters in a dazzling new skin. (from the publisher)

Cookout Season

The season officially may be Spring but we all know that it really is Cookout Season. So dust of that grill and fire up those coals. This week's cookbook is Taming the Flame: Secrets for Hot-and-Quick Grilling and Low-and-Slow BBQ by Elizabeth Karmel

Grilled Tomatoes with Parmesan Bread Crumbs

(Makes 4 servings)

Grilling Method: Indirect/Medium Heat

4 large red tomatoes, ripe but slightly firm
Olive oil
1/2 cup best-quality pesto
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs or panko
Freshly ground pepper

1. Build a charcoal fire or preheat a gas grill.

2. Wash the tomatoes and slice about 1/4 inch off the top of each stem end--just enough to make the tomatoes flat on top. Using a melon baller or a grapefruit spoon, scoop out about 1/2 inch of the flesh from the top. (Leave the seeds.) Coat the tomatoes with olive oil. Cover the bottoms of the tomatoes with a piece of aluminum foil,leaving the tops exposed. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of pesto into each tomato. Mix the cheese and bread crumbs, and spoon them onto the top of each tomato. Sprinkle evenly with pepper.

3. Place the tomatoes, cut-side up, on the cooking grate over indirect medium heat. Cover and grill without turning for 15 or 20 minutes, or until the tomatoes are warmed through and the bread crumbs are toasty.

4. Remove the tomatoes from the grill, discard the foil, and serve them as an accompaniment for grilled chicken, fish, or steak.

Special Services: NFB-NEWSLINE®

As part of the WVLC's Special Services subscription to NFB-NEWSLINE®, a service of the National Federation of the Blind, patrons signed up with Special Services now have access to JOB LISTINGS. With this groundbreaking job-listings feature, powered by Careerbuilder.com, blind and print-disabled people will be able to easily and independently search for job openings that match their education, skills, and interests. Subscribers can conduct searches for job openings in dozens of categories such as banking and education, and, if desired, can narrow the search to look for certain keywords within the listings.
NFB-NEWSLINE® is a free service for eligible patrons. Those interested in subscribing to the service may fill out the online application form, write to nfbnewsline@nfb.org, or call (866) 504-7300. In order to be eligible for NFB-NEWSLINE®, an individual must be a US resident who is legally blind or has a physical or learning disability that prevents the independent reading of newspapers. Interested parties may also contact our office at 304-558-4061.

Online application for NFB-NEWSLINE®:

https://www.nfbnewsline.net/Nl2/NL2NewUserReqInput.jsp

And information about the new JOB LISTINGS feature:

http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=723

For more information about WVLC's Special Services program visit:
http://voyweb.lib.wv.us/sslibraryabout.htm

Cookout Season

The season officially may be Spring but we all know that it really is Cookout Season. So dust of that grill and fire up those coals. This week's cookbook is Taming the Flame: Secrets for Hot-and-Quick Grilling and Low-and-Slow BBQ by Elizabeth Karmel

Philly-Style Cheese Steak Burgers

(Makes 6 servings)

Grilling Method: Direct/Medium Heat

1 pound ground sirloin
1 pound ground chuck
Kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 large white onions, finely chopped
Olive oil
6 slices provolone cheese
6 Italian or small French rolls, about 6 inches long
Sweet green pickled peppers, sliced in rings
Hot red pickled peppers, sliced in rings
Ketchup, optional

1. Build a charcoal fire or preheat a gas grill.

2. Being careful not to overwork the meat, season it with salt and pepper and mix just until combined. Gently shape the meat into 6 log-shaped burgers of equal size and thickness. Cover and refrigerate until ready to grill.

3. Meanwhile, in a heavy-bottomed pan, saute the onions in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until soft and lightly browned. Keep warm until ready to make the burgers.

4. Just before grilling, brush the burgers all over with oil and place them on the cooking grate over direct medium heat. Cover and grill for 4 minutes. Turn and continue grilling until the meat is cooked through and no longer pink, 4 to 6 minutes. Top each burger with a slice of cheese after you turn it.

5, Meanwhile slice a thin piece of bread off the top of each roll. Hollow out the roll (like hollowing out a baked stuffed potato) so it will be able to hold the burger and all the toppings without spilling out.

6. To assemble the sandwiches, place each burger in the bottom of a hollowed-out roll, top with onions and slices of hot and sweet peppers. Add ketchup, if desired. Replace the top piece of bread and serve warm.

Staff Pick of the Week

Heather's Pick

Will and his friend Chester embark on a quest in subterranean London to find out what has happened to Will's missing father. Soon after their search begins, the boys discover another world where inhabitants are making plans to reclaim the surface.  As Will searches for this father and a way to stop the subterranean inhabitants from destroying the surface, he learns that his surface life hasn't been what he thought.

This series is appealing to readers who enjoyed Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.  If you like this series, I would also recommend the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer and the Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix.

Back by Demand--Newpaper Archive Class

Adult Services Consultant Susan Hayden will present an overview of the statewide database Newspaper Archive at the next Fire Up Your Skills class on May 12, 2011.  The class will be held from 6:00 to 7:30 pm in the West Virginia Library Commission Reference Library in the Culture Center in Charleston.  All Fire Up Your Skills classes are free and open to the public.

Newspaper Archive is a full-image database of newspapers from the U.S. and abroad from the late 1700's to the present.

New Downloadable Audiobooks

Love downloadable audiobooks?  Then check out some of the new selections for May:






A Creed in Stone Creek
One Hundred Names for Love Harvest Moon
Blameless
Florida Roadkill
Twilight’s Serenade (Song of Alaska Bk 3)
Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality
Still Surprised: A Memoir of a Life in Leadership
Riders From Long Pines
Terra Incognita: Travels in Antarctica
Scorpia Rising: The Final Mission (Alex Rider, Bk 9)
Lemonade Crime, The (the Sequel to Lemonade War)
Una Palabra tuya (A word from you)
Las lagrimas del sol (The Sun's Tears)

Through NetLibrary choose from over 2,500 audiobooks of the latest best sellers, classics, award-winning authors. Download and play on your MP3 player or computer for three weeks at a time. IPods are able to play the MP3 versions (over 1,650 titles), while Windows Media Player and a compatible MP3 player will be needed for the entire catalog.



List of compatible portable devices (MP3 players)
AudioBook Center Help (includes estimated download times, software requirements and searching tips)
Helpful Tutorial on downloading and transferring audiobooks