Sign-up for Free Small Business Counseling

The Pinellas chapter of SCORE provides free one-on-one business counseling the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays of the month at the library. 1 hour appointments are available between 10am-Noon & 1-3pm. To schedule an appointment for April 17 (or future dates), please call (813) 749-1181 or stop by the Library's Reference Desk.

Pinellas Extension programs in April

We are offering two great programs from the Pinellas County Extension this month! Registration is required for both programs, details below.

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The first will be a Rain Barrel Workshop on Saturday, April 21st at 10:00 am.

Have you ever thought “What a waste!” when you see the rain water pouring out of your gutter down spout and then down the street? By attending this workshop you will learn how save that water in a recycled plastic barrel for later use in your plant beds, potted plants, vegetable and herb gardens.

Rain barrels with spigots will be provided courtesy of the City of Oldsmar, and all attendees will receive set-up instructions and a reference booklet. One barrel per family.

Registration is required, stop by the Reference Desk or call 813-749-1181. Oldsmar residents have first priority.

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The second is the Kill-A-Watt Energy Efficiency program on Thursday, April 26 from 1:30 - 2:30 pm

UF/IFAS Pinellas County Extension has teamed-up with Pinellas County Libraries to offer a fun and factual new energy-conservation program. The goal of the Kill-a-Watt (TM) Campaign is to help Pinellas citizens monitor their home’s energy use to lower power bills.

Check your local library for Kill-a-Watt monitors that you may borrow to evaluate your home.

Registration required, please register online here. Only one person per household needs to register, but bring the whole family if you'd like!

2012 Relay for Life

Now through the end of the month, we are taking donations at the Library for the Oldsmar Relay for Life. Come on down & donate a dollar for a star in honor of a loved one who has faced cancer!

The Oldsmar Relay will be held April 20-21 at Canal Park in Oldsmar.

Our Oldsmar Teen Advisory Board (OTAB) and some library staff will be participating in the Relay, you can view their Team Page here.

For more information, please see the above links or give Heidi, our GOTAB Team Captain a call at 813-749-1179.

Couponing Made Simple - March 1

Join "Christi the Coupon Coach" & author of Couponing made Simple on Thursday, March 1, 6pm in TECO Hall - Christi will share practical tools and tips that will help you and your family save money using coupons! Book signing to follow. No registration required.

One Click Digital (audiobooks) Media Manager now available for Macs!

We received this press release from the One Click Digital folks (formerly NetLibrary) and wanted to pass it along:

We are happy to announce the launch of the Mac-compatible version of the OneClickdigital Media Manager. All Mac users will now have access to the new Mac-compatible OneClickdigital Media Manager, which can be downloaded through Apple's App store. The link to this program is available on the Help/User Tutorial page, and at other locations throughout the OneClickdigital site.

The Mac Media Manager will allow Mac users (with OS versions Snow Leopard, Lion, and higher) to install the Media Manager on their computers, giving them access to your library's entire audiobook collection.

In addition, we have made some other enhancements behind the scenes that will significantly improve the speed of the OneClickdigital site. And be on the lookout for the OneClickdigital iPhone app, which is coming soon. We’ll let you know as soon as it is available.

Happy listening!

You can read more about One Click Digital here.

Street Closing Notice, Feb. 14-24

The intersection of Dartmouth & St Petersburg Drive is closed for streetscaping. St. Petersburg Drive is closed from Buckingham to State Street. Please follow the detour signs to get to our parking lot on Dartmouth or use this map to plan an alternate route.

The intersection should re-open Saturday, February 25.

February - Discovery Reef Exhibit

Discovery Reef, a unique traveling exhibit that brings coral reefs to life, will be on display in our Children's Department during the month of February. This interactive display developed by Mote Marine Laboratory of Sarasota offers a glimpse into the inner workings of reefs — vital habitats for thousands of marine species — through hands-on educational panels and live video conferences.

We are having two public all-ages interactive video conferences with a marine science educator from Mote Marine Laboratories on Wednesday, February 8th at 2pm and Wednesday, February 15th at 2pm. Each session will last about a half hour and no registration is necessary.

We also have several live teleconference spots open for groups of 10-25 children. Those interested in reserving a spot should call the Children's Department (813-749-1179) for available times and dates.

Discovery Reef is one of three traveling exhibits developed by Mote’s SeaTrek program, which offers exhibits to museums, libraries and other venues in the U.S. and beyond.

This exhibit is sponsored by Verizon.