Homesteading and E-Reader Help

Submitted release 

More E-reader Help at Canton Public Library

Are you one of the lucky new owners of a Kindle or other e-reader?  Are you eager to learn how to download e-books to your new device?  Help is available at Canton Public Library.  You’ll soon be up and running and ready to join the surging population of folks who can carry hundreds or even thousands of books with them.

Sarah McCusker, Head of Technical Services at Canton Public Library, has been offering  one-on-one or small group tutorials since mid-January to help library patrons transition into the use of electronic reading devices.  She will help with the downloading of books, including the use of the library’s Overdrive system for downloading library books.  Whether you have a Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Sony Reader, or other e-reader device, she’ll walk you through the process.

Sarah has added Wednesday, May 30 at 10:30 AM for e-reader help.  She will be available in the library’s program room for the session.

Use of the library’s Overdrive system is available to patrons with a Canton library card (or whose hometown libraries subscribe to Overdrive.)

Homesteading with Wyatt Whiteman 

As part of its continuing series on sustainable living, Canton Public Library hosts Wyatt Whiteman in a program called “Homesteading.”  The presentation will be held on Saturday, June 2 at 10:30 AM.

On an acre of land in Fairfield, Wyatt Whiteman has his “homestead.”  He is a farmer who grows an organic garden, oversees a beehive, and raises chickens and rabbits and ducks.  He has horses and a short-legged Dexter cow named Bridey.

Not only does he live off the land and his labor, he sells his produce at a stand on his property and maintains a neighborhood CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) called “Mama’s Manna.”

Whiteman grew up on the land that has been in his family for generations.  His house dates to 1760. He believes that anyone can survive on what they grow in their own backyard. He takes every opportunity to point out the superior quality of locally grown, fresh, organic foods. He spreads the word through the Fairfield Continuing Education Program and does cooking demonstrations locally.  His emphasis on simplicity and connection to the land is appealing in this complicated and fast-paced world.

“Homesteading” is free; registration is requested.  Canton Public Library is at 40 Dyer Avenue, Canton.  For information:  (860) 693-5800 or www.cantonpubliclibrary.org

Your Inner Fish To Be Discussed  

If you’ve ever wondered whether our evolutionary story can be traced back to the creatures of the sea, you will have a chance to whet your curiosity by joining a discussion of Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin at Canton Public Library on Saturday, June 2, rescheduled from the previous Saturday.  The conversation will begin at 1 p.m. 

 Neil Shubin is a fish paleontologist and professor of anatomy.  His book Your Inner Fish is an intelligent, elegantly told tale that demonstrates that we do, in fact, carry our evolutionary history within our bodies.  Shubin is the co-discoverer of Tiktaalik, a 375-million-year-old fossil fish with a skull, limbs, fingers, toes, ankles and wrists that provide a link between fish and the earliest land-dwelling creatures.

Copies of the book are available at the library.  New members are always welcome to join Saturday Book Conversations.