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Come visit your new, beautifully renovated library.

Hours:

Monday through Thursday, 9 AM to 8 PM
Friday and Saturday, 9 AM to 4 PM
Sunday, 12 to 4 PM

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Your library card gives you access to electronic resources, ebooks, audiobooks, and classes at every library in the NCLS system.

We would love to hear your thoughts, or feedback on how we can improve your experience at the Potsdam Public Library!

The Potsdam Public Library is starting a new long-term cross-country ski rental program for youth! Want to know more? Check out our blog here and fill out the survey here, or through the link in the blog!

Recent Posts

Kid Cross-Country Ski-Program Comes to PPL

The Potsdam Public Library is starting a new long-term cross-country ski rental program for youth! If you would like to participate, please...
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Grief

Our own experience of grief is as unique as a fingerprint. Most of us have lost or will lose a...
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Village Writers Guild presents . . . 

The Village Writers Guild returns this fall to the Potsdam Public Library. A 12-week series of workshops and discussions that...
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Recent Book Orders

The Bullet That Missed: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA new mystery is afoot in the...
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Introducing Young Adult (YA) Literature for Older Adults

You don't have to be young to read young adult literature. In PPL's new hour-long program, Young Adult (YA) Literature...
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Events

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On the Same Page Book Club

On the Same Page Book Club

Mar 22, 2:00pm

Potsdam Public Library2 Park StPotsdam, NY13676 Map

Is it ok to grieve over a deceased spouse, sibling, child, aunt, or friend? Yes.

Is it ok to grieve over the death of a pet, the loss of a job, aging, failing health, or a break-up. Also, yes!

Let’s get “on the same page” about what causes grief, and the many different ways people navigate grief so we can better understand our own grief and how to support others who are grieving.

Join us for the monthly club held the 4th Wednesday of each month at 2PM in the Potsdam Public Library mezzanine Community Room.

For March, the club will revisit Tuesdays with Morrie, a memoir by Mitch Albom, and will meet 2PM, March. 22.

For more info, contact club leader Kathy Love at kathylove1234@gmail.com
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4 interested
Changing the World for Parents, and People with Autism, with Don Mesibov

Changing the World for Parents, and People with Autism, with Don Mesibov

Mar 22, 5:00pm

2 Park St,Potsdam,13676,US Map

Author and educator Don Mesibov reads from his book, a compilation of
stories and strategies in the field of autism.

Don Mesibov will read from his new book, Mesibov, Schopler, and TEACCH: Changing the World for Parents, and People with Autism; From Refrigerator Mothers to Treating Parents as Partners.
At 5PM, Wednesday, March 22, Don will be in PPL's Main Reading Room talking about the book, which he said is a tribute to his brother, Gary, who was the ‘Go-to’ person in the world for counsel, support, and training in the field of autism.
During Gary's 45-year career, he counseled the Russian ambassador whose daughter was on the spectrum, and the King of Saudi Arabi whose grandson was autistic. He designed a five-day training session which he took to Japan 40 times, to the UK, 62 times, and to countries around the world and states throughout this country. His support employment program and social groups which he created continue to support people on the spectrum and their parents.
Highlights from the book will include:
 Why so many people credit Gary’s articulation of “The Culture of Autism” as changing their entire perception of people on the spectrum;
 The connection with what the low level official said to Gary when Gary handed him the report on the Russian Ambassador Daughter’s prognosis, in the 1980s, and how this relates to the current war in Ukraine;
 How a youngster spilling grits on a lieutenant governor’s tie resulted in North Carolina being the first state to provide funding to support autism initiatives; and
 How “The Cow Puzzle” enabled Eric Schopler to effectively articulate a significant way that people on the spectrum think?
Educators will hear excerpts from two chapters filled with strategies to utilize with children on the spectrum which are also best practices for all students.
Participants will receive several handouts including one with “18 Tips for School Staff and Parents,” and another with “43 Strategies for Working with People on the Spectrum” – which are also excellent strategies for working with any students.
Most importantly, Don said you will hear a brief history of autism around the world and learn what autism is and what it is not.
With his mentor and then partner Eric Schopler,. Gary helped to refute the Refrigerator Mother theory which was prominent in the mi to late 90’s and contended that women were responsible for their children’s autism by being cold and distant from them during the child rearing years.
To write this book, Don interviewed more than 80 people – career professionals in the field of autism, parents of children on the spectrum, and people with autism. This book is a compilation of quotes, anecdotes, stories and strategies that resulted from the author’s extensive discussions with the people he interviewed.
Don is the author and coauthor of five books, four of which are focused on the education field. His most recent, published this past June, is entitled, “Helping Students Take Control of Their Own Learning.” A memoir, published in 2010, focused on the last nine months of his mother’s life when, in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s, Don, and his wife Susan and their two daughters, brought her to live with them; their son, out of the nest, frequently visited. Don currently works as an educational consultant, training teachers to actively engage students in the learning process. Since graduating from Boston University with a degree in journalism and public relations Don has enjoyed a varied career working as a door-to-door encyclopedia salesman; a summer camp counselor, then athletic director; a child-care counselor at a school for children with special needs; a reporter, then editor, of a weekly newspaper; a teachers’ union labor relations specialist; and for the past 28 years he has been director of The Institute for Learning Centered Education, an organization he founded.
Don is an avid gardener with 175 flower gardens at his home in Potsdam. His wife Susan tends to nine raised beds which provide food for the summer as well as products that can be frozen and partaken during the long, cold Potsdam winters.
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3 interested  ·  1 going
Purl Jam

Purl Jam

Mar 23, 12:00pm - Mar 23, 1:00pm+40Mar 30, 12:00pm - Mar 30, 1:00pmApr 6, 12:00pm - Apr 6, 1:00pmApr 13, 12:00pm - Apr 13, 1:00pmApr 20, 12:00pm - Apr 20, 1:00pmApr 27, 12:00pm - Apr 27, 1:00pmMay 4, 12:00pm - May 4, 1:00pmMay 11, 12:00pm - May 11, 1:00pmMay 18, 12:00pm - May 18, 1:00pmMay 25, 12:00pm - May 25, 1:00pmJun 1, 12:00pm - Jun 1, 1:00pmJun 8, 12:00pm - Jun 8, 1:00pmJun 15, 12:00pm - Jun 15, 1:00pmJun 22, 12:00pm - Jun 22, 1:00pmJun 29, 12:00pm - Jun 29, 1:00pmJul 6, 12:00pm - Jul 6, 1:00pmJul 13, 12:00pm - Jul 13, 1:00pmJul 20, 12:00pm - Jul 20, 1:00pmJul 27, 12:00pm - Jul 27, 1:00pmAug 3, 12:00pm - Aug 3, 1:00pmAug 10, 12:00pm - Aug 10, 1:00pmAug 17, 12:00pm - Aug 17, 1:00pmAug 24, 12:00pm - Aug 24, 1:00pmAug 31, 12:00pm - Aug 31, 1:00pmSep 7, 12:00pm - Sep 7, 1:00pmSep 14, 12:00pm - Sep 14, 1:00pmSep 21, 12:00pm - Sep 21, 1:00pmSep 28, 12:00pm - Sep 28, 1:00pmOct 5, 12:00pm - Oct 5, 1:00pmOct 12, 12:00pm - Oct 12, 1:00pmOct 19, 12:00pm - Oct 19, 1:00pmOct 26, 12:00pm - Oct 26, 1:00pmNov 2, 12:00pm - Nov 2, 1:00pmNov 9, 12:00pm - Nov 9, 1:00pmNov 16, 12:00pm - Nov 16, 1:00pmNov 23, 12:00pm - Nov 23, 1:00pmNov 30, 12:00pm - Nov 30, 1:00pmDec 7, 12:00pm - Dec 7, 1:00pmDec 14, 12:00pm - Dec 14, 1:00pmDec 21, 12:00pm - Dec 21, 1:00pmDec 28, 12:00pm - Dec 28, 1:00pm

2 Park St,Potsdam,13676,US Map

It's time to make the cozy!

Our knitting group is picking up our stitches and getting the band back together! Join us every Thursday at noon - we will be gathering in the cozy North Country nook. Bring whatever knitting that you are working on.

17 interested
Keeping it Short: It's About Time

Keeping it Short: It's About Time

Mar 24, 6:00pm

2 Park St,Potsdam,13676,US Map

PPL's short story read-aloud series, Keeping it Short, focuses on time in its March 24th edition.

Once upon a time . . . the time space continuum . . . the time it takes to get from A to B and maybe back to A again . . . happen to have the time? . . . it's about time.
Time and how it can be perceived always has a role in storytelling, whether that role be minor, major . . . or not at all.
For this very special edition of Keeping it Short, our dear friend, writer and storyteller, Helen Condon will be joining host, PPL Program Coordinator and storyteller William Eckert.
Helen will be reading both a time-based short story and poem she has penned. Her storytelling is wonderful and if you came for our November Kurt Vonnegut edition of Keeping it Short, you've already had a taste of her talent of telling tales.
Join us, 6PM, Friday, March 24, for what always ends up being a good . . . Time.
Light snacks, tea and coffee provided.
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6 interested
SUNY Potsdam Theatre Dept. Children's Workshop

SUNY Potsdam Theatre Dept. Children's Workshop

Mar 25, 1:00pm

2 Park St,Potsdam,13676,US Map

Creative Drama workshop for children, inspired by SUNY Potsdam's upcoming production, You and Me and the Space Between.

Children ages 6-10 and their families are invited to join SUNY Potsdam Theatre student Emily Gilligan, 1PM Saturday, March 25, for an hour workshop where we will explore what influence means to each of us through the art of drawing and exploratory acting.
The workshop will include taking the structure of a circle and the inner layers of a circle, almost like an apple and its core, and analyze what is important to us and why it's in that part of our circle of life.
The workshop is inspired by SUNY Potsdam's future production of Finegan Kruckemeyer's You and Me and the Space Between, directed by Assistant Professor Rivka Eckert, taking the stage in April.
For more information contact Rivka Eckert at eckertsr@potsdam.edu
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1 interested