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[Kate]

DC Reads gets started this month and our book is Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi! DC Reads is a DC Public Library literacy program that promotes reading for pleasure by having city-wide celebrations focusing on one book. Our goal is to appeal to a wide audience--high school students and adults of all ages--to generate in-depth questions and discussion. DC Reads uses various artistic means to discuss, display, entertain and celebrate the joy of reading.

There will be a lot of DC Reads events all over the city From October 15 - November 15. I've listed some highlights below, but you can see them all on our calendar. We'll also start a thread here so that we all can discuss the book together.

DC Reads Kickoff Event
MLK Library, Saturday, October 20, 10am-3pm
Join us for a day-long kickoff event celebrating the history and culture of Iran, including children's craft activities, a performance by the Silk Road Dance Company and screenings of two films, A Separation (Jodái-e Náder az Simin) and Persepolis.

Najmieh Batmanglij: Persian Cuisine
MLK Library, Tuesday, October 23, 6:30pm
Najmieh Batmanglij, hailed as “the guru of Persian cuisine” by The Washington Post, will be demonstrating Persian cooking techniques. She has spent the past 30 years cooking, traveling, and adapting authentic Persian recipes to tastes and techniques in the West. Please join the celebration and enjoy the snacks!

Azar Nafisi Book Talk & Signing
West End Library, Wednesday, October 24, 6:30pm
Azar Nafisi is best known as the author of the national bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran, which electrified its readers with a compassionate and often harrowing portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how it affected one university professor and her students. She will be at West End Library to discuss her book and sign copies.

Center for Persian Classical Music
MLK Library, Saturday, October 27, 2pm
The Center for Persian Classical Music (CPCM) is a training institution for the Iranian traditional and folk music. In addition to teaching music, the Center addresses a wide spectrum of the norms, traditions, customs, and values of the Iranian culture. CPCM devotes its activities to performing concerts, publishing books, producing musical audios and videos, newsletters, art exhibitions, and Persian handicrafts.

Why Lolita?
MLK Library, Tuesday, October 30, 6pm
In celebration of the book Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library book group leaders (including me!) and members (including you all!) will discuss Vladimir Nabokov's influential work Lolita, and the book group it inspired in Iran.

Azar Nafisi in Conversation with Jacki Lyden
MLK Library, Saturday, November 10, 2:30pm
Azar Nafisi is best known as the author of the national bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran, which electrified its readers with a compassionate and often harrowing portrait of the Islamic revolution in Iran and how it affected one university professor and her students. Earning high acclaim and an enthusiastic readership, Reading Lolita in Tehran is an incisive exploration of the transformative powers of fiction in a world of tyranny. She will be interviewed by NPR's Jacki Lyden.

Hope you can make it out to some events and will join our discussion here!

[Cynthia]

Cleveland Park Library Teen Book Club Kickoff!

Join us at the Cleveland Park Library on Saturday, January 19th from 2-4PM for a discussion of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

There will be excitement! Adventure! Snacks!

We will also be talking about other Young Adult programs, summer activities, and ways to get more involved with the library. And did I mention that there will be snacks?

Copies of Uglies are available at the Cleveland Park Library circulation desk. If you know you can attend, tell us on this thread or on facebook!

(The more accurate the head count, the better equipped we will be for snacks! Did I mention that there will be snacks?)

[Sook-Yi]

Not sure if this is the right forum to post this question, but is there any chance we will get a mobile version of the library catalog?

[Tim]

We have mobile apps for Android and iOS that allow you to search the catalog, place holds, check your account, and more. Here's the library's App Store: http://www.dclibrary.org/appstore

[Sook-Yi]

Thanks so much! I had no idea.

[Molly]

There's a DC Library App?!? Amazing! I had no idea either.

[Maria]

Thanks Tim! There is also an app called "Overdrive" that you can use to download library books and audiobooks for 21 days. It can be a little confusing to set up, but the library holds workshops, and once you have it set up it is very easy to use.

[Sook-Yi]

Thanks, Maria! I downloaded the Overdrive app and it looks really promising. I am not an e-reader but will try it out.

[Sook-Yi]

Hi everyone! I have recently updated my DCPL app, and instead of fixing bugs, there are more bugs. I am not able to select any option except "search" and even then, I cannot get out of it. I am not sure who to contact. Please pass the feedback to the person who is in charge that there are problems for the iOS users. Updating it has basically stop it from working. If there are any ways to fix this, let me know. Thanks!

[Lesley]

Its hard to figure out what happened Sook-Yi but our Digital Commons computer area just opened at MLK and I'm sure if you could come in the staff there would be able to answer your questions!

[Maria]

Hey Sook-Yi & Lesley, I think we have our answer. Our IT director just sent out this email:

"As a result of a recent update to the DCPL App, certain features of the App were invalidated in iPhone 5. The issues have been addressed and a subsequent update is awaiting approval from the App store. The approval of the App store is being delayed due to the hacking of the Apple Developers site last week. We’ll keep you posted as soon as the updated App is approved."

That was a good catch, you must have been one of the first to notice! I'm glad to hear that people are using the DCPL app :)

[Sook-Yi]

Thanks, Maria. They have fixed some of the problems but there is still another issue where once I am on the search screen, the tabs are missing and I cannot switch to another task. Hope they will fix that too.

[Erin]

Any questions about the new hours?