Bell Memorial Public Library, 101 W. Main St., Mentone.

MENTONE — Various events and news from Bell Memorial Public Library.

Teen Book Club will meet from 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 17.  If you are interested in joining, please contact Natalie Salazar at (574) 353-7234, said a news release from Bell Memorial Public Library.

Lego Club will take place from 4 – 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 17 from 4:00 pm -5:30 pm in our large conference room. Come see what your imagination can build. 

Teen Craft Night will be held from 4:30 – 7 p.m. Thursday, March 19 in the Young Adult Room. Teens and young adults will be painting rocks. All supplies needed will be provided. Teen craft night is open to teens ages 12-20 years old. For more information, please contact Natalie Salazar at 574-353-7234. 

Adult Coloring Night will be on Thursday, March 19 from 5:00 pm -7:00 pm in our large conference room. Feel free to bring your own coloring materials if you’d like or you can use library provided materials. 

Story Hour is scheduled for Friday, March 20 at 10:00 am and will take place in our Children’s room. The theme for this week is “Curious George”. The chosen book to be read will be “Curious George Goes to the Zoo” by H. A. Rey. Children’s craft project will be to make Curious George monkey. 

As of Feb. 24, the library abolished fines for overdue materials. Library Board decided that they would rather have increased Library usage with no fines versus continuing to collect fines and fewer users. 

Effective March 1, the Bell Memorial Library will fine free with one exception and a few updates:

• That the fine for returning the Internet Hotspot will remain at $5.00.
• That effective March 1, no fines will be collected and all previous fines will be forgiven.
• That patrons must return or at least renew their materials when they come due.
• For those who do not return/renew their materials, their account could be sent to a collection agency and potentially sent to the Credit Bureau if the materials are deemed as lost.
• That patron who has materials that are marked as lost and the value of those materials is over $10.00 they will not be allowed to borrow materials until those materials are returned. 
• Additional updates were made to the number of materials that can be borrowed. Residents of Harrison Township and patrons paying the non-resident fee may borrow up to 30 items; the loan limit of 6 DVDs remains the same. PLAC/Reciprocal patrons may check out a maximum of 20 items, and students (not family members) in the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation may borrow up to 10 items.

As a reminder, the Library always encourages patrons to request items for purchase if it happens that the Library doesn’t own them. Any questions can be sent to Library Director Stephen Boggs at [email protected]

See what’s streaming on Hoopla Digital! Log on today to read these eBooks:  Trace Elements by Dona Leon, Writers and Lovers by Lily King and Like Flames in the Night by Connielyn Cossette. Teens and children can browse these titles: “Onward Read-Along Storybook” by Disney Book Group and “I love Pete the Kitty” by James Dean. If you do not have a Hoopla Digital account we can help! Please see a library staff member for assistance and information on how to get started. Please note, you do have to have a valid library card to set up an account. 

Culture connoisseurs, rejoice: The Smithsonian Institution is inviting the world to engage with its vast repository of resources like never before. For the first time in its 174-year history, the Smithsonian has released 2.8 million high-resolution two- and three-dimensional images from across its collections onto an open access online platform for patrons to peruse and download free of charge. Featuring data and material from all 19 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and the National Zoo, the new digital depot encourages the public to not just view its contents, but use, reuse and transform them into just about anything they choose—be it a postcard, a beer koozie or a pair of bootie shorts. 

Throughout the rest of 2020, the Smithsonian will be rolling out another 200,000 or so images, with more to come as the Institution continues to digitize its collection of 155 million items and counting. The database’s launch also marks the latest victory for a growing global effort to migrate museum collections into the public domain.