Friday, January 31, 2014

Tax Forms Available @ the Library

Tax forms are finally at the library! This year's tax season opened January 31 - ten days later than expected, due to the federal government shutdown in October. But now, the IRS is accepting returns. And now the forms - at least most of them - are available at the library. Fran expects additional forms to trickle in over the next week.

If you can't find a form that you need, ask at the circulation desk. They should have a binder with printable copies of all the forms - which you can get printed out for 15-cents/page. Of course, many of the forms are online, too, so you can print them off from your own computer (http://www.irs.gov/Forms-&-Pubs)

To encourage people to file electronically, the IRS provides free filing software (http://www.irs.gov/uac/Free-File:-Do-Your-Federal-Taxes-for-Free)

New York State tax forms can be found online at  http://www.tax.ny.gov/forms/. Again, they're encouraging people to file electronically and offer free software to people with qualifying incomes http://www.tax.ny.gov/pit/efile/default.htm

 If you need help with your taxes, the AARP Tax-Aide group is offering free Federal and State tax preparation at the following sites and times in Tioga County. There are no walk-in sites; this year all tax help is by appointment. Make sure you take these documents with you:your 2012 return; W-2, 1099 income information, and your property and school tax receipts.


Where to find tax help:

Apalachin Library                   Monday
719 Main Street                       Call 625-3333 (Librarian)
Owego, NY 13827                   2:30 to 4:30 PM

Owego Countryside              Tuesday and Thursday
Community Center                 Call 687-4120 (Receptionist)
9 Sheldon Guile Blvd.            9:30 to 1:30 PM
Owego, NY 13827

United Church of Christ        Wednesday
34 South Main St.                    Call 642-5520 (Secretary)
Newark Valley, NY l3811        By Appointment Only

Waverly Free Library             Tuesday and Thursday
18 Elizabeth Square               Call 565-9341 (Librarian)
Waverly, NY 14892                  11:00 AM to 3:00 PM

Coburn Free Library              Tuesday
275 Main Street                        Call 687-3520 (Librarian)
Owego, NY 13827                    6:30 PM to 8:30 PM


Thursday, January 23, 2014

Online Resources @ Your Library



Need to know how to change an oil filter? 

Refinish a chair?

Learn how to say “thank you” in Japanese?

You can find those things – and more – in the Finger Lakes Library System’s databases. Databases are reference and learning tools that contain everything from basic information to training modules and test preparation. There’s a link to library databases under “Candor Library Links” on the right.

Here are a few of the databases available through our library system:

Auto Repair Reference Center -  provides information on most major manufacturers of domestic and imported vehicles, with repair information for most vintage makes starting as far back as 1945. The step-by-step procedures are written specifically for the Do-It-Yourselfer, but comprehensive enough for professional technicians. The database includes repair procedures, service bulletins and recalls, wiring diagrams, and a calculator to estimate repair costs at a service station.

HeritageQuest Online Genealogy -  offers materials for researching family histories and American culture. It includes over 20,000 books, the entire U.S. Federal Census from 1790 - 1930, PERSI (PERiodical Source Index), Freedman’s Bank Records, Revolutionary War Pension Records, and more.

Health Reference Center Academic – provides periodicals, newsletters, medical journals, and consumer health magazines related to nursing and allied health issues.

Mango Languages - an easy to use online language-learning system that teaches conversation skills for a wide variety of languages, including Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Greek, German, Chinese, Arabic, and Japanese. Mango uses real-life situations and actual conversations to more effectively teach a new language to learn how to communicate. Specialized ESL courses are also available.

Learning Express -   helps prepare you for a variety of academic and civil service tests, including SAT, GED, ASVAB, clerical worker, police officer, firefighter, postal worker and real estate practice tests. There are math, reading, and writing skill-building resources for all students. Job seekers can receive help in creating a resume and cover letter and tips on preparing for a job.

There’s a treasure-trove of resources for book-lovers including:

Literary Reference Center  - a full-text database featuring a collection of author biographies, plot summaries, and critical analyses of literary works from literary reference books, monographs, magazines & journals, and other publications. There are also links to 8,000 classic novels, 11,000 short stories, 25,000 poems and more than 1,000 images of literary figures.

NoveList Fiction Guide – a fiction readers' guide to finding new authors and titles. Use a favorite author or title as a starting point to locate other authors and titles of interest. Or enter words that describe the contents of a book you would like to read, and NoveList retrieves titles that contain these words in the book's subject headings field.

TumbleBooks - an online collection of animated, talking picture books which are created from existing picture books. TumbleBooks also includes a collection of full length, unabridged classics in audio format and a small collection of books in French, Spanish, Russian, and Chinese. Also available are puzzles, games and quizzes.

Most of these databases are available from your home computer – all you need is a valid Candor Free Library Card (or a card from any other FLLS library). Don’t have a computer at home? Come down to the library and log onto one of ours.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Got Math?

Is one of your New Year's Resolutions to work on your MATH? If so, we can help. Our library has plenty of resources for kids - and parents - who want to know more about math or any other homework topic. Check out the Homework Help database on the Finger Lakes Library System. All you need is your library card number to get connected.

To get to the database click here. (You can also find a link to the databases on the library website - look for a link under Candor Library Links to the right.) Once you're in the database list, click on "Homework Help" and you'll find online encyclopedias, newspapers, magazines and something called "Kid Info Bits".
You'll need to log in with your library card, but once there, "Kid Info Bits" is where you'll find homework help for all sorts of subjects: plants, animals, inventions and more. If you want math help, look for this blackboard icon. Click on it, and then go find the Math & Measurement button and you're on your way.

We've also got some new books for the math explorer in your home. Most of these are aimed at the K-second grade level, but they're great for parents who need a quick review before helping at the homework table.
There are a series of books by Kelly Boswell, each about a different aspect of math. Diagrams, diagrams, diagrams! introduces differnt kinds of diagrams and the great ways they can help you sort all kinds of information. Topics include Venn diagrams, flow chart, tree diagrams and more.


She's got another about graphing (Graphs, graphs, graphs!) that shows how you can use graphs to sort information: pictographs, bar graphs, line graphs, pie graphs... 
Timelines, timelines, timelines!introduces different sorts of timelines as a way to organize data. There are picture timelines, vertical timelines, horizontal timelines, circle timelines and map timelines.

Every year, the kids at Candor Elementary School celebrate their 100th day of school. If you're looking for cool ideas to celebrate, check out 100 ways to celebrate 100 days by Bruce Goldston. There are ideas for collecting and counting, baking and bouncing, reading and writing... what about recycling 100 cans or walking 100 steps in a particular direction? 
How about making a snake out of 100 beads or learning how to say "hello" in 100 languages? There are ideas for measuring, rolling dice, reading books, writing poems, and creating designs using 100 triangles or other shapes.



For those who just want to have fun with math - check out the puzzlers at Bedtime Math. There are daily math puzzles for "wee ones", little kids, and big kids. They're fun to play around with before bed because they're stories with a puzzle, but you can do them for breakfast too - or even while riding in a car.
You can sign up at the Bedtime Math website for a daily puzzle to be delivered to your email, or you can just click on the handy blue "Bedtime Math" button over in the right-hand column next to "Library Links"
.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Annual Meeting is January 8

Each year the Candor Free Library Association holds an annual meeting to go over annual reports and elect trustees to serve on the board. This year's meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 8 at 6:30 pm.

While the meeting is open to the public, only association members have voting privileges. You can find out more about becoming a library association member by calling the library.

The regular Board of Trustees meeting will follow the annual meeting.