If you want to scratch that itch to learn a programming language, then the Cleveland Public Library has game training for you.

In collaboration with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s MC2 STEM program, the Cleveland Public Library has installed Scratch on all of the public computer terminals with Internet access.

To learn more, watch one of these short videos and visit any local branch of the Cleveland Public Library system.

“Scratch is more than a programming language, more than a website, more than an online community. Its ultimate goal is to help people develop as creative thinkers—helping them learn to design creatively, analyze systematically, and work collaboratively.”

From the presentation: Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society Mitchel Resnick, Professor of Learning Research, MIT Media Lab.

“73.1% of American's describe themselves as soft-hearted”*

Statements such as the one above are derived from the results of opinion polls. Many people in politics, news organizations, and business believe that the use of poll and survey data can effectively gauge the public’s opinion on a particular issue. Others believe that polls and surveys are fundamentally flawed; they are based on the erroneous premise that public opinion is merely an aggregate of individual opinions which can in turn be represented in percentages.

With the election season in full swing public opinion poll results are continuously referenced in the news. Regardless of how we feel about their merit we cannot deny that they have considerable influence on our own opinions. The results of polls and surveys are determined by using various statistical methods that can be difficult to understand. Cleveland Public Library has a wide range of resources that highlight poll and survey results and delve into the different methodologies used in conducting them.

TAKE OUR POLL!

The Social Sciences Department of the Cleveland Public Library routinely receives questions regarding politics and the upcoming 2008 General Election. Below you will find a sample of frequently asked questions and the answers provided by our staff.

Librarians in our nation's 123,000 libraries make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans every day. Now is your chance to shine the spotlight on a librarian from one of your local Cleveland Public Library branches. Nominate your librarian for the Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times I Love My Librarian Award!

Up to ten librarians from public, school, college, community college or university libraries will be honored. Each will receive $5,000 and be recognized at an awards ceremony hosted by The New York Times at TheTimesCenter in December 2008. Vote for your favorite Cleveland Public Library librarian now!

Cleveland Public Library's Special Collections Department houses a copy of every Anisfield-Wolf Award winner from the first award in 1936 through today's most recent winners. The library's subject departments also have circulating copies of each of the award winners. The 2008 awards were presented at a reception at the Cleveland Play House on September 11, 2008. They are Junot Diaz for his book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Mohsin Hamid for The Reluctant Fundamentalist. William Melvin Kelley was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award and surprise guest Ayaan Hirsi was awarded an award for her best-selling memoir Infidel. Consult our online catalog for a copy of any of these prestigious titles.

Are you looking for a family friendly place to watch the Cleveland Browns on the big screen? If so please visit the Cleveland Public Library where selected games will be shown on Sunday afternoons in the Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium. Please click here for a list of scheduled games to be shown. Cleveland Public Library also has a great collection of books, photographs, and newspaper articles on the Cleveland Browns. Some noteworthy titles are First and Last Seasons: A Father, A Son, and Sunday Afternoon Football by Dan McGraw, False Start: How the New Browns Were Set Up To Fail by Terry Pluto, For Browns Fans Only!!! by Rich Wolfe, Cleveland Browns A to Z by Roger Gordon, and many more. For additional information please call Social Sciences Department 216-623-2860 or come in and check out our collection.

Image text: "Browns vs. Dallas. Jim Brown. Browns touchdown 1st quarter from 10. Oct. 17 1966"

Image Source: Cleveland Public Library Photograph Collection

Welcome (again) to the Cleveland Public Library's website. We are glad you stopped by. But even when you are not visiting us at cpl.org, you can still keep in touch with The People's University. Why not try out some fresh Web 2.0 ways to keep track of new books, new ideas and events happening at the Cleveland Public Library:

Keep up with our homepage by following us on Twitter. Subscribe to a couple RSS feeds to bring new mystery titles and upcoming events in all CPL's libraries to you. Comment on photos and videos from the library posted on YouTube and Flickr. If you use iGoogle as your homepage, add this gadget to search the collections of all the CLEVNET libraries.

Cleveland's branch libraries built prior to 1930 typically included fire places in both the adult and children's reading rooms as a design feature to create a feeling of homelike comfort.  Decorative ceramic art tile, popularized by the Arts and Crafts movement, were utilized around the fireplace openings. Library architects chose tile from important American potteries: the Grueby Pottery in Boston, the Pewabic Pottery in Detroit, and the Moravian Tile and Pottery works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.

Rice Branch, built in 1927 by architects Walker and Weeks, originally had two fireplaces that were covered over as part of a modernization and renovation of the building in 1981. Prior to 2008, Library staff believed that both fireplaces had been totally removed, and that any art tiles were lost or destroyed.