News

08 27, 2018

Harry Truman: The Beginning of the Cold War

By admin|2018-08-27T06:00:35-04:00August 27, 2018|

Our resident historian Dr. John Foster continued his US Presidents of the 20th Century series last month with Harry S. Truman.

We’ve filmed and shared his talk for those who couldn’t join us that night.

Truman’s rise to the presidency is nearly unimaginable. He was a failed haberdasher and zinc miner. Yet he served as president during some of this nation’s most tenuous times — the end of World War II and beginning of the Cold War.

And his policies still have an effect on our military, diplomacy and civil rights.

Our series continues at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 18, with a focus on Dwight Eisenhower. The talk is free to attend and open to all.

Foster will also discuss American Transcendentalism at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 13, at our Main Branch. The talk is part of celebration of Little Women’s 150th anniversary.

Louisa May Alcott’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was one of the most important figures in Transcendentalism, a uniquely American tradition that helped to define our national culture in the 19th century and beyond.

Foster – who in addition to being a reference librarian also earned a doctorate degree in history – will talk about Transcendentalism and the world of the Alcotts. Registration is required and opens Aug. 30.

Other historical talks by Foster can be watched on our YouTube page, as well, including:

08 25, 2018

Check Chilton for car maintenance & repair advice

By admin|2018-08-25T06:00:16-04:00August 25, 2018|

Chilton provides detailed information you need to tackle vehicle maintenance and repairs. Doesn’t matter the year, make or model of your vehicle.

What do you do when something’s wrong with your car?

Panic? Send your vehicle to the nearest dealership or mechanic and hope they don’t overcharge you?

Next time, start by visiting Chilton Library — one of the dozens of databases you can use for free with your Mentor Public Library card.

Chilton provides detailed information you need to tackle vehicle maintenance and repairs. Doesn’t matter the year, make or model of your vehicle.

It offers step-by-step service and repair procedures, diagrams to simplify troubleshooting, and plenty of pictures and illustrations to make sure you understand what you’re looking at.

You can also get labor estimates on specific repairs to make sure that nobody rips you off.

It even has Automotive Service Excellence test prep quizzes for the most popular certification exams, if you’re working on becoming a technician.

And that’s just one of our databases! We have dozens more that can help you when buying a computer, searching for a job, researching your family’s history, learn foreign languages or preparing a legal form.

And they’re all free to use with your library card.

08 11, 2018

Mindy McGinnis & Cinda Williams Chima on fantasy, philosophy & the worst things they’ve ever written

By admin|2018-08-11T06:00:05-04:00August 11, 2018|

Mindy McGinnis and Cinda Williams Chima are award-winning, bestselling YA authors who were kind enough to visit us earlier this summer.

While here, they granted an interview where they discussed EVERYTHING. They talked about:

how to build believable fantasy worlds
the weirdest thing they ever researched for a story
how their philosophy degrees — yes, they both have degrees in philosophy — influence their writing
their favorite books written by each other
the worst things they’ve ever written.

Visit our YouTube channel for dozens of author interviews

08 5, 2018

3 suggestions when writing or updating your résumé

By admin|2018-08-05T06:00:07-04:00August 5, 2018|

We hosted a résumé workshop with an expert from Modern Employment earlier this summer, and she made three suggestions for anyone who’s writing or updating their résumé.

1. Know what kind of résumé you want.

There are four kinds of résumé:

Chronological, which lists your work experience from most recent and concludes with your education
Functional, which emphasizes skills and abilities as opposed to previous positions
Targeted, which is when you draft a résumé for a specific job listing
Targeted chronological, which combines aspects of the first and third type.

Each kind of résumé is appropriate for a different situation. Targeted chronological résumés are typically most effective, and you should always spend some time targeting your résumé when you apply for a job.

However, if you have holes in your employment history or are trying to change careers, then you should draft a functional résumé that focuses on your skills.

By the way, our speaker advised not going back more than 15 years on a chronological résumé to avoid age discrimination.

2. Don’t forget your soft skills.

Do you know the difference between a hard and soft skill?

Hard skills include specific knowledge necessary to do a job. For example, if you’re a software developer, knowing Java is hard skill.

Hard skills are easy to demonstrate on a résumé with degrees, certificates, etc.

By comparison, soft skills characterize your ability to work with others and are much more difficult to measure. They include communication, decision-making and leadership skills, as well as creativity.

Soft skills may be difficult to measure, but they’re very important to many employers. Make sure you include them in your résumé.

3. Use action verbs.

Don’t litter your résumé with conjugations of “to have” and “to do.”

Don’t just “do.” Lead. Don’t just “research.” Search and solve. Don’t just “help.” Collaborate and contribute.

Here’s a helpful list of power words you can use when summarizing your résumé.

If you want more help in your career hunt, check out Ohio Means Jobs’ tips for writing a resume and searching for jobs online.

08 4, 2018

Learn about your genealogy & family history with our databases

By admin|2018-08-04T06:00:01-04:00August 4, 2018|

Research your family’s history with HeritageQuest, Ancestry and other databases at Mentor Public Library.

How far back do you know your family’s history? Do you know your great-grandparents? Do you know their great-grandparents?

Do you want to?

It’s amazing what you can learn about your family history with the databases available at Mentor Public Library.

Your library card gives you access to not one, not two, not three, but four different genealogy websites. For free.

They are:

Ancestry — Search for your family’s history through censuses, cemeteries, city directories, military and immigration records, and more public records.
Fold3 — Fold3 allows you to research your family’s military history going back to the Revolutionary War.
HeritageQuest — Similar to our Ancestry database. Browse public records, including censuses that go back to the 18th Century, US Indian census rolls, mortality schedules and more.
African-American Heritage — A genealogy database that specializes in African-American heritage, complete with state-by-state guides and a volunteer-staffed forum.

You don’t need to know much to get started on our databases—a name, somewhere that person lived and it helps to know his or her approximate birth year. And, frankly, if you don’t know your great-grandfather or great-great-mother’s birth year, it usually only takes a single search to find out.

These databases search through millions of public records: census and immigration information, birth/marriage/death certificates, and more. Not only can you view these documents, but you can email them to yourself and your family members.

And each document that you discover provides more information that you can use to hone your search.

So start searching and explore that family tree.

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