Spring Storytime Schedule

Join us every Saturday Morning for storytime in our children’s room from 10-11 am. Every week we focus on a different theme, with stories, songs, science, games, etc, geared toward young kids and their families. Here’s our spring schedule:

Saturday, April 1:  Colors

Saturday, April 8:  Wind

Saturday, April 15:  Baby Animals

Saturday, April 22: Flowers

Saturday, April 29:  Dirt and Worms

Saturday, May 6:  Butterflies

Saturday, May 13:  Families

Saturday, May 20:  Gardens

Saturday, May 27:  Rain & Rainbows

Saturday, June 3:  Hiking, Camping, Picnics

Saturday, June 10:  Water

Saturday, June 17:  Beach Fun

Saturday, June 24:  Construction

BREAKER SPACE FOR KIDS

What could be more fun (and educational!) for kids and their grown-ups than taking apart common household objects to see how they are made and how they operate? Join us at the Houston Public Library from 5-7 pm on Thursday, March 2nd for another session of our popular Breaker Space, run by resident STEM experts, Ann and Mike Markegard. Questions? Give us a call at 896-READ.

SATURDAY MORNING STORYTIME SCHEDULE

Come enjoy stories along with crafts, games, music, or science experiments, all geared towards young children and their families. From 10-11 am in our children’s room!

Saturday, January 7:  Days, Months, Years

Saturday, January 14:  Yetis

Saturday, January 21:  Plenty of Penguins

Saturday, January 28: Shadows and Light

Saturday, February 4:  Stinky, Slimy, Messy

Saturday, February 11:  Love

Saturday, February 18:  Sniffles & Sneezes

Saturday, February 25:  Fun in the Jungle

Saturday, March 4:  Owls, of course!

Saturday, March 11:  Green

Saturday, March 18:  Spring

Saturday, March 25:  Mud

City Council Candidate Forum

The City of Houston has two candidates running for mayor and three running for two city council seats. Come and find out what the candidates think in a forum moderated by the League of Women Voters of Winona, a non-partisan organization with a mission to inform the voters regarding candidates’ views. The audience will be able to write questions on cards for consideration by the moderator. Ground rules will keep the forum productive and respectful while getting to the core of the issues the public wants to hear about. (For the record, the Hurricane Hub is the former Catholic Church at 202 South Sheridan.)

CLOSED on Monday, October 10th

The Houston Public Library will be CLOSED on Monday, October 10th in observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone. We hope to see you on Tuesday, October 11th when our regular hours of operation resume.

BACK TO THE LIBRARY POST #3: Interlibrary Loans through MNLink

The Houston Public Library contains over 24,000 items available for check-out; the SELCO system contains over 1 million. Yet sometimes, even that is not enough to let our library patrons find exactly what they are looking for!

Thankfully, in Minnesota we have a third option: MNLink, a statewide interlibrary system which shares the physical catalogs, as well as electronic resources, of most libraries in Minnesota, free of charge. MNLink contains everything from K-12 collections to research collections, including online databases. It is a joint project of the Office of Higher Education and the University of Minnesota Libraries, with State Library Services, a division of the Minnesota Department of Education, providing additional funding to support these services for Minnesota libraries and library users. Questions about how or when to use MNLink to find the books or information you are searching for? Give us a call at 896-READ.

BACK TO THE LIBRARY POST #2: Interlibrary Loans via SELCO

Your Houston Public Library card gives you access not only to over 24,000 items here in our building, but also to the collections of 35 other public libraries and 27 school libraries, all located the 11 Minnesota counties which form the SELCO (South Eastern Libraries Cooperating) region — a total of over 1,085,795 titles! Again, all free of charge.

We receive deliveries of items requested by our patrons through interlibrary loan five days per week. Here’s a photo of our regular delivery driver, Christopher, who (just like a mailman) makes it down here from Rochester despite the seasonal challenges of Midwestern weather. For the record, we are always happy to order items for our patrons, but if you are interested in exploring the online catalog, get out your library card and go to www.houston.lib.mn.us. Questions? Give us a call at 896-READ.