Located in a 200 year old barn on Halpin Lane in Ridgefield, Connecticut, the Guild contains three large gallery spaces, a gift gallery and studio loft. RGA presents a full calendar of exhibitions each year, including: an Annual Juried Exhibition, a collaborative exhibition of emerging artists with the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, a holiday show called Festive Home, and several all-member shows. The Guild also works with individuals or groups to produce special exhibitions. Gallery hours are from Wednesday through Sunday from 12 noon to 4pm and by special arrangement for rentals. For more information, please call 203-438-8863.

Thanks to the generosity of the Donofrio family the Library has been able to offer an
ongoing series of programs, workshops and events that aim to inspire young people,
especially girls and minority students, to pursue science and engineering through
school, college and beyond.

The Donofrio Technology: Inspiring Kids in Science series has also helped the Library receive several prestigious grants to develop other science related programs such as the International Year of Astronomy 2009 program and the Einstein's Big Idea program for which the Library won an Outstanding Library Service Award in 2005.

Calling all 3rd - 5th grade muggles!  Let's get together and read "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."  We'll discuss the book, make sure you're registered on Pottermore and participate in some fun activities.  It's o.k. if you've already read the book (we have too).  We're ready to go back to Hogwarts.  Join Mrs. Tichey-Staack, Mrs. Cerrato and Ridgefield librarian Mary Beth Rassulo to discuss all things magical! Registration required on our website.

Collateral Damage by Alice K. Boatwright 
Winner of the 2013 Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction - Independent Publisher Book Awards.
 
In Collateral Damage, three linked novellas explore the lasting effects of the Vietnam War on people living in its shadow – including both those who fought and those who didn’t. These stories from one of American history’s most divisive eras show us that Vietnam may not be as far behind us as we think. Who goes to war and why – and the consequences for them and the people who love them are issues that we still face today.
 
A Small Press Distribution summer bestseller in 2012, Collateral Damage received the Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards in May 2013. It was also a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.
 
“These are engrossing stories told with considerable artistry, full of recognition and sympathy.”
Diane Johnson, Author of Le Divorce
 
Alice K. Boatwright is the author of dozens of short stories that have appeared in journals, such as the Mississippi Review, Paterson Literary Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Penumbra, America West,Storyglossia, and Stone Canoe, as well as anthologies of women’s writing published by Crossing Press.
 
Her first book, Collateral Damage, was published by Standing Stone Books in July 2012. A Small Press Distribution summer bestseller in 2012, Collateral Damage received the Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards in May 2013. It was also a finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction.
 
In a career that has always focused on writing, Boatwright has won numerous professional awards and traveled around the world. She formerly taught writing for the University of New Hampshire and UC Berkeley and now runs an occasional private workshop in Paris. Since 2004, she has worked as a freelance writer, dividing her time between Paris and the U.S. 
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Author, journalist and film producer Todd Brewster will discuss Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.  Todd Brewster served as Senior Editorial Producer for ABC News and co-authored three books with the late Peter Jennings: The Century, The Century for Young People, and In Search of America. Brewster has served as a Knight Fellow at Yale Law School and as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government at Wesleyan University.

He has written extensively on constitutional issues and is the Director of the National Constitution Center's The Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution.  A native of Indianapolis Indiana, he was inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame. Today, Brewster is the Director of the United States Military Academy's West Point Center for Oral History and the Don E. Ackerman Director of Oral History for West Point.

Todd Brewster is currently writing a book on Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation.

This program will take place at the Schlumberger Auditorium at 36 Old Quarry Road, Ridgefield.  Please register.
 
This program made possible thanks to the Wadsworth Russell Lewis Fund and is part of Ridgefield Remembers the Civil War:  A town-wide, six-month series of programs and events to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  Click here to visit our Civil War webpage or here for our calendar of events.

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Join us for a reading by the Ridgefield Writers Workshop, featuring:

Paul Bissonette is a former TV executive who lives in North Salem, NY, with his wife, Barbara. Barbara is eternally grateful to workshop leader Chris Belden and the members of his workshop because Paul has stopped talking about writing some day and is now actually doing it.

Cynthia McNamara owns her own insurance business in Pound Ridge, New York. She volunteers as an EMT and is also working on her first novel. Cynthia comes from a long line of women who have had paranormal experiences, so it is fitting that the story she is writing is a paranormal mystery that also includes a little romance and some humor, not unlike her own life.

Thanks to the generosity of the Donofrio family the Library has been able to offer an
ongoing series of programs, workshops and events that aim to inspire young people,
especially girls and minority students, to pursue science and engineering through
school, college and beyond.

The Donofrio Technology: Inspiring Kids in Science series has also helped the Library receive several prestigious grants to develop other science related programs such as the International Year of Astronomy 2009 program and the Einstein's Big Idea program for which the Library won an Outstanding Library Service Award in 2005.

The Nonfictioneers meet on the first Tuesday of the month to discuss classic and contemporary non-fiction titles. Click here for more information and to see the upcoming discussion selections.

Note: The first half of the book will be discussed at the May 7 meeting and the second half at the June 4 meeting.

New members are always welcome. L H

Soldiers Fair - Saturday, June 8, 1 – 4:30 PM (rain date - June 9) @ Ballard Park. Featuring period music, singing, re-enactors, hands-on activities and games for children, a display of Civil War artifacts, local actors portraying men and women from the Civil War era and much, much more!

This program is part of Ridgefield Remembers the Civil War:  A town-wide, six-month series of programs and events to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  Click here to visit our Civil War webpage or here for our calendar of events.

CW H

As part of our 2013 Adult Summer Reading Program, the Ridgefield Library will be delving into the world of  Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and we hope you’ll join us as we explore this new way to engage in lifelong learning.
 
What is a MOOC?  A MOOC allows anyone with an internet connection to take college courses for free. Last year, companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX began partnerships with major universities and colleges to offer a wide range of courses online.
 
How is the Ridgefield Library participating?
This summer the Ridgefield Library will be a meet-up destination for a course entitled The Fiction of Relationship taught by Dr. Arnold Weinstein from Brown University and offered through Coursera.  For ten consecutive Wednesdays beginning on June 19th, we will gather at 7 PM in the library’s program room to watch Dr. Weinstein’s video lectures and then have a facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned.  You will be asked to sign up on the Coursera website to be a participant in the course and also to register at the library website so we know how many people to expect.
 
What will be the focus of the course ?
Here is how Dr. Weinstein describes the course:  “What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century.” 
 
What are the course readings and how much of a time commitment is involved?
Your commitment can be as much or as little as you like.  The selections to be discussed in the course are listed below.  We will have multiple copies of these titles available beginning the last week of May, and many of the works have free eBook versions.  Audiobooks of the works will also be offered when available.  You may attend all or some of the  lectures (once you sign up with Coursera, you will also be able to access the lectures from home).  Many of these works may be familiar to you, and you are welcome to come and listen to the lectures without making a greater time commitment.
 
Here are the works that will be explored:
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
 
For more information contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski at dlpawl@ridgfieldlibrary.org or by phone at x1003.  Please register at the Library using the Register button below and also at the Coursera Website (link below).
 
This program is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library. comtec L

“The sinking of the cruise liner that was once the pride of Hitler’s Strength Through Joy program has long been overlooked by maritime historians.  Yet when the Wilhelm Gustloff disappeared beneath the freezing waters of the Baltic in January of 1945, she took with her more than six times the number of people lost on the Titanic.Through careful research and interviews with the few remaining survivors. Cathryn J. Prince vividly recreates the chaos and terror of this epic maritime disaster.”--Hugh Brewster, author of Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic’s First-Class Passengers And Their World

As part of our 2013 Adult Summer Reading Program, the Ridgefield Library will be delving into the world of  Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and we hope you’ll join us as we explore this new way to engage in lifelong learning.
 
What is a MOOC?  A MOOC allows anyone with an internet connection to take college courses for free. Last year, companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX began partnerships with major universities and colleges to offer a wide range of courses online.
 
How is the Ridgefield Library participating?
This summer the Ridgefield Library will be a meet-up destination for a course entitled The Fiction of Relationship taught by Dr. Arnold Weinstein from Brown University and offered through Coursera.  For ten consecutive Wednesdays beginning on June 19th, we will gather at 7 PM in the library’s program room to watch Dr. Weinstein’s video lectures and then have a facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned.  You will be asked to sign up on the Coursera website to be a participant in the course and also to register at the library website so we know how many people to expect.
 
What will be the focus of the course ?
Here is how Dr. Weinstein describes the course:  “What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century.” 
 
What are the course readings and how much of a time commitment is involved?
Your commitment can be as much or as little as you like.  The selections to be discussed in the course are listed below.  We will have multiple copies of these titles available beginning the last week of May, and many of the works have free eBook versions.  Audiobooks of the works will also be offered when available.  You may attend all or some of the  lectures (once you sign up with Coursera, you will also be able to access the lectures from home).  Many of these works may be familiar to you, and you are welcome to come and listen to the lectures without making a greater time commitment.
 
Here are the works that will be explored:
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
 
For more information contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski at dlpawl@ridgfieldlibrary.org or by phone at x1003.  Please register at the Library using the Register button below and also at the Coursera Website (link below).
 
This program is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library. comtec L

Diane Johnston will present a program for Baby Boomers who are dealing with the challenges of caring for aging parents.  Among the subjects to be covered in this seminar are:

Cognitive Changes in your parent – Identifying, Accepting and Dealing with Mental Changes 
Coping Strategies: Getting through the difficult times with grace
Use of Humor
Increase Self Care
Meditation and Mindfulness
Enjoying your parents even when this seems impossible
Helping Your Parent Maintain Dignity
Finding Resources – Making Your Way through the Maze
            Medical professionals
            Mental Health professionals
            Geriatric Care managers
            In Home Services
            Independent Living vs. Assisted Living 

Diane Johnston PNP is a Nurse Practitioner in Psychiatry in private practice in Westport, Connecticut, specializing in psychopharmacology and psychotherapy. She is licensed in Connecticut and New York to assess and evaluate clients and to prescribe psychotropic medications as appropriate. In her psychotherapy and psychopharmacology practice in Westport, she works with adults, adolescents, couples and families from all over Fairfield County.

Diane Johnston has been in private practice for 15 years, specializing in the field of Behavioral and Integrative Medicine.  She was Medical Director at Insight Counseling in Ridgefield, CT. She was also a clinical supervisor in the Department of Complementary Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Ms. Johnston is also Director of the Mind-Body-Fertility program which focuses on using mind-body practices for fertility treatment and wellness.

This program is part of our Adult Summer Reading program and is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Library.
Sen HF

School age children, teens and adults are invited to join in the library's summer reading program that begins today!  Prizes and incentives are awarded for reading during the summer months.  Check our website for more information.

As part of our 2013 Adult Summer Reading Program, the Ridgefield Library will be delving into the world of  Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and we hope you’ll join us as we explore this new way to engage in lifelong learning.
 
What is a MOOC?  A MOOC allows anyone with an internet connection to take college courses for free. Last year, companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX began partnerships with major universities and colleges to offer a wide range of courses online.
 
How is the Ridgefield Library participating?
This summer the Ridgefield Library will be a meet-up destination for a course entitled The Fiction of Relationship taught by Dr. Arnold Weinstein from Brown University and offered through Coursera.  For ten consecutive Wednesdays beginning on June 19th, we will gather at 7 PM in the library’s program room to watch Dr. Weinstein’s video lectures and then have a facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned.  You will be asked to sign up on the Coursera website to be a participant in the course and also to register at the library website so we know how many people to expect.
 
What will be the focus of the course ?
Here is how Dr. Weinstein describes the course:  “What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century.” 
 
What are the course readings and how much of a time commitment is involved?
Your commitment can be as much or as little as you like.  The selections to be discussed in the course are listed below.  We will have multiple copies of these titles available beginning the last week of May, and many of the works have free eBook versions.  Audiobooks of the works will also be offered when available.  You may attend all or some of the  lectures (once you sign up with Coursera, you will also be able to access the lectures from home).  Many of these works may be familiar to you, and you are welcome to come and listen to the lectures without making a greater time commitment.
 
Here are the works that will be explored:
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
 
For more information contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski at dlpawl@ridgfieldlibrary.org or by phone at x1003.  Please register at the Library using the Register button below and also at the Coursera Website (link below).
 
This program is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library. comtec L

Join us for a honey tasting and paring along with a book signing with Marina Marchese, author of the just released The Honey Connoisseur: Selecting, Tasting and Paring Honey.   Drop in to Books on the Common between 6 and 8 PM.

This program is part of our Adult Summer Reading program and is presented by Books on the Common.

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The Nonfictioneers meet on the first Tuesday of the month to discuss classic and contemporary non-fiction titles. Click here for more information and to see the upcoming discussion selections.

New members are always welcome. L H

As part of our 2013 Adult Summer Reading Program, the Ridgefield Library will be delving into the world of  Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and we hope you’ll join us as we explore this new way to engage in lifelong learning.
 
What is a MOOC?  A MOOC allows anyone with an internet connection to take college courses for free. Last year, companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX began partnerships with major universities and colleges to offer a wide range of courses online.
 
How is the Ridgefield Library participating?
This summer the Ridgefield Library will be a meet-up destination for a course entitled The Fiction of Relationship taught by Dr. Arnold Weinstein from Brown University and offered through Coursera.  For ten consecutive Wednesdays beginning on June 19th, we will gather at 7 PM in the library’s program room to watch Dr. Weinstein’s video lectures and then have a facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned.  You will be asked to sign up on the Coursera website to be a participant in the course and also to register at the library website so we know how many people to expect.
 
What will be the focus of the course ?
Here is how Dr. Weinstein describes the course:  “What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century.” 
 
What are the course readings and how much of a time commitment is involved?
Your commitment can be as much or as little as you like.  The selections to be discussed in the course are listed below.  We will have multiple copies of these titles available beginning the last week of May, and many of the works have free eBook versions.  Audiobooks of the works will also be offered when available.  You may attend all or some of the  lectures (once you sign up with Coursera, you will also be able to access the lectures from home).  Many of these works may be familiar to you, and you are welcome to come and listen to the lectures without making a greater time commitment.
 
Here are the works that will be explored:
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
 
For more information contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski at dlpawl@ridgfieldlibrary.org or by phone at x1003.  Please register at the Library using the Register button below and also at the Coursera Website (link below).
 
This program is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library. comtec L

As part of our 2013 Adult Summer Reading Program, the Ridgefield Library will be delving into the world of  Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and we hope you’ll join us as we explore this new way to engage in lifelong learning.
 
What is a MOOC?  A MOOC allows anyone with an internet connection to take college courses for free. Last year, companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX began partnerships with major universities and colleges to offer a wide range of courses online.
 
How is the Ridgefield Library participating?
This summer the Ridgefield Library will be a meet-up destination for a course entitled The Fiction of Relationship taught by Dr. Arnold Weinstein from Brown University and offered through Coursera.  For ten consecutive Wednesdays beginning on June 19th, we will gather at 7 PM in the library’s program room to watch Dr. Weinstein’s video lectures and then have a facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned.  You will be asked to sign up on the Coursera website to be a participant in the course and also to register at the library website so we know how many people to expect.
 
What will be the focus of the course ?
Here is how Dr. Weinstein describes the course:  “What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century.” 
 
What are the course readings and how much of a time commitment is involved?
Your commitment can be as much or as little as you like.  The selections to be discussed in the course are listed below.  We will have multiple copies of these titles available beginning the last week of May, and many of the works have free eBook versions.  Audiobooks of the works will also be offered when available.  You may attend all or some of the  lectures (once you sign up with Coursera, you will also be able to access the lectures from home).  Many of these works may be familiar to you, and you are welcome to come and listen to the lectures without making a greater time commitment.
 
Here are the works that will be explored:
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
 
For more information contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski at dlpawl@ridgfieldlibrary.org or by phone at x1003.  Please register at the Library using the Register button below and also at the Coursera Website (link below).
 
This program is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library. comtec L

Children going into grades 2 and 3 read a book and meet to eat lunch and have a discussion and do an activity about the book.  Children bring their lunches. Registration required by signing up at the information desk and picking up a copy of the book to be discussed.  Book will be held at the circulation desk.

As part of our 2013 Adult Summer Reading Program, the Ridgefield Library will be delving into the world of  Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and we hope you’ll join us as we explore this new way to engage in lifelong learning.
 
What is a MOOC?  A MOOC allows anyone with an internet connection to take college courses for free. Last year, companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX began partnerships with major universities and colleges to offer a wide range of courses online.
 
How is the Ridgefield Library participating?
This summer the Ridgefield Library will be a meet-up destination for a course entitled The Fiction of Relationship taught by Dr. Arnold Weinstein from Brown University and offered through Coursera.  For ten consecutive Wednesdays beginning on June 19th, we will gather at 7 PM in the library’s program room to watch Dr. Weinstein’s video lectures and then have a facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned.  You will be asked to sign up on the Coursera website to be a participant in the course and also to register at the library website so we know how many people to expect.
 
What will be the focus of the course ?
Here is how Dr. Weinstein describes the course:  “What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century.” 
 
What are the course readings and how much of a time commitment is involved?
Your commitment can be as much or as little as you like.  The selections to be discussed in the course are listed below.  We will have multiple copies of these titles available beginning the last week of May, and many of the works have free eBook versions.  Audiobooks of the works will also be offered when available.  You may attend all or some of the  lectures (once you sign up with Coursera, you will also be able to access the lectures from home).  Many of these works may be familiar to you, and you are welcome to come and listen to the lectures without making a greater time commitment.
 
Here are the works that will be explored:
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
 
For more information contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski at dlpawl@ridgfieldlibrary.org or by phone at x1003.  Please register at the Library using the Register button below and also at the Coursera Website (link below).
 
This program is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library. comtec L

As part of our 2013 Adult Summer Reading Program, the Ridgefield Library will be delving into the world of  Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and we hope you’ll join us as we explore this new way to engage in lifelong learning.
 
What is a MOOC?  A MOOC allows anyone with an internet connection to take college courses for free. Last year, companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX began partnerships with major universities and colleges to offer a wide range of courses online.
 
How is the Ridgefield Library participating?
This summer the Ridgefield Library will be a meet-up destination for a course entitled The Fiction of Relationship taught by Dr. Arnold Weinstein from Brown University and offered through Coursera.  For ten consecutive Wednesdays beginning on June 19th, we will gather at 7 PM in the library’s program room to watch Dr. Weinstein’s video lectures and then have a facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned.  You will be asked to sign up on the Coursera website to be a participant in the course and also to register at the library website so we know how many people to expect.
 
What will be the focus of the course ?
Here is how Dr. Weinstein describes the course:  “What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century.” 
 
What are the course readings and how much of a time commitment is involved?
Your commitment can be as much or as little as you like.  The selections to be discussed in the course are listed below.  We will have multiple copies of these titles available beginning the last week of May, and many of the works have free eBook versions.  Audiobooks of the works will also be offered when available.  You may attend all or some of the  lectures (once you sign up with Coursera, you will also be able to access the lectures from home).  Many of these works may be familiar to you, and you are welcome to come and listen to the lectures without making a greater time commitment.
 
Here are the works that will be explored:
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
 
For more information contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski at dlpawl@ridgfieldlibrary.org or by phone at x1003.  Please register at the Library using the Register button below and also at the Coursera Website (link below).
 
This program is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library. comtec L

Take your seat for a fascinating talk sponsored by The Aldrich, Ridgefield Library, and Books on the Common about the design of chairs. Coinciding with the Museum’s presentation of the Extreme Drawing exhibitions, two renowned design professionals with over sixty years of combined experience, Niels Diffrient and Gordon Bruce, will discuss their creative processes, including the acts of drawing and sketching, and seminal projects from their careers in the design field. A book signing with Diffrient, whose new book, Confessions of a Generalist, encapsulates his perspective on design and the life experiences that inform his practice, will follow the talk.

Inventor, product designer and Ridgefield resident, Niels Diffrient has spent the last thirty-plus years focusing on the most universal tool in the office environment, the task chair—a category in which he has pioneered numerous breakthroughs. Most important to his design process are the prototypes. Consideration of both the contour/composition of the human body and the force of gravity creates the interface that determines comfort. His chairs are developed to help the users—sitting for long periods of time—handle their jobs with health and comfort. A master in the field of ergonomics, Diffrient is always looking to make more appropriate and useful products.

New Milford resident Gordon Bruce, principal of Gordon Bruce Design LLC, has been a design consultant for forty years, with clients in Europe, Asia, and the United States. He has worked with numerous multi-national corporations, including IBM, Mobil, Siemens, Samsung, Lenovo and GE, on various kinds and scales of products—from airplanes to computers to medical equipment—as well as design strategy and planning. The design standards he has written for major corporate programs have included defining product, graphic, interior, and exhibit design problem statements, specifications, research, and concept design.

As part of our 2013 Adult Summer Reading Program, the Ridgefield Library will be delving into the world of  Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and we hope you’ll join us as we explore this new way to engage in lifelong learning.
 
What is a MOOC?  A MOOC allows anyone with an internet connection to take college courses for free. Last year, companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX began partnerships with major universities and colleges to offer a wide range of courses online.
 
How is the Ridgefield Library participating?
This summer the Ridgefield Library will be a meet-up destination for a course entitled The Fiction of Relationship taught by Dr. Arnold Weinstein from Brown University and offered through Coursera.  For ten consecutive Wednesdays beginning on June 19th, we will gather at 7 PM in the library’s program room to watch Dr. Weinstein’s video lectures and then have a facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned.  You will be asked to sign up on the Coursera website to be a participant in the course and also to register at the library website so we know how many people to expect.
 
What will be the focus of the course ?
Here is how Dr. Weinstein describes the course:  “What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century.” 
 
What are the course readings and how much of a time commitment is involved?
Your commitment can be as much or as little as you like.  The selections to be discussed in the course are listed below.  We will have multiple copies of these titles available beginning the last week of May, and many of the works have free eBook versions.  Audiobooks of the works will also be offered when available.  You may attend all or some of the  lectures (once you sign up with Coursera, you will also be able to access the lectures from home).  Many of these works may be familiar to you, and you are welcome to come and listen to the lectures without making a greater time commitment.
 
Here are the works that will be explored:
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
 
For more information contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski at dlpawl@ridgfieldlibrary.org or by phone at x1003.  Please register at the Library using the Register button below and also at the Coursera Website (link below).
 
This program is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library. comtec L

The Nonfictioneers meet on the first Tuesday of the month to discuss classic and contemporary non-fiction titles. Click here for more information and to see the upcoming discussion selections.

New members are always welcome. L H

As part of our 2013 Adult Summer Reading Program, the Ridgefield Library will be delving into the world of  Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of the MOOC,” and we hope you’ll join us as we explore this new way to engage in lifelong learning.
 
What is a MOOC?  A MOOC allows anyone with an internet connection to take college courses for free. Last year, companies such as Coursera, Udacity, and edX began partnerships with major universities and colleges to offer a wide range of courses online.
 
How is the Ridgefield Library participating?
This summer the Ridgefield Library will be a meet-up destination for a course entitled The Fiction of Relationship taught by Dr. Arnold Weinstein from Brown University and offered through Coursera.  For ten consecutive Wednesdays beginning on June 19th, we will gather at 7 PM in the library’s program room to watch Dr. Weinstein’s video lectures and then have a facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned.  You will be asked to sign up on the Coursera website to be a participant in the course and also to register at the library website so we know how many people to expect.
 
What will be the focus of the course ?
Here is how Dr. Weinstein describes the course:  “What is the nature of our relationship to others and the world? How can literature help us see these relationships more clearly? This course seeks to explore such questions through adventurous readings of ten great works of narrative fiction from the 18th to the 20th century.” 
 
What are the course readings and how much of a time commitment is involved?
Your commitment can be as much or as little as you like.  The selections to be discussed in the course are listed below.  We will have multiple copies of these titles available beginning the last week of May, and many of the works have free eBook versions.  Audiobooks of the works will also be offered when available.  You may attend all or some of the  lectures (once you sign up with Coursera, you will also be able to access the lectures from home).  Many of these works may be familiar to you, and you are welcome to come and listen to the lectures without making a greater time commitment.
 
Here are the works that will be explored:
Manon Lescaut by Abbé Prevost
Bartleby the Scrivener and Benito Cereno by Herman Melville
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, and The Country Doctor by Franz Kafka
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Light in August by William Faulkner
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
 
For more information contact Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski at dlpawl@ridgfieldlibrary.org or by phone at x1003.  Please register at the Library using the Register button below and also at the Coursera Website (link below).
 
This program is made possible thanks to the Friends of the Ridgefield Library. comtec L