Jacksonville Public Library Blog 2024 Archive

If You Like Our "Live from the Library" Shows, You'll Love These Books

Live from the Library June - July

Ready for something magical, inspiring, and a whole lot of fun? Live from the Library is a series of engaging and educational performances - happening all summer long at your local libraries! Designed for children ages 5-12 and their families, you'll meet and learn from exciting musicians, clever scientists, caring animal handlers, crafty magicians, and more!

Books for Kids and Dads to Celebrate Father's Day

Father's Day Books for Kids and Dads

Jacksonville Public Library has a great collection of books about fatherhood that kids and their dads are sure to love! Of course, summer is a great time to spend time reading as a family. Not only does it help prevent learning loss while the kids are out of school for the summer, it gives kids and dads an opportunity for quality time and connection. You can listen to an audiobook together in the car on your next road trip. Or grab a book of spooky ghost stories to read around the campfire! 

Save Lives, Give Blood, Receive Cool Thank-Yous!

Be the hero in someone's story: give blood

Donate now and receive a $20 e-gift card for whole blood donors* and the satisfaction of saving local lives!

LifeSouth is a nonprofit that provides blood for 80% of the local hospital beds, including every Lv.1 and Lv.2 trauma center! Donors will be saving lives at UF Health, Baptist, and HCA FL by donating with LifeSouth Community Blood Centers.

This June: Author Talks, Workshops, Book Clubs and More for Adults

Library U: Adult Programs

This month, you have the chance to meet a buzzed-about debut author and an award-winning graphic novelist in our popular Lit Chat Interview series. Or, you can make your first self-published zine or learn how to format any work for print with our Writer's Lab Workshop series. Plus, there are 15 Library Book Club meetings, Life Lit gardening and small business workshops, and more! 

Lit Chat with Award-Winning Graphic Novelist Nate Powell

Lit Chat Interview with Nate Powell

Nate Powell is a National Book Award-winning cartoonist who began self-publishing as an Arkansas teenager in 1992. His work includes the new graphic novel Fall Through and a new comics adaptation of James Loewen’s influential Lies My Teacher Told Me, as well as Save It For Later, civil rights icon John Lewis’s March trilogy, Come Again, Two Dead and more.

Writer's Lab with Cartoonist & Zinester Thony Aiuppy at DCAZ Fest

Writer's Lab: Formatting Your Work for Print with Thony Aiuppy

Whether you hand-make every book or create your work digitally, you will get information, tutorials, and resources that will help you organize and format your project for print at our next free Writer's Lab workshop. Thony Aiuppy will teach you some of the tips, tricks, and formatting hacks he has learned over the last decade of making zines, comics, and graphic novels.

Library Book Clubs and Adult Reading Challenges to Join in June

Join a Library Book Club

Looking for your next beach read? Or a hot summer romance book to read in the air-conditioned comfort of your home? Are you trying to model good reading habits for your kids and teens this summer? The Library has you covered! Not only will you get fun reading recommendations every month (just by checking out the booklists here on our blog), you can also talk with fellow book lovers (and add even more to your to-be-read pile) at a Library Book Club near you! 

June Art Walk: Summer Kick-Off in Teens, Art Show & Zinester Meetup

We Are Open for Art Tours at Art Walk

Celebrate our community's deep pool of creative talent with us on the first Wednesday of each month in Downtown Jacksonville! The Main Library stays open until 9 p.m. for the festivities! We are conveniently located directly across from James Weldon Johnson Park, one of Art Walk's two major hubs of activity. This month, check out local art in the gallery, join the zinesters meeting and collaborating in the Zine Zone, and drop in for a Summer Kick-Off Party in the Teen Room.

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