Mango Languages App from iTunes

We are pleased to announce that Mango is now offering an app of their foreign language program for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Get free access to more than 34 foreign language courses and 14 English as a second language courses in the palm of your hand with your Hamden Library account. Just visit the iTunes store to download the Mango Languages app. Mango makes learning a new language fast, easy, and incredibly effective!



You will need create a user login on the web-based version of Mango before you can use the app. To get started, the Hamden Library's Mango Languages database. After entering your library card number, create a Mango account (email address and password), then use that email address and password to log in to the app.

Android, Blackberry, and other mobile users may use the Library's web-based version of Mango Languages with their device's web browser.

Xbox Video Games

The Library has added Xbox 360 games to our Young Adult collection! Games go out for 7 days, no renewals. Two games may be checked at a time, and you are allowed to reserve titles. Late charges are $1 a day.

Games include:
Kinect Sports
Forza Motorsport 3
Dance Central
Batman, Arkham Asylum
NBA 2K11
Skate 3
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 : Fate of Two Worlds
Rock Band 3
Enslaved :  Odyssey to the West

Audiobook Appreciation Month

June is Audiobook Appreciation Month.

New Audiobooks in the Library

Downloadable Audiobooks

Audiobook Award Winners

Keith Richard: LIFE , read by Johnny Depp & Joe Hurley, featuring Keith Richards, is the "Audiobook of the Year" winner.

Orange Prize for Fiction

The Serbian-American author Téa Obreht won the Orange Prize for Fiction for her debut novel THE TIGER'S WIFE.
The award is given annually for the best novel in English by a woman and comes with about $49,000. Téa Obreht is the youngest winner of the Orange Prize. She is 25 years old.

"Téa Obreht was born in 1985 in the former Yugoslavia and raised in Belgrade. In 1992 her family moved to Cyprus and then to Egypt, where she learned to speak and read English, eventually immigrating to the United States in 1997. After graduating from the University of Southern California, Téa received her MFA in Fiction from the Creative Writing Program at Cornell University in 2009."

Previous Winners of the Orange Prize for Fiction

Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum Pass

We received two new passes to the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT. Each pass admits the pass-holder and accompanying family members for free. The museum is open Tuesday - Sunday, 12 noon to 5 pm. Closed on Mondays and New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. The museum is open on the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and Labor Day. The passes can be checked out by Hamden residents only with valid Hamden Library cards (first come, first served).

Pass Status

List of Museum Passes

New Art and Photography Books

Summer's almost here!

If you've been keeping up with Totem Tom-- and we hope you have-- you know the library's new air-conditioning is beating back the heat and humidity that's typical of our New England summers. Come in to beat the heat, and stay to browse our "good reads".

As a reminder, all children's books are two-week books starting Monday, June 20, 2011. NO RENEWALS! You will also not be able to place reserves on children's books during this time. This lasts for the duration of our summer reading program, and regular borrowing periods resume in September.

Also, summer hours start the week of Monday, June 20 and are as follows:

Monday-Wednesday: 10 am-9 pm
Thursday, Friday: 10 am-5:30 pm
Closed Saturdays and Sundays

Regular hours resume after Labor Day.

Institute for American Indian Studies Pass

Last chance to check out the pass to the Institute for American Indian Studies, 38 Curtis Road in Washington Depot, CT 06793 (Map). The pass will expire at the end of June and will not be renewed. Hours: Mon-Sat 10 am to 5 pm; Sun 12 to 5.
The pass admits a family
for free.

“Located just off Route 199, this museum and educational center focuses on the indigenous peoples of northwestern Connecticut, the Woodland Indians of New England. Changing exhibits highlight Native American culture from across America, while permanent exhibits focus on American Indian living traditions of the northeast. Outdoor exhibits include a replicated Algonkian Village and simulated archaeological site. Spend the afternoon and enjoy our four hiking trails, healing plants garden and picnic areas. The Museum Gift Shop offers the best in Native American jewelry, crafts, pottery, books and more. “

The library's Museum Pass Program is funded by the Friends of the Hamden Library. Passes may be borrowed only by Hamden residents with a valid Hamden library card. They are checked out for one day (overnight) with no renewals and no reserves. Overdue fines are $10 per day. Please call our reference desk (203) 287-2680 for more information.

Author Visit

Salt March Diary Author Mark Seth Lender
Tuesday, June 21 at 7 p.m. in the Miller Memorial Central Library Friends’ Room.

In its continuing series of Author Talks, Hamden Public Library has invited Mark Seth Lender, photographer, syndicated columnist, and contributor to NPR’s Living on Earth to speak about his recently published Salt Marsh Diary: A Year on the Connecticut Coast. 

Lender’s book was reviewed in Library Journal as a “lively work” that will “appeal to the poetic at heart and nature lovers alike, particularly those who feel the gulf between the world they live in and the simplicity of the world outside.” From Audubon Magazine: “Lender has an artist’s eye, a poet’s ear, and a reporter’s grasp… he inserts you in the planet’s most productive habitat--the rich, fragrant interface of sea and land where the only real “news,” as Thoreau called it, happens throughout the year, and all of it is good and beautiful.” His blog at connecticutrivergazette.com/blog combines samples of his photographic work and writings with information about upcoming field work.

Author Talks are free and open to the public. For further information, call the library at 203-287-2680.