Library News and Notes: Law and books for mid-March

Nevada Legal Services on Thursday

Nevada Legal Services offers assistance and advocates for the rights of low-income children, families, seniors and unemployed workers. This month's programs at the library include a Self-Help Forms Completion Clinic, beginning at 1 p.m. Thursday and a workshop involving Family Law at 3:30 in the auditorium on the same day. According to the website www.nlslaw.net, family law incorporates but is not limited to issues such as guardianship, child custody and adoption.

Book Launch: "Nevada State Prison"

The Nevada State Prison has closed, inmates have been transferred to other facilities and state leaders continue to ponder the future of the historic building. Authors, archaeologist Jennifer E. Riddle, research librarian Sena M. Loyd, and prison officers Stacy L. Branham and Curt Thomas have collaborated to write "Nevada State Prison (Images of America)," available through Arcadia Publishing and Amazon on March 26. Assistance with images for the book has come from the Nevada State Archive, Nevada Historical Society and the A.E. Bernard family. According to the description, the book chronicles more than 150 years of prison history, from fossilized footprints of a supposed "giant race of man (Homo Nevadensis)" to the first state-sanctioned execution by lethal gas. A book launch for the book and its authors will be held at 6 p.m. March 26 in the library auditorium.

Arts Initiative presents Marjorie Vecchio

Marjorie Vecchio, director and curator of the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno, will present a program titled "As the World Turns: Artists and Global Events" at 7 p.m. March 28. Ms. Vecchio's experience includes 10 years as an internationally exhibiting artist, teaching at Transart Institute in Austria and curating numerous exhibitions worldwide. She is working on two soon-to-be-published books.

The Capital City Arts Initiative is an artist-centered organization which encourages and sponsors, artists, art and cultural programs in the community, including Nevada Neighbors, art at the BRIC and artists in education.

BLM: Land Use Plan Revision

For those interested in land use and concerns, the Bureau of Land Management will conduct a Land Use Plan Revision program at 5 p.m. March 29 in the auditorium.

Languages and Story Time

There are personal and professional benefits to speaking more than one language. The library's Powerspeak Languages program, available free through the library's main website, enables users to access online language instruction in French, Spanish, Mandarin, German and ESL.

"Cuentos Bilingues," a bilingual story time during which books are read in both English and Spanish, benefits youngsters and their parents. This program begins at 6 p.m. March 29.

Book suggestion for March

Scientific researcher and psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and New York Times science writer John Tierney have collaborated to write an intriguing discussion of willpower, a topic that affects almost every aspect of life through procrastination, addiction, bad spending habits and diet failures.

Baumeister contends that glucose and its depletion have a dramatic effect on self-control and difficulty resisting temptation. The book also provides simple suggestions and tricks to improve this trait. "Willpower" is available at the library and also on OverDrive as an eBook.