

The Stratford Library Teen Department, in collaboration with South End Community Center, recently awarded prizes for the winners of the 4th Annual Black History Month Essay Contest. The celebration was a special event in conjunction with the nationwide observation of “Black History Month”. Over 198 essays and artwork were submited to the contest which included children and teens from St. James, Wooster and Flood Middle Schools and Wilcoxson and Stratford Academy Elementary Schools. The program featured guest speaker and Stratford High School student Esther Jean-Marie who offered a power-point presentation about her summer in Mali with the SHS BuildOn project. The Library's own Youth Review Board also reviewed books about notable African-Americans at the event.
Among the Middle School winners were: 1st Place: Emma Sullivan (Wooster), 2nd Place: Jerry Dinan (Wooster), 3rd Place: Cora Barber (St. James). Honorable Mentions were awarded to Kalea Coles (Wooster), Kyle Souza (St. James) and Justin Cruz and Monica Gorton (Flood). In the K-6 category Kaitlyn Page (Wilcoxson) took 1st place with Honorable Mentions to Kevin Perillo and Zachary Dillon, both from Stratford Academy.
Teen Department Site of Free College Prep Service
The Stratford Library Teen Services Department through a partnership with PrepMe.com has announced a new, free service for those interested in preparing for the SATs. PrepMe.com is an affordable online college admissions and test preparation service currently available free of charge for library patrons and Stratford students with a current library card.
A leading SAT prep company, PrepMe.com offers their SAT course on an advanced adaptive learning platform. Each student progresses through customized curriculum allowing every student to advance at their own individualized pace. The course also offers full diagnostics to create a customized study schedule and lesson plan, over 80 hours of proprietary content written by a team that includes a Rhodes Scholar and recent Ivy League graduates covering every facet of the SAT and a technology platform developed at Stanford. It is specifically designed to work in conjunction with official College Board materials.
For further information about the SAT Test Prep Center contact the Stratford Library Teen Services Department at 203.385.4167. One-time registration with library card barcode is required to utilize the service.
Click here or on the Anime Club link in the right hand column to go to our Anime Club page to check out upcoming dates.

Teens & Adults Can Find Reference Resources Online
The Stratford Library is among the growing number of libraries taking their resources online. The library recently invested in electronic reference books from Gale Virtual Reference Library, the unprecedented eReference platform offered by reference book and database publisher Gale. This partnership will allow libraries throughout the library system to provide teen and adult patrons with more convenient access to the authoritative information resources housed inside the library.
The Stratford Library’s acquisition of Gale Virtual Reference Library will enable patrons to search, read, explore and conduct research with state of the art reference resources such as Encyclopedia of Small Business, the American Civil War, Pop Culture of the 20th Century, Great Depression and the New Deal Reference Library, Beacham’s Guide to the Endangered Species of North America, Supreme Court Drama: Cases That Changed America, Biology, Earth Sciences and Gale Resource of U.S. Economic History among many others. Resources are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from anywhere that has an Internet connection. Additionally, Gale Virtual Reference Library's extensive search capabilities enable users to search one reference book or search across the entire collection, including periodicals and journals.
For more information, contact the Stratford Library Teen Department at 203.385.4165 or the Adult Services Department at 203.385.4164.

VIRTUAL REFERENCE, LIBRARY BLOG, FACEBOOK
Teen Services' VIRTUAL REFERENCE is an online reference resource of free resource materials tailored by our librarians to Stratford students, your needs, your curriculum and your interests.
Just visit the Stratford Library website, click on VIRTUAL REFERENCE and type in your library barcode number. It’s available 24/7 from home or anywhere with an Internet connection. This resource provides cross-searching within the Gale periodical databases and reference sets, some of which are also available in print in the Teen Reference collection.
LIBRARY BLOG: Join the Stratford Library BLOG on our website anytime.
Check out our FACEBOOK page.


4th Edition of "Varied Voices" by Library's Creative Writing Workshop

The Stratford Library Teen Department and its popular Creative Writing Workshop recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of the literary youth group with the publication of the 4th edition of their literary magazine, "Varied Voices". It was also the 10th year that the workshop has received a Youth-as-Resources grant from Stratford Community Services to assist with the publication.
Teens interested in joining the workshop can call the library at: 203.385.4167
For middle and high school students; earn high school credit, enhance college applications, meet other teens or just have fun! A great experience for the summer for all teens.
Make a Difference!
How can you make a difference?
Volunteer.
Earn high school credit!
For middle and high school students to earn high school credit, enhance college applications, meet other teens or just have fun! A great experience for all teens. Call for more info!
Stratford Library has volunteer opportunities for everyone! To find out how you can help call (203) 385-4167 or stop by Teen Services.
Stratford Library Association
2203 Main St., Stratford, CT 06615
203-385-4167
