We're having a party, and you're invited. The third annual "Do the Dewey" will be held at the library from 7-10 p.m. on Saturday, April 16. The evening of fun will include food and drinks, live music, entertainment, interactive programs, and a raffle with lots of prizes. The cost is $35, and dress is business casual.

Programs and activities will take place throughout the building. Dennis Stoughmatt and Creole Stomp will perform lively French Creole and zydeco music and teach Cajun dance. Also scheduled are wine tips and tasting, golf swing analysis, digital photography tips, handwriting analysis, a quilt artist, the craft of brass etching, and "speed knitting." Kevin Luthardt and Fred Nagelbach will give gallery talks about the original artworks they created for the library.

Make your reservation at the Registration Desk or download the form from the library Web site. Proceeds benefit the Library Foundation and the Des Plaines Rotary Foundation.

Phone 847.376.2800 for information.

March is the perfect time to create a garden journal. All you need is a 3-ring binder to get started.

Be creative by including photos, sketches, landscape diagrams, seed packets, plant tags, newspaper clippings, garden anecdotes, and copies of magazine articles. Or keep it simple, and just record plant placement and growth notes. As each season progresses, you will discover you have created a wonderful garden resource that will store all of your garden memories for years to come.

A number of helpful books are available on the fourth floor of the library. Check out A Blessing of Toads by Sharon Lovejoy, Create Your Own Artist's Journal by Erin O'Toole, and Keeping a Nature Journal by Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E. Roth.

And, mark your calendar for two free gardening programs scheduled at the library this spring: "Basic Design Principles for the Home Landscape" at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20, and "Flower Power: Chicago's Top Flowering Annual, Perennial, and Small Shrub Picks" at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 18. Both are cosponsored with the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Phone the Registration Desk for information at 847.376.2787.

by Linda Knorr, Readers' Services Assistant

These books are sure to be popular. Visit the library Web site, click on Catalog, and reserve your copy today. Sign up for email notification for holds, and you will get an email when your copy is available.

• Broken Prey by John Sandford (March)
• Hard Truth by Nevada Barr (April)
• The Innocent by Harlan Coben (May)
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (April)
• No Place Like Home by Mary Higgins Clark (April)
• Oh My Stars by Lorna Landvik (May)
• True Believer by Nicholas Sparks (April)
• Two-Dollar Bill by Stuart Woods (April)
• The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg (April)
• Zorro by Isabel Allende (May)

Meet best-selling Chicago author Elizabeth Berg at the library Wednesday, May 4 at 7 p.m. Advance registration at the Registration Desk is required. Phone 847.376.2787.

Berg's latest book, The Year of Pleasures, will be published in April. She is the author of 13 previous novels, including The Art of Mending, Say When, True to Form, Never Change, and Open House (an Oprah Book Club selection in 2000). She has won a number of awards for her fiction and has also written a nonfiction book, Escaping into the Open: The Art of Writing True.

Do you own or manage a restaurant and want to improve your business? If you can't hire an expensive consultant, a series of guides from the Food Service Professionals can help.

Learn how to build your profits, control your food and operating costs, train your wait staff, increase sales, promote your business, and more. These guides include practical tips and techniques, step-by-step descriptions, and examples from the experts.

Visit the library Web site, click on the catalog, and search "food service professionals guide" to find all the titles in the series. All of these guides may be checked out with your library card.

by Joanne Griffin, Business Reference Librarian

The Mullenbach Collection, housed in the Rotary Heritage Reading Room on the third floor, embodies one of the classic ideals of the public library.

This collection, funded through the generous donation of longtime library user Jane Moore, gathers prize-winning fiction for children and adults. These good books invite patrons to sit in comfortable chairs in a quiet room and read.

A treasure trove of great stories, from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen to The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, these books can also be checked out to read in your own comfy chair at home.

by Roberta S. Johnson, Readers' Services Manager

email: dpplnews@dppl.org

phone: 847.827.5551