A new exhibit in the Main Library's Cincinnati Room, Rivalries, Championships and Legends: 100 Years of Cincinnati High School Football, highlights our community's rich football heritage. Memorabilia from the area schools includes photographs, trophies and autographed helmets, as well as yearbooks, programs, letter sweaters and pennants. The exhibit, curated by local historian Michael O´Bryant and Genealogy & Local History Reference Librarian Sara Curtis, combines materials from the Library's collection and local high school athletic departments. On view through January 24^th.

Players, coaches, and sports writers will swap stories about Cincinnati high school football during a panel discussion featuring the authors of Cincinnati Schoolboy Legends from which the exhibit stems on Saturday, November 28^th at 2:00 p.m. in the Main Library's Reading Garden. After the panel discussion, meet the authors and have them sign a copy of Schoolboy Legends while watching football flicks (featuring some of the most memorable moments in local high school football) and enjoying pizza and beverages provided courtesy of LaRosa's Pizzeria, a long-time supporter of local sports. Purchase a copy of Schoolboy Legends from the Library Friends' Shop.

Celebrate the Holiday Season with exhibits, performances, crafts, and more at your Public Library. When downtown, be sure to see The Cincinnati Ballet & Frisch's Presents "The Nutcracker" exhibit. This collection of objects from the Cincinnati Ballet's past performances of "The Nutcracker," including costumes, props, photographs, and promotional materials, will be on view in the Atrium of the Main Library until January 4^th. These items illuminate the story of "the most famous and extravagent ballet adventure in the world," as well as provide an inside look at Cincinnati Ballet's various productions of the ballet. Other holiday activities include performances by the Connie Ferguson School of Dance and The Cincinnati Kinderballet's interpretation of Beatrix Potter's classic Tailor of Gloucester, as well as crafts and concerts. You can learn how Kwanzaa is celebrated, make a gingerbread house and more! See all the free programs.

If you like audio books, be sure to check out our new audiobook format called Playaway. These are portable self–contained digital audiobooks that can be listened to using ear buds or by connecting the device to one's MP3 jack in a car or home stereo. The Library is undertaking a 90–day trial where five branches and the Main Library will receive around 100 fiction titles to circulate, providing an opportunity to gauge the interest and demand for the new format and selected titles. Please try one out and tell us whether you like this format.

The Library is pleased to be a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Opportunity Online Hardware Grant recipient. The $161,850 grant will be used to add computers and upgrade technology at 17 branches. Branch locations and quantities of computers funded were determined by the Gates Foundation and are based on the percent of residents in poverty and the age of existing computer equipment. This very generous gift not only increases the number of computers available at these locations but also improves the quality of computer access the Library can offer with additional software available. The first branch to receive the new equipment and technology was the West End Branch. On October 20^th seven new computers, a new printer and print release station, and a flat bed scanner were installed in the branch. The additional branches funded over the two years of the grant are Avondale, Clifton, Corryville, Covedale, Deer Park, Elmwood Place, Forest Park, Greenhills, Northside, Norwood, Pleasant Ridge, Price Hill, St. Bernard, Walnut Hills, Westwood, and Wyoming.