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Got Questions? Get Answers! Ask a Librarian by brazos.price

Ask a Librarian has everything you want to know about the library and its services, and a place to ask questions on any topic.  We just started using a new software (library.austintexas.gov/ask), so returning customers will see a new interface. Find the answer to your question using the search box or by browsing topics and archived questions.  The new system stores questions and their answers. This allows instant answers to pop up in real time when a question is asked that is already in the database.  If you don't find an answer, submit your question to us, and we'll respond as quickly as possible.

The new service allows email and texting, and we will add chat later this year. Ask a Librarian is found under Services at the top of the library's homepage, under Contact at the bottom of the page, and on the FindIt toolbar.

We're open Monday - Thursday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sundays noon to 6 p.m.

Finding Friends after the Playground by reference

 “Sometimes I think being able to buy beer and go to bed whenever I want just doesn’t make up for all the other stuff that comes with adulthood.” - Some wise words from a friend (paraphrased).

I’ve been thinking lately about the daunting task of making friendship as an adult. As a child we have no reservations about approaching other children and asking to play. But as adults – even  though we have all theoretically improved our social skills – we are mortified by the thought of being so frank with our feelings.

This very thing is the topic of the recent book MWF seeking BFF  in which author Rachel Bertsche spends a year seeking a new best friend in a new city. The book combines scientific research with Bertsche’s descriptions of her 52 friends dates (one per each week of the year). The results are, not surprisingly, a mixed bag. The journey speaks to an experience that many of us can relate to. While on her quest she develops a better understanding of what friendship means and how she can improve her own friend-making and –sustaining skills. Worth checking out if it’s a topic you find yourself giving some thought to. And who knows, maybe it will help you turn some of your own “friend crushes” (my phrase, not Bertsche’s) into actual friends!

Other books on making friends and connections:

 

“Advanced reading” on friendship:

  Happy Reading!

 

APL Recommends

Cover of the book Acts of faith
By Philip Caputo.
This epic novel, based on the author's own experiences in Africa, tells the stories of pilots, aid workers, missionaries, and renegades struggling to relieve the misery wrought by the civil war in Sudan. The hearts of these men and women are in the right place, but as they plunge into a well of moral corruption for which they are ill-prepared, their hidden flaws conspire with circumstances to turn their strengths--bravery, compassion, daring, and empathy--into weaknesses. In pursuit of noble ends, they make ethical compromises; their altruism curdles into self-righteous zealotry and greed, entangling them in a web of conspiracies that leads, finally, to murder. A few, however, escape the moral trap and find redemption in the discovery that firm convictions can blind the best-intentioned man or woman to the difference between right and wrong.--From publisher description.

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