Welcome to the Cooper-Siegel Community Library Adult Services Page!
Our Community Stories
Our Community Stories is a multi-year local oral history project where we collect and organize audio stories and related photographs share from our rich social and cultural history around the Aspinwall, Blawnox, Fox Chapel, Indiana Township, O’Hara Township, and Sharpsburg communities. Check out the website to hear some of these stories and consider contributing your own!
October Book Clubs
¡ Leamos Juntos ! (We Read Together!) | Monday 10/09 @ 7:00pm
Join Diana Morales for a fun way to improve your Spanish! This group will meet virtually on Zoom for a fun book club where you’ll read bilingual picture books together. Each participant will receive a PDF of the book. Learn and chat with others from the comfort of home. Diana will choose some fun picture books with text that will gradually increase in difficulty each month. Each month, you’ll spend some time on vocabulary and verb conjugation and then have an opportunity to discuss the books. Participants should know basic Spanish. Register here
Booked for Lunch | Friday 10/13 @ 12:00
This group meets in person AND online in a hybrid format on the 2nd Friday of the month. We read fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, memoirs etc! In October we are discussing This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub. We are now meeting in the cozy Reading Room in the front of the Library. Copies are available for you at the Front Desk (or try an eBook for your Kindle or iPad)! The audiobook version is also available on Libby. Register here regardless of how you’re participating, you’ll receive the Zoom link if you need it.
Speculative Fiction Book Club (Sharpsburg Branch) | Wednesday 10/11 @ 7:00
This bimonthly book club at Sharpsburg focuses on fantasy, science fiction, and other speculative fiction genres. This group meets in-person in the Fiction Room at the Sharpsburg Branch. For our annual bonus horror month, our theme is Folk Horror! Our selection is Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Copies will be available at the circulation desk. Zoom available for those who prefer to meet virtually. Register here.
Memory (Memoir + History) Book Club| Wednesday 10/18 @ 6:30pm
Curious? Always learning? Love hearing human stories? The new Memory (Memoir + History) Book Club is for you! Join us as we delve into the broad and weird world of nonfiction through selected memoirs and historical books. In Destiny of the Republic (2011), Millard details James A. Garfield’s meteoric rise to the American presidency and his catastrophic murder at the hands of a “deranged office seeker.” More importantly, Millard expands on what happened after the assassin’s bullet struck Garfield–and what it meant for medicine, America, and the country’s future. Destiny is narrative history at its finest. This event occurs after the library is closed so please park in the back lot and use the doors on the far right. Copies are available for you at Cooper-Siegel’s Front Desk (or try an eBook for your Kindle or iPad)! The audiobook version is also available on Libby. Register here.
Evening Book Group | Monday 10/30 @ 7:00
The Evening Book Group meets in person AND online in a hybrid format on the 4th Monday of the month. This month we’re reading Booth by Karen Joy Fowler. Please park in the back of the library and use the doors to the far right to enter the library. Register here.
Sharpsburg Sleuths Book Club (Sharpsburg Branch) | Tuesday 10/24 @ 7:00
Get a clue with the Sharpsburg Sleuths! We read all mysteries, all the time. This group meets in-person in the Fiction Room at the Sharpsburg Branch. This month we’re reading the true crime book Conan Doyle for the Defense: How Sherlock Holmes’s Creator Turned Real-Life Detective and Freed a Man Wrongly Imprisoned for Murder by Margalit Fox. Copies will be available at the circulation desk. Zoom available for those who prefer to meet virtually. Register here.
Events and Programs!
Click here to see ALL the programs for grown-ups
- Sinister Styles Group Art Exhibiton October 1, 2023 at 4:59 am
10/02/23 @ 12:00am - 10/07/23 @ 12:00am Sharpsburg Who doesn't love villains? Our current group show Sinister Styles is an aesthetic homage to villains. This group show features: Aravind Reddy Beth Roberts Brenna McKaig Cheryl McLaughlin Lee Price Melanie Linn Gutowski Kristen Postava The exhibit will be on view daily during library hours through Saturday, November 4.
- Banned Books Read-in & Letter Writing Eventon October 1, 2023 at 4:59 am
10/02/23 @ 6:00pm - 10/02/23 @ 7:30pm Community Room Sharpsburg Drop-ins welcome as space permits. Registration is required. Registration starts: 09/01/2023 @ 12:00pm Registration end: 10/02/2023 @ 6:00pm Celebrate the Right to Read! The program will begin with a brief introduction to the state and federal legislation that is currently being debated surrounding censorship, intellectual freedom, and the right to read. We will provide templates for folks who want to write letters to their legislators. We will also be joined by a variety of readers who will read excerpts from materials that have been challenged nationwide.
- Evening Book Groupon October 1, 2023 at 4:59 am
10/02/23 @ 7:00pm - 10/02/23 @ 8:00pm Program Room (Verne C. Koch Program Room) Cooper-Siegel This long-standing monthly book group is always looking for new members! We read mostly adult fiction and have a great time learning what we liked and didn’t like about each month's book. Stop in or call the library to get a copy of the current month's book. Adults 18+ only please. This program occurs after the library closes. Registration is required. Registration starts: 01/01/2023 @ 9:00am Registration end: 09/25/2023 @ 7:00pm This month we're reading Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Please park in the back of the library and use the doors to the far right to enter the library.
- Oh, Scrap!on October 1, 2023 at 4:59 am
10/03/23 @ 10:00am - 10/03/23 @ 12:00pm McLaughlin (Harry W. McLaughlin Jr Room) Cooper-Siegel Drop-ins welcome as space permits. Please register online or call the library at 412-828-9520 (CSCL) or 412-781-0783 (SCL). Registration is required. Registration starts: 02/16/2023 @ 1:00pm Registration end: 10/03/2023 @ 10:00am New and veteran scrappers are welcome to join our monthly scrapbook club. We meet the first Tuesday of every month at 10:00am. If you are already a scrapper, bring your current projects! If you are a beginner, we'll help get you started and will have tools and extra supplies on hand. Bring 3 - 4 photos for your first page if you are just getting started. Enjoy friendly conversation and exchange design ideas while you work on your pages!
Looking for a good book?
Check out NPR’s Best of 2022 OR LibraryReads (the top 10 books published each month that library staff across the country love).
NYTimes
Enjoy full access to The New York Times, compliments of Cooper-Siegel Community Library. Read at the library or anywhere else. Create a free NYTimes account and then start exploring today. To make it really easy, download the NYTimes app on your phone! The NYTimes is an essential source for fearless reporting, varied perspectives and practical advice on nearly every topic — from the vital issues shaping our world to the simple pleasures that make everyday life better. Click HERE to start reading.
Resources & Online Learning
Library Purchase Suggestion Form
Have a suggestion for a library purchase? Click on the link above and fill out our purchase suggestion form.