The libraries will close at 3pm this Friday, then remain closed Saturday for New Years Day.  Library staff will be joining the Keys community in celebrating this most wonderful time. Thanks for a great year!

The Key West Writers Guild provides a friendly forum for authors to share their writings and receive encouraging and helpful feedback. The Guild obtains information about finding agents, the current publishing industry and markets for writing.
Our many activities include:
• An annual party.
• Our second anthology, Voices from Key West, was just published and is available through members and at many locations throughout Key West. (The first, Key West and Beyond, was published in 2003.)
• In collaboration with the Florida Keys Council on the Arts, the Guild presents
http://www.keywestwritersguild.net/

Here’s a special holiday image from a forthcoming library digital collection.
Don DeMariá has been a professional diver since 1972 and based in the Keys since 1978.

Come to Book Bites book club on  Thursday December 9th at 4:30 when we will discuss the best books we’ve read this year.  New, old, romance, mystery…any book , any genre!  Come to discuss or get suggestions.

Governor LeRoy Collins at the dedication of the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park on December 10, 1960. From the Monroe County Library Collection.
Originally uploaded by Florida Keys–Public Libraries

America’s only undersea park celebrates its 50th year! Here’s a link to all the festivities: http://www.fla-keys.com/pennekamp50/events.cfm
Check out the library’s collection of Upper Keys photos, including the Pennekamp dedication, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/keyslibraries/sets/72157625375988576/