Six masterpieces from the DIA’s collection are coming to Royal Oak this summer. Beginning June 29th, high-quality reproductions of paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts’ collection will find a temporary outdoor home in locations around downtown. Each high-quality reproduction will be in the original size on Lumacore Vinyl mounted in weather proof ornate wood. Programs, both announced in advance and spontaneous, will be held by the Royal Oak Commission for the Arts in conjunction with the DIA. Previous programs in other communities have included docent-led walking and biking tours, musical shows, and talks at local libraries. This year, Inside|Out will feature a high-tech treasure hunt in which players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, placed near the reproductions using GPS-enabled devices.

Join us for our celebration! Feed butterflies by hand and see butterflies in all stages of their development. Learn how to invite butterflies into your home garden by creating a butterfly sanctuary with native, host, and nectar plants. The dedication will include the unveiling of original butterfly artwork along with a display of student butterfly art and it will conclude with the release of live butterflies.

• Butterfly Gardening Program at 10:30 AM in the Friends Auditorium
• Feeding of Butterflies at the Butterfly Garden from 10:00 AM until release at 12 noon
• Dedication of Garden and release of butterflies at 12 noon
• Butterfly plants as well as lifecycle kits will be available for purchase so you can raise and release butterflies into your garden.

Friends Shop will be selling butterfly books, book marks, and raffle tickets for a decoupaged wooden lap desk decorated with butterflies made in the 1970s by the late Karen Burden who was a long-time Library Board Trustee and Friends of the Library member.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Royal Oak Public Library. Butterflies and Butterfly Gardening Program courtesy of Liberty School Butterfly Farm and Gardens.

Join the Royal Oak High School students of PushPLAY as they "Scoop Up Literacy." Support your local libraries while enjoying your favorite ice cream at Treat Dreams in Ferndale at 22965 Woodward on May 19 from 12:00 noon - 10:00 PM. Donate a gently used book or bring in the flyer below, and Treat Dreams will donate 50% of your purchase to the libraries. Donations will be used to purchase new books and media to support literacy in our communities.

In honor of the Battle of the Books, Treat Dreams will feature custom-designed ice creams for each of our competitors: Royal Oak Public Li-Berry and Ferndale Public Library Reading Rainbow. The library with the best-selling flavor (first to sell out) will receive an additional $50.00 donation from Treat Dreams.

The Royal Oak Public Library’s hours will be changing beginning the first week of June. The new library hours will be: Monday and Wednesday 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM; Tuesday and Thursday 12:00 noon – 9:00 PM; Friday and Saturday 10 AM:00 – 6:00 PM. This is a reduction of four hours - from the current 60 hours a week to 56. Additionally, in June library overdue fines will increase from 15 cents to 25 cents per day. Overdue fines can be avoided by renewing materials online, dropping them off 24/7 at the outside drop boxes, or renewing by phone during library hours at (248) 246-3700. The threshold for a library card being blocked because of outstanding fines will be changed from the current $10 to $5. The Royal Oak Public Library Board of Trustees voted to make these changes now to avoid the potential for more drastic cost saving measures in the future.

The art exhibition will coincide with the dedication of Royal Oak Public Library Butterfly Garden Dedication Ceremony on June 23, 2012. Names of participating artists will be included in the Butterfly Garden Dedication program.

April is National Autism Awareness Month and the fifth annual World Autism Awareness Day is April 2nd. This is an excellent time to learn about the impact of autism on citizens and to promote treatment methods and research developments. According to the CDC, 1 in every 110 children has an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

In 2003, Governor Granholm declared April as Autism Awareness Month. Corner Pieces, has launched Light It Blue Michigan in recognition of autism awareness. The Mackinac Bridge will be lit blue at sundown on April 2 to kick off the month-long campaign.

The program will resume April 1, 2013.

Royal Oak Library cardholders will be able to check out a day pass to any of the 98 state parks from April 1 through October 1, 2012. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment and The Library of Michigan are offering Park and Read for a fourth year.

Park & Read allows library card-holders the ability to "check-out" a one-day pass into any Michigan state park or recreation area in lieu of the resident daily motor vehicle permit. This $6 savings also provides free access to the more than 500 events taking place in state parks throughout the summer.

Brown’s novel Lethal is this year’s choice for the annual community reading program sponsored by metro Detroit public libraries in Oakland and Wayne counties.

Royal Oak Public Library cardholders can enter a raffle for 29 pairs of free tickets to see Brown on Thursday, March 22 at 7:00 PM at the Adat Shalom Synagogue, 29901 Middlebelt Road, Farmington Hills. Just visit the library to submit a raffle entry. Entries must be submitted by Thursday, March 15 at 5:00 PM.

Are you interested in Royal Oak History? You can visit our Local History Room or the Royal Oak Historical Society Museum. Museum curator, Muriel Versagi, gave a very informative talk describing all the treasures found at the museum here at the library on November 2.

Are you interested in your family’s history? Milford Librarian Sarah Hatter presented a workshop here on November 9th titled Researching your Family History.

It’s getting late in the season, but not too late to visit the butterfly-friendly garden established on the grounds of the Royal Oak Public Library. The garden is complete with host and nectar plants and is growing more beautiful with year. This past spring and summer, Maria Blair, our new garden coordinator, along with her crew of volunteers, maintained and planted in the garden.

They recently planted fall flowers and dressed the garden up with pumpkins, just in time for the Time Capsule ceremony.

Plans are underway for a special dedication ceremony for the Butterfly Garden in June 2012. Many exciting Butterfly Garden events will take place next spring and summer!