Mercer County Library Blog

Do you ever feel like you’re being watched? These days, security cameras capture you on street corners, generative AI remembers things about you, and third-party cookies track you across the Internet. The library offers a number of resources that will help you understand more about these important topics. In Means of Control , journalist Byron Tau explores how the U.S. government takes advantage of all the data collected about consumers on the Internet. “Recommendations” on social media feel eerily targeted and advertisements are specifically curated to your desires and purchasing behaviors. Beyond that, generative artificial intelligences such as ChatGPT, ClaudeAI, Google Gemini, and Grok are proliferating fast, with 62% of U.S. adults stating that they interact with generative AI at least once a week. In More Everything Forever , astrophysicist Adam Becker discusses how genAI companies and the billionaires who fund them do not always have our best interests in mind, valuing technol...

What's Happening at MCLS: May 2026 Here are some of the events and programs from around the Mercer County Library System for the month of May. For a complete list of events at your local branch, visit the MCLS Events Calendar . This May, MCLS branches are filled with programming celebrating Mother's Day, Star Wars Day, the 250th anniversary of American independence, Mental Health Awareness and Meditation Month, and Asian American, and Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Join us for crafts, storytimes, meditation workshops, history talks, cultural celebrations, and more throughout the month. For Kids Mother's Day Planting: Spider Plants Saturday, May 2, 3:00 pm West Windsor Branch Mother's Day Craft for Toddlers Monday, May 4, 3:00 pm Ewing Branch Crafternoon: Mother's Day Cards Monday, May 4, 4:00 pm Tuesday, May 5, 4:00 pm Hopewell Branch Mother's Day Craft for School Age Monday, May 4, 4:15 pm Ewing Branch Star Wars Jedi Trai...

Happy Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Month! Did you know that the origin of AANHPI Heritage Month dates to 1977? This is when a joint resolution was passed by Congress designating a seven-day period beginning May 4 as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week to recognize the history and contributions of Asian Pacific Americans in the United States. President Jimmy Carter signed it into law in 1978. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush expanded the week-long celebration to a month-long celebration. Then in 1992, the official designation of May as Asian/Pacific Islander Month was signed into law. The month of May was chosen to honor two important events: 1) the arrival of the first Japanese immigrant in the United States on May 7, 1843, and 2) the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869. Later in 2021, President Joe Biden changed the name to Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to recognize and include the many divers...

Let’s be real here, sometimes we are not as active readers as we would like to be. Family, relationships, career, and life overall get in the way. All this makes that 300-page novel collecting dust on your shelf that you’ve been meaning to pick up for weeks, now look as daunting as ever. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. If you need something a little less time-consuming that still can pull you in and leave a big impact, look at a short story collection! Short story collections can be small narratives exploring multiple types of fun and unique genres. They are an avenue through which authors can choose to indulge in the weird and eccentric sides of our typical romance, horror, and science fiction categories. They’re a great way to introduce yourself to genres you would’ve never picked up on your own! As a short story lover myself, I can confirm that there is a lot of depth within the short pages of these collections. Think a short story collection could get you out of your reading f...

As school and public libraries continue to be targeted with challenges to their collections, I really enjoyed watching this documentary about the librarians around the country who are striving to protect the rights of readers. The Librarians has been screened at more than 50 domestic and international film festivals since its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, and has earned 22 awards as of this writing. It is being broadcast until May 9 by PBS Independent Lens. I had the pleasure of meeting one of the librarians who is featured in the film. Martha Hickson, now retired, was an award-winning school librarian at North Hunterdon (NJ) High School when a parent began organizing to try to remove books such as Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison from shelves--without following collection development procedures. Hickson’s resistance to removing these titles led to her receiving online threats and in-person harassment. Other librarians in Texas, Florida, and Louisiana endured the same. While depic...

What a gift it is to be able to open a book or press play for a movie, TV show, or song and be transported into another time. Historical Fiction is oftentimes one of the first ways many people encounter different cultures or time periods and it serves as both an excellent gateway to further discovery as well as entertainment. In December 2025, I wrote about some of  my favorite tropes for Romance books , and today I am pleased to discuss literary tropes within the Historical Fiction genre. Before we begin our exploration of the genre, let me provide a few definitions. A literary genre is a category of literature based on shared traits; some examples of genres include: Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Romance, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy, etc. Also, it is very common to see some stories contain elements from different genres. A trope is a frequently used theme or plot device. Today, we will look at some books, film (screen), and song examples of Historical Fiction that exempl...

The fuzzy needles of the dark purple-green pine tree behind my computer screen sweep up and out across the silver-framed window panels beyond the scope of my vision. Flexible branches of this tree and all healthy trees point up and out on most non-weeping varieties. As trees make pine cones, fruit, leaves, seeds, flowers, bark, needles, twigs, and sticks, the air around them improves. The buds formed in the fall now widen. "Can we be flexible palm trees?" my friend asked her children. Can we be steady and stalwart like a tulip tree? During storms, the tulip tree, ten feet from my back door, drops lichen-heavy limbs. Spiky seedpods from his good friend, a Sweetgum, create a further hazard. I look at the trees, and ideas form. Some people must work without the sight of a tree. I wonder whether they mind. Lichens are also fun to look at and think about. Rare in urban areas and often found on tombstones, Golden Moonglow lichen is a thin, dusty-green, fluttering lichen with a ro...