Programs
The MCL offers a variety of activities, workshops, and programs for people of all ages during the school year from August through May. We also have summer camps for children in the months of June and July.
Our activities, workshops, and programs are scheduled depending on funding, interest, space, and availability of qualified instructors and volunteers. We are able to offer some programs free; others may have a cost which we try to keep to a minimum.
If you are able to offer a workshop or activity, or have an idea for one you would like to see offered, contact us, or better yet, come talk with us at the library.
Library membership may be required in order to participate in some of the activities and programs. Library Programs are subject to change without prior written notice.
When the staff is available, the MCL sends volunteers to elementary schools to read to children in their classroom. Teachers and principals interested in having a reader from the MCL visit their school click on the Reading in Schools heading above.
Special Reading Activities and Workshops at the Library
Special reading activities for children, often including handicraft activities, are held at the library. Our special activities are announced on Facebook (Biblioteca Juvenil de Mayagüez) and in the Events section of this website.
Stamp Collectors Club
The MCL sponsors a stamp-collecting club; its name in Spanish is Club Filatelico Juvenil.
Requirements: interest and ability to read; members are usually age 6 to 15 but some parents have taken
an active interest too.
Chess Club
The MCL is going to sponsor a chess club.
Below, read the message from the founder and leader/teacher of the club.
We want a club that trains beginners in the basic concepts of this sport, teaching the rules, the basic techniques, the final theory, etc. Our goal is that chess reaches everyone, especially the youngest, since it is they who benefit most from their practice through the development of cognitive skills such as concentration, mental agility and the ability to analyze, which are fundamental elements of student life and daily life. We also want the club to help in improving the level of more experienced players by giving improvement classes, including advanced theory of openings, mid-game tactics, and ending games. We want to develop competitive players, who participate in municipal, departmental and national championships. We expect that chess club will open new doors in the lives of young people.
Summer Camp
Please call the library at 787-831-1595 for more information and materials about the camp.
The MCL sponsors reading and arts camps at the library during the months of June and July. You will find an announcement on this page when we open registration for the next summer camp. For a more complete idea of our camps, check out the following links:
Help Gathering Information
An important goal of the MCL is to help students succeed in school and on the educational path they take after high school. As a library, we want to support our schools by helping students to ask the right questions and find answers to them.
At the moment we have only a small volunteer staff to show our users how to use our print and online materials effectively. Please come for help early; waiting until the last minute could mean that help is minimal or not available.
If you know how to search for information on a computer, consider applying to become a volunteer and teaching other people to find information online.
Job and Community Service Training and Experience
As we have said in various places on this website, the MCL runs on volunteer power. We recruit and train students in their last year of high school to maintain the library online catalog, keep books organized on our shelves, and other essential jobs in a library. Qualified students at earlier stages of their intermediate and high school education can also participate in this program.
The training and service that go with being a volunteer at the MCL are as valuable, if not more valuable than paid work, due to the fact that one is voluntarily serving the community, Our volunteers get experience with applying for a job, participating in a job interview, following instructions, being dependable, working on a team and many other aspects of the working world. Students interested in serving as volunteers should apply at the Library.
Computer Workshop
The MCL offers a Basic Computing Workshop which has been designed to give adult beginners knowledge of the computer (its essential components and functions: monitor, keyboard, mouse, operating system, icons, windows, and document handling) and basic skills of navigating the Internet (search engine, You Tube as example of educational site, email and chatting.) The workshop consists of 16 hours of instruction and supervised practice. We have also developed a second workshop to cover the three programs in Microsoft Office: Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
For more information on the workshops, call or visit the library.