With the recent Libby updates, we've been hearing that patrons have encountered a card verification issue when trying to borrow or place items on hold from partner libraries. When attempting to borrow from these partners, Libby will ask to verify your card but fails to do so, creating a loop that continuously prompts for verification. To fix this issue, follow the steps below to enable or re-enable your card with these partner libraries. Additionally, Libby will now prompt patrons for their 4-digit PIN when logging in. By default, we set your PIN to the last 4-digits of the telephone number used when creating your account. Step 1: Click on the center "Home" icon at the bottom of the screen. Click the library card icon under "Your Libraries." Step 2: Click the button with 3 dots on the library card. Step 3: Click Partner Libraries. Step 4: Click "Enable" next to each partner library. Any partner library that is already enabled will only show a "Remove" option. Partner libraries that will not verify your card will need to be removed and re-enabled.

Burial Ground (NRA) Like other low-budget Italian horror films, Burial Ground doesn't waste time on character development or plot. Rather, it's focus is on zombies, guts, and gore. Intentionally derivative, director Andrea Bianchi isn't trying to reinvent the genre. Mostly, the film is hoping to dupe you into thinking it's related to Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which was released in Europe as Zombi (one of the films alternate titles was Zombi 3). Professor Ayers, studying an ancient tomb near his estate, accidentally unleashes an evil curse that reanimates the dead. He is then promptly eaten by them. Then, a bunch of people show up to the estate, apparently invited by the professor prior to his demise. They are also eaten by the zombies. The obvious appeal here is how people are eaten by zombies, and Burial Ground is very creative in this regard. The common genre conventions are obeyed for the most part. The undead are slow, lumbering, rotted corpses that shuffle menacingly towards their victims. However, sometimes they use tools, weapons, and even work together, displaying an intelligence not often seen from the zombified. Now, that doesn't make them more effective necessarily, but it does mean that someone gets their head chopped off! It's campy, goofy, gory, dumb and a whole lot of fun. If you're like me and you can't get enough of weird old Italian horror films, this is a must see. Shivers (R) Gritty, claustrophobic, and gross Shivers is an early offering from the twisted imagination of David Cronenberg. In a luxury apartment complex outside Montreal, a parasite is spreading amongst the residents. Those infected become violent, sex crazed maniacs, desperate to spread the insidious little slugs to anyone and everyone they encounter. The complex's resident doctor, Roger St. Luc races to uncover the parasite's origin and alert the authorities. But first, he must survive. Not for the faint of heart, Shivers delivers that classic Cronenberg body horror in all its bloody, gooey goodness. If you like movies that make you squirm in your seat, Shivers delivers. Stephen King's Sometimes They Come Back (R) From the master of horror himself, Sometimes They Come Back is a classic King ghost story that's just the right amount of spooky. It may sound strange, but this is an oddly cozy film that pairs perfectly with a dark, cold October evening at home with the lights out. Jim Norman returns to his small hometown to teach at the local high school. It's a bittersweet reunion with past, as he battles with the memory of witnessing his brother's murder years ago in a train tunnel just outside of town. Jim's new life is thrown into chaos and terror as the perpetrators, killed shortly after the murder as their car is hit by a train, suddenly present themselves in his class as new students. The three greaser ghosts are back to tie up loose ends and settle old grudges, pulling Jim and his family into their twisted games of life or death. A must for any Stephen King fan, Sometimes They Come Back harkens back to small town folk tales of tragedy and irony, where ghosts come to life over campfires and the past is ever present.

It's September and Fall is just around the corner! The chaos of summer reading has subsided, the weather has started to cool, and the librarians have begun to dust off their trusty cardigans. Yes, it's the changing of the seasons and as the days start to shorten, our daily lives seem to ease into a more manageable pace. So, it's the perfect time of the year to come visit us here at the Caldwell Public Library and get your library card! But how does one get a library card, and what can you do with it? We try to keep the process of getting your card as simple as possible. Anyone residing within Caldwell city limits may get a library card at no cost! Yes, your card won't cost you a dime because your city tax dollars keep our doors open and books on the shelves. Just come on in with a photo ID and a verification of your current address (recent piece of mail, car insurance, car registration, lease agreement, online bill statement, etc.) and we'll get your account created in just a few minutes. Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Caldwell, Canyon County, Idaho Jan. 1908 (Library of Congress) Outside of city limits? We got you. If you reside within the limits of any of our Lynx Consortium library members (Nampa, Kuna, Eagle, Ada County, Meridian, Boise, Emmett, Mountain Home, Twin Falls, Garden City) we can issue you a card from their library that will work at any consortium member! Not in the service area for any of our partner libraries? You can still get a card with a small non-resident fee. For $50 you can get a year membership or half a year at half that price. We also offer senior discounts and student options. Of course, you only need a card if you want to take materials home or borrow items through our digital catalogs on Libby or hoopla. Our building, programs, and events are all free and open to the public. Your card is a passport to adventure and lifelong learning! Check out books, movies, video games, board games, outdoor kits, book club sets and much more. Physical items can be reserved online and picked up at your convivence, or access audio books, eBooks, movies, music, and television programs at home or on the go through our digital collections. You can browse our website to learn more and access our catalog or come visit us for a chat! We love introducing new partons to the library and all it has to offer.

It's well known that the library offers a great selection of digital audiobooks through our lending platforms Libby and hoopla. Between the two catalogs, there are a staggering number of great titles to explore and new favorites to discover. Audiobooks directly from my phone are a complete game changer that has transformed my daily commute to and from work into something I start to look forward too. It's my twice daily story time, where the mundane act of getting to and from work becomes a respite. Here is just a small selection of some of my recent favorites. Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds Chasm City was my introduction to Reynolds and a great starting point for anyone wanting to get into his Revelation Space setting. A stand-alone novel, Chasm City follows former soldier and security operative Tanner Mirabel as he seeks vengeance on the man who killed his former employer. Chasing his target across space from his home on Sky's Edge to the titular Chasm City, Tanner tracks his target through the twisted and bizarre post-melding plague city scape. Incredible world building and setting bring the story to life as Tanner works his way up from the slums of the Mulch to the upper echelons of society residing in the city's Canopy, where cable cars swing themselves from the weblike growth of the city's plague deformed structures and the rich entertain themselves with cruel and dangerous games. Filled with profound explorations of what technology may look like in the distant future and the resilience of human ingenuity in the face of the unknown, Chasm City is a cyber punk Odyssey filled with plot twists and thrilling reveals. Leech by Giron Ennes It's been an unspecified amount of time since fantastic flying machines dropped death from the skies and reshaped the world. In a land slowly on the mend, a physician from the powerful and enigmatic Institute arrives in the bleak Northern country to replace the baron's former physician after their apparent suicide. The Institute holds a virtual monopoly on health services. With an unparalleled medical knowledge and an army of odd but supremely professional physicians, there is no public health crisis beyond Institute's abilities. But the inhospitable North hides secrets as insidious, infectious, and as dangerous as the Institutes own shocking operational truth. Gothic, bleak and crushing, Leech will make you squirm. Dune by Frank Herbert Maybe you've heard about this obscure little sci-fi novel from Frank Herbet. I think they made a movie or several about it. Alright, we all know Dune is one of those foundational novels that set a new standard in the sci-fi genre. A masterpiece in epic universe building with classic Shakespearian drama, Dune artfully explores timeless political, religious, and economic themes wrapped in a sci-fi narrative. In a far distant future, the spice Melange is the Empire's most precious commodity. The noble house Atreides has been charged with spice production on the only planet in the galaxy where it can be found, the desert planet Arrakis. But their old enemy, the brutal Harkonnes, won't relinquish such a prize peacefully, and every major power from the Navigator guild to the Bene Gesserit have a vested interest in the control of the spice. Paul, the Atreides heir, will be transformed by the planet in unimaginable ways as an ancient prophecy is fulfilled.

I love watching obscure movies, and even more than that, discovering that Hoopla's catalog is nothing like what you'll find on most mainstream streaming services. After downloading the app and browsing the movie collections, I found some that caught my interest because the descriptions sounded so awful that they had the potential to be unintentionally hilarious. Here are my quick reviews of the following movies: Titanic 2 and The Jurassic Games. Titanic II First off, there's only so many things a movie called Titanic II can be about. The story follows a modern luxury cruise ship named after the original Titanic, setting sail on the 100th anniversary of the infamous disaster. As anyone could probably predict, catastrophe strikes when a tsunami somehow launches an iceberg into the ship. Despite all of our modern technology, the vessel sinks anyway, and nearly everyone dies. In fact, it appears there is only ONE survivor, which is honestly a little ridiculous. Nepotism is definitely at play here. The movie is produced, directed, written by, and stars one man, who—unsurprisingly—also plays the heroic lead. For anyone curious, he's also Dick Van Dyke's grandson. This direct-to-DVD disaster film is just that, a disaster. It actually has the audacity to play its premise completely straight. It is not an official sequel to James Cameron's 1997 masterpiece, but it certainly hopes you might be confused enough to rent it anyway. I suppose you have to respect the sheer shamelessness of making a movie like this. Characters try to outrun rushing water on foot, random people die in unexpectedly gruesome ways that clash with the movie's attempted romance and heroics, and the entire thing feels clunky from beginning to end. The CGI ship is especially rough, resembling an early-'90s rendering of the RMS Queen Mary rather than a modern luxury liner inspired by the Titanic. The set design doesn't help either. You're supposed to believe you're aboard a multi-billion-dollar, state-of-the-art cruise ship, but the interiors were very clearly filmed inside an ordinary hotel and shopping mall. You can practically spot the illuminated exit signs in the background. Titanic II is a masterclass in making a terrible movie without realizing you're making a terrible movie. It's too dull to work as a disaster thriller and not outrageous enough to become an entertaining comedy. Between the endless green-screen effects, plot holes, baffling decisions, and the fact that virtually everyone still dies despite a century of technological advancement, it's less spectacular than it is simply disappointing. The Jurassic Games If you hear the title The Jurassic Games and immediately imagine a low-budget mashup of Jurassic Park, The Hunger Games, and The Running Man... you're exactly right! In a dystopian near future, ten death-row inmates are forced to compete in a televised virtual reality game show. The objective? Survive deadly environments, each other, and a whole lot of hungry dinosaurs. If you die in VR, you're given a lethal injection in the real world. The last contestant standing receives a full pardon and their freedom. It's absolute B-movie gold. The movie moves at such a frantic pace that it barely pauses for story or character development before throwing another CGI dinosaur at the contestants. It almost feels like someone adapted a budget video game into a feature-length film. I will say that the host of the show is genuinely entertaining. He perfectly captures the smug, ratings-obsessed television personality that a movie like this needs, and he's easily the most memorable character. Unfortunately, everything else is fairly forgettable. The characters are little more than stereotypes with predictable backstories, and the movie only half-commits to its ridiculous premise. Instead of embracing nonstop dinosaur mayhem, it repeatedly slows down to focus on inmate-on-inmate drama that isn't nearly as entertaining. Honestly, the movie would have been better served by simply throwing more dinosaurs at everyone. The writing is also painfully clunky. It gallops past logic and exposition, relying on awkward dialogue and familiar tropes that every movie it's borrowing from has already done much better. Overall, The Jurassic Games is just a little too restrained to earn true "so bad it's good" status. The fact that it somehow received a sequel in 2025 only makes the whole thing even more baffling.

From 1945 to 1992 the United States government performed 1,045 nuclear weapons tests, many in the Nevada desert. Nuclear fallout from these tests, carried by wind currents, spread across the region into neighboring states like Idaho. A map depicting composite deposition of radioactive material across the contiguous U.S. from the Trinity test in New Mexico and from 93 atmospheric tests in Nevada. (Princton University) As a lifelong Idahoan, Downwinder was a term I'd heard on and off over the years. My mother grew up in Emmett ID, a small town situated in a tiny valley just Northeast of Boise, where it seemed to be common knowledge amongst the locals that fallout from these tests blew in and settled. The cancers followed shortly after. The Radiation Exposure and Compensation act (RECA) was reauthorized under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Pub. L. 119-21, and enacted on July 4, 2025. RECA allows those affected, or if they have passed their loved ones, to seek $100,000 in compensation for qualifying cancers believed to be caused by these nuclear tests and other incidents of exposure. "RECA does not require claimants to prove causation. Rather, claimants qualify for compensation by establishing a diagnosis of a compensable disease after working or residing in a designated location for a specific period." Meaning there is no burden of proof for claimants to show that the tests caused their cancer, merely that they have a qualifying type of cancer and were in an eligible area or field of work during the claim dates. Since word has spread, the Caldwell Public Library has seen a huge increase in research requests as individuals seek proof of residency during the claim years between 1951 to 1962. Our primary source for this information, are our Caldwell Polk City Directories. These directories provide a year-by-year list of individuals living in Caldwell and many of the other communities in Canyon County. Additionally, we carry Caldwell High and Jr. High yearbooks, newspaper microfilm, and have access to Ancestry library edition. Through these resources, we are able to make physical or digital copies along with a letter of certification that people can use for their RECA claim. Individuals can submit a Caldwell Public Library research request in person, or online with the link below. Submit a Research Request here. Additional resources to help with RECA research include the Boise Public Library, and the Idaho State Archives.

Who loves a good murder mystery? This girl! We have a few extensive murder mystery games from a company called "Hunt a Killer", which does in depth murder mystery kits with multiple episodes, suspects, evidence, and very detailed story lines. Which honestly, just makes for the best, thought-provoking game nights! The game comes with 6 "episodes", all taking around 1-2 hours to complete, as it was initially distributed as a monthly subscription box. Here's a quick review of what to expect without any spoilers. :) Hunt a Killer: The Moon Summit Mystery The Setup: Moon Summit is a classic "cabin in the woods" style mystery that relies heavily on sorting through scientific logs, journals, and interpersonal drama. In the game you play as an investigator working for Michelle Grey's detective agency. You are contacted by a graduate student named Ami, who has been tasked with archiving data from a university-funded scientific expedition that took place in Moon Summit Park in Alaska. The goal of the expedition was to prove the existence of an undiscovered cryptid known as the "Ghost Lynx". However, the trip ended in tragedy with the team's photographer, a grad student named Toby Medina, was found dead outside Echo Cavern. Local authorities quickly closed the case, ruling it a fatal grizzly bear attack. Ami, however, has been reviewing the expedition's logs and suspects Toby was murdered. She hires you to look through the evidence, figure out how Toby really died, and identify the killer. The Suspects: -Conrad Willingham: The tenured Professor of Zoology and the stubborn leader of the expedition -Nigel Ricci: A tenured Professor of Biology who frequently bumps heads with Conrad. -Emma Clarkson: A research assistant with a history of extreme animal rights activism. -Lillian Walker: A documentarian brought along to film the expedition, known for stirring up drama. -Russel "Rusty" Tudlik: The regional expert and guide hired to keep the team safe. The Game: Moon Summit is ideal for Beginners. If you are new to murder mystery games this is an excellent starting point. The narrative is heavily guided and there are no huge leaps of logic required to eliminate suspects. Tactile Immersion: As with most of the Hunt a Killer styled games, the physical evidence is a highlight. You get a real hiking medallion, a signal mirror, polaroids, and detailed expedition journals that make the world feel lived-in. Satisfying Collaboration: The clue-to-red-herring ratio is well balanced. It's highly cooperative; one player might decode a journal while another reads an autopsy report, and the discoveries will perfectly validate each other. Overall, it's great for a game night with friends, and has various challenging puzzles, codes and ciphers throughout it. For me, it took about 6-8 hours to get through all of the episodes. Think you have what it takes to solve the mystery?

Like a freight train with bad breaks on a steep downhill grade, summer is rushing to greet us. With it comes that time-honored tradition that libraries across the nation unite around: Summer Reading! In an effort to curb the "summer slide", we celebrate all things reading to get kids, teens, adults and families excited for literacy. This year's theme is Unearth a Story! Celebrating the joy of discovery (and dinosaurs) Unearth a Story encourages us to explore the stories and experiences that define us and our communities. Like the fossil of a mighty T-Red, everyone has a story waiting to be uncovered! This year's program follows a familiar format if you've participated in the past. As always, our program is free and open to anyone. You DO NOT need a library card to participate or to attend any of our summer reading events. Readers will choose a daily reading goal (i.e. 1hr, 30min, 50 pages etc.) and log each day that they meet their goal for thirty days. Participants will get a free book for signing up, another at their fifteen-day mark, and a final free book once they reach their thirty-day goal! Additionally, attendees of our summer reading specials will earn raffle tickets that can be entered into the prize bin of their choice at the library! We have a variety of fabulous prizes available for kids, teens, and adults. First drawing will be July 6; final drawing will be August 3. While visiting us this summer, be sure to keep an eye out for our friend Digby. Every week ten of these little guys will be hiding out somewhere in the library. Find Digby and bring him to our summer reading staff for a prize! Just like last year, we'll be wrapping up the summer with a block party at Serenity Park next to the library on Wednesday, August 6th. Join us and our summer reading partners for a fun filled afternoon of games and crafts! Further details, reading logs, program dates, sponsors and raffle prizes can all be found on our summer reading program page! We hope to see you Saturday, May 30th for our summer reading Kickoff! And don't forget, completed reading logs are due no later than August 8th!

April is a very busy time for libraries. With National Poetry Month , National Child Abuse Prevention Month , and National Library Week all taking place, we've certainly got our hands full. But that's just how we like things, it's important to keep librarians busy, lest they lose themselves in their endless "to be read" list. This year, National Library Week runs from April 19th to the 26th, and to mark the occasion, our friends at the Idaho Commission for Libraries have organized a Statewide Job Fair! National Library Week is an annual celebration that highlights the valuable role libraries play in supporting and strengthening their communities. It's a time to celebrate the work we do and reflect on our services, impact, and mission . What better way to celebrate than by bringing libraries across Idaho together to host job seeker events and share valuable resources? ICFL’s effort to provide employment support statewide is a great example of the transformative power of libraries. For our part, the Caldwell Public Library will be hosting a Basic Resume Building Workshop on Tuesday, April 21st. This free event is open to everyone. Participants will receive a complimentary flash drive and a certificate for 10 free copies of their resume. The workshop is designed to give patrons a solid foundation for creating a clear, effective resume they can continue to build on as new opportunities arise. Attendees will learn how to use online tools and templates, how to save and share digital copies, and gain helpful tips for crafting a personalized and professional resume. We hope to see you there! If the timing doesn’t work for your schedule—or if we happen to miss you—be sure to check out the helpful job search and resume resources linked below. Idaho Department of Labor Next Steps Idaho Equus Workforce Solutions Idaho Easterseals Goodwill (55+)

Happy National Poetry Month! Every April I appreciate the chance to slow down, read some poetry, take part in a poetry writing challenge like Escapril , and occasionally even submit my work to literary magazines. If April also makes you want to write, I have a few suggestions for low-entry-barrier poem forms: Blackout poetry invites its poet to take a page from an old book or newspaper and black out everything except the poem. Take a look at " Oscar Grant" by Crystal Simone Smith . The traditional Japanese form of haiku ruminates on nature in three short, non-rhyming lines. Enjoy " The light of a candle" by Yosa Buson . List poems are just what they sound like! A title like “Fourteen Reasons to Love the Library” can lead to lists that work great as poems. Chen Chen's "When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities" is a stellar example. Free verse is neither rhymed nor metered, and allows a poet to work through a subject more conversationally. Check out " Space Bar" by Heather McHugh . As a former literature major, I’ve read my fair share of poetry. Today I'd like to share some of my favorite poetry collections with you, as well as some I’m excited to read. Whether it is the classics of Frank O'Hara, Sarah Kay’s meaningful spoken word, or something completely different, I hope you find something to enjoy. No Matter The Wreckage  - Sarah Kay Lunch Poems - Frank O'Hara You Better Be Lightning - Andrea Gibson Dearly - Margaret Atwood Where The Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein The Hurting Kind - Ada Limón

Looking for that creative break in your world? Come join us at the library for some of our upcoming hands-on arts and crafts programs, where creativity meets the community! Whether you're a seasoned maker or simply curious to try something new, these relaxed workshops and programs offer the perfect space to learn a new craft, meet fellow creatives, and make something beautiful. I would like to share a little background as to what inspired these programs. The adult arts and crafts programs are truly a labor of love inspired by my wonderful, super-crafty mother. Growing up, my siblings and I were always making something with her. Our projects ranged from cooking and 4-H activities to things like “who can make the best wreath using only supplies from the dollar store,” rock painting, cupcake decorating, and, of course, soaking just about anything in Mod Podge. As my siblings and I grew into adulthood we continued to meet up for craft nights with my mom. She would always leave wreaths on our doors around Christmas. We played guessing games with abstract paintings, and easily my favorite memories with her were when we would get our creative juices flowing and make something beautiful together. I lost my mom a few years ago due to a rare sickness, and I just felt a bit lost without her. I would see sunflowers (her favorite flower) and the memories of making floral arrangements with her would come flooding back. Being a bit of an empath, those emotions could be overwhelming. I struggled to find a way to do the things we loved together and still enjoy them without her. That is how the first "Seasonal Craft: Fall Wreaths" program was born. I wanted to see sunflowers in my life again, and I knew my mom would love seeing her memory live on by bringing joy to others through crafts. From there, the programs grew. We added seasonal wreath-making for each time of year, cupcake decorating, Mod Podge plates, glass etching, bath salt making, special effects makeup tutorials, and even a newly added Bingo night. Each program is a reflection of some of my favorite memories with my favorite person… brought to life again. Here's a quick look at some of our upcoming craft programs: Seasonal Craft: Spring Wreaths Celebrate the arrival of spring by designing your own decorative wreath. We’ll guide you through techniques for arranging natural elements, textures, and colors so you can craft a piece that reflects your personal style. No experience needed—just bring your imagination. Mixed Media Art: Pinecone Painting Discover the joy of mixed media by transforming simple pinecones into unique painted artwork. Experiment with color, texture, and composition while learning creative techniques that can inspire future nature-themed projects. We would love to have you join us at one of these upcoming programs . Thank you so much for supporting the library—and for supporting my dream of keeping my mom’s memory alive through creativity and community.

Are you haunted by the memory of media from your childhood? Vague recollections of a movie you rented, half remembered melodies of a hit song , or the intro to a TV series lodged in the back of your mind but just out of reach. It can be frustrating trying to track down these half-recalled experiences as an adult. Maybe you want to complete the memory, experience something from a new perspective, or simply relive the excitement of being a kid - but conjuring the right combination of key words to track it down can feel impossible. Hoopla is a great place to find older or obscure media, and it's completely free with your Caldwell Public Library card. If you haven't read up on this digital service, check out my post about it here before we move on. All done? Good. Now, you'll never guess where this is going, but hoopla has this half-remembered show from my childhood and it's called IRIA . IRIA  was one of my white whales. I have vivid memories of watching the entirety of this six-episode OVA one afternoon on the Sci-fi Channel when I was around eight years old. As a Dragon Ball Z  and Gundam Wing  fan, I was already familiar with anime , but I was captivated by this strange, intense and more mature show. Over the years I would recall bits and pieces of it, always asking myself: what the heck was that weird anime with the tiny face monster guy? Hoopla's description of the series is maddingly basic: "A monster hunter goes after a beast that could be her brother." Iria, our titular bounty/monster hunter, accompanies her brother on a dangerous mission to a remote space station that pits them against an immortal monster known as Zeiram. Things go awry and Zeiram escapes into the stars, forcing Iria to track him from planet to planet as she unravels the various mysteries and conspiracies surrounding Zeriam and those that seek to control him. Once you see Zeiram, you'll understand why I never forgot this series. A hulking humanoid mass with a red slash for eyes, a round-hat shaped head, and a tiny white face thing that whips out to bit at people - he is CREEPY . The futuristic backdrop, unique character designs, and strange technology create a captivating setting as we follow Iria's quest to eliminate the terrifying Zeriam. Iria is a total bad@$$ and great main character you can really root for. The action is quick and intense, but the series balances it with slower, more tender moments that reveal character's underlying motivations and emotions. I wouldn't recommend it for younger viewers, as there are some intense moments and some minor blood and gore, but nothing extreme or nauseating. IRIA is a blast, and a relatively short watch at only six half-hour episodes. It's an interesting time capsule of 90's anime goodness that whisked me back to the carefree days of my youth. Hoopla has many other anime offerings as well, so if you need to tune out from the demands of your day, check it out.