March Book Displays
Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier and the movie based on it were from a famous painting by the 17th century Dutch artist Jan Vermeer. One of our librarian’s very talented daughters has done a practice exercise of the painting and it is part of a display of art books we have just set up near the front desk. We have also pulled out some older books for a display called “domestic humor.” If you are a fan of Erma Bombeck or Frank Gilbreath who wrote Cheaper by the Dozen, come in and check them out. Other displays this month will include fishing books and outdoor humor. We often have people ask us if it is okay to check out the books we have on display. It certainly is okay. We just pull out different books every month so that the public can see some of the great variety of books available at Parsons Public Library.
Bookclubs for Boys
Last summer I worked very hard to establish a bookclub just for boys. I was inspired by the writings and research of Michael Sullivan whose latest book, Fundamentals of Children's Services I am eagerly awaiting to arrive from a nearby library. Part of establishing the bookclub was finding a male to be the leader. Thanks to our former Representative and now Judge Jeff Jack I found an excellent leader and the group was a success last year. After reading the entry on Boys and Books (scroll down to entry on 2-7-06) at Pop Goes the Library I am beginning to think about what we can do this summer just for boys and who could be our volunteer leaders. From my reading and personal experience of growing up with a brother and father who are readers and raising boys with a spouse that is a reader it just seems important that for boys to develop a love of reading good role models (guys who read) are important. The article from The New Republic mentioned in the Boys and Books entry is available here at the library or can be viewed from one of the databases available with a Kansas Library Card.
New audiobook toy
I just received an email inquiring if any Kansas libraries were purchasing this type of audiobook. It looks interesting and kind of fun because of the newness of it. At approximately $35 per item it is a bit pricier than what we are currently paying for audiobooks on cd. We have all but completely stopped purchasing audiobooks on cassette as the demand and the circulation of cds has surpassed audiocassettes. There are lots of options in the audiobook field right now with downloadable books, use of the MP3 players and the cds.
Black History Month Program
We had an excellent speaker last Friday night for our annual black history month program. Carmaletta Williams through the Kansas Humanities Council speaker's bureau spoke about the migration of African-Americans into Kansas in the late 1800s. The title of her talk was "Free Did Not Mean Welcome". We had a nice size crowd and enough pie from some very talented bakers to feed everyone.
