All library locations are open and fully operational today, Friday, July 5.
November 1, 2013
As many Jane Austen fans prepare to read Pride and Prejudice from the servants’ point of view in Longbourn, they may wonder how they would have fared in the social whirl of the Regency world. Would you have triumphed, like one of Austen’s heroines, or suffered ridicule and fallen into disrepute? Now, you can join […]
October 29, 2013
This is another example of people who are anxiously trying to give their children an extra advantage in life. Is it necessary for toddlers, people who are too young to handle the pages of a regular book, to be introduced to Romeo and Juliet and Anna Karenina? Even if the book is transformed into a […]
October 25, 2013
Dickinson – that is. The Emily Dickinson Archive which was inaugurated Wednesday gives scholars and lay readers access to “high-resolution photos of thousands of the poet’s manuscripts, including envelopes or bits of paper with poems jotted on them, letters, doodles, and many, many exuberant em-dashes.” The project reignited a decades-long dispute between Harvard and Amherst, […]
October 24, 2013
Today on NPR’s Morning Edition, Susan Stamberg reported literary news that will please fans of the author J. D. Salinger. Salinger’s most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye, narrated by disaffected teen Holden Caulfield, captured the imagination of millions of readers and became an enduring icon of America’s youth in the early 50s. A […]
October 23, 2013
Unlike many librarians, Patricia Ann Kettles did not have an easy time learning how to read. Held back in school and labeled “emotionally disabled,” she can readily relate to kids who may be having a hard time. The Staten Island librarian read her first book at the age of 10. She credits one special teacher […]
October 22, 2013
Talk about a few of my favorite things! Club Monaco will be opening a 20,000 sq ft. space devoted to fashion, culture, and coffee. The director of marketing and communications, Alison Greenberg, states that this venture is an attempt to “bring our blog to life,” referring to the Culture Club. The goal is to “create […]
October 22, 2013
Macmillan has agreed to accommodate libraries by offering its backlist of over 11,000 e-book titles. Materials will be accessed through 3M, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor, and Recorded Books. Other publishers are moving in a similar direction as part of their ongoing evaluation of the digital business. Pricing will stay the same for now at 2 years […]
October 22, 2013
As you know from this amazing blog and our website, public library staff are great at recommending new and interesting books. Here’s another cool, collaborative source for recommended reading from our friends at libraries across the country. Library Reads is a monthly list of “The top ten books published this month that librarians across the […]
October 22, 2013
Today’s Chicago Trib had a long and generous article about local author Veronica Roth. She’s a 25-year old phenom who’s hot, hot, hot with the YA crowd who latched onto her debut novel, Divergent, the first of a trilogy set in Chicago which depicts a disturbing, dystopic future society. Roth grew up in Barrington, attended […]
October 20, 2013
Dr. James Campbell, an architect and architectural historian at Cambridge University, spent five years researching libraries around the world for the “first complete history of library buildings.” The result is The Library: A World History, which includes many beautiful photographs by Will Pryce, who travelled with Dr. Campbell to over 80 libraries in 20 countries. Dr. Campbell […]
