Friday, March 31, 2006

HeritageQuest online access

HeritageQuest online is now available to CDPL card holders from any site. (You no longer have to come to the library to use this resource!) With HeritageQuest, you can look at census records between 1790-1930. You can also search selected records from the Revolutionary War Era Pension & Bounty Land Warrant Application Files. And you can also search for records in Freedman's Bank (1865-1874), which was founded to serve African Americans. And more! Give it a try.

What do you need to access the database? All you need is the barcode from the back of your library card. Click this link to access by using your barcode: HeritageQuest Online.

This link is also on the Local History page of our web site.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Real American Stories

Tuesday, 11 April 2006
7:00 p.m.
Community Room A

Bob Quirk, 1950 Wabash Graduate, History Major, Retired Teacher, and now the Fountain County Historian will talk on "Real American Stories" (from early Indiana), growing up in Fountain County:
  • a 15 year old Irish boy who joined the British Merchant Marine
  • a young woman who sailed to China in 1920 to teach school
  • a Fountain Central graduate who became a hero at Columbine
  • windmills, wash day, radio shows, thrashing rings, etc.
Bob Quirk is the author of the book entitled "Real American Stories."
The program is open to the public; you don't have to be a member to attend.

For more information, please contact:

765-362-2242
Dian Moore, Local History Librarian (Ex. 119), or Dellie Craig, Activities Director (Ex. 118)
Weekdays: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Preview Shelf -- Babar Is 75 Years Old

"Nobody ever changes in Babar books," murmurs Laurent de Brunhoff, who has written and illustrated 34 of them since 1946. When he was 21, 16 years after his father who created the popular character had died, he resuscitated Babar in Paris, and when he moved to New York in 1985, his character came with him. A lot of me is in Babar, he says. At 80, the yoga practitioner emanates a sweet serenity. The latest adventure is Babar's World Tour, and it appeared in February as the writer was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at Barnes & Noble, New York (announced in the February 9, 2006 New York Times). The Crawfordsville District Public Library has a number of Babar books and videos.

You've been asking if borrowers' cards from the old Carnegie Library are good in the new building, and the answer is Yes. New coffee table books are ready to enjoy. The largest is a tour of China through the eyes of traveler Yann Layma, who is familiar with its terrain and immersed in its culture. He captures the essence of this civilization with 400 pages of 1980s photos and essays. Next largest is The Reader's Digest Keyboard Course showing how to play 100 songs the easy way. Notes, scale tones, and chords are marked, and words are included. Next in size is A Day in the Life of the American Woman with illustrations by 50 successful lady photographers who shared humor and creativity when they all recorded their work on April 8, 2005.

New helps are Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Woodworking by Lonnie Bird et al, and Renovation by Michael Litchfield, with completely revised and updated instructions connected with erecting a building. Karin Hessenberg's Sculpting Basics includes everything needed for three-dimensional art, like molding, casting, modeling, firing, and carving. The Michaels Book of Paper Crafts edited by Dawn Cusick and Megan Kirby is also colorful with creative ideas. Their The Michaels Book of Needlecrafts has the latest styles of knitting, crocheting, and embroidery for all age recipients. The Shopping Bags by Anna Wallner and Kristina Matisic is a book of tips, tricks, and inside information for a savvy shopper, including fashion, food, and entertainment. Presentations is the title of Carolyne Roehm's ideas for snazzy gift wrapping. Mehndi the timeless art of henna painting on skin comes from Loretta Roome who has popularized the art and has painted celebrities, schoolchildren, grandmothers, and businessmen. Michael D'Antonio's biography Hershey with his chocolate bar on the cover tells about Milton S. Hershey's extraordinary life of wealth, empire, and utopian dreams. Hearts West by Chris Enss contains true stories, some happy and some lonely, of mail-order brides on the American frontier where men outnumbered women twelve to one. How the Bible was Built by Charles Smith and James Bennett provides a factual overview of its construction throughout history, showing how the individual books were written and collected, later canonized and translated. Simply in Season is a spiral folder containing recipes that celebrate fresh foods in the spirit of More-with-Less compiled by Mary Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert in chapters titled Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and All Seasons. Extreme Simplicity is about homesteading in the city, bringing good humor, adaptability, and self-reliance to the challenges of living in crowded conditions. In the Company of Crows and Ravens by John Marzluff and Tony Angell examines the ways that crows and humans interact in cultural coevolution with 100 original drawings. Living with Kids and Dogs…Without Losing Your Mind is Colleen Pelar's parental guide to controlling the chaos.

Monday, March 20, 2006

SCQ'S Spring Dance of the Quilts

As forsythia, tulips, daffodils and periwinkle trip the light fantastic over, under, around and through a scintillating spring-fresh breeze, so too, Sugar Creek Quilters' art quilts, wall quilts, bed quilts, and photographic quilts, coolly cavort up, down, over and around on the scintillatingly spring-fresh walls of the Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery at the Crawfordsville District Public Library from Monday, March 20 until Monday, May 1. Come on over, see what this myriad of colorfully unique and unusual quilts can do to make you feel like tripping the light fantastic, over under around and through on your very own spring-fresh breeze. Sugar Creek Quilters eagerly anticipate this annual rite of spring and the opportunity it presents to "strut their stuff" to a new audience. During the year quilters experiment with color, fabric, new techniques, challenges and just plain enjoy the journey that begins with an idea and ends with a creation worthy of praise. Sharing the fruits of their labors always fills a quilter with the warm glow of satisfaction in a job well done. To provide monies for quality programming and workshops during the year, SCQ members make spectacular quilts and quilt-related items for consignment or donation to the SCQ Bazaar held annually at Wabash Fine Arts Center in early November. You won't want to miss this pre-Christmas Extravaganza! A new and exciting project for SCQ quilters, and brainchild of Krish McClamroch and Lucy Garrett, presents the opportunity for members to have fun while working together in the creation of happy, multi-color quilts for each of the 29 twin beds housed at the local Crawfordsville Crisis Shelter. What a joy it is to see all those donated squares come together in a spectacularly warm and wonderful thing of beauty through the efforts of many! Sugar Creek Quilters would be delighted to have you join them in the basement of Public Library on any third Monday of the month in Community Room A at 7:00 pm. A love of quilts is the only criterion for membership. Do come often and stay long, it will leave you swinging, swaying and enjoying the spring fresh beauties that have freshly burst forth from the fertile imaginations of Crawfordsville's own Sugar Creek Quilters.

Monday, March 13, 2006

Preview Shelf -- Celebrate St. Patrick's Day at CDPL

From 3:30 to 4:30 on March 17, the Crawfordsville District Public Library youth services program room will welcome you for music, Celtic tales, and crafts. Kathy Fredrickson will tell stories, and traditional Irish foods and songs will be offered. All ages are invited and no registration is required for the drop-in celebration.

Here are books recently requested by patrons. P. D. James' The Lighthouse is her latest Adam Dalgliesh mystery. It takes place on Combe Island off the Cornish coast where tired high-achieving people can rest with complete protection. Naturally the plot contradicts this, and one distinguished visitor is found hanging from the landmark island's sign.

The Sisters Mortland by Sally Beauman is their friend's challenge to find them 20 years after their now-famous portrait was painted in rural Suffolk. Every Breath You Take by Judith McNaught, dubbed the Queen of Hearts by People magazine, visits Chicago high society to solve the disappearance of a rich philanthropist's grandson. Just Rewards by Barbara Bradford is the final adventure in a series that began with A Woman of Substance and brings the idea of strong women full circle.

There are three new Young Adult novels. Under the Jolly Roger by L. A. Meyer is a Bloody Jack adventure, the third in a series about Mary Jacky Faber, a young woman who goes to sea after running away from a Boston girls' school. The Faery Reel by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling is a new anthology of fantasy fiction that is edgy, provocative, and thoroughly magical, like…faeries themselves. Your Eyes in Stars by M. E. Kerr is about an inmate who plays Taps in prison every night, thrilling the local town, and about a rich prep school student who doesn't thrill the town.

Gregory Maguire's Son of a Witch is another tale of Oz, issued ten years after Wicked (also available at the library) when a young boy Liir must solve puzzles in his land being governed by a dangerous new management group. In The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell by Lilian Braun, her 28th Cat Who mystery, the scene is the 150th anniversary of the founding of the town called Pickax.

The supernatural novel Shadowed: The Final Judgment by Jerry Jenkins (who writes the Left Behind series) takes place 37 years after the end of World War III. A double agent serves the underground of people of faith in an atheistic world, while sworn to prosecute them. He and his family try to elude capture in this conclusion to the series called Soon. A woman's friends are her greatest gift… says the cover of Fern Michaels' Vendetta. Six longtime friends unite to insure that the seemingly exempt playboy murderer of their seventh friend's daughter is punished.

New nonfiction requests are ready for borrowing. Jesus the One and Only is Beth Moore's up-close and personal portrait of the life of Jesus the Messiah. The same author's story of the apostle Paul is called To Live is Christ. Sharon Rocha's For Laci is a tribute to her well-known lost daughter, who was 27 years old when murdered by her husband, Scott Peterson. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan is the story of the Great American Dust Bowl during the Depression, focusing on six families and their communities that survived. My Friend Leonard by James Frey is is devoted to his best friend who saved his life and who has more invested in their friendship than James could ever imagine.

President Jimmy Carter's assessment of our country today is called Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis. The Devil's Horn is the story of the saxophone by player and music lover Michael Segell. He writes that this instrument is inseparable from bebop and cool, yet its history has been anything but smooth. Rachael Ray's 365: No Repeats offers a year of 365 different dinners in a 30-minute meal cookbook.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Ingenious High School Artists Embellish Mary Bishop Memorial Display Gallery

Just before the fresh colorful beauty of spring bursts forth, the dazzlingly energetic explosions of youthful imaginations burst forth in munificent profusion on the brand-new freshly papered walls of the Crawfordsville District Public Library Mary Bishop Memorial Gallery. The exhibit is available for viewing from Sunday, February 26 until Sunday, March 19 during regular library hours.

Montgomery County High School Art Students, with the help of their High School Art Teachers and Tri Kappa Sorority members, are again ready to wow you with their rich talent and focused, tenacious skill. Every art student who wishes to enter this event, may do so, in one or several of the following categories; Ceramics, Communication Arts/Graphic Design/Computer Graphics, Drawing 1 and 2, Jewelry & Metalsmithing, Mixed Media, Painting, Photography 1 and 2, Printmaking, Sculpture and Textile & Fiber Design. Ribbons and Financial Awards, in each of these fourteen categories, are given for first, second, third place and honorable mention. An Award is also given for Best of Show and People's choice.

An experienced, independent judge, from outside Montgomeryt County, is hired by Tri Kappa each year to judge this event. This year's judge is retired artist, Tom Broscius, whose career has spanned the disciplines of technical illustration, commercial art and advertising, and special emphasis on the fine arts of watercolor, oil and acrylic painting. Tom began his art education with a home study course provided by his mother. By high school he was known as an exceptionally able artist. After a US Air Force tour of duty, Tom earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of William and Mary. His work has been exhibited in New York State. Tri Kappa volunteers work hard to ensure a successful exhibit. They work with teachers, categories, time-lines; student data base preparation, accept the art, label it, have it judged and last but not least, place each piece in a categorically artistic manner.The six High School Art Teachers suggest categories to enter, teach skills, encourage students to put forth their best effort and matt and cover each piece. Come prepared to be awed by the scope and depth of talent emanating from these high-spirited young artists, when you visit Mary Bishop Memorial Gallery where you can place your vote for the people's choice award. Enjoy!

Preview Shelf -- Youth Director Shares Educational Columns

Crawfordsville District Public Library youth director Kathy Fredrickson is offering patrons an article from the February 5th Journal and Courier. Columnist Doreen Nagle writes "Use fun to bring back the love of reading" as she notes that children can turn away from reading in favor of other pastimes. She says, One reason older kids start to lose interest in reading is that so much of what they have to read is dry. Find out about your children's curriculum, then take them to the library or bookstore to pick out books that are more to their liking on the same subjects. She lists activities parents can do with their children. Such activities are what take place in our youth department. That's why so many families visit to check the expanding program schedule.

Dinarzad's Children is an anthology of contemporary Arab American fiction edited by Pauline Kaldas and Khaled Mattawa. There are tales about Muslims and Christians, recent immigrants and fully assimilated Americans, teenagers and grandmothers, a good addition to the diverse body of American literature. The PEN anthology Strange Times, My Dear aids an understanding of Iran's contemporary culture with a wide selection of prose and poetry. For the first time, in translation, selections from the works of forty writers from three generations, both men and women, are available after that country had been off-limits to Americans for 25 years.

An Alchemy of Mind by Diane Ackerman combines an artist's eye with a scientist's hand to elucidate the magic and mysteries of the human mind. In addition to explaining memory, thought, emotion, dreams, and language acquisition, she reports on the latest discoveries about trauma and male versus female brains.

Are Men Necessary? is Maureen Dowd's exploration into the mysteries and muddles of sexual combat in America. She shows how feminist triumphs backfired on women, and how women's lib has been less a steady trajectory than a confusing zigzag. Al Franken's new book is The Truth (with jokes), and the dust cover says he wants to set aside partisan bitterness and talk about the better future Americans can build together for their children.

A book about where we live, A Tiny Home To Call Your Own by Patricia Foreman and Andy Lee, explains techniques to live well in just right houses. Another new book featuring stunning homes built or remodeled to be healthier to live in and easier on the environment is Redux (defined as brought back, restored, revived) by Jennifer Roberts. Leslie Clagett's The Smart Approach to the Organized Home targets less clutter and more storage. Jane Jarrell's Simple Hospitality is a hint book with a philosophical approach to practical, successful and happy events.

Hidden Kitchens from NPR's Morning Edition Kitchen Sisters Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson offers stories, recipes, and comments as the two adventurously cross the country in search of secret, long-lost, or odd kitchen setups. How to Break an Egg has 1,453 kitchen tips, substitutions, and clever techniques from the editors and readers of Fine Cooking magazine.

House Calls and Hitching Posts by Dorcas Hoover contains stories from Elton Lehman's medical practice among the Amish in Ohio. One Woman's Army is Janis Karpinski's experience as the first female general ever to command troops in a combat zone; she was made responsible for the Abu Ghraib scandal, and she asks why she was the most prominent target of the investigations as her 3,400 US forces were rebuilding a civilian prison system left in shambles by Saddam Hussein