Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Carnegie Museum construction

A lot is going on inside the old Carnegie building as we convert it into the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County -- but you can't see the progress from the street! You can see, however, the work progressing on the adjacent lot (where the "addition" to the Carnegie once stood) as it is being prepared for a parking area.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Libraries Mean Business!

Don't forget about Libraries Mean Business! this Thursday (May 18). Libraries aren't just for students and leisure time! Brought to you by the Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority (INCOLSA), Libraries Mean Business is a series of three public programs for the business and professional community, demonstrating resources at the local library and on Indiana's online "virtual library," www.inspire.net, that can make you and your staff more productive in the workplace! Learn about thousands of e-books, magazines, and other research tools for finding market research, financial information, prospect research, and career/workforce development resources from guest speaker Hal C. Kirkwood, Jr., of Purdue's Krannert Graduate School of Management. You do not need a reservation to attend one of the three sessions!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Preview Shelf -- Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

The Journal Review archives at the Crawfordsville District Public Library need help. In order to produce valid microfilm for the years 1998 through September 2001, certain issues of the paper are needed. Any and all 1998 papers except in the months of March, May, June, and October will be very much appreciated. From 1999, those needed appeared in January, February, September, and papers from September 2000 and March 2001 are also being sought. If you happen to have any copies, please call 362-2242, extension 4 or 5. Dian Moore and Judy Spencer are hard at work to complete this collection of sections A, B, and C of those daily papers.

New library books offer us profitable and pleasurable hours. Graphic art in Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper from 1898-1911 is collected in Nicholson Baker and Margaret Brentano's The World on Sunday. America's Art comes from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, gathering 225 of its best works, culled from the collection of 40,000 objects. A Century of African American Art is the Paul R. Jones collection (edited by Amalia Amaki) combining colorful plates and essays about its development. Historic Arts & Crafts Homes of Great Britain by Brian Coleman is a look at ten of the best-loved places that continue to attract admirers today. One People, Many Journeys published by Lonely Planet captures the common human experience of birth, special moments, endurance, and resilience across our diverse world. Those who enjoy the Monk series on TV might like Mr. Monk Goes to the Firehouse by Lee Goldberg., which exploits the main character's traits resulting in this critical remark (Lee Child), "Can books be better than television?" You bet they can--when Lee Goldberg's writing them. Elizabeth Ironside's Death in the Garden begins at an English beauty's 30th birthday in 1925 when her husband is poisoned with photographic chemicals from her studio. The thriller Lost by Michael Robotham finds a homicide detective being fished out of the Thames with a bullet in his leg and no memory of how it got there. The Princess of Burundi is a detective novel in Sweden's Uppsala where a jogger in the snow finds the body of an expert on tropical fish. Memory in Death by Nora Roberts (writing as Robb) is her newest story of the year 2059 New York about a tough lady cop's twisted foster mother reappearing in her life and immediately becoming a victim herself. Amy Tan's Saving Fish from Drowning exposes contemporary themes and mystery as tourists on a world art expedition disappear on the Burma Road. Divine is Karen Kingsbury's latest life-changing fiction in which a child of horrors is set free by divine power to bring hope to battered women in D.C. The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean brings to life 1941 when the German army approaches, and a Hermitage Museum tour guide memorizes the art taken from its walls for protection. We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg features three women who struggle against overwhelming odds in Tupelo, Mississippi during civil-rights demonstrations. Adverbs by Daniel Handler is a novel about love -- a bunch of different people, in and out of different kinds of love. Articles of War by Nick Arvin shows the enlistment terrors of an 18-year-old Iowa farm boy who is sent to Normandy shortly after D-Day. The Great Inland Sea by David Francis introduces a boy who escapes the scorched landscape of his youth and as an adult returns to discover secrets buried there. Orbit by John Nance takes us to 2009 when a passenger on a U.S. space adventure flight must navigate the ship home alone.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Preview Shelf -- More About The Library's Art Collection

The Crawfordsville District Public Library's permanent art brightens walls up and down the stairs. Paul Mielke's photograph of Sky Valley Ranch in Hillsboro, Rob O'Dell's watercolor Barn with a Snow Fence, and Jerry Smith's watercolor Sugar Creek Shadows enhance upper walls, along with Peg Shearer's oil called Landscape With Weeds. It's a pleasant refresher to walk along, viewing these solid and splendid works of art.

Here's a reminder: On Saturday beginning at 9 the monthly Friends of the Library book sale offers (probably) thousands of choices for good reading. The library is receiving lots of new Young Adult fiction. Tithe by Holly Black is a modern faerie tale involving a present-day 16-year-old in an ancient power struggle. Midnight Predator by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes takes a girl hunter into a fabled Vampire realm as a human slave. In Across the Wall Garth Nix continues to explore the magical world of The Abhorsen Trilogy. Her new title Demon in My View comes from the end of Edgar Allan Poe's poem "Alone," while her Shattered Mirror refers to W. B. Yeats' "The Two Trees." A boarding school student walks into a mythology textbook about Mount Olympus in Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief. The Lake of Souls is Darren Shan's 10th book in his Cirque Du Freak horror series. There is also fantasy in Annette Klause's Freaks Alive, on the Inside! about an 1899 sideshow. Nightmares plague an 18-year-old who turns to folk magic in Laurie Stolarz' Red is for Remembrance. Only in Your Dreams by Cecily von Ziegesar is a Gossip Girl novel. South Beach by Aimee Friedman is about spring break. Do you love a mystery? M. C. Beaton's Death of a Dreamer is her 21st Hamnish Macbeth story in which the northern Scotland constable is distracted by old flames while evils close in on him following a supposed suicide he knows is murder. On to St. Louis, where Shirley Kennett's P. J. Gray novel Time of Death is concerned with baffling murders by the Metro Mangler. In San Francisco The Hunt Club by John Lescroart concerns the murder of a federal judge. Steeplechase is one of Jane Langton's old fashioned Homer Kelly stories pursuing a mysterious lost church in a plot intertwined with famous poems, nonsense rhymes of Mother Goose, and New England lore. Jayne Krentz' All Night Long takes us to northern California years after a high school student finds her parents' bodies, ruled murder-suicide; her reporter's instinct summons her back to sort out the truth. The 5th Horseman by James Patterson is the latest in his series of crises the Women's Murder Club must solve, this time merciless killings by someone on a hospital's medical staff. Are you seeking a new novel? Jackie Collins offers Lovers & Players with two murders in one reckless New York week in high-powered settings from Park Avenue to Brooklyn. The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne is a debut romantic comedy about a Mary Poppins of love who likes men, makeovers, and multitasking in London. Halfway House by Katharine Noel shows reactive changes in family members when a crisis hits their New Hampshire home life. The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry concerns a legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge that could rock the civilized world, a cache thought lost when the order was exterminated in the 14th century. Lalique Glass by Nicholas Dawes includes 250 illustrations of the work of Rene Lalique (1860-1945). Antiques 101 is a crash course in everything old by Frank Loomis IV. Quilting Among Friends is a manual with lots of ideas and 55 friendship blocks. Two new memoirs are Ellen Hiltebrand's When I Was Elena about her sojourn in the guerrilla-infested mountains of Guatemala and Gail Caldwell's A Strong West Wind describing her coming of age in the wilds of the Texas Panhandle.

Monday, May 01, 2006

One Stop - Double Joy - Mary Bishop Memorial Art Gallery

If you slowly saunter into the Public Library from spring's flowery profusion outside, you will discover a creative profusion inside the Mary Bishop Art Gallery you won't want to miss. From May first until May thirty-first, Out My Back Door Photography of Tom Campanelli, and the Joyful Japanese Quilts of Toshi Kazahaya & Friends, await your viewing pleasure.

Since 2002 Crawfordsville resident and active Sugar Creek Quilt Guild member, Toshi Kazahaya, has taught quilt classes at Trinity Lutheran Church in Indianapolis for nine Japanese ladies who share their Christianity through quilting.

Toshie, born in 1964 in Hyogo Prefecture near Kobe, Japan, studied editing and sewing in college for two years. After graduation she worked at a major craft and interior magazine company in Tokyo as an editor of Watashino Heye (meaning My Room). While working there she met many famous Japanese quilters and saw their highly artistic, intricate quilts, too beautiful for everyday use. After seeing these quilts, Toshie thought making quilts would be too difficult for her.

In 1992, Toshie, her husband Ryohei, an accounting manager at Heritage Product, Inc, and their two children, were transferred from Okayama, Japan to Crawfordsville, Indiana. When she arrived, she spoke no English, but was eager to learn the language and all about American culture. While walking downtown one day, looking for something to do, her eyes flashed to a quilt that displayed in a former fabric shop. The quilt was very beautiful and more practical than the quilts she had seen in Japan. She was fascinated and signed up for classes with Anita Hardwick, who taught her to make beautiful quilts with so much patience for her non-English speaking student. After working hard, Toshie joined the local Sugar Creek Quilt Guild.

One incident in 1996 brought Toshie closer to quilting. When her youngest son suffered a life-threatening illness, she received a hand-made baby quilt from her quilt guild friends. That quilt gave her the comfort, courage, hope and cheer to get through that very difficult time. It was then she realized that quilts could show love, as in the following bible verse: "And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Colossians 3:14.

After her son recovered and turned six years old, Toshie was ready to share her wonderful quilt experience. She started teaching quilt-making techniques to the nine Japanese ladies at Trinity Lutheran Church in Indianapolis where she shares in a Japanese worship service monthly.

Currently, a mother of three children and wife of a well-known Boston Marathon qualified Crawfordsville runner, Toshie is a dedicated Christian and member of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Crawfordsville and the Japanese Worship Service at Trinity Lutheran Church, Indianapolis.

Born last century in Hartford, Connecticut, Tom Campanelli's early childhood was spent in Wethersfield, CT, where he made his first stab at photography while still in grade school on a class trip to the Connecticut State House in Hartford. He used an old Ansco Shur Shot box camera, without a flash, which he still has. Later the family used S&H green stamps to upgrade to a camera with a flash that took color pictures, which Tom still has as well.

In 1959, Tom's father was transferred to Springfield, Missouri with Royal Typewriters. All Tom remembers about the trip west was all the snow encountered along the way. Coming to a small town of 85,000, where there were large spaces between towns, few TV stations and lots of country music, was a major culture shock for the whole family who were used to living in a major metropolitan area. Tom's interest in photography waned while in Missouri.

Before Tom's last year in college, he worked part-time for the Argonaut Division of General Motors in Detroit and purchased an inexpensive Polaroid camera. After college, he married Margo and moved to Detroit to work full time for General Motors. Shortly thereafter, a small glitch came into play when he was invited to participate in the draft or join the Air Force. Tom joined the Air Force and while on TDY in Taiwan, he purchased his first quality camera, a used Yashica Mat 124 twin lens reflex camera, which takes excellent pictures, but is awkward to use. Later in Thailand he purchased a Minolta SRT 101 SLR and used the base photo hobby shop dark room to develop and print his black and white pictures.

In 1979, Tom and his family moved to Crawfordsville to accept a position at R. R. Donnelley. His photography waned until 2000 when he purchased his first digital camera, a Canon Powershot G1. With 3.3 megapixels, it was the top of the line at the time. Later he added a 420EX external strobe, which eliminated redeye problems. In 2004 Tom purchased his 6.1 megapixel Canon Digital Rebel SLR.

Tom's artistic photography began in Margo's butterfly garden. Margo would plant things and then forget where she planted them, making spring a not-so-welcome surprise. When she asked Tom to take pictures of the flowers and foliage together so that she could identify the plants in future springs. As the butterfly began fulfilling its intended purpose, attracting butterflies, Tom was hooked and began to enjoy watching for and photographing tiger swallowtails, black swallowtails, painted ladies, meadow fritillaries, commas, monarchs, and silver spotted skippers. In addition ruby throated hummingbirds and hummingbird moths were attracted to the garden. We can only imagine the photo opportunities. We're so happy Tom could not resist the urge to enjoy, preserve and share the wealth of his photographic delights with the community for the first time!

Don't miss the opportunity to see these joyfully creative musings on Tom's back yard butterfly garden etc. and the interpretation nature's world by joyful Japanese Quilters. -- Diane Hammill

Saturday, April 29, 2006

Genealogy Club meeting

The Genealogy Club of Montgomery County, IN, has an event scheduled for Tuesday, May 9, at 7:00 p.m. in Community Room A. Karen Zach will present "Scrapbooking Your Family Tales." Members and visitors may bring a copy of a picture or photocopy for this program. Vistors are always welcome! For more information, contact: Ph: 765-362-2242 Weekdays 9am to 5pm Dian Moore, Local History Librarian, Ex.119 or Dellie Craig, Activities Director, Ex. 118. Email: gen@cdpl.lib.in.us.

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Preview Shelf -- Library Offers Leisure-Hour Comfort

The new Crawfordsville District Public Library has been planned to provide a variety of restful places for reading. Try the spacious periodicals room inside the entrance, the useful small-meeting capsules, the private carrels, and the soft upholstered chairs along the upper windows, all designed to offer profitable experiences whether or not you have a borrower's card.

Here are the most recently requested books of information. Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness is Joshua Shenk's documentation of how the 16th President harnessed his problem to fuel his success. American Vertigo by Bernard-Henri Levy tells about his travels through our country following in the footsteps of Alexis de Tocqueville, whose Democracy in America (found at 320.973 Toc) was such an influential study of our country. Andy Rathbone's Windows XP for Dummies now contains expanded e-mail, security, and upgrading instructions. The AARP Guide to Pills is essential information on 1,200 medications including generics. Mean Girls Grown Up by Cheryl Dellasega describes adult women bullies and females who are still victims. Gail Sheehy's Sex and the Seasoned Woman concerns her findings about those between forty and death. Two pet books are Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training by Karen Pryor, and ThinkDog an owner's guide to canine psychology by John Fisher.

Next comes new Young Adult reading. I Am The Messenger is Australian Markus Zusak's story about an underage cabdriver whose life is routine until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. German-born Josef Holub's An Innocent Soldier tells of a young farmhand trying to survive after being drafted into Napoleon's army. The Cup of the World by John Dickinson describes itself as a book that hides within itself a secret amidst a battle between good and evil. Cheap. Fast. Good! by Beverly Mills & Alicia Ross shows ways to eat well for less dollars and tells how to plan smart, shop smart, and cook smart. The Complete Book of Raw Food, compiled by editor Lori Baird, explains vegetarian cuisine made with living foods. Denise Vivaldo's How to Start a Home-Based Catering Business makes the complex task easier with organized facts. New science fiction includes Pretender by C. J. Cherryh, her 2nd book of the third Foreigner sequence, Jack McDevitt's Seeker, a galaxy-spanning adventure, and Douglas Preston's Tyrannosaur Canyon that travels from the moon to an eerie area of New Mexico. A trio of westerns begins with Night Hawk by Stephen Overholser about a skinny youngster hired as a wrangler on the frontier. Elmer Kelton's Six Bits a Day is his prequel about Hewey Calloway as he leaves the family farm in 1889 to find work in the West Texas cow country. A Sudden Country by Karen Fisher is based on the actual events of Oregon migration in 1847 emphasizing two characters' survival. Authors often offer their personal experiences. The Story of My Life: An Afghan Girl on the Other Side of the Sky by Farah Ahmedi interweaves her childhood in Afghanistan with her adolescence and life as a senior in a Chicago high school. A different kind of history is Dante's Cure, psychotherapist Daniel Dorman's work bringing a nineteen-year-old out of schizophrenia through a healing process dealing with her family history over seven years. Still another experience was Norah Vincent's experiment told in Self-Made Man. After hearing women's convincing comments that men have always had it better, she uses makeup, a trainer, and a voice coach to infiltrate the male world for 18 months learning how hard it is to be a man, even in a man's world.

Friday, April 21, 2006

Beginning & Advanced Scrapbooking

Beginning & Advanced Scrapbooking classes wil lbe held starting Saturday, May 6, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The fee of $15 includes lunch. You are invited to come and join others who are working on their scrapbooks. Whether you are brand new or have been scrapbooking for years, you will enjoy the day of preserving you photos and memories. Beginners will learn the four steps to completing their albums and everyone will learn tips and be inspired with examples of borders and page layouts with chances of winning prizes. Bring your photos, albums and scrapbook materials and have a day to start or finish your projects. Supplies will be available for purchase if needed. Please reserve your space by May 4, 2006 (765-362-2242 ext 2). Payment is required the day of registration.

Friday, April 14, 2006

Preview Shelf -- The Public Library Can Still Furnish Tax Forms

The reference department (upstairs in the Crawfordsville District Public Library) still offers needed income tax forms for April 17th, and also has a stock of automatic extension forms as well as amendment forms for correcting a previous report. Some of these papers will be available indefinitely.

New Young Adult books begin with Jane Harrington's new novel called Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend Must Do in Europe. Twin witches inhabit Destiny's Twins by H.B. Gilmour and Randi Reisfeld. Hulk Incredible is a graphic (cartoon) superhero action story. Crunch Time by Mariah Fredericks weaves a plot about students and SATs. Young Warriors: Stories of Strength collects15 original short stories with diverse settings like fantasy realms, medieval England, the African plain, ancient Greece and Egypt, all thrillers collected by Tamora Pierce and Josepha Sherman. In The Cannibals by Iain Lawrence young convicts escape into Pacific islands. Zap is a whodunit play by Paul Fleischman where the audience is the culprit.

Here are some biographies. Although many people recognize the famous painting by Edvard Munch called The Scream, few know much about the artist, so Sue Prideaux' biography brings his turbulent life to words, using his own letters and diaries. Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt is the personal history of a daughter and mother in the Gilded Age who struggled to break free from the materialistic world into which they were born, and to fight for female equality. Melville by Andrew Delbanco, hailed by Time as America's best social critic, gives his life story celebrating his literary friends, bouts of feverish writing, financial pressures, and the creation of his symbols Ahab and the White Whale. Candice Millard's The River of Doubt tells of President Theodore Roosevelt's journey changing the map of the Western Hemisphere through his descent of the rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon with its life-challenging hardships. The multifaceted woman Lee Miller is Carolyn Burke's study of the model, photographer, reporter, mother, and gourmet cook, part of the glamorous circle in New York and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. Dean & Me is Jerry Lewis' review of their famous partnership, as he terms it, of the handsome crooner and a skinny monkey.

Some guidebooks give us new ideas. Landscape Makeovers with 50 projects for a picture-perfect yard comes from Meredith Books. Quilt and Embellish in One Step! is Linda Potter's technique she calls Needle Magic, inspired by the Japanese art of sashiko with embellishments from Victorian quilts. Mastering Judo contains history, philosophy, techniques, tactics, and training furnished by Masao Takahashi and family. Charles Walters offers Weeds: Control Without Poisons. In Installation Art: A Critical History Clare Bishop explains that its size and public placement requires its audience to enter and experience it, so its theory needs to be understood. Angel and Apostle by Deborah Noyes reinvents the life of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Pearl, daughter of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. A novel It's Superman describes the early years of the Man of Steel from 1930s Kansas to Hollywood in its golden age, and then to NYC and his newspaper career. The Protégé by Stephen Frey involves blackmail that tempts an executive to play ball with a shadowy government agency guarding a possibly deadly weapon, in order to gain information about a mother he never knew. Queen of the Underworld by Gail Godwin presents the writing activities of a young reporter in Miami in 1959 as Castro clamps down on Cuba and exiles flee to the States.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Preview Shelf -- Library Adds Another Feature, Invites Volunteers

At the entrance to The Crawfordsville District Public Library is a new meeting announcement case, which lists daily events and their locations on the lower level. If you'd like to deliver materials to homebound patrons, please call 362-2242 extension 2. Volunteers are making books available to more readers all the time.

Recently, three requested books about Presidents have arrived. H. W. Brands' Andrew Jackson: His isHLife and Times is a biography of our colorful, dynamic, and forceful seventh President, the first common man to rise to this office. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln centers on Lincoln's mastery of communications. Our 16th President won over rivals William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates because he could put himself in the place of other men, experience what they felt, and understand their motives and desires. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House by John Harris shows him (our 42nd) becoming more commanding in his presidential image and more skilled at using the powerful White House platform crafting a new brand of centrist politics.

The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century by Steven Watts brings to life this outsized genius who was also a bundle of contradictions. She Got Up Off the Couch and Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel is a sequel to A Girl Named Zippy and fastens on her mother's efforts to earn self-respect. Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot by Max Lucado holds practical tools for finding one's uniqueness in society. A new children's story is the Newbery Medal winner (for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children) called Criss Cross by Lynne Perkins. A new Young Adult book is Pam Ryan's Becoming Naomi Leon about a shy, retiring girl who needs positive thinking to add to her unique soap-carving talent and to her problems dealing with a mother who reappears seven years after leaving her with her Gram. A new mystery is Blaize Clement's first Dixie Hemingway story called Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter who likes animals better than people. A Dark & Deadly Deception by Eleanor Bland is a Marti MacAlister plot finding an actress dead along the shores of the Chicago area Des Plaines River. Jacquot and the Waterman by Martin O'Brien profiles a French rugby player turned detective in Marseilles, where an elusive killer does away with three young women. Joanne Harris' Gentlemen & Players takes place at a British boys' grammar school where a veteran teacher must investigate a new instructor's goal to destroy the school ever so cleverly. 7 Deadly Wonders by Matthew Reilly is a treasure hunt for the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It happens in the very year that the Great Pyramid at Giza is expected to provide absolute power over Earth for whoever replaces its lost capstone at the moment when a super-hot sunspot hits it.

The Novelist by Angela Hunt finds a community college teacher writing a story for a fiction-writing class that strikes home more than she expects. In The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch a young boy explores the tidal flats of Puget Sound and finds a rare deep-sea creature stranded in the mud. This becomes a metaphor for his passage out of childhood. W. E. B. Griffin's The Hostage follows By Order of the President in his Presidential Agent series, and shows his harrowing work in Homeland Security when an American diplomat's wife is kidnapped in Argentina. Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Scarborough's Changelings is Book One of the Twins of Petaybee science-fiction saga. The setting is a sentient planet with humans who must protect it from a nasty interstellar corporation.

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

Monday, February 27, 2006

Carnegie reconstruction underway

The remodeling and reconstruction of the future home of the Carnegie Museum of Montgomery County is underway. The newer addition that was added to the Carnegie in the late 1970s has been razed, and the Carnegie building -- the former library -- is now in the process of being transformed. It has been a long time since anyone has seen the original ceiling in the Carnegie (ever since the drop ceiling was added years ago), so take a peek now at this sample image if you want a glimpse of what wil be restored.

Preview Shelf -- Bowman's Historical Painting Donated to the Library

The paperwork and research are finished on the newest art in the local history area of the Crawfordsville District Public Library. Michael Bowman has donated his painting of Lew Wallace and grandson Lew, Jr. (son of Henry Lane Wallace) fishing together off the back steps of his Study at the east end of Pike Street. It preserves a memory of the pond the author of Ben Hur placed at the east side of his building which now is an area of sloping grass. Bowman painted the scene from a posed elegant photograph made about 1897 when Lew Jr. was five years old, and shows the prominent huge porthole in the east wall accentuating Wallace's love of this hobby waterhole.

The Bowman painting joins a collection in the research area which also includes an oval photograph of Lew, other pictures showing his home, the pond, and views of him in his study, a group of photos of Crawfordsville Main Street in 1865, and an oil painting of the working Yountsville Woolen Mill by E. S. Wright.

There are four new books about C. S. Lewis. The World According to Narnia is Jonathan Rogers' review of the Christian meaning in the author's beloved chronicles. Further Up & Further In by Bruce Edwards explains the specific concepts in the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The Four Loves includes chapters on affection, friendship, eros, and lastly charity, which he says is both the love of God and the selfless love of others. His A Grief Observed he calls a defense against total collapse, a safety valve recognizing that bereavement is a universal and integral part of our experience of love.

Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and Othello are single paperbacks in The Annotated Shakespeare collection.

A catalog for a touring exhibition in Andover, MA called Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth & Hawkes shows work from the celebrated photography studio active from 1845 to 1862. Subjects are the greatest personalities of the day, private portraits, street scenes, and special places, preserving living history of the time.

Oh What a Slaughter is Larry McMurtry's history of the bloody massacres that marked the settling of the American West. The Day Kadi Lost Part of Her Life is a photographic epic by FORWARD, the Foundation for Women's Health, Research and Development, about clitoridectomy and the prevention of infibulation, whose campaign is endorsed by the United Nations. Hidden Child by Isaac Millman documents his experience as one of the Jewish children who were hidden from the Nazis during World War II, often adopting non-Jewish names in order to survive.

In Harvest for Hope, Jane Goodall, the scientist who changed the way we view our relationship with the animal kingdom, studies the food we produce and consume, towards fostering a sustainable society. Naomi Moriyama's secrets of her mother's Tokyo kitchen make up Japanese Women Don't Get Old or Fat based on the statistic that these women are the world champions of longevity.

Lovesick Blues is Paul Hemphill's biography of Hank Williams, explaining the singer-songwriter's short life from modest beginnings to Grand Ole Opry stardom. Confessions of an Heiress by Paris Hilton is a tongue-in-chic look at life from the perspective of a young woman who has the whole world as her setting. Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest American boxer since Joe Louis Pound for Pound, according to Herb Boyd, whose biography tells of Robinson's victory in 125 consecutive fights.