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Member's Corner: March 2007

Member's Corner articles publish in the nsls.info weekly e-newsletter on the first Friday of each month. It is a place for libraries to share the successes of their library as well as the accomplishments of staff. Contact Christina Johnson to share your news.

Please note that many of the links provided are to sites outside the NSLS site and may only be available for a limited time.

Exhibits

• Gail Borden Public Library District is hosting Aaron Copland & Claire Rosenstein: Notes of a Friendship, a private collection of notes and letters that takes a fascinating look at one of Copland's friendships. The exhibit will run from March 1 through May 15, in conjunction with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra’s festival, Aaron Copland: American Icon. The library is also hosting an exhibit entitled, The Jewish Experience in Elgin: Stories of Immigration, Identity, and Assimilation. The exhibit that showcases merchants, philanthropists and one of the Navy’s first female officers. The exhibit runs from March 1 through May 15.
• Holocaust Memorial Foundation of Illinois is hosting a special photographic exhibit entitled, Through My Eyes: Views of Life from the Home Front to the Battle Front. The exhibit will reveal a uniquely detailed glimpse into the period between 1942 and 1945 seen through the photographs of a Chicago soldier, Phillip Drell. As a member of the U.S. Army’s elite Special Motion Picture Coverage Unit (SPECOU), Sgt. Drell documented and witnessed D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, the Liberation of Paris and the horrors of Dachau concentration camp. The exhibition will run from January 25 through May 31.

Author Visit

On the evening of March 1, Highland Park Public Library hosted Valentino Achak Deng, a Sudanese refugee whose story is told in Dave Eggers new bestselling book, What is the What. Close to 300 people signed up to hear Mr. Deng's story first-hand. Mr. Deng, one of Sudan's Lost Boys, was separated from his family during the civil war in Sudan. Along with thousands of other children, he wandered the war-torn country facing enemy soldiers, hyenas, lions, disease, and starvation.

New Director

The Cook Memorial Public Library District Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that Dan Armstrong has been named the Library’s new Director. Armstrong’s library career began in 1976, when he accepted the director position at the Tell City Public Library in Tell City, Indiana. Since then, Armstrong has held director positions at the Plymouth Public Library in Indiana, the Tippecanoe County Public Library in Indiana, and most recently, at the Palatine Public Library in Illinois.

Grants

Three NSLS libraries were awarded Let's Talk About It: Jewish Literature grants. Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature features scholar-led, theme-based discussions that explore the best in contemporary and classic Jewish literature. Participating libraries will each host a five-part discussion series featuring one of six themes: Modern Marvels: Jewish Adventures in the Graphic Novel; Neighbors: The World Next Door; Your Heart’s Desire: Sex and Love in Jewish Literature; Demons, Golems, and Dybbuks: Monsters of the Jewish Imagination; Between Two Worlds: Stories of Estrangement and Homecoming; and A Mind of Her Own: Fathers and Daughters in a Changing World. The following NSLS libraries were awarded grants:

• Northbrook Public Library
• Oakton Community College Ray Hartstein Campus Library
• Wilmette Public Library District
  

Conference Presenter

Christina Krawczyk, UOP LLC, presented "How UOP Applied SNA to Identify Experts" at the Braintrust International 2007 Knowledge Sharing Summit. The event is designed to focus on the people-side of knowledge management and illustrate best practices in establishing a knowledge sharing process, utilizing and optimizing knowledge sharing, and bringing knowledge sharing to the next level.

Family Literacy Success Story

The Wauconda Area Library now provides family literacy classes, thanks to the successful collaboration of five organizations. The twice-per-week free classes give families with children aged three to six the opportunity to improve their English skills at the same time their kids are taught. Parents take English as a second language classes at Wauconda High School while their kids get a preschool-type education at the Wauconda Park District's beach house. Then, parents and children meet once every fourth class at the library to learn together. There are storytimes and activities for kids, and literacy programs and computer classes for adults. Then the parents and children together read a children's book that has provided the theme for the three classes leading up to the library program. Classes began in September of 2006 and the program is now in its second semester with four additional weeks of classes and a full capacity of parents and children.