Your mobile-friendly library

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Wi-Fi users at our library have probably noticed a pleasant change to our Wi-Fi sign-in process recently.  Instead of going through a long registration process and having to log in with an email and password, now you can just choose our network and accept the terms of service, and you’re ready to go!  This makes using our Wi-Fi really easy.  You will still be limited to four hours per session.  This easy login is available at the Grove City and Dassel libraries, also, and is rolling out in all of the Pioneerland libraries.

At Litchfield, we have gotten a separate line for our Wi-Fi in the past year.  Because of this, you don’t compete with all of the people on our busy public computers when you come in to use your laptop or tablet.  Our Wi-Fi is even a little bit faster than the wired computers.  If you’re a student who needs to do homework on a tablet or laptop, or a business person on a mobile device who needs a place to office for the day, you can use the public library to get your work done.

Speaking of mobile devices, there is a new version of our Overdrive software for Android and iOS.  If you check out ebooks or audiobooks on your iPad, iPhone, or Android tablet or phone, this new software should make the experience better than ever.  The new version is redesigned with streamlined navigation and a one-stop menu.  You can sync your bookmarks and reading progress across multiple devices.  Audiobook users have an exciting new feature: variable speed playback on iOS.  And if you’re using Overdrive on these devices for the first time, the app will help you add your local library and learn how to get books.

If you use your Apple or Android tablet or phone to check out our ebooks or audiobooks, be sure to update to the new version to get these new features.  If you are an iPad or Android tablet user and you haven’t tried it out yet, I encourage you to go to your app store and search for Overdrive.  It’s free, and then you can use your library card to check out ebooks and audiobooks for three weeks at a time.  The audiobooks work with iPods, too.

Do you have a child who likes to use the iPad?  We will be participating in Overdrive’s Big Library Read in late September with a children’s book geared to kids ages six to ten.  This means that the book Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth will be available for unlimited numbers of people to check out from September 16 through September 30 on our Overdrive service.  You won’t have to wait for the person ahead of you to return the book before you can check it out.  It will be available in both ebook and audiobook formats.  This is one of Jane O’Connor’s new chapter books starring the picture book character Fancy Nancy. 

Libraries are more than collections of printed books these days.  Mobile device users are very welcome to use our library as a Wi-Fi hotspot and to check out downloadable books, wherever they are.

The Most Important School Supply of All!

By Tiana Schweim

Chilly days have hinted of autumn for several weeks.  Sports practices are in full-swing and grade-level supply lists greet me as I walk into local stores.  It would appear that the calendar is concurring with the breeze: back-to-school time has arrived!

As America prepares to go back to school, the American Library Association (ALA) is also gearing up for an important campaign.  September is Library Card Sign-up Month, “a time to remind parents and children that a library card is the most important school supply of all.”  When you’re going out for school supplies, don’t forget to stop at the library to update your family’s library cards and set them up for a successful school year.

Your library card can be used at any Pioneerland Library System library and most other public libraries in Minnesota.  Your first library card is free; please be prepared to show photo ID and proof of current address.  Parents can use their judgment to decide when their child is capable of having their own library card.  Young people benefit from learning how to navigate the card catalog and search for items in and outside of our system. 

Summer programming tends to see larger audiences.  Kids are out of school and families are mobile.  We have increased attendance at our story hours and special events.  Our records show that 296 children ages 3-12 were registered for “Dig Into Reading”, and 57 teens signed up for “Groundbreaking Reads” for a total of 353 young people reading the summer away!  Let’s take a look at some more of our summer successes:

We had a marvelous attendance of 132 when we welcomed Professor Marvel’s Amazing Archaeological Adventure in June.  Don’t miss his reappearance during preschool story hour on September 15^th for the Once Upon a Time Magic Show.  We hung out with the Willmar Stingers and got creative with 4-H.  St. John’s Arboretum visited us with the show Soil Rocks—Can You Dig It?  We've had a rockin’ good time this summer!  

Today's final summer event gathered a record number of visitors!  We lost count at 76 kids and over 30 adults as we welcomed visitors from the Minnesota Zoomobile.  A skunk in the library?  Crazy!

  

Teens enjoyed an after-hours event complete with pizza and a raucous round of “Murder in the Library” on July 31st; they haven't stopped talking about it so we're planning a similar event for October!  We’ve also used our monthly book club time and a special morning at Cricket Meadow to brainstorm ideas for giving back to the library.  Watch for details on our new Teen Advisory Group (TAG) meetings.  We’re also taking our monthly book club on the road.  We plan to meet at the Litchfield High School Media Center on Monday, September 23^rd at 3:00.  Join us (grades 6-12) for casual discussion about your favorite book, and celebrate Hobbit Day with us!

Not only were the school-age kids making good use of the library, but the teachers and staff of ISD 465 were frequent visitors as well.  It would be amiss for me to comment that teachers have had the entire summer off, for I know from an insider’s perspective the amount of planning and preparation that occurs between the last day of school and the first.  Teachers have been reading for professional gain as well as pleasure and I have enjoyed weekly conversations with many of them.  Students, your teachers are ready for another fantastic school year, are you?

A library card is the smartest card in your wallet, purse, or backpack.  Put it at the top of your school supply list.  Get yours at your local library today!

Remembering the Dakota Conflict

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Although the Dakota Conflict was especially on our minds last year because it was the 150^th anniversary, we are again at the anniversary in the middle of August.  Many local people come to the library looking for books on the history of the war, and our collection does include many books about it, old and new. 

One of the newest is practically a pamphlet at 22 pages.  Red Earth, White Road by Janet Timmerman is part of the Rural and Regional Essay Series.  The series is supported and distributed by the Society for the Study of Local and Regional History at Southwest Minnesota State University.  Red Earth, White Road tells the true story of the LaFramboises, a mixed-race family caught between the two sides of the U.S.-Dakota Conflict. 

Birch Coulie: The Epic Battle of the Dakota War is a nonfiction account of the decisive battle, written by John Christgau and published in 2012.  It should not be confused with the 1957 novel Birch Coulie by Bernard Frances Ederer, which we also have in the library.  The Christgau book is described as dramatic but accurate and balanced.

Local author Dean Urdahl’s Uprising Saga centers on the Dakota Conflict and its aftermath, within the context of the Civil War.  The four novels in the series are Uprising, Retribution, Pursuit, and Conspiracy.  Representative Urdahl was a history teacher for 35 years, and he incorporated his extensive knowledge of this time period into his novels.

 38 Nooses: Lincoln,Little Crow, and the Beginning of Frontier’s End tells the story of the conflict through the stories of several people: Little Crow; Sarah Wakefield, a captive of the Dakota who was vilified for defending them; Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple, an advocate for the Indians’ cause; and President Lincoln.  This nonfiction book by Scott W. Berg has gotten great reviews nationwide.  As he details the stories of these individuals, Berg also places the Minnesota events in the context of the Civil War, the history of the Dakota, and the U.S.-Indian wars.

 The Dakota Prisonerof War Letters is a collection of letters written by the Dakota men imprisoned at Camp McClellan in Davenport, Iowa, after their death sentences were commuted.  Dakota elders and retired Presbyterian ministers Clifford Canku and Michael Simon translated and chose the fifty letters included in the book.  The book provides the text of the letters in the original Dakota, the literal translation word-by-word into English, and a translation into contemporary Standard English.  The letters have been stored at the Minnesota Historical Society for decades.  They were written to Stephen Riggs, a Presbyterian missionary who created the written Dakota language.  He shared the letters with the prisoners’ families.  This book is unique because these are the prisoners’ own written accounts of what happened during the conflict and at the prison camp, never before published.

These are just some of the recent books related to the conflict that we have in our collection; older books are available, as well.  We also have resources on microfilm.  We have manuscripts from the Dakota Conflict of 1862 collection and other documents from the Minnesota Historical Society that relate to the conflict.  Our staff can show you how to use the microfilm reader if you’d like to explore those resources, or we can direct you to any of the books that you would like to find.

FINISH THE SUMMER WITH A GREAT READ!

Great new juvenile books have arrived at Litchfield Public Library, and these would make a great read to finish a summer of reading. Speaking of summer reading, remember that reading records can be turned in until August 31.

After Michael Buckley finished his series, The Sisters Grimm, he embarked on a new series, NERDS: National Espionage, Rescue and Defense Society. If you can imagine a group of unpopular fifth graders running a spy network from inside the school, complete with cutting edge technology and James Bondesque villains and plots, you have a picture of this off quirky series. We have the first four books, NERDS, M is for Mama’s Boy, The Cheerleaders of Doom, and The Villain Virus in the library collection. The fifth book, Attack of the BULLIES, will be published in September.

Rick Riordan is another extremely popular writer. His new book, The Mark of Athena, is the third book of the Heroes of Olympus series. I’ve noticed more young readers asking for books about Greek myths, and I attribute this directly to Mr. Riordan’s influence.

Lian Tanner is an Australian author who is new to me. Lian Tanner is a children's author and playwright. She has worked as a teacher in Australia and Papua New Guinea, a tourist bus driver, a freelance journalist, a juggler, a community arts worker, an editor and a professional actor. It took her a while to realise that all of these jobs were really just preparation for being a writer. Nowadays she lives by the beach in southern Tasmania, with a small tabby cat and lots of friendly neighborhood dogs. Her series, The Keepers, includes the three titles, Museum of Thieves, City of Lies, and Path of Beasts. Ms. Tanner’s website gives this description of the first book, Museum of Thieves. “Goldie Roth lives in the city of Jewel, where impatience is a sin and boldness is a crime. But Goldie is both bold and impatient. She runs away to the mysterious Museum of Dunt, where she meets a boy named Toadspit and discovers dangerous secrets. A monstrous brizzlehound stalks the museum's corridors, and only a thief can find the way through its strange, shifting rooms.” I don’t know what a brizzlehound is, but this series looks like it’s full of adventure.

Andrea Cheng is the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. Her husband, Jim, is the son of Chinese immigrants. She used their experiences as second generation Americans to write The Year of the Book and The Year of the Baby, a pair of sweet books for elementary readers. Anna Wang finds it difficult to make friends, so she takes refuge in the world of books in The Year of the Book. In the second title, The Yearof the Baby, her parents adopt a baby from China who isn’t thriving. Anna and her friends discover that music helps baby Kaylee eat, and this becomes the basis for the girls’ science project.

The Cheshire Cheese Cat: a Dickens of a Tale, by Carmen Agra Deedy, is the very funny story of a cat named Skilley who would rather eat cheese than mice. He is a mouser at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, a pub that actually was famous as a gathering place for writers in London. Mr. Charles Dickens keeps an eye on Skilley and the other animal characters who include Pip, a mouse that can read and write, Oliver, a cruel and wicked rival tom cat, and Maldwyn, a wounded raven from the Tower of London.

These books, and many more, are waiting for you at the Litchfield Public Library.

A 19th century Manannah man -- or woman?

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Someone told me recently that there is a book about a woman who lived as a man in Meeker County in the mid-1800s.  I had never heard about this part of our local history, and I was glad to find I’d already gotten the novel for our library: The Rebellion of Miss Lucy Ann Lobdell, by William Klaber.  It just came out in June. 

Lucy, who took the name Joseph, lived near Mannanah in 1857 and 1858.  According to The First Hundred Years: A History of Meeker County, by Patrick Casey:

“In 1857 she spent much of her time in and around Manannah, doing chores, chopping wood, etc., dressed in male attire.  Sometime in 1858 it was discovered that she was a woman and the fact that she dressed as a man seems to have shocked the morals of certain members of the community and she hailed before Judge Robson’s court.”

A.C. Smith, the author of the 1877 book History of Meeker County, was one of her defense attorneys.   She was charged with “falsely impersonating a man to the great scandal of the community and against the peace and dignity of the State of Minnesota.”  No one produced evidence of Lobdell doing anything more than dressing as a man.  The court found her not guilty because they said the right of women to “wear the pants” had been established since the time of the Roman emperor Justinian. 

The story of Lobdell’s life is much longer and more complicated than the brief stay in our area.  If you’re curious about her beginnings as a musician and hunter in New York, her desertion by her husband, or her long stretches living as a man and marriage to a woman, check out the novel.  It even has footnotes about all of Lobdell’s history that can be found, including her own writings.

Sometimes it’s fun to be able to picture the setting where a story takes place.  Other recent books set in Minnesota, present or past, that we have at the library include:

·         Criminal Enterprise by Owen Laukkanen, set in St. Paul;
·         The Icecutter’s Daughter and The Quarryman’s Bride, the first two books in The Land of Shining Water series by Tracie Peterson, set in Waseca, St. Cloud, and Minneapolis;
·         Red Velvet Cupcake Murder by Joanne Fluke, set in fictional Lake Eden;
·         Tapestry of Fortunes by Elizabeth Berg, set in St. Paul;
·         Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger, set in fictional New Bremen in the Minnesota River Valley;
·         Vacationland by Sarah Stonich, set at a lake resort in northern Minnesota; and
·         Silken Prey by John Sandford, set in Minneapolis.

When you’re looking for an idea for a good book to read, stop in to browse our shelf of new adult books or ask someone on the library staff for help.  We strive to offer a wide variety of books to appeal to all different kinds of readers.

Don't Let Summer Slide Away

by Tiana Schweim, Litchfield Library

Watercade marks the mid-point of summer for many of us in Litchfield.  With the final flash of fireworks, the distant cadence of the Mean-Green-Marching-Machine, and the Medallion tucked away for another long year, teens might just spiral into a self-proclaimed state of boredom until Labor Day!  My advice is to take a deep breath and exhale as you ponder opportunities at your local public library.

Our summer reading programs are in full-swing!  We have 46 students in grades 6-12 who have officially signed up for Groundbreaking Reads for Teens and are participating by keeping track of their titles and submitting book reviews for weekly drawings.

 New additions to our collection are Hunger and Fear which complete our collection of Michael Grant’s Gone series.  Our monthly teen book club has chosen to read the first book Gone for next month.  I encourage tweens & teens to checkout or download the book and join us for our next book club meeting on Monday, August 19^th at 3:00 here at the library—all students entering grades 6-12 are invited to show up!  We’d love you to join our discussion by telling us what you’ve been reading this summer.

Also new to our collection:

Close to Famous by Joan Bauer.  Younger fans of television cooking shows will delight in this quick-paced story laced with current trends including domestic abuse, inter-racial relationships, and a main character with a learning disability.  Bauer says the book is infused with humor.  About the process she says, “My best times as a writer are when I’m working on a book and laughing while I’m writing.”

Speaking of becoming famous, our teen book club participants have also recently had the pleasure of critiquing an original manuscript by Chantal Boon.  Boon is a local author from Dassel, MN, and is in the process of securing a publisher for her story The Sky is Watching.  It was interesting for the kids to meet and talk with Chantal about her background and the ideas for her book.  We certainly have some very talented writers in our book club groups and it’s a cool thought to ponder some of them becoming future authors as well.  We plan to keep in touch with Chantal and cheer her on through the process.

One big change to the programming calendar is the switch from an All-Night Lock-In to a 4-hour event.  All students who are entering grades 6-12 are invited to stop by the library and sign up for our July 31^st event which will begin at 8:00 PM when the library normally closes its doors and conclude at midnight.  We will provide a pizza party for everyone who has registered.  The night will also offer the chance to play various group games such as Ghost in the Graveyard, and participate in the Great Library Scavenger Hunt.  Best of all, prizes will be awarded!  What a great opportunity to hang out with your friends!  We need to thank SAMMIE (Southwest Area Multicounty Multitype Interlibrary Exchange) who has awarded us a grant to partially fund this event.

Don’t forget Gaming Night, every Monday from 6-8 PM, and Teen Tea with Tiana at Cricket Meadow on Tuesday, August 13^th at 10:00 AM.

So, you see, even though the Annual Watercade Book Sale has come and gone for another year, there’s no need to hang your head in sorrow.  Visit the Public Library today!

Libraries Rock!

by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian

Are you going to see Shrek?  Once again this year, we have someone from the library staff who is in the cast of the Litchfield Community Theatre musical.  This time it’s Tiana.  Last month Jan was in Steel Magnolias, last spring Mary directed Honk! Jr., and last summer Elle was in Fiddler on the Roof.  I guess we’re a theatrical bunch at the library.

We have the original Broadway cast recording for Shrek the Musical available at our library.  It was recorded in 2009 in New York, so this is a very new show. 

Have you taken a look at our other music CDs lately?  It’s still a small collection, but it’s growing.  Most of our music CDs are next to the adult audiobooks, near our movies.

One of our newest CDs is To Be Loved, by Michael Bublé.  It just came out in April.  It includes the single “It’s a Beautiful Day” that you might have heard on the radio.  As usual, this old-school crooner covers many classics, including songs made famous by Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.  Reese Witherspoon and Bryan Adams also make appearances on the album.

The Okee Dokee Brothers gave a concert in Litchfield earlier this year as a fundraiser for the new playground.  We have their Grammy-winning CD available to check out.  Look on the children’s side of the library to find this one.  Can You Canoe? won the 2013 Grammy for best children’s album.  The Minnesota singers (friends, not really brothers) traveled by canoe from Minneapolis to St. Louis for a month and wrote these songs about their adventure.  Along with the folk CD that appeals to all ages, there’s a DVD of them performing their songs and traveling down the river.  I’ve seen them perform live in Duluth, and I was happy to find that they were not at all the annoying kind of children’s musicians you sometimes find.  They were funny and hip and really, really musically talented.  But then they did win a Grammy, so I guess that should be obvious.

We also have a few of Jim Gill’s CDs available now for checkout on the children’s side of the library.  Families who come to storytimes here are familiar with many of his songs.  Jim performed a concert in Litchfield this year, as well, to the tremendous enjoyment of the crowd of families who went to it.  His newest CD, Jim Gill Presents Music Play for Folks of All Stripes, was named a 2012 Notable Children’s Recording by the American Library Association.  That’s the equivalent of a Caldecott or Newbery honor book, since the ALA gives those awards.  Jim incorporates all kinds of great learning activities for young children in his songs, while having plenty of wacky fun at the same time.

Besides the “Folks of All Stripes” album, we also have Jim Gill Sings Do Re Mi on His Toe Leg Knee, Jim Gill Sings Moving Rhymes for Modern Times, and Jim Gill’s Irrational Anthem.

Back over on the adult side of the library, we have Uncaged by the Zac Brown Band.  It won the 2013 Grammy for best country album.  The band is described as country/folk/bluegrass, and the album as a laid-back mixture of even more musical styles, including reggae and R&B.

I hope you’ll find that our music collection has some up-to-date offerings that you’ll enjoy.  Come in to discover something new!