April 2010

  • Desert Island Books

    There seem to be a lot of lists of Desert Island books out there, such as this one here on Nancy Pearl’s Booklust site, or this person’s Flickr album, or this cute cartoon thingy. What bugs me is that no matter how many interesting or worthwhile titles one finds on these lists, almost none of… Continue reading

  • The Modern Widower

    The neighborhood is alive with gardeners mowing lawns,                                        and trimming hedges,                  the mechanized hiss of twirling sprinklers           and for those just joining us,            it’s a beautiful day and Hailey is dead and I have nothing to do, nowhere to be. ~ How to Talk to a Widower From 1960s TV sitcoms such as the Andy Griffith… Continue reading

  • More than playing chess ….

    Saturday afternoons at the Rainier Beach Branch are a special time. Since February of 2007, Seattle Police Officer Cookie and the Seattle Police Foundation have sponsored an urban chess club for elementary and middle school kids and their parents. Here are some comments from some Chess Club attendees: “It’s nice, safe and fun. It’s not boring. People… Continue reading

  • Bikes for Books

    Boys and girls in first through third grades have a wonderful opportunity this spring. You might win a bike!   The Bikes for Books program is happening at three branch locations: Fremont, Green Lake and Lake City. Sponsored by local Masonic Lodge groups, one girl and one boy will receive a bicycle, a helmet and a… Continue reading

  • AND I ALONE SURVIVED!

    Do you like to take a walk on the wild side?  Or would you rather read about it when you know everything turns out okay?  Check out this list of daring adventure stories by some who lived to tell the tale. Walking the Gobi: A 1,600-Mile Trek Across a Desert of Hope and Despair by… Continue reading

  • April Question of the Month – an irregular series

    The reference librarians at Seattle Public Library are pretty darn amazing. They don’t know everything, instead they know where to find everything. As part of an irregular series of posts we salute the talented and dedicated reference staff at your local library. Names and other identifying information have been removed from the questions we showcase.… Continue reading

  • What I Made: Handmade Graduation Card

    Seattle is home to a thriving DIY culture.  As part of an occasional series of posts, we feature hand-made items created by staff at The Seattle Public Library and the library books, CDs, and DVDs that showed them how to do it themselves. We hope you’ll draw inspiration from their creations and check some of… Continue reading

  • Thrilling Tales for 2010.

    Entering its sixth year, the library’s Thrilling Tales: A Storytime for Grownups continues to thrill and delight. Last year’s season was our most popular yet, and this year we’ve got a great slate of tales, many from yesteryear. Thrilling Tales takes place in the Microsoft Auditorium on level one of the Central library, on alternating Mondays from 12:05 –… Continue reading

  • Potty Poetry

    Spring is here and summer is on the minds of many parents. This triggers a little-known phenomenon in the library… The absence of all potty training materials on our shelves! Warmer weather seems to motivate parents to start the process of teaching bathroom etiquette to their young. Parents all over Seattle suddenly descend upon the… Continue reading

  • LOL Cats LIVE at the library!

    How does one build an empire on pictures of cats with silly, misspelled captions? As most of us know, the Cheezburger Network – which consists of more than thirty popular humor sites such as I Can Has Cheezburger, FAIL Blog, There I Fixed It, and Photobombs – has become an Internet phenomenon. Its daily collection of LOLCats,… Continue reading

  • A Great Library of the Past and Present

    There are good libraries. There are great libraries (we like to think that Seattle Public Library is a great library, thanks to the citizens of Seattle). There are also legendary libraries.  Perhaps the most seductive of those legendary libraries is the Great or Royal Library of Alexandria. The tragic destruction of the Museion of Alexandria, popularly… Continue reading

  • LINK to the Library: A Spring Tour

    Looking for an indoor/outdoor adventure on a spring afternoon?  How about a tour of libraries that are walkable from light rail stations?  Check out the smooth ride on the LINK light rail, step outside to take in some spring greenery, and then retreat into some engaging library spaces to explore the collections.  Depending on the… Continue reading

  • Today is National Bookmobile Day!

    Smack dab in the middle of National Library Week is the first annual National Bookmobile Day.  The Seattle Public Library is celebrating by bringing our oldest bookmobile in for the afternoon and parking it right outside our Central Library.  SPL’s Mobile Services provides access to library resources for people who cannot reach the library because… Continue reading

  • NurtureShock: Research that will make you go hmmm …

    I stumbled across Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman’s book NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children after I was gifted a copy of Newsweek with their incendiary cover-story (September 14, 2009 issue) entitled “Is Your Baby Racist?” I should mention that a teenager gave me this particular magazine issue as a tongue-in-cheek gift at my baby shower. In their Newsweek… Continue reading

  • Brooklyn Stories: Part One

    I wanted to live in Brooklyn ever since I read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn when I was a teenager. I felt suffocated by the boredom of small town Wisconsin life and yearned for the big city, where there was a wide diversity of people, cultures, languages; tall buildings, ports, bridges, subways, trains. Brooklyn had… Continue reading

  • Libraries – We’ve Got It Covered

    Trained staff members to recommend books, provide accurate information and answer even the most obscure question. FREE access to computers, books, DVDs, and more. Celebrate your community resource – It’s National Library Week April 11-17! Continue reading

  • What I Made: A Treehouse for My Daughter

    Seattle is home to a thriving DIY culture.  As part of an occasional series of posts, we feature hand-made items created by staff at The Seattle Public Library and the library books, CDs, and DVDs that showed them how to do it themselves. We hope you’ll draw inspiration from their creations and check some of… Continue reading

  • Peter Dinklage: Larger than Life

    It’s funny how people see me and treat me, since I’m really just a simple, boring person. There is just something about Peter Dinklage that I find so fascinating and it’s not the fact that he is a little person. The depth of his characters far exceed his four feet five inches. After his father’s… Continue reading