January 2021

  • Read Something Public Domain

    Read Something Public Domain

    Just what is the ‘public domain’ and why do you need to know about it? It’s appeal can be summed up in just two words: it’s FREE! The second card we’ve drawn in our ongoing #ReadSomething series is public domain, so let’s tell you a little bit about what that is, and how the public… Continue reading

  • Staying Healthy with Your Library: Search the Catalog for Health Topics

    In this Shelf Talk consumer health series, we’ve covered a variety of ways of accessing health information through Library databases, but what about the Library’s bread and butter, materials in the online catalog? Don’t worry, we’ve got you. In addition to discovering much of the material in some of our databases, you’ll find hundreds of… Continue reading

  • WA Do I Read Next? (Part 1)

    The Washington Library Association met online this year instead of in Spokane. Most years there is a panel focused on Washington authors with the cheeky title “WA Do I Read Next?” This year I had the pleasure of joining this panel event online with other librarians and local authors to celebrate recently published books by… Continue reading

  • Read Something Gifted

    What was your favorite book you received as a gift this year? I’m assuming you got at least a few, but if somehow that didn’t happen then what was your favorite bookish gift; you know what I mean, all those non-book gifts that folks just love to give to readers. I’ll begin: mine was Read… Continue reading

  • Pollinator Project

    Finding solace in natural surroundings, and caring about wildlife even the urban creatures around grew stronger than ever while socially distancing. But, I haven’t read as much. On the days I have off, I have volunteered at a local park to plant off trail for pollinators and birds, to water the plants, and to try… Continue reading

  • Charles Curtis, America’s first mixed-race Veep

    Kamala Harris is breaking barriers with her election to the Vice Presidency, however, she was not the first person of color to achieve that office. Obscured along the decades, Charles Curtis, a United States Senator who was a one-eighth Native American member of the Kaw Nation of Kansas, was elected to serve as Vice President… Continue reading

  • America’s forgotten white supremacist coup d’état

    The questions we get at the library are a barometer of what is on our collective minds, so it comes as no surprise that this week people have been asking us just what is a ‘coup’? The word ‘coup’ is a French word meaning ‘strike’ or ‘blow,’ and when combined with ‘état,’ or ‘state,’ we… Continue reading

  • Nuevos títulos en español en la Biblioteca / New Spanish books in the Library

    La Biblioteca Pública de Seattle, como muchas otras bibliotecas durante la pandemia; siguió comprando libros en español, dándole énfasis a otro formato, los ebook o libros electrónicos. A muchos usuarios de la biblioteca no les gusta leer libros en formato electrónico. Y yo soy una de ellas, me gusta el olor a libro nuevo, a… Continue reading

  • David Bowie’s Movie Music

    David Bowie’s Movie Music

    Today, January 8, 2021, would’ve been David Bowie’s 74th birthday. It’s been five years since we lost our patron saint of glam. Five years, what a surprise. He still turns up everywhere, that sound and vision shapeshifter, especially on movie soundtracks. When I’m watching a movie, and a Bowie song comes on, I feel like… Continue reading

  • Lessons learned from reading a short story a day

    When the library closed for the pandemic on March 13th and I contemplated the altered days ahead, I had a revelation. I decided that I would tackle a goal I had long held–to read more short stories. Every year I feel hard pressed to read enough of the newly-published fiction and nonfiction to feel grounded… Continue reading

  • Watch and Read: Stranger Things

    While I can honestly watch Stranger Things over and over and over again we have so much material that adds on to the Stranger Things universe to quench your nerdy hearts. As well as a few reads to give you the same feeling the show did – for all ages! The Stranger Things Field Guild… Continue reading