This 4″ x 6″ black and white postcard shows the now-famous sign that was erected at the entry of Pinney Ranch along White River in Dawes County. It reads, “Notice: Hunt and Fish all you Damn please! When the bell rings come to dinner. B.G. Pinney, First Erected in 1887.” Just below the sign the postcard reads “Greetings from Crawford, Nebr.” The ranch was owned by Bailey G. (“BG”) Pinney from 1864-1938.
This image is published by the Crawford Public Library, and owned by the Crawford Historical Society and Museum. They partnered together to digitize a number of images of the Crawford area in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
The Nebraska Memories archive is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information.
2024 United for Libraries Virtual: Trustees, Friends, Foundations
Tuesday July 30 – Thursday, August 1
Congratulations! The Nebraska Library Commission has purchased statewide registration! All library directors/staff, Trustees/board members, and Friends of the Library and Foundation representatives receive FREE live registration and/or on-demand viewing – a value of $149 per person.
Registration includes live attendance and on-demand access to three full days of programming, keynote featuring author Eric Klinenberg, and the virtual Gala Author Tea. Individuals may attend any/all sessions live and/or watch on-demand.
This interactive three-day virtual event will feature expert speakers on current topics facing library Trustees, Friends, Foundations, and staff who work with them.
Participate in live Q&A sessions with presenters
Enjoy exclusive access to keynote speakers and authors
Receive a certificate of attendance (for live participation or on-demand viewing)
Programming runs from 10:00 am CST to approximately 3:00 pm CST daily with scheduled breaks. Registrants may participate in some or all program sessions live, and/or watch recordings on-demand.
Sessions include:
Tuesday, July 30th – Trustee Day
“Rising to the Challenge: The Trustee’s Role in the ‘Culture Wars'”
“Securing Tomorrow: Effective Succession Strategies for Library Boards”
“Valuing Your Library: Beyond Cost-Benefit Analysis”
Wednesday, July 31st – Foundations & Fundraising Day
“Donor Engagement: Acquiring and Inspiring Committed and Faithful Supporters”
“Enhancing the Story – Developing a Smaller-Scale Capital Projects Fundraising Campaign”
“Fundraising Tips and Tricks: Some Novel Ideas”
“Marketing is the Future: How to Build a More Sustainable Library Foundation Model by Integrating Marketing in the Organizational Culture, Strategy, and Practice”
Thursday, August 1st – Friends Day
“An Extravaganza of Literary Events for Your Library”
“Championing Library Freedom: How Friends Groups Can Fight Back When Our Library is Under Attack”
“Libraries are Better with Friends: How to Foster a Strong Group of Advocates”
“Smooth Sailing with Library Trustees and Staff”
Registration Options
Choose *one* of the following options below to register for the virtual conference:
June 28th will be the 54th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Although we have come so far in equal rights for the LGBTQ+ community, it’s important to remember our history and those who came before us as we celebrate Pride Month. Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai is a historical fiction novel taking place in Colombo, Sri Lanka when the Tamil diaspora was the target of racism and violence leading to the Black July pogroms and the Sri Lankan Civil War (1983 to 2009). Funny Boy is a work of courage in the face of anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Sri Lanka, that author Selvadurai faced before he emigrated to Canada to escape persecution. His novel portrays love and humanity in a time of violence, and was awarded the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Men’s Fiction and the Books in Canada First Novel Award.
In the politically strife 70s and 80s Sri Lanka, a young boy must come to himself in his queerness as political and ethnic tensions threaten him and his affluent Tamil family. Though he is not aware of it himself, Arjie’s supposed homosexuality labels him as “funny” when he shows his feminine side and dreams often about the romance of true love. When he meets soon-to-be bride Radha Aunty, Arjie’s perception of love shifts as she falls for a Sinhalese man and their relationship threatens the family. As he matures, Arjie also falls for a Sinhalese boy and has to look past the shame to find himself as the ambivalent world violently crashes around them.
“For how could loving Shehan be bad? Yet if my parents or anybody else discovered this love, I would be in terrible trouble”
Shyam Selvadurai
This coming-of-age novel reminds us that the personal is political, and even in these war-torn and horrifying situations, queer people and love still exist and persevere. Like recent spotlight, Pachinko, Funny Boy follows international history and how it affects everyday people. Book Groups can discuss and learn Sri Lankan history and the story of human perseverance in the face of deadly circumstances, as well as the many themes and critiques of racism, class, gender discrimination, patriarchal structures, and, of course, homophobia. Selvadurai has had a lasting impact as a post-colonial author, with not only Funny Boy having both radio drama and movie adaptations but also having a species of spider named after him by Sri Lankan researchers (Brignolia shyami) which he expressed gratitude for the recognition from his homeland and for his work for reconciliation.
For more information on the history of Sri Lanka, the Civil War, and Tamil persecution:
To see more of our LGBT+ & Queer book club titles, visit the link here.
If you’re interested in requesting Funny Boy for your book club, you can find the Request Formhere. There are 10 copies available. (A librarian must request items)
Selvadurai, Shyam. Funny Boy. McClelland and Stewart. 1994
The recording of the Nebraska Library Commission’s ‘Public Library Accreditation 2024’ online workshop is now available on the Accreditation webpage.
The purpose of Nebraska Public Library Accreditation is to encourage excellent library service in Nebraska communities. The guidelines used to evaluate libraries and their services are community-based, so libraries need to know their communities’ needs in order to provide appropriate library services that meet those unique needs. That’s where Community Needs Response Planning comes in!
In this workshop, Christa Porter, NLC’s Library Development Director, will answer all of your accreditation questions, such as:
What is Nebraska Public Library Accreditation?
What are the benefits of accreditation?
How does my library become accredited?
What’s a Community Needs Response Plan? And why does my library need one?
Public Library Directors, Staff, and Library Board Members are encouraged to attend.
If you have any questions or need any assistance with your Accreditation or Community Needs Planning, please contact Christa Porter, 800-307-2665, 402-471-3107.
Calling all libraries serving communities of 25,000 or less!
Library Journal is now accepting applications for the Best Small Library in America Award, made possible by Ingram. Library Journal‘s annual award for the Best Small Library in America was founded in 2005 to encourage and showcase the exemplary work of these libraries. It honors the U.S. public library that most profoundly demonstrates outstanding service to populations of 25,000 or less.
The deadline to nominate your library is June 26, 2024.
This is an amazing opportunity to show off your great rural or small library. Anyone can nominate a library – the library administration itself, patrons, members of the community, library peers, etc.
Judges want to hear about how, in the last two years, you have raised the profile of the library in your community, reached out to new users and remote users, impacted literacy in the community, and used technology to support and grow patron access to materials and information. Share your innovative approaches to traditional problems, including seemingly small fixes that work, and specific innovations that can be readily adopted by other libraries of all sizes.
The winning library will receive a $5,000 cash award, and two finalist libraries will receive $1,000 each. All three will be featured in the September 2024 issue of Library Journal and online.
Nominate your favorite Nebraska library today! Learn more about the guidelines and submit your nomination on the Best Small Library in America Award website.
Registration for both in-person and virtual attendance at the 2024 Association for Rural & Small Libraries Conference is open!
The in-person 2024 ARSL Conference will be held at the MassMutual Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, from September 11-14, 2024.
This year’s conference theme is “Libraries are (r)Evolutionary.” Our conference provides an opportunity to explore the transformative power of rural and small libraries in our communities. Like chrysalises of change, these libraries nurture revolutionary ideas and evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of our patrons. Let’s embrace the (r)Evolutionary spirit of libraries and inspire each other.
Early Bird pricing for in-person attendance will be available through July 16.
*Must be an ARSL Advocate, Student, or Retiree member. **Preconference Workshop fees are charged in addition to Base Conference Registration and are available for in-person conference attendees only.
You know what every good road trip needs? A great read, like this week’s #BookFace, “Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice: A Novel” by Elle Cosimano ( Minotaur Books, 2024.) The fourth book in Cosimano’s Finlay Donovan series, it’s available for checkout as an eBook and as an Audiobook from Nebraska Overdrive Libraries, along with the first three books in the series. This oddball adventure, featuring themes of friendship, motherhood, and complicated relationships keeps Finlay and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero’s story rolling.
“Cosimano’s fourth Finlay Donovan novel is brilliantly plotted, bringing the witty humor and thrilling, nail-biting action the series is known for while also tackling emotional family dynamics. Cosimano knocks this one out of the park. Highly recommended for all fans of the series.”
— Booklist (starred review)
Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!
Book 1 in a new series, Orris, a rat, lived in an abandoned barn. He was happy there. One of his prized possessions was an old sardine can. It had a picture of a sardine king on the can, and the king said, “Make the good and noble choice.” He contemplated this advice regularly.
One evening Orris hears a horrible screech and a cry for help. Orris looked out from his nest to see a young owl caught in a mousetrap. The rat is not planning on helping his natural enemy until he recalls the sardine king’s advice. Slowly he moves towards the owl, asking him to stand completely still. Next to the talons, Orris pulls on the metal of the trap and tells the owl to move. When the owl is free, Orris is terrified and cowers, then creeps slowly to his nest.
But, rather than prey, the owl, Timble, thinks of Orris as a friend. Orris tells Timble the fable of The Lion and the Mouse. Soon they plan to meet every evening for more stories.
A marvelous introduction to the two main characters and the wonder of storytelling. “Make the good and noble choice” could show up again in future titles of the series.
This is an early chapter book aimed at readers who are ready for something longer than a beginning reader but not ready for a full-fledged novel, though many readers will enjoy it.
Orris and Timble: The Beginning, by Kate DiCamillo.Candlewick Press, 2024.
This 8” x 10” glass plate negative was taken in June of 1915, as shown by the calendar in the back of the room advertising the Nebraska State Fair in Lincoln. The negative shows off a wooden room with two linotype machines, one currently in use.
This image is published and owned by Townsend Studio, which has been in continuous operation since its foundation in 1888 in Lincoln, Nebraska. The studio holds a collection of glass plate and acetate negatives of early Lincoln and its residents.
The Nebraska Memories archive is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information.
The “The Battle of the Little Bighorn” by Mari Sandoz, introduction by Elaine Marie Nelson, is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. BARD is a service offered by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.
Mari Sandoz’s beautifully written account of the battle in which General George Armstrong Custer staked his life and lost it reveals on every page the author’s intimate knowledge of her subject. The character of the Sioux, the personality of Custer, the mixed emotions of Custer’s men, the plains landscape all emerge with such clarity that the reader is transported to that spring in 1876 when the Army of the Plains began its fateful march toward Yellowstone. The background of the tragedy is here: the history of bad blood and broken treaties between the Indigenous nations and the United States, the underlying reason for Custer’s expedition and for the convocation of Indians on the Little Bighorn that particular year. Sandoz’s final book was the first analysis of Custer’s motives and political ambitions to shed light on an old mystery that was hotly disputed by the general’s admirers. Historian Elaine Marie Nelson introduces this iconic work to a new generation and details the long, challenging road this book took to publication. Sandoz raced against time to complete the volume while undergoing cancer treatments, and the book was published just three months after her death. “The Battle of the Little Bighorn” is widely considered the apex of her writing.
“Mari Sandoz’s beautifully written account of the battle in which General George Armstrong Custer staked his life in 1876-and lost it-reveals on every page the author’s intimate knowledge of her subject. Historian Elaine Marie Nelson introduces this iconic work to a new generation.”
—Bison Books
TBBS borrowers can request the “The Battle of the Little Bighorn,” DCB02003 or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
This week’s #BookFace is “Miss Morissa: Doctor of the Gold Trail” by Nebraskan author Mari Sandoz; it tells the story of a young pioneering woman doctor on the Nebraska frontier in the 1870’s as rumors of gold strikes begin to spread. This dramatic and moving historical fiction novel is available as a part of our Book Club Kit collection, along with eight other books written by Mari Sandoz.
“Beautifully written and full of striking images and masterful descriptions.”
—New York Times
This week’s model is model is our brand-new Computer Help Desk Support, Kim Ramsey! Kim recently transferred to the Library Commission from Nebraska Dept. of Health and Human Services. She reached 25 years of state employment in May and most of that time has been providing computer and technical support to state employees and other agencies. Kim lives in Lincoln with her husband Mike, and their two cats, Mei and Juno, who are their entertainment and sometimes their alarm clock. Science fiction is her favorite genre and she is currently re-reading “The Expanse” series by authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck. Gardening and reading are her stress relief, and garden/plant talk is probably the best way to distract her from whatever she’s supposed to be doing. If you get the chance, say hello to Kim!
Book Club Kits Rules for Use
These kits can be checked out by the librarians of Nebraska libraries and media centers.
Circulation times are flexible and will be based upon availability. There is no standard check-out time for book club kits.
Please search the collection to select items you wish to borrow and use the REQUEST THIS KIT icon to borrow items.
Contact the Information Desk at the Library Commission if you have any questions: by phone: 800/307-2665, or by email: Information Services Team
While we don’t have this particular title available through Nebraska OverDrive Libraries, we do have a significant number of the author’s other works available. You can find eleven books by Mari Sandoz, including the 2007 One Book One Nebraska selection “Crazy Horse” on Nebraska Overdrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,898 audiobooks, 36,794 ebooks, and 5,133 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!
Perhaps what is most important is not the truth of our lives, but the stories we tell.
Or, as Poor Deer might argue, that’s a pretty saying that liars might repeat in an attempt to absolve themselves of guilt; nothing is more important than the truth.
Poor Deer is a quick-read of a novel. It is the confession and story of Margaret Murphy, who experienced an unthinkable tragedy when she was four years old. It is a strange literary punch of a novel, pirouetting on the incredible mutability and haze of a young child’s memory.
I won’t spoil the central event of Poor Deer; what really happened the day of the schoolyard flood in that small mill-town is not definitively admitted until the final pages of the novel. But it is a tragedy regardless of what happened, and the confusing swirl of emotions and accusations, memory and blame, sweeps poor little Margaret away and drowns her life in guilt.
There is a fascinatingly light-touch to the story; Oshetsky relies on an older Margaret’s narration of the story – flipping back between third and first person perspective — and in doing so avoids the common, belief-breaking pitfall of “a child would not think or speak like that.” The language and tone of the novel itself is childlike and ephemeral, straightforward and naïve, poetic and blunt, and it softens the blow of what is a very depressing story. Don’t get me wrong: it still is a depressing story, in which awful things happen. It is depressing in the way that classic fairytales are depressing, and I think that was Oshetsky’s intent. But it is not entirely depressing, nor is it unrealistic or cruel. Oshetsky does not batter Margaret beyond the possibility of recovery, or beyond redemption.
Margaret, who is now a young woman on the eve of another tragedy, is an unreliable narrator kept in check by the titular “Poor Deer” — an apparition who has been following Margaret since her childhood, who will not be dismissed until Margaret faces the truth. There are delightful and heartbreaking passages in which Poor Deer commands, “Again, again,” and Margaret starts again and tells her story honestly. “Is she real?” Margaret asks as she writes her confession under the weepy, vengeful gaze of the deer. “Does is matter? She is part of who I am.”
Oshetsky, Claire. Poor Deer: A Novel. Ecco, an Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2024.
This black and white photograph on a postcard shows a photo of the night sky, taken by John Nelson, focusing on the new moon with stars through the treetops. The photographer’s initials appear in the lower right corner, with the J imposed on the N, and the title “The New Moon” is written in the lower left hand corner.
This image is owned and published by History Nebraska. They digitized content from the John Nelson and the J. A. Anderson collection. John Nelson came to Nebraska with his parents at the age of seventeen from Sweden. His photographs tell the story of small town life in Nebraska during the first decades of the twentieth century.
The Nebraska Memories archive is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information.
Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty is combination cozy mystery and science fiction, combining both, very well. In what’s usually termed near future, Mallory Viridian is a murder magnet. However, in real life, being one makes you a suspect, not a “charming amateur detective” (book blurb), your friends and relatives shun you, and you fear for their lives.
Despite being able to solve nearly all of the murders around her, and prove her own innocence, she can’t join law enforcement or become a private detective. She finally has enough of life on Earth, and moves off Earth to Station Eternity, a sentient space station.
First contact officially occurred shortly before this time with Adrian Casserly-Berry who becomes the human ambassador to Station Eternity. On Earth, he had become an expert in several languages and a professor at a university. He’s always made lists of things he hates. Very long lists. He is, unfortunately, an awful choice to be ambassador.
Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty
And while first contact had occurred, no restrictions on sightseers and vacationers are in place, so aliens are visiting, without warning, and in random parts of our world. Which is how Xan (Alexander) Morgan, winds up abducted by a trio of rock like Gnies humanoids, who are on a quick trip to Earth. The one drunk on lava has decided to pick him up as a pet, or something. Since he’s in the army, he’s AWOL, a murder witness, possible suspect, and an alien abductee. No probing is done, but a translating bug is inserted in his ear, so he can understand the aliens around him. Their trip to Earth is a quick one, to Earth and right back to Eternity Station, no side trips. All of which is a subject of conversation among the three Gneis.
So, three humans on the station, two officially, several aliens of different types, most with intelligent symbionts of some kind. The soon to arrive shuttle full of humans makes Mallory panic, because, of course, murder victims and murderers are the probable result of them coming here. Xan doesn’t really see the harm (doesn’t believe her.) And Adrian attempts to capture Mallory, to give to whoever is coming on the shuttle. In addition, possibly he already knows his replacement is on it.
In the meantime, the aliens grumble about the strange, wet, humans, and distrust them for their lack of symbionts. Start Trek, this isn’t. But it is a fun, different world, and well built. The three Gneiss from the abduction of Xan are friends, but one of them is being kept on the station against her will by her grandfather, who has become a shuttle. (Yes, a Gneis rock person became a functioning space going vessel.) She’s come up with a plan to move on to be mobile herself, but it will upset the entire population of her people on the station.
Then the station’s symbiont is murdered, just as the shuttle from Earth arrives, and is attacked, leaving only 11 survivors. It spirals quickly out of hand from there. It’s an entertaining read, difficult to explain past “cozy mystery and science fiction blend”, but even more interesting for being complex.
Next in the series, Terminal Chaos is out, just as wild a ride as the first title.
Station Eternity, Midsolar Murders Series, by Mur Lafferty, 2022, Ace, an imprint of Penguin, Trade Paperback, 453 pages, $17 ISBN 978-0-593-09811-0
With another school year ending, that can only mean one thing: Summer Reading Program is upon us! This week’s #BookFace is “Defiant” by Brandon Sanderson (Random House Children’s Books, 2023), the fourth book in his Skyward series.
It’s available for checkout as an eBook from Nebraska Overdrive Libraries; it can be found in the “Adventure Begins at your Library” collection. This action-packed epic Sci-fi series is an excellent YA pick for both boys and girls and fits perfectly in this year’s Summer Reading Program theme.
“Sanderson delivers a cinematic adventure that explores the defining aspects of the individual versus the society…[and] fans of [his] will not be disappointed.”
— School Library Journal
Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,174 audiobooks, 36,611 ebooks, and 5,210 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!
This 4-1/8″ x 2-1/2″ black and white photograph dated 11/09/1937 shows several woman standing beside a bookmobile parked on Maple Street outside of the log cabin building of Nehawka Public Library, which continues to serve as a library to this day. The panel doors on the truck are open, showing books on shelves inside, and several of the woman are either reading or posing with a book. Among the woman are Isadore Sheldon Tucker on the far left and Evelyn Wolph on the far right. Isadore Sheldon Tucker’s father built Sheldon General Store in 1888 and Miss Wolph was a long time 4-H leader in Cass County.
This image is published by the Nebraska Library Commission. The collections include material on the history of libraries in the state of Nebraska, items from the 1930s related to the Nebraska Public Library Commission bookmobile, as well as items showcasing the history of Nebraska’s state institutions.
The Nebraska Memories archive is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information.
The “Nebraska Pioneer Cookbook” by Kay Graber is now available on cartridge and for download on BARD, the Braille and Audio Reading Download service. BARD is a service offered by the Nebraska Library Commission Talking Book and Braille Service and the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled at the Library of Congress.
Nebraska’s pioneer food tells us much about how our forebearers lived, and in compiling this cookbook the aim was to achieve a balance between recipes and descriptions of the way of life the pioneers exemplified. Interspersed with the recipes are descriptions of food preparation and fare which tell us much about how our forebears lived—industriously, ingeniously, and sometimes very well. Although many of the recipes could not be duplicated in today’s kitchens, there is plenty here to challenge and stimulate amateur and professional chefs—and plenty of food for thought for social historians. Published by University of Nebraska Press.
TBBS borrowers can request the “Nebraska Pioneer Cookbook,” DCB02022 or download it from the National Library Service BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) website. If you have high-speed internet access, you can download books to your smartphone or tablet, or onto a flash drive for use with your player. You may also contact your reader’s advisor to have the book mailed to you on cartridge.
Do you have some WordPress layouts that work really well on desktop but squish into unrecognizable chaos on smaller screens? Learn how to set up responsive layouts using Elementor on next week’s NCompass Live webinar on Wednesday, May 29 at 10am CT.
Special monthly episodes of NCompass Live! Join the NLC’s Technology Innovation Librarian, Amanda Sweet, as she guides us through the world of library-related Pretty Sweet Tech.
In this session I will show you how to set up responsive layouts that display one way on larger screens and another way on smaller screens. This can be difficult with the built-in Gutenberg editor, so we’re going to use Elementor. Here’s what I’ll cover:
Responsive website best practices
Elementor settings for responsive layouts
Layout examples:
Displaying or hiding different images based on screen size
Gallery views on different screen sizes
Tips for saving images that display well on all screen sizes
Displaying calendar view vs. list view based on screen size
I will also open it up to requests if there are specific things you’re running into. It’s time to get responsive!
Upcoming NCompass Live shows:
June 19 – NO NCOMPASS LIVE
June 26 – Pretty Sweet Tech
July 3 – Helping Students Be Google Aware
July 17 – Think Outside the Box: Transformative Training with Breakout Challenges
To register for an NCompass Live show, or to listen to recordings of past shows, go to the NCompass Live webpage.
NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website.
The show is presented online using the GoTo Webinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoTo Webinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.
This week’s #BookFace is perfect for those of us who are outdoorsy, as in we like a nice cocktail on the patio. “Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World” by Christian Cooper (Books on Tape, 2023), is the nonfiction story of a New Yorker bird watching in Central Park. It’s available for checkout as an Audiobook from Nebraska Overdrive Libraries, it can be found in the “Best Titles of 2023” collection.
“This unforgettable memoir, featuring fun birdsongs between chapters, is well narrated by Cooper, the science and comics writer who was falsely accused of threatening a white woman in Central Park in 2020 as she was walking her dog and he was bird-watching. This brilliant multidimensional nonfiction debut by Cooper, now the host of National Geographic’s Extraordinary Birder, should be cherished by all memoir fans and will strike a chord with his fellow sci-fi and comics fans.”
—Library Journal
Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,174 audiobooks, 36,611 ebooks, and 5,210 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!
Malfoy. The name alone sparks hatred among the Harry Potter community. Unless you’re a Slytherin. Then I guess it strikes hero worship. Maybe envy? In the Harry Potter movies, Tom Felton embodied this boy-bully wizard character with his whole shriveled up heart and blackened soul. The smallest, well-timed facial expressions almost made me feel sorry for a darkened boy wizard, shaped by a domineering father. Tom Felton never appeared on screen. Only Malfoy.
Then Tom Felton wrote a memoir. I almost didn’t read Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard because I love to hate Malfoy so much. I didn’t want to watch the movies and know the mix of pain and triumph behind the scenes. I didn’t want to be yanked out of my carefully crafted fantasy land by looking at the man behind the wizard. But I decided to stir that cauldron anyway.
Now I wonder if Felton would have made the same life choices if he had known he would likely hear wizard puns until he was old and gray. Probably. There are worse ways to go down in history. He has plenty of wizard puns himself. I had seen him on the Graham Norton Show and other chat shows with the stars, but his memoir made him more real than any TV show. In my mind he was still a teenager, but he’s actually 36, a year older than me. I know actors age beyond their movies, but I never realized he was so close to my own age all these years.
The collision of fantasy and reality felt unnatural. There’s a reason I never want to meet the actor. They’re never like the characters you know and love. Or hate. It took about four or five chapters for me to see Tom instead of Malfoy. I know I’m not the only one with this problem because Tom still gets death glares from Gryffindors on a regular basis. Even when he tried to go back to his regular school life in between filming movies. The Muggle is real. Ahem. Struggle.
When he’s just Tom, it’s fascinating to learn how he sees the wonderful world of Harry Potter as a tool to bring people together. He believes in unity and shared purpose, just like his co-star Emma Watson. Off screen, he is a whole person who struggles with depression and figuring out who he is and what’s next in life. Regardless of common human struggles, Tom’s overall outlook on life and the world is something everyone should aspire towards.
Long story short, I’m glad I lifted the curtain and saw the man behind the wizard. Incredible things can happen when you decide to stir the cauldron.
Felton, Tom. Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing up a Wizard. Grand Central Publishing, 2022.
