Join the Summer Reading club!

It’s almost time for Summer Reading Club!

The 2009 Summer Reading Club, “Read Across Texas” begins on June 4, 2009 at all Denton Public Library locations. The summer reading club is an opportunity for participants to read for fun and earn prizes as they complete their reading goals.

 Children’s entertainer Brett Roberts will be on hand at each location to officially launch the summer program with his “Texas Magic Tricks and Tomfoolery” show. Mosey on down to the South Branch on Thursday, June 4 at 3:30pm, North Branch on Friday, June 5 at 11am, or the Emily Fowler Central Library on Saturday, June 6 at 3pm and join us for a rollicking good time.

 This program is co-sponsored by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, Denton Municipal Electric, and the Friends of the Denton Public Library.  There are lots of fun things to do at the library including weekly reading activities and events for pre-school and elementary children, tweens, teens, and adults.

 Information about the 2009 Summer Reading Club is available by calling any library location at 940-349-8752 and on the Library’s web site, www.dentonlibrary.com.   Participants can join the reading club at any time between June 4th and August 7th.

Please help us identify our photos!

 

Four Unidentified Children in Emily Fowler Library

Did you go to the library in the 1970’s, 1980’s?  Work for the City of Denton?  We currently have 1675 items on the Portal To Texas History, not all of which are photos.  You can find early (1894, 1918-1924) City/telephone directories, postcards, articles, and other things there as well.  But mostly, there are photos, many of which have never been correctly identified.  If you have the time, search the site, either by keyword, or browse through the collection.  Each photo has an information page, which, on the right-hand side of the page and in the light blue/purple box, offers the user the option to make comments.  So if you that is you watching the puppet show at the Emily Fowler Library in the 1970’s or 80’s, please let someone know which person you are and if you can guess any other names, or dates, feel free to add this to the photo. 

If you have any further questions, please contact the Genealogy/Special Collections Department of the Emily Fowler Central Library, 940-349-8752, or email  Leslie.Couture@cityofdenton.com.

We thank you for your help.

Mini A-Kon II was a Success!

Thanks to all who came to enjoy a day of anime at our Mini A-Kon II. Attendees enjoyed the speakers, open gaming and a Cosplay. two lucky attendees won 3 day passes to A-Kon in Dallas. Throughout the day more than 100 people stopped by to join the fun.

Thanks to Mark Stoddard, a voice actor who has worked on Case Closed, One Piece,  Fullmetal Alchemist and many other anime series, Amy Kay Purcell, graphic novel writer and artist, Evan Flournoy, lawyer and Funimation representative and Manny “the Master” Rodriguez, professional gamer.

Here some photos of the festivities:

A-Kon 3 day pass winners Miranda Smith and Apphia Yu

Cosplay Winners

Mark Staddard sharing advice

Amy Kay Purcell AKA damphyr (center) posing with two young artists

Lifelong Learning at UNT Wants Your Ideas

Marilyn Wagner, Director of the Center for Achievement and Lifelong Learning (CALL), is forming focus groups of seniors to find out what types of classes, social and cultural activities and travel destinations would be of interest.

The focus groups will meet once for about an hour, and refreshments will be served.  Participants will be asked for their ideas on topics and activities that would be part of CALL’s focus on lifelong learning.  We would like to conduct the focus groups in May. Benefits of the senior programs would be:

• Social and intellectual stimulation
• Exchange of ideas and discussions with peers
• Opportunities to seek knowledge, share knowledge, ask questions and try to find new ideas and insights
• A “health club” for the brain

 If you are interested in volunteering to participate in a one-time, one-hour focus group, please contact:
Dr. Marilyn Wagner
Director, Center for Achievement and Lifelong Learning
University of North Texas
940-565-3487 phone
Marilyn.wagner@unt.edu

Bollywood comes to DPL

Last night, North Branch Library patrons were taken on a trip to India without leaving the library.   Kavitha Victor, BollyBeatz instructor, and her group of dancers presented a Bollywood dance routine and taught the crowd some dance moves.  After the performance everyone enjoyed Mendhi art/Henna tattoo, Indian inspired crafts and snacks.  Thanks to Kavitha, her dancers and all the people who made our Passport to India program a night to remember!

The Pout Pout Fish

 I was so excited today when I looked in my work mailbox and found an envelope from Deborah Diesen.  She wrote one of my favorite new children’s books:  The Pout Pout Fish.   This great read aloud follows a doleful fish who spreads his “dreary wearies” throughout the sea, but is eventually cheered by an unexpected friend.  Author Diesen was kind enough to send me a stack of signed bookmarks featuring our sad fish friend.  Come by the children’s area of the North Branch Library and pick one up before they’re gone and check out a copy of The Pout Pout Fish while you’re here!

                              -Dana Zakrzewski

LBJ at the DPL

The Denton Public Library has a good collection of non-fiction and biographical titles about the 36th President. Also, in The Texas Collection at the Emily Fowler Library, there are rare and out of print titles that can be read but have to remain in the building. Good stuff.

LBJ (l.) and Sen. Richard Russell (D-Ga.), leader of the "Southern Caucus" ca. 1963

If you are obsessed with 20th Century American political history like me, there are a handful of major players that you have to get a handle on if you want to understand what happened. Along with Nixon, Roosevelt, MLK, Jr., Hubert Humphrey, Richard Russell and a few others, Johnson helped shape the politics and country we live with and in today.

Robert Caro's "Master of the Senate" (2002)

My favorite LBJ bios are written by Robert Caro: “The Path To Power” (1982), “Means of Ascent” (1990) and “Master of the Senate” (2002). A projected fourth volume covering the Vice-Presidency and Presidency is not yet completed. Caro writes almost in a literary style and has a gift for suspense. For instance, the recounting of both the 1948 Senate race and the struggle over the 1957 Civil Rights Act manages to give a sense of the high drama surrounding those events.

I wouldn’t call LBJ a hero because so much of what he did was motivated by naked ambition and by the darker forces in his personality. Yet, he did harness and moderate those forces along with his uncanny ability to use power for the advancement of social justice. Endlessly fascinating, frustrating, inspirational, disgusting, sometimes funny and angering, LBJ was, as much of a cliche as it is to say, a larger-than-life character. 

Always the first person on my “Fantasy Dinner Party” list.

-Chuck Voellinger, Emily Fowler Library

Library Services for Non-Profits

Can your non-profit survive in a no-profit economy?

It can with the Foundations Directory Online! This indespensable database has information on more than 95,000 foundations, corporate donors, and grant-making public charities in the US and 1.3 million of their recent grants. It can help you find the money your organization needs to continue serving the community in tough economic times.

The Denton Public Library invites you to a free demonstration of Foundation Directory Online as well as other library resources for non-profit organizations and services. The library has the tools for your non-profit’s survival.

Free Demonstration of Library Services for Non-Profits

Wednesday, May 20, 2:00-3:00 p.m.

Emily Fowler Library

502 Oakland St., Denton

 

If you would like to attend, please RSVP by May 15. For more information or to reserve your spot, contact Stacy Sizemore at 940-349-8761 or Stacy.Sizemore@cityofdenton.com.

To view the poster for this event, click here.

Denton Writes 2009 Winners!

The Denton Public Library would like to thank all who participated in and those who encouraged others to participate in Denton Writes 2009. This year’s writing contest which was open to children, teens and adults, received more than 250 entries.  The winners and honorable mentions for each category are as follows:

Children’s Poetry:

Winner: Lucas Stephen Hill, Watchman of the Night

Honorable Mention: Emily Madeleine Jones, Magazine

Children’s Fiction:

Winner: Shaina Alexis Owens, Dream Catcher

Honorable Mention: Carol Scott, People for Justice

Children’s Nonfiction:

Winner: Katherine Dickens, My Little Brother

Honorable Mention: Rachel Suzanne Valentine, Clear Creek

Teen Poetry:

Winner: Ana Coronado, Efrain Jr.

Honorable Mention: Rosalee Bayer, Swinging

Teen Fiction:

Winner: Nicolas Joseph Valenti, Elysium

Honorable Mention: Jessica Collins, Life and Death

Teen Flash Fiction:

Winner: Mike Welyczko, Everything Dies Before It Lives

Honorable Mention: Caitlyn Vann, Sunrise

Teen Nonfiction:

Winner: Sierra Thomas, Everlasting Love

Honorable Mention: Krista Sitton, beautiful

Teen Personal Essay:

Winner: Sylvia Li, Home

Honorable Mention: James Ryan, Everyday Overlooked

Adult Poetry:

Winner: Leslie Pumphrey, Career Options

Honorable Mention: Erin Rachel Briley, Gate

Adult Fiction:

Winner: Rob Robison, The Makings of a Champion

Honorable Mention: Gabe Guerrero, Incident at Riverbend Pass

Adult Flash Fiction:

Winner: Martha J. Garza, The Finishing

Honorable Mention: Erin Rachel Briley, Rain

Adult Nonfiction:

Winner: Valerie Gordon, Harry Potter

Honorable Mention: Art Curnutt, The Wound Beneath My Wing

Adult Personal Essay:

Winner: Helen Hanson, Medical No How

Honorable Mention: Valerie Gordon, Museum Piece

Children’s Literature:

Winner: Levi Acord, Jackie and Fred Adventures

Honorable Mention: Annahish Rhein, The Story of Prince Little Foot

Winners will once again be featured in American Library Association READ posters and displayed at all three library branches. In addition, winning entries will be published on the Denton Public Library’s blog and the MySpace page along with a copy of their READ poster.  Later, winning works will be compiled into a book entitled, Versifico.  Last year’s winners are featured in the first volume of Vesifico, which is available for checkout at all three branches.

To thank all who entered and to celebrate the winners, a congratulatory reception will take place May 27, 2009 at 7 p.m. at the North Branch Library. Please join us in this celebration.