July 31, 2019
Ever since the Evanston Public Library ceased its regular book sale on the third floor, we’ve had to deal with the constant influx of donations we receive in new ways. To deal with the bulk of the donations, for example, we placed a large green Better World Books bin on the side of the building […]
July 18, 2019
You may have seen the recent announcement surrounding the latest live action Disney movie, The Little Mermaid. In a surprisingly refreshing move, the studio cast Halle Bailey, an African-American actress, as the new Ariel. The response was universally supportive. Yeah. I wish. No, as you might expect, the racists came out of the woodwork in droves […]
July 2, 2019
Sure, it’s fun to look at what your fellow Evanstonians are checking out of the library these days. But there’s a certain fascination that comes with seeing what they won’t touch with a ten-foot-pole. Case in point, books about music. It’s not that Evanston doesn’t like music. It’s just that folks here in town would […]
June 5, 2019
I’m continually fascinated by those people that specialize in specific forms of literature. Let us say, for example, that you wanted the latest, greatest list of children’s books being released. Easy enough, but what if you wanted those books in Spanish? This is a question our public schools and libraries have been trying to tackle. […]
May 8, 2019
How is a library unlike a bookstore? Well, for one thing, we’re free. Sort of an unfair advantage there. For another thing, unlike in a bookstore, our stock keeps coming back. No sooner have I gotten one book off of a shelf than another one’s arrived for reshelving. It can be exhausting, not to mention […]
April 24, 2019
When news breaks, the library is sometimes the first place people go. Take, for example, the recent fire at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The day it occurred the library created a display of all its books about or set at the Cathedral. Some of these were architectural in nature (and, admittedly, are probably now […]
April 10, 2019
When I tell folks what I do at the library they will, on occasion, get a small gleam in their eyes. “You must know what everyone in town likes to read then!” And the only answer I have to that is an apologetic, “Sorta?” The fact of the matter is that while I do have […]
March 27, 2019
Oh, this world is a topsy turvy place and there’s so little that stays the same year to year. Happily, there is one constant in this cruel, unfeeling universe on which you can depend: The peregrine falcons have returned to nest on Evanston Public Library. As they do every year, a pair of peregrines has […]
March 13, 2019
Great news for writers in town. For the second year in a row the Evanston Literary Festival (or ELF) will feature a book fair where local authors can present their titles. The 2019 ELF Book Fair will take place at the Evanston Public Library on Saturday, May 11, 2019 from 2-5 pm and is intended […]
February 28, 2019
It’s no secret that podcasts are now the radio of the 21st century. Even if you don’t know someone who actually runs one, then you may subscribe to a couple on the sly. My phone’s podcast app is regularly filled with episodes I should check out, even as others fade from my mind. If you […]
