Birmingham Museum of Art + Library

Last week our Collection Management/Reference Roundtable had its monthly meeting. We got to have the best kind of meeting - one that involves a field trip! The Birmingham Museum of Art was gracious enough to give us a behind the scenes tour to show us how they store their collections. Then our group went down to the first floor to the Clarence B. Hanson, Jr. Library to met with the museum's librarian, Tatum Preston. She talked with us about the library and how they try to obtain whatever information they can about the items within the museum. So if you have a question or would like more information about a particular work, check out the library there.

The BMA library's catalog went online last summer, so now their collection can be searched from the luxury of your home (or neighborhood library).

The library's hours are Tuesday through Friday, from 10a.m. - 4:00p.m. Appointments are recommended, which can be made by calling 205-254-2565 (ext. 3944) or sending an email to library@artsbma.org.

Also, just last week Black & White ran a great article about the library - so check it out!

Family Fun in Irondale

The Pine Hill Country Club in Irondale is hosting a Golf Hope Charity Tournament and Family Fun Day on Monday, June 29th.

The event is being held to raise awareness about Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS).

From Fetal Hope's website:

TTTS occurs in twin or multiple pregnancies. The blood passes disproportionately from one baby to the other within their shared placenta. One baby, the recipient twin, gets too much blood and may die from heart failure. The other baby, the donor twin or stuck twin, does not get enough blood and may die from severe anemia. Left untreated, mortality rates near 100%.

The tournament directors are Casey and Ebru Middlebrooks, who had twin sons born with TTTS last year. They were inspired to help other families and bring awareness to the cause. They hope to make the Golf Hope Charity Tournament an annual event.

The tournament is a four-person scramble with a $150 entry fee per person. The entry amount includes green fees, cart fees, lunch and tournament prizes. Golf registration begins at 11am and the play starts at 1pm.

The Family Fun Day Starts at noon and will include face painting, party inflatables, and other activities. There is no admission fee to get in, but please bring a canned item for the United Way Community Food bank.

All proceeds from the tournament will go to the Fetal Hope Foundation. Come out and show your support for the community and this great cause!

Alabama Lighthouse

On July 23rd the United States Postal Service will release a series of five stamps that honor Gulf Coast Lighthouses, the latest in a lighthouse series that was first issued back in 1995.

From USPS:

The popular lighthouse stamps series continues to shine with the issuance of Gulf Coast Lighthouses next summer. Featuring paintings by artist Howard Koslow of Toms River, NJ, the five stamps depict the lighthouses of Matagorda Island, near Port O’Connor, TX; Sabine Pass, near Sabine Pass, LA; Biloxi, in Biloxi, MS; Sand Island, near the entrance to Mobile Bay in Mobile, AL; and, Fort Jefferson (also known as Garden Key Lighthouse), nearly 70 miles west of Key West, FL, in Dry Tortugas Park.

Known as “hurricane alley,” the Gulf Coast weathers many powerful storms each year, including Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the region in 2005. In addition, the land along the coast is swampy and marshy in many places and given to erosion, making it doubly difficult for lighthouses to withstand heavy rains and winds. The five lighthouses featured on the stamps are some of the few that remain standing.

The Sand Island Lighthouse is currently undergoing restoration in Daulphin Island, AL. The Alabama Lighthouse Association has been working to raise awareness and money for the cause. You can follow their progress through their website or read about the history of the lighthouse.

Here at the library you can find many books, audiobooks, and DVDs about lighthouses. We also have books about stamps and stamp-collecting, too. Come visit us today!

Job Search Help

We are proud to be a part of the Jefferson County Library Cooperative. And one of the wonderful things about being part of a countywide library cooperative is that we share resources. Recently, our colleagues at Birmingham Public Library put together a guide for job searching. The subject guide Job Searching has all kinds of useful information including:

* The Occupational Outlook Handbook

* Links to local and national employment sites

* A Microsoft Word Resume Wizard tutorial

Another great resource to know about is Learning Express. They offer job search and workplace skills, GED prep, and skill building for adults. If you need to brush-up on your computer skills, the library has a great collection of computer books available for checkout. But if you need live instructional computer help many libraries within Jefferson County offer computer classes. Search the calender of events here.

Please drop by or call us with any questions - about job searching or anything else!

Book Club - My Sister's Keeper

We had another wonderful book club meeting last night! Thanks to everyone who made it out! The book we discussed last night was Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. From Jodi Picoult's website:

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood.....Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?

This book was a great one to discuss! The "what-ifs" that the story poses really brought up interesting questions. Everyone really liked the story and the characters but we found the ending to be a bit unbelievable.

While Jodi Picoult has had three of her previous novels turned into made-for -TV movies, this is her first novel to come to life on the big screen. My Sister's Keeper was turned into a movie that will be in theaters June 26th and stars Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin and Cameron Diaz. Here is the movie trailer:

Our book club pondered about the movie ending and if it would have a more satisfying ending than the book! If you couldn't make it to this meeting, please join us next month. We will be discussing The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Hope to see you there!

Wrap-Up: Henna Tattoo Program

We were so excited to kick off our summer reading program here at the library yesterday!!! It was our first young adult (YA) program, which is for guys and gals in 6th grade and up. We had a lot of fun learning about the history of henna, how to make all-natural henna paste, and how to care for it to make it last longer.

While the henna was being applied, Megha, our henna expert, had us look at henna books and draw some off our own designs.

If you would like more information about Megha and henna visit her website. Thanks again to Megha for coming out and helping us "Express Ourselves"!!!

Books as Career Guidance?

Last week when President Obama revealed his Supreme Court nominee, this little tidbit was slipped into his statement:

It's my understanding that Judge Sotomayor's interest in the law was sparked as a young girl by reading the Nancy Drew series.

She is not the first judge to have been inspired by Nancy Drew as a girl. A New York Times article came out last week that talked about how both Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg read and admired Nancy.

For children growing up in the past twenty years or so, seeing women in all kinds of roles in books, TV, and movies was not unusual. But it makes sense that during the time all 3 of these women were growing up, that Nancy Drew would stand out and really speak to them. There weren't a lot of strong female role models like we see today.

It is great to see a character and book series stand the test of time. Nancy Drew has been in print since 1930, with her most recent incarnations in the form of a movie and a graphic novel series.

Come visit the library and check out one of these or a "classic" Nancy Drew!!!