Linking Your Library Card

How exciting!  The book you heard reviewed on the radio has been added to the library’s holdings.  Time to reserve it. Call us or go online and put a copy on hold.  So far, so good.

You saw the author being interviewed on television and felt a swelling sense of satisfaction. The book will be ready for you soon according to your online account. The library has assured you that your contact information is up to date and that you will be notified as soon as it is returned by the last patron to borrow it.

Then, BOOM, your life becomes really busy because that's the way life goes; Murphy’s Law ensures that this is when we will contact you.  The book is now on the patron hold shelf where it will be for a week waiting for you to come and get it.

Should you worry? 

No.  You thought of everything and had us link your card with another's.  You may be unable to come get that book yourself, but your designee can and will.
 

Linking cards is a lovely way to allow another to pick up books if you are inconvenienced and unable to come in yourself.  Linking also allows you to check out books for family, friends or neighbors on their card returning the favor.

Ask about this service the next time you come in.

Women's History Month @ the Newport Public Library

We're recognizing Women's History Month at the library this year with a display of Notable Oregon women and a screening of the recent film, Suffragette on March 15 at 7:00 p.m.

While doing research for the display, I discovered some women I had heard of, and some who were brand new to me!  

Florence Augusta Merriam Bailey was an ornithologist and nature writer whose fieldwork contributed significantly to the knowledge of the birds of Oregon. Best known for Handbook of Birds of the Western United States, she was called the First Lady of American ornithology.



Bethenia Owens-Adair overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to become a social reformer and one of Oregon’s first women doctors with a medical degree.  At age 14, barely able to read or write, she married Legrand Hill, and became a mother at 16.  At age 19 Bethenia left Hill, took back her name, and went to college, then medical school. 

She was also passionately involved in reform movements.  Frustrated by gender prescriptions and inspired by friend Abigail Scott Duniway, she argued for woman suffrage as well as women’s education, employment, and health.

Cornelia Marvin Pierce helped shape the state’s social, educational, and political conditions as state librarian, political activist, and reformer.  Marvin moved to Salem in 1905 to direct a new agency, the Oregon Library Commission, which became the State Library in 1913.  Under her direction, the State Library assisted communities in organizing, opening, and securing tax funding for libraries and provided direct services from its offices in Salem. In 1905, there were three public libraries; by 1928, there were eighty-two.




Many other accomplished women have made their mark in Oregon.  If you'd like to learn about more, come visit our display.  If you'd like to learn more about women's struggle for the right to vote, join us on Tuesday, March 15 when the film Suffragette will be shown.

Passport to the World

Ever suffer from wanderlust?  Look out the window and see much farther than the next house or tree, and wish Star Trek transporters really existed?

Look out the window and see the rain and wind and wish for someplace warmer?

Look around you and wish for someplace, any place more exotic, more exciting, or just different?

Look at the amount of money it takes to travel these days and just sigh?

OK, going someplace in a book or video is not the same as actually being there, but it can be a great way to visit without the hassle. Travel books and videos can take you around the world. Fiction books can take you around the world and into space and time, made all the more rich by your own imagination.

Your library card is as good as a passport…come see the world.

- by Jan

Books I've Always Wanted To Read

March is “Read A Book You’ve Always Wanted To Read Month.” Even the short list of books I’ve always wanted to read is a pretty long one: Pride And Prejudice, The Decameron, Remembrance of Things Past, The Tale of Genji, works by Jules Verne, Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Naguib Mahfouz, Chinua Achebe, and many, many more.

Of the dozens of titles on that long list, I’ve picked Leo Tolstoy’s classic, War and Peace. I love a big, meaty story that I can get lost in. I’m also a fan of historical fiction, and War and Peace certainly satisfies both of those requirements. I’ve also heard that the BBC is currently airing a well-reviewed mini-series, available on DVD soon, and I certainly want to read the book before I watch the series.

I’m sure you must have a title or two that you’ve always wanted to read. Post them in the comments below. I might want to add them to my own list because I’m always looking for something to read. I’ve also posted a few links to sites that might help you find more works of great literature to add to your own list. I know I have, and now my list is even longer!

 Goodreads Classics Reading List

The Guardian - 100 Greatest Novels Of All Time

 Modern Library's 100 Greatest Novels Of All Time

Little Big Man

The film Little Big Man will be shown at the Newport Public Library on Tuesday, March 8, at 6:30 p.m. This 1970 film is based on the novel by Thomas Berger.

At the age of 121, Jack Crabbe (Dustin Hoffman) tells the story of his life. When he was ten years old, his family was killed by the Pawnee Indians.  Cheyenne Indians saved him and raised him as one of their own.  Throughout his life, Crabb is torn between the two worlds.  He has close associations with Wild Bill Hickok and General George Custer.  He marries twice; Olga, a Swedish woman who is abducted by Indians, and Sunshine, an Indian woman who bears him a child.

Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George

The film is sprinkled with tragic and comedic vignettes. After the brutal murder of his second family, Crabb seeks revenge by leading Custer into the Battle of Little Big Horn. After the battle, Crabb's adopted father, Old Lodge Skins (Chief Dan George) dresses in full Chief's regalia and declares "It is a good day to die," and prepares to end his life with dignity. He lies down at the Indian Burial Ground to wait for death. Instead, it begins to rain. Old Lodge Skins is revealed to still be alive, and says, "Sometimes the magic works, and sometimes it doesn't."

A Journey into the Owyhee River Canyonlands

On Sunday, March 6 at 2:00 p.m., join writer Bonnie Olin at the Newport Public Library for a richly-illustrated journey into the canyonlands of the Owyhee River in Nevada, Idaho, and Oregon. Her presentation is based on her book, The Owyhee River Journals, which includes 125 color photos of rarely seen landscapes by photographer Mike Quigley, created over many years of travel together. 

Mike Quigley and Bonnie Olin

Very little is written about the Owyhee, so Ms. Olin will share a brief history of the area, discuss why it is unique and deserving of wilderness protection, and show a 20-minute video. 

The movie, Deep Creek and the Owyhee River, is the story of an expedition into the Owyhee canyon that begins on a tributary of the East Fork of the Owyhee in Idaho, and ends at Three Forks, in Oregon. It is a view of the upper regions of the Owyhee River that few people see, and helps one to understand the significance of this last hidden jewel of the West, for people will not find themselves in the Owyhee on their way to any other location. 

Olin is a third generation Oregonian, born into a family with a great love of the outdoors. In the 1960‘s and early 1970‘s, she worked for her father in the summer on his survey crew and sometimes as compassman on a timber cruise. In 1989, Quigley introduced her to running rivers in an inflatable kayak, using rivers as a highway into the wild. She found these experiences so inspiring she began keeping a journal about each adventure, a practice that led to the writing of The Owyhee River Journals. 

Olin’s presentation will be followed by a brief question and answer period. Copies of her book will be available for sale and signing.

In Like a Lion..

Here it is, March already. The weather is fitful, unpredictable and mostly uncomfortable. A season shifting gears toward longer and warmer days.

Our dog wants to go for many more walks on the beach. Without her urging us into our parkas and out of doors, we’d miss the whole Oregon beach experience entirely.

Dogs have so much to share with us; their senses keener; their enthusiasm boundless, and their affection total. Our dog was a shelter dog. Before Lincoln County Animal Shelter acquired her, life had not been easy. She came with a working dog temperament that required some research before we understood her as “capable of self direction” instead of “untrainable.”

Before we get another dog, I’ll be rummaging through the library’s selection on differing breeds and the requisite training. So many good books line the shelves here and not all are explicitly how-to. Some are biographical like Merle's Door by Ted Karasote.

By the way, when you access that title in our catalog, a simple click on the listed call number within that citation (636.7 Keraso) will take you to a virtual shelf of our library’s holdings in that section. Here you can browse and find more titles to pick up or reserve online. Ask any of us to show you this neat trick the next time you visit the library.

While March is coming in like a Lion, it might be fun to read about a new best friend to warm your summer and the years to come.