Stillwater Public Library Newsletter
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OCTOBER 2022
Stillwater Public Library is closed on Monday, October 10 for a staff training.
WHAT'S NEW
 
Roof Replacement Update
 

 
The library's roof replacement is underway! Work on the 120-year-old roof began on Monday, September 26, and is expected to take three to four weeks to complete. The library's clay tiles will be replaced with new French tiles by Ludowici, the same company that made the original tiles in 1902. 
 
A majority of the original tiles will be recycled. As a natural product, these are 100% recyclable and can be crushed for use in other building projects. Our understanding is that the City of Stillwater will receive a rebate for recycling the tiles to help offset the cost of the roof repairs. A small number of tiles (about 100) will be saved for future uses such as fundraising, perhaps an exhibit, or other things. Stillwater Public Library Foundation is discussing using a portion of the saved tiles for fundraising, potentially as soon as the next For the Love of the Library event on Tuesday, November 15.  
 
During the roof update, there will be no parking in the brick parking area off of 4th Street, including the handicapped parking space. The lot will be restricted for contractor use and equipment. Outdoor programming scheduled on the 4th Street Lawn will be moved inside during the replacement. The project could be noisy, especially in the fiction areas on the upper level. While is it not a safety hazard to be on the upper level, it will be a louder environment than normal. If you would prefer to avoid the noise, consider placing holds on adult fiction materials and picking them up from the holds shelf on the lower level or in a Library Locker on the parking ramp level.
 
What We're Reading
 
 
Check out what staff and patrons have been reading. Below are three of the books that staff and patrons talked about in September's Connect Through Books, our Zoom book club. View the full book list for more reading ideas.
 
The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution
by Peter Hessler

Drawn by an abiding fascination with Egypt's rich history and civilization, Peter Hessler moved with his wife and twin daughters to Cairo to explore a place that had a powerful hold over his imagination. He wanted to learn Arabic, explore Cairo's neighborhoods, research ancient history, and visit the legendary archeological digs. After years of covering China for The New Yorker, friends warned him it would be a much quieter place. But just before his arrival, the Arab Spring had reached Egypt and the country was in chaos. In the midst of the revolution, he attached himself to an important archeological dig at a site rich in royal tombs known in as al-Madfuna, or "The Buried." He and his wife set out to master Arabic, striking up an important friendship with their language instructor, a cynical political sophisticate named Rifaat. And a very different kind of friendship was formed with their garbage collector, an illiterate neighborhood character named Saaed, whose access to the trash of Cairo would be its own kind of archeological excavation. Along the way, he meets a family of Chinese small business owners who have cornered the nation's lingerie trade; their pragmatic view of the political crisis is a bracing counterpoint to the West's conventional wisdom. Through the lives of these ordinary Egyptians in a time of tragedy and heartache, Hessler finds subtle and illuminating insights to understand a nation from a new perspective
Night of the Living Rez
by Morgan Talty

"Set in a Native community in Maine, Night of the Living Rez is a riveting debut collection about what it means to be Penobscot in the twenty-first century and what it means to live, to survive, and to persevere after tragedy. In twelve striking, luminescent stories, author Morgan Talty-with searing humor, abiding compassion, and deep insight-breathes life into tales of family and a community as they struggle with a painful past and an uncertain future. A boy unearths a jar that holds an old curse, which sets into motion his family's unraveling; a man, while trying to swindle some pot from a dealer, discovers a friend passed out in the woods, his hair frozen into the snow; a grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's projects the past onto her grandson; and two friends, inspired by Antiques Roadshow, attempt to rob the tribal museum for valuable root clubs. A collection that examines the consequences and merits of inheritance, Night of the Living Rez is an unforgettable portrayal of an Indigenous community and marks the arrival of a standout talent in contemporary fiction"
The Outsiders
by S. E Hinton

50 years of an iconic classic! This international bestseller and inspiration for a beloved movie is a heroic story of friendship and belonging. Three brothers struggle to stay together after their parents' deaths, as they search for an identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society, in which they find themselves "outsiders."
Find a New Read
Print Books . . . Meet Audiobooks
 
 
New to the library are VOX books - audiobooks that live in print books. The permanently attached VOX Reader transforms a print book into an all-in-one read-along. There's no need for computers, tablets or CDs. Children simply push a button to listen and read.
 
VOX books capture a child's reading attention while making learning and literacy development fun. Narrators are lively and will keep readers engaged. Educators can use VOX Books to help early or struggling readers learn to pronounce words, hold a book and turn pages, and practice tracking text from left to right. To see all the titles in the collection, click on the link or search the catalog using the phrase, "VOX collection".
 
 
Check Out a VOX Book
Just for Teens


 
It's Teen Time at the Library! Get creative with these special programs just for teens, ages 11-17. Programs are free, but registration is required. 
 
Let's Clay: Miniature Snacks for Teens
Saturday, November 5 | 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Create a miniature pretend picnic! Learn how to use oven-safe polymer clay to shape and form different types of snacks, add expressive details, and bake your pretend snacks at home so they're ready for your next cookout. Use them for decoration, play, or turn them into charms. Registration required. Space is limited. 
 
Teen Zines: The Art of Self-Publishing
Saturday, November 19 | 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Even in our increasingly digital world, the popularity of zines is booming. Design your own 4-8 page 'zine,' a.k.a. a self-published mini book meant for distribution to a small audience. Zines can be about any subject from politics to make-up tutorials to poetry. We will use many different techniques to fill our zines including collage, drawing, printing, and hand-drawn elements. If you have something to tell the world, then this is an art for you! Registration required. This program is supported by MELSA and funded with money from Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage (Legacy) Fund.
 
Teen Anime & Manga Portraits
Tuesday, December 13 | 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM
Explore various anime and manga drawing styles to create a stylized anime portrait of a friend, family member, or celebrity. We will focus on developing our drawing skills as well as examine how specific facial details and features can bring the personality of a subject to the foreground. Registration is required.
 
 
Register for a Teen Program
 In Our Archives
 
 
Become a family history detective with our collection of city directories! If you're lucky enough to have a diligent historian in your family, you may know who (or what) is pictured in old photographs of your ancestors. For many of us, such details have been lost to time. One tool that can help solve such family mysteries is the city directory. City directories are basically big address books that list the residents of a town or a city. They were published annually and are similar to telephone directories but pre-date them - as far back as the 1600s for some cities in Europe! One important distinction of city directories is that they typically listed all working adult residents of a household, as well as details such as occupations, spouse names, and residence or business addresses (phone directories usually only list the person to whom the number was registered). For this reason, city directories can provide important clues to help us confirm the names and relationships of family members, their occupations, and even events such as marriages and deaths.
 
As an example of how to use city directories, the above photo shows the C.P. Holcombe family in front of their home at 822 2nd Street South in Stillwater in the mid-1890s. This is a pretty typical example of the old photographs many of us have in our own family collections.
 
The image below shows an excerpt of the 1894 Stillwater City directory. We see the names of not one but five members of the Holcombe family (Aurora, Charles, Everette, Fred and Selma), their corresponding occupations, and that they all resided at 822 S 2nd. While this alone isn't enough to identify the individuals in the photograph, we could use it in combination with other contemporary records such as city directory listings from earlier and later years, census records, and property records to piece together the names and ages of the family members, which could in turn help us identify those pictured in the photograph.
 
 
At one time, city directories were published for nearly every community in the U.S., and they continue to be published today. In fact, the library just received the 2022 edition of the Stillwater directory! The library's city directory collection extends back to 1876, and you may peruse it in our Saint Croix Collection anytime the library is open. 
 
 
 
UPCOMING PROGRAMS

 
YOUTH
ADULTS
 
Preschool Storytime
Each Wednesday & Saturday, Oct. 8 | 10:30 AM
Native American Initiatives at MN Historical Society
Tuesday, October 4 | 6:30 PM
 
Baby & Toddler Storytime
Thursday, October 13 & 27 | 10:30 AM
Connect Through Books 
Monday, October 17 | 7:00 PM (online)
Building with Bricks
Wednesday, October 19 | 4:00 PM
Mystery Book Club
Wednesday, October 19 | 6:00 PM
Clay Sculptural Animals
Thursday, October 20 | 10:30 AM
Ghost Stories
Wednesday, October 19 | 6:00 PM
Care for Magical Creatures
Saturday, October 22 | 10:30 AM
Romance Book Club
Tuesday, October 25 | 6:00 PM (online)
 Los Animales y la Música!
Tuesday, October 25 | 10:30 AM
Title IX: 50 Years!
Monday, November 14 | 6:00 PM
View All Events
 FROM THE FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY
 
Fall Book Sale and Donations Drive


 
Book lovers and bargain hunters - you are in for a treat! The Friends of the Stillwater Public Library is hosting a used book donation drive and a used book sale. Proceeds benefit the library and enhance materials and programs.
 
Donate Your Books
Saturday, October 29 and Saturday, November 5 | 10:30 AM - 3:00 PM
Donate your gently used books during the book donations drive. Just pull into the library's parking ramp on Third Street, and volunteers will help unload your materials. None of the following items will be accepted: encyclopedias, magazines, Reader's Digest Condensed Books, textbooks, religious materials, National Geographic, videos, cassettes, or partially used puzzle books.
 
Shop the Sale
Members-Only Preview:
Wednesday, November 9 | 5:00-7:30 PM
Not a member of Friends of the Stillwater Public Library? Join at the door.
 
Open to the Public:
Thursday, November 10 | 10:15 AM-7:30 PM
Friday, November 11 | 10:15 AM-4:30 PM
Saturday, November 13 | 10:15 AM-4:30 PM (Bag sale all day on Saturday!)
 
Connect With Us
 
 
Stillwater Public Library
224 Third St N | Stillwater, Minnesota 55082 | 651-275-4338
https://stillwaterlibrary.org/ | splinfo@ci.stillwater.mn.us
 
Connecting members of our community with the power of knowledge, the possibility of new ideas, and the opportunity to engage with one another