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Peoria Reads 2024: Nature's Best Hope: Exploring Conservation and Climate Change |
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For more than 20 years, Peoria Public Library has hosted a citywide literary event inviting all residents to read the same book at once. We call it Peoria Reads, and we choose a book that we believe has the ability to resonate with all Peorians.
This year, Peoria Reads’ theme is Nature’s Best Hope: Exploring Conservation and Climate Change and we’ve chosen a book that empowers us all to make the planet a better place. Our chosen book is Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard by Douglas W. Tallamy, a New York Times best seller which he also adapted into a middle school edition. Instead of despair about our environment, Tallamy outlines a grassroots approach to conservation that is practical, effective, easy and — yes — even fun. With our partners, Peoria Public Library will host Tallamy for a virtual author event in April, just before Earth Day.
Peoria Reads 2024 kicks off during National Library Week, April 7-13, but will continue through the fall with a variety of conservation-themed programs.
“Peoria Reads is more than just inviting people to read the same book,” said Alyce Jackson, head of Peoria Public Library’s Peoria Reads Committee. “We often deliberately choose a book that can help us broach tough topics together. In the last few years, for instance, we’ve tackled sensitive issues like censorship, death, racism and police brutality. Books help us step outside ourselves and see things from a new perspective. That’s what Peoria Reads is really about.”
Tallamy’s first book, Bringing Nature Home, explored the issue of disappearing wildlife and native plant life. In Nature’s Best Hope, Tallamy gives everyone a blueprint for bringing them back by creating easy conservation corridors in our yards. In 2021, he cofounded Homegrown National Park, the largest grassroots conservation project “ever conceived or attempted” with the initial goal of 20 million native plantings across the U.S.
Homegrown National Park “has no political, religious, cultural or geographic boundaries because everyone – every human being on this planet – needs diverse, highly productive ecosystems to survive,” touts the website, www.homegrownnationalpark.org.
Tallamy has spent decades researching the many ways insects interact with plants and how those interactions impact the diversity of wildlife. He is the T.A. Baker Professor of Agriculture in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 112 research publications and taught for 43 years.
“Not only do we have dozens of hard copies of Tallamy’s book for people to check out, but there are unlimited digital versions, either an ebook or audio book,” Jackson noted. “We’re also extremely pleased that this year we have a middle school edition of this book to share. In addition to the programming we, the library, are offering, we really hope neighborhood associations and book clubs will embrace this book.”
Peoria Public Library and its Peoria Reads partners – Bradley University, Methodist College and Neighborhood House – are also excited to bring both Tallamy and children’s author Candace Fleming to Peoria this spring as highlights of Peoria Reads programming, which also includes a visit from the Illinois State Climatologist on Earth Day.
For more details on how to get involved in Peoria Reads 2024 – Nature’s Best Hope: Exploring Conservation and Climate Change, visit: https://peoriapubliclibrary.org/peoria-reads/ |
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Author Events
Peoria Reads Presents:
Douglas Tallamy, author of Nature’s Best Hope
Wednesday, April 17 ~ 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Watch virtually or join our Watch Party at Lakeview Branch, 1137 W. Lake Ave.
Free and open to the public.
Register for the virutal event here
Peoria Reads Presents:
Candace Fleming, author of Honeybee
Thursday, May 2 ~ 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., North Branch, 3001 W. Grand Pkwy
Filled with both detail and whimsy, Fleming’s biography of a worker bee portrays the vital part bees play in our Earth’s ecosphere. Intriguing text combined with meticulous and lifelike illustrations are bound to mesmerize your child.
Hear from the author herself. Books will also be available for purchase and signing.
Free and open to the public.
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| Advocating for Libraries from Peoria to Washington D.C. Veronica De Fazio, Deputy Director of Peoria Public Library and Past ILA President |
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Advocacy has never come naturally to me. The thought of calling a legislator’s office or even sending an email was often intimidating. But once I became a librarian, advocacy became a little easier. ALA and ILA do everything they can to alert us to the issues that are affecting libraries and assist us in contacting our legislators in order to get our message out. Through my time as a member of the ILA Advocacy Committee and serving as Ex Officio to that committee, as well as the Public Policy Committee, I learned the intricacies of bills and budgets, both on the state and national level. Then ILA’s “Ready, Set, Advocate” gave me tools to be a successful advocate. This month I had the incredible opportunity to put all of this into practice.
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Each year, ALA hosts a “Fly-In Day.” This is a day when librarians from across the country visit their legislators on Capitol Hill with the same goals in mind. This year, ALA was looking for someone from Representative Darin LaHood’s district. I was asked to attend as one of his constituents (I live and work in his district), and as a former ILA President. Our small but mighty two-person Illinois delegation was rounded out by my longtime colleague Joslyn Bowling Dixon.
Fly-In day is really Fly-In days. Most of us arrived in Washington, D.C. late Tuesday afternoon. This was followed by a full-day briefing on Wednesday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library where all attendees learned about the issues libraries would be speaking to their legislators about, as well as training on what to expect at our legislative meetings, and how to conduct the “ask,” a request to fully fund the Library Services and Technology Act at $232 million. |
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| Library Connection: World War II Photo Album Finds Rightful Home |
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“When in doubt, go to the library.” It may be a classic quote from Harry Potter, but it’s also a mantra Roberta Koscielski has lived by. When her husband came across an old World War II photo album while cleaning their garage, she knew exactly who could help find the rightful owner: the library. Koscielski, the former Deputy Director of Peoria Public Library, believed her late mother put together the album while corresponding with a local soldier during the war.
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“I thought if he had any surviving family, they might like it,” said Koscielski, who grew up in LaSalle-Peru. “My mother worked at Westclox during the war, and they would put little notes in the clocks going to soldiers asking them to write.”
After looking the soldier up online, Koscielski reached out to the library in DePue, a small village southeast of Princeton, which agreed to put the word out via a community Facebook page. The connection was almost immediate, but also lucky.
“Not many people in DePue have my phone number,” said Barbara Smith, who now lives outside Princeton. The two women met recently at Peoria Public Library so Smith could pick up the album, filled with many photographs of her father – Staff Sgt. Anton F. Zickar -- she’d never seen.
“He died in 1968 when I was a senior in high school,” said Smith, who recognized one of her father’s close friends in the photos. Smith recalled the man came from a very poor family and her father, a supply sergeant, gave him extra blankets to share with his family. “He was so grateful for that. He sent us Christmas cards every year until he died.”
And Smith was grateful for the connection Koscielski was able to make with a little help from the library.
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After April 15, Android phone users with devices running Android OS 7.1.0 or earlier will be required to update their operating system or switch to another supported device to continue using Libby and Kanopy apps.
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OverDrive, which operates both apps, apologizes for the inconvenience this will have on users with impacted devices. This change is necessary to uphold OverDrive’s standards of security and patron privacy. |
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| Don’t forget to pick up your Solar Eclipse glasses at any of our locations – while supplies last! |
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The total solar eclipse is Monday, April 8. Peoria is not in the path of totality so we'll only see a partial eclipse, but protecting your eyes is still important.
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| Take Your Library Card on Spring Break and Save Money! |
Explore More Illinois uses the power of your Peoria Public Library card to provide your family with free or discounted tickets to more than 50 special attractions across Illinois and Wisconsin – from theatre tickets to sporting events to admission to world-class museums. All you need is your Peoria Public Library card.
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Newly added attractions include Peoria’s PlayHouse children’s museum where a family of 4 can visit for free with an Explore More pass.
Visit https://bit.ly/3v5uLMc to learn how!
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