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Every year I look forward to May because it’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (also referred to as Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month).

It puts a spotlight on my cultural background— one that can sometimes feel overlooked during the rest of the year. It allows me to commemorate my Japanese, Taiwanese, and Okinawan ancestry. 

This May, however, felt different to me than every other May.

Continue Reading "Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month All Year Long" →

Calling all lego lovers, block builders and future architects. 

Our Family Friday challenge this week is to build a model of a favorite Chicago landmark to share with the Des Plaines community.

Building blocks, cups, boxes, legos and toothpicks are all fair game along with playing cards, magnatiles and craft sticks or really anything your imagination allows and your home has available. 

Continue Reading "Family Fridays - Chicago Building Challenge" →

Hey Kiddos! It's Thursday and time for DPPL Storytime. We miss you all and hope you will tune in for a new episode each week! On this episode, Miss Becky reads "La Llama Llama Rojo Pijama" by Anna Dewdney (by kind permission of Penguin Random House) and Miss Esli pops up to present a rhyme called El Chocolate. Enjoy! Don't forget, you can follow us on Facebook or Instagram to see more virtual programming like this!

 The building is closed but the library is open. 

♫ It's raining, it's pouring. Quarantine is boring ♫ 

But what about when it's not raining?

Who waters your plants? 

Spring is plant season. 

Do you have a green thumb?

Or do plants wither in your presence? 

Because gardening is complicated. 

Some of us are so afraid of underwatering plants that we may water them TOO much.

And then..they die...

Unlike humans, plants have a harder time getting rid of excess water. 

But not to worry. 

This week, we'll be making some watering cans! 

Continue Reading "It’s Wednesday. Let’s Garden!" →

On the latest episode of our podcast Miner Recs, Dave, Joel, Jami and Annie discuss documentary films and series, including films about mountain climbing such as Free Solo, Meru and Pretty Strong; long-form series such as The Last Dance, Tiger King and Ken Burns' Baseball; and other non-fiction films like Icarus, This Film Is Not Yet Rated and American Factory. (Please note, this episode was recorded remotely from home using Zoom - you may notice some slight audio imperfections which were inherent in the source.) Listen to their conversation in the player below:

This episode is another bittersweet one for the Miner Recs panelists, as it's our last episode with our longtime host Dave, who has moved on from the Des Plaines Public Library. We all wish Dave the best in his future endeavors and would like thank him for sharing his valuable insights over the years!

Interested in listening to more episodes of Miner Recs? You can subscribe with iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or on our Podomatic page. For more information about the podcast and the DPPL staff who make it, visit our podcast page.