Blog

I have always loved fashion. Sometime circa 1979 I started ripping out photos from Teen Magazine and Seventeen Magazine and hanging them on my closet door for inspiration. I still have a huge box of clippings that I can't bring myself to throw out.  

Looking back through them is walk down memory lane and while my taste has evolved, it's interesting how many of my preferences have remained consistent. Short hair? Yes. Sweater dress with matching tights? Yes (though maybe not white ones). Cute gold ballet flats?  Yes please!  High school sophmore to 46 year old woman, my go to uniform has remained remarkably the same. 

Continue Reading "On the pursuit of free fashion and personal style" →

Several years ago I realized that if I read 50 books a year, then I had enough cultural credit built up to also watch as much TV as I wanted. What I then realized, in this flurry of flatscreen love, was that TV…had gotten pretty darn wonderful. Great acting, fantastic stories, and the time to really explore characters and their worlds to an extent the multiplex will never match.

Continue Reading "Ten TV shows that celebrate the small screen" →

By the end of this crazy winter, your car might need a little tender loving care. Everything from road salt to ice-induced collisions might have taken their toll. If you dread getting estimates for car repair work, then I highly recommend using Consumers' Checkbook. With your library card, you can get free ratings and advice to make your money spending simpler.

Continue Reading "Make car repairs simpler with Consumers’ Checkbook" →

Over on our Des Plaines Memory photo blog, librarian Steven Giese posted some pictures of how he digitized a 19th century diary. You can see in the picture how fragile and delicate looking the diary is. Each page has to be carefully placed on the scanner. Of course, now that we have it in digital form, it's available for anyone to read. In fact, we have two diaries by Isabella Norton on Des Plaines Memory. Be sure to take a look!

The Youth Services staff is really excited about our new website and we hope you are too! We've redesigned our Parents and Kids pages to make information easy to find and highlight some important things that maybe you didn't know about. Find the Parents and Kids pages under Guides at the top right of the page and we'll go ahead and start our brief tour. Please keep your hands inside the vehicle at all times and hold all questions until the end.

Continue Reading "Meet the new Parents and Kids guides" →