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Reading can be many things. It’s a private enterprise. It can drastically lower stress-levels and help sharpen the mind. Above all, it can help us discover more about ourselves and the world around us by allowing us to process ideas and information through the filter of our very existence. However, it can also be a social pursuit. Discovering how others react to something that we’ve read and hearing their perspectives based on their own life experiences can go a long way in gaining a deeper understanding of it. Reading the same book can also lead to meeting fellow readers and developing a broader network of book recommendations.

Continue Reading "Book Groups: Connecting through Reading" →

This poem makes me happy because it's funny and so very true. I am always happy to emerge from the cold and gloom of winter into the warmth of spring.

SPRING

How pleasing –

not

to be

freezing.

            By Prince Redcloud

Continue Reading "Playing with Words" →

Have you ever been tempted to peek inside someone’s diary? Sure you have. There’s a little snoop in all of us. After all, diaries are where people record their most personal thoughts and feelings. Stuff that’s not meant for anyone else to know about. Private stuff. Maybe even juicy stuff. What a temptation! But there’s just no way around the fact that reading someone else’s diary makes you a big snoop...

Continue Reading "The Original Desperate Housewives of Des Plaines" →

They’ll even give you a library card. It’s a special user card for non-students that allows you to check out three items at a time.  You’ll find both scholarly and popular materials in their collection, including DVDs. It’s a great place to do serious research or just have fun. Right next to the library, there’s an art museum that focuses on modern and contemporary art. An exhibit of African-American poster artists is currently on display.

Continue Reading "Did you know there’s another library in Des Plaines?" →

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!