Monday, March 24, 2008

March 24, 2008

This morning we had a party to celebrate the upcoming retirement of Dorothy Matsui, Head of Children's and Outreach Services for the past twenty years. We held the party in the new Family Reading Area at the Main Library, which is just the last of Dorothy's many ideas for improving the service we offer to children. It's been a privilege for me to work with Dorothy, and while I'm sad to see her go, I know she's ready to try new things. The Friends of the Library has donated money to purchase children's books in Dorothy's honor, and those books will serve as a wonderful reminder of someone who spent her career thinking of the best ways to help children learn to love books and reading.

The other day Dorothy and I were talking about books we remembered from our childhoods. I remember loving Pippi Longstocking , the Jenny Linsky books, and Snipp, Snapp, and Snurr, among many others. Pippi is newly popular because of her movie fame, but young readers and their parents can still check out books about the little black cat named Jenny and the Swedish brothers whose adventures are so beautifully illustrated by Maj Lindman. I think this is truly one of the joys of a library--not only do we offer the opportunity to find wonderful new books, but we also make it possible to revisit those we loved years ago.

Dorothy leaves us this Friday. She's looking forward to working in her garden, lots of reading, and probably some travel. If you're in the library, stop by to say goodbye.

Friday, March 7, 2008

March 7, 2008

This weekend the Everett Women's Film Festival will be screening independent films by women filmmakers at the Historic Everett Theatre. It's the festival's 11th year. I've been involved with the event for about eight years because I love movies. I've also been responsible for purchasing the DVD collection here at the library, and this has allowed me to include some of the favorite films from past festivals in the Everett Public Library's collection. A few of these films are only available on VHS, others we have in DVD--but they're all worth watching. Here's a partial list of past festival favorites available for checkout from the library:

Chaos
A Hero for Daisy
Regret to Inform
Three Women and a Chateau
The Story of Mothers and Daughters
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Sour Death Balls
The Language You Cry In
In the Realms of the Unreal: The Mystery of Henry Darger
Mad, Hot Ballroom

Happy viewing.