Friends of the Providence Public Library Newsletter

Rochambeau Branch

From the President

February is our history month. During the library's closing, Judy Blackadar, the Friends’ archivist, building on the work of her predecessor, Mike Fink, arranged the minutes, photos, clippings, and memorabilia that mark 80-plus years of Rochambeau's existence. The archives are now arranged in six handsome volumes. On February 23, 7:30 to 9:00 PM, we will be “Celebrating Presidents’ Day at Rochambeau” with the presentation of these archives to the Friends. In addition, past head librarians Peg Deignan (1970-1973) and Jackie Cooper (1973-1999) will join present librarian Sarah Weed to add live memories to our history. We hope you will join us, bringing your memories and possibly photos to the event.

March is poetry month and, of course, the month of St Patrick's Day - which is lucky for us because it ties in with an idea we had for a limerick contest for library users, both kids and adults. March 15 is the date when the winning limericks will be read, complete with musical fanfare and food. Anyone can write poetry when it comes to limericks. Even you! A limerick has five lines: lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme and usually have eight syl-lables (although sometimes they have nine); lines 3 and 4 have a rhyme different from that of 1, 2, and 5 and usually five or six syllables. Get an idea, serious or funny, and just start rhyming. (See enclosed entry form.)

Finally, in April we will be having our first Friends Book Sale in the new community room. This should be a humdinger with all the saved-up books. If you have books that you would like to contribute, please bring them to the library as soon as possible. The more books, the greater the sale. And remember, as a Friend, you get an early shot at the shopping!

So Happy New Year, and help us make 2004 a banner year for the Friends. Remember (and here’s a limerick for you):

The library is open again
With books, tapes, and CDs to lend.
So do us a favor
And convert your neighbor
Into also becoming a Friend!

---- Linda J. Kushner

The Mystery Buffs of Rhode Island are sponsoring Women of Mystery,

On Monday, January 12, at 7:30 PM, participants will view and discuss Women of Mystery. The hour-long video, produced in conjunction with the California Center for the Book, discusses the contributions of Marcia Muller, Sue Grafton, and Sara Paretsky to the genre. It includes interviews with them about their work habits, their interest in writing mysteries dealing with contemporary social issues, and their female detective characters, as well as dramatized readings from the books and fascinating scenes following Muller, Grafton, and Paretsky as they research, photograph, and explore San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Chicago, respectively.

On February 9, Marcia Muller’s mystery, Dead Midnight, featuring San Francisco detective Sharon McCone, will be discusssed. Copies of the book will be available for checkout at the first meeting and at the Circulation Desk.

On March 15, Sue Grafton’s Q is for Quarry, the seventeenth book in her alphabetical series, will be covered.

On April 19, Sara Paretsky’s Blacklist, featuring the return of Chicago private investigator V. I. Warshawsky, will be discussed.

The Women of Mystery video is available for checkout at Rochambeau. All meetings are on Monday nights at 7:30 PM. For details, contact Sarah Weed at 455-8110.

Plays into Film

• January 21 The Man Who Came to Dinner, by George S. Kaufman
• February 18 Richard III, by William Shakespeare
• March 17 A Delicate Balance, by Edward Albee
• April 7 The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams
• May 12 Peter Pan, by James M. Barrie
• June 2 Private Lives, by Noel Coward

Rochambeau Branch to Host “The Sixties” Video Discussion Series

“The Sixties” aims to increase the public’s understanding of this period of extraordinary change and social conflict in U.S. history. The first program, Monday, February 9, at 6:30 PM, focuses on The Politics of Reform. All programs will be held in the Friends Community Room at the Rochambeau Branch. For details, to obtain copies of relevant essays to read in advance, and to register, contact Sarah Weed at 455-8110. “We are delighted to have been chosen as one of the pilot libraries for this unique program focusing on one of the most important decades in American history,” said Sarah Weed, Rochambeau Regional Librarian of the Providence Public Library. “This program allows community members to use in-depth information from documentaries and the expertise of one of our top local scholars to study the effects of scientific discovery on individuals and society. Rochambeau is a perfect backdrop for this discussion because we can offer a selection of resources for further study of any of these topics. Five other videos will be shown, one every three weeks at the branch, ending in June. Paul Buhle, Senior Lecturer at the History and American Civilization departments of Brown University, will lead discussions of the award-winning documentaries. During the 1960s he was a civil rights and peace activist on several campuses and publisher of the journal Radical America.

Great News for Compulsive Readers and Others

Celebrations

Friends, library patrons, and elected officials gathered in the Community Room, applauding as PPL Director, Dale Thompson, officially handed the new library’s keys to Rochambeau Librarian Sarah Weed. The room was dedicated as the “Friend Community Room,” honoring the monies that were raised by the Friends and the work that the Friends do to link the community to the library. The magnitude of Rochambeau’s growth was put into perspective by Beatrice Wattman Miller (a retired librarian and Caryl-Ann Nieforth's mom). She was in the fourth grade at the Rochambeau Avenue School when the Monday Morning Music Group established a library there in memory of Elodie Farnum, a student who had just passed away at the age of 12. That was the beginning of the Rochambeau branch library!

On January 9, the Isenberg Family Children's Library and Vicky's Reading Room (named in honor of Victoria Lederberg) were dedicated. More intimate in size, these dedications reflected the close connection of the Isenberg and Lederberg families with the library over the years and their pleasure in enabling our branch to have such a delightful, state-of-the-art children's facility. Children's Librarian Judanne Hamid-zada reported that "build it and they shall come" certainly is true at Rochambeau. The new computers in the children's area have attracted 577 users in the first month! And though the number of story hours in the new building has doubled - from 6 to 13 per month - the number of children in attendance has tripled to 786.

While library officials and parents expressed their appreciation to the Isenbergs and the Lederbergs for their wonderful gifts, the children present wanted nothing more than to go upstairs and get a "liberry book." And that, we know, is how it should be.

Rochambeau Commemoratives