2008 Banned Book Week Display

“Closing Books Shuts Out Ideas”

Stop by the East Tawas Library and view the 2008 Banned Book Week Display.

The purpose of Banned Book Week (September 27th through October 4th) is to showcase nationwide the importance of the freedom to read whatever one chooses. This year’s slogan is “Closing Books Shuts Out Ideas”.

The books that are on display at the East Tawas Library are NOT banned at our library. They are books that people have tried to ban or have succeeded in banning from other libraries, some recently and some in years past.

Stop by and look at the titles on display. You may be surprised to find some of your favorite books are actually books that someone somewhere did not want people to be able to read.

Display for Holocaust Remembrance Day

Holocaust Remembrance Day is celebrated this week.

The official name is Yom Hashoah. The day's main purpose is to remember.

This date was chosen in part because it marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
For more information on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising see the following web site.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/warsawtoc.html

The East Tawas Library has a display of 35 books and videos about the Holocaust, its victims, and its survivors.

Please visit the library and look through the books, or check one out and take it home to read.

We must all remember!

Earth Day - Arbor Day Display

This week Michigan celebrated both Earth Day and Arbor Day.

Earth Day was celebrated on April 22nd. The first Earth Day was celebrated back in 1970. It was spearheaded by a Senator from Wisconsin, Senator Gaylord Nelson. In 1990, Earth Day experienced a resurgence and has now become an international celebration.

The national day set aside for Arbor Day is the last Friday in April, according to the Arbor Day Foundation web site. This year's date is Friday April 25th.

www.arborday.org

Michigan is one of 24 states that also celebrates Arbor Day on the last Friday in April. The rest of the states celebrate on a variety of other days and months according to the best time to plant trees in their states. Most state Arbor Days fall in the months of January through May, although Hawaii's observation of the day is in November and South Carolina's is in December.

The East Tawas Library has had 80 books on display all month in honor of Earth Day and Arbor Day. Books include nature activities for kids and families, field guides to trees, environmental and conservation books, and many more. Please help celebrate these two important days by helping our environment and our world all year long.

"Friday Night Lights" DVD Sets Donated

The East Tawas Library was chosen as one of the initial 36 libraries nation wide to receive a donation of the television series Friday Night Lights Season One DVD. We will also receive Season Two on DVD as soon as it is released later this month.

The donation was funded by the group Save Friday Night Lights. This group was formed by fans of the show who organized a successful campaign to fight for the show's renewal for a third television season.

More information about the group and their current campaign to donate DVD sets to libraries across the country can be found on the following web site:

http://www.savefnl.com/

The group plans to donate DVD sets to at least one library in each of the top 100 television markets. The East Tawas Library applied as a library in the Flint/Saginaw/Bay City TV market on Sunday April 6, 2007. The Season One DVD arrived 4 days later. I must commend the group on their swift response time, which would have been one day faster if the library's hours and UPS's delivery time had coincided.

The Save Friday Night Lights group plans on donations to other libraries as funds permit.

The DVDs are available at the East Tawas Library desk for checkout. In order to allow the most patrons at one time to view the DVDs, each disc will check out individually. When one disc is returned the next one may be checked out. (Season One is a set of 5 discs and 22 hours of TV viewing time total.)

The library also has available for checkout the book Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger. This book, originally published in 1990 and updated 10 years later with an afterword, inspired the 2004 movie Friday Night Lights. The movie in turn inspired the television show.

The East Tawas Library would like to thank the patron that donated the book to the library and the group Save Friday Night Lights for the donation of the DVD sets.

Previous Locations of East Tawas Library

Over the years the East Tawas Library has been located in 6 different locations.

The library's first location was the old City Hall building at the corner of W. Westover and Sawyer streets. The library shared a room with the fire department. Later, this old wood building was torn down so the 1962 City Hall building could be built on the same site.

Next the library was located in a small dwelling on West State Street, probably in the 100 block.

The library then moved to a frame building, owned by the East Tawas schools, located on the west side of the 300 block of Newman Street. This building was located between the current Huron Community Bank building and Stephenson & Gracik's building.

In 1909 - 1910 the East Tawas Library was located in the Ladies Literary Club building on the east side of the 300 block of Newman Street. The Club had purchased this building from the East Tawas Schools for $100, but had to move the building across the street (next to the American Legion Hall). A new floor and new roof also had to be installed. The library stayed at this location until 1962. Currently this site is occupied by part of the Post Office's parking lot.

In September 1962 the "new" City Hall at 120 W. Westover Street was completed. The East Tawas library was located here until March 2002, when the library closed to allow renovations to the building.

The renovations were completed in July 2002 and the library moved to the rear of the former city hall building. The library entrance and street address changed to 204 Sawyer Street, even though the library was still located in the same building.

If anyone can add any details to the above information, please contact Luann at the East Tawas Library. My email is: libraryet@yahoo.com

Any scrap of information is welcome: names of staff, dates, street addresses, personal memories or recollections, anything at all.

Thanks for your help.