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.

Headstart Classes Visit Library

Two classes from the Tawas Headstart Center visited the East Tawas Library this past week.

This is the sixth year that Tawas Headstart has brought their classes to visit the library. In the past the children have all been 4 years old. This year the classes also included some 3 year olds.

In the morning 14 children and 6 adults visited the library. The afternoon group consisted of 12 children and 4 adults. The hard work of the teaching staff is always apparent, as the children were once again enthusiastic and lively but still well behaved.

Each class visited the library for about an hour. The visit started with a discussion of what a library is: "a place where you borrow things like books, magazines, movies, and puzzles (rather than buying them, like in a store) and then return them for someone else to use." They saw what a real library card looks like and were encouraged to return to the library with a parent (or legal guardian) to receive their own library card.

After showing the kids some of the wide variety of books that a library has, I read them a story or two. The kids had already learned in Headstart what an author was, and were very proud to correctly come up with the word when asked to demonstrate their knowledge, by their teacher, Miss Ellen. The morning class opted for just one story while the afternoon class listened to two stories.

The kids then enjoyed some free time. They looked at books, and had books read to them. They played with the many puppets and the puppet theater. They put together puzzles and played with the farmyard set and the Legos ®.

After getting their winter gear back on, the kids each received a bookmark about the proper care of books. This year the bookmarks were either a kangaroo with a pouch full of books, as well as her joey, talking about returning books on time, or a dog stating, "Dog-eared pages feel awful to me."

Prior to re-boarding the school bus, each child was able to use a rubber stamp and an ink pad to stamp a dinosaur on the back of their bookmark. As always, this seemed to be the highlight of their library visit.

Why not visit the East Tawas Library yourself? The Headstart classes and I recommend the following two books:

The Bravest of the Brave by Shutta Crum and illustrated by Tim Bowers. This book lead to a discussion of skunks and how they are gentle creatures unless provoked. The Headstart kids enjoyed counting along with the story as the little skunk ventured through the scary (to him) woods until being safely reunited with his family and tucked into bed.

Straight to the Pole by Kevin O'Malley. This story, which I always find reminiscent of arctic and Antarctic explorers, reminded the Headstart kids of the snow day they had enjoyed the day before their library visit.

Hanukkah Book Display

Come visit the East Tawas Library and see the special display in honor of Hanukkah.

This year Hanukkah starts today, Tuesday December 4th, at sundown. Hanukkah continues for eight days, ending at nightfall on Wednesday December 12th.

Books on display include:

Celebrate Hanukkah with Light, Latkes, and Dreidels by Deborah Heiligman. This is part of a series of books published by National Geographic, entitled Holidays Around the World. While the book was written for children it provides a nice overview and also includes a recipe for Potato Latkes.

Hanukkah at Valley Forge by Stephen Krensky and illustrated by Greg Harlin. In this children's picture book George Washington's strength and resolve are bolstered by a Polish soldier's explanation of Hanukkah. The book flows beautifully between the days of the army of the Maccabees and the days of George Washington's army. I found this a wonderful book.

What I Wish My Christian Friends Knew about Judaism by Robert Schoen. This is a very readable book, either in parts or in entirety. The author states that his intent is to, "explain to my non-Jewish friends, in a simple, nonthreatening manner, what my religion is all about." A glossary and pronunciation guide is included.

We all need to take to heart the last two lines of Robert Schoen's book:

"Let us work together to help make this often-troubled world one of peace and harmony."

"Shalom!"

Veterans Day Book Display

Come visit the East Tawas Library and see the special book display in honor of Veterans Day.

Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day. It was first celebrated in 1919, one year after the cessation of hostilities (on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month) of The Great War, which we now call World War I. Other countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom use the term Remembrance Day.

For more information about Veterans Day see the following web sites from the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the US Army Center of Military History.

www.va.gov/vetsday

www.army.mil/cmh/faq/vetsday/vetshist.htm

The 30 books on display range from picture books (The Wall by Eve Bunting) to books for teens (Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac) to books for adults (The War Journal of Major Damon "Rocky" Gause: The Firsthand Account of One of the Greatest Escapes of World War II).