The Month Ahead: February 2013

Here's a look at the month ahead for February 2013.

Do you love exploring the past? Then you’ll love your historical newspaper collections. With resources like the ProQuest Historical newspaper archives, you can learn how people in the past celebrated Valentine’s Day.
http://dppl.org/features/newspapers.html

If you’re a movie lover, then check out our new streaming movie collection, New World Cinema. You’ll find a selection of interesting, award winning films from around the world. It’s available from your computer and your smartphone or tablet.
http://dppl.org/edppl

Bring your kids to a live performance of Alice in Wonderland on February 17th. Presented by Emerald City Theater, follow Alice’s wild journey down the rabbit hole to Wonderland.
http://calendar.dppl.org/evanced/lib/eventsignup.asp?ID=18104

Speaking of falling down rabbit holes, it’s not too early to start thinking about your taxes. Come to our workshop on February 18th to learn how to find federal and state tax forms online.
http://calendar.dppl.org/evanced/lib/eventsignup.asp?ID=19079

If the thought of taxes depresses you, then cookies and candies can help. Come to our “Vintage Cookies and Candies” program on February 28th. You’ll learn the answer to questions like “When were brownies invented?” and sample cookies and candies from the past.
http://calendar.dppl.org/evanced/lib/eventsignup.asp?ID=19436

For more information about the month ahead, check out our website at http://dppl.org.

Music: Donor, "stereotype" http://archive.org/details/txtn024

Images of Des Plaines: An Interview with David Whittingham

If you saw our post on the Positively Ellinwood blog recently, you'll know that David Whittingham, one of our Reader Service's staff, just published a book about Des Plaines with Arcadia Publishing. Part of the Images of America Series, the book is a pictorial guide to Des Plaines's history.

I sat down with David recently and spoke with him about the book. We talked about his motivation for writing the book and some of the dominant themes in Des Plaines's history. You can watch the video here or on the library's Youtube channel.

Something that I found very interesting is the ongoing tension between Des Plaines's dynamism (the "capacity to surprise" that David mentions) and the enduring presence of the river and the railroads. Miner Street, for instance, looks very different today than it did in the 1910s or 1920s, and yet we still deal with floods every few years.

14th at our book launch party. More details David also makes the case for engaging with Des Plaines's history, particularly the historical resources that the Des Plaines History Center curates. Their collections provided most of the images found in the book. Incidentally, we recorded the interview in the Kinder House. They host a number of programs like book discussions there. And, yes, that's a piano behind David's head.

Don't forget that you can pick up copies of the book at the History Center (or from other book retailers, ahem). Also, you can meet David this coming Friday, December here.

Bonus!
A special bonus for PlainTalk readers. Listen to the complete, unedited interview with David or download it below.



Download (mp3, 22 mb)