The dedication of Pikes Peak Library District staff went above and beyond the call of duty during the Tri-Building Capital Campaign. Having challenged themselves to raise $50,000 for the campaign, the staff committee held various events for PPLD employees. The events included a Sushi and Sake tasting, a Downton Abbey Tea and Tour held at Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, and a Tuesday Night Karma Hour held at Bristol Brewing Co., along with other events.
Many staff members also choose to donate back to the Pikes Peak Library District Foundation through payroll deductions. This type of dedication and support from the staff at PPLD went a long way in making the Tri-Building Capital Campaign a success.
Staff Committee Members:
Greg Roes
Margaret Morris
Karin Huxman
Tina Marie Matiatos
Missy Hernandez
Amy Rodda
Sandy Hancock
Deborah Worthey
Cheryl Martin
The Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District are now selling books online, through Amazon, Ebay and our web store. The Friends growing online collection features an assortment of both non-fiction and fiction, including history, textbooks, best-sellers and more. Purchases benefit Pikes Peak Library District. Now you can purchase books for yourself and help us provide books for others. Contact us if you have questions.
Purchasing a courtyard paver is a great way to honor family and friends, commemorate memories and events, or to publicize your organization or business. Your purchase of a courtyard paver also contributes to PPLD's Tri-Building project, providing 21st Century Library service through innovative library spaces and technology for everyone in our community.
Commemorative pavers are now available at Fountain Library!
Terry Pratchett, the immensely popular British fantasy novelist whose more than 70 books include the series known as Discworld, died on Thursday at his home near Salisbury, England. He was 66. Beloved by many readers, he will most certainly be missed.
Click here for a list of titles by Terry Pratchett
available at Pikes Peak Library District.
"It is hard for me to believe that there will never, ever be another book from the Disc. For years, I have waited with excitement for the newest installment from Sir Terry's universe. Each new book was better than the last: funny, insightful, and built in an immensely rich world populated with people and places that were real and widely loved. I wanted to visit Ankh Morpork. I wanted to enroll in Unseen University. I wanted to drink scumble with Nanny Ogg. I would have killed to serve in Sam Vimes' Guard. Everyone has some time in their lives when they have a brush with the famous. My proudest such moment is the time I actually had dinner with Sir Terry. He was a lover of libraries, and donated his time to the Boston Public Library for the cost of a Thai Dinner, which I was privileged to share with him. I will never forget it, and I will never forget the happy hours his work brought me. I will miss his voice immensely.
(BTW: I asked Sir Terry during dinner about his favorite character. He was writing Wintersmith at the time, and said that he was currently fascinated by Tiffany Aching. He did say, however, that he most aspired to be Sam Vimes. I told him I knew it. Because I do, too)."
-Carolyn Coulter - PPLD IT Officer
Please help up create a lasting legacy honoring one our communities most beloved leaders: Judy Noyes.
When Dick and Judy Noyes opened the Chinook Bookstore in 1950 in downtown Colorado Springs, they began writing a story of passion for reading, community service, leadership and a deep commitment to First Amendment rights. Since Judy’s passing earlier this year, friends, family members and colleagues have established several funds in honor of her various community passions.
Because Judy served as a PPLD Foundation Director and supported the library in numerous other ways over the years, PPLD would like to celebrate her memory with the creation of a new children’s garden in front of Penrose Library. Because Judy believed absolutely in everyone’s right to read, and in the power of literacy---especially for our children, and because she also had a passion for maintaining the downtown area as a vibrant space within our community, we believe a children’s garden in the midst of downtown would provide an excellent way for the community to remember her. Dick Noyes joins us in thanking you so much for considering a donation to make the Judy Noyes Children’s Garden a reality.
If you have questions about a gift, please call the Pikes Peak Library District Foundation at (719) 884-9850.
The results are in!
The Newbery Medal for "the most distinguished American children's book" of 2015 was awarded to The Crossover, written by Kwame Alexander.
"Twelve-year-old narrator Josh Bell uses the rhythms of a poetry jam to emulate the "moving & grooving/popping and rocking" of life on the basketball court with his twin brother, J.B. This powerful novel in verse paints an authentic portrait of a closely-knit family on the brink of crisis. Swish! This book is nothing but net!"
The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, illustrated by Dan Santat, is the 2015 Caldecott Medal winner.
"In four delightful “visual chapters,” Beekle, an imaginary friend, undergoes an emotional journey looking for his human. Santat uses fine details, kaleidoscopic saturated colors, and exquisite curved and angular lines to masterfully convey the emotional essence of this special childhood relationship."
PPLD's Award Booklists:
Visit the Newbery Medal and Caldecott Medal websites for a full list of Honor books.
For what it's worth, my daughter and I LOVE Beekle!
All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
"An imaginative and intricate novel inspired by the horrors of World War II and written in short, elegant chapters that explore human nature and the contradictory power of technology."
The High Prairie Seed Library officially launched on Saturday, April 25, 2015!
PPLD is very proud of the hard work that Rhonda Curtis, High Prairie staff member extraordinaire, has put into this 2 year project.
High Prairie Library kicked off the grand opening with a speech from Rhonda (and tutorial), ribbon cutting, cake (carrot), refreshments, and lots of community engagement! In the process of creating the Seed Library we have made some strong connections to our communities in the area, garden clubs, and independent farmers, including generations of growers in the county extending to Calhan.
High Prairie Library will conduct a contest for the biggest pumpkin patrons can grow using the giant pumpkin seeds from the Seed Library! The pumpkins will be judged at the 4th Annual Harvest Festival on October 3, 2015.
A special thanks goes to the High Prairie Friends and staff, who have all contributed both time and resources to help get the Seed Library open.
The High Prairie Seed Library joins the Manitou Springs Seed Library as PPLD's two seed repositories.
Pikes Peak Library District is pleased to announce the winners of the 2015 Jean Ciavonne Poetry Contest for Children:
- Olivia Heath - "The Net Bringer"
- Delia Rose Philips - "The Homework Helping Heroine"
- Kate Vasquez - "Hope"
- Ansley Irrgang - "The Hero Inside of Me"
- Ryan Blumenhein - "Drill Hand Man"
- Landon Janc - "Super Noodle Doo"
Congratulations!
The Colorado Springs Regional Business Alliance recognized Pikes Peak Library District for their Excellence in Community Infrastructure award.
"The Pikes Peak Library District proudly opened Library 21c this summer. It is the "launch pad" for 21st century library service and the first facility of its kind in the country. If you haven’t seen it yet, it will challenge everything you know about the public library. It’s not just a space, it’s a paradigm shift. Features include Makerspaces, Center for Public Media, Business & Entrepreneurial Center, a 400-seat Performance and Meeting Venue, and many additional services."
Love playing board games? Want to try out new games each month and meet other teens interested in board games? Come to the Teen TableTop Gaming Club at Library 21c. We meet the first Friday of the month from 4 - 5:30 p.m. in the teen area. Each month we learn and play a different game (and sometimes get out old favorites as well!). Drop by and maybe you'll discover your new favorite game! For ages 12-18. Co-sponsored by Petrie's Family Games!
When: 1st Fridays, 4 - 5:30 p.m.
Where: Library 21c teen area
Esteemed Colorado author Kent Haruf, author of Plainsong and other novels set in small-town Colorado, passed away on Sunday, November 30, 2014. Haruf was 71 years old. Haruf was born in Pueblo, Colorado in 1943. He was an undergraduate at Nebraska Wesleyan University and a graduate student in the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. He served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Turkey and taught high school English in Wisconsin and Colorado and fiction writing at Nebraska Wesleyan and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Haruf was awarded the prestigious Frank Waters Award by the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District in 2012. Kent has received national recognition and awards for his books, The Tie That Binds, Where You Once Belonged, and Plainsong. Eventide won the Colorado Book Award and West of Last Chance, the prose/photo book co-authored with photographer Peter Brown, received the Dorothea Lange – Paul Taylor prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.
From computer, meeting rooms, databases, and printing, to makerspaces, tutorials, and much more, all your business and entrepreneurial needs are met at Library 21c. And it's FREE! Watch this video for more information:
PPLD's Library 21c has been featured in two articles recently:
Library Journal - "The Library of the Century | Design4Impact"
The Gazette - "Colorado Springs library is ahead of the tech curve"
Indeed, "(Libraries) are becoming the vibrant centers of the community where everyone is welcome and there is something available for everyone."
After 15 years and 272,236 miles of service to the residents of El Paso County, Mobile Library 698 will be leaving tomorrow to serve another library district in Southern Colorado. Happy trails, old friend!
PPLD's staff sure are a talented bunch. Take a look at the 2014 Artistic Expression Contest winners. Staff members submitted their creative endeavors and their peers voted on the top three:
Russ Stamp: "Sunrise Cranes"
Lisa Steck-Gillen: "Untitled"
Sara Sharples: "Keyhole"
The Manitou Springs Library recently received an old book (copyright 1897) with a typed letter explaining where the book has been the past few years. It is a touching story of a book that affected a patron many years ago, traveled the world, and returned.
Dear Manitou Springs Public Library,
As a kid, many years before Manitou Springs became a redeveloped historic community, I spent hours and hours as a latchkey child with a single mother discovering classic books in your library. I remember the Manitou Springs Public Library as a mystical place of knowledge; an historic building whose contents fueled a desire for learning. Based on a desire for knowledge, I kept up my grades throughout school, eventually earned a scholarship to University, and graduated with a bachelor degree.
One of the numerous books I checked out from your library was a 19th century picture book with delightful poems, photographs and stories about ancient Greco-Roman mythology. I had intended to return the book; however it was inadvertently packed in a box of belongings and moved from the area when my family suddenly relocated. Unfortunately, this was in the days before the Internet. I do not recall seeing the Manitou Public Library’s address anywhere within the volume, and could not return it.
Eventually, after numerous relocations throughout the world, the book was finally lost … perhaps in a box that was not delivered … perhaps in a truck … or perhaps some divine deity from our mythological past decided enough was enough. Wherever that volume disappeared to, it was gone from the bookshelves that had temporarily lent it a place to rest during its global travels.
Recently, I happened to remember the name of that volume and searched for it online and was delighted to learn it was neither an expensive nor a rare book, and there were numerous copies of it available so I ordered a volume to replace the missing book. That volume turned out to be a second edition; apparently this may have been quite a popular book for several generations of school children. Then I searched again, and found a first edition; printed in the 19th century, as I had remembered.
Enclosed in this package is that first edition of Round the Year in Myth and Song to replace the inspirational book of my childhood, to which I had become attached throughout the years before it was lost, so that it may return to your historic shelves, where I first found it many, many years ago. I hope you will accept my apologies for not returning the original book before it mysteriously vanished, and also my thanks for the gifts of knowledge and desire for learning that I received so long ago, as an elementary school kid who discovered a world of adventure within a small building in Manitou Springs.
Yours truly,
“Anon”
Picture this: You're lounging at a remote beach in the Caribbean. Suddenly you realize you have holds available at the library. Oh, the humanity!
Luckily, you can suspend holds that are not available yet. You still rise up the hold queue when the hold is suspended, but it doesn’t become available until the “unsuspend” date.
Here's how you do it:
- Log in to My Account.
- Click on the Holds tab.
- Select the title you'd like to suspend and click the "Suspend Hold(s)" button at the bottom of the list.
- Enter the start and end dates for the suspension.
- To cancel your hold suspension, select the title you'd like to unsuspend and click the "Cancel Hold Suspension(s)" button at the bottom of the list.
Awesome!
A PPLD staff member was at the Walmart across the street this afternoon when a cashier approached her and said (with tears in her eyes).
“I just wanted to thank you for being so kind to me. It’s because of you that I got this job here. I was at the library some time ago and you let me use the computer, even though my card was blocked. I needed to fill out the application for this job, and I did, and I got it! I was on the verge of homelessness and hopelessness when I came into your library, and because of you my life is better. Thank you so much!”
Some winners of the 35th Annual Telly Awards have been announced and Pikes Peak Library District’s Jamey Hastings and Heather Jordan have been awarded a Silver Telly (highest honor) for their film In Our Own Backyard: Reflections on the Waldo Canyon Fire. The film features the stories of families and individuals affected by the Waldo Canyon Fire and the first responders who valiantly battled the blaze in the neighborhoods of northwest Colorado Springs. Based on extensive interviews conducted by PPLD archivist Jordan, the film is a moving portrait of a community persevering hard times and coming together to rebuild.
Founded in 1979, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, the finest video and film productions, and web commercials, videos and films. Winners represent the best work of the most respected advertising agencies, production companies, television stations, cable operators, and corporate video departments in the world.
A prestigious judging panel of over 500 accomplished industry professionals, each a past Winner of a Silver Telly and a member of The Silver Telly Council, judged the competition, upholding the historical standard of excellence that Telly represents.
From 1910 until it closed in 1970, Pathé News was one of the world's best-known news agencies. Based in Britain, and indeed originally known as British Pathé, it produced tens of thousands of filmed news reports, covering major stories and events all over the world.
Last week, its entire archive of 85,000 videos was put online, on a dedicated YouTube channel that you can browse and view at https://www.youtube.com/user/britishpathe entirely free of charge. So whether you're interested in coverage of the Hindenburg airship disaster from 1937, Arnold Schwarzenegger winning Mr Universe in 1969, or baby chickens hatching in a frying pan, you'll find it all here.
And yes, the chickens in the frying pan is real. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7li6AK5QuU for the full report.
PPLD recently conducted a video contest in which entrants were asked to create a video of 60 seconds or less letting us know why PPLD Rocks. Here are the winners:
First Place:
Second Place:
Third Place:
Judging was very difficult because we received so many other wonderful entries:
PPLD's Video Center hosted another fantastic green screen experience on Saturday, April 12, 2014 at the Big Cool Science Festival at Colorado College. This time, budding scientists and engineers had an opportunity to visit Mars, hang out in Tesla's lab, or stand on a strand of DNA. Need proof? Take a look at the evidence in our flickr set.
Special Collections at Pikes Peak Library District has just published online the Waldo Canyon Fire Digital Collection, consisting of reports, press releases, maps, photographs, videos and oral history interviews relating to the fire that devastated Colorado Springs in 2012. The collection contains materials created by local, state and federal agencies, interviews with affected residents and first responders conducted by Pikes Peak Library District, as well as powerful photographs, made by Colorado Springs residents and donated to PPLD, of the fire and its aftermath. It is intended to provide a comprehensive collection of documents for researchers today and long into the future.
With more than 400 items in the collection currently, it is expected to grow significantly in the coming months as more materials are added. Explore the Waldo Canyon Fire Digital Collection on Pikes Peak Library District’s Digital Collections site at http://ppld.org/digital-collections.