Friday Grab Bag, October 8, 2021

The Friday Grab Bag is a weekly series that highlights fun, unique, and interesting happenings in Colorado libraries, and includes news from the Colorado State Library.

Let’s open the Friday Grab Bag!

Spooks & Spells

Join Mesa County Libraries on October 16 or October 30 at 1:30 pm for Let’s Draw Monsters! With Rick Stromoski. Award-winning cartoonist Rick Stromoski will teach kids how to draw goblins, ghosts, and all things Halloweeny. Recommended for ages 6-13.

Gather around the virtual campfire with Arapahoe Libraries on October 18 from 6:00-7:30 pm for Haunted Hour with author and folklorist Jeff Ballenger, who will present  an array of ghost stories This multi-media adventure draws from Jeff’s research in his books, podcasts, adventures, and the various television shows that he’s worked on, which includes the PBS and Amazon Prime series, New England Legends. For more than 20 years, Jeff has been exploring the unusual and the unexplained and has shared his stories through his books and on television, including features on the History and Travel channels. A Q&A session will be included. For teens and adults.

Calling all youth who love spooky fun! Clear Creek County Library District invites you to pick up materials to create a Spell Book and then meet on October 12 at 5:30 pm for some virtual crafting.

Pick ‘n’ Mix

Kids will love checking out trucks of all shapes and sizes. On October 17 at 10:30 am Vail Public Library and Children’s Garden of Learning invite you to Touch a Truck, sit in the driver’s seat and explore the many vehicles that serve the community in the Ford Parking lot. You will have an opportunity to climb inside of a: Trash truck, Police car, a Town of Vail Bus, an ambulance, a fire truck, a Snow cat and many more. Please come prepared with your face covering and bring your noise canceling headphones if you wish.

Teens, join Longmont Public Library for Makeup vs. AI with Cardi Acarrest on  October 23 at 2:00 pm. Teens will learn makeup skills from drag presenter Cardi Acarrest before trying to use what they’ve learned to fool facial recognition technology. Teens will also learn more about facial recognition, how it works, and how it’s used. Cardi Acarrest is a vibrant queen with a background in competitions, performance, Emcee, and fashion. She prefers she/her pronouns and is a native of Boulder County! Registration is required and will open Monday October 4.

“Don’t feed the trolls; nothing fuels them so much,” said Oscar Wilde.  Are the media Spinning Out of ConTROLL?  Take a “spin” with UNC Professors from Communication Studies, Economics, and Journalism and Media Studies for a reeling discussion of how news is portrayed and its impact on our attitudes and actions on October 21 from 6:30-8:30 pm. You are invited to explore the interplay of economics, emotion, imagination, and ethos as we seek information to make daily decisions, from the mundane to the monumental. This event is co-sponsored by UNC’s University Libraries, Friends of University of Northern Colorado Libraries, and the High Plains Library District. Registration is preferred but not required.

Candy Crush

How do you make a gummy worm dance? Join Pueblo City-County Library for a Dancing Gummy Worms Science Experiment on November 3 from 4:00-5:00 pm and find out. Presented in conjunction with All Pueblo Reads!

Join Anythink Libraries on October 19 from 4:00-5:00 pm for Operation Gummy Bear. Learn hands-on basics of surgery and practice your operating skills with surgical tools as you operate on a variety of candy. Best for elementary children, tweens and teens. Space is limited; registration recommended.

Museums & Libraries in the News

Wyoming librarians under fire for books about sex, LGBTQ | Fox 21 News
Books about sex, LGBTQ issues and how to have a baby have public library employees in a deeply conservative Wyoming city facing possible prosecution after angry local residents complained to police that the material is obscene and doesn’t belong in sections for children and teenagers.

Boulder Valley School District: Bringing More Diverse Books Into School Libraries | Patch
The district received a grant of $9,000 which allowed a total of 419 new titles that increase the diversity of characters and authors to be added to the e-book and audiobook collection.

Fort Garland Museum Explores The History Of The Enslavement Of Indigenous People In Southern Colorado | KRCC
The museum’s director Eric Carpio spoke with KRCC’s Shanna Lewis about the installation titled “Unsilenced: Indigenous Enslavement in Southern Colorado.”

Tales from the Tread: Museum’s History Happy Hours return | Steamboat Today
Join the Tread of Pioneers Museum the first Tuesday of each month, October through April, at 5:30 pm for the popular event series “History Happy Hours.”

Pikes Peak Library District staff shortage forces reduced hours | The Gazette
Eight of the district’s 16 branches will reduce weekday operations until libraries can hire more employees.

Kathia Ibacache works to build more inclusive library collection | CU Boulder Today
After receiving a question from a graduate student, Assistant Professor and Romance Languages Librarian Kathia Ibacache set out to incorporate more books by Indigenous authors from Latin America into the collections of University Libraries.

Learning for All

Read Woke NONFICTION! (School Library Journal) | October 12 @ 12:00-1:00 pm
Join four Black nonfiction authors who tackle difficult topics in their books with the goal of empowering young readers with knowledge and accurate, unbiased information. You’ll also find out about a new publishing program—Read Woke™ Books, developed in partnership with Cicely Lewis, the Read Woke librarian—that seeks to amplify the voices of people of the global majority, provide information about groups that have been disenfranchised, challenge social norms and disrupt the status quo, and encourage readers to take action in their community.

Relighting Your Programming Fire: Combatting Job-Related Burnout and Guilt to Make Programming Fun Again (Niche Academy) | October 13 @ 12:00-1:00 pm
Planning programs is a lot of fun, but it is also a lot of work. When working with a small budget, and trying to please your community, you can very quickly find yourself on the path to burnout. It’s not easy to feel passionate and excited about planning programs when you’re running on empty. So let’s make programming fun again!

How Did We Get Here? Analyzing Political Extremism with Primary Sources (Library Journal) | October 14 @ 1:00-2:00 pm
Learn how you can equip students, scholars, and researchers with digital tools that examine the rhetoric, ideology, and evolution of fringe groups to better understand their impact on today’s mainstream politics and broader society. In this webcast, you’ll hear from a panel of scholars as they share their thoughts on the value of primary sources for the teaching, learning, and research of political extremism and radicalism from the interwar period of the twentieth century to today.

What’s New at the Colorado State Library

Colorado Virtual Library

Free Online Learning Opportunities in October for Library Staff
FALL into some free online learning this October!

State Publications Library

Learning Opportunities

Upcoming CSL In Session: Making the Best of Bad Information

  • October 14 @ 12:00 pm MDT
  • FREE! No registration required
  • Join Online

Save the Date: Virtual Fall Youth Services Workshops

  • October 18 & 25, 11:00 am -1:00 pm MDT
  • October  21 & 28, 12:30 – 2:30 pm MDT
  • FREE! No registration required

Are you thinking of making a change this year in your job? Check out Library Jobline for hot new library employment opportunities.

This post is part of the Spotlight on Sharing initiative, which aims to increase the visibility of resource sharing in Colorado libraries. Do you have a story from your library to share? Email Marisa Wood, mwood@coloradovirtuallibrary.org. Also, be sure to follow Colorado State Library on Twitter and Facebook.

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