Spring Has Sprung!

Next week is Spring Break! It is hard to believe that we've reached that point in the semester, especially considering it was sleeting last week.  But it is here.  This is just a reminder that while there aren't any classes next week the college and the library will be open Tuesday through Friday.  Our hours will be 8-4, T-Th and 8-2 on Friday. Instructors know this so make sure to take advantage of these hours if you need them!

Happy Birthday Stephen Sondheim!

Today is Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday! The American composer and lyricist has won eight Tony awards, more than any other composer, an Oscar, eight Grammy awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Laurence Olivier Award, and was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.  If you are unfamiliar with his work come by the library and check out one of the dvds we have of productions of his shows! These include, but aren't limited to, Into the Woods, Company, Follies, and Sunday in the Park with George. He also composed A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, we which also have on dvd, but isn't pictured because I did not realize it was his work until I double checked his awards.

March Madness

The Men's NCAA basketball tournament starts tomorrow with the first two play-in games.  If you are a huge college basketball fan may we suggest a few of our outstanding books on the topic?

Top Row L to R: The Best Game Ever: how Frank McGuire's '57 Tarheels beat Wilt and revolutionized college basketball by Adam Lucas, To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever: a thoroughly obsessive, intermittently uplifting, occasionally unbiased account of the Duke-North Carolina basketball rivalry by Will Blythe, When March Went Mad: the game that transformed basketball by Seth Davis.

Bottom Row L to R: Glory Road: my story of the 1966 NCAA basketball championship and how one team triumphed against the odds and changed America  forever by Dan Haskins, Cinderella: Inside the rise of mid-major college basketball by Michael Litos, and A March to Madness: the view from the floor of the Atlantic Coast Conference by John Feinstein.

Heritage Quest

I find family histories to be endlessly interesting. My mother has long been into genealogy and over the years I picked up quite a few skills while conducting my own research. Two of the most prominent online resources for genealogy research require you to sign up and pay to use them, which can be troublesome if you are just getting started.

Fortunately, NCLIVE provides us, and your public library, with access to the database Heritage Quest which contains fully indexed census records, including what is left of the 1890 census. (What happened to the 1890 census? Well........in 1921 there was a fire in the building where it was being housed and what didn't burn sustained water damage.)

On March 20, at 10 am and again at 2 pm, you can join me as I share information on getting started with genealogy and show you how to use Heritage Quest to help find what is typically the backbone of every well researched family tree.  Light refreshments will be served and since this is an NCLIVE resource the events are open to the public.  Simply bring what information you have on an ancestor who would have been alive for the 1940 census or before.  (The 1940 census is the most recent that is available.)

You never know what you might discover as you turn through the pages of the past. For instance, I found out that my great, great grandmother was the oldest of 17 children. Yes, that's right, 17!  Hope to see you all there!

Happy Birthday Doctor Seuss!!

Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday! If you are a person of a certain age or younger than his books were a huge part of your formative years in one way or another. Dr. Seuss was so influential to early literacy that the American Library Association created a book award in his honor. Awarded annually, the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is given annually to author's and illustrators of beginning readers.  The most recent recipients are Laurel Snyder and Emily Hughes for the book Charlie & Mouse.

So revered is Dr. Seuss that his birthday was selected by the National Education Association as the date for Read Across America.  We encourage everyone to find a time today to pick up something and read.  It doesn't have to be a book! Read Sports Illustrated or Vogue! Read the latest X-Men comic, or the Charlotte Observer.  Read to your kids! Please just read! Doctor's orders! "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."