Birmingham Public Library Blog

                                                                             How Central Library In-person Services Will Work Beginning October 1:   Service hours inside the library  • Monday through Friday – 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.  Details: T he Central Library will open all public service floors (one through three) in the East Building for limited in-person service initially beginning October 1.   The BPL Research Library adjacent to the East Building will remain closed except by appointment only to the Southern Research Department and BPL Archives Department.  Central Library staff will assist patrons on public services, answer phone calls and do other assigned duties . • Mask-wearing is required at all times.  • Patrons ...

What : Central Library Reopening In-Person Service hours  When : 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday beginning Thursday, October 1, 2020  New BPL Curbside Pickup Hours CENTRAL – 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday  A VONDALE – 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays FIVE POINTS WEST – 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursdays SPRINGVILLE ROAD - 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Tuesdays  Birmingham, Ala. - The Central Library is reopening on Thursday, October 1, 2020, after the BPL Board of Trustees approved limited in-person service hours during a board meeting Monday, September 28.  Central, located at 2100 Park Place downtown, will be the first of BPL’s 18 remaining locations to open to the public since all libraries closed to the public due to a stay- at- home order by the City of Birmingham began in mid-March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The BPL Board voted in early September to not reopen Eastwood Branch Library, its only leased location as a co...

Firefighters, police officers and medical professionals are not the only heroes out there. Heroes are also every day individuals, including employees of Avondale Regional Library giving back to the community they serve passionately despite their uncertain futures.  Due to the city’s financial challenges, most of Avondale Library’s staff are being furloughed beginning at 5:00 p.m. today, Friday, September 25. As a show of love to their patrons, employees wanted to make sure programs remain in place in their absence through the end of the year.  Although hurting emotionally, the focus has been on the people they have continued to serve faithfully via the Avondale Facebook page the past six months since the Covid-19 pandemic forced the Birmingham Public Library to switch from in-person services and programming at its 19 locations to virtual.  Today is a prime example: Avondale workers are dressed in red to film a Christmas video to be released on the Avondale Library Faceb...

  By William Anthony | Southern History Department | Central Library François Truffaut  invigorated French cinema when he released his highly personal debut feature film, The 400 Blows , back in 1959. The 400 Blows stands out as one of the quintessential movies of the French New Wave. Truffaut shares what it is like to be an unruly boy who roams the streets of Paris and provokes the irritation of his teacher, parents and, eventually, the law. The analysis of reckless youth is the most prominent theme throughout The 400 Blows .  This child, Antoine Doinel, lacks an abundance of discipline. His parents do not know how to control him as he defies their expectations. Their inability to teach him right from wrong only perpetuates Antoine’s lack of direction in life. He skips class and lies that he missed class due to his mother’s death. Then, he plagiarizes one of Honoré de Balzac ’s writings and runs away so that he will not have to face his parents. He even steals a typewr...

Since its founding a decade ago, Bards & Brews has become one of the Birmingham Public Library’s most successful programs, with its combination of spoken word poetry and craft beer attracting a patrons both young and old.   Even after being switched online to the Bards & Brews Facebook page since April, the monthly program has continued to attract a diverse viewing audience of patrons, with the next Bards set for October 9 on the BPL Facebook page.   With Stockton California native Brandon Leake Wednesday night being crowned as the first-ever spoken word artist to win NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” reality competition, interest in Bards & Brews could go to the next level.  "This is a triumphant moment for poets and artists nationwide", said Candice Hardy, Bards & Brews Creative Director and Outreach Librarian. "I am always taken aback by the tenacity and creativity that our poets/artist display monthly. As we celebrate the 11th year of Bards & Bre...

By Jennifer Hancock | Central Library The I Survived series is so very popular among tweens and teens. My nephew suggested I review one of these books, and I remembered all the kids in our Youth Department carrying them around and reading them. And unlike other series, the books of this series are unrelated except for the fact that they are all about disasters; no common characters or even time periods; you can pick up any one without having read the previous ones and you will miss nothing. So I picked up the latest one and started reading, and for just a few moments, I wondered if I was reading a current news article instead of a fiction story. After all, the horrible fires in California are all over the news! But no, I Survived the California Wildfires, 2018 (I Survived #20) by Lauren Tarshis is set in Northern California in 2018 in a small community north of San Francisco, where 11-year-old Josh and his mother are visiting family. It is a very different world from his hometown in ...

By William Anthony | Southern History Department | Central Library Heist films are typically entertaining to watch because there are always so many sudden, unexpected factors that can easily get in the way of the perfect theft or robbery. Logan Lucky brings much needed excitement to the heist subgenre. Channing Tatum  embraces his character, Jimmy Logan, with ambitious confidence to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway   during the Coca-Cola 600. Adam Driver  plays Jimmy’s one-armed, bartending brother, Clyde Logan, who proudly goes along with this elaborate plan. They recruit the wild-eyed, incarcerated Joe Bang to help them funnel a lot of money through the speedway’s complex pneumatic tube system. Daniel Craig  takes a break from his iconic role as James Bond  and brings more necessary energy to the story as Joe Bang, who knows how to handle demolition. I can tell that the English actor had a blast playing this dangerous but highly dependable prisoner. With the...

By Mary Beth Newbill | Southern History Department | Central Library The days are getting shorter and (hopefully) cooler and as summer turns to fall, a nice ghost story is a great way to welcome the season. Riley Sager’s newest book, Home Before Dark , is a fun, satisfying, and scary (but not too scary) haunted house tale.  Maggie Holt learns, much to her surprise, that her deceased father has left her their old home, Baneberry Hall, in his will. Maggie’s surprise stems from the fact that she had no idea her father still owned the house. As far as Maggie knew, no one in the family had set foot in it since they fled in the middle of the night after having lived there for only three weeks when she was five years old. The family’s sudden departure and the subsequent police investigation attracted enough attention that Maggie’s father (a writer, of course) decided to tell their story. The resulting book, House of Horrors , became a bestseller, provided the family with a comfortable li...

By Jim Murray | Business, Science, and Technology Department | Central Library National Small Business Week , the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) annual celebration and recognition of the enormous impact that small business owners and entrepreneurs have on the economy, is being held this year from Tuesday, September 22, to Thursday, September 24.  Normally, the event takes place in May, but due to the COVID-19 shutdown, the SBA decided to move it to the fall. Appropriately, the theme of the 2020 National Small Business Week is “Recovery, Adaptation, and Innovation.” A virtual conference , showcasing presentations on this theme from economists, policy makers, and business owners and experts, is free and open to the public. Although starting a small business in such tumultuous times as these sounds counterintuitive, such an endeavor has proven very popular with Alabamians this year. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, business applications in Alabama grew ...

By Jennifer Hancock | Central Library The Upside-Down Magic series immediately made me think of my daughter because the main character, Nory, likes to change into a dritten (part dragon, part kitten). In this world of magic, what happens when your own magic isn’t like everyone else’s? You are labeled as upside-down magic and put into a “special” class. There are five classes in this magical community: Flares, who create and manipulate fire; Flickers, who turn things invisible; Fluxers, who turn themselves into animals; Flyers, who can fly; and Fuzzies, who have a natural affinity for animals and can talk to them. But Nory, a Fluxer, can’t seem to flux into normal animals, but always mixes them up—like a squippy (squid-puppy,) a koat (kitten-goat), or a dritten. But with her new friends in the UDM (Upside-Down Magic) class, she is learning that it’s okay to be different, and sometimes doing things differently can come in VERY handy. Each book in the series focuses on the difficulties of...

The Birmingham Public Library has announced the furlough of 158 full and part-time library employees due to a city financial shortfall of $63 million caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision was made by the BPL Board of Trustees during a special called meeting held Friday, September 18, 2020. In a statement, BPL Executive Director Floyd Council said this difficult decision was not easy, but was necessary to move to a reduced staffing model and be fiscally responsible to City of Birmingham taxpayers. "It is with sad disappointment that Library Administration had to recommend to the Library Board of Trustees for the approval to furlough 158 of our valuable employees,” Council said."  During these difficult COVID-19 and challenging economic times, public libraries and BPL are more relevant and needed now than ever before.”  Although the BPL Board of Trustees announced last week that Eastwood Branch Library will be permanently closed, the library board has not made a de...

By Leigh Wilson | North Birmingham Regional Branch Library  National Voter Registration Day , a nonpartisan civic holiday celebrating democracy, will be held this year on September 22. This day was first observed in 2012. Since it was first held, almost 3 million voters from all 50 states have registered to vote on this day.  Voter registration forms can be picked up via BPL's Curbside Service at the following locations : Avondale, Five Points West, North Birmingham, Springville Road, and beginning September 21, Central Library. Instructions for curbside pickup can be found here . Forms should be filled out and returned to the Board of Registrars for the county of the registering person, which are listed on the back of the form. Important Voting Deadlines for the Alabama November 3, 2020, General Election Voter Registration Monday, October 19, 2020 By mail: postmarked by October 19 In person: received by close of business on October 19 Online: submitted by...

Today marks the 50th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix, one of the most celebrated musicians of all time. The Birmingham Public Library is paying tribute to Hendrix - 50 years after the 27-year-old died tragically at the height of his career on September 18, 1970.  Although the exact nature of his death in London is still vague, police say it was a drug overdose. Hendrix reportedly took nine sleeping pills and died of suffocation through vomit. Five decades later, many still question how Hendrix died .   Hendrix is best known for his incredible talents on the guitar. Of all of his many performances, Hendrix's seething, scorching rendition of the National Anthem during the 1969 Woodstock event stands out.  "That was probably the most significant rendition of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' ever, in how it represented the spirit of the 1960s and where it was performed, the music festival most associated with that era," says Tacuma Roeback, a journalist who's written about ...

What: BPL Curbside Pickup of Library Materials at Central Library Begins Monday, September 21 Where : Central Library, 2100 Park Place downtown, joining BPL’s Avondale, Five Points West, North Birmingham and Springville Road Regional Library branches. When : Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Details: Place your holds (online, BPL app or call us.) When you have been notified that your items are ready for curbside pickup, drive up. We’ll let you know when to leave your vehicle and pick up your items from the designated table outside. For more information, call numbers below (Be prepared to verify your account with your library card number or driver’s license number) CENTRAL: 205-226-3600 AVONDALE: 205-226-4000  FIVE POINTS WEST: 205-226-4013 NORTH BIRMINGHAM: 205-226-4025 SPRINGVILLE ROAD: 205-226-4081  Birmingham, Ala.- Book and DVD lovers in downtown Birmingham, your long wait is finally over. Beginning Monday, September 21, 2020, patrons will be able to ...

By William Anthony | Southern History Department | Central Library Ethan Hawke arguably gives the best performance of his career as a pastor who starts questioning his life and purpose. His character, Ernst Toller, journals his inner thoughts in order to evaluate his faith. He wrestles with alcoholism and hurts from severe stomach pains. The death of his son also haunts him. After befriending both a radical environmentalist and his pregnant wife, he develops a growing fear over climate change. As he prepares to celebrate the 250 th  anniversary of his church, the First Reformed Church, Toller still tries to make sense of his place in an unpredictable world. He never aspires to let go of hope, but his doubt emerges when he contemplates the condition of Earth. His first-person narration gives a chilling account of what it feels like when the world weighs down on your shoulders.  Paul Schrader , who penned the screenplays for classic films such as  Taxi Driver  and...

September is National Library Card Sign Up Month.  Wow, that’s a mouthful.  Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not possible for you to apply in person for a library card at Birmingham Public Library locations, however, you can apply for a library card online.  Lynn Hutchins of the Circulation Department prepared a great blog post in June on just how to do that.  Birmingham Public Library offers online services 24/7 through our website and registering for a library card gives you access to all of this excellent content.  Here are a few examples of the great content you can access using your library card. The descriptions of the databases are from the BPL website. The Overdrive description is from its website.                                                Kanopy  -  Kanopy  is a video streaming platform for libraries with one ...

By Mary Anne Ellis | Southern History Department | Central Library If you could change history, would you do it? And what, exactly, would you do?  Some popular answers are “go back and kill Hitler ” or “stop the sinking of the Titanic .” A lot of us right now would probably like to go back and halt the spread of the coronavirus. In 11/22/63  Stephen King tackles an event that resonated with a whole generation: the assassination of President John F. Kennedy . Could it have been prevented, and what would have happened as a result?  High school English teacher Jake Epping discovers that a local diner conceals a time portal that will take you back to one—and only one—time in the past: September 9, 1958. Too late to do anything about World War II or that fatal iceberg in 1912, but early enough to head off one horrible day in Dallas, Texas. And when Jake returns to the present, only two minutes have gone by no matter how long he remained in the past, so he can quickly see the...

By Vincent Solfronk | Eastwood Branch Library  The novel Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff turns the pulp horror writings of H.P. Lovecraft on its head and reimagines it.  H.P. Lovecraft, a short story horror writer of the 1920s and '30s, wrote about cosmic terror, the idea of a hostile cosmic universe, and a fear of moral, ethical, and even racial decay. This fear of racial decay puts a dark stain on his work. Several recent horror writers have turned his writings and world on its head, having works with a diverse cast of characters. Author Matt Ruff sets his story in Jim Crow 1950s America. The main character is Atticus Turner, who is looking for his missing father. He goes on a journey with friends to “Lovecraft Country,” and finds his father held prisoner of a strange mystical cult. They escape its clutches but further adventures ensue for all the characters. Lovecraft Country is filled with scenes from pulp-action and horror movies. The Lovecraftian cosmic monsters compe...

William Frantz Elementary School, New Orleans, 1960 U.S. Marshals had to escort six-year-old Ruby Bridges to and from school By Tywanna Mickens Johnson and Perdeta Ann Long | North Birmingham Regional Branch Library  I know that no one stands alone against bullies, tyranny, hate, and racism. The walk or journey to freedom is one made easier when you do not have to walk alone. The hard-fought fight for equality takes many faces, such as a White mother in The Long Walk Home taking a stand for her Black nanny during the Montgomery bus boycott; a widowed White mother offering a down-on-his-luck Black drifter a job on her farm; a White teacher offering encouragement to six-year-old Ruby Bridges during a time when some not like Ruby were spewing hateful racist comments at her. In Selma, Lord, Selma , an 11-year old girl joins others in the march to Montgomery; and in  Henry’s Freedom Box,  Henry Brown finds a genius way to win his freedom. Billie Holiday used the song "...