Birmingham Public Library Blog

Ready to celebrate the holidays? The Birmingham Public Library is hosting 86 different holiday programs and activities  ( pdf ) to help patrons of all ages get in a festive, joyous mood all month long in December, beginning Thursday, December 1.  Among the highlights: * Season's Readings & Festive Eatings at the Central Library throughout December , as library patrons are invited to share their most treasured holiday memories and tastiest recipes. * Family Fun Night: Gingerbread House Building at the Avondale Regional Library at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 6 . You can also pick up gingerbread house decorating kits and enter Springville Road Regional Library's gingerbread house contest beginning Thursday, December 1 . Springville Road gingerbread house winners will be announced on December 20. * Attend Titusville Branch's Christmas Community Resource Day from 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 6 , where 50 kids will receive free bicycles, toys, and clothes. * W...

  Titusville Branch Manager Reba Williams with one of the 50 bikes the library is giving away.   Birmingham, Ala. - If you need free Christmas gifts or need help finding presents for 2022 for your children, guess what? Titusville Branch Library  is donating 50 NEW BIKES, NEW TOYS AND NEW CLOTHES for 50 children in the community in need of presents during the holiday season!   The library, located at 32 6th Avenue SW,  will host its first Titusville Branch Christmas Resource Day at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, December 6 as part of the series of Titusville Branch Community Resource Days created by Branch Manager Reba Williams. The event will take place on December 6, 2022, at 3:30 p.m.  The program will consist of a hot chocolate/coca bar music, food, arts and crafts, and games. Patrons will also be able to renew or get library card memberships, along with checking out books.  The last stop of that day will be to enter into Santa’s Shop and receive items from your...

The Birmingham Public Library (BPL) wishes patrons a happy Giving Tuesday! We ask that you remember us on this noteworthy day. The mission of the global GivingTuesday movement is to inspire people around the world to give, collaborate, and celebrate generosity. Today is a special day for GivingTuesday , as the organization is celebrating its 10-year anniversary!

The Birmingham Public Library  is accepting new and unwrapped toy donations for The Birmingham Urban League's Toy Drive! To date, the City of Birmingham has had 126 homicides, leaving around 68—74 families affected with small children that will have to live without parents. The Urban League is assisting families affected by violence with a toy drive and a dinner reception. 

  Crystal Smitherman presents check to Titusville Branch Manager Reba Williams.  The Titusville Branch Library has received a$5,000 Donation from Alabama State Senator Rodger Smitherman   and his daughter, Birmingham City Councilor Pro-Tem Crystal Smitherman.  Smitherman represents State District 18, which includes the Titusville Library. The Smitherman family has been long-time supporters of the Birmingham Public Library System . Smitherman's wife is Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Carole Smitherman.  Crystal Smitherman, who represents District 6 and has given several donations to Titusville Library over the past two years, said her family is honored to support their community library. "Our Titusville Library has served as a safe haven for lifelong learning for decades," she said. "Students are assisted with homework and project assignments, while our seniors are the backbone of strength that keeps the library vibrant. We salute the branch manager and st...

Todd Tilghman, former winner of The Voice Griffith & Co. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the December 4 concert featuring Todd Tilghman and Griffith & Co. has been postponed. Stay tuned for more details later. A pastor from Mississippi, Tilghman won The Voice in 2020, becoming at age 42 the oldest winner of the popular NBC singing competition. Griffith & Co. is a band based in Nashville.  

Gearing up for the holiday season,  Smithfield Branch Library  welcomes long time favorites Mr. and Mrs. Burks for some soap creation activities! Also, Smithfield Branch Manager Sequoria Lewis presented her second annual Thanksgiving gift card giveaway to a deserving patron!! Tears of joy sprang forth as Ms. Wanda Collins, a native of the Smithfield community for over 40 years, was surprised to find that she was our lucky winner this year!!!

On November 29 please join the Birmingham Public Library (BPL) as it celebrates Giving Tuesday.  Read the following Q&A to learn more… 

Photo by Mercedes Mehling on Unsplash. With the recent shooting in Colorado Springs , before the Trans Day of Remembrance no less, you may be wondering how to support the LGBTQIA+ members of your community. Here are three ways you can let them know that they are welcomed and they are loved.

  BPL is hosting several Thanksgiving programs and activities this week. Looking for a pie or cake recipe to share with family and friends this Thanksgiving? West End Branch Library is sharing recipes this week.  Want to learn how to make S'mores? Join Titusville Branch Library from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, November 22. Or do you want to make Thanksgiving fall crafts? North Birmingham Library, Southside Branch Library and Woodlawn Branch Library have free activities this week. Click here to read this blog written by J. Michael Coe of North Birmingham Library that lists food resources in metro Birmingham available to help those in need. Check out this list of Thanksgiving activities the Birmingham Public Library is hosting this week. Southside Branch Library Southside Branch Library Thanksgiving Grab N Go Kits A fun way for family to come together and share what they are thankful for during the Thanksgiving holidays by creating Thankful Turkey.   North Birmingham...

Between the weather, holiday season stresses, and disappointing college football seasons, throwing up your hands and staying in this weekend is entirely understandable. To better drown out the hollowing cold winds and cries of despair from football fans, here are three movies you can watch on Kanopy . All you need to access Kanopy is a JCLC library card !

Alabama is one of the most food insecure states in the country. Many factors over the past few years have only added to that food insecurity and the need for assistance from outside of the home in order to feed one's family.  At this time of year, it can be even more stressful to provide for the basics of three nutritious meals a day. Thankfully there are numerous resources available in the Birmingham area whose sole purpose is to help those in need.

Take a moment and ask yourself, "How does the act of reading make me feel?". Think on that for as long as you'd like, maybe respond aloud to yourself or write your thoughts down, whatever feels most comfortable to you. You might answer and say reading makes you feel relaxed, or excited, or annoyed, or bored, or maybe you don't have much of a relationship to reading for pleasure. All of these feelings and others you may have are totally valid, and I share most of them at different times.

What:  Birmingham Reads Pen America Birmingham Book Club Conversations of Imani Perry's "South to America" When:  Friday, November 18, 2022, 6:00 p.m.  Where:  Central Library, 2100 Park Place, Birmingham, Alabama, 35203 Link to event on BPL Calendar Birmingham, Ala.  Please join  PEN America Birmingham   at the  Central Library  in downtown Birmingham at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, November 18, for Birmingham Reads Pen America Birmingham Book Club Conversations of Imani Perry's "South to America,"   an interactive community discussion on decolonizing language, marginalization, language, and identity. The conversation comes just two days after Perry's book "South to America: A Journey Below the Mason Dixon Line to Understand the Soul of a Nation" won the prestigious 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Teaching artist Brianna Jordynn “B.J.” Wright, along with their co-presenters, will lead attendees though a dynamic session to better unders...

As early as 1915 , there have been efforts to institutionalize holidays recognizing Native American history and culture. In 1990, President George H. W. Bush approved a join resolution to make November "National American Indian Heritage Month." Since 1994, the office of the president has issued proclamations to similar effect designating a month-long celebration of Native American Heritage.

  Holding copies of the 2021 Southern Exposure DVDs are L-R Caleb West, Caleb West, head of the BPL Collection Management Department; Cindy Lowry, executive director of Alabama Rivers Alliance, and Charles Scribner, executive director of Black Warrior Riverkeeper. Cover of 2021 Southern Exposure DVD. BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— Alabama Rivers Alliance and Black Warrior Riverkeeper have partnered to donate to the Birmingham Public Library (BPL) 18 copies of the latest editions of Southern Exposure, an award-winning film series dedicated to educating the public about Alabama’s natural resources.  Each of BPL’s 18 locations now has one DVD copy of the 2021 edition of Southern Exposure , a series of documentary shorts on various Alabama environmental topics by independent filmmakers. DVDs of previous Southern Exposure editions are available at all BPL branches thanks to Alabama Rivers Alliance and Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s prior donations.  “We are appreciative of this generous don...

Sometimes, you can't trust anyone. Photo from film/art Gallery .  Robert Mitchum is one of the quintessential actors of the Golden Age of Hollywood . His menacing but calm stare and haggard face are enough to grab anyone's attention. To paraphrase my grandfather, Mitchum was the bare-knuckled, cigarette-smoking underdog who would not hesitate to knock out the bully at the neighborhood bar. He may excel at playing one of the tough guys, but Mitchum can also take complex, troubled characters and simplify them through his blunt confidence. Although the Oscar-nominated actor may be intimidating, he never tried too hard to display his masculinity. It is his technique of connecting with audiences. This is why one of the best performances of his impressive career is the out-of-luck gunrunner, Eddie "Fingers" Coyle, in The Friends of Eddie Coyle . He provides many guns, specifically pistols, for bank robbers throughout Boston, Massachusetts . In order to avoid a prison sente...

Having worked at the Birmingham Public Library (BPL) for almost 12 years, I've seen some amazing technological advances here; but one has made a huge impact in my life for the last month, and I want to share it with everyone. During the month of October, I sort of worked two jobs—one here at the BPL and one for a local haunted attraction at night and on weekends. But I'm not the scary monster sort of employee. I'm more of a monster wrangler, because I keep track of when the monsters come and go, where they are in the haunt, and if there are any patron compliments and/or complaints.

  BPL's Jim Baggett receives 2022 Marvin Yeomans Whiting Award.  Birmingham, Alabama – Jim Baggett, longtime archivist for the Birmingham Public Library, has been named 2022 winner of the Society of Alabama Archivists "Marvin Yeomans Whiting Award."   Baggett was named recipient of this prestigious during the recent Society of Alabama Archivists Annual Meeting at Troy University - Dothan. Named for Marvin  Yeomans Whiting, BPL’s first archivist and a pioneer in the professionalization of archives in Alabama, this award recognizes individuals, organizations, or institutions that have made a significant contribution to the preservation and dissemination of local history in Alabama. The Marvin Yeoman Whiting Award recognizes the preservation of historic documents and oral history but not buildings, historic sites, or artifacts.  BPL Executive Director Janine Langston said both Baggett and Whiting helped raise the profile of the BPL Archives & Manuscripts Dep...