Birmingham Public Library Blog

East Lake Bathers A collection of photographer O.V. Hunt's works documenting the early history of Birmingham are on display at the Five Points West Library through January 15, 2014 . These images, archived at BPL, document the life and work of the Magic City during the early 1900s. To view Hunt's photographs in the Birmingham Public Library's Digital Collections, visit http://bplonline.cdmhost.com/cdm/search/collection/p4017coll6/searchterm/hunt%2C%20oscar!o.v.%20hunt!o.v.%20hunt/field/creato!all!all/mode/all!all!all/conn/and!and!and/order/nosort/ad/asc .

Dr. Andreas Rauterkus If you are interested in getting your financial life in order this fall, then the Central Library is the place to be! Dr. Andreas Rauterkus, Associate Professor of Accounting and Finance at UAB, will be leading a series of programs that will focus on a variety of issues related to personal finance and investing. The programs take place at noon in the Arrington Auditorium and will continue at the same time and place on the second Tuesday of the month thru December. The individual programs are: Saving and Investing Tuesday, November 12, 2013 12:00 p.m. Arrington Auditorium This session will help you understand the various financial markets, evaluate different saving and investment options, find and utilize investment information, and develop ways to make better investment decisions. Paying for College Tuesday, December 10, 2013 12:00 p.m. Arrington Auditorium A college education is a good investment, but is also a very expensive one. In this...

            Remember when Thanksgiving was still a holiday?  Christmas has always dominated shelf space in stores during the fall, but over the years, we have basically lost Thanksgiving.   Retailers always shift from one holiday to the next ( Valentine’s Day makes way for Easter , etc.) but this year, I saw Christmas decorations on the shelves before Halloween.   These were not “buy it early” discounts, but a jump start for people who wanted to buy their supplies.   I didn’t see anyone stacking bows next to their Halloween candy at the checkout counter, though.   Looking back on my youth when we still chiseled our schoolwork on stone tablets, there were NO stores open on Thanksgiving Day.  You were lucky if you could find an open gas station. I used to do a hard-target search to make sure my grandmother had EVERYTHING she needed for her cooking and baking because I dreaded going to the grocery ...

2013 BPL Annual Campaign  BPL Young Professional Jeniese tells what the Birmingham Public Library means to her. Because the Library is important to so many people, the BPL Foundation has a goal of raising $50,000 before January 1, 2014. Your donations will be used solely for the purpose of acquiring library materials. Specifically, your gift will allow BPL to do the following: Purchase current and sought-after books and ebooks in all genres  Purchase magazines, journals, and newspapers for both research and enjoyment Purchase databases like Ancestry.com, Reference USA and Morningstar  Your generosity will touch 1.7 million visitors per year who visit 19 library locations spanning the city. BPL serves more people than any other cultural institution in Birmingham. Your gift puts books and other reading materials into the hands of the citizens of Birmingham—whether they walk in our doors, download a book, or visit a database online. Your support ...

A special exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement in Birmingham will be shown in the Fourth Floor Gallery of the Central Library , Wednesday, November 6 to Friday, December 27, 2013 . A reception will be held on Saturday, November 9, 3:00-5:00 p.m. The gallery and reception are free and open to the public. Fairfield, Alabama resident Dr. William E. Colvin curated the exhibit, known as Birmingham 2013: Remembering the Movement that Changed the World . It proposes that the dreams of freedom and civil liberty that African Americans had 50 years are now realities. Nearly 50 pieces created by more than 25 artists from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida highlight historic moments such as the 1963 bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, marches in Kelly Ingram Park, and more. “These compositions are created to memorialize the Birmingham civil rights movement and celebrate the liberties and freedoms of all citizens,’’ said Dr. Colvin, who is an art...

Free notary services will be provided on Thursday, November 7, 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at the Central Library as part of National Notary Public Day. A notarization can cost $5 and up. However, Notaries for Alabama, a support group for notaries, will offer free services in the library’s Atrium, 2100 Park Place. Unsigned paperwork such as wills, living wills, power of attorney, school permission slips for field trips, and more will be accepted. Real estate forms will not be notarized. Participants must present a valid, government-issued ID. Notaries for Alabama founder Michelle Riley said that the Alabama Secretary of State’s office maintains records of all notaries. Secretary of State Jim Bennett will be at the library at 10:15 a.m. to show his support. Charles Long, an administrative assistant to Birmingham Mayor William A. Bell Sr.’s office, will present a proclamation. Notaries for Alabama will also offer information on how to become a notary, how to join the group, and how ...

The jack-o'-lantern is the most recognized symbol associated with Halloween in the United States. You may be aware that the custom of carving pumpkins evolved from the age-old tradition of utilizing turnips as lanterns in the British Isles, but are you familiar with the legend surrounding jack-o'-lanterns and their association with Halloween? According sources such as  Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night  and Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History , the carving of jack-o'-lanterns stems from an old Scots-Irish custom of placing candles inside carved turnips to show respect for souls lost in purgatory. These lost souls were said to walk the earth on the evening before All Saints Day (All Hallows). Pumpkins were soon substituted for turnips in the Americas once the Scots-Irish were introduced to the large native squash. The term jack-o'-lantern is alleged have originated in the Irish legend of Jack of the Lantern. Jack was known as Stingy Jack o...

Last month I blogged on some of the movies I return to again and again . As with any list, there were some that I didn't get around to. So here’s a roundup of some of the stray dogies I didn’t corral. Only some? Well, there's more than a handful of films that are in it for the long haul; the more I think about it, the more the list grows. Note: as in the last blog ("Can't Wear 'Em Out"), I list at the end of each entry an estimate of how many times I've seen the movie. Double Indemnity (1944). For about 20 years I looked for this all over Birmingham. Nobody-rental stores, libraries, friends-had it. It must have been out of print. Then it started cropping up and I watched it. It was more than worth the long wait. Though I still had some reservations about Fred MacMurray playing a heavy. I'd grown up with MacMurray as the All-American nice guy in My Three Sons and scrubbed clean Disney movies. It was a hard sell on his part. I couldn't have be...