Birmingham Public Library Blog

As you read that title, you may be asking yourself these questions: “What is microfilm?” or “The library still has microfilm as I haven’t used that since I was in elementary school?" A reel of microfilm Microfilm is the most popular type of microforms. It is created as a camera takes a picture of an item, reduces the size of the image, and it is printed on film. This film is considered a preservation standard, and it will last 500 years. Birmingham Public Library (BPL) has an amazing microforms collection totaling 700,000 items, and you may be thinking that no one uses this obsolete medium anymore. Patrons use on average over 700 items a month, and this is the only way patrons can access older editions of local newspapers. The Microforms and Government Documents staff created an obituary index to help patrons locate the obituary of a deceased ancestor, as most of the Birmingham newspapers are not indexed until the 1970s. Each month they add new entries, and it is an ong...

Urban Fiction has become one of the most requested genres at the library.   Raw, gritty, urban stories featuring tough African American characters trying to survive by any means necessary.   The novels are like hip-hop songs in prose form.   If you can’t wait to get your hands on the latest titles, here’s a sample of new summer releases.   Descriptions are from the publisher. I Can Touch the Bottom   by Michel Moore   When he is released on parole, Stackz wants nothing more than to mind his own business and rebuild his empire. However, when he is forced to kill again, he links up with Ava, an eyewitness to the scene unfolding before the slaughter of her sister's boyfriend. Having one major thing in common — murder — the pair becomes inseparable, hoping love can conquer all. Their belief that they can live a happily-ever-after existence is soon shattered when his victim's crew wants the ultimate revenge:  They want Stackz's life, and they...

DNA Ingrained by Steven R. Skipper The Powderly Branch Library is very proud to have a limited edition print of Steven R. Skipper 's DNA Ingrained  displayed in its meeting room. Skipper visited the Powderly Library on October 16, 2015, to donate the framed print. The painting includes scenes of the attack on civil rights marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and it also pays tribute to other heroes in the civil rights movement. After the movie Selma was nominated for an Academy Award, Skipper did some research and discovered that there was no art work honoring the marchers on Bloody Sunday . With this in mind, he wanted to pay honor to the marchers, and thus the painting was created. The title of the painting means “the DNA of our ancestors is ingrained in the concrete on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.” This is a beautiful painting with a deep, historical meaning. Hugh Hardy Powderly Branch Library

Summer is upon us all again. As we all have just experienced the summer solstice and the beginning of summer’s heat, a few tips and warning signs to keep in mind when out in the sun. From the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when the body suffers from extreme heat, damage may occur to the brain or other vital organs. Individuals who are more susceptible to heat are the elderly, youth (0-4 years old), those who are overweight, those who have a fever, those who are dehydrated, those who have heart disease, those who have mental illness, those who have poor circulation, those who have sunburn, and those who use prescription drugs or alcohol. Illnesses that are related to heat are the following: Heatstroke: a life-threatening illness in which body temperature may rise above 106° F in minutes; symptoms include dry skin; rapid, strong pulse; and dizziness. Heat exhaustion: an illness that can precede heatstroke; symptoms include heavy sweating, rapid breathing, and...

Fontaine Alison and Candice Hardy perform in Take Me Out to the Game Storytellers play a vital role at the Birmingham Public Library (BPL) throughout the year, spreading the joy of reading to thousands of kids at schools, churches, and in many of the 19 libraries across the city. They are very active at many of BPL’s 500-plus summer reading programs this year. On June 21 at the Wylam Branch Library during a program called Take Me Out to the Game, Five Points West Regional Branch Library storytellers Candice Hardy and Fontaine Alison entertained kids from Faith Chapel Christian Center summer camp as they told the story of an alligator who wanted to join fellow animals in a game of baseball. With Alison holding an "alligator" and campers playing the role of animals such as a skunk and parrot, Hardy recited a tale of a baseball game like no other, soliciting laughs. At Southside Branch Library on June 3 and June 17 respectively, Avondale storyteller Cassandra Scott (Ms...

House Detective: A Guide to Researching Birmingham Buildings Ann McCorquodale Burkhardt Edited by Alice Meriwether Bowsher So you’ve bought a historic house—or one you think is historic. It’s old. It has interesting architecture. It’s chock-full of “vintage” details and the neighbors talk about the people who used to live there, all the way back to your great-grandparents’ time. You decide you want to find out more about the history of your house or possibly obtain a historical plaque or marker for it. But how do you start? With House Detective ! For such a small book (less than 60 pages), House Detective is full of information about how to research your home’s history and is one of the Southern History Department’s most frequently-consulted sources. It began as a brief work assignment for Burkhardt: . . . Go downtown, look through the holdings of the library, the courthouse, and City Hall, and determine which records would be useful in researching Birmingham buildings and ne...

The Birmingham Public Library (BPL) is excited to host Score Big with the Cotchery Foundation, a summer reading tailgate party at the Central Library. Jerricho Cotchery, a graduate of Phillips High School in Birmingham and veteran NFL receiver, has teamed up with BPL to host yet another amazing series of events promoting the 2016 BPL Summer Reading program. Qualified "Get In The Game, Read” participants age 11-17 will have the opportunity to attend a free teen tailgate party at the Central Library on Friday, June 24, 2016, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Teens can pick up free tickets in advance at any of Birmingham’s 19 library locations. Cotchery, who turned 34 on June 16, will speak at the Five Points West Regional Branch Library at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, June 24 . Since being drafted into the NFL in 2004, Cotchery has played with the New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, and most recently with the Carolina Panthers, who appeared in the 2016 Super Bowl. His 200 career receptions an...

The Sunday Philosophy Club  Series Alexander McCall Smith Isabel Dalhousie is a piece of work, a happy, complex, intelligent, and amusing piece of work, the narrator and protagonist of Alexander McCall Smith’s ten book (and counting) series, The Sunday Philosophy Club . As with McCall Smith’s 44 Scotland Street series (see this recent blog piece ) we are in contemporary, bourgeois Edinburgh, but, in this case, on the south side of town, near the university, and it takes place entirely from one person’s point of view: Isabel’s. Isabel Dalhousie is the editor of the Journal of Applied Ethics . She’s a philosopher and most of the internal dialog of these books is Isabel’s internal debate about right action in her daily life, applied ethics. She struggles with temptation to fall short of her standards, particularly the temptation to shade the truth or to wish ill of other people. The Sunday Philosophy Club is a gentle satire of high-minded Edinburgh and its vaunted intellectu...