Birmingham Public Library Blog

Birmingham Public Library has received three Be Innovative! awards from Innovative Interfaces, Inc. III provides software to public, academic, special and school libraries in the US and 40 countries for managing, ordering, processing, and circulating library materials. This awards program recognizes the creative and outstanding uses of Innovative products. The Birmingham Public Library is the only library, worldwide, to receive this award three times. Jane Keeton, Acquisitions Department head, received the Most Innovative Staff Module award at the 2004 Innovative Users Group Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, for the introduction of the immensely popular Best Sellers Club. This club allows the patrons of the Birmingham Public Library automatic reserves of newly published books of fiction penned by their favorite authors. Currently, 1,980 patrons use this service and more are added daily. Melinda Shelton, webmaster for the library, accepted the award for the Most Innovative Marketi...

What personal choices do we make each day that affects our air, water and, climate? You might be surprised! Join us as Dr. Joyce Lanning shares insights into the world in which we live and breathe. Wednesday, June 4, noon. Feed your body and mind at BPL's Brown Bag Programs . You bring the lunch and we'll bring the drinks. Wednesdays at noon in the Arrington Auditorium located on the 3rd floor of the Linn-Hinley Research Library, 2100 Park Place.

Good news for David Sedaris fans! His new book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames , is on order. Better go ahead and reserve the book and/or audio before the list gets too long. The publication date is June 3.

There are very few movie goers who haven't been entertained at some point by Sydney Pollack the actor, director, and producer. Pollack died Monday of cancer at the age of 73. Pollack started out as a stage actor in 1954, and then moved behind the scenes to direct television shows in the ‘60s. He eventually moved on to directing and producing some of the most popular and entertaining films of our time, including Jeremiah Johnson , The Way We Were , The Firm , The Fabulous Baker Boys , and Cold Mountain . Robert Redford and Pollack met on the set of War Hunt in 1962, and developed a friendship that led to a successful movie collaboration. Redford starred in seven of Pollack's movies, and their epic Out of Africa went on to win Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture. Pollack was also nominated for Best Director Oscars for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? and Tootsie . Pollack had a way of shining in every bit part he played. Who can ever forget Pollack as Tootsie’s frustrate...

Former senior historian for the U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, Warren Trest has written over fifty stories and articles concerning military history. He has published three books of nonfiction and one novel. In Trest’s new book, Nobody But the People , Trest has written the first authorized biography of Alabama’s youngest governor, John Patterson. The governor led a controversial life, which started in 1954 when his father, then Alabama Attorney General Albert Patterson, was assassinated in Phenix City, AL, in an attempt to clean up the city’s crime and corruption. Gov. Patterson was elected Attorney General after his father’s death and a few years later, in 1958, he defeated George Wallace to become governor. As governor, he stepped in to stop the violence after a mob burned the Freedom Riders bus passing through Anniston. Gov. Patterson led Alabama as our state struggled to come to grips with the civil rights of its citizens. The title Nobody But ...

Alternative Energy sources, Bio fuel , Sustainability - These are all buzzwords relating to the heightened interest and research on climate change. EBSCO shares that interest, and has added a new, FREE, database to their collection. Want to know more? Visit GreenFILE . With more than 380,000 records and access to more than 4,700 full text records, EBSCO can help you find answers to your questions about agriculture, climate change, polution and policy. I browsed through the publication list and found some dating back to the 1960s. Titles include: Annals of Environmental Science, Bioscience, Naturalist, Recycling Today , and Sierra .

Even though I’ve been listening to Carole King , Joni Mitchell , and Carly Simon for decades, I had no idea I would enjoy Girls Like Us so much. Sheila Weller is a pop trivia queen and had to have spent hours hunched over microfilm machines, researching the minutiae of these ladies’ lives. The interviewees go all the way back to neighborhood playmates and school chums, and the book is filled with information about the music scene starting in the early sixties, when Carole King started plinking out the melody to “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” with her husband, Gerry Goffin, in the Brill Building. Out of the three, it's Joni Mitchell's music I enjoy the most. Her songs are more introspective and her talent can't be matched in the female singer/songwriter genre. Her song "Little Green" off her famous Blue album hinted at the baby she gave up for adoption when she was just a 21-year-old unknown named Joan Anderson, and I was touched at just how it affected her life ...

Jeanne Bell will share her expertise as an Antiques Roadshow appraiser on various types of costume and other jewelry. Audience members may bring one piece of jewelry per person for an unofficial look. Wednesday, May 28, noon. Feed your body and mind at BPL's Brown Bag Programs . You bring the lunch and we'll bring the drinks. Wednesdays at noon in the Arrington Auditorium located on the 3rd floor of the Linn-Hinley Research Library, 2100 Park Place.