Currents: News from the Library on the River ... in Leland
MARCH 2019
A Note From Mark
When you mention the Leland Library most folks envision a beautiful facility at an even more beautiful location on the Leland River; and while that is accurate, it is not the whole story. Did you know we have free shelves in the banks in Cedar and Lake Leelanau? If you walk into the Chase Bank in Cedar just to your left near the pot-bellied stove are two shelving units with books from our library that you can borrow on the honor system. The same is true of the Traverse Catholic Federal Credit Union in Lake Leelanau except they have a whole wall of our books. These shelves are maintained by volunteers Tali Lanham and Lawrence Bunchek respectively. Tali and Lawrence pick up books from the Library and deliver them to the shelves as well as removing old books from circulation. We see this as a great service and can’t thank these banking institutions enough for providing valuable space to us, and by extension the communities they serve. We also need to thank Tali and Lawrence for all the hard work they do in maintaining these shelves.
This service is provided to increase our reach and give easy access to books but also because we have “contracted townships”. The State Constitution provides that penal fines, which include traffic fines, that are collected within a county are to be distributed to the townships in that county based on population, then the township must give that money to a library or be held in escrow for a library. Since we have several townships in the county that do not have libraries, some contract with us to provide service in exchange for those funds. In our case we contract with Centerville, Solon and Cleveland Townships to receive these penal fines. This is one of the reasons we have free shelves, not only to make access to books as easy as possible (especially in the winter) but also to show appreciation for the support we are given by these communities. While these fines add up to less than 5% of our budget (if I-75 ran through the county it would be a lot more, but thankfully it doesn’t) this money represents something much more in terms of a pact that helps us accomplish our mission of serving the community, at the same time allowing us to reach outside our location here on the river to provide a valuable benefit.
- Mark
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Upcoming Events
Friday, March 8 at 10:30am Children's Storytime: Silly Books
Friday, March 15 at 10:30am Children's Storytime: Green... and Other Colors
Monday, March 18 from 4:00-5:30pm We're All in this Together: Sledding Party at Bahle Warming Hut in Suttons Bay
In partnership with Parenting Communities and the Leelanau Early Childhood Development Commission
Tuesday, March 19 at 6:30pm College Prep Program with Vicki L. Beam
Friday, March 22 at 10:30am Children's Storytime: Spring!
Friday, March 29 at 10:30am NO Children's Storytime PROGRAM
Monday, April 1 at 2:00pm 10 Early Warning Signs and Symptoms of Alzheimer's
For more information on Programs and Events at the Library, please visit our website.
Programming Update
March is probably the sleepiest month here at the Library. (Where IS everyone?) Many of us are looking forward to the arrival of Spring, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share a bit more about some programs we have planned for you in April and May.
But first, three things to mention in March: Our Community Reads Winter Reading Club will wrap up at the end of the month and it is not too late to participate! In exchange for filling out an anonymous book review, you will be entered to win a $15 gift certificate to Leelanau Books. Stop by the Front Desk at the Library for more information or to pick up a review form. Thank you to Leelanau Books for supporting this program!
And on March 18, Parenting Communities, the Leelanau Early Childhood Development Commission, and the Library are co-hosting a Family Sledding Party at the Bahle Hut Warming Hut in Suttons Bay from 4:00-5:30pm. Come celebrate the (other) best season in Michigan - Winter! Bring your favorite sled and a helmet. (Disclaimer: Participants sled at their own risk. so helmets are required.) We'll provide the snacks and hot chocolate. Children and their adults welcome.
On Tuesday, March 19, Vicki L. Beam of Michigan College Planning will be sharing tips and tricks for getting ready for, and paying for, college. During the program, Vicki will discuss a brief history of the cost of college, help project an actual cost, and share methods for reducing that cost. There is no cost to attend this program which will take place in the Munnecke Room at the Library at 6:30pm.
In order to support the small business owners in our community, the Library has launched a Small Business Workshop Series and in April we will have two presentations at The Leland Lodge. On Monday, April 8 at 7:00pm, John Elchert and Greta Carlson of the Leelanau Enterprise will share tips and tricks for effective print advertising. John and Greta will discuss how to create dynamic ads for print that truly stand out. And on Tuesday, April 23 at 7:00pm, Jason P. Tank, CFA, will discuss the new tax law and how it affects small business owners. This will be our third attempt for this program, so fingers crossed the weather cooperates. This program was cancelled in January and again in February due to winter storms. There is no cost to attend either program and a cash bar will be available to attendees. Thank you again to The Lodge for supporting the Library and this series.
And speaking of small business owners, we are coordinating a Teen Job Fair up at Leland School again this year. On Friday, April 12, students in grades 9 through 12, will have the opportunity to talk to local business owners about summer employment. If you are a local business owner and are interested in hiring local teens this summer, please contact Laura at the Library for details on how you can participate in this year’s job fair.
Our Great Books program with facilitator Norm Wheeler will begin a new season on April 10. We have re-named the program Great Books for Average Minds. We promise, you do not need to have a PhD to participate. (But PhDs are welcome!) Come engage in lively conversations with community members. Join us for just one session or for all three this Spring. More details to come.
We were THRILLED to have been selected for the Michigan Notable Books Author Tour again this year! On Wednesday, May 15, Michigan Notable Book author and endangered species biologist Barb Barton will be at the Library discussing her award-winning book, Manoomin: The Story of Wild Rice in Michigan. Come learn more about the fascinating history of wild rice in our state. (Did you know that wild rice is growing right here in Leelanau County along the Cedar River - we didn't!)
Finally, we are so excited to announce that Miriam Pico, of Mindful and Musical, will be here during our monthly parenting program, We're All in This Together, on Monday, May 20 at 5:00pm. Families, we hope you'll come join us for this fun class. It's free!
And as always, do you have a suggestion for a program you'd like to see here at the Library? Hit reply to this email and please let us know.
- Laura
From The Front Desk:
Jake's March Recommendation
Observing the sheer quantity of new books that are weekly published, reviewed, debated, and find their way to our shelves can, at times, be a discouraging prospect. Where does one start? How to privilege one book over another? The list of books I would like to read already far exceeds the number I will have time to get through over the course of my life—however long that is. We all need a filter to help determine what’s worth our time; the most reliable one I’ve found is time itself. Forgettable books tend not to survive the centuries.
Survival from the 5th century BCE, then, is a pretty safe bet for an interesting read, and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War proves itself worthy of its 2,500-year lifespan. Thucydides wasn’t the first of the Greek historians—that distinction goes to Herodotus, whose Histories are equally fascinating in their own way—but he’s generally regarded as the first whose approach is recognizably similar to the methods of modern historians: it strives for objectivity and seeks to both recount and explain events in a rationalistic mode. If you read contemporary histories—especially by writers who possesses literary talent as well, such as Simon Schama or Stephen Greenblatt—Thucydides won’t strike you as all that foreign.
The History covers most of the major events of the great 5th century conflict of the rising Athenian Empire with Sparta and its allies. Those events are interesting enough in themselves, but what makes Thucydides account of them worth reading still today are the insights he draws from them about human life and conflict. It’s fascinating to watch a mind as sharp as Thucydides’ was craft a coherent narrative from the chaos of the time—indeed, his comprehension of the factors involved in the conflict seem almost too prescient. No one before this—at least that we know of—understood at all how currency and the accumulation of capital enabled the possibility of large-scale, protracted warfare between states, or was able to so accurately describe the dynamics of conflict between opposing social ideologies. Even the contradictions inherent in a democratic empire—what could be more relevant for us?—form a major theme.
We should never forget that with a book this aged that the reading can also be a pleasurable experience in-and-for itself. The Richard Crawley translation we have at the library is still the standard version of Thucydides in English, and it reads as great literature just as well as it does great history. The speeches in particular—Pericles’ funeral oration was once a standard text for a western education—are exceptional for the rhetorical skill of their carefully-articulated arguments.
Should you feel just a touch of malaise about the ephemerality of today’s cultural productions, Thucydides is a highly recommended cure by someone who wrote his work "not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.”
- Jake
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