Announcing a New Shelving System at Carnegie-Stout Public Library

Carnegie-Stout Public Library is closed today, Sunday, April 1, but you should expect big changes when we open on Monday at 9:00 a.m. We're always exploring new ways to better serve our community and we're excited to announce a new shelving system designed to better facilitate browsing and discovery.

"Often readers will be looking for a book and they can't remember the title or the author, but they do know the cover is blue. Our new shelving system is going to help those readers and it will allow library staff to re-shelve returned materials twice as quickly," librarian April Foole stated.

The new shelving system, designed by leading library design consultant Roy G. Biv, has also been applauded for its visual appeal and has rapidly grown in popularity with readers across the globe.

"While the aesthetics are a nice benefit, we made the choice for practical reasons. Common wisdom might say that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but you can learn a lot from a book's cover!" Foole continued. "Mysteries tend to be darker, humorous books tend to be brightly colored, Romances are often pink. This new system is just sensible."

New Books for a New Month!

Today marks the start of a brand new month, and the long awaited arrival of spring weather! To celebrate, Andrew gives us a sneak peak at some fresh titles.

Lawn Gone
Landscaper and caterer Vivian "Kentucky" Bluegrass, Tuck to her friends, is in the weeds when she shows up for what should be a gala opening for a wealthy client's new yard but instead finds a plot of bare earth. Things really get dirty when the pinched peat shows up across town -- on top of the dead body of Zoysia Green, Tuck's biggest competition! With the help of hunky handyman Randy Bulb, psychic canine Digger, and a mysterious dryad named Sprout, Tuck's in a race against time to clear her name before the first frost!
Includes recipes and gardening tips.

Proof of Heaven
Having had his fill of tasteless communion wafers, Italian master baker Sacco Cerevisi set out to re-discover the liturgical loaves that inspired over 100 Bible verses. Cerevisi's first foray into the unfamiliar grains of the ancient Middle-East may have produced a staff of death, but through tireless experimentation he develops his seven core ingredients into a multitude of recipes easy enough to make daily, quick enough to throw together in a hurry, and hearty enough to strengtheneth man's heart.

Alex Cross, Run
 "Three dead bodies. One, Two, Three. Alex Cross, Run!"
With these three sentences, the James Patterson biblio-empire stakes its claim in the early readers market. With colorful illustrations and an appropriately simple vocabulary, Patterson spins a tale of murder and intrigue that will keep even the littlest tot flipping pages through the bitter end! 

This Is Not My Hat
The eagerly-awaited tell-all memoir from the first Pope Emeritus of modern times! The mitre is an enduring symbol of the papacy, but, for Benedict XVI, it never sat comfortably upon the papal brow. This title is heavily embargoed, with a street date enforced by the Swiss Guard, but the promise of rare glimpse of the man behind the vestments has readers lining up! 

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons
A grisly true crime story that has reviewers locking their doors and calling their loved ones! In the love-drenched streets of 1960s San Francisco, death walks on padded feet. Pete the cuddly tabby prowls the night with lethal doses of LSD hidden in the buttons on his collar. What demented killer pours this kitty's kibble? How will the FBI declaw this vicious mouser?*

A Week in Winter
When a jotun magus opens a portal to Niflheim and unleashes a supernatural blizzard, Mathghamhain, Druid of the Iron Grove, must leave his sacred copse and travel north, into the frozen fury of the storm. The greatest Irish fantasist of our age broadens hir range as hir fan-favorite Celtic hero leaves the Emerald Isle to battle the villians of Norse mythology.  

Vampires in the Lemon Grove 
Something something fruit bats. 









*Blood spatter image used in creation of Pete the Cat cover from a photo by Emily Raw: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emilyrawlings/5427257683

Poem in Your Pocket Day

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Thursday, April 26 is Poem in Your Pocket Day!

Join us by selecting a poem you love and carrying it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends. You can also share your poem selection on Twitter using #pocketpoem or post to our Facebook & G+ pages.

If you need help finding that perfect poem, Poets.org has a great selection that you can browse by subject or author, or choose from their print-ready PDFs. Or stop the library and pick one up from our display! You can also sign up to receive a poem a day by email, download the mobile poetry reader app Poem Flow and explore poetry events in your state.

While I can't advocate eating poetry, here's one of my favorite poems from former Poet Laureate of the U.S. and University of Iowa  graduate Mark Strand:

Eating Poetry

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark. 

National Library Week

Join Carnegie-Stout as we celebrate National Library Week from April 9th to the 14th! This year's theme is You Belong @ Your Library, and we'd love to hear what Carnegie-Stout has meant to you. Share your thoughts in our comments here, on our Facebook page, or come into the library and add to our poster near the Recommendations Desk! And pick up one of our library meme bookmarks while you're in.

You can also change your Facebook cover image to support libraries with one of the banners created by the ALA.

Or check out one of the PSA's by National Library Week's Honorary Chair, Brad Meltzer:

Choose your Favorite Haiku!

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Carnegie-Stout Public Library is having a Library Haiku Contest! We've received a number of wonderful haikus over the past week. Our winners will be displayed on the announcement monitors in the library, as part of our Poetry Month display, and posted to our Blog and Facebook pages.

Help us select our winners by voting for your favorite entries in the comments section of this post. No sign up or log in required! And yes! We're still accepting last minute entries.

Entry One
Library heaven
on any day of the week
perusing the aisles

Entry Two
Adventure, surprise,
mystery, romance, sci-fi
at your library

Entry Three
Eight plus points to staff*,
such care makes the Telegraph.
Deep joy, that's no laugh.
*Library

Entry Four
Discover yourself,
at your local library
live the adventure

Entry Five
under the fan
crickets chirp
unsettled weather

Entry Six
Books, books everywhere
as far as the eye can see
could life "be" more fair?

Entry Seven
Bluff blooming
spring winds
aha! gifts

Entry Eight
Lazy summer days
spent reading under a tree
near the library

Entry Nine
When I first met you
When I first hugged you,
I thought being by your side
Is where I should be

Entry TenOppressive silence,
Then anguished cries, crazed murmurs,
@ your library (tm)

Entry ElevenCollected wisdom,
Painstakingly curated.
Also, DVDs.

Entry TwelveWhere darkness once reigned,
A spark catches in the mind,
Kindled by reading.

Entry ThirteenWhere once we knew shame,
Our lustful clinch is now veiled.
Reading on Kindle.

Entry Fourteen
Wonderment is found,
Instilled in our minds by books.
I travel so far.

Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Carnegie-Stout Public Library is sponsoring Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions on April 11, 2012, at 7:00 PM in Aigler Auditorium. Three talented and published poets with Dubuque connections will read from their work and talk about poetry: Lauren Alleyne, Francine Banwarth, and James Pollock. Come enjoy hearing poetry read aloud and learn about less familiar poetic forms, such as haiku and senryu.

Lauren K. Alleyne is Poet-in-Residence and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Dubuque. Alleyne is a native of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Her work has been published in numerous journals: Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Black Arts Quarterly, Kennesaw Review, and The Caribbean Writer. She won the International Publication Prize from The Atlanta Review and the Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Dawn in the Kaatskills, was published in 2008, and she is co-editor of the anthology From the Heart of Brooklyn. Alleyne earned a B.A. from St. Francis College, an M.A. from Iowa State University, and an M.F.A. from Cornell University.

Francine Banwarth lives in Dubuque and began studying haiku in 1988. She is a cofounder of Haiku Dubuque, which recently published The River Knows the Way. She has received numerous awards for her haiku and senryu; and her haiku, senryu, rengay, and haibun have been published in numerous journals, anthologies, and chapbooks. She currently serves as editor of Frogpond, the major publication since 1978 of the Haiku Society of America. Banwarth earned a B.A. from Clarke University.

James Pollock is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Loras College in Dubuque. He is the author of two books to be published in 2012: Sailing to Babylon, a collection of poetry, and You Are Here: Essays on Criticism and the Art of Poetry in Canada. His poetry has been published in numerous journals: The Paris Review, Poetry Daily, The Fiddlehead, AGNI, Geist, Southern Poetry Review, and Canadian Literature. He earned an Honors B.A. in English literature and creative writing from York University (Toronto), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in creative writing and literature from the University of Houston. He was a John Woods Scholar in poetry at the Prague Summer Program at Charles University, and a work-study scholar in poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Mr. Pollock lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin.

The public is invited to attend this free event. For more information, please call the Carnegie-Stout Public Library at 563-589-4225.

Haiku, brief phrases / and descriptive words turning / snow into blossoms

Cherry Blossoms By John-Morgan

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Carnegie-Stout Public Library is having a Library Haiku Contest!

To enter your library haiku, come in to the library and pick up an entry form at the Recommendations Desk on the first floor or the Reference Desk on the second floor. You may also submit your entry as a comment here, or you may use our Contact Us form found by clicking here.

Entries must be submitted by Friday April 6th to be considered for the contest.

Not sure how to write a haiku? We're using the simple rules.
A first line of 5 syllables
A second line of 7 syllables
A third line of 5 syllables

Our winners will be displayed on the announcement monitors in the library, as part of our Poetry Month display, and posted to our Blog and Facebook pages.

Need inspiration? Check out some of the haiku collections available at Carnegie-Stout:
Baseball Haiku: American and Japanese Haiku and Senryu on Baseball edited by Cor van den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura (811 BAS)

Cherry-Blossoms: Japanese Haiku by Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki, and others (895.61 CHE)

Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa edited by Robert Hass (895.613208 ESS)

The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share and Teach Haiku by William J. Higginson with Penny Harter (808.1 HIG)

Haiku: This Other World by Richard Wright (811.52 WRI)

Listen to Light: Haiku by Raymond Roseliep ( 811 ROS (Ia Bks)

Rabbit in the Moon: Haiku by Raymond Roseliep (811 ROS, IA Bks)

The River Knows the Way: Haiku and Senryu by Francine Banwarth, Cynthia Cechota, David McKee, Jayne Miller, and Bill Pauly (811 RIV, IA Bks)

Silent Flowers; a Collection of Japanese Haiku edited by R. H. Blyth (895.613 SIL)

Twenty Days on Route 20 by Michael Czarnecki (811.54 CZA)

Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum (818.602 MEC)

"Poetry" & "Poets and Writers," Magazines of the Month

April is National Poetry Month, and so we've selected two poetry magazines as this month's feature.

Poetry has been published monthly since 1912 by the Poetry Foundation, located in Chicago, IL. That makes this year their 100th year of publication! You can browse the contents of past issues at their website, as well as enjoy poetry podcasts.

Poets and Writers was founded in 1970, and is the nation's largest nonprofit literary organization serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. They sponsor writing contests, discussion forums for writers and more at their website.

Be sure to stop in to Carnegie-Stout this month to check out our celebration of National Poetry Month! We're sponsoring a Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions on April 11, 2012, at 7:00 PM in Aigler Auditorium. Three talented and published poets with Dubuque connections will read from their work and talk about poetry: Lauren Alleyne, Francine Banwarth, and James Pollock.

"Bright objects hypnotize the mind."

A Word with You

Look out! there’s that damned ape again

sit silently until he goes,

or else forgets the things he knows

(whatever they are) about us, then

we can begin to talk again.

Have you tried playing with your ring?

Sometimes, that calms them down, I find.

(Bright objects hypnotize the mind.)

Get his attention on anything—

anything will do—there, try your ring.

The glitter pleases him. You see

he squints his eyes; his lips hang loose.

You were saying?—Oh Lord, what’s the use,

for now the parrot’s after me

and the monkeys are awake. You see

how hard it is, you understand

This nervous strain in which we live—

Why just one luscious adjective

infuriates the whole damned band

And they’re squabbling for it. I understand

some people manage better. How?

They treat the creatures without feeling.

- Throw books to stop the monkeys’ squealing,

slap the ape and make him bow,

are firm, keep order,—but I don’t know how.

Quick! there’s the cockatoo! he heard!

(He can’t bear any form of wit.)

- Please watch out that you don’t get bit;

there’s not a thing escapes that bird.

Be silent—now the ape has overheard.

Elizabeth Bishop 1933

The 2011 National Poetry Month poster features the line "bright objects hypnotize the mind" from Elizabeth Bishop's poem "A Word with You." Bishop was born February 8, 1911, so we are celebrating her centennial in 2011.

It was designed by Stephen Doyle and is sponsored by The New York Times, National Endowment for the Arts, Random House, Inc., Merriam-Webster, and The Poetry Foundation.

National Poetry Month-Iowa Poems and Poets

There will be an opportunity to hear young local poets at DubuqueFest this year. In conjunction with the 33rd Anniversary of DubuqueFest Fine Arts Festival (May 20-22, 2011), the Dubuque Area Writers Guild will publish The Dubuque Youth Gallery, an open genre anthology showcasing the art and writing of young Dubuquers.Writers selected for publication will be invited to read from their published pieces at a reception held at the Dubuque Museum of Art, Friday, May 20, 2011 at 7 PM during DubuqueFest.



The Iowa Poetry Association is a non-profit organization whose sole objective is to promote interest in and appreciation for better poetry by Iowans. They publish an annual anthology, Lyrical Iowa. Carnegie Stout Public Library has most of these volumes, going back to 1976, as well as hundreds of poetry books by local authors. They can be found upstairs, in the historic section of the library, in the Iowa Collection, 811.54.

Encyclopedia Dubuque lists several authors under the category:poet, including:
HERZBERGER, Magda
I had the privilege of hearing Magda speak many years ago. She read several of her poems about the holocaust aloud to a rapt audience of high schoolers. Carnegie Stout has several of her books of poetry, as well as two video recordings of her presentations.
HEUSTIS, Bertha Lincoln
KLINKNER, Anthony Ferdinand Timothy
SCHMITZ, Dennis
SIGWARTH, Anthony (Monsignor)
Click on the links to see the titles available at the library.

Here is just a sampling of the many other poetry books in the Iowa Collection:

I found "99 Voices, 99 Lives: County Poems of Iowa" by John David Thompson, to be an interesting series of Iowa poems. Many were humorous with hidden meanings and clues. The poem about Dubuque County is entitled: Dream Acres, and alludes to Field of Dreams.

Steve Healey's book, 10 Mississippi Poems, ranges from oxygen depletion to dead bodies to children's games all within 10 poems. Although not exactly a local author, this book touches upon many things those of us living on the Mississippi understand.

Nishnabotna, by Michael Carey, is a mixture of poems and prose centered around the Nishnabotna River area of southwest Iowa. Although Carey was born in New York, he currently resides outside Farragut, Iowa and his poetry is an evocative look at the rural life.

Don't forget to stop in and pick up a bookmark full of ideas and activities for poetry month. Sunday, April 17 says "TAKE A POEM TO LUNCH: Adding a poem to lunch puts some poetry in your day and gives you something great to read while you eat."

POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY

Thursday, April 14th is "Poem in Your Pocket Day." Celebrate by selecting a poem you love and carry it with you to share with friends, family and co-workers. Stop in a see our display of pockets holding a variety of short poems. You may pick up a copy to take with you, or check out a book from our large selection of poetry books.

Don't forget to pick up a calendar bookmark full of ideas for celebrating National Poetry Month. And be sure to check out www.poets.org for other suggestions.

Happy April Fools' Day!

We at Carnegie-Stout have prepared some links for April Fools' Day, and, of course, a few book and movie suggestions!

Staff recommended books to make you laugh

A selection of funny DVDs for April Fools' Day

Pranks from other libraries across the nation:

• The Kennedy Library of California Polytechnic State University changed the front page of their website for April 1, 2010


• New York Public Library works with Improv Everywhere to reenact Ghostbusters

Famous Pranks from years past:

• 1957 Swiss Spaghetti Harvest, BBC


• BBC Flying Penguins, 2008


• Students flip a dorm room upside down
  


• Top 100 Hoaxes

What's the most clever joke you've seen for April Fools' Day? Have you ever managed to fool someone with a creative prank? My father got me every year with the old "there's an elephant in the backyard." Share your stories in the comments!

Did you know that April is National Poetry Month?

National Poetry Month is intended to be a celebration of American Poetry. According to Poets.org, it was “inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 ... and is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture.” Carnegie Stout Public Library will be celebrating all month, so stop in and check out the display of poetry books and pick up a calendar of activities to do at home. You might even try your hand at creating a poem with our magnetic word games.