President Obama discussed his goals for transportation and high-speed passenger rail in his State of the Union speech. Learn more about how your government is working towards this goal at the Kansas Government Information blog at http://ksdocs.blogspot.com/2010/02/high-speed-rail-coming-to-kansas.html .
Thank you,
Kim Harp
Legislative Reference Librarian
State Library of Kansas
300 SW 10th, 169-W
Topeka KS 66612
785-296-2149
kimh@kslib.info
www.kslib.info
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The Storm in the Barn
Matt Phelan is one of my favorite illustrators, so when he announced the publication of his first graphic novel, The Storm in the Barn, I was, to say the least, very excited to see it. 
Set in the Kansas Dust Bowl years, this story weaves together history and mythology, borrowing from tall tales as well as straightforward historical accounts of the time and place. 11-year-old Jack has grown up in a world without rain, and is struggling with his family and classmates as much as the weather. His sister Dorothy is ill, but finds moments to comfort him with tales of "the other Dorothy," as the children read through the Oz books. In the end, Jack must find a way to save his family and their land before they lose hope entirely. You can get a good idea of the set up of the story, the mood, and the artwork of the book from this book trailer (book trailer yay!):
Set in the Kansas Dust Bowl years, this story weaves together history and mythology, borrowing from tall tales as well as straightforward historical accounts of the time and place. 11-year-old Jack has grown up in a world without rain, and is struggling with his family and classmates as much as the weather. His sister Dorothy is ill, but finds moments to comfort him with tales of "the other Dorothy," as the children read through the Oz books. In the end, Jack must find a way to save his family and their land before they lose hope entirely. You can get a good idea of the set up of the story, the mood, and the artwork of the book from this book trailer (book trailer yay!): -richlayers
Monday, January 25, 2010
NovelTea thought for Today
"The worst thing about reading new books is that it keeps us from reading old ones..." --anon.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Kansas Reads
Join Kansans across the state as Kansas Reads...Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama. The Kansas Center for the Book at the State Library of Kansas and the Kansas Humanities Council encourage you to be part of this exciting statewide reading program that brings communities together through reading.
To learn more, visit the YouTube program trailers created especially for 2010 Kansas Reads...Dreams from My Father on the State Library YouTubeChannel. You can also link directly to them from the Kansas Center for the Book website, www.kcfb.info and clicking on the Resources button.
The YouTube videos were created by Lily Morgan and Kelly Fann especially for 2010 Kansas Reads...Dreams from My Father. Lily Morgan will graduate from Emporia State's SLIM program in May 2010. She is looking forward to an exciting career in librarianship in which she can use her creative abilities to assist patrons in an increasingly global and digital environment. Kelly Fann is a 2009 graduate from Emporia State's SLIM program. She currently serves as Leavenworth Public Library's Technology Coordinator/Systems Administrator.
Read Your Way to Kansas 150 in 2010 with Kansas Reads...Dreams from My Father!
Roy Bird, Director
Kansas Center for the Book
State Library of Kansas
300 SW 10th Room 169W
Topeka KS 66612 1593
www.kcfb.info
To learn more, visit the YouTube program trailers created especially for 2010 Kansas Reads...Dreams from My Father on the State Library YouTubeChannel. You can also link directly to them from the Kansas Center for the Book website, www.kcfb.info and clicking on the Resources button.
The YouTube videos were created by Lily Morgan and Kelly Fann especially for 2010 Kansas Reads...Dreams from My Father. Lily Morgan will graduate from Emporia State's SLIM program in May 2010. She is looking forward to an exciting career in librarianship in which she can use her creative abilities to assist patrons in an increasingly global and digital environment. Kelly Fann is a 2009 graduate from Emporia State's SLIM program. She currently serves as Leavenworth Public Library's Technology Coordinator/Systems Administrator.
Read Your Way to Kansas 150 in 2010 with Kansas Reads...Dreams from My Father!
Roy Bird, Director
Kansas Center for the Book
State Library of Kansas
300 SW 10th Room 169W
Topeka KS 66612 1593
www.kcfb.info
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Grove Music Database additions
Grove Music Online Adds 100 New Articles
(Picture: Silhouette of Fryderyk Chopin at the piano; F. Phillip, Lebrecht Music & Arts)
Grove is pleased to introduce 100 new articles from the forthcoming second edition of the Grove Dictionary of American Music, edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett. The first edition (1986) is widely considered the definitive reference work on the subject, and while some of the topics in this update appeared in the first edition, all are completely new to Grove Music Online and have been updated for the second edition.
Articles in this update include entries on conductors, composers, educators, librarians and subjects related to band music (instrument makers, bandmasters and organizations). There are a few entries on social dance forms, including the boogaloo, walk-around and eagle rock, as well as an extended article on the history of circus music in America.
The following list highlights some notable organizations and biographies included in this update:
Organizations
American Bandmasters Association
American School Band Directors Association
Association of Concert Bands
College Band Directors National Association
Manuscript Society of New York
National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors
National Band Association
Biographies
Monroe A. Althouse
Herman Bellstedt
Blind Boone
Patrick Conway
Giuseppe Creatore
Virginia Cunningham
Robert Browne Hall
Frank Holton
Alessandro Liberati
Joseph Noll
Albert Pieczonka
Louis Victor Saar
Vincent Frank Safranek
Ernest S. Williams
Carl Wolfsohn
Max Zach
Updated Early Music Bibliographies
This update also includes more than 70 updated early music bibliographies, including:
Jacques Arcadelt
William Byrd
Robert Carvor
Champion (family)
Johannes Cornago
Thomas Crecquillon
John Dowland
Costanzo Festa
Guido of Arezzo
Henricus Isaac
Pierre de La Rue
Francesco Landini
Orlande de Lassus
Guillaume de Machaut
Luca Marenzio
Milán Luys
Thomas Morley
Jacob Obrecht
Jean de Ockeghem
Johannes Regis
Jean Richafort
Ludwig Senfl
Claudin de Sermisy
Solage
Thomas Tallis
John Taverner
Newbery and Caldecott and Printz Award Titles
Rebecca Stead Wins Newbery; Jerry Pinkney Wins Caldecott
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb/Random House) has won the 2010 Newbery Medal. This second novel by Stead (First Light) takes place in the Upper West Side Manhattan neighborhood of her childhood, where the corner homeless man becomes 12-year-old heroine Miranda's "laughing man." In our review, we said, "Stead opens up the profound possibilities in a city where a neighborhood can contain an entire world."
The 2010 Caldecott Medal went to Jerry Pinkney for his wordless piéce de resistance set on the East African Serengeti, The Lion and the Mouse (Little, Brown). At the ALA Annual conference in Chicago last summer, Pinkney said that this has always been his favorite of Aesop's fables. Our review called it "bookmaking at its best."
Four Newbery Honors were awarded: Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Melanie Kroupa/FSG), which won the National Book Award (Hoose first learned of Claudette Colvin while researching his book We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. History, which was an NBA finalist); a debut novel, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly (Holt/Macmillan); Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (Little, Brown), lushly illustrated with occasional full-color pictures by the author; and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg by Rodman Philbrick (Blue Sky/Scholastic), in which funny moments balance the sorrows of the Civil War, from the author of Freak the Mighty.
Both Caldecott honors went to artists who illustrated someone else's text: Marla Frazee for All the World, written by Liz Garton Scanlon (Beach Lane/S&S); and Pamela Zagarenski for Red Sings from Treetops: A Year in Colors, written by Joyce Sidman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
Libba Bray won the 2010 Michael L. Printz Award for Going Bovine (Delacorte/Random House), about a 16-year-old diagnosed with Mad Cow disease who takes off on a road trip in search of a cure with a Sancho Panza-style sidekick he meets in the hospital.
Report From Shelf AwarenessTuesday, Jan. 19, 2010.
The library is ordering many of these titles, but the Newbery award winner is present and ready to check out as of this writing.
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