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National Culinary Arts Month
This month-long celebration held each July promotes awareness of professional cooks and chefs and their contributions to new culinary trends and dining excellence. It’s also a good time to offer food-related programming at your library. Here are some cooking-related programs libraries have offered that you can adapt for your own National Culinary Arts Month events as well as additional culinary resources, including cooking for kids, food-related fiction, and ethnic food.
Also in July: Don’t forget National Ice Cream Month and Independence Day.
From the Blog
Share Your National Library Week Programming Ideas and Win
How do you plan on promoting your library this National Library Week? Share your programming ideas, and you could win a set of National Library Week–themed promotional materials.
Featured Library: Red Bank Public Library
February is African American History Month, and our featured library, Red Bank (N.J.) Public Library (RBPL), is celebrating it with some exciting events, including a look at a Pulitzer Prize–winning African American playwright and an exhibition focusing on African art.
Feature
Overcoming Challenges: Civil War Programming in a Rural Library
While the Civil War was all about conflict, as programming librarians we’re all on the same side now—facing the challenge of getting more patrons into our libraries to enjoy the diverse, quality programming we offer. Rural libraries, though, may face a few additional challenges in programming—limited resources, increased travel expenses in bringing in speakers or programs—but there’s a silver lining, too. Your library can become the cultural center of the community or region without having a lot of competition from other venues.
Our library is located at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in southeastern Kentucky. We moved into our new library facility nearly nine years ago, and immediately began offering adult programming, starting out with just a couple of programs each month, and eventually growing into a schedule offering as many as twenty per month. Through the years, we’ve found that our community has a craving for both the entertaining and the intellectually focused programs we offer here at our library. Living in a small town doesn’t mean that people’s interests are limited—we have every bit the breadth of curiosity that urbanites do. We’ve also noticed that the community is anxious to show support of the library’s programs so they can continue, and they’re very willing to give new things a try because they trust that we work hard to offer quality opportunities. Read more | Overcoming Challenges: Civil War Programming in a Rural Library
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Quote of the Week
A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them.—Mark Twain