Bookmarkable
We Want Your Art!
Post-it note? Your napping kitty's tail? Folded corner (gasp!)? None of those are nearly as cool as having a bookmark with your very own artwork on it. Enter your bookmark art in the 2022 Friends Annual Bookmark Design Contest Honoring National Friends of Libraries Week, Oct. 16-22, and you could see your lovely design on bookmarks available at all of our Library locations.
Tell Us your story about family, books and learning
Show Us what you love about your Library
Draw Us into your colorful Library world
From preschoolers to adults, there are different age categories each with their own winner.
SUBMIT YOUR DESIGN July 11 – Sept. 9, 2022
Download your entry form to get started.
The winning bookmarks will be printed and distributed at our branches and Friends Bookstores this fall.
Co-sponsored with Friends of Johnson County Library.
New Podcast Episode: Branch Managers
In this episode of Did you hear?, it’s a Branch Manager panel. We brought in three branch managers to talk. They compare and contrast their experiences. We take a look at the differences in service populations, facilities, resources, and more. It’s an excellent and insightful discussion.
Featured Artist Friday
Jillian Riscoe's songs are born out of "infinite possibilities of creation and self-expression" and "strength, overcoming negative situations and behaviors, empowerment, finding yourself." Riscoe has been a musician since the age of 7 and a songwriter since 11; this longevity and dedication to craft is evident in the arena-sized rock that has put her on the same stages as Pat Benatar, Rick Springfield, Lisa Loeb and Everclear, among others.
Now at Leawood: Michael Schmaltz
After a diagnosis of severe post-traumatic stress disorder in 2011, Michael Schmaltz underwent several therapy sessions involving art. In 2012 he decided to buy oil paint and canvasses and started a series of self-portraits. He paints portraits of women because they can show emotion without judgment. This collection, entitled the Thousand Yard Stare, depicts the eyes of a person after the horror of war.
Spring Preview
Baby, it's cold outside. But SPRING is coming!!! And, the Library has programs that will not only warm your soul, but defrost your brain as well.
In this episode of Did you hear?, our hosts Dave Carson and Melissa Horak-Hern chat with Christopher Leitch, Ben Oglesby, and Amy Field, about what’s to come in the next few months at the Library! Spoiler alert: it's hot stuff!
elementia Call for Submissions
Calling teen creators: elementia is a literary arts magazine published to represent and uplift young adults. We accept original poetry, fiction, nonfiction, graphic stories, photography and illustrations.
Everything and all of us are connected on every conceivable scale, from the subtle subatomic bonds in the smallest building blocks of matter to the massive interconnected root system of the 80,000 year old Pando aspen grove.
In our hectic modern world people build bridges, knock down walls and create networks to fight isolation and forge strong connections around the globe. Ideas and inspiration spread across the boundaries of location, medium, class and culture: mind maps on cosmic scale. We are each a collection of connections, our root systems shaped by influences of our families, friends, collaborators and heroes. Our links and bonds each tell a story about who we are and where we’ve been.
Whether you answer by pulling back to see this web from afar, or by closely tracing each filament to its root, our question for this elementia is: what connects you?
Submit your original poetry, short stories, essays, comics, or artwork through February 1, 2020.
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! Over this past year our Did you hear? podcast gained over 100 subscribers and our 32 episodes have been downloaded over 5,000 times! Thank You!!!
Have a look back—err—listen back, to the best reader's advisory episodes of 2019. So many of our Librarians dropped by this past year to share gems within genres. We hope their recommendations made your year richer!
2019 Books that Caught Our Attention
50 titles divided into 10 categories, all published in 2019, chosen by Library staff as excellent representations of the genre or of community interest.
Our readers advisory librarian Gregg Winsor makes another Did You Hear? appearance to discuss Notable Books! Gregg, Dave and Melissa reveal this list of great books from 2019. Biography/Memoir, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, History, Literary Fiction, Mystery/Thriller, Romance, Science Fiction, Sciences—it's all on the 2019 Notable Books list!