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This week at the Library, you can join us at:

Library OnDemand – Available anytime you like.

Your doorway into live and archived programs. Arts & Culture, Career & Finance, Community Matters, Writers and more!

One-on-One Genealogy Help – Tuesday, Nov. 8, 9 a.m. – noon

Visit the Johnson County Genealogical Society at www.jcgsks.org to schedule an appointment. A volunteer will contact you by email to set up an in-person or a Zoom session link for you prior to the scheduled date.

Young Adult Literary Council – Tuesday, Nov. 8, 5 – 6 p.m.

Teens are invited to join the Young Adult Literary Council at Lenexa City Center Library to share favorite books, pick up advanced reader copies of teen books to read and review, and participate in other fun activities such as author visits, game days, event planning and more. Meet new people and receive volunteer credit hours for your time with us.

Blood Pressure Clinic – Wednesday, Nov. 9, 10 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.

Drop in each month at Central Resource Library and a nurse from the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment will test your blood pressure.

Friends of the Library Pop-Up Book Sale – Saturday, Nov. 12, 11:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Shop gently used books and items from the Friends of the Library at the Friends Headquarters location!

20% Friends members discount all day!

And much more happening this week »

A collection of visually stunning portraits, on display at Central Resource Library until Dec. 21, highlights amazingly accomplished women. It is drawing rave reviews from patrons. 

For artist Patti Streeper, these compelling works are her way of honoring heroic and pioneering women who are often unsung or under-appreciated for their achievements, dedication and courage.  

“With this work, my goal is to spark curiosity and encourage the viewer to learn more about what comprises women’s work,” she says, “and to inspire conversation about the contributions of all women.” 

Johnson County Local Arts Librarian Bryan Voell says the Library is thrilled to host this show.  

“Patti Streeper’s portraits are timeless and eye-catching, provoking the kind of storytelling and curiosity that are the hallmarks of any public Library,” he said. “Both patrons and staff have remarked how much they enjoy this exhibition.” 

The public can hear more about this show when Streeper speaks at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 9 at Johnson County Community College’s Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. 

Streeper grew up in Illinois and got a fine arts degree, concentrating on printmaking, at Southern Illinois University. 

After college she landed a job at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, where she stayed for nearly 35 years. It was a very fulfilling career, but always in management and business innovation, not as an artist. She married and raised two daughters, who are pursuing their own careers. 

Her position in corporate leadership was stressful, and Streeper’s husband, Tully Larkin, encouraged her to find a creative outlet. He persuaded her to reach out to Robert Quackenbush, an artist and mentor who owns Studio Q, an artists’ workspace. 

That launched a whole new chapter for Streeper, as she started painting, first with acrylic and then with oils. She painted for a few years while still working for Hallmark, then even more intentionally after she retired in 2016. 

She was fascinated by faces and the storytelling potential of portraiture. Faces introduced her to the stories of little-known women leaders throughout history. “It was this whole thread of the accomplishments of these women from all walks of life,” she said. 

At first she painted with no thought of showing her work. “There’s something wonderful and beautiful about doing something like that for yourself,” she said. “I was there to explore, to listen to my own heart.” 

But she was discovering incredible women of diverse ethnic backgrounds in science, the arts, education and social activism, who deserve public recognition.  

Through a personal connection, Streeper mounted her first show of 10 portraits at Westwood City Hall in 2021. That garnered other invitations, including at Lenexa City Hall and at the Woodneath Library in spring 2022. Johnson County Reference Librarian Helen Hokanson attended one of the shows and connected Streeper with Voell.  

The Library show includes pioneering Mexican-American botanist Ynez Mexia, who began her career at age 51; Zitkala-Sa, a Yankton Dakota musician who co-composed the first American Indian opera; prison scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore; and Harlem Renaissance sculptor Augusta Savage, among many others. 

Most wonderfully for Johnson County Library, this show features a portrait of Kay Robeson, one of the Library’s original founders, and a grand painting of a Johnson County Library bookmobile from 1956, with Robeson and four other Library founders, including first County Librarian Shirley Brother. 

The Library’s annual Writers Conference, Nov. 17-19 at Central Resource Library, was also inspired by Streeper’s work and incorporated the show into their activities. Writing prompts ask participants to respond to her portraits by researching the subject of one of her paintings, or offering up first impressions. 

Streeper said Johnson County Library has been a great venue to share her work and her passion. 

“In general, I think understanding human ability and human potential as a leader, that was always incredibly important to me,” she says. “Seeing and sharing the potential in these women is particularly important to me.” 

Today's Staff Pick comes to you from our librarian Alice, who gives four stars to Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese.

Witch trials are already a thing of the past in this historical novel set in Salem, Massachusetts during the lifetime of Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter. Witch trials are over; but their memory lives on in Hawthorne’s nineteenth century, with tensions lingering amongst the old Salem families and Hawthorne himself bearing ancestral guilt over his own great-great-grandfather's role in sentencing accused women to death more than a century earlier.

But Hawthorne is not front and center here. He is upstaged by a new immigrant from Scotland, Isobel Gamble, who becomes his lover and eventual model for Hester Prynne, heroine of The Scarlet Letter. This is not Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story. It is Isobel’s story; and despite the fact that she possesses no roots in the town of Salem, Isobel's story dovetails interestingly with Salem history due to a condition called synesthesia which positions her and many of her Scots ancestors squarely within the domain of hereditary witches.

Readers may already be familiar with synesthesia, as many of us experience a blending of data from one sense with impressions rooted in another: associating letters and numbers with colors, for example, or “seeing” the shapes of scents and sounds. But even without this personal connection, readers interested in women’s history, New England history, the textile arts (as Isobel supports herself with fine embroidery), and/or historical witchcraft will be likely to enjoy this extensively researched and carefully plotted new release: perfect for reading any time of year, but especially during the time of Halloween! 

The Open Book is out today! 

What is the Open Book Newsletter? It provides updates on Library branches, upcoming events and programs, service highlights and how the Library is evolving to meet your needs.

Have you subscribed? 

In this issue you'll find information about author Brendan Kiely's program Reckoning with White Privilege, The Past is Prologue: Visual Biographies with artist Patti Streeper, a word from the Johnson County Library Foundation, and a story about our featured event, the Writers Conference!

This week at the Library, you can join us at:

Library OnDemand – Available anytime you like.

Your doorway into live and archived programs. Arts & Culture, Career & Finance, Community Matters, Writers and more!

Teen Takeout – Tuesday, Nov. 1, All day

Sign up for the Teen Takeout book and get a free new-release teen book each month! Every month features a different theme, and the book is yours to keep. Registration runs from 1st to the 15th of every month (until full) at jocolibrary.org/teen-takeout.

Intro to Sewing – Tuesday, Nov. 1, 6 – 7:30 p.m.

If you have never used a sewing machine, or just want to brush up your skills, this is the perfect workshop to develop or refresh basic machine sewing knowledge. During this in-person event, participants will learn to sew a seam, a hem and a button hole using a modern sewing machine. Our sewing machines are available for use after the class session, and anytime the MakerSpace is open, or BYOM (Bring Your Own Machine) if you’d like to learn how to use it. Registration is required.

The Past is Prologue: Visual Biographies – Friday, Nov. 4, 7 – 8 p.m.

The Past is Prologue is a bimonthly program that highlights topics often left out, glossed over, or misrepresented in our history books. For our November topic, artist Patti Streeper will detail her artistic process when choosing subjects for her visual-biographies series.

And much more happening this week »

In more than 25 years doing crucial materials handling jobs for Johnson County Library, Rose Crane has seen constant change but has thrived and always kept learning.  

Now it’s time for new adventures. Crane recently retired, feeling grateful for her colleagues and for a very fulfilling career. 

“I have enjoyed the people. I’ve worked with really great people,” Crane said in an interview. “Our Library, especially since COVID, is changing quite a bit and they are always looking for ways to be a better resource to the community.” 

Crane grew up in Kansas City, Mo., and frequented Kansas City’s old downtown Library as a child. She graduated from Northeast High and took classes at Penn Valley Community College before marrying and becoming a mom.  

Crane remembers reading a lot to her kids, who loved the Beatrix Potter books and the Frog and Toad series. She took her children to Johnson County’s Cedar Roe branch “because it had a great kids’ section.” 

When her youngest son was in middle school, Crane began working outside the home. Eventually she spotted a newspaper ad for a part-time courier/page position at Johnson County’s Central Resource Library. She applied and was hired in August 1996. 

She started out sorting materials but was so fast that the Library added processing/labeling duties. 

“It was active. I was learning a lot about the Library and the materials we had and how to prep them for the public,” she recalled. After a few years, she became a full-time Lead Processor.  

In the early 2000s, Library automation technology was changing fast and many processing and cataloguing tasks were outsourced or re-defined.  

Crane eventually was named Acquisitions and Processing Supervisor, overseeing the work flow from ordering to payments to receiving shipments to conferring with vendors. It’s a big job, involving nearly 150,000 items per year. 

While the Library staff was ever changing, Crane and a core group of coworkers bonded and became friends over the years. They included Jason Barnes, now Bibliographic Services Manager; Richard Baumgarten, Liz Schneeberg; Janet Woolsey, Mary Nicometo, Marie Lewis and the newest members, Alyssa Matzat and Dawn Brumbley.  

While Libraries nationwide deal with book-banning challenges, Crane says Johnson County Library has always had a philosophy of providing access.  

“This is what we stand for,” she said. “We don’t judge.” 

Crane and other materials-handling professionals were briefly furloughed when COVID struck but  they returned to work in May 2020. While Central was closed for renovations in 2021, they worked in a challenging warehouse environment but managed to maintain effective operations. 

“We kept reminding ourselves, we’re in this together. It’s all temporary,” Crane said. “I think that’s a mantra that we have even now, because there have been so many changes and everyone had to learn so many things.” 

She anticipates a busy retirement. Her granddaughters, ages 2-7, are a lot of fun. She will help with her church’s children’s ministry. And she plans to make her garden in Overland Park “a paradise.” 

For her co-workers she leaves words of encouragement. “Keep up the good work,” she said. “So long as you roll with it and have some patience and grace for one another, it’ll all work out.”