Patrons turned out to meet local author (and library director) Andrew Winkel and illustrator [...]]]> Around sixty visitors attended the Raceboy and Super Qwok Adventures reading/signing on Monday, March 5th, 2012. The library-sponsored event was held at the Clifton Community Building, and resulted in one of the highest turnouts for a library program in recent years.

Patrons turned out to meet local author (and library director) Andrew Winkel and illustrator Chris Brault who teamed up to create the book, Raceboy and Super Qwok Adventures. The evening included refreshments, a book signing, a presentation by Andrew Winkel on the origins of the stories, and a reading.

Reacquaint yourself with one of American literature’s most famous ghosts, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, in The Disappearance of Ichabod Crane: A Play in Five Acts by Andrew Winkel. An abridged version of this [...]]]> Now you can purchase The Disappearance of Ichabod Crane: A Play in Five Acts at the Clifton Public Library.

Reacquaint yourself with one of American literature’s most famous ghosts, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, in The Disappearance of Ichabod Crane: A Play in Five Acts by Andrew Winkel. An abridged version of this play ran from 2006 to 2010 at the Bourbonnais Township Park District’s annual Night at Sleepy Hollow event. Now for the first time readers can see the script as it was originally envisioned.

On the day following Ichabod Crane’s disappearance from Sleepy Hollow, school-children Tom, Mary, and Piper meet to lead a search party for their missing school-master. Over five acts, Winkel uses the frame of the school-children’s search to introduce characters and events from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. Through this device readers meet Ichabod Crane, Hans Van Ripper, Katrina and Baltus Van Tassel, Brom Bones, and of course, The Headless Horseman. Will they escape with their heads? Or do they join their school-master?

Winkel has also partnered Washington Irving’s  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow alongside the play. Not content to simply copy a public domain version from the Internet, this specially prepared edition was OCR scanned and edited from a 1920 copy of the story, then compared for consistency against three additional public domain versions. In addition to the original story, Winkel included over forty footnotes to help modern readers navigate the historical context of the story and Irving’s challenging vocabulary.
The 106 page trade paperback book is available for order through most bookstores, online retailers, and will be specially available at the Exploration Station gift shop (459 North Kennedy Dr., Bourbonnais) and the Clifton Public Library (150 East Fourth Ave., Clifton).  Purchase price is $8.95. ISBN 978-0-9837905-0-1.

Many of our patrons are aware that I wear multiple hats: I teach middle school in Bradley during the day, I work at the library most evenings and Saturday mornings during the school year, I live with my family in Clifton; here is another hat  that I wear: I am a writer and have created my own publishing company, Hierophantasm, to self-publish some of my work. As a local writer, there is no better place to have your work available to the public than the public library. I have already donated a copy to the library for those patrons who wish to simply read it without purchasing a copy. As of this posting date that copy is at our cataloging office to be added so it can circulate.

In a change that affects both the Clifton Public Library and the Central Citizens’ Library District, Lincoln Trails Libraries System ceased to exist on June 30th, 2011. Lincoln Trails consolidated with three other regional libraries to form a new system, the Illinois Heartland Library [...]]]> Note: this article was published on July 21st in The Advocate.

In a change that affects both the Clifton Public Library and the Central Citizens’ Library District, Lincoln Trails Libraries System ceased to exist on June 30th, 2011. Lincoln Trails consolidated with three other regional libraries to form a new system, the Illinois Heartland Library System. The new regional library system spans over 28,000 square miles, from Clifton in the north all the way to Cairo in the southern tip of the state. It includes over 1,100 libraries and supports over two million people.

At this time the transition should have minimal impact on local patrons, however the name change has caused confusion. Patrons using www.mymediamall.net to check out audio and e-book titles will no longer find Lincoln Trails listed as a member library. Patrons should instead select Illinois Heartland Library System and use the same patron barcode and pin number to request materials. While the Lincoln Trails website (www.lincolntrail.info) remains available, it now points visitors to www.illinoisheartland.org.

The transition to a new library system became a necessity during 2009 and 2010 when the State of Illinois fell increasingly behind in its funding obligations to the nine regional library systems. Consolidation became the only viable method of preserving services. Aside from the four southern districts combining to form Illinois Heartland, the five northern systems merged to form the Reaching Across Illinois Library System, predictably nicknamed, “RAILS.”

Regional libraries are essential to the success of local public libraries. Regional libraries provide consulting services, cooperative purchasing agreements, and professional development opportunities, all while synthesizing member library collections through electronic catalogs to allow interlibrary loan and delivery services. For example, in many months nearly half of the Clifton Public Library’s circulation comes from items that were either sent from Clifton to other libraries for their patrons, or requested from other libraries by Clifton patrons. Resource sharing allows member libraries to have access to materials that would not be possible with only an isolated local library.

Patrons with questions can call the Clifton Public Library, 815-694-2069, during business hours: weekdays from 2 P.M. to 7 P.M., and Saturdays from 9 A.M. to 12 P.M.

You may already know what you want to read next. Or, you might want to use the power of the internet to point you in a new direction. Nancy Messieh posted an informative summary of seven websites that can help you decide.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-sites-decide-book-read/

When the Clifton Public Library’s website went live in 2007, it was nothing more than a couple of HTML pages stored on a server. The biggest change was the revision to the Google Sites version, [...]]]> Miss our old site? It’s still active at http://sites.google.com/site/cliftonillinoispubliclibrary/.

When the Clifton Public Library’s website went live in 2007, it was nothing more than a couple of HTML pages stored on a server. The biggest change was the revision to the Google Sites version, which has last for the last three years. Now, in 2011, the library website will undergo a third update as we shift to WordPress.

No clever construction metaphors this time around, just updates. Expect vast changes as I try different themes on, modify content, and discover how WordPress can benefit the way we communicate.