Library Event – Shakespearean Stage Combat Workshop

Join us on Sunday, May 6 from 2:00 – 3:30 pm in the library auditorium as we learn how to slap, punch and kick without getting hurt! Check out some of the swords and knives used on stage at the Great River Shakespeare Festival and talk about how to make actors “bleed.” Dress to move and plan to be on your feet for this interactive workshop!

Hooray for Saturday! May Schedule

Saturday’s are  awesome!

And what makes them even more awesome are the variety of fun events at the library!

In May we have:

May 5th: Bamber Valley Drummers

May 12th Family Films about Bikes

May 19th: Family Films about folk heroes

May 26th: StoryTime with Children’s Librarian Heather Accero!

Check out our events calendar for more details and even more awesome events!

June Events @ your library

Plan ahead for your summer!

June events at the library include visits from a magician, a rock star, and a 6-foot tall river otter.

Seriously!

on, Wednesday, June 13 – 10:00 am, Zumbro Zoe–a friendly 6-foot tall River Otter with a great sense of humor–on a guided tour of the water cycle as you hear stories about Zoe’s river animal friends and learn fun and simple ways that we can call keep our area rivers safe, clean, and healthy. River jokes, funny stories, magic tricks, and an Ecology Game Show make learning fun for children and adults. Sponsorship provided by Zumbro Watershed Partnership.

 

 

 

on, Thursday, June 14 – 10:00 am and 1:00 pm, Famous Children’s Recording Artist Justin Roberts returns to Rochester Public Library for a summer concert of musical fun! Clap your hands and sing along to your favorite tunes such as Yellow Bus and hear new songs from Justin’s latest CD. Sponsored by Friends of the Library.

on, Wednesday, June 27 – 10:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 7:00 pm, Minnesota magician Star Michaelina has been wowing audiences for over 15 years. She gets people of all ages excited about reading by combining her high energy, interactive magic show with tricks involving books.

And there is so much more! Check out our events calendar for more details!

History of Rochester Public Library – Chapter 1

The Rochester Library Association 1865-1898

Ireland’s bookstore in the Heaney Block.

A meeting was called on December 28, 1865 for the purpose of establishing a library. This meeting, as near as can be ascertained, was attended by C.H. Chadburn, Rodney Whitney, Lewis Walker, O.P. Whitcomb, W.W. Mayo, W.D. Hurlburt and others, and resulted in the organization of the Rochester Library Association.

 

 

 

This is Charles Henry Chadbourn. He came to Rochester in 1860 and incorporated Rochester National Bank in 1876. He was president of the Rochester Library Association until 1887 when he moved to Minneapolis.

At the second meeting of the Rochester Library Association on January 8, 1866, the group, J.D. Blake, O.B. Whitcomb, W.W. Mayo, R. Whiting, and W. D. Hurlburt served as the executive committee. They adopted a constitution and rented a reading room in W.W. Ireland’s bookstore.

In January of 1866, the sum of $1,000.00 was raised by subscription from Hurlburt, Mayo, John R. Cook, H.T. Horton and Judge O.P. Stearns for the purchase of 1000 books,which were housed in Ireland’s Bookstore.

An article in the August 1876 Rochester Post noted that negotiations had been in progress for some time for the consolidation of the Rochester Library and the Free Reading Room. The Library at that time was still in Ireland’s Store and the Free Reading Room was in the basement of the Post Office, which at that time was in the Odd Fellows Building on 2nd St.

This is Dr. William Worrall Mayo. He came to Rochester in 1863 as a surgeon for Union Army volunteers. He also served on the Rochester Library Association board.

 

This is John D. Blake. He came to Rochester in 1861 and opened a dry goods store which became J.D. Blake Co. in 1865. He was also part of the Rochester Library Association.

This is Ozora P. Stearns - a local judge and one of the early funders of the original $1,000 for the Rochester Library Association in 1866.

John R. Cook was the first president of the First National Bank in Rochester and one of the original funders of the first $1,000 used to purchase books for the Rochester Library Association. This photo was taken in 1864.

READ Poster – Father Nick Mezacapa

Nick Mezacapa is a priest, a motivational speaker, teacher, coach, radio personality, a cancer survivor, a stage actor and an advocate for literacy. His high spirits and inspirational personality make a great role model for us all.
If you haven’t seen Father Nick in action, you have a chance to see him at the next Rochester Public Library Foundation English Evening fundraiser on April 26th, 2012 where he will be performing “The Compleat Works of Shakespeare (Abridged).”

Calling all local artists!

The Rochester Public Library is in the process of getting a new bookmobile and we need your help.

The bookmobile needs to look awesome. We have a general concept in mind that we want to see on it, but we need an artist to help us in creating the art for it.

Here are the criteria we need for this project:

• The design must contain illustrations of people (no photos) who represent our diverse community.
• The people must be reading and/or interacting with each other in a library setting
• The design must have bookshelves incorporated in the design but they are not the main focus.
• The design must be transferred into digital format (the final work must be a vector image)
• The design will be covering the entire bookmobile which will be approximately the size of a semi-truck and trailer. (Exact dimensions will be available.)

If you are interested in helping us with designing the art for the new bookmobile, submit a sample of your work and a bid for consideration by Friday, April 20.

For more information, please contact Ginny at:

phone: 507-328-2340
email: verbe@rochester.lib.mn.us
Comment on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RochPubLibrary
Wordpress: just comment to this post
Twitter: RochPubLibrary

Visiting Author – Margaret Regan

Join us for a Visiting Author presentation on Saturday, April 28 at 1:00 pm.
The Death Of Josseline: Immigration Stories from the Arizona-Mexico Borderlands by Margaret Regan.

For more than a decade, Margaret Regan has reported on the chaos along the Arizona-Mexico border, ground zero for immigration since 2000. Undocumented migrants . . . cross into the state in overwhelming numbers, pushed into its dangerous deserts by a U.S. border policy that seals off safer urban crossings. In peak years, Border Patrol agents in Arizona’s Tucson Sector catch more than a thousand migrants a day. And Arizona has the highest number of migrant deaths. Set against the dramatic landscape of the untamed West—a rocky wilderness of mesquites and cacti, where summer temperatures hit 115—Regan’s book tells stories of the people caught up in this international tragedy. Traveling to both sides of the border, she visits migrants stranded in Mexican shelters and rides shotgun with the Border Patrol, hiking with them in the scorching Arizona desert.

Margaret Regan worked as a French editor for TV Guide magazine and as a children’s book editor in New York before she turned to journalism. Since 1986, she has lived with her family in Tucson, 64 miles from the border with Mexico. She has won many awards for her border reporting, her arts criticism, and her stories on the Irish immigrant experience. Formerly a staff writer for the Tucson Weekly, she is now a freelancer.

Facilitated discussion to follow the author presentation.

Are you coming? Facebook it!

Demystifying Family Photos

Have you ever found a shoebox of old photos and wondered when they were taken? The Blue Earth County Historical Society is here to help solve the mystery.

Bring some old photos to the library on Thursday, April 26th at 1:00 and get some help finding out when they were taken.

The Rochester Public Library invites you to the program Demystifying Family Photographs: Clues for Dating and Identifying Photos from 1840-1920. Photographs will be examined by using photographic technology, clothing, and hair styles to approximate the dates they were taken. Participants are encouraged to bring photos for help in dating them. Presented by the Blue Earth County Historical Society.

This program was funded in part or in whole with money from the Minnesota’s Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.

World Book Night U.S.

Spreading the love of reading, person to person

World Book Night is an annual celebration of reading and books, which will see tens of thousands of people share books with others in their communities across America to spread the joy and love of reading on April 23, 2012.

Six of the Friends of the Library volunteers have been chosen to be “givers” for this special evening.  Look for them on the west side of the Peace Plaza downtown where they’ll be giving out copies of six different books beginning at 5pm.

What’s new @ the library – copy machines

We have  two new copy machines!

Our old machines were so outdated that there were no parts being made for them anymore. It was time to replace them.

A BIG thank you go to the Friends of the Library for funding the purchase of these two machines.

This is one of the new public copiers. This one is located on the second floor against the back wall near the rest rooms. If you need assistance with this machine, please do not hesitate to ask any library staff person to help you.

This photo from the Post Bulletin was found in the library’s scrap book.
Did you know that the Library installed it’s first copier in 1966 and the cost per copy was 25¢ per page.