Library Column for April 24, 2019

@ Your Library

Information. Knowledge. I am curious about how the world works and want to discover new and exciting things. Take the picture of the black hole for instance. It is wondrous and awesome that a young woman (still in her thirties) identified the desire to get a photograph of a black hole as a teenager and has spent years working towards that goal. A goal that took 5 petabytes of data to accomplish and an algorithm for a new method of imaging. I may not have such sky-high goals, but I love gathering data and learning new things through books, articles, podcasts and yes, even the Internet. Here are some new books that are intriguing, brand new and just waiting for me to have enough hours to read.

The human immune system has always intrigued me and I’m glad I am not the only one. Why Aren’t We Dead Yet? by Idan Ben-Barak is ‘the curious person’s guide to the immune system.’ He explores the immune system as well as the role of antibiotics and vaccines and takes a gander at what the future holds for humanity’s chances of not being dead.

Margaret Leslie Davis has written a fascinating story about just one of the forty-eight Gutenberg Bible’s in existence.  She traces the history of the copy permanently residing in a steel vault in Tokyo across five centuries from its creation by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany in The Lost Gutenberg. Discover a bit about the world of rare-book collectors, the value of books to the world and the scientific knowledge gained from studying the book with the machine that isolated plutonium for the first atomic bomb.

Underground by Will Hunt is the human history of the worlds beneath our feet. Will is another individual who discovered their quest for knowledge young, he was sixteen when he first discovered an abandoned tunnel that set off his exploration of the subterranean world.

Maria Popova is yet another person whose love of facts has led her life. Figuring, her latest, explores the complexities of love and the search for truth and meaning.

Tomorrow, April 25th at 10:30am is the last storytime until June when storytime will return at its normally scheduled time of 10:30am Thursday mornings! Join us for thirty minutes of stories, rhymes and more followed by free play time exploring the world through toys and play.

The library is changing! Expect to see some construction in the library over the next month or so as we build a recording studio.  This project is made available through the generosity of memorial funds and will enable us to help community members not just consume Internet content but create their own whether music, speaking or potentially video. Are you interested in creating a podcast, recording an original song then keep an eye out for further information or stop by the library and let us know your interests and we will keep you up to date on when the space will be available for use.

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