KITTIE WILKINS Horse Queen of Idaho

Slide Presentation at the Marshall Public Library, September 26,2009 Saturday,1:00p.m.

One of the most fascinating women of the Old West, KittieWilkins, the Horse Queen of Idaho, was the only woman at the turn of the twentieth century whose sole occupation was horse dealer. TheWilkins herd, the largest owned by one family in the AmericanWest, boasted 10,000 range-bred horses, all with the famous Diamond Brand. Wilkins sold horses by the train load, making the largest horse sale ever in the West when she sold about 8,000 head in a single transaction in 1900. She was featured in hundreds of newspaper articles in the United States and abroad.

Presented by Philip A. Homan of ISU’s Eli M. Oboler Library. Homan is writing the first biography of Kittie Wilkins, with support from the Idaho Humanities Council.

Folksinger Spook Handy in Concert Sept 24th

Folksinger Spook Handy will perform his first concert in Idaho at Pocatello’s Marshall Public Library, 113 S. Garfield Avenue, at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, September 24th. The concert is free to the public.
Spook's songs range from spiritual to songs about social responsibility, sometimes blatant, sometimes covert and are full of fictitious and real characters that have walked through his life. The settings of many Spook tunes come from the part-time jobs he's had.
The best description of Spook's musical style comes from fellow songwriter briz who says: "The lyrical wit of John Prine, the humor of Arlo Guthrie, the sincerity of John Denver, the boldness of Bob Dylan and the courage of Pete Seeger meld into a cohesive unit that emerges full of hope and promise."
Kim Ruehl of about.com named Spook “Best Folk Artist You’ve Never Heard Of” in 2006.
After his library concert, he will perform at Senang’s that evening at 7:30 p.m. Spook will also be a guest on an upcoming Library Radio Show.

FOLK SINGER BOB NELSON IN CONCERT AT LIBRARY SEPT 18TH

Folk singer Bob Nelson will perform at Pocatello’s Marshall Public Library, 113 South Garfield Avenue, Friday, September 18, 2009, at 2:00 p.m. This event is free to the public. Bob Nelson heard his first folksong at age 13 and for the next nine years built his repertoire of traditional folk songs. Since his retirement Bob has returned to his first love of folk music. He recently started a recording archive project, digitizing hundreds of cassette and vinyl recordings of various folk musicians, and documenting the background of each performer.
When Bob Nelson steps on stage, the room comes alive with his songs and stories. A vital performer, Bob shares his sixty years of song collecting, as well as his knowledge and love of their histories. His baritone voice and consummate guitar accompaniments enthrall audiences, young and old.
While in the area, Bob will also perform a concert at Senang’s on Thursday evening, September 17 at 7:30 p.m., and he will make a guest appearance on the Library’s television show While You’re at the Library.

Banned Books Week Sep 26- Oct 2, 2009

Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and has been held during the last week of September since 1982. While most books on the list were not completely banned, many have been challenged for one these three reasons: 1. the material was considered to be "sexually explicit" 2. the material contained "offensive language" 3. the material was "unsuited to any age group."
Intellectual freedom is an important part of our First Amendment Rights and in the words of Supreme Court Justice, William J. Brennan, Jr., “If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.
As I attended a Young Adult Literature conference last year, I was struck by a statement made by author Barry Lyga (Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy & Goth Girl, Hero Type, Boy Toy), who commented on the lack of sales of one of his newer books. “It’s one thing to take a book away and leave a void, but another to never even let it exist.” It turned out that the low sales were in part due to a major bookstore not even putting his book on the shelves because it was afraid of the subject matter.
In an article for the American Library Association (ALA), Peter P. Doyle states: “Attempts to censor can lead to voluntary restriction of expression by those who seek to avoid controversy; in these cases, material may not be published at all or may not be purchased by a bookstore, library, or school district.”
You might be surprised by some of the titles that have been challenged. To learn more about Banned Books Week and find lists, go to: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/index.cfm
For displays and more lists, visit Marshall Public Library during September.
--Kath Ann Hendricks, Young Adult Librarian

Thousands and Thousands of Books

What a wonderful summer we had! More than fourteen hundred children signed up for the summer reading program. And those kids read 11,104 books! That is a great achievement. If you visited the library any time from June through August you probably saw (or heard) some of the thousands of children who visited the library every week. It might not have been completely silent, but the library was certainly a place of creative, exciting learning. Each week children made art projects under the skilled direction of local artists, they listened to stories, performed in a drama group, and watched movies in the cool library.
Seeing the busy, involved children made an impression on many people. Even the tiny person who inhabits the area under the display case in the children’s area was affected. One day in the last week of August, after most of the children were back in school, we found a tiny note on the Youth Help Desk addressed to “The Huge Kids.” It was from our tiny
inhabitant, Hobs, thanking the children for a wonderful and entertaining summer. If you would like to read the letter, or see the statistics for our busy summer reading program, please stop at the Youth Help Desk and we would be glad to show you.
--Kathryn Poulter, Children’s Librarian