Rowan Public Library Resources for the Musically Inclined

by Emma Rose  Rowan Public Library

Rowan County is rich with musical talent. One only has to visit any of the many open mic nights that take place in and around the downtown Salisbury area to know this to be true. Although we have many local professionals and celebrity musicians which are celebrated throughout North Carolina, I am especially fond of listening to the amateur and up-and-coming musicians that explore their abilities and express their talents for free.

I am a long-time lover of live music but have only recently taken the time to explore my own capabilities. My father and brothers have always played an array of instruments including, but not limited, to keyboard, drums, and guitar. I have collected many instruments over the years and currently have a music room equipped with three guitars, two keyboards, a microphone, and even a digeridoo, yet my instrument of choice has become the harmonica.

In November of 2017, I participated in a six-week beginner’s harmonica workshop taught in Concord, NC by professional musician, Todd Parrott. I was blown away by his overblows and drawn in by his draws. Parrott has been playing for nearly thirty years and has been called “One of the Tastiest & Most Accomplished Overblow Players Around Today" by Brendan Power, professional harmonica player and inventor of various harmonicas and tunings. For more information about Parrott visit his website at www.ToddParrott.com, or better yet, take one of his workshops!

I received my first true tin sandwich, a diatonic Hohner Special 20 in the key of C and I have been practicing any and every chance I get. To supplement my budding fascination for the mouth harp, I was able to find, not one, not two, but three harmonica guides in the non-fiction collection of Rowan Public Library! The items I’d found seemed to have my name written all over them:

·         Country & Blues Harmonica for the musically Hopeless by Jon Gindick [Non-Fiction – 788.82 GIN]

·         The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing the Harmonica by William Melton [Non-Fiction – 788.8219 MEL]

·         Mel Bay’s Fun with Harmonica: An Instruction method for diatonic, chromatic, and blues styling by William Bay [Non-Fiction – 788.8216 BAY]

I can’t think of a better New Years resolution than to bring more music into your life and into our community and Rowan Public Library can help! Rowan Public Library is home to thousands of items (Books, CDs, DVDs, oh, my!) to educate, engage, excite & encourage the musical entrepreneur. 

Another way Rowan Public Library offers patrons the opportunity meet their personal development goals that come along with the New Year are Gale Course. Gale courses are online classes which are instructor led, highly interactive, and structured enough to keep you learning and growing yet allow you the freedom to work at your own pace and comfort-level. As a library card holder in good standing, you are entitled to these courses at no cost. Courses run for six weeks and new sessions begin every month!

A couple of the wonderful Gale courses which may inspire a deeper knowledge and appreciation of music include:

·         Music Made Easy: earn the fundamentals of music theory. Be able to read, write, and play simple music. 

·         Introduction to Guitar: Master basic guitar skills and become the musician you've always wanted to be. 

To explore Gale Courses for yourself, visit Rowan Public Library’s website at www.rowanpubliclibrary.org, click or hover over the SERVICES & SUPPORT tab and then simply click Gale Courses.

Just want to listen and enjoy some great music? Then keep an eye out for the next free concert held at the Main Branch of Rowan Public Library in Downtown Salisbury sponsored by Cheerwine and the Friends of Rowan Public Library.

Emma Rose

Due: 12-22-2017

Libraries: Molding Our Communities

by Amber Covington  Rowan Public Library

Libraries have a place in every community. It is a place where people gather for meetings, exchange ideas, attend events for people of all ages, provides storage for masses of books, and is dedicated to ensure everyone has access to new and emerging digital tools.  Each day the library is open a group of students find a place to study after school, teachers are able to have meetings outside of school campuses, students of all ages locate books for pleasure reading or a rare history book to complete research for an assignment. A job seeker is able to research jobs on a computer and complete online applications. While another locates books on the shelf for examples of resumes and then proceeds to the computer lab to create one. The newspaper readers gather each morning together to read the latest news and swap with someone else once they have finished. Meanwhile children enter in and out of the Children’s Area with parents and caregivers for daily storytimes in the morning. At the top of the building, neighbors gather to research the previous owners of their home and the marks they left upon the community. While in the center of the building, a constant motion of people talking and books being returned and checked out happens in the Circulation Area.  

This details a glimpse of the actions of the many people that trek to the Headquarters library branch in Salisbury each day. Many are community members that are in need of computer use, free wifi, a meeting space, and an endless supply of low cost books to finish a home, personal, or school project. As a building, the library provides a place for people to relax outside of home and enjoy a place to meet to share ideas and gather knowledge. There are many resources available for readers of all ages in digital and print formats. Books and digital subscription databases are constantly purchased or renewed and library card users are key to shaping the types of materials offered at the library. The library users are the stronghold for keeping the library functioning as a community resource that can continue to provide access to the world by sharing  knowledge to all people in digital and print resources, community events, computer access and digital tools, and meeting spaces.

Free and open access to resources provided by the library allows the community to share ideas and increase appreciation for each other. Relationships are formed in every second the library is open and helps strengthen the community by being a facilitator of community users. People using the library’s resources are from a range of socio-economic backgrounds and continue to show support for the idea of sharing knowledge and building the community each day they visit, volunteer, or donate.

Using the library is critical for adults to model the need for an organization dedicated to providing free and open access, so local children will grow into adults and become the leading citizens of our community that recognize the various ways libraries changes the lives of our community.

Friends of Rowan Public Library Membership Offers Many Benefits, Opportunities

by Laurie Lyda Rowan Public Library

Do you frequent Rowan Public Library’s physical branches in Salisbury, Rockwell, and China Grove? Or do you usually peruse the e-Branch instead? Are you a fan of summer reading, storytimes, and other children’s programs? Do you enjoy the teen or adult programs? Or make use of RPL’s outreach services?  Or are you a community member who values the library, even though you have little time to enjoy its services? Or are you learning the community still and looking for ways to get involved?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, consider this an official “Friend request.”

Each December, the Friends of Rowan Public Library, a vibrant, volunteer nonprofit organization, sponsors their annual membership drive. While some members are heavily involved, membership doesn’t carry a service requirement: Instead, members choose their level of involvement and activity. An individual membership costs $10 annually, and a family membership is $15; applications with full joining details and membership options can be found online at www.rowancountync.gov/772/Friends-of-the-Library. Hard copies of the applications are available at any RPL branch.

You might be asking what the Friends do – well, settle in, my friend, and let me tell you a little about this wonderful organization and how it gives back to Rowan County.

RPL’s summer reading program includes events for childrens and adults and reaches thousands of Rowan County residents. Because of the Friends’ sponsorship, RPL is able to offer more summer reading programs and hold them at more venues.

The Friends sponsor the annual Stories by the Millstream festival each September. Typically held at Sloan Park in Mount Ulla, the festival celebrates the power of storytelling with several shorter sessions, each with a different teller, and culminates with a performance by a featured storyteller. All Rowan County second-graders from public, private, and home schools are invited to attend this festival, which runs during the regular school day. Then, that evening, the Friends sponsor the Millstream Family Storytime, a free event that is open to the public and to all ages.

In cooperation with Cheerwine, the Friends sponsor a free concert series. Past performers have included Wayne Henderson, Clay Lunsford, and Matthew Weaver (performing as a trio), the Thistledown Tinkers, and Logie Meachum. The next concert will be held Tuesday, Jan. 30, with performer to be announced.

The Friends support RPL and the communities it serves in many other ways, too – from the annual children’s Bookmark Contest to donating literary baskets for prizes, such as at South Rowan Regional’s recent  Fall Festival & Open House.

To fund these community outreaches, the Friends engage in many different fundraisers.  Anyone can participate, so even if you’re not a member of the Friends, you can still provide extra support for RPL.

Each fall, the Friends host a book sale that is the largest volunteer opportunity for its members. Those who choose to participate can help sort, organize, and run the book sale. The book sale is a mammoth-sized undertaking; this year, there were approximately 1,000 boxes of books for sale.  While these sales are a fundraiser, they’re a form of community support, too, offering a wide range of nonfiction and fiction books, DVDs, and specialty items at discount prices. The sales are also a lot of fun; I attend each one and always wind up getting several books at a great price.

Year-round, the organization has ongoing literary basket sales, including holiday-themed literary baskets. (So, if you are looking for the perfect gift for the booklover in your life, check out the selection at your nearest branch.) The Friends also sell great canvas tote bags that are useful and attractive for only $10 each. 

Each branch also has a year-round book sale with a limited and varied selection of books; hardbacks are $2 and paperbacks $1. The Friends also offer book and DVD rentals of recent bestsellers at each branch, so if you can’t wait to read John Grisham’s latest, and RPL’s circulating copies are checked out and/or on hold, you don’t have to wait – you can rent a copy!

The Friends’ annual membership drive, going on now, is another way the organization supports itself. In addition to offering members volunteer and community engagement opportunities, benefits include admission to the annual fall book sale’s preview night (before the sale opens to the public), a monthly newsletter, and a book or DVD rental coupon ($3 value).

This month, consider joining the Friends of RPL – your membership, no matter how active (or not) you choose to be, will make a tangible, positive difference in our community. Individuals are welcome to purchase memberships as gifts, too. For more information, call 704-216-8240.

New Acquisitions for the New Year

by Jenny Hubbard  Rowan Public Library

            I don’t make new-year resolutions, but I do make a list of books I’d like to read and books I’ve read that I like.  Allow me to introduce you to a handful of interesting, worthwhile reads that the Rowan Public Library has acquired since July.

Orphan Island, by Laurel Snyder, is targeted for 10-12-year-olds, but I’m 52, and I loved it.  Imagine yourself on a peaceful island cared for by other children; as you age, you become the one in charge. The only awareness of a world beyond this paradise is a small green boat that comes rocking across the ocean once a year to drop off a new orphan and carry away an old one.  For a young reader, the novel is a page-turning adventure; for an adult, it’s a lovely but haunting commentary on the fleeting nature of childhood.

Some childhoods are not nearly as happy as the ones spent on Orphan Island.  About The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir, by Alexandra Marzano-Lesnevich, I say proceed with caution.   The author spent ten years on this work, and, after reading this genre-bending work, I can understand why.  The writing is stellar—vivid and crystalline.  As she tracks the story a murder, Marzano-Lesnevich also investigates her family’s darkest secrets, and she does so with the accuracy of a scalpel.  If you prefer a dark truth to a lighter one, this memoir’s authentic voice is hard to beat.

If you welcome authentic voices in fiction, too, consider Stephen Florida, by Gabe Habash.  It’s a novel that I wish existed when I was teaching high-school boys; it’s gritty and raw and wonderfully strange.  Stephen Florida, a competitive college wrestler, is a loner out for blood and love and everything in between. If you’ve been wondering what goes through the mind of a male on the edge of adulthood, here’s your chance.

Or if you’ve wondered what it’s like to be in prison, try staying for a night or two at The Graybar Hotel, by Curtis Dawkins.  These fictional stories, which walk that fine line between comedy and tragedy, illuminate the mindsets and heartaches of the incarcerated. You would be hard-pressed to find a writer on this subject who is more credible than Dawkins, who, although he holds an MFA in fiction-writing, is serving a life sentence for a murder he committed during a drug-related robbery gone wrong.  

How about a family vacation gone wrong?  Maile Meloy’s Do Not Become Alarmed compelled me to stay up until 3:00 in the morning to find out what happens after a cruise-ship excursion takes a terrible turn.  This novel has both the pace of a thriller and the artistry of a prize-winner, a rare combination.  Meloy is a writer to keep on your radar screen.

So many books, so little time!  My list grows longer by the day, new titles on top of older ones.  Maybe 2018 is the year I finally tackle Middlemarch.  Rowan Public Library has a copy if you’d like to join me. 

Library Notes

by Amy Notarius Rowan Public Library