Bi-weekly Trivia Question…

This time we ask what is the lowest point on land on Earth?

NELA Summer: Documentary Discussion

 

Explore issues of the environment, share your thoughts, and learn from the thoughts of others. Watch The Human Element via Kanopy and then join us for a lively discussion centered on the ideas and issues it raises on July 20 at 6:00.  The discussion will take place via Zoom.

Register for the program at: bit.ly/3sHaRAh

If you have questions email: palvarado@lapl.org

[About the film] During his four-decade career as a photographer and explorer, James Balog has focused his lens on the complex relationship between humans and nature. Human activity has now surpassed all other forces shaping our world. Balog's work has challenged us to contemplate our place in, and responsibility to, the natural world. Balog investigates how altering the elements is in turn affecting everyday Americans right now…. Balog argues that humans are part of the whole system of nature and not apart from it. Knowing this, he finds great hope that the fifth element, the human element, can bring the whole system back into balance.

This is the fourth in the NELA Summer program series.  Visit [bit.ly/3t5lcq0] for information about other programs in the series.

Programming Coming up This Week

Are you already signed up for Summer Reading? If not, now’s the time. Visit lapl.org/summer to get registered.  Then check out some of the exciting programming on offer from the library this week.  Visit our online calendar for the complete selection…

Monday
10:00 Nathalia's Bilingual Family Concert (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
7:00 Pajama Storytime (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)

Tuesday
10:00 Storytime Online (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
7:00 Richard Foss presents “The Strangest Cooking Methods in the World” (email westla@lapl.org for link)

Wednesday
10:00 Storytime Online (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
6:00 Creative Writing Workshop (email mpanzera@lapl.org for link)

Thursday
10:00 Storytime Online (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
4:00 LA Made: Interdependence With Our Dolphin & Whale Neighbors (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)

Friday
10:00 Storytime Online (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
4:00 Your Author Series: Mary McCoy (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)

Saturday
9:30 Zumba with Lula (email vmagaw@lapl.org for link)

Catch up with us on various sites...

    LAPL platforms:    
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lapubliclibrary/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lapubliclibrary/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/losangeleslibrary

    Arroyo Seco Social Media:    
Blog: arroyoseco5.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArroyoSecoLibrary
Instagram: www.instagram.com/arroyosecolapl
Twitter: twitter.com/arroyoseco5

History of Highland Park….

Wrangling over the extension of the 710 freeway has been going on for a very long time as evidenced by this file of articles from 1974 about a proposed westerly extension of the 710 that would have had it join up with the 110 right around York Avenue.  Take a look at the whole series for the advertisements & other articles that were included in the scanning of the principal articles on the topic of the freeway expansion.  All in all, quite interesting. 

Bi-weekly Trivia Question (Answer)….

 

This time we asked for the image that was on the front page of the local Japanese language newspaper on 11/15/1923.  The image is the one you see above. 

It was easy to find if you know that the local Japanese language newspaper is called Rafu Shimpo and that the library has access to its archive of issues.  Rafu Shimpo is the longest running Japanese American newspaper in the United States and is based in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles. It began in 1903 and by the 1940s it was the most widely circulated paper in the region and included a weekly English section for second generation Japanese Americans. The Digital Archive contains all obtainable Rafu Shimpo published issues from 1914 through 2018 and includes access to rafu.com for current issues. You’ll find it listed alphabetically under R on LAPL’s Research & Homework page and can access it with your library card

Inferior

 

In her book Inferior Angela Saini explores what science has said historically about women and what it is saying now.  She addresses the history of science saying that women are inferior before moving on to take a closer look at what science is starting to say about women.  She breaks her look up into life stage and addresses the question at each phase from infancy through menopause. 

This is a fascinating book that attempts to take an even handed and unbiased look at women as human and women in contrast to men.  I would recommend it.

Programming Coming up This Week

Are you already signed up for Summer Reading? If not, now’s the time. Visit lapl.org/summer to get registered.  Then check out some of the exciting programming on offer from the library this week.  Visit our online calendar for the complete selection…

Monday
Closed in celebration of Independence Day

Tuesday
10:00 Storytime Online (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
6:00 Celebrate Frida Kahlo (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)

Wednesday
10:00 Storytime Online (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
3:00 It's Sew Cool/Knit & Crochet Circle (email twelch@lapl.org for link)

Thursday
10:00 Storytime Online (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
4:00 LA Made: theatre dybbuk (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)

Friday
10:00 Storytime Online (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
4:00 Your Author Series: Samira Ahmed (LAPL Facebook/YouTube) 

Saturday
2:00 NELA Summer: Recycled Origami (Register: bit.ly/3sHaRAh)

Catch up with us on various sites...

  
    LAPL platforms:    
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lapubliclibrary/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lapubliclibrary/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/losangeleslibrary

    Arroyo Seco Social Media:    
Blog: arroyoseco5.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArroyoSecoLibrary
Instagram: www.instagram.com/arroyosecolapl
Twitter: twitter.com/arroyoseco5

Science Fun: The Night Sky…

Want to know what to look for in the night sky in July? Check out NASA’s Skywatching page for all the things to look for as well as all the information explaining what you see.  

Note… Venus is joined by Mars in the July twilight. Watch them come closer each evening, culminating with a super-close pairing on July 12. And 'tis the season for enjoying the Milky Way core!

History of the Library

This week let’s detour away from History of Highland Park posts to look at an interesting Library document.  Here we have “The Forty-Sixth Annual Report of the Board of Library Commissioners of the Los Angeles Public Library.” The report is for the 1933-1934 fiscal year.  Those with a bit of historical acumen will not be surprised that this was a fiscally difficult period for the library, with the report noting cuts in salary, book buying, and even service hours.  Reading on you’ll find the library circulated more than 13 million items that year, what specific work was done in the various library departments, and the work in branches.

This is an interesting document that lets you take a first-hand look of the impact of the Great Depression on a city institution.  Take a look.

Bi-weekly Trivia Question…

This time let’s ask for the image that was on the front page of the local Japanese language newspaper on 11/15/1923.

Arroyo Book Club July Pick….

 

Weather by Jenny Offill will be our July pick.  Cherry picking from a few reviews we find:

“Weather holds its own with the strongest examples of the new non-speculative climate fiction. It has the feel of a classic, the kind of book that future humans will read in order to figure out what people were thinking in the early decades of the twenty-first century.”
—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Brilliant. . . . Offill’s writing is often brisk and comic, and her book’s format underlines her gifts. . . . Weather is her most soulful book. . . . Offill’s humor is saving humor; it’s as if she’s splashing vinegar to deglaze a pan.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“Tiny in size but immense in scope, radically disorienting yet reassuringly humane, strikingly eccentric and completely irresistible. . . . Luminous.”
 —The Boston Globe

“Time flies by in this wry story of a family—librarian Lizzie, her classics buff husband, their son, and her brother, a recovering addict. Apocalypse (climate and otherwise) looms over the narrative, and yet it is funny and hopeful too.”
—Vanity Fair

“[Weather] solidifies the author's place among the vanguard of writers who are reinvigorating literature.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine

The book is available in e-book and e-audiobook form via Overdrive/Libby.  Find the e-book here  and the e-audiobook here.  You may also stop by the library, we are now open, and pick up a paper copy.

We will meet via Zoom to discuss the book on July 24 at 3:00.  Be sure to email me at ayosco@lapl.org if you plan to attend so I can make sure you are on the link list.

Walk Highland Park….

 

Join us as we explore Highland Park on foot.  Get a bit of exercise and enjoy the company of other library patrons.  We’ll meet in front of the library on Figueroa at 9:30 and set off.  Dogs are welcome to come too.

Programming Coming up This Week

Are you already signed up for Summer Reading? If not, now’s the time. Visit lapl.org/summer to get registered.  Then check out some of the exciting programming on offer from the library this week.  Visit our online calendar for the complete selection…

Monday
10:00 Thor's Reptile Safari Show (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
12:00 Buying a Home (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)

Tuesday
10:00 Storytime Online  (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
4:00 LGBTQIA Youth Mental Health Panel Discussion (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)

Wednesday
10:00 Storytime Online  (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
3:00 Dive into Language: Korean for kids (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)

Thursday
10:00 Storytime Online  (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
4:00 LA Made: California Native Garden tour  (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)

Friday
9:30 Walk Highland Park  (in person event—Meet in front of the library on Figueroa)
10:00 Storytime Online  (LAPL Facebook/YouTube)
 
Saturday
11:00 Docent Tour of Central Library Virtual (email docents@lapl.org for link)

Catch up with us on various sites...

     LAPL platforms:     
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lapubliclibrary/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lapubliclibrary/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/losangeleslibrary

     Arroyo Seco Social Media:     
Blog: arroyoseco5.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArroyoSecoLibrary
Instagram: www.instagram.com/arroyosecolapl
Twitter: twitter.com/arroyoseco5

NELA Summer: Recycled Origami

Join us on Saturday, July 10 via Zoom and learn how to use recycled paper to make beautiful origami. Before the program collect paper (junk mail, newspaper, magazines, whatever you have to hand), scissors, pen or pencil, and a ruler or straightedge.

Register for the program at: bit.ly/3sHaRAh

If you have questions email: palvarado@lapl.org

This is the third in the NELA Summer program series.  Visit [bit.ly/3t5lcq0] for information about other programs in the series.