The Free Library’s project, “Milestones in 20th-Century American Children’s Literature,” funded by a Council on Library and Information Resources grant, got off to a roaring start this summer when a special collections archivist and three part-time archives assistants were hired. The archivists are creating finding aids for the collections of six renowned authors of children’s literature, including Tomi Ungerer, Evaline Ness, Virginia Lee Burton, Robert Lawson, Lloyd Alexander, and Carolyn Haywood. These finding aids will be available through the library’s online catalog when the project is complete. The archivists are also creating item-level Dublin Core records so that a selected number of the documents and artwork can be digitized. 

The first part of the project to be completed was the cataloguing of the Evaline Ness papers. Ness (1911-1986) was an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books. She began her career as a fashion model and illustrator. In 1938, she married famous Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, and while he worked in Washington D.C. during World War II, she studied art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. After their divorce in 1946, she continued her career as a successful illustrator in New York. In 1954, she began illustrating children’s books and infinitely preferred it to the “rat-race” of the advertising world. Her books for children include the Caldecott Medal winner Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine (1967), the American Library Association Notable Book Josefina February (1963), Exactly Alike (1964), and Fierce the Lion (1980).

Her papers at the Free Library include her illustrations for Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series, as well as illustrations for Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog by Sarah Catherine Martin. The collection is relatively small, but the artwork it contains is beautiful and innovative, using many different artistic media to create a sense of whimsy and fun (for Old Mother Hubbard) or an atmosphere of adventure and mystery (for Alexander’s Prydain books). A display featuring facsimiles of these items will soon be installed on the ground floor of the Central Library, near the children’s department. You can also follow this project’s progress on the new Children’s Literature Research Collection Facebook page! The archivists will be discussing particularly interesting finds there, and on this blog, for the duration of the project, and will also announce related displays, exhibitions, and talks.

The Children’s Literature Research Collection is open by appointment, M-F 9-5. For more information, please call 215-686-5370.
 

Tags: CLIR Grant, Children's Literature Research Collection, archives

September 25 - October 2 is Banned Books Week, sponsored by the American Library Association. Banned Books Week calls attention to issues of censorship while celebrating the freedom to read.

Tonight--Wednesday, September 29--the Free Library will host a Banned Books reading at 7:30 p.m. in the Parkway Central Library's Montgomery Auditorium, in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union. Tonight's Banned Books celebration will be emceed by performance poet, Lamont Dixon, and guest readers will read selections from frequently banned books. These guest readers include famed folk musician John Wesley Harding; local authors Greg Frost, Merrie Jones, and Dennis Tafoya; Scribe Video founder Louis Massiah; and “Philly Poe Guy” Ed Pettit. The Banned Books program will also include a discussion of the controversy over banned books and the freedom to read.

In honor of Banned Books Week, the American Library Association lists the top 10 most frequently challenged books of 2009.

1. ttyl; ttfn; l8r, g8r (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: drugs, nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

2. And Tango Makes Three, by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: homosexuality

3. The Perks of Being A Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: anti-family, drugs, homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, suicide, unsuited to age group

4. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language, racism, unsuited to age group

5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: religious viewpoint, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

6. Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

7. My Sister’s Keeper, by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: homosexuality, offensive language, religious viewpoint, sexism, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence

8. The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

9. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

10. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
Reasons: nudity, offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group

You can also check out the ALA's full list of the most frequently banned books from 2000-2009. Do any of your favorites appear?

Tags: Banned Books, Events at the Library, reading

A few changes have been made to the Free Library's blog to make it more user-friendly and easy to read. These changes include:

• When you click the author's name on a post, it will link to all posts written by that author.
• You can subscribe via RSS feed to posts by a particular author. Just click the orange RSS icon next to the author's name!
• When you click to add a comment, the comment form appears on the same page as the post.
• The precise comment count is now displayed at the bottom of the page.

We hope these updated features enhance your blog reading experience!
 

The Free Library will be holding a memorial service for Carolyn Wicker Field, our former Coordinator of Work with Children, this Saturday, September 25 at 11:00 a.m. in the Skyline Room of the Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine Street, 4th floor. Members of the public are welcome to come and remember Ms. Field with others who were also touched by her innumerable contributions to the Free Library and her dedication to the field of children’s librarianship.

We look forward to seeing you and celebrating the life of a very special librarian.