Patrick Losinski, Director of the Columbus Metropolitan Library will share the interesting history of the library in Columbus and talk about running the #1 library in America.  Mr. Losinski’s lecture is entitled “The Columbus Metropolitan Library: Not Your Father’s Library!” Among the points Mr. Losinski will make in his presentation is the fact that the Columbus Metropolitan Library has been ranked the number one urban library system in the United States three times in the past decade. Other accolades heaped on the library include being named the top “five star” urban library by the Library Journal, a professional journal. In addition, he will discuss the changes and challenges that are occurring in libraries. These include major funding reductions, the advent of the Kindle and other electronic reading devices, the Google books project and similar events that are resulting in a steady evolution of library services and programs. Mr. Losinski will share the library’s story and reveal why the Columbus Metropolitan Library continues to thrive in an age of unprecedented change.

The Columbus Metropolitan Library has been serving residents of Central Ohio for more than 125 years. The Public Library and Reading Room opened in 1873 in the New City Hall and since has expanded to 20 branches and a Main Library. The collection includes 3 million items and is one of the most-used library systems in the country. Usage is based on such categories as circulation of materials, customer visits per hour and number of volumes owned per capita. Last year, customers borrowed more than 16 million items, made 8.2 million visits to the library and asked 1.2 million reference questions.

Mr. Losinski joined the Columbus Metropolitan Library as Executive Director in August 2002. Prior to that he was head of the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A native of Wisconsin, Mr. Losinski is a graduate of the UW Madison School of Library and Information Studies. Since coming to the Columbus Metropolitan Library, Mr. Losinski has overseen increased technology in providing library services.

Program is free and open to the public.

 

Thursday, February 11, 2010 --

To commemorate Black History Month, The Aldus Society will hear a presentation by Professor Rudine Sims Bishop. Dr. Bishop is Professor Emerita of Education at The Ohio State University, where she specialized in children's literature. A familiar name in the realms of children's literature, multicultural education, and literacy education as an educator, mentor, and researcher, Dr. Bishop has also been an essayist ("Stories Matter: The Complexity of Cultural Authenticity in Children's Literature") an editor (Kaleidoscope: A Multicultural Booklist for Grades K-8) and an author (Shadow and Substance: Afro-American Experience in Contemporary Children's Fiction; Presenting Walter Dean Myers; Bishop Daniel A. Payne: Great Black Leader). She has received many awards and honors, including the 2007 Outstanding Elementary Language Arts Educator Award from the National Council of Teachers of English. In addition, she has been on the selection committees for both the Caldecott and Newbery Medals, prestigious awards that are made annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.

Dr. Bishop's presentation to The Aldus Society is entitled “African American Children's Literature: Surveying the Hopescape”. Among the points she will make is that African American children's literature has functioned, in part, as witness to Black Americans' progress across what writer Virginia Hamilton called "the American hopescape." This talk will provide an overview of the development of that literature, a look at some of its prevailing thematic concerns, and a sense of its current status. Dr. Bishop uses the allegory of "window and mirrors" in relation to multicultural children's literature. She insists that children need to be involved with literature which not only allows them to see through the window to the world around them, but also to see themselves mirrored in the texts with which they come into contact.

This program is free and open to the public.

 

Thursday, March 11, 2010 --

David Lilburne of Antipodean Books, Maps & Prints in New York state, will be the Ron Ravneberg Memorial Lecture speaker. He has been a full-time antiquarian bookseller since 1976, and is immediate past president of the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (ABAA). Program is free and open to the public.

 

Thursday, April 8, 2010 --

We will be visiting the Ohioana Library and enjoy a tour led by director Linda Hengst. The library’s collection has more than 45,000 books, 10,000 pieces of sheet music, and approximately 20,000 biographical files on Ohio writers, musicians, artists, and others of note. THIS PROGRAM FOR MEMBERS and THEIR GUESTS ONLY.

 

Thursday, May 13, 2010  --

Miniature books, those tiny books that have fascinated book collectors for years (actually centuries!) will be the featured subject for this meeting. You’ll get to learn more about how and why these teeny tomes were first produced and hear more about the newly minted books which are being produced today. We’ll have many examples on hand for you to see, handle and enjoy. Program is free and open to the public.

First Saturdays are held at 10:00 AM in Room 105 (Rare Books and Manuscripts Department) at the Thompson Library at Ohio State University.  
Please see the OSU web site for directions.

 

Our First Saturday programs will begin a bit late this year because of several home football games and Geoff Smith's excused absence due to his trip to China to present several papers.

Smith, who heads Rare Books and Manuscripts at OSU, has been holding these programs in the Rare Books room (and then in their temporary headquarters on Kenny Road) for a number of  years. This is much to the delight of Aldus members who are able to experience once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to see, touch, and discuss the many interesting holdings in OSU's collections.

With the re-opening of the newly-renovated library, these programs will again be held in the Thompson Library on campus, beginning at 10 a.m. in the Special Collections Reading Room (room 105) on the first floor.

First Saturday programs are a special membership “bonus” for Aldus members. If you have any special collecting interests and would like to have Geoff share related items in OSU’s Rare Books and Manuscripts collection at one of these programs, contact him at smith.1@osu.edu.

Watch for details on First Saturdays in 2010!