What's New!

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An Assistive Technology Station is an area set aside with equipment and software designed to help patrons who are blind, visually impaired, or those who have limited or no use of their hands to assist them with reading and writing tasks and accessing other resources on a personal computer. Pikes Peak Library District has two such stations: at Penrose and East libraries.

A typical station is equipped with an adjustable table, a large-print keyboard, a track ball mouse, headphones with attached microphone, and speakers. The computers are loaded with specialized software.

Although Library staff have a general knowledge of what is available at each location, it is the patron who becomes the expert user. The applications are so specialized with numerous hot keys and set-up requirements, they are mastered only as one spends time using each program.

For more information about these stations, you can watch the PPLD TV video above, email dmassie@ppld.org, or call (719) 531-6333, x1371 or x2309.

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Music Book

Pikes Peak Library District employee Vincent Colicchio never considered himself an artist, but he became one nonetheless, through the curiosity and caring he exhibited at his job in Circulation at PPLD’s downtown Penrose Library.

According to Colicchio, “It began by me saying, ‘That’s a treasure. That shouldn’t be thrown out.’ "

Colicchio handles books for a living, so he sees a lot of them on a daily basis. But he recently found his love of books extending to damaged books that were being discarded.

“I, like other people who work in libraries, get heartbroken when I see books in the recycling bin. I think it’s a waste,” he said.

When Colicchio turned his eye to the bare shelves behind the checkout desk at Penrose Library, the altered book project began to take shape.

“I was telling my supervisor, ‘You know we could jazz it up back there.’ I said, ‘We’ve got this space, we should do some displays.’

“Then around Christmastime, my supervisor said, ‘I like your ideas. Go ahead and make a display and let me know if you need anything.’

“I hadn’t really intended to do anything myself, so I was like, ‘Oh no! Now I actually have to do something!’ So I did some altered books around the holidays in a matter of just a few days just to have something there.”

Colicchio said he found books in the Library’s Catalog on how to make altered books (see below), and then he found “quotations by writers that I liked and really reflected the spirit of a book and its relationship to a reader. And those became the focal point. By just contemplating that quote, vague visions and imagery would come up, and I would try to follow it and let it grow as I was creating each altered book.”

“It just lends itself to being at the library. It’s recycling and it’s creativity inspired by books we have in our catalog that have the techniques on how to do it.”

Colicchio recently donated two of his altered books to the Colorado Library Education Foundation for their upcoming silent auction to raise funds for scholarships for Colorado library employees to attend Colorado Library Association and division workshops and the annual CAL conference. Colicchio’s art speaks to the great potential of books -- even discarded books--to enrich and change lives.

The images below show the extreme care and detail Colicchio brings to his work. The work is even more impressive in person and is currently on display in the Friends Bookstore in East Library.

Materials Available at PPLD on Altered Books
The Repurposed Library by Lisa Occhipinti
New Directions in Altered Books by Gabe Cyr
The Altered Books Workshop by Bev Brazelton

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All Pikes Peak Reads 2012

Pikes Peak Library District is partnering with The Story Project on Friday, October 12 at 7 p.m. to bring stories of Survival to the Colorado Springs community. This event is part of PPLD’s All Pikes Peak Reads 2012 program.

Do you have a 15-minute story about Survival you’d like to share? Send your submission and phone number to Story Project founder Sharon Friedman: sharonsfriedman@aol.com. All stories are told without notes (not read). If selected, you will tell your story to a live audience at the October event.

The Story Project occurs at 7 p.m. every second Friday at The Marmalade at Smokebrush, 219 W. Colorado Ave., located in The Trestle Building under the Colorado Avenue Bridge. Stories are aired on KRCC at 1 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month.

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Jamey Hastings

At a ceremony on Saturday, July 21 in Denver’s Seawell Grand Ballroom, Pikes Peak Library District Multimedia Producer Jamey Hastings was awarded a 2012 Heartland Emmy Award in the Interstitial Program category for her piece, “Colorado Springs Beat: The News Photography of Stan Payne.”

The short documentary chronicles the work of Stan Payne, a Gazette Telegraph employee from 1947 to 1976, and was based on research by PPLD Special Collections Assistant Manager Dennis Daily. The Heartland Chapter Emmy Awards represent excellence in television and media production.

“This is a huge honor,” Hastings said. “There were a lot of great submissions and I’m so thrilled that our piece was chosen.”

 

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Your Library, it's worth it!

Have you ever wondered how much PPLD is financially worth to you?
Try our return on investment calculator.

We are very interested in what you think about this feature.
Please feel free to share your thoughts with us!

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Food by the Book

In conjunction with the recently-concluded series of programs called Food by the Book, PPLD has created this online cookbook. Share your most delicious recipe by adding it as a comment below. (Limit two recipes per person, please.)

Although the submission deadline to be entered into a drawing for a $50 Whole Foods gift card has passed, you can still share your recipes. The winner of the gift card will be notified soon.

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If you have Library materials that were destroyed or damaged in the Waldo Canyon fire please visit the Library. If the items were destroyed, please bring a photo ID. We prefer that you bring damaged items to the desk to protect other materials in our book returns from smoke and moisture.

If your house or cars were broken into during the fire, please bring a copy of the police report.

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Memories of the Waldo Canyon Fire

Pikes Peak Library District wants to preserve the record of the historic Waldo Canyon Fire and its effects on our community. We are doing this in several ways:

  • We are collecting images for an online photo gallery (see below), which you can send to photos@ppld.org. Feel free to include any personal accounts associated with the image, which we will use as a caption. Please note that we cannot receive email attachments larger than 8 megabytes at a time. If you have multiple images, please send them individually. Please limit your submission to five photos total.
  • In addition, we are seeking video and high-resolution photos for our Special Collections archives for use by future researchers. If you have video or high-res pictures you would like to donate to our collection, please email us at photos@ppld.org with “Archives” in the subject line so that we can arrange acquisition of your photo or video. Do not email your high-resolution images, but you can send samples. Keep in mind we have an 8 megabyte attachment limit. Please do not email video files, but links to online streaming (YouTube, etc.) of your video footage are okay.
  • Some of our libraries have Memories of the Waldo Canyon Fire bulletin board on which you can share your personal accounts and photographs of the Waldo Canyon Fire. Experiences and images attached to these bulletin boards will be used in upcoming Library displays and added to PPLD’s Special Collections archive. These bulletin boards are located at the Rockrimmon and East libraries.

Here are some of the photos we have collected so far. To view information about the images, hit play, click on the full screen button (bottom right), and then “Show Info” in the top menu bar.

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The Waldo Canyon Fire has had an effect on our library service and a lingering effect on every other aspect of community life.
Many of our patrons, staff, volunteers, and community stakeholders have been personally affected by the fire. And, our staff have been flexible and creative, as we have responded to new and evolving needs for library services over this past week.

PPLD provided laptops for use in the area’s temporary Red Cross Shelters. There, our staff also assisted evacuees in seeking information online. On our website, ppld.org, we are continuing to provide links to the most current resources and information available, for those affected by the fire and for those seeking to provide assistance. Through the generous donation of books by the Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District, we have also supplied books for adults and children in the shelters, throughout this emergency.

Two of our community libraries (Rockrimmon and Ute Pass) are still closed due to mandatory evacuations. We request your patience, once those evacuations are lifted, for us to get back into the buildings and mitigate smoke or other damage before safely re-opening to the public. Though other branches were in pre-evacuation areas, we were pleased that we were able to maintain service there and in the rest of the District. Our facilities provided a physical respite from the temperatures and smoke outside; our internet and print resources provided informational tools and leisure reading inside; and our staff provided welcoming conversation and a comforting environment in a time of tense emotional stress.

You are not just our clients. You are our friends and neighbors, and we are here for you. I am privileged to work in an organization, and with all of our library District employees, who care so much about their community. We are proud to be a part of the Pikes Peak region and, along with each of you, look to the future with great expectation. Though there has been much damage and tragedy, though the fire still rages in places, and though there will be much more residual impact to deal with over the next several weeks and months… yet there is hope. The resiliency of the community and the compassion of residents have been plentiful and rewarding.

Because our libraries are places where words carry great meaning and convey inspiration, I feel compelled to share with you soft and simple words of hope from poet Langston Hughes...

"In Time Of Silver Rain"
In time of silver rain
The earth puts forth new life again,
Green grasses grow
And flowers lift their heads,
And over all the plain
The wonder spreads

Of Life,
Of Life,
Of Life!

(First verse from Langston Hughes’ "In Time of Silver Rain")

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