Is your house 100 years old (or thereabouts) — built in 1915 or earlier?

If so, it’s time to celebrate your home’s place in Calgary’s history — and your role in ensuring its future.

Century Homes Calgary is a citywide celebration commemorating homes constructed during Calgary’s first building boom. Owners and residents are invited to share details and stories about their house, particularly during Historic Calgary Week 2012 — Friday, July 27, through Monday, Aug 6.

For details go to www.centuryhomes.org.

Learn more at a free workshop:

"Research the History of Your House"

Saturday, May 12, 10:30 - 11:30 AM

Local History Room of the Calgary Public Library (Central)

Register online starting April 23 at calgarypubliclibrary.com or by calling 403-260-2620

and get inspired. Come to:

Louise Riley Library's Jane's Walk

Sunday, May 6, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM

No registration required

Learn about the history of the houses, businesses and families in the Hounsfield Heights area on this fun neighbourhood walk in partnership with the Calgary Foundation. Details to follow in an upcoming blog post!

The photo at right is one of the Riley family's homes, 819 Crowchild Trail NW, later moved. Find this and other images of Calgary's history in the library's website under E-library>History and Genealogy> Community Heritage and Family History Digital Library> Alison Jackson collection.

By Kari

Now I have to admit that I’m being influenced by the book snob’s suggestions, although I bristle at the suggestion there is anything wrong with sitting on the couch eating Cheetos. To wit, I’ve just read two literary novels that might leak into his territory a little. But fear not, they are set in warm places, and the second is quite thin!

Brazil and Egypt. I enjoy learning about other places through novels, and in winter it's those warm settings that appeal! State of Wonder by Ann Patchett is the story of Marina, a scientist searching for her missing lab partner Anders in Brazil. First Marina has to find intelligent, single minded Dr. Swenson who lives deep in the Amazon pursuing her research. The first half of the novel is slow as Marina's locked up character is revealed. The reader experiences the same waiting frustration as Marina as she navigates Dr. Swenson's blockades. Then it's up the river into a female version of Heart of Darkness. The plot speeds up as the story explores the clash of western and native culture, whether the end justifies the means, and the pull of motherhood. The novel ends suddenly, with many plot threads still to be worked through. If you like deep exploration of character like in Patchett's Bel Canto, you will enjoy this book.

Anatomy of a Disappearance opens in Alexandria, Egypt. Author Hisham Matar gives us Nuri, a young boy mourning the death of his mother. He falls in love with a beautiful woman named Mona, whom his political dissident father weds. It is an uneasy trio of characters full of hidden motivations. When his father is kidnapped and disappears, Nuri struggles to understand. He slowly unravels the truth, and learns to live with the huge absence of his father. This is also a novel of characters facing terrible challenges.

Last Wednesday night Calgary's literary community was treated to a very special evening as Billy Collins read from his work to a very intimate audience of about five hundred people at the University of Calgary. If you are unfamiliar with Billy Collins, the library carries the majority of his published work. His poems are usually disarmingly straight-forward and funny. Think of a cross between Robert Frost and Woody Allen. For a more complete background on the man, and samples of his work, you can go on-line to the Poetry Foundation website. Go there now! I can wait. Be sure to read the one called "Introduction to Poetry" and I also really like the one called "Workshop" - but maybe that's just me.

Are you back yet? Good. Aren't those poems great? And you thought poetry was just a bunch of fluffy word games egg-heads play to make themselves feel smarter than you! Not so! Read some more Billy Collins and then some other poets, like say, Stephen Dunn, and pretty soon you'll be remembering that sad time in your life before poetry came along.

The truth is that there are as many different kinds of poetry as there are different kinds of music. In fact a lot of the music you already love probably already contains poetry. I'm not just talking Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan (who, rumour has it, was on the short-list for the Nobel Prize in Literature) but rappers and rockers often draw inspiration from poetry - and the lyrics they write are some of our best poetry. I distinctly remember in high school reading the lyrics to "Sympathy for the Devil" and realizing this too was poetry.

Today Calgary named its first ever Poet Laureate - local songwriter Kris Demeanor. In an interview with the CBC, Demeanor said that "part of my goal is to try and find fun, creative and interesting ways to get people into the enjoyment of language that aren't there yet" Perhaps, he means you! The Calgary Public Library has a number of Kris Demeanor CD's in our collection. So why not check one out and get an ear full of the cities new cultural ambassador.

And don't worry if neither Collins or Demeanor turn out to be the poet that changes your life. That poet is waiting for you somewhere in our collection - you just have to find her (or him).

March was a big month for the good doctor - you see,

"The Lorax," his movie, came out in 3-D!

Doctor Seuss you're so great! Shout children with glee -

I must borrow that book at my library!

With twisty-turny pipe-cleaners galore,

We cover the bookshelves, the ceilings and floor!

And if Doctor Seuss could help celebrate-

On his birthday, March fourth - he'd be one-hundred-and-eight!

So March was a big month for Dr. Seuss! His 3-D theatrical version of "The Lorax" came out on the 2nd and we celebrated his birthday on the 4th (perhaps you noticed our crazy-curly pipe-cleaners all over the children's area?)

This weekend I came across a really great crafty blog called Sweetopia that had fantastic Lorax cookie ideas, they looked like so much fun to try! Another crafty blog called Bakerella had cake pops of the Lorax! How much fun could you have celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday? Answer: Too much!

We have a couple great books at the library on cake pops and fun to make sweets - and - wait for it - if you check out our online e-books (by going to the Library home page, then click on -->E-Library --> Books Authors & E-Books -->Overdrive Downloadable E-books & Audio Books --> and type in "cake pop") we actually have a book by Bakerella!! So exciting!! I've put my hold on and can't wait to try something out!

by Bakerella

A great little modern brick building near Louise Riley Library is the "mystery" building next to the overpass leading from North Hill Mall to the north side of 16th Avenue. Its great features include floor-to- ceiling windows and an attractively landscaped "front yard" with shrubs, crabapples and a sweep of lawn. The only downside is the view of passersby from the overpass and the proximity to a busy road, but it has a large parking area. Add some new blinds, and it'd be a loft-like nice studio apartment for a modern architecture fan. But sorry folks, it's not for sale. I thought it was a sub-station, but now I'm not so sure. Anybody know its secret? Post a comment or name your favorite building in the neighbourhood...

Every Monday at 2:00 in the Louise Riley Program Centre, folks gather for 50+ Coffee and Conversation. Sometimes we have presentations on anything from Tai-Chi to downloading e-books. On days we do not have a presentation we talk about current events, travel, food and just about anything else over a cup of coffee.

On Monday, March 28th we will be doing something completely different; we'll be hosting a drop-in book club! The book we will be discussing is the 2009 Giller Prize winning novel, The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre. If you have read this book and wish to talk about it, why not drop in? The coffee is on us! If you haven't read this book, you still have time to!

The Bishop's Man tells the story of Father Duncan MacAskill - an enforcer employed by his bishop to discipline wayward priests and suppress potential scandal. Pushed to the breaking point by loneliness, tragedy and sudden self-knowledge, Duncan discovers how hidden obsessions and guilty secrets will either find their way to the lght of understanding, or poison any chance for love and spiritual peace.

Place a hold on a copy today and join us on March 28th!

By Laurie Schut

Over the past weeks I’ve written posts on a variety of subjects, and in the future (as movies I've seen recently get added to our dvd collection) more posts will appear. Topics have covered (and will cover) the English civil war, the skewering of Mother Theresa, the wonders of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, the beauty of Dylan Thomas’ prose, my love of Jane Austen, and Shakespeare and Company’s owner’s demise. I’ve thought about a hundred ways of discussing these things, and put them down in blogs for you to read. The library is a legacy for us all, books, DVD’s, CD’s, and now E-books. I see about a hundred people a day, discuss with them what might help their accounts, what they might want to read, how much fines they owe. It moves me beyond measure that people still want to read. That they want to expand their knowledge, and to recount the past, that they want, in short, to still be literate. There is so much out there competing for attention, most notably what I’m working on now, the internet. There is so much out there that manages to distort and repeat lies and misinformation. So to open a book, to trust the author with that information, is a sacred trust.

I’m glad to be working at the library, a place where we convene, for a little while, to discuss what books to watch for, what ones to miss.

What I noticed first about Louise Riley Library, besides the great location, is the neon "LIBRARY" AND "OPEN" signs. You don't see a lot of neon in and around buildings in the city anymore, but people fondly remember signs such as Kensington's Telstar Drugs, which is now in the Glenbow's collection. Once connoting urban decline, neon has been rediscovered in recent years as an art form. According to the Britannica Encyclopedia available online in our E-library, neon is a chemical element, a noble gas. If trapped in a glass tube and introduced to electricity, it glows orange-red. The art of the sign is in bending and shaping the glass to form letters. You can also find neon indoors in our Teenzone signs at some of the branches.

If you have any Calgary neon favorites please

comment...

We know you're out there.

Yes you. You paint. You draw. You knit. You crochet. You cast jewellery and blow glass. You decorate fantastic cakes and build majestic gazebos. How do we know? We see the books that are brought back by the dozens (somebody has to put them back on the shelf!), so we know you're feeding your creative urges and we just don't always get to see the final products.

So, when we can catch one of you this is what happens:

What are you reading right now?

From Eroica with Love and The encyclopedia of crochet techniques.

How long have you been crocheting?

Oh, about seven years. My momma taught me.

What's the cutest thing you've ever crocheted?

A really cute little amigurumi alarm clock from Crochet Today! magazine.

The strangest?

A beard.

Seriously?

Yep. It was part of a ski-toque. Oh I've also crocheted really hairy caterpillars from 75 birds, butterflies & little beasties to knit and crochet and I needed the encyclopedia of crochet techniques to figure out which stitch would make the best beard.

What's your next project?

Leg warmers, or spats... I'm not sure yet.

Why do you like to crochet?

I like to do something when I'm travelling (bus or car.) It's a portable medium and there's a large variety of things you can create with it. Every time I crochet something I strive to make it not look like it's from the 70's (laughs)

Do you listen to music while you work?

I really like Jill Barber, Michael Buble, Michael Kaeshammer and DAFT Punk.

Come to the library and check out the music Leah's into: