One Book Two Book Children’s Literature Festival
The third annual One Book Two Book Children’s Literature Festival, presented by the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature and sponsored by the Pearson Foundation, will be held Jan. 17-19, 2014.
June 17 Construction Update
The weather is getting warmer and along with the sunshine comes dreams of the new library and grand opening day–August 24! The staff are getting ready for the big move to the new building. Right now, our IT Department is taking computers into the new library and getting them ready for use. They have over… View more
May 20 Downtown Library Construction Update
The downtown library construction site continues to make progress as the crew works on completing the spaces and prepping the building for furniture, fixtures and equipment. Shelving, technology, furniture will all begin to appear on site in June.
The End is Near: Ladd Library Construction Continues
The Ladd Library, located at 3750 Williams Blvd. SW, is starting to look more and more like a library. One of the most highly anticipated features of this new permanent branch began installation this week–windows. The amount of natural light in this former retail space will be a wonderful addition for both our customers and… View more
A Jobs Lab Success Story
Mark Vogel was unemployed and seeking work. Three months ago he started coming to the Jobs Lab on Monday mornings from 9 – noon at the Cedar Rapids Public Library. A librarian by the name of Nancy helped him set up an email account, redo his resume, and learn how to apply for jobs online. Thanks to her help, he had three separate interviews with local companies and successfully landed a job.
Library Construction Projects Continue to Progress
Two libraries are under construction in our city and progress on both sites continues to move at a dramatic pace. The new downtown library has been fully enclosed for winter and temporary heat has been installed so that work can continue during the coldest months of the year. On the west side of town, the… View more
Banned Book Week Continues: the Grapes of Wrath
Our founding fathers protected our free speech knowing that a healthy, strong society must have a free exchange of ideas. Banning books is a fear-based exercise which tries [grapes of wrath] to block this exchange by suppressing words that might inspire or enlighten. When I come across a book that has been banned, I immediately want to read it to find out what it is that someone else thinks I shouldn’t know. That is why banning a book will never work .
Banned Book Week 2012
For the past thirty years, at the end of September, the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom holds Banned Book Week celebrating the [beware_med] freedom to read. Banned Book Week is an opportunity to bring communities together: librarians, publishers, journalists, teachers and readers of all kinds, and remember the importance of the freedom to seek and express ideas, even those some consider unpopular.
First Pallet of Books
Along with the destruction of the main library building, the loss of two-thirds of the collection in the flood of 2008 was tremendously devastating to the staff of the Cedar Rapids Public Library. While the building construction project continues to progress, the collection development team at the CRPL have been working for months to develop the opening day collection.
Latest Cedar Rapids Public Library Construction Update
Construction continues on the new Cedar Rapids Public Library and the progress is evident to passersby