Eleventh Stack’s Best of 2016
Well, it’s been quite a year. Many of us have suffered great losses, from family members and friends to celebrity muses like David Bowie and Prince. But we’ve also been gifted with wonderful new art in the form of books, films and music. Here’s a brief roundup of the Eleventh Stack Team’s favorites from 2016.
The Queen of the South
In our home we speak Spanish and English, and we’re always looking at the selection of resources that are available at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in Spanish. We have read plenty of books, listened to plenty of music, and watched plenty of movies, but we had never ventured into Spanish TV from the library. That changed when we stumbled upon La Reina Del Sur Volume 1 and 2. We absolutely loved this series.
4 Your Earz Only
Rapper J.Cole is back with a new album. His fourth studio album 4 Your Eyez Only was released a week ago. It follows up his critically acclaimed third album 2014 Forest Hills Drive. That album is my favorite from him, though I did enjoy this new album. Cole has always been known as a storyteller, and I always enjoyed his music because most of it is relatable to 20-somethings like myself.
Read Harder: Vol. 12
At the beginning of the year, I decided to tackle a proper reading challenge. I wanted to push myself a little and try a few things, particularly genres, that I don’t typically approach when I’m looking for something to read. I’m pretty proud of what I tried and how many of the boxes I was able to check off. Here are a few of the categories I didn’t quite get around to this year, but I’m hoping to carry over into 2017.
Year in Volunteering – 2016
There’s no way one blog post can capture the scope and scale of the work that CLP volunteers do (The final numbers aren’t in yet, but to-date, volunteers have contributed more than 34,000 hours to CLP in 2016!), but this post is meant to be an overview of the work they do to make our library, and indeed, our community, stronger. If you’ve ever wondered about how we’re able to accomplish so much, this is a reminder that our community has a lot to do with it!
Let’s Talk About Race
Let’s Talk About Race by Julius Lester was not only an eye-opener, but a moving account of how we can bring up the discussion of race among children. With children being teased in school because of the color of their skin, and even adults being singled out for being a minority, it’s important that we all dig deep inside to understand that our differences shouldn’t set us apart, but bring us together.
Best of BARD: November 2016
Picoult and Sandford head the top two positions in the Top Five this month, and I believe we have a Best of first – the list is held down by … Continued
Innovation Week: Now It’s Your Turn
We’re all creative. We’re all innovators. We might be out of practice or out of the habit of thinking outside the box, but we all have that capability. Hopefully some of the projects we featured this week will excite and inspire you to create, learn and share new experiences with family members and friends, both inside and outside the Library.
Innovation Week: What’s a Synthesizer?
Good news for lovers of electronic music: starting in mid-January, library users will be able to check out a number of music gadgets from the Music, Film & Audio Department at CLP – Main. Included in this new pilot collection will be synthesizers (both analog and digital), effects pedals, sequencers, portable recording devices and more. Our ultimate goal is to lower barriers to musical exploration by placing electronic music gadgets and gear into the hands of anyone who would like to innovate, create, invent and learn.
Innovation Week: Sharing the Delights of Old Books
In the Collection, Preservation & Access Department, we are delighted daily by the craftsmanship and the intricate details of the art of bookbinding. But all these delights have been confined to our little attic lab. So how can we share them with you, our patrons? Recently, CP&A applied for and was awarded a 2016 Innovation Grant with the goal to create an online and in-person exhibit that shares some elements of historic bookbinding found in CLP’s collection.