Oklahoma Historical Society Photo Display

The Chickasha Public Library will feature Family Album: Photographs by Pierre Tartoue, an exhibit from the Oklahoma Historical Society, during the month of November. This collection of 22 black and white photographs were taken by French photographer Pierre Tartoue, who traveled throughout Oklahoma during the 1930s through the 1950s and documented Native American communities. The photographs depict a vibrant cultural renaissance led by multigenerational families who were able to preserve and pass on their culture, languages, and traditions to their children and grandchildren. There are portraits of families, daily life, and cultural events in several Oklahoma small towns, including Apache, Watonga, and Anadarko.

These photographs can be viewed at the Library any time during open hours until the end of the month. November is Native American Heritage Month, and there will be a display of books by Native American authors, as well as books about cultures and history.

On Thursday, November 3rd, the Let’s Talk About It book discussion will feature The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich, who is Chippewa, and whose books center around Native American characters.

Black History Month 2022

Feb 1, 2022 – Mar 1, 2022

There are multiple ways to celebrate Black History Month with the Chickasha Public Library.

You can join the Black History Month 2022 Beanstack challenge. A description of the Beanstack challenge can be found below, along with a link to register.

Celebrate Black History Month! Learn about the history of Black health and wellness in the U.S. and explore mental, emotional, and physical health resources created by and for the Black community. For further reading, check out book recommendations honoring the Black experience. Log your reading and activities to earn badges all month long. Registration is now open.

You can also check out one of the books from our Black History Month display, and children can grab a free Black History Month take and make activity.

Library Displays

The library has a large and varied collection of materials for all ages. All of the items have been carefully selected with our community in mind. With such a large collection it is possible that some items may get overlooked. To prevent this staff creates displays to highlight unique items and subjects. 

We often use an upcoming holiday as an inspiration for our displays. With the start of November, we have dedicated one area to items about Christmas. Some items have a plotline that centers around a Christmas celebration like The Christmas Pearl by Dorothea Benton Frank where Theodora gathers her family to her home in South Carolina or may just be set during the Christmas season as in Andrew Greeley’s Home for Christmas where Captain Kane struggles to return to his first love in time for the holiday. 

As part of general collection development, we assess our current collection to determine if it needs an update. This summer we found a gap in the sports collection and decided to beef it up. This resulted in a large amount of items about sports being added so we chose to spotlight the new additions. Because the titles which included,  Born on the Links: A Concise History of Golf by John Williamson where the author covers the timeline of golf from 15th century Scotland to today and the first full length biography of Harry Caray since his death in 1998,The Legendary Harry Caray: Baseball’s Greatest Salesman are shelved in the non-fiction section we were worried that these great reads would be missed by casual browsers we showcased these with a fun display on the front unit. 

If you visited the library during 2020 while the library was limiting seating, you may have noticed that some of the tables had small displays on them. These were topics that we felt were interesting, but we just didn’t have enough items to fill a display shelf. We took the idea of a mini-display and created “Take 5” for the library catalog. Take 5 is a curated list of 5 items that the library owns and thinks customers may be interested in.  You can view the weekly Take 5 and other curated lists here. Other lists you may find include books that complement other articles in the newsletter or honor literary occasions like Science Fiction Day on January 2 or Caldecott Day on June 14. The Caldecott Medal is awarded for the “most distinguished picture book for children” Past winners of this award include Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg and This is Not my Hat by Jon Klassen.  

Next time you come to the library be sure to check out the displays that we have created. You may just find a new favorite!