SPRING 201
FALL 2016 SPRING 201
A newsletter from Madison Public Library Foundation
Wisconsin Book Festival Schedule Out
Barrymore Concert, Giving Tuesday to Raise Pinney Funds
Foundation Grant Funds Coding Classes for Kids
Beer, Brunch Reunited for Ex Libris Vol. VI
FOUNDATION NEW
Three Fundraisers to Benefit New Pinney Library
Rock & Read Raises $10,000 for Summer Reading Clubs
The $2.5 million Capital Campaign for a New Pinney Library is gaining momentum, with a successful fundraiser in July and two to come this fall.
Hundreds of guests enjoyed a beautiful summer afternoon of music, sun and fun with the Wisconsin Badgers at Madison Public Library Foundation’s Rock & Read fundraiser, held at Capital Brewery in Middleton on Father’s Day, June 19. UW men’s basketball coach Greg Gard and sophomore power forward Ethan Happ signed autographs and posed for photos, while local musicians Sean Michael Dargan and Yid Vicious rocked the stage. “Rock & Read is the single biggest source of funding for our Summer Reading Clubs,” said library Director of Public Services Krissy Wick. “It allows Madison Public Library to provide free books to thousands of children across the city, to host wonderful events like the Library Carnival, and most importantly, to continue to inspire children and families to read all summer Photo by Shanna Wolf/S. Photography & Styling long.”
Harry Potter Day at the Mallards: Library lovers excited for the new “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts I & II” release came out to Harry Potter Day at the Mallards on July 31 — the character’s birthday — for special ticket packages, wizard-inspired activities by Pinney staff, and book sales from A Room of One’s Own. The Mallards wore Hogwarts-themed jerseys that were auctioned off at the end of the game. Barrymore Benefit Concert: Tickets are on sale now for “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” a Madison Public Library Foundation benefit concert that will relive the soundtrack of the Vietnam War through readings by veterans and live music. It takes place at 8 p.m. Friday, September 30, at the Barrymore Theatre, 2090 Atwood Ave. Doug Bradley and Craig Werner — who wrote “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” Rolling Stone magazine’s No. 1 pick for Music Book of 2015 — will perform readings from their book, interspersed with music from Sean Michael Dargan and the Back in the World Band. General admission is $35. A $125 VIP ticket includes a one-hour preconcert reception hosted by Monona State Bank, 1965 Atwood Ave., with refreshments from Barriques and Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier, reserved concert seating and a signed copy of “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.” General admission tickets are available at barrymorelive. com; VIP tickets are on sale at mplfoundation.org. Giving Tuesday: Stop by the Harmony Bar & Grill, 2201 Atwood Ave., from 4–6 p.m. Tuesday, November 29, for a reprise of last year’s popular Pinney Campaign Party. Giving Tuesday is a charitable alternative to Black Friday dedicated to supporting the nonprofit organizations you love. There will be live music, plus food and beer available for purchase. Admission is a $10 suggested donation. The new Pinney Library, which will be located in the Royster Corners development near the library’s current location, will be double its current size. Amenities include large children and teen areas, state-ofthe-art technology and a drive-thru book drop. For more information about the project and The Capital Campaign for a New Pinney Library, visit mplfoundation.org/pinney.
Pop! Challenge Grant Fuels Kids Code Madison A $5,000 Madison Public Library Foundation Pop! Challenge grant is allowing upper elementary and middle school students on Madison’s east side to learn how to build and Photo by Zora Beach edit computer code. Kids Code Madison is a weekly drop-in coding club led by volunteers. Participating youth can program their own interactive stories, games and animations using programs and tools like Scratch and Code Studio. The club is designed for both new and experienced kid programmers, and parents are invited too. The foundation’s Pop! Challenge asked community members to propose their best ideas on how to spend $20,000. The top ideas were then voted on and enacted. Foundation and library leaders particularly liked the idea of coding instruction because it has the potential to reach anyone, especially those who lack access to technology tools. And as Madison gains a reputation for being a tech epicenter, there will be a growing need for programmers. “We’re thrilled to fund coding programs for kids and teens because we can introduce sophisticated computer skills to kids who might not know how cool it is!” said Executive Director Jenni Collins. The current session is held at Hawthorne Library at 6–7:30 p.m. Thursdays from September 22–December 8. For more information, visit kidscodemadison.org.
LIBRARY NEWS
2016 Wisconsin Book Festival Author Lineup Is Diverse Genres Range From Fiction to Mystery, Memoir to Young Adult More than 50 authors from around the country will be in Madison October 20–23 for the Wisconsin Book Festival, presented by Madison Public Library in partnership with Madison Public Library Foundation. The four-day celebration of books & authors will take place at Central Library, on the UW-campus and at other downtown venues. This year’s lineup includes: • 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner for Fiction Viet Thanh Nguyen for “The Sympathizer” & “Nothing Ever Dies” • Beloved Wisconsin author Jane Hamilton for “The Excellent Lombards” Viet Thanh Nguyen
• 2014 National Book Award Winner Jacqueline Woodson for “Brown Girl Dreaming” (Charlotte Zolotow Lecture) • Former Wisconsin Public Radio Director Jack Mitchell for “Wisconsin on the Air”
Jane Hamilton
• New York Times best-selling author Cara Black, who wrote the “Aimée Leduc” mysteries, for “Murder on the Quai” • Celebrated writer and Hmong activist Khao Kalia Yang for “The Song Poet”
Jeff Chang
• Young Adult author Marie Lu, writer of the “Legend” and “The Young Elites” series, for “The Midnight Star” • Groundbreaking journalist and cultural commentator Jeff Chang for “We Gon’ Be Alright”
Marie Lu
• “True Blood” creator Charlaine Harris for “All The Little Liars”
Visit wisconsinbookfestival.org for the full lineup. In addition to the festival each fall, the Wisconsin Book Festival hosts author events in Madison throughout the year. If you can’t make it to the festival, check out the upcoming stand-alone events in September, October and November! Visit wisconsinbookfestival.org to see the ever-changing calendar of events. Festival sponsors include Madison Public Library Foundation, American Girl’s Fund for Children, Friends of UW-Madison Libraries, UW-Madison Memorial Library, Marvin J. Levy, Nimick Forbesway Foundation, Wisconsin Humanities Council, Great Dane Pub and Brewing Company, Cheryl Rosen Weston, Cricket Design Works, The Edgewater Hotel, Isthmus and Wisconsin Public Radio. Additional support comes from Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, Madison Arts Commission, A Room of One’s Own, UW Center for Humanities, WebcraftersFrautschi Foundation and Book Fest Benefactors.
5 Ways You Can Support the Festival • Attend and participate in festival events. This is the most fun, simple way to show that our festival is strong and enriches life in Madison. • Volunteer. A festival of this scale requires many volunteers. There are a variety of jobs available; email wbfvolunteers@ mplfoundation.org to learn more. Training sessions are scheduled for early October. • Become a Book Fest Benefactor. The foundation offers a VIP sponsorship package for those who share a passion for author events. Benefactors receive reserved seating at events, an invitation to a private author reception, event recognition and complimentary tickets to fundraisers. Email jcollins@ mplfoundation.org or call 608.266.6318 for details. • Make a donation. We need your support! The foundation must raise more than $120,000 annually for the festival. Donate at mplfoundation.org or look for a donation envelope in Isthmus the week of the festival. • Share festival news. Demonstrate your excitement about the festival through word of mouth, by forwarding emails, and by posting or re-posting on social media. Follow the Wisconsin Book Festival on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
other opportunities for her with game design. About a year-and-a-half later, I was teaching a class on stop motion animation. After the class, I met one of the parents, and she turned out to be the girl’s mother (her younger brother was in the stop motion animation class). Her mother had wanted to let me know that her daughter had gotten a scholarship to a school for animation, and that she was doing really well. B: Tell me about how you got into your line of work. N: Video games and movies have always been of interest to me. I talked to video game companies, just to see if it was viable to get a job in that field, and from there I enrolled at Madison Media Institute to study game art animation. Coming in early to class and staying late as well as sitting in the front row and putting in the work meant that I got the most out of my education and gave me opportunities I otherwise would not have had. My mentors Eric Wiess Photo by Mike DeVries/The Capital Times and Bobby Duncanson were both teaching there at the Media Lab Coordinator Nate Clark believes everyone should have access to time. Both of them were names I had seen in video game creative, high-tech programming like that available in the Media Lab. credits, and they are both amazing at what they do. By the time I graduated, I had already worked on a few projects for professional studios. From there I went on to work for several different companies — most notably Blizzard, THQ and Legendary Films — and I got to live in L.A. and Vancouver.
Media Lab Coordinator Job the Perfect Fit for Clark By Bryce Hefty, Library Intern
A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to sit in on several of Nate’s classes in the Weston Family Media Lab at Central Library and absorbed everything I could. A few things quickly became clear: Nate is good at what he does, and what he does is get people excited about animation and design. The attendees in the animation and design classes included a wide range of ages of people all interested in learning what the Media Lab has to offer. And the Media Lab has quite the array of programs: Autodesk Maya, Photoshop and video editing software are just a few. After one of these classes, I asked Nate a few questions about his experience with the Media Lab. B: What makes the Media Lab unique? N: The Media Lab is run by professionals in the industry, not librarians. Everyone who teaches classes here has actual job experience in what they are teaching. Most of them have taught at a university level. At the same time, the classes are geared toward everyone and teach entry-level skills. B: What or who inspires you or keeps you motivated at your job? N: First and foremost, I have a desire to let everyone in this community know they have an opportunity to be creative. Everyone has a unique story to tell, and they should be able to tell the stories they want to tell. I’m inspired by the people in the lab … They’re there because they want to tell their own stories. I’m in love with the idea of equity and giving people access, and the lab allows us to do just that.
So that was fun, but I missed Madison. Then, one day I got a call from Eric Wiess. The library was looking for someone to teach animation to young kids. A few minutes later, I got a call from Bobby Duncanson about the
“I’m in love with the idea of equity and giving people access, and the lab allows us to do just that.” – Nate Clark, Media Lab Coordinator same job. That’s what did it. When I got calls from both of my mentors saying that they thought I’d love this job, I saw that as a sign. The foundation received a donation from the Weston Family to get the Media Lab started. I also called several people to get a core group of volunteers who love the idea of what we want to do and who love being in the Media Lab. B: What lessons has your work life taught you? N: Soft skills are just as important as technical skills. Soft skills are your ability to work in a team and with others. Anyone can do what I do with proper training, but if they don’t have the soft skills to back it up, they will not have the same opportunities.
B: Do you have any favorite stories from your work life?
MEDIA LAB FUNDING
N: I was working at a summer camp for game design, and one of the campers had made a horror-based video game. And it was really well done. I asked her parents to stay after with the intention of talking to them about how well she had done. They thought something was wrong. She had encountered problems in previous schooling. When I told them no, nothing was wrong, and in fact, she had done really well, they were extremely happy. I gave them a ton of information about scholarships and
The Media Lab became a reality thanks to the generosity of many donors. The foundation received leading gifts from Cheryl Rosen Weston and Marvin J. Levy, and it secured grant funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. To help the Media Lab continue to its good work, make a donation at mplfoundation. org/donate.
Go Big Read: ‘Evicted’ Discussions at All 9 Libraries This year’s choice for Go Big Read, UW-Madison’s campus and community read, is “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” by Matthew Desmond. Each year, Madison Public Library partners with UW-Madison on the Go Big Read selection to encourage the community to read a John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation common book and attend Matthew Desmond either book discussion groups or programs at the libraries. Desmond, a social scientist who earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at UW-Madison, documents the increasingly frequent experience of housing instability for poor, renting families. Through the interwoven stories of eight families living in Milwaukee, Desmond illustrates the human impact of a shifting economic and policy landscape. Desmond will speak at a free public event at 7 p.m. Tuesday, November 1, in the Wisconsin Union Theater at Memorial Union. Book discussions are scheduled at all Madison Public Library locations: Wednesday, September 21, 6 p.m. at Hawthorne Library Wednesday, September 21, 7 p.m. at Central Library Thursday, October 13, 2 p.m. at Sequoya Library Thursday, October 20, 6 :30 p.m. at Meadowridge Library Wednesday, October 26, 7 p.m. at Monroe Street Library Thursday, November 3, 6:30 p.m. at Lakeview Library Thursday, November, 10, noon at Lakeview Library Tuesday, November 22, 7 p.m. at Pinney Library Wednesday, November 30, noon at Alicia Ashman Library Thursday, December 8, 6 p.m. at Goodman South Madison Library
Short Story: Meet Ashman Library Page Anu Setaluri Tell us a little about yourself. I was born and grew up in Guntur, India. I have a master’s degree in math and physics. I met my husband, Vijay, through family friends, and we were married in my hometown. I joined my husband in New York Anu Setaluri City, where he was doing skin cancer research. My husband and I are the first in our families to move to the United States. After 11 years in New York followed by another eight in North Carolina, we moved to Madison in 2005 when my husband accepted a faculty position at UW-Madison. Both our children were born in New York. Now, my daughter is training to be an anesthesiologist and my son is doing a Ph.D program in computer science research. What is your role at the library, and how long you have you worked here? I started as a Page 10 years ago at Central Library. After working for four-and-a-half years, I decided to take a break, mostly because of the 30-minute bus commute from the west side. I was gone only for a couple of months before I was offered to return to Alicia Ashman Library, and I have been a Page at this branch ever since. What is one of your favorite parts of your job? I love to help connect people with what they’re looking for from the library resources. I also enjoy doing the large pick lists and working with my colleagues in a friendly and helpful atmosphere. Before working at the library what are some of the most interesting jobs you’ve had? Besides working at the library, the only other job I’ve had was being a stay-at-home mom for my kids. Even though I have an advanced degree, I chose to focus on my family. I loved helping them with homework and volunteering with the PTA. What are your hobbies and interests? In addition to going to India every year to see our families, I like to travel when I can and really enjoy seeing nature. Recently, I traveled with my family to Italy and Hawaii. My two favorite places that I’ve been to are Venice, Italy, and Niagara Falls. Besides travel, I also enjoy gardening, cooking, and watching Indian and English movies.
Special thanks goes to Friends of the Madison Public Library for purchasing additional copies of “Evicted” for Go Big Read with funds raised at its spring Book Club Café event and at book sales, as well as funding copies for the library’s Book Club Kits.
What is your favorite book? My favorite book is “Secretary” by my favorite Indian author Y. S. Rani, who writes contemporary, family-based fiction. I also enjoy reading books by Robert Ludlum.
Visit madisonpubliclibrary.org/go-big-read to learn more.
What are two items on your bucket list? 1. Take a vacation to see centuries-old historical temples in Southern India for their marvelous architecture. 2. Start a vegetarian cooking website.
Annual Report Demonstrates Your Dollars in Action Have you seen Madison Public Library and Madison Public Library Foundation’s 2015 joint Annual Report? This year-inreview includes infographics, stories, photos and much more,
showing how your donations support Madison Public Library. View it online at mplfoundation.org.
EVENTS & HIGHLIGHTS Craft Beer, Brunch Reconnect for Ex Libris Vol. VI Friday, November 4 7–10 p.m. Central Library Join Madison Public Library Foundation in celebrating fall with Wisconsin’s best microbreweries and the area’s finest culinary artisans at Ex Libris Vol. VI: Beer for Brunch, a fundraiser to support Madison’s nine public libraries. Guests will enjoy the return of brunch-time favorites paired with stouts, ciders, porters, Belgian ales, pale ales and much more. Appearing at Ex Libris for the first time are Avenue Club and the Bubble Up Bar, Ladonia Café, Bassett Street Brunch Club, The Old Fashioned, Hop Haus Brewing Co. and 3rd Sign Brewery. The silent auction of rare items and experience packages, along with a Golden Ticket Chocolate Bar Raffle featuring ruby and diamond earrings, are sure to bring surprises to cap the night.
New this year is Prologue, a VIP event that precedes Ex Libris from 6–7 p.m. Prologue guests will enjoy light appetizers, a special release cask from Wisconsin Brewing Company brewmaster Kirby Nelson, a complimentary copy of “Wisconsin’s Best Beer Guide: A Travel Companion” by Kevin Revolinski, and a meet-and-greet with Nelson and Revolinski. Ex Libris tickets are $75 each, $420 for a six-pack or $800 for a 12-pack. Prologue tickets are $125 each, and include access to both Prologue and Ex Libris. All tickets are available exclusively at mplfoundation.org or by calling 608.266.6318. This event typically sells out, so reserve your tickets soon! The foundation thanks National Guardian Life for presenting Ex Libris Vol. VI, and the many other sponsors who make the event possible.
Support the Friends of Madison Public Library Groups at Fall Book Sales Help Madison Public Library’s Friends groups and start collecting good books to curl up with as the weather turns cooler by shopping at the Friends book sales this fall and winter. All proceeds go back to the libraries. Upcoming sales include: Sequoya Library Sale • Westgate Mall, 442 Westgate Mall
Saturdays, September 3, October 1, October 15 and November 5, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. (bag sale on selected items 2–4 p.m. at all sales) Lakeview Library Sale • 2845 N. Sherman Avenue Friday, September 16, 6–7:45 p.m. Saturday, September 17, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. (bag sale 2–4 p.m.)
Meadowridge Library Sale • 5726 Raymond Road Saturday, October 22, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. (bag sale noon–1 p.m., $5/bag) Pinney Library Sale • 204 Cottage Grove Road Thursday, October 27, 5–8:30 p.m. (Friends-only presale, join at the door) Friday, October 28, 9 a.m.–8:30 p.m. Saturday, October 29, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Sunday, October 30, 1–4 p.m. (bag sale all day) Alicia Ashman Library Sale • 733 N. High Point Road Thursday, November 17, 5–8 p.m. Friday, November 18, 9:30 a.m.–7 p.m. Saturday, November 19, 9:30 a.m.–3 p.m. (bag sale 1–3 p.m., $5/bag)
Central Library Sale • 201 W. Mifflin Street Thursday, October 20, 9 a.m.–9 p.m. Friday, October 21, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Saturday, October 22, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. (bag sale 2–4:30 p.m., $5/bag)
Executive Director Jennifer J. Collins 201 W. Mifflin Street Madison, Wisconsin 53703 608.266.6318 mplfoundation.org info@mplfoundation.org
Hawthorne Library Sale • 2707 E. Washington Avenue Friday, October 21, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. Saturday, October 22, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. (bag sale 2–4 p.m., $3/bag)
Newsletter Editor Amy Mertz Contributing Writers Tana Elias Carrie Gostomski Francesca Rodriquez Newsletter Design Tsela Barr Design
MADISON PUBLIC LIBRARIES Alicia Ashman 733 N. High Point Rd. Central Library 201 W. Mifflin St. Goodman South 2222 S. Park St. Hawthorne 2707 E. Washington Ave. Lakeview 2845 N. Sherman Ave. Meadowridge 5726 Raymond Rd. Monroe Street 1705 Monroe St. Pinney 204 Cottage Grove Rd. Sequoya 4340 Tokay Blvd.