@YOUR In This Issue
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Saturday Just Got Better!
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Culture Abounds @ Your Library
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Sargeant Memorial Collection to Close Temporarily
Library September October November 2014
A quarterly publication containing news and events from the Norfolk Public Library and the Friends of the Norfolk Public Library.
www.npl.lib.va.us Librarian Cared for Books, Dogs, Community— Everything by Bill Ruehlmann
John Parker with Noah, his snowball bichon frise, and his cat Eugene. (Photo courtesy of Ray Gregory)
I first met John A. Parker Jr. more than three decades back at the Kirn Memorial Main Library in Norfolk during lunch hour. He was a bespectacled, frowning sort who stood in the hallway between the open stacks and the business section, brandishing a book. He groused: “Why aren’t there any comfortable chairs around here to sit down and read in?” An incensed patron, I guessed. But the book was a volume of Cervantes in Spanish, and the grumpy guy turned out to be Head of General Reference. John always wanted matters to improve for folks at the library, including the staff. He loved books and sought continued on page 2
Winners of the 2014 Book Review Contest
Norfolk students have once again outdone themselves by submitting more than 1,400 entries for the 2014 Friends of the Norfolk Public Library (FNPL) Annual Book Review Contest. The contest, which ended in March, was open to all Norfolk public, private and homeschool students in grades four through 12. Critical thinking and creative writing were shown by all students, and with so many outstanding reviews received, judging was difficult at best. First, second and third place winners were selected from each grade level. One review stood out from all the others— Amelia Dobbs, an 11th-grade student at
Maury High School, received Best Overall. Dobbs wrote a prolific review of “The Virgin Suicides,” by Jeffrey Eugenides. Her review was featured and read aloud at the awards ceremony on Thursday, May 15, 2014, at the MacArthur Memorial. At the ceremony, contest winners were honored amid family, friends, library staff and FNPL volunteers. Keynote speaker Tony Winn addressed the guests with an inspiring message about the importance of reading. The FNPL would like to thank all who participated in 2014. For those who did not, it is never too early to start thinking about a book to review for 2015!
Creating a City of Readers Published by the Friends of the Norfolk Winners listed Library on page 2