Meet Local Authors And See What’s Happening At The Library!

Yeah, it's 10 minutes after seven. Good morning. We have in our studio live and in person

Rebecca Liana. I said it wrong when you first came in. It's a Viana. So you know, it's

Liana. Like the like you're living in Maine. You know, Liana packed the cat. Liana. Rebecca

Liana is here and she's the adult services lead supervisor at the Racine Public Library

and that title means what? I'm basically in charge of all of the adult librarians,

collections, programming services, all of that. It's like everything in the library except

the children's room. Kind of, yeah. So I'm in charge of basically the second floor except

for the teen scene and the innovation lab. Okay. Yeah. Melissa Donaldson is the innovation

lab, right? Yes. I mean, I'm making it to learn everybody's job titles over there.

This is great. Okay. And you are here because something biggest coming up this Saturday,

the local office showcase and I go to these and I showed you my collection of all business

cards and everything. Whenever I go there, I collect everybody's business cards, everybody's

brochures and we have them on the air. And Rory Graves, who was one, when I went there,

was one of the local authors that took her business card. You know, if you see her business

card, it's tombstone. She's got the whole thing going on. And the interview went very

well. It was submitted to the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and one first place statewide

for best interview. We have the plaque in the lobby there. So you never know what you're

going to see if the local authors showcase. We had a few authors out of three. I think

three or four authors on from the showcase and go back and get some more. Yeah. We'll

go line them up there. So talk about it. What is that? The local author's showcase. So

this started as a project that we wanted to get into because we have a bunch of local

authors. I don't know if you're aware of this, but we have so many people in the community

that have published books. And we often were trying to schedule them to come in and do

their own book presentations. And it was getting to the point where we were running into

issues of making sure that people were aware that these authors existed in the area and

also came and saw them. And so we've just kind of smushed them all together into a single

day so that some people can come in. The authors will be there throughout the whole day.

So the program grows all the way from 10 to 4. And we have five different sessions this

weekend coming up. And so people will be able to they'll talk about their own books. They'll

talk about their writing process. Yeah. And so we'll be doing that. And so and then during

the rest of the time they get to sit at and they'll be sitting at their tables and hanging

out talking with the community and cheering their work. A lot of the authors will have their

materials for sale. They'll be showing off what else they've done and where else they're going

and what they have coming up because a lot of these are still in progress works too. Like they

have a bunch of stuff that they're still working on and writing and coming up with new titles.

So we're very excited to to have everybody over again. One of the books, one of the authors

there. We got one of her books, Carol G. and Forte. As you were in the book about

herself growing up in Racine. And my wife and I read that together. We actually read out loud.

So we both enjoy the book at the same time. We discussed it. And then after the book was over,

we said, let's trace all the places that she lived and went. And she talks about going down

steps pathways to her friend's house right up Spring Street. And she was on Carlisle.

And we took the car and then we got out of the car and we followed the pathways down that

were still around. And we went to every place she talked about in the book. And it was like

living her childhood. Yeah. And it was such a wonderful book growing up on Carlisle. And

that's kind of books you find out, of course, the haunted Racine when it gives her the chills

is thinking about it because I all these places that Rory talked about in the book. You can pass.

You can look at the building and say, you can see something. Don't go at night.

And there are so many good books there. We also had another lady on. I have her thing in there

too. I have to go dig it up. And you find it really interesting people in Racine. You know,

it's tough enough to write a book. Everyone's got a book in them, they say. But to actually put it

on paper and get it organized and coherent for people to read is tough. Then you get it done.

You can get people to read it. Right. So much work into it's tough. It is tough. You know,

people are lazy. I don't want to read anymore. They want to watch TV. They want to watch movies.

They want to watch their screens, their live ads and their phones. They're too lazy to read.

But if you do read it, it really takes you a different world. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sorry,

it's, you know, people are giving up on reading. Not everybody. A lot of people. My mother and

father, all they do is read books. They, before they passed away, they had a library of hundreds

and hundreds and hundreds of the first edition hardcover books that they read. My father read

everything. My mother too. That was reading books. And, you know, when they left Florida,

the move back, they moved to Wisconsin. They couldn't take them with them. So they gave them away

to whoever won libraries, whoever wanted these first edition books. And they would admit conditions

because they read at once and they put them on the shelf. But reading is like a lost art on

a start to believe, huh? It's like cursive handwriting. And the dial up telephone.

It's a lost art. I'm glad you're doing something like this. Yeah. This is really good.

It's always a lot of fun. It's very, very hectic for me because I'm the, I'm the MC. So I do all

of the Q&A sessions. I lead all of that. But then I also have to go and run around and make sure

everything else is still being taken care of. So I make all of my staff come in. And I'm like,

you're all working this weekend, whether you want to or not, we're all coming in. We're all

going to do this. You're inserted that into your beach. You're going to the beach. No, not today.

Today you got to be with me. I got tickets to the Bahamas. Cancel them.

Gonna be here. Well, it is really good. The Q&A sessions, the breakout sessions are in the room

right next door. Right. And you know, you have different authors going in there every hour or whatever.

And it's really good. You get to talk to authors. Everybody always says,

are you making any money from the book? This is one of the old questions they always give.

Are you making any money? Some of them are. Yeah. Some of them aren't. It's like anything you do.

You know, people can make a $100 million dollar movie. And nobody goes to see it.

Right. It happens. But these books are really good. You should take a good look at them.

We're back at Leana's here. And she has the adult services lead supervisor at the

Racine Public Library. We talked about the local authors showcases. Talk about the Friends of

the Library Spring Book Sale. This is where you get to own the books. So that's also occurring

this week. So it's starting today from New and Districts. But that's only if you're a member of

the Friends of the Library, which is very easy to do. You can just show up today and pay the fee

and become a member of the library to get the early sales. And so that starts. And then it goes

Friday and Saturday from 10 to 6 and or 10 to 4. Wow. Make people concerned. I have a paper in front of me.

People are going to show up at 6 o'clock on Friday and be like, why aren't they open? No, 10 to 4

Friday and Saturday. And that's for everybody. And so they're going to have the big sales. So they're

going to pull out all of their back stock that they have. They're bringing out all of their

board games and movies and everything. All of the things that aren't normally available because

they're hidden away in the back. It pulled out today. And so that sale goes for the next three days.

And it's going to be a great time. They make a lot of money, which is great for us because

all of that money goes back to helping the library then. So members can get it starting today?

Starting today. Yep. So you can show up today at noon. And if you're not currently a member,

sign up and get a member, which you also get extra benefits from for being a member of the library,

like you can get a free book every month if you're a member of the Friends of the Library.

Remember the slogan for American Express? Membership has its privileges.

So if they say that's a slogan. So the rest of us unwashed masses when can we get involved?

So starting tomorrow, Friday, you'll be able to come in at open, so 10 o'clock,

and just start going through all of the materials. Is it like the old Black Friday salespeople throwing

on Thursdays? We do have quite a few people that come in with their own

carts of, you know, to drag out boxes and boxes of books and materials. So

it can't get a little hectic. Yeah, that's a good need. Okay. So when I go there on Saturday,

hopefully it will be something left. Oh, there'll probably be some. Because I'm going to get

to go through their movie collection. Yeah, they have a really good movie collection because

whatever we don't end up adding to the main collection, the circulating collection gets sent

to the Friends. And we actually just had over the past three months, we had about three or four

large DVD collections that got donated. So we added what we could and what we wanted. And then

the rest of it has been given to the Friends to sell at their sale. Well, when I go someday,

I have my stepson's got orders to take my DVD collection, my blue rays, my anything you want

and bring it to the library, toss what you put up for sale, what you don't want. And just

now keep what you do have everyone. I have the complete Synorama Collection at home.

Synorama was a movie process started at night in the 50s. And it was a big wrap around screen

in the thing with three projectors. And they made a lot of travel logs. I have every travel

log. And they made some big screen movies like How the West was one, two thousand, one,

a space Odyssey. A lot of big movies were made in Synorama. And I have the complete Synorama Collection

in a family wide screen, but it's got that smile box thing. So you can actually see the curved

screen when you're watching the movie. It's really good. So you can have all that stuff.

You're not going to get it tomorrow. Right. Actually, you can't walk out in front of the building,

hit by a car and then the collection's yours. But hopefully not that soon. Okay, so we talked

about Lookalaw for Showcase, the Friends of the Library Spring Book Sale starts today if you're

a member. The rest of us, Ravel can get in on Friday. Friday and Saturday. Friday and Saturday.

Okay. How long does it last? Just this week. So Saturday is going to be the last day.

The summer reading kickoff on Earth, a story. That starts Saturday, May 30th. Yeah.

What is that about? So that's the that's our theme of this year for summer reading program.

So our summer reading kickoff is our big event where we get everybody to show up hopefully and

participate. Get get all of your reading logs, get all of your information on what you need to do

this year to be a participant in order to win one of our prizes that we have available. So we have

prizes available for the different age ranges. So we've got the childrens, we've got teens,

we've got adults, and then we have the the technology team also has a bunch of baskets. And so everybody

gets a chance to read over the summer, participate in programs and events that we have going on. And

then that's going to the kickoff is going to be all about the dinosaurs because that's what our

theme is this year. So it's dig up a story on Earth, the story. And it's all about dinosaurs,

archaeology, paleontology, all of those fun things. So is it tough getting young kids to read

because they're so distracted with their phones, their tablets, their computers, their streaming?

Is it tough to get them to read? Not really, honestly, in my opinion, what I found the biggest

issue is that you got to find what the kid actually wants to read. And then it gets really easy.

So you let them read their diary, Olympic kid or their captain underpants or what was the other

captain underpants? Captain underpants, yeah. Or big Nate, you let them read those and you go,

okay, now that you've read those here, try one of these other books. So let them read the graphic

novels, let them read the goofy ones and then be like, what about this makes you interested in it?

And then you can start curating the books that they're going to read. Also, we've got everything on

on Libby and comics plus now. So if you have a kid who wants to read graphic novels, we have comics

plus. You can download that on their tablet and tell them, hey, go read all of them on here and

then get them hooked in other ways. And eventually you'll slide them. Here's the relationship of

the world and relationship to the rest of the planet so you can read that book next. You know,

you get them to have your stuff. But I also have the great, you're fine then.

Oh, there he is. Okay, Sam, other library news, the bookmobiles, new hours?

Yeah, so the bookmobiles will be having new hours this summer. We're just transferring over to

our summer schedule. I believe that's after the end of the RUSD school. So I don't think that starts

until like June 15th or something like that. But please don't quote me on it. I have to double

check the hours on there. But it's just we're switching up where we're going to be over the summer

and have people have access when they're not at school.

And the seed library, now these seeds like like seed your plant in your backyard. You should

be planning by now anyway, by May, by Memorial Day, you've got to be planning. I think you're

starting growing up. So that's open through June 22th. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So we have small packets of

seeds. They're vegetable and herb seeds and you can come in pick what you want. We ask that you

take what you're actually going to plant and not just grab a whole drawer full of them. But

they're eat what you take what you want, but eat what you take. Exactly. There you go.

But so those are available. That's part of a thing that we've been working on

with various organizations in the in the county. Just because we know that especially in the city

of Racine, we're kind of a food desert. And so if people can make their own

small herb garden, maybe they'll have access to fresher things than they will. If they have to

travel out to the grocery stores to get them. My wife will go to your Marjon, Marjon classes now.

She loves it. Yeah. Learning how to play Marjon. It's a Chinese tile thing. I don't get it. My

mother played Marjon with her girlfriends for years. All the women came over her house with their

boxes of tiles and just Chinese figure. I don't know how to play it. I'm wanting to play.

She won't get involved. I don't want to get involved. It sounds like a lot of involved. But

the library, Marjon. I mean, who would have thought you had Marjon classes over there?

Yeah. So we ended up starting Marjon. A local family was interested in doing it because they

were participating at a nursing home or a senior living facility in the area. And it wasn't enough.

They weren't getting their fix. And so they needed another place to do it. And they

agreed to do the the teaching of the game because none of us actually know how to play it.

No, it's Chinese. Right. We don't. I'm like, I can play the digital version where you

match the tiles. But I don't think that that's how you actually play the game. My wife is learning

digitally, but she's right. It's not how you play it when you're sending it with other people.

Right. And so they have been, oh, it's been over a year now since we've been doing this.

And it's once once a month on Saturdays, they can you can come in. We provide the tables and

the tiles. You're welcome to bring your own if you have them. And then they do like two hours,

I believe, where they'll walk people through how to actually play the game and then they'll

actually have. She loved it. Yeah. Very nice. Local author showcased this Saturday,

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Don't forget about the friends of the library. Book sale starts today.

And for the rest of us, if you're not a member, it's Friday and Saturday.

Yeah. Hopefully won't be picked through by the members before we get there.

Or you can become a member and you go picking through it.

Thank you very much. Thanks, Shae King, presenting this up, by the way.

Yeah. It does a nice job in setting this up, getting all the notes to me and everything.

Thank you, Shae. And Rebecca Leanna from the adult services lead supervisor,

we're seeing public library. I'll be there Saturday. Sounds good. That's where I get my interviews.

I love it. People say, we do find these people. I find them at the library. That's

right. Fine. Thank you, Rebecca. I appreciate it.