Tag Archives: Central Arkansas Library System

CALS is a Library Star!

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The Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) has been listed as a Star Library in the Library Journal Index of Public Library Service. The index measures the service levels of the nation’s 7,153 public libraries, based on circulation, visits, Internet use, and program attendance. CALS, with a total score of 773, was one of only twenty Southern libraries to receive the Star recognition.

Rankings were based on 2009 data released by the Institute of Museum and Library Services in July, 2011. CALS is listed twenty-fifth out of 107 libraries that fall within an expenditure range of $10 million to $29.9 million. In 2009 CALS’s budget was $13,750,000.

Since opening as the Little Rock Public Library in 1910, CALS has added branches and services, evolving to meet the needs of patrons and becoming one of the largest systems in the mid-South. Innovations such as the bookmobile service that began in 1938 gave way to branch libraries, interlibrary loan, and online access to information.  Though many libraries are seeing reduction in funding, circulation and attendance, CALS has had twelve years of increases in circulation and attendance, and because funding sources are tied to property taxes, has not had to reduce service or staff.

Director Bobby Roberts states, “It is an honor to have our work acknowledged by such a prestigious magazine as Library Journal. I believe CALS is the best library system in the South because the taxpayers have approved the funds to allow us to provide excellent service and resources that our patrons want and need.”

The Main Library campus offers an extensive Reference department, computer lab, specialized Arkansas research resources, art galleries, a used book store, two cafés, and a new area specially designed to accommodate the needs and interests of teens.

 

CALS libraries in Little Rock include:

  • Main Library, 100 Rock Street
  • Dee Brown Library, 6325 Baseline Road
  • Fletcher Library, 823 North Buchanan Street
  • Oley E. Rooker Library, 11 Otter Creek Court
  • Terry Library, 2015 Napa Valley Drive
  • Thompson Library, 38 Rahling Circle
  • Williams Library, 1800 Chester Street
  • McMath Library, 2100 John Barrow Road.
  • CALS also has branches in Jacksonville, Maumelle, Perryville and Sherwood.

Art and Dance HAM It Up at 2nd Friday Art Night

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Dance and Art intersect at Historic Arkansas Museum during the monthly 2nd Friday Art Night. 

At Historic Arkansas Museum, there will be a reception for Tesseract Dancing: Brett Anderson and Emily Galusha, a new exhibit opening in the Trinity Gallery for Arkansas Artists. Outside the north entrance, at 6 pm, the pARTy for Peg sculpture will be lit; and a blacksmith will demonstrate his trade in the new Shop on the Log House grounds. Throughout the evening, in various locations, Arkansas Festival Ballet will preview upcoming performances.

Started in 2005, this downtown art gallery walk in the River Market District vicinity showcases a variety of museums and galleries.  In addition to viewing art, there are refreshments and usually live music at the various stops along the way.  There is also a free art shuttle to take visitors from location to location. The event runs from 5pm to 8pm.

Among the various participating sites are Arkansas Studies Institute, Christ Episcopal Church, Hearne Fine Art, Mediums Art Lounge, Copper Grill, Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro, Lulav and Third Street merchants of the River Market District.

Clinton School presents “A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America” at Butler Center

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In a collaboration between the Clinton School of Public Service and the Butler Center of Arkansas Studies, author Greg Robinson will discuss his book A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America on Thursday, November 10.

The book looks at the transnational history of the wartime confinement of people of Japanese ancestry. Winner of the 2009 History Book Prize for Asian American Studies, the book offers newly uncovered material that extends existing accounts of the camp experience of Japanese Americans during World War II and breaks new ground by examining those events alongside the treatment of ethnic Japanese in Canada, Mexico, and Latin America. An associate professor of history at the Université du Québec à Montréal, Robinson is also author of By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans.

The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies will host a pre-reception at 5:00 p.m. in Concordia Hall at the Arkansas Studies Institute, where The Art of Living, an exhibit featuring art from the World War II Japanese American internment camp in Rohwer, Ark., is currently on display.

Thursday, November 10, 2011
5:00 p.m.-Pre-reception at Concordia Hall in the Arkansas Studies Institute (across the street from the CALS Main Library)
6:00-7:00 p.m.-Lecture at the Darragh Center at the Main Branch of the Central Arkansas Library System

*Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu, or calling 501-683-5239.

Butler Center’s Legacies & Lunch: The Thousand-Year Flood

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The Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies sponsors the “Legacies & Lunch” conversation each month.  November’s program features David Welky discussing his new book, The Thousand-Year Flood: The Ohio-Mississippi Disaster of 1937.

In this book, Dr. Welky, an associate professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas, discusses the 1937 deluge which was one of the biggest natural disasters in American history.

Welky

David Welky, associate professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas, specializes in 1930s America and has written several other books, including Everything Was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression and The Moguls and the Dictators: Hollywood and the Coming of World War II.

Legacies & Lunch is sponsored in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council. Bring a sack lunch; drinks and dessert are provided. This event is free and open to the public

Arts & Humanities Month: Rowher Art Exhibit at Arkansas Studies Institute

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The Arkansas Studies Institute (ASI) is a collaboration between the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Rohwer Camp #23 artist unknown

In addition to being a repository for historical collections, the ASI houses four art galleries, , featuring the work of Arkansas artists and art related to the state. The exhibit galleries feature rotating exhibits including works from the CALS permanent collection.

Currently on display is the multi-media exhibit entitled “The Art of Living: Japanese American Creative Experience at Rowher.”  Curated by Butler Center staff from the Mabel Rose Jamison Vogel/Rosalie Santine Gould Collection, it showcases art created by internees at the Rohwer Relocation Center in Desha County and tells the story of creativity in the face of dire circumstances. It is on display through November 26.

 

Also on display at the ASI are the following exhibits:

  • Thomas Harding, Pinhole Photography – October 14 – December 31
  • Arkansas Pastel Society’s National Exhibition – October 14 – January 14
  • Leon Niehues: 21st Century Basketmaker – October 14 – January 28

Designed by the architectural firm of Polk Stanley Wilcox, the ASI campus is comprised of three buildings from three different centuries which were combined seamlessly.  In recognition of this effort, the Arkansas Studies Institute (ASI) received the 2011 AIA/ALA Library Building Award—one of only five awards given worldwide. The award, presented every two years by the national American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association, honors excellence in the architectural design and planning of libraries.

“We worked diligently to design a facility that would both connect the public with Arkansas’s rich history and enliven the streetscape, drawing people in,” said Reese Rowland, project design principal with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects. “This national recognition is a testament to the public’s trust and continued investment in one of our community’s most critical assets, the public library. Our firm takes great pride in contributing to that trust. It’s always an honor to work with the visionary leadership at CALS.”

Arts & Humanities Month: Central Arkansas Library System

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Just over 100 years ago, a Carnegie library was founded in Little Rock as the first Public Library. After ebbing and flowing in two different locations on Louisiana Street in downtown, it has now blossomed into the Central Arkansas Library System.

In addition to the Main Library, which was a catalyst for the redevelopment of the River Market District, there are currently eleven other branches in Little Rock, other parts of Pulaski County, and one in neighboring Perry County.

Not content with merely being a place for people to check out books, CALS also houses the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, the Cox Creative Center, the Darragh Center, the Arkansas Studies Institute, Butler Center Books and the Arkansas Literary Festival. Among the annual programs presented by CALS are the Rabbi Ira Sanders Lecture, and the Booker Worthen Literary Prize.

Under the leadership of Dr. Bobby Roberts, CALS has become a living, breathing entity with dynamic programming for patrons from pre-school to well-seasoned. A perfect example is that on October 27 at the Main Library there is a Halloween costume contest for kids as well as a lecture entitled “Was There Really a Female Pope?”

Arts & Humanities Month: 2nd Friday Art Night

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As proof of how fast time passes, it is again the second Friday of the month which means “2nd Friday Art Night.”

Started in 2005, this downtown art gallery walk in the River Market District vicinity showcases a variety of museums and galleries.  In addition to viewing art, there are refreshments and usually live music at the various stops along the way.  There is also a free art shuttle to take visitors from location to location. The event runs from 5pm to 8pm.

Among the various participating sites are Historic Arkansas Museum, Arkansas Studies Institute, Christ Episcopal Church, Hearne Fine Art, Mediums Art Lounge, Copper Grill, Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro, Lulav and Third Street merchants of the River Market District.