AT THE LIBRARY: Moments Of Joy
Library Staff Shares Highlights, Inspiring Stories From A Challenging Year
By Tara Bannon Williamson
Park Hill Librarian
One of the things we can agree upon is that this last year was full of challenges, difficulties, and hardships. As a library staff, we become privy to a lot of the concerns our customers face, so we thought it would be a nice change to share some of our own moments of joy and positivity from 2021.
Our steady and hard-working lead clerk, Michelle, found some cheer seeing all the Christmas lights come up in the neighborhood, as well as setting up her own Christmas tree.
Alicya loves her two cats, Esther and Zooey. Her parents celebrated their 50th anniversary in ‘21, which allowed her family to celebrate that milestone together. She impressively read 20 books over her yearly reading goal. Her favorite book series of the year is the Scholomance Series by Naomi Novik.
Librarian Rachel got a new cat, a rambunctious youngster named Mr. Strawberry. She found a lot of comfort sitting around with Mr. Strawberry, his brother Professor Butterscotch, and drawing a little bit every day as a practice of meditation. Rachel was able to improve her art with lessons on the Udemy database, which includes tutorials on a variety of topics, including art, home improvement and health.
Our newest staff member is our shelver, Thien, who has brought much needed helping hands and kind words to everyone here at the Park Hill branch.
Our lovely shelver, Jennifer, who we share with our neighboring branch, Sam Gary, loves the podcast The Bald and the Beautiful, which is hosted by two RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni, Trixie Mattel and Katya. It’s full of adult humor, unbelievable stories, and provides a wonderful distraction from all your woes.
Tara had a marvelous adventure traveling in Ireland along the Wild Atlantic Way, which is along the western edge of Ireland known for mystical wells and a unique landscape called The Burren. While traveling, she took advantage of the Mango Languages app to learn more about the Irish language. Féach tú ag an leabharlann! (See you at the library!)
Shannon dived into podcasts about movies. Personal favorites include the podcasts You Must Remember This and I Saw What You Did. The first is a podcast deep dive into Hollywood history and she’d like to especially highlight the seasons that have covered Charles Manson’s Hollywood connections, fact-checking Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon, and celebrity gossip mavens Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. If you like a podcast with more diversity in subject matter, you might try I Saw What You Did. Each week the hosts program a double feature connected by a theme. The themes have ranged from great 1970s apartments to promoting the work of some criminally overlooked black filmmakers, to the hotness of Keanu Reeves. Some films covered that you can find at the library include Kathleen Collins’s wonderful movie Losing Ground, Robert Altman’s 3 Women, Stand By Me, and T2: Judgment Day.
Amelia recently took a train trip to Grand Junction, which allowed her to experience the beauty of our state. She highly recommends The Book of Delights by Ross Gay. He wrote an essayette every day for a year about something that brought him delight. In a time marked by fear and anxiety, being reminded of the possibility for delight in small, everyday moments buoyed her.
We look forward to what we can help you connect with in 2022, and remember that Winter of Reading, our adult reading challenge, runs Jan. 2 through Feb. 28. We’re also excited to announce an in-person music performance by Voice of the Wood Chamber Players on Saturday, Jan. 8.
We’re also scheduled to have our roof replaced at the beginning of the year, which may interrupt regular service hours. Please feel free to call us at 720-865-0250 before heading over.
The library and its staff wish you a safe and happy New Year!
The Park Hill branch library is at 4705 Montview Blvd, and the Pauline Robinson branch is at 5575 E. 33rd Ave. For hours of operation and details on in-person and online programming for both neighborhood libraries, check out denverlibrary.org.