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What's New!
Currently on display in the 1905 Carnegie at Penrose Library, PPLD's Special Collections has assembled two exhibits that coincide with the All Pikes Peak Reads 2012 theme of Survival .
The Titanic Disaster of 1912: As Seen Through the Eyes of Coloradans
This Special Collections display focuses on the accounts of Coloradans who experienced the Titanic disaster firsthand, including survivors Margaret “Molly” Tobin Brown of Denver and the Caldwell Family of Colorado Springs, as well as Charlotte Touzalin and May R. Birkhead, Colorado Springs natives who witnessed the rescue of the Titanic lifeboats from the decks of the Carpathia. This display features reproduced images from the Library of Congress’s collection and first-hand witness accounts of the disaster and the subsequent rescue mission.
The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 in Colorado Springs
Between 1918 and 1920, a lethal influenza virus went on to kill an estimated 50 million people worldwide. Colorado ranked fifth in the U.S. in 1918 influenza mortality rates and Colorado Springs had its share of woes when the virus broke out among the Student Army Training Corps at Colorado College. The virus would go on to cause the Colorado Springs city health officer to order the closing of schools, churches, theaters, pool halls, libraries, and “every public meeting place of every character,” as a measure to avert a disaster. This display provides of an illustrated timeline of events as the virus spread throughout Colorado Springs in 1918.
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An Assistive Technology Station is an area set aside with equipment and software designed to help patrons who are blind, visually impaired, or those who have limited or no use of their hands to assist them with reading and writing tasks and accessing other resources on a personal computer. Pikes Peak Library District has two such stations: at Penrose and East libraries.
A typical station is equipped with an adjustable table, a large-print keyboard, a track ball mouse, headphones with attached microphone, and speakers. The computers are loaded with specialized software.
Although Library staff have a general knowledge of what is available at each location, it is the patron who becomes the expert user. The applications are so specialized with numerous hot keys and set-up requirements, they are mastered only as one spends time using each program.
For more information about these stations, you can watch the PPLD TV video above, email dmassie@ppld.org, or call (719) 531-6333, x1371 or x2309.
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Pikes Peak Library District employee Vincent Colicchio never considered himself an artist, but he became one nonetheless, through the curiosity and caring he exhibited at his job in Circulation at PPLD’s downtown Penrose Library.
According to Colicchio, “It began by me saying, ‘That’s a treasure. That shouldn’t be thrown out.’ "
Colicchio handles books for a living, so he sees a lot of them on a daily basis. But he recently found his love of books extending to damaged books that were being discarded.
“I, like other people who work in libraries, get heartbroken when I see books in the recycling bin. I think it’s a waste,” he said.
When Colicchio turned his eye to the bare shelves behind the checkout desk at Penrose Library, the altered book project began to take shape.
“I was telling my supervisor, ‘You know we could jazz it up back there.’ I said, ‘We’ve got this space, we should do some displays.’
“Then around Christmastime, my supervisor said, ‘I like your ideas. Go ahead and make a display and let me know if you need anything.’
“I hadn’t really intended to do anything myself, so I was like, ‘Oh no! Now I actually have to do something!’ So I did some altered books around the holidays in a matter of just a few days just to have something there.”
Colicchio said he found books in the Library’s Catalog on how to make altered books (see below), and then he found “quotations by writers that I liked and really reflected the spirit of a book and its relationship to a reader. And those became the focal point. By just contemplating that quote, vague visions and imagery would come up, and I would try to follow it and let it grow as I was creating each altered book.”
“It just lends itself to being at the library. It’s recycling and it’s creativity inspired by books we have in our catalog that have the techniques on how to do it.”
Colicchio recently donated two of his altered books to the Colorado Library Education Foundation for their upcoming silent auction to raise funds for scholarships for Colorado library employees to attend Colorado Library Association and division workshops and the annual CAL conference. Colicchio’s art speaks to the great potential of books -- even discarded books--to enrich and change lives.
The images below show the extreme care and detail Colicchio brings to his work. The work is even more impressive in person and is currently on display in the Friends Bookstore in East Library.
Materials Available at PPLD on Altered Books
The Repurposed Library by Lisa Occhipinti
New Directions in Altered Books by Gabe Cyr
The Altered Books Workshop by Bev Brazelton
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Pikes Peak Library District is partnering with The Story Project on Friday, October 12 at 7 p.m. to bring stories of Survival to the Colorado Springs community. This event is part of PPLD’s All Pikes Peak Reads 2012 program.
Do you have a 15-minute story about Survival you’d like to share? Send your submission and phone number to Story Project founder Sharon Friedman: sharonsfriedman@aol.com. All stories are told without notes (not read). If selected, you will tell your story to a live audience at the October event.
The Story Project occurs at 7 p.m. every second Friday at The Marmalade at Smokebrush, 219 W. Colorado Ave., located in The Trestle Building under the Colorado Avenue Bridge. Stories are aired on KRCC at 1 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month.
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