Category: First 2 Know

By: Ann Marie Megoulas

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush and Congress passed a joint resolution officially designating November as “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Since then, the full month of November has served as a time to honor and celebrate the diverse cultures, significant contributions, and deep histories of Native American Indian communities. In more recent years, this observance was expanded to include recognition of Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and American Samoan peoples as well, and starting in 2009, presidential proclamations have regularly designated November as National Native American Heritage Month.

A visit to a library is a wonderful way to celebrate National Native American Heritage Month as libraries offer rich collections of books and materials on this topic. Here at the Dauphin County Library System, you can find nearly 700 Native American themed books, e-Books, videos, music, and more by searching our catalog using the search term, “Native American.”  Search for “Indigenous American” content and your will find even more.

Library databases are another major source of information about Native Americans and this year we are introducing the newly added Indigenous Life in America database.

What is Indigenous Life in America? It is an easily navigable digital news archive that delivers an expansive overview of the Indigenous experience in the United States, spanning from 1690 to the present day. It features more than 16 million primary source documents from varied sources and presents a multifaceted narrative that highlights the profound influence Native communities have had on shaping the nation’s history.

Where can you find Indigenous Life in America? Indigenous Life in Americacan be found by visiting The Library’s Research webpage and browsing through the alphabetic list of resources. When you find it, just click on its title or its “USE RESOURCE” link to open it. Remember that whenever you are outside of a library, you will also need to enter your library card and PIN.

What does Indigenous Life in America offer? It offers an aggregated news archive covering the experience and impact of Indigenous Americans as recorded by the news media from the late 17^th century to the early 21^st century. Its content is organized by significant time period and event and then further sorted into subcategories covering topics like arts and entertainment, government action, notable people, and more. Since that content is pulled from so many varied new sources, Indigenous Life in America offers balanced coverage and varied viewpoints.

How can you search Indigenous Life in America? You can perform a keyword search of your own choosing, or you can browse through Indigenous Life in America’s Suggested Searches (expertly composed search queries created to provide focused access to the search results covering the most significant topics impacting Indigenous Americans.) I personally recommend browsing the Suggested Searches as they provide students and researchers with quick access to the most relevant content.

Want to learn more? View this short video.

This November, please join us in honoring the contributions and impacts of Native American communities by exploring The Library’s broad collection of Native American resources and by examining the interesting articles and reports shared in our newly added Indigenous Life in America. You will not be disappointed!

I always felt a little bit of a nerd and a little bit of an outsider. Little Women, for whatever reason, really resonated with me. because Jo was different, and I was different. When I was younger, I thought, well, maybe I could be a writer, too.

I feel like I’m drawn to historic novels where women were given or were pushing outside the boundaries. That’s why Jo resonated with me. She was friendly and outgoing, but she really was a solitary soul despite having sisters and having a really great, insular family. That’s how I saw myself. Jo was like her family, but was also different from them. She wants different things.

I still read Little Women as an adult. Every time, I read it differently. When I was a young mom, I was like, “Oh, I see you, Meg!” Before that, Meg was just Jo’s sister. Now, as an older woman and mom, I’m like, “Oh, see you, Marmee! That’s some tough stuff.”

I like literature with female protagonists. I’ve always been super drawn to them. I think I felt that that was more of my outsider-ness, where I felt identified with the feminine protagonist who was trying to buck society’s norms, like Jo. I think she wants to go to war with her dad because she wants to protect him.

I always felt that women are powerful too, but we still have that whole idea that women are only supposed to be domestic. I was one of the smartest kids in my grade school, and you know how you get superlatives from your classmates at the end of the year? As one of the smartest kids, I was told they saw Veronica as a secretary to some really powerful dude. I didn’t see myself that way, but, okay, I’ll take it.

There isn’t just one way for us to be drawn into literature. There isn’t just one way for us to be connected to libraries, not specifically based upon our ethnicity, race or gender. Sometimes it just works out that way. For some of us, it was a matter of being drawn in, and then one day, you realize that you are “reflected” too. For me, that was a life-affirming thing, but it doesn’t mean that that’s everybody else’s story.

My intro to black people was all my great elementary school teachers: My third-grade teacher, Miss Culpepper, my fifth-grade teacher, Miss Tribune, and my favorite of all time, Miss Kimbrough, who was the school librarian. I was always her little assistant. In fourth grade, I got to be a library aid when there were no other library aids. I don’t even know if Miss Kimbrough asked for a Library Aide. I don’t know if she was like, “I’ve got to get Veronica out of my hair!” So, I was the Library Aide in fifth grade and sixth grade, too. That was my favorite thing, to hang out with her and talk about books. I loved being a little kid in that school, and I had a great time. The whole school was my sanctuary. It was just a great place to be.

I remember having a collection of beautiful classic books, because every year we would get our physical and get all your shots, and it was a little bit traumatic. If we were good, we’d get to go to the toy store. My sister would always get a new Barbie, and I would always get a new book. So that was very identity-forming for me, so every time we’d go to the toy store, I’d go and check out their little library section of children’s books. I had Little Women. I had Little Men. I had Tom Sawyer. I had Huck Finn. I had Black Beauty. That was my little home library, and they were all in that same kind of binding, so it was like a collection.

Those are my formative literary memories. Do you remember that Scholastic didn’t have a book fair when we were younger, but we got that little leaflet called The Weekly Reader? You could pick stuff from there. You could get a chapter book. I remember finding a book, The Seven Wonders of the World.

My daughter and I live in a little rural town now. It’s far away from everything. It’s 45 minutes to the nearest city in Utah, and then it’s 90 minutes to Las Vegas, but in between, there’s only desert. It’s not like there’s suburbs. You’ve got to drive through the desert to get anywhere. The other day, we were driving to the supermarket or what, and we saw a Scholastic Book Fair truck. We both started squealing. We just nerded out!

Veronica Manthei is the former Manager of the George & Hettie Love Memorial Library.

By: Emily Anderson

Portia and Poppins arrive at the William H. and Marion C. Alexander Family Library wearing seasonal bandanas, ready to do the important work of improving literacy. In their meeting rooms, they sit calmly and patiently through 15-minute appointments, listening to children reading books during The Library’s “Paws 2 Read” program. Children ages 6 to 11 can bring their own books to share with Portia and Poppins and their handlers, Betsy and Flo, or they can choose from a selection of dog-themed books The Library keeps on hand.

For many young readers, the task of reading aloud can be incredibly daunting – but reading aloud to a dog is a completely different story. Animals don’t judge you, let alone tease you.  Animals don’t have a preference for how quickly you can sound out a word, and they won’t care about your cadence. During a program like Paws 2 Read at The Library, reluctant readers who may lack confidence in their abilities are paired with a consistent listening companion, receive unconditional support, and have the opportunity to build positive, lifelong reading experiences.

Research shows that dogs not only help reduce stress reactions in children performing difficult tasks, but also that playing with a dog helps improve mood and calm the mind. These positive cognitive effects motivate students to keep returning, all while they practice their reading. Over time, this positive association with reading aloud can have a monumental impact on a child’s attitude towards reading. This continued practice also has the potential to dramatically improve a child’s reading fluency, or their ability to read with accuracy, speed, and expression. By regularly reading to dogs, struggling readers have an opportunity to develop the self-esteem and confidence they need to be lifelong book lovers.

Paws 2 Read takes place on alternating Monday evenings at the Alexander Family and East Shore Area Libraries. Elizabethville Library hosts the program every other Wednesday evening. Children ages 6 to 11 can sign up in advance for 15-minute appointments through The Library’s programming calendar [link: https://dcls.libcal.com/] or check availability here [link: https://outlook.office.com/book/Fall2022Paws2Read@dcls.org/?ismsaljsauthenabled].