Tag Archives: Spring

Libraries

Harbingers of spring: birds from the collections of Long Islanders

Leave a comment

While many of us have patches of snow in our yards, and the winter wind can still bring a chill, it feels like spring is around the corner, with longer days, and occasional mild temperatures. Some folks claim to see the beginning of crocuses, and some of us have heard birdsong. In honor of spring, our latest exhibit, in the small glass case in the island library, celebrates our love of birds.

Thanks to the generosity of Nancy Berges, Florence Brown, Ann Caliandro, Henry Donovan, Penny Murley, Meredith Sweet, and Marion Ulmer, we can all enjoy seeing up-close representations of our feathered friends. Types of birds include goldfinch, bluebird, bald eagle, chickadee, penguin, seagull, orion, robin, Baltimore oriole, cardinal, crow, sandpiper, Alaska Thunderbird, hummingbird, blue jay, puffin, and duck. The birds come in all sorts of materials: clay, glass, plastic, wood, metal, ceramic, and fiber. We even have an image of a bird painted on a mushroom! One can see a snow globe and a “rocking crow.” We have a (stone) egg with nest, a birdhouse, postcards, feather (turkey and hawk), and beautiful informational cards.

Books from the LICL collection give examples of the types of books in the library collection (see 598 section for more bird books). And more birds can be found all over the library – in the new Blue Butterfield exhibit, and in a display case in the school. Once you open your eyes, birds are everywhere!

A special treat in this exhibit are pottery birds made by Lucy Donovan, a Christmas tree ornament made by Gail Wood, and a bird house made by David and Sally LeBreque.

Please come see our wonderful birds the next time you visit the island and library.

Open during library hours

 

Libraries

A poem for spring

1 Comment

spring on Long Island 10In the heart of Westbrook College (University of New England), a quintessential New England college campus, lies a treasure: The Maine Women Writers Collection.

Founded in 1959 by Grace Dow and Dorothy Healy to honor, preserve, and make available the writings of Maine women who have achieved literary recognition, the Collection has over 8,000 volumes on more than 500 Maine women. The Collection also includes correspondence, photographs, personal papers, manuscripts, typescripts, artifacts, and audio recordings that provide insight into the lives and writing of both well-known and obscure authors.

(from the MWWC website: http://www.une.edu/mwwc/collection/index.cfm)

When I worked at Westbrook College’s Abplanalp Library the poet May Sarton had recently died, and her entire library, along with sound recordings and photographs came to the college library. I was able to sort through all her library, many of which had a bookmark or something similar tucked away in each book, linking May to the author.

For more on May Sarton’s collection at the Maine Women Writers Collection see:http://www.une.edu/mwwc/research/featuredwriters/sartonm.cfm

In memory of May Sarton, as well as celebrating the first day of spring on Thursday (although we’re still in the midst of cold and snow), I offer to you this poem by May Sarton:

Always it happens when we are not there–

The tree leaps up alive into the air,

Small open parasols of Chinese green

Wave on each twig. But who has ever seen

The latch sprung, the bud as it burst?

Spring always manages to get there first.
Lovers of wind, who will have been aware

Of a faint stirring in the empty air,

Look up one day through a dissolving screen

To find no star, but this multiplied green,

Shadow on shadow, singing sweet and clear.

Listen, lovers of wind, the leaves are here!