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Public Event

Arborwiki Edit Night At Arbor Brewing

Wednesday April 23, 2014: 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Arbor Brewing - 114 East Washington

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Public Event

Arborwiki Edit Night

Wednesday March 26, 2014: 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Downtown Library: aadlfreespace
Adults And Teens Grade 9 And Up

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Blog Post

Map Madness With Decoupage

by manz

Wednesday, August 7 | 7:00-8:30pm | Malletts Creek | For grades 6th - Adults

Using colorful old maps along with torn paper collage and decoupage techniques you'll create small, decorative keepsake boxes. We’ll have all the supplies on hand, you bring the creativity! This is a great was to recycle cool paper and turn it into something new.

For more fun, check out these books featuring other projects using paper.

This event is for teens and adults, grade 6 and up.

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Blog Post

Samantha Brown's Asia

by Enzy

If you are like me and cannot get away to far away destinations but enjoy learning about them, you may enjoy watching travel shows. A few years ago I discovered Samantha Brown’s travel program on the Travel Channel and her show quickly became my favorite. She has a bubbly personality that wins people over no matter where she goes. This is proven every time she randomly approaches a stranger and makes a joke or asks them a question. She seems fearless, but she has the charm to make anyone feel at ease, including the viewer.

The library has recently added Samantha Brown’s Asia disc 1 and disc 2 to our collection. In these two DVDs Brown takes us on a tour of Thailand, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, and Bali. Meeting up with natives who then show her around their home, Brown provides viewers with practical advice and insight into the individually unique cultures of these different locations.

If you breeze through these two discs and want more, AADL does own quite a few Anthony Bourdain DVDs that will keep you occupied for a while.

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Blog Post

Images from the Past: The Making of Ann Arbor

by annevm

Several years ago, when a patron needed an image of the old entrance to the U-M hospital, we suggested he look in The Making of Ann Arbor. Eureka! He found a colorful postcard image and printed it.

Other researchers in The Making of Ann Arbor website find similar success as they search or browse through several image collections and full-text of books. Nicknamed "MoAA," this website was created through a collaboration among AADL, the Bentley Historical Library, and the U-M Digital Library Production Services. You can use it for research or just to enjoy browsing through a collection of postcards, historic buildings, advertisements, and maps of early Ann Arbor.

Access to this and any of our other reference databases and resources is available at every branch of the AADL, as well as from outside the library with a valid AADL library card. For access from an outside location, please sign in to your library account, visit our reference database page, and navigate to the desired resource. To access The Making of Ann Arbor database, go to the research page and select The Making of Ann Arbor from the Ann Arbor category.

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Blog Post

Beneath The Rim: Stories And Pictures From Inside The Grand Canyon

by Caser

Join us in welcoming author Rick Kempa to the Downtown library on Monday June 18 from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm for an evening of stories and pictures of the Grand Canyon. Mr. Kempa has been hiking in the Grand Canyon since 1974. The event will include stories spanning that length of time, from his first hike “when, as immortal teenagers, my brother and I had the bright idea of swimming across the river just above Hermit Rapids,” to his most recent hike this spring, “when I began to consider that there may come a day when I am too old and tired to climb out.” His words and photos also depict “encounters with grizzled fellow-hikers, with rangers who appear in the weirdest of places, with river-runners who feast like kings, with exotic wildlife, and—best of all—with the silence that exists between the river and the Rim.”

In August 2010, Kempa served as the Artist-in-Residence at the South Rim, giving public presentations and working on his Canyon-country writings. He is currently serving as editor of two Grand Canyon anthologies, one of poems and the other of essays by backpackers. He teaches writing and philosophy and directs the Honors Program at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

The AADL also has guide books, historical books, music, and videos on the Grand Canyon for those interested in learning more about this incredible National Park.

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Blog Post

Taking a Trip? Take a Map!

by ringenka

Did you know AADL has a collection of maps? Maps are removed from travel books so they do not get lost. These maps are put in file folders arranged by geographic location. Other maps are added to the files to create a comprehensive collection. We have maps for most every state and country!

Thinking about a trip to Europe? The Europe map file includes a Eurorail map, so you can expertly navigate the trains!! Do you enjoy lighthouses? The Maine file includes a map of all the lighthouses in the state. For major cities such as Paris and Chicago, AADL carries the streetwise laminated maps, both slim and durable!

Not taking a vacation soon? There are still plenty of reasons to check out a map! Perhaps you are a teacher needing a map of outer space or the Pacific ocean or a researcher looking for a map of the former Soviet Union, we have all of these maps and more! Maybe you are moving across the state, we have plenty of Michigan maps, so you can scope out your new location!

The maps are not requestable, so come downtown and enjoy looking through the files! You can check maps out for 4 weeks and return them to any location.

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Blog Post

Author Birthdays: Oliver, Diamond

by marshd

September 10th marks the birthday of two American writers: Mary Oliver and Jared Diamond.

Mary Oliver is an American poet, now 75 years old and still writing. She has written many books of poems, including American Primitive, which won her a Pulitzer Prize in 1984. Parts of her collection The Leaf and the Cloud were included in The Best American Poetry books of 1999 and 2000.

The collection she published in 2006, called Thirst, has been praised by many reviews, including one from Booklist, which stated: "Oliver, one of the country's most popular and highly awarded poets, presents her credo at the outset of her newest collection: My work is loving the world. The poems that follow are what readers expect from Oliver, beautifully tempered lyrics celebrating the splendor of the living world."

Author Jared Diamond is a scientist, currently at UCLA. He has won many awards for some of his books, including the dual-winning The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution And Future Of The Human Animal. This book focuses on inter-species domination (like humans over chimpanzees), as well as humans domination over other humans.

Diamond won a Pulitzer for his book Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies, which discusses Eurasian civilizations' abilities to conquer through the advantages of geography rather than biology; the book was also made into a documentary by National Geographic. Almost all of his books focus on domination in some way, except for Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution Of Human Sexuality, which explains the seemingly peculiar aspects and evolution of human sexuality.

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Blog Post

Find a Bike Route for Your Commute

by Caser

Last week, Google added an interactive bicycle route mapping feature to their popular Google Maps. Still in its beta version, the feature is designed to "include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes," according to Peter Smith.

The good news for Ann Arbor bike commuters and bike enthusiasts is that Tree Town is already part of their mapped data, so you can try out their suggested routes right away. Although I wasn't in love with the route they mapped for my commute to work, the map did highlight -- in bright green -- some paved trails that I would definitely use for commuting on two wheels. The AADL also has books on the rise of cycling, such as Pedal Power by J. Harry Wray and Bicycling Magazine's Guide to Bike Touring by Doug Donaldson.

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Blog Post

Guided Hikes in the Ann Arbor Area

by Caser

Calvin's father, in the timeless youth graphic novels, Calvin and Hobbes, often insists that outdoor activities with the family will help "build character" in his son, though Calvin himself clearly has other ideas. If you are looking for some similar character-building activities with the family this Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010, consider the Waterloo Recreation Area's investigative program, "The Mystery of the Missing Groundhog", and then head out to the trails on a search for some winter wildlife.

Looking for something closer to Ann Arbor? Check out Saturday's daytime hike, the Winter Woods Walk, through County Farm Park where a guide will lead you on and off the trails looking for plants and wildlife. Or try Leslie Science Center's nocturnal Winter Night Walk which caps off a crisp night trail hike with a lively campfire.

If you can't make these weekend events, check out the following Ann Arbor trail guides from the AADL: Riverwalks Ann Arbor and Footloose in Ann Arbor.