Syracuse Library Events This Week
By BECKY BROWER
Communication Services, Syracuse Public Library
Activities for the week of Dec. 22 through Jan. 3:
Holiday Hours
The library will be closing so the staff can spend time with family and friends over the holiday. We will be closed Wednesday, Dec. 24 and Thursday, Dec. 25. Items that are due over Christmas will have a due date of Monday, Dec. 29.
The library will be open for full business days Friday, Dec. 26 and Saturday, Dec.27. Upgrades to the Evergreen catalog system are being completed over the Christmas holiday.
At 3 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 31, the library will close early for New Years Eve and will remain closed Thursday, Jan. 1 for New Years Day. The library will reopen at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 2 to resume regular business hours.
Renovations
Construction for the remodeling project continues in the new year. The staff and library board thank everyone for adjusting to the changing situations during the renovations. The children’s department is through the messiest phase except for work in the entrance and in the bathrooms. The library is staying open while the work to freshen the paint, flooring and furniture continue.
Adult Book Club
The January adult book club is reading a book that was the feature of many book club discussions last fall. We are reading Christina Baker Kline’s “Orphan Train” and the group meets on Wednesday, Jan. 14 to discuss. You can contact the library at (574) 457-3022 to reserve a copy of the book.
Kline is the author of four nonfiction books about women and children. The writing of the “Orphan Train” is a combination of Kline’s signature look at cultural identity along with historical research. The author has created a first person present day narrative in Vivian, a ninety year woman living in Maine. She rode the train in 1929, its last year.
The orphan trains ran for 75 years and were administered by the Children’s Aid Society. The aid-society put over 200,000 children on trains in the East to be placed with families in the Midwest. The children were cut-off from cultural connections and were primarily used as indentured servants. The trains would take a load of children and people would meet the train to select from those on board. Babies and older boys were most desirable and the train would continue making stops until it was empty.