Multnomah County Library Podcasts

TransitionPDX is a diverse group of Portland area residents working to build sustainable communities equipped to meet a reduced carbon future. In this presentation with Meg Bowman, TransitionPDX will examine peak oil and climate change and their predicted impact on an already strained economy. The audience will learn practical steps for easing the strain of rising food and utilities costs with Harriet Fasenfest from Preserve and Lani from the Community Energy Project. And they’ll hear how Portland neighborhoods are gearing up for transition to a resilient future.

Raves about reading Faves @your library. Title Raves: The Great Northwest was an event where people could celebrate their love of reading and local writers. Listen in here for a discussion about who favorite Northwest authors are, what book(s) were read lately and why people liked it. Leading off the discussion will be a panel of people known around town for their love of reading and books. Sharing their insights about books, writers and writing are: Lono Waiwaiole, whose Wiley crime noir series takes place in Portland Dennis Stovall and Karen Brattain, publishers at PSU’s student-run Ooligan Press Jeff Baker, book editor, The Oregonian Shared faves with the group -- and the world. Title Raves recommendations are posted on the library’s website.

Sisters of the Road lead a discussion and information exchange concerning homelessness in Portland and the resources available to help those who are homeless, as well as how others can assist the homeless.

VoiceCatcher presents prose and poetry from its fourth women writers anthology. The work of six contributing authors will be highlighted. VoiceCatcher's mission is to publish an anthology of Portland-area women's writing reflecting a diversity of voice and genre. They offer a local publishing opportunity that respects, nurtures and promotes local artists.Web site: http://voicecatcher.org/

Bonnie Jo Campbell’s energy and biting wit make her work both brutal and laugh out-loud funny. All is weird, immediate and raw in Campbell’s stories and poems. Bonnie Jo Campbell’s new story collection, American Salvage, was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award. She is also the author of the novel Q Road, and the story collection Women & Other Animals. She has won the AWP award for short fiction, the 2008 Eudora Welty fiction prize, and a Pushcart prize, and she was named a Barnes & Noble Great New Writer. The New York Times has called her stories "Bitter but sweetened by humor," and Publisher’s Weekly said Campbell details, "domestic worlds where Martha Stewart would fear to tread."Presented in partnership with Pacific University's Master of Fine Arts in Writing program.

Children of the Sea Volume 1 by Daisuke Igarashi When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea that she does. Audience: Teens  

Biblioburro by Jeanette Winter What if your library came to you on the back of a burro? Audience: Kids

Countdown by Debora Wiles   Franny Chapman just wants some peace. But that's hard to get when her best friend is feuding with her, her sister has disappeared, and her uncle is fighting an old war in his head. Her saintly younger brother is no help, and the cute boy across the street only complicates things. Worst of all, everyone is walking around just waiting for a bomb to fall. It's 1962, and it seems the whole country is living in fear... Audience: Kids

Whether you are in your 30s, 40s, or 50s, this class uses a variety of tools (personality inventories, success factor self analysis, etc.) to help you discover the perfect career position for this time of your life. This class was offered in Partnership with PCC Community Education.

“I like to live my life purposefully,” says June Fleming, who at 74 is a poster child for healthy and engaged living and who nonchalantly describes her rigorous snowcamping and hiking trips. For 15 years she has been reading weekly to residents at two local care facilities, as a volunteer for the library’s Visiting Voices program. She has always loved libraries, calling them “the great equalizers” and she has a gift for reading aloud, noting that her husband and children always loved to hear her read. June has spent a lifetime cultivating relationships with elders through conversation, letters and visits and her work with Visiting Voices has deepened her respect for the wisdom of elders. June describes wisdom as the ability to adapt to change and not be diminished by loss, illness and death.  Hear a short recording of one of her reading sessions. June is an author, too: check out copies of June’s books, The Well-fed Backpacker and Staying Found: The Complete Map and Compass Handbook. Gift People is a program

Volunteers with the library’s Visiting Voices program recognize that the joy of reading never diminishes with age. Armed with a stimulating variety of reading material from poems to novels, volunteers read to a group of elders at Portland area assisted care facilities. Reading sessions are weekly and typically range from 30-45 minutes. Hear a short passage from a reading session conducted by June Fleming, a 15-year veteran volunteer. Gift People is a program of  recorded conversations with civically engaged older adults, sponsored by Library Outreach Services, Life by Design NW and the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by Oregon State Library.

Yellowstone Moran;painting the American West  By Lita Judge Tom Moran had never ridden a horse or slept under the stars before, but the paintings he created on his journey from city boy to seasoned explorer would lead to the founding of America's first national park. Audience: Kids

Trickster Native American tales a Graphic Collection Compiled and Edited by Matt Dembicki   Meet the trickster, a crafty creature or being who disrupts the order of things, often humiliating others and sometimes himself in the process. Whether a coyote or rabbit, raccoon or raven, tricksters use cunning to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. Audience: Kids and Teens

Nothing by Janne Teller  When thirteen-year-old Pierre Anthon leaves school to sit in a plum tree and train for becoming part of nothing, his seventh grade classmates set out on a desperate quest for the meaning of life. If you had to sacrifice something meaningful to you to prove life had meaning, what would you give up? Your pet? Your little finger? What might your friends make you sacrifice? Like The Lord of the Flies or The Lottery, this book questions what happens when control goes out of control.   Target Audience: Teen

Bad News for Outlaws: the Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshall by Vanda Micheaux Nelson This biography profiles the life of Bass Reeves, a former slave who was recruited as a deputy United States Marshal in the area that was to become Oklahoma. Target audience: Children

Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis by Barbara O'Connor In Fayette, South Carolina, the highlight of Popeye's summer is learning vocabulary words with his grandmother until a motor home gets stuck nearby and Elvis, the oldest boy living inside, joins Popeye in finding the source of strange boats floating down the creek. Target Audience: Children

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia In the summer of 1968, after travelling from Brooklyn to Oakland, California, to spend a month with the mother they barely know, eleven-year-old Delphine and her two younger sisters arrive to a cold welcome as they discover that their mother, a dedicated poet and printer, is resentful of the intrusion of their visit and wants them to attend a nearby Black Panther summer camp. Target Audience: Children

Steph Miller, Central librarian and coordinator of the John Adams Unbound exhibit, and William C. Stack, educator and historian, share opening remarks about John Adams and the exhibit. More information about the exhibit and additional resources can be found at www.multcolib.org/events/collins/adams.html.

Every student knows that Americans fought with the British in the War of Independence in 1776 and again in 1812. What few realize is that the United States almost went to war with Britain over Oregon. Oregon was a hot topic during the nineteenth century because of its seemingly endless riches, vastness, beauty, and potential for exploitation. In this program, Robert Hamm will share primary sources - newspapers, woodcuts, accurate and inaccurate maps, and early photographs - from the Lewis and Clark Expedition to the Lewis and Clark Exposition. In the U.S. Bank Room

Change a challenging work environment to one that is more positive. Speaker Tonya Booker shows you how! Recorded May 13, 2010