Welcoming ULC' Newest Members
Anderson Public Library, Palm Desert Library

ULC is pleased to welcome Anderson Public Library (Indiana) and Palm Desert Library (California) to our growing membership!

Anderson Public Library has served the communities of Anderson and Lapel, Indiana for over 100 years. The Palm Desert Library, previously part of the Riverside County Library System, is a newly established municipal library in Palm Desert, California.

Recognizing Civic Learning Week and 50 Years of Home Rule
DC Public Library

Happy Civic Learning Week! Civic Learning Week is hosted annually by iCivics and seeks to highlight the importance of civic education in sustaining and strengthening constitutional democracy in the United States. This year, the DC Public Library is also recognizing 50 years of the Home Rule Act.

The right to vote wasn't always a right for D.C. residents. From 1874 - 1973, D.C.'s right to self-govern, otherwise known as Home Rule, was removed by Congress. It wasn't until 1974 that D.C. was able to show up to the polls to vote for Mayor and D.C. Council. 2024 is another big election year and exercising one's right to vote is not only an opportunity to make one's voice heard, it is also an opportunity to honor the incredible advocates who fought for this right.

Learn more about DCPL's Civic Learning Week and Home Rule events.

The Little (Free)dom Library Initiative
Free Library of Philadelphia

The Free Library of Philadelphia's Little Free(dom) Library initiative is extending through March to celebrate Women's History Month! After distributing 1,500 banned books by Black authors in February, the campaign will include more works written by women to celebrate Women’s History Month.

The Little Free(dom) Library initiative, which started last month in conjunction with the Free Library of Philadelphia and Little Free Library, will now offer “Feminism Is for Everybody” by bell hooks and “Front Desk” by Kelly Yang, along with a dozen other books offered through the initiative. All of the books offered have fallen under book bans within school districts throughout the country after being deemed inappropriate.

During an interview with WHYY News in February, Visit Philadelphia CEO Angela Val said she hopes people who borrow a book will either “see themselves in some of the stories” or see different perspectives. “By telling stories, people reading about other people, their culture, their ethnicity, their experiences, that’s how we get to know one another,” she said. “That’s how we start to break down some of the barriers that divide us. That’s how we get to see each other as humans.”

Read the full story on WHYY News.

Bad Movies Bringing People Together
Ottawa Public Library

There are plenty of reasons to like a bad movie, including its unintentional humor and its cheesiness. But one thing that can make a bad movie really good, says Steve Tennant, is how earnest it is. He’s one of the organizers of Ottawa Bad Movie Nights. Together with the Ottawa Public Library, the group hosts monthly showings of some of the worst-best movies ever made.

While the library is quick to note that there is, in fact, no such thing as a bad movie, the regular get-togethers have a consistently large turnout. The group has been meeting for nearly a decade, but is experiencing a post-pandemic comeback. In 2018, almost 200 people came out for the showing of Samurai Cop, a 1991 direct-to-video action flick that was so bad, it attained a cult classic status that led to a 2015 sequel: Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance. During peak COVID-19, the movie nights went online — you can still stream the picks on Hoopla or Kanopy. The group is hoping to see attendance numbers like this again soon.

“The last event was very well attended,” Bad Movie Nights leader Al Dumas said of the 65 people who came out to watch the February showing of Disco Godfather. It felt like old times, and I’m hoping it’s going to keep going that way because that’s what it’s about bringing people together and having fun.”

Read the full article in the Ottawa Citizen.