Silver Lake Public Library

Kansas will be 151 years on Sunday, January 29.  Visit the Kansas Historical Society website – it is rich with resources for those who enjoy interesting trips in Kansas, online shopping, and online exhibits.

Two new computers were installed last week for public use.  Also new on all the public work stations is EnvisinWare, a time management program that makes it easy for patrons to sign-in to use the computers. The program also allows patrons to make a reservation for the next available computer when all workstations are in use.  Patrons need to have a current library account in order to log in.  Each session gives the user 60 minutes of computer time.  Additional minutes are offered when there is no waiting list for the computers.  The computers are a popular service of the Library for all ages.

Flyover People by Cheryl Unruh

Cheryl has a remarkable way of describing Kansas that touches those deep feelings of loyalty and pride that many of us experience when we are native Kansans. Whether it be the “jets sprinting through the atmosphere leaving momentary footprints in the sky” or describing the Kansas horizon “as a narrow line as thin as a guitar string,” she puts those innermost thoughts on paper that many of us have trouble putting into words.

Her comparison of Kansas geography to the Amish struck a familiar chord of traveling through Kansas and seeing beautifully kept farm homes, barns, and gardens. “Nothing showy or ostentatious,” she writes, “It takes a patient person to savor the quiet landscape, to revel as clouds pull the day along.”

It takes another Kansan to recognize how our native people have struggled to survive the prairie fires, the tornadoes, the blizzards, hail, and yes, the wind! Is not Dodge City the windiest city in the nation? “We are a plucky bunch,” she writes.

“The tourist cannot love the place as much as the native. We learn to love the place that nurtures us,” writes Rudolfo Anaya.
Whether it be through the haunting sound of a train whistle at night, the bark of the coyote, or the hoot of a owl, Kansans can recognize their own uniqueness of Kansas life through these essays by Cheryl Unruch

Written by Lynne Keefover
Carbondale, Kansas
January 21, 2012

November 16th was also Kansas Reads to Preschoolers Day at Silver Lake Library.

The Silver Lake Library’s 2012-2014 Strategic Plan was approved by the Board of Trustees at their regular monthly meeting October 3.