Louisiana Libraries

Heather Butts presents a very captivating story to her African American Medicine in Washington D.C. : Healing the Capital During the Civil War Era book. The service of African Americans in defense of the Union during the Civil War required nurses, doctors and surgeons to heal those soldiers. These brave healthcare professionals developed a medical infrastructure for African Americans by African Americans. Have you heard about distinguished surgeon, Alexander T. Augusta who fought discrimination, visited President Lincoln, testified before Congress and aided the war effort? He was appointed to the faculty of Howard University which was the first Medical College in the United States.

Butts starts her story off by discussing how most of the African American healthcare providers shared stories before the American Civil War. One such story was how certain black codes in the U.S. Capitol regulated the conduct and opportunities that were available to free African Americans. Those prejudicial codes were instituted in 1808 and involved curfews that resulted in fines of five dollars, but that did not prevent numerous African Americans from prospering as restaurant owners and merchants. 

Have you heard about the D.C. Compensation Act of April 16, 1862? It ended slavery in D.C. and freed over 3,100 enslaved individuals. Thousands of slaves fled to D.C. and a camp to house them was established. 

The one thing I like most about the book is that it mentions that African American Healthcare providers trained and worked in D.C. prior to the Civil War like Dr. Alexander Augusta who secretly learned to read with the help of Bishop Paine. He began studying medicine with private tutors while he worked as a barber. Augusta was denied admittance and had to attend a university in Canada to get his medical degree. 

Did you know that Nathan Francis Mossell was the first African American to be admitted to the University of Pennsylvania’s Medical School? Dr. Mossell became the founder of Frederick Douglas Memorial Hospital in D.C. where young African American women could train for nursing. He was the first doctor to explore using women at Douglas Hospital.

Butts keeps the reader interested by mentioning that the enslaved population in 1860 for D.C. was 3,185 and the free population was 11,131. Those circumstances led to numerous African Americans practicing medicine in Washington D.C. Dr. Augusta was appointed surgeon of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) and after his commission, he was sent to Camp Barker in Washington D.C.

Even those that appreciate classic literary works will love this book! Walt Whitman served as a nurse during the war and wrote one of the best firsthand accounts about the hospitals in Washington D.C. Louisa May Alcott wrote Hospital Sketches in which she states how she would like to nurse African American soldiers because she admired them. 

Former slaves were allowed to join the ranks of the Union Army when President Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation. African Americans not only served as medics, but also spies, scouts and guides. They also chopped down trees to improve roads for gun emplacements. One of my favorite pictures in the book is a copy of Private James Slaughter’s war record. He was discharged due to having a disability on January 27, 1865. Having a record like that meant that those men fought and died in tumultuous times. 

Butts just keeps drilling the reader with more facts such as the Union had a system for tracking soldiers. It had a card that recorded his location, the location of different hospitals and other infirmities. Both African Americans and white soldiers took part in that type of tracking system.

As the Civil War raged on, the overall health outcomes of African American troops actually improved. The most important factor was the lessening of strenuous fatigue duty and better overall care by physicians assigned to African American regiments. 

Thousands of African American soldiers died in the Civil War with the vast majority of African American service members had diseases such as Pneumonia, dysentery, typhoid fever and malaria took the highest tool on the African American troops. 

This book not only talks about the first African American medics in the Union Army, but also describes the African American regiments that fought in the Civil War.

Alexander Augusta was the senior surgeon in February 1864 and would be subject to several instances of racism. He was only paid seven dollars a month which was significantly lower than white officers of his rank. Dr. Willis Revels was a member of the twenty-eighth USCT and was a physician. He was also the chief recruiting officer for the regiment. Dr. Martin Delaney returned to the United States after traveling to Liberia and England to champion the cause of African American soldiers fighting in the American Civil War. He was commissioned as a major of infantry in 1865. 

Jane Isabella Saunders was known as “Aunt Jane” to the sick and injured soldiers she tended to at the Contraband Hospital in D.C. The book lists other African American doctors, nurses and surgeons that helped with the war effort. 

After the war, several African American physicians, including Alexander Augusta tried to become a member of the American Medical Association, but was denied admittance so he founded the National Medical Association that remains in existence today.

Augusta died on December 21, 1890 at age sixty-five. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery who held a rank of lieutenant colonel and is primarily remembered today for being the first African American surgeon in the Union Army and the first high ranking officer to be buried at Arlington Cemetery. 

If you are interested in wanting to learn more about African American medical professionals and soldiers than I suggest you stop by the Union Parish Library and check out African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.: Healing the Capital During the Civil War Era. That particular book is featured in our Union Parish African Americans in Health Care theme for Black History Month. It will leave you with a feeling of Admiration for the African Americans who faced adversity in fighting for their freedom during the American Civil War. 

Did you know that 65 percent of America’s fourth graders do not read at a proficient level and that 71 percent of senior adults older than 60 had difficulty in using print materials? The Union Parish Library is here to help because they have Judy Lewis who is the Literacy Outreach Coordinator. She plans and oversees the implementation of reading programs for those patrons who may not be able to visit the library as well as our regular patrons.   Programs such as Reading Road Trips, Porch Lights, Backyard Bookshelf, Little Free Libraries, and Book Camp are just a few of the outreach programs she oversees and these programs definitely keep her on the road!

For instance, if we could be her sidekick for a month, we would certainly see the parish!   Today, for instance, she was at the Union Parish Courthouse today to leave books at the Little Free Libraries pantry for patrons that are visiting the Courthouse to look up records or working all day.  

Tomorrow, she will be visiting the Pine Crest Nursing Home and on Thursday, she visits Farmerville Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and Timberlake Healthcare because the Union Parish Library has a program for Senior Adult outreach called “Porch Lights” that provides books for patrons that are in nursing or assisted living homes.  Porch Lights also supplies book shelves that the library has placed in the Council on Aging and Farmerville Square Apartments for patrons to access books to read in a convenient location.  She will also visit the Marion Triad this Friday to supply books to patrons in need in another program we offer in Bernice at Reeves Memorial Medical Center and Marion called “Backyard Bookshelf”.   

Have you ever heard of The Talking Books Program? It is a unique program that allows the Union Parish Library to work with the state library to provide a free public service to Louisiana residents of all ages who cannot read standard printed materials due to a visual impairment, physical disability or a reading disability whether it is permanent or temporary.  Once the library qualifies a person for the program, they are mailed books of their choice and a device to listen to them goes to their home and they can return them with a pre-paid postage system.   

From the big kids to the little kids, Judy Lewis travels to them all.   Lewis goes to the parish daycares and schools to read to the preschool children or school-age children in a program the library calls Reading Road Trips.   The library also provides teacher resources as well through Lewis outreach and the bookmobile services. 

During Black History Month each year, Lewis organizes an “African American Read-In” to students at local schools using books written by, narrated by, or about African Amerian characters.  Local community leaders serve as volunteers to read to students.

If you ask Lewis what her favorite children’s book is, she will immediately say “Wind in the Willows”, so it’s no surprise that this year for her 2nd grade Book Camp program she chose this as their first book to read together and actually that is what it’s all about.  Providing the best literacy outreach really just means sharing your love of reading with others.  Lewis does that well.   

So when you can’t come to the library for programs or books you better watch out because Judy Lewis may come looking for you!   

Every day, patrons come in and pull books off the shelf, look at them, leave them on a table, or perhaps deposit them on another shelf. Another patron drops off books in the overnight drop box outside and somehow almost like magic, these books make their way back to the shelves, back in order, all nice and neat!  Is it magic?  Well, not really.  One of the library’s secret, not so secret, book fairies is a lady wearing glasses with short black hair. 

This nice and friendly lady is Bettye Frazier. She lives in Marion and like most of the employees that work at the library, she lists reading as one of her favorite hobbies. Action, biographies, religious and romance are her favorite genres to read. As part of her duties working at the Union Parish Library, Frazier helps patrons check in books, check out books, decorating the bulletin board with the library’s monthly theme and she also makes magic every day by making sure books are placed back on the shelves where they belong.   If you ask her why she likes working at the library she will say, “I love all of it.” That is just the type of person that she is!

My first impression upon meeting her is that she probably taught school before she worked at the Union Parish Library and I was right! She did teach school as an Assistant Teacher at the Lincoln Total Community Action, Bernice and Farmerville Head Start for over 21 years. You can tell she’s good with children.  In fact, today, the Head Start students from Farmerville are here for a visit and story time.  Frazier stands at the door greeting each one of them with a “Good Morning”.  She escorts them into the meeting room where she reads them a story, they sing, they dance, they laugh, and applause and cheers are heard from underneath the closed door.  This is the sound of children loving the idea of “reading and the library loves it too!  Frazier has worked for the Union Parish Library since 2015 and she is continuing her legacy of inspiring young preschoolers to love learning and that is truly magic!    

When I asked her if she had a favorite book, Frazier mentions, “Not really.”  She likes them all.  That just shows that she is a person that just loves to read! Frazier has 5 children (4 girls and 1 boy). Her daughter is following into her Mother’s footsteps as she is an avid reader herself.    One of her other hobbies is gardening.  As daylight savings time approaches, you can bet she will be outside working with her flower garden and yes, the library has plenty of books on gardening too!   

You can tell that Bettye Frazier loves what she does because she smiles, talks to patrons, and often is found laughing herself as she shares just a touch of magic wherever she goes.   She does a terrific job at the Union Parish Library so please stop by for a visit, check out a book, and meet some of the staff that make magic happen every day! 

If you would like to be a Civil Rights activist working to make sure a person’s rights are not being violated or want to learn about the greatest African American baseball players of all time then I suggest you take a look at the African American Genres at the Union Parish Library! They have 1,727 African American books like 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, 18 African American Abolitionists books such as Narrative, A Life of Frederick Douglas, 14 African American Abolitionists books for juveniles, 19 African American Air Pilots such as Freedom flyers: the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II and there are 8 African American Actors-Actresses books. 

One of my favorite African American books is The Last Hero: a life of Henry Aaronbecause it talks about how he grew up in segregated Alabama and started playing baseball. His shattering of Babe Ruth’s all-time home run record made him well-known throughout the world. 

The birth of African American literature in the United States by writers of African descent began with the works of Phyllis Wheatley. She published her book on Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in 1773 which was three years before American independence. One thing that I did not know that George Washington praised her work, but nobody believed in her because she had to defend herself in court to prove the writing was hers! 

Jupiter Hammon is considered the first published writer who wrote An Evening Though: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries in 1761. Victor Sejour produced the earliest works of fiction by an African American writer with his short story: “Le Mulatre” (The Mulatto) in 1837. That story was unique because it was written in French. 

Frederick Douglas became the most prominent author known for his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave in 1845. That particular book is one of my favorites because he shares his life history with the reader, but one thing that I did not know was that his critics believed that he did not write the book even though he did!

After the end of the American Civil War, W.E.B. DuBois who was one of the original founders of the NAACP wrote The Souls of Black Folk which told Dubois’s personal experiences about how African Americans were treated in rural Georgia. Unlike DuBois, Booker T. Washington who was founder of the Tuskegee Institute wrote Up from Slavery in 1901. 

Zora Neale Hurston wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937 which tells about a woman looking for true love. That particular book was made into a television movie in 2005 and was very good!

The Civil Rights movement era had James Baldwin who addressed issues of race and sexuality with Go Tell It on the Mountain in 1953 and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King JR wrote Letter from Birmingham in 1963. 

Toni Morrison was the first African American to receive a Nobel Prize for her literary work in 1993. She wrote Beloved in 1988 which tells the story of a slave in Kentucky running away to Ohio. 

African American literature is very popular with books such as Roots: The Saga of An American Familyby Alex Harvey. Roots was also an American television miniseries that aired on ABC in January 1977 and it received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won nine. 

The Color Purple by Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 and that particular book was made into a movie in 1985 starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey. Hattie McDaniel was one of the first African American actresses that won an academy award in 1940 for her role as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind. She became the first Oscar winner to be honored with a U.S. Postage stamp. African American poet, Maya Angelou wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969 which describes her strength of character and a love of literature that can help overcome racism and trauma. 

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey has gained national attention by promoting African American genres throughout her book club. African American genres continue to be very popular in the 21^stCentury.

If you are interested in reading any of the African American genres that I mentioned or into television shows and movies then I suggest stopping by at the Union Parish Library and checking out numerous titles, books and movies about African Americans.

Pick an author and pretend you are a civil rights activist wanting freedom for the oppressed or flying in a P-51 Mustang like the Tuskegee Airmen, either way these books will leave you feeling inspired and after all its Black History Month!

“There was a farmer who had a Dog and Bingo was his Name-O!” Story books like “Bingo” will engage your child into learning to read because he or she can sing along in an interactive setting and Did you know that reading to babies and young children will help them learn new sounds, words and language by developing literacy skills? Children can learn to value books and stories by sparkling their imagination and stimulating their curiosity into reading. Do you love reading yourself? Well, the Union Parish Library has a link for you to click on after you visit http://www.unionparishlibrary.com. Click on links and scroll down until you are able to click on Tumblebooks Children’s E-Book Library. 

Tumblebooks Children’s E-Book Library has many story books, read alongs, E-Books, Graphic novels, non-fiction, videos, mat h stories, play lists, puzzles and games and even has books for Spanish readers. One of the books that I enjoyed reading as a child was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finnby Mark Twain. I clicked on index and found my favorite book by clicking on the letter A and scrolling down to the middle of the page to find it. 

The Tumble Player also has a Play List that allows you to build a list of Tumblebooks which you can play one after another for Story Time! Tumblebooks has a button on the right side of the catalog and when you click on it, the books get added to your Tumble Player. Click on the large play button on the Tumble Player to launch the application. You can also add books to your playlist and delete them as you wish! 

One of my favorite dog related movies is “Because of Winn Dixie” so I clicked on E-books and found six children’s books by Kate Di Cammilo who wrote “Because of Winn Dixie.” Tumblebooks was designed for you to be online to download an E-book. Graphic Novels include 68 books such as Nancy Drew and The Smurf’s. Those type of books read like comics from a Sunday newspaper.

I really like the Non-fiction category because it has books on Animals, History, Geography, Science, Biographies Insects and Seasons. “The House that George Built” is my favorite because it describes how the White House was built in an interactive follow-along setting. 

Do you like National Geographic? There is also a video category where you can view videos based on Animals and Nature,History, Space and Technology, Biology, Geography, Earth Science and Social Studies. The videos are very good especially the Biography on Benjamin Franklin. 

The site also has Math stories to teach your child how to count with lessons on Geometry and concepts about solving math problems. The Spanish category has numerous books in Spanish and children can also play Puzzles, Word Catch, Memory Game, Match the Sentence, Spelling, Crossword and Word Search games.  Those type of games are good for when the children are out of school for the holiday’s or summer! In order to play the game, you have to make sure that Adobe Acrobat Reader is downloaded to your computer. 

The best thing about Tumblebooks is that it can get a parent interested in reading to their child. You do not have to pay fees to use Tumblebooks because the Union Parish Library provides it so you can download an E-book for you to read to your child or they can read it all by themselves. There are two different links for Tumblebooks: Tumblebooks Children’s E-book Library and Tumblebooks Tween and Teens E-book. Both are very similar, but I highly recommend Tumblebooks for children because it will help them read more as teenagers.

There is also an app that you can download on Apple I-Tunes and Google Play for Android users. Technology has gone a long way since Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain wrote “Huckleberry Finn” and doing word searches on paper and continues to do so thanks to http://www.tumblebooklibrary.com. 
The Union Parish Library is providing this service for patrons who have children so they can read to them at night before bed and all you have to do is click on a book of your choice by using the index. Tumblebooks should be a must for parents who want to improve their child’s literacy skills and most of all sharing the joy of reading with a loved one!

New Orleans, native Rosary O’Neill presents a very captivating story to her “New Orleans Carnival Krewes: The History, Spirit and Secrets of Mardi Gras.” The city’s motto is “Let the Good Times Roll or Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler” because New Orleans is practically synonymous with Mardi Gras since it involves parades, the beads, the costumes and not to mention the food! 

The carnival krewes are the backbone of this party cities tradition because each year different krewes put on amazing parties and celebrations to commemorate the beginning of Lent. 

The one thing I like most about the book is that it tells the history of Mardi Gras which dates back centuries when Roman Catholic countries have celebrated carnival before Lent. France introduced carnival to North America and as early as 1512, the French Court celebrated with a parade titled: “King of the Butchers” led an elaborate procession. That unique parade was held before Ash Wednesday.

The book makes you realize that French aristocrats were the ones that actually sponsored carnival parades and what amazes me is the fact that New Orleans attracted the rich and the dreamers from 1718 to 1860 when aristocrats felt the need for elegance and that is what made Mardi Gras in New Orleans so special since its founding. 

The citizens of New Orleans like to connect themselves with the French and many streets in the French Quarter are named for famous French people like La Salle, Bienville and Iberville. They also love waiting before the parade like a veil casting its shadow over the city to see the readied floats. Impressive automobiles drive up to the den’s tall gates to unload happy gentlemen. 

Those gentlemen vanish into an enormous courtyard brimming with enormous floats. A lieutenant climbs on a chair and starts calling the roll while police escorts quickly wait in the streets and assemble quickly in parade formation while the floats lumber through the gates and the music starts playing as the people watch with glee as multiple floats start moving off! 

The book also mentions society balls that took place on January 6th because of their custom of naming kings and queens. At a ball a king cake was cut and the finder of the bean was named king of the ball which was one thing in the book I did not know!

Carnival organizations are just like any organization because it has a captain that directs and prepares for the events during the ball and parade. The President presides at board meetings while the Vice-President takes over the President’s role in his absence.   Second Vice-President acts as a third lieutenant and even takes over the role of captain, first lieutenant and second lieutenant. The treasurer collects dues and pays bills while the Secretary takes minutes at meetings and acts as first lieutenant or captain when necessary. Non-titled members are assigned various duties by captains and presidents. 

The book also gives you a good description of the history of New Orleans from its Golden Yearsafter 1830 and the Fearful Years following the Union occupation during the American Civil War, 1862-77. Aftermath of Reconstruction, 1877-2005 mentions that New Orleans never rebounded from the war because docks, highways and schools never achieved the excellence of those in other cities while shipping which had been the source of income declined leaving tourism the chief industry in the city. 

The “Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,” 2005-14 brought changes to New Orleans because the New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl in 2010 and gave the people hope because The Golden Years of hospitality and opportunity have returned.

Tourism remains very popular in New Orleans since nearly 11-million visitors toured New Orleans in 2017. 

Mardi Gras in New Orleans is March 5, 2019 and the best sites I recommend relate to drinking coffee and eating a beignet which is a type of donut at Café Du Monde. Touring Jackson Square to see the Saint Louis Cathedral and statue of General Jackson. Take a swamp tour and visit Mardi Gras world where the massive floats that make up Mardi Gras are created. Take a cemetery tour, but you cannot leave until you taste King Cake and see the parade floats at Mardi Gras! You can really feel at peace once you step inside “The Saint Louis Cathedral.”  That cathedral is one of my favorite reasons to visit New Orleans because it’s unlike any other! Mardi Gras is actually a French word meaning Fat Tuesday.  If you are interested in wanting to learn more about the history of New Orleans and Mardi Gras then I suggest you stop by the Union Parish Library and check out “New Orleans Carnival Krewes: The History, Spirit and Secrets of Mardi Gras.” That particular book is for our Biscuit Book Club which meets starting this February on the Third Monday of every month at 6:00 p.m. We will host a speaker that tells the history of Mardi Gras! It will leave you feeling refreshed from learning so much history that a tour of New Orleans will be on the horizon very soon! 

From the days of a mule-drawn carriage and Model-T engines loaded with books, bookmobiles have been an outreach of public libraries for a hundred years or more.    Of course, today the bookmobile in Union Parish is a Ford 450, but it still makes it’s way to all the backwoods and bayous of our parish delivering books to children through Senior Adults and today, they also do it while singing and dancing every once and awhile!    

The Union Parish Library bookmobile route visits children at daycares and schools, people shopping at grocery stores, employees at their workplace, or local people just passing by their rural country store!  Come see the Bookmobile at a Neighborhood Stop near you and meet some of  our main library associates there:  Jessica Hart and Tinnie Martin. 

The bookmobile recently visited the Bernice Head Start on January 28^th and bookmobile staff member, Jessica Hart read them “Splat the Cat” and the kids laughed and enjoyed reading along with the big book.    Just a few days before, Tinnie Martin visited Mom’s Helper daycare where they sang and danced to a book called “Silly Sally”.   These ladies love their job and it shows in what they do!  

The remaining schedule this week was to be at Union Christian Academy today, but due to inclement weather the schools closed. Wednesday, January 30th will be a busy day for the bookmobile because it will be at Farmerville Head Start at 9:00-9:30 for the children to check out books!  They travel to Marion State Bank at 10:00-10:30 for bank employees and customers that are interested in a good book. The bookmobile follows the highway to Sterlington Neighborhood Stop at 11:00-12:00 and then on to Rocky Branch Neighborhood Stop which is at the old school (now their community center) and Antioch Neighborhood Stop at the store from 1:30-2:00 for patrons that are traveling through.  Thursday will also be busy for the bookmobile because they will be at the Spearsville Neighborhood Stop (Spearsville Store) from 9:00-9:30, Foster Farms, 10:00-12:00, Union General Hospital: 12:30-1:00 and Union Parish High School, 3:00-5:00.  This is the week one schedule.  Our week two schedule takes us to Union Parish Elementary School, daycares, Downsville, and numerous other neighborhood locations.  On an average day of outreach the bookmobile can check out as many as 300-400 books in one day!  

Today, Bookmobiles expand the reach of traditional libraries by transporting books to numerous readers by providing library services to people in remote areas particularly at rural schools, convenience stores, grocery stores, hospitals and churches. 

The history of the Bookmobile dates back to a mule-drawn wagon carrying wooden boxes of books and it was created in 1904 by the People’s Free Library of Chester County, South Carolina. Mary Lemist Titcomb developed another mobile library service because she was concerned that the library was not reaching all the people it could. A collection of 50 books in a case was placed in a store or post office throughout the county for people to read. The Washington County Free Library began as a book wagon in 1905 taking the library materials directly to people’s homes in remote areas. 

A pioneering librarian in 1920 named Sarah Byrd Askew began driving her Model T to provide library books to rural areas in New Jersey. From 1935 to 1943, the Pack Horse Library Project which was funded by the WPA covered the remote areas of Kentucky bringing books to people who could not make a trip to a library on their own. A county-wide bookmobile service started in 1940 and bookmobiles reached their height of popularity in the mid-twentieth century.   Here in Union Parish in the 1950’s, before the establishment of a permanent library, a bookmobile roamed through the parish, with librarian, Ms. Edna Liggin writing in her journal about what patrons wanted in their book collection.  

The Bookmobile has come a long way since the mule-drawn carriage and Model-T, but today the bookmobile still caters to patrons that are leading busy lives and still wanting to check out books and yes, today we still write notes about what our patrons want in their book collection, so the next time we are in their area we will bring them exactly what they requested!  Come see the Bookmobile at a Neighborhood Stop near you and stop by and say hello!  

Should “likes to read” be a requirement for working in a library?   Well it seems logical that it should be!    One of the first people that will greet you when you walk into the Union Parish Library is a dark- haired lady sitting at a desk behind a computer.  This nice and friendly lady is Lisa Preaus. She has lived in Farmerville all of her life and as it should be she lists “reading” as one of her hobbies.    You can immediately when you check out a book as she will likely suggest other similar reads.  “If you like this book, then you may also like…” she suggests.  

Mysteries, Science-Fiction and True-Crime are her favorite genres to read.   As part of her duties as the Branch Manager, Preaus helps patrons check out books, helps them find books and promotes the use of technology to read ebooks as well.   If you ask her why she likes working at the library she will say, “the best part of her job is seeing people because it makes her smile”  My first impression upon meeting her is that she probably taught school before she worked at the Union Parish Library and I was right!   She did teach school for the Union Parish School System as both a librarian and an elementary teacher.  She has worked for the Union Parish Library since 2012.    If you think about it, librarians and teachers both help students gain access to information so in that regard, she’s really still a teacher of sorts!  

When I asked her what her favorite book was, Preaus mentions  “The Outlander” series by Dianna Gabaldon, science fiction fantasy author.  Since, I hadn’t actually heard of that particular author before, I did a little research. “The Outlander” was made into a television series that has aired on The Starz Channel for four seasons.  Just like many tv series and movies, before it was a movie, it was a book in the imagination of an author! 

One of the things the Union Parish Library is most noted for is “making books an exciting adventure”. One way they do that is by creating interactive displays at Christmas and Halloween and throughout the year that spark the imagination of readers.  Preaus was instrumental in helping create Harry Potter’s Hogwarts a few years ago for Halloween and Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” one year for Christmas.   Her specialty though is that nearly every month, she turns the children’s section glass wall into a mural by making a “children’s book” come to life.  She does this with a touch of paint and her creative decorating spin.  This month the library is celebrating the Chinese New Year of the Pig with a collection of children’s books featuring pigs as the main character.   Seeing books like “Three Little Pigs” and “Charlotte’s Web” along with newer preschool books such as “Olivia” and “Peppa Pig” reminds both children and adults alike of the power and magic of reading.  Preaus loves to celebrate the whimsy and imagination of reading for pleasure. After all she’s a believer!!  

Preaus has three children and four grandchildren.  Two of them are following in their “Sasa” footsteps as they are avid readers themselves, a passed down trait that she is most proud and believe it or not, as soon as she gets home at night, after working all day at the library just after dinner, she will most faithfully curl up with a good book with her dogs at her side because you can take the lady out of the library, but you can’t take the librarian out of the lady!   

It is obvious without reservation that Lisa Preaus loves what she does.  She paints, She decorates, She shares,  She serves, she imagines and all of this with a smile!

If you would like to be a private detective investigating cases for a variety of clients including Scotland Yard or solve crimes involving international intrigue and espionage then I suggest you take a look at the Mystery Genres at the Union Parish Library!  They have 5,806 mystery-detective books, 2,435 mystery books, 314 juvenile mystery books and 133 American mystery books like authors by the name of Sue Grafton who wrote The Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Series and James Patterson that attracted so many people to read mysteries and one of his books Along Came a Spider was even made into a Hollywood movie! Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle are the pioneers who made mystery novels even more famous and renowned throughout the world by millions of people.

Mystery fiction was actually unheard of before the 1800’s because of a lack in police forces. Many of the towns would have constables and night watchmen and the constable would always be on the alert and crimes were either solved quickly or left unsolved entirely so there was a constant need to hire detectives. 

The first work of modern mystery began with Das Fraulein von Scuderi by E.T.A. Hoffman in 1819 which tells a story about King Louis XIV and Edgar Allan Poe loved it so much that it inspired him to write The Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841. Wilkie Collins published the Woman in Whitein 1860,” but the Moonstone is thought to be his best book since it was known as the first detective novel. The year 1887 gave rise to the iconic fictional character Sherlock Holmes, a detective who is featured in a collection of mystery novels and short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Numerous stories are told from the perspective of his partner Dr. Watson and Holmes works as an independent detective from London. Actor Robert Downey Jr played the famous detective in a 2009 movie, “Sherlock Holmes” and Jude Law played his assistant, Dr. Holmes.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of my favorite mystery books because Watson tells the reader that he is familiar with Holmes because of his skills as a detective and there is always clues that will lead murders being solved. It is one of the most famous detective stories ever written and those mystery novels started inspiring others to write about the genre and Arthur Conan Doyle’s books are very popular to this day.

The genre continued to expand in the 20th century with the popularity of juvenile mysteries by Edward Stratemeyer who wrote The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries written under the Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene pseudonyms. Those books were also written by Stratemeyer’s daughter, Harriet Adams and other authors. Nancy Drew was even made into a movie in 1938 titled: Nancy Drew: Detective. That particular movie has aired on Turner Classic Movies many times and is very good! The Hardy Boys was developed into a television show by Disney in 1950. 

Agathe Christie started writing mystery novels in the 1920’s and she is considered to being the most popular mystery author of the 20th century who wrote Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nileand her best-selling mystery novel of all time And Then There Were None.

Mystery magazines became popular in the 1930s and 1940s, but they decreased in popularity with the rise of mystery movies like Rear Window in 1955 starring Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly. Director Alfred Hitchcock also made other famous movies like Vertigo, Psycho and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Those type of movies have always kept me on the edge of my seat because you never know what was going to happen! 

Interest in mysteries continued with television shows like The Fugitive in 1966 which tells the story of a framed doctor who is wrongly convicted of his murdered wife. It was also made into a movie starring Harrison Ford in 1993.  Both television and show were very good!

Even today mysteries continue to be very popular because numerous juvenile and adult novels continue to be published while comic books and graphic novels are on the rise. 

If you are interested in reading any of the mysteries that I mentioned or into movies, I suggest stopping by at the Union Parish Library and checking out numerous titles and books and movies on Mysteries. Pick an author and pretend you are investigating cases for a variety of clients at the office or having to face international intrigue and espionage in a foreign location, either way these books will keep you guessing until the very end!  

There is an old joke, “I shook my family tree and a bunch of nuts fell out!”  That may make us chuckle a bit when we think about browsing and piecing together our own family trees, but geneaology is a large and growing field for novice family historians who are trying to uncover the past by researching marriage, birth, and death records to piece the puzzle together their family origins.

What about you?  Do you love genealogy and want to uncover your family history? Many people  live in a world fascinated with computers and cell phones so much that they should be interested in knowing about their family pedigree and what life must have been like so long ago.  Well, the Union Parish Library has a link for you to click on after you visit www.unionparishlibrary.com. Click on links and arrow down until you are able to click on Ancestry Library Edition (in library-use only) which means patron access is only provided through the Libraries computers or you can take your personal laptop and stay as long as you want! 

The one thing that I love about ancestry.com are the commercials and how the people explain how they found a picture of their ancestor or say that my great-great grandfather owned and operated a store just like me. Ancestry.com is very convenient and easy to use for beginners and once you are at the site, click on search. You need to find the right moment in time whether it be the eighteenth, nineteenth or twentieth centuries to seek a related history about your ancestor. 

Are you interested in knowing where your ancestor lived and registered as a voter or do you want to examine birth, marriage and death certificates? It also lists Immigration and Travel for those looking for ancestors that immigrated to the United States. Newspapers and publications will show obituaries. One of the most unique of all is the pictures category because you might not have a picture of your ancestor, but want one! Maps, Atlases and Gazetteers will show land grants. Schools, directories and church histories will feature pictures of your ancestor or lists their membership of a church they once belonged too. Wills, Probate, Tax and Criminal are related to anything about law.  For those of you that love American Military History such as myself, I suggest the military category where you can look up military records of your ancestor that fought in the American Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish American War, World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam. I clicked on search and found my great grandfather’s WWI draft card. I typed his name which is Samuel Grafton and where he lived. Then I clicked on the military category and selected his name and location. Seeing that old draft card is very fascinating! I became interested in old Census records about my other ancestor so I clicked on search to type in my great-great grandfather’s name which is John Green. You also have to know the place your ancestor lived. I typed in Lawrence County, Mississippi and I did not remember his birth year so I left that blank.  

A Mississippi territory census showed that my ancestor lived in Mississippi before it was admitted to the Union on December 10, 1817. I have also found records of an 1810 United States Census that showed John Green living in Barnwell County, South Carolina before he took his family to Mississippi. 

History is where the past comes alive on Ancestry.com and it keeps me very fascinated and excited to learn about my ancestors who came from South Carolina and then decided to move father west to Louisiana where land was plentiful with rich soil to farm. 

You do not have to pay fees to use Ancestry Library and patrons on the site can even send their fascinating finds to their email and print copies at the library! Ancestry charts, research calendar, research extract, correspondence record, family group sheet and source summary will help new genealogical seekers write down information about their ancestors. My favorite is the Family Group Sheet because you can compile those sheets together in a binder so you can give to your families during the holidays! 

Technology has gone a long way since the 1800’s and continues to do so thanks to ancestrylibrary.com. The Union Parish Library is providing this service for patrons to uncover their family pedigree so they can look up their ancestors for free and all you have to do is pay for the copies! Ancestry Library is a must for those that are fascinated with Genealogy and most of all History.