Happy Holidays!

Wishing all our patrons a very Merry Christmas and a Happy new year!

The library will be closed December 24th and January 3rd in observance of the Holidays.

Digitized Tornado Photos

1958 Colfax Tornado

As part of a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Colfax Public Library has digitized the collection of the 1958 tornado photographs taken my professional photographer, Ron A. Blakeley. These items are now part of the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections’ (UWDC) State of Wisconsin Collection and are freely available online. The ability to keyword search the text and images is a great new tool for local history research. In addition, having digital copies of the 1958 Colfax tornado pictures preserves it for future generations.


The Colfax 1958 tornado photographs are part of a larger regional collection entitled Chippewa, Dunn, Eau Claire, Pepin, St. Croix, and Rusk Counties: Local History Collections. This collection showcases selections from the local history collections of the Baldwin Public Library, Chippewa Falls Public Library, L.E. Phillips Memorial Library in Eau Claire, Rusk County Community Library in Ladysmith, Pepin Public Library, Somerset Public Library, Menomonie Public Library, Colfax Public Library, Durand Community Library, Woodville Community Library, and Carleton A. Friday Memorial Library in New Richmond. These libraries, and several other Indianhead Federated Library System members, serve as repositories for important local history documents. The Indianhead Federated Library System is comprised of 53 member public libraries in West-Central and Northwestern Wisconsin.

The Chippewa, Dunn, Eau Claire, Pepin, St. Croix, and Rusk Counties: Local History Collection was funded, in part, through a 2010 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant. These grants provide financial support for public libraries to digitize and make available online, their local library resources. For more information about LSTA grants in Wisconsin, contact the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) Division for Libraries, Technology, and Community Learning or visit the LSTA grant Web site at http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dltcl/pld/lsta.html.

To access the 1958 Colfax tornado photographs, go to http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.IndianheadLocHist. There are many other valuable Wisconsin resources on the UWDC site. If you need assistance, please call the Colfax Public Library @ 715-962-4334, or stop by for more information.

Favorite Picture Books for Christmas Season

In The Christmas Alphabet kid's can follow the holiday season from A to Z in this lovely alphabet book.  As each lettered door is opened a fantastically wrought paper pop-out appears depicting images of Christmas time.  

Minerva Louise is definitely my favorite chicken.  I bet some giggles will break out when this book is read, especially when Minerva thinks the chicken (angel) on top of the Christmas tree has laid some pretty colored eggs in the branches.

Eric Carle's Dream Snow is a gem filled with collage images of a farmer dreaming of snow.  Clear pages  with snowy blobs add the illusion of Mr. Farmer and the animals covered in snow.  Mr. farmer awakes to find real snow covering the ground and realizes he better hurry and get some surprises set out for his animals.

In the book, The Snow Tree, the animals of the forest find a way, in the white of winter,  to remember the colors of the year.  Each animal brings something of a different color to decorate a special snow tree.

Kids will enjoy feeling the embossed pages and looking at the colorful animal images along with hearing the story of friendship, peace and the glory of nature.

Share one of these books with a child in your life.  Reading to and with children really does help children develop so many learning skills, plus it is time well spent with someone you love.

Happy Reading!

 

Click on the title links to take you directly to the MORE to request a copy of these books.