Happy Halloween from FPPL!

October has been a busy month here at the library! Hopefully you've had a chance to enjoy some of our Halloween programming between the Edgar Allan Poe Big Reads event, Thursday's Haunted History program, and some of the spooky events hosted by Youth Services.





Have you ever wondered about the origins of Halloween? This month the History Channel featured a fascinating series about the history of the holiday, tracing it back to ancient pagan and Celtic traditions and tracing its evolution to present day. Visit the History Channel website to view full episodes.

Library, meet LibraryThing.

The Frankfort Public Library has partnered with LibraryThing.com to bring interactive content—reviews, read-alikes, tagging, etc.—to the library catalog. Take a look at the listing for Stephenie Meyer's New Moon for a sample. Is this something you'd like to see at Forest Park? Let us know what you think in the comments, or email us at AskUs@fppl.org.

Frankfort shares our basic SWAN catalog, so the search page should look pretty familiar—but LibraryThing also has a bunch of other libraries using their service. If you see anything you like somewhere else, let us know that too. We'll see what we can do about making it happen here.

National Coming Out Day!

This past Sunday was National Coming Out Day. In honor of the events, the Wednesday Journal featured a special section entitled "Coming Out," featuring a locally owned Forest Park art gallery. The Forest Park Review featured the article in this week's edition.

Over the weekend the Human Rights Campaign recognized National Coming Out Day with events and rallies across the country. The HRC website is also an excellent sources for LGBT resources. For more LGBT resources, don't forget to check our SWAN catalog - if we don't have a particular title you're looking for at the library, our library staff would be happy to locate and request titles through Interlibrary Loan.

More Poe-related media coverage

I saw this on CNN this morning:
Edgar Allan Poe to get a proper burial 160 years later

CNN reported that after his death 160 years ago, the city of Baltimore finally gave Edgar Allen Poe a proper funeral. Apparently the details of Poe's death were not publicly known and only a handful of people attended his funeral. Poe's second send off included a funeral procession with a life-size re-creation of Poe’s body. At Poe's second memorial ceremonies actors portraying writers of Poe’s generation and those he inspired performed eulogizes. The actors portrayed included Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes), Ernest Hemmingway
and legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. The Big Read events being hosted locally celebrate the centennial of Edgar Allan Poe's birth.

Halloween at the library!

We're celebrating Halloween early at the library to coincide with the Big Read events honoring Edgar Allan Poe. Stop by and check out some of the ghoulish Halloween decorations all this month. Be sure to check out some of our Poe Big Read events. On Thursday, October 15th, at 7:00pm we will be screening the film adaptation of Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum," starring Vincent Price. The following week on Thursday, October 22, stop by the library of a Reader's Theater presentation of Poe's classic "The Tell-Tale Heart."

On Thursday, October 29 at 7:00pm check out our Haunted History event. Register online or call the Reference Desk to reserve a spot!

Looking for ghost stories and other spooky reads to read this month? Stop by Reference to check out our ghoulish displays all month. Hooked on Vampire Fiction? This week's display featuring all things Vampiric ranging from classics like Bram Stoker's Dracula to the popular Charlaine Harris's Suki Stackhouse books.