Author: berryvillelibrary

"Our library, our future"

Celebrate Berryville: August

The year 2025 promises to be a historic one for the Berryville Public library and, by extension, for the town of Berryville. We broke ground on the new library in April, so the library should be finished in the spring of 2026. Preparation for the new building has made us at the Berryville Library nostalgic and reflective, not just about the library’s history but also about the town’s history. Other seminal moments in Berryville Library history occurred in 1938 and 1978, so we’ll be looking back this year on what Berryville was like then, as well as what it is like now, as we also look to the future.

For August, we were looking at what Berryville listens to, past and present, and wanted to take some time to explore the history of KTHS, our local radio station.

Did you know that KTHS is one of the most historic call signals in Arkansas radio history?!

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Book Buzz: Local True Crime

Usually the Book Buzz posts are a round-up of new-ish books in the library, but today we’re doing something a little different!

A couple of weeks ago, Jason Harmon reached out to our library system to let us know he would be appearing on the new Ozarks-themed podcast Ozarkian Folk Chronicles.

Back in 2003, he worked with David McElyea on his memoir When Money Grew on Trees: The True Tale of a Marijuana Moonshiner and the Outlaw Sheriff of Madison County, Arkansas. Written under the pen name of David Mac, the book recounts how McElyea grew an illegal marijuana farm in Madison County in the 1980s and 1990s under the protection of the then-sheriff Ralph Baker. It recounts both McElyea’s and Baker’s rise and fall, and it is a perennial favorite with patrons in our library system.

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Marie Benedict’s The Queens of Crime

In the early 1930s, Dorothy Sayers is a well-known mystery novelist, but she has deep secrets of her own. She is also a leader in the newly formed Detection Club, which wants to make mystery writing more prestigious. However, even within the ranks of the Detection Club, where everyone is ruffled by the press’s tendency to dismiss their work as genre fiction, there is dissension and tension over who to admit. Some of the more traditional members believe Dorothy and Agatha Christie are the only women authors worthy of admission. Dorothy and Agatha then team up with three other talented women mystery writers–Baroness Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham–to solve a real-life mystery to prove their credibility.

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Exploring Our Digital Research Tools: July

We have a lot of fantastic digital resources, many of them courtesy of the Arkansas State Library. Because we’re a library in Arkansas, we have access to their Traveler Database. For this entire year, every month, we’re going to look at the different features available on these databases. For this month, we’re going to focus on newspapers.

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Jonathan Harr’s The Lost Painting (2005)

Usually, I try to review newer releases on here, but every now and then, I read something so good that I just have to write about it, like this book that’s been out for 20 years. It may not be new, but it’s new to me!

The Lost Painting is nonfiction about the quest to locate a famous Caravaggio painting, centuries after it was lost. The premise may not sound like a page-turner, but the result is as gripping as any detective novel as the book takes you through archives and museums across Europe.

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Celebrate Berryville: July

The year 2025 promises to be a historic one for the Berryville Public library and, by extension, for the town of Berryville. We broke ground on the new library in April, so the library should be finished in the spring of 2026. Preparation for the new building has made us at the Berryville Library nostalgic and reflective, not just about the library’s history but also about the town’s history. Other seminal moments in Berryville Library history occurred in 1938 and 1978, so we’ll be looking back this year on what Berryville was like then, as well as what it is like now, as we also look to the future.

For July, we’re looking at what Berryville reads, past and present.

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Book Buzz: Summer 2025 Book Tasting Edition

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For July, we’re looking at the book menus used for yesterday’s book tasting, and filling in the gaps of what hasn’t already been covered on the blog.

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Exploring Our Digital Research Tools: June

We have a lot of fantastic digital resources, many of them courtesy of the Arkansas State Library. Because we’re a library in Arkansas, we have access to their Traveler Database. For this entire year, every month, we’re going to look at the different features available on these databases. For this month, we’re going to focus on the art and literature resources.

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Mark Your Calendars–Next Book Tasting on June 30!

The book tasting we hosted back in February, pictured above, was a big hit. We had 11 people attend our first adult book tasting at the library (we had previously hosted one for teens several years ago), and since it was so popular, we are bringing it back for the summer!

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Celebrate Berryville: June

The year 2025 promises to be a historic one for the Berryville Public library and, by extension, for the town of Berryville. We broke ground on the new library in April, so the library should be finished in the spring of 2026. Preparation for the new building has made us at the Berryville Library nostalgic and reflective, not just about the library’s history but also about the town’s history. Other seminal moments in Berryville Library history occurred in 1938 and 1978, so we’ll be looking back this year on what Berryville was like then, as well as what it is like now, as we also look to the future.

For June, we’re looking at what Berryville wears in the past and the present.

Continue reading “Celebrate Berryville: June”