Our 100th Anniversary Promo Trailer

Click Play Button in Image Above

to Start Promo Trailer



Business Spotlight of the Month

The Mooresville (Indiana) Chamber of Commerce has selected Diane Huerkamp, MPL Executive Director, as the Business Spotlight of the Month.

As chamber director Dave Nash stated in the Mooresville-Decatur Times (Saturday, May 19, 2012), "The Mooresville Public Library is a valuable community resource which strives to offer traditional library material, as well as programs and technology that help create and support lifelong learning.  We as a community are lucky to have a Library such as this, and we are proud to announce Diane Huerkamp as our Business Spotlight of the month.  MPL is just one of the places where people can volunteer and spend time with their families and classmates."

We, too, are proud of Diane and the Library, and we are honored by the Chamber's selection.

Business Spotlight of the Month (and other library awards)

on display during the MPL Centennial Celebration

(Click images to enlarge)

North Madison 3rd Graders Create Superb Mooresville History Pamphlet

Each May for the past five years (2008-2012), students studying Indiana history at North Madison Elementary School have taken a historical bus and walking tour of Mooresville, Indiana.  It is an interesting route, filled with many intriguing pieces in the town's historical tapestry.  The MPL Indiana Room Historian acts as adventure guide.  This slideshow summarizes the walking portion of the field trip (along with the history of several houses around the neighborhoods visited); this handout and two other handouts (click here and here) highlight certain historical buildings in downtown Mooresville.  To see a slideshow of the tour, click here.

The field trip was organized and supervised by North Madison educator Kristian Neal.  Under the direction of Kris, Tracy Gercak, and Susan Haynes, North Madison students have prepared a wonderful local historical handout called "Mooresville:  Our Town, Our History," for persons interested in Mooresville's nearly two complete centuries of ongoing history.  (The town's bicentennial will arrive in 2024.)  It is a superbly crafted pamphlet that anyone interested in Mooresville history will enjoy.  Congratulations to all the North Madison students and teachers involved in this informative project.

If you prefer paper to a digitized PDF, please visit the Mooresville Public Library Indiana Room.  Copies are available free-of-charge.

Better Resolution for Dancing Videos

In our previous blog posting about "Dancing Through the Decades," we uploaded our video clips directly to the blog.  The resolution is fine when you're viewing the videos in their embedded smaller sizes, but if you select the full-screen option, the videos become somewhat grainy.  So we uploaded the videos to the MPL YouTube Channel, which should provide better resolution.  Let's have a look.  (If you want to watch the videos on YouTube, click the YouTube logo, just to the left of the full-screen button, in the bottom right-hand corner of the embedded frames below.  The full-screen option may be disabled here, so watching on YouTube will give you a larger screen.)

Much better resolution, I'd venture (as my colleague, Cauli Le Chat, would say).

Dancing Through the Decades

At last Saturday's 100th anniversary party at MPL, the Fred Astaire Dancers presented "Dancing Through the Decades" in the MPL Courtyard.  This was an interactive, instructional program in which professional dance instructors taught library patrons and staff fundamental dance moves from the 19th century to the present.  We have a few video clips of the early proceedings, during which the waltz, box steps, and several swing steps (including the Jitterbug) were introduced.

Click the play arrows on the clips below to start the videos.

Meghan Adams, MPL Adult Programming Coordinator, who arranged the dancing and musical programs for the event, was pleased with the audience participation and enjoyment of the activities.  Coupled with the musical concerts presented by members of the Mooresville (Indiana) High School Orchestra and Choirs, these programs successfully served as a capstone to the Library's centennial celebration.

Butterfly Launch

At the close of Mooresville Public Library's centennial festivities on Saturday, May 12, 2012, patrons released Monarch butterflies from individual cardboard containers in which the insects were in suspended animation.  Each box held one butterfly, and opening it awakened the monarch, which dutifully took flight.  Since butterfly box-laden patrons stood all around the MPL Courtyard, we opted for a wide-angle shot to include the majority, which, unfortunately, made the butterflies rather small in perspective.  If you look carefully at our video clip, you can see the monarchs gaining altitude fast.  Librarian and MPL Director Diane Huerkamp led the crowd in the countdown and release.

Click Play Arrow Button to Start Video

The final edits for the Fred Astaire Dancer videos from MPL's celebration are "in the can," as they say in film studios.  They should be uploaded to this blog by tomorrow or Tuesday of this week.  Check back!  The dancing vids will be fun to watch.

Musical Interlude at Our Centennial Celebration

Members of the Mooresville High School Orchestra performed at yesterday's Library Centennial Celebration (Saturday, May 12, 2012).  We have a video clip of one of the pieces played during the recital.

Unfortunately, I was unable to video-record members of the Mooresville High School Choirs as they performed in the MPL Courtyard later that afternoon, as I was assisting a patron in the Library's Indiana Room.  In our previous posting, we included a still photograph near the end of their performance.

We have video from the Fred Astaire Dancers, which will be forthcoming as soon as it's edited.  Plus there's video of the butterfly release at the end of our celebration.  That, too, should appear in an upcoming posting.

More Highlights From Our Centennial Celebration

Let's share more highlights from the Library's centennial celebration yesterday (Saturday, May 12, 2012).  Much of the entertainment took place outside in front of the Library or in the Courtyard.  Click images to enlarge.

Mooresville (Indiana) High School Orchestra Ensemble

performing outside MPL entrance

From 1-2 p.m. members of the Mooresville (Indiana) High School Orchestra entertained visitors outside the Library's front entrance.  They performed various ensemble pieces that resonated with the audience, and the entryway provided an amplifying chamber so that the students' music could be heard throughout the Library grounds.

From 1-3 p.m. the Fred Astaire Dancers hosted "Dancing Through the Decades," an interactive and instructional activity in which patrons were invited to participate.  We have a few still photos showcasing the fun.

Fred Astaire Dancers demonstrate a waltz

Library patrons (& some staff) swinging

In an upcoming blog post, if I operated the camera properly, we will have short video clips of these programs.

From 3:00-3:45 p.m., members of the Mooresville (Indiana) High School Choirs performed.

Throughout the afternoon, volunteers did face-painting for young patrons.

Sometime after 3 p.m., the cake was cut, as patrons were clamoring for a slice (just kidding!)  Actually, there were so many patrons at the event, that the cake cutting ceremony had to be moved up on the schedule.  Awards were also presented:

• To Beth Hensley, MPL Craft Designer & Decorator, for her 25 consecutive years of volunteering at the Library.

• To Bill Cornwell, MPL Building Superintendent Emeritus, whose engineering and construction acumen has literally saved Library taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars over the past decade.

• To the Bucker Family, whose monument business, which was founded in 1874, is the longest continuously operating family business in Mooresville, Indiana.

We have a few historic photos of the Bucker Monument Company in the MPL Indiana Room Collections.

Bucker Marble Works (ca. 1906)

36 West Harrison Street, Mooresville, Indiana

The house and workshop were built in 1874 when

John Bucker started his family business,

which still operates today at the same location

Bucker Monument Co. (Mid-1930s)

Robert Bucker stands by his 1934 Dodge truck

 The Bucker Family working on gravestones (undated)

Bucker Monument Co. (August 2009)

At approximately quarter to four o'clock, the butterflies were released.  Hopefully, our video of this exciting event will turn out.  Stay tuned.

Our centennial celebration closed with the official unveiling of the new MPL logo, slogan, and soon-to-be-launched new and improved website.

Ed Brizendine, President of the MPL Board of Trustees,

unveils the new Library logo, slogan & website

with fellow Library Trustees Susan Joyner (Secretary),

Laura Gutzwiller (Treasurer), & Lynn Adams (Vice President)

Library Director Diane Huerkamp thanked MPL staff members for their many long hours preparing for and implementing our centennial celebration.

In our next installment, there should be some video clips of some of the activities at the celebration, if I operated the camera correctly.  Let's keep our fingers crossed.

We Have Cake! And Butterflies!

At the Library's 100th anniversary party today (Saturday, May 12, 2012), WE HAVE CAKE!  That's reason enough to visit.

Take a look at this amazing four-tier Library centennial cake, along with the three butterfly cakes, prepared especially for the event by Sugar Mamas Custom Cakes, 25 West Main Street, Mooresville, Indiana.  Click images to enlarge.





Sugar Mamas puts the finishing touches on the centennial cake

Cake will be served in the Library's Bonita C. Marley Community Room this afternoon at 3:50 to 4:00 p.m., when the butterflies will be released.

MPL Bonita C. Marley Community Room

Ready for the cake-cutting ceremony



Our Interactive Library Stations

At today's centennial celebration, the Library has established several interactive work stations showcasing some of our public services.  Click images to enlarge.





Centennial Library Staff Hard at Work

We have photos of our centennial library staff working hard to prepare for the Library's 100th anniversary celebration, which is happening as we write.  If you are visiting MPL today (and you should, because we have cake later), and you need assistance or have any questions, please feel free to stop any of us in the gold shirts emblazoned with our new 100th anniversary logo.

Here are our MPL staffers getting the job done!  Click images to enlarge.

Virginia Jensen, Head of Circulation

Sharon Hicks, Business Manager and

Librarian Kate Meador, Head of Technical Services
shelving and arranging the Business Collection

Intern Alicia Scully (I.U. Bloomington Library School graduate student)

with MPL Librarians Rachel Montgomery (Teen Services)

and Suzanne Walker (Head of Youth Services)
working with new children's technology

Bob Gilliland, Circulation Teamster
reviewing patron records

Youth Services Cataloger Miriam Bunner &

Early Literacy Specialist Jaymi Edwards

Information Technology Specialist Judy Morehouse reviewing a checklist

with Circulation Teamsters Sonja Hollingsworth & Royetta Ingle

Circulation Teamster Joyce Purkhiser
reshelving CDs in the Music Collection

Adult Programming Coordinator Meghan Adams
at the Patron Self-Check Terminal

Librarian Diane Huerkamp, MPL Director

signs payment vouchers

Volunteer Beth Hensley, Library Craft Designer/Decorator, talking

with Lori Becker, Business Manager Emeritus
(Circulation Teamster Sonja Hollingsworth at the Discharge Station)

Luke Jensen, Adult Services Page,

reshelving books in Adult Nonfiction

 Circulation Teamster Laura James

Circulation Teamster Nancy Cassidy

Circulation Teamster & Webmaster Molly May

Julie Kyle-Lee, Mooresville Academy Museum Curator,

with Library Board member Susan Joyner

Virginia Jensen, Head of Circulation, with

Library Board members Susan Joyner & Steve Oschman

In our next installment, we'll have more photos of centennial work stations throughout the Library.