CALS Blogs

Why not start your 2020 with a reading challenge? The Book Riot Read Harder Challenge lists 24 categories to help get you out of your reading comfort zone. Some of the categories are easier than others, so our very own Ellen Bard has some suggestions for you.

Anna is the Audio Video Archival Assistant at the Robert’s Library. She’s been with CALS for 13 years. She wicked sea shanties and watch a lot of cartoons. She has 2 recommendations:

It’s hard to say what’s more moving about a record-sealing clinic: the faces of those people who just got a fresh chance, or the kindness of the crowd of volunteers and staffers who showed up to help them start over.

This fall, the CALS Dee Brown Library hosted a record-sealing day coordinated by the Center for Arkansas Legal Services with the help of the Pulaski County Clerk’s Office,

 Stephanie Jackson is a believer, wife, mom, Director of Public and Media Relations at The Design Group, and Communications Director and Spokesman for the Office of Mayor Frank Scott, Jr.

In her words:

I was born and raised in Little Rock, a product of Little Rock public schools,

A cheerful group of women listened to peppy salsa music while teacher Courtney Frazier Jones showed them how to put some extra style in their moves. It was salsa dance class—at the CALS Terry Library!

“Make it curvy as you bring that hip around!” Courtney said.

Everybody smiled a curvy kind of smile.

Darrel McLaughlin has worked at CALS for 14 years, most recently in Technical Services. He tries to read a variety of diverse books but lately he has mostly been reading Star Wars graphic novels. He lives in an apartment with a pug and another human being. His pick for you is the urban fantasy California Bones by Greg Van Eekhout.

If you need to feel better and see some real human kindness, come hang out with our security guys after school. As the kids come into Main Library for our afternoon activities, Jimmy high-fives every one. And he talks to them and cares.

“How was your day?” Jimmy asks. “It’s the weekend! Your brain gets to rest!”

Circus of the Imaginings Opens December 13

DebiLynn Fendley makes artwork that is profound and existential in theme, and often classical in technique. In person, she is playfully effervescent, a great conversationalist, and inclined to a sardonic sense of humor.

There’s no contradiction between her serious work and her humorous character.