Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2025)
Applegater Summer 2025 7 How to devour a book — Williams Library — Your summer starts here! BY BRANDACE ROJO Come on over to the Williams Library this summer for a variety of exciting programs. Library events and programs are open to the public free of charge. Registration is not required, and a library card is not needed to participate. Just come on in! 2025 Summer Reading Program All ages are invited to join the free Josephine Community Library Summer Reading Program, running from June 14 to August 9. To join and earn prizes, register beginning June 1, either online at josephinelibrary.org/summer-reading- program or at a Josephine County branch library in Grants Pass, Williams, or Wolf Creek. Don’t miss out on weekly themed “craftivities” for children on open days. Featured events at the Williams Branch Bugs-R-Us. Learn about dinosaurs! 11:30 am-12:30 pm, Saturday, June 21. Po l l i n a t o r Pa l s . 1 0 - 1 1 a m Saturday, July 12. Neighborhood Heroes Story Squad. Read with firefighters! 11 am-noon, Friday, July 18. Among the Stars. Learn about astronomy with Joe Stodola, of the Grants Pass Astronomers Club. 10-11 am Tuesday, August 5. Williams Weekly Storytime. Themed story time and craft session in a safe and fun environment. 11–11:30 am every Friday. K9 Reading Buddies. Trained therapy dogs provide a non-intimidating environment for children to learn to read out loud. Young readers explore language and books during this special story time. 3–4 pm Tuesdays. Adult Williams Book Club. From gripping plot twists to heartwarming characters, participants can unravel the wonders of literature together. Explore what you love about the books you’re reading or the ones you’ve recently finished. Noon–1 pm the last Saturday of every month. Visit josephinelibrary.org/calendar to learn about weekly special events for all ages at all branches during the Summer Reading Program. Get a library card Explore recommended reading, attend library programs for all ages, and use public computers—services available to all. With a library card, you can also access thousands of books, e-books, and audiobooks, as well as check out laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots. Josephine County residents who live within the library district boundary receive an annual library card at no cost. Community members living in Josephine County who do not live in the library district have several options to obtain a library card, including purchasing a $15 quarterly card, volunteering, and more. The Josephine Community Library Foundation is also happy to sponsor the cost of annual household library cards at no charge to the requesting community member. Stop by your preferred branch for more information and to sign up. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Through this program, children under the age of 5 can receive a free, age- appropriate book in the mail each month. To sign up, visit josephinelibrary.org and go to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library on the “Children” page under the “Youth/ Family” menu. (https:// josephinelibrary. org/youth-and-family/children/dolly- partons-imagination-library/.) Williams branch hours Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Friday, 11 am-6 pm. Williams Branch Library is located at 158 Tetherow Road, Williams. Contact branch manager, Amber Guient, at a g u i e n t @ j o s e p h i n e l i b r a r y. o r g o r 541-846-7020. Brandace Rojo • 541-476-0571 x114 Communications & Partnership Manager Josephine Community Library brojo@josephinelibrary.org Singing in a circle: An Applegate Valley / Ruch song circle with a twist BY PAT O’SCANNELL I was delighted when my friend Mimi invited me to lead a new song circle in the Applegate/Ruch area, one of the most picturesque locales in southern Oregon. Mimi, a singer who lives in the area, was a member of my Medieval choir, Vox Lumina. She approached me about leading a group in singing repertoire from the Renaissance period and earlier, in the form of rounds. Turns out that even before the time of Shakespeare, folks were singing proto-rounds, (e.g., “Sumer is Icumen In”), and by the 16th century, this form of song was in full swing. People were so into rounds during the Renaissance that they had several varieties: rounds, canons, and catches. You know rounds, as in “Row, row, row your boat,” “Frere Jacques,” etc. A canon is a song that uses similar techniques but is not restricted to exact imitation. In a catch, the completed round reveals text that is only heard when all parts are sung. These naughty or funny messages occur sequentially across the parts. The round was a serious musical form written by many famous composers of vocal music at the time. Thomas Ravenscroft, in particular, specialized in rounds and filled several books with his extensive collections. The music stands the test of time because of its exquisite beauty, on par with madrigals and part songs of that period. Our singing circle, recently formed, has fewer than ten people currently and would like to invite more members. It meets every two weeks, on alternate Wednesday afternoons, 2:30-4 pm in a private home. The cost is by donation and can be adjusted to fit anyone’s pocketbook. For more information, please contact Mimi at applegatesongcircle@gmail.com. Pat O’Scannell • applegatesongcircle@gmail.com Pat O’Scannell worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 30 years, directing the Early Music program for the Green Shows and the Terra Nova Consort, her ensemble that toured and made over 15 recordings. She lives in Ashland, where she runs Musica Matrix, a nonprofit that supports historically informed performances of ancient music. Her in-house ensembles perform free concerts for the community. BY THALIA TRUESDELL Books. We love them. They feel good in our hands. They smell of book. They offer us insights, education, entertainment, and escape. We love them, feel the rhythm of the words, wallow in the descriptions, chase the plots, and cry at the end. But that is not the end. Without extraordinary care, books decay, but decay shows that dozens, even generations, of children have loved this book—literally to death. Or perhaps a book has a broken spine, spills, or torn pages. Or maybe it has become outdated, as often happens to medical and technology books. Sometimes a book has simply reached its end. Then what do you do with it? “Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, and Recycle” is a mantra we have all heard. (First of all, never refuse a book!) Sadly, books are not easily recyclable at present and many end up in landfills— but reusing and repurposing are things we can do! Reusing is easy and unlimited. Pass it on. Used books in excellent shape make wonderful gifts, and the A-Frame Book Store has hundreds of them. Write your greetings on a bookmark, rather than inside the cover, to preserve that pristine quality. You can pass your gently used books to others via Little Libraries or to the Library Friends, charities, a thrift shop, the VA Medical Center in White City, nursing or retirement homes (large print is good), and summer fire camps. Firefighters love us! Sometimes a favorite book disintegrates into a pile of pages inside a broken cover, and then what? Maybe a toddler decorates a few pages with an orange crayon, or perhaps someone has torn out page 273. It’s time to repurpose! If not a book, what could it be? A booster seat for a child or a flower press. A vehicle owner’s manual is a great travel press. Books can be a door stop, hamster bedding, paperweight, table leveler, or an awesome “domino effect” game covering several rooms. Create origami, carve a book vault for hiding valuables, make printed-word poetry, or explore endless crafts. You can even improve your posture and carriage! The list goes on. Blackout poetry made from old book pages repurposes damaged or outdated books. Blackout poetry is achieved by using a black marker and obliterating all the words on the page except those that contribute to your poem. Collage activities could include words and pictures in any combination and with a variety of other materials. Decoupage is collage on three- dimensional surfaces, like picture frames or boxes. Use book pages as watercolor paper and enjoy the effects of painting over words and pictures on a variety of textures. Consider making wallpaper and wrapping paper. A broken children’s dictionary is an endless source of simple pictures for activities, crafts, homemade stickers, and oral story starters. If you happen to have duplicate books, take them apart and alternate one book’s even pages with the other’s odd pages. Then, string the pages in order on a long fence or twine with clothespins to create a Story Walk you can read as you walk. It is a fun neighborhood or school experience. And at journey’s end? Did you find an old and delightful book in a chic used bookstore, share it with your book club, and take turns reading it over months? Then all your relatives read it, and then baby Lucy got hold of it, and well, it is just plain exhausted? Bury it. Give the moles and worms a chance to devour it even further. Yum! Next spring, plant an apple tree at the site and express your gratitude for all the nourishment that book gave you and others during its long journey. Thalia Truesdell thaliatruesdell@gmail.com Nonprofit organizations in the Applegate Valley are welcome to submit news and event information to the Applegater. Email gater@applegater.org.
