Pratt Free Library

President-elect Barack Obama has stated that "literacy is the highway to success" and that libraries represent "a window to a larger world." Adviser David Axelrod recently said libraries will be part of the proposed economic stimulus package. As the nation and the world look to a new chapter in history, these statements leave me optimistic. During these tough economic times, library services across the nation are in great demand. Families are examining their budgets and turning to libraries more than ever.

Dr. Betty Jean Boulware, former chief of the Enoch Pratt Free Library's neighborhood services division, who earlier in her career had been a branch manager and district supervisor, died Feb. 2 of respiratory failure at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Hamilton resident was 58. She was born Betty Jean Shearin in Henderson, N.C. At age 7, she moved with her family to a Wolfe Street rowhouse in East Baltimore. While attending Dunbar High School, from which she graduated in 1966, she fell in love with a classmate, Henry Ernest Boulware Jr., whom she married in 1974.

Movies that reach out and grab you are coming to the Enoch Pratt Free Library this summer, beginning tomorrow with a 2 p.m. screening of the 3-D version of Jack Arnold's 1954 horror classic, Creature From the Black Lagoon. Funny-looking 3-D glasses will be provided. Admission is free. The film will be shown in the Wheeler Auditorium of the central library, 400 Cathedral St. Information: prattlibrary.org/calendar. Baltimore `Pride' "Film Baltimore," the University of Baltimore's salute to movies made in and about Charm City, concludes Thursday with an 8 p.m. screening of Sunu Gonera's Pride (2007)

CONCERT COLE PORTER TRIBUTE Get a kick out of Cole Porter at the concert "Too Darn Hot! A Tribute to Cole Porter" today through Sunday at the Music Center at Strathmore and the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra SuperPops, under the direction of Jack Everly, along with the Baltimore Choral Arts Society and music director Tom Hall and guest vocalists, will perform many of Porter's famed Broadway hits from the Great American Songbook. Among them: "I Get a Kick Out of You," "I've Got You Under My Skin," "Night and Day" and "My Heart Belongs to Daddy."

Notes For Laura Lippman fans: The most common refrain among mystery readers who scarf down the backlist of a favorite author is, "Who else writes books like this?" For those who have made their way through the complete works of Charm City's signature mystery writer, the refrain's answer is Jennifer McMahon, author of Promise Not To Tell (HarperPaperbacks/ 240 pages/ $13.95). Similar to Lippman's breakthrough standalone novel What the Dead Know, the inciting force is a decades-old disappearance of a young girl dredged back into a town's collective consciousness with the return of a long-absent stranger.

Baltimore's Enoch Pratt Free Library has received a $500,000 grant from the Carnegie Corp. of New York -- the legacy of 19th-century public library philanthropist Andrew Carnegie -- to improve services to youth, parents and caregivers.Surveys of Pratt patrons have found that more than half of those surveyed are parents and that a significant portion of those are single. Nearly 20 percent of library users, the survey found, bring children with them on library visits.Part of the money will be used to expand the "Family Place Project," which offers parent-child workshops and a parental collection, from two branches to eight.

CHESTERTOWN -- John Barth is grinning like an amiable geezer who, after years of tribulation and yearning, has just found his childhood sweetheart. Well, maybe not. But clearly, he radiates, if not happiness, deep intellectual satisfaction, as he pulls up a chair in the local library of this Eastern Shore town, ready to talk.He has just finished the first draft of his new novel. This is the "millennium novel," his creative gesture of welcome to the next span of a thousand years. It is titled "Coming Soon!

AMERICA IT WAS. America in all its squabbling and its hurt and its bruised feelings, and it was beautiful to see. America with its white police, and its black state's attorney, and its Latino community in Baltimore reaching across barriers in a library where everybody could watch it happen.America with Felix Guevara, 48, formerly of El Salvador, sitting there Thursday night waiting for translation into Spanish, and with Hector Portillo, 23, also formerly of El Salvador, also waiting for translation, and explanations arriving in two languages, and in a state of calm.

Readers navigating the stacks at the Patterson Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library are drawn to writing on the wall: "Coleccion En Espanol."Under the poster, two long shelves offer a smattering of bilingual and Spanish-language reference materials, nonfiction books, children's stories and other literature, all meant to entice the city's growing Latino community to use the library."

Knock on Carla D. Hayden's door and you're greeted by an unexpected bonus: Her mother, Colleen Hayden, is visiting from Chicago, and it's amazing how alike the two look. Hayden, Enoch Pratt Free Library director, is dressed for work in a comfortable, but tailored beige pants suit. Mom is wearing a beige pants suit from People United. It's fashionably cut, but made from cozy sweat-shirt material. Both women have on handsome earrings and their hair is cropped.Hayden, an honorary chair of Monday's Women's Housing Coalition Annual Kitchen Party, has learned volumes about dressing in Baltimore's wilting summer heat.

SATURDAY MENCKEN DAY CELEBRATION: The Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St., celebrates a major influence on American culture and a favorite son of Charm City. See pieces from the library's extensive collection and join discussions about the "Sage of Baltimore," H.L. Mencken, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 410-396-5430 or go to prattlibrary.org. HAMPDENFEST: Hon Fest's lesser-known sibling attracts more of a local crowd to the Avenue in Hampden for a relatively beehive-free Saturday featuring live music, art, crafts and food.

This weekend, the Pratt presents one of the most joyous surprises of recent feature-length cartoons: George Miller's "Happy Feet," in which two very different superstars play Mumbles the penguin. Frodo himself, Elijah Wood, provides the character's voice. More important, tap genius Savion Glover provides the character's moves as dancer and choreographer. You see, in an emperor penguin society that values vocalizing, little Mumbles can't carry a tune. But the lad can dance, and he eventually finds five new buddies who declare him their "Big Guy."

SATURDAY "BRAZIL": Terry Gilliam's trippy look at the future starring Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro and Jim Broadbent screens at Enoch Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral St., at 10:15 a.m. The free screening also includes a discussion. Call 410-396-5430 or go to prattlibrary.org. EGG BABIES ORCHESTRA: Catching an Egg Babies set is like being given a grab bag of songs that speak directly to you. You never know what you're going to get from this local supergroup, but there's usually something from your prom or your favorite movie in the mix. This time, the cover band says it's performing a show of "greatest hits," but it's anyone's guess what they really mean by that.

As Baltimore's unemployment rate rose, many people headed to the library. Since the onset of the recession, attendance at the Enoch Pratt Free Library's career center classes has jumped 92 percent. For free, the Central Library on Cathedral Street in downtown Baltimore offers a range of classes that teach how to build a resume, network strategically, search and apply for jobs online, make job seekers' employment "recession-proof," get a federal job in 10 steps and develop basic interviewing skills.

Moms, it's your weekend. And if you're the kind who wants to spend it having fun with the family - instead of holed up solo with a glass of wine and a good book - there are plenty of kid-friendly activities to choose from around town. You can explore the outdoor beauty at Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton and take a free tour of art depicting the roles of women at the Walters. Help your kids make your Mother's Day gift (hey, at least that way you're sure to get one) at a local library. Take in a concert that explores the relationships between mothers and daughters.

President-elect Barack Obama has stated that "literacy is the highway to success" and that libraries represent "a window to a larger world." Adviser David Axelrod recently said libraries will be part of the proposed economic stimulus package. As the nation and the world look to a new chapter in history, these statements leave me optimistic. During these tough economic times, library services across the nation are in great demand. Families are examining their budgets and turning to libraries more than ever.

ARTS 'Nebiur Arellano: Timeless Filigree' Pre-Colombian art is the inspiration for much of the work in Nebiur Arellano: Timeless Filigree, an exhibit of 37 paintings by the Peruvian-born artist that runs through Saturday at the Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike in North Bethesda. Also ending on Saturday at Strathmore is an eco-friendly exhibit titled Works by Alice Hui & Jane Brashares, featuring sculpture and pottery by Hui and "organic art" by Brashares. Admission to the galleries is free.

On July 23, 2008 Katherine Eleanor Billmire, A memorial service will be held at the Towson Unitarian Universalist Church at 1710 Dulaney Valley Road at 5 P.M. on Saturday, October 11, 2008. Memorial contributions may be made in her honor to the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

On October 1, 2008, J oseph Glus Memorial contributions may be made to Enoch Pratt Free Library.

The Bank of America Charitable Foundation announced a $500,000 donation to the Enoch Pratt Free Library yesterday to provide free wireless Internet access at the Central Library and five other branches across Baltimore. The foundation is providing the money because it says about 40 percent of city households don't have access to the Internet. "For most of them, the only way to go online to get information they need to live and grow is to use one of the 500 public-access computers here at the Pratt libraries," said Pratt CEO Carla D. Hayden.