Pratt Free Library

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.

Faye Houston is having none of this talk about myopic, spinsterish librarians with pinched noses and hair pulled back in tight buns.Houston, chief of humanities at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, once crowd-surfed at Lollapalooza. So there.Still, she does have one thing in common with those storybook librarians. Houston, 56, loves books. She thinks of them as friends with stories to tell.They have been with her ever since her girlish days in Springfield, Ohio. And they will be with her long after tomorrow's retirement party honoring her 33 years of library service.

Decades ago, the Enoch Pratt Free Library started keeping what some would routinely toss in the wastepaper basket -- gaudy junk mail, inky grocery store circulars and scribbled receipts for nights on the town. But they didn't just take in anybody's garbage.Much of this thicket of brittle paper -- a chunk of it put aside by H. L. Mencken -- is stashed in the downtown Baltimore library's stuffy attic stacks, crammed in cartons and wood fruit crates. Some people call this random accumulation "Marylandiana."

REVITALIZATION efforts for the Roland Park community in North Baltimore are moving ahead with the selection of an architectural team to design a $1 million expansion and renovation of the Roland Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. After considering several design teams, a city panel has selected a partnership of Alexander Design Studio and McLain Associates, both of Ellicott City, and Probst-Mason Inc. of Baltimore. Rick Kingsbury is the team's landscape architect. The project includes an addition that will double the capacity of the library at 5108 Roland Ave. as well as restoration of the interior of the original building, which dates from 1924.

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

Baltimore City Pratt Library The Enoch Pratt Free Library system will be closed in observance of New Year's Day this weekend. The Central Library and all branches will be closed Sunday and Monday.

Lula Kopper: The maiden name of Lula Kopper, a former librarian at Enoch Pratt Free Library, was reported incorrectly Tuesday. She is the former Lula Bowen.Pub Date: 3/07/96

Eye exhibit opens today at Enoch Pratt Free Library A traveling eye exhibit is set to open today at Enoch Pratt Free Library's central location, 400 Cathedral St. The exhibit from the National Eye Institute will include causes of low vision, devices and other aids that can help vision, and information on local services and resources. The opening ceremony is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. and is open and free to the public.

Selma Levi, children's librarian at the main branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, recommends these books for children interested in reading about Israel's history:"A Kid's Catalog of Israel," by Chaya M. Burstein. (Scholastic, 1988) Ages 8-12."When Will the Fighting Stop?" by Ann Morris. (Atheneum, 1990) Ages 8-12.Pub Date: 5/05/98

Audio Visual Patriotic music From 6:30 to 7:30 tonight, catch an audio-visual program about patriotic music in Ameri ca presented by Ed Okono wicz. The free program is at the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Light Street branch, 1251 Light St. Call 410-396-1096.