Imagine this- flash a library card and you can check out an instrument for a month at a time. Now that is civilized! Further proof that libraries are the greatest of human institutions: ukulele collections!
Kids of all ages(!) play ukes from the Killian Mansfield Collection at the Phoenicia Library grand re-opening in January.
The Killian Mansfield Ukulele Collection at the Phoenicia Library in upstate New York has 30 ukuleles to loan. Their neighbor, the Olive Library West Shokan NY has followed suit and has a new ukulele collection. We are thrilled to be sending books both of these libraries to compliment their collection! Our Kickstarter campaign for our forthcoming book COLOR-ALONG UKULELE offers supporters to buy books to be donated to some great causes. These libraries are among them, and I would like to tell you a little more about them.
Phoenicia Library does after school ukulele programs for elementary and middle grade students. The library sponsors regular family ukulele classes, jams and occasional performances. However, the library is woefully understocked in the ukulele teaching/learning materials department. (Let’s help them out there, shall we?)
Here is what a board member Mark Lerner had to say about the library:
“The Phoenicia Library is located in the high peaks of NY’s Catskill Mountains. The library is the heart of our rural community, providing books, information, meeting space, internet access, and programming for children and adults. The 2011 fire led us to an ambitious rebuilding project (entirely paid for by grants, insurance, and private donations), and the newly re-opened library is the first American library built to Passive House specifications, a rigorous standard for energy efficiency that reduces our energy consumption by over 80%. In addition to the Killian Mansfield Ukulele Collection, the library houses the Jerry Bartlett Memorial Angling Collection, a museum of fly-fishing that also lends out fishing rods.”
Mark is a great artist- both visual and musical, and a great friend and currently lives in Phoenicia. Go to his website, or check out his blog, Every Band I’ve Ever Been In. You can also see his fine work on both of my CDs– he did the graphic design.
And he is the graphic designer for COLOR-ALONG UKULELE, our method-coloring book being funded on Kickstarter right now. You can pre-order books until April 1 at reduced cost for yourself or for your favorite ukulele program.
Speaking of libraries- tomorrow I will be doing a children’s program at the Memorial Branch Library in Los Angeles at 10 am. Come show off your library card and sing with me!
Coming soon to a library near you!
