Library Feature Stories

Keep informed about library happenings and read feature stories of human interest. Information about activities, services and library materials that you, the library customer, care about, but the media might not.

Recent Library Feature Stories Blog Posts

eReaders at Your Fingertips: Try Before You Buy

Shopping for a new eReader can be confusing. Try our eReader Demo station to touch and interact with several of the most popular devices on the market.

Weird and Wacky Festivals

From comic books shows to chili cook-offs, fun fairs and festivals are held all across America. Whatever your interest, I’m sure someone, somewhere is celebrating it.

Are video games art?

Are video games art? The Museum of Modern Art in New York says “Yes”.

Remembering “Peggy of the Flint Hills”

December 8, 2012 at 3 pm in Marvin Auditorium In Topeka, few people are remembered more fondly than Zula Bennington Greene, the longtime columnist for the Topeka Capital-Journal. Now, nearly a quarter-century after her death, Woodley Press is publishing Peggy of the Flint Hills, a beautiful memoir of her childhood and young adulthood that Greene [...]

Energy Efficiency 101

Your heating bills are high, and your windows and door are drafty. It is time to make your house energy efficient, but you’re at a loss on where to begin. The Home neighborhood at Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library is a great resource to access reliable information. A good example of what you will [...]

TSCPL’s Best Books of 2012

Vote for the best books of 2012! Here is your chance to decide the best fiction and non-fiction works published in 2012. We have combed through Topeka’s most popular books this year, based on their number of check outs, to find the top five based on critical and popular reviews. Now it is your turn to decide the best book of 2012!

Rockin’ to the Spirit of the Season

Whether it’s family time or time for a romantic evening by the fire with the one you love, music is a perfect mood-setter. Think of the library when you think of what holiday music to play. Check out or download tunes instead of buying them and save your money for something nice for yourself or the kids.

Art review: The Printed Image 4 printmaking competition purchase awards

The Friends of the Library sponsors our competitions. From their sponsorship, we are able to purchase art for the library’s collection. Here are this year’s purchase award winners.

A Day in the Life of an Outreach Storyteller

The library helps get kids excited about reading. Boomer, our beloved storytime bear, travels with the library’s five Outreach Storytellers to 75 daycare centers and preschools, helping tell stories to more than 3,700 children ages 3–5 each month. Learn more about our effort to spread literacy.

Access Consumer Reports Free Online

Stay informed as you shop this holiday season using Consumer Reports online, free from your library.

The Library provides free access to ConsumerReports.org the subscription website of the Consumer Reports magazine.The website provides full text copies of the Consumer Reports magazine and access to exclusive online only reviews for thousands of products. Save money this year by checking consumer reviews, product rankings, and money-saving information found in Consumer Reports for the best and most reliable products.

Poke Around in our Crafting Books

Crafts are a wonderful creative outlet and a source for inexpensive gifts that allow you to share your creativity with friends, relatives and total strangers. Find out how inspiration can strike at the library.

Library Story Bloggers

Lissa Staley

Lissa Staley helps people use the library. She is a Book Evangelist, Health Information Librarian, Arts and Crafts Librarian, Trivia Emcee, Classics Made Modern book group leader, and frequent library customer, especially with her preschool children. She reads a new book every few days, but recently loved "Swordspoint" by Ellen Kushner, "Love and Other Perishable Items" by Laura Buzo and "The Reluctant Assassin" by Eoin Colfer and is looking forward to "Homeland" by Cory Doctorow.

Charity Rouse

Charity is a Public Service Specialist working with genealogy and local history reference in the Topeka Room/Genealogy. Her start at TSCPL came as a genealogy researcher soon after the Baker Genealogy Center opened in November 2007. In early 2009, she became a Genealogy volunteer and in May 2010 she came to work at TSCPL. She earned her Master of Library Science degree from Emporia State University in December 2011. One of the Topeka Room programs Charity coordinates is the "Sunday Afternoon with Kansas Authors" series.

Gina Millsap

As the Chief Executive Officer of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, I lead an organization of 225 incredible employees serving a library-loving community of 173,000. With 36 years in the industry, I’ve worked in three extraordinary libraries in Missouri, Iowa and Kansas and have been a library director for fifteen years. I am nationally known for presenting on cutting edge issues, including 21st century librarianship, process improvement, the use of market segmentation to grow and develop library services, and the strategic changes necessary for libraries to thrive in the 21st century. I’m a Library Journal 2007 Mover and Shaker , past president of the Library Leadership & Management Association (LLAMA) of the American Library Association, serve on the board of Library Renewal, an organization working on solutions to ebook and digital content issues for libraries, and am currently a candidate for president of the American Library Association.

Jeff Tate

Jeff Tate is the Digital Branch Librarian. He can help with your ebook and digital audiobook questions and ereader, smart phones, iPads, or other gadget issues, In addition, he can assist with general research questions, library database assistance, and almost anything else you find on our Digital Branch. He also trains, markets, and develops content for the Library's website, ebooks, databases, social media, and other online services. Besides his MLS, he has degrees in American History and American Studies.

Matt Pettit

Matt is a Public Service Specialist for the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. His areas of responsibility include outreach library services to nursing homes, senior, retirement and congregate living centers; service to homebound library users; the Kansas Talking Books service; Book Group in a Bag program and the history and sports neighborhoods of the library’s nonfiction collection. Matt also works on technology issues and special projects for the library, including supporting the Red Carpet Service’s Adaptive Computer Center, civic engagement and civil political discourse.