PICK: The Lavender Scare

Seeing purple: As the Cold War and McCarthyism were dominating headlines in the mid-20th century, another cultural persecution was taking place covertly in tandem with the Red Scare. Jefferson-Madison Regional Library and the University of Virginia’s LGBT Committee present a screening of The Lavender Scare, a documentary narrated by Glenn Close that tells the story […]

ARTS Pick: How-to Festival

Learning IRL: Want to learn how to build a robot? Would you like to jazz up your cooking prep with chef-level knife skills? Or maybe you’re interested in the medicinal properties of the herbs in your kitchen spice rack, learning to ride a unicycle, or caring for goats? The How-to Festival trumps YouTube, advice columns, […]

Philanthropic windfall: Library gets $1 million bequest 

By Jonathan Haynes The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library was the unexpected beneficiary of a nearly $1 million bequest from one of its Friends of the Library Endowment Fund patrons earlier this year. The donation came from the estate of Nancy Swygert. Despite the large sum, Swygert and her husband lived a frugal life, never having children […]

In brief: Library shocker, UVA’s $9 million plane and more

Busy as a bookworm Here in the digital age, one relic from our printing-press past is defying obsolescence: the library. The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library saw its busiest year ever in 2016, with its newest Crozet and Northside libraries contributing to the boom, according to director John Halliday. It’s not just books that account for the […]

#BlackOwnedCville and NEA Big Read connect the threads

Throughout this month, an exhibition titled #BlackOwnedCville by local photographer and filmmaker Lorenzo Dickerson is on display on the third floor of the Central Library. Dickerson says he was moved to pursue the project because, “I was curious myself about African-American businesses here locally. Growing up here I knew of some. Like Mel’s Café on […]

Free-er speech: Controversial display prompts library policy changes

Nine months have passed since library patron Mike Powers voiced his concern over a sex-ed display in the front lobby of the main branch of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. Following April’s public outcry, on January 25 the library’s board of trustees approved proposed changes to its public display policies that will clarify its stance on […]