Tagged: new orleans public library

Whether you remember the original movie presentation of The Music Man from 1962, or the made-for-television version from 2003, you no doubt carry with you the images of Marian the Librarian.

On this week's Notes from New Orleans, Sharon Litwin reports that Marian wouldn't recognize today's libraries.

The New Orleans Public Library is announcing the temporary closure of all library locations in Orleans Parish due to Tropical Storm Isaac.

At this time, all locations — Main Library, Algiers Regional Branch, Alvar Branch, Central City Branch, Children's Resource Center, East New Orleans Branch, Cita Dennis Hubbell Branch, Rosa F. Keller Branch, Martin Luther King Branch, Milton H. Latter Branch, Norman Mayer Branch, Mid-City Branch, Nix Branch and Robert E. Smith Branch — will be closed Monday, August 27 and Tuesday, August 28.

Xavier University in New Orleans, working with the New Orleans Public Library, has been awarded a grant to host "The Big Read."

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts that is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.

Xavier was one of 76 not-for-profits to be recommended to host a Big Read project. In a news release, the university said The Big Read in New Orleans will focus on the novel "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines. Activities will take place Feb. 23 and March 23.

This week on The Reading Life, we talk with Charles Brown, the new director of the New Orleans Public Library, and with city archivist Irene Wainwright.