Capturing history for future generations

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The economy is beginning to reopen and that means many different things to many different places. Thankfully, the Delaware County District Library is also exploring what our services will look like when we’re prepared to phase into reopening.

I’ll have a bigger announcement early next week with some specific dates and protocols. However, in the meantime, you’ll want to be sure your requests are up to date in the library’s online catalog. When details are ready, they’ll be published on www.delawarelibrary.org/press-room and sent to email addresses on file with our cardholders.

One project that DCDL is working on while we’re at home is a partnership with the Delaware County Historical Society, Delaware County History Network, and other Delaware County libraries in Ashley and Sunbury. The organizations are working to capture COVID-19 pandemic experiences from Delaware County residents to document for future generations.

Recollections that are written, spoken, or video recorded are desired to help capture this moment in history. Future residents will have an idea of how this generation coped with the sudden closure of businesses, lost wages, canceled large in-person events, and sent home school children. They’ll learn how celebrations were altered to include distance and how families dealt with a new togetherness.

Of course, as the pandemic is not over, this project will be ongoing with no expiration date. Written stories, journals and letters, photographs and drawings, audio recordings and videos, objects and photographs of objects may all be sent to [email protected]. Additional information will be available at www.delawareohiohistory.org.

So what sort of things would you submit for future generations to see a slice of life today? Of course, pictures of empty shelves and the iconic “toilet paper” rush come to mind. But I hope you can also find images and stories of hope to showcase how amazing this community truly is when we come together for a greater good.

This week, the Edgar Awards were announced, which highlight the year’s best in mystery and crime writing. Listed below are some of the category winners. Happy reading.

• “The Stranger Diaries” by Elly Griffiths. When her colleague and close friend is murdered, high-school English teacher Clare chronicles her suspicions about the case in her diary until one day she discovers a sinister message in it and fears that a dark story has come to terrifying life.

• “Miracle Creek” by Angie Kim. A dramatic murder trial in the aftermath of an experimental medical treatment and a fatal explosion upends a rural Virginia community where personal secrets and private ambitions complicate efforts to uncover what happened.

• “The Hotel Neversink” by Adam O’Fallon Price. A series of unsolved disappearances at a Catskills grand hotel that took decades to build overshadows three generations of a Jewish family and the employees, entertainers, guests and detectives who would uncover a killer’s identity.

• “The Less People Know About Us” by Axton Betz-Hamilton. Describes the impact of identity theft on the author’s family at a time when banks and authorities were unwilling to help, revealing how her parents and she endured nightmarish victimization at the hands of a loved one.

• “Hitchcock and the Censors” by John Billheimer. Author Billheimer traces the forces that led to the Production Code and describes Hitchcock’s interactions with code officials on a film-by-film basis as he fought to protect his creations, bargaining with code reviewers and sidestepping censorship to produce a lifetime of memorable films.

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By Nicole Fowles

Glad You Asked

If you have a question that you would like to see answered in this column, mail it to Nicole Fowles, Delaware County District Library, 84 E. Winter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740-362-3861. You can also email your questions by visiting the library’s web site at www.delawarelibrary.org or directly to Nicole at [email protected]. No matter how you contact us, we’re always glad you asked!

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