Adults

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Monday, December 8

Registration required. Details below. 

Take an unforgettable journey through the universe from the comfort of the library inside an inflatable planetarium. 

You will enter the dome and be introduced to a star filled sky. Learn to identify every planet in our solar system in dramatic flights towards each world. Discover how Greek Mythological heroes of the past can be found in the stars. You will also witness the night sky in different seasons and from different global perspectives.  

We have 5 sessions, each designed for a specific age group. The afternoon sessions are held for our Early Release program for students. NOTE: ALL PARTICIPANTS MUST SIT ON THE FLOOR. (NO CHAIRS ALLOWED.)  Adults, feel free to bring a cushion or stadium seat. (Melissa will do her best to help you back up if you need!)  

Registration is required. Sign up here.

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Tuesday, January 6, 10am

The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden

Everyone is welcome at our monthly book club. We meet the 1st Tuesday of the month from 10-11am. Light refreshments are provided. Pick up a copy of the month's title at the Circulation Desk. Large print is available.

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Tuesday, January 13, 6:30pm

Recommended for ages 16+. 

Indulge in confession and hilarity with Guilty Pleasures from Forward Theater! This sampling of performances from Forward’s eighth Monologue Festival offers a delightful journey through the joys, embarrassments, and sweet reliefs that come from embracing secret delights. 

Forward Theater Company was founded in 2009 to provide Madison-area audiences with exceptional theater productions, and local professional artists with an artistic home base. We are inspired by the Wisconsin Idea of service to the broader community, and we tie our onstage work to expansive engagement efforts throughout each season. The plays we produce are fresh, fun, and thought-provoking, bringing the very best of contemporary theater from Broadway and beyond to local audiences. 

Made possible with the support of Beyond the Page, National Endowment for the Humanities and Madison Community Foundation and the Green Bay Packers Foundation.

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Thursday, January 29, 1pm

Michael John Jaeger, Outreach Volunteer, The Kelch Aviation Museum, Brodhead WI

Funny how cutting-edge technology becomes obsolete – and perhaps entirely forgotten - in the blink of an eye. You’ve seen airport radar equipment, used a GPS on your phone, and maybe even sent packages “by airmail” – but did you ever wonder just how these everyday conveniences came to be?

Modern day navigation and our understanding of getting from point A to point B was influenced heavily by the US Postal Service’s beacon towers, one of which stands at the Brodhead Airport in southern Wisconsin, near the Kelch Aviation Museum.

Airmail was a critical component to the development of American aviation in the 1920s and 30s – but how, and why, did this affect rural towns and real people? This presentation will explore the role light beacons played in the advancement of airmail, airways, and navigation, shedding light (pun intended) on aviation and USA history.

Presenter Michael John Jaeger is a volunteer docent and researcher at the Kelch Aviation Museum. He’s a former pilot who’s always loved looking at the landscape from above in small planes. He also likes to share with others how aviation in days past helped shape our local area and the world we live in today.

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Saturday, February 21, 10am

Registration Required.  Sign up here beginning December 15. Space is limited!

Chase away the winter blues with a little friendly competition! Create a team of 2-5 people and complete against other groups in the library's Great Puzzle Race! Each team will receive the same 500 piece puzzle to work on. When we say "go," you'll race to be the team that completes the puzzle first! First and second place prizes will be awarded, not to mention bragging rights. This event is geared for ages 10+.  Teams must register in advance. 

• Teams must be between 2 -5 people.
• Each team will have their own table to work at.
• No puzzle mats or other puzzling tools allowed. Each group will receive the same puzzle and the competition will end at 11:30am (Last year the top two teams finished in about 45 minutes. Average was about 60-90 minutes)
• First and second place prizes will be awarded.
• Team members must be at least 10 years old. 

Thanks to Ravensburger for their puzzle donations for this contest.

Thursday, March 5, 1pm

With John Armbruster, Author of Tailspin

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In November 1943, in the skies over Nazi Germany, a wounded American tail gunner, Gene Moran, lay in the severed tail of his Flying Fortress bomber. The mangled wreckage plunged four miles toward German soil. His parachute shredded by enemy fire, Gene awaited the inevitable. The cartwheeling tail section slammed into a forest and dumped Gene onto the cold ground. He was alive! Gene fell four miles without a parachute and survived. But his ordeal had just begun. In the next seventeen months, Gene would endure some of the worst episodes of the American prisoner of war experience in occupied Europe, including the infamous "Hell Ship" and European Death March. 

For more than sixty years, Gene said little about one of the most extraordinary stories of World War II until he met the author, John Armbruster. John, a close friend of the Moran family, initially refused to write Gene's story. Twenty years removed from a journalism degree and writing high school basketball stories for newspapers, John couldn't imagine taking on such significant work. But the author agreed to the project when one of Gene's daughters told John, "He'll do it, but only if you write it." The journey of telling the story becomes a story itself. Tailspin ​chronicles Gene's unbelievable World War II survival saga. It will also show an elderly man finally coming to terms with the cruelties of a war that would haunt his entire life. 

John Armbruster graduated from UW-Madison with degrees in journalism and secondary education. After a 30-year career teaching middle and high school social studies, John published his first book Tailspin, the World War II story of a Wisconsin tail gunner and prisoner of war who fell four miles without a parachute and lived.

Books will be available to purchase. Armbruster will also display WWII artifacts and newspapers.

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Thursday, March 19, 1pm

With historical impressionist Jessica Michna

In partnership with the Driftless Historium

After forty years of marriage, Abigail looks back to the days of her early marriage as the young wife and mother. Referring to the many letters written between the Adams, she recalls the days of revolution and uncertainty. She reminisces about the friendships forged in France and England as a diplomat’s wife, the divisive election of 1800 and her management of the Adam's farm. Mrs. Adams brings to life the early days of Washington, D.C. as seen from the windows of an unfinished White House.

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Saturday, March 21, 10am

Rebecca Hopman, Genealogy Services Librarian, Wisconsin Historical Society,

Do you want to explore your family’s history but don’t know where to start? Learn how to launch your genealogy project with the help of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Join genealogy librarian Rebecca Hopman as she demonstrates how to build a solid foundation for a successful family history project, from setting goals to gathering and analyzing records to sharing the results of your hard work. You’ll also discover how to leverage the Wisconsin Historical Society's extensive collections and services in the course of your research.

Rebecca Hopman is the Genealogy Services Librarian at the Wisconsin Historical Society, where she helps people discover their family stories. She lectures on a variety of topics, including genealogy, oral history, and historical research. She has a BA in History, English, and German from Augustana College (IL), an MLIS in Archives & Records Management from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MA in Women’s History from Sarah Lawrence College. She currently serves as a board member for the Augustana Historical Society.