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“Understanding the true history of our country will help us to comprehend the need for full equality under the law for all our people,” declared Jimmy Carter in 1980 when he issued the first presidential proclamation creating Women’s History Week. Seven years later it would be expanded to the whole month of March. The month was chosen to coincide with International Women's Day, which has been celebrated on March 8 since 1911. The United Nations first recognized it in 1975 as a global celebration of women's achievements and a call to action for gender equality.

Each year the National Women’s History Alliance selects a theme for Women’s History Month and this year’s is Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories. Specifically, the focus will be on “recognition of women, past and present, who have been active in all forms of media and storytelling including print, radio, TV, stage, screen, blogs, podcasts, news, and social media.” As the acclaimed author Ursula LeGuin asserted, “We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains. That’s what I want — to hear you erupting. You Mount Saint Helens-es who don’t know the power in you — I want to hear you… If we don’t tell our truth, who will?”

Women's History Month and International Women's Day serve as a reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and women's rights. They provide an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women throughout history, to raise awareness of the ongoing fight for gender equality, and to call for collective action to create a more equitable world. To learn more about women’s history and women’s stories, check out our book display on the main floor of the Library.

Each year in mid-February, before many birds in the northern hemisphere begin their annual spring migrations, hundreds of thousands of people from around the world participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). For a four-day period, this year beginning on February 17, people are invited to spend at least fifteen minutes in their favorite bird watching location, identifying and noting all the birds they hear and see, and then reporting that data. The data is reviewed by experts and then used to better understand the changes in the population and habitats of wild birds.

This year is the 25^th anniversary of the GBBC. It was started in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society. In 2009 Birds of Canda joined the project, expanding its reach. It became a global project in 2013, when it began using eBird for the data. Last year, about 385,000 people from 192 countries took part in the GBBC. It is not the first such project, but unlike other bird counts like the Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count and Cornell Lab’s Project Feeder Watch, it is very accessible to beginners. New participants in the program are encouraged to use the Merlin Bird ID app to help them identify the birds they are hearing and seeing. The Loras community can also take advantage of our database Birds of the World as well as our book display on the Library’s third floor.

The GBBC is now the world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project. Citizen science is simply public involvement in scientific research, the origins of which go back thousands of years. However, the modern form of this kind of shared research didn’t develop until science became a professional activity, and the term “citizen science” was not coined until the mid-1990s. In addition to counting birds and other fauna and flora, citizen scientists are involved in monitoring air pollution, testing water quality, collecting weather data, reporting on light pollution, documenting landscape change, and much more.

Romantic comedies have a long history. While we often think about them as films, their roots go back to the theatrical tradition of New Comedy in ancient Greece. Later, in the sixteenth century, Shakespeare masterfully combined romance and comedy in his plays. The eighteenth century then brought Restoration comedy which was followed by romantic melodrama in the nineteenth century. It was the twentieth century, with the growth of Hollywood, that introduced the early film versions of romantic comedies. Yet despite this long tradition and the general popularity of the genre, romantic comedies are often considered trivial, inconsequential films.

Perhaps these films are dismissed because they are so formulaic and predictable. They begin with a “meet-cute”, the initial moment where the couple encounters one another in a way that tells the audience that they will end up together even if they start out disliking one another. Some sort of conflict then arises that puts the two lead characters on a metaphorical (and sometime literal) journey together in which their connection grows stronger even while the apparent dislike continues. This culminates with the characters finally realizing and expressing their true feelings and ending up together. Perhaps though, this predictability is what also makes them so appealing.

Because they are predictable, we as the audience can relax into the story, invest emotionally in the characters, and simply enjoy. Yet there are other factors as well. Romantic comedies are relatable; they often are about ordinary people in regular situations. True, they also include a dash of Hollywood magic which brings about true love. Even more than this reliability though, romantic comedies ultimately call us to think about human connection. While the couple is at the center of the story, these movies often involve a community around the couple – the best friends, the crazy family, the sassy work colleagues. Romantic comedies celebrate the love of all these relationships, and they invite the audience to be part of the supportive community, cheering the couple on.

Valentine’s Day, therefore, is a perfect time to watch a romantic comedy, for the holiday is not just about the love between couples but a time to express affection between relatives and friends as well. So, make some popcorn and check out a romantic comedy from our DVD display on the Library’s fourth floor. Portable DVD players are also available for checkout at the Library Services Desk.

Arthur Geisert is a local award-winning children’s book author and illustrator, known especially for his intricate etchings. Prominent in these etching are his legendary pigs, who carve ice sculptures, climb trees, teach the alphabet, build contraptions, and have many other adventures. In his decades-long career he has created over thirty picture books.

Etching is a multi-step, labor intensive process. It takes Geisert months to produce a book. He first does a pencil drawing for each illustration. He then creates a tracing of the drawing to make a mirror image of the picture because etching is a reverse process like all printmaking. The next step is to prepare the copper plate for etching. The plate is polished on one side and has acid proof paint on the other. It is heated and coated with wax. Next the tracing is taped to the plate, and a hard, sharp pencil is used to go over the lines, imprinting the image into the wax surface. An etching needle then is used to go over the lines in the wax to get down to the copper. This plate is placed in an acid bath which cuts into the unprotected surface creating the image in the plate. Initially, Geisert starts with the broader lines of the drawing. The process is repeated on the same plate at least two more times, adding finer and finer lines of the details of the drawing each time. Once prepared, the plates are inked and placed into the 3000-pound press that prints the pages. The print is then colored by hand.

The Loras Library has several of Geisert’s books in our PK12 Collection and these are currently on display on the first floor. Many of his other titles are part of our Special Collections in the Dubuque Authors Collection and can be viewed by making an appointment. Finally, the Library has a colored Geisert print entitle "Prairie Pisa" on the third floor near the elevator as well as four of his copper plate etchings on the northeast wall of the fourth floor, representing the four seasons and featuring some of his famous pigs. Dubuque Museum of Art has a special relationship with Geisert and holds his complete works including prints, books, and etching plates.