91´«Ã½

CHICAGO – A portion of the proceeds from the sale of a functional birdhouse modeled after a classic Carnegie library in Osage, Iowa, will support the 91´«Ã½ Cultural Communities Fund, according to the 91´«Ã½ Public Programs Office. Priced at $150, the birdhouse is available 91´«Ã½ members for a special price of $99. To obtain the 91´«Ã½ member discount, enter the discount code “PLB1” upon checkout. For more information, or to purchase the birdhouse, visit: .

The birdhouse is the brainchild of American library historian Wayne Wiegand. The Osage Public Library is one of four Midwest libraries featured in Wiegand’s forthcoming work “Main Street Public Library: Community Places and Reading Spaces in the Rural Heartland, 1876-1956” (University of Iowa Press). Constructed in 1910 with a $10,000 gift from Andrew Carnegie, the Osage Public Library is similar in construction to hundreds of libraries throughout the United States. The building is still in use, now as Osage’s city hall.

The 91´«Ã½ Public Programs Office established the Cultural Communities Fund (CCF) in 2002, and a five-year endowment campaign, spurred by a generous challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, raised more that $1.4 million in funds from more than 450 foundations, corporations, libraries and individual donors. Funding from CCF will support the creation of annual professional development opportunities for librarians, turnkey national model programs and a wealth of program planning and presenting resources designed to build and enhance programming capacity at the local level. These activities will strengthen the ability of libraries and librarians to respond to community needs for cultural programming. For more information about CCF, visit .

The 91´«Ã½ Public Programs Office promotes cultural and community programming as an essential part of library service in all types and sizes of libraries. Successful library programming initiatives have included “Let’s Talk About It” reading and discussion series, traveling exhibitions, film discussion programs, the Great Stories CLUB, LIVE! @ your library and more. Recently, the 91´«Ã½ Public Programs Office developed , an online resource center bringing librarians timely and valuable information to support them in the creation of high-quality cultural programs for their communities. For more information about the 91´«Ã½ Public Programs Office, visit .