December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor Day

On this day in 1941, Japanese planes attacked the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which resulted in the deaths of 2,300 Americans. Read more about this tragedy at the Library of Congress American Memory Project.

Try a Kindle, Read a book!

Kindles are now available to be checked out from the library. These devices will be available to students, faculty, and staff for a 10 day checkout period. If you would like to checkout one of these devices, you can place a hold on the device in our library catalog or ask at the library desk for assistance.

The following books are currently available to read on our
electronic devices:

NEW RELEASE FICTION: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Greater Journey, To Fetch a Thief, The Night Circus, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, The Eyre Affair, The Help, Mile 81, Far Away Home, House of Sand and Fog, The Kitchen House, The Paris Wife: A Novel

NEW RELEASE NONFICTION: The Greater Journey, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, Killing Lincoln, The Great Sea, That Dark and Bloody River, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World, The Orchard: A Memoir, Into the Silence, Miss Minimalist: Inspiration to Downsize, Declutter and Simplify, Heaven is for Real, Unlikely Friendships

WESTERNS: The Night Horseman, Gunman's Reckoning, The Last of the Plainsmen, The Call of the Canyon, Riders of the Purple Sage, Black Jack, The Untamed, The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains, The Last Trail

TEXTBOOKS: CK-12 Chemistry, CK-12 21st Century Physics Flexbook, CK-12 Algebra I, CK-12 Calculus, CK-12 People's Physics Book Version 2

PUBLIC DOMAIN: Anne of Avonlea, Emma, An Old-Fashioned Girl, A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Anthem, Treasure Island, Pollyanna, Pollyanna Grows Up, Little Women, The Last of the Mohicans, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion

CHILDRENS: Girls to the Rescue Book #1, The Blue Fairy Book, The Pink Fairy Book, The Lilac Fairy Book, The Mouse and the Christmas Cake, The Velveteen Rabbit

OTHER: Circle of Friends Cookbook, Einstein's Refrigerator, Cookouts Veggie Style, Hide in Plain Sight, I, Spy? (Sophie Green Mysteries No. 1), Invisible (Ivy Malone Mystery Series #1), Starwars: Lost Tribe of the Sith #1-5

When a device is returned we will notify the next person on the hold list that the device is available. That person will have 24 hours to come into the library and check out the device. Check with the
library staff to ensure that your contact information is up-to-date in our files.

Textbooks in the Library

The first week of school students frequently ask if their course textbook is available in the library. The college store, not the library, is of course the place to go to purchase your textbooks. For many reasons students struggle to obtain their textbooks, especially at the start of the semester and we in the library want to be as helpful as possible.

Some textbooks have been placed on reserve in the library by the course instructor. We have also tried to provide a few commonly requested textbooks on our reserve shelf. Reserve shelf books are available for 3 hour checkouts and may not be taken out of the library.

There are several other options for those struggling through without a textbook in the first week of school. Talk to your classmates and see if there is a time when you could borrow their book to complete those week one assignments.

Many textbooks are also offered as ebooks. Some of the vendors that provide ebooks may have first chapter samples, or the ability to purchase individual chapters. Find out more about ebook and check the companies that are mentioned to see if they can provide resources to get you through that first week, here.

Welcome Back!

Brrrr ~46 degrees this morning. Hey this is September not November. At least we aren’t missing anything at the beach on this first day of the new semester.

We are very excited to start a new school year here at North Central Michigan College Library. Great things are happening in our library this year!

We have several sessions being presented by library staff that may be of interest to you or someone you know. Please check or events page for upcoming sessions. events page Watch here for more events to come.

If you need assistance getting onto a computer or registering for the portal, please stop in and see us. The library is also a great place to study or relax. Come and play a game from our game collection to help you unwind between classes.

Stay tuned for all of the new exciting things that are coming to your library.

A Summer Vacation...and It's Right Down the Street

Last Saturday, my husband and I had to come into town to do some errands. Generally, I like to spend the weekends taking care of things at home, READING, cooking, etc. But it was such a beautiful sunny day as we were driving up Sheridan Street, I pointed out the entrance to the Bear River Valley Recreation Area and asked if he wanted to take a walk along the river(something I'd wanted to do for a while.)

We started out on the paved path and soon were marveling at this slice of nature that had been hiding from the casual visitor for so long. It truly was like a mini-vacation; it reminded me of numerous places that we've come upon when traveling, quickly clambering out of the car to walk a refreshing, forested path. There are large bouldered steps that lead to the river, bridges to view the current pass beneath your feet, and birds galore. The new kayak course creates rapids that challenge even experienced kayakers.


It made me think, as we headed home, about the sites and history of Petoskey that I know so little about. We've collected materials of local interest here at the library for years, and while I've leafed through some of them, I'm sure I could learn more by examining them more closely. This link takes you to our library catalogue holdings about Petoskey. Anyone can view these collections, and students and Emmet County residents have borrowing privileges. You don't need to wait for a rainy day, we're open Monday-Thursday until 8 PM, Friday 'til Noon.

Connecting with Literature

There are just some people, places, things, and events that hold no interest for me. For example, I saw pictures of the Grand Canyon growing up, but I wasn't really interested in finding out more about it or going to see it. Then the summer before I moved to California there was a book of historical fiction on the popular book rack at our store. It was called Grand Canyon. Lacking anything better to do while working, I read it. I liked the book so much that suddenly the Grand Canyon was interesting. On my way to California, I made sure to stop at the Grand Canyon. Suddenly the places and thing that I had read about in the book had meaning and interest.

Inversely, a connection with a person, place, or thing that is the subject of a book can add meaning to the piece of literature. I frequently look to find connections to the literature that I read and also seek out literature based on a personal connection with the subject. This is also helpful when finding material for my daughter to read.

A sometimes overlooked piece of local literature, that everyone here should be able to connect with, is Little Mossback Amelia. We have 2 copies available in the library. Amelia came to the Petoskey area as a child around 1879. Her family homesteaded just outside of town. What is a short drive out of town today took the family 2 days of walking to reach.

This book can be found in the children’s section of the library, but is a book that Michiganders of any age can connect with. You can even take a drive by the family homestead and imagine what it would have been like. There is a map in the front of the book.

You can also connect with the author, Frances Margaret Fox. Frances is a local author who wrote over 50 books and was the author of the original Little Bear series. Anyone who has spent time in Mackinaw City should be familiar with her little stone house on the lake that is not too far from the bridge, Happy Landings.

Happy Landing Now and Then

External Links:
CMU Michigan in letters:Frances Margaret Fox