International Film Festival Begins in July

The Clarence Dillon Public Library will be hosting its Fourth Annual International Film Festival beginning on Tuesday, July 6, 2010. The film festival will screen current and classic films every Tuesday evening during July and August. All screenings begin at 6:45 pm. The beautiful and talented Audrey Tautou (a CDPL favorite) begins the festival with COCO BEFORE CHANEL (7/6), a look at the early life of Coco Chanel. RUDO AND CURSI (7/13) is a comedy about a couple of soccer playing brothers. It is a perfect film for all of the World Cup fans. We are next screening a powerful and passionate Dutch film, THE BLACK BOOK (7/20)about a young Jewish woman working for the resistance during World War II. The dark English comedy DEATH AT A FUNERAL (7/27)winds up July. Penelope Cruz teams up again with Pedro Almodovar for the complex drama BROKEN EMBRACES (8/3)in August. For those Charles Boyer fans we are screening the 1936 MAYERLING (8/10) about the tragedy surrounding Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. Monica Ali's best-selling book, BRICK LANE (8/17), comes to life on the screen and portrays a Bangladeshi woman living in London. Our next film, PARIS, (8/24) is a love letter to the City of Lights and stars Juliette Binoche. Our final film of the festival is a gritty drama SIN NOMBRE. (8/31) This film is concerns a young Honduran woman trying to come to the United States. It is considered one of the best foreign films of 2009. The ratings and a synopsis of each film can be found on our website at http://www.clarencedillonpl.org/. Come to the library and beat the heat with a great lineup of films!

Make a Splash...READ!

(June 20, 2010) The time has come for all young readers to Make a Splash in the Clarence Dillon's Summer Reading Program. Add your bubbles to the bulletin board whale to mark your reading progress. Plan to join us on a Tromp through the Swamp, a musical interactive family program with Tom Sieling, on Saturday, June 26 at12:30 p.m. Don't be left out -- register at the Library beginning June 21 for these and other fun summer events!

The Anne O'Brien Historical collection is going digital!

by Arthur Merchant


A key centerpiece of Clarence Dillon Library's collection is the historical collection housed in the Anne O'Brien historical research room. Visitors who venture in can access shelves of historic books, journals from the past centuries and albums containing almost a thousand photographs that capture the rich history of Bedminster, Far Hills and the entire Somerset Hills area.

I am happy to say that now these photographic images will be accessible to patrons and the community at large regardless of whether the library is open or researchers are able to visit the library in person. This is thanks to an arrangement with the New Jersey Digital Highway (NJDH), a project overseen by Rutgers University which provides a platform for various New Jersey institutions including libraries, academia, museums and local historical societies to present their collections to wider audiences.

Just prior to my present position at Dillon Library, I had the pleasure of working as a Rutgers student employee for NJDH, cataloging and uploading countless images of photographs, maps and documents from collections detailing several chapters in New Jersey's rich history. Upon first seeing the rich heritage housed in the O'Brien room, the first thought was how important it was to open the collection to all professional and amateur historians throughout the state and country.

After over a year of preparation, scanning and uploading, 160 of our photos are available for viewing and with the help of dedicated staff and volunteers, many more will appear over the coming months. To access NJDH go to www.njdigitalhighway.org and then enter Clarence Dillon Public Library in the search field and the entire list of our images will appear. The URL to go directly to this list of images is: http://www.njdigitalhighway.org/search/results.php?key=NJDH&orderby=relevance&format=&query=clarence+dillon+public+library. You can also click the photo of the Vanderveer/Knox house at the top of our home page at www.clarencedillonpl.org.

In each record you are able to view each photo in one of multiple formats including JPEG and PDF. Just as importantly, all the important data connected with the image (dates, locations, people, subjects) is at your fingertips. Many of these keywords can likewise be searched so you can create new lists of images. Feel free to explore NJDH to explore Clarence Dillon Library's collection and when you're through explore other online collections from other participating institutions.