Whitefish Community Library

HeritageQuest is a searchable database featuring the US Census up to 1950, a plethora of family histories, selected Revolutionary War records and more. It’s easily found on our website, just below this post on the left – the red rectangle with a tree. While in the Montana Shared Catalog you’ll see the same red rectangle on the right. It’s fun to explore HeritageQuest. All you need is your 14-digit WCL card number.

Whitefish Community Library will be closed Thursday and Friday, November 28 and 29, so staff can enjoy the holidays with friends and family. The Library re-opens Saturday, November 30 at noon.

Whitefish Library Staff wish you and yours a peaceful holiday!

Norman Rockwell painting courtesy of St. Louis Art Museum. Find out more.

Perhaps you read the local news article about the influx of newcomers to Montana affecting the recent election. If you are curious about that, check out our Virtual Visit program this week: “Who Are All the Newcomers?” on Wednesday, November 27th at 6:30 p.m.

Join Tara Mastel of MSU Extension Service as she drills down on who is arriving in Montana, from where, and why they are coming here. She’ll share information from a recent study by MSU reseachers to give you the answers.

Virtual Visits are Zoom programs with topics of interest to Montanans, curated by the Montana State Library. Registration is free, and you will join residents from all over Montana for an interactive program.

Find out more and register HERE.

Tara Mastel is Program Lead for Community Vitality at MSU Extension

The Library will be closed on Monday, November 11, for Veterans Day. It will reopen Tuesday, November 12 at 10 a.m.

Did you know that Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day, in remembrance of the day hostilities ended in “The Great War,” now known as World War I? Fighting ended on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918 – although the treaty to end the war was not signed until the next year.

Learn more about the fascinating history of Veterans Day on the Department of Veterans Affairs website.

For the personal histories and memories of veterans across our Nation’s wars from The Great War through recent conflicts, look over the Veterans History Project on the Library of Congress website. The letters of Captain Allen Melancthon Sumner, Jr. (pictured below) are one instance.

The staff at Whitefish Community Library wishes you and yours a peaceful weekend!

Young Adult author Jess Owen will visit the Library on Friday, November 22 at 4:30 p.m. for another Teen Writers Workshop.

Jess is a local author and artist, has published books under the names Jess E. Owen and Jessica Kara in the Young Adult fantasy and comtemporary genres, and has served as President of Authors of the Flathead, among other accomplishments.

This workshop for Teens is free to the public and no registration is necessary.

To find out more about the workshop and Jess Owen, check HERE.

Some of you may remember bringing your children to “Whistle Stop Storytime” in the early 2000s – or you may remember attending as a child. If so, you will remember your Whistle Stop Storyteller, Billie Bartlett.

Billie loved Storytime and put in great efforts to make it a special time for the children. One highlight was a “Polar Express” storytime that took place on a real train car at the Whitefish Depot!

We were saddened to learn of Billie’s passing in September, but glad to share with you that donations in Billie’s honor will refresh our children’s picture book section. Billie will be remembered with a special plaque in books purchased with those donations.

Thank you, Billie!

For information on Montana local elections and ballot initiatives, the Daily Inter Lake is sharing their news articles for free until Election Day, Nov. 5. Find their information HERE.

For Federal elections, the League of Women Voters site, VOTE411, is widely regarded as reliable and non-partisan. Find their website HERE.