Category: CALS Roberts Library Blog

This month marks the twentieth year that CALS has participated in the beloved downtown Little Rock event 2nd Friday Art Night (2FAN). Celebrate with us this Friday!

Second Friday Art Night

March 14, 2025, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.  

CALS Rock It!

This month, March 2025, marks my twentieth year of wearing the title of Genealogy and Local History Specialist at the Central Arkansas Library System. I have consistently worked outside the home since age twelve, but before this, I had never kept a job for longer than five years. Most previous positions couldn’t hold my attention long.

You probably don’t regularly check the Staff or Contact Us pages on the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas (EOA) website, but if you happened to click on either of those recently, you might have noticed a new name in the mix: Starr M. Carr.

Michael Keckhaver (a.k.a.

Eliza Jane Ashley, known by those close to her as Liza or Janie, spent more than thirty years as the cook for the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion. Serving from the administration of Governor Francis Cherry to that of Bill Clinton, she played a central role in the lives of the state’s political elite.

People regularly reach out to the Roberts Library to ask their most pressing questions about Arkansas history.

Sometimes we get a question from someone who needs help locating an Arkansas-based historical journal, or a phone call from someone who is interested in an Arkansas author whose volumes are held in our closed stacks.

Throughout February, and all year long, you can engage with Black history in many ways with the Central Arkansas Library System.

Black Family Expo

CALS community engagement coordinator Jessica McDaniel and community outreach archivist Danielle Afsordeh organized the first Black Family Expo at the Josephine Pankey Community Center for Black History Month in 2023,

I didn’t know my grandfather. Every time I would ask about him, I’d hear a mix of responses: “Gong Gong was frugal.” “He loved ‘Edelweiss.’” “He gave a lot of lectures.” But my dad always said, “He was a great father.” And while I never knew him (he died several months after I was born),

Some years back, my wife and I rented a cabin in Ponca near the Buffalo River. The idea was to snuggle down for a cold weather spell over Thanksgiving week, spend time reading books while a fire crackled in the fireplace, and generally disconnect from work and everything else. However, our dog would need his regular walks,

Winter 2025 offers many opportunities to view and experience art at the Central Arkansas Library System through exhibitions, events, and workshops!

Exhibitions

From the Vault: A Survey of the CALS Art Collection will be on display throughout the spring, with some additions to mark Black History Month.

The art of sending and receiving Christmas cards in the mail has dwindled, though it has not entirely vanished. I remember, when I was young, my parents signing cards and putting them in envelopes, addressing and stamping them, and taking them to the post office for delivery. The cards they received were displayed on the living room wall through the holiday season.