ALPENA — Alpena County Library is presenting three virtual programs this month: Talking is Teaching on April 22, adult book club on April 26, and Capitol Women on April 27.

Talking is Teaching literacy workshop

Talking is Teaching: Reading and Singing will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 22, hosted by the Alpena County Library and the Great Start Collaborative.

Join Alpena County Library and Great Start Collaborative via Zoom for a one-hour early literacy workshop for parents and caregivers of children ages newborn to 5.

In this workshop, parents and caregivers will dig deeper into the power of reading and singing with their child or children. Registered participants will receive free workshop materials after the event.

Register at https://forms.gle/3jZfGi7sMkk9VK3v9 or by visiting the library’s website.

Participants will be contacted about claiming their totes after the session. A link to the Zoom event will be sent in advance of the meeting on April 21.

For more information visit www.alpenalibrary.org or the library’s Facebook page.

Adult book club

The library’s adult book club will hold a virtual discussion at 6 p.m. Monday, April 26, for ages 18 and older.

This month, members will discuss their individually chosen reads, all by Indian authors. Members will also vote on which book they would like to read next from the library’s available book club kits: “John Henry Days” by Colson Whitehead or “The Library of Legends” by Janie Chang.

The group will meet virtually via Google Hangouts at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 26. New members ages 18 and older are always welcome.

Join the Alpena County Library Book Club FB Group to access the Google Hangouts link and interact with other book club members at https://www.facebook.com/groups/549494682550762.

For more information visit www.alpenalibrary.org or the library’s Facebook page.

Capitol Women

The library will be hosting Capitol Women: Librarians, Clerks, Janitresses, and Lawmakers: 1879-1940; Pioneering Women at Work Under the Dome at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 27.

Learn about the trailblazing women and the rules — written and unspoken — that both limited and inspired their successes working in the Michigan Capitol from 1879 to 1940 with Capitol Historian and Curator Valerie Marvin. This program is free and open to all, but registration is required. Register at https://tinyurl.com/4zphe6vp.

Tradition states that Capitols have long been male-dominated spaces where women played decidedly secondary roles. Yet in 1879, when the present Capitol opened, Harriet Tenney, Michigan’s first female state librarian, held control over almost an entire wing of the building. The first professional woman to hold a top-tier gubernatorial appointment in the peninsular state, Tenney was aware of her significance. In her first report to the governor she wrote that “By the advice of the Chief Executive of the State and with the unanimous consent and approbation of the Senate, on the 31st day of March 1869, this Library was placed in charge of a WOMAN.”

In the years that followed, Tenney was joined at the Capitol by an ever-increasing number of women who worked as assistant librarians, clerks, secretaries, telephone operators, and janitresses. Laboring day in and day out, these women fulfilled vital roles in state government as they kept careful records, operated new technologies, and, in the case of Harriet’s protege, Mary Spencer, built a statewide lending library program that benefitted Michigan residents for decades. Among Mary’s contemporaries was another fascinating figure, Belle Maniates, who clerked during the day and wrote short stories and novels at night. In 1912, Maniates published her first novel, David Dunne, about a boy who grows up to be governor. Several scenes in it are set in the Capitol building.

The dawn of women’s suffrage in 1920 brought Michigan’s first female legislators to the Capitol, including Grand Rapids suffrage leader Eva McCall Hamilton, and, in 1924, Cora Reynolds Anderson, a Native American educator and health activist from L’Anse. Bold advocates for women and children, Hamilton and Anderson were praised by some, and loathed by others, who saw them as distractions and interlopers in the male legislature.

About the presenter: Valerie Marvin is honored to serve as the historian and curator of the Michigan State Capitol. A graduate of the University of Michigan (Bachelor of Arts in Russian Studies, 2005) and Eastern Michigan University (Masters of Science in Historic Preservation, 2009), Valerie lives with her husband David in a 1906 home in downtown Lansing.

Contact the Alpena County Library Special Collection department with questions at specialcollections@alpenalibrary.org.