Central Plains Library System

Our first annual Library Fall Crawl is finished. We drew three winners from the 117 brochures that were returned to us. Each of the winners has been contacted by telephone.

And the winners are:
*Beverly V. from Gibbon
*Keri F. from Lexington
*Alyssa T. from McCook

Thank you to all the people who participated in this event. We are looking forward to featuring the libraries in our System again next year.

People across Nebraska are encouraged to read the work set in Nebraska—and then talk about
it with their friends and neighbors. The Antidote: A Novel (Knopf, 2025) by Karen Russell is the 2026 One Book One Nebraska selection. The Central Plains Library System has a Book Set which includes 10 copies of this title.

Karen Russell’s The Antidote is a haunting Dust Bowl epic that blends historical fiction with
magical realism. Set in 1930s Nebraska, the novel follows Antonina Rossi—known as “the Antidote,” a prairie witch who stores memories—and the Oletsky family as they endure the
devastation of Black Sunday’s dust storm and the catastrophic flooding of the Republican
River. Through interwoven narratives, Russell explores themes of memory, resilience, and
survival amid environmental collapse, crafting a lyrical meditation on how communities confront trauma and corruption while clinging to hope.

Karen Russell is the author of six books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. She is a MacArthur Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She has received two National Magazine Awards for Fiction, the Shirley Jackson Award, the 2023 Bottari Lattes Grinzane
Prize, and the 2024 Mary McCarthy Prize. The Antidote is a finalist for the National Book Award and a national bestseller. She serves on the board of Street Books, a mobile library for people living outdoors. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, son, and daughter.

Libraries across Nebraska will join other literary and cultural organizations in planning book discussions, activities, and events that will encourage Nebraskans to read and discuss this book. Support materials to assist with local reading/discussion activities will be available after January 1, 2026, at http://onebook.nebraska.gov. Updates and activity listings will be posted on the One Book One Nebraska Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/onebookonenebraska.

2026 marks the twenty-second year of the One Book One Nebraska reading program, sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book. It encourages Nebraskans across the state to read and discuss one book, chosen from books written by Nebraska authors or that have a Nebraska theme or setting. The Nebraska Center for the Book invites recommendations for One Book One Nebraska book selection year-round at http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/obon-nomination.asp.

One Book One Nebraska is sponsored by Nebraska Center for the Book, Humanities Nebraska, and Nebraska Library Commission. The Nebraska Center for the Book brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word.

We are happy to announce the opening of applications for mini-grants of up to $500, offered by the Nebraska Library Commission, as a part of our initiative to get childhood literacy back on track. We’ve partnered with the Little Free Library organization to offer these grants, with a focus on improving access to books in unserved (communities with no library) and underserved (communities that have a library, but would benefit from additional access points, or increased hours of availability) areas. The applications can be submitted now, and the applications are set to close at midnight on August 22, 2025.

If the applicant already has an existing little free library, grants of up to $250 are available for the purchase of early literacy books to stock the LFL location. For those communities seeking to install a little free library, grants of up to $500 are available for the library box, post, and children’s books.

For some facts about how Nebraska has fallen behind when it comes to childhood literacy, and how little free libraries can help, visit our webpage here: https://nlc.nebraska.gov/lfl

Here is a link to more information about the grants, and a link to the online application:

https://nlc.nebraska.gov/lfl/grants.asp

Questions? Feel free to contact me.

Sam Shaw
402.471.3216
800.307.2665
sam.shaw@nebraska.gov

The CPLS Quarterly Board Meeting and the Annual Meeting are scheduled for Friday, July 25, 2025. We will meet at the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island. The deadline to register is this Friday, July 18th.

9:30 am      CPLS Quarterly Board Meeting
10:30 am     CPLS Annual Meeting
11:45 am     Report from the Nebraska Library Commission
Noon          Lunch
1:00 pm     Guided Tour of the Summer Art Display

Registration Fee: Free

1 CE per participant

Click here to register.