Alaska Public Library Director Mary Jo Torgenson just released the 2012 report for the library. This document was a great reminder of the importance of stepping back and looking at the big picture. Though filled with numbers, the overall arc of the report emphasizes why the library does what it is doing.

Anchorage Public Library’s five neighborhood libraries are ready for the annual Summer Reading Celebration. The Celebration kicks off with the 13th annual Reading Rendezvous on Saturday, May 18, from noon to 4 p.m., on the Loussac Library lawn. This free, fun fair for all ages features a variety of community booths, each with a different task or craft. You can sign up for the summer reading programs for kids, teens or adults; get an early start on building up your minutes to win prizes, and raise money for BARK-9, a program that trains search and rescue dogs, this year’s Readers to the Rescue recipient.

At least once a year, I like to pay homage to the organizations whose volunteer boards play enormous roles in the vitality of our neighborhood libraries. Friends of the Library, the Anchorage Library Foundation and the Library Advisory Board each provide their own brand of community support to Anchorage Public Library.

Thanks to the Alaska State Library, libraries across the state have access to two excellent programs. The FY2014 funding for both is going through the budget process right now and I’m crossing my fingers that they make it through unscathed.

The Z.J. Loussac Public Library opened in September of 1986 to much hoopla, part of the city’s Project ‘80s public works construction funded by oil money. The three-tower, castle-like design included stairs leading to a concrete deck and the second floor entrance. About 100 staff workstations were spread through the building behind the scenes while the patrons experienced a sweeping environment in which to select their books.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — You have to at least give “Scary Movie 5” points for timeliness. This latest installment of the horror movie spoof franchise manages to deliver parodies of movies as recent as last week’s “Evil Dead” remake, not to mention one that hasn’t even been made yet (“Fifty Shades of Gray”). But those points are immediately subtracted by the fact that this Wayans-less installment doesn’t manage to wrest a single laugh from any one of them.

In countless films about emergencies, crimes and police work, the 911 dispatcher is but a bit player, an anonymous, robotic voice briefly heard on the other end of a breathless call made by our movie’s main players.

“The Last Stand” is the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie you didn’t even realize you wanted to see. This is the action superstar’s first leading role in a decade, having left acting to serve as the governor of California and whatnot, and while it may not have occurred to you to miss him during that time, it’s still surprisingly good to see him on the big screen again.

“Gangster Squad,” a pulpy, violent tale of cops and mobsters in 1949 Los Angeles, rides an uncomfortable line between outlandishness and outright parody, and it’s difficult to tell which is director Ruben Fleischer’s intention. Which is a problem.

Until the very end, she is described as “The Girl.” Even after a relentless, decade-long pursuit that leads to the daring midnight raid of Osama bin Laden’s compound, even as she unzips the body bag to verify that the bloody corpse inside is indeed that of the slain al-Qaida leader, Jessica Chastain’s CIA officer character is defined primarily by her femininity in this male-dominated world.