This presentation will compare the design, construction, and performance of three new Addison County high-performance homes completed in 2015 and 2016. All two-story buildings on small lots, these homes used a variety of construction systems to accommodate aesthetic, site, and builder considerations. Find out how overall home designs met the interests and goals of the homeowners; the cost, performance and ease of construction of the different envelope systems; and reasons to choose one system over the others. Presentation will include cost and payback information as well. Presenters: Jean Terwilliger of Vermont Integrated Architecture, P.C., Alex Carver of Northern Timbers Construction, and Tom LeBoeuf of Northeast Craftsmen Group. Recorded at the Ilsley Library 4/18/17.

Middlebury College Political Science Professor Matt Dickinson draws on his experiences following the presidential candidates to explain how Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton became their party nominees, and looks ahead to the general election to predict who will be our next president – and why.

Sponsored by the Addison County Retired Teachers Association.

Jack Mayer, author of Life in a Jar: The Irena Sendler Project, presents a talk about the turbulent history of Germany’s Weimar democracy after World War I and the rise of Nazism. This history is the basis for his new historical fiction, Before the Court of Heaven, based on the true story of the 1922 assassination of Weimar’s highest ranking Jew – Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau – and the subsequent trial of the conspirators, the seeds of Hitler’s dictatorship. Dr. Mayer’s discussion fleshes out the remarkable historical events and considers how they led ordinary people to become complicit in extraordinary crimes. This talk is sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council. Filmed by Chris Kirby for Ilsley Public Library and Middlebury Community Television 9/22/16.

Rich Wolfson, Middlebury College Professor of physics, reviews the latest evidence for global climate change, explains why the observed warming results largely from human activities, and explores future climate scenarios.

This talk is sponsored by the Addison County Retired Teachers Association. Filmed by Chris Kirby for Ilsley Public Library and Middlebury Community Television 5/11/16.