Well I recall discussions in the Collection Development class on weeding. Once I started working, I was assigned to weed certain parts of the collection, areas in which I had some specialty: business, history, biographies, sports. Now I am weeding at my second library job. This article resonates with me.
Weeding Grows the Garden: Removing worn-out and outdated material is a surprisingly effective circulation booster.
Michael Sawyer takes pride in weeding books. In fact, he estimates that over the past 30 years he has overseen the removal of more than 500,000 items across eight library systems. As you can imagine, this has not been without controversy. “Many librarians have an emotional attachment to their collections,” Sawyer observes. “They think of the books as a literal part of the library, as part of their family.” Sawyer takes a more utilitarian view of library materials by believing that most items in the average library will eventually fulfill their purpose and need to be discarded.
As director of the Calcasieu Parish Public Library in Louisiana, Sawyer feels that weeding the collection is one of the most essential practices that a library can do. While there are many benefits, the main reason is that it helps to improve circulation. “When the library gets rid of those ragged, smudged, damaged, and unattractive rebound books, circulation increases every time,” Sawyer maintains.
He believes that public libraries in particular have a responsibility to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information possible. Weeding not only allows for this, but also presents the library as a more credible source for information and enables patrons to find what they need more easily. However, routine weeding has not always been an easy task, and Sawyer has shown his dedication through leading by example. With the CREW weeding manual in hand, he has personally trained staff on the subtle art of weeding. “It is one thing to have a philosophical conversation about removing materials, but when you are out in the stacks handling books that are damaged or that have outdated information, people start to understand why we need to do this.”
While Sawyer’s passion is weeding, he also focuses on public relations. One of the library’s most successful programs, the Yard Sign Project, almost didn’t get off the ground due to staff reluctance. The project was inspired by Louisville (Ky.) Free Public Library and rewarded kids who read 10 books over the summer with a yard sign that proudly stated: “A library champion lives here.” The response was phenomenal. Sawyer said that the initiative demonstrated in a very visual manner how much support there is for the library. In addition, it created a sense of positive peer-pressure that generated excitement for children and their parents. Sawyer’s persistence paid off; staff embraced the project and the library earned the 2010 Public Library Association’s Highsmith Innovation Award from the American Library Association.
Sawyer strives to make his library the heart of the community, but in order to do so he knows that he has to appeal to its mind. In 2009 his parish was set to vote on a tax renewal to cover library funding for the next 10 years. Knowing that the majority of the money would be collected by local businesses, Sawyer circulated a white paper that outlined the economic benefits of the library for the community. In addition to digital billboards and television ads, he developed a series of talking points that distilled funding into relatable terms. A homeowner with a house valued at $100,000 would pay a tax equal to about two candy bars a month. A business owner with property valued at $600,000 would pay a rate equal to a monthly home internet connection. The community responded emphatically by passing the tax with a 91% approval rate.
While a strong vision and managerial prowess are important qualities of leadership, perhaps one of the most critical aspects is the ability to generate buy-in. Whether it is building trust among staff, convincing the board to embrace a new project, or presenting the value of the organization to the community, developing support is essential to success. Having a great idea is one thing, but convincing others to collaborate, implement it and make it their own is the key step in the process.
Brian Mathews is a librarian at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of Marketing Today’s Academic Library, from ALA Editions, 2009. This column spotlights leadership strategies that produce inspirational libraries.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Librarian's Retirement Gift
Below pictures of celebrity women strutting in their low-cut, expensive dresses, all showing cleavage, a pout that is supposed to convey sexiness, or some such, sits this story of a woman, a person, who realizes that what matters is life isn't what can be bought, or doesn't have to be expensive.
Leslie Ogan never made more than $65,000 a year working for the Brooklyn Public Library and lived simply: She eschewed a television in favor of music and replaced shopping with volunteering. Now, she's retiring and giving $30,000 to the World Music Institute, a nonprofit that brings music and dance performances from around the world to New York.
Ms. Ogan, 67 years old, began volunteering for the World Music Institute 15 years ago after deciding she didn't have the $25 to $40 for tickets to see the shows. Since then she's seen more than 1,500 performances, filled her apartment with hundreds of CDs and spends 40 hours a week running the nonprofit's volunteer program and providing hospitality for visiting artists before and after shows. "Sometimes I spent more time volunteering at WMI than in my paid job…That's why I never bought a television," says Ms. Ogan, a soft-spoken woman who also spent some of her retirement money to get braces.
The organization plans to use Ms. Ogan's donation as a matching grant to raise $100,000 and keep its programs going, which range from its annual New York Flamenco Festival to globalFEST, a festival for emerging world music artists. Funding at the organization is down 30% over the past two years and ticket sales have sunk by a third. The organization lost $125,000 in foundation funding and $75,000 from a grant funded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg through the Carnegie Corp. of New York, a philanthropic trust.
In response, the nonprofit cut its programs from 60 to 40, canceled a touring component of its music program and instituted a 20% pay cut for staff. "It's a difficult time in the economy, particularly for arts organizations. Hopefully my donation can help carry WMI through the next year or so and ensure the future of the organization," Ms. Ogan says. An amateur flute player, Ms. Ogan says her near-obsession with the music institute started when she moved to New York from Holyoke, Mass. and saw the organization's fall show lineup, which included acts from as far away as Iran, Mali and Japan. She says she had never seen that kind of breadth and global reach of a music program before and immediately began penciling show times into her calendar.
The nonprofit gave her a chance to experience the world through music, including percussionist Zakir Hussain, an Indian tabla player, and Frankie Kennedy, an Irish flute and tin whistle player, who she counts among her favorites. "Librarians are poorly paid so I'm well read, but not well traveled," she says. "Music is really a gateway to culture."
Leslie Ogan never made more than $65,000 a year working for the Brooklyn Public Library and lived simply: She eschewed a television in favor of music and replaced shopping with volunteering. Now, she's retiring and giving $30,000 to the World Music Institute, a nonprofit that brings music and dance performances from around the world to New York.
Ms. Ogan, 67 years old, began volunteering for the World Music Institute 15 years ago after deciding she didn't have the $25 to $40 for tickets to see the shows. Since then she's seen more than 1,500 performances, filled her apartment with hundreds of CDs and spends 40 hours a week running the nonprofit's volunteer program and providing hospitality for visiting artists before and after shows. "Sometimes I spent more time volunteering at WMI than in my paid job…That's why I never bought a television," says Ms. Ogan, a soft-spoken woman who also spent some of her retirement money to get braces.
The organization plans to use Ms. Ogan's donation as a matching grant to raise $100,000 and keep its programs going, which range from its annual New York Flamenco Festival to globalFEST, a festival for emerging world music artists. Funding at the organization is down 30% over the past two years and ticket sales have sunk by a third. The organization lost $125,000 in foundation funding and $75,000 from a grant funded by Mayor Michael Bloomberg through the Carnegie Corp. of New York, a philanthropic trust.
In response, the nonprofit cut its programs from 60 to 40, canceled a touring component of its music program and instituted a 20% pay cut for staff. "It's a difficult time in the economy, particularly for arts organizations. Hopefully my donation can help carry WMI through the next year or so and ensure the future of the organization," Ms. Ogan says. An amateur flute player, Ms. Ogan says her near-obsession with the music institute started when she moved to New York from Holyoke, Mass. and saw the organization's fall show lineup, which included acts from as far away as Iran, Mali and Japan. She says she had never seen that kind of breadth and global reach of a music program before and immediately began penciling show times into her calendar.
The nonprofit gave her a chance to experience the world through music, including percussionist Zakir Hussain, an Indian tabla player, and Frankie Kennedy, an Irish flute and tin whistle player, who she counts among her favorites. "Librarians are poorly paid so I'm well read, but not well traveled," she says. "Music is really a gateway to culture."
NEW YORK MAY 4, 2010: Librarian's Retirement Gift
By SHELLY BANJO - Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A27
Friday, April 30, 2010
Judging literary prizewinners
![[booklover]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-IA246_booklo_C_20100401214341.jpg)
Every so often in an attempt to expand my fiction horizon, I will pick a book from one of the literary prize lists. I am disappointed enough by these selections to wonder if I am missing something. What do the panels look for when judging whether a book is commendable? —David Friedricks, Albany, N.Y.
The word "panels" is important to keep in mind when judging the judges of literature. If you have ever been on a jury or a board, you know that group decisions almost always involve negotiation and compromise. Or as David Lodge, who has been a judge for Britain's most prestigious literary prize, the Man Booker, put it, "A committee is a blunt instrument of literary criticism." Another British novelist, Julian Barnes, called the Booker "posh bingo."
The original description of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (first awarded in 1918 to the forgotten "His Family" by Ernest Poole) was for the novel "which shall best present the wholesome atmosphere of American life, and the highest standard of American manners and manhood." That was later changed to the novel that "shall best present the whole atmosphere of American life."
Like many people who consider themselves alert readers of fiction, I was taken by surprise by the recent announcement that "Tinkers" by Paul Harding had won this year's fiction Pulitzer. Fortunately, my library was ahead of me. I read and admired "Tinkers"—it's a small (in size), highly polished gem, a dying man's ruminations on clocks, fathers and nature. And it's unusual, a trait I suspect may be especially valued when facing down a mountain of contemporary fiction ("No! Not another disintegrating marriage! Not another kid goes bad on drugs!")
I read literary prizewinners because I like to compare my opinion to that of the judges—critics, scholars, other authors. I often applaud their choices (and sometimes am appalled). A few Pulitzer-winning novels that I also loved: "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry; "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides; "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout; "Empire Falls" by Richard Russo; "The Stone Diaries" by Carol Shields; "A Thousand Acres" by Jane Smiley; and "The Known World" by Edward P. Jones.
But it's worth recalling what Sinclair Lewis wrote when he refused the 1925 Pulitzer Prize for "Arrowsmith": "By accepting the prizes and approval of these vague institutions, we are admitting their authority, publicly confirming them as the final judges of literary excellence, and I inquire whether any prize is worth that subservience."
Thursday, April 29, 2010
2 very different questions
She was very excited about finding the book. When I mentioned the Big Apple Circus, and remarked about the man who started it, she responded that she did not like animals being in the circus. Clearly she had found precisely what she wanted. It seemed to be material for making an in-class presentation.
Today's question was decidedly different. A patron who seemed in her teens asked me for books on child abuse. This was clearly not a school project. Whether about herself or about someone she knows, it seemed to be quite personal. Concerned, I tried to find a way to probe gently without overstepping my bounds. I asked if there were other issues or if she simply wanted books, and she left it at wanting books. I gave her 4 works: Understanding child abuse and neglect. Cynthia Crosson-Tower.
Child abuse / Jean Leverich, book editor.
The encyclopedia of child abuse / Robin E. Clark and Judith Freeman Clark
Recognizing child abuse : a guide for the concerned / Douglas J. Besharov.
She stayed here for moer than an hour, and read. When she left she quietly gave me back the books, and went on her way. In fact, her aunt just (5.45pm) came in looking for her: said she was 15, shy. I said it probably had been her, and that she seemed serious. I can't figure out how much to say, and it seems better to err on the side of caution.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Things fall apart
A student was doing research on this book by Chinua Achebe. Found some interesting material.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
A Reference library
Reading Alan Schom biography of Napoleon Bonaparte; as he set sail on Egyptian invasion, described on page 96. "As part of a theoretically semiacadmic mission, polymath Monge, chemist Claude Louis Berthollet, and their colleagues had ordered dozens of crates of astronomical, chemical, physical, survey, surgical, and pharmaceutical instruments, accompanied by by a reference library of several hundred tomes of science, philosophy, history, and geography, not to metion an array of what proved to be antiquated and all-but-useless maps of Egypt." p.96
Says much about weeding and keeping the collection fresh and current.
Says much about weeding and keeping the collection fresh and current.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Watchmen
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Texas textbooks rewrite U.S. history
A fascinating look at how conservatives wield their power.
Last week, the Texas Board of Education debated the statewide curricula, most notably the social studies curriculum. These board members are elected officials— not experts or professional historians— though according to the March 12 issue of The New York Times, “some members of the conservative bloc held themselves out as experts on certain topics.”
Certain ones? Which?
What upset people, however, was not the makeup of the Board, but its decisions. The aforementioned bloc (10 of the 15 members) espouses conservative values— they question Darwin, they believe the founding fathers were guided by Christian principles and they dislike Thomas Jefferson for coining the term “separation of church and state.”
Imagine conservatives disliking Jefferson, he of states's rights.
On this last point, the Board decided to replace Jefferson on a list of Enlightenment thinkers students should know with Calvin, Aquinas and Blackstone. It also neglected to add notable Hispanics to the history of the Mexican-American War. Nuanced defenses of McCarthy and criticism of Johnson’s Great Society were included in the curriculum, however, comprising a neat, Republican package that passed along party lines, 10-5.
History according to the conservatives.
The influence of this decision goes beyond Texas. Since Texas is the second most populous state, textbook publishers tailor their American History texts to Texan standards. And since the most populous state, California, is so persnickety about its curriculum, Texas really sets national standards for what students will learn. This is especially true given the primacy of the textbook in America. Indeed, the textbook is the cornerstone of public secondary civics education and far more influential than the teacher. The teachers who write test questions from their own words and research are far fewer than the mass of underpaid, overworked, non-history majors who pull test questions straight from the book. In too many classrooms, practice questions at the end of chapters stand a good chance of becoming actual test questions.
The saving grace is that most high school students don't give much attention to history class, ignore much of what terachers say, and forget the answers they've provided to test questions as soon as the test is over.
So if most students are simply learning by rote in public schools, what they are memorizing is very important. Since these schools are public, it is not just a matter of what parents want students to learn, but what parents and special interest groups can lobby politicians to include in curricula and thus force students to learn (unless attentive parents intervene). Because make no mistake— anything run by the government is ultimately backed by a monopoly of coercive force. Thus, this debate about an American history curriculum is really a battle over what will be the state-sanctioned, monolithic account of how things were.
Clearly this article comes from a liberal viewpoint, but, anything run by the government is ultimately backed by a monopoly of coercive force? What exactly does that mean? What the right wing says?
Everyone ought to stop fooling themselves. There is no one authoritative history, in America or anywhere else. Bias is inherent to historiography. No matter how closely a historian scrutinizes sources and attempts to balance one account with another, by the very selection of some sources over others, a particular account is written; not all sources can be included, and that is OK.
Truth must still be sought, though, and certain histories will do this better than others. Simply because there is no one irrefutable account does not make all accounts equally valid or valuable. It would behoove the people of this nation to start compiling the truths of their own stories and presenting them alongside many others, rather than jostling to write their own pages in the state-approved story book of what really happened. This can take the form of textbook-free classrooms that rely on articles and primary sources or free association of like-minded individuals to educate their children in a certain tradition (read: private schools). Embracing our differences has always made us stronger as a nation, and it is what will keep us ahead in the coming decades, even as European countries wrestle to redefine what it means for them to no longer be ethnic nations. The beauty of this civic nation is forged in the fires of pluralism. E pluribus unum: “Out of many, one.”
By NATHAN STRINGER
Published: Thursday, March 25, 2010
Last week, the Texas Board of Education debated the statewide curricula, most notably the social studies curriculum. These board members are elected officials— not experts or professional historians— though according to the March 12 issue of The New York Times, “some members of the conservative bloc held themselves out as experts on certain topics.”
Certain ones? Which?
What upset people, however, was not the makeup of the Board, but its decisions. The aforementioned bloc (10 of the 15 members) espouses conservative values— they question Darwin, they believe the founding fathers were guided by Christian principles and they dislike Thomas Jefferson for coining the term “separation of church and state.”
Imagine conservatives disliking Jefferson, he of states's rights.
On this last point, the Board decided to replace Jefferson on a list of Enlightenment thinkers students should know with Calvin, Aquinas and Blackstone. It also neglected to add notable Hispanics to the history of the Mexican-American War. Nuanced defenses of McCarthy and criticism of Johnson’s Great Society were included in the curriculum, however, comprising a neat, Republican package that passed along party lines, 10-5.
History according to the conservatives.
The influence of this decision goes beyond Texas. Since Texas is the second most populous state, textbook publishers tailor their American History texts to Texan standards. And since the most populous state, California, is so persnickety about its curriculum, Texas really sets national standards for what students will learn. This is especially true given the primacy of the textbook in America. Indeed, the textbook is the cornerstone of public secondary civics education and far more influential than the teacher. The teachers who write test questions from their own words and research are far fewer than the mass of underpaid, overworked, non-history majors who pull test questions straight from the book. In too many classrooms, practice questions at the end of chapters stand a good chance of becoming actual test questions.
The saving grace is that most high school students don't give much attention to history class, ignore much of what terachers say, and forget the answers they've provided to test questions as soon as the test is over.
So if most students are simply learning by rote in public schools, what they are memorizing is very important. Since these schools are public, it is not just a matter of what parents want students to learn, but what parents and special interest groups can lobby politicians to include in curricula and thus force students to learn (unless attentive parents intervene). Because make no mistake— anything run by the government is ultimately backed by a monopoly of coercive force. Thus, this debate about an American history curriculum is really a battle over what will be the state-sanctioned, monolithic account of how things were.
Clearly this article comes from a liberal viewpoint, but, anything run by the government is ultimately backed by a monopoly of coercive force? What exactly does that mean? What the right wing says?
Everyone ought to stop fooling themselves. There is no one authoritative history, in America or anywhere else. Bias is inherent to historiography. No matter how closely a historian scrutinizes sources and attempts to balance one account with another, by the very selection of some sources over others, a particular account is written; not all sources can be included, and that is OK.
Truth must still be sought, though, and certain histories will do this better than others. Simply because there is no one irrefutable account does not make all accounts equally valid or valuable. It would behoove the people of this nation to start compiling the truths of their own stories and presenting them alongside many others, rather than jostling to write their own pages in the state-approved story book of what really happened. This can take the form of textbook-free classrooms that rely on articles and primary sources or free association of like-minded individuals to educate their children in a certain tradition (read: private schools). Embracing our differences has always made us stronger as a nation, and it is what will keep us ahead in the coming decades, even as European countries wrestle to redefine what it means for them to no longer be ethnic nations. The beauty of this civic nation is forged in the fires of pluralism. E pluribus unum: “Out of many, one.”
By NATHAN STRINGER
Published: Thursday, March 25, 2010
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Amazon gives way on e-Book pricing
By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG
Facing the specter of Apple Inc.'s iPad launch, Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to halt heavy discounting of e-book best sellers in new pricing deals with two major publishers.
The e-book agreements, with CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster and News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers, mirror deals struck this year with Apple for the iPad: Some new best sellers will be priced at $9.99 but most will be priced at $12.99 to $14.99.
The new deals ensure that Amazon will have the same array of titles that rival what Apple will offer on its digital bookstore. Apple has forged deals with five of the six major publishers to provide titles on the iPad, which will compete with Amazon's popular Kindle e-reader.
Amazon declined to comment.
Other deals between publishers and Amazon could follow ahead of Saturday's iPad debut. The online retailer is in advanced talks with Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, and Pearson PLC's Penguin Group, according to people familiar with the situation. Bertelsmann AG's Random House has yet to sign a deal with Apple.
Amazon, which launched its Kindle e-book reader in November 2007, has been a leader in pricing new best sellers at $9.99 in the digital format. Publishers objected to that price, fearing that consumers will come to believe that all books are worth only that much.
The issue of digital book pricing heated up earlier this year after the five major publishers, which also include Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH; Hachette, and Penguin reached an agreement with Apple to make their digital books available for sale on the iPad.
Macmillan then butted heads with Amazon by insisting on the same control over pricing.
HarperCollins Chief Executive Brian Murray said the deal with Amazon followed a month of negotiations. "Our digital future is more assured today than it was two months ago," said Mr. Murray, calling the agreement "fair" for both sides.
News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal.
One digital publishing executive warned that there will likely be some near-term glitches. "People shouldn't overreact if an e-book isn't immediately available on one site or another," said Maja Thomas, senior vice president of Hachette
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page B
Facing the specter of Apple Inc.'s iPad launch, Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to halt heavy discounting of e-book best sellers in new pricing deals with two major publishers.
The e-book agreements, with CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster and News Corp.'s HarperCollins Publishers, mirror deals struck this year with Apple for the iPad: Some new best sellers will be priced at $9.99 but most will be priced at $12.99 to $14.99.
The new deals ensure that Amazon will have the same array of titles that rival what Apple will offer on its digital bookstore. Apple has forged deals with five of the six major publishers to provide titles on the iPad, which will compete with Amazon's popular Kindle e-reader.
Amazon declined to comment.
Other deals between publishers and Amazon could follow ahead of Saturday's iPad debut. The online retailer is in advanced talks with Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group, and Pearson PLC's Penguin Group, according to people familiar with the situation. Bertelsmann AG's Random House has yet to sign a deal with Apple.
Amazon, which launched its Kindle e-book reader in November 2007, has been a leader in pricing new best sellers at $9.99 in the digital format. Publishers objected to that price, fearing that consumers will come to believe that all books are worth only that much.
The issue of digital book pricing heated up earlier this year after the five major publishers, which also include Macmillan, a unit of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH; Hachette, and Penguin reached an agreement with Apple to make their digital books available for sale on the iPad.
Macmillan then butted heads with Amazon by insisting on the same control over pricing.
HarperCollins Chief Executive Brian Murray said the deal with Amazon followed a month of negotiations. "Our digital future is more assured today than it was two months ago," said Mr. Murray, calling the agreement "fair" for both sides.
News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal.
One digital publishing executive warned that there will likely be some near-term glitches. "People shouldn't overreact if an e-book isn't immediately available on one site or another," said Maja Thomas, senior vice president of Hachette
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page B
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Fiction Reading Increases for Adults
After years of bemoaning the decline of a literary culture in the United States, the National Endowment for the Arts says in a report that it now believes a quarter-century of precipitous decline in fiction reading has reversed.
The report, “Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy,” being released Monday, is based on data from “The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts” conducted by the United States Census Bureau in 2008. Among its chief findings is that for the first time since 1982, when the bureau began collecting such data, the proportion of adults 18 and older who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen. The news comes as the publishing industry struggles with declining sales amid a generally difficult economy.
The proportion of adults reading some kind of so-called literary work — just over half — is still not as high as it was in 1982 or 1992, and the proportion of adults reading poetry and drama continued to decline. Nevertheless the proportion of overall literary reading increased among virtually all age groups, ethnic and demographic categories since 2002. It increased most dramatically among 18-to-24-year-olds, who had previously shown the most significant declines.
“There has been a measurable cultural change in society’s commitment to literary reading,” said Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. “In a cultural moment when we are hearing nothing but bad news, we have reassuring evidence that the dumbing down of our culture is not inevitable.”
Under Mr. Gioia’s leadership the endowment spearheaded “The Big Read,” a program in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest to encourage communities to champion the reading of particular books, like “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. The report is being released just over a week before Mr. Gioia steps down after six years as the endowment’s chairman.
Four years ago the endowment released the report “Reading at Risk,” which showed that fewer than half of Americans over 18 read novels, short stories, plays or poetry. That survey, based on data gathered in 2002, provoked a debate among academics, publishers and others about why reading was declining. Some argued that it wasn’t, criticizing the study for too narrowly defining reading by focusing on the literary side, and for not explicitly including reading that occurred online.
In each survey since 1982 the data did not differentiate between those who read several books a month and those who read only one poem. Nor did the surveys distinguish between those who read the complete works of Proust or Dickens and those who read one Nora Roberts novel or a single piece of fan fiction on the Internet.
Mr. Gioia said that Internet reading was included in the 2008 data, although the phrasing of the central question had not changed since 1982. But he said he did not think that more reading online was the primary reason for the increase in literary reading rates overall.
Instead he attributed the increase in literary reading to community-based programs like the “Big Read,” Oprah Winfrey’s book club, the huge popularity of book series like “Harry Potter” and Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight,” as well as the individual efforts of teachers, librarians, parents and civic leaders to create “a buzz around literature that’s getting people to read more in whatever medium.”
This apparent reversal came a little more than a year after the endowment released an overwhelmingly pessimistic report in 2007 that linked a decline in reading-test scores to a fall in reading for fun among adolescents. That report also collected data showing that the proportion of adults who read regularly for pleasure had declined. At the time Mr. Gioia called the data “simple, consistent and alarming.”
Elizabeth Birr Moje, an education professor at the University of Michigan who specializes in literacy, language and culture, said it was impossible to do more than speculate why literary reading rates had increased in the most recent survey. The rise could just as easily be attributed to changes in health care or a need for escape in difficult economic times, she said.
What’s more, Ms. Moje added, it was an isolated piece of information. “It’s just a blip,” she said. “If you look at trend data, you will always see increases and decreases in people’s literate practices.”
Among ethnic groups the latest report found that the proportion of literary reading increased most for what the study classifies as Hispanic Americans, rising to 31.9 percent in 2008 for adults 18 and over, from 26.5 percent in 2002. The highest percentage of literary reading was among whites, at 55.7 percent, up from 51.4 percent in 2002. The rate of literary reading among men 18 and older increased to 41.9 percent in 2008, from 37.6 percent in 2002. The proportion also increased among women, to 58 percent in 2008, from 55.1 percent in 2002.
At the same time the survey found that the proportion of adults who said they had read any kind of a book, fiction or nonfiction, that was not required for work or school actually declined slightly since 2002, to 54.3 percent from 56.6 percent.
Mr. Gioia said that the decline in book reading might be attributable to a falloff in the reading of nonfiction, although he offered no explicit evidence of that.
Patricia Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, suggested that some people might not count the reading they do online or even on electronic readers like the Kindle as “book” reading.
Jim Rettig, president of the American Library Association and university librarian at the University of Richmond, said that the 2008 data would not reflect a recent uptick in circulation at libraries. As the economy has soured, Mr. Rettig said, “people are discovering that you don’t have to spend anything to read a book if you have a library card.”
January 12, 2009
Fiction Reading Increases for Adults
By MOTOKO RICH
The Future of Reading: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? (July 27, 2008)
Page Turner: A Good Mystery: Why We Read (November 25, 2007)
Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading (November 19, 2007)
'Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy' (National Endowment for the Arts) [pdf]
The report, “Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy,” being released Monday, is based on data from “The Survey of Public Participation in the Arts” conducted by the United States Census Bureau in 2008. Among its chief findings is that for the first time since 1982, when the bureau began collecting such data, the proportion of adults 18 and older who said they had read at least one novel, short story, poem or play in the previous 12 months has risen. The news comes as the publishing industry struggles with declining sales amid a generally difficult economy.
The proportion of adults reading some kind of so-called literary work — just over half — is still not as high as it was in 1982 or 1992, and the proportion of adults reading poetry and drama continued to decline. Nevertheless the proportion of overall literary reading increased among virtually all age groups, ethnic and demographic categories since 2002. It increased most dramatically among 18-to-24-year-olds, who had previously shown the most significant declines.
“There has been a measurable cultural change in society’s commitment to literary reading,” said Dana Gioia, chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. “In a cultural moment when we are hearing nothing but bad news, we have reassuring evidence that the dumbing down of our culture is not inevitable.”
Under Mr. Gioia’s leadership the endowment spearheaded “The Big Read,” a program in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest to encourage communities to champion the reading of particular books, like “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neale Hurston. The report is being released just over a week before Mr. Gioia steps down after six years as the endowment’s chairman.
Four years ago the endowment released the report “Reading at Risk,” which showed that fewer than half of Americans over 18 read novels, short stories, plays or poetry. That survey, based on data gathered in 2002, provoked a debate among academics, publishers and others about why reading was declining. Some argued that it wasn’t, criticizing the study for too narrowly defining reading by focusing on the literary side, and for not explicitly including reading that occurred online.
In each survey since 1982 the data did not differentiate between those who read several books a month and those who read only one poem. Nor did the surveys distinguish between those who read the complete works of Proust or Dickens and those who read one Nora Roberts novel or a single piece of fan fiction on the Internet.
Mr. Gioia said that Internet reading was included in the 2008 data, although the phrasing of the central question had not changed since 1982. But he said he did not think that more reading online was the primary reason for the increase in literary reading rates overall.
Instead he attributed the increase in literary reading to community-based programs like the “Big Read,” Oprah Winfrey’s book club, the huge popularity of book series like “Harry Potter” and Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight,” as well as the individual efforts of teachers, librarians, parents and civic leaders to create “a buzz around literature that’s getting people to read more in whatever medium.”
This apparent reversal came a little more than a year after the endowment released an overwhelmingly pessimistic report in 2007 that linked a decline in reading-test scores to a fall in reading for fun among adolescents. That report also collected data showing that the proportion of adults who read regularly for pleasure had declined. At the time Mr. Gioia called the data “simple, consistent and alarming.”
Elizabeth Birr Moje, an education professor at the University of Michigan who specializes in literacy, language and culture, said it was impossible to do more than speculate why literary reading rates had increased in the most recent survey. The rise could just as easily be attributed to changes in health care or a need for escape in difficult economic times, she said.
What’s more, Ms. Moje added, it was an isolated piece of information. “It’s just a blip,” she said. “If you look at trend data, you will always see increases and decreases in people’s literate practices.”
Among ethnic groups the latest report found that the proportion of literary reading increased most for what the study classifies as Hispanic Americans, rising to 31.9 percent in 2008 for adults 18 and over, from 26.5 percent in 2002. The highest percentage of literary reading was among whites, at 55.7 percent, up from 51.4 percent in 2002. The rate of literary reading among men 18 and older increased to 41.9 percent in 2008, from 37.6 percent in 2002. The proportion also increased among women, to 58 percent in 2008, from 55.1 percent in 2002.
At the same time the survey found that the proportion of adults who said they had read any kind of a book, fiction or nonfiction, that was not required for work or school actually declined slightly since 2002, to 54.3 percent from 56.6 percent.
Mr. Gioia said that the decline in book reading might be attributable to a falloff in the reading of nonfiction, although he offered no explicit evidence of that.
Patricia Schroeder, president of the Association of American Publishers, suggested that some people might not count the reading they do online or even on electronic readers like the Kindle as “book” reading.
Jim Rettig, president of the American Library Association and university librarian at the University of Richmond, said that the 2008 data would not reflect a recent uptick in circulation at libraries. As the economy has soured, Mr. Rettig said, “people are discovering that you don’t have to spend anything to read a book if you have a library card.”
January 12, 2009
Fiction Reading Increases for Adults
By MOTOKO RICH
The Future of Reading: Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? (July 27, 2008)
Page Turner: A Good Mystery: Why We Read (November 25, 2007)
Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading (November 19, 2007)
'Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy' (National Endowment for the Arts) [pdf]
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Today
First two hours, covered Children's; questions: books about Spring, rainbow, for pre-K; Spiderman.
At 11, up to Reference, question about Marco Polo's travels. Man said he had already traveled to the East, while in the service (Armed Forces). Wants to follow some of Polo's route. Asked about a city called Kamul. Found a result that puts it in western Iran. (Just noticed there is also a Kamul-li, in Korea.) Also asked about Tabriz (in Iran, as well). Said he'll probably go to China; fascinated with the East. I endorsed Venice.
He already has this book, but when I showed him the one I knew, he became enthusiastic, and took it with him.
Marco Polo : from Venice to Xanadu / by Laurence Bergreen.
This book (right) is the companion to the show I saw on PBS. Found it online, showed him it can be watched online.
In the afternoon, back at Reference, a young man came over to the desk, looking for a book on SAT Math; alas, our copy is out. He returned, asking for The talented tenth, by W. E. B. DuBois. We own a book, The Negro problem; a series of articles by representative American Negroes of to-day, which contains that essay. A new one to me; there is always more to learn.
At 11, up to Reference, question about Marco Polo's travels. Man said he had already traveled to the East, while in the service (Armed Forces). Wants to follow some of Polo's route. Asked about a city called Kamul. Found a result that puts it in western Iran. (Just noticed there is also a Kamul-li, in Korea.) Also asked about Tabriz (in Iran, as well). Said he'll probably go to China; fascinated with the East. I endorsed Venice.
Marco Polo : from Venice to Xanadu / by Laurence Bergreen.This book (right) is the companion to the show I saw on PBS. Found it online, showed him it can be watched online.
In the afternoon, back at Reference, a young man came over to the desk, looking for a book on SAT Math; alas, our copy is out. He returned, asking for The talented tenth, by W. E. B. DuBois. We own a book, The Negro problem; a series of articles by representative American Negroes of to-day, which contains that essay. A new one to me; there is always more to learn.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Book-Scanning efforts in new territory
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images - Rows of archives at Italy's National Library in Florence.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Police: Man Stripped Naked In Library
Simply can't make this stuff up: a man stripped naked in the children's room in a public library, made sure he was seen, "thrust his hips toward a librarian", then dressed and stole some books. There is even video (gladly, not of the incident itself).
Watch:
Man Accused Of Being Naked, Stealing From Library
Watch:
Man Accused Of Being Naked, Stealing From Library
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
An irregular Library regular
Corey Kilgannon/The New York Times Greg Sloane in his spot at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts on Thursday
Perhaps the most regular visitor to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is Greg Sloane, who can be seen nearly every day among the dancers, musicians, actors and culture-mongers who flock to this gem at Lincoln Center. Mr. Sloane, 62, is not from the School of American Ballet or the Juilliard School or any other esteemed arts institution nearby, but he does excel at his own particular performing art: survival in New York City without a home.
It is a magnificent facility.
It is a pursuit that involves seeking a roof, a chair and some heat, maybe something clean to lean on. And this is where the library comes in. After a wash-up and shave in the bathroom, he might peruse the 12,000 titles in the library’s Reserve Film and Video Collection and select something to watch. Or perhaps he will select a recording and settle in for the day to culture himself. For the arts-minded, the Performing Arts library is one of those places that makes New York City worthwhile, with its extensive archival collection of recordings, video, sheet music and other resources. But most important to Mr. Sloane, it is open every day except Sunday — till 8 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays and till 6 other days — and he is allowed in. There are somewhat private and comfortable listening and viewing stations where one can avail oneself of the library’s resources, or just take a nap.
Mr. Sloan can invariably be found on the first level near the Recorded Sound and Moving Image Circulating Collection, next to those delving into their Shostakovich and Rostropovich. He might be nodding out listening to some Anita Baker on his headphones or checking out an older film. Maybe a Steve McQueen movie — he loves McQueen. Or James Coburn in “Our Man Flint”? Now that’s a movie. Not to say that Mr. Sloane has no use for today’s movies. He goes to the theater almost daily — to sleep. On a Sunday, he will arrive early to pay a senior or matinee ticket price and settle into a seat in the back and doze off.
The closest megaplex to the library is AMC Loews Lincoln Square, where he says the late showing of “Avatar” lets him sleep till 3 a.m. when staff members clear the theater. Recently, however, it was the police who rousted him. “They called in the cops to wake me up,” he said. “They handcuffed me and took me to the 20th Precinct and gave me a ticket. So I’m boycotting that theater now.”
Mr. Sloane is a bit scruffy, but not bummy — picture Billy Dee Williams in a rough role. There’s a way to keep oneself in clean clothes without ever doing laundry: the thrift store. “There’s no reason to go around in dirty, smelly clothes,” he said. “There’s rich people in this city who wear something once and give it away. You get anything you want for a buck or two — cheaper than doing laundry.”
Cheaper than doing laundry; like the sound of that.
On Thursday, he did look pretty styling, with his snappy bracelets and rings and his Dior sunglasses, whose lenses he replaced with his own prescription bifocals. He wore a Claiborne suede coat over a cashmere blazer with the sleeves cut off, vintage green wool Army pants and nice running shoes. He sleeps in various locations outside or sometimes at a friend’s or a girlfriend’s place, he said. “I got family in every borough, but you can’t visit your family when you’re homeless,” he said. “When something goes missing, who do you think everyone looks at?”
Mr. Sloane likes his Hennessy Cognac and Newport cigarettes. Once he burns through his monthly welfare check, he hails cabs for the party people bar-hopping in the meatpacking district. For this, he wears around his neck a yellow medallion on a chain that says “TAXI.”
Mr. Sloane grew up in the Bronx in the Patterson projects, which also produced the basketball great Nate (Tiny) Archibald and the boxer Iran Barkley. For high school, he attended the S.S. John Brown, a maritime school docked then in the East River, he said, and then served in the merchant marine on the DePauw Victory cargo ship, which delivered munitions to troops in Vietnam. He recalled spending months on the anchored ship listening to bombing and gunfire night after night. He said he was still unable to sit inside for very long without looking out windows. Thankfully, his library spot has them.
As one might imagine, Mr. Sloane sees — or sleeps through — many current movies, and he offered his Oscar predictions.
Best actor: George Clooney for “Up in the Air,” a biased prediction since he has met Mr. Clooney. Hailed him a cab, in fact.
Best actress: Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side.”
Best picture: “Avatar.”
“I hope ‘Avatar’ wins so they keep it in theaters longer,” he said. “It’s three hours long, so you get more time to sleep.”
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
This Book Is Overdue
From Wisdom to Wi-Fi: A library is no longer a mere home for books. It is a wired-up information center.
There are many unsung heroes of ordinary life—nurses, trash collectors, accountants—whose job it is to take care of things that the rest of us take for granted. So too the librarian, that iconic figure who long presided over a sanctuary of books and guided readers, young and old, to the treasures of a vast print culture. But the profession has undergone a dramatic transformation of late because libraries themselves are not what they used to be. Today they have less to do with books per se than with computers, films, community events and children's activities. They are, above all, public portals to the world of "information," especially the online version. In "This Book Is Overdue!," Marilyn Johnson, a former staff writer for Life magazine, takes us on a tour of the modern library and introduces us to the men and women who call it their professional home.
I am not comfortable with the concept of the quotidian being heroic. If we call these folks heroes (and I am a proud librarian), then what do we call the firefighter who runs into flames to rescue a person trapped inside?
As I'm blogging this, a call came in from a patron who wants to reserve a new book: Brava, Valentine : a novel, by Adriana Trigiani. Summary: A once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes shoe designer and businesswomen Valentine Roncalli from the winding streets of Greenwich Village to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she finds a long-buried secret hidden deep within a family scandal. Once unearthed, the truth rocks the Roncallis and Valentine is determined to hold her family together as she longs to create one of her own. So, do patrons get what they as for, or should they be steered to 'quality'?
Ms. Johnson's enthusiasm for libraries and the people who work in them is refreshingly evident throughout the book. In a charming if meandering style, she samples from her conversations with traditional librarians and with "cybrarians," a catch-all term for a generation of librarians intent on finding ways to integrate the old mission of the library with the new possibilities of technology.
Some librarians are positive on change, and some resist it with zeal.
A good observer with a keen eye for detail, Ms. Johnson attends conferences where librarians cast off their staid image to perform cheeky dance numbers with rolling book carts; she unearths the 'zines of tattooed librarians, who write about vegan wedding cakes and political activism; she visits librarians from St. John's University who are teaching computer skills to people in developing countries; and she interviews the founders of Radical Reference, a group that grew out of the protest of the Republican convention in New York in 2004, when the group's members provided roving reference services to demonstrators and journalists. An early version of its Web site carried the banner: "Answers for Those Who Question Authority."
Ms. Johnson succeeds in making us like librarians, but she avoids digging too deeply into the controversies roiling around the future of books and their keepers. Something seismic is happening when a culture casts off old words ("librarian") for new ones ("information scientist") and conventional ways of pursuing knowledge (reading on paper) for novel ones (reading on a screen).
Casts off seems an overly strong and sweeping term; change is occurring, and library is an academic science, but librarians and paper have not yet disappeared.
One of the more disturbing stories in "This Book Is Overdue!" is Ms. Johnson's description of the New York Public Library's decision to upgrade its image from that of a stuffy research library, replete with reference librarians whose knowledge and expertise are of incalculable value to researchers, to a place where parents and toddlers might want to pick up a DVD and a latte.
This Book Is Overdue!
By Marilyn Johnson
Harper, 272 pages, $24.99
In a poignant interview with John Lundquist, the former head of the now-defunct Asian and Middle Eastern Division of the NYPL, Ms. Johnson learns that the library's leadership feared that the institution was becoming "archaic, dead, outdated" and so restructured it to suit the times. "They want the library to be active and hip, they want us to put in a cafeteria and schedule entertainments," Mr. Lundquist tells Ms. Johnson. He worries that by jettisoning so many of the library's research divisions, administrators made the mistake of assuming "that everything is now on the Internet, in digital form," when in fact it is not.
Hardly. NYPL itself is digitizing particular collections to make them available more widely than they are in physical form. Again, the question is whether the library changes to adapt to changing demands, or if it stays unchanged and forces people to adapt to it.
The question that Mr. Lundquist tries to address, but that Ms. Johnson does not, is whether we lose something when a library "upgrades" itself: It isn't just the old-fashioned card catalog that disappears but a whole culture.
This age can hardly be the first one to face this challenge; libraries have changed before, and survived, eve thrived.
Although Ms. Johnson adopts a balanced approach to the new technology, she accepts uncritically some of the canards of our techno-positivist age. A younger generation of "digital natives" doesn't learn by listening to lectures, she reports, but by "collaborating, networking, sharing." But as several recent reports have made clear, the browsing, skimming and multitasking of this younger generation also leads to less retention of what it is reading.
The younger generation always makes the older generation rue change, and yearn for a better, simpler, more enlightened time.
Later, Ms. Johnson dismisses as "old-fashioned" a speaker who expresses concern about modern society's dependence on technology, even though the question he asks about our many gadgets—"Have they freed us for more quality moments, or simply made us busier?"—is surely a reasonable one. A library whose main appeal is the presence of free wi-fi and movies is exchanging one community function (encouraging the consumption of the written word) for another (encouraging the consumption of images).
The library I work in has many books, and few patrons. It has wi-fi and DVDs, MP3 ebooks, books on CD (cassette tape now an anachronism, and nearly obselecent). And yet it is underused. TV was criticized in the age of radio programming and movie theater attendance. VHS tapes were criticized in the TV age. It is an endless cycle.
Even Eric Schmidt, the head of Google, recently told the Davos World Economic Forum that he worried about the loss of deep reading skills. "As the world looks to these instantaneous devices," he said, "you spend less time reading all forms of literature, books, magazines, and so forth." Ms. Johnson's chapter about the New York Public Library ends with a description of twentysomething New Yorkers filling one of the building's grand rooms to watch a video series created by the library. As they plop down before the large screen, Ms. Johnson is optimistic, likening the crowd to "large children, gathered around a virtual rocking chair for story time." This "fresh crowd" is "new, alive, and up-to-date, playing with new media," she writes. "That's the future of this library." If so, how sad—for readers and for the excellent librarians who might guide them.
Woe unto us.
Ms. Rosen is senior editor of The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology & Society.
There are many unsung heroes of ordinary life—nurses, trash collectors, accountants—whose job it is to take care of things that the rest of us take for granted. So too the librarian, that iconic figure who long presided over a sanctuary of books and guided readers, young and old, to the treasures of a vast print culture. But the profession has undergone a dramatic transformation of late because libraries themselves are not what they used to be. Today they have less to do with books per se than with computers, films, community events and children's activities. They are, above all, public portals to the world of "information," especially the online version. In "This Book Is Overdue!," Marilyn Johnson, a former staff writer for Life magazine, takes us on a tour of the modern library and introduces us to the men and women who call it their professional home.
I am not comfortable with the concept of the quotidian being heroic. If we call these folks heroes (and I am a proud librarian), then what do we call the firefighter who runs into flames to rescue a person trapped inside?
As I'm blogging this, a call came in from a patron who wants to reserve a new book: Brava, Valentine : a novel, by Adriana Trigiani. Summary: A once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity takes shoe designer and businesswomen Valentine Roncalli from the winding streets of Greenwich Village to the sun-kissed cobblestones of Buenos Aires, where she finds a long-buried secret hidden deep within a family scandal. Once unearthed, the truth rocks the Roncallis and Valentine is determined to hold her family together as she longs to create one of her own. So, do patrons get what they as for, or should they be steered to 'quality'?
Ms. Johnson's enthusiasm for libraries and the people who work in them is refreshingly evident throughout the book. In a charming if meandering style, she samples from her conversations with traditional librarians and with "cybrarians," a catch-all term for a generation of librarians intent on finding ways to integrate the old mission of the library with the new possibilities of technology.
Some librarians are positive on change, and some resist it with zeal.
A good observer with a keen eye for detail, Ms. Johnson attends conferences where librarians cast off their staid image to perform cheeky dance numbers with rolling book carts; she unearths the 'zines of tattooed librarians, who write about vegan wedding cakes and political activism; she visits librarians from St. John's University who are teaching computer skills to people in developing countries; and she interviews the founders of Radical Reference, a group that grew out of the protest of the Republican convention in New York in 2004, when the group's members provided roving reference services to demonstrators and journalists. An early version of its Web site carried the banner: "Answers for Those Who Question Authority."
Ms. Johnson succeeds in making us like librarians, but she avoids digging too deeply into the controversies roiling around the future of books and their keepers. Something seismic is happening when a culture casts off old words ("librarian") for new ones ("information scientist") and conventional ways of pursuing knowledge (reading on paper) for novel ones (reading on a screen).
Casts off seems an overly strong and sweeping term; change is occurring, and library is an academic science, but librarians and paper have not yet disappeared.
One of the more disturbing stories in "This Book Is Overdue!" is Ms. Johnson's description of the New York Public Library's decision to upgrade its image from that of a stuffy research library, replete with reference librarians whose knowledge and expertise are of incalculable value to researchers, to a place where parents and toddlers might want to pick up a DVD and a latte.
This Book Is Overdue!
By Marilyn Johnson
Harper, 272 pages, $24.99
In a poignant interview with John Lundquist, the former head of the now-defunct Asian and Middle Eastern Division of the NYPL, Ms. Johnson learns that the library's leadership feared that the institution was becoming "archaic, dead, outdated" and so restructured it to suit the times. "They want the library to be active and hip, they want us to put in a cafeteria and schedule entertainments," Mr. Lundquist tells Ms. Johnson. He worries that by jettisoning so many of the library's research divisions, administrators made the mistake of assuming "that everything is now on the Internet, in digital form," when in fact it is not.
Hardly. NYPL itself is digitizing particular collections to make them available more widely than they are in physical form. Again, the question is whether the library changes to adapt to changing demands, or if it stays unchanged and forces people to adapt to it.
The question that Mr. Lundquist tries to address, but that Ms. Johnson does not, is whether we lose something when a library "upgrades" itself: It isn't just the old-fashioned card catalog that disappears but a whole culture.
This age can hardly be the first one to face this challenge; libraries have changed before, and survived, eve thrived.
Although Ms. Johnson adopts a balanced approach to the new technology, she accepts uncritically some of the canards of our techno-positivist age. A younger generation of "digital natives" doesn't learn by listening to lectures, she reports, but by "collaborating, networking, sharing." But as several recent reports have made clear, the browsing, skimming and multitasking of this younger generation also leads to less retention of what it is reading.
The younger generation always makes the older generation rue change, and yearn for a better, simpler, more enlightened time.
Later, Ms. Johnson dismisses as "old-fashioned" a speaker who expresses concern about modern society's dependence on technology, even though the question he asks about our many gadgets—"Have they freed us for more quality moments, or simply made us busier?"—is surely a reasonable one. A library whose main appeal is the presence of free wi-fi and movies is exchanging one community function (encouraging the consumption of the written word) for another (encouraging the consumption of images).
The library I work in has many books, and few patrons. It has wi-fi and DVDs, MP3 ebooks, books on CD (cassette tape now an anachronism, and nearly obselecent). And yet it is underused. TV was criticized in the age of radio programming and movie theater attendance. VHS tapes were criticized in the TV age. It is an endless cycle.
Even Eric Schmidt, the head of Google, recently told the Davos World Economic Forum that he worried about the loss of deep reading skills. "As the world looks to these instantaneous devices," he said, "you spend less time reading all forms of literature, books, magazines, and so forth." Ms. Johnson's chapter about the New York Public Library ends with a description of twentysomething New Yorkers filling one of the building's grand rooms to watch a video series created by the library. As they plop down before the large screen, Ms. Johnson is optimistic, likening the crowd to "large children, gathered around a virtual rocking chair for story time." This "fresh crowd" is "new, alive, and up-to-date, playing with new media," she writes. "That's the future of this library." If so, how sad—for readers and for the excellent librarians who might guide them.
Woe unto us.
Ms. Rosen is senior editor of The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology & Society.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Who dat?
No, not the New Orleans Saints (who won the XLIVth Super Bowl yesterday, 31-17), whose fans made that phrase their motto.
Island Trees Library called, looking for the book Give us this day, written by Sydney Stewart. He was a survivor of the Bataan death march. His obit starts:
Sidney Stewart, a survivor of the Bataan death march and three years in Japanese captivity in World War II who wrote the highly praised memoir ''Give Us This Day,'' an account of how the prisoners endured their intense suffering, died on March 18 at a hospital in Paris. He was 78 and lived in Paris. The cause was complications from emphysema contracted by inhaling coral dust while laboring as a prisoner of war, said a colleague, Dr. Abby Adams-Silvan of New York.
Normally, having looked at the table of contents, I would have processed the book. But in checking the hold so I could fill out the correct routing slip, the patron's name caught my eye: Richard Conte. Not the Richard Conte who starred in House of Strangers (that I watched this past weekend) and as Barzini in The Godfather, but a namesake. Still.
Island Trees Library called, looking for the book Give us this day, written by Sydney Stewart. He was a survivor of the Bataan death march. His obit starts:
Sidney Stewart, a survivor of the Bataan death march and three years in Japanese captivity in World War II who wrote the highly praised memoir ''Give Us This Day,'' an account of how the prisoners endured their intense suffering, died on March 18 at a hospital in Paris. He was 78 and lived in Paris. The cause was complications from emphysema contracted by inhaling coral dust while laboring as a prisoner of war, said a colleague, Dr. Abby Adams-Silvan of New York.
Normally, having looked at the table of contents, I would have processed the book. But in checking the hold so I could fill out the correct routing slip, the patron's name caught my eye: Richard Conte. Not the Richard Conte who starred in House of Strangers (that I watched this past weekend) and as Barzini in The Godfather, but a namesake. Still.
Friday, January 29, 2010
A day in the life
A music question to begin with: sheet music for two songs: Sitting on the Dock of the Bay (Otis Redding, in Three decades of rhythm & blues classics), and Don't you worry about a thing (Stevie Wonder, in Stevie Wonder complete).
A second question: an older woman wanted information about Invasive ductal carcinoma (a type of breast cancer).
“invasive ductal carcinoma” refers to cancer that has broken through the wall of the milk duct and begun to invade the tissues of the breast. Over time, invasive ductal carcinoma can spread to the lymph nodes and possibly to other areas of the body.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 180,000 women in the United States find out they have invasive breast cancer each year. Most of them are diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma.
Although invasive ductal carcinoma can affect women at any age, it is more common as women grow older. According to the American Cancer Society, about two-thirds of women are 55 or older when they are diagnosed with an invasive breast cancer. Invasive ductal carcinoma also affects men.
Later, a mother and daughter came over to Reference, the mother asking for material on politics. Her 15-year-old daughter got an internship at Senator Schumer's office. She knows nothing about politics. I suggested The Nation, 1865-1990 ( edited by Katrina vanden Heuvel, whhose name I know) and No excuses by Robert Shrum. I told her to use the table of contents and index to focus in on topics and names, rather than just dive into the book. I also suggested she go to senate.gov to look up Schumer.
A few minutes before one a mother walked down the steps whilst finishing a cellphone conversation (with the ear implant, not a phone), and asked for a play for her 8th-grade daughter. I did a quick reference interview: does she like to read? Is she a good reader? I thought of Neil Simon. Then I thought of downloadable books, so I asked her if her daughter has an iPod. Of course. I showed her how to go to the website to look for ebooks and recorded books, and also mentioned Playaways. She was thrilled.
A second question: an older woman wanted information about Invasive ductal carcinoma (a type of breast cancer).
“invasive ductal carcinoma” refers to cancer that has broken through the wall of the milk duct and begun to invade the tissues of the breast. Over time, invasive ductal carcinoma can spread to the lymph nodes and possibly to other areas of the body.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 180,000 women in the United States find out they have invasive breast cancer each year. Most of them are diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma.
Although invasive ductal carcinoma can affect women at any age, it is more common as women grow older. According to the American Cancer Society, about two-thirds of women are 55 or older when they are diagnosed with an invasive breast cancer. Invasive ductal carcinoma also affects men.
Later, a mother and daughter came over to Reference, the mother asking for material on politics. Her 15-year-old daughter got an internship at Senator Schumer's office. She knows nothing about politics. I suggested The Nation, 1865-1990 ( edited by Katrina vanden Heuvel, whhose name I know) and No excuses by Robert Shrum. I told her to use the table of contents and index to focus in on topics and names, rather than just dive into the book. I also suggested she go to senate.gov to look up Schumer.
A few minutes before one a mother walked down the steps whilst finishing a cellphone conversation (with the ear implant, not a phone), and asked for a play for her 8th-grade daughter. I did a quick reference interview: does she like to read? Is she a good reader? I thought of Neil Simon. Then I thought of downloadable books, so I asked her if her daughter has an iPod. Of course. I showed her how to go to the website to look for ebooks and recorded books, and also mentioned Playaways. She was thrilled.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
SIRO
Anna: "Ottoman history was my field, before I became a NOC."
"No shit," said Taylor.
"No shit."
"What sort of life crisis pushed you into the CIA? Too many overdue library books?"
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
a chilly Library has rewards
Henry Thomason, 18, studied one day last week at the Soundview library branch in the Bronx, where a thermometer showed a temperature of 70 degrees.
In the pantheon of New York City jobs, many people face rugged extremes. Ironworkers brave fierce winds high on beams. Subway track workers traverse dank tunnels. Firefighters climb through flames.
But inside some city public libraries, the definition of extreme trends more toward turtleneck than breakneck. Under a little-known contract provision titled “Extreme Temperature Procedures,” unionized workers at branches of the New York Public Library can accrue compensatory time when the temperature inside dips below 68 degrees for a couple of hours. Similar clauses exist for libraries across the city.
Not in the burbs, I'm sure.
In the United Kingdom, regulations require that workplace temperatures be “reasonable,” which the government defines generally as at least 16 degrees Celsius, or a hair below 61 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Even at 16 degrees Celsius, there shouldn’t be safety or health issues, it’s more in terms of comfort and productivity,” said Alan Hedge, a Cornell University professor who researches and advises corporations on work environment issues.
In the pantheon of New York City jobs, many people face rugged extremes. Ironworkers brave fierce winds high on beams. Subway track workers traverse dank tunnels. Firefighters climb through flames.
But inside some city public libraries, the definition of extreme trends more toward turtleneck than breakneck. Under a little-known contract provision titled “Extreme Temperature Procedures,” unionized workers at branches of the New York Public Library can accrue compensatory time when the temperature inside dips below 68 degrees for a couple of hours. Similar clauses exist for libraries across the city.
Not in the burbs, I'm sure.
In the United Kingdom, regulations require that workplace temperatures be “reasonable,” which the government defines generally as at least 16 degrees Celsius, or a hair below 61 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Even at 16 degrees Celsius, there shouldn’t be safety or health issues, it’s more in terms of comfort and productivity,” said Alan Hedge, a Cornell University professor who researches and advises corporations on work environment issues.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Uneasy Rider
Ivan Pisarenko, shown arriving in the heart of Buenos Aires, will embark this week on the last 1,900 miles of his trek.
On reading this article I thought of Lois on the Loose. I read that book last July. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
PAGE ONE - JANUARY 8, 2010
Ivan Pisarenko, Uneasy Rider: One Biker, Two Continents, Four Years
BUENOS AIRES -- In 2005, a year from finishing law school, Ivan Pisarenko got restless. The 33-year-old Argentine decided to take a break for a very big motorcycle road trip, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
The approximately 17,000-mile journey was supposed to take nine months. But because of detours involving Mexican bandits, Salvadoran rock stars and Colombian soldiers, Mr. Pisarenko still hasn't completed the trip four years later. At one point, he was hit by an Ecuadorean SUV, and upon his return to Argentina in October, he had his bike confiscated by customs officials.
But the persistence of Mr. Pisarenko, who has braved sharks and border officials, has made him a minor folk hero of the Western Hemisphere.
The number of people like Mr. Pisarenko attempting to ride the length of the Americas has grown at least tenfold in the past decade, to roughly 2,000 a year, according to Grant Johnson, co-founder of Horizons Unlimited, a Web site on motorcycle road trips.
Kevin Sanders, who heads GlobeBusters, a U.K. motorcycle tour company, says the Alaska to Patagonia route offers a wondrous variety of terrain, from northern tundra to the mountainous Andes and the Pampas plains. Mr. Sanders says that bikers on the Americas route face less risk of violence than in Africa and less government snooping than in China.
Ivan's Motorcycle Diary
View Interactive
Follow his route and see photos.
* More photos and interactive graphics
Mr. Sanders and his wife, Julia, hold the world record for riding from Alaska to Patagonia -- just 35 days in 2003. A trivia section on the Sanderses' Web site says they rode for 28 hours without sleep on one stretch and nearly had a catastrophic collision on the so-called Mountain of Death in Costa Rica. Mr. Sanders made do with just two pairs of boxer shorts.
Long-distance motorcycling, to a host of destinations world-wide, has been on a roll, with sales of touring bikes in the U.S. more than doubling from 1998 to 2008, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council. Sales slipped in the past year of recession. Travelers have found inspiration in media productions like "Long Way Round," the documentary chronicling actor Ewan McGregor's bike trip from London to New York via Central Asia, and "The Motorcycle Diaries," the biopic on the youthful travels of Che Guevara.
Mr. Johnson says the Internet has also encouraged epic trips, allowing riders to write their own motorcycle diaries, as well as find backers and exchange travel tips.
Mr. Pisarenko worked hard to promote his trip Web site, America en Dos Ruedas, America on Two Wheels, selling T-shirts bearing its logo and giving interviews to a slew of newspapers and TV stations en route.
Those efforts earned him thousands of messages of support and a measure of celebrity. In Ecuador, Mr. Pisarenko starred in a TV commercial for a caffeine pill. In Argentina, his Honda Transalp 650 motorcycle was exhibited reverentially at a recent bike show. Of more practical use to Mr. Pisarenko, who has been traveling on a shoestring, more than 300 people contacted him en route with offers of lodging.
Mr. Pisarenko shipped his bike to Seattle and departed from there on May 20, 2005, heading north through Alaskan towns like Coldfoot and Wiseman on to Prudhoe Bay.
Then he turned around and rode south through Canada, the Western U.S. and into Baja California. In Mexico, robbers accosted him at a roadside cantina. When Mr. Pisarenko told them he barely had a peso, the impatient outlaws demanded to know where he was coming from. After he said it was Alaska -- and then explained to them where that is -- they were so astonished they bought him a drink rather than rob him.
In Central America, Mr. Pisarenko earned his keep by serving as the personal photographer for a Salvadoran rock band, Prueba de Sonido (Sound Check), and selling photos of a Honduran diver who takes tourists down to the lair of Caribbean reef sharks.
As he took odd jobs along the way, and got caught up in the lives of people he met, Mr. Pisarenko's trip extended from months to years. In 2007, the Argentine was taking photos of the inhabitants of Honduras's tiny Chachahuate Key when a boy came up and said he didn't have a single photo of himself.
Touched, Mr. Pisarenko promised Chachahuate's schoolteacher, José Francisco Velázquez, that he would prepare a portrait for each of the 40 children on the island. There was no place nearby to print photos, so Mr. Pisarenko emailed the images to an Argentine printer and then waited...and waited. It took five weeks for the pictures to arrive by mail, "but the kids will remember Ivan forever," says Mr. Velázquez, by telephone.
Mr. Pisarenko shipped his bike by boat to Colombia from Panama to avoid the Darien Gap, the nearly impenetrable 100-mile strip of marsh and forest separating the two countries.
He arrived with some trepidation in Colombia, where ruthless motorcycle-riding drug hitmen have prompted an odd riding regulation: Motorcyclists must wear vests in bright colors with the license number on the back, to identify them to police.
Mr. Pisarenko was stopped at a roadblock by military police on the lookout for traffickers or Marxist guerrillas. The troops' suspicions vanished, he says, when they got a good look at his beat-up motorcycle, plastered with travel stickers that seemed to be all that was holding it together.
"They decided no one would ride that bike to a war," he says. The sympathetic soldiers gave him a meal, two gallons of gasoline and a Colombian military scarf, and sent him on his way.
Moving on to Ecuador, Mr. Pisarenko was invited to a dinner where the main course was guinea pig, an entree widely enjoyed in the Andes. "I only forced it down because I was the guest of honor," the biker says.
Maybe the guinea pig was an omen. On Nov. 8, 2008, Mr. Pisarenko was on an isolated Ecuadorean highway when an SUV appeared from out of nowhere and collided with his bike. His family flew him back to Buenos Aires, where he spent six months recovering from a broken pelvis.
In April last year, he returned to Ecuador by plane, repaired the wreck of his bike and hit the road again. In Peru, he was given a mutt named Wari, named for an ancient indigenous culture, whom Mr. Pisarenko bundled up and carried with him on his motorcycle.
When Mr. Pisarenko arrived back home to Argentina in October, border officials greeted him by impounding his bike. They said he had violated article 970 of the Argentine Customs code, which allows a bike to leave the country for only 180 days.
Luckily for Mr. Pisarenko, the Argentine press got wind of the case, and the story of the bureaucrats hassling the intrepid adventurer was splashed all over the pages of Argentina's biggest newspaper, Clarin. The customs officials sheepishly gave him his bike back.
Mr. Pisarenko spent the holidays resting up in Buenos Aires, but he's embarking this week on the last 1,900-mile stretch to Tierra del Fuego.
On reading this article I thought of Lois on the Loose. I read that book last July. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
PAGE ONE - JANUARY 8, 2010
Ivan Pisarenko, Uneasy Rider: One Biker, Two Continents, Four Years
BUENOS AIRES -- In 2005, a year from finishing law school, Ivan Pisarenko got restless. The 33-year-old Argentine decided to take a break for a very big motorcycle road trip, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego.
The approximately 17,000-mile journey was supposed to take nine months. But because of detours involving Mexican bandits, Salvadoran rock stars and Colombian soldiers, Mr. Pisarenko still hasn't completed the trip four years later. At one point, he was hit by an Ecuadorean SUV, and upon his return to Argentina in October, he had his bike confiscated by customs officials.
But the persistence of Mr. Pisarenko, who has braved sharks and border officials, has made him a minor folk hero of the Western Hemisphere.
The number of people like Mr. Pisarenko attempting to ride the length of the Americas has grown at least tenfold in the past decade, to roughly 2,000 a year, according to Grant Johnson, co-founder of Horizons Unlimited, a Web site on motorcycle road trips.
Kevin Sanders, who heads GlobeBusters, a U.K. motorcycle tour company, says the Alaska to Patagonia route offers a wondrous variety of terrain, from northern tundra to the mountainous Andes and the Pampas plains. Mr. Sanders says that bikers on the Americas route face less risk of violence than in Africa and less government snooping than in China.
Ivan's Motorcycle Diary
View Interactive
Follow his route and see photos.
* More photos and interactive graphics
Mr. Sanders and his wife, Julia, hold the world record for riding from Alaska to Patagonia -- just 35 days in 2003. A trivia section on the Sanderses' Web site says they rode for 28 hours without sleep on one stretch and nearly had a catastrophic collision on the so-called Mountain of Death in Costa Rica. Mr. Sanders made do with just two pairs of boxer shorts.
Long-distance motorcycling, to a host of destinations world-wide, has been on a roll, with sales of touring bikes in the U.S. more than doubling from 1998 to 2008, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council. Sales slipped in the past year of recession. Travelers have found inspiration in media productions like "Long Way Round," the documentary chronicling actor Ewan McGregor's bike trip from London to New York via Central Asia, and "The Motorcycle Diaries," the biopic on the youthful travels of Che Guevara.
Mr. Johnson says the Internet has also encouraged epic trips, allowing riders to write their own motorcycle diaries, as well as find backers and exchange travel tips.
Mr. Pisarenko worked hard to promote his trip Web site, America en Dos Ruedas, America on Two Wheels, selling T-shirts bearing its logo and giving interviews to a slew of newspapers and TV stations en route.
Those efforts earned him thousands of messages of support and a measure of celebrity. In Ecuador, Mr. Pisarenko starred in a TV commercial for a caffeine pill. In Argentina, his Honda Transalp 650 motorcycle was exhibited reverentially at a recent bike show. Of more practical use to Mr. Pisarenko, who has been traveling on a shoestring, more than 300 people contacted him en route with offers of lodging.
Mr. Pisarenko shipped his bike to Seattle and departed from there on May 20, 2005, heading north through Alaskan towns like Coldfoot and Wiseman on to Prudhoe Bay.
Then he turned around and rode south through Canada, the Western U.S. and into Baja California. In Mexico, robbers accosted him at a roadside cantina. When Mr. Pisarenko told them he barely had a peso, the impatient outlaws demanded to know where he was coming from. After he said it was Alaska -- and then explained to them where that is -- they were so astonished they bought him a drink rather than rob him.
In Central America, Mr. Pisarenko earned his keep by serving as the personal photographer for a Salvadoran rock band, Prueba de Sonido (Sound Check), and selling photos of a Honduran diver who takes tourists down to the lair of Caribbean reef sharks.
As he took odd jobs along the way, and got caught up in the lives of people he met, Mr. Pisarenko's trip extended from months to years. In 2007, the Argentine was taking photos of the inhabitants of Honduras's tiny Chachahuate Key when a boy came up and said he didn't have a single photo of himself.
Touched, Mr. Pisarenko promised Chachahuate's schoolteacher, José Francisco Velázquez, that he would prepare a portrait for each of the 40 children on the island. There was no place nearby to print photos, so Mr. Pisarenko emailed the images to an Argentine printer and then waited...and waited. It took five weeks for the pictures to arrive by mail, "but the kids will remember Ivan forever," says Mr. Velázquez, by telephone.
Mr. Pisarenko shipped his bike by boat to Colombia from Panama to avoid the Darien Gap, the nearly impenetrable 100-mile strip of marsh and forest separating the two countries.
He arrived with some trepidation in Colombia, where ruthless motorcycle-riding drug hitmen have prompted an odd riding regulation: Motorcyclists must wear vests in bright colors with the license number on the back, to identify them to police.
Mr. Pisarenko was stopped at a roadblock by military police on the lookout for traffickers or Marxist guerrillas. The troops' suspicions vanished, he says, when they got a good look at his beat-up motorcycle, plastered with travel stickers that seemed to be all that was holding it together.
"They decided no one would ride that bike to a war," he says. The sympathetic soldiers gave him a meal, two gallons of gasoline and a Colombian military scarf, and sent him on his way.
Moving on to Ecuador, Mr. Pisarenko was invited to a dinner where the main course was guinea pig, an entree widely enjoyed in the Andes. "I only forced it down because I was the guest of honor," the biker says.
Maybe the guinea pig was an omen. On Nov. 8, 2008, Mr. Pisarenko was on an isolated Ecuadorean highway when an SUV appeared from out of nowhere and collided with his bike. His family flew him back to Buenos Aires, where he spent six months recovering from a broken pelvis.
In April last year, he returned to Ecuador by plane, repaired the wreck of his bike and hit the road again. In Peru, he was given a mutt named Wari, named for an ancient indigenous culture, whom Mr. Pisarenko bundled up and carried with him on his motorcycle.
When Mr. Pisarenko arrived back home to Argentina in October, border officials greeted him by impounding his bike. They said he had violated article 970 of the Argentine Customs code, which allows a bike to leave the country for only 180 days.
Luckily for Mr. Pisarenko, the Argentine press got wind of the case, and the story of the bureaucrats hassling the intrepid adventurer was splashed all over the pages of Argentina's biggest newspaper, Clarin. The customs officials sheepishly gave him his bike back.
Mr. Pisarenko spent the holidays resting up in Buenos Aires, but he's embarking this week on the last 1,900-mile stretch to Tierra del Fuego.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
That patron, again
The woman with the whiny voice called just after 5pm, and asked about Harold Holzer.
"He's a Lincoln scholar, but that's all I know."
"What is it that you'd like to know about him?" I asked. Everyone deserves to be asked.
"What his politics are," she whined.
"Well, I'm not sure I can find that out, but I'll try. Hold on." I googled him, and the usual information appeared in numerous places: Lincoln scholar, VP at the Metropolitan Museum., member of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
"I haven't been able to find anything about his politics," I told her after a few minutes.
"That sort of information is listed in Who's Who," she offered.
Skeptically, I walked over to get the Reference book. Last year we have it for is 2007. I went online, but it's a pay subscription. Then I went to HWPL.org and found it:Biography Resource Center and Marquis Who's Who. I searched for Holzer, Harold, and found a biography of him. In the PERSONAL INFORMATION section, the damning evidence: Politics: Democrat.
"He's registered as a Democrat."
"I thought so," she droned, condemning the slob to that special purgatory she reserves for those she dislikes, which are many.
"He's a Lincoln scholar, but that's all I know."
"What is it that you'd like to know about him?" I asked. Everyone deserves to be asked.
"What his politics are," she whined.
"Well, I'm not sure I can find that out, but I'll try. Hold on." I googled him, and the usual information appeared in numerous places: Lincoln scholar, VP at the Metropolitan Museum., member of the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
"I haven't been able to find anything about his politics," I told her after a few minutes.
"That sort of information is listed in Who's Who," she offered.
Skeptically, I walked over to get the Reference book. Last year we have it for is 2007. I went online, but it's a pay subscription. Then I went to HWPL.org and found it:Biography Resource Center and Marquis Who's Who. I searched for Holzer, Harold, and found a biography of him. In the PERSONAL INFORMATION section, the damning evidence: Politics: Democrat.
"He's registered as a Democrat."
"I thought so," she droned, condemning the slob to that special purgatory she reserves for those she dislikes, which are many.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Hair
The stage play? I asked.
In the background I heard a younger woman's voice (daughter) say
no, not the play, the 1979 movie.
Hewlett doesn't own it, but a few other libraries do, including Peninsula. I told her so, and gave her that phone number.
Trigun
When I told him that only the Bethpage Library owns the DVD series, he said, oh, okay, and started to say goodbye. I did tell him we could interloan it, and he asked how long that would take. Three to five business days, I responded. Never mind, he said. WOuld you like their phone number? I asked. No, he said, I can get it online.
Left me baffled.
Overdue books: creative leniency
Boxes of food items used to pay fines for overdue books were moved from the library in Conneaut, Ohio, to a food pantry van.
Since the beginning of the economic downturn, librarians across the country have speculated that fines for overdue items are keeping people from using the library — particularly large families whose children take out (and forget to return) many books at a time. Some libraries learned that the fines, which are often as low as 25 cents an item per day, quickly multiplied for many people and were becoming an added hardship.
“We can’t push the cost to consumers because they’re also struggling,” said Richard Sosa, the finance director of the Denver system, which has $9 million worth of books in circulation through 23 libraries and two bookmobiles. “The library philosophy is: We do not want to restrict access to information. The use of fines or harsh collection tactics — and we could potentially do that — could essentially restrict people’s access to the library.”
And another thing: They need their books back.
At the Denver Public Library, librarians can negotiate a fee structure that feels fair to them based on individual cases.
The Monterey County Free Library system in Monterey, Calif., has reclaimed more than 1,000 books since offering end-of-the-year amnesty to patrons in November and December.
“We thought, People are suffering, having a hard time, so let’s give them a break and get our books back,” said Jayanti Addleman, the county librarian.
In Pelham, N.H., the public library director, Robert Rice, offered a food-for-fines program during November.
“We will probably continue that policy once the new year starts,” Mr. Rice said. “The loss in terms of money was maybe $20 a day. We well made up for it with the amount of food that came in.”
He continued: “We got our materials back and did something positive for the community. Use is up greatly, and budgets are being cut. But we’re not going anywhere. We’re keeping the doors open.”
That is how libraries should work, as community resources, and not as businesses.
Since the beginning of the economic downturn, librarians across the country have speculated that fines for overdue items are keeping people from using the library — particularly large families whose children take out (and forget to return) many books at a time. Some libraries learned that the fines, which are often as low as 25 cents an item per day, quickly multiplied for many people and were becoming an added hardship.
“We can’t push the cost to consumers because they’re also struggling,” said Richard Sosa, the finance director of the Denver system, which has $9 million worth of books in circulation through 23 libraries and two bookmobiles. “The library philosophy is: We do not want to restrict access to information. The use of fines or harsh collection tactics — and we could potentially do that — could essentially restrict people’s access to the library.”
And another thing: They need their books back.
At the Denver Public Library, librarians can negotiate a fee structure that feels fair to them based on individual cases.
The Monterey County Free Library system in Monterey, Calif., has reclaimed more than 1,000 books since offering end-of-the-year amnesty to patrons in November and December.
“We thought, People are suffering, having a hard time, so let’s give them a break and get our books back,” said Jayanti Addleman, the county librarian.
In Pelham, N.H., the public library director, Robert Rice, offered a food-for-fines program during November.
“We will probably continue that policy once the new year starts,” Mr. Rice said. “The loss in terms of money was maybe $20 a day. We well made up for it with the amount of food that came in.”
He continued: “We got our materials back and did something positive for the community. Use is up greatly, and budgets are being cut. But we’re not going anywhere. We’re keeping the doors open.”
That is how libraries should work, as community resources, and not as businesses.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Public Library, Valladolid
Visited afternoon of 3 December 2009, on way back from Cenote Zací. Quite small. So is Valladolid.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Lone Bookstore's Last Chapter
Fourth-graders at C. M. Macdonell Elementary School in Laredo who wrote letters trying to persuade their bookstore, the only one in town, not to close.
Mary Benavides steps from behind the cash register several times a day to embrace the mourners. For more than 30 years, she has managed the mall's B. Dalton outlet -- the only bookstore in Laredo. It will close next month.
slideshow
All B. Daltons nationwide are closing, as corporate parent Barnes & Noble shutters the chain. In this era of mega-bookstores with cafes and cozy couches and 150,000 titles -- and with more than a million books available online -- B. Dalton's cramped outlets no longer make economic sense.
Xavier Garcia and Joe Garcia IV read at the B. Dalton bookstore in Laredo, Texas.
The city council is expected to pass a resolution Monday proclaiming that Laredo needs a bookstore. State lawmakers have promised to write letters. A "Save Laredo's Bookstore" page on Facebook has 530 members and a city committee is circulating petitions. The theme of their campaign: Laredo Reads.
Now (Monday, 1.15pm) up to 6
Jose Angel, 10, stands in front of two boards with English and Spanish words in his bilingual class.
Author Sonia Nazario saw that first-hand when the bookstore manager and several high-school teachers invited her this fall to discuss her book "Enrique's Journey." Over two days, Ms. Nazario spoke to 4,000 people, and some waited hours for her autograph. "It was like the hottest rock star had shown up in town," she said. "I've never had such a reception in my life."
Nearly 2,000 copies of her book sold in Laredo, and there was a waiting list for all 75 copies at the public library.
"Books created a communal bond in what was, to me, an unlikely place," Ms. Nazario said. "The beating heart of that was the bookstore."
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Rarest of Rhinos
Ujung Kulon National Park Authority/WWF Indonesia
A male Javan rhinoceros, photographed by a trap camera in Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia. It is described as the rarest large mammal on earth.
A sixth grader came in, along with his grandfather, looking for an article that appeared in the New York Times on 11 July 2006. I showed them how to use the microfilm reader, and, when they found the article, how to print it.
Now that they have left I went onto the Times website, and, as I had told them was doable, found the article itself.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Magazines get ready for tablets
Sports Illustrated developed a demonstration version of how it might translate its print articles on a tablet computer. The tablet version can pull live sports scores and display videos and other interactive content.
Video: Sports Illustrated's Tablet Demo (YouTube.com)
After letting the Internet slip away from them and watching electronic readers like the Kindle from Amazon develop without their input, publishers are trying again with Apple iPhones and, especially, tablet computers.
Although publishers have not exactly been on the cutting edge of technology, two magazines — Esquire and GQ — have developed iPhone versions, while Wired and Sports Illustrated have made mockups of tablet versions of their print editions, months before any such tablets come to market. Publishers are using the opportunity to fix their business model, too.
Video: Sports Illustrated's Tablet Demo (YouTube.com)After letting the Internet slip away from them and watching electronic readers like the Kindle from Amazon develop without their input, publishers are trying again with Apple iPhones and, especially, tablet computers.
Although publishers have not exactly been on the cutting edge of technology, two magazines — Esquire and GQ — have developed iPhone versions, while Wired and Sports Illustrated have made mockups of tablet versions of their print editions, months before any such tablets come to market. Publishers are using the opportunity to fix their business model, too.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Lewy bodies
A patron came in asking for books on Lewy bodies. Turns out they have to do with dementia and Alzheimer's. She had done research, and the websites directed her to books on the subject. She cam into the library after dropping off her husband at a center (he is the one suffering from them).A new one to me. This is one of the books I found through FirstSearch (also can be found through Worldcat.org).
Lewy bodies are abnormal aggregates of protein that develop inside nerve cells.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Who owns e-books?
Random House Lays Claim to E-Book Rights
By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg
Random House, moving to stake its claim in one of the few fast-growing areas of book publishing, sent a letter to literary agents saying it owns the digital rights to books it published before the emergence of an active marketplace for electronic books.
In the letter, dated Dec. 11, Markus Dohle, chief executive of the publishing arm of Bertelsmann AG, wrote that the "vast majority of our backlist contracts grant us the exclusive right to publish books in electronic formats." He added that many of Random House's older agreements granted it the exclusive right to publish a work "in book form" or "in any and all editions."
The letter addresses one of the most controversial issues in publishing these days: who owns digital rights to older titles, often referred to as backlist books.
Mr. Dohle argues that, much as the understanding of publishing rights has evolved to include various forms of hardcovers and paperbacks, it now includes digital rights, since "the product is used and experienced in the same manner, serves the same function, and satisfies the same fundamental urge to discover stories, ideas and information through the process of reading."
Nat Sobel, a literary agent whose clients include James Ellroy and Richard Russo, both of whom are published by Random House's Alfred Knopf imprint, disagreed with Mr. Dohle's assertions.
Mr. Sobel said that prior to the September publication of Mr. Ellroy's novel "Blood's a Rover," the third volume in the author's Underworld USA trilogy, he received a letter from Random House asking for the release of electronic rights associated with the trilogy. He said he ignored the request because he has other plans for those rights.
"I don't accept Random House's position, and I don't think anybody else will either," Mr. Sobel said. "You are entitled to the rights stated in your contract. Contracts 20 years ago didn't cover electronic rights. And the courts have already agreed with this position."
Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Random House, said, "We believe Random House has the right to publish our authors' backlist titles as e-books. We think we can do the best job for our authors' e-books."
Several years ago, Random House sued e-book publisher RosettaBooks LLC to prevent it from selling the e-book editions of three authors—William Styron, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Robert Parker—whose books had been published by Random House's imprints.
In 2001, in a key ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a Random House petition for a preliminary injunction against RosettaBooks, ruling that Random House's contracts were limited to print books and didn't cover e-books. A federal court of appeals subsequently affirmed the district court's opinion.
In late 2002 Random House and RosettaBooks settled their litigation. As part of that settlement, Random House dropped its objection to RosettaBooks publishing the titles in question, and granted RosettaBooks the right to publish 51 additional titles. Those rights lasted between three and six years.
"At this point, all our Random House licenses have expired," said Arthur Klebanoff, CEO of RosettaBooks. "I am surprised by Mr. Dohle's letter. The last time Random House advanced the same position, it didn't work out so well for them. And I don't think it will work out so well for them now."
A second literary agent, Richard Curtis, who also owns E-Reads, an e-book publisher, said he would expect Random House to go to court to defend its new claims, as it once did.
"Someone would have to have a lot at stake to be willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go up against Random House in court," he said. "I don't know whether anybody will feel they want those rights so badly they are willing to spend like that to prosecute a claim right up to what could be the Supreme Court."
By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg
Random House, moving to stake its claim in one of the few fast-growing areas of book publishing, sent a letter to literary agents saying it owns the digital rights to books it published before the emergence of an active marketplace for electronic books.
In the letter, dated Dec. 11, Markus Dohle, chief executive of the publishing arm of Bertelsmann AG, wrote that the "vast majority of our backlist contracts grant us the exclusive right to publish books in electronic formats." He added that many of Random House's older agreements granted it the exclusive right to publish a work "in book form" or "in any and all editions."
The letter addresses one of the most controversial issues in publishing these days: who owns digital rights to older titles, often referred to as backlist books.
Mr. Dohle argues that, much as the understanding of publishing rights has evolved to include various forms of hardcovers and paperbacks, it now includes digital rights, since "the product is used and experienced in the same manner, serves the same function, and satisfies the same fundamental urge to discover stories, ideas and information through the process of reading."
Nat Sobel, a literary agent whose clients include James Ellroy and Richard Russo, both of whom are published by Random House's Alfred Knopf imprint, disagreed with Mr. Dohle's assertions.
Mr. Sobel said that prior to the September publication of Mr. Ellroy's novel "Blood's a Rover," the third volume in the author's Underworld USA trilogy, he received a letter from Random House asking for the release of electronic rights associated with the trilogy. He said he ignored the request because he has other plans for those rights.
"I don't accept Random House's position, and I don't think anybody else will either," Mr. Sobel said. "You are entitled to the rights stated in your contract. Contracts 20 years ago didn't cover electronic rights. And the courts have already agreed with this position."
Stuart Applebaum, a spokesman for Random House, said, "We believe Random House has the right to publish our authors' backlist titles as e-books. We think we can do the best job for our authors' e-books."
Several years ago, Random House sued e-book publisher RosettaBooks LLC to prevent it from selling the e-book editions of three authors—William Styron, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Robert Parker—whose books had been published by Random House's imprints.
In 2001, in a key ruling, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied a Random House petition for a preliminary injunction against RosettaBooks, ruling that Random House's contracts were limited to print books and didn't cover e-books. A federal court of appeals subsequently affirmed the district court's opinion.
In late 2002 Random House and RosettaBooks settled their litigation. As part of that settlement, Random House dropped its objection to RosettaBooks publishing the titles in question, and granted RosettaBooks the right to publish 51 additional titles. Those rights lasted between three and six years.
"At this point, all our Random House licenses have expired," said Arthur Klebanoff, CEO of RosettaBooks. "I am surprised by Mr. Dohle's letter. The last time Random House advanced the same position, it didn't work out so well for them. And I don't think it will work out so well for them now."
A second literary agent, Richard Curtis, who also owns E-Reads, an e-book publisher, said he would expect Random House to go to court to defend its new claims, as it once did.
"Someone would have to have a lot at stake to be willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to go up against Random House in court," he said. "I don't know whether anybody will feel they want those rights so badly they are willing to spend like that to prosecute a claim right up to what could be the Supreme Court."
Saturday, December 12, 2009
End of an era and a name
End of Kirkus Reviews Brings Anguish and Relief
By Motoko Rich
Published: December 11, 2009 - NY Times
The book industry, beleaguered by a battery of dispiriting news about lackluster sales and online price wars, got another taste of the apocalypse on Thursday with the news that Kirkus Reviews, the venerable prepublication review journal, was closing.
Then again, there were those who were not so quietly relieved that a frequent source of author flaying had been subdued.
“When I was a book publicist, the worst part of my job was having to read a Kirkus review over the phone to an author. 2 cigs before, 2 after,” recalled Laura Zigman, an author and former book publicist for Alfred A. Knopf, in a Twitter post.
The decision by the journal’s owner, the Nielsen Company, to close Kirkus stunned the industry, with a reaction that was a mix of “Oh no!” “Good riddance” and “Ho hum.”
Founded in 1933, Kirkus churned out nearly 5,000 reviews a year. Although typically not seen by the general public — except in blurbs on books or excerpted on barnesandnoble.com — Kirkus reviews were often used by librarians and booksellers when deciding how to stock their shelves.
“None of us can read everything we suggest, so we lean fairly heavily on reviews and reviewers as basically our own advisers,” said David Wright, a fiction librarian and readers’ adviser for the Seattle Public Library.
Mr. Wright, who said he read reviews from Kirkus as well as its rivals Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal, said the reviewers for these publications “always really seemed like this gathering of friends and family that you could gather to get feedback on what really was in a book to see if a reader might like it.” He added, “Kirkus has always anchored that table.”
Booksellers gave mixed reviews about Kirkus’s influence. Some said they read it along with other journals, as well as talking with publishers’ sales representatives and reading advance galleys, when deciding what to buy. Others said they had long since stopped reading Kirkus.
Vivien Jennings, co-owner of Rainy Day Books, an independent bookstore in Fairway, Kan., said she sometimes consulted Kirkus Reviews when a customer inquired about a book that she had not read.
In one instance recently, a customer asked about “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned,” a collection of short stories by Wells Tower that she wanted to buy as a gift. Ms. Jennings, who had actually read — but had not connected with — the book, looked up the Kirkus review.
“When I read the woman the review from Kirkus, she said, ‘That will exactly work for my husband,’ ” and she bought the book, Ms. Jennings recalled.
In some ways it seemed that the passing of Kirkus was mourned much like the local deli that finally closes after a long battle with a landlord — missed as much in theory as because of its practical effect on the market.
“While I hate to see the closing of another major book review outlet, truth be told, it’s been a long time since a review there actually moved the needle in any meaningful way,” wrote Tim Duggan, executive editor at Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, in an e-mail message. “It has less to do with Kirkus than with the way the rest of the media marketplace has evolved.”
Still, some publishers noted that Kirkus reviews, reliably cantankerous, often differed from the other prepublication reviewers. “It wasn’t just broad, it was rigorous, curmudgeonly, and it was often a dissenting or idiosyncratic voice,” said Nan Graham, editor in chief of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
For small presses, Kirkus might be one of the only places a book would get a write-up, other than Publishers Weekly. Martin Shepard, co-publisher of the Permanent Press, an independent publisher in Sag Harbor, N.Y., said Kirkus had generally reviewed about 10 of the 12 to 14 books that the company publishes each year.
Because small presses rely heavily on sales to libraries, Mr. Shepard said, the loss of Kirkus is a significant blow. Although he said the most important trade journal remained Publishers Weekly, he said: “It’s like Hertz and Avis. To have the No. 2 close down is sad.”
Mr. Shepard said he was starting a campaign to persuade the editors of Kirkus to revive the publication online.
Eric Liebetrau, managing editor of Kirkus, declined to comment on the magazine’s closing.
Authors seemed to have a mixed relationship with Kirkus. Not surprisingly, it had to do with what the reviewers said about their books. Julie Klam, the author of a memoir, “Please Excuse My Daughter,” said her editor had told her that while a good review in Kirkus could help a little, “if you get a bad one, it doesn’t matter, because nobody reads it.”
A good could help, a bad didn't matter as nobody read it: then how could a good one help?
Ms. Klam, who received a good review in Kirkus, recalled seeing fellow writers get starred reviews — the highest honor — and being jealous. “They were so rare,” Ms. Klam said. “So you think, ‘Wow, that’s major.’ ”
Correction: December 12, 2009
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of a co-owner of Rainy Day Books. She is Vivien Jennings, not Vivienne.
By Motoko Rich
Published: December 11, 2009 - NY Times
The book industry, beleaguered by a battery of dispiriting news about lackluster sales and online price wars, got another taste of the apocalypse on Thursday with the news that Kirkus Reviews, the venerable prepublication review journal, was closing.
Then again, there were those who were not so quietly relieved that a frequent source of author flaying had been subdued.
“When I was a book publicist, the worst part of my job was having to read a Kirkus review over the phone to an author. 2 cigs before, 2 after,” recalled Laura Zigman, an author and former book publicist for Alfred A. Knopf, in a Twitter post.
The decision by the journal’s owner, the Nielsen Company, to close Kirkus stunned the industry, with a reaction that was a mix of “Oh no!” “Good riddance” and “Ho hum.”
Founded in 1933, Kirkus churned out nearly 5,000 reviews a year. Although typically not seen by the general public — except in blurbs on books or excerpted on barnesandnoble.com — Kirkus reviews were often used by librarians and booksellers when deciding how to stock their shelves.
“None of us can read everything we suggest, so we lean fairly heavily on reviews and reviewers as basically our own advisers,” said David Wright, a fiction librarian and readers’ adviser for the Seattle Public Library.
Mr. Wright, who said he read reviews from Kirkus as well as its rivals Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal, said the reviewers for these publications “always really seemed like this gathering of friends and family that you could gather to get feedback on what really was in a book to see if a reader might like it.” He added, “Kirkus has always anchored that table.”
Booksellers gave mixed reviews about Kirkus’s influence. Some said they read it along with other journals, as well as talking with publishers’ sales representatives and reading advance galleys, when deciding what to buy. Others said they had long since stopped reading Kirkus.
Vivien Jennings, co-owner of Rainy Day Books, an independent bookstore in Fairway, Kan., said she sometimes consulted Kirkus Reviews when a customer inquired about a book that she had not read.
In one instance recently, a customer asked about “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned,” a collection of short stories by Wells Tower that she wanted to buy as a gift. Ms. Jennings, who had actually read — but had not connected with — the book, looked up the Kirkus review.
“When I read the woman the review from Kirkus, she said, ‘That will exactly work for my husband,’ ” and she bought the book, Ms. Jennings recalled.
In some ways it seemed that the passing of Kirkus was mourned much like the local deli that finally closes after a long battle with a landlord — missed as much in theory as because of its practical effect on the market.
“While I hate to see the closing of another major book review outlet, truth be told, it’s been a long time since a review there actually moved the needle in any meaningful way,” wrote Tim Duggan, executive editor at Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, in an e-mail message. “It has less to do with Kirkus than with the way the rest of the media marketplace has evolved.”
Still, some publishers noted that Kirkus reviews, reliably cantankerous, often differed from the other prepublication reviewers. “It wasn’t just broad, it was rigorous, curmudgeonly, and it was often a dissenting or idiosyncratic voice,” said Nan Graham, editor in chief of Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
For small presses, Kirkus might be one of the only places a book would get a write-up, other than Publishers Weekly. Martin Shepard, co-publisher of the Permanent Press, an independent publisher in Sag Harbor, N.Y., said Kirkus had generally reviewed about 10 of the 12 to 14 books that the company publishes each year.
Because small presses rely heavily on sales to libraries, Mr. Shepard said, the loss of Kirkus is a significant blow. Although he said the most important trade journal remained Publishers Weekly, he said: “It’s like Hertz and Avis. To have the No. 2 close down is sad.”
Mr. Shepard said he was starting a campaign to persuade the editors of Kirkus to revive the publication online.
Eric Liebetrau, managing editor of Kirkus, declined to comment on the magazine’s closing.
Authors seemed to have a mixed relationship with Kirkus. Not surprisingly, it had to do with what the reviewers said about their books. Julie Klam, the author of a memoir, “Please Excuse My Daughter,” said her editor had told her that while a good review in Kirkus could help a little, “if you get a bad one, it doesn’t matter, because nobody reads it.”
A good could help, a bad didn't matter as nobody read it: then how could a good one help?
Ms. Klam, who received a good review in Kirkus, recalled seeing fellow writers get starred reviews — the highest honor — and being jealous. “They were so rare,” Ms. Klam said. “So you think, ‘Wow, that’s major.’ ”
Correction: December 12, 2009
An earlier version of this article misspelled the given name of a co-owner of Rainy Day Books. She is Vivien Jennings, not Vivienne.
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