Rememberance and Reading

I need to share this amazing essay by Cassandra Neace in Book Riot. She explores and thinks about the act of reading and how books played such an important - though at the time unrecognized - part in the lives of her family.

Image: 'Notturno' http://www.flickr.com/photos/29931767@N00/105783011 Found on flickrcc.net

Making Books Holiday-ish!

Ok, Thanksgiving has passed so I can officially put up the tree. We usually head out and find a live tree to put on our window seat. But this year inspired by Pinterest and clever librarians everywhere, I made a book tree. So here is my baby.


It's a little crooked but it has lots of our favorite books (Ulysses!  1001 Arabian Nights!). The advantage is it never needs water. The disadvantage is that I can't pull out books from it to read...I must be patient. Gack!

If you are looking for more bookishly holiday things to make, check out Book Riot's post here!

Happy Library Week - Slow Books; Burning Books

I love Library Week; always have, always will.  Since libraries seldom have a birthday, it's my way of celebrating libraries in every way that you can during a birthday party.  I, of course,  have an uber prejudice about my place of work and chosen career but still.

In celebration, I must link to two articles that made me think this week:

This one in the Atlantic that calls a "Slow Book Movement."  Similar in concept to the going-back- to-the-land and slow food movements  as well as re-learning long lost kitchen and building arts within our homes, the author calls for us to spend as much time reading the classics as we can to give our brains some good meat.  Paraphrasing Michael Pollan, she says: "Read books. As often as you can. Mostly classics." While I might quibble with classics, reading something mind-challenging on a regular basis is a suggestion most welcome!

The other one from Jessamyn West's blog librarian.net details a PR campaign in Troy MI that used the unusual strategy of calling for a book burning event to burn all the library books to wake up the community to the Tea Party's call and moneyed campaign to cut taxes vital to that community's library. Radical? Yes. Effective - without a doubt.  Perhaps we should be thinking more outside our geek box to show what libraries really mean to our communities.

Both of these articles showed me there are many conversations and ways that we can approach books, reading and our libraries. They both give me hope for our future. How about you?

Oh, and Happy Library Week!

Picture from my fabulous alma mater's (UW-Madison Libraries) Edible Book Festival in 2006.

In Love with an Animated Short

I had the pleasure last night of joining a friend at a cool and funky old movie theater to watch this year's Oscar-nominated animated shorts.  One of them is William Joyce's   The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.  Dedicated to both Bill Morris and Colleen Salley, this is a wonderful homage to books, libraries, librarians, reading and writing - with some Louisiana and Hurricane Katrina tossed in to get the mojo going.  I loved it. Hope you too get a chance to see this film sooner rather than later. It will become a favorite!

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

What Do Books Do at Night?

Oh my gosh!

I KNEW it!  I KNEW it!!!

All my wild imaginings are true.  I was sure this is what happens after we turn off the lights at bookstores and libraries (I somehow feel Luna Lovegood-ish about this!) .

Great work to the film-makers and their group of handy helpers!  And thanks Bina Williams for the link!

Gleeful Boys Unboxing New Books

Check out the Wisconsin Library Association's Youth Services Section blog for a great video of a couple of boys getting first dibs on new library books they get to unbox themselves. My buddy Sue Abrahamson over at Waupaca Area Public Library has caught the excitement of two young bibliofiles. And what a great idea to try at your library for your young book freaks!

Outer Limits

To limit or not to limit - that is the question. Having just come off the December holidays, almost survived Valentine's day (just...three...more...days, huff puff huff puff) and about to embark on the adventure of spring, St. Pat's Day and Easter day book rush time, talking about limits is swirling in my mind.

There are only a small number of titles available specific to any one holiday or season (alright, I'll cop to the fact that winter and Christmas books do seem to be in endless supply). These books languish on the shelves "between times" until the holiday season rolls around and then, "Boom!", the stampede for these titles is on. It's pretty much not a budgetary option for most public libraries to buy multiple, multiple copies or load up the collection with as many books on these subjects as can be unearthed.

So, though we love to fill requests and love to be as open as possible, the subject of limits comes up. Without limits, we create a “first come, first served” expectation rather than one where we try to provide some kind of consistent and fair way for many people to have a chance to enjoy very limited but high demand resources. Setting limits of a few books per family or group allows us to have more resources available for more people.

Of course it also means people will have to share with others. That may be the true "outer limits" nature of the beast. Limits can work with patience and gentle explanations to our customers (who sometimes want more, more, more). At least we hope so!