Category Archives: Uncategorized

April 27, 2012 · 12:48 pm

Keeping the dust out of libraries

I am thrilled at the trend I am seeing. Librarians like Sarah Houghton becoming Directors http://bit.ly/ILDBg9 means that the dust is being brushed off and the new,” next-gen” librarian is being let in to lead the way for our libraries of the future.

I have not been a librarian long, officially 7 years, my previous life was as a graphic designer (which came along with its own slings and arrows) I am SO glad that I made this switch in a time of such dynamic change. The internet, technology and social media has made this profession as exciting as being on a high-speed roller coaster, (or summiting a mountain in my case, my husband and are avid mountaineers)

I am happy to see a flood of tattoos, piercings and multicolored hair coming into libraries, my hope is that the shussshhhing , sensible shoes, bespectacled jokes stop.  BTW  I would love to see the embarrassing librarian videos of librarians dancing to Lady Gaga music chill as well, intentions are good, but really,  leave the entertainment to the entertainment world.

Congratulations to Sarah Houghton, and to the city of  San Rafael  for showing that you believe in the next generation of Librarians and Libraries. We need to invest in  fresh thinking, enthusiastic library graduates and new librarians to keep this profession dust free, and out of the tar pit.

 

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April 27, 2012 · 1:48 am

Dandelions: food for thought

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Dandelions. Weed or Salad Green? The answer is: both.

At this time of year, growing up in Queens I would see people walking aside the Long Island Expressway pulling dandelion weeds, which I thought was very neighborly of them to do. There was an abundance of them along the highway and fortunately people would not walk their dogs on the other side of the highway fence. However, even at a young age I questioned their judgement, as I felt that carbon monoxide, that silent killer that we all grew up fearing, was the poison that these very plants were filtering. You may not inhale it, but was it possible that you could ingest it? Not sure, but I never wanted to test that out. To this day, even though they grow wild and unscathed by herbicide in my back yard, I hesitate to throw dandelion greens in the family lunch.

There are many such plants that scattered around backyards, and are there for the snacking. My reluctance to try many of them is the fact that I feel if it were good to eat, the bunnies and deer would have beat me to them.

A few good books we have at the Library that help you distinguish edible from not

Edible : an illustrated guide to the world’s food plants

The forager’s harvest : a guide to identifying, harvesting, and preparing edible wild plants

The Foraging Gourmet: The complete guide to edible wild plants, mushrooms, fruits, and nuts

 

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April 25, 2012 · 1:11 am

Amazon’s knock-off problem (35 Shades of Grey, anyone?) – Fortune Tech

Amazon’s knock-off problem (35 Shades of Grey, anyone?) – Fortune Tech.

If someone had asked a librarian to get this, there would have been no confusion!

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April 5, 2012 · 7:00 am

Clutter Managment: is that an Oxymoron?

By now this image of the Collyer Brothers clutter-stuffed brownstone is familiar to most people. The fear of being compared to them is incentive enough to call the dumpster company.  Another scenario that happens to be my favorite is Fibber McGee’s closet www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9FGC68YcwM  I think that is more realistic, don’t you think?  All of us tend to have a little “closet slob” in us.

Well, as with most problem issues, there is always someone who can cash in on it, and make a business out of it. As a matter of fact (and a scary one at that) there is even a reality show that has been made of this very same Collyer brother phenomenon. Closet management systems you can do yourself, or closet management companies you can hire to tackle the Fibber McGee closet in your home are available to all who wish.  And of course, there are many books that can help guide you to a clutter free, or clutter controlled  existence.

If you are curious about the Collyer brothers E.L Doctrow wrote a novel about the duo: Homer and Langley and there is a non-fiction memoir written by a relative of theirs : Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers and My Uncle Arthur, NewYork’s Greatest Hoarders (An Urban Historical)

If you just need a little guidance on how to tackle this yourself here are two titles to get you in the cleanup mood :  For Packrats Only by Don Aslett and  Shed Your Stuff, Change your Life by Julie Morgenstern.

I know I’m ready to get started, I think my work gloves are in the closet….

 

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April 3, 2012 · 9:52 am

Shades of Grey Ad Nauseam

A few months back I was asked about placing a hold on the title pictured to the left. I couldn’t find it in the Library system, nor was it to be found in any academic library to be order inter-library loan. Oh well, wait, or borrow it from a friend, or buy it.

A public library fulfills the needs of the  community it services. We get a budget, and although in these economic times slashed as it may be, it must be used to stock the shelves with books and media that circulates in our service area. When more than 3 people put a written request in for a title, we buy it, because that’s what is requested.

There are presently over 700 patron requests for this title system wide. Tax payer dollars are being spent to put this book on the shelf. Now, this book is not The Help, Cutting For Stone, or The DaVinci Code. It’s a fan-fiction take off of the Twilight series, it has extreme sexual behavior and it has a very specific reader group, and believe me when I tell you it is by NO means “like any other love story we have on the shelves”  (as one adamant patron said to me when she was disappointed that we didn’t have a copy to lend).  It’s gotten to the point that when I fill a hold for any title that has the words “shades” or “grey” in it I inwardly hope the requester is not expecting this book and they just didn’t want to ask for help. By the way it is a series, there are two more to the trilogy.

Why doesn’t anyone donate their trilogy to the Library? That way the needs of the few does not spend the tax dollars of the many. I’ll take your donation,  just put it in a brown paper bag please.

Grafedie

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April 1, 2012 · 9:04 am

Oprah Said So

It’s funny how life is cumulative.

For instance, my career, prior to my present career as a librarian, was as a Graphic Designer. It was my job to create images, along with a copywriter with a clever tag line, to move product. I did it everyday and loved every moment of it, and no, I am not going into why I changed my career, at least not now, that’s another topic.  What my point is here is that I still am doing basically the same thing, in a different realm: the library

When someone asks me what’s a good book to read, I can launch into what I have read, what is popular, what the latest book the book club is reading, I consult Novelist (no, sorry I wasn’t able to skim our entire fiction, and non fiction collection in order to give first hand reader-advisory) but all I need to do is walk past the Oprah  reading selections and my job is done.

If I were to tell you that Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina was not on the shelf for months after I stuck it on Oprah’s display, you would never believe me. You can’t make this stuff up. 836 pages. Circle of life: I’m still in the marketing business.

A couple of good books that I found interesting, and dealt with just this phenomena of popularity and trends are:

Malcom Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Chip Heath’s Made to Stick.

But when it comes to getting a book to move off the shelf, or at least to get someone to notice it, Oprah says  it all with just a little book mark sticking out of the top.

 

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March 30, 2012 · 4:47 pm

Dewey Decimal

Working in the Library for close to 14 years now, I continue to be amazed at the folks that come back to the library after many years absence and say ” I used to know the Dewey Decimal system”

There are some school libraries that actually have kids memorize the classifications! How crazy is that! And they wonder why kids are turned off to libraries!

My response is usually “Well, Dewey didn’t go anywhere, he just had to adapt to the computer age by adding the 000’s computer/software/technology category”.

In my opinion, it STILL works,  and it’s not a power trip kind of thing people are afraid to ask, like they should be embarrassed that they don’t KNOW where to find that book on the History of Salt. By all means, ask the librarian, but ask also if you can get a refresher course on how to use the new catalog (which has turned into the incriminating kiosk standing off by itself)

Nothing is an open field. Ask, learn, use the catalog and by all means, make lists.

The Dewey Decimal  System was, and still is the best way of navigation through the stacks

 

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March 29, 2012 · 8:23 pm

Hello Spring!

Welcome Spring!

No better time to launch a new blog.

From time to time, hopefully fairly often enough I will post my thoughts

on things I see in the Library, and Library realm

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