While more features and posts are still in the works (I promise!) I've got another Saturdays @ the South post raring to go: http://www.peabodylibrary.org/freeforall/?p=1895
I'm particularly proud of this one, largely because it made me touch nervous and I posted it anyway. I've gotten some good feedback from colleagues (thank you!) about the content, which is always satisfying. However, considering this post is for a public institution, bringing in materials that aren't really controversial to libraries (or shouldn't be, anyway) but could be touchy with the reading public I was still a little antsy. But I got to post a Neil Gaiman video that turns me into a puddle of mush with admiration so that makes up for a lot.
The whole point of this post is that people shouldn't be antsy about books that push people's buttons, that having discussions about what we don't like about books is not only healthy, but also an important part of free speech. Taking away books not only takes away people rights, but takes away people's opportunity to complain. I find it difficult to believe that people want to give that up, but we all know it happens just the same. My personal favorite in doing the research for this post was finding out that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was challenged because someone thought the anatomical descriptions were pornographic. Good grief.
One note I do want to add, because I'm not sure it was obvious from the post (even though I did link back to the site where I got the images) was that those amazing paintings of character mug shots were from a Flavorwire article that had more great images and some good things to say against banning books. Book challengers are the original versions of internet trolls and like all trolls, we just need to turn their words against them to shut them down. Even though we should always be speaking out in favor of books and ideas, let's all speak that much louder in favor of books this week, even the ones we don't agree with or like, because in doing so, it keeps the conversation going and protects everyone's rights to read whatever they want.
Saturday, September 26, 2015
Saturday, September 19, 2015
The Readers' Advisory will be televised... New Saturdays @ the South
OK, so I promise I'm working on some new original material for this blog including a couple of new regular features. But for now, here is another link to my latest Saturdays @ the South posting.
And now for the promised blog extras:
So this post only featured a couple of truly favorite television shows because both space and budget at the South is limited and we don't have too many true TV seasons. FYI- all time favorite shows? Law & Order (the original is the best, am I right?) and Psych.
My primary goal for this post was to get our blog readers to think of the library in terms of more than books. Sure we do books (and do so very well, in my totally biased opinion) but we're also a programming library that has some unusual collections including disc golf sets and some other incredibly cool items coming soon. The library should be a place for fun as well as study or quiet. A place where people can think about planning their weekends, whether that means getting a museum pass, borrowing a stack of books or getting ready to binge-watch a show they might have missed on the first run, not just a place for free internet access when homework needs to be done or the IRS forces people to use the internet.
Hopefully this and future blog posts will start getting people to think a little differently about the awesomeness that is the library. (Plus, it gave me a chance to feature Violet Crawley quips and really, where's the bad there?) Oh, and here's a favorite quip that didn't make it to the post:
And now for the promised blog extras:
So this post only featured a couple of truly favorite television shows because both space and budget at the South is limited and we don't have too many true TV seasons. FYI- all time favorite shows? Law & Order (the original is the best, am I right?) and Psych.
My primary goal for this post was to get our blog readers to think of the library in terms of more than books. Sure we do books (and do so very well, in my totally biased opinion) but we're also a programming library that has some unusual collections including disc golf sets and some other incredibly cool items coming soon. The library should be a place for fun as well as study or quiet. A place where people can think about planning their weekends, whether that means getting a museum pass, borrowing a stack of books or getting ready to binge-watch a show they might have missed on the first run, not just a place for free internet access when homework needs to be done or the IRS forces people to use the internet.
Hopefully this and future blog posts will start getting people to think a little differently about the awesomeness that is the library. (Plus, it gave me a chance to feature Violet Crawley quips and really, where's the bad there?) Oh, and here's a favorite quip that didn't make it to the post:
 |
Saturday, September 12, 2015
New Saturdays @ the South
Here's this week's Saturdays @ the South post:
http://www.peabodylibrary.org/freeforall/?p=1637
I'll be adding more regular features soon, but I hope this feature is as enjoyable to read as it is to write!
Bonus materials:
Books that have the ability to vicariously take me places are some of my all-time favorite to read. My latest obsession, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (both the book by Susanna Clarke and the BBC miniseries) immersed me so entirely into an England in which magic was real and altered the landscape, I'm still not 100% convinced that the Raven King isn't coming back.
Aside from fiction books like JS&MN that have an enormously strong sense of place, I'm a big fan of travel memoirs. These are my "beach reading," my fun fluff and a great way to appease my wanderlust. Sadly, many of them got left out because many libraries don't seem to carry much of this genre, unless it is wildly popular (Eat, Pray Love; Under the Tuscan Sun, etc.) or has a high-demand backstory (i.e. it's from a famous author who writes other things). A most recently read favorite is Eating Viet Nam: Dispatches from a Blue Plastic Table by Graham Holliday. This book went down much easier than some of the dishes Holliday devoured in Viet Nam.
If you find that your library offers lots of travel memoirs, what are your population and collection management strategies like? Do you find them popular or are books like There's No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled best kept on private bookshelves?
For some additional recommendations, feel free to peruse my "travel" shelf on Goodreads.
my travel shelf:
Here's a sampling of some favorites there:
http://www.peabodylibrary.org/freeforall/?p=1637
I'll be adding more regular features soon, but I hope this feature is as enjoyable to read as it is to write!
Bonus materials:
Books that have the ability to vicariously take me places are some of my all-time favorite to read. My latest obsession, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (both the book by Susanna Clarke and the BBC miniseries) immersed me so entirely into an England in which magic was real and altered the landscape, I'm still not 100% convinced that the Raven King isn't coming back.
Aside from fiction books like JS&MN that have an enormously strong sense of place, I'm a big fan of travel memoirs. These are my "beach reading," my fun fluff and a great way to appease my wanderlust. Sadly, many of them got left out because many libraries don't seem to carry much of this genre, unless it is wildly popular (Eat, Pray Love; Under the Tuscan Sun, etc.) or has a high-demand backstory (i.e. it's from a famous author who writes other things). A most recently read favorite is Eating Viet Nam: Dispatches from a Blue Plastic Table by Graham Holliday. This book went down much easier than some of the dishes Holliday devoured in Viet Nam.
If you find that your library offers lots of travel memoirs, what are your population and collection management strategies like? Do you find them popular or are books like There's No Toilet Paper on the Road Less Traveled best kept on private bookshelves?
For some additional recommendations, feel free to peruse my "travel" shelf on Goodreads.
my travel shelf:
Here's a sampling of some favorites there:
Al's bookshelf: travel
Excellent book. Well balanced with a driving, compelling narrative. At times, genuinely thrilling and peppered with charming anecdotes. Would recommend to anyone who likes history, nature or a good adventure story.
Amazing! Insightful, humorous and easy to read. Steinbeck has a way of capturing the essence of someone/something in only a few words.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
New Regular Feature! Welcoming Saturdays @ the South
As part of my plan to update this blog more regularly, I'm in the process of adding some regular features. Welcome to the first one! I've been adding content to my library's blog with a weekly feature: Saturdays @ the South. (Since I run the South Branch and the blogmaster and I are both fans of alliteration, the title was deemed appropriate.) I'm going to be sharing my post from the Library here every Saturday. I'm proud of the content I've added (and may post a couple of throwbacks; fair warning) and hope that my adding it here will help add the topics I've discussed to the ongoing library conversation. This is also a good forum to add the little tweaks that I thought of too late...
I also hope that, should you read the Saturdays at the South posts, you'll take some time to poke around the Library's blog and check out some of the other great content that gets posted.
So without further ado, I present the link for this week's Saturdays @ the South: Book Hangovers:
Saturdays @ the South: Book Hangovers
Bonus material:
I can't believe I didn't remember to add Drood by Dan Simmons to this list! Simmon's tome gave me an enormous book hangover. It was rough picking a book to follow this one as it had so much going for it. After 800 pages following Wilke Collins on supernatural adventures (trust me on this one), I wasn't ready AT ALL to join the real world again.
I also hope that, should you read the Saturdays at the South posts, you'll take some time to poke around the Library's blog and check out some of the other great content that gets posted.
So without further ado, I present the link for this week's Saturdays @ the South: Book Hangovers:
Saturdays @ the South: Book Hangovers
Bonus material:
I can't believe I didn't remember to add Drood by Dan Simmons to this list! Simmon's tome gave me an enormous book hangover. It was rough picking a book to follow this one as it had so much going for it. After 800 pages following Wilke Collins on supernatural adventures (trust me on this one), I wasn't ready AT ALL to join the real world again.
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Well that didn't work...
Here in my final semester of my MLIS, I've realized that this blog has been woefully neglected, mostly because I transitioned from being a library student with a full time job, to a full-time librarian finishing her degree. I'm about a year and a half into a dream of a job running a small branch of a larger library community. So, instead of spending time writing about my library school experience, I've been trying to keep ahead of the (steep) learning curve that's part of becoming a practicing librarian.
Things are settling down as my schoolwork is occupying less of my mind, so I'm hoping to start adding some regular features of my library work. Feedback is welcome! Most of my ideas have come from plundering the web and others' ideas, so if my contributions inspire someone to do something, let me know!
So here's to chatting more often and learning more.
Things are settling down as my schoolwork is occupying less of my mind, so I'm hoping to start adding some regular features of my library work. Feedback is welcome! Most of my ideas have come from plundering the web and others' ideas, so if my contributions inspire someone to do something, let me know!
So here's to chatting more often and learning more.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)