Thursday, January 28, 2010

Review Thursday: Children's Fiction

The Switch (2009)
Anthony Horowitz

Thirteen-year-old Tad Spencer lives with his rich mother and father. He gets whatever he wants but Tad is unhappy. One night he wishes he were someone else. When he wakes up, he is Bob Snarby, a poor son of carnival workers. He soon wishes he is Tad Spencer again. Tad runs off to a fortune teller who informs him that he is stuck being Bob Snarby until January 13, 3216. Will he ever be Tad Spencer again? This book goes nicely with The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.

Thank You, Lucky Stars (2008)
Beverly Donofrio

Ally is ready to start 5th grade with her best friend Betsy. They have been looking forward to the 5th grade talent show since kindergarten. Imagine her surprise when she spots Betsy with their enemy Mona! Ally discovers that Betsy and Mona are going to be part of a rock band for the talent show. The only girl interested in being friends with Ally is the new strange girl named Tina. Can the two of them put on a good performance for the talent show? Will Betsy be friends with Ally again? Pair this book with The Kind of Friends We Used to Be by Frances O’Roark Dowell.

The Year of the Bomb (2009)
Ronald Kidd

It’s 1955 and the United States lives in fear that Russia may decide to drop a few bombs. To escape the worry, Paul, Arnie, Crank, and Oz love to go see horror movies. They become excited when they find out that a new horror film called “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is going to be filmed in their hometown, Sierra Madre. They get to meet some extras on the set named Laura and Darryl. The four boys soon discover that Darryl is a government agent looking for communists on the movie set and at a nearby university. Should they help him or prevent him from falsely accusing people and ruining lives? For facts about the Cold War try The United States in the Cold War: 1945-1989 by Christopher Collier.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Tips for Weeding Your Collection

Just like a garden, library collections need to be weeded of materials no longer useful, in order to make room for what the customer needs now. Weeding the shabbier materials also makes for a brighter more attractive collection. Remember, you don’t want a MUSTIE collection:
  • Misleading
  • Ugly
  • Superseded
  • Trivial
  • Irrelevant
  • Elsewhere
Take a look at the book Weeding Library Collections: Library Weeding Methods by Stanley Slote for more tips.

There are a number of Web sites available to help you formulate your policy and help with training. The Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records has a useful guide which discusses weeding in depth.

The Alachua Country Public Schools offers a guide specifically for school libraries. The book Less is More : A Practical Guide to Weeding School Library Collections by Donna J. Baumbach is also useful.

The Texas State Library and Archives Commission has a manual for training in the art of weeding.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Who are the People in Your State Library Resource Center


Meet Doug Skeen!
Library Associate
Enoch Pratt Free Library/State Library Resource Center


What do you do?
In addition to working on the telephones, answering Maryland AUN! chat, assisting walk-in customers at the Information Desk and the Public Computer Center, I do all the daily and weekly schedules for 21 full and part-time staff. Also I run the State Library Resource Center Tour that occurs twice a year in May and November. Finally, on an infrequent basis I assist the librarian at the Regional Information Center of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council. This off-site facility is staffed by the Pratt Library.

How did you get here?
I obtained my first library card when I was six at the Govans Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Fifty six years later I am still a card carrying member of the Pratt. Also for the last twenty six years I have been a full time staff member as well. Guess you could say that the library has in one way or another, been a part of most of my life.

What's your favorite thing about your job?
The variety and the challenges; I never get bored!

What's a book that you didn't expect to like - but did?
Harry Potter. Mostly I read non-fiction, though I do enjoy a well written mystery, particularly the works of P.D. James.

What is your favorite SLRC program, service or training?
That's easy to answer: the SLRC Tour! It's great to be a part of an event that brings together librarians from all over the State of Maryland.

What do you do when your're not reading?
I play the 'cello and I draw and paint. Music and art have been, are and will remain my passions. Bach and Bruegel rock!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Online Faxing

Do you have customers asking you about faxing for job applications or any other reason? While it can be expensive to fax from a copy shop such as Kinkos or Staples, there are services online that will allow faxing online.

One easy to use service is called Fax Zero. Users don't need to register to use the service, but are limited to two faxes of up to three pages per day. Documents for faxing can be a Word or Excel document or PDF. Fax Zero is free to use.

Free Fax requires a person to register in order to use the site. Faxes can be copied and pasted or typed into a text box. Free Fax is, as the name implies, free.

Efax and MyFax include one-month free trials, but require registration before using and a fee after the first month.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

I keep hearing about library mashups. What are they?

Library mashups are one of the ways libraries are integrating more services into websites. According to Nicole C. Engard, a mashup is "a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool." Library mashups have been used to add value to websites through music, commenting, video, and news.

One example of how the Maryland State Library Resource Center is using library mashups is Mapping the African American Experience in Maryland created by the African American Department. This site combines Google Maps with photos and information from the library’s collection illustrating buildings, sites, and historic districts relating to the African American experience in Maryland. Through these kinds of web services, library mashups help to provide innovative ways for libraries to connect patrons with information.

Program Help - Top Ten Resources

This is the first in a series of "top ten" lists. If you are looking for resources to make 2010 the best year ever for your library programs, look no further! The websites in this guide discuss several aspects of programming.

Event$ "on the cheap": Keeping the "bottom line" in mind is important in these budget-conscious times. Here are several websites with programming ideas that are inexpensive or free.

1. Hudson Valley Library E-Z Program Database

This is a searchable database of free and inexpensive program ideas, created by librarians in New York. Ideas are searchable by cost range, topic, audience, and/or program type.

2. What's Your Story? Find it at the library.

From the state library of Montana, this list of programming ideas for adults includes forty topics. Each is discussed in detail, with a catchy title, possible subtopics, approximate program time, suggested types of speakers, and more.

3. Calendar of Teen Programming Ideas

This wiki by YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, presents ideas for teen programming in a calendar format. Everything from national holidays to library-specific events like Teen Read Week gets its due in this resource with something for everyone.

Working the Crowd: Partnerships with other community organizations can benefit everyone involved. Look in your community for like-minded organizations, and approach them about working together.

4. Check your community's website for a list of organizations, like
this one from Salisbury, MD.

Making Your Mark(er): Arts and crafts make-and-take events are great for children and teens. To cut down on costs, you can ask for donations of art supplies from community members (everyone needs to clean out their closets sometime!) or local stores.

5. Choose crafts that are inexpensive to make, like origami boxes. View the directions with pictures here.

Here are two great books with lots of inexpensive ideas for kids' crafts:

6. Kids' Crazy Concoctions: Different mixtures in this book include homemade Play-Doh and other recipes for art supplies that use inexpensive household ingredients.

7. EcoArt!: Earth-friendly art and craft experiences for 3 to 9 year olds: Suggestions for activities made with recycled or reusable materials turn one person's trash into another person's treasure.

Looking Ahead: Find out what made your program great, and what to do next. Use your most important resource to the fullest - your patrons! Here are some websites including ideas for questions to use in both planning and follow-up surveys.

8. For planning programs: Planning Programs Survey

9. To follow up after a program: http://www.slrc.info/WorkArea/showcontent.aspx?id=42890

10. SurveyMonkey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/

SurveyMonkey is free, easy to use, and compiles survey results for you. If you prefer, you can use paper surveys.

Use what you learned from your patrons' feedback to make your next program even better. Good luck and here's to a fun and exciting year of great programs in 2010!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Review Thursday: Adult Fiction

Yes, My Darling Daughter by Margaret Leroy (2009)

Four-year-old Sylvie is a puzzle. Besides her sickening fear of water and nightmares, there are her odd allusions to a house where she lived once, in a place she identifies with a magazine picture of an Irish fishing village in Connemara, far from the English flat where she has, in fact, always lived quietly with her unmarried mother, Grace. Sylvie’s oddities alienate their friends, cause daycare to expel her, force Grace to quit her much needed job, and--worst--make Grace feel harrowingly bereft of her own child. After other desperate measures, she agrees to take Sylvie to Connemara under the supervision of Adam, a Psychic Institute researcher who believes Sylvie experienced a trauma there in a past life. A Connemara cottage which Sylvie joyfully reclaims as “my house" belonged to a troubled woman named Alice who disappeared seven years ago with her daughter. To solve the mystery of Sylvie’s eccentricity, Adam and Grace must uncover the truth about Alice—a labor fraught with peril, since Alice’s foe lives on.

Though Gothic conventions flourish in the seaside episodes, Leroy’s psychological realism, especially in depicting Grace’s maternal distress and growing attraction to Adam, keeps the novel fresh and suspenseful, her musical prose and sensuous descriptions (tulips are “bright toy-soldier red,” and a store purchase goes into “lots of whispery tissue paper”) a constant delight. She resembles Daphne Du Maurier and Anne Rivers Siddons as vivid stylists who specialize in psychological anomalies and high-pitched drama.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

What are some upcoming movies based on books? How can I keep up with this?

There are many places you can check for upcoming movies; in the writing credits on these websites you can find out if the film is adapted from a book. These sites are not always complete, so it is worth checking more than one. Movie release dates are always subject to change, especially dates further in the future, so it is always good to check.

One site from a “book-centric” point-of-view is Book Reporter.com.

Film sites that are good to use, and link to more information about the films, include:

Variety Film Release Chart
As this is an entertainment industry newspaper, it is likely to be the most accurate the further one goes into the future, but in the basic listings, it won’t tell you whether the film is based on a book.

Internet Movie Database Coming Soon
Click on the title for more information, e.g. writing credits.

Three more films sites that include upcoming films listings, but are especially good for finding reviews, are:
And, finally, a good place to check for over 1,250 older films adapted from books, check Mid-Continent Public Library’s “Based on the Book”.

Some upcoming 2010 films based on books to look forward to include:

Vincent van Gogh: The Letters


Welcome to the first digital collection review of 2010. "Vincent van Gogh: The Letters," sponsored by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, includes a total of 902 digitized and translated letters, both to and from van Gogh. Most of the correspondence is between Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo. The letters show that van Gogh painted with words as well as he painted pictures. His vivid and lyrical descriptions of people, places, and even the weather, give us insight into his inner life, his art, his relationships, and the places where he lived and painted.

The database is free and very easy to use, despite its large volume of material that includes digitized versions of the original letters, translations into English, annotations, and bibliographical sources. The letters are searchable and browsable by time period, correspondent, or place. Browsing can also be limited to the letters that have sketches. Advanced searching allows the viewer to limit by source, including any combination of the original letters, the English translations, the annotations, and the bibliographical references. Hyperlinks within the letters provide easy access to cross-referenced terms. Clicking on a hyperlinked word or phrase in a letter brings up a list of additional letters that include that term.

This collection is a fantastic resource for anyone with an interest in van Gogh, from high school students to adults. For patrons looking for additional resources, the Van Gogh Museum maintains both a blog "written by" van Gogh that draws on the museum's materials, and an iPhone application called "Yours, Vincent" that provides access to van Gogh's letters on the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Review Thursday: Children's Nonfiction

Home on the Range: John A. Lomax and His Cowboy Songs by Deborah Hopkinson (2009)

As a young boy John Lomax sang songs to make doing his chores easier. In his head and, later, on scraps of paper, he collected work songs, ballads and, in particular, the soothing songs that cowboys sang to quiet restless cattle. When he grew up, he went around the country recording the cowboy songs he remembered from his childhood. His tapes eventually formed the basis of the American Folklife collection of the Library of Congress. This is an engaging book with charming pictures and, let’s face it, inspirational tales for children about folklorists are few and far between. Recommended for young readers interested in the American West, vernacular music, or folkways.

You Wouldn’t Want to Be Sick in the 16th Century! Diseases You’d Rather Not Catch by
Kathryn Senior (2002)

Next time you have to go to the doctor, be grateful you live here and now. Before there was aspirin, there was trepanning, or drilling a hole in the skull to release evil spirits. This installment of the You Wouldn’t Want To series examines the world of one Nicholas Knight, a fictional barber surgeon in Tudor England. A frightening glimpse at the infancy of scientific medicine, this book shows how, from a medical standpoint, at least, Merrie Olde England wasn’t so merry. Some of the ideas and practices detailed here, such as the theory of humors, are amusingly absurd, while others, such as the use of medical leeches, are enjoying a new day in the sun.

How Many Ways Can You Catch a Fly? by Steve Jenkins (2008)

If you’re a Jackson’s chameleon, you catch a fly with your tongue, which, as it happens, is half again as long as your body. Dazzling collages illustrate the various ways that animals solve survival problems like getting food, finding shelter, reproducing and caring for young. This is a thoughtful examination, in clear, simple language, of the concept of ecological niches. The science is solid but not dry and the illustrations, as always in a Jenkins book, are breathtaking.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

One of my regular customers just got an iPod to use to listen to audiobooks, but doesn’t want to pay to download them. What can I suggest to her?

According to the Audio Publishers Association June 2009 industry report, 21% of the market is downloading audiobooks. More and more people are listening to audiobooks on their MP3 players, iPods, and other mobile devices. Here are a few suggestions for downloading free audiobooks:

Free Classic Audio Books: Digital Narration for the 21st Century

This site provides free downloads for classic audiobook titles for both MP3 players and iPods. Audiobooks may be searched by title or author; however, the site does include a list of available audiobooks in no particular order. One of the drawbacks to the site is the advertisements.

Gutenberg: The Audio Books Project

Project Gutenberg was founded in 1971 by Michael Hart and has expanded to include free audiobooks. The audiobooks are available in two categories: Human-read Audio Books and Readings by Computers. The audios are searchable by title, author, language, and subject. If an audiobook is downloadable to an iPod, it will state: Apple iTunes Audiobook.

LibriVox

LibriVox was founded in 2005 by Hugh McGuire and provides free audiobooks read by volunteers. All of their books are in the public domain. In addition, Project Gutenberg is working with LibriVox, so you may see some ebooks listed under a particular title as well as audiobooks.

There are directions on the catalog page on how to download audiobooks using iTunes.

Maryland's Digital eLibrary Consortium

The Maryland Digital eLibrary Consortium is composed of sixteen public library systems throughout Maryland. The free audiobooks are available using your library card. In order to listen to the audiobooks, simply download the OverDrive Media software. Step-by-step directions are available under the Help link. The consortium also includes a list of supported devices.

Audiobooks are searchable by author and title. An advanced search option is also available to search: format, keyword, language, publisher, and subject. In addition, under the Browse Collections, there is an iPod Compatible Audiobooks! section to limit your search.