Monday Meme

AFTER HANDLING A STICKY BOOK

Submitted by Teresa from Librarian Problems Marchz 23, 2014

iPod Friday

(Picture adapted from jamona_cl on flicker)

At the end of the week I give myself a treat and listen to my iPod at work while processing books or working on the database.   These are my picks for today.                          What do you listen to at work?

 Spotlight on Avicii


Wake Me Up:

Hey Brother:

wEIRD wORD wEDNESDAY

Visceral: Relying on instinct or "gut feeling" rather than intelligence or knowledge

Wherewithal:  The means or presence of mind with which to do something

xenium: gift made to a guest or ambassador; any compulsory gift

What wEIRD wORDS do you know?  Share in the comments.

The Potty Mouth at the Table by Laurie Notaro

Pinterest. Foodies. Anne Frank’s underwear.

Author Laurie Notaro spares nothing and no one, least of all herself, in this uproarious new collection of essays on rudeness. With the sardonic, self-deprecating wit that makes us all feel a little better about ourselves for identifying with her, Laurie explores her recent misadventures and explains why it’s not her who is nuts, it’s them (and okay, sometimes it’s her too).

Notaro had me laughing out loud, snorting in public and smiling like a crazy person as I read this installment of her humorous essays. I have read some other reviews and the consensus seems to be that this is not even her best work. I can't wait to dive into one of her earlier books. Essays on topics ranging from her misguided attempt to rescue a child from exploitation, not being invited to a friends party, a snooty poet who didn't appreciate her work, or good manners and many, many other situations that allow Notaro to exercise her unique outlook on life.  My favorites from the books?  There were many,  such as the one on nettles - you know what nettles are, don't you? -spiky weeds that nobody likes, that you definitely don't want your dog getting stuck in the middle of, but when you go to the restaurant they are on the menu for something ridiculous like, $20 a plate.

Found on lilsugar.com

There was also a exposition regarding her deep and valid concern for future generations of parents who currently obsess on Pinterest - these innocents are the ones that are going to starve to death because they grew up with meal after meal of art-ified offerings and will no longer recognize what food actually looks like.

Found on colettehorne3.blogspot.com

Found on indulgy.com

Then there was the story about the author's sister who ended up being taken to hospital because of choking on a car-warmed diet Pepsi but only after being forced to divulge her true weight in front of all of her coworkers. Murmurs filled the crowd that sounded suspiciously like "lowball, that's lowball". And another on her rescue of the perfect Red Chair, despite a husbands fear of being buried but all the other treasures she had rescued before. And, oh, so many more!

Laurie Notaro has moved to a coveted place on my bookshelf.  The staple shelf, where I keep books I can read again and save for lending to only the best of friends.

Other Books by Laurie Notaro

Monday Meme

iPod Friday

(Picture adapted from jamona_cl on flicker)

At the end of the week I give myself a treat and listen to my iPod at work while processing books or working on the database.   These are my picks for today.                          What do you listen to at work?

Counting Star - One Republic

Timber - Pitbull & Ke$ha

wEIRD wORD wEDNESDAY

Sporadic: recurring in scattered and irregular or unpredictable instance

Tarantism: A disorder characterized by an uncontrollable urge to dance.

Usance: habit; custom 

What wEIRD wORDS do you know?  Share in the comments.

Bibliofetishization...

The prospect of weeding books from your library can be daunting and intimidating. Usually I don't feel this way because of the work involved or the removal of out-dated tomes that have had zero checkouts in the last 10 years, but rather due to the looks of judgement from school staff and parent volunteers. I understand not wanting to throw out a perfectly clean, readable, cherished book. These are not those. The books that I am tossing into the nearest blue bin are usually biased, ancient, stained, smelly publications that you wouldn't dream of buying, even at a dollar sale. Oh, and the information in them is no longer accurate. Some even have mold. So why are my teaching co-workers diving into the large recycle bins to 'save' them??

From the  March 13, 2014 article by  ANNOYED LIBRARIAN 

Why People Hate Weeding Books
What is it about book weeding that gets library patrons so panicked? I can sort of understand the furor over that weeding project gone awry in Illinois last year, but it seems to happen all the time.

“I just want the books to have a good home,” they’ll say. The librarians are thinking that a dumpster is a good home for garbage. Leave them in the dumpster on the way out. “Impossible!”

A late example is the library at Emporia State University in Kansas, which has had its weeding project halted until an internal auditor can examine the situation. Some people were complaining, and it must have been bad considering this sentence: “the library has slated a good amount of books to take out of the library, but not in the book burning style that many have imagined.”

Were people really imagining book burning?

I know it’s Kansas and all, where just like Arizona conservatives proposed anti-gay legislation and then voted it down when they realized how much like pre-Civil Rights Era southerners it made them seem, but hating gays so much you want to deprive them of civil rights isn’t necessarily the same thing as burning books.

Well, maybe. Anyway, this isn’t the Kansas legislature, but a bunch of librarians doing the weeding, and librarians are about as fond of burning books as they are of wearing uncomfortable shoes.

The librarians even provide all the standard and irrefutable reasons why a place like Emporia State should weed books: it’s not a research library, space is finite, etc. This isn’t weeding gone awry. It’s just weeding that people notice.

I would think the faculty could figure out that if the library keeps buying physical books and doesn’t have more physical space, something has to go. University libraries aren’t like faculty offices. You can’t just start piling books in random places and hope for the best when finding them.

And although it’s called a university, and even has the prestigious honor of having an ALA-accredited MLS program, it’s not a research library. The only ARL library in Kansas is the University of Kansas.

Therefore, it has no special obligation to keep materials indefinitely, or to build the offsite storage that makes this possible. Heck, maybe even the U. of Kansas doesn’t do that, but it’s still the sort of thing big research libraries do.

Now it could be that people fear they won’t get the material they need for research. That’s a possibility, although since it’s not a research university, they likely don’t have the funding to support everyone’s research.

Instead I suspect the panic is driven by one thing, bibliofetishization. I thought I’d coined that term, by the way, but it got 13 hits on Google, so I guess I didn’t.

Anyway, bibliofetishization, or having a fetish about books if we want to sound less pretentious, seems to be a universal phenomenon, at least among people who read books at all.


How many libraries have had to deal with people offering to donate hundreds of worthless books they found in their granny’s attic because the potential donor couldn’t just throw them out?

People who don’t work with books professionally don’t think of them as commodities. Every book is sacred, and every magazine, too, judging by the old sets of National Geographic people are always trying to donate to libraries.

Thus, while it could be that there’s something alarming at Emporia State, I somehow doubt it. Rational explanations about space and such aren’t working well, either.

It might be time to sit down individually with everyone who hates weeding in the library, offer them a cup of tea and a biscuit, and tell them in a sorrowful voice that the librarians are terribly sorry for making any changes at all, but sometimes, every once in a very long while, we have to make a few changes or else things get chaotic, and nobody wants that.

Monday Meme

iPod Friday

(Picture adapted from jamona_cl on flicker)

At the end of the week I give myself a treat and listen to my iPod at work while processing books or working on the database.   These are my picks for today.                          What do you listen to at work?

Getting ready for St.Paddy's!

Flogging Molly - Don't Shut 'Em Down

Dropkick Murphys - Rose Tattoo

The Pogues - Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

wEIRD wORD wEDNESDAY

Palindromes:

words, phrases, or series of numbers that are read the same backwards and forwards such as mom, dad, and pop.

Qualm: a pang of conscience, uneasiness, misgiving, or doubt

Redolent:  Fragrant

What wEIRD wORDS do you know?  Share in the comments.

Palindromes:

words, phrases, or series of numbers that are read the same backwards and forwards such as mom, dad, and pop.

Qualm: a pang of conscience, uneasiness, misgiving, or doubt

Redolent:  Fragrant

The Lonely Book by Kate Bernheimer

This is one of my new favorite finds.  I admit to holding on to a few childhood favorites simply because I didn't want them to feel bad that I had gotten rid of them.  The soft colours evoke feelings of finding a special corner and reading while the world around me disappears.  The passage of time in the story make me long for those cherished books. I love the relationship between the reader and the book.  Kate Bernheimer has brought it to life in this unique (at least in my library) tale.

What it is about:
When a wonderful new book arrives at the library, at first it is loved by all, checked out constantly, and rarely spends a night on the library shelf. But over time it grows old and worn, and the children lose interest in its story. The book is sent to the library's basement where the other faded books live. How it eventually finds an honored place on a little girl's bookshelf—and in her heart—makes for an unforgettable story sure to enchant anyone who has ever cherished a book.

Monday Meme +

iPod Friday

(Picture adapted from jamona_cl on flicker)

At the end of the week I give myself a treat and listen to my iPod at work while processing books or working on the database.   These are my picks for today.                          What do you listen to at work?

Time for the Pixies

Where Is My Mind

 Here Comes Your Man

Wave of Mutilation

The Heights book series

The Heights: high-interest, low-level readers that grab the attention of struggling readers with high-interest stories.  They focus on a Latino family that finds humor and hope in unusual circumstances.

Written at the lower reading levels, each book features simple text that moves the reader through the story quickly and efficiently. There is no strong language and the subjects are still appropriate for junior (grades 4-6) audiences as well as the intermediates (grades 6-8).

The use of simple sentence structures and short chapters still coveys suspense and tension in the story. I did grow weary of the number of sentences that began with the word "But".

"'But the teens knew something was wrong. Tate's tent was empty. They called his name. But there was no answer. They searched the area. Then one of the campers saw Tate's flashlight."

From Creature

I read Creature, Jump, and the book Ransom. They are quick, interesting reads that will not be intimidating to intermediates. I really like that the covers distinguish them from books for younger students. They lasted a whole 2 hours in the library's new book display before the last title was checked out. There is now a waiting list. It seems my students agree with the cover appeal.


Set 1
• Blizzard
• Camp
• Crash
• Dive
• Neptune
• River
• Sail
• Score
• Swamp
• Twister

Set 2
• Dam
• Heist
• Jump
• Tsunami
• Wild

wEIRD wORD wEDNESDAY

Matutolypea: getting up on the wrong side of the bed

Nexus
1.a means of connection; tie; link.
2.a connected series or group.
3.the core or center, as of a matter or situation.

Obfuscation: when you intentionally make something more complicated than it needs to be.

What wEIRD wORDS do you know?  Share in the comments.

Monday Meme