A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States by Timothy J. Henderson

Growing up in Texas, I studied the state's history in 5th, 7th, and 12th grades of public school. I know the stories of Stephen Austin's colony, the Alamo, the Battle of San Jacinto, and the years of the Republic of Texas quite well. The presentation was always, of course, from the viewpoint of the victors. In A Glorious Defeat, Timothy J. Henderson examines the Mexican part in the war or wars. (Do you count the Texas Revolution as part of the U.S. War with Mexico?) Rather than assign blame, he examines the social, economic, and political forces in Mexico leading up to and existing through the war. Then he describes the legacy for both countries.

The central point is that many Mexican leaders knew that their country would lose the war before the fighting ever started. The young country, independent from Spain for only fifteen years when the Texas colonists rebelled, was poor, sparsely populated, and politically divided. The liberals wanted to form a democracy, while the conservatives wanted to establish a European style monarchy. The political sides only agreed that the United States was taking advantage of their country's weakness. Most of the leaders foresaw the inevitable loss of Texas, New Mexico, and California. So, why did they reject U.S. purchase offers and fight a losing battle?

According to Henderson, fighting the U.S. was seen by the Mexicans as patriotic and opposing the war became politically suicidal. Few dared to speak up, and they were exiled or executed. As a result, the military drafted poor and native peoples (few of the landed or merchant classes served) and sent them on military campaigns without weapons, food, or clothing. Many died of starvation or disease before battle. Desertion was rampant.

While Henderson concentrates on telling the story of the country as a whole, he does include tales of key figures, such as Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Vicente Guerrero, and Anastacio Bustamente. The saddest of the stories is about General Manuel de Mier y Teran, who commits suicide rather than see all his grim predictions come true.

Many public libraries are short on materials about this war that preceded and in ways led to the American Civil War. It is a good purchase and a good read.

Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States. New York: Hill & Wang, 2007. ISBN 9780809061204

Shoot the Widow: Adventures of a Biographer in Search of Her Subject by Meryle Secrest

"... I must see the purpose of biography as not just to record but to reveal." Meryle Secrest

Meryle Secrest has been writing biographies for about thirty years. Readers find art historians, artists, architects, and musicians, living or deceased, among the subjects of her first nine books. In Shoot the Widow, she tells about meeting her subjects and interviewing their families, friends, enemies, and other associates. As you might imagine, many of these people have been more interested in their reputations than in honesty.

One of her most interesting projects was writing Kenneth Clark: A Biography. She first interviewed Clark when writing her first two books, biographies of the artist Romaine Brooks and of the art critic/dealer Bernard Berenson. When she asked to write about him, Clark seemed receptive and granted many interviews over several years. His sons and wife, however, tried to limit her access. As his health slid toward his eventual death, he became less reliable. She found herself often in the uncomfortable position of accepting hospitality from the Clarks while knowing they would not approve of what she was writing.

To avoid repeating her difficulties with the Clarks, Secrest did not plan to meet Salvadore Dali, but the invitation came and she felt she could not refuse. On the day of her visit (it can hardly be called an interview), she was told not to tell the bed-ridden and mostly listless Dali that she was writing about him. She practiced an elaborate French greeting, which fell flat. She tried to limit the conversation to safe topics, but the meeting ended quickly when she mentioned Dali's recently deceased wife.

Frank Lloyd Wright had been dead for several decades before she started a book about him, but his family and students were just as difficult as those protecting living subjects. She began her book about Leonard Bernstein the day he died. Writing this book led to writing about Stephen Sondheim, who was mostly cooperative but sometimes challenged her actions.

Throughout the book, Secrest questions her own methods, trying to find the fine line between ethical and unacceptable behavior for a biographer. Readers interested in the issues involved in the writing of books will enjoy Shoot the Widow. Readers in search of good stories will be entertained, too.

Secrest, Meryle. Shoot the Widow: Adventures of a Biographer in Search of Her Subject. New York: Knopf, 2007. ISBN 9780307264831

Book Review Blogs for You to Try

I will be away from this blog for about a week. In the meantime, I have some new book reviewing blogs to recommended to you.

Tiny Little Reading Room - The author is a children's/teens' librarian who is trying to keep up with her reading challenges and is telling us about the books she is reading. I especially like how she lays out and labels her reviews. She includes sections a summary of the book, a reason why she chose the book, and her overall impression. She may also include a favorite quote from the text, as in her review of Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind.

Running with Books - Melissa Stoeger of the Deerfield Public Library has begun a blog of book reviews and news. So far most of the titles have been high interest titles like A Thousand Splendid Suns and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I like how she sometimes adds news into the reviews, such as telling us about the three books that Michael Chabon has scheduled for publication.

Brooklyn Book Talk - The Brooklyn Public Library, fifth largest library system in the U.S., with sixty neighborhood libraries, is using a blog as a platform for book discussions. You can see how the discussion on The Night Watch by Sarah Waters is going.

All of these have been added to the Librarian's Book Revoogle.

Harry Potter Party in Downers Grove

Book as Costume
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

A crowd of readers moved on downtown Downers Grove last night, awaiting the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Among the many activities was a costume contest. I did not hear who won, but my favorite was the girl who came as the book. In her interview with Anderson's Book Shop staff, she said that it took her three days to make her costume.

There were lots of Hogwart's student robes, many also sporting the Gryffindor scarf. The scarves looked pretty sharp with the black robes or black t-shirts. I think I know what I want for Christmas.

Of course, our reason for being there was to pick up the book, but there were several hours of party before midnight, so we visited Honey Dukes for chocolates. We also watched a bit of human-sized chess and saw wandmaking.

Bonnie had ticket #45. We had the book by 12:03. She started reading in the car on the way home. Laura gets the book next. I am last in line, which is good because I then get to take my time enjoying it.

More photos are on Flickr. Click the photo.

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I notice that iTunes does not have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I wonder why.

How Doctors Think by Jerome E. Groopman

In How Doctors Think, Jerome E. Groopman is concerned with misdiagnosis of patients' diseases. Early in the text he says that more harm is done through misdiagnosis than through outright mistakes, such as removing the wrong kidney or giving incorrect dosages of drugs. These headline catching mistakes are rare, but treating wrong diseases are not.

Groopman believes the problem stems from physicians not taking time to listen to their patients. He mentions that studies show doctors often interrupt their patients within seconds of the patients starting to explain their condition. The doctors start almost immediately asking narrowing questions. The author says that these physicians have often already started reaching conclusions when they have only slight evidence. Important clues that the patients know are never uncovered by the medical professionals. The book includes many harrowing stories in which patients were treated for the wrong condition because the doctors rushed diagnosis.

Groopman's prescription for doctors is learning to do better interviews, asking open ended-questions and listening. As a reference librarian, I can not help but take notice of this. This is exactly the mandate for the reference interview. First determine what the client really is asking. Let them speak. Time spent at the beginning of the process saves time changing directions later. Perhaps there should be library classes in medical school, and medical students should spend some time at a reference desk.

Groopman's book is already very popular. Every library should have it.

Groopman, Jerome E. How Doctor's Think. Houghton Mifflin, 2007. ISBN 9780618610037

MacLean Hall at the University of Iowa

MacLean Hall
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Laura and I just spent the past two days at her orientation at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She now has a schedule for the fall, which may change after she takes another placement exam. Parents had their own orientation schedule. Some of the meetings were informative, especially the one devoted to computing and the one on student health and counseling services. The one on finances was almost a complete waste of time, as there was about three minutes worth of new content; I could hardly believe the questions some parents asked at this late stage in preparing to send their kids to college. I know we say that there are no dumb questions, but some sure come close.

I took some time to wander around campus. I also took Laura and her boyfriend Matt to see Harry Potter instead of hearing a third "what's it like to live on campus" lecture of the day. We had a good time.

On Wednesday Laura filled out forms at the employment office of the university libraries. With public library work experience and two librarian parents, she is a natural.

Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power by Ross King

I read everything that Ross King writes, so when I saw Machiavelli on the shelf at the Downers Grove Public Library, I had to check it out.

Has Machiavelli been maligned by historians?

Machiavelli was very untrustworthy as a diplomat and as a husband. He was very cynical as a writer of political philosophy and ribald plays. He was implicated but never convicted of assassination plots. Many people counted him as an enemy. Can anyone view him sympathetically? King provides evidence for the debates about the infamous Renaissance statesman who rubbed shoulders with tyrants, popes, and artists. (He even knew tyrannical popes who were art patrons.)

This book is not for gentle readers. King includes some grisly details about executions and some profane Machiavelli quotes. Of course, gentle readers are probably coming nowhere near this book anyway.

Why is Machiavelli still relevant? His book The Prince is part of a tradition of writing about government and public policy, which goes back to Thomas Aquinas. The tradition continues as nearly every key figure who leaves the U.S. government writes a book. As a diplomat, Machiavelli can easily be compared with Henry Kissinger. He's written books. His care for public opinion was much like that of Dick Cheney. He wrote a book. His insistence on military buildup resembles that of Donald Rumsfeld. Will he write a book?

Machiavelli is part of the Eminent Lives Series from Atlas Books. (Hey, editors, these books should have indexes!) It is a great addition for library collections.

King, Ross. Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power. Atlas Books, 2007. ISBN 9780060817176

Thank You Blogger, Thank You Readers

I have had thousands of extra readers over the weekend, as Blogger made me Blog of Note on Friday. Since it was a weekend, I got to stay first in the queue two extra days. Thank you, Blogger.

Thank you, readers. I hope my blog was worth your visit. I hope lots of you now want to read about the black baseball players of the 1950s and 1960s, about Lady Bird Johnson, and the works of Wendell Berry. I hope you can find libraries that own The Power of Art DVDs. (See my posts of the last week.)

Thank you, everyone who commented on the postings. I appreciate the the kind words. Several of you asked questions that I am still contemplating.

Thank you to those of you who identified some book review blogs. I will post about these soon.

I did delete a few of comments because they offered book reviews and when I linked to the blogs I found no reviews. If you did this, post some reviews and try again. I also deleted some spam.

Thank you, librarians, who inspire me to blog.

Fidelity by Wendell Berry

In his novels and short stories, Wendell Berry writes about the people of Port William, Kentucky, a farming community that you will not find on any map. Fidelity is one of several volumes adding to the story of the Coulters, Feltners, Catletts, Rowanberrys, Penns, and other families who settle on the hills and in the valleys of the small rivers feeding into the Ohio River. These books take readers back to the nineteenth century and up through the twentieth, revealing how life in rural America has changed.

Fidelity starts with “Pray Without Ceasing,” a story in which the narrator receives an old newspaper clipping, which sparks his memory of his grandmother telling him about his grandfather, who was shot to death by a close friend. Many of the families are involved.

The embroidery on the book jacket refers to the second story, “A Jonquil for Mary Penn.” Not wanting to delay her husband who is going to help a neighbor, Mary tries to hide an illness. After he leaves for the day, alone and isolated, in a time before the party-line telephone, she finds her illness more serious than she would admit.

I read “Making It Home” on Memorial Day, which was very appropriate. Art Rowanberry returns from his service in World War II, having received a medical discharge. As he nears his home, hiking in because there was no bus, sleeping overnight in an abandoned barn, he remembers his experiences of combat.

In “Fidelity” Berry tells the story of the death of Burley Coulter, a character who appears in many of the Port William stories. His son Danny can not stand to see his father full of tubes and tied to monitors in the hospital and removes him in the night. The story ends with a scene that reminds me of a Miss Marple mystery, with family and friends gathered in a lawyer’s office to unravel the events for a young police detective.

The collection ends with “Are You All Right?” in which Andy Catlett worries about the elderly Rowanberry brothers, who are isolated by flooding. He and his friend Elton go out in the night to see if they can help.

The books of Wendell Berry do not have to be read in any order. I especially recommend the Hannah Coulter, a novel with many connections to this wonderful short story collection.

Berry, Wendell. Fidelity: Five Stories. New York: Pantheon Books, 1992. ISBN 0679416331

Carrying Jackie's Torch by Steve Jacobson

According to Steve Jacobson in Carrying Jackie's Torch, the story of integrating major league baseball did not end with Jackie Robinson surviving his first year with the Brooklyn Dodgers. For the next dozen years an unpublicized quota kept the number of black players down , and the men who followed the Dodger second baseman faced entrenched discrimination. In some cities, not all in the South, they had to eat in kitchens while their white teammates ate in dining rooms. They were restricted to certain cars of trains. They were not allowed into many of the team hotels. Abuse from the bigots in the stands and hate mail dogged them whenever they excelled.

In separate chapters in Carrying Jackie's Torch, Jacobson tells the stories of eighteen players and Emmett Ashford, the first black umpire in the major leagues. Several of the players are lesser known, but many are stars, like Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Bob Gibson, and Henry Aaron. The saddest of the tales are those of Charlie Murray, who found the discrimination in the minor leagues unbearable, and Curt Flood, who challenged the baseball reserve clause that kept players enslaved to their teams.

Jacobson says that he wants current players, with their big salaries and many perks, to read about these men who made modern baseball possible. He also argues that integration of baseball and other sports was essential to the success of the civil right movement. Public and school libraries should own this book.

Jacobson, Steve. Carrying Jackie's Torch: The Players Who Integrated Baseball - and America. Lawrence Hill Books, 2007. ISBN 1556526393

Lady Bird Johnson, 1912-2007

All the newspapers across the land are running obituaries of Lady Bird Johnson today. In the Chicago Tribune, the emphasis is on her beautification of American highways and environmental work. Because of Lady Bird, we now have many highways lined with wildflowers or other native plants.

The stories also talk about her concern for the poor and her kindness to anyone. I remember as a student at the University of Texas in the 1970s that she was the only member of the board of regents whose door was open to students. At a time when Frank Erwin and the other regents wanted to shut down the student newspaper, which kept investigating and reporting their crimes (university investments going to their own corporations), Lady Bird spoke up for the students. She was deeply respected across campus.

Our libraries have books about Lady Bird, including the attractive children's book Miss Lady Bird's Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America by Kathi Appelt. Recent biographies for adults include Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson by Jan Jarboe Russell and Lady Bird Johnson: Our Environment First Lady by Lewis L. Gould.

Lady Bird wrote some books herself, which are still widely available, Wildflowers Across America and A White House Diary.

It is a day for book displays.

A Day Without A Library Catalog

The woman holding the biography of Harry Houdini asked us to conjure up another book.

With the U. S. release of the fifth Harry Potter movie days away, it seems a good time to ask some questions. Do librarians practice magic? If so, can they conjure without their wands? Can they borrow wands?

My library had no access to its catalog yesterday. It was down as the Metropolitan Library System replaced some of its computer equipment. Since we disposed of the card catalog on December 30, 1999, we had no tool giving the call numbers and statuses of our books, movies, and music.

We were not totally stranded, as our materials are included in the WorldCat database, which we access through FirstSearch. I have found that our new materials do not appear for months, but most older items are included and identified by our three letter code HAO. With this in mind, we set up for the day with Firstsearch on our screen at the Reference Desk and signs on our catalog monitors promising that the reference librarians could help find books. I also printed up Dewey cheat sheets

Business at the desk was definitely up and I thought I did quite well. (Please excuse the boasting.) In a three hour period, I found seven books that WorldCat indicated we owned. The only one that I did not find is being read by a book club, so I am sure it was checked out. I took numerous reserves for items that I found at other libraries.

I was particularly proud of a few of cases.

When Worldcat showed that we owned a book about a corrupt policeman, I tried going to true crime 364.1## on the Dewey shelves, and there it was with a three digit extension. The reader was pleased.

Sandy, our head of circulation and interlibrary loan, asked me whether we would really own a book on the operations of electrical power plants. She had gotten an ILL and thought it odd that our medium small public library would have a book otherwise owned by only two universities nationwide. I recognized the author as a local resident and we did indeed have his book on the 621 shelves. She was surprised.

Our reference staff and Aaron Schmidt will be proud to know that I do know where to find the birdhouse construction books. There are two places - in the 598 and 690.89 areas.

I suspect other reference librarians in MLS libraries did just as well yesterday. Our requests were pretty common. (I'd like to hear other stories.) We all know a lot of Dewey from years of handling books and answering questions.

Today I see that the catalog is up. I would not have minded another day without it. (Wash my mouth with soap!) I enjoyed getting an increase of people at the desk, meeting a few that I had never helped before yesterday. I enjoyed seeing the books get into their hands.

There have been several stories lately about libraries using bookstore models and going without Dewey. It is not really that shocking an idea, as Dewey is somewhat 19th century in its organization, and bookstores are not totally without organization. I suspect that the bookstore model will not of itself, however, really solve any problems. I have trouble finding books in bookstores.

Books often defy classification, as their texts often combine subjects with very separate Dewey numbers. Librarians often disagree where to put them. Booksellers are not any more agreeing. Will a book on baseball cards be with the sports books or in the collectibles department? It is the same problem, no matter how you arrange books.

The key to book-finding success is knowledgeable staff and a good catalog. I once witnessed in a Books-a-Million a clerk tell a shopper that he had never heard of Dr. Seuss and, being alone at the time, he did not have time to look the author up. I hope that would never happen in a library, where we have librarians trained in magic.

Simon Schama's Power of Art

I do not follow the television listings and am dependent on Bonnie to find us interesting programs to watch. She is highly selective, and I have full confidence in her choices. Her latest great find is Simon Schama's Power of Art, which is running this summer on PBS stations.

At this point, we have seen four of the eight episodes, each of which focuses on a different artist and a masterpiece that transformed the world of art. Episode One tells how Vincent Van Gogh came to paint Wheatfield with Crows (1890), which Schama claims is the first work of modern art. When the British host is not on screen, Van Gogh's career is dramatized by actors. The artist walks the streets, drinks with friends, writes to his brother Theo, visits prostitutes, and, of course, paints in the French countryside. The result is an art documentary that could draw viewers away from lurid reality shows on MTV.

In the second episode, the historian tells about how Pablo Picasso became political and painted Guernica (1937) after the slaughter of the Spanish Civil War. The self portrait within the painting David with the Head of Goliath (1610) by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and the passion within the sculpture The Ecstasy of St. Theresa by Gian Lorenzo Bernini followed in Episodes Three and Four. Both Caravaggio and Bernini attack people with knives. These lives of artists are not for elementary school art appreciation show-and-tell.

Is that blood on the DVD box?

We are awaiting episodes about Rembrandt, David, Turner, and Rothko.

The Power of Art is available in a three discs DVD set. As a librarian trying to build a nonfiction collection, I wish each episode were on a separate discs, so eight students could borrow the episodes for their assignments at the same time. Still, it looks like a great set for public and academic libraries.

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The Power of Art also has a website, which includes background on each episode, lesson plans for teachers, and a Google Map mashup to show where to find works by the artists in American museums. Unfortunately the map identifies only one of the works by Van Gogh in the Art Institute of Chicago. Still, it is interesting to see what PBS web developers are doing.

Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See by Robert Kurson

Mike May was blinded by a chemical explosion in his family's garage when he was three. He almost died and was in the hospital for months. Not the shrinking type and supported by his mother, he learned to lead an almost typical boy's life of climbing trees, playing sports, and, when old enough, dating girls. The title Crashing Through refers to the risks he took to ski downhill at record speeds. He was known for dangerous behavior. He even tried to drive a car once, just to say he had.

When May was 46, an ophthalmologist in San Francisco told him that stem-cell and cornea transplants might restore his vision in his one remaining eye. Being a semi-famous advocate for the blind, he was uncertain whether he wanted to see. He had done so well without sight, and there were many risks involved with the surgery and the drugs he would have to take to avoid tissue rejection. After months of debate, he decided that to be true to his usually bold spirit to have the surgery.

In Crashing Through, Kurson tells about May's initial year of sight. As a reader, I sometimes thought the author included too much detail about May's experiences, especially his intimate relations, but I was fascinated. When the bandages were removed from his eyes, May had color vision and the ability to follow motion immediately. He could even catch a ball thrown by his son. Identifying images and faces was, however, difficult. The field of vision was crowded with shapes and colors. As in the other rare cases of sight restoration, May needed to physically touch items to understand them. The implications for child development of sight are immense.

The access that Kurson had to May must have been extensive, as Crashing Through seems almost a memoir, though it is written in third person. It's tone is much like that of Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, which is a memoir written in the third person (probably by the joint author). Many readers will enjoy this book.

Kurson, Robert. Crashing Through: A True Story of Risk, Adventure, and the Man Who Dared to See. New York : Random House, c2007. ISBN 1400063353

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott

"You can't go limp in the face of the world's horror."

One of the things I really enjoy about Anne Lamott is that sprinkled among her engaging stories about her life are great pronouncements fit for framing. If I had had a paper copy of Grace (Eventually), I could have yellow highlighted something on nearly every page. As it was, I listened to her read her book on my iPod. She is the exception to the rule that authors should not read their own books. She is very expressive and conversational. I could listen again.

Librarians will like the story that she tells of going to a rally in Salinas to support keeping the public library open. She was just going for the day and planned to sleep comfortably in a bed that night. When she found that all the old hippies and famous authors and actors were camping out, she felt it was the right thing to do. She has many wonderful things to say about libraries in this story. Have a highlighter handy when you read.

Not all the stories are so happy. Lamott tells about the friends she has lost, fights with her son, and the days before she quit drugs and alcohol. She describes fearful times when she lost the dog in the woods, when she was taken for a long ride by a suspicious cab driver, and when she was very sick after an eating binge. She has trouble asking for help, but when she does, she comes through her trials. If only she would learn before the next incident.

Lamott is not neutral on any subject and will annoy some readers. However, if you like humorous, sometimes outrageous tales from left-wing sunday school teachers, you will like Grace (Eventually).

Lamott, Anne. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith. New York : Riverhead Books, 2007. ISBN 1594489424

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar ...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein

Customer in a restaurant: "How do you prepare your chickens?"
Cook: "Oh, nothing special really. We just tell them they're gonna die."

Have you been meaning to study philosophy, so you can separate epistemology from existentialism? You might start with Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar ... Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, who went into social work and comedy after philosophy school, have written a primer with a big twist of humor. Every section is full of jokes to introduce philosophical concepts, such as metaphysics, logic, and ethics.

Salesman: "Ma'am, this vacuum cleaner will cut your work in half."
Customer: "Terrific! Give me two of them."

This customer obviously has not studied philosophy, for if she had, she would know Zeno's Paradox. Every time that you cut something in half, you still have a half remaining. In theory, you never reach zero, but in reality, people actually do finish projects. How can this be? Cathcart and Klein toss this paradox around and then go on to more jokes.

Joe: "What a fabulous singer, huh?"
Blow: "Ha! If I had his voice, I'd be just as good."

Epistemology is a study of knowledge and knowing what you know. When you define something as something, is it really something? The authors may not agree. Maybe.

I enjoyed Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar ... on an airplane, completing it during the return flight from Washington, D.C. to Chicago. It can easily be set down and picked up again without losing the discussion line. Most of the jokes are actually longer than these samples. Some of them will offend gentle readers, but those who enjoy Las Vegas stand-up comedy will be prepared.

More serious students will want Philosophy for Dummies by Thomas V. More or Philosophy Made Simple by Richard Henry Popkin.

Cathcart, Thomas and Klein, Daniel. Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar...: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes. New York: Abrams Image, 2007. ISBN 081091493x

Who Pays to Attend ALA Conference Survey Results

84 librarians have completed my survey Who Pays for ALA. While that is a small sample, not enough to be significantly statistically accurate, it is enough to show that librarians are finding a variety of ways to attend the annual conference of the American Library Association each summer. It also is enough to show an inconsistency among libraries in whether they support their employees attending professional conferences.

The Questions

My survey only asks two questions.

The first asks who pays for the attendees to attend. The choices for the survey takers range from the attendees' employing libraries paying the costs to the attendees paying all the costs themselves. In between are other options.

The second asks the attendees types of libraries.

The Results

Here are the results, starting with the largest respondent group and descending to the smallest, with non-categorized respondents at the end.

Academic librarians:
12 - my library is paying the conference costs
15 - my library is paying part of the conference costs
1 - I am earning my way working for a vendor
6 - I am paying all the costs myself

Public librarians:
16 - my library is paying the conference costs
5 - my library is paying part of the conference costs
1 - I got a scholarship to attend
1 - I am earning my way working for a vendor
5 - I am paying all the costs myself

Non-profit agency librarians:
3 - my library is paying the conference costs
2 - I am paying all the costs myself

Job-seeking unemployed librarians:
3 - I am paying all the costs myself

Corporate librarians:
1 - I am earning my way working for a vendor
1 - I am paying all the costs myself

School Librarians:
1 - my library is paying part of the conference costs
1 - I got a scholarship to attend

Retired librarians:
1 - my library is paying the conference costs
1 - I am paying all the costs myself

Vendor librarian:
1 - I am paying all the costs myself

Others:
4 - my library is paying the conference costs
1 - my library is paying part of the conference costs
2 - I am paying all the costs myself


Totals:
36 - my library is paying the conference costs
22 - my library is paying part of the conference costs
21 - I am paying all the costs myself
3 - I am earning my way working for a vendor
2 - I got a scholarship to attend
0 - I am earning my way as a paid speaker

You can see all the survey submissions by clicking this permalink.

My Thoughts

Because the sample is small, I do not want to make grand pronouncements. Also, I see some flaws in my questions, as I did not specify exactly what conference costs were. I was thinking registration, hotel, meals, and transportation, but I did not list these. I think most respondents assumed this, but some may not have.

Still, I see some interesting results.

1. The portions of academic and public librarians having to pay all their costs themselves is relatively equal. Early in the poll I thought I saw academic librarians having to pay their own way and public librarians getting more library support, but the numbers approached each other as more librarians took the poll.

2. More public librarians had all their conference costs paid for by their libraries than academic librarians who often had to pay part of their costs. This is where I wonder if my questions were too vague.

3. It makes sense that the three unemployed job-seeking librarians paid their own way.

4. The number of school librarians in the poll seems rather small. As a group, this poll did not find them.

5. The results for non-profit agency and corporate librarians are not what I expected. I thought many non-profits would not have the funds to support librarians at conferences, while I thought corporate librarians would get support. The sample is small.

6. There are seven respondents from uncategorized libraries. Librarians work in a greater variety of situations than I allowed for in this poll.

7. I can see that there are stories behind all these responses. I wonder about the retired librarian who still has a library to pay the conference costs. I wonder about the person working for a vendor who had to pay his/her own way; was he/she actually the vendor/entrepreneur?
Did the public and academic librarians working for vendors get to attend any presentations? Who were all the librarians wanting to come badly enough to pay all their own expenses?

What Now?

I admit that I have not looked to see if anyone has studied the financing of ALA conference attendance. No one has commented yet to say that I should look at existing reports. I am sure that it can be done again in a more planned manner with more reliable results. This might be helpful in the future.

Why does it matter? I think the results show that high percentage of attendees do get support from their libraries. Paying all or part of the costs for an attendee is an accepted and good policy for libraries wishing to further staff development. Perhaps more thoughtful library administrators can use such findings to initiate programs to support their employees for future conferences.

Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire by Marybeth Loriecki

For years I have read quotations by Aldo Leopold on signs in woods and nature preserves, especially in Wisconsin. I knew only that he was a naturalist famous for his book A Sand Country Almanac. That book is still on my to read list, especially now that I have read Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire by Marybeth Lorbiecki.

Leopold (1887-1948) was a controversial figure in his day. When he started working as a forest ranger in 1909, he agreed with the United States Forest Service pro-lumber and pro-grazing policies. He even supported the bounties offered by the various states to get rid of "vermin" that were supposed to be in competition with hunters for game animals. As he worked in remote forests in New Mexico and Arizona, he began to realize that the land was being damaged by the lumber companies and the ranching industry and that wildlife was in trouble. He upset many with his newsletters that argued for limiting private use of public lands and for the end of anti-predator laws. He eventually lost his job with the Forest Service. This is a complicated story too long to repeat here. You have to read the book.

Leopold struggled to support his family with his writing and his work for conservation organizations until he landed a professorship at the University of Wisconsin. His real fame came as federal policy changed during the Great Depression when drought in the Southwest created the disaster known now as the Dust Bowl. The Roosevelt administration hired him as prime advisor on the restoration of damaged lands. His work with the Civilian Conservation Corps was reported in national newspapers.

Readers will find Lorbiecki's biography of Leopold easy reading. She tells the story of his career in chronologically arranged chapters with only the most necessary details and includes many photos of Leopold, his family, his colleagues, and the locations at which he worked. She also liberally added maps and quotations from his books. With interest in the environment increasing, librarians will want to promote this book.

Lorbiecki, Marybeth. Aldo Leopold: A Fierce Green Fire. Helena, Montana: Falcon, 1996. ISBN 1560444789