Ken Burns Previews "The War"

"There are no ordinary lives," according to Ken Burns, who focuses on individuals to tell his stories about historical events. In his new documentary series The War, he and the crew of Florentine Films anchor the story of World War II on the experiences of people they met in four American towns: Sacramento, California; Mobile, Alabama; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota. Like his series on the civil war, baseball, and jazz, he weaves together interviews, still photos, archival film, and period music in this production, which will premiere on PBS in late September.

Burns said that many people have requested that he make a series on World War II, but he had resisted for years. He changed his mind for two reasons. First, he read seven years ago that a thousand WWII veterans were dying every day, and he realized that many of their stories were being lost. Also, he read in the late 1990s that a poll of high school graduates revealed that many thought the U.S. fought with Germany against the Russia in the war. Being interested in the power of history, he had to address these problems.

Burns admitted that he keeps making the same film over and over. The question he is always asking is "Who are we?" He uses the same techniques and always combs libraries and archives for "the grist of all the films." He and his researchers visited hundreds of libraries in the making of The War.

I was impressed by the eloquence of Burn's speech, which reflects on his skill as a writer. I was also impressed by the seven segments of the documentary series that he previewed for us. Burns has gone far beyond the sanitized footage of the war that we normally see. The series will have to have viewer warnings.

I know what I will be doing with fourteen and a half hours this fall.

Great Little Book Shop in the Lincoln Memorial

Great Little Book Shop in the Lincoln Memorial
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Hi. Bonnie and I are in Washington, DC for the American Library Association Annual Conference. We wandered around this afternoon and found a great little book shop inside the Lincoln Memorial. I saw several books that I'd like to read. Not all the titles are about Lincoln, as there are sections on the Vietnam War, Korean War, the parks, and other local topics.

That's a bit of Bonnie in the bottom right corner.

We start attending programs Saturday morning. Our first stop is a presentation by filmmaker Ken Burns.

Update on Who Pays for ALA Survey

So far, 58 people have taken the short survey on who is paying for their attending ALA in DC this year. At first, it appeared that the majority were paying their own expenses, but later submissions have turned the trend toward their libraries paying their costs. The tide flows back and forth like totals on election night.

Here is what we have so far:

16 people are paying all their costs themselves.
13 people have libraries paying part of their costs.
27 people have their libraries paying their costs.
2 people are working for vendors to cover their costs.

The survey is still open for submissions. Tell us who's paying for your ALA experience.

Planet Earth: The Complete Series, a Hit with Teens

I was surprised this spring when I found a bunch of teens gathered around our television watching the Discovery Channel presentations of Planet Earth, a nature documentary series. Bonnie and I have been watching Nature, National Geographic, and other wildlife and natural history programs for years, and Laura and her friends always leave the room. Kids do not normally sit for the sometimes slow moving programs. Planet Earth is not normal. It includes stunning photography and gripping wildlife stories that even impress teens, a tough crowd to please.

Bonnie and I actually became disenchanted with the Discovery Channel presentations. Though we had videotaped the episodes, the commercials were a nuisance. It seemed that bits of the stories were missing, especially after commercials when topics would inexplicably change. Also we were disappointed that the cable network had replaced the narration of David Attenborough with that of Sigourney Weaver. We're Attenborough fans. We decided to wait for the library-owned DVDs.

Now we are watching the DVDs. What a great change! Each episode has about twelve to fifteen minutes longer, restoring what was edited out for commercials by the Discovery Channel. Also, we get to hear the always enthusiastic David Attenborough.

Our daughter Laura says that she preferred the Sigourney Weaver narration because it used American (instead of British) vocabulary. This has not stopped her from watching the DVDs. She watched two episodes late Tuesday night and then showed them again to her boyfriend on Wednesday morning, telling him when the best parts were coming. That proves teen appeal to me.

Libraries that buy Planet Earth should not hide it back in the natural history section. Put it where teens can see it.

Planet Earth: the Complete Series. British Broadcasting Corporation, 2007. ISBN 1419849360. 5 discs, 660 minutes.

Kids, Know Your Rights!

Amanda O'Brien at the Skokie Public Library has put together a really sharp looking four-page PDF called Kids, Know Your Rights! I have passed it on to our teen librarian to get it into the hands of our youth. It defines intellectual freedom, describes challenges to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and discusses the fight against censorship. The last page recommended nonfiction and fiction books to help teens grasp the concepts and discuss their rights. This work is sponsored by the Intellectual Freedom Committee 2005-2007 of the Association for Library Service to Children. It should be widely distributed.

Who Pays Again

I am reposting to correct some design problems. Zoho staff gave me some suggestions.

I am attending the Annual Conference of the American Library Association in Washington, D.C in a few days. I am fortunate for my library is paying for me to attend. It was not always so, as I was not in line to get conference funding at several libraries. Being of modest income, I did not attend conferences when I had to pay the costs. I suspect this is the case with many other librarians, but do I really know? Maybe there are librarians paying their own way or finding creative ways to pay to attend.

If you are among the fortunate attending this week's ALA conference, please take my brief survey about who is paying. I am not asking any confidential information, so there are no privacy issues. Perhaps this results of this survey will show how important or unimportant employer support is for conference attendance.

(If you are using an aggregator, like Bloglines or Google Reader, you will need to come to the original blog to take the survey.)





Thanks for taking the survey.

Librarians' Book Revoogle Article on Readers' Advisor News

Take a look at the June 2007 issue of Readers' Advisor News, which has my article on the Librarian's Book Revoogle. In the article I describe the tool, how it was made, and ask for help identifying book reviews from libraries and librarians to add to the customized search. The article appeared yesterday, and so far, three readers have replied with suggestions.

The link to the article is beside the photo of me taken by Aaron Schmidt last year. Thanks, Aaron.

I am honored to have my article placed with articles by Jessica Zellers and Sharron Smith. Jessica describes the growing genre of women's nonfiction, and Sharron tells about her passion for readers' advisory. There is also an article remembering the author Lloyd Alexander.

Follow-Up on Who Pays for ALA Survey

The Zoho survey that I embedded in a post earlier today is causing some problems. It looks okay (not great) in Mozilla Firefox browsers, but the bottom part of the box with the submit button is not visible for users of Internet Explorer 6.0. I do not know about other IE versions yet.

A second problem is that Blogger will not let me edit the post with the embedded Zoho survey. I remember that this happened before when I pasted in code for the Zoho survey. When I try to edit, I find the word processing box is empty. I can not see anything to edit it.

Another problem is that Bloglines and Google Reader are also failing to show the survey box. Users of aggregators need to come to this blog using Mozilla Firefox to actually take the survey.

That said, 11 people have taken the survey so far. 6 of them are paying all of their expenses themselves, 3 are getting some help from their libraries, 1 is working for a vendor during the conference, and 1 is lucky enough to have her library pay her expenses. This is not what I expected.

Please, keep taking the survey to see if the trends hold up or change. Thanks.

Who Pays to Attend the ALA Annual Conference?

I am attending the Annual Conference of the American Library Association in Washington, D.C in a few days. I am fortunate for my library is paying for me to attend. It was not always so, as I was not in line to get conference funding at several libraries. Being of modest income, I did not attend conferences when I had to pay the costs. I suspect this is the case with many other librarians, but do I really know? Maybe there are librarians paying their own way or finding creative ways to pay to attend.

If you are among the fortunate attending this week's ALA conference, please take my brief survey about who is paying. I am not asking any confidential information, so there are no privacy issues. Perhaps this results of this survey will show how important or unimportant employer support is for conference attendance.




Thanks for taking the survey. I will report the results after the conference.

Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson

Nonanon is in the mood to save older books from weeding. So am I. My latest find among the books not recently borrowed in my library is Naturalist by Edward O. Wilson.

Wilson is of a rare breed of entomologist, one who can cross over from writing for scholarly publications to writing for a more general audience. He won a Pulitzer Prize for Literature (not science) in 1991 for his book The Ants. Some readers will still find his writing challenging, as he does include discussions of scientific theories and evidence, but with a little skimming, even they can get through Naturalist, a memoir.

The most charming parts of Naturalist are when Wilson describes his observations in nature, beginning with his boyhood on Paradise Beach on the Gulf of Mexico near the Alabama-Florida border. Readers can feel his love of creatures great and small, especially small. The best parts of the book are when he describes finding rare ants during field work.

With such a long career, a 364 book is inadequate to fully tell his story, and some episodes are skimpy on details. Two months in Suriname are passed over in a single sentence. If he would write with a little less personal reserve, he could put together a great big field work memoir that many readers would enjoy.

Among the chapters on studies in the field are chapters about his childhood, his education, and his career. The latter chapters focus on his academic battles over the concept of sociobiology and his becoming an environmental activist.

After reading Naturalist, some readers will want to try On Human Nature and The Future of Life.

Wilson, Edward O. Naturalist. Island Press/Shearwater Books, 1994. ISBN 1559632887

Away from Her, a film by Sarah Polley

As movie titles go, Away from Her is a little weak to market. I have had trouble remembering it and had to look it up even after seeing the movie, which is itself very memorable. The snow scenes of this Canadian film are beautifully filmed and the story is gripping. With some thought I do see how the title is appropriate to this film based on a short story by Alice Munro, as the main character struggles with living without his wife. The short story is "The Bear Came Over the Mountain." If there is a reference to bears in the short story, it was left out of the movie.

Away from Her is the story of Grant (Gordon Pinsent), a retired literature professor, who has been married to Fiona (Julie Christie) for forty-five years. She was always energetic, and he adored her. When her Alzheimer's disease advances and she decides to enter a care center, he is despondent. Pinsent is excellent in the role. Ebert and Roeper gave the film two thumbs up.

Neither Baker & Taylor nor Amazon indicate when Away from Her will be released on DVD. The film has only been in limited distribution for a month. I hope libraries notice when it is, for it would be an excellent choice for a film discussion group. It might be paired with the reading of The Story of My Father by Sue Miller, for another viewpoint on Alzheimer's disease.

See Away from Her if you can.

First into Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and Prisoners of War by George Weller

Chicago Daily News reporter George Weller broke all the rules when he went into Nagasaki about four weeks after it had been blasted by the second atomic bomb dropped on Japan. He escaped his military escort, rode a still-running Japanese train, and pretended to be an American army officer. The ruse worked to the point that he obtained official Japanese cooperation, but his on-the spot reports were snagged by General MacArthur's censors and destroyed. The carbons from his typewriter were found in 2003. First into Nagasaki is the first publication of most of the stories from his months in and around Japan in the fall of 1945.

Why were Weller's reports suppressed? His accounts were not sensational. In fact, the military accounts of destruction and loss of life were higher, and most of his pieces dealt with soldiers and civilians who had been Japanese prisoners of war. In a memoir that he wrote later (also in this book), he surmised that MacArthur and his staff wanted full control of the story, which the reporter threatened.

The prisoner of war stories are more interesting than the Nagasaki story, which is as much about Weller's adventure as about the military event. The reporter spoke with hundreds of service men who had spent years in brutally hard work camps, often recording their own words. First Into Nagasaki should have an index so the descendants of these men could more easily find their stories.

From his interviews, Weller also learned much about the Pacific theater of war, and this book includes stories about Wake Island, the Philippines, and Japanese prisoner transport ships. World War II readers will want this book.

Weller, George. First into Nagasaki: The Censored Eyewitness Dispatches on Post-Atomic Japan and Prisoners of War. Crown Publishers, 2006. ISBN

The ricklibrarian Guide to Losing Your Wallet

Losing things. Sunglasses, hats, umbrellas, and jackets are among the things I have lost. I am not alone losing things. Library users often lose diskettes, school assignments, library cards, reading glasses, bookmarks, sweaters, gloves, and their own books. The items pile up in the lost and found.

I have a story. The past two weeks have been extraordinary. My daughter sang in her final high school choir concerts, her grandparents came to visit, we visited Chicago tourist sites, we attended the graduation ceremony, and we threw her a party. In the middle of the festivities, I lost my wallet.

I noticed that I did not have my wallet when Bonnie and I stood in front of a supermarket display of flowers. We were on our way to the last choir concert, and I had at the last moment changed my mind about which pants to wear. I assumed the wallet was in the other pants at home. I asked Bonnie to drive the rest of the evening. We attended the concert and went for dessert before going home.

When I got home, I found the wallet was not in the other pants. It was not on the bed, under the bed, behind the bed, on the dresser, in the dresser, on the bookshelves, in the closet, on the window sill, or on the night stand. It was not by the computer, in a jacket, by the front door, in the kitchen, or on the dining room table, nor was it in the recycling, in the waste baskets, in the clothes hamper, in the flower beds, or in the cat's litter box. I searched both cars completely. I looked everywhere and then I looked everywhere again.

I called the supermarket early in the search. The woman at the customer service desk checked the lost and found and then called around other departments. It had not been found, but she recommended calling back in the morning as there was a chance the overnight custodial crew would find it.

I cancelled my credit card. The agent said there was no indication that it had been used that day, and I would get a call about any further charges that appeared. Then I started trying to remember everything that I had in the wallet - my driver's license, library cards, health insurance card, Morton Arboretum pass, museum memberships, voter's registration, supermarket cards, a note with some little used passwords, emergency contacts, and a little cash.

I also remembered that my Social Security card was in the wallet. Bonnie said that I should not have been carrying it around. Of course, she was right, as the number is exactly what a dishonest person would like to find. I last showed the card to an employer fifteen years ago. It should not have been there.

I called the supermarket again in the morning, but it had not been turned in to the customer service desk. I searched the house, car, and yard again. I got a ride to the driver's license facility and for an hour watched bad public service in action. I came home, double-checked some unlikely spots in the house, and gave up the search.

Two days later, I attended my daughter's graduation ceremony. As I made my way out of the stadium, a woman called to me, "Mr. Roche, do you know the supermarket has your wallet?" She said that it was in a drawer at the camera department, which happens to be about ten feet away from the flower display.

We went straight to the supermarket, and I went in to the camera counter. I asked the woman behind the counter, who replied that she had not heard about a lost wallet. She opened several drawers and then consulted with another employee who said all wallets are supposed to go to the customer service desk. So I went to that desk. The agent there opened a drawer and pulled out my wallet, for which I thanked her. She said that she had tried to call me but that my phone was not in service. (Perhaps she misdialed.) I quickly checked and found all the cards and cash undisturbed. I was greatly relieved.

As I think back on the episode, I have two questions that will never be answered. How did I manage to drop the wallet from my button-closed pocket? Where was my wallet the two times I called the supermarket?

Here are my hard-learned lessons for those who lose things.

Lesson 1: When you discover something is missing, look around your immediate location. Do not assume it is somewhere else. If I had turned around, I would have probably seen the wallet on the floor behind me.

Lesson 2: Do not give up the search too quickly. I should have made a third call to the supermarket.

Lesson 3: Do not carry your Social Security card. Put it somewhere safer.

I also have advice for supermarkets, shops of all types, restaurants, community centers, schools, and libraries.

Lesson 4: Have one place that lost and found items go.

Lesson 5: Make sure everyone on the staff knows the lost and found place.

Lesson 6: When the owner of the item can be identified, call more than once.

People will continue to lose things, some of which are important. With care and consistency, we can reduce their distress and help them find what they have lost.

Ladybookbug: A New Anonymous Book Reviewer

Ladybookbug has joined the ranks of librarians writing reviews of the books she reads. Her blog is titled "On the Bookshelf," and her latest review looks at The Road by Cormac McCarthy. She would not have read the book if she had not heard the author interviewed, but then she was glad that she had.

So far, all but one of her books have been fiction, and most are top sellers. My favorite review, however, was of a first novel, Summer People by Brian Groh. I hope that she tackles more lesser-known authors to help us learn about them.

I added her URL to the Librarian's Book Revoogle, but none of her reviews appear in results yet. It appears that Google does not rank her blog yet. Visit her blog to help it out.

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

As Walter Isaacson explains in Einstein: His Life and Universe, Albert Einstein was a key figure in the history of the first half on the twentieth century. Not only did he pose revolutionary theories in physics, he became involved in many of the public issues of his time. Frequently relocating in his most active period, he renounced nationalism and claimed to be a citizen of the world. He supported Jewish settlement in Palestine, but insisted he was opposed the formation of a Jewish state. He preached pacifism until the Nazis took control of Germany. He refused all invitations to visit Russia, which he charged violated the precepts of socialism. He was frequently asked for his religious beliefs, which were reported widely.

His enormous fame did not come easily. He was a lowly-paid patent clerk in 1905, unable to get an academic appointment, when he wrote five scientific articles that challenged Newtonian physics. From these came the field of quantum physics and the concept of relativity. As Isaacson tells the story, it would still be another six years before the great thinker could afford a home with electricity. An ironic note is that Einstein would later regard his patent clerk days as his most creative.

Isaacson includes physics theorems in the biographical narrative, but he explains the concepts step by step as Einstein discovered them, and most readers should understand. They can elect to skim or skip these discussions of energy, matter, atomic structures, speed of light, and relation of space and time, but sticking with them enriches the text and gives a deeper appreciation of Einstein's life.

Isaacson also includes much detail of Einstein's family life, which was always strained and somewhat sad.

I listened to the actor Edward Herrmann reading the book on my iPod, which I enjoyed. Listening might be a good alternative for readers who are bogging down with the print edition.

Einstein is selling well, making the hardcover best seller lists in numerous newspapers. Every library should have it.

Isaacson, Walter. Einstein: His Life and Universe. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007. ISBN 9780743264730

18 compact discs. Simon and Schuster Audio. ISBN 9781428149342

Librarians Beware Chicago O'Hare

In a few weeks many librarians will be flying from Chicago O’Hare Airport to Washington, DC for the American Library Association Annual Conference. Because there is construction in and around the terminals and the parking garage, they should allow extra time.Here is what I saw yesterday (June 5, 2007) when I went to pick up relatives in for my daughter Laura’s graduation.

• At noon, the main garage and valet parking were full.The entrance to the parking garage was blocked by barriers and a couple of police cars.
• Cars congested the arrivals drive. Many people stood by their cars. They were apparently watching for friends, family, etc. coming from the baggage claims areas.
• Signs directed drivers to park in remote parking lot E.
• Signs at remote parking lot E said that it was full. New signs directed drivers to remote parking lot G.
• Buses from remote parking lot G to remote parking lot E to catch the tram to the terminals were full. I did get on.
• From the tram I saw that the parking lot for the International Terminal was full.
• Terminal 2 there is a down escalator but no up escalator from the bridge level down to the departures level. (From the tram, you enter at the bridge level.) Any one going up has to take an elevator.
• The departures area of level 2 was full of people. Most were in lines backed to go through security to go to the gates. I unofficially heard that the lines were 30 minutes long.
• Most of the escalators from the departures level to the baggage claim level have been removed. I found stairs at one end of the building and an escalator at the other end. (I don’t remember if it was up or down.)
• Luggage began arriving at baggage claim 25 minutes after the plane reached the gate.
• There was a line to take the elevator up to the bridge level to catch the tram back to parking lot E to get the bus to parking lot G.
• The buses were loaded to parking lot G.

It will be a long summer at Chicago O’Hare.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

Some books are remarkable not for what they say but for how they say it. Such is the case with American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, a graphic novel about the son of immigrants trying to assimilate in an American school. The message of the book can be reduced to "Be yourself," which is a common theme in literature, but there is much more to the book.

American Born Chinese at first appears to be three stories in rotation - a Chinese folk tale about the Monkey King, the story of Jin Wang moving into a new school, and the story of Danny being embarrassed by his very stereotypical Chinese cousin. The Monkey King is angered by the prejudice of the Chinese deities, who will not allow him to join the party in heaven because he does not wear shoes. He transforms himself into a revengeful warrior who attacks the hosts of heaven, for which he is punished by being locked under a mountain of rubble until he learns his lesson.

Jin Wang is the central character. He tries to transform himself into an average American teen with increasing embarrassing results. The story of Danny is mostly in the background until the end when he confronts his cousin. At that point, all the stories come together cleverly.

American Born Chinese is aimed at teens, especially boys. It is at times violent in a comic book way, but it is a serious treatment of an ethnic experience that should be considered for library collections.

Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese. New York: First Second, 2006. ISBN 1596431520

Baseball Haiku: American and Japanese Haiku and Senryu on Baseball

waiting to bat
the hitter swats
a swarm of gnats
Sylvia Forger-Ryan

Nearly two decades after Horace Wilson introduced baseball to Japan in 1872, Masaoka Shiki wrote the first baseball haiku.

spring breeze
this grassy field makes me
want to play catch

Jack Kerouac is often credited with writing the first American baseball haiku, and Beat poets continued the cause.

How cold! - late
September baseball -
the crickets

Baseball Haiku edited with translations by Cor Van Den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura includes a history of baseball haiku, sections of American haiku and Japanese haiku, a short history of baseball, a booklist, and an index of poets. Most of the works included do not adhere to the old 5-7-5 syllable standard. Some even have fewer than seventeen syllables. Senryu count morae (sound units familiar to the Japanese) instead of syllables.

cold day
the traded catcher's
empty locker
Cor van den Heuvel

Poets must not be talented players as there are several last-player- picked or not-even-picked haiku.

the last kid picked
running his fastest
to right field
Mike Dillon

the boy not chosen
steps over home plate,
picks up his books
Edward J. Rielly

Yes, that last haiku had a comma, the only one I noticed in the book.

While many haiku dealt with the play of the game or its viewing, some dealt with the ballpark and the lack of a game.

game over
all the empty seats
turn blue
Alan Pizzarelli

Get it.

Baseball Haiku: American and Japanese Haiku and Senryu on Baseball edited with translations by Cor Van Den Heuvel and Nanae Tamura. W. W. Norton, 2007. ISBN 9780393062199

"Hot Reads for the Summer": An Aid to Book Selectors from the Chicago Tribune

When I saw that the Saturday Books section in the June 2, 2007 issue of the Chicago Tribune included a list "Hot Reads for Summer," I expected a list of light reading in paperback to take to the beach. Wow, I was really wrong! Kristin Kloberdanz lists 150 new and soon to be published books that voracious readers will enjoy. Readers are already asking libraries for some of these books (a look at my library system's catalog verifies), and as more are published in the next three months, they will return to the request desk.

The list includes 150 titles, fiction and nonfiction, and takes four pages. The fiction appears to include literary novels, short stories, first novels, and a few sure bet best sellers. I know that I want to read The Maytrees by Annie Dillard and The Entitled: A Tale of Modern Baseball by Frank Deford. About one third of the list is nonfiction, and I see many titles to add to my reading list, including Chasing Kangaroos by Tim Flannery, Deluxe: How Luxury Lost It's Luster by Dana Thomas, At Large and at Small by Anne Fadiman, and Fanatic: 10 Things All Sports Fans Should Do Before They Die by Jim Gorant.

The reviews in this week's Books again feature new works by authors attending this year's Printers Row Book Fair. If you are not in the Chicago area, you can watch C-Span2's live coverage of the book fair on June 9 and 10.

I think you will be able to see the Books section as a pdf at the Chicago Tribune online without registering. It is worth a look. I ordered 18 books after I did.

Raney by Clyde Edgerton

When Maggie of Maggie Reads quoted the Raleigh News and Observer, which said that the novelist Clyde Edgerton was "the love child of Dave Barry and Flannery O'Connor," I quickly placed a reserve for Raney, his first novel. I expected something strangely humorous. I was not disappointed.

An engagement announcement from the Hansen County Pilot on the opening page of the novel tells us that Raney is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thurman, the owner of a combination bait shop and grocery and a housewife. Raney is to marry Charles C. Shepherd at the Bethel Baptist Church. Charles is the assistant librarian at the Listre Community College and is full of liberal ideas that are going to shock his Bethel Free Will Baptist bride's world.

Charles had introduced himself to Raney at a Christmas dinner for faculty at the college. She had sung for the event, and he asked her to sing with him and his banjo. They fell in love without ever talking about their deeply set beliefs.

What we read is Raney's closely kept diary, in which she tells us of the wedding and their first year of marriage. You can bet she never intends anyone else to see it. Nearly every page includes an account of humorous incident, like Charles's reluctance to eat okra or his infuriating tendency to prefer reading books to visiting with her folks, but the novel is really very serious. It would be a great book discussion selection. Look for it in your library.

Edgerton, Clyde. Raney. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1985. ISBN 0912697172