We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

I noticed We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson in the June issue of American Libraries. It had won two different children's books awards. Being a big fan of both baseball and books, I had to see it. Luckily for me, when I sought the book, it had just been returned to the library and had not made it back to the new book display. Surely it would have gone back out right away.

I was impressed. Nelson is multitalented, both at storytelling and at illustration. He tells the story in the voice of an unnamed black ballplayer, often using the pronoun "we," making the story seem very personal. Within 88 pages, he tells the major stories of the league and describes the daily life of the players. There are dozens of arresting reproductions of Nelson's oil paintings depicting the ballplayers, including Josh Gibson, Satchel Page, and Cool Papa Bell. I can imagine this book doubles as both a children's storybook (older readers) and a museum catalog. The pictures would look good on a set of baseball cards.

Now I need to return it and let someone else enjoy this fine book. It would be a nice item to actually own, especially if you have young athletes in your home.

Nelson, Kadir. We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. Jump at the Sun, 2008. ISBN 9780786808328

Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague by Myla Goldberg

In her column in the June 2009 issue of Booklist, Joyce Saricks mentions looking for audiobooks to match the travel time of her driving trips. If she has only a three hour drive, say Downers Grove to Springfield, both in Illinois, I suggest Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague by Myla Goldberg. In this audiobook read by Bernadette Dunne, Myla Goldberg recounts her 2003 stay in Prague, Czech Republic. Her account is heavy on description; she paints detailed pictures of the old city with its historic architecture, beautiful parks, and active street life. She also tells stories, including her being fleeced for jaywalking by a couple of crooked cops.

Librarians will especially enjoy her account of visiting the national library, which at the time of her visit was struggling to provide services with scant funds. The building and its collection date back to the 15th century when Jesuits started a college on the grounds of a Dominican monastery. Both have survived many transfers of ownership and authority, as has most of Prague itself.

While in Prague, Goldberg witnessed demonstrations against the invasion of Iraq and found Kafka's well-kept grave surrounded by a mostly abandoned cemetery, where many headstones had no names. I found these and other reports compelling listening as I tended our garden. It is easy to spend three hours in the garden, especially with a good audiobook.

Goldberg, Myla. Time's Magpie: A Walk in Prague. Books on Tape, 2004. 3 compact discs. ISBN 1415907773

Things That Go Bump in the Stacks: Whole Collection Advisory for Paranormal Fiction

Sunday at the American Library Association was my day to attend programs on subjects about which I knew little. I started with Things That Go Bump in the Stacks: Whole Collection Advisory for Paranormal Fiction, introduced and moderated by Neil Hollands of the Williamsburg Regional Library. Neil presented a brief history of these books with their vampires and other dark creatures. They differ from fantasy in that they bring magic into the everyday world. They spring from horror and often include appeal factors from romance and mystery. Some are even literary. Their rise has been spotlighted by the success of the Twilight novels by Stephanie Meyer.

With Neil were three authors. Marjorie Liu has spent much of her life in foreign countries and draws on her travel and diplomatic experience in crafting settings. She began her writing career in 2005 with Tiger Eye, a paranormal romance paperback. Liu says that she includes many forms of creatures in her novels, including her Dirk & Steele and Hunter Kiss series. she already has over a dozen books.

Charlie Huston is a classic rags to riches author, having been everything from a struggling actor to a bartender before becoming a successful author. His books are violent and often reflect life in the underside of society. Since his debut with Caught Stealing in 2004, he is known for the Hank Thompson trilogy and the Joe Pitt series. He jokes that he writes for maladjusted young men. "Splatter" is his favorite word.

Charlaine Harris is the most known of the panelists. She began her career writing Southern mysteries and segwayed into paranormal in 2001 with Dead Until Dark. Her latest book Dead and Gone, the ninth title featuring Sookie Stackhouse, debuted at the top of the New York Times Bestseller List.

Harris sympathized with librarians asked to recommend paranormal novels to readers. She said they range from cute and sweet books to titles filled with violence. She urged us to discover the differences before we put the books out. Huston agreed, admitting that his books are not for every reader, especially the young.

Neil listed appeals for paranormal fiction:

• magic
• blending of genres
• paranormal characters
• strong women
• real world issues beneath the story

What I found most interesting during the session was the discussion about how one writes fiction. None of the panelists were like J.K. Rowling, having planned out the story for a whole series of books. Each book is a revelation to them. Harris also said she sometimes finds herself writing in parts that she does not particularly like. She said that she really like Sookie's grandmother, but she had to kill her off for the sake of the story.

Many titles were mentioned throughout the program. You can find many of them on the paranormal cheat sheet at the Readers Advisory website. With the cheat sheet are lists of TV, film, and music links for paranormal fans. Most importantly, there are paranormal titles suitable for younger readers.

Chicago as ALA Conference Site: Is It Really Working?

ALA Chicago 2009 013
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Nearly every librarian I know enjoys coming to Chicago. The city is especially beautiful this time of year, filled with flowers. There are more than ever since Mayor Daley has put planters everywhere and the parks have installed more gardens. The city is also full of museums, zoos, and great architecture. Having the American Library Association Annual Conference in the city is a popular idea.

As a librarian residing the western suburbs of Chicago, I benefit from having the conference here. I can send everyone in my department to the conference in shifts - we do still have to run the reference desk. My library's librarians benefit from all the opportunities the conference offers. The enthusiasm is high.

The organizers worked hard to present a good conference and people are leaving with many good memories and many ideas for their libraries. Still, I have to question whether Chicago is a good city for the conference.

I see one big, big problem - the distance between McCormick Place (the convention center) and the city center where all the visiting librarians stay during the conference. Complicating matters is the practice of holding many meeting away from the convention center. I heard numerous complaints on the buses about the distances and short times to get between meetings.

The real indication of a problem is the attendance at the remote meetings. I attended programs at the Intercontinental Hotel (where there is a bottleneck at the elevators to get to the seventh floor) and the Hyatt Regency. There were plenty of empty seats at the LITA Technology Trends forum and the RUSA President's Program on Readers' Advisory. I heard friends say that they did not attend because it was such a hassle to leave the convention center and get back for other meetings. I believe ALA needs to look at program attendance figures and see how the remote programs are not working well.

McCormick Place is clean and expandable, but not really warm and inviting. Food vending at this conference was definitely inadequate. Still, it might have been better to have all meetings at the center. There were more rooms. I know I could have attended two or three more programs if I hadn't been off on buses.

Still, there is a benefit from getting out of the sterile environment of the conference center. The city has many restaurants, shops, and parks that are just waiting for visitors between meetings.

If Chicago had a light rail to get people back and forth from McCormick Place, much of the problem would be solved, but that should have been put in place years ago. It would be more environmentally responsible to have the conference in a city that would not require so many bus and taxi rides. People like to walk. I suggest that we try Minneapolis, Indianapolis, or Milwaukee, cities with more accessible conference centers.

Death at the Ballpark: A Comprehensive Study of Game-Related Fatalities by Robert M. Gorman and David Weeks

Death at the Ballpark
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

I think that there may now truly be a book on every subject. At the McFarland Publishers booth at the American Library Association's annual conference, I found Death at the Ballpark: A Comprehensive Study of Game-Related Fatalities, 1862-2007 by Robert M. Gorman and David Weeks. Inside are listings for deaths of players, fans, umpires, or anyone else who happened to be a baseball game over a 145 year period. The authors have gathered their data from all levels of baseball, from youth to professional. The listings also tell cause of death, including suicide, violence, hit by pitch, foul balls, heart attacks, etc. McFarland has a number of interesting baseball books. I could spend the rest of my conference at the exhibit.

Books and Blogs, Made for Each Other?

The verdict on whether the Internet is killing reading is still out, as evidence presented often says more about its source than the readers being studied. What is clear is that an attempt is being made to utilize the web to increase reading, especially of books, as a community of book lover bloggers has grown. Included is this community are readers, librarians, authors, and publishers, each contributing to the promotion of books, but often for different reasons. At Booklist/Booklist Online: Books and Blogs, Made for Each Other?, Keir Graf of Booklist and a panel of bloggers discussed the relationship of blogs with books and its prospects for the near future.

The panel included the following:

• Mary Burkey of AudioBooker, who started her blog to keep track of audio titles that she had read. Her independent blog was later acquired by Booklist.
• John Green, a former Booklist employee, who with his brother posts videos to You-Tube as Vlogbrothers. He has also written a novel Looking for Alaska.
• Kaite Mediatore Stover of Kansas City Public Library, who posts to Book Group Buzz for Booklist.
• Nora Rawlinson, who has never been a Booklist employee. She was, however, the librarian at Baltimore County Public Library who uttered "give them what they want" and has worked as an editor for both Library Journal and Publishers Weekly. She is now writing the blog, EarlyWord, which is a for-profit effort.

Keir listed some qualities that make blogs useful to book professionals:

• Blogs offer immediacy. Bloggers can address issues quickly and can discuss books at the time they are published or are otherwise in the news.
• Blog writing is more personal and casual, allowing for a friendlier feel, attracting some loyal followers.
• Because blog postings are often short, writers have to hone more concise writing skills.
• Comments from blog readers start conversations that may bring forth issues that the blog writer did not address. They may also correct errors or otherwise keep the blog writer honest.
• Through comments, bloggers know their readers better.

Here are some highlights from this discussion:

Authority is something in which print excelled in its prime. Readers trusted the reviewers in newspapers and magazines, such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or Atlantic Monthly. Now that these publications have their own blogs, that authority has transferred to its blog writers. Nora thought this advantage would in time diminish as other brand names are established. Some bloggers have name recognition for being on the scene early. Kaite said that with so many people blogging it is now difficult for a new blogger to get recognized.

Few book bloggers make a profit - or anything. They do not often get readers the way that niche technology bloggers do. Book bloggers blog for love of books.

Well-produced book trailers may be a passing fad. There is not enough money in the book market to support most expensive publicity, and the panel opinion was that the novelty will soon wear off. John said that most blog readers seek authenticity and are suspicious of slick marketing.

None of the panelists thought that writing blogs hurt their print writing style. Mary thought that bloggers free of institutional ties are franker in their blogs.

None of the speakers thought that Twitter would replace blogging. It is a good vehicle for posting links to reviews on blogs or telling others what you are reading. John said that Twitter is more important to people in Third World countries because they can tweet and read from cellphones, which seem to be harder to restrict than Internet access.

Kaite liked that bloggers sometimes review old books. It is not all about buzz.

Libraries in Hard Times: The ALA Membership Meeting

For the last week, I have receiving emails and flyers urging me to attend Libraries in Hard Times at Saturday's ALA Membership Meeting. The marketing was well done, so my hopes were raised that it would be an interesting program. It was, but not really in the way that I expected. Patricia Wong summarized efforts of California Public Libraries to help the jobless and needy. Christopher A. McLean of the ALA Washington Office then reported on the federal government's stimulus package and what parts of it hold promise for library funding. The information was good (if a bit too general) but the setting and presentations and the timing did not do the subjects justice. The assembly hall was huge and the attendance slight. It was late in the day. We were very far from the speakers. I expected first hand stories from librarians telling what they are up against and what they are doing. I appreciate that the topic is being acknowledged before the assembly of membership, but it needs more coverage and debate in more intimate meetings where there will be more energy and passion.

On the up side, there were some useful web sites promoted, including Advocating in a Tough Economy Toolkit for the ALA President's Office. Another was the Library Use Value Calculator from Huntington beach Public Library.

Pride and Passion: The African American Baseball Experience

I almost went to a management program at the American Library Association conference this morning, but my love of baseball (and my sweetheart) drew me to "Pride and Passion: The African American Baseball Experience" instead. I should listen to love more often. It was a wonderful program that I would not want to have missed. Not only did I hear Negro Leagues historian Lawrence Hogan recount his friendships with the old players, I heard Sharon Robinson tell about her new children's book about her father, Jackie Robinson, and I heard Kadir Nelson explain how he wrote and illustrated his award-winning We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. I will want to see Robinson's book (illustrated by Nelson) this fall. I have seen We Are the Ship and will post a review soon.

Anytime time there is a baseball reunion, there are good stories. They resonate because they are loaded with more meaning than just sport. To Hogan baseball is American history and to Robinson it is also family history. For Nelson it is beauty and inspiration.

This celebration of African American baseball launches the ALA traveling exhibit "Pride and Passion: The African American Baseball Experience." Two sets of illustrated panels are traveling to libraries around the country. One is in St.Louis currently while the other is on the ground floor of McCormick Place during the conference. It will then go to Milwaukee. The tour continues into 2013.

With My Book at ABC-Clio

With My Book at ABC-Clio
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

This is the day for which I have waited. My book is on sale at ALA! It is among the many titles on readers' advisory and library management at the Libraries Unlimited section of the ABC-Clio exhibit.

If you look over my right shoulder (left side of picture), you will see The Inside Scoop by Sarah Statz Cords. I seem to be right in front of all the Read On ... books. Sorry, Barry.

Bonnie said that ABC-Clio was serving champagne this afternoon. Could it have been to celebrate my book? Probably not.

The Riverside Shakespeare Purse

Riverside Shakespeare Purse
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

There is a booth in the exhibit hall at the American Library Association that has display of purses made from old books. I wonder if Annie at my work could figure out how to make them and turn it into a library program? I know regular program attendees who would enjoy another project.

The Unconference at ALA

Jason Griffey at the Unconference
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

This is Jason Griffey of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, who opened yesterday's Unconference with a seven-minute presentation "The future of libraries in a ubiquitous computing world." It was a good beginning for a day full of conversation. You can find my full report on PlaBlog.

I will spend all day today in McCormick Place attending programs and wandering the exhibition hall. I hope to see my book.

Let the Conference Begin

Today, I start my American Library Association Conference experience with attending the Unconference. I plan to report on the programs I attend both here and at PLABlog. I will also post photos on my Flickr site.

Librarian at the Farmers Market

We have been told to take the library to wherever the clients are. I spent yesterday at a library table at the farmers market in Western Springs. It was the first time I have done such a thing, after several years of thinking that we should. I learned a lot of things right off the bat.

• Big posters work like sails. It might seem like a calm day, but even the slightest puff of air will catch the poster and you will fly.
• You need lots of rocks to hold down your handouts. Again the wind that you hardly notice will lift your papers and send them away.
• Laptops are difficult to view in the sun. We wanted to do some reference from the table, but it was tough. Maybe someone can recommend outdoor PCs.
• Do not expect people to rush the library table. People have come for the fruits and vegetables. You are a curiosity.
• Do not expect all of your regulars from the library to recognize you. You are not where they usually see you.
• Talk will be your most popular offering. You may return to the library with most of your handouts and books.

It was fun. The weather was beautiful and I enjoyed hearing Annalee, a folksinger raising funds for World Bicycle Relief, sing throughout the afternoon. I especially liked the Joni Mitchell tunes. She wanted to take bicycles to children in Zambia. We were all there in a good cause.

Answers to the Biography Pop Quiz

Here are the answers to last week’s biography pop quiz. All answers can be found in my new book Real Lives Revealed: A Guide to Reading Interests in Biography.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey did not write about (b) Matthew Arnold. Strachey wrote about Thomas Arnold.

2. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall wrote a biography of (c) George Washington

3. Sheriff Pat Garrett shot the outlaw know as (d) all of the above, which were names used by the outlaw known as Billy the Kid.

4. Journalist Martha Gellhorn died from (b) suicide.

5. On Illustrious Men (De Viris Illustribus) was written by (d) all of the above. It was popular name to use in Latin collected biographies.

6. Singer Michael Jackson claimed that his life was changed by reading a biography of (c) P. T. Barnum, who wanted to present the "greatest show on earth."

7. Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a dog named (c) Flush, who was dog-napped several times. The author defied her father to pay the ransoms. This may have helped her finally break away from her domineering parents.

8. President Abraham Lincoln's friends did not included (b) the late David Herbert Donald who was a Lincoln biographer, not a contemporary, though you might suspect he would have liked to be a Lincoln friend.

9. After their baseball careers ended, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth developed a friendship while (c) golfing.

10. J. Randy Taraborrelli has not written a biography of (c) Barbara Streisand.


True or False?

11. True - Ray Charles learned to play boogie-woogie piano before he was classically trained.

12. True - The pirate William Dampier was also a noted scientist who chartered ocean currents and drew tropical birds.

13. True - Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev was born on a train near Lake Baikal in Siberia.

14. True - Martha Washington burned all of her letters to and from her husband George.

15. False - Jonas Salk DID NOT suffer from polio as a child.


Bonus Question

16. Name the author of the first biography?

d. Ion of Chios is the best answer, as he wrote sketches of Pericles and Sophocles in the fifth century BCE. Scholars, however, do not agree on what a biography is, so the question is really hard to answer.

If you got any of the answers right, consider yourself pretty well-read.

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting by Michael Perry

In his new book Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting, Michael Perry of northwest Wisconsin has moved with his new family into an old farmhouse with thirty-seven acres that could lie fallow while he prospers by writing. Having been raised on a family farm, however, Perry lives by principles, which include making the most of what you have. Though he never intended to become a farmer and is still reluctant to call himself one, he buys chickens and pigs.

Raising chickens and pigs is more work than you might imagine if you've never lived on a farm. A good portion of his year involves planning to build a chicken coop and pens for the pigs, learning about breeds, shopping for his livestock, feeding and caring for the creatures once he has them, and slaughtering them for meat. A less talented writer could make this pretty boring, but Perry uses it all to connect with his childhood and to muse on his future.

Readers may sense that Perry has lost some of the harder edge that he had in Population: 485. That's okay. Falling in love in Truck and raising children in the new book give him a new sense of purpose that requires a softened heart. He can, however, still write with clarity and honestly, free from sentimentality. Perhaps this skill comes from the same reserve that allows him to wring the necks of chickens with personal names.

As in Population: 485, there is tragedy, this time a nephew's death. In its wake he writes the following when visiting his parents' house:

And finally I climb the stairs to bed, to one of my childhood bedrooms, and stare straight up in the dark. I am remembering that before Jane was born, I was talking to a friend about how it was when he went from one child to two. "Love expands," he said, "to fit the need." I am wondering grief can do the same.

I found the stories of his parents fostering and adopting many children quite interesting. They certainly expanded their hearts. Readers may, too.

Perry, Michael. Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting. Harper, 2009. ISBN 9780061240430.

By the way, Citizen Reader in including Population: 485 in her summer book menage.

What I'm Doing at ALA

I have been looking through all of the offerings at the American Library Association Conference that starts July 10 in Chicago and have come up with this plan.

Friday, July 10

The Unconference, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. I am facilitating a discussion about nonfiction readers' advisory using the web.


Saturday, July 11

Gregory Maguire, 8 a.m.-9 a.m. The author of Wicked will speak at the Auditorium Series. It is pretty early and I have to drive in, so I might be late.

Open Knowledge Commons, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Digitized books from someone other than Google.

Booklist Online: Books and Blogs, Made for Each Other, 1:30 p.m.-3 p.m. I'm obviously interested in this.


Sunday, July 12

Net Neutrality and Its Implications for Libraries, 10:30 a.m.-noon. I might get the gist in half the time.

Top Technology Trends, 1:30 p.m.-3 p.m.


Monday, July 13

Lexis/Nexis Breakfast with Bonnie.

Rethinking the Reference Collection, 10:30 a.m.-noon. I am a reference librarian first. This is about the heart of my work.

From the Book and Beyond, 1:30 p.m.-3 p.m. More readers' advisory.

Tracy Kidder, 3 p.m.-4 p.m. I enjoyed Mountains Beyond Mountains and My Detachment: A Memoir.

Cokie Roberts, 5 p.m.-6:30. I heard Roberts in New Orleans and would enjoy hearing more.


I will probably add other presentations. I will be blogging about the programs I attend at both PLABlog and here at ricklibrarian.

I will also be checking in at the ABC/Clio exhibit to see my book.

Nonfiction Readers' Advisory in the Online World: For the Unconference

On Friday, I will facilitate a discussion about nonfiction readers' advisory and the role of the Internet at the Unconference before the American Library Association Conference in Chicago. If you are going to attend, here are some questions and statements to consider. Even if you will not be here, weigh in anyway with some comments.



Roles of the Internet in Nonfiction Readers' Advisory

· Tool for Assisting Face-to-Face Client

· Instruction Media for Readers' Advisory Librarian

· The Librarian's Rival for Readers' Advisory

· The Librarian's Platform for Readers' Advisory


Discussion Questions

· Is there a difference between fiction and nonfiction readers' advisory resources online?

· Are online RA resources easy to use with face-to-face readers?

· In an online world, who are our clients?

· Is the Internet better for indirect readers' advisory?

· Can we enlist our population of readers?


Web Sites and Services with Readers' Advisory Applications

· NoveList Plus

· Reader's Advisor Online

· Shelfari

· LibraryThing

· Amazon

· Barnes and Noble

· BookTV

· ChiliFresh

· Twitter

· BookLetters

· YouTube

· Google Books

· blogs

· podcasts

· chat and text



Nonfiction Readers' Advisory Observations


NoveList Plus has records for 47,157 adult nonfiction titles as of June 6, 2009. 108,604 adult fiction.

NoveList has genre based Recommended Reads: biography and memoir; business writing; current events and politics; food writing; history; humor; nature writing; religion and spirituality; travel writing; true crime.

To find read-a-likes, NoveList searches subjects and broad categories, not appeal factors. If library catalogs were more powerful, they could do as well.

Reader's Advisor Online collects the content of Libraries Unlimited books, few of which are nonfiction.

Reader's Advisory Online Blog and Early Word have lots of nonfiction alerts.

Shelfari genre groups vary in level of response to discussions. Some have growing memberships and active administrators. Some groups seem to duplicate already existing groups.

Librarians Who LibraryThing is the service's most populous group.

LibraryThing groups seem to respond to original discussion queries but rarely comment on the responses.

LibraryThing title records include member ratings. Could they be more reliable than Amazon ratings which can be manipulated by authors and publishers?

Twitter does not seem designed for RA, but users still broadcast requests for book help. Do librarians go to the readers? Is there a good way to harvest these tweets?

NPR Books, New York Times Book Review and Washington Post Book World podcasts lean toward nonfiction.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Public Library does a good job of getting readers to share reviews.

BookLetters and NextReads include customizable emails for nonfiction genre.

Book Ratings on LibraryThing and Amazon

I was wondering how similar or different reader ratings in LibraryThing and Amazon would be. So I tried a title. To the left is the result. The reader consensus is just about the same.

Of course, this needs more study. Has anyone else already done this?

I am wondering whether Amazon ratings can be more easily manipulated by authors, publishers, or publicists. Is this really something worth worrying about?

Any thoughts?

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? by Eleanor Updale

Thanks to Heather Booth, who had a stack of teen fiction on the reference desk, I now have a new series of books to read: Montmorency by Eleanor Updale. I liked how the covers of the books in the series evoked a foggy nineteenth century London. I anticipated something dark and cerebral and was not disappointed in the first book Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman?

The story begins in 1875 when a young surgeon saves the life of a criminal who is badly injured in falling through skylight. As the surgeon takes his patient to various scientific society meetings to show off his handwork, the criminal is introduced to both scientific thinking and the lives of gentlemen, sparking a desire for a better life than that of a petty thief. At first, his vision is simply being of a higher class of criminal. With diligence and ingenuity, he sets forth to realize his dream of comfort and achievement through burglary.

What seems unusual to me about Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? is that readers are asked to cheer for a master criminal. To any reader who has difficulty with that idea I recommend just accepting that a criminal can be a heroic character. I do not want to say too much and spoil the plot. I will say that some of the incidents are quite amusing. I enjoyed contemplating execution of the crimes, and I think others will, too. Perhaps there is a master criminal in each of us.

Updale uses her deep knowledge of Victorian England in telling a compelling story. I particularly enjoyed learning about Joseph Bazalgette and the engineering of the London sewer system. The details of men's clothing are also finely done. I think fans of English literature and readers who like clever characters will enjoy this quick reading book.

Updale, Eleanor. Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? Scholastic, 2003. ISBN 0439580366

Magyk by Angie Sage

One of my goals for this year is to learn more about books for teens and tweens. In our library's remodeling late in 2008, the teen collection moved much closer to the reference desk, which has resulted in a great increase in readers' advisory for middle school students. While I have read and even reviewed some good books intended for teens, I still do not know enough. Needing more audiobooks anyway, I am trying to mix work and pleasure with listening to teen-oriented audiobooks.

Last week I listened to Magyk by Angie Sage, the first of the titles in the Septimus Heap series, books about wizards, princesses, evil bureaucrats, and magical beasts. That is almost all I want to say about the fast-moving story as there are many plot twists that should not be foreshadowed in reviews. I did look at some reviews after finishing the audiobook, trying unsuccessfully to learn the name of the magical world that Sage has created. Almost all of the reviewers gave plot secrets away. I am glad I listened with no preconceptions.

A reader of fantasy will, of course, find elements in the story that remind him or her of other series, especially Harry Potter, but I found enough new ideas to be entertained. Magyk is widely available in public libraries.

Sage, Angie. Magyk. Recorded Books, 2005. ISBN 1419338048

Digital Photos Management: A Presentation at Thomas Ford

With many of our residents about to take summer vacations and vacation photos, I presented a program Digital Photos Management to twenty-five library users in our downstairs meeting room last week. I knew from the first that I had a lot to cover, so I got us started right away. My plan was to just briefly mention buying and taking photos. The emphasis of the presentation was what to do with photos after taking them. My assumption, which proved a little naive right away, was that everyone moved their photos from their cameras to their computers. A handful of the participants did not want to have anything to do with computers! Instead, they regularly take their cameras to Walgreens, Fox Photo, WalMart, etc., and use the printing services there. Some have mastered the self-service machines, but others always get staff assistance. Even though my publicity specifically mentioned use of a computer, a few people had different expectations for the program. Unfortunately, they got little from my program, and some left early.

In an hour and a half, I demonstrated loading photos onto a computer, arranging files in Windows, simple photo editing with Picasa, uploading photos to Flickr and Kodak Easy Share Gallery, attaching photos to email, and posting a photo on a blog. We discussed how to store your photos on CDs, DVDs, and extra hard drives, backing up photos before you edit them, and the idea of sharing your photos via the Internet. It was an ambitious program, which might have been better presented as a series, I now conclude.

From discussions with several of the participants as they dropped by the library in the days following the program, I gather that they did learn something valuable. Some were exposed to ideas that they had not encountered. Each of them seems to have a certain goal, such as better editing or sharing their photos with family. I told them that I am available to help them further through our "Book a Librarian" service. I expect to see several amateur photographers this summer. I've appointments with three already.

I was also asked to take photos at a wedding, but I declined.

Why People Read

Cindy Orr at RA Online has a great post Why People Read. She searched the Internet and found dozens of great statements. It seems like they should be used and spread around.

Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege by Amira Haas

When you belong to a book club, you will at some point book read books that you never had on your list. That was the case with me and Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege by Amira Haas. It is already an older book (translation 1999) that I did not recall. It deals with the Gaza Strip, one of the Palestinian enclaves with the state of Israel, not a subject that I long to contemplate. The troubles in the Middle East have been daily news for sixty years. What more could I learn that I have never heard?

The problem with relying on broadcast or even print news is that it rarely gets under the surface of the story. Reporters drop in and soon leave, just reporting what they learn from a little observation and listening to official spokespeople. Amira Haas, an Israeli journalist and a Jew, however, became a Gaza resident to observe the lives of Palestinians over the course of several years. What she found was quite troubling, an entire society being repressed.

While Haas tells intimate and compelling stories, the net effect of the book is overwhelming. I took nearly two weeks to read her book filled with many accounts of injustice and hopelessness. Palestinian authorities and Israeli political and military leaders have all failed to even consider the lives of the powerless men, women, and children of Gaza, many living in refugee camps since 1948. 1948 is a long time.

Our discussion of Drinking the Sea at Gaza was lengthy and not confined to the content of the book. A couple of people had wished that the stories had been arranged more chronologically, to help readers understand the events. We naturally included a discussion of American policy toward the Middle East. The consensus was that our government has enabled injustice, but we had no firm ideas of what would have or can help.

The story Haas tells has, of course, been dismissed by Hamas, Fatah, and Israeli partisans, which is itself a good reason to have it in libraries, available to readers. Not many of our libraries seem to have it. Will the stories be forgotten?

Haas, Amira. Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege. Metropolitan Books, 1999. ISBN 0805057390

Biography Pop Quiz: Questions from Real Lives Revealed

Roche, Rick. Real Lives Revealed: A Guide to Reading Interests in Biography. Libraries Unlimited/ABC-Clio. 2009. 601p. ISBN 9781591586647.

Real Lives Revealed: A Guide to Reading Interests in Biography officially publishes today. It is the second book in the Real Stories Series, following The Inside Scoop: A Guide to Nonfiction Investigative Writing and Exposes by Sarah Statz Cords. Instead of writing a review of my own book, which would hardly be unbiased, I offer a biography pop quiz. All of the answers can be found in my book. How fast can you get your hands on one? I will reveal the answers next week.




Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey did not write about

a. Florence Nightingale
b. Matthew Arnold
c. Henry Edward Manning
d. Charles George Gordon

2. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall wrote a biography of

a. Thomas Jefferson
b. John Adams
c. George Washington
d. Thomas Paine

3. Sheriff Pat Garrett shot the outlaw know as

a. William H. Bonney
b. Billy the Kid
c. Henry McCarty
d. all of the above

4. Journalist Martha Gellhorn died from

a. natural causes
b. suicide
c. cancer
d. malaria

5. On Illustrious Men (De Viris Illustribus) was written by

a. Cornelius Nepos
b. Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
c. Diogenes Laertius
d. all of the above

6. Singer Michael Jackson claimed that his life was changed by reading a biography of

a. John Lennon
b. Harry Houdini
c. P. T. Barnum
d. Paul Robeson

7. Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a dog named

a. Chaucer
b. Sappho
c. Flush
d. Puck

8. President Abraham Lincoln's friends did not included

a. Joshua Speed
b. David Herbert Donald
c. Orville Browning
d. William Herndon

9. After their baseball careers ended, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth developed a friendship while

a. playing tennis
b. betting on horses
c. golfing
d. fly fishing

10. J. Randy Taraborrelli has not written a biography of

a. Madonna
b. Cher
c. Barbara Streisand
d. Elizabeth Taylor


True or False?

11. Ray Charles learned to play boogie-woogie piano before he was classically trained.

12. The pirate William Dampier was also a noted scientist who chartered ocean currents and drew tropical birds.

13. Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev was born on a train near Lake Baikal in Siberia.

14. Martha Washington burned all of her letters to and from her husband George.

15. Jonas Salk suffered from polio as a child. He met Franklin Roosevelt in a New York hospital.


Bonus Question

16. Name the author of the first biography?

a. Samuel Johnson
b. James Boswell
c. Plutarch
d. Ion of Chios


Here's a hint for those who can use my book to answer these questions. Two of the questions are drawn from the Chronology of Biographical History that I include in the History of Biography at the front of the book. One question comes from Appendix B: Top Biographers. The others come from the 600 book reviews.

At Last the 1948 Show

"And now for something completely different."

No, it is not Monty Python, it's At Last the 1948 Show, a television sketch series from ITV London that was a parent of Monty Python. Marry At Last the 1948 Show to Do Not Adjust Your Set, and you get the baby Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Crazy, silly, zany, weird, uproariously funny. Viewing a five-episode DVD set of the show, Bonnie and I laughed Saturday evening away. We also saw a lot of what Python was going to be. John Cleese was already a fully mature John Cleese. Right off the bat in episode one he plays a psychiatrist who will not allow the client to recline on the couch fearing that the latter might be a bed-wetter. Tim Brooke-Taylor, the client, can hardly get a word in as Cleese talks and talks and talks. Graham Chapman is already a talented Graham Chapman-like player. He plays a policeman several times. He even plays a policeman in drag. There is also Marty Feldman in his first acting role. He goes completely bonkers in some scenes! In other scenes with Cleese, he seems to foreshadow the coming of Michael Palin. Finally, there is Aimi MacDonald, whose "moments" link sketches and remind me of the female comedians in the 1968 American series Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. At Last the 1948 Show came first in 1967.

Eric Idle is an extra. In "Thief in the Library," he gets to play a librarian. Shhhh!

"The Four Yorkshiremen" is touted as the most famous sketch. I think my favorites are "The Chartered Accountant Dance," "A Train Carriage, and "Life Insurance for the Accident Prone Man."

Viewers may be surprised to find At Last the 1948 Show is in black and white. Color came to ITV the next year. According to an interview with Tim Brooke-Taylor on the DVD, the show was somewhat regional and broadcast to only parts of Great Britain. The two DVD set includes five episodes, and its box gives the impression that it is the complete series. Aimi MacDonald in her links, however, refers to scenes you don't see, as does Brooke-Taylor in his interview. BFI Screenonline and IMDB indicates that there were thirteen episodes. Wikipedia explains that the DVD is a compilation that was shown on Swedish television. The BBC destroyed most of the original videotapes. That's so sad, as I'd like to see more.

Read On ... Women's Fiction: Reading Lists for Every Taste by Rebecca Vnuk

What is women's fiction? According to Rebecca Vnuk in her introduction to Read On ... Women's Fiction: Reading Lists for Every Taste, the genre includes novels about women characters and their relationships with family, friends, and men. These novels tend to be written by women, and most of the readers are women. Separating them from romance novels is at times difficult. Women's fiction does not have to include a happy ending, as the romances do. Vnuk points to two trends in women's fiction reflected in book sales and library circulation: lighthearted Chick lit and more serious novels examining social issues, which she describes as "Oprah-esque."

I started my examination of Vnuk's guide with the index. I found four books that I had read among the many unfamiliar titles: The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan, Dream When You're Feeling Blue by Elizabeth Berg, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I may have also read Emma by Jane Austen, but I am not certain after all the film and television adaptations that I have seen. I thought that I might find more, such as the novels of Barbara Pym or Muriel Spark, which I find fascinating. Vnuk, however, explains in her introduction (which I read after scanning the index) that she focused on contemporary authors, adding only a short list of classical authors at the end.

Like the other guides in the Read On Series, Read On ... Women's Fiction in divided in to five sections group titles according to the appeal factors of character, story, setting, mood, and language. Each list has a common factor, such as Christmas gatherings or war-time love. I think my favorite list titles are "Putting the Fun in Dysfunctional" and "I Still Miss My Ex, But My Aim Is Getting Better."

Read On ... Women's Fiction is going to be handy to have around the library. Jamie and Annie may get some book list and display ideas from it. It will give me some titles to suggest to the next reader who has finished the Sophie Kinsella books. At Thomas Ford, we are going to circulate it and the other Read On Series guides to let readers discover more titles on their own.

Vnuk, Rebecca. Read On ... Women's Fiction: Reading Lists for Every Taste. Libraries Unlimited/ABC-Clio, 2009. ISBN 9781591586340

The book has arrived!

The book has arrived!
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

I have to grin! The book is here! As soon I came home today, Bonnie revealed that a box from Libraries Unlimited/ABC Clio had arrived. Inside were my personal copies of Real Lives Revealed: A Guide to Reading Interests in Biography. We took the heavy box to the dining room table where Caramel watched closely as I opened the top flaps and removed a copy. Bonnie caught it all for the ages.

I finally know that the book is a total of 601 pages. That includes 600 reviews, a chronology of biography, three appendices, and three indexes. I hope many readers and librarians find them useful.

The official publication date is next Tuesday, June 30. There will be copies at the American Library Association Conference in July.

The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism by Geoff Nicholson

The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism by Geoff Nicholson is my kind of book. It is partly a microhistory of walks, walkers, and walking, telling stories from ancient history to the space age. It is also a memoir, as Nicholson recounts his own walks, both in the places he has lived and in exotic locations that he has visited for the sake of walking.

While I liked the stories featuring characters from history and literature, I especially enjoyed Nicholson's own story. In the first chapter, he tells about walking around Los Angeles, where few people ever leave their houses not in an automobile. On foot he sees things that many people never see. Near the end, he recounts growing up in the "county estates" (public housing) in Sheffield, England. Even as a youth he had a passion for walking. I liked this quote:

"... when I was eleven years old or so and it was reckoned that even though I was too young to be left alone in my parents' house, I was old enough to be allowed to wander the streets of Hillsborough."

The oddest story may have been about family vacations in Blackpool. Their lodgings were only for the night. They had to be out by 8:00 every morning and were not allowed back in until 5:00 in the afternoon. The family, parents and young children, walked through the tourist town, back and forth, all day. Because his parents were frugal, their entertainment options were very limited. It is surprising that he grew up to enjoy vacations and spend them walking.

Thanks to Maggie for recommending The Lost Art of Walking. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Nicholson, Geoff. The Lost Art of Walking: The History, Science, Philosophy, and Literature of Pedestrianism. Riverhead Books, 2008. ISBN 9781594489983

Reasons to Read Biography

In the June 2009 issue of Booklist, David Wright states that he can think of only two good reasons to read biography. He thinks it is a good way (1) to learn history and (2) to "get the dirt." He enjoys exposés and confessional memoirs that reveal inner demons. In the same issue, Kaite Mediatore claims that she enjoys reading about "dames," which she describes as strong, good-humored women worth admiration. Both David and Kaite review five books, some of which are old and rare.

Since they have opened the conversation, it seems a good time to bring out my list of reasons to read biography.

Reason 1: To discover fascinating people.

Harry Harlow is one such person. He was an enthusiastic experimental psychologist at the University of Wisconsin in the 1950s, when he discovered how important parental care was to the development of young monkeys. He became a proponent of love featured on CBS Television news. Ironically, he ignored his own wife and children. Deborah Blum examines the life of a contradictory character in Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection.

Reason 2: To rediscover people we think we know well.

In our mental processing of everything that we have learned about historical figures, such as George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, we sometimes reduce them to a few facts, such as "general who became our first president" or "president who freed the slaves." In doing this we forget what truly made them remarkable. Luckily for us, biographers recollect the stories and present them fresh and new. Consider John Adams. Many people considered him pretty old and dry before David McCullough wrote his intimate biography, simply called John Adams.

Reason 3: To reassess infamous characters.

Margaret Sanger was a nurse who saw tremendous suffering in the slums of New York City in the early twentieth century. She began a crusade for birth control, which included the distribution of honest and frank information about sex. For this she was condemned by many religious, political, and law enforcement officials. Ellen Chesler recounts the life and times of a woman ahead of her times in Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America.

Reason 4: To get the story behind legendary characters.

There really was a Queen Boudica who tried to expel the Romans from Britain, but she was not the mass murderer that some legends suggest. Vanessa Collingridge uses archeological evidence to redraw the queen's image in Boudica: The Life of Britain's Legendary Warrior Queen.

Reason 5: To get the dirt. (A nod to David)

Sir Thomas Malory is often credited with establishing the tradition of knightly chivalry. According to Christina Hardyman, he was really a rapist, murderer, and thief. She makes her case in Malory: The Knight Who Became King Arthur's Chronicler.

Reason 6: To find a hero, warts and all. (A nod to Kaite)

Ethiopian widow Haregewoin Teffera did not want to foster an AIDS orphan, but her priest insisted. Once she cleaned the girl, she fell in love and began working for all her country's orphans. Melissa Fay Green describes Teffera's life and work in There Is No Me Without You: One Women's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children.

Reason 7: To learn history through the life of an individual.

When the heads of her friends began to fall in Paris, Marie Tussaud was there to catch them and cast them in wax. Kate Berridge recounts how a survivor of the French Revolution became a entertainment pioneer and a very rich woman in Madame Tussaud: A Life in Wax.

Reason 8: To experience adventure from the safety of one's armchair.

Despite the dangers of travel over the Andes Mountains and on the Amazon River in the eighteenth century, Isabelle Godin des Odonais set forth to cross the South American continent to rescue her husband. Robert Whitaker tells an excite tale in The Mapmaker's Wife: A True Tale of Love, Murder, and Survival in the Amazon.

Reason 9: To celebrate one's culture.

Why did the life of an entertainer mean so much to his many fans? Novelist Bobbie Ann Mason explains in her compact biography Elvis Presley.

Reason 10: To enjoy a good book.

Take any of the nine titles from above and insert here.


Ten seems a nice number at which to stop. You might write some more reasons of your own after reading a few good biographies.


My book Real Lives Revealed: A Guide to Reading Interests in Biography publishes next week. It includes reviews of all of these titles, plus 591 more.

The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and Naturalist by Carol Grant Gould

This is the entry for an adventure biography reviewed in my upcoming book Real Lives Revealed: a Guide to Reading Interests in Biography. William Beebe was a romantic figure who led nearly fifty expeditions for the New York Zoological Society and the American Museum of Natural History. Due to his station as director of the society's Department of Tropical studies and the wide popularity of his travel memoirs, he knew every important conservationist from Teddy Roosevelt to Rachael Carson. He also knew Noel Coward, Will Rogers, and many smart, beautiful women.

Gould, Carol Grant
The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and Naturalist. Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2004. 447p. ISBN 1559638583.

In 1932, long before Jacques Cousteau explored the oceans, William Beebe (1877–1962) broadcast on the radio from a bathysphere a half a mile below the ocean surface, describing fish and other creatures never before seen by humans. Long before the television age of David Attenborough, Beebe traveled to remote jungles seeking out rare and new species of animals and plants for his magazine articles and books. As the first ornithologist for the Bronx Zoo, the energetic scientist collected and studied birds from around the globe. Given access to Beebe’s papers at Princeton University , Gould has written an adventure story about a now-forgotten celebrity of early twentieth century zoology that will appeal to viewers of televised nature programs as well as other readers.

Subjects: Beebe, William; Explorers; Naturalists; Zoologists

Now try: Beebe’s own books mix memoir and science. His titles include Two Bird Lovers in Mexico, Half Mile Down (about deep sea diving), and Galapagos: World’s End. A more recent naturalist who will go anywhere to get a story is David Attenborough. He recounts his career of making nature films in Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster. Zoologist Gerald Durrell describes growing up with animals in his highly entertaining My Family and Other Animals. Carl Sagan was another enthusiastic scientist who doubled as media celebrity. Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos by William Poundstone captures a life in the pursuit of knowledge that is free of difficult science reading. Peter Matthiessen has also traveled the world seeking to see wildlife in natural habitats. In The Snow Leopard he describes his attempt to see the reclusive cats on the rocky cliffs of the Himalayan Mountains.

Juliette Morgan, Librarian for Racial Equality

In a sidebar in the book that I reviewed yesterday, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, Phillip Hoose briefly tells about white support for the boycott of the Montgomery buses by African Americans in 1955 and 1956. He devotes two paragraphs to librarian Juliette Morgan, who was terrorized by white supremacists after her letter stating her admiration for blacks who stood up against repression ran in the Montgomery Advertiser newspaper. Hoose says that after months of death threats and constant harassment through the night, she committed suicide.

Wanting to know more, I found "Juliette Hampton Morgan: A White Woman Who Understood" on the website Teaching Tolerance, A Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center. This article tells how Morgan, a woman with deep Southern roots, began calling for an end to Jim Crow laws in 1939, sixteen years before the boycott. For years she wrote letters to the Montgomery Advertiser and participated in interracial prayer groups. For her outspoken stand, she lost jobs, lost friends, and became estranged from her family. Despite her isolation, the Carnegie Library hired her as a reference librarian. When her letter in support of the boycott ran in the newspaper, the city's mayor demand that she be fired, but the library refused, even when the mayor withheld library funding.

According my calendar calculations, Morgan survived through the boycott and retained her job past the crisis, but the strain must have taken its toll. Interracial violence continued in the city for years after the boycott. Severely depressed, she resigned from the library on July 15, 1957. Her mother found a bottle of sleeping pills beside her body the next morning.

The Reverend Martin Luther King mentioned Morgan in his book Stride Toward Freedom, and she has been remembered with induction into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. We need a librarian's hall of fame to remember brave librarians, such as Morgan and Judith Krug.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

I continue to read juvenile biographies. The only thing "juvenile" about them is that they are intended for older elementary or middle school students. The writing in many of these serious books is honest and economic. Though they are on the short side, their authors include enough details to tell their stories well. Horrible injustice is described truthfully, and the courage of individuals is lauded. If these books were formatted and bound as typical adult nonfiction, they might easily pass as such.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose is one such book. In 133 pages, Hoose tells the mostly forgotten story of a teenage African American who was arrested in early 1955 for not giving up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus, nine months before Rosa Parks also refused to relinquish her seat. Few people praised Colvin for her stand. Most of her classmates in high school shunned or ridiculed her for getting in trouble. She lost her case and was sentenced to a year of probation. Despite the trouble that resulted from her initial stand, she later joined in a long shot case in Federal Court to declare Montgomery's segregating of buses unconstitutional. Her testimony helped win that case of Browder v. Gayle, which was later affirmed by the U. S. Supreme Court.

Colvin's story is not, however, triumphant. Because she was an unwed mother, she was even shunned by many leaders in the civil rights movement. It was many years after the events that her role was "rediscovered" and celebrated. In the meantime, she lived a hard life.

Readers learn a lot about Montgomery, the South, and the fall of the old racist ways in Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. It's not just for kids.

Hoose. Phillip. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2009. ISBN 9780374313227

Helping Job Hunters: Recommendations and Resources for Librarians

Forty or fifty librarians met at the Oak Brook Public Library for a program about assisting job seekers in the public library called Helping Job Hunters: Recommendations and Resources for Librarians yesterday. Starting at 9:30 a.m. and ending at 1:30 p.m., this combined DuPage Library/Metropolitan Library systems offering was an oddly-timed two-thirds day workshop (by the time you add travel), but I am glad I did not leave early to eat lunch. The last hour and a half had most of the practical library service suggestions. Besides, there were snacks, including a delicious vegetable tray, to tide us over until lunch.

The main presenter was Diane Shelton, a career counselor whose company is called Follow Your Instinct. She spoke about the emotions of job seekers and the role of librarians helping them. She knew of what she spoke, having been laid off by the University of Chicago Hospitals in March 2009. She said that in many cases receiving a pink slip is a total surprise. In her case, the hospital had assured everyone in her department only two days earlier that there would be no cutbacks. Like many suddenly unemployed people, she then went through the stages of job loss grief. Being a counselor may have tempered her grief, but the sting was still there.

Shelton spoke first about the emotions of the unemployed, who feel that they have lost control of their lives. She explained empathetic/reflective listening skills, which librarians and other professionals utilize to help the jobless. Attentive, non-judgmental listening is the first of the services that we need to provide. Shelton stressed that it is easy to discourage these already fragile clients and provided a long list of things not to say, including:

• "I know how you feel."
• "It's part of life's plan."
• "Look what you have to be thankful for."
• "This is behind you now: it's time to get on with your life."
• Statements beginning with "You should" or "You will."

Letting them grieve, you listen and help them with their practical concerns.

Part of the discussion centered on how to help the seemingly "powerless." Several librarians recounted how they have helped people without any computer skills find their way through online job search and application procedures. When to stop "helping" was a big question, as some of these people would like to have constant hand holding. Some would also prefer the library staff do all of their typing and job seeking. Shelton emphasized that we must not enable these people to become burdens on the library. That helps neither the library nor the job seekers, who must ultimately take responsibility for reordering their lives. Teach the jobless to help themselves.

The second half of the program was a panel discussion. Jeanne Friedell spoke about how the Oak Park Public Library started a job club that meets on Tuesdays. Two professional job coaches are managing it for the first four months. Librarians and outside speakers give 30 minute talks, and the participants learn to network.

Jane Klingberg from Triton College discussed their program to help job seekers with their resumes. I learned that a lot has changed since I last put together my own resume. Resumes should be one page; only the most experienced job seekers should venture to use a two-page resume today. She recommended writing in 8-point font to get the content into a nicely formatted single page. Only include work and experiences from the past ten years on your resume. Her place of employment recommends starting the resume with a statement of the job seeker's objective; studies show that half of the employers really want this and the other half do not. The second element on the resume should be a summary of skills aimed at the specific position advertised. She said that resume templates from Microsoft Word should be avoided because 1) they are hard for unskilled computer users to manipulate and 2) employers are tired of looking at the cookie-cutter results.

Fidencio Marbella spoke about programs for job seekers at the Melrose Park Public Library. In workshops at his library, he has incorporated roll playing to make the point that resumes have to look good to be considered. A volunteer plays the employer going through resumes. Fidencio gives that volunteer a stack of sample resumes and five seconds to evaluate each. The point is quickly made that appearance is critical. He also described how his library got grants and solicited funds from area businesses for their job programs. (Fidencio impressed me as a speaker who can draw an audience into his subject. I'd welcome hearing him discuss other topics.)

Chris Schabel, who was once laid off by Sears, described the job resource center that the Aurora Public Library has set up. The room has computers with two-hour sign-ins for job seekers and a collection of career materials. Chris said that she knew from experience that many area employers advise applicants get help with online applications at the public library.

There were numerous website recommendations. Snagajob.com was recommended for people seeking low paying jobs, which are often difficult to find in many of the other online job services. Klingberg recommended librarians bookmark the soon-to-be-remodeled CCJobNet.com, a source put together by the junior colleges of northern Illinois; these Chicago area job listings do not often make the national job boards. Several speakers recommended Indeed, a mega-search across many job banks.

Liberty and Libraries: Playing with Quotations

Have you ever accidentally changed a word in a quotation and still found it meaningful? I can not reconstruct why, but on Saturday I started thinking about "life, libraries, and the pursuit of happiness." It sounded so good, I suspected that I had actually heard it before, and I had. I searched the Internet and found the phrase has been used many times.

I then wondered whether "library" or libraries" could be substituted for "liberty" in other quotations and still make some sense. So I gathered "liberty" quotations and tried the word switch on them. Many did not make any sense, but a few did. Here are the ones that I liked. Some of the best are near the end.


"No man's life, library, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." Judge Gideon J. Tucker

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public library." John Adams

"The love of libraries is the love of others." William Hazlitt

"What more felicity can fall to creature, than to enjoy delight with libraries." Edmund Spenser

"Seek freedom and become captive of your desires, seek discipline and find your library." Frank Herbert

"He that would make his own library secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression." Thomas Paine

"I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me libraries, or give me death." Patrick Henry

"The basis of a democratic state is libraries." Aristotle

"Civilization begins with order, grows with libraries, and dies with chaos." Will Durant

"The advance of libraries is the path to both a safer and better world." George W. Bush

"America will never run... And we will always be grateful that libraries have found such brave defenders." George W. Bush

"Education is a better safeguard of libraries than a standing army." Edward Everett

"I would remind you that extremism in the defense of libraries is no vice!" Barry Goldwater


Of course, none of the figures named really made these statements. I wish they or someone else had.

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

I have returned to the deep, dark, dangerous Amazon River. In The Lost City of Z, which I read last month, David Grann mentioned that Theodore Roosevelt explored the region in 1913. To learn more about the Roosevelt expedition, I borrowed the audiobook edition of The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard. Though the story spans ten compact discs, I finished it in only four days, lucky to have had much good weather for gardening/listening.

Millard starts her story about Roosevelt and his ill-conceived journey with the 1912 convention of the Progressive Party. Two weeks before the convention Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt in Milwaukee. With a bullet still lodged in his chest, wearing a bloodstained shirt for effect, he took the podium to accept the nomination to run for a third term as president of the United States. Losing the election to Woodrow Wilson, he was then without a political office and open for adventure. After accepting an offer to speak in several South American countries, he accepted another invitation to take a trip on the Amazon River or on one of its tributaries. As originally conceived, the journey was simply sight-seeing. Once he was in South America, however, the former president was easily talked into a more arduous venture, a boat trip down the uncharted River of Doubt. He had always dreamed of being a real explorer.

The expedition required months of travel just to reach the headwaters of the fabled river. During that time many porters deserted and most of the pack animals died. Most of the provisions (gourmet foods, heavy scientific instruments, and other items appropriate only for the original pleasure cruise) were lost. The band of men, including Roosevelt's son Kermit and the Brazilian explorer Candido Mariono da Silva Rondon, were in dire straits already when they reached the headwaters, not knowing what lay before them. Rocky rapids, impassible waterfalls, piranha, malaria, poisonous snakes, and hostile tribes who had never seen outsiders were only a few of the dangers. Roosevelt and his guides did not even know how long the river was or whether it really emptied into the Amazon.

As I was listening, I kept wondering "Did Roosevelt die in Brazil?" It seemed like I would remember that if it were true! Millard foreshadowed that Roosevelt wrote about the trip afterward. Still, I was expecting to hear that he had died. I would not have been surprised if the whole expedition died, though I knew that it survived. There were no easy days on the River of Doubt.

Readers who enjoy adventure should seek this book.

Millard, Candice. The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. Books on Tape, 2005. ISBN 1415924562

The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, second edition by Joyce Saricks

I read fiction occasionally. As only an infrequent fiction reader, I am still happy to see a new second edition of The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction by Joyce Saricks. I have several reasons. First, I do help readers select fiction almost daily from the reference desk and can use all the help that an expert like Joyce offers. Second, it has been eight years since her first edition; there are many new books and authors to consider. Third, the previous edition is looking a bit worn; it is nice to have a new book with a more attractive cover; clients do notice when you help them with old resources. Finally, Joyce has expanded her vision of genre fiction, adding "literary fiction." I am more inclined to read these books than many of the more "established" genres. (Actually that was there in the first edition, but somehow it sticks out more to me now.)

It does not matter whether you prefer fiction or nonfiction to appreciate Joyce's introduction, which includes good advice for anyone helping clients find good books. I like her distinction between "suggesting" and "recommending" books. When suggesting books, we are bringing the reader more into the process of finding his or her books; we are collaborating and allowing the client to more gracefully decline the titles we name. When we recommend books, we are stamping them with our approval, which backfires on us when we are way off the mark.

The arrangement of the chapters is new. Just looking at the table of contents I realize where my own interests lie. Almost every book I would like to read falls into Part 3 Intellect Genres, with its chapters on literary fiction, mysteries, and science fiction. I might enjoy a few books from Part 4 Landscape Genres, but Part 1 Adrenaline Genres and Part 2 Emotions Genres have little appeal to me. Identifying appeal is what readers' advisory is all about. I wonder whether we could do psychological testing to identify reading types. I'm sure that I'd score a 3 on the Saricks Test.

Joyce has rewritten all the chapters and updated all the "suggested" titles. Librarians and readers rejoice! Read Joyce!

Saricks, Joyce G. The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction. Second Edition. American Library Association, 2009. ISBN 9780838909898

Library Journal Reviews Shift Their Focus

I often question whether I am writing this blog more for readers or librarians. I compromise sometimes and write for librarians that read. I never suspected that Library Journal was in the same situation. So, I read "The 'Verdict' on Reviews" with interest.

The change of focus from writing for librarians to writing for readers makes sense, for the reviews are increasing available electronically in databases and online catalogs aimed at library clients. These readers may be puzzled by phrases such as "for academic libraries" in reviews of books that they got at their small public libraries. Someone with a passion for a subject might not appreciate indirectly being labeled an "academic." With WorldCat, Amazon, and the Internet in general identifying books that they borrow through interlibrary loan, it makes little sense to tell them that their reading choices are in or out of the mainstream. There is virtually just one large collection of books now, and all the readers worldwide are our clients.

I am not sure that I want my reviews to be twitterable. I like the idea of selectors spending a few moments thoughtfully considering titles, but I know how busy librarians are. Ironically, I will miss the "academic libraries only" statements because they gave me an excuse to skip over reviews.

With limited budgets during hard economic times, some librarians are going to struggle to identify the few books that they can buy. It may have just gotten harder.

Moving an Index from Microsoft Excel XP to Microsoft Word XP

I indexed my book Real Lives Revealed, which is being published at the end of this month, myself. I first created the indexes in Microsoft Excel XP. Then I converted them to text in Microsoft Word XP, which turned out not to be as intuitive as it should have been. For anyone faced with the same task, here is what I did.


Step for Moving Index from Microsoft Excel XP to Microsoft Word XP


A. What to do in Excel


1. Open Excel.

2. Make sure that your index content has been sorted into the order that you want it to be in the final form. If there are a few lines that do not sort properly because of Excel character sorting rules, do not worry. You can move them into the proper spot later in Word.

3. Click "Select All." This will highlight everything, even hundreds of pages.

4. Copy all the Excel content.



B. What to do in Word

5. Open Word.

6. Paste content from Excel into Word. You will notice that it is in a table. You will want to get it out of the table.

7. Click "Select All." (This is a step that I missed repeatedly when I could not get the process to work.)

8. Click "Table."

9. Point to "Convert."

Here is where it can get weird.

10. If "Table to Text" is in black, click it and skip to step #14. If "Table to Text" is gray, click a blank spot on the page outside the table.

11. Click Table again.

12. Point to "Convert" again. This time "Table to Text" will be black. Click "Table to Text."

14. In the pop up box, under "Separate text with" choose "Paragraph marks." Click "OK."

15. Your index should now be in Word without table outlines. You can now move lines of text that did not sort properly.

Perhaps there is a better way, but that is the way that worked for me.


If you do write a book, indexing it yourself can give you satisfaction that the job is done correctly. I also found numerous typos in the text in the process, some of which looked right to other proofreaders. I urge you also to consider indexing for quality control that only you may be able recognize.

Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love by Myron Uhlberg

When you have a great story, you need to tell it.

Myron Uhlberg was born the hearing son of two deaf parents at a time when deaf people were at best ignored and at worst considered undesirables. In his memoir Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love, he recounts how as a child he often heard people make crude remarks about "the dummies." People on the subway would turn away with disgust from his parents as they signed. Store clerks, teachers, and doctors treated them as if they were stupid. Even his grandparents, aunts, and uncles did little to help; none of the family would bother to learn sign language. In 1930s Brooklyn, deafness was a social disease.

As early as age four, Uhlberg became his parents "voice," negotiating with the butcher for a better piece of meat, getting the proper change, demanding that they be served. He even had to translate at his own parent-teacher conferences; he admits that he tried to edit the teacher's criticisms, but his father could tell from facial expressions that the teacher was not praising Myron's school work. He also had to listen in the night for his brother's epileptic seizures and wake his parents when he could not handle them by himself.

Uhlberg is now an author of children's books. Near the end of Hands of My Father, he tells the story that inspired his book Dad, Jackie, and Me, a picture book about Jackie Robinson and the 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers.

Childhood was hard for Uhlberg, but he looks back with warmth and humor in Hands of My Father. He portrays his parents as intelligent, loving people who demanded much from him but gave him much in return. While some of his stories are sad, others are funny. Readers will run through most of their emotions reading this inspiring memoir.

Uhlberg, Myron. Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love. Bantam Books, 2009. ISBN 9780553806885