No Need to Apologize to Your Librarian

We’re here to help (and lean on furniture)!

When I tell people what I do for a living, and then they realize that I serve the public, sometimes I get a twisted face of pity coming at me.  Folks who sit in an office all day might not be familiar with what it means to meet new people all day long.   I find serving the public in the library to be an extraordinarily rewarding job.  While I can’t speak for airline workers and their clientele, the vast majority of library patrons that I meet are kind, inquisitive, grateful and generally lovely.  In fact, sometimes they can even get sheepish or apologetic about what they don’t know or do.  And so this post will serve to say that we’re okay with all of it, really!  The Library would just be a big empty building without you! We’re glad you are here.

Below are some apologetic phrases we hear, and the reasons why there is no need to apologize to your librarian.

• I don’t have time to read.  This is often muttered with a hint of guilt, and sometimes this phrase will include a lack of eye contact.  But listen.  We’re okay with that, really!  We won’t judge you.   Even librarians get into reading slumps.  We find ways to dig out of our slumps, and then we share them with you.  Library eBooks, of course, can be a time-saver.  If you have them on your tablet or smart phone, they are likely always with you…  you can read a couple of pages in line at the post office or grocery store, though we don’t recommend reading while stuck at a red light.  If you need a change of pace, listen to an audio eBook or an audio book on CD.
• I don’t like to read.  We are totally okay with you telling us this, but we kind of/sort of don’t believe you.  Like police are trained to protect and serve, librarians are trained to believe that there is one book for everyone.  It’s our job to find that book! Maybe you need to try something new!  A graphic novel, a staff recommendation or a  Read-Alike for that really popular novel might do the trick.  Okay, and maybe we need to broaden our definition of book.  Because maybe you just aren’t in the mood to read or listen to books.  You can still get your literacy fix at the Library. We have zinio & freegal ( free subscriptions to e-magazines and free music downloads), CDs and DVDs.  We are serious about celebrating multiple types of literacy!
• I haven’t been to the library in a long time.  Whenever I hear this one I just say: “Welcome back!”  We understand that the majority of people live rushed, busy lives, so we don’t judge you if you can’t make it to the library every day.  As mentioned previously, we have a vast online presence, with loads of options to entice library use from anywhere.  We also are working hard to get out of our doors and into your community, to make it easier for you to find us.  With all of that, we still host tons of events, programs, meetings, workshops, puppet shows, music and dance performances, discussions – books or otherwise and general fun for all ages – to entertain and enlighten all of those who visit us in the building proper.  Whether you’ve been away for a day or for 30 years, we heartily say welcome back! Let us show you around!
• I’m sorry to bother you.  Goodness, no, you are not bothering us.  We are at the desks in public areas so that we can be of help to you.  We might be working on a project, but that is just to stay busy until the next patron comes along and needs our help.
• I have fines. We do too! Now, it’s your turn to not judge us.  We are here every day, but we check out so many things that we just can’t remember what is due back when.  In my former life as a teen librarian, I would visit middle school classrooms to promote the library.  On a particular visit, I was telling a group of 7th graders that it’s okay to have fines, because a) we have options for teens who have fines, such as Teen Summer Reading Fine Forgiveness and the Fine Alternative Program, and b) I get fines all the time!  A very astute 7th grader said: “What!?!?!?!  You get fines?!?!?! That’s stupid.”  This may be a fair assessment, but it also serves to show that if we judged you, we’d be the pot calling the kettle black.
• I can’t find… this book.  the restroom.  Classroom A. the mezzanine. a way out of the building.  One is apt to get turned around, or have questions while using any of our libraries, if one is not accustomed to it.  And due to its massive size, imposing columns and larger-than-life architecture styling, the Main Library  can be quite imposing to folks on their 1st or 50th visit.  Think of the Main Library as a microcosm of Pittsburgh.  It can be quite confusing to find your way around.  And if you think of us as a microcosm of Pittsburgh, you’ll know that Main Library, or any Library locals (staff), like Pittsburgh locals, will smile knowingly and be happy to help you find your way.   You might even pick up a few tips or tricks while we’re at it.

We’ll climb the stacks to get you what you need. (Don’t try this at home.)

Happy apology-free library visiting!

Holly

No Fiction, I Cry

A couple of nights ago, I found myself in a very scary position: I had no fiction in my apartment to read. Yes, I had books in my own small personal library, but those were books I had already read and I don’t reread books. (So why I own them is a mystery.) I had just finished reading a book for a book discussion and wanted something just for fun. I went to my stack of library books and was dumbfounded to see absolutely no fiction. I had quite a few non-fiction titles on subjects like writing, eating healthier, creative thinking, and other self-improvement topics, but no fiction. I double-checked. Triple-checked. And then sat on the floor in disbelief at what I had done. I had no fiction.

But, I work in a library so only had to get through one night before I unleashed myself upon the shelves to see fiction what I could find! Here’s what I picked up:

              

Clearly, I Didn’t Think This Through: The Story of One Tall Girl’s Impulsive, Ill-conceived, and Borderline Irresponsible Life Decisions by Anna Goldfarb. Okay, so I broke my “MUST GET FICTION!” rule right out of the gate. This is not fiction, but it sounds like something I could have written so I had to grab it.

Gulp by Mary Roach. Again, not fiction, but it’s Mary Roach!

The Source of Life and Other Stories by Beth Bosworth. It’s a collection of short stories; I am me, so, of course.

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan. I’ve never read any McEwan (Gasp! But I have seen movies based on his books). I just really like the cover and the concept. I hope it lives up to my vague expectations.

Tales From Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan. This is actually for a book club, but I already started reading it and am in love with it so don’t mind one bit.

I hope I learn a lesson from this and keep a closer eye on what books I have at home. I don’t ever want to be caught without a fiction title in my apartment again.

–Aisha

Armchair Travel: The Middle East

One great way to recover from your first half-marathon is to sit on the couch and catch up on all the wonderful books you’ve got checked out on your library card. Lately I’ve been dabbling in non-Western literature, and–with the help of this wonderful list from the Tacoma Public Library–familiarizing myself with the diverse range of fiction produced in the Middle East. Here are just a few of the titles I’m sampling this month.

Dakhmeh, Naveed Noori. Arash’s family fled to the United States when he was just a boy. As a man, he has returned to Iran against his family’s wishes, to try to understand his birthplace and its complex political problems. Aresh’s one-way ticket to Tehran buys him not only a consciousness-raising, but also a stint in prison, which the novel chronicles in a series of journal entries. The title–which roughly translates to “towers of silence”–implies that things will not go well for Arash, but, more importantly, for Iran at large either. A complex tale about a man trying to understand his heritage, but, possibly, too Westernized to fully grasp it.

Women Without Men, Shahrnush Parsipur. Banned in Iran for its frank discussion of women’s sexual desire, Parsipur’s tale explores the inner landscape of the feminine in the post-WWII period. Who is a woman without a man? Per Parsipur, she is a lover, a fighter, a creative being, and a creature seeking justice or vengeance (and sometimes both). Struggling to escape the narrow confines of their world, Parsipur’s women realize–frequently to their horror–that once you have liberated yourself, the landscape of freedom poses its own problematic challenges. Read it and find out why the author was jailed, and now lives in the U.S. as a political exile.

On the Hills of God, Ibrahim Fawal. In the summer of 1947 Yousif’s two main goals in life are to become a lawyer after high school and win the heart of the beautiful Salwa. Completely unaware of the political chaos brewing around him, Yousif does not realize that by the summer of 1948, his life in Palestine–soon to become Israel–will be very different. Fawal paints a complex, layered portrait of a period in history the participants themselves have not been able to parse out peacefully, giving the reader a front-row seat at what everyday life must have been like at the time. What’s really striking here is the loving attention to detail: houses, food, and the landscape are described concretely, yet simply, pointing out the jarring contrast between the larger currents of history and the daily routines that, somehow, always go on.

The Liberated Bride, Abraham B. Yehoshua. Set in and around Haifa University in the mid-1990s, this novel explores Jewish and Arab intellectual circles, and their uneasy relationship to each other. Professor Yohanan Rivlin can’t figure out why his son’s wife divorced him, and neither member of the former couple will explain, which makes him even more determined to find out. Meanwhile, Professor Rivlin’s brightest student, who has just recently gotten married herself, alternately irritates and intrigues him as they work together on an Algerian history project. A bittersweet comedy of manners, that explores our need to know the truth, even when we don’t really want to know the truth. And by the way, what is “truth” anyhow? Polite, but with bite.

Season of Migration to the North, Tayeb Salih. A young man returns to Sudan after receiving a university education in England. When he arrives in his village, he meets and becomes obsessed with the mysterious Mustafa Sa’eed, a recent newcomer to the town. Over time the narrator learns the full truth of Sa’eed’s disturbing life story, but will it serve as a cautionary tale or a road map to ruin? Compared favorably by some critics to Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, this novel is a fascinating tale of colonialism and psychological horror.

I don’t know much about the Middle East, but these novels have me itching to pick up some decent history books. Fiction-wise, I’m also planning to devour the titles on the Muslim Journeys booklists the library staff has created as part of a grant project, which you can read more about here. Do you have any other recommendations? Have you read any of these, or other works from the Tacoma Public Library list? What parts of the world have you explored in fiction, and where should I go next?

–Leigh Anne

stamping her metaphorical passport

I only know three musicals.

My dad is a creature of habit. Every Easter he watches Jesus Christ Superstar. Every Fourth of July he watches 1776. And when I was a little Amy, he made me watch A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum over and over and over again (it was either that or Blazing Saddles).

As a result of his bizarre-though-benign parenting, I ended up memorizing most (if not all) of these three musicals. I am still not sure if this is a good thing or not.

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Jesus Christ Superstar – (movie, score, assorted recordings, libretto) Personally, I prefer Original Album Deep Purple Jesus to Wimpy Movie Jesus, but the movie does have tanks. And Disco Judas. (Tanks first appear at :31.)

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1776 - (movie, score, assorted recordings, libretto)  Thanks to this movie, I am sometimes tempted to sing “Will someone shut that man up?” during lengthy meetings, though I have managed to resist so far. (That line is at 4:18.)

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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – (movie, score, assorted recordings, libretto) I suppose I can credit this one for fostering my early love of Roman history and teaching me that there at least seven geese in a gaggle. (Skip to 2:23 for geese, but the whole clip is great.)

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- Amy, who was raised with sarcasm, bad puns, and  history

What, it’s not on the Internet?

Generally when we talk about the Digital Divide, we’re talking about the disparities in use and access to the Internet and other digital resources – primarily due to income, education, and/or geography. In April last year the Pew Research Center / Pew Internet Project released a comprehensive report on the Digital Divide – Digital differences - a survey based analysis of who’s using the Internet and how/where they’re accessing it.  While absolute trends have changed as the technologies have changed, The US is still faced with 20% of its adult population not using the Internet – though half of that is a choice, not a circumstance.

As librarians, we at the Carnegie and libraries around the country help overcome the digital divide on regular basis; running the spectrum of users from those who become self-sufficient to varying degrees, and those for whom the mouse and PC are the tools of the devil, wholly unclean and not to be touched.  I also regularly work with others for whom there is another variety of the digital divide; one that determines their future course of work and changes their otherwise comfortable relationship with the library, its librarians, and greatly challenges their 21st Century assumptions.  This divide occupies a narrow spectrum of information – that which isn’t available online – no way, no how.

Isn’t everything available online? No, it isn’t.  Generally speaking, most of what the average library user asks for is available online; maybe in a full-text database, perhaps in a published government document, possibly in a curated digitized collection, and of course in e-books.  There are also some standard tools like the USPTO’s patent search engine with accompanying displays, and one of my favorites – Google Earth. Of course we’re also positioned, and more importantly trained, to help our users with the non-digital resources they need.  Sometimes we need to do things as if it’s 1970, and that’s not necessarily a given for many students and other library users. We’ve all become comfortable with both the actual access and the assumption of access that “our” information is a click away.

The danger with that assumption is two-fold. The first will be the conclusion after an unsuccessful search that the information you’re seeking doesn’t exist – if it’s not digital, ipso-facto, it hasn’t been created.  The second concern, and maybe the more prevalent one, is that knowing it doesn’t exist electronically simply drives the user to an electronic source that they make meet their need, even if it’s a tertiary (or worse) source.  Just because most of what you might seek is available online, that doesn’t mean it all is, or that the best of it is, and that is why you can always Ask a Librarian. 

- Richard

‘Tis the Season for a Run…

It seems to be the season for marathons and running posts. I have been running for about five years or so at this point. I have run a number of 5k races, and last year, I was supposed to only run one leg of the marathon relay. Well, some of my team bailed at the 11^th hour leaving an 11.1 mile gap at the end of the relay…so I did it. It was a great feeling, but also a little frustrating! I was only 2 miles short of running the half marathon! This year I decided to just run the half and see what happens. I’ve been training for months and, even though it might sound a bit less positive than I intend, I’m as ready as I’m gonna be for this.

I do love running. I’ve become one of those people who run on their lunch break (workday 5k! Yeah!). I run in the rain. I run in the snow. I run early in the morning. I run in the evening after a long day of work. It’s really been a great thing for me. I love seeing the city and the different neighborhoods from the perspective of the runner. I love that I can wake up early on a Saturday and crank out some miles with my friends and feel great. So…what are some of the things that inspire those runs? Read on, dear Eleventh Stack blog reader, read on:

I am NOT a barefoot runner, nor do I really even endorse the whole barefoot running movement. I think it’s kind of a shame that Christopher McDougall’s EXCELLENT book, Born to Run, gets saddled with being that book about barefoot running. There is A lot of other excellent stuff in there and I highly recommend it!

Mentioned in the above title is the amazing Scott Jurek. Jurek is one of the most remarkable runners in the world. He is an Ultra Marathoner. He’s won more Ultras than anyone. He is vegan. He is a hero. He wrote Eat and Run and I loved it.

John “The Penguin” Bingham is a great running writer who taps into the approachable style that allows you to think “Hey…maybe I CAN do this!” He wrote for years for Runner’s World magazine and his Marathons For Mortals is an EXCELLENT resource!

Scott Douglas collected a ton of brilliant little bits and bobs from runners of every skill level and compiled them into this fantastic little book. No section of The Little Red Book of Running is more than a page or so, but it’s so chock full of useful, inspirational material, you will be amazed.

And, apart from running, I tend to find some kind of inspiration from the Tao Te Ching. This translation by author Ursula K. LeGuin is absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend it!

So, enjoy it…read up and get out there and get a run in! After the bombings at the Boston Marathon this year, Amby Burfoot (1968 Boston Marathon winner and writer for Runner’s World) said what we can do to really help at this point is to help another runner. Here is my crack at helping:

If you used to run but stopped, get out and give it a go. You’ll probably see what you loved in it the first time around. Don’t be afraid to go slow. Don’t be afraid to take your time and only run short distances.

 If you never ran but want to, try! Start slow. When I started I’d run for 20 or 30 seconds and walk for a minute or two. I used the Couch to 5k method. Try running between telephone poles and then walk awhile.

If you are currently couch-bound but want to be more active GET OUT AND WALK. Walking is probably the best thing you can do, especially if you currently aren’t doing an exercise plan. Remember, being outside and doing it is a million times better than sitting on a couch. Best of luck!

Eric

Ghost Town

I grew up in a town with some spooky history.  Not quite We Have Always Lived in the Castle spooky, but spooky nonetheless.  Gettysburg, PA was the site of the battle* that changed the course of the Civil War, and with over 50,000 deaths– almost as many as in the entire Vietnam War– the town is known almost as much for its ghosts as it is for the battle itself.

Gettysburg at the time of the Civil War. [Image is in the public domain; click picture for full source information.]

As anyone who has ever grown up in a small town knows, you spend a lot of time “hanging out.”  In Gettysburg, that meant spending a lot of time at various places around the battlefield and picking up various bits of lore without even trying.  Ask anyone who lived in the area, and they can probably tell you a ghost story that they remember off the top of their head, even if they can’t remember all the details.  For instance, I remember that there was a statue of a soldier that supposedly turned its head to look at you (it was one of the state monuments, although for the life of me I can’t remember which one).  I also know of a stream that had a little wooden bridge going over it, and the story goes that a woman hid her child there when the confederate soldiers rode into town.  She was killed by soldiers, and you can still hear her sometimes in that area calling out for her child.

Many people who grew up in the Gettysburg area develop a lifelong interest in Civil War minutiae; I’ve been left with a love of ghost stories.  Here are a few you might enjoy:

A haunting image of a young Civil War soldier. [Image is in the public domain; click picture for full source information.]

The Ghosts of Gettysburg, by Mark Nesbitt: It would be remiss of me to not mention this title (and series) in this post.  The Ghosts of Gettysburg books compile stories that the author has painstakingly collected from sources around the region.

Ghost Stories of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, by Beth E. Trapani and Charles Adams III: Pittsburgh isn’t without its share of ghosts! I think that if you dig around the history of any older city, you’re bound to turn up some good ghost stories. This book has gotten some mixed reviews (this one is my favorite!), but is still a good introduction to Pittsburgh’s paranormal history.  The experts in our Pennsylvania Department could certainly point you towards other stories, if this book gets you interested.

Widdershins: The First Book of Ghost Stories, by Oliver Onions: These stories lean more towards psychological horror than outright fright, but I guarantee that at some point after reading the first story in this collection, “The Beckoning Fair One,” you’ll find yourself alone in the house wondering just how much you believe in this type of thing.

The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James: Can you tell I’m a fan of psychological ghost stories yet?  If you’ve ever taken a creative writing course, you’ll be familiar with the phrase “show, don’t tell,” and that’s exactly what James does in this novella.  This subtly creepy story is often hailed as a classic of the genre, and for good reason.

Does your hometown have any creepy ghost stories?  Any readers from the Gettysburg area who have a good story to share?

-Irene

*incidentally, 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.