To Kindle or not to Kindle...

The holidays are here. It is frantic time. Really no time to indulge in crazy activities like..... reading....! If Santa is making his list and checking it twice, I certainly should follow suit. Gifting, Carding, Baking - sprinkle in some thoughts as to what this season is really about and I am going to need at least 28 hours in the day to get it all done. So what does one do about seasonal stress? If you are anything like me, reading is usually the cure to all - but not now. When to read? Where to read? What to read? The pile on the bedside table is a monster, but those books generally do not make it out to the front of my house where my work bag sits. The book I was reading in the car seems to have made its way into a shopping bag that changed location to the hubbies car. Daughter's book Harry Potter #6 was left on my work desk, but although great a couple of years ago I am not ready for re-read 3. Picture books could be good in those few minutes between shopping and pick-ups at school, but they really should be returned to the library now, no really yesterday.... These are the (small) dilemmas of a 'I read to relieve stress junkie'.


Many friends, some colleagues, and patrons have urged me to get an e-reader. (Yes I can read on my I phone but geez - if I didn't need reading glasses yet I will now!) An e-reader will have what ever I have available when I want it. Some of the materials are even free through wonderful library sites like ListenUP! It is so $$ that I will take better care of it and never leave it anywhere but within immediate eyesight. I could be supporting authors who can only publish privately cheaper through this medium. I am sure there are many other reasons as to why people would tell me to ask Santa (nicely) for an e-reader, Kindle or any of its relatives. And yet...


There is something keeping me from joining the 21st century. It is not an aversion to technology. It is not the unwillingness to pay for electronics. It is not even the battle librarians and booksellers wage everyday to keep our (paper) businesses going. I think it may be nostalgia. Nostalgia?? Yes Nostalgia for something that is here but may be gone soon or at least be shelved high up and far in the back. I want to be able to turn the page! Physically turn the page, maybe even write my name on the first one, in ink! If a book has small pages, or wide ones, or impossibly thin ones - I want to be able to see that, to feel it, to 'experience' it. Part of what makes certain books so special is the way they were published, the way they looked, the things that caught your eye. No e-reader can reproduce that moment. And yes, I can hear you all yelling: not the cover that counts!! It's the content. Well yeah - you are right, but the content wouldn't have been perused so much had not the cover been inviting and calling my name... Not always, but sometimes. My love story with books embraces all: the cover, the story, the connections to the time and place read, the author. There is no way I can peruse my kindle and lovingly caress the well worn titles with my eyes and fingers. There is no way that the Sony or the Nook can be made into piles beside my bed. No smell, no visual, no love story.


Santa - maybe next year. For my real touchable scribbled whish list you can find my husband, you know who he is, and no - he will not be able to pull it up on his gmail account on his handheld. It will be the crumpled list on the back of a grocery receipt in his wallet.

Running Circles on the Treadmill?

Is it possible to run in circles on a treadmill? I believe it is. As most modern day fashion model lookalike wannabees, who are really working professionals moonlighting as parents - most of us would like to at least pretend to have some aspiration towards fitness. What does this have to do with libraries or possibly the written word, you ask? The answer is podcasts! I have recently been trying to get back on the treadmill - literally. Spring is almost here, the beach is calling my name (albeit at this moment a very faint call that is trying to be heard through the mounds of VT snow still covering the ground.)And so - Jane Fonda - eat your heart out - I am back! Carving out time for any selfish activity can seem insurmountable: in my case, this is time lost that should have been spent reading beginnings and ends of books, scanning reviews, or listening to a chapter or two of an audio book. This is what I do to keep up with the latest and greatest. This is what I do so that when Suzie Smith doesn't know what she wants or likes to read, I can run to just the right shelf and pick up that one page turner that has her name on it. So now, running, which I don't even like - has somehow become the 'guilty pleasure'. Not so sure about the pleasure part, but definitely guilty! Solution: Podcasts. I load my favorite literary podcasts, plug in the earphones, and set the pace... Sometimes I go a little wild and add in an NPR podcast about cooking, but hey - even those usually quote some published chef or foodie! So step after step, mile after mile, I listen, I absorb, and I get caught up in the world of publishing. In the words of James Brown ' I feel good!' Yup, burned some calories, knocked of some work at the same time, and made a list of new recommended books for on my night table. OK - so there's the proverbial wrench - MORE books for on my night table. More books next to the stove. More time to read I don't have, more pounds to shed due to indulging in the splendid non physical act of reading. I didn't have time to read for pleasure to start with, I can only spare time for the Rachel Rae 20 minute dinner. There is no more room for the stacks of books I really did think I had to read. I feel like I have come full circle: I am actually running in circles. I love to read, I became a librarian, I have to read, I don't have time to read (or run), I listen to shows about reading while running, I learn about more books I absolutely have to read - did I tell you I love to read, yes, that is why I became a librarian, and so... Well you get the picture. They tell me spring is almost here - and when it comes, I will start running outside. The treadmill will do service as a much needed bookshelf for all those great books my podcasts entice me 'check out'. And some day, I will figure out how to exercise and read, all without feeling guilt. Someday - until then, I'll keep running in circles .....

FAVORITE PODCASTS OF THE MOMENT: Books on the Nightstand and The Splendid Table.

Many Hands Make Light Work

• A last ditch attempt at finishing VT's 23 things.


• Three time's a charm.


• Appreciating the library volunteer.


• (re) Jump start....
  

1. What is a blogger to do when the creative juices have not been flowing for months?


2. What is a librarian to do when the work load is backed up?


3. What do 'lost' people do to find their way back?

3 questions, 3rd time on the blog merry-go-round,

and hopefully 3 answers that may in some roundabout way be 'connected' ...

Three time's a charm
Almost 11 months to the day since my last blog. Is there such a thing as blogger's block, or should we just realistically put it down to the chaotic times we find ourselves in these days?
You may wonder - why again?
The belief that 'slow and steady' wins the race may have something to do with it, or the fact that I will not go down as a quitter.

So a stubborn librarian, back in cyberspace, despite back logs of work: Enter the Volunteers!!!

Appreciating the library volunteer
Some days I wonder why we have volunteers, some days I wish they would leave.
What is that saying about people outstaying their welcome?
And then I walk into my office and all the books are covered. I walk by the 'to be shelved' cart and it is empty! I overhear the circ. desk person calling patrons in attempt to lighten my load of 'overdues'.

I went to a conference on volunteers today. My biggest lesson: know what you need from a volunteer before you put them to work. Have a plan for each and everyone of them, and show them some appreciation: in the end - what you give is what you get! Volunteers deserve that second chance too, or maybe even the 3rd. (remember the charm thing!)

As a wise (anonymous) person once said:

There is only one thing worse than training your volunteers and having them leave - and that is not training them , and having them stay.

Jump start....
So, to find my way back to VT's 23 things, to find my way back to blogging, and to find my way back to what motivates us all to work in a library I am intent on (re)connecting with our volunteers. Volunteers trade in their time so I can find the way to my desk, help run a library, and blog in the odd moments!

Volunteers even provided me with my first blog topic in 11 months,

so 3 cheers for 3 times and 23 things!

Looking for volunteers in your community?

Let me 'volunteer' a good place to start:

RSVP Vermont

Misery Loves Company???

This may not be the most appropriate title for my daily musings, but it struck me yesterday while at a 23 things kick-off, that many people are unsure and hesitant about all this web 2.0 stuff. So I am now in the company of a group of other tentative (dare I say miserable?) souls traveling down the cyberspace road. The good news is, that the misery will turn to some sort of enlightenment along the way, and possibly even enthusiasm! For me - the first few weeks were fun, I learned stuff I thought was only accessible to 'techies', and while experimenting with things like Facebook for business or web generators I started also to contribute more to the tech part of our library work! Note that I said the first few weeks.... Then the proverbial wall got hit, in fact slammed would be more appropriate verbiage - followed by 2 weeks of flu. All creative juices got shut down, maybe triggered too by the lack of interaction with library patrons since they did not want to end up on their death bed after a run in with my germs.

So here we are - at a crossroads - do I continue in the face of adversity? "Adversity?' you ask.

Yes - just like the little kid at school that was always top of the class I have now run into my first real challenge. It is a small challenge, but a hurdle nonetheless ... I cannot figure out how to bookmark stuff on Delicious. Really - this should be a no-brainer.... A little web glitch should not get the now web 2.0 inducted me in such a dither. And yet it has.

After a good cup of Mexican Mocha at the Tuckerbox (worth visiting if you are in WRJ I have decided on the road (usually) less taken (by me) and will persevere. Soon I will be able to click on VT's 23 things front page - find my blogging friends and ask them for help! Using Facebook and Twitter, and cloud searches, and more I WILL find the answers to my queries, and I too will be a social bookmarker some day!

Maybe it's not misery loves company after all, maybe it's LEARNERS LOVE COMPANY' !

In keeping with my first blog entry in which I vowed to talk about the books that cross my work desk (and then promptly forgot about this vow amidst the grant applications, overdues, and town budgets) I will read up on Delicious, tagging, and all things related in the book WEB 2.0 and Beyond by Tom Funk, so that I can claim victory and spread the good feeling of success!

Librarian at work, Librarian at home!

Librarything.com

WOW

Now you never have to leave your work.... even when there is nothing to think about connected to work once you close that library door - now you can be a librarian at home! Why one asks? Good question. Maybe somebody thought that librarians are inherently anal, and need to organize their books at home as they do at work. Maybe someone out there thinks that we librarians think in terms of categories and Dewey numbers at all times, organize our houses and lives by labeling things fiction (my 9 year olds' excuse for not doing her homework) non fiction (MOM!!! I peed my pants - the 3 year old) Fantasy : husband is coming home to cook me a 3 course dinner after which all kinds of romantic events will follow, etc. etc. The truth is, I am sure they are out there - the librarians who organize and straighten, and catalog their lives, but there are many people doing the same that are involved in firefighting, teaching, sales and other occupations. And then there are those of us librarians, whose desks are a dead give away that our lives are not as organized as our shelves....

so I jumped into librarything, teased by its promises of cataloging as easy as 'find and click', thinking I was in for an immediate reorg and relocation of all my books (and my kids', and my husbands', and those left behind by visitors!) NO such luck. The site allows you to catalog, and list your books, but that is about it. So now I can search my own list to see if I do or do not own a book, but they are not sorted or categorized. OK - so you can tag each book, that would certainly make a search easier. Let's remember: we're talking about unorganized people trying to organize such an amorphous growing changing and always out of control thing as their book collection! These people will NEVER remember what tags they used for what kind of book. Was it local eating? adventure or travel? animals or pets? Magic or fantasy?

Maybe someone could design a website that allows us un-organized poor souls to list the many tags we use for all our books, photos, video's, and others.....

Here is what I do like about librarything:

you can compare your bookcase to someone else's. This allows you to find people with similar tastes and look on their bookshelf for titles you have not yet perused... It is like taking a sneak peak into someones living room - exciting and somewhat clandestine...

You can try to have your book group members join - if it is not too personal (there is that living room thing) I know that within my own book group there are very different tastes. The members of my book group have gotten me to read things that I would never have picked up by myself. Because I trust them I think it would be cool to scan the shelves of my book group friends and pick a book that way. Hey - if I really don't like it - they will never know and I will never tell!

(Might give you some secret insight into peoples lives, thoughts, and fantasies too!)

Falling of the wagon (also known as the book mobile)

I almost fell of the VT's 23 things wagon! Almost... not quite.
Then - through the wonders of modern technology I received an email in my 'in box' informing me of 2 other participants still hanging in there!
I was saved! I am back on the wagon!

All due to that one message: 'YOU'VE GOT MAIL!'

This week was dedicated to web generators.

Unfortunately I found the Ben & Jerry's web generator and got lost in flavor land.

Next, I found out the drawback of 'the buck stops here...' Apparently even generous B&J's stops their benevolence at sharing their (fun) artwork. In other words, corporate America (yes even those that start in backyard garages) do not want to play and share: You can play with their images, you can even send them to other people, and share on social networking sites, but you may not save them on your lovely computer.

I am thinking there are many computer savvy people out there who can figure out ways around this, but for those of us who like to just 'click and paste' this is a serious waste of time.

All that fun designing labels and flavors for hours on end - and then - NOTHING: no jpeg., no doc., no nothing....

I did manage to somehow get the picture transported to a word doc, but now have to figure out how to manipulate it from there. Maybe I should look at this as a gift from B&J: yet another opportunity/motivator/challenge to dive deeper into techno world.

So - whilst the world is waiting for the pictorial rendition of my B&J's flavor

LIBRARY LIBATIONS

(with lots of caffeine products of course!)

I will take this opportunity to clarify which of the 23 things occur in which of my blog postings.

I have taken the liberty to write some (opinionated) entries between the WEB2.0 articles, so this list should make it easier to find my ideas on the first 6 things!

blog posting: Continued education, day 1 thing: Blogging
blog posting: Week 2, 7 1/2 habits thing: comments on 7 1/2 habits

blog posting: From Flickr to Fall thing: Flickr

blog posting: Young Adult Fiction thing: Webinars (not one of 23 things but web2.0!)

blog posting: The Beauty of Banned books thing: RSS Feeds

blog posting: A Library's Social Network thing: Facebook

blog posting: Falling of the wagon thing: Web generators

Oh - and I did fall of the wagon: the ice cream wagon - despite my ravings -

a good helping of Cherry Garcia never hurt anyone! (especially not me!)

so thanks B&J, for web generators, motivation/challenges, and great tasting ice cream!

Who Reviews the Reviews?

When reading book reviews, I always wonder: who reviews the reviews?

In other words - who decides that one review is better than another? Who is the best judge of the written word?

Is it the people who sell the books - highly unlikely - they're in it for the money right?

Is it stylists - the MLA and other sources who decide the book is written 'correctly'? Not likely either - that would probably lead to the scrapping of many novels we have all enjoyed due to incorrect use of the English language.

Is it the large pool of English teachers and professors - would they still know what makes a good read, even after analysing and at times shredding books apart in the name of knowledge?

Could it be that publishers really do write objective synopses and reviews - doubtful, since they are pushing 'their' author into the public eye.

Okay - so then there are the professional reviews like Library List, Book List, etc. They do a decent job, they are known for subjectivity and their reviewers generally write good synopsis. But do they know YOU? Do they know what peaks your interest, what gets you riled up, what makes you think days after you have put the book down?

I suggest, that despite the numerous options for those of us whishing to ponder reviews, we take a short walk/drive/bus ride to our local (independent) bookstore or library. Granted, even your local librarian and bookseller are under pressure to perform and drum up numbers for statistics.

There is something to be said, however, for the sense that these individuals have of their village or town. The knowledge they possess about the individuals that make up their community. The relationships that have been forged over months and years allows your local book-friend to give you a review that is thoughtful and personalised, because this person knows YOU! (or your friend, or your grandmother, or your old pre-school teacher..... You get the drift...)

When you find yourself looking for a new good read in the near future:

read the reviews in the magazines, the papers, and on your pod casts - then get yourself to your local book haven, be it library or independent bookstore, and treat yourself to a personalised book chat!