Barnstable Enterprise Library Column 1/27/2012

Don’t Panic, Bring a Towel

Lately my ears have been ringing with the words of the eternal Douglas Adams. In “The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” Englishman Arthur Dent finds himself planetless (the Earth having been inconveniently demolished to make way for a hyperspatial express route) (don’t worry; the dolphins bring it back later). His one constant helpmeet is the eponymous guidebook, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the principal advice of which is “Don’t panic. Bring a towel.”

This is my last column for the Enterprise. I am setting off on an adventure which I sincerely hope will not involve the destruction of the planet. Even a small, cross-continent move, though, inspires panic and the need for a nice, fluffy towel.

 

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There are so many books and library stories to choose among that it is very difficult to pick a topic for a last column. Fortunately the President – yes, the one in Washington – suggested a topic. Here follows a short state of the libraries address to the people of Barnstable.

How much did your village libraries offer to you last year? What did we do? Here’s a snapshot in numbers:

Hours open: 13,252
Items circulated: 604,485
Items in collection: approximately 300,000

Yearly attendance: 494,656
Children’s programs offered: 975
Children’s programs attendance: 17,961
Adult and Young Adult programs: 666
Adult and Young Adult programs attendance: 10,482
Reference questions: 43,223

Many thanks to Centerville’s Director Beth Butler for compiling these statistics.

The stories in words I’ve tried to tell through these columns. As Library Directors we must keep a sharp eye on statistics, but I think I speak for my colleagues when I say that each of those numbers brings a flood of faces and voices to mind. How many of those items circulated started with a question: “I loved this book, now what should I read next?” Every children’s program brings a memory of music and glittery crafts; every reference question a personal quest for understanding. Every transaction is attached to some person’s unique story. We are privileged to share these stories with you.

We remember the people who said a special “thank you” for a program on suicide prevention or substance abuse. We grin for the people who used our resources to find jobs, and came in waving acceptance letters. Some of those items circulated and reference questions were transmuted by patrons into brand new books, which we added to our library collections where they will be checked out and used to answer new questions that may turn into new books… How could you not love this?

Yet all around us, with library use rising in many places (Cotuit saw 32% more library visits in December, 2011 than December, 2010, for example), library funding and support are not keeping pace. The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners reports that “More people visit their local library each year than attend entire seasons of the Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, and Red Sox games combined. Entrepreneurs, students, job seekers, the homeless, the affluent, new Americans, children, young adults, adults and seniors, literate and illiterate, all find a path to success at the library.”

So why don’t we hear more about libraries? We’re hearing plenty about the Patriots.

Perhaps we need a reality show with avid readers being voted out of the library? Or commentators doing color commentary and play-by-play: “Joe Black has entered the library making a beeline for the new fiction, but here come Mehitabel Green on his right. Joe feints toward James Patterson…but no, Mehitabel got to the new Daniel Silva first. Score one for the Friends of the Library… but here comes another Cribbage Club member, picking off Michael Connelly straight from the shelving cart! What a play!”

Maybe not. Maybe we just need your help from time to time to spread the word. This year, why not send valentines to your legislators, local and state, declaring your undying love for your local libraries? I’ll be in New Mexico by then, but I’ll keep an eye on how well you’ve raised funding levels. Thanks!

 

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

The Barnstable Village Libraries column will continue next week. I will be reading from a distance, because I can’t wait to see what Lucy Loomis of Sturgis has to say. I only wish there were space for Lucy’s extraordinary photos.

It’s been fun to “talk” with all of you through this column and the many in-person conversations it has started. May the Village Libraries continue strong and happy, and best wishes to all who take extraordinary adventures within their walls and within the covers of their books, electronic or otherwise.

Should you have a lingering question about the column headings this week, find a helpful reference librarian, or pick up a very funny series of books from Douglas Adams.

 

Barnstable Enterprise Library Column 1/20/2012

I love the life of the library. In our library this morning we have kids and parents attending Story Time, people checking email, volunteers shelving books and sharing book recommendations, people reading the newspapers, people picking books and audiobooks and movies. People have all sorts of questions for us to research and answer, from information about historical stores in the village to ideas for where to eat on vacation in a far-off city and urgent questions about writing resumes and applying for jobs. People are asking for the latest thriller and for voter registration forms; they are looking for hot movies and tax forms; they are dropping off last week’s reading and town census forms.

I wish all the people who don’t use the library, and who still think it is a big building full of books and nothing more, could come in today to wander and listen and find out what the others already know. It’s a lovely building full of wonderful books, but so much more.

The Barnstable Village Libraries present programs both within our buildings and outside them. We have downloadable audio and e-books that you can check out from the comfort of home (or from wherever you may be traveling, as long as you can find an Internet connection). We have online learning tools and databases also available from home. Insomnia a problem? Learn French at 2:00 am if you like, all for free and courtesy of the library.

Here’s a sample of what you can enjoy through the Barnstable Village Libraries this week:

On Saturday, 1/21:
HYANNIS: A Trip to China 2:00 p.m.
CENTERVILLE: Author Talk with Martin Sandler 2:30 p.m.
WHELDEN: Family Supper Night 5:00 p.m. at the Community Building

On Monday, 1/23:
CENTERVILLE: Drop-in Story Hour 10:15 a.m. Infant-Preschool.
MARSTONS MILLS: Homeschool Club 2:00 p.m. Grades K-5 (please sign up in advance)

On Tuesday, 1/24:
MARSTONS MILLS: Story Time 10:00 a.m., followed by After Story Activities 11:00 a.m.
COTUIT: Preschool Story Hour 10:30 a.m.
CENTERVILLE: Mid-Cape Chess Club 1:00 to 7:00 p.m.
OSTERVILLE: Storytime 3:30 p.m.
MARSTONS MILLS: Tuesday Night Kids’ Clubs 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
HYANNIS: Family F.U.N. Night 5:30 p.m. Call 508-775-6240 x512.
MARSTONS MILLS: Kneedlers Knitting Group 6:00 p.m.
STURGIS: Intellectual Seeds: The Bounty of William Sturgis, Past and Present Discussion Series 6:30 p.m. “Silas Marner.” (Registration requested. Sponsored by Mass Humanities.)

On Wednesday, 1/25:
OSTERVILLE: Storytime 10:00 a.m.
COTUIT: Preschool Story Hour 2:15 p.m.
HYANNIS: Family Literacy Class 6:30 p.m. (Sign up through Barnstable Schools)
COTUIT: Book Club 7:00 p.m. “Last Night in Twisted River.”

On Thursday, 1/26:
STURGIS: Storytime 10:30 a.m. Ages 2 to 5.
COTUIT: One-on-one Tech Help (call Library for appointment)
CENTERVILLE: Mid-Cape Chess Club 1:00 to 7:00 p.m.
CENTERVILLE: Family Story Time with Miss Donna 6:00 p.m.

On Friday, 1/27:
COTUIT: Stitch in Time Handcrafts Group 10:00 a.m. to Noon
MARSTONS MILLS: FUN Family Playgroup 10:00 a.m. (Birth through age 4. Call 508-775-6240 to sign up.)
HYANNIS: Pre-school Story Time 11:15 a.m.
CENTERVILLE: Knitting 3:30 p.m.
CENTERVILLE: Mixed Up Story Time with Miss Jessie 4:00 p.m.

And this is Winter, our “quiet” season.

Libraries: buildings with books, community centers, homes of lifelong learning, and anything else we can devise to help bring people together with vital information they need and enlightening entertainment they want. Stop by some time soon.

Barnstable Enterprise Library Column 1/13/2012

This Sunday Cotuit Library’s Vintage Mystery Book Club meets again. As always, this makes me think of rereading old favorites of all sorts. I am indulging myself today with more oldies but goodies. If you have already read everything good, you can skip this week’s column.

The Phantom Tollbooth

It is all right to read children’s books. Many children’s books, even the ones you read as a child, are even better when you are grown up (at least, if you didn’t grow up too very much). Norton Juster’s “The Phantom Tollbooth” turned 50 last year, and it is not showing its age at all.

This is the tale of Milo, a typical boy who is always thinking about where he isn’t and thinks he can never find anything fun to do.

“When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in. On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he thought about going. Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else, and when he got there he wondered why he’d bothered. Nothing really interested him — least of all the things that should have.”

One day he opens a mysterious present, which turns out to be a tollbooth. Setting off in his long-disused electric car, Milo finds magic and adventure as he travels past Expectations into The Lands Beyond, and struggles to restore the princesses Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason to Dictionopolis.

Why should you read this, if you haven’t already? Because it’s much more fun that whatever you just finished reading. Because the word play is delightful. Because it will remind you of everything you’ve ever forgotten. Because Tock the WatchDog would want you to.

“But it’s not just learning things that’s important. It’s learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters.”

The Lives of a Cell

It is also ok to read science, even if it is not brand new. Sometimes science writing is really about how people think. For many years Lewis Thomas wrote a monthly short, informal essay called “Notes of a Biology Watcher” for the New England Journal of Medicine. In 1974, the first collection of these essays was published in book form.

“The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher” won the National Book Award in 1975. Twice. This magnificent book won in two categories: Arts and Letters as well as Sciences. Thomas’s acceptance speech is as graceful as his essays:

“What I have in mind is the growing body of totally new information about the way life works, and particularly the possible meanings that may be contained in this information. It is looking more and more like a strange, unexpected sort of world, the closer we get to it…I’m not sure you should leave it entirely to the scientists to figure out all the meanings.”

Sherlock Holmes

All along the mystery shelves they line up: authors who want to borrow an odd, old Victorian character and dust him off for another adventure: Caleb Carr with “The Italian Secretary,” Laurie King with her Mary Russell novels, Michael Chabon’s “The Final Solution,” and more. All these novels have circulated well. People are flocking to a movie that claims to be about this character, and viewers tune in to see an updated BBC version.

So when was the last time you read the real thing? The genuine article, the world’s first (and greatest) consulting detective, the true Sherlock Holmes, as chronicled by his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Back in 2003, when you heard the buzz about Mark Haddon’s “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” did you immediately think “Silver Blaze!”?

“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”

 

If you’d like to join the Cotuit Vintage Mystery Book Club, we meet at the Cotuit Library Sunday, January 15 at 1:00 pm to discuss “The Nine Tailors” by Dorothy Sayers. Next month, catch us on February 19 at 1:00 pm for Ngaio March’s “A Clutch of Constables.”

Barnstable Enterprise Library Column 1/6/2012

Ends and beginnings are good times for reflection. Year-end is always interesting at the library. Most people are busy with travel, family activities, and other things that get in the way of reading. Books that have been circulating madly for months come back to roost on the shelves for a few weeks. The “new” bookshelves overflow for a little while.

This is the first time both Cotuit’s copies of “The Greater Journey” by David McCullough have stood side-by-side. I finally got my own chance at Erik Larson’s  “In the Garden of Beasts,” which has been flying from hold to hold for a long while now.

Looking through these shelves, 6 months or so worth of books, gives an interesting snapshot. What have we been thinking about, reading about, talking about? And what sent us off in those directions?

Beyond the Bestsellers

For a fascinating investigation of how compelling photographs shape our views and reflections, try Errol Morris’s “Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography.” When is photography art? When does it become evidence? When does it lend itself to propaganda?

If Morris’s investigation proves too disturbing, you might prefer an exploration of one photographer’s artistic process.  Annie Leibovitz’s new book “Pilgrimage” was a special project. The subjects depicted weren’t assigned to her by editors. They are places and things associated with people who interest her, places and people that she reflects upon through the images she makes. The compilation of photographs and the subjects they encompass in turn reflect Leibovitz herself, giving a fascinating picture of what matters to her. Massachusetts is represented by Emily Dickinson’s home in Amherst and by Walden Pond, among others.

Featured Service

CLAMS offers another cool way to look inside what others are reading and thinking about. At the main page, www.clamsnet.org, try selecting “New and Popular Titles.”
The New and Popular page will show you bestsellers; recent additions in many categories; lists of the most requested items in fiction, non-fiction, dvd, audiobook and more. You can even see lists of hot future releases.

Yes, this is the secret of how your neighbor always gets holds way ahead of everyone else. Scan the advance list for favorite authors and interesting titles, and place your holds before the item is published

Online Tip

If you prefer to look back before looking ahead, everyone remotely related to the publishing world has put out lists of their favorite books of 2011. Here’s a list of some of my favorite lists (all this reflection seems to be getting recursive…):

I love to look at the Guardian’s list (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/best-books-of-2011) to see what’s hot in the United Kingdom. Several writers I enjoy are published there first. A few of my personal favorites, writers like Lindsay Clarke and the late Russell Hoban, write novels that may not make it to US publication at all.

Readers themselves choose the Goodreads list at http://www.goodreads.com/award/choice/2011 . There are no pretensions here, just a selection of what real people really enjoyed.

Publishers Weekly has a list which is always worth considering at http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2011#book/book-1, while NPR’s eclectic list of lists is at http://www.npr.org/2011/11/30/142942283/the-best-books-of-2011-the-complete-list . Either of these will give you plenty to consider when picking your next read.

Featured Event

On Thursday, January 12 at 6:30 pm Gosnold Treatment Centers in collaboration with Hyannis Youth and Community Center, Barnstable High School, and the Barnstable Libraries, presents Fall River native and former Boston Celtic Chris Herren. He will share the story of his spiral into drug and alcohol abuse and his eventual recovery and rehabilitation. Herren was recently the subject of a compelling ESPN documentary, “Unguarded.” His reflection on his own life will help anyone who has been affected by addiction.

Barnstable Enterprise Library Column 12/30/2011

Psychology Today (which you can read at a local library) says “Studies show that the most common New Year’s Resolutions are losing weight, exercising more, and quitting smoking. Other popular resolutions include: managing debt, saving money, getting a better job or education, reducing stress, taking a trip or volunteering.” Hmmm. Wonder how you library can help with these?

Losing Weight

Your local library will have plenty of books to help you manage a healthy diet. There are out-and-out diet books, of course, but also the latest advice from trusted medical centers. You’ll find healthy heart diets from the American Heart Association and Cleveland Clinic and, diabetes diets from the Mayo Clinic, for example. My favorite healthy eating book of the past year comes from a doctor who is also a gourmet chef: “Just Tell Me What to Eat” by Timothy S. Harlan.

Exercising More

Yes, we have books for that as well, including books on related topics such as stretching. But did you know some libraries have exercise or yoga groups as well? It’s always easier to keep going if you have good company. Ask at your local library. If they don’t have a group already, maybe you could start one

Quitting Smoking

Here you’ll find help both in books and on video. You’ll also find a supportive, non-smoking environment full of interesting programs to distract you from the lure of nicotine.

Managing Debt

We have a multitude of books to help, and you can sample them all without incurring more debt. Find the special focus that will help you: dealing with collectors, understanding credit cards, refinancing mortgages, and more. Your reference librarian can’t offer direct advice, but can put you in touch with a variety of social service agencies that do offer direct help. This is a hard maze to work through. Let us help you find reliable, trustworthy help.

Saving Money

What better way to save money than by using the library? Borrow books, movies, and games for free. Download free audiobooks and ebooks from home so you save on gas as well. Use our many research databases from home or from the library. Attend free author talks, informational programs, book clubs, and more. Learn to knit or crochet. Let your kids enjoy free activities all summer, keeping up their reading skills so they return to school ready to learn. Get free help researching a world of subjects.

Of course you could also check out books with great advice on saving money in other areas of your life.

Getting a Better Job

You’re in luck. We have resources to help you write the perfect resume and cover letter, practice for the all-important interview, or start up your own business from home. You don’t even need to leave home to handle this resolution. Simply use your library card to sign into the Job and Career Accelerator resource from any Barnstable Library website. Job and Career Accelerator, made available through a grant from the Kirkman Trust, offers a full range of tools to help you find a job, including customized searches for job postings and computer skills tutorials you can take at your own pace.

Getting a Better Education

Public libraries support lifelong learning. We can help you find the resources you need, whether in print or online. Take a good look at the research databases and online learning resources we offer. One favorite is Mango Languages, a collection of more than 50 online language courses available from home, also made available through a grant from the Kirkman Trust. Many library patrons also enjoy the Great Courses series from the Teaching Company, available in both audio cd and dvd formats. Study literature, science, visual arts, music, history and more with some of the best professors in the world, all for free, at home.

Reducing Stress

Relax in a comfy chair by a library fireplace with a good book. Learn about meditation, yoga, and other relaxation techniques with our wide selection of videos and books.

Taking a Trip

We’ve got that covered as well, with travel books and dvds, online language learning, phrase books to carry with you, and lots of great programs. Listen to speakers as they talk about trips to Africa, Taiwan, Paris, and other locations, and decide where you want to go next.

Volunteering

Libraries love volunteers. Without them, we’d have a hard time making all your other resolutions possible. Please consider joining us, at least if you like friendly company in a pleasant atmosphere, along with the knowledge you are helping your friends and neighbors.

There you are. Replace all your resolutions with one: spend more time at the local library.

Farewell Reception January 26

Please join the Cotuit Library’s Board of Trustees at a Farewell Reception to be given in honor of our director, Caroline Dechert, who will be leaving her position at the library at the end of January.  The reception will be held at the Cotuit Library on Thursday, 26 January, at 6PM.  Light hors d’oeuvres and beverages will be served.

Please RSVP to Stan Goldstein via email at sigcoma@comcast.net or via phone at 508-428-0143 by 23 January.

:::Shudder::: Tax Forms Arriving

We are beginning to get requests for 2012 (tax year 2011) tax forms. We expect to have both state and federal forms as we did last year, but only a few have arrived. In the next week we will begin putting them out. In the meantime, here are links to:

Massachusetts Tax Forms

Federal Tax Forms