Week 16 Prompt

Week 16 Prompt

Both of our readings this week talk about the culture of reading and the future of the book. So I have two questions for you as readers, pulling on your own experiences and all of the readings we have done over the semester: First, how have reading and books changed since you were a child, for you specifically? Second, talk a little about what you see in the future for reading, books, or publishing - say 20 years from now. Will we read more or less, will our reading become more interactive? What will happen to traditional publishing? This is  a very free-form question, feel free to wildly extrapolate or calmly state facts, as suits your mood!


      How have reading and books changed since I was a child? I was born in 1955 and remember as a child going to the Carnegie Library in Greensburg. Although I remember the main floor of the Carnegie library as very dark - old dark wood floors, small windows placed high, dark furniture, bad lighting, brownish paint - the downstairs addition to the library which housed the children's collection was full of bright lights and bright yellow paint with colorful I decorations on the walls. I was always excited to go there and  browse for my favorite books which were primarily Nancy Drew mysteries and non-fiction and fiction books about animals - cats, dogs, horses, etc. I loved to go home and find a comfortable spot to start reading - I could read all day! I also loved to play "librarian" with neighborhood friends

     Unfortunately, some of the excitement about reading I relished as a child has gone due to commitments and time constraints. I still love to read but my time is so limited. I do like the advances in technology that have taken place in the past few years. I am able to take my phone out of my pocket and read a book about anywhere I want so if I am limited on time, I can still read for a few minutes if that's all I have.

     I believe in twenty years from now it will be easier than ever to read a book. While currently Google Glass is not being used to download books I don't think it will be long before many books will be able to be downloaded on the device (Publishing Technology, 2014). Maybe in twenty years an entire library will be able to be downloaded to a small device like Google Glass and all the user will have to do is say the name of the title and the book, article, song, movie, magazine, etc. and it will pop up on the glass. It freaks me out to think that in twenty years I will be approaching 80 (mentally, I feel like I should be in my thirties!) so I don't know how receptive I will be to new technology by then. I will probably try to learn new things, though. I know I won't forget my excitement as a young girl checking out a Nancy Drew mystery in the old library!

Publishing Technology. (2014). Don't read War & Peace with your Google Glass...                                 yet.ContentForward.Retrieved from http://www.publishingtechnology.com/2014/02/dont-       read-war-peace-with-your-google-glassyet/                                      

Week 15 Prompt

Week 15 Prompt

What do you think are the best ways to market your library's fiction collection? Name and describe three ways you do or would like to market your library or your future library's fiction. These can be tools, programs, services, displays - anything that you see as getting the word out.


     I work at Bartholomew County Public Public Library at the reference desk. One way we market the library's fiction collection is via our weekly newspaper column in the Sunday edition of Columbus' Republic newspaper which is available in print and e-edition. The column is usually featured every two weeks but the topic is not always about adult readers' advisory. Some of the columns are about library programs, children's books, non-fiction books, and other miscellaneous library information such as construction progress on the renovation of the library plaza. I went back about four months and only found one article on adult readers' advisory fiction. I think it is great that the newspaper features a column for the library but I wish we had more information available for adult readers' advisory.

     The library also has a Facebook page that provides information regarding the library; however, readers' advisory is not prominently featured. There is some RA information presented amid other posts about library programs; the construction at the library; library resources such as Overdrive, Freegal, Hoopla, and Zinio; and other available materials and databases. All of the information that is presented on Facebook is relevant but I really wish we had more readers' advisory information available.

     The library has a few handouts available for readers' advisory but they are simply pages with authors listed for about four genres. For instance, for the mystery genre, there is a page with "mystery" listed at the top and a list below of numerous mystery authors. We need more detailed information to assist patrons with finding books they might be interested in.

     That's where I hope to be "coming in". Although the library does not have any openings for new librarians and I am not willing to relocate away from Columbus for family reasons, I offered to do several readers' advisory handouts to be placed throughout the library. Some will be for several genres, some will be author read-alikes and others will be for title read-alikes. The assistant library director, my supervisor, agreed that we could use some readers' advisory handouts around the library. Perhaps I can also help out doing readers' advisory for the newspaper and Facebook. That is the next plan I will be proposing!

Week 14 Prompt

Week 14 Prompt

Consider yourself part of the collection management committee of your local library, or a library at which you would like to work. You must decide whether or not to separate GBLTQ fiction and African American Fiction from the general collection to its own special place. Some patrons have requested this, yet many staff are uncomfortable with the idea - saying it promotes segregation and disrupts serendipitous discovery of an author who might be different from the reader. Do you separate them? Do you separate one and not the other? Why or why not? You must provide at least 3 reasons for or against your decision. Feel free to use outside sources - this is a weighty question that is answered differently in a lot of different libraries.

I don't think it is necessary or relevant to separate GBLTQ fiction and African American fiction for the following reasons:

1.      There are too many books and other materials that are multi-genre. I did a book annotation for this class on the novel The Help. That title can possibly fall under a number of genres and themes that I found on different websites: Women's Lives and Relationships, historical fiction, African-American fiction, literary fiction, and books-to- movies. What about the book Loving Her by Ann Allen Shockley? According to GBLTQ, the novel is classified as African-American lesbian or black lesbian literature (2002).GBLTQ also lists The Color Purple as African American lesbian literature (2002). If you had to separate African-American and GBLTQ literature from the rest of the fiction collection, where would you shelve these books? It would cause numerous problems and confusion for librarians, staff, and patrons!
2.       If you separate African-American and GBLTQ books, there may be other patrons who complain that their favorite genres were not separated, too. The patrons who love romance or thrillers may say that their genre needs to "secede from the Union" because other genres have.
3.       Privacy is an important matter for many patrons. Unfortunately, there are some areas of the country where there are still stigmas and prejudice regarding the GBLTQ population. Whether gay or straight, some patrons may not want to be seen browsing in the GBLTQ section for various reasons. I asked my 22 year-old gay son how he would respond if he found the GBLTQ section separated from the fiction area. Although he is secure with his sexuality, he still would not want to draw attention to himself because he was bullied in the past.He has had people preach that he would go to hell if he didn't turn straight and all he would have to do to turn straight was to "pray away the gay". I have had people tell me the same things when they talk about my son. I am a Christian but I disagree with their views!
4.      I went to a library that had separated the western and mystery genres from the rest of the fiction. I thought it was odd to separate those genres from the rest of the fiction and wish I would have asked one of the staff members why they decided to segregate just those two in particular.In my library all fiction genres are grouped together with patrons finding their titles by looking at the first three letters of the author's last name and book titles listed in alphabetical order under each author. There is no need to run from one genre area to another to find books and try to figure out what genre the book falls under.

References

Keating, A. (2002). African-American literature: Lesbian.       GBLTQ. Retrieved from                                      http://www.glbtq.com/literature/african_am_lit_lesbian.html

Week 13 Prompt -

Week 13 Prompt

     I believe that no matter the genre or format the patron has an interest in, I need to respect their preferences and help locate the materials they are seeking at the reference desk. Any genre or format encourages the reader to read so it is a "win" situation for both the patron and the library. I also believe that libraries should represent the various genres such as graphic novels, young adult books and street lit because the more patrons relate to the topics they are reading, the more they will want to read.

       It helps to have a teen librarian or other librarian available to help promote young adult, street lit, and graphic books to readers. Some teen librarians will visit middle and high schools to inform students what genres and formats are available at their local library. The teen librarian at the library where I work mainly goes to middle and high schools to promote some young adult books and does not include graphic novels or street lit as part of the promotion. She also plans activities at the library which help promote reading and utilizing resources that the library offers. I believe it helps if the library director is open to promotion of the genres and formats, too. The library where I work also promotes genres by placing signs in the library, creating posts on the library's Facebook page, and writing for the library's weekly column.

       I work at the reference desk at my library and have noticed adults in their 20's, 30's, 40's and even older going over to the teen section to look for books. They also come to the reference desk asking for specific titles such as the Hunger Games trilogy, the Divergent trilogy, and The Fault in Our Stars. I think it's great that some of our patrons don't pay attention to the "young adult" and read these books because they are great to read! I work with one librarian in his early 30's who loves to read graphic novels. I have noticed other men browsing through the graphic novel section. I haven't had many patrons requesting street lit. There is one patron I know of that has to be around 70 years old and requests books that are similar to New Adult books. Someone told me she used to read inspirational and Amish novels then started to switch genres!

Young Adult Annotation - Classic

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

Genre: Modern classics, 
books-to-movies

Publisher: various publishers; there

are 249 editions of the book

Publish date: first published June 1960

Storyline: Character-driven

Tone: Bittersweet, Thought-provoking, Moving

Writing Style: Lyrical

Setting: Southern small-town strong sense of place; Maycomb, Alabama, 1935

Literary Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction - 1961; Voted #1  - Best Books of the 20th Century - Goodreads (Goodreads, 2014).

Title Read-alikes:
Light from a Distant Star -  Mary McGarry Morris
Ellen Foster -  Kaye Gibbons
The Bottoms -  Joe R. Lansdale

Author Read-alikes:
Sue Monk Kidd
Truman Capote
David Guterson

Plot Summary - 

     Tomboy Scout Finch recalls the years of her youth from age 6 to 9, a time when she becomes exposed to the hatred, injustice, and violence towards African-Americans in her small town in southern Alabama. Her widowed father, Atticus Finch, is an attorney who asserts bravery while representing an African-American wrongly accused of rape. He faces alienation and disdain from some of the townspeople because he represents a black man.
     The first half of the book explores the summers Scout and Jem spend with visiting summer-friend, Dill; 
their preoccupation with the town recluse, Boo Radley; interactions with relatives and townspeople; and school experiences with students and teachers. The children learn from their soft-spoken, patient, and courteous father his integrity and ability to accept and respect others for who they are. According to Atticus, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it" (Lee, 1960).
     The second half regards the rape trial of Tom Robinson and the bitter attitudes of the townspeople toward race and acceptance. Scout and Jem learn first-hand how hatred can lead to violence and the meaning of acceptance through Boo Radley.

My Opinion - 
     
     The book is beautifully written, an engrossing story told through the eyes of young Scout. There is a strong sense of place with vivid descriptions of what life was life in 1930's small-town Alabama. The characters are colorful and memorable.
     I believe this book should be required reading in high schools because it describes how ignorance can lead to hatred and prejudice (as seen through many of the townspeople) and how acceptance and respect can be taught (as seen through Scout and her father). I also believe it is important to tell the story of race relations in the South in the early-to-mid 1900's. This book seems to come up every year during Banned Books Week. Although some of the language in the novel can be strong, prejudice and hatred cannot be sugar-coated and the story needs to be told. 

References

Goodreads. (2014). Best books of the 20th Century.                     Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6

Lee, Harper. (1960). To kill a mockingbird. New York, NY:           HarperCollins.

Week 12 Prompt - Readers' Advisory Matrix

Fire and Rain:

The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970

by David Browne

Published  - May 31, 2011

Publisher - Da Capo Press

Genres:  Non-fiction -  Music, History, Biography

Where is the book on the narrative continuum?
The book is a mix in which most of it is fact-based, told in narrative style.

What is the subject of the book?
The book examines the lives and careers of some of the most legendary singers of 1970, intertwining some social and political events that highlighted the year such as the shootings at Kent State and the Apollo 13 crisis. 

What type of book is it?
It is a historical, biographical non-fiction book based on some of the most popular musicians of the era.

Articulate Appeal

What is the pacing of the book?
The pace is moderately paced although set in a time of turmoil for the artists.

Describe the characters of the book.
The characters of the book are the artists: The Beatles (Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr); James Taylor; Simon and Garfunkel (Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel), and CSNY (David Crosby, Steven Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young).  Although they were all extremely talented and wrote some of the most influential music of their time, the friction that developed within the musical groups led to their demise. James Taylor and David Crosby also dealt with drug addiction although drugs were abused by several of the artists.

How does the story feel?
The reader feels the discord and animosity between members of the musical groups. The book also has a compelling feel.

What is the focus of the story?
The story focuses four relevant albums of 1970 (Let It Be by the Beatles, Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel, Sweet Baby James by James Taylor, and Deja Vu by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young) and the personal and professional lives of the artists who made them.

Does the language matter?
The book deals with factual turmoil among musical group members so the language needed to be bold and descriptive.

Is the setting important and well descibed?
The setting is very important to the book. Amid the stories of the musicians are descriptions of some of the most important events of 1970, a year full of political and social strife:

Are there details and if so, what?
There are many factual details of the lives of the artists, the music business, and events that took place in 1970.

Are there sufficient charts and other graphic materials?
There are some photos of the artists included in the book.

Does the book stress moments of learning, understanding, or experience?
The reader will learn about the Apollo 13 crisis, Kent State shootings, radical group bombings, and the fading of the anti-war movement. The author also discusses the change from political-themed music to personal songs by singer-songwriters.

Why would a reader enjoy this book (rank appeal)?
1. A descriptive, inside look into the music industry.
2. Personal lives and careers of some of rock's greatest artists.
3. Historical elements - music history, political and social history of 1970.

Non-fiction annotation - Wild by Cheryl Strayed

Wild: 

From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail 

  - Cheryl Strayed

Published - March 20, 2012

Publisher - Knopf

Pages - 315 (Hardcover)

ISBN - 978-0307592736

Genre - Nonfiction, Biographies 

and Memoirs, Adventure; Books to Movies (the film Wild will be released in the future, starring Reese Witherspoon)

Literary Awards - Indies Choice Book Award for Adult Nonfiction (2013); Goodreads Choice for Best Memoir & Autobiography (2012), Oprah's Book Club 2.0 Selection.
A Best Book of the Year: NPR, The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, St. Louis Dispatch.

Pace - leisurely 
Style - desciptive
Tone - strong sense of place, moving
Writing style - richly detailed; descriptive
Storyline - Character-driven


Title Read-alikes: 

• Claiming Ground - Laura Bell
• Once Upon a River - Bonnie Jo Campbell
• Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert
• Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer

Summary -

     After the death of her mother from cancer, Cheryl Strayed fell into a downward spiral, leaving her devoted husband for numerous one-night stands and a stint abusing heroin with a new boyfriend. She also estranged herself from her once-close siblings and step-father.

     Although she was almost broke and had no backpacking experience, Strayed headed for California on an 1,100 mile journey for self-discovery on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).  Her hike lasted for several months, beginning in the Mojave Desert and ending on the Oregon-Washington border. She arrived on the PCT ill-prepared with a heavy over-packed backpack she could barely carry and shoes that didn't fit properly. Strayed also overlooked important trail information  - hundreds of miles of the PCT in the High Sierra was covered with ice and snow. She met various hikers, local people, and amusing "characters" along the way, forming friendships and obtaining help from some of them when she was low on food and money. They also offered practical information on hiking and maneuvering the PCT.  

My opinion:

     I found the book fascinating because Strayed painted vivid, detailed descriptions of the locations she visited along with her family members and the characters she met on her journey. I was constantly wondering what was going to happen next and enjoyed reading about the various places she visited.      

     Parts of the book are introspective, in which Strayed analyzed her weaknesses and relationships with her ex-husband and family members. While attempting to cope with the loss of her mother, she made unwise choices by using heroin and having numerous affairs while married to a loving husband. Throughout Strayed's journey, she commented about the many men who were attracted to her both on and off the trail. While at a trail stop in Oregon, she complained about how bad her body looked after weeks of hiking on the PCT. These complaints were made before her date with a guy she briefly met in a bar that ended up as another one-night stand on a beach. That was one time I felt no compassion for Strayed.