Forty Years a Librarian

Thoughts on the last 40 years as a librarian (not counting the almost 2 years I was laid off from the Free Library on Philadelphia and worked as a "file floater" at the National Solar Heating and Cooling Information Center)...

• Computers: in 1976 at the beginning of grad school at Drexel University in Philadelphia, we had a professor tell us that, not too far in the future, everyone would have a computer in their home.  Ha!, we all thought. Now we carry computers in our pockets and wear them on our wrists.  She was prescient. And computers have changed everything.
• Card catalogs: a thing of the past because (see above). And I'll never go back to the Old Ways. Filing above the rod was a PIA, especially in one library that I worked in in the early 1980's where the cataloger bowed down five times a day in the direction of Library of Congress, and where the catalog was so technical that it was almost unusable. Try finding the fairy tale about the Seven Swans with the original Danish title.  And what was that Latin term for bedwetting? And as for knowing where a certain book is, you'd go to the catalog, look it up, go to the shelf, it's not there. Is it out?  Stolen? Misshelved? Gone for repair?  When will it be back? Can the patron get it anywhere else? Who knew! 
• Reference collections: also a thing of the past (see Computers above). I had a woman just the other day ask about a word in the dictionary, but wanted the print version.  Luckily, the only reference books we have are two dictionaries.  The large atlas is about to go, after we blow the layers of dust off of it.
• Books: in 1978, audio books were for blind people. Ebooks and Eaudio had not been thought of (that I know).  It was print, print, nothing but the print. Now, print circulation is going down, but ebook circulation is going up. I don't mind; there are more choices for patrons.
• Diversity: I was a children's librarian for the first 28 years, first in Philadelphia, then Brookline, Marion, and New Bedford.  Early on, diversity was the African-American kid in "The Snowy Day".  Then things started to change.  We saw more diversity in children's books each year. There's still a long way to go, but believe me, it's better than it was before.
• YA books: in 1978, the teen books were mostly about romance.  Then came S.E. Hinton.  Boys were flabbergasted to learn that Hinton was a woman. Then Lois Duncan. Then "Annie On My Mind", one of the first teen books about a lesbian relationship. As with diversity in children's books, so with diversity and openness in YA.  The genre has exploded, and that's a good thing.
• What the library is used for: it used to bug me in the early days of circulating videos that this was sometimes the only thing people came into the library for.  Now I'm more sanguine.  People use libraries for faxing, computers, DVDs, museum passes, lots of other stuff than books. Sometimes people just come in for a certain program and leave without checking anything out (well, that still bugs me a little). Libraries are more than repositories for books. I think that is one of the biggest adjustments I've had to make, outside of Computers.
• The Library of Things: I remember it was a big deal when we first heard of libraries checking out stuff like tools, cake pans, and the like. Now we all do it.  As small as my library is, we checkout wifi hotspots, snowshoes, a ukulele, a telescope, and science and nature kits for families.

Now that I'm nearing retirement (5 years to go!), I'm watching the younger librarians and what they're getting excited about.  People in my generation are lamenting the smaller presence of print in the collection, but print is not going away anytime soon, that's for sure. The next director at my library may see things differently, but that's the way things go. The last 40 years have been in turns harrowing (having to cross picket lines 2 months into my first job; being threatened by a teen in my first library; breaking up fights between both kids and homeless men; and much more. Ask me about the guy who carried around a large inflated Oscar Meyer hot dog wrapped in a blanket.) and fun (a kid inviting me home for supper; being called "Library Lady"; being presented with rocks, dandelions, and drawings; the relationships with regular patrons). I've enjoyed it. And I wouldn't have done anything else.

Sorry, Mary! We're not like this anymore!

Me and Mr. Holmes

My reading affair with Sherlock Holmes started when I was 11, in a campground in Lancaster, PA.  The campground had a small lending library, and I found a copy of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" there.  I got to the words "Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!" and that was that; I was hooked for life.  A couple of years later, I did some volunteer work for a local bookstore and they let me pick out any book I wanted.  Any book.  I chose "The Complete Sherlock Holmes", a book known in library lingo as a "doorstop". Well over 1000 pages. Every Conan Doyle story and novelette published.  My parents were mystified, but I read it cover to cover, many many times over.  In later years, this book was lost in one of my many moves in a particularly stormy time in my life, and I would love to have it back again.  (I would also love to have the version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" that I read in that campground.  It had a grey cover.)  Some of my favorite stories in the book: "The Sign of the Four", "The Speckled Band", "The Five Orange Pips", "The Solitary Cyclist", "The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual", "The Dying Detective", "The Sussex Vampire", "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (of course), and "His Last Bow".  I have read some other authors attempts at Holmes stories, and particularly like Laurie R. King's Holmes and Russell series, especially "The Beekeeper's Apprentice".

As far as other media is concerned, Jeremy Brett IS Sherlock Holmes, IMHO, and I do like the new BBC version as keeping to the spirit of the stories while moving them into the 21st century.  I can't stand many of the movie versions as not being true to Doyle's Holmes. Sorry, Robert Downey Jr, you are decidedly NOT The Great Man.   Again, my opinion.  I make a nostalgic exception for the Basil Rathbone - Nigel Bruce "Baskervilles" as being so bad, it's good.  I also did like "Young Sherlock Holmes" despite its many flaws.  We have also visited William Gillette's castle in Connecticut.  Gillette popularized Holmes on the stage, and the castle is quite a marvel: Gillette State Park.

I have read a couple other books by Conan Doyle, but nothing compares with Holmes.  I'll keep an eye out for the doorstop version of the complete stories, and for that grey-covered book that started me on the Holmes path many years ago.

Reading diaries

For many years, I have kept a reading diary. I write down titles of books that I want to read in one part of the notebook, and list the books that I have read I another part. I star the titles that I think are the best. These titles make up my "Top Ten" list each year. I've filled two journals already, and the other day, I closed off another one, in service since 2005. By doing this, I've admitted that there are books that I will never get around to reading, because, when I shifted my TBR list over to the new notebook (given to me by my nephew), I left off a bunch of titles that I had listed as "want to read" about 11 years ago. I'm acknowledging that times have changed, my reading tastes have changed, and I have changed, so that these books no longer interest me. I'm kind of thinking that, if I haven't read them by now, I'm not going to. I could put everything on Goodreads, and I do list my finished books there as well as in the notebook, but I like the idea of a notebook that I can pull out and scan through. I also use it to choose the next book to read. I number every book in my TBR list, and use a random number generator to help me select. Otherwise, I'd just read the next title I see, and never get to the older ones. I save all of the older, closed journals. They make a better diary, I think, than a regular diary.

Farewell, old friend!

On voting for the Hugos

Since the Spousal Unit and I are attending this year's WorldCon in Kansas City, MO, we get to nominate things for the Hugo awards.  As a librarian who uses the Hugos as suggestions to purchase and/or read, I take this task pretty seriously.  I regret that I haven't really read any short stories, novellas, or novelettes in 2015 (at least none that I remember, but if they were good enough to be nominated, I'd've remembered them. Right?). At first, I thought that I'd only be able to nominate novels, but the more I think on it, I can nominate in other categories, too.

Related works: I take this for nonfiction, so am ready to nominate Jo Walton's What Makes This Book So Great?, a collection of essays and blog entries on re-reading science fiction titles.

Graphic Story: Lumberjanes!!!  Both volumes.  Also Nimona.  I've been throwing Lumberjanes at anyone that will stand still long enough. Friendship to the max!!!

Dramatic presentation, short form: Last week, I binge-listened to Limetown, a 6-plus-several-short-episodes podcast that has been described as "Lost meets X-Files". Totally enthralling. Limetown is a fictional podcast about a reporter, Lia Haddock, who is investigating the disappearance of a doomed research facility in Tennessee.  The link to their page is HERE, and I encourage you to do so.  Episodes 3 and 6 are particularly exciting (I found myself gasping and saying, "Oh No!" and "What!" while listening), and those are my favorites.  But you must listen to all from the beginning. Do it NOW!  I'll wait.....

The Challenge, the Subject, the Book

Today's Read Harder Challenge: read aloud to someone.

The Someone: 2 1/2 year old Beatrix

The Book: "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" by Beatrix Potter

I have always loved this book. I read it repeatedly to my child and am now sharing it with yet another generation. I especially like the way Beatrix Potter doesn't talk down to children. The sparrows "implore" Peter "to exert himself" when he's caught in the gooseberry net. She makes it plain what happened to Peter's father (baked in a pie, in case you can't remember), which makes it equally plain what might happen to Peter if Mr. MacGregor catches him. The only thing I "translated" for Bea was "fortnight". I changed it to "two weeks" so that Bea would know how ill  Peter was because of his naughtiness. Next week, I'll try "Mrs. Tiggywinkle", another favorite of mine. I wish she lived near me; I could use someone to do my laundry and ironing.

The culprit himself.

Too many books!

The first post in my reading blog and already I'm complaining!  I have too many books to read!  It's almost like I was back in college, but with a big difference - I chose to reserve all of these books, or purchase, or pick up ARCs at the recent ALA Midwinter meeting.  The Book Riot Read Harder Challenge is breathing down my neck, but I'm about to finish the Horror Novel: The Girl with All the Gifts.  I purchased this at the Bluestocking Bookstore in NYC, and I've already nominated it for the 2016 Hugo Award.  I also am almost done with The Book that Takes Place in the 18th century, or The Book That Takes Place in the Middle East, depending, as it covers both.  This is Beggar at the Gate, by Thalassa Ali, the sequel to A Singular Hostage.  I'm also rereading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, as the Nonfiction Book Group is discussing it next week, and I read it so long ago that I can't remember what happens.  Then there are the titles that I'm considering for next year's book group, like The Beanie Baby Bubble, or Deep South.  And to top it off, there are the Paranormal Romances that I have to read by February 3 for the SERART meeting.  I'm not looking forward to reading the required title Seize the Night, as I suspect there are vampires and I'm just not a fan of vampires.  But the titles I picked seem to be fun.  So, all in all, there are too many books asking for my attention.  A fun problem to have!