I want to be a time traveler

My friend had a baby recently and I can't help but wonder what is in store for this wee one. As I held her, I wondered if these teeny hands would ever brush their hands over the pages of a lush illustration the way I did when I was little. Would they turn the page of There's a Monster at the End of this Book when Grover begs in anguish, "No! Don't turn the page!!!!!" the way my children did. Of course I know that this little one will because her mother is committed to books- she works in the library and doesn't even own a digital device although is well versed in how to use them. But whether they will be available with the same I-can-take-this-for-granted kind of availability? I doubt it.

With the news of Barnes and Noble's recent collision with a metaphorical financial iceberg, books available in neighborhood bookstores are quickly going the way of the Tyrannosaurus Rex- which makes me sad. In a recent article on GeekWire, author Guzman says, "books speak with more than words. They speak with pictures and size and even smell. With sound, too — the whip flip of a page turn. You hold a book open and need a surface to handle a hardcover’s weight. A book has resistance. It makes demands. You have to carry it, put it away, give it a physical space in your physical life. What if that isn’t, as I’ve come to look at it, purely an inconvenience? What if it’s a sign of mutual respect? After I finished the amazing “The City and the City” on my Kindle, I couldn’t remember the author’s last name. It didn’t stare at me every time I went to read the story. At Elliott Bay I saw the book, “China Miéville” printed big and bold on the front, and felt like I was in the presence of something new." While I was reading her article I was thinking to myself how much I love my bookshelf- that I look at the books and see a title I've read and I remember the author, the time I spent reading it... I may not reread the book, but the book itself holds something special for me. (My albums and Cds have a similar feeling for me-love or like- something my itunes folder will never replace no matter how many times I listen to the songs. I have held on to sheet music from college for the same reason.) 

It's not just nostalgia that makes me cling to books. When I was a kid, my folks were quite poor and we couldn't afford to purchase as many books as I could actually read. I read voraciously so the library was my friend. We were the kind of poor that didn't have a television when all my friends had televisions- or we'd have one but it would break down and my uncle would fix it but it would take months for him to fix it so all the entertainment I would have would be my little green box radio and my books. But it was fine as long as there was a library close by.

Now years later and working at a library myself, I know that there are still many people who are too poor to have Nooks, Kindles or iPads and if the library were not available to them, they would not have access to books. If there are fewer books being sold then there will be fewer books available for sale to the library because publishers will lose a retail outlets to sell their wares in which means they will lose profits and go out of business. It's a vicious cycle that scares me. I may keep my job because librarians are vigilant and always ready to reinvent the library to fit what society needs. Nevertheless... libraries will not be what they once were which is another sad thing, I guess.  

Don't get me wrong! I am not fundamentally opposed to ebooks -for instance as an author I think they open opportunities for publishing where a vanity press is mostly taking advantage of authors. And as a tech lover I think they're fun when I have a magazine I want to read that I don't want to mess around with for very long. But as a reader, the truth of the article on GeekWire felt fundamentally true to me and I couldn't shake the feeling that we are losing something culturally if Barnes and Noble becomes an artifact of ancient history.

So, I want to be a time traveler- I don't want to only travel I want to change time. Maybe I'll go into the facility where they are developing the first ereader and sabotage it... anything to keep the book from going extinct. Anything to keep bookstores from disappearing from my neighborhood...

Anyone want to join me? I might need help...     

Lessons from Libaria for Writers

In 2004, I was the last ditch hiree by the last-resort Principal of a middle school here in Denver, Colorado. I, however naively, was thrilled with the job and jumped in wholeheartedly to the position. Soon thereafter I attended a meeting where a plea was made for reviewers "We need YOU!" The chairperson squawked into the squawky school microphone. An idea had begun forming in my mind, and as the meeting droned on I mulled the pros and cons. As we finished up, I approached the head of the department and asked her for special dispensation so that I (not a teaching librarian) could join THE REVIEW COMMITTEE. She agreed and the rest was, if not history, then at least in the past. SO... I was a paraprofessional librarian who purchased books on a very limited budget (at least most years) for kids who desperately needed good books (most of the kids in my school were very low readers) to read and I reviewed new books that were being published by mainstream publishers... 

I learned a few things. (which is why I joined the Review Committee in the first place. I wanted to review so that I could be a better writer-- it seemed logical that in reviewing other people's books that I would learn a few things about writing. But another bonus: I got free books for my library!)

The first thing I learned is that there are lot of books that are published that are not good. Each month we would gather together and choose from piles and piles of books that publishers would send out and I was astounded at how many of the books we received that were just terrible. As a librarian this was bad news. I had a limited budget. I could not afford to spend money on bad books. I had to learn how to find the books that were worth buying. As an author, I was discouraged to see so many poorly written books sitting on shelves. It seemed to me that this meant that publishers were spending money on books that would not sell... 

My responsibility as a reviewer then led me to a conclusion: Although I hated to tell people that the books they had written were not very good, nevertheless, my colleagues were also working with limited budgets. My reviews were one of the tools they would use to decide how they would purchase materials (but let's be real here I am not god-- my reviews were only one of the tools they might use-- most librarians look at more than one review and even then may bypass reviews if they need a book of a certain genre or topic) . SO It seemed to me, that candid honesty was necessary. If a book was bad, I had to write a bad review. 

I generally read middle school books as those were the audience I was purchasing for but I also read for high school and elementary age children as it became overwhelming to have too many novels to read each month. I found some wonderful books that I read with gusto and recommended to teachers in my building who then passed them on to their students- books I have since seen on the tables of Barnes and Noble. (I like to think it was a slow word of mouth growth that put them there. Barnes and Noble was definitely not promoting The Girl who Could Fly when it was first published!) 

The second thing I learned was that authors did not like getting bad reviews. Not that I blamed them (nor do I still). I have had the bad experience of having manuscripts rejected... it's no fun! And it is less fun to have someone say that you have too many characters and your plot line is disjointed, etc. One writer bullied the reviewer into changing her review and another was extremely cocky and annoying, also pushing for a good review. Lessons were not learned by either writer which is too bad. They were both self-published and I would imagine they will remain that way. As writers we put ourselves out there and reviews are part of the gig. It's part of life. When I was a singer and butchered a song, you could see it written all over the audience's faces (if they were even bothering to look at you). My darling Mo is my harshest critic-- which can be difficult sometimes-- but I have become a better writer as result of his criticism. And even when his criticism is wrong (in other words he isn't seeing what I am getting at at all) it is because my description is poorly done or my dialogue is confusing, etc. so he's still right. Critique is a time for learning. There is a time for cheerleading and supporting... but there is also a time to give real advice, real appraisal. And it's important- maybe more important than the strokes. 

I am reading Hemingway's biography. His editor and closest friend, Max Perkins was the one person who would tell him that what he had written was not his best work. He would encourage him to go back and edit out parts that should be cut or "go back to the drawing board" on others. When he passed away, Hemingway wrote,"Max was a great, great editor and a wise and loyal friend." Hemingway's final works of fiction that were published a few years after Perkins death were notable because only in sections is the writer's touch still evident- his biographer speculates that if his editor and friend had been around he may have been able to distill the best parts of Across the River and drop the worst... 

Even great writers need people to tell them when they have lost their way.          

Reading habit

"Sound this word out" the teacher pointed at the blackboard pointedly. 

"Dog" the little girl read.

"You didn't sound it out first," bad habits are so hard to break the teacher concluded inwardly.

"I don't know how to sound it out. I know what the word says so I read it," responds baffled girl.

"Then you don't know how to read." The teacher sniffed and moved on to explain the method of Phonics. 

The child learned the mysteries of Phonics but she also knew that she had known how to read all along, that it was merely the sillyness (she didn't yet know what narrow-mindedness was) of the teacher that made her think that only her way was reading. So the girl learned phonics... 

and she learned to love to read in spite of the teacher's belittling gaze. And one day she volunteered to help in the school library where she shelved the books and gazed over the wondrous titles that were kept there. She learned the Dewey Decimal system and she even made spine labels for her own little library at home. (organization is important, damn it!)

So that when she grew up and needed a job, it seemed natural that she would look for a job at the library. But she never expected to work at the Big City Library. And when she first laid eyes on the library it hardly seemed like a library with it's marble floors and oak desks, and nary a book to be seen. 

If you turned the right corner you might find a helpful soul to tell you where the books are...

And you might spot a person put a book in a slot here. Although at first she thought the people were simply kept in cages to model Work but after some moments, it was shown to be a return machine. But this machine meant that fewer people were needed (of course!) and the woman wonders if she will get a job here after all. The machine returns the books so they can cut the cost of the library further and eliminate jobs. Seems like a good thing at first - except she learns later that most of the time if people's books are not returned properly it is computer error not people error. 

As she tours the building there is a crowd of people whom she guesses are customers but none of them have books... they are staring at computers! and there are no books on the floor by the computers, just table after table of computers. Jobs are found on computers these days and the public needs jobs but what is it that they do here? she wonders. 

More wandering, she finds places she cannot enter because they are doing construction because the library is now 15 years old, and apparently it now needs a makeover! Maybe there are more machines for this part of the library. There are fewer books, she feels sure.   

At the end of the day, she leaves the library and looks back at the tall brick building. The architect had 

designed a building that would be sure to impress and astound...  

But she wonders if anyone gave any thought to less ostentatiousness, less boldness, less gaudiness...

and any consideration at all to what a building that held books for booklovers would look like?

It says it all...

 At work yesterday, I (as I often do) had to explain Colorado state law concerning privacy to a customer and most particularly the right of privacy where the child is concerned. I was informed by said customer that I would in fact tell her what was on her children's card because "My children don't have any rights in my home."


"Well, in fact they do according to state law and if you want information from your child's card then you will need to have their cards when you come to the library if your children are not with you," I told her firmly for the third or fourth time.


"Just one more way the government is trying to take over our lives," was her in-congruency.

Denver Public Library closings...

So here's the deal Mayor Hickenlooper struck with the City Council regarding library closures (briefly):

• All schedule changes will take effect on December 1, 2010
• Bear Valley, University Hills, Woodbury and Montbello will remain open 48 hours per week
• Schlessman will be reduced from 40 to 36 hours per week, but will retain 4 hours of service on Sunday
• Hampden and Byers will go from 40 to 32 hours of service per week
• The Central Library will lose 4 hours of service on Saturday mornings. Central will be open on both Saturdays and Sundays from 1 - 5 p.m.

Not your average day...

Most days we drudge in to the drudgery of work that we drudge on each day. Slogging through the mounds of books that are returned or ordered each day may seem like schleppery to you but let me assure you, it is.  

Once in a while we have reason to celebrate and this was one of those days:

News Flash, Newshound!

Apparently we/I don't work at the library after all... unbeknownst to me!

Anger as a Private Company Takes Over Libraries

By DAVID STREITFELD

Published: September 26, 2010

SANTA CLARITA, Calif. — A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas, growing into the country’s fifth-largest library system.

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J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

The basic pitch that the company Library Systems & Services makes to cities is that it fixes broken libraries — often by cleaning house.

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• Read All Comments (599) »Now the company, Library Systems & Services, has been hired for the first time to run a system in a relatively healthy city, setting off an intense and often acrimonious debate about the role of outsourcing in a ravaged economy.

A $4 million deal to run the three libraries here is a chance for the company to demonstrate that a dose of private management can be good for communities, whatever their financial situation. But in an era when outsourcing is most often an act of budget desperation — with janitors, police forces and even entire city halls farmed out in one town or another — the contract in Santa Clarita has touched a deep nerve and begun a round of second-guessing.

Can a municipal service like a library hold so central a place that it should be entrusted to a profit-driven contractor only as a last resort — and maybe not even then?

“There’s this American flag, apple pie thing about libraries,” said Frank A. Pezzanite, the outsourcing company’s chief executive. He has pledged to save $1 million a year in Santa Clarita, mainly by cutting overhead and replacing unionized employees. “Somehow they have been put in the category of a sacred organization.”

The company, known as L.S.S.I., runs 14 library systems operating 63 locations. Its basic pitch to cities is that it fixes broken libraries — more often than not by cleaning house.

“A lot of libraries are atrocious,” Mr. Pezzanite said. “Their policies are all about job security. That’s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We’re not running our company that way. You come to us, you’re going to have to work.”(PLEASE: read the whole article!!!! at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/27libraries.html) 

Get that? “A lot of libraries are atrocious,” Mr. Pezzanite said. “Their policies are all about job security. That’s why the profession is nervous about us. You can go to a library for 35 years and never have to do anything and then have your retirement. We’re not running our company that way. You come to us, you’re going to have to work.” 

So I don't work after all! All this -- stuff I've been doing. This has just been a bad, bad dream. 

Thank god!

I guess the only people who work anymore are the people who say that other people don't work. . . Just wait Mr. Policeman, they're coming for you! 

A day in the life of...

The library 

Libraries have an exalted position in our collective memory. And it is not without reason as the library has had a place in society that dates back through antiquity, the oldest being found at Sumer and Ugarit (long before most of us even think of humans as "civilized") but others at Nippur in 1900 BCE and Ninevah in 700 BCE.

 All through the Grecian and Hellenistic period, libraries are quite important and even in Chinese and Southeast Asian cultures libraries have been found in archeological excavations. Muslims and Medieval Christians used libraries for theological studies (what else was there? poor misguided folk...). We still learn a great deal about what these older cultures believed, how they lived, what they thought, what they celebrated, etc. by looking back at these ancient manuscripts to see how they lived- all thanks to the library! (info and pic from Wikipedia)

And that is where I work! 

However...