The Best Day Ever

That was the verdict of one young reader at our Evergreen Branch this past Wednesday night. She was referring to the annual Mayor's Award, a celebration of the accomplishments of Everett kids who managed to complete their reading goal this summer.

What made her so happy? She, along with almost 100 kids at the Branch (and another 100 at the Main Library) met the Mayor and received a colorful certificate commemmorating her effort. Then she got to visit the face painter and the balloon artist, enjoy the refreshments, play with bubbles, and make a pipe cleaner and bead craft.

Volunteers from the Friends of the Library, who provide a huge amount of monetary support for this program, were on hand to help. They also encouraged attendees and their parents to "like" us on Facebook, and post any photos they wanted to share of the festivities. Amazingly, someone had posted a photo even before the event was over.

I would also like to extend a special thanks to Peninsular Lodge #95 F & AM for providing us with 8 grand prizes. The lucky kids who won the drawing for the prizes got to pick either a bike or a scooter, and go shopping to pick out exactly what they wanted. The Masons even provided a bike helmet and a lock and chain for each bike. I am so impressed with their generosity.

Playing with blocks

I have recently returned from a week spent babysitting my grandson. He's a 2 1/2 year old bundle of energy. He loves trucks, blocks, his neighborhood parks, grocery shopping, Bob the Builder DVDs, cooking (especially baking), and even being read to. We enjoyed reading Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama books, Good Night, Good Night Construction Site by Sherry Rinker, and many other books. We visited the library together, and it was fun to see how much he enjoyed everything about that visit, from pressing the button to open the front door to getting in the elevator and picking the floor for the children's room to selecting what books he wanted.

It's always good to be back home, but I do miss seeing the joy he takes in every little thing. It's easy to take our libraries and parks for granted, but seeing them through the eyes of a small child brings home how important these amenities can be to families.

A World without Bookstores?

I recently read about the demise of Borders. I'm old enough to remember when Borders was the latest thing in bookstores. I also remember how their growth in some cities came at the expense of independent bookstores. Still, it made me sad to think we're losing another bricks and mortar location for browsing and buying books.

I know you can't fight progress, but I can't help wondering if we are heading into a time when most of our shopping occurs online. I recently heard a story on the radio about Australian stores charging shoppers who try on clothes and shoes but don't buy anything. They believe people try things on and than order online (cheaper) once they know what they want. Amazon continues to fight paying sales tax anywhere it possibly can, helping keep its prices low.

My hope, as a librarian (and a sometime shopper), is that both libraries and retail stores figure out a way to stay afloat in the real and virtual worlds.

Yarn Bombing

Earlier this week I was walking through our book stacks, when I came across the yarn flower pictured here. Attached to it was a short note that read "thank you for your cooperation in making Everett a little brighter on International Yarn Bombing Day. Knit something." I had heard of yarn bombing; we even have a book on it entitled Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti; but I never thought I would see it in the library.It turns out that June 11 was the first International Yarn Bombing Day,and I am very pleased that the Everett Public Library was part of it, albeit in a small way.

Bloomsday!

Today is Bloomsday, the day in 1904 when James Joyce's novel Ulysses takes place. The day is celebrated everywhere there are Joyce fans. I was pleased to see that someone has checked out a copy of Ulysses from the Everett Public Library. The book has a reputation for being challenging, and if you look in our catalog you will see several guides to help readers find their way through the mind of Leopold Bloom and Joyce's writing style.

If you're not up to reading the entire book, you might check out Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less. Or perhaps you prefer a more graphic approach to literature. In that case you might enjoy the beginnings of an online graphic novel at www.ulyssesseen.com. Happy Bloomsday.

My new favorite thing...

That would be my Sansa Clip MP3 player. When we first started offering Overdrive downloadable audiobooks, I spent a lot of time researching the best device and talking to friends about what worked well for them. I wanted something with a display screen and I wanted to be able to easily bookmark the point where I stopped listening. Nothing seemed right, but I ended up purchasing a fairly expensive Sansa product that was supposed to allow you to mark your place. I could never figure out how to make it actually do that, and ended up abandoning it.

But now I have a Sansa Clip, and I think it is perfect. It costs 1/4 of what my first MP3 player cost, it has a small (but adequate) display, it is easy to bookmark, it's tiny--maybe only one inch square, and right now I have five books on it and it still has lots of room. This weekend I had it going about six hours each day as I worked out in my garden and listened to Ian Rankin's The Complaints, and it was still holding a pretty good charge.

Now I'm hoping the weather will improve so I can spend more time outdoors listening to books.

May 2, 1611

I'm a little ahead of schedule, but I didn't want the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James version of the Bible to go unremarked. As a librarian, I'm interested in the Bible because it is one of the most widely read books in the English language. It is also one of the most often translated books, whether into other languages or colloquial English. I started to try counting how many versions we have here, but eventually gave up. We have The Jewish Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version, Learning Bible, New American Standard Version, Positive Bible, and on and on--to the tune of about 131 items under the title heading Bible. And more if you count DVD and audiobook versions. Granted some are study versions or concordances, but still--that's a lot of Bibles.

I think most people would agree that the King James version has set a high mark for poetic language. Phrases from the Bible find their way into book titles, and these books find their way into our collections. The web site Goodreads has a list of book titles that come from the Bible with over 170 entries. Here are just a few: East of Eden by John Steinbeck, Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Rembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust, Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter, and Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl.

You don't often think that something put together by a committee, even when assigned the job by a king, will prove to be so enduring. Happy 400th to the King James Version of the Bible.

National Library Week at EPL

This is National Library Week, and we've been celebrating all week--in a low key sort of way. If you visited either branch on Tuesday, April 12, you had an opportunity to have your photo taken with your favorite book as part of Library Snapshot Day. On Library Snapshot Day libraries all over the country took photos of what's going on in their buildings to document all the different things that go on in libraries. We are in the process of posting the photos we took on our new Facebook page. You'll find us there at facebook.com/everettlibrary. You can friend us or like us. The page will be another way to keep up with what's going on at your library, and we also hope to use it to gather some feedback--so look for the occasional survey there.

Have a great National Library Week. Check out a book--it's on us!

Rain, rain, go away

I have to admit that a trip to someplace warm and sunny right about now sounds appealing. But since that's not happening, I have decided to just look forward to things I know are going to happen around here. And there is actually quite a lot.

We are finally getting ready for our teen space project by getting rid of most of our old magazine archive, rearranging collections on the first floor, and lowering our shelves to make access more convenient. You're probably wondering why you should even believe me, since I've been talking about this project for so long. However, it really is going to happen. While the construction contract is being signed, we're picking out paint, carpet, and furnishings. I'm looking forward to seeing all our work pay off with a great place for teens and a story room large enought to hold everyone who would like to attend.

You may have noticed the street in front of the Main Library is almost finished. And just in time for our next door neighbor, Library Place, to begin building the last part of their project. This time next year we should have almost 200 new neighbors--more if you count those who live in the Schack Arts Center.

The last thing on my list to look forward to is National Library Week, which is April 10-16. Come help us celebrate Library Snapshot Day on April 12 (and get your photo taken with your favorite book), or National Bookmobile Day on April 13. There will be activities going on at both locations, so stop by and check it out.

Eat your vegetables

Yesterday I attended the Everett Public Schools Foundation annual fund raising breakfast. The speaker was Graham Kerr,the former Galloping Gourmet. Mr. Kerr is now growing (and eating)vegetables, and working with the school district to develop school meals that are both healthy and appealing to children. It's a worthy project, and I wish him well.

My own parents once made me eat two servings of lima beans in one sitting. It was my own fault--I had steathily transferred my limas to my brother's plate while we were watching the World of Disney one Sunday night. He was outraged when he realized what I'd done, and I had to eat them all. It was years before I could even contemplate cooking, much less eating, a lima bean.

My grandson loves to help his parents cook, but wouldn't dream of putting something green in his mouth. Perhaps I'll check out one of Mr. Kerr's healthy cookbooks and look into some child-friendly vegetable dishes.

Everett Reads! swings out on Saturday

February has been the month of Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. We celebrated a month of reading and community, kicking it off with an evening with Jamie Ford, and now winding down with a Saturday, February 26 performance by Bob Strickland's Swing Masters at 2 p.m. at the Main Library.

This is a free, family-oriented event, and even if you haven't read the book, you can enjoy the hits of the early 1940s that are part of the background music of Ford's book.

Everett Reads! may be coming to an end, but we've noticed that Everett keeps reading no matter what. Good for you, and good for us.

Writer's Block?

It's been a long time since I wrote anything in this space, and I feel a bit guilty about that. It's not because there haven't been a lot of things going on. Since I last wrote we found out we didn't win the Playaway contest (but we were a runner up!), we have started to check out epub books for digital readers, we're about ready to go out to bid for the teen space project, and Everett Reads!, our new community reading program, is due to begin shortly. And of course, the street in front of the library is still torn up.

I hope you'll pick up a copy of Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, our choice for the community reading program. I have almost finished it, and am looking forward to hearing Ford talk about his book on February 4 at the Everett Performing Arts Center.

And my New Year's resolution? I hope to be a more conscientious blogger in 2011.

When everything is downloadable...

About ten days ago we decided to start providing downloadable ebooks for Nooks and other compatible devices, using the same company that hosts our downloadable audio book collection. They should be showing up in our catalog soon--maybe even before the end of the year, which would be good timing if you are hoping for an ereader this holiday season. Just make sure your personal shopper knows that Kindles do not work with the ebooks soon to be available from the library.

Everytime these new formats come along, I start thinking about the what it means for libraries now and in the future. There's the budget part of the issue, of course. It costs money to make these available, but our book budget isn't really growing and people still want the actual book as well as the audio version of the book--all of which means that it's not unusual for us to buy the same book in print, large print, CD, downloadable audio, and perhaps now, downloadable text. We're balancing these competing demands as best we can, but it's a challenge.

Then there's the whole question of where libraries will fit in if the future is more mobile (much of what I read seems to say soon we'll all be using smart phones for virtually everything we now do on a PC), and also much less oriented toward traditional print.

Yesterday Google Editions went live, in direct competition with Amazon. Barnes and Nobel stores are having a hard time, as are many independent book stores. I don't think that most people want to pay for every book they might want to read, even if the digital versions cost less than traditional print--I know I couldn't afford that. But libraries are a relatively small part of the book market, and the companies developing these new tools aren't so interested in us. Publishers are trying to figure out how to stay profitable in a digital world, and letting libraries check out a single digital copy of a book to multiple users looks like lost revenue to them.

Librarians are in this profession because we believe in the value of what we do. I read something the other day that resonated with me. "The 21st century is no place for timid librarians." We've found our way through many changes over the years, and I hope we'll figure this new digital future as well.

So, Let's Talk: Community Conversations

Last night the Main Library hosted the second of four planned Community Conversations. These programs are funded by Boeing and Humanities Washington, and their goal is to involve citizens in thoughtful conversations about contentious topics. The format is simple: a panel of people with different perspectives and expertise in the topic being discussed gives a presentation, and then they take questions from the audience.

Our first program was on the ballot initiative process, and was a particularly interesting discussion in a year with such a large number of initiatives on the ballot. Last night's program was on immigration. Approximately 20 people attended, and they listened to a constitutional scholar, a UW geography prof, an economist, and a community organizer talk about immigration. It was clear that not everybody in the room agreed on either the problem or the solution, but overall the tone was respectful. People were able to ask questions, receive thoughtful answers (even when they disagreed with what was being said), and then there was a little time at the end for one-on-one questions to the panelists.

While I was dismayed by some of the angry comments posted on the Herald website about the event, those who attended were willing to give the panelists a chance to speak. And to me, that was heartening--and it goes to the heart of what I believe a public library is all about. We build our collections around the idea that we want to provide a variety of viewpoints. We host programs on a variety of subjects. We want people to feel safe asking for the information they need--and not to worry about whether library staff will consider their request unacceptable because of whatever their request says about their politics or interests.

One of the things that makes this country great is that we get to disagree with each other without fear of the consequences. I really believe that as long as we're talking to each other (not just at each other), there is hope we can figure out what we should be doing as a country. And, of course, another great thing is public libraries, the one institution where you can be sure to find your viewpoint in print and on the shelves.

I hope you'll join us in January for another Community Conversation. This one will focus on historic preservation. I'll write more about it in another post.

Help Us Win $10,000

Everett Public Library is a finalist in the Playaway Picture This Contest, which means we have a chance to win $10,000--if enough of you vote for us at http://vote.playaway.com.

Creative staff members got us this far, with an eye-catching display you may have noticed at our Main Library. If you haven't noticed it, or don't know what Playaways are, it's time to check out the display and check out a Playaway. Playaways are MP3 players with an audiobook already loaded. They're about the size of a deck of cards, and are great for listening while exercising, cooking, gardening, or whatever activity goes better with a book.

The contest ends on December 17, and the library with the most votes wins. If we win, we'll use the money for our Summer Reading Program, to help support a community reading program for adults, and more books for our new teen area. Help us get there--with just a click of your mouse.

Librarians on vacation

I often visit libraries when we travel. All public libraries have much the same mission, but how they carry it out varies a lot. I know I'm not the only librarian who does this, and since we love to share ideas, it's usually possible to get a behind the scenes tour if you want. Or just stroll around anonymously.

This August I went on a a family vacation that was truly amazing. We toured Istanbul, a few Greek islands, and Athens. I saw the library at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul (no books there anymore), the remains of the library in Ephesus, and the site of Hadrian's Library in Athens. My niece is a librarian, too, and she and I made sure we took photos to commemorate our visit.

I like thinking about the long history of libraries. Whether they were built to demonstrate a particular ruler's importance or from a sense of civic pride, libraries have been one way cities and countries demonstrate a commitment to their citizens and to the future.

The photo here is of the library in Ephesus.

Vacation reading

Usually when I go on vacation I take too many books, and I spend a lot of time deciding just which ones to bring along. It would be too depressing to be stuck in an airport with nothing to read--or something to read that I wasn't going to enjoy reading. So I don't take any chances, and end up lugging around more books than I could possibly finish. And yes, I know that some sort of e-reader would be a solution to the problem, but I'm not ready for that yet.

But this year I got it just right. We were going on a trip with several long airplane flights, so I took 4 books. It proved to be the perfect number, and the perfect variety of escapist mysteries and more serious fiction. In case you're interested, here are my favorites:
Eucalyptus by Murray Bail is a tale of love, eucalyptus trees, and the power of stories.
The Ghost by Robert Harris is the political thriller the movie Ghost Writer was based on.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters is a gothic mystery set in post-WWII England that was short-listed for the Man-Booker Prize.

There's Music in the Air

Street Tunes, a project of the City of Everett's Cultural Arts Department, made its debut at the Main Library yesterday with the delivery of an artfully decorated piano. Modeled after a very successful program called Play Me, I'm Yours, Street Tunes has placed pianos from the Transit Center to the Library. A complete list, with a map and photos, is here. This morning I came to work to find a yound man playing beautiful music--at 8 a.m. At noon, an elderly man was entertaining a group of teens, while others sat on the steps to the coffee shop, listening appreciatively. Here are some photos taken right after the piano was delivered, when Van Ramsey, library building caretaker and member of the band The Wild Snohomians, treated us to a tune, and artist Evelia A. Sanchez posed with her artwork.

The piano is here for 3 weeks--play it; it's yours to enjoy.

Spelldown!

October 8 may seem like a long way away, but it's not too soon to start planning how you can participate in the first ever Everett Public Library Spelldown, a spelling bee for grown-ups to be held at the Everett Performing Arts Center. If you're a pretty good speller--or just a good sport--think about getting a team of three people together to participate for the grand prize. We don't know what that will be yet, but at the very least you'll win the admiration of your friends and family!

The entry fee for teams is $100, but there's no charge to come and watch the festivities, and all proceeds go towards the teen space project at the Main Library. We'll have a cash bar with beer, wine, and soft drinks. So get together with friends, family (over 18), or colleagues, fill out your entry form, and start studying the word lists. Or don't study at all, and just come for a good time.

SIFF Comes to Everett

I'm a film fan, so I was very excited to hear that the Seattle International Film Festival was bringing a selection of films to Everett this year. I attended the opening night gala on Thursday, which included a screening of Mao's Last Dancer, a question and answer session with the director, Bruce Beresford, and lots of food and wine courtesy of local restaurants. Although I didn't like the film, I think I was in the minority. The audience was enthusiastic, and people really seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Last night my husband and I went back to see The Concert, a funny and uplifting story about Russian musicians and politics, and we both thought it was terrific.

I'm looking forward to seeing at least two more films before the Everett SIFF program is over, and I am hoping SIFF will be back next year. Whether that happens or not, be sure to check out the library's film collections. We have a great collection of foreign and independent films.