Snippets from the Shelves

A number of years ago I ran across a cartoon which showed a lady amidst shelves of books speaking to a librarian, “I have never been in a place with so many books and not be able to get a cup of coffee!”

We can all chuckle about that, however more and more libraries across the country now have cafes. As a matter of fact, the newly-remodeled Pelletier Library on the Allegheny College campus has a cafe called The Wrecking Ball.

Libraries traditionally have separated food and drink from their major resource, books. Frankly, food and print materials do not mix well. Food not only stains but causes books and magazines to deteriorate. Publications with glossy paper are coated with a material made of clay and if they get wet, will turn into a single, solid brick.

Librarians have traditionally been taught in library school (yes, there are such places) that food and drink should be forever separated from books. Managers of book shops have never been indoctrinated with this philosophy, so we now have a society expecting to ave a double mocha cream el grande latte available while they peruse the latest Grisham.

We are not the only library asking this question. A quick Google search returns 1,830,000 hits for the search terms “libraries” and “coffee.” I also found numerous blogs written by librarians about cafes in libraries. And it is not just college libraries reporting this trend. There are countless public libraries as well as public high schools writing about coffee bars in their facilities.

All of this explanation leads to the question – “Should Meadville Public Library have a coffee bar?” Our latest user survey posed that question and 20 people responded in the affirmative. However, to really get a good answer, we need to poll more people. Starting the first and running the whole month of May, we conducted a poll here at the library. The question was simple: Should the Meadville Public Library have a coffee bar? Yes or No. Patrons voted at the Main Floor and Fiction Circulation desks. Votes were also collected on our web site at www.meadvillelibrary.org.

We plan to post the results on our web site and present the results to the Library Board. The question is, do patrons think libraries should embrace change and offer refreshments to complement the relaxing atmosphere or should libraries strictly control the environment in order to protect their materials and furnishings?

We have an exciting new addition to our collection of books on CD. Recorded Books has a line named Modern Scholar which is a collection of college level courses taught by great professors who are enthusiastic about their subjects and have reputations for being great lecturers. Thanks to a one time bit of extra money, we are adding thirteen titles. The courses include Ethics: A History of Modern Thought; Walt Whitman and the Birth of Modern American Poetry; The American Presidency: From Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan; Journeys of the Great Explorers: Columbus to Cook; Rethinking Our Past: Recognizing Facts, Fictions, and Lies in American History; Take Me Out to the Ballgame: A History of Baseball in America; World War I: The Great War and the World It Made plus six interesting others. These are currently on order and we hope to have them available soon.

All the lists for the best this and thats of the previous year are published in December and January and that is true for lists of best books, also. Some of the best known lists are The New York Times Best Books and Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year. I also look at Booklist Editors’ Choice and a best books list fromLibrary Journal. For fun, this year I also looked at a list from EW. com (Entertainment Weekly) and one from Hudson Booksellers. While the goal of perusing all these lists is to see how many of the titles the library has, the most interesting aspect is that there is not a lot of overlap of titles among the lists. Some of the most interesting sounding books that are here in the library appear on a single list. For example, The New York Times has Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression. Hudson Booksellers has Sin in the Second City by Karen Abbott, and Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre and David Michaelis’ Schulz and Peanuts are on the EW.com list. Publishers Weekly lists Touch and Go: A Memoir by Studs Terkel; Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron; American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion by Paul Barrett and Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald Kraybill. A few of the books that appear on more than one list are Rick Atkinson’s The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944; How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman; Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee; Jeffrey Toobin’s The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court; A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah; The Zookeeper’s Wife: A War Storyby Diane Ackerman; Walter Isaacson’s Einstein; Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner; and The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. These are all books that the Library has, along with lots of other books on various lists and worth reading–something for everyone.

I can’t finish the Spring newsletter without mentioning that Spring is finally here and along with it is the urge to be outside and dig in the dirt, at least for a lot of us. As most of you know, we have many gardening books, ranging from the most basic “how and where to plant a seed” to “how to create a professional looking landscape” to “going green” to “how to make compost”. A lot of these books will be on display as well as on the shelves, so come in and browse.

Join Fiction Department’s Summer Reading Club with weekly activities for young adults, additional prize give-aways and an end-of-summer party.

We are regularly adding books to the Young Adult collection, so come in and check out what’s new. Young Adults will enjoy the fourth and final installment of Maximum Ride: The Final Warning by James Patterson. In Peeled, by Joan Bauer, a high school journalist and her friends try to help solve the mystery of a “haunted house” stirred up by greedy developers. Meg Cabot has written Princess Mia, the ninth book in the exciting Princess Diary series. Brady Steele discovers proof of life on Mars when a meteor crashes through his roof. Find out what happens to Bradley in Go Big or Go Home, by Will Hobbs, as he discovers that he may have been exposed to something deadly along the way.

A few new non-fiction titles for young adults to consider: Kaplan 2008 ACT Strategies for Super Busy Students; Kaplan 2008 SAT Strategies for Super Busy Students; Speak with Success; Amazing Card Tricks; A Brief Political and Geographic History of North America; Ask CosmoGIRL About Nutrition & Fitness. The new Unzipped series for newswriting, short stories, presentations, research papers and more is a great way to prepare for college and beyond. For sports enthusiasts, we have the How to Improve sports series for soccer, basketball and karate.

Did you ever long to write your own story but just didn’t know how to get started? If you are between the ages of 13 and 18 we invite you to come and join the fun at the “Teen Writers’ Workshop” every Wednesday afternoon between 4 and 5 p.m. Stop by the Fiction desk for more information on this fun and informative workshop.

Join us for all our summer activities and remember, the more you enter the better your chances of winning!

Summer will be here before you know it and the Fiction Department is gearing up for another great season full of prizes, games and activities. The Summer Reading Club will run from June 2nd through August 8th with a drawing on the last day for many great prizes. Patrons may submit up to one entry per day when checking out fiction books. There will also be weekly activities for young adults and additional prize give-a-ways they can enter, plus an end-of-summer party with fun, food and games. While waiting for the activities to start, here are some new arrivals to try.

For the more literary minded, we have Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut. This posthumous book contains twelve short stories collected and introduced by Vonnegut’s son. The Last Chicken in America by Ellen Litman is a book of twelve interconnected stories about the struggle of Russian-Jewish immigrants living in a Pittsburgh neighborhood trying to adapt to an American way of life. Unaccustomed Earth, by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, is a series of stories continuing the theme of Indians in America that she explored in previous novels. River of Heaven, by Lee Martin, spins a story of complex relationships between friends, family and 50 years of secrets.

Mystery lovers will want to try A Carrion Death, a new mystery set in Botswana, by writing duo Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip collectively known as Michael Stanley. Mma Ramotswe is back in The Miracle at Speedy Motors, the ninth installment of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Mysteries by Alexander McCall Smith. For history buffs, The Disagreement by Nick Taylor, set during the Civil War, takes us through the life of one young man as he makes his way during this difficult time.

Don’t forget to sign up for prizes whenever you check out a book - the more you enter the better your chances of winning!

Summer’s almost here! The 2008 Summer Reading Club, “Catch the Reading Bug” starts June 2 and lasts until August 8. This state-wide theme features cartoon insects from artist Harry Bliss whose work with Doreen Cronin has yielded such best-sellers as “Diary of a Worm,” “Diary of a Spider” and “Diary of a Fly.”

This summer’s program is open to children from toddlers to sixth graders with enough prizes, activities and performers to make the summer fly by.

Activities will have a buggy theme and special programs will include a magician, Doc Dixon, and the annual pet show in July cosponsored by Dad’s Products. There will be programs about many interesting and helpful insects. Each arts & crafts program will be divided into two activities – one for younger children and one for older, elementary-school-aged-children.

To participate, a child must be a member of one of Crawford County’s libraries. Preschoolers and summer visitors will receive a summer library card. An Insect Investigator’s special notebook will be issued to record each reader’s and listener’s progress through summer reading pleasure and prizes.

For every library book read, children will get a stamp in their notebook. Preschoolers must listen to two books to get a stamp. For every four stamps, a prize may be selected from the display case. When 12 stamps have been collected, participants qualify for two chances to win one of the Grand Prizes. The drawing for the prizes will be during our Summer Reading Club Party at 10 a.m. on August 8th.

I’m always amazed by things that come in the mail unsolicited. Of course you always get the interest-free loan offers, the low-cost life insurance, and opportunities to buy George Foreman grills. But once in a while something so unexpected and interesting is sent that you need to share it.
I recently received a large manila envelope from the Currier Art Museum which contained a paper entitled Edward Lippincott Tilton: A Monograph on his Architecture Practice. Who was Edward Tilton? Well, his story is one in which Meadville Public Library plays a part.
Edward Tilton was a renowned architect during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A specialist in designing libraries, Tilton started his career with McKimm, Mead & White (considered one of the most influential American architectural firms) and worked on the Boston Public Library. He designed more than 100 libraries, many of them funded by the Carnegie Foundation. He also designed the immigration station that opened at Ellis Island in 1892.
Here in Meadville, we are blessed with a number of Tilton designs: the Tippie Alumni Center at Allegheny College; the old Post Office building on Chestnut Street and Meadville Public Library.
Prior to Tilton, libraries were designed like banks, with books stored away from the public and librarians seated behind what looked like teller windows. Patrons browsed through the card catalog, made selections and wrote their requests on a slip of paper. A librarian retrieved the books and if he/she thought a particular request was inappropriate for the patron, a more “suitable” book was substituted.
Tilton’s designs for libraries were considered revolutionary at the time. He was a pioneer in using the “Open Plan” which placed the most popular books on open shelves on the main floor. The design allowed patrons to browse freely, without help (or hindrance) from the librarian.
Tilton’s style usually included an exterior facade dominated by a series of arches and classic moldings, capped with a hip roof composed of tile. Most of these elements are found in our library building.
In my opinion, the real genius of Tilton was in creating a building that could be adapted and changed without altering its appearance. With some remodeling and adjustments, we have been able to accommodate our growing needs and include the latest technology, yet maintain the integrity of the design.
So it is amazing what can be learned though unsolicited mail. This newsletter is an example. We are asking you to consider giving to the Library’s 40th Annual Patron Drive. Our predecessors in Meadville had the vision to hire a great architect to build a great library for their community. You can continue that tradition by donating to this fund drive. Any contribution is welcome.

Fall is here; the daylight hours are fewer and as we begin to prepare for the cold, gray winter days ahead, it is time to plan for some intensive reading. After a summer of listening to media sound bites we can increase our understanding of issues that are facing us by checking out what the library has to offer. We have been adding to the collection a number of books that provide an in-depth exploration of viewpoints on a variety of issues.

For example—global warming. There really are different ways of viewing our changing climate and what it will mean to us. We have Hell and High Water: Global Warming-the Solution and the Politics-and What We Should Do by Joseph Romm; With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear the Tipping Points in Climate Change by Fred Pearce; An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere; two books by Bjorn Lomborg, Global Crises, Global Solutions: The Skeptical Environmentalist : Measuring the Real State of the World and Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming; and Christopher Horner’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming.

Reading books about history is a wonderful way to increase our understanding not only of the past but also of current events. Try David Halberstam’s posthumously published book The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, or Greg Behrman’s The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall Plan and the Time when America Helped Save Europe. The Reagan Diaries by Ronald Reagan; The Berlin Wall: A World Divided 1961-1989 by Fred Taylor or Steve Vogel’s The Pentagon: A History might prove to be interesting.

As technology is making the world smaller, India and China are having an increasing impact on the western world. Several new books provide information to improve our understanding of these countries. Try The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone: India, the Emerging 21st Century Power by Shashi Tharoor; Ramachandra Guha’s India after Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy and Insight Guides: India. As for China, try The Long March: The True History of Communist China’s Founding Myth or Harry Gelber’s The Dragon and the Foreign Devils: China and the World 1100 BC to the Present.

Religion is always a topic to inspire discussion and there are numerous books being published to help the discussion along. Karen Armstrong has several well respected books and her latest is The Bible: A Biography. Another more general book is Discovering God: A New Look at the Origins of the Great Religions by Rodney Stark. Atheism is currently in the news and we have both Christopher Hitchens’ book God is Not Great: Why Religion Poisons Everything and Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. A new book is The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine by Alister McGrath.

On a lighter note, Christmas is coming and we are adding Georgeanne Brennan’s Christmas Sweets; I’m Dreaming of a Chocolate Christmas by Marcel Desaulniers and Rebecca Rather’s The Pastry Queen Christmas, along with the usual Taste of Home Holiday and Celebrations 2007, Better Homes and Gardens Christmas from the Heart, Vol. 16; and Christmas with Southern Living 2007.

Several new DVD sets have been added including Roots : the 30th anniversary edition, a Nova series about ants, bees and the unknown world, and a two disc set about hurricanes. For the armchair traveler in all of us, there is a series including Mexico, the Northwest, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand and China to the Max.

There should be something here for everyone to get through the winter. If not, come to the library and browse. We add thousands of books a year so there is sure to be something you will find interesting.

This summer was busier than ever with many games, activities and prize giveaways. We had a total of 48 book reviews written by young adults as part of the Summer Reading Program. Thanks to everyone for making our Summer Reading Program a great success, and congratulations to all the winners!

As the weather grows cooler, it’s time to start thinking about more indoor activities, such as reading a good book! Here are some new
titles to try: Playing for Pizza by John Grisham; The Bishop at the Lake: A Blackie Ryan Story by Andrew M. Greeley; Pontoon by Garrison Keillor; The Girl with Braided Hair by Margaret Coel; Kennedy’s Brain by Henning Mankell; Karen Kingsbury’s Just Beyond the Clouds; The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz; The Used World by Haven Kimmel; Rita Mae Brown’s book, The Tell-Tale Horse; Dark of the Moon by John Sandford and Shoot Him if He Runs: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods.

For young adults, we have many new fiction and non-fiction titles to choose from. Starting with non-fiction we have: Dragonart: Fantasy Characters - learn how to draw your own fantasy world with this “how to” drawing book. For those who want to try their hand at writing, we have three new books: Write Your Own Fantasy Story; Write your Own Mystery Story; and Write Your Own Science Fiction Story. Learn more about genetically engineered food with Superfood or Superthreat: The Issue of Genetically Engineered Food. New biographies to choose from include: Michelle Kwan and Roberto Clemente, Baseball Hall of Famer.

New young adult fiction to try: The Riddle: The Second Book of Pellinor by Alison Croggon; The Black Sheep by Yvonne Collins; The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer, sequel to Sea of Trolls; Megan McCafferty’s Fourth Coming, the latest book in her series, and A Field Guide to High School by Marissa Walsh.

For a more complete listing of all the new material ordered, check out the Fiction and Young Adult pages on MPL’s website.

As always, we welcome any suggestions or ideas you might have regarding our programming, or the acquisition of new materials.

If you’ve searched for a book while in the library lately, you’ve probably noticed we have a new catalog. You can also search that same catalog from home, as well as do some other useful things such as getting a list of items you have checked out, or getting a list of what you’ve borrowed in the past. You can also find out if you have any fines or charges on your record or if you have any overdue items.

To do all this and more, visit http://catalog.ccfls.org (or visit http://meadvillelibrary.org and click the “Search Our Catalog” link or else type something into the “Search Our Catalog” search box). To access your account information, you will need to log in. The first time you log in, both your user name and password are your library card number. Once you log in we recommend you change your password for added security. Choose a memorable password—if you forget it, we are unable to tell you what it is. If you do forget it, please bring in some ID the next time you visit the library and we will change it for you. To protect your privacy we will not change the password over the phone. If you’ve just signed up for a library card, you will be able to log in to your account online by the following day.

Once you’ve logged in, you’ll immediately see a list of the items you presently have checked out. If any of the items are overdue, they’ll be highlighted in pink with red due dates. In the future, you’ll be able to renew materials from here, but we still have some work to do before that feature is available.

To find out if there are any fines due on your account, click “Your Fines”. Note that fines aren’t calculated until materials are checked in at the library, so fines for any currently overdue items will not be shown.

For a list of what you’ve borrowed previously, click on “Your Reading History”.

Searching the Catalog

For a quick keyword search, just type a few search terms into the search box at the top of the page. In the menu to the left of the search box, you can also narrow your search by choosing to search by title, author, etc. For even more search options, click on Advanced Search. There you can narrow down the search by material type (say, if you’re just looking for DVDs) or choose one of the limit checkboxes to search in preselected categories like movies (which will search among videos and DVDs in both the adult & children’s collections). On the advanced search page you can also choose to limit your search results to a specific library—by the time you’re reading this we’ll probably have at least one more of the county libraries migrated to the new system. We plan to have all nine libraries in the county using it by the end of next year.

In your search results you can see which library has the items in your search results, and whether or not the items are available. If an item is presently checked out, it will be marked as “On loan”; if you click on the item’s title, you can find out when it’s due to be returned to the library. Many of the items in the search results will have cover images from Amazon.com. If you click on the title of an item, you’ll find more content from Amazon, such as reviews; for many titles you can even use Amazon’s “Search Inside the Book” feature by clicking on the cover image.

If you want to save your search results, you have a few options. There’s the Book Bag, which can help you create a bibliography which you can then email or print. In your list of search results, simply click the boxes next to the call numbers of the items you want to add, and click “Add selected items to Book Bag”. Click the cart in the upper right corner of the page to view the Book Bag; from there you can print or email your list. You do not have to log in to use this feature.

Another option for saving search results is the Virtual Shelves system. You can use this to create a virtual bookshelf that you can use to organize your reading. Our librarians can also create public virtual shelves for everyone to see. To add an item to a virtual shelf, click on the item’s title in the search results, and click “Add to Your Virtual Shelf”. There you can choose to add it to one of your existing shelves or you can create a new shelf on the fly by giving it a unique name.

The Future

We’re still working on more features for the catalog, so keep an eye out for new things. We plan to give you the ability to reserve & renew materials online, and we’re working on improving search accuracy and the catalog interface. The new system is far more flexible than our old one, so we are able to offer a lot more features to improve your library experience. We’ll keep you posted!

Now that everyone has had the chance to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and although it’s supposed to be the last of its kind, series fans can take heart that other series authors have produced new titles to keep all of us reading. For the fall months ahead, you can look forward to the following new additions.

The Nixie’s Song, Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, by Holly Black
May Bird: Warrior Princess, May Bird series by Jodi Lynn Anderson
Monday with a Mad Genius, Magic Tree House series
by Mary Pope Osborne
Molly Moon, Micky Minus and the Mind Machine, Molly Moon series
by Georgia Byng
Eulalia, Redwall series by Brian Jaccques
Clementine’s Letter, Clementine series by Sara Pennypacker
Peter and the Secrets of Rundoon, Peter and the Starcatcher series
by Dave Barry
Into the Mist, Land of Elyon series by Patrick Carman
The Heir of Mistmantle, The Mistmantle Chronicles by M.I. McAllister
Judy Moody and Stink: The Holly Joliday, Judy Moody series
by Megan McDonald
The Time Thief, The Gideon Trilogy by Linda Buckley
Faerie Lord, Faerie Wars Chronicles by Herbie Brennan
Magic and other Misdemeanors, The Sisters Grimm series
by Michael Buckley