Snippets from the Shelves

In the midst of economic uncertainties facing our world, Meadville Public Library (MPL) now more than ever, plays an important role in providing patrons of all ages access to the world of information through books, music, movies and the Internet. And a public library has even more value when personal finances are tight. That value can have many definitions: it can be measured monetarily or in terms of services. Comparing MPL with either of these definitions will give you a perspective on the library’s value to the community.

One of our employees recently conducted research on the return of investment MPL provides. Her study found that in the past 12 months, area residents received $5,161,204 worth of benefits from MPL. Every dollar invested in the library returns almost $6 in benefits to the community. If Reference materials and services such as Internet access, story hours, etc. are included, the return is even greater.

The importance of the library can also be measured by our circulation figures. During the last 12 months more than 232,000 items were circulated This represents more than six books a year to every man, woman and child in our service area. Though it is true that MPL does circulate a great deal of non-print materials the vast majority of materials checked out is still books and magazines.

Libraries also have many worthwhile qualities which are difficult to measure. What is the value of a child watching a puppet show? What is the value of a teacher tutoring a student? What is the value of simply reading a novel, browsing through a magazine, or studying a book on history?

When you combine all the library’s benefits, monetary and otherwise, it provides a wonderful return on all levels of investment. This is a treasure that anyone can come to use in good times and bad. Lately we are seeing more and more people using our services.

We hope you will consider investing in the library by donating to our Patron’s Drive. We ask for your participation with much trepidation. We know times are uncertain, that every Monday seems to bring further troublesome news and instability. Whatever investment you can make will appreciate in value and benefits to your community.

Fall has arrived with glorious colors, stunning sunsets, and crisp mornings. Of course along with the beauty of the season comes all of those tasks that we do in order to prepare ourselves and our homes for what will follow. After the gardens and flower beds have been tidied, the lawn mowed, and the leaves raked one more time, settle into your favorite chair with a cup of tea and a good book or movie. We have just what you are looking for on our shelves.

If you like football, check out Mark Bowden’s book The Best Game Ever: Giants Vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL. For you non football fans, we have Falcon Fever: a Falconer in the Twenty-first Century by Tim Gallagher; Brian Donovan’s Hard Driving: The Wendell Scott Story, The American Odyssey of NASCAR’s First Black Driver; and Chuck Culpepper’s Bloody Confused! A Clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Soccer.

The holidays may be months away but we all know that time seems to move quickly this time of year. For those of you who are thinking of giving handmade items but need some inspiration, check out A is for Apron: 25 Fresh & Flirty Designs by Nathalie Mornu. Her designs are pretty, functional, and for many of us evoke fond memories of past holidays. Marilyn MacEwen’s Woodworking 101 for Women; Quick & Clever Christmas Cards by Elizabeth Moad, and Make It in Minutes: Party Favors & Hostess Gifts by Roxi Phillips are sure to make your gift giving more personal and fun.

For all of you true crime fans, check out For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder that Shocked Chicago by Simon Baatz and Kathryn Harrison’s While They Slept: an Inquiry Into the Murder of a Family. The Middle East continues to serve as a topic for debate. The library has added several new books to the collection that are sure to generate discussions, including: Basrayatha: the Story of a City by Muhammad Khudayyir; Sarce Makdisi’s Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation; Muhajababes: Meet the New Middle East -Young, Sexy, and Devout by Allegra Stratton; and Raja Shehadeh’s Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape.

The following are additional titles to consider: The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane; The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington by Jennet Conant; David Kaufman’s Doris Day: the Untold Story of the Girl Next Door; The Beautiful Struggle: a Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood by Ta-Nehisi Coates; and, on a lighter note, Bruce Patterson’s The Walking Tractor & Other Country Tales.

We continue to add new DVDs to the collection on a regular basis. For those of you who enjoy foreign films, we have added the following: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; The Lives of Others ( winner for best foreign language film); Under the Same Moon; and The Year My Parents Went on Vacation. These and many others are available free of charge to our library patrons. Please stop in the library and check out what we have!

Like something out of a science-fiction novel, Meadville Public Library has an uncanny ability. It actually holds more information inside than you might expect from just looking at it. How do we do that? Is there some space-time rift allowing for the internal expansion of the library beyond the bounds of its bricks and mortar? Not exactly.

We have access to more information than could possibly fit in our three floors through our collaboration with other libraries in Pennsylvania. You probably know about our non-fiction and fiction collections for children, young adults and adults, our magazines and newspapers, our videos and music all available for you to check out when you stop by the library, but are you aware of the resources we have through our web site?

Whether you’re at MPL or visiting our web site, POWER Library is one such resource that offers
information on a range of subjects: Art, Auto Repair, Biography, Business, Children’s Resources,
E Books, Education, General Reference, Health, Literature, Music and Science plus additional magazines and newspapers. Thinking about buying a new snow blower and want to know what Consumer Reports has to say about what’s on the market? Is your child writing a school report about his or her favorite author? Looking for trustworthy information about an herbal remedy your neighbor suggested? All of these needs and more can be met through the offerings of POWER Library.

Look for the POWER Library icon on our home page or the POWER Library stations on the Main Floor. If you have questions or need assistance, remember you can always stop by the desk, give us a call, or email your questions to info@meadvillelibrary.org.

We had a wonderful summer full of many games, activities and prize give-a-ways. This year, a record number of patrons entered the summer drawing and more young adults participated in the Summer Reading Club than ever before. Our activities for young adults included a Tai Chi demonstration given by “Cootie” Harris. He shared some history of the art and had each of us trying basic moves for a very fun and interesting afternoon. Lynette Olson, RD, LDN, a dietician from Meadville Medical Center, shared tips on healthy eating and good nutrition. Our end-of-summer party followed the theme “Metamorphosis @ Your Library and found young adults enjoying an afternoon of snacks, Dining Etiquette Jeopardy, assembling collages and many other fun activities. We would like to thank those who participated and invite everyone to join us again next summer as we explore “Express Yourself @ Your Library.”

As we head into cooler weather, it’s time to start thinking about all the new books to enjoy throughout the winter. The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent, a debut novel based on the author’s own family history, provides a fresh viewpoint on the Salem witch trials in this highly recommended novel. Elizabeth Peters ends her Vicky Bliss mystery series with Laughter of Dead Kings. Walter Mosley brings back Socrates Fortlow in The Right Mistake, his third novel in this suspenseful series. Look for David Baldacci’s new book, Divine Justice, a continuation of his Camel Club series, coming in November, along with Cross Country by James Patterson, Arctic Drift by Clive Cussler and Just After Sunset: Stories by Stephen King.

Start getting into the holiday spirit with a few of these Christmas books soon to arrive: A Christmas Grace by Anne Perry; A Cedar Cove Christmas by Debbie Macomber; The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck; A Christmas Star, another Cape Light novel by Thomas Kinkade; and An Irish Country Christmas by Patrick Taylor.

We now have books on CD and cassette for young adults. Some just added to the collection are Flight by Sherman Alexie, The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter and The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer. Recorded books are a great way to enjoy a good book when busy schedules don’t allow time to sit and read. We also offer a Teen Writers’ Workshop every Wednesday afternoon, 4 to 5 p.m. Teens can join Jeanne, the Reference Librarian, to find out what other teen authors are doing and get feedback on their own writing. Stop by the Fiction desk for more information on this fun and informative workshop.

New books just arriving for young adults to enjoy are Brisingr by Christopher Paolini, the long awaited third book in the Inheritance series; Oracle of the Morrigan by Tiffany Trent, the sixth novel in her Hallowmere series; The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong; The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine by April Lurie; Santa Claus in Baghdad and Other Stories About Teens in the Arab World by Elsa Marston; All Shook Up by Shelley Pearsall; Digital Art: Painting with Pixels by Ron Miller; and The Career Chronicles: An Insider’s Guide to What Jobs Are Really Like: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly From Over 750 Professionals by Michael Gregory.

A sunny sky and a cool breeze greeted the 60 pets and their families who attended the 30th Annual Pet Show sponsored by Meadville Public Library and Dad’s Products, Inc. Dad’s provided rosette ribbons, pet food samples and trophies for the pet show winners.

Chance, owned by Lita Ruhl, won the trophy for Best Cat in Show. Buddy, owned by Dante Hagberg, took the trophy for Best Dog in Show, and Abby, Cheyanne Crum’s dog, sang her way to the trophy for Most Talented.

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.