Snippets from the Shelves

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

The long and winding road.

It’s a pretty exciting time to be Director of the Meadville Public Library. In the next few months we will have completed out latest round of physical improvements to the library and we will be introducing our new web-based on-line patron catalog computerized card catalog).

As for those who have suffered the noise and dust of the library’s remodeling over the past few years, you will be happy to know that the end is near. As I write this column the last of the planned renovations is being completed on the Main Floor.

The Main Floor remodeling, when finished, will increase the library’s nonfiction collection by almost 400 square feet and allow us to add additional seating. The other benefit is that one of the library’s big windows will be uncovered to let in the afternoon sun.

Of course none of the remodeling and expansion of the library would have been possible without a generous gift through the Helene Barco Cultural Center by Helene and Jim Duratz six years ago. That gift provided the space to relocate the Historical Society, which then allowed the library to expand the Fiction area, move the administration office to the old Historical Society storage room and now to expand the nonfiction area.

Along the way the staff has moved 45,000 books (in Non-Fiction the collections were moved no less than three times), installed more than a half mile of new shelving, used over 100 gallons of paint, laid over 8,000 square feet of carpet, assembled 15 cherry tables and constructed a conference and computer room for staff use. And yes, the library staff did this work, not contractors. When I say we have a staff that can get things done I mean it!

Another example of our library’s hands-on attitude is the new circulation system that will be installed shortly. The circulation system is a computer program that manages all of the library’s circulation and catalog functions. Our current system dates back to 1991 and is sadly lacking in many ways, especially not being able to serve up pages from the web.

Starting three years ago, Meadville’s library staff along with librarians from all over Crawford County decided to plan for our next computerized circulation program. After countless hours of meetings, presentations and sales pitches, Crawford County librarians decided that the best candidate was an open source program called Koha (pronounced co-HA).

Over the past year, the Crawford County Federated Library System has been working with Liblime, a company in Athens, Ohio to write new features and improve the standard Koha program. At the same time, librarians from the county have been meeting weekly to begin plannng the transfer to this new system. We will hopefully begin rolling out the new Circulation system at the beginning of the new year here in Meadville and in the spring to the rest of the Crawford County libraries.

What will the new circulation system mean for you? Well, a little or a lot, depending on your needs and your Internet skills. First of all, nothing will change concerning library cards, checking out books or finding books you have checked out in the past. The new system will allow you to use your card at any Crawford County public library without having to re-register at each facility.

The biggest difference will concern accessing the library’s information through the Web. By going to meadvillelibrary.org you will be able to access our computerized card catalog and find out whether a particular book is on the shelf not only at this library but in any public library in Crawford County. You will be able to view book covers and even connect to Amazon.com to read their reviews and comments concerning books you select. Needless to say, anything the current circulation system can do, the new system will do better; you will have more access and control of your library card account.

As you can tell, we have been busy trying to upgrade and expand both our facilities and our circulation services so we can provide you, our patrons, with the best access to information – whether it be in a book, a magazine or on the Web. Come in and check out our improvements.

Our anticipated renovation is well under way and our additional space should be ready in a month or so. The current plan is to move Large Print books to the new space. We will shift Books on Cassette to the original Large Print shelves and thus be able to spread out our new magazines and have more room for Books on CD. All plans are, of course, subject to change.

Fall is a wonderful time to travel-cooler temperatures, fewer crowds and beautiful scenery. We have added some travel books and memoirs to help plan your trip. Try Pennsylvania Wilds: Images from the Allegheny National Forest for inspiration, or Seasons on Harris: A Year in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides by David Yeadon. More traditional travel guides include Fodor’s Walt Disney World with Kids 2007; Rick Steves’ Best of Europe 2007; Mexico; DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Alaska; DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Washington, D.C.; Insider’s Guide to North Carolina Mountains; and Fodor’s Las Vegas. My vote would be for the North Carolina Mountains.

The history of wars is a topic of interest to many of our patrons. We have added some titles to consider. Try Donald Miller’s Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany; War by Other Means: An Insider’s Account of the War on Terror by John Yoo; A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII by Sarah Helm; Lynn Homan’s Black Knights: The Story of the Tuskegee Airmen and The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright. Another title to consider is Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy by Ian Toll.

The conventional wisdom is that if one wishes to keep the peace, one should not discuss politics or religion. However, if you decide to bring up these topics, we have several new books to add to the debate.

In no particular order, we have The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis Collins; Why the Christian Right is Wrong by Robin Meyers; Panja Idliby’s The Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, a Jew: Three Women Search for Understanding; Hugo Chaves: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge to the United States by Nikolas Kozloff; A Heretic’s Guide to Eternity by Spencer Burke; Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon; Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris; The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America; Richard Posner’s Not a Suicide Pact: The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency; Robert Price’s The Reason-Driven Life: What Am I Here on Earth For?; and Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas Ricks. Several of these are bound to get the blood moving.

Stop by, between trips, to see how our renovation is progressing and to look over the new books and the older ones, too. We think you will be pleased by both.

Our summer was busier than ever with almost 1,200 more entries in this year’s Summer Reading Club than last year’s. There were games and activities to occupy both young adults and adults. Thanks to everyone who participated and congratulations to the winners!

With fall now upon us, we’re facing cooler temperatures, beautiful foliage and of course, that means it’s time to stock up on more good books to read. Just a few new titles we’ve added in Adult Books: Stork Naked: A Xanth Novel by Piers Anthony; The Collectors by David Baldacci; Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury; The Hounds and the Fury by Rita Mae Brown; Motor Mouth-An Alexandra Barnaby Novel by Janet Evanovich; Finding Noel by Richard Paul Evans; The Mitford Bedside Companion by Jan Karon; Lisey’s Story by Stephen King; The Red Gloves Collection by Karen Kingsbury; The Adventure Stories, Vol.4 by Louis L’Amour; The Brethren by Beverly Lewis; The Bancroft Strategy by Robert Ludlum; Fool Me Once by Fern Michaels; Black Girl/White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates; Hundred Dollar Baby by Robert B. Parker; Road of the Patriarch, Book III by R.A. Salvatore; Dear John by Nicholas Sparks; H.R.H. by Danielle Steel, and Murder at the Opera by Margaret Truman.

The results of the Teen Survey have been compiled with the most frequent answers appearing below: How often do you visit the library? (Every two weeks) What time is best for you? (Weekday afternoons) What new material would you like to see added? (Top 5 – fantasy, music CD’s, mysteries, thrillers. science fiction) Would you be interested in any of the following activities? (Top 5 – craft projects, Summer Reading Club, Teen Advisory Board, guest speakers and tied for fifth –book discussion group or trivia contest) What are your hobbies? (sports, drama, art, crafts, camping)
Which of the magazines in our collection do you read? (Seventeen, Teen People, Teen Vogue, Transworld Skateboarding and tied for 5th – Mad and Teen Ink) Which magazines would you like to see removed? (Top 5 – none, American Cheerleader, Teen Vogue, Mad, PC Gamer) Any magazines you would like to see added? (CosmoGirl, none, and cartoon magazines – each received more than one vote) In the next couple months we plan to add the following magazines to our young adult section: Current Science, Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat. CosmoGirl will replace ElleGirl, which ceased publication. Thanks to all who took the time to complete the survey. We hope to implement more of your suggestions soon.

Did you know that both Fiction and Young Adult departments have an “Ask a Librarian” site? Just like the reference service offered by the Main Desk, we offer an “Ask a Librarian” link on our fiction and young adult blogs. Any question relating to fiction or young adults may be sent to us through these links. You may access them by going to the Fiction or Young Adult page and clicking on “Ask a Librarian.” We will happily answer your questions as soon as we can.

Commmonwealth Libraries, along with school and public libraries, provide on-line resources from reliable publishers to help locate useful information for students. You need Internet access and your public library card and you’re ready to start.

Go to our library’s web site, www.meadvillelibrary.org, and look for the icon above. (It’s in the lower right-hand corner of the home page.) Click on the icon. You’ll need to type in your library card number and the letters and numbers on the blue “Power Code” sticker on the front of your card.

The POWER Library (Pennsylvania Online World of Electronic Resources) has sorted dozens of information sources into subject categories. In the top golden bar there is a link to the “Children’s List” which offers resources of particular interest to children.

Many hours of exploration and discovery can be enjoyed by sampling each of these information sources.

BOOKS
“Access PA” helps you track down favorite books or older books that our library doesn’t have. Books on “Access PA” can be borrowed for you through the library no matter where they are in the commonwealth.

“NoveList K-8” has a key word search that helps track down stories if all you can remember is a part of the story or a part of the title.

“Book Collection: Non-fiction” helps to pinpoint the informational books that might help with last minute book reports or with information you need to complete a homework assignment. The entire text of the book is available in some cases, and you can choose the reading level or check to see how many pages the original book has.

MAGAZINE ARTICLES

The “Primary Search,” “Kids Search,” and “Middle School Search” sites provide citations to magazines, and in some cases, the full text of the article.

MAPS AND PHOTOGRAPHS

The “AP Multimedia Archive” provides access to news photographs sorted into the following categories: Today, U.S. News, International, Sports, Entertainment, Weather, and Correlations which are the state educational standards for selected subjects. The maps on this site were used in various published news articles. Another good source for maps is SIRS Discoverer, also found on the Power Library web site. Do a bit of exploring and you’ll be surprised how much “Power” you have.
IN ADDITION

If you go back to the Meadville Public Library main page and click on “Children” (under Departments) you will find even more sources if you select the heading “Homework Help.”

2006 Summer Reading Club Grand Prize Winners

YWCA music classes (K – Grade 1) MacKenzie Dingeldein
YWCA music classes (Grades 2-4) Madison Mitcham
YMCA 3-month Family Membership Hannah Kaufman
Haley Hunter
Gaylin Petro
Jacob McMullen
Kaitlyn Price
Lasy Welsh
Wild animals stuffed animal collection and book
Nina Cosdon
Shipwreck books Charli Severo
Junie B. Jones books and bag Elaina Snyder
Neon bright stuffed animals and book Courtney Brubaker
Fishing gear Danielle Waresak
Wizard books Brid Freiberg
Board book collection Kairlyn Labonowski
Beatrix Potter books and puppet Nicholas Sternby
Pony Pal books and model horse Suzan Gard