Bookmobile news: feel-good story of the day

Saw this, and it deserved its own post (aside from the Bookmobile news round-ups which are few and far between these days):

At A Pakistani Mobile Library, Kids Can Check Out Books, And Hope
""And I felt, in what way can we bring these kids back to the beauty of life, to the beauty of future, to be of value to fellow mankind and to themselves and to the country," he says. "And I started thinking in what way can we help the children." Malik felt books were the way to broaden children's minds, to introduce them to a whole world of subjects, and to help build tolerance for others. But he discovered that virtually none of the public schools in and around Islamabad had libraries [....] So Malik decided to take books to the children."

Seen reading on OC Transpo

Greenboro O-Train Station, sunset

• L'homme inquiet par Henning Mankell
• The menu for 3 Brasseurs (this was probably when they were interviewing for staff)
  (P.S. Processed cheese slices on a cheeseburger, 3 Brasseurs? Really? Quel dommage...)
• something by Steve Berry
• Fire from heaven by Mary Renault
• an issue of Teen titans
• Me:  The Art Forger by B. A. Shapiro (Divas pick)

News round-up

"Courtship Dance" carved by Koji Kareki of Japan, Winterlude 2013

• Thought-provoking: Quiet, Please!, by the Annoyed Librarian:
  "I guess a lot of librarians get bored with all the quiet. Not me. That’s one of the best things about being a librarian, walking into a building that isn’t rife with all the noise unavoidable on the street and in most public places. The noise of everyday life is getting louder, and without quiet libraries will be almost inescapable. But some librarians are too busy rocking to notice, or maybe they just don’t like silence because silence breeds contemplation and they don’t want to contemplate their lives."
• Celebrating: The Citizen Lab wins the 2013 CLA Advancement of Intellectual Freedom in Canada Award (which reminds me, save the date: Saturday, March 2, 2013 - Censored out loud event in Ottawa, the fifth annual local event to celebrate Freedom to Read Week!)
• Inspiring: The Ottawa Human Library event (I'm so proud of my colleagues, and Rideau Branch patron Sean!)
 

 
• Informative: "20 questions: Are you ready to be a manager?" from Globe Careers
• Disturbing (three times over): some seriously offensive blonde prejudice embedded in the (justified) rage over the new Anne cover? "This "updated" version of Anne looks like a new addition to Jersey Shore and probably spends more time partying than re-enacting book scenes with her friends." Hey now, no need to make sweeping generalisations! See also: re-branding The Bell Jar (but hey, you have to laugh, right?)
• Heart-wrenching: "Prison and Libraries: Public Service Inside and Out," from Library Journal (just try to scroll past the "Shakespeare in Shackles" picture of inmates in segregation without breaking down).
  "Prisoners read and discuss the plays. Inmates, many of whom lack strong academic records, often warm up to the challenge of learning the plays written by the intellectually demanding playwright. More than that, Bates asserts, many prisoners discover, sometimes to their surprise, that the questions posed by Shakespeare’s centuries-old plays may be more relevant than many would assume [....] Frequently, inmates will rewrite the plays to reflect their own changing perspectives. For example, Hamlet may spare Claudius’s life as prisoners reconsider their own thirst for ­vengeance.  Not every prisoner can be changed via humanities intervention, but Bates has met those who say they have not killed thanks in large part to exposure to works like Shakespeare’s plays. She says there should be a place for arts and literature programs in prisons and jails and their libraries."
• What I have been up to: reading the last of the 60+ books under consideration for the soon-to-be-announced CLA Book of the Year for Children shortlist, piloting some de-centralised projects for our Homebound Services department, working on some interesting new ideas for our Bookmobile service review (while the team maintains service valiantly while one bus is off the road waiting for parts), and entering a dialogue about our tremendously worthwhile Library Settlement Partnerships.

... and I thought I might have run out of rant posts....

But no.

Says England's Communities Minister Don Foster (via):

"Libraries play a vital role in keeping this going by bringing people together across communities, helping improve literacy for children and adults alike and developing a love of reading for millions of people."

Libraries don't improve literacy: librarians improve literacy.

Oh, and seriously? That picture? You're *totally* going to get a library that looks like that if it's volunteer-run. I bet they raised those fancy beams themselves, right?

< / end rant >

Happy blogoversary to me!

It's hard to believe that it was four years ago today that I published the first post on this blog. It seems like it was yesterday, in one sense, and so long ago in another. Some things in the blog, and in life, have stayed the same (best of the year lists; a passion for public library service and a wry sense of humour - I hope!) and some have changed (fewer awards announcements since these seem to be cross-posted everywhere; my job title, of which I have gone through at least four in four years!)

I find it infinitely tiresome (and terribly unoriginal) when bloggers apologise for their absence on the blogosphere, but here we go: I have been remiss lately! To catch you all up, well, it was the holidays, then I caught the Evil Flu From Hell, and then in the middle of the EFFH, I accepted an opportunity to be an Acting Manager with OPL for the next few weeks. The job is with my old team at Diversity and Accessibility Services, which is great.

So things have been weird: that's life, you know? Stuff gets thrown at you, good and bad, and you make the best of the bad stuff and are grateful for the good stuff. Sometimes, when you are lucky, great things fall into your lap (hopefully because you've put something good out into the universe) just when you need a little boost. Last week, I was called brave and resilient (I think resilient is my new favourite word) with respect to two different situations, work and personal, and tons of colleagues stopped by my new office or dropped me a note to wish me well on this new project. People are pretty amazing. Or, to be more precise, I am so incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by amazing people.

Right now my work brain is swimming with ideas, and projects, and things to deal with, and things to learn about. It's so cool to have an opportunity to shake up my thoughts, and delve into some new (or new/old) aspects of library service... and now, more than ever, my job involves the people on our team, and supporting them to the best of my abilities. It's fun to try to pick up the threads ... and, for a type A personality, kind of crazy to get a handle on it all in a few weeks! I have to keep talking myself back into work mode and out of freak-out-and-bite-off-more-than-I-can-chew mode.

So hopefully that's a sufficiently vague, mixed-metaphor reflective blogaversary post for you. Thanks for sticking it out on the wild ride so far, and stay tuned for more. As my uncle would say, it's been real.

Mark your literary calendars for the first half of 2013!

Here are some things I am looking forward to in the first half(-ish) of the coming year:

• The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (January)
• The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan (January)
• American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath by Carl Rollyson (January)
• The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (March)
• Bone and Bread by (Montrealer!) Saleema Nawaz (March)
• Nocturne by Helen Humphreys (March)
• A Beautiful Truth by Colin McAdam (March)
• Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (March)
• Z by Therese Anne Fowler (March)
• The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (April)
• The Dark by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen (April)
• All That Is by James Salter (April)
• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (April)
• Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende (April)
• The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud (April)
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (May)
• And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (May)
• Big Brother by Lionel Shriver (June)
• The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (June)
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (June)
• Night Film by Marisha Pessl (August)

Favourite children's and teen books of 2012

“Once there was a girl / an all-alone girl / in her own little bed / in her own little room / in her own little castle / who didn’t have a dragon for a friend.” 

This is going to be the saddest list ever. Nonetheless, here are the books for kids and teens that floated like jetsam past my desk this year....

Disclaimer: other more recent chapter books are embargoed because they are being considered for the CLA Book of the Year for Children and, as such, I cannot comment about them at this time.

1. Lovabye Dragon by Barbara Joosse: a lonely dragon with an overbite? What's not to love? See above.
2. Plant a Kiss by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (she of Duck! Rabbit! fame)
3. Sam et Julia dans la maison des souris by Karina Schaapman: This gem of a book is too beautiful to miss, even if you can't read the text. If you, like me, spent a childhood enraptured by dollhouses (my two favourites were the real-life one in Windsor Castle and the one in Beatrix Potter's The tale of two bad mice), this book is for you.
   
4. Oh No, Little Dragon! by Jim Averbeck: do I have a dragon thing? Perhaps! Little Dragon loses his fire-breathing ability when playing in the bathtub. Will he get it back? The suspense is killing me!
5. The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce: I did make a vague effort to stay current with international book awards news, and as a result read this winner of the Guardian children's fiction prize. An intriguing mix of Polaroids of unknown origin and a story about a mysterious immigrant family who are being pursued by a demon.
6. Howl by Karen Hood-Caddy: This book, and the next one on the list, are my under-appreciated underdogs from the 2012 CLA BOYCA reads. Howl actually appeared on our shortlist last year: this is a nuanced portrait of a young girl learning to cope with grief after the death of her mother, and a whole family's story of coming together to make something meaningful out of loss. Here's a review from Q&Q.                  
7. Saving Armpit by Natalie Hyde: In a world in which quality middle grade books are often few and far between, this is an overlooked solid Canadian title about a letter-writing campaign undertaken by a group of small-town children in order to save their local post office (and thus the postmaster, coach of their local baseball team).   
8. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green: again, the hype penetrated my consciousness, and I had to pick this one up. Friends and colleagues disagree over this one: someone pointed out that teens don't talk like they do in this book (fair enough!) and someone else, like me, found this book both hilarious and tragic. For those who grew up with Lurlene McDaniel (oh yes, I went there!), this is how a book about a kid with a terminal illness was meant to be written. Green knocks it out of the park.
9. Grave Mercy: His Fair Assassin, Book 1 by Robin LaFevers: Meet your new Katniss.
10. Monoceros by Suzette Mayr: Technically published as an adult novel, but I am including it here because I feel it has a real audience with teens, especially as a year filled with truly tragic stories of teen suicides due to bullying draws to a close. This book has a passage, narrated by the victim's mother, of such utter beauty that I think it might well be one of my favourite scenes ever. As a truly Canadian story of a teen suicide, told from different perspectives, this is another under-appreciated title. Read a review here. 

Previous favourite children's book lists: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.
Previous favourite teen book lists: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.

Favourite adult books of 2012

Happy New Year!

I read 93 adult books in 2012, up from 52 in 2011. My changing professional role was reflected in the fact that I only read 28 children's and teens books (compared to 77 in 2011).

In 2013, I hope to keep increasing those adult numbers, and since this is my last year as a judge for the CLA Book of the Year for Children, make the children's books I read great ones that I choose myself for a change! It has been a great joy to be on the BOYCA committee, but I will not miss the speed-reading of 60-odd children's novels by Canadian authors with varying degrees of talent.

Without further ado, here it is, my pretties: the top 10 of 2012!

1. Gold by Chris Cleave: Chris’s writing has a way of grabbing you firmly by the heart and pulling, hard. The protagonists in this story are three Olympic bike racers, getting a bit long in the tooth in their early 30s and facing their last Olympics (London 2012). Despite not being at all interested in competitive sport, I could not put this down. There is much about the competitive spirit of world-class athletes in here, but there is also a love triangle, a child struggling with cancer, and a sensitive exploration of the choices we make in life, and the paths we choose and can also change. There are some absolute gems of phrasing and emotion in here. Read it. Some readers have compared the relationship in this novel between two strong women as reminiscent of Atwood’s The Robber Bride (my favourite of hers), and that is somewhat apt. For other heart-wrenching tales, however (for you masochists who like to cry while reading), I would recommend Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones or The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart.
2. Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie: You may or may not know that I heart Rushdie, but we have  a fraught relationship. On the one hand, Imaginary Homelands changed my life, Midnight's Children acted as a closing bookend of sorts to my thesis about E. M. Forster, and I will watch any interview / attend any reading Rushdie gives, because I find him a fascinating and erudite speaker whose perspective I often find completely refreshing. On the other hand, I didn't finish The Satanic Verses, and have a low threshold for some of Rushdie's bombast. So, I embarked on Joseph Anton unsure how we were going to get along. Turns out I couldn't put it down, even if sometimes it drove me crazy (which probably encapsulates how I feel about Rushdie overall, frankly). I didn't mind the 2nd person narrative, found his unravelling of the Gordian Knot of his time under the fatwa deeply moving, vehemently agreed with many of his conclusions and observations about Western society's complex relationship with Islam, and found his stories about the supportive friendships that sustained him during his time in hiding (including a lovely one about a trip to Canada, involving being hugged by Bob Rae and serenaded by Adrienne Clarkson) compelling (I kept following the Husband around saying, "Listen to this!"). As a thank you of sorts to those who stood by him, and a statement about East/West relations during a tumultuous time in modern history, this is a tremendous book. As an indictment of those who abandoned, or outright criticised him, this book is less effective: Rushdie doesn't mince words, and in many cases rightly so, but sometimes a more unflattering spite seeps out of the pages, which is a pity. This is still an absolute must-read, however. Frankly, it's hard to begrudge him a little spite sometimes.
3. 
   Astray by Emma Donoghue: These stories are all about people on the move: between identities, places, or lives. I read this on the train, which was unintentionally perfectly appropriate. All of the stories are based on real-life people, and Donoghue follows each tale with a description of the actual events, whether it be a newpaper clipping about a female con artist or a series of letters between a husband and wife separated by an ocean (that story made me cry). The Guardian used the word frustrating when talking about the brevity of these tales; that is something that often bothers me in short stories, but here I felt that each story was so perfectly crafted that I didn't mind. Plus, frankly, I am happy to see that the pre-Room Donoghue is still around.
4. South Riding by Winifred Holtby: see review here. Readers who enjoyed Emma Brown (completed from Charlotte Brontë’s draft by Clare Boylan), Muriel Spark or our own massively-underappreciated Gwethalyn Graham will enjoy this novel.
5. Shine shine shine by Lydia Netzer: see review here. 

6. Sleeping funny by Miranda Hill: Well, I already loved Miranda for Project Bookmark, and now I just love her extra. These short stories all have an element of the magical, or just plain odd, about them, from a suspicious neighbour who may just have dropped out of a fairy tale, to a group of children who are afflicted with visions of their own conception (some surprises there!). These stories made me laugh out loud, and also cry. Warning: the one that won the Journey Prize was actually my least-favourite in the collection.... 
7. This is how you lose her by Junot Diaz: no, your eyes do not deceive you. I, an avowedly lukewarm reader of short stories, have chosen three collections in my top 10 this year. In October, I admitted that I was, indeed, oddly sympathetic with the rat narrator of this collection, especially for someone who spent four years with her very own serial philanderer. These stories, about the Yunior you may be familiar with from Drown, will break your heart as they draw you into the flawed but somehow tender heart of a troubled young man.
8. The grief of others by Leah Hager Cohen: Ricky Ryrie blames her husband John for a lot, but she blames herself for more, in this story of family secrets and new beginnings. The Ryries, parents to two living children and one recently-deceased baby boy, are struggling to move forward through their grief when John’s older daughter from a previous relationship shows up on their doorstep unexpectedly. Cohen’s writing gave me goose bumps; speaking about the Ryries’ dead child, she writes, “He wore, during his short life, a white cotton shirt with a single covered side snap, a white flannel receiving blanket, and a white cotton cap. … He was given two diaper changes, the second proving unnecessary.” It’s easy to see how this gem of a book made it on the Orange Prize longlist. . It has been a long time since I have rooted so strongly for a young girl, as I did for the Elizabeth “Biscuit” Ryrie, who we first meet when she has stolen a library book about funeral rites and falls into the Hudson River after a ritual for her dead baby brother goes wrong. Everyone in this book is barely coping with their grief (over the baby but also over their own personal tragedies and changing relationships with one another), but the story is somehow still gentle, hopeful and beautiful. If the past is a foreign country, so too is the grief of others, even those closest to us. This one is for readers who enjoy Joyce Carol Oates, Julia Glass, Kim Edwards’s The Memory Keeper’s Daughter or Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.
9. Everybody has everything by Katrina Onstad: Onstad captures perfectly the human spirit that lurks below a veneer of suits, heels, polished front doors, and shiny car windows in downtown Toronto. Ana and James are one such couple: half suit, half wrinkled artsy type, muddling towards early middle age childless and drifting apart (maybe). Into this mix falls small Finn, the young child of their good friends, left in their care after a car accident that claims Finn’s father and leaves his mother in a coma. Thrust into temporary parenthood (they wonder if Robert Crumb is appropriate bedtime reading as it’s the only illustrated book they have), Ana and James re-think their roles in their marriage, and the choices they have made without always realizing something was chosen. This is a character novel, and, to be frank without giving too much away, it’s about James wanting Finn desperately and Ana discovering that she doesn’t. Sure to divide readers, Ana’s struggles will hopefully spark meaningful book club discussions about what modern women can, or should, want for themselves.
10. Gillespie and I by Jane Harris: Also on the Orange Prize longlist, this jewel of a book perfectly captures the voice of its Scottish, Victorian-era (unreliable) narrator, 35-year-old nosy spinster Harriet Baxter. Harriet, living on her own and with a small income that allows her to be a patron of the arts (as she would put it), endeavors to set the story straight for us about her relationship with the members of the Gillespie family, to whom a great tragedy has befallen (although it takes Harriet awhile to spit out the details). By the time she is out with it, however, her story begins to look more like something by Wilkie Collins than the gentle memoirs of a thoughtful family friend. Interspersing the story of her friendship with dashing young artist Ned Gillespie with her present life as an elderly woman in a mysterious stand-off with a possibly deranged maid, Harriet keeps readers under her thumb, revealing only what she wants us to see – but with an occasional slip. This is chilling, masterful, psychological drama at its best. For fans of Iain Pears’s The Portrait or Sebastian Barry’s The Secret Scripture.

Previous lists:

• Favourite adult books of 2011
• Favourite adult books of 2010

Seen reading on OC Transpo

• Dante's war by Sandra Sabatini
• The alchemist by Paulo Coelho
• Something by Hunter S. Thompson
• Man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl, Harold S. Kushner and William J. Winslade
• A book about Rosa Parks with a high school library stamp 
• The house I loved by Tatiana de Rosnay
• My life as an experiment by A.J. Jacobs
• Inside of a dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know by Alexandra Horowitz 
• The cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy 
• Something by Luanne Rice
• Me: a grab bag of a million different random things, including the Citizen and Globe, Quill and Quire, Chatelaine and lots of other things. It's not that I'm not reading books, they are just not in my bag right now.

RA in a day 2012: Keynote speaker: Patrick Brown, Community Manager at Goodreads.com

Keynote speaker: Patrick Brown, Community Manager at Goodreads.com

Patrick was an engaging speaker who outlined using Goodreads for readers advisory, either as an individual (inputting your books and using their “Recommends” feature for your own tastes) or as a library (creating an account for your library: Patrick cited Salt Lake County Library as an example of creative use of group space on Goodreads. There are many other libraries on Goodreads as groups, not to mention, ahem, librarians!).

Speaking about the importance of readers, and librarians who are readers, in the online environment, Patrick reminded us that “people want to connect with people, not brands.” In other words, your library may have far fewer friends than you expect on Facebook, in part because the online environment, and the experience of reading and sharing reading experiences, is about personal connection.

Patrick’s talk really brought us full-circle to Sandra Martin’s talk this morning, highlighting the importance of readers in the online environment, and the ways in which readers are reaching out online to one another to create community. I didn't take a lot of notes for this session - by the end of the day, I wanted to sit back and enjoy listening!

Some other interesting things happened at RA in a day. Most importantly, congratulations to my good friend Shonna Froebel, who is the 2012 recipient of the OPLA's Award for Leadership in Adult Readers' Advisory. Here she is with OPLA RA committee chair Sharron Smith.

We also had several great poster sessions around the room, including Oshawa Public Library and CNIB - Book Club Guides, Mississauga Public Library - Readers to Writers at MPL, the OLA Forest of Reading®, and a poster made by me about the OPLA RA Committee Core Competencies (read them! use them!). There were also wonderful vendor displays from LibraryBound, Random House Canada, Penguin Canada, HarperCollins Canada, and the OLA Store. 

RA in a day 2012: The role of fiction and reading in community-building

 

The Role of Fiction and Reading in Community-Building with Dr. Raymond A. Mar, Associate professor of psychology at York University.

This was a follow-up to Dr. Mar’s 2010 presentation at RA in a day (see notes). In 2010 he talked about narrative fiction as a “simulation” exercise: when reading a novel, for example, you imagine what it would be like to be in the book. With neural imaging, the areas of the brain that deal with social processing light up when subjects are reading. We develop socially when we read, absorbing complex social information in a format that is easier to understand, and there is a correlational relationship between reading and decoding social information.

In his talk this year, he expanded on his research and examined the role of reading fiction in community development (tying into our theme for the day). He outlined recent research his team has done which as found that the genres people read matter; in fact, their study showed that the two genres that best predicted social abilities were (somewhat surprisingly to many) romance and suspense/thriller. Dr. Mar proposed that the former can be perhaps explained by the fact that all romance is about social abilities, social context and relationships.

He also explored the idea of “embodied cognition,” and its relation to reading: even abstract thought (i.e. when reading about an experience) is rooted in perception/action in the brain. Just thinking about a character’s activities, for instance, will activate the areas related to these actions in the motor cortex. In other words, Dr. Mar said, “experiences were akin to reality.”

Reading also predicts more egalitarianism and reduced gender stereotyping; a reader is “forced” to take the character’s point of view in order to understand and inhabit the story, and he or she thus develops empathy. As always, Dr. Mar was a really fascinating speaker.

RA in a day 2012: Luncheon Speaker Deborah Harkness

Luncheon Speaker: Deborah Harkness

Deborah Harkness, author of the bestselling novels, A Discovery of Witches and Shadow of Night, was a great speaker: passionate, funny, interesting – you can tell she teaches! She enthralled us with background information about her novels, including the fact that Ashmole 782 is a real manuscript, and it is really missing. She told us “it’s the only alchemical manuscript I ever called up and wasn’t able to get.” Matthew Roydon is also a real historical figure, and she herself is most similar to Emily, not Diana (as many people often assume). She talked about how her students, who she sees at a time of great change in their lives, influenced her portrayal of Diana: “I teach a lot of talented young people who are desperately afraid of their own power.”

Deborah also told us about how the idea for the novels was born: she was on vacation with her parents, recovering from academic responsibilities that left her out of touch with pop culture. When she spotted a copy of Breaking Dawn in the airport bookshop, her parents had to explain the series to her. Her first thought was “what do vampires do for a living?” She mused that they would want a career with some longevity, but not in proximity to, say, blood. So, a geneticist might be an idea… Similarly, a witch would make a good historian, for example. She also outlined the structure of the series: while the first book was set in the present day, the second was more historical fiction, and the third will have more science-fiction aspects to it (she hinted about genetics).

Finally, Deborah talked about using her newfound fame and fortune for good: she observed that the ability to “have an opinion” was cool. “No one cares about what a history professor thinks about libraries,” she explained, referring to media coverage of library closures in the US and UK,” but now that I’m a novelist, well, yes, thank you for asking, I have a lot of opinions about that!” She made a room full of librarians happy when she told us of her early literary influences (including The Witch of Blackbird Pond, one of my childhood favourites), and the quality time she spent in libraries as a child. “I’m here talking to you,” she told us, “because you were here for me when I was little.”

RA in a day 2012: Getting Your Community Reading: Sharing Your Successes

This post is about the second session of the day, Getting Your Community Reading: Sharing Your Successes. 

As a member of the RA Committee, the host organisation of RA in a day, I chaired one of the table discussions during this session. From the committee’s perspective, we developed this session as a response to feedback from previous years: attendees wanted more opportunities to talk to one another. My fellow committee member designed this session so that delegates changed places and sat at a table named for an Evergreen-shortlisted title, everyone brainstormed and shared great programs at their libraries, and then each table presented their favourite adult reading program with the room.

At my table, we heard about:

• Mississauga Library System’s outreach efforts and Bingo game with literary genres (read them all to fill your Bingo card and win prizes!). 
• TPL’s Film Club, arts and history lectures, book clubs (including in Cantonese!), bulletin board with patron suggestions (we’re trying this at Carlingwood this month! Come in to the Adult Info desk and leave us a suggestion for a display we are building) and the Thought Exchange series. 
• Kitchener’s One Book, One Community program, and their participation in Word on the Street.
• Milton Public Library’s memoir-writing workshop for seniors, Lifescapes (see photos from their book launch). 
• Haliburton County Public Library’s “Chair yoga” for seniors, and their Shakespeare Club. 
• Vaughn Public Library’s Teen Summer Reading Challenge. 
• Someone (I forget who) had a GREAT idea about soliciting book recommendations from high-profile community members (eg. the manager of local business, councillor, school principal, etc). 

I asked the table about their “favourite” failures, and one library (I forget which) shared a story of a Book Club Boot Camp outreach program ("we’ll come to you, and help you design your book club") that didn’t have many takers in the community. We then talked about how marketing / program promotion happens at each library:

• Some wished they had a Marketing department, but several others at the table concluded having one was often a mixed blessing. 
• At Kitchener, the Marketing department takes care of travel costs and arrangements, etc. for speakers, as well as promotion. 
• We talked about paying for advertising in community newspapers (some do, some can’t). 
• Word of mouth is always the best way to promote a program: invite people who have their own network! Also, people trust their friends but may not trust/know us. 
• One library faxes programs to the management of apartment buildings and gardening centres in the area.

RA in a day 2012: Online Book Clubs

The 7th annual "RA in a day" workshop for adult readers' advisory wrapped up recently. This year, we had a theme, which was "Reading Builds Community," and the day was once again hosted in the lovely Bram & Bluma Appel Salon of Toronto Reference Library.

As vice-chair of the hosting group, OPLA's Readers' Advisory Committee, I was fortunate to not only attend, but get to participate in planning and delivering the day's events. Over the coming week or so, I will share some notes from the sessions.

Today, we'll start with our first session, Online book clubs, with Sandra Martin from The Globe and Mail, and Margaret Elwood, the Book Buzz Librarian at Toronto Public Library.

Sandra Martin (standing) and Margaret Elwood.

Margaret spoke first about Book Buzz, TPL's virtual book club. She outlined some of the preliminary research done in an initial survey, showing that book club members are generally 98% female and 88% retired (therefore likely over the age of 65). Book Buzz was an attempt to attract active, engaged adults under fifty (via anonymous participation, no formal meetings), and avoid the book club stereotype. Current Book Buzz members (of which there are 1281) are 84% female and 64% are under the age of 50! There is still high interest in reading fiction, but also non-fiction, mystery, and biography. There is a moderate interest in sci-fi/fantasy, graphic books. The original Book Buzz researchers also looked into other active, successful online book groups, and found that successful ones had an active facilitator/moderator, so they made this a core focus of the site. Book Buzz currently uses Web Crossing software as a platform, but Web Crossing will soon be discontinued, and they will be moving to a social network type of site within the year.

Margaret spoke quite movingly about how the online book club forum broke down barriers: they had teens participating, and one deaf person. Book Buzz, she said, “places no constraints on accessibility.” She also discussed participation inequality at length – the idea that 1% of your participants will post regularly, but many others will find significant value in reading other people’s posts.

Sandra spoke about the Globe’s recent foray into online book clubs, calling 2012 “the year of living experientially” after she was asked to be the online book club facilitator. Sandra, a long-time book lover and member of the Quadrangle Society’s book club at Massey College, was approached by the Globe about an online book club. This was framed within attempts to “entice people to read the Globe online,” a “corporate imperative.” The online book club now uses ScribbleLive.com to host the site. Interestingly, Sandra said that Globe staff thought people would want to read non-fiction rather than fiction (she credits this to journalistic bias!), but of course many book clubs are the opposite. So far, the book club has featured Half-blood blues by Esi Edugyan, Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat (in part because of the Canada Reads controversy), summer picks, and The casual vacancy by J. K. Rowling. Books are chosen by popular vote via a poll on the website. Sandra’s favourite aspect of an online book club is “feeling like I am in a really good conversation and knowing I don’t have to drive anyone home.”

Seen reading on OC Transpo

Soon enough...

• Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (hmmmm)
• Something from OPL's Express reads collection
• Something by Robert Jordan on a Kobo
• Micro: A Novel by Michael Crichton
• Something by Kathy Reichs
• Still Alice by Lisa Genova: the person reading this was having a conversation with the person reading Kathy Reichs - strangers bonding over books!
• A man wiping away tears while reading The Economist (I hope it was a medical condition?) 
• Rue Saint-Urbain par Mordecai Richler (other ideas)

October from the rear view mirror

October was all about Courtland apples, visits to old haunting grounds, sugar pie, seventh wedding anniversaries, and family bonding. Delish! I finished my bonding with Rushdie over Joseph Anton (amazing journey into his craft, and into his insane life during the fatwa - my only concern is his portrayal of every woman in his life....). I was blown away by Miranda Hill's Sleeping Funny, gripped by the plot twists in Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, slightly bored by The Sweet Girl by Annabel Lyon, sad that Toby's Room by Pat Barker was definitely no Regeneration trilogy, and oddly sympathetic (especially for someone who has been cheated on) with the rat narrator of This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz. I also bid farewell to a good friend, who OPL is losing to RPL, and planned world domination via Book Bank.

In other news, here's some work stuff I've been excited about:

• I'm pretty thrilled that (and tired from) tying with the Children's department (almost!) this month. We had 310 adults at a wide variety of adult programs for this month; children's programs attracted 330 children!
• We've been trying a Chinese storytime this fall, led by one of my colleagues, Feng (we went to library school together - shout-out McGill MLIS class of 2004!). So far, it's getting on its feet with a few participants: a few other branches have packed Chinese storytimes, so I am confident ours will grow.
• We had a great, loud, crowded TAG meeting with "a dynamic and powerful discussion on diversity and LGBTQ" given by one of our community partners. Patron going by the Adult Info desk: “I’ve never seen so many Teens at Carlingwood Branch– how did we do it?"
• Those adult programs: We held three “Coffee with the Community” events this month. The most successful, by far, was Coffee with Councillor Mark Taylor, for which we had 11 attendees. Our Reflections on Aging reading circle wrapped up, but will be offered in January again. Feedback: “the facilitators were excellent as well as the reading material they chose.” Also, “I really enjoyed the time and information regarding books I can borrow in the future.  I hope CA will have more reading circles.” This is one of the programs I am most proud of, thanks in large part to the wonderful coordinators, Wendy and Trudy. We also had Kim Thuy as part of OPL's Author Visits, who a patron described as an "exciting articulate speaker. I loved how she just spoke from the heart - no notes.”
• Our new part-time librarian started! We are all really excited to have her as a part of the team.
• We received over 60 grey bins one day near the end of this month! The team pitched in and worked together to process this high volume; some extra hours helped, too. I wonder how many people realise how much material is shipped inter-branch every day?... As I always say in outreach, over a month, we ship the same weight as a female beluga whale and her baby (I have visuals, of course!)
• We visited local schools and community groups, as always. I personally visited two groups.
• We blogged! The branch library pages on the website are getting an update soon, so branch blogging will soon be an option.

Lastly, Carlingwood Branch celebrated its 46th birthday! It opened in mid-August 1966, with an official opening ceremony on October 13th. At 13, 500 square feet, the new branch had a staff of six (now 30) and a collection of 5000 books (now approximately 120, 000 items). The branch was designed by architects Craig and Kohler, at a cost of $411, 106. Check it out:

A prize of their own

(I know. That title was a cheap shot).

I read with interest the recent announcement of the Rosalind Prize, a new Canadian literary prize for fiction by women (seen via Pickle Me This). As Kerry points out, the statistics about women writers in other literary prizes in Canada are pretty bad.

What do you think about this? Do we still need a room of our own?

Or, are literary prizes in general worthwhile schemes, or do you believe that "writing is not a competitive or comparative endeavour," to quote Richard Greener?

Midnight's Children

Tomorrow, I will be at the sold-out evening premiere of Midnight's Children, listening to director Deepa Mehta talk about the film.

I'm kind of crazy excited. This might be because the novel formed one of the book-ends to my Honours thesis, or it could be because the timing is perfect and I just finished reading Joseph Anton. Either way, I am looking forward to introducing The Husband to the story, and I hope it's a great movie.

In the meantime, watch this trailer:

Help my former branch celebrate 50 years!

The Children's department, St Laurent Branch, Ottawa Public Library
Photo credit: the library's own official camera wizard, Rhéal Doucette

For a year, in 2009-2010, I worked as the supervising children's librarian at the St Laurent Branch of OPL. This coming Saturday, October 20th, the branch will dedicate the children's department to the city's first bilingual chief librarian Claude Aubry. Aubry served as chief librarian for 26 years, which also makes him the longest-serving individual in that role; he also got the Bookmobile on the road, so, you know, I have a soft spot for him. He has an amazing list of achievements under his belt during his time at OPL; check them out at the end of this document.

Aubrey was also Ottawa's own renaissance man: he was a children's author (IBBY Canada has an award named after him) and an accountant. The St Laurent Branch was first opened during his tenure, in fact, giving Saturday's event a nice simpatico.

I can't be there to celebrate with them, but you should go if you can!

As it says in the lobby of the Don Gamble Community Centre, outside the library entrance:

"A library is not a luxury; but one of the necessaries of life."
- H. W. Beecher

"Un livre est une fenêtre par laquelle on s'évade."

-Julien Green

News round-up

• From The Guardian - The Booker prize judges let us down: Another prize for Hilary Mantel was unnecessary, and a missed opportunity to invigorate the books world - agree / disagree?
• From The Telegraph - Damn crazy people deface Orwell plaque (not the official article title)
• From Publishing Perspectives - Finns like books!
  "There is an untranslatable Finnish word — sisu — which is closely tied to the Finnish character. It roughly means “perseverance in the face of adversity” and it applies here. With Finland as an example, the global publishing industry can take heart that whatever challenges publishers face, slow and steady gives you the opportunity to survive, and hopefully, to thrive."
• "Extending Our Reach: Reducing Homelessness through Library Engagement," the latest toolkit from the Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, is available now.
• Bizarre-Looking Libraries from All Over the World (at least two of which give me a headache)