Delaware Library Catalog

We're migrating!

2009-06-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

On June 30th, the Delaware Library Blog became an "official" blog of the State of Delaware! We're migrating to a hosted WordPress platform in the Delaware government portal, where we'll have a slick new look and some enhanced functions- so please update your bookmarks to our new site at http://library.blogs.delaware.gov

2009-06-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to getting hold of a number of books that were well-reviewed in the most recent Sunday New York Times:

The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright
Love and Obstacles, by Aleksander Hemon
Wanting, by Richard Flanagan
The Whole Five Feet, by Christopher Beha

The last title looks especially interesting- in which the author spends one year attempting to read the 51- volume set of Harvard Classics in its entirety. You can read part of the first chapter here. Happy reading.

121 and 40

2009-06-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

During this last week, the Delaware legislature voted to amend State anti-discrimination laws to include gay and lesbian Delawareans for the first time. Shortly after the legislation was passed, Delaware Lt. Gov. Matt Denn published a touching blog post about the history of the decade-long attempt to pass this legislation.

June 28th also marks the 40th anniversary of the "Stonewall Riots" in New York City, one of the pivotal events in modern Gay and Lesbian history- the event that is credited with beginning the movement for liberation movement that has made events like the passing of S.B. 121 possible.
The Delaware Library Catalog has several books and movies about the event itself and more resources about the 20th Century gay liberation movement.

How're we doing?

2009-06-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

The circulation of library items from the Kent and Sussex County continues to rise, with June's final figures not yet in, suggesting an all-time high for the year as the message continues to be heard that libraries are a tremendous economic and leisure resource when times are hard:

Beach community public library circulation is growing nicely this year. We're already seeing a steep rise in circulation every month since February, with the vacation season barely begun!

59 years ago today...

2009-06-25T05:56:00.000-07:00

The Korean War began with the invasion of South Korea by the Communist-led North and the beginning of the United Nations "police action" to restore the independence of the South. Three months later, hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops crossed into the peninsula and began clashing with the predominantly American troops making up the bulk of the U.N. forces.

You can view an incredible set of digitized maps of various phases of the conflict at this U.S. Army Center for Military History webpage, and click here for a public domain collection of photographs from the War. Other downloadable resources from the U.S. CMH include chronologies and posters, and a list of Medal of Honor recipients.

You can find a large number of books about the Korean War in the Delaware Library Catalog. Click here for a full list of books, although the Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam and the Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea by James Brady are particularly well regarded general histories of the war.

The Korean War never actually ended, of course. The U.S. Army still maintains substantial forces in the Korean peninsula, and the stalemate in which the active conflict ended is still a significant factor in current U.S. foreign relations.

Mysterious Learning

2009-06-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

I think that my personal knowledge of English vicarages and country homes comes from Miss Marple, and though I don't have any first hand experience of Hawaii I feel like I know plenty about the Island State from watching reruns of Hawaii Five-O.

This makes me think about how much we can learn from the type of genre fiction that is most often categorized as merely entertainment.

On (gen)re-flection, mysteries and thrillers can be a unique form of access to foreign lands and foreign cultures- there are incredibly good, entertaining reads out there that also vividly portray the geography and everyday lives of nations that most people will never visit.

How many people knew all that much about Botswana before McCall-Smith's Precious Ramotswe mysteries? They are thoroughly enjoyable, enormously popular, and are brought alive by the author's obvious love for the country and its people, with vivid depictions of how the intersection between traditional culture and modernity plays out in this one dusty nation.

Eliot Patison's Inspector Shan mysteries, while thrilling and tragic, are also rich with ethnographic details about Tibetan folkways, from agriculture and diet to spirituality.

There are mysteries set in the slums of India such as The Case of the Missing Servant, by Tarquin Hall, which portray the intersection between the "New India" and the ancient caste system, a well as the well-regarded "Inspector Ghote" series by HRF Keating.

If you're interested in exploring the world AND enjoying a gripping read, Linda Bertland's School Library Resource Website has links to other great lists for mysteries set in foreign countries, organized by region.

Ohio Libraries Fight for Survival

2009-06-23T07:41:00.000-07:00

Last year, the fight to save the Philadelphia libraries was the big news in libraries. As befits that fair city, the campaign was a bare-knuckle street fight, with daily rallies, political maneuvering, and direct action.

On Friday, Governor Strickland of Ohio announced a budget that included the elimination of as much as $200 million of library funding over the next two years- potentially equaling a 50% cut in most public library funding.

In Ohio, the revolution has been digitized. Over the weekend, an huge number of websites were created or overhauled to publicize the budget issue and to encourage library patrons to contact their legislators:

The "Save Ohio Libraries" website
The Toledo Library homepage
The Columbus Public Library website today

The campaign has also encompassed social media to an unprecedented degree. Comments on Governor Strickland's Facebook page now almost exclusively concern the library issue, with a new comment from an Ohio voter every couple of minutes, all stating their support for libraries and opposition to the cuts. Twitter is also seeing an incredible amount of posts in support of Ohio Libraries, with supporters using the site to drive supporters to sites where they can register their opinion, contact their state and local legislators, and publicize the issue within local and national media.

Good Luck, Ohio-ans! With this amount of passion and commitment, all things are possible!

New Stuff

2009-06-23T05:30:00.000-07:00

Click on the links below to get lists of new items available from the DLC in various formats:

All New Items
New Audio Books
New Books
New DVDs

Happy Birthday, U.S. Patent No. 79265!

2009-06-23T04:55:00.000-07:00

A blog that is mostly about books can hardly let the birthday of the typewriter go unremarked!
"Christopher Latham Sholes’ machine was not the first typewriter. It wasn’t even the first typewriter to receive a patent. But it was the first typewriter to have actual practical value for the individual, so it became the first machine to be mass-produced...After receiving his patent, Sholes licensed it to Remington & Sons, the famous gunmaker. The first commercial typewriter, the Remington Model 1, hit the shelves in 1873."

Nora Roberts

2009-06-22T04:24:00.000-07:00

This week's New Yorker magazine includes a lengthy profile of the prolific author Nora Roberts. You can see current issues of the New Yorker, along with hundreds of other popular magazines (including Consumer Reports) online through EBSCO's MasterFile- log in to the Delaware Library Catalog with your library card and PIN, then select "Research Databases/EBSCO" to access all of the subscription resources available to your and every other library card holder.

Here are a few nuggets from the profile- Roberts sounds like a fascinating character:

Roberts, a romance novelist who also writes futuristic police procedurals under the name J.D. Robb, has published a hundred and eighty-two novels.
In a typical year, she publishes five “new Noras”: two installments of a paperback original trilogy; two J.D. Robb books; and each summer, the “big Nora”—a hardcover standalone romance novel.
Twenty-seven Nora Roberts books are sold every minute.
"She has a dirty mouth, a smoker’s voice, and a closet full of Armani."

If you have a Delaware Library Catalog card, you can also click here to read reviews and read-alikes from EBSCO's NoveList book review website (although there are enough Roberts/Robb books to keep most voracious readers busy enough not to need an alternate!)

Driving to work

2009-06-19T06:14:00.000-07:00

In a conversation last week, my coworker Patty reminded me that at least a couple of times a year, everyone should switch over to Route 9 for their commute between New Castle County and Dover. It takes a while longer, and is about 15 miles longer, but it's still a beautiful change of scenery- and a nice change to see a landscape where human economic and social structures have integrated with rather than overwhelmed the natural landscape.

Route 9 is a designated Coastal Scenic Byway, recognized for its variety and beauty- there's a good article about driving Rt. 9 here. A dirt road until the early part of the twentieth century, Rt. 9 was the main transportation and economic artery of the State until the development of Rt. 13, which began as a two-land highway in 1924 and ten years later became the first divided highway in the world, revolutionizing the State's commercial life by allowing easy access to the northern markets for agricultural crops.

Mention of choosing between Rt. 1, Rt. 13, and Rt. 9 also presents an excuse to mention Google Books' new service: full text embedded viewing of books scanned through their mass digitization program. Here's a nice local example that you can read in full text without leaving this website:

Iran- a reading list (with websites)

2009-06-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

Much of the world is transfixed at this moment by the upheavals following the recent Iranian election, by the apparent paradox of a popular demand for democracy, with women as some of the strongest voices heard, within a fundamentalist, autocratic system.

The Iranian regime is justifiably demonized by most Western governments, but the history of Persia/Iran is long and not especially receptive to simplistic analysis. Here are a few well-reviewed titles available from the Delaware Library Catalog about Iranian history, politics, and culture with an emphasis on the late 20th Century and the emergence of the fundamentalist revolutionary regime:

Iran Awakening, by Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi- "a captivating account...of the political world of Iranian women"
A History of Modern Iran, Ervad Abrahamian "scholarly, readable and engaging... an excellent choice"
Hidden Iran, Ray Takyeh "an intimate portrait of a dynamic society... a call for engagement"
History of Iran, by Michael Axworthy
the Devil we Know, Robert Baer
The Ayatollah Begs to Differ, by Hooman Majd
All the Shah's Men, by Stephen Kinzer, is about the C.I.A.-backed overthrow of the democratically-elected Mossadeq government- an incident that overshadows U.S.-Iranian relations to this day and still influences how the U.S. engages with reformists and dissidents in Iran

And here are some more general listings of books available on various related topics:

Much of current American analysis and understanding is informed by our experiences with the hostage crisis. These are a couple of good books on that subject:
Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden
Taken Hostage, by David Farber
And a complete listing of books available on the hostage crisis.

UPDATE: Web Resources of Interest

Iranian Blogs (Mostly in Farsi, although many in English- with the current situation, which includes an ongoing cyberwar between reformists and the regime, many or most of these may not be available).
Library of Congress Country Profile for Iran, May 2008, summarizes geography, history, and political/cultural facts and issues.
View the constantly evolving Twitter #iranelection stream.
The U.K. Guardian newspaper has a news blog about Iran with continuously updated news, photographs and videos.
Iran Negah is a video news archive, based in America.
The English-language version of Grand Ayatollah Khamenei's official website.
Pars Times is a clearing house for all manner of resources on the Iranian news, history and culture- it's U.S. based and claims to be non-partisan.
Columbia University Library's collection of online resources about Iran.
ADDED 6/22: U.S. Department of State Foreign Relations Archive, Iran 1964-68
U.S. Department of State Foreign Relations Archive, Iran 1969-1972

Happy Bloomsday!

2009-06-16T07:08:00.001-07:00

June 16th will always be Bloomsday- the day on which Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of James Joyce's Ulysses ate, drank and adventured around Dublin.

Libraries and literature lovers around the world celebrate Bloomsday by recreating or reading about events from Bloom's hyperactive day. If you can't make it to Dublin to reenact Bloom's peregrinations in person, The Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia has events scheduled today.

(and yes I said yes I will Yes.)

The more things change...

2009-06-16T05:07:00.000-07:00

This striking, WPA-inspired image was featured in the March 1933 issue of Publishers Weekly, at the height of the Great Depression. The NPR blog recently published this story about the issue, showing a remarkable resemblance in reader preferences, library use, and the publishing industry between then and today. Escapist romances, gripping adventure tales, and broad prescriptions for the economic health of the nation were as popular then as now, with library circulation reaching new heights in both periods.

Today's Baltimore Sun published yet another in a long line of stories about people turning to their libraries as a resource for employment resources- attendance at the Enoch Pratt Free Library's programs has doubled, along with the city's unemployment rate this year.

All things new this week

2009-06-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

Click on the links below to get lists of new items available from the DLC in various formats:

All New Items
New Audio Books
New Books
New DVDs

Weekend Book Reviews

2009-06-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

The Sunday New York Times Book Review showcased some very interesting- sounding titles this weekend:

A Short History of Women, by Kate Walbert- interconnected short stories about the experiences of a British suffragist and her descendants- including one set at Dover A.F.B.
Commencement, by J. Courtney Sullivan. The lives of a group of Smith College students in school and beyond- not quite as good as The Group, according to the reviewer, but "an affable first novel".
Three different reviews on books about the current financial crisis focusing mainly on J.P. Morgan and Bear Sterns. "Street Fighters" sounds particularly gritty.

Libraries in the (network) news

2009-06-12T08:59:00.000-07:00

I'm a fan of nifty news-tracking tools, especially ones that have a strong visual component. Snapstream.com is a service that aggregates all the transcripts of network TV shows and allows users to search for specific keywords or phrases, and graphs the results. The graph above shows how often the word "libraries" was mentioned on network news for the year to date.

Summer Library Reading Program

2009-06-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

Look out for this Public Service Announcement on local TV as Summer Library Reading Program (SLRP) events and activities take over Delaware's public libraries for the summer!

SLRP is more than just a tremendously fun summer program for kids- it also provides a vital link to continuing literacy development through the school break and avoiding "summer loss". You can read an article about the educational impact of programs that engage children with continued literacy development during the summer here (to summarize- children are at risk of losing a year and a half of reading development between Grades 1-6 if they don't read during the summer).

The Division of Libraries and Division of the Arts also organize a performance series to enhance and promote library SLRP programs. You can see the full performance schedule at the Delaware Center for the Book website or at the DelawareScene arts and culture events listing website.

The Collaborative Summer Library Program provides resources to library partners for SLRP programs- you can visit their website for more information.

What you're searching for this month

2009-06-11T08:25:00.000-07:00

Recipe for a best-seller: A young vampire decides to leave the seminary in order to fight in a Delaware regiment during the Civil War. He's injured, then falls in love with his nurse. And she's telepathic!

Get me that James Patterson on the phone!

Check us out on Twitter!

2009-06-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Delaware Division of Libraries tweets some of the interesting virtual reference questions it receives (they get far too many to post them all!).
http://twitter.com/askalibrarian

Other Delaware Libraries tweet news and events. Check them out!
http://twitter.com/MiltonLibrary

http://twitter.com/Selbyville_Lib

http://twitter.com/gtowndelibrary

Your Reviews- new feature

2009-06-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

We've blogged several times (here and here, for instance) about how Delaware Library patrons can write their own reviews and have their reviews display in the online catalog.

We recently implemented a categorization feature in Library Thing reviews- you can now check a box if you want your review to be featured in a specific category- At this point you can choose to select from “summer reading”, “teen books”, and “learning journeys” (the Division of Libraries Lifelong Learning project). This means that if you're involved in a library program, such as a book group, all of the reviews for that program can be displayed together on a web page.

Take a look at any of the review links to see what it looks like. You’ll have to view the full catalog record for a book, click on "see reviews/add a review" and select “review this yourself” to see the new options.

While you’re there, write a review or two…

There aren’t any obvious limits on the amounts of categories that can be installed, so if you are interested in having your book club or a program at your library enabled as a review category, let me know. The output to your website, blog, or facebook account is a snippet of HTML that is easily installed and is available from the review module.

Matt Denn's Summer Reading List

2009-06-08T14:46:00.000-07:00

Delaware's Lieutenant Governor blogged about summer reading today. You can read the original posting here.

Matt's post is a "list for grown-ups", featuring books that he has read recently and enjoyed:

So Brave Young and Handsome, and
Peace Like a River, Leif Enger
Thrillers by George Pelecanos
Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy

As he says, you can get them at your local public library! Enjoy your summer reading assignment!

New week-- new books

2009-06-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

This week's installment of one of our regular features: Click on the links below to get lists of new items available from the DLC in various formats:

All New Items
New Audio Books
New Books
New DVDs

They will not grow old....*

2009-06-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

President Obama spoke in commemoration of the 1944 D-Day landings this weekend:

There's much more about D-Day, one of the most significant military accomplishments in history at the U.S. Army's official historical page. The Encyclopedia Britannica has resources available (usually subscription, but free here) at this site.

D-Day has been a favorite topic for military historians, as well as a few daring fiction authors who have tackled the event. Notable books about D-Day include The Steel Wave, a new novel by Jeff Shaara (better known for his Civil War fiction) and Stephen Ambrose's D-Day, 6th June, 1944 which combines Ambrose's signature dependence on oral histories and first-person accounts with exhaustive and accurate historical research from U.S., English and German sources. Max Hasting's Overlord is an example of the sort of sweeping, battle focused narrative history written typically by English and European historians.

As astonishing as the sacrifice and accomplishments of the Allies on the Normandy beaches was, there were also many brave souls in Germany who faced impossible odds to fight the Nazi regime at home. A brand new book recently available from the Delaware Library Catalog was reviewed recently in the New York Times, Red Orchestra, recounts one particular opposition campaign. You can read the review as well as the first chapter online.

(* the first line of the 4th stanza of "for the fallen", Laurence Binyon's epitaph for the dead of the Great War, recited annually at London's Cenotaph during Remembrance Day services.

Blog Interview with Eliot Pattison

2009-06-04T06:10:00.000-07:00

I've written before about the tremendous Inspector Shan mystery series by Eliot Pattison. Set in Tibet, they are a combination of political thriller, procedural, anthropological/theological studies, and cries of outrage against the Chinese occupation of Tibet, its continuing persecution of political and religious dissent, and their attempts to extinguish traditional Buddhist culture in the region.

Recently I arranged by email and blog an interview with the Edgar-award winning author. Read the interview and check out the Inspector Shan novels- you won't be disappointed.

Q: Can you summarize about your background with China and the Tibetan struggle? How did you first become aware of the situation in Tibet?
Have you written non-fiction about the issue- and why did you decide on a fiction approach?

I have long been a globetrotter, in both my professional and personal lives. Fortunate enough to have been able to visit China at the early stages of its “opening,” I experienced much of the country from many different perspectives. Given my long-standing interest in Asian history and Buddhism, it wasn’t long before I started exploring surviving Tibetan Buddhist temples. From the first moment I entered the first of these temples and saw the heavy police presence I knew something was wrong. The more I saw the nervousness, even fear, in the eyes of the monks, the more I wanted to understand the experience of Tibet and Tibetans at the hands of the Chinese. It soon became clear that the Chinese have been systematically dismantling a very intellectual, virtuous, enlightened culture and I wanted to find a way to cast a spotlight on that wrenching destruction. While I speak about Tibet in various forums, I confine my writing on Tibet to my Shan novels. I have long believed that when done well, fiction can be far more compelling, even more truthful in its own way, than nonfiction.

Q: What kind of sources do you use for the historical and cultural details? Most people have only heard of the Uighur people because of the resistance fighters who are held in Guantanamo Bay- what are some of the best books or other resources you have used, or would recommend to people interested in learning more about the Tibetan exile, minority cultures in China, and other related topics?

My books are informed by my own eyewitness experiences, dialogue with Chinese and Tibetans all over the world, close monitoring of current events in Tibet, and decades of avid reading. There are many compelling first hand accounts of, sometimes by, the Tibetans and other minority peoples of central Asia, written both before and after the rise of modern China. I have a large collection of these books, many of which I delight in picking up and rediscovering years after my first read. There are dozens of books I could recommend to someone interested in starting a similar journey, some of which I mention in the Notes following each of my novels. Some of the best would be John Avedon’s In Exile from the Land of Snows, Peter Fleming’s Bayonets to Lhasa, Blake Kerr’s Sky Burial, Harry Wu’s Bitter Winds, Tsering Shakya’s The Dragon in the Land of the Snows, and Dundul Tsarong’s In the Service of his Country.

Q: I find the books hard-boiled in the sense that terrible things happen all the time- both in the situation as a whole, and to individuals in particular- the end of Water Touching Stone was a great example. Is the purpose of the dramatic arc theological or purely editorial?

As a mystery writer, I have certain obligations to keep my readers engaged with plot twists and turns, including “terrible things.” But I set off not just to write mysteries but to capture the realities of life in modern Tibet, which include many terrible events. I believe one of the greatest tragedies of the past century is the Chinese destruction of Tibet. That tragedy is still unfolding. Wrenching, inhuman actions are endured by Tibetans everyday, usually with great compassion and bravery. I work hard to show both these sides in my books.

Q: It seems absurd to expect that “justice be done” given the realities of the occupation, but that’s always been held to be the key to a satisfying mystery- how do you navigate the expectations inherent to the genre and still provide the dharma teaching that is present in these books?

All my books, not just the Shan mysteries, explore the meaning of justice, which is a stark question for people who have been abandoned by their governments. I don’t really seek to deliberately navigate between genre and theology, I just try to highlight the cultural and religious underpinnings of justice and let the reader decide from there. In the end justice finds it way despite, and even in defiance of, the institutions of justice imposed by the government.

Q: How long can the Inspector avoid permanent exile? He’s narrowly avoided it in the past- could he survive absence from Tibet either emotionally or professionally? It’s hard to see him sleuthing in an English vicarage or a U.S. Chinatown

Although I have had readers and editors suggest that Shan should emigrate to America, I expect he will stay close to his spiritual roots, and to his son, who is imprisoned in the Tibetan gulag. Tibet and the surrounding regions, of course, provide a rich tapestry of settings and themes, more than enough to keep Shan and, hopefully, readers, engaged

.

Q: Two or three years have elapsed between each book in the series? Can we expect another Inspector Shan book soon?

The sixth Shan book has just been released. Shan’s journey has not concluded.

If you have questions for the author, or want to comment on the books, post a comment below and I will pass it on and post Eliot's responses!

We also "collect" websites.

2009-06-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Books? Check. DVDs? Check. Newspapers? Check. Computer games? Check.

Everyone expects that libraries will of course collect all manner of physical media- it's how we began and still at the core of the practical expression of the library mission. Up until the last decade or so, almost the entirety of human-created and human-collected information was committed through some type of physically encoded and tangible object. These objects can be collected, categorized, cataloged and preserved for access in all the ways that library users are familiar with.

How many webpages are there? The total number is pushing or may have already exceeded 200 million, and may be doubling every year! There are no publication schedules for the web, and few clearing houses announcing new publications on the web- publishing news is ad-hoc, second-hand, and almost immediately outdated! What's a librarian to do!

Most library websites do publish a list of internet resources- usually ones that are very reliable, persistent links to reference resources of one kind or another- and there are a few librarian-managed websites that try to evaluate and categorize websites (here and here). One of the things we've done for the last year or so at the Division of Libraries is "collect" current and new websites through an online bookmarking service called Delicious.com. Librarians who have access to the DDL account can bookmark informative and useful websites while they are searching for information, and add them to a list accessible to all of the other librarians in the state, as well as users. Based on the index terms assigned by the recording librarian, these sites are then added to a continuously updated "librarians links of the day" list on the main Delaware Library Catalog portal site (it's "below the fold" a little bit, so you have to scroll down to see it!).

Most of these internet resources are keyed to current events or notable dates and anniversaries- they may not be here in ten years but they are useful right now- and the most recent topics for resources include the 40th anniversary of the Apollo Mission, various resources related to the Memorial Day commemorations, and the H1N1 flu virus.

June 1st New Items Link

2009-06-01T04:56:00.000-07:00

Olde England

2009-05-31T15:10:00.001-07:00

A posting on this blog from last week sent me on a curious reading jag, which is something, I think, that often happens with all readers! Something someone mentions on the news, a casual comment overheard in line at the bank, a gauzy recollection of some pleasant childhood moment- any of these and more can create the urge to discover and explore more, and what better place than the library: we're no slaves to fashion, and we are required to honor the written word for more than its current market value, so the wisdom of ages scratches at our doors at night, waiting for some patron to come along to release it.

In my case, a light-hearted quiz about "what kind of book are you" gave the answer Watership Down, which was, as I noted, a long-time favorite of mine. Checking the catalog for more work by Richard Adams pointed me to a biography that I was unaware of, which I quickly checked out- so far it has proved to be a fun read- a rambling, disjointed kaleidoscope of childhood memories from deepest rural England with no particular narrative direction or cohesion: much like childhood itself.

I don't know if this kind of biography is a particular genre in itself, but I read a bunch of 'em in high school with differing degrees of enthusiasm, and am planning to go back to look at some of those to see how I feel about them now- another great thing about books is that something you hate at 18 you can love at 40 (that's for you, Philip Larkin)- I always liked them to some extent for the strangeness and timelessness that is present in the best of them- the details of ancient customs still preserved and alive, the indifference to modernity or the shock at its arrival, and always, the sense of culture and landscape as indistinguishable.

Works about the rural life also typically deal with the British class system- since a great many of the books are written by or about the lives of the privileged, and are almost always haunted by the specter of the World Wars which created a domestic revolution in cultural attitudes, and decimated the privileged and underprivileged alike- in fact the classic model of rural aristocracy didn't long survive the First World War, and many of these books are a document of a lifestyle at its high point or in its final decline.

Anyway, here's a list of some of the best of these. Feel free to add your own:

Laurie Lee "Cider with Rosie"
Flora Thompson "Lark Rise to Candleford"
Robert Graves "Goodbye to all that"
the infinitely wonderful "My family and other animals" (although this is not set in England at all. And we don't have the book...)
L.P. Harley's "The Go-Between", although this is darker stuff
A.E. Housman's "A Shropshire Lad"

Beautiful marketing

2009-05-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

We get to see more and more of these recently- it's nice to see that publishers value readers sufficiently to make such an effort with their marketing ploys- this short video combines haunting and beautiful images from Kerala with approving words from Ann Packer and Junot Diaz to promote Tania James debut novel "Atlas of Unknowns".

Take a look:

Coming June 1st- Longer Loan Periods

2009-05-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

We've had a lengthy discussion over the last couple of months about extending the loan period for library material in the Delaware Library Catalog. Taking into account feedback from patrons, statistics on item renewals, and concerns over access to high-demand items, the Delaware Library Catalog is VERY pleased to announce that from June 1st there will be a number of changes to loan periods for various items.

From June 1st, most library materials will circulate for 3 weeks, instead of the current 2-week loan period.
Books and Audio books that are not on-hold for other patrons may be renewed for one additional 3-week period
VHS and DVDs may not be renewed
Shorter loan periods for certain high-demand items may apply- books and audio books with a substantial number of hold requests will be loaned for 2 weeks only, and VHS/DVDs will only check out for 1 week.

Hopefully this additional reading/listening/watching time will make your library use more relaxing, and you won't have to rush through a book or keep it overdue in order to finish it! For the most popular books and video, there won't be any change in terms- so you can still read James Patterson at a somewhat leisurely pace!

2009-05-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

They've been called "bonnet books" (although the term isn't popular amongst the genre's writers) and in the Delaware Library Catalog they've been a hot property for a long time- particularly in the Georgetown and Greenwood libraries, where they routinely top the lists of most-popular subjects and authors. The media have just started to catch up with the popularity of Amish-themed romance novels, as seen in this story and it's accompanying feature on "Nightline".

The ABC News piece focused on Cindy Woodsmall, author of the Sisters of the Quilt trilogy, but at least in Delaware, Wanda Brunstetter is more popular, along with Beverley Lewis. You can see a list of most of our Amish-themed fiction here.

Most of these works fall under the Romance category, but the central conflicts are often between the opposing cultural values and expectations of the Amish and "English" communities, with the protagonists often challenged with finding ways to follow their hearts while remaining true to their beliefs.

For those with an interest in learning more about non-fictional aspects of Amish and Mennonite culture and belief, Donald Kraybill and John Hostetler have each produced many authoritative but accessible books on these subjects- Kraybill's most recent book on the Nickel Mines School shooting of 2006 is particularly impressive, in its challenge to our mainstream notions about retribution and forgiveness.

Which Book are You?

2009-05-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

Straying a little here onto Facebook territory, but I liked the result for me: Watership Down was a favorite book of mine as a child, along with the incredibly thrilling and moving Plague Dogs.

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses...

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

This week's reviews- Holiday edition

2009-05-23T17:42:00.000-07:00

I wasn't planning to review any titles this week because of the holidays- presumably everyone has already selected their beach/campfire reading for the weekend and blog readership will be scant! However, I felt I should mention this one title since over the course of two days I have seen three separate and glowing reviews for it, from sources as different as Elle magazine and the New York Review of Books.

Clancy Martin's "How to Sell" is a coming of age novel of a kind, set in the mercenary and amoral world of the high-end jewelry business. The protagonist, an appealing con-man, drops out of school at age 16 to join the family business, seduce his older brother's girlfriend, and try to enrich himself without losing his soul. It's quite possible that the diamond industry, with its cruelty, superficiality, and greed may be serving in this novel as some kind of broader metaphor for American society. I'm just saying, maybe.

You can read more about the novel here (you'll need to enter your library card ID and PIN to access the NoveList database), and see other Delaware Library Catalog fiction and non-fiction books about the diamond trade here.

More ch..ch..ch...ch...changes

2009-05-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

If you have a long memory, you may remember this blog post from March of this year, in which it was proposed that the catalog configuration would be changed so once you log in, you will go directly to your account information, with a list of holds placed and available, books checked out, fines and fees, and other library messages. After almost uniformly positive feedback, this change will take effect in the next couple of days.

Stay tuned for an upcoming exciting announcement concerning checkout times and due dates....

Some links for your reading pleasure

2009-05-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Check out this fascinating story from today's Washington Post. At this week's Homeland Security Science and Technology Conference, sci-fi writer Greg Bear has been leading workshops and sessions bringing together science fiction writers such as Catherine Asaro with public safety and defense industry contractors to brainstorm technology development strategies. Science fiction writers have lived in the future ever since Jules Verne, and as the article suggests, the space race might have been radically different without the writings of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein.

Also, for the twitterers amongst you, here is a list of major U.S. publishers' twitter feeds. If you have a twitter account, you can follow these feeds for new book announcements, events and signing schedules, and juicy publisher gossip.

Andrew Sullivan asks his readers about libraries

2009-05-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

The Atlantic journalist Andrew Sullivan has been receiving feedback from his readers about the role of libraries in society, and published some of the most interesting ones here...

There's a lot of convergence between the comments of Sullivan's readership and the results of a recent nationwide library staff survey by the Colorado State Library's Library Research Service.

This week in History

2009-05-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

May 19th:

1935, T.E. Lawrence dies in England as the result of a motorcycle crash
1890, Birth of Ho Chi Minh
1925, Malcolm X born in Omaha, Nebraska.
1536, Execution of Ann Boleyn, 2nd wife of England's King Henry VIII

May 20th:

1927, Charles LIndbergh sets off on the first nonstop transatlantic flight.
1932, Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to do same
1969, U.S. forces seize Apbia Mountain- "Hamburger Hill"- in Vietnam
1992, NBC broadcasts the final episode of "Cheers"

May 21st:

1969, murders of Harvey Milk and Dan White in San Francisco
1956, successful test of the first airborne Hydrogen Bomb over Bikini Atoll
1921, birth of Andrei Sakharov, the Nobel peace prize winning Russian dissident
1999, Susan Lucci wins a daytime Emmy, finally. No link, because there aren't any books about Susan Lucci, sadly.

Dates courtesy of the excessively useful NYT "on this day" website.

Your new items for May 18th

2009-05-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

This week's installment of one of our regular features: Click on the links below to get lists of new items available from the DLC in various formats:

All New Items
New Audio Books
New Books
New DVDs

UPDATE: The new audio book listing now includes items in the very convenient Playaway format. If you aren't familiar, Playaway books are digitally recorded versions that are packaged onto a sturdy, solid-state playback device. All you need are headphones. Thanks to the blog reader who alerted me to the fact that they weren't listed with the other audio books!

While you're here, take a look at some of the other recent posts in the Delaware Library Catalog blog- this week we've added stories about books in the news, trials for electronic resources, and how-to's on downloadable e-audiobooks!

Reviews in the Delaware Library Catalog

2009-05-17T11:02:00.000-07:00

Another reminder about reviews- you can write reviews for books you have checked out from the Delaware Library Catalog by clicking the "see reviews/add a review" link in any full record. It's a two step process to set up a private account and submit reviews for publication- they'll appear in the catalog almost immediately, and you can also publish them to your personal blog or facebook account.
Delaware Library Catalog patrons have recently reviewed Water Touching Stone, Muse of Fire , the Monkey's Raincoat among other titles. You can read the reviews in full in the left-hand column of the page.

Sunday reviews

2009-05-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some selections from today's New York Times book reviews, with links to the Delaware Library Catalog record so you can check availability, place holds, etc.:
Today's reviews included a really strong review for Horse soldiers, by Doug Stanton. This is for readers who prefer red-blooded military history with a Chesty Puller, "Nuts!" flavor, although while this is a story about heroes, and far from being an analytical work, the book doesn't avoid talking about higher-level strategy and policy failure in the Afghanistan conflict. You can read the full review here.

Not being a nautical type, I did not know that there even was a difference between flotsam and jetsam! Flotsametrics, by Curtis Ebbesmeyer summarizes four decades of the author's research into understanding global ocean currents by tracing human garbage on the high seas.

America may have elected its first black President last year, but in 2005 an African glass ceiling was shattered with the election of Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf as president of Liberia, and as Africa's first female president. Her biography, This Child will be Great was recently published to no little acclaim. Liberia is a traditionally very patriarchal society, still recovering from a very recent and monstrously destructive civil and regional war. That Sirleaf survived is itself remarkable- she was a member of the LIberian government during two separate coups led by two different murderous lunatics- but to live through that experience and commit to rebuilding her shattered and still precarious society is awe-inspiring.

The 20th anniversary of the June 4th Tiananmen Square massacre will be observed in a couple of weeks, and while we won't be seeing "Prisoner of the State", former Chinese premiere Zhao Ziyang's account of the democracy protests in American for a while (they've not been translated yet), the discussion surrounding this book reminds me of the reason why freedom to read and to access information is vital to society- this book, by itself, may create a whole new understanding of a critical event in modern history and have a dramatic effect in China itself.

Who do you love? April catalog searches...

2009-05-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

So the lesson is: if James Patterson wrote a history book or two, he would be able to buy a number of small U.S. states from the proceeds...

Alternatively, here are some searches from our Delaware Technical and Community College patrons:

and here it is again without psychology!

New! Download audiobooks to your iPod

2009-05-15T08:58:00.001-07:00

You may be familiar with our downloadable e-audiobooks service- we subscribe to NetLibrary for access to hundreds of titles, mostly unabridged digital audio books.

You can see a brief demonstration of how to search for e-Audiobooks in the Delaware Library Catalog here, or view it below (click on the icon in the lower right of the screen for full-screen view):

To summarize: logged-in patrons can search the ebooks collection by checking the "search the E-content collection" box under the main search panel and then entering their search or browse terms as usual. Titles that are available for download are listed as [electronic resources] and when the full record is viewed, clicking the blue "eCheckout" link:

OCLC and NetLibrary recently announced their new Media Library, a downloadable interface which provides enhanced search capabilities along with options to download to iPod or other compatible devices.

Once you have searched in the catalog and clicked the echeckout link, you will be connected to NetLibrary, where you'll be asked to enter your NetLibrary account name and password (or create one if this is your first visit). You can then select either to download the selected title to your computer, where it will play using windows audio or another compatible service, or click this link

to download it to a portable device such as an iPod, iPhone or other compatible device.

The first time you do this you will be asked to download the NetLibrary Media Center to your computer. You can click here for a four-minute online demo on installation and use. You can skip the first minute or so, because this part of the presentation deals with connecting to NetLibrary from the web, rather than from the library catalog.

This week's new items

2009-05-12T04:53:00.000-07:00

Click on the links below to get lists of new items available from the DLC in various formats:

All New Items
New Audio Books
New Books
New DVDs

Sunday Books

2009-05-10T11:31:00.001-07:00

I was excited to see a big article on Amy Krouse Rosenthal in today's NYT Review! They must have seen my March posting about what a wonderful author she is! Read the article, but this is the thing to take away:

Her books radiate fun the way tulips radiate spring: they are elegant and spirit-lifting

Also in this weeks reviews:
Bad Mother, essays by Ayalet Waldman about motherhood and marriage.
Nobody Move! by Denis Johnson, a "pop-art crime noir" originally written as a serial for Playboy magazine
Vanished Smile, by R.A. Scotti, an investigation of the mysterious 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa

More H1N1 resources

2009-05-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

One of the leading national electronic resources providers, Thompson-Gale, just opened its subscription resources on the flu virus to the public through this handy search "widget":

UPDATE: The widget went away for now! It should be back soon.

Free Library Lunchtime Tour

2009-05-06T10:33:00.001-07:00

The Free Library opened its Rare Book Room for attendees at today's conference. They were particularly showcasing their collection of early (14-15th Century) music scores, but it was also a nice opportunity to meet Grip- Charles Dickens' pet raven, who watches over the collection.
(it's a cellphone shot, so apologies about the quality)

Photo tour of the New York Public Library

2009-05-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

I'm at a conference at the Free Library in Philadelphia today, which is itself and impressive building- and due to get more impressive with the planned renovations- but this article about the New York Public Library really gets illustrates some of the splendor and magic that many of these institutions possess.

New items from the Delaware Library Catalog

2009-05-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

You can click on the links below to get lists of new items available from the DLC in various formats:

All New Items
New Audio Books
New Books
New DVDs

Free Public Trial for Credo Reference.

2009-05-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

Until June 30th, Delaware library card holders have access to the truly marvelous Credo Reference database, which provides full-text searching of hundreds of reference texts published by MacMillan, Colombia University,
Cambridge University Press, Collins, and more. Topics available include all manner of general and specific biographical and topical dictionaries and encyclopedias, medical resources, wine guides, and pop culture.

To access the Credo Reference search platform, click here. If you are not in a public library, you may be asked to enter the following login and password:

Username: Delaware
Password: trial

Another great thing about this platform is the ability to cross-search in our other subscription databases- once you have completed a search in Credo, you can click to extend the search in Encyclopedia Brittanica,
EBSCO, and the Delaware Library Catalog to see other resources available online or in print.

Please check out this trial service, and let us know what you think about it in the comments section.

More poet laureates

2009-05-02T11:50:00.000-07:00

There was a fascinating article in today's New York Times about the announcement of a new British Poet Laureate.

Carol Anne Duffy will be the first woman ever to take the post held in the past by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Dryden, Wordsworth, Sir John Betjeman, Ted Hughes, and most recently, Andrew Motion, who used the position to found an organization pledged to bringing poetry into schools and back into popular culture.

Philip Larkin famously refused the job, and several poets who took the job have grumbled about the requirement that poems need to be written to commemorate trivial events and occasions in the Royal calendar.

The Delaware Library Catalog currently has two collections of Duffy's poems, Feminine Gospels, and I Wouldn't Thank You for a Valentine: Poems for Young Feminists.

The best part of the article for me was the revelation at the end of the article that the remuneration for the Poet Laureate position in about $7,000 a year for the ten year appointment, and "a butt of sack"- a traditional grant to the poet that now amounts to about 600 bottles of sherry.

H1N1 Influenza News and Resources

2009-05-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a substantial list of reliable and current resources for news and information about H1N1 (Swine) Flu:

Delaware's Division of Public Health is featuring current news, updates, and reliable resources on its home page.
The Centers for Disease Control has national data on the current situation, as well as professional and public guidance, proposed interim standards on school closings, treatment and prophylaxis, and other advice. Their H1N1 page is here
The World Health Organization's page on H1N1 influenza provides a global context.
The Medline+ page on H1N1/Swine Flu provides clinically accurate information and resources suitable for a non-specialist or popular audience.
For the duration of the emergency, EBSCO has made its DynaMed resources on H1N1, normally subscription-only for medical professionals, available to the public at no charge.
More clinical-quality information can found at the National Library of Medicine's H1N1 resources page.
You can see a map of global infections here, linked to national and local news stories, or here.
If you want to receive continuous updates via RSS, the WHO RSS feed is here.
Or you can follow H1N1 news via Twitter, here, or here. Or you can search on the #swineflu hashtag in Twitter for all related tweets.
The New York Times page on the topic is here

Stay well this weekend everyone! Wash your hands and stay home if you're feeling sick!

Did you know...

2009-05-01T12:15:00.001-07:00

That the U.S. has more than 80% of the world's "library cats"?

There's a comprehensive, searchable map of library cats here...

The "paws celebre" of the library cat world will always be Dewey, of course. You can read the biography or wait for the movie...

(the above posting should not be held to imply support or acceptance of any historical stereotype regarding relationships between librarians and felis catus domesticus, and is for informational purposes only...)

IMPACT Web Survey launches Monday May 4th

2009-04-29T10:57:00.000-07:00

The Delaware Division of Libraries, the New Castle County libraries, Wilmington Libraries, and Delaware Library Catalog are pleased to be participating in the ground-breaking research being carried out by the iSchool at the University of Washington and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation into the impact of public-access computing services in U.S. public libraries.

This study will attempt to quantify the individual and community outcomes of more than 10 years of large-scale access to computers and the internet within public libraries- the first attempt to do this on a systematic, outcomes-based, and national level.

What does this mean for you, the library user? For the duration of the survey period, you will be presented with the option to participate in a secure, anonymous, online survey. You can see an example of how the access to the survey will look here (if you want to make an early start, the link to the survey is already live.)

The survey, which should take between 10-15 minutes to complete, focuses on specific ways in which you may have used computing services offered by public libraries to access educational, vocational and other resources. The iSchool expects that its final report, due in August, will be a critical resource for library development and advocacy for the long term.

If you close the first pop-up link, you will be able to access the survey through a regular weblink at the head of the homepage. The box won't pop up again after you close it while you stay on the site!

You can read more (much, much more...) about the methodology and purpose of the IMPACT survey here. And thanks for participating.

Gov. Markell's address to the State Legislature

2009-04-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Governor Markell gave his first speech to a joint session of the Delaware Legislature today. It was a wide-ranging speech, covering the current budget crisis, his proposals for education and health care, and the need to create more efficient state and local government. At the State Library, we certainly took notice of this particular section:

Making state government smarter and more cost-effective is not enough. The state funds local governments in a variety of ways. We need to review whether Delaware taxpayers are getting the most for that money. To that end, we are launching a work group that will take a top-down look at savings across governments – the state, counties, cities and towns. Keeping those we serve foremost in mind, we will look at ways to share services like libraries, paramedics and procurement, as well as those provided by the county row offices, for potential consolidation and efficiency.

You can read the whole address here...

Item renewal shortcut

2009-04-28T07:22:00.000-07:00

You wanted it! You got it!
A number of patrons have asked for a simplified access to the item renewal screen, which formerly has been buried several clicks back in the online catalog. As of this morning, you can more quickly access the item renewal screen by clicking the new "renew items" link on the front page of the catalog.

After you click on the link you'll be asked for your library card number and PIN, and will then go directly to the renewal options.

Sunday Book Review Links

2009-04-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

A bunch of good stuff in this Sunday's NYT Book Review and Philadelphia Inquirer. Here's a sample.
You can check availability and place holds by clicking on the links below for the titles:

How it Ended, by Jay McInerny
Losing my Religion, by William Lobdell
Hunting Eichmann, by Neal Bascomb

Nancy!

2009-04-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

This year's Pulitzer award titles

2009-04-21T05:23:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Pulitzer Awards were announced yesterday with a number of very popular books given the honor:

Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
The Hemingses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Read
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, by Jon Meacham
Shadow of Sirius, by W.S. Merwin
Slavery by Another Name, Douglas Blackmon

Trial Databases- get 'em while they're hot!

2009-04-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

Thompson-Gale is a purveyor of fine subscription databases to academic and public libraries- you may be most aware of them through their Testing and Education Reference Center (TERC) which is accessible through the Delaware Library Catalog and the New Castle County Library Catalog. In honor of National Library Week (and beyond, in fact until May 15th), Gale is offering free access to a number of other databases, including its new Global Issues in Context site, Collectibles Database, Small Business Resource Center, and others. You can access these resources through a "Widget" on the DLC E-resources page.

Poet Laureates

2009-04-20T05:37:00.001-07:00

The Library of Congress recently announced the reappointment of Kay Ryan as U.S. Poet Laureate. You canRead the full announcement here...

Great news for Kay Ryan and for poetry in America- Ryan's work is accessible, uncomplicated but still beautifully evocative.
Collections of Ryan's poetry available from the Delaware Library Catalog include Niagara River: Poems and Say Uncle.

Delaware, of course, has its own Poet Laureate, JoAnn Balingit, and award-winning writer who works to popularize poetry throughout the First State. You can read her Pushcart Award- nominated poem here.

Work from many of the preceding U.S. Poet Laureates is also available through the Delaware Library Catalog:

Charles Simic, 2007-08

Donald Hall, 2006-07

Louise Gluck, 2003-04

Billy Collins, 2001-03

South Coastal Library Re-Opening

2009-04-16T09:35:00.000-07:00

The wait is almost over! The South Coastal Library is re-opening Monday, April 20 at 10:00am.

Be sure to check out the library and some books!

2009-04-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

The most recent issues of the business magazine Inc. featured a list of the 30 "must read" books for entrepreneurs and business owners.
For your first savvy business decision, check these books out from your local library- instead of buying them:

Art of the Start, Guy Kawasaki
Against the Gods, by Peter Bernstein
The Box, by Marc Levinson
Brand New, by Nancy Koehn
First, Break All the Rules, by Marcus Buckingham
Good to Great, by Jim Collins
Innovators Dilemma, by Clayton Christensen

All of the other titles on the list are available through the Delaware Library Catalog.

Spring break fun

2009-04-09T07:32:00.000-07:00

Having a number of day-trips planned for next week's Spring Break, I was interested to come across this exhibit info from the Natural History Museum in D.C.

My daughter is a long time afficionada of the ghoulish and macabre, always up for a trip to see the mummies at the U. of Penn. Anthropology Museum or the skulls at Philadelphia's Mutter Museum, so this the Written in Bone exhibit promises to be entertaining AND educational! The planned trip to Pottsville to see the Yeungling Brewery is more for Mom and Dad...

There's a great book that accompanies the Written in Bone exhibit, and there have been any number of books written about Otzi the iceman, if you are planning an Italian vacation.

Passover recommendations.

2009-04-08T15:34:00.000-07:00

Seder is celebrated tonight around this nation and the world. Even the President will be hosting one at the White House, for the first time in that building's history.

Here's a selection of titles relating to Jewish culture and history, all available from the Delaware Library Catalog:

Jewish Literacy, by Joseph Telushkin
Michael Chabon's Yiddish Policemen's Union(one of the best books I read last year)
The Story of Yiddish, by Neal Karlen
Born to Kvetch, by Michael Wex
American Judaism: a History, by Jonathan Sarna

(thanks to Harper Collins' Library Love Fest blog for some of these titles)

Onward!

2009-04-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

In another blow to buns and shushing, the "due date" stamp falls prey to technology in the D.C. metro area:

Read the article...

Beautiful libraries of the world

2009-04-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

This slideshow, from the online bookmark reference and collection site miragebookmark.ch, features some of the most spectacular and beautiful libraries and reading rooms in the world. You'll feel more well-informed just looking at the pictures.

Finding a library by text message

2009-04-02T06:03:00.000-07:00

We've been seeing a lot of mentions about this service recently- you can have a local library location sent to your phone by text message, anywhere in the country. All you need to do is text the word library along with the local ZIP code to 41411, and you will get a text in response with the address and phone number of the nearest public library.

And finally- the authors

2009-04-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

James Patterson and Stephenie Meyer still rule the fiction world- although the edge goes to Meyer, who has less than half a dozen books to Patterson's seeingly hundreds of titles.

You have to respect the James Patterson writing machine, however- and it is a machine, as this article from a 2002 Publishers Weekly shows. Even though a new Patterson could come out with every Sunday paper, they are tightly plotted, well written, and consumed hungrily by his fans young and old.

The subjects you're searching for

2009-04-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

The preceding visualization was for everything entered as a search term in the Delaware Library Catalog- this one specifies subject term searches only.

What you're searching for.

2009-04-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

This is a neat visual representation (using Wordle.net) of all of the search terms entered into the Delaware Library Catalog during the month of March.

Some selected 3rd Quarter Statistics

2009-04-01T09:45:00.001-07:00

This is an interesting data snapshot from the Delaware Library Catalog's administrators' blog:

Some selected 3rd Quarter Statistics

Libraries all across the country are doing more with less- against considerable odds, in some cases.

Hopefully as more and more people remember the services available at their libraries, and think about the money that they can save by getting entertainment and education for free, we'll continue to see these numbers climb!

An author for all ages

2009-03-31T15:50:00.001-07:00

One of the favorite authors at my house is Amy Krouse Rosenthal. She's predominantly an author of books for children, with a nice line in whimsy and enchantment- her latest book, "Duck! Rabbit!" is a literary take on an optical illusion. Her book for adults, "Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life" was one of my favorite books of the last 5 years, however- a sort of a "list" book, detailing the seemingly mundane details of daily existence and making them magical.

Making life magical seems to be Rosenthal's mission- her ongoing multimedia project, beckoning of lovely, is heartbreakingly naive, funny, and wonderful- you're guaranteed to leave the experience less cynical than when you came in.

A couple of weeks ago, Rosenthal sent out a message to fans offering to call and sing them a lullaby. My wife signed up, and indeed, at 9.30 p.m., Rosenthal called, chatted for a while, and sang. She didn't know my wife's favorite lullaby, "God Speed" by the Dixie Chicks, but I heard that the song she chose was lovely, and that she has a nice voice.

Ch..ch..ch..ch..changes (proposed)

2009-03-26T08:02:00.000-07:00

We do receive feedback from library patrons requesting that we look into ways in which accessing the library catalog could be made more direct, or if we can provide a direct login option from any of the library websites who connect to it.

While we continue to look at the technical feasibility of offering the various libraries in the Delaware Library Catalog a direct account login option from their homepages, we're also keen to promote the use of our "portal" page at lib.de.us. However, we do recognize the importance of the "three click rule" and clearly, we're breaking it in some cases (although it is an informal rule...)

To get to your list of checkouts and holds, for instance, requires the following navigation from the original library website

catalog link
catalog portal
search/check account
enter ID and PIN
My account
Review my account

I think that's five clicks, but I lost count...

We are currently testing a reconfiguration of the login process, and would like feedback from catalog users and library patrons. We can set up the system to provide a shortcut directly to the review my account info screen (which lists checkouts, holds, usage fees, and library messages) as soon as a patron enters their ID and PIN. You can see an example of how that would look here.
Let us know what you think. Does this configuration work better for you?

James Beard Foundation awards announced

2009-03-25T06:11:00.000-07:00

The 2009 James Beard Foundation awards for excellence in the food and beverage industry highlight chefs, restaurants, TV shows, and of course, books. Not too many 'celebrity chefs' here, although I ate at a Gordon Ramsay restaurant in London last year, and it was wonderful!

This year, the Foundation has selected a number of great books, including ethnic and regional cookbooks, books on wine, and the ethics of consumption. Here are some selected titles available from the Delaware Library Catalog:

Jewish Home Cooking, by Arthur Schwartz

Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, by Martha Hall Foose

Art and Soul of Baking, by Cindy Fuchet

WineWise, by Steven Kolpan

In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan

How much is your library worth to you?

2009-03-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

At this particular time of budgetary woe- both individual and institutional- it becomes more and more important to know that you're receiving value from the things you buy and the things you pay for.
Movie theater and video store visits, trips to the bookstore, mornings at the local cafe...other than giant buckets of soda, your local library can match most of what you'll receive from those outlays without any money leaving your pocket! One English library system even uses the line "Buy none -- get thirty free!" to promote library services. We can do better than that in the Delaware Library Catalog, where patrons can check out up to fifty items at once.
You can get some idea of the potential savings you either could make by making a move to your local library, or the savings you are already making, by taking a moment to use our new "library value calculator" (click here to open in a new window). Costs of various items you can find and use at your local library are based on local measures where possible, including movie and museum admission, average costs of books and magazines, and video rental fees.

Want a shortcut to the catalog?

2009-03-23T06:02:00.000-07:00

While I am the biggest fan of our library catalog portal page, which is full of helpful and entertaining content, I do understand how some people might want to skip over it and go straight to their own account to access the library resources.

To this end, it is possible for patrons to customize a URL that logs them in automatically to their library account- with the strong caveat that you should only do this on your home or private computer, and not share it with anyone, because it embeds your account number and password directly into the link.

To create the custom login URL, simply add the appropriate info to the xxxx fields in the following link, paste it into your browser and bookmark, or create a desktop shortcut. user_id is the barcode number from your library card and password is the four-character login that you use to access your account:

http://ilsapp.lib.de.us/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/x/0/57/49/?user_id=xxxxxxxxxx&password=xxxx

Sunday morning one more time

2009-03-22T11:31:00.001-07:00

Your weekly links to selected items from the New York Times book review section. And feel free to chime in with any recommendations or interesting titles you might have just seen.

American Rust, by Phillip Meyer
How we Decide, by Jonah Lehrer
Stealing MySpace, by Julia Angwin
My Bookie Wook, by Russell Brand

Have a great week! See you in the library soon.

State Government Information Online, and in your Inbox

2009-03-20T05:47:00.000-07:00

State government, like any large organization, produces a tremendous amount of information on a daily basis, much of which could be of interest to different individuals and interest groups within the state, if only they could find it!

While the state continues to move forward in finding ways to communicate with its citizens, State agencies have been using listserv technology for many years to distribute alerts and announcement by email, as well as provide forums for discussions of area of interest and concern. You can see a list of all state agency listserv forums at this link.

These lists are used by different agencies to distribute media releases, announce meetings or agendas of meetings, or gather feedback from interested parties on the issues that concern the agency.

DNREC has a the most lists by agency available, from beach quality advisory bulletins to mosquito spraying announcements.

There are a number of different alert services available from the
Delaware Information Subscription Service- not only school closing announcements, but also sex offender registry notifications, legislative and regulatory announcements that can be customized to your specific area of interest or concern, press releases from the Governor's Office, and the Delaware Public Archives' "This Day in Delaware History" daily bulletin.

The Subjects You Seach For in the Delaware Library Catalog

2009-03-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

The Authors You Seach For in the Catalog

2009-03-18T05:13:00.000-07:00

The Things we Blog About

2009-03-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

Downstate musings

2009-03-16T18:41:00.000-07:00

Over the last week, I've travelled far downstate to Delmar (twice), Selbyville, Laurel, and Bethany, visiting the public libraries and doing some training and presentations to library staff. Before working at the Division of Libraries, the sum total of my downstate travels in 15 years of living in Delaware was comprised of innumerable trips to Rehoboth and Lewes.
It's a nice time to travel in Southern Delaware- fields and trees are starting to sprout and bud and there's no pesky beach traffic. My favorite drive last week was the stretch between Delmar and Selbyville, cutting straight through the Great Cypress Swamp on Rt. 54. It may be that this local landscape hasn't changed much since the Federal Works Project Administration's writers' project wrote about it in 1938 in Delaware: A Guide to the First State. Its certainly a strangely beautiful and peaceful stretch of driving in between meetings. And not only did I see the largest herd of deer I have seen in years, running through a barely greening field in bright sunshine, I also drove past a parked fleet of watermelon buses, which I had read about last year in a News-Journal article, but had never seen before.

Tabbloid follow-up

2009-03-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

Just as a reminder, I have been using Tabbloid to push updates of the blogs I follow to my email in a digest format. This format has helped add real value to those notices for me. Here's how:

I can access the videos and podcasts directly.

The links are active so I can hop out and in at will maintaining some context for my leaps.

Graphics are included! I didn't realize how much more likely I am to choose a book if I can see the cover.

The downside? I now have way too many books at home waiting to be read. What a delightful problem.

Note: Colleagues on WebJunction just alerted me to another service called feedmyinbox that accomplishes the same task as Tabbloid...give one of them a try and let us know what you think.

Weekend Book Reviews and Open Thread

2009-03-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

In this week's return engagement, here are some of the top picks from the NYT Sunday Book Review. One novel and three significant non-fiction works make the cut this week, on topics including an account of the Kelo "eminent domain" case, the origins of 9-11, and the history and culture of ancient Rome. You can click the links to go directly to the Delaware Library Catalog record to read more about each title, check availability, or place a hold:

The Tourist by Olen Steinhauer
Fires of Vesuvius, by Mary Beard
The Great Gamble: The Soviet War in Afghanistan, by Gregory Feiffer
Little Pink House, Jeff Benedict

Libraries in hard times

2009-03-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

This story was in today's New York Times. The writer interviewed a number of patrons at a Long Island library, asking him why they were returning to libraries after long absences in some cases. Free movie rentals, internet access, reading new bestsellers were all identified as ways in which patrons were using libraries to save regular expenses during the recession.

2009-03-12T05:38:00.000-07:00

This was a recent posting on the NPR librarian blog that caught my eye:

Problem 1: Need to check in for tomorrow's flight in case it's oversold (let's just say, lessons learned)
Problem 2: Gracious host, like self, has gone paperless at home and chucked her inkjet
Solution: Is the library open on Sunday?

When we pulled into the parking lot it was about 70% full, and every reserve computer was taken. But our task was brief, so after getting a visitor ID from the helpful staff, we scored a short-term use computer that didn't require a reservation. Fifteen minutes and forty cents later, we were already debating where to eat next. Added bonus: we even made it into the "A" boarding group. Thanks, Austin!

Libraries open on Sunday in Kent and Sussex counties include Dover Public Library, Kent County Public Library, and Georgetown Public Library. Most of our libraries offer either a guest privilege for computer use or an internet use only library card for out-of-state users.

One of the things we do is make lists....

2009-03-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Making lists of books (or bibliographies, as we call them in library speak) is something that we like to do here in Delaware Library Land.
List topics vary from the straightforward New Book List (also available by email or RSS delivery) to highly specific, customized lists on topics such as Delaware history, financial literacy, and journal creation (in support of our Learning Journeys lifelong education initiative).
You can see a full list of lists in the "have you read" link in the library catalog. Got an idea for a list topic? Let us know, they're simple to create and very helpful.

Action Items from the 2008 Delaware Library Summit

2009-03-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

Representatives of the Delaware Library Community gathered in Dover last December to debate the way forward for Delaware libraries- panels of Delaware librarians and outside experts discussed library services in what had been identified by the Council on Libraries and Delaware Library Association as three key fields in which libraries could contribute to Delaware citizens. Out of these discussions, "action items" were developed and published recently to further the discussion and help guide the development and service strategies of libraries within the state:
Economic Development
Lifelong Learning
Health

Daily News at Your Library

2009-03-10T07:25:00.001-07:00

I saw this quote today on the Newspaper Association of America website:

As newspaper professionals gather in Las Vegas for the Newspaper Association of America’s first annual mediaXchange conference, new data from Nielsen Online indicates that average monthly unique audience figures for newspaper Web sites grew by more than 7.9 million in January to 74.8 million visitors, an increase of 11.9 percent over the same period a year ago. These figures, which comprise home and work Internet usage, are the highest for any month since NAA began tracking these numbers in 2004...(continued)

While there is something very pleasant about reading the newspaper in the "old-fashioned" way- especially if it involves coffee and a croissant at Brew HaHa on a Sunday morning- the Delaware Library Catalog does offer a number of alternative ways to get the news info you need: most libraries subscribe to print copies one or more of their local papers, and several regional and national titles, such as the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, and Washington Post, and with the subscription resources offered through the Delaware Division of Libraries, library patrons can read news from around the country and the world, by logging into their library accounts and selecting the link to the ProQuest Newspapers database. This service provides full-text, searchable content for hundreds of newspapers, going back to the early 1980s. Popular titles available in this database include the York and Lancaster PA dailies, the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, and a number of Maryland county newpapers.

NYT: comics hit the big time

2009-03-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

Kathy here: The New York Times just introduced Best Seller lists for graphic books! The article identifies 3 categories for the titles: hardcover, softcover and manga. Let me make a few observations:

Yes, you can still call books that use graphics to tell the story "comics."
How upside down are things when comics are available in hardcover...and in non-fiction?
Don't you wish you had come up with the Naruto storyline?

2009 Agatha Award Nominees

2009-03-09T16:29:00.000-07:00

This year's Agatha Awards were announced today. An unique thing about this award is that it honors "traditional mysteries", excluding any works that have explicit sex and violence, and typically features stories about amateur or private detectives rather than the procedural-type works.

Categories include novel, first novel, non-fiction, and young adult. Here is a selection of nominees from the Delaware Library Catalog:

The Diva Runs Out of Time, by Krista Davis
Pushing Up Daisies, by Rosemary Davis (also available as an unabridged e-audio book)
Death of Cozy Writer, G.M. Mallet
Paper Scissors Death, Joanna Campbell-Slan
The Cruelest Month, by Louise Penny
Buckingham Palace Gardens, by Anne Perry
I Shall Not Want, by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Sunday Book Review Links

2009-03-08T09:23:00.000-07:00

From the New York Times Book Review. (and Entertainment Weekly, OK?)

Entertainment Weekly titles:

Kindly Ones, by Jonathan Littell

Joker One, by Donovan Campbell

And from the New York Times

Vagrants, by Yiyun Li

A Jury of Her Peers, by Elaine Showalter

Passing Strange, by Martha Sandweiss

The Cradle, by Patrick Somerville

Consider this an open thread to let us know about books that you've seen or read recently that you'd like everyone to know more about.

Green Economy Reading List

2009-03-06T02:53:00.001-08:00

"Green" business and the emerging green economy is becoming a big deal in Delaware. New initiatives seem to be announced every day, not only in Delaware, but also nationally.

The Delaware Library Catalog is happy to support our own green initiatives and entrepreneurs with existing library resources and some recent additions. A new Green Economy Reading List is available in the catalog- click on the "Have You Read" link in the green menu bar and select the Green Economy link for a list of current books selected by library staff and state leadership on this topic. The catalog also offers access to EBSCO's GreenFile database to all Delaware residents. GreenFile provides a way to search hundreds of up-to-the-minute journals and publications concerned with sustainability and the environment, along with government reports and other data sources.

Some of the top picks from the full Green Economy booklist are listed below. Click to bring up the Delaware Library Catalog listing to read or write a review, check availability, or place a hold for delivery to your local library:

Ecological Intelligence by Daniel Goleman

Green to Gold, by Daniel Esty

Hot, Flat and Crowded, by Thomas Friedman

The Green Collar Economy, by Van Jones

Here a blog; there a blog; everywhere a blog, blog...

2009-03-05T10:48:00.000-08:00

The once-every-five-years-Spring-Snowstorm gave me the opportunity to truly focus my attention on our Delaware Library portal, catalog and this, the blog. What a rich environment!
Valuable advice, up-to-the-minute resources and a shared community committed to reading. Who could ask for more?

Well, I could. I do have other interests. And, frankly, the online presence of those interests generally duplicate the depth and breadth of the content above.

So, how are we to keep up with it all? Let me introduce you to Tabbloid. After Richard tossed this tool my way, my blog/wiki world instantly moved from "manageable" with my aggregator to "useable." The update layout resembles a newspaper and - hurray - displays graphics. I chose to receive the digest version each morning. Over the last month or so, my blog/wiki reading has now moved from "useable" to "valuable." How? Next time...

"Moore" Choices from the Delaware Library Catalog

2009-03-04T18:57:00.001-08:00

The long-awaiting movie adaptation of Alan Moore's incredibly influential graphic novel arrives in theaters this weekend. No doubt, in due course, we'll be offering the DVD to library patrons, but if you need "Moore" after watching the movie, look for these selections from the Delaware Library Catalog.
--UPDATE--
I watched the movie on Sunday night. Excellent! A lot of it is a frame-by-frame retread of the comic, so apart from a couple of startling diversions from the original plot (simplifying the conspiracy aspect of the story), it was very faithful to Moore's original.

Testing and Education Resources

2009-03-04T07:06:00.000-08:00

The Testing and Education Reference Center (TERC) recently introduced a more user friendly and easy to navigate interface, with greatly enhanced search features. What hasn't changed about this product is that it is still the premiere online source for academic and vocational testing preparation materials- from ASVAB to MCAT- and is a great place to go for college application advice and job search resources. To see the new TERC, log in to the Delaware Library Catalog with your library card number and PIN, and click on the Testing & Education Reference Center link in the green e-resources bar.

Snow Day for DLC Patrons

2009-03-03T08:20:00.001-08:00

In view of the terrible weather of the past couple of days, road conditions and other considerations, the Delaware Public Library catalog directors have asked the systems administrators to work their magic and make everything that would have been due back to the libraries yesterday and today be due back tomorrow, when hopefully roads will be clear and libraries reopened.

This Week's NYT Book Review titles in the Delaware Library Catalog

2009-03-01T08:13:00.001-08:00

Click on these links to check availability, place, holds, read reviews from Novelist and LibraryThing or check out similar titles available from the catalog:

Flannery: a Life of Flannery O'Connor, by Brad Gooch

The House of Wittgenstein, by Alexander Waugh

Every Man Dies Alone, by Hans Fallada

The Lost City of Z, by David Grann

The Book of Night Women, by Marlon James

The Housekeeper and the Professor, by Yoko Ogawa

And remember, if you read the NYT book review online, downloading the DLC LibX browser add-on for FireFox adds catalog links directly to web pages. Click here to find out more about LibX.

Weekend Open Thread!

2009-02-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

Use the comments to let us know what great new books and movies you hear about or see this weekend, or talk about books you are reading.
I just finished Drood, the new book by Dan Simmons. He's an outstanding author who can write in all kinds of different genres- from his science fiction series Hyperion and Ilium to historical thrillers like this newest book, which is a psychological thriller featuring Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins is protagonists locked in a conflict with a perhaps imaginary foe, the sinister mesmerist Edwin Drood. Simmons does a tremendous job bringing the reeking slums of Victorian London to life. I highly recommend Simmons' previous novel, The Terror, another historical novel combining the story of the doomed Franklin expedition to seek the North-West Passage with terrifying supernatural elements. It was one of the best books I've read in years.

Your Reviews Now Available

2009-02-26T17:41:00.001-08:00

Delaware Library Catalog user can now write and publish reviews within the catalog. The LibraryThing For Libraries review module was recently added as an option for catalog users, allowing them to read user-generated reviews and add their own! Click here for more instructions, view an animated tutorial here, or go to the catalog and look for the "read reviews/add a review" link in the full records.