Unexpected visitors

With the library situated right by the big marsh, it isn't a surprise to see a fair amount of wildlife. Over the years, there have been ducks paddling in the marsh water, lots of red-wing blackbirds, the occasional hawk, and a family of chipmunks. A few years back, we had a muskrat spending enough time on the lawn we named him Monty and made him the mascot for Summer Reading.

But this past month has been a banner period for sightings. It started with an infestation of voles. They were all around the building and a few decided to try out being indoors. The knitters got a bit of a surprise. Then it was a cluster of bunnies outside the back of the children's room. They came by everyday nibbling away at something in the lawn. The children's room staff was enchanted. The next thing was a really, really large hawk (I'm convinced it was some sort of eagle - black and white feathers mixed throughout), first sited standing on the lawn with one of the voles in claw. And this bird has been back a number of times, no doubt realizing the easy pickings being offered this year. And then to top it all off, a deer was spotted hanging out in the parking lot before calmly heading behind the library towards the woods.

I bring these sightings up because they are quite unusual here. I moved from a relatively urban setting in PA about 10 years ago, and expected to see wildlife all the time. Roadkill by the ton. Why? Because back in PA we saw a lot - deer, turkey, raccoons, possums - squirrels were a rare thing to see, oddly. Right in town with little natural cover available. On the local roads, enough that we were used to driving with an eye out for deer crossing suddenly. So I thought moving to an area with a lot of woods, marshes, etc. we would be seeing so much more. Much to my disappointment, I have seen very little. Mostly skunks around my place - something you don't want to come across suddenly at night!

So these sightings this past month are something to treasure, to wonder at, to share with others. A momentary peek at others sharing our space, but often hidden. You may guess where I am going with this - this is the real value of a library, full of books and films that offer a similar momentary peek at others sharing our space that we often don't see. But that sighting is a moment of excitement, of wonder, of community, of understanding.

Retirement

As we face another retirement here at the Kelley Library, it reminds us how bittersweet retirements are. Of course we are happy for the individual who, after putting in a lifetime of dedication and hard work, now has an opportunity to spread their wings and indulge in activities that are pure enjoyment. It may mean a chance to try some new endeavor, something the person has wanted to do but not had the time. It might mean being able to embrace more fully a favorite hobby. It might be an opportunity to travel and spend time with family. It may just be a chance to sit and relax.

Everyone I have seen who has retired comes back a few months later looking years younger, happy, and without a second thought about the job they left behind. It is easy to be envious!

But for those of us left behind, it is often a different story, missing the daily opportunity to socialize with the retiree. It means changes, sometimes lots of changes as new staff is welcomed, new tasks are taken on, and expertise and experience once relied on is gone. Change is always uncomfortable, making us look inward and be self-evaluating. But like death and taxes, change is inevitable, and we must deal with it - hopefully with the joy of a new retiree!

You are invited to stop by on June 29th between 2 and 4 to wish Audrey well on her new adventure.

Public Libraries are treasures for a variety of reasons, and one of the most important is access to information. It is a rare instance that what you need or are looking for, can't be found in some way. Sure, the book might be out, or only available at another library, or the information is only accessible online, but it's here.

More importantly is that the information is either available in a neutral way, or there are books and information from all sides of an issue - to ensure a balance. In that way, if you are devoutly religious, we have books written that embrace that viewpoint. If you aren't, but interested in the topic, we have books written in a more secular manner. This is true across the board. That is the very basis of librarianship.

There are times that someone may feel that the balance is off to one side or the other, but people evaluate the world around through a lens that is shaded by personal outlook. It may not be a book to book balance, but a variety of points of view are carefully included.

In a broader sense, libraries should be open to anyone and everyone in the public. It is a public space. At the same time, it isn't a space for free-for-all behavior. Everyone needs to be mindful of others around them, and ensure that they do their part to welcome and not offend. Staff here works hard to make sure that services is equal to all under the policies in place. The Trustees work hard to make sure that the policies are fair with expectations that services and usage is similar no matter who you are.

A public library is a microcosm of our country, founded as it was as a refuge, and developed as a melting pot for people from around the world. The library is open to all that really want to make use of what it has to offer, and welcomes an amazing mix of people. We all have a part in making the library a positive experience for everyone.

Competition?

As an avid reader, I am always in the market for something to read. At restaurants, I read everything possible left on the table - menus, ads, whatever. I read packaging when desperate. I have books partially read in every room, vehicle, device, and handbag/tote I use. So libraries are great for me - and unending supply of fresh 'something to read', great except when I am not going to get through it in a timely manner. Remember, I have partially ready books everywhere. Sometimes for some months if I rarely use that item. So I reread old favorites from my collection, used books I score here and there. But I will come clean, I do buy books as well.

That may seem shocking coming from a librarian, but you know, there are books you want to read, once, and then there are books you want to reread. There are books you want to breeze through, and then there are books that you might want to take time over. So books in my life fall into two categories: Library and My Books.

Library: mysteries, paperback romance, occasion 'good' books, cookbooks, knitting books, once and one titles. Also, revisiting old series by favorite authors that I don't have the room to collect.
My Books: Absolute favorites (mostly hand-me-downs from my equally book oriented mother), a few really hard to find mystery series (love, love, love Dell Shannon - the singer as well, but this is the author), and a ton of non-fiction. I buy nonfiction a lot - and they generally function as a reference resource on topics of interest to me.

So when I heard about that browser extension (Library Extension) that works with Amazon (check our April newsletter) I was delighted in this symbiotic relationship. You're interested in a book - and the extension shows up on the Amazon page telling you if the library has it, complete with a Borrow button! Can it be much easier? Now all you have to do is decide if it is in your Library reading or in your My Books reading. One stop, buy it or reserve it. Drop the mike, dust your hands, Elvis has left the building.

Lost but not always forgotten

I hope you had a chance to read the article in Sunday's Globe (Metro Section) about the most frequently lost books at Boston Public Library. As a librarian who has worked in the field - well sometimes it feels like since Dewey introduced his decimal system - I am only too familiar with libraries and lost books/movies/music.

Most loss is due to folks just never returning the item. Why don't they? There are so many possible reasons - people move suddenly, the individual sadly passes away and whoever is emptying the house isn't particularly mindful, the item was damaged or lost while the person had it. In prior jobs, there have been house fires, floods, people who left it behind when on vacation in Europe, left it on the train/subway/plane. And then, life gets in the way and the situation never gets resolved, or the person is too embarrassed to admit to the loss. We are all too human.

Sometimes, folks don't return the item because they think they will owe fabulous amounts of money in overdues. There is a Jerry Seinfeld episode (this is just one clip of many you can find on Youtube from this episode) on that - very funny, but no doubt detrimental to libraries everywhere. Because the reality is is that there is always a stopping point for fines - either a set fee ($5.00 or $10.00) or the cost of the book. Libraries in general are not trying to be punitive - they just want the item back for others to enjoy.

My favorite interaction with someone that 'lost' an item was a young girl who came up to me and told me she didn't plan to return the video she had out - she liked it too much. And sometimes that is exactly the reason - the person just like the book, movie, whatever so much they keep it - in spite of there being so many options for purchasing even a used copy.

We don't see much of this kind of loss here in Salem. Folks in general bring the item back or pay for the loss willingly. It's a nice thing about Salem.

So I am sure you are wondering what are our most frequently lost books here in Salem. I have to say that in general, the loss is scattered throughout our collection. As the person who decides about replacing lost items, there aren't any contenders that leap to mind. I see more replacement due to damage (I've talked about that previously) or wear. And since reading the Globe article (and you can find the article here at the library), the books that come to mind are the Big Nate books by Lincoln Pierce and the Wimpy Kid books by Jeff Kinney. I have replaced a lot of worn out copies of books in both series. But its a good thing - we like to see books read to pieces because so many people love them. That's what libraries are here to support.

What's the next one?

We work hard as librarians to make the library user friendly for our community, keeping personal preferences on the back burner. So I was particularly thrilled when one of our staff came to me a while back to tell me about another library that was adding the series number on the book to make it easy to find the right title. I realized my days of looking at the list in the beginning of the book, trying to decide if the list was ordered new to old or old to new were finally over. We added the plan to our ongoing list and we have been working the past few months to make it happen. Check out our newsletter for details.

Creating series is a hot thing in the book world, whether it is a mystery/thriller, science fiction/fantasy, or romance. It keeps readers coming back for more. At the same time, it creates quite a challenge for librarians as we so often miss the first in a series just because it is a new author with little buzz. We have to play catch up as so many of our readers are determined to read series in order, no if, ands or buts!

And if that isn't enough, publishers are now cross-pollinating series - main characters from 2 of an authors series meet in a very special book. We then face the challenge of which series to include it in.

But the most challenging for us and for readers is when the publisher and/or author decides to renumber the series. A recent example is the popular Magic Tree House series. There is a subseries that originally was part of the original numbered series that they have now decided to separate and renumber. But what if someone asks for number X of the original series, that now has some totally different number? Do we keep the old number? Embrace the new and find some way to easily refer back to the old number. Reminds me of when highways renumber exits: Exit 299 (formerly Exit 13). How do we make sure we make this all simple and seamless for the user.

Well, we opt for simplicity and consistency. Cross-pollinating series? We put the title into the more established "popular" series. Renumbering? We move to the new numbering, renumber the old, and have a nice reference chart on hand. With some luck we have achieved an easy path to follow for our readers.

Serendipity

Serendipity - there is a word you don't hear very often anymore. It's a lovely sounding word, and it tends to describe a positive sort of event. I'm not sure why words fall out of use. I'll have to look into that further.

But right now I wanted to share a particularly serendipitous experience we had at the library. As you may know, we have been working on the bathrooms in the Children's Room and in the process, needed to change the toilet drains from a wall mount to a floor mount (I know TMI). That required some significant repiping - and here was our serendipitous moment. In the process of reconfiguration, the plumbers discovered a small leak. Yes there was some less that appealing clean-up work to be done, but I believe this was a serendipitous moment of the first order. The thought of what might have been the result if the leak went on undetected . . .

So in the process of making some much needed upgrades in the bathrooms, we were able to prevent a truly awful, if not offal, disaster!

So that all has slowed down the finishing touches in the bathrooms, but they should be ready by the end of next week. I will be interested to hear what you think of the changes.