Water and books

We are all familiar with the old adage - oil and water don't mix. As a librarian, I would like to add books and water shouldn't mix. As proof, I took a picture of one we just got back recently:

I am the lucky staff person that does some of the repairs on our books, as well as evaluating whether we need to replace a damaged copy. Staff knows to stack the books on the corner of my desk, and quite honestly I devote about half an hour each day to the task. What has become startlingly clear is that 90% of the damage is water damage.

Armloads of books with stiff crinkled paper are finding their way to the discard shelves. There are so many we are taking to marveling how in the midst of a serious drought, we are seeing more and more water damage! Someone suggested that books are in bags with water bottles, leaks happen and damage happens.

Whatever the reason, I do encourage everyone to be more mindful of the risks of water around books. Modern paper seems much more easily damaged by water, so being more vigilant is helpful.

Of course, at least water is better than mysterious brownish stains we find in books - chocolate? coffee? something worse? We really don't want to know. And don't get me on when the pages are sticky . . .

Talismans

I know I have talked too frequently of my mother - but she had such an endless array of quirks, that she could provide fodder for blog topics for years!

As we are working here to honor our military service people past and present later this year, I am thinking about the power of talismans. There are lots of references to them in ancient epic literature, mythology, and so on. They often play a pivotal part in thrillers of a more mystic bent. And we all probably have treasured at least one during out life - rabbits feet anyone??

But my mother went a step further and imbued jewelry, in particular, with powers to control how a day would go. I can remember a bracelet my dad gave her that she treasured for the rare gift, but never wore because she was sure it caused bad luck. And as much as I fought against the concept, I too realize I have good luck and bad luck earrings. I think I can speak for a number of women that will say that certain outfits or articles of clothing are worn or avoided because of their good or bad luck.

Why do we do this? I certainly am no expert, but I would guess that by externalizing the good or bad luck we protect ourselves from responsibility for bad times, and the risk of hubris or the sin of pride in good times. It isn't you, it is that necklace, those shoes and aren't I lucky/unlucky to have it.

If you are ready to take on that responsibility, there are books to help you along. Try The Luck Factor, by Richard Wiseman, for instance. But if I were you, I would keep that rabbits foot just in case . . .

A Good Turn of Phrase

I grew up with a mom who was a big reader and a amateur actress. One of her 'things' was to quote books, poems, and plays at appropriate times, and a few have stuck with me for all these years. For instance, every time there was a thick fog while vacationing on the shore in Maine, she would pull out this ancient megaphone and call out "Ahoy the Pequod". We kids would die of embarrassment, but it never grew old for her. Her favorite joke had a punchline based on Keats' poem "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer". Trust me, you don't really want to hear the joke, but the punchline is the last line of the poem. If you really are interested, drop by my office, and I will share.

But like so many things, I seem to have inherited that tendency to use quotes in every day life, but somewhat changed from her tasteful sharing of the classics. I tend towards quotes from songs and popular culture, and can generally punctuate most interactions with a line (I am careful to do so in my head only). Just today, when preparing the monthly newsletter, I was reminded of a recent situation that just begged for a sharing of the classic Bert and I quote: You can't get there from here. (We were big Bert and I fans, as a family)

We like to imagine that we are clever enough to produce witty and entertaining conversation without a script, but sometimes using a well placed quote can immeasurably enrich an interaction. Not only does it immediately create a shared experience, it adds layers to the conversation - sure, saying "You can't get there from here" is a fitting comment, but if all involved are aware of the source, the story that the quote is from becomes part of the current experience making it funnier, more poignant, or more memorable.

Lucky that a library is just the place to come across a perfect quote - whether in books, movies, or music. And as much as I am dying to, I refuse to work in a quote from The Terminator here.

My husband and I run through Trivial Pursuit cards during dinner, both to have fresh topics of conversation and to keep our minds sharp (I won't comment on the success of that). I remember years ago, when Trivial Pursuit first came out, a friend and I played as a team against my parents. We were creamed. So many of the questions drew total blanks from my friend and I, and we couldn't even use the excuse of being young - we had both graduated from college by then. I can remember thinking that the questions were so skewed to a different generation, that my parents had an unfair advantage.

But as we run through the questions now (we do all the questions on each card), I am finding them pretty easy. Where and how did I come to have the answers for questions I was so sure were generational specific? It's not like I read a great deal of non-fiction, or for that matter, fiction based in historical times. I certainly don't watch movies and documentaries that would illuminate information from that era. So why am I able to answer the same questions now with relative ease?

I think part of the reason is being open and aware. I read a book some time ago talking about how if you think of something, you suddenly find it everywhere - has that happened to you? The book suggested thinking of a random object and promised you would see it within a week. I thought of a purple rocking chair, and within 2 days, I passed a truck with one painted on the side. Had I subconsciously seen that truck before and just didn't notice, or was I just more alert to seeing things? Anyway, as a result of that experience, I try to be open to paying attention to the world around me. Not in the 'I watch the news' kind of way, but more seeing what is going past as I travel, randomly browsing the internet following links within links, visiting webpages that gather random information from around the world.

It is always interesting what you find out by accident. But as was made clear in that series Connections, everything is interrelated somehow, its just a matter of staying open and following the threads. Rubbing elbows daily with books helps, of course - and as always, the Library is a great place to start.

A Path Less Traveled

I am borrowing a little something from Robert Frost. When I moved here, I was amazed at how strongly woven into the fabric of New Hampshire he is. But that is a topic for another day.

I was watching a TV show the other day and the characters were on an impromptu trip to the ocean. One character commented that he had not met someone in a long time that didn't have GPS in his car (the show was from the era not so long ago before smart phones). The driver said that the map they were using was a fine GPS for their purposes. I totally agreed with this - having at least 10 map books in my car at any given time. Don't get me wrong, I am a inveterate Waze user most of the time, but travel is totally different using Waze rather than a map. I've mentioned before, that I like to just travel around places I have never seen, thus the maps. But the magic of a map over a GPS is you can and do take the path less traveled, and as a result see some wonderful things you would have missed following the direct routes offered by GPS systems. For a while, I was accused of having a homing instinct for dirt roads (dirt roads in NH look just like any road on NH maps). Yes, we found a lot of the dirt roads in NH, but we also found beautiful nooks of NH we would have missed staying to the main roads.

I feel the same way about using our online PAC (public access catalog). It gets me right to what I want, just like a good GPS. But at the same time, nothing can beat just browsing through the stacks, happening upon a hidden gem to read. Finding something that sparks your interest when you didn't even know it would interest you, coming across that old favorite to revisit, or that title you meant to read and forgot when other titles came along.

Embracing change . . . or not

I had occasion to reflect on what the Kelley Library is today as compared to 10 years ago, and it is a different place (well, hopefully we kept what was good about the library!). I have an unending devotion to change, and I like it everywhere and anywhere. At the same time, I have come across a lot of people who would rather have nothing change ever. For many years, I have wondered what causes these extreme differences.

I think I came across some possible explanations. I grew up in a family where changes happened regularly, but not so often or terrible types that would disrupt our lives. My mom moved the furniture around regularly. The result was a constant freshening of our home while retaining the familiar. I learned from this and changed the furniture in my own room around often, loving the feeling of being in a new place. We moved a couple of times, but stayed in the same community, again achieving change without it being too difficult. I changed elementary schools every couple of years due to the community redistricting the schools to keep a balance of students. I met new friends, but enough familiar faces that again, it wasn't too terrible. I have kept the same patterns throughout my life - changing homes, jobs, and moving around furniture. I embrace change because of it being a familiar part of my life that has only been positive.

But people more reluctant to embrace change have grown up living in the same house for extended periods of their lives, went to one school with the same classmates, have worked in the same place for a long time, and live in homes where moving furniture around is impossible due to the size and shape of the room. Simply lack of positive experience with change, makes change scary.

So our changes at the library can either please the change-embracers, or offer positive opportunities to discover that change is a great addition to life. After all, part of our mission is to support life-long growth!

Thinking outside of the US

About 15 years ago, I started watching foreign films. I really can't remember why I tried one, but I was immediately hooked. I'm a bit of a purist, meaning that I can't want dubbed films, only subtitled ones. I just have to hear the original actor's voice, inflections, and emotions.

But that's just a side matter. It's the foreign-ness of the film, or TV show, that is key. I just like seeing how people live in other countries. In reality we all face the same issues - family, love, survival - so it is endlessly fascinating how these common events and relationships are handled. How people live, what their homes look like, what their traditions are, what they eat, how they eat.

Libraries are the basis for life-long learning, of expanding out minds, of learning about the world around us so that we can understand everything better. Foreign films are an important element of this as they bring the world around us into our own homes vividly. We realize how alike we really are, while embracing the rich variety that exists in the world.

Give one a try - we have a nice variety at the library.