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MORE LIBRARY NEWSLIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 04/16/2008 National Library Week It’s National Library Week this week, April 13-19. This is the 50th year that the American Library Association has sponsored this national observance. When the idea was first conceived in the 1950s, research showed that folks were spending less money on books and more and more on televisions and radios. The National Book Committee was formed in 1954. Their goals included “encouraging people to read in their increasing leisure time”, “improving incomes and health”, and “developing strong and happy family life.” Today, I would suspect that Americans, even those of us who read lots and lots, still spend more on television than on books. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that my own cable bill is much larger than my personal book allowance. Then, again, I do have access to a terrific public library. And so do you. We needn’t devote too many of our hard-earned dollars when almost anything we would like to read is available through our library. Did you know that the Humboldt Public Library offers inter-library loan? With a few strokes of the keyboard, we have access to almost every public, school, and academic library in Iowa. Most often if your book is available in the state, we can have it in your hands within a week. Occasionally we can even find a book that isn’t available in Iowa. We once requested a book published in the 1880s. A cooperative small college library in Connecticut was happy to oblige. I’m still dwelling on that line from the National Book Committee: “our increasing leisure time.” I suppose I do have more spare time than my great grandmothers….all that bread baking and rug beating of yore. Somehow, that time has filled itself up with jobs, committees, planning sessions, errands and chores. Those grandmothers didn’t need to run to the bank or have the oil changed. They rarely visited a doctor or dentist. They for sure didn’t have to schedule a yearly mammogram. Progress has filled our lives with lots and lots of things to do. Sometimes it is important to stop to consider just which of these daily tasks is essential and which are simply time-fillers. It is important to take time to explore the world, expand your vocabulary, ease your mind and feed your soul. Come, Join the circle of knowledge @your library. LIBRARY NEWS
by Nikki 04/09/2008 National Library Week and Humboldt Families Read! Next week, April 13-19, is National Library Week. It’s the week libraries pat themselves on the back and tell you all about what a good job we do. I’ll let you know about that next week, but there are a few details you might need to know about in advance. First, Jean Holste usually has some exciting events in the children’s library to celebrate the week. You may want to check in with her to see what she has planned. The second is a program I’m going to call Humboldt Families Read!. Iowa City has a big program every year that encourages children all over town to read the same book. They vary the age level of the book from year to year. An Iowa City bank sponsors this event with a jaw-dropping budget. I don’t remember the amount it costs, but I remember thinking it would buy a small house in Humboldt. Every year. They give away tee shirts, books and fly in children’s authors for the week. Needless to say, our event will be on a much smaller scale. Jean Holste and I have chosen to read Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. It is the story of a young girl growing up in “The Dirty Thirties” of the dust bowl. A terrible accident changes her life forever. It is written at the 5th or 6th grade level, but younger children could appreciate it being read to them. It is a wonderful, short read for adults. Young people (and even some of we not-so-youngsters) who were born after the dust bowl will learn a little more about the era. Folks who lived through that time will have a chance to remember the good times and the bad. We have 30 copies of the book. I hope you will rush right in and pick one up. On Monday, May 5 we will meet at the library for brownies and book discussion. It would be wonderful to have a big crowd-children, parents and patrons of all ages talking about this moving book. Please join us for Humboldt Families Read! LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 04/02/2008 Wild Librarians - Biography or Memoir? Three of us from the library just spent four days with 9,000 other librarians from all over the country, plus a few from Canada. We attended the bi-annual conference of the Public Library Association in Minneapolis. I have been fortunate to receive scholarships to attend other conferences, but this was the first time it was held close enough to home that it would fit into our library budget. Librarians are generally tame people. There were lots and lots of sensible shoes, some cardigan sweaters and a few of those eye glasses-on-a-neck chain. But, there were also several heads of hair in colors mother nature never dreamed of; most notable was one un-named Iowa librarian of retirement age who is multi-tattooed and purple-haired this year. She varies it from time to time. Altogether we were rather well-behaved. I’m sure the convention center security force wasn’t over-stressed. It may not be the most wild and crazy profession, but we are all passionate about our work and eager to share our successes with one another. There were sessions for children’s librarians, sessions for management, sessions concerning technology and lots of programs to enhance the various services libraries provide. One of the most useful sessions I attended concerned memoirs. Our library staff has been discussing the difference between memoirs and biographies for years now. (I know how thrilling that must sound to you, but that’s what librarians think about in their spare time.) I finally have a definitive understanding of the difference between them. A biography is the history of a person’s life. It is based on fact and most often starts with childhood. A memoir is based on the memories of the author. It is not always completely factual. It is his or her interpretation of facts. Beginning with the 1966 publication of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, a new genre of writing has become increasingly more popular. It is known as narrative non-fiction …a true story told in a fashion that makes it read like a novel. Memoirs have moved along in the same direction. Earlier memoirs were told in a chatty, self centered way. Today a successful memoir reads like any good story with a beginning, middle and an end. There is a little suspense thrown in along the way. Some little something that keeps us reading to find out how this will all turn out. Two of the best memoirs I’ve read in the last decade are James McBride’s The Color of Water and Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle. I’m currently reading another very good one. It is Sleeping Arrangements by Laura Shaine Cunningham. Although this little girl had a rather unconventional childhood with an absent, unknown father and a mother who died very young, Laura tells her story in a delightful, engaging way. I’ll finish it in another day or two and it will be available at the library to charm you, too. LIBRARY NEWS
by Nikki 03/26/2008 Dance, Dance, Revolution Sometimes a person just doesn’t know what she is getting into. In the autumn of 2004 I saw a little story on tv about Dance, Dance, Revolution. It’s an interactive video game. We researched it online and found out what was required to make it work. I toyed with the idea of buying the whole set-up for my living room. Thought I could wiggle and bop my way into physical fitness. After thinking about it for awhile, I realized that I would have to put my book down to dance & after all, I’m a sedentary person. I like to spend my evenings reading, not dancing. I gave up on owning my own personal dance equipment, but as I began to read more and more articles about teens that lost weight and toned up with this game, I couldn’t get it out of mind. Even though we didn’t know of a single library anywhere that had tried it, we bought a PlayStation 2 video console and the Dance, Dance, Revolution game. Library life as we knew it changed forever. We thought we would start off quietly with little fanfare. Soon Marilyn Dodgen wrote an article for newspaper and the Mason City CBS station did a story on the nightly news. The Ellen DeGeneres show was doing an interesting segment at the time. A person could invite Ellen to come visit-go bowling, celebrate a birthday, etc. We invited her twice to join us for Dance, Dance, Revolution, but she didn’t RSVP. We muddled along without Ellen, picking up fans along the way. After a year or two a new game called Guitar Hero came along. We added that, too. Most recently we purchased Rock Band. It’s the noisiest one of all. It involves a drummer, guitarist and a singer. Kids line up on Wednesday afternoons for a turn. Surprisingly enough, check out of teen materials keeps moving up, too. Now we have reached the point where we have nearly 1000 kids participating in our various games every year. Most of our regular adult library users have learned that if they want a turn at a public computer, avoid after school hours. Most know that for peace and quiet, come into the library at 10am or anytime Saturday. Don’t come from 3:30 to 5:30 weekdays. Just the other day, a young woman was taking a proctored college test in the library about 4pm. A librarian tried to quiet an exuberant group of teens with “keep it down, she needs some peace and quiet to take her test.” The teens answered back “why in the world would she come to the library if she wants peace and quiet!” LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 03/19/2008 The Works of Joe Murray, Women's Night Out and More Great Dates! All through the month of March the art work of Joe Murray will be on display at the library. Joe is from Jefferson, Iowa. He calls his work as representational impressionism. I don’t have an artistic vocabulary sufficient to describe how he paints. You will have to come in and see for yourself. It’s worth the trip. April 17 will be the fifth annual Women’s Night Out in Humboldt. The library jointly sponsors the evening along with the Humboldt County Extension, Humboldt County Memorial Hospital and Humboldt Newspapers. Registration information is available at the library now and a mailing will also be sent shortly. This year there will be three breakout sessions. Sessions are: 1. Let’s Write with women from the Humboldt writing group reading from their writings and telling us how to get inspired and get started writing for ourselves. 2. Healthy Meals in a Hurry with Paulelda Gilbert providing time-saving ideas. 3. Financial Health and Safety Nancy Leemkuil with some basic financial health and safety tips. 4. Taking an Active Role in Your Health: Sue Malloy will provide tools for each of us to develop our own medical record and to maintain wellness at every age. Just a few more “save the date” type things to mention. On March 24, 6pm at Family Table a community informational meeting will be held to plan and discuss the upcoming drama presentation by the Humboldt Area Arts Council. The Arts Council will present “The Odd Couple” at the high school auditorium on June 13 & 14 in conjunction with the summer art festival. Mike Terwilliger is directing. If, like me, you tremble at the thought of being onstage, come anyway. It takes many more volunteers than actors to put on a production. We need all the help we can get. If you DO like to act, auditions will be held on April 1st and 3rd in the library’s Springvale Room. One last date to mark on your spring calendar: The Arts Council’s Splash of Art will be held May 7th at Rustix from 5-7pm. It’s a fun evening. Plan on it! 
by Nikki 02/27/2008 March ART Madness and Humboldt Reads! Another library event that week is our Humboldt Reads! dinner and book discussion meeting at Vinny’s on March 6 at 5:30. The book we will discuss is Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea. Greg accidentally discovered an impoverished area in Pakistan. He has built 55 schools there especially for girls. It took a great deal of sacrifice on his part to raise the money for the schools and to travel back and forth. He has a very understanding wife. Please come join us for dinner. If you haven’t read the book, you will be welcome anyway. We will be choosing our next book. If you have any suggestions, come and share them! I’m reading James Patterson’s Double Cross. Of course, it is one of his books about psychologist/profiler Alex Cross. Those are always my favorite from this prolific author. He also writes the Women’s Murder Club series, upon which a tv series is based. I read another of Patterson’s recent books last week. It is one he wrote with a co-author. Very edge-of-your seat, can’t-put-it-down mystery, and a very quick read. It has such an embarrassing title; I was reluctant to take it into a restaurant for lunch. Fortunately, the Caribbean wasn’t too crowded that day. I occasionally run into the minister from my church at lunchtime. Lucky for me, he must have eaten elsewhere! by Nikki 02/13/2008 The Winter Blues Is everyone as absolutely sick of winter as I am? I’m not certain what is different about this one. Is it colder, snowier, gloomier? Working with the public everyday, librarians rue the cloudy, gray days year-round. Get two of those in a row and people’s patience gets short and tempers even shorter. How do those poor folk in the northwest handle all those dreary days? Whoever is in charge of such things, threw a few non-essential holidays into February just to keep our spirits up. First, Ground Hog Day. I can never remember whether to cheer for the shadow or the clouds. Whatever the outcome, it’s still February the next day. Still cold. Then comes Valentine’s Day. It’s always a mood boosting holiday. What’s not to like about candy and roses? Before we can leap into March, we have Presidents Day. It’s a special treat – no presents to wrap, and lots of people get a day off! Some times the library has been open on Presidents Day. We spend all day answering the phone to tell people, that, yes, we are open. So, most years recently we have closed for a staff training day. The phone will still ring all day, but we won’t answer it. We will be learning CPR and First Aid this year, and doing some library chores in the afternoon. Come see us on Tuesday, February 19. Please smile. Remember it’s still February and I’m still cranky. After finishing Pillars of the Earth, that huge tome, I feel like a kid let out of school for summer vacation. I can read whatever I want, not just what the teacher tells me to. I’ve read several short books. Currently I’m in the middle of The Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller. I’m enjoying it, but none of her subsequent works has lived up to her first book, The Good Mother, published in 1986. The Good Mother is not to be confused with Stewart O’Nan’s The Good Wife. That’s the 2005 book about a woman’s struggle during the 28 year incarceration of her husband. It’s very good in an entirely different way. A month or two ago I heard a discussion about Carson McCullers on National Public Radio. It made me want to re-read her 1940 novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. I checked it out and it now will join the towering pile on my bedside table. There is a James Patterson book I missed awhile back, a new Sue Grafton and Three Cups of Tea, the book for our next Humboldt Reads! program. We won’t meet until March 6, (at Vinny’s) for our book discussion, so you still have plenty of time to read it. by Nikki 02/06/2008 Big Books and Good Reads Sixty of you had read this copy before I did, and it shows. The spine is a little loose; many pages are stained with unrecognizable foodstuffs and grimy fingerprints. Usually I eschew (Isn’t that a wonderful word?) such well worn books. This time I enjoyed the fact that it was so well used that it lay open flat while I ate lunch and dribbled more food stains onto its pages. Dropping great globs of guacamole is my usual mealtime offense. Teen librarian, Demi Johnson has been trying to push this book off on me for years. It is a real favorite of hers. Demi and I have several choice authors in common, but each of us has several that the other wouldn’t touch. Sometimes when she is especially enthusiastic about a book, I will ask her if she thinks I would like it, too. She often responds that it would require me to step a little too far out of my comfort zone. She is usually right. I finally decided that once each year I would give one of her huge, great big books a try. Last year I read The Power of One by Bryce Courtney. It is the tale of a lonely English boy growing up in South Africa during World War II. It has almost 600 pages, and was a large undertaking; nevertheless I did enjoy it. So, this year when Oprah recommended Pillars of the Earth, I decided I ought to read it. It takes place in 12th century England. It involves the building of a Gothic cathedral. The cathedral-building part is only the framework for a book about man (and woman) and all his (her) flaws and virtues. There are stories of greed, lust, great dreams and unbelievable violence between the covers of this book. The front and back covers are very far apart, but between is very worthwhile reading. Since it has become very popular again, we have purchased a couple of clean, new copies. Take your pick. Now, I will read all those delicious books I bypassed in January. I’m going to read John Grisham’s The Appeal. I’m going to read The Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller. I’m starting with the autobiography Here if You Need Me by Kate Braestrup. When Kate’s Maine state trooper husband was killed, she decided to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a minister. She found a job as chaplain to search and rescue teams in the Maine woods. I’m looking forward to some 21st century life for a change. In the middle of Pillars of the Earth, I took a small break to read Capital Conspiracy by William Bernhardt. I always enjoy his books. He is an Oklahoman like I am. I like reading about roads I’ve traveled and places I’ve seen. If you are ready for a “can’t-go-to-sleep-until-I finish” book, I’d recommend this one. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 01/30/2008 Budgets, Programs and Little Bodies Last Thursday I presented the proposed library budget for fiscal year 2009 to the city council. This was the sixth time I’ve faced them to ask for money to run the library for another year. I told them that they weren’t nearly as frightening as they seemed in 2003. They must be mellowing. As always, they were very receptive and gracious. They asked questions. They cared about offering quality library services to our community. That isn’t true for all cities. Some libraries, especially in smaller towns, fight the city council tooth and nail for enough money to operate a less than adequate library. If you use, or just appreciate, library services, thank a city councilman, the mayor or the staff at city hall. Let someone know that you value your library. Library patrons in Humboldt check out over 86,000 items each year. That works out to 18.7 books per citizen. Our library usage rate is better than in Eagle Grove, Forest City or Algona. Our rate is more than twice that of Fort Dodge or Des Moines. That says to me that our community uses and appreciates its library. We keep changing and improving services whenever we can to meet the changing needs of Humboldt. Jean Holste in the children’s library visits various daycare centers around town to take the books and library programs to the children who can’t come into the library during the week. She offers programs at various times throughout the year for toddlers and babies with a caregiver. Just recently she has begun offering Saturday morning programs for children in preschool through first grade. Preschool children must be accompanied by a parent or caregiver. In these programs there are stories, songs and a craft project. If you are interested in any of these programs, give Jean a call at 332-1925 to find out more about them. Once again I need to ask parents to reconsider leaving children in the library for long periods of time after school. One day last week there were 32 little bodies in the children’s library just whiling away the hours awaiting a parent to pick them up after work. That is way too many bored kids in such a small space. There were another dozen or so involved in a children’s program. We do appreciate that children use the library. That’s what we are here for. However, acting as care givers isn’t what the city pays us to do. The children become quickly bored. Minor spats ensue. If your child should leave the library, we won’t notify you; we won’t even know. Please, for your child’s well-being, make other arrangements for after-school child care. As hard as Kathy works at it, icy spots keep reappearing on our steps. When you come into the library, please use caution. The east steps can be especially slick. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 01/23/2008 The Playaway Self-Playing Digital Audio Book A few years ago one of my older relatives bought a new car. The car radio was a little more high-tech than she was accustomed to and she couldn’t make it work. She told everyone it was broken. Someone finally tried it anyway and discovered grandma’s face-saving deception. When the last full service gas station in her town closed, this same relative would stand near the self-serve pumps looking forlorn until someone took pity upon her. One day when no one did, she learned to pump her own gasoline. Remember that grin your babies gave you when they took their first steps? The I’m so proud of myself look? That was this grandma. I don’t want to become that relative. I want to keep up with the learning curve. I want to be like my Aunt Mae. She has the whole family organized into one email list. She regularly sends us birth and death info, wedding announcements, plans for family get-togethers and archival photos. She knows that if she wants to keep in touch with the younger generations she needs to do it on our terms. My, how I love to consider myself part of a younger generation! Thanks, Mae! Not only do I not want personally to become an old fogy, I don’t want our library a step behind the times, either. It’s vital for job security, if for no other reason, to be able to keep us up-to-date. Thus, now I’m faced with another library technology decision. In my six years at this library we have offered audio books in three different formats. We have a few audio books on cassette still left. We have many on cd and most recently have added downloadable audio books through our webpage. Each has an advantage or two over the others. Progress marches on. Another type of audio book has been around for a couple of years. The company is called Playaway. They describe their gismo as “the self-playing digital audio book.” It is about the size of a deck of cards. It contains just one book so you don’t have to load it or fill it. It runs on one AAA battery and is listened to through earphones. They have come down enough in price that I am considering adding them to our collection. The library would check it out to you and furnish the battery. You would need to supply your own ear-buds, or we could sell you a pair for around a dollar. The instructions are fairly easy to follow. I think anyone could do it, even without a grandchild to help. If this nifty little device is one that you would try, please, let me know. 332-1925, director@humboldtpubliclibrary.com or stick you head in my office door and tell me you would like to give Playaway a try. If I hear from a few of you, I will order some. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 01/16/2008 Family, Food and Books I had the pleasure of spending Christmas in Raleigh, North Carolina with my son Matt and his girlfriend Andrea. Because I am so proud of my children, I boast about them all the time. This time, I promise, there is a book connection to my bragging. Matt is a newspaper reporter in Raleigh. He writes features stories for the Raleigh News Observer. Those are the human interest stories that make a person glad she still subscribes to the daily paper. Andrea is the newspaper’s food editor. She used to cover the federal courthouse. Boy, am I glad she switched jobs - every meal was a feast. One day Matt smoked ribs in his backyard smoker. He put a canopy over the smoker as it was a little drizzly that day. The ribs were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. In addition to the customary Christmas fare, we dined on macaroni and cheese made from singer Patti LaBelle’s recipe. Oprah is said to have remarked that this mac & cheese is so good it makes her cry. The blend of five cheeses made me a little teary-eyed, too. The recipe can be found at: http://www.oprah.com/foodhome/food/recipes/food_20020726_overrainbow.jhtml. Not only did I come home with warm, fuzzy holiday memories, and a couple of extra pounds, I had Andrea’s list of the best books for cooks for 2007. I ordered several for the library and they are now arriving on our shelves. New England Soup Factory Cookbook has over 100 soup recipes. Some of them, Syrian Chickpea Soup with Lemon and Tahini, for example, may seem a little exotic for our Midwestern palates, but most of them sound so yummy that I can almost smell them cooking. The Food Snob’s Dictionary will keep us up to date on all the latest terminology. I learned that geoduck is clam not fowl; that Maytag Blue Cheese is, indeed, produced in Iowa and that a bain-Marie is just a regular, old double boiler. If you want to impress someone with your cooking vocabulary, this is the book for you. The Art of Simple Food is a cookbook for the rest of us. In addition to the recipes, there are a couple of pages of simple instructions on simple methods….how to grill, how to soak and cook dried beans, how to make a cake. It would make a suitable gift for someone learning to cook. A Love Affair with Southern Cooking and Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More , and Roast Chicken and Other Stories also look chock-full of delicious things to cook on a cold, winter’s day. Who doesn’t love sticky buns? They would go wonderfully well with Andrea’s hot chocolate made with cream and melted peppermint patties. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 01/02/2008 Good Books and Our Bestsellers Club I remember sitting in elementary school trying to figure out how old I would be when the year 2000 rolled around. That number that seemed so huge to a second grader seems a rather youthful age now that 2008 has arrived. I read once that life is just like a roll of toilet tissue—the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes. That has me worried. Now that the fun part of winter is over and spring seems just a glimmer in the distant future, we could use something to cheer us up. Just in time to save us from the winter doldrums comes the winter reading program at the library. The rules are so very simple. Just pick up a special bookmark at the library. Record the library books that you read. When you’ve read five books, turn in your bookmark for entry into a huge drawing for a wonderful grand prize. We don’t know what the prize will be. I’m sure it will once again be something very special. Last year we gave away a trip to the Caribbean. The coffee house, that is. You may enter each time you have read five books. The contest runs from January 2 until February 15. Come on in to see us! It is a good winter for reading. Many of our favorite authors have new books coming out in the next few months. Surprisingly, John Grisham’s The Appeal will be released in late January. It hasn’t been that long since his book Playing for Pizza was published. The Appeal begins with a courtroom verdict. Grisham describes this book as an exploration into whether or not judges’ decisions can be bought. It sounds like a vintage Grisham thriller of old. I’ll bet we won’t be disappointed. Sara Paretsky has a new one…Bleeding Kansas. Apparently this isn’t one in the V.I. Warshawski series, but a stand alone novel. It is the story of two families in the Kaw River valley who have been warring since the mid 1800s. Other new books by favorite authors are Duma Key by Stephen King, Last Call by James Grippando, Light of the Moon by Luanne Rice, The Purrfect Murder by Rita Mae Brown and Beverly Hills Dead by Stuart Woods. Now, don’t come in tomorrow expecting to find these books waiting for you on the shelf. Most of them won’t even be released by the publisher until the last week of January. Allow a few more days for shipping and then at least a few more for Demi to get them cataloged and our trusty volunteer Ruth Endorf to put on the shiny new book covers. Ruth has been volunteering at the library for several years. She plays a big role in our being able to get the new books into your hands as rapidly as possible. Thanks, Ruth! If you are a member of our Best Sellers Club you will automatically be put on the waiting list for all your favorite authors. If you haven’t signed up yet, come in and ask us about it. We have all the newest and best books you will find at any bookstore, and at a better price, too. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 12/26/2007 New Year's Resolutions Most of us make New Year’s Resolutions of some sort. Some make definitive, specific ones: “I resolve to lose 50 pounds.” The rest of us (who perhaps, know we won’t manage to stick to those) make more general ones: “This year I will try to be a little more organized.” The vague type of resolution is the sort I make. That way, I never absolutely fail to keep it. After all, I did clean out that one drawer in February. If you are spending this week watching football, never mind. But, if you are pondering your resolutions for 2008 while you take down the tree and clean up the holiday clutter, listen up! Whatever your resolution, the library has information to help you keep it. Sarah Susanka’s the not so big life: making room for what really matters (that’s not a typo-the author chose not to capitalize the title.) is about simplifying life. It is about how to remove what clutters up our living. One reviewer says the “This book is a blueprint for sanity and clarity, joy and peace.” I know about a dozen political candidates who could use a little clarity about now. The Easy Home Organizer: 15-minute step-by-step solutions by Vicki Payne sounds more my speed. Every project is broken down into increments that can be accomplished in a short period of time. Even if you don’t actually apply what you read, the book is fun to look at. The containers that she used to organize the home are a designer’s dream. Beautiful sterling silver trays for mail, keys and sunglasses by the door, antique chests of drawers for china storage and graceful baskets for almost everything else. We have several new books by Dave Ramsey. They are bestsellers all over the country. So far Humboldt hasn’t shown much interest. The cover of The Total Money Makeover states “Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people have become debt-free.” If better financial planning is on your to-do list, come check these out. We have a couple of new books published by the Better Business Bureau. Buying a Home covers how to get the best price, how to apply for a mortgage and when the best times of the year are for a home purchase. Buying a Franchise helps you find the right franchise, how to make money at it and what to watch out for in the franchise agreements. For those of you who are still determined to lose weight and/or get in shape, we have those books, also. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 12/19/2007 Big Events and Programs As I write this it is Saturday, December 15. The downstairs children’s library is all abustle with kids waiting, not so patiently, to sit on Santa’s lap. Or, so I expected. When I went down to see how things were going. Santa, in all his jolly fur finery, was sitting alone and forlorn. He was trying to keep his spirits up, but all the little ones were hiding behind mom or grandma’s knee, afraid to approach Santa. One precious small girl did allow grandma to remove her pink coat to show me her special Christmas dress. But that was it. She had nothing to do with Santa. As I slipped back upstairs to attend to my duties, a mom with a flock of elementary aged girls entered. They were eager. I’m sure it made Santa’s day! Another big event of this past week was the opening of the exhibit of art by some of our Humboldt High School students. I missed the grand opening after another painful trip to yet another dentist. But, I understand the crowd was remarkable. The library was teeming with people. That’s just the way we like it. You have entrusted us with your tax money to provide the library that Humboldt wants and deserves. When the building is busy and full of people, we know that we are doing the job. If you haven’t been in to see the art, stop by. All of it, from the pottery to the self portraits is amazing. A talented group of young people. Our next Humboldt Reads! program has been scheduled. We have chosen Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin .Co-author Greg Mortenson wandered into a remote Pakistani village after failing in his attempt to climb K2 Mountain. The people of the village were so kind that Mortenson promised to return to build a school. Over the next ten years he built fifty-five schools in the area of the world that is the birthplace of the Taliban. This is the first time that I hadn’t already ready a book we chose for Humboldt Reads! I’m looking forward to enjoying it along with everyone else. The dinner and book discussion will be held March 6, 2008 at Vinny’s at 5:30. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 12/12/2007 Snow Days As you probably have noticed, we have had some most inconvenient weather lately. Perhaps I’m getting older (surely not!) but winters seem more and more bothersome every year. I have little patience for snow and ice. One house-bound weekend per season is enough. However much I whine, Mother Nature marches to her own drummer. City employees do a valiant job keeping the library sidewalks in the best possible shape. Todd Lee deserves a medal for the time and effort he has put in on our sidewalks recently. Despite all his work, there are still icy spots. Our north door is still iced closed. The forecast doesn’t look promising. When the library remains open in bad weather it sends a message to the community that sidewalk and weather conditions are amenable for a library visit. So, sometimes we close early. Mind you, not because we all want to go home to snuggle in with hot chocolate and a good book, but to keep the rest of you safe. When the sidewalks are too dangerous for safe trespass, we don’t want you to be out trying to make your way in. If weather conditions seem iffy, give us a call … 332-1925 before you venture out. When school is dismissed early, the library fills up quickly with noisy little short people. This leads me to think that parents must say “if school lets out early, meet me at the library.” While we are delighted to act as a rendezvous point, the library is no substitute for daycare. We don’t have sufficient staff to keep tabs on individual children. If one should leave the library we might not notice. Library policy states that “children in elementary prep class through grade three may remain in the library unattended for no more than one half hour.” That means that mom or dad better make fast tracks to the library. Even older children may become disruptive when cooped up in a small indoor space with lots of other restless kids and a few increasingly cranky librarians. After sitting all day in school, children need to expend some energy. They need a snack. They need to unwind. The library may not be the best place for them. If necessary, I have made arrangements with a local sign painter for one of those signs that one sees at amusement parks. You know the ones. They have a yardstick and a message that one must be of certain height to enter. My sign will read “persons shorter than five feet tall may not enter the building until they have completed three laps around the block and consumed not less than one glass of milk and two peanut butter cookies.” LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 11/28/2007 Changing Times for the Dewey Decimal System Rest in peace Melvil Dewey, the times they are a changin’. You may not know him, but he ranks right up with Einstein and Edison to librarians. Dewey developed the ubiquitous library classification system known as the Dewey Decimal System. It is that row of numbers on the spine of library books. Each number represents something special. The numbers to the left of the decimal point represent a broad category. 636 = pets. The numbers right of the decimal define that category further. 636.7= dogs. The farther right one moves, the more specific the information. 636.737= Collies. There are huge volumes devoted to explaining this system to librarians. Despite several college classes devoted to the subject, most librarians only remember the basics. The rest we look up. It’s sort of the way we all depend on calculators these days. It’s not that I CAN’T divide 28,943 by 647, but why should I have to? Over the years (about hundred of them) since the Dewey Decimal System was introduced, librarians have tried to build a better mousetrap. The problem with Dewey is that it doesn’t think like real people do. Real people who use the library. Would you expect that right following the pet books come 640-books on organizing your home? Then 641 is for cookbooks. Leave it to retailers to figure it out. They always put the carrots close to the lettuce and strollers near the playpens. A group known as the Book Industry Study Group came up with a plan. It is based on the way people think about their lives. Their “Body, Mind & Spirit” category includes books on angels, astrology, feng shui & UFOs. They would all be together under the BISAC system instead of in about 30 different places with Dewey. Most of the big book stores use some variation of this theme. A few months ago a library system in Maricopa County, Arizona adopted it for a new branch library. It’s all the buzz in the library world. Throwing out Dewey was akin to flag burning to librarians. A recent magazine ran an update on how well the system is working. According to librarians, the patrons haven’t made much of an issue of it. They seem to find what they are looking for and leave happy. Well, I can’t stand it if some other library, large or small, has something bigger and better to offer its patrons. We are just as important as anyone else and we deserve the same ease of library service that those Maricopans enjoy. I’ve started off by labeling books with cute little stickers. I had lots of fun designing the labels. So far, we have Antiques and Collectibles, Business, and Pets. We’ve added signs to the shelves to steer you in the right directions. So far, we’re leaving them in Dewey’s order. Some traditions are hard to part with. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 11/14/2007 What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas Remember the tv commercial “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”? Since it first aired, or at least since I first noticed that it aired, I’ve heard that phrase used countless times. It has become synonymous with “what they don’t know won’t hurt them.” In a library conference recently the moderator used it to mean that library patrons don’t need to know WHY librarians do library things. Patrons just need to know how to use the library. I’ve wanted to use those words myself. When my just-turned-18-last-week daughter tells me long, involved tales about her friends, for instance. Most of the time I feel that I am receiving too much information-what happens between high school girlfriends probably should stay between them. Most definitely mothers don’t need details unless life or limb is at risk. I thought of that phrase last night during our evening writers’ workshop. We all agreed at the outset that what we hear in the group is private information, not to be shared. But really, most of the stories the group members have written are too good not to be shared. I’ll have to ask at the next meeting, is it ok just to share the topic of someone else’s story? I wouldn’t of course, if it were very personal. Last night the emphasis was on short non-fiction pieces. I started to write one, but I could tell it wasn’t going well. It truly wasn’t very readable. I wanted to write about my mother’s life. It is eminently more interesting than my own. She was born in a dugout in Oklahoma on the land her folks had homesteaded. She attended college back in the 1930s when most school teachers hadn’t. But, I tried to write too much. What I learned last night is that I should have taken just one little snippet, one scene of her life and made a whole story out of it. A story with a beginning, a middle and an end. My mother died before my children were born. It seems important that they know her. I tell them little stories as I think of them, but I am certain that there are many I forget. When all four of my kids lived at home, I would occasionally find that I had forgotten to tell one or more of them something important. After I had repeated myself a time or two I would think that I had made the rounds. I’m sure it is the same way with family stories. I’ve probably told one or two kids the same story five times, but neglected to tell the others at all. That is a very good reason for committing them to the written page, or to a computer file. In the rather unlikely event any child is ever interested, he or she could read those tales. Whether I am around or not. Should you be interested in writing, or learning to write better, check in with us at the library. We have two different workshops. One might be just what you are looking for. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 11/07/2007 Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Most any parent or grandparent who has read to a preschooler anytime since 1972 will be familiar with Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. It is the story of a little boy, Alexander, who has a particularly awful day. The chewing gum that was in his mouth when he went to sleep last night is firmly stuck in his hair by morning. He didn’t get a seat by the window for the carpool ride to school. His mother forgot to put dessert into his brown bag school lunch. His mother served lima beans for dinner, and almost worst of all was an evening tv show with kissing. Alexander doesn’t like kissing on tv. The model for the story is Viorst’s real life son also named Alexander. When his mother wrote the book, Alexander was four. He didn’t like the idea of the whole world knowing that he has bad days, just like the rest of us. When Viorst told him that his name would be in big letters on the cover of the book, he decided that might be fun. The book was published and several more about Alexander followed. Judith Viorst is best known for her children’s books, but has also written several books of poetry. I’m especially fond of the titles of her volumes of poetry: It’s Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty and Other Tragedies of Married Life and I’m Too Young to Be Seventy and Other Delusions. In the late 1970s, when she must have been in her middle to late forties, Judith went back to school. Adding to her earlier degree from Rutgers, she studied Freudian psychology at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute for six years. Now, thirty-five years after the publication of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day we finally have an update. Alexander is all grownup now, with a wife and three children of his own. While his Washington D.C. area home was undergoing renovation he brought the wife and kids home to stay with his parents until the remodeling is completed. Judith and her political writer husband, Milton, must have quite a home themselves. It is a three story Victorian with the third story being devoted entirely to young guests. It has three bedrooms, a bath and a sitting room all its own. It is stocked with toys and games and diapers and three different types of car seats. So, Alexander and his little family moved in for the duration. To celebrate their multi-generational living experience Viorst has just published Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days: An Almost Completely Honest Account of What Happened to Our Family When Our Youngest Son, His Wife, Their Baby, Their Toddler, and Their Five-Year-Old Came to Live with Us for Three Months. If you’ve ever wondered what happened to that little boy, Alexander, now is your chance to find out! LIBRARY NEWS
by Nikki 10/24/2007 RECENT GOOD BOOKS THAT I'VE READ Today I forgot my current book. I left it beside my bed. I’m reading Night Work by Steve Hamilton. The main character lost his fiancée two years ago to murder. The villain hasn’t been caught. On the evening of Joe’s first date since that death, his new squeeze is also murdered. That’s the point at which I fell asleep last night. All morning I’ve been wondering if Joe will be suspected of the most recent murder. I’ve worried about him. Imagine my discomfort when I discovered I had left the book at home. Do I waste treasured minutes of my lunch hour to run home to get it? Never mind. I had a back up book. Not only did the back up fall short of being interesting, but I dribbled sauce from my favorite lunch, a Snapdragon wrap at The Caribbean, on a page. When I got back to the library I cleaned up the book (Mr. Clean Magic Eraser truly is magic) and checked the book back in. When I get home tonight I will find out what happens to Joe. My most recent favorite reads: John Hart’s Down River. He wrote King of Lies a year or two ago. This one is almost as good. I just finished Alafair Burke’s Dead Connection. She improves with every book, but still has a ways to go to rival her father, James Lee Burke. I truly enjoyed Ann Patchett’s Truth and Beauty about the tragic life of her gifted fellow classmate at the Iowa’s Writers Workshop, but I had never read any of her fiction. Her newest, Run, was a good one. Library patrons often ask for a good book-not a mystery. I’m going to recommend this one. A couple of days ago on National Public Radio I heard someone discussing the work of Carson McCullers, so I have put The Heart is a Lonely Hunter on my to-read list. I also plan to read Digging to America by Ann Tyler. The Iowa Center for the Book has chosen it as its All Iowa Reads title for 2008. Most of their picks haven’t proved overly popular with librarians and library patrons alike. Their luck is bound to change sometime. Maybe this will be the year that I’m crazy about their choice. I’ll let you know. LIBRARY NEWS
by Nikki 10/17/2007 A couple of years ago library patron Toni Hood recommended the book The Glass Castle. I’m always up for a good memoir, so I gave it a try to be polite. If I just didn’t like it, I planned to read enough to be able to pretend that I had. Well, I didn’t have to pretend. It was so good that I read it straight through in a couple of days. The Glass Castle is the elaborate home dreamer Rex Walls tells his children that he will build for them when his ship comes in. He is the sort of fellow who always has a scheme, a plan to make it big. He is the sort who is never at fault when his plans go awry. When he was sober he taught his children sciences and how to seize the day. When he drank to excess he was brutal. His wife, Rose Mary, is no more down to earth than her husband. The quirky artist was not enthused with the idea of nurturing a family. Neither one could be bothered to see to it that their children were adequately fed or clothed. Surprisingly, the children survived and prospered, although the parents became homeless in their later years. We have all known dysfunctional families. I’ve know parents who had unrealistic expectations for their children. I’ve known parents who had no expectations for their children. I’ve known those who allowed the children to live completely free of parental constraints. But I’ve never known a family who didn’t feed its children. This is a remarkable story, well written and engaging. One page will have the reader furious at the parents and the next page will have you rooting for those resilient children to succeed against the odds. The Glass Castle is the next book for the library’s Humboldt Reads! program. Pick up a copy of the book. Give it a try. Join us for dinner and book talk on November 29 at Rustix at 5:30. We will meet in the small conference room. LIBRARY NEWS
by Nikki 10/03/2007 My October calendar is quickly getting overcrowded. Some days I have 2 or three events. I have little arrows and balloons all over the page. Several meetings have changed dates so I arrow the information over to the new date. If my message for the first thing I scheduled took up too much of that day’s calendar box I am forced to draw more arrows. Usually the very last thing on my monthly schedule is a book talk session the last Tuesday of every month that is held at Springvale Senior Living. I always remember early in the day, but by the time 2:00 pm rolls around, I’ve gotten involved in some task or another and have forgotten. My book talk ladies are so kind. They call to remind me and wait patiently for me to arrive late and out of breath. When I get there we always have a good time exchanging information about books we’ve read and what we are looking forward to reading next. In celebration of events scheduled in October by the Humboldt Area Arts Council, the library display case is filled with china hand-painted by local artists. Each piece is lovely. A large round lidded container with pansies is especially wonderful. Actually, it is all beautiful. It would be hard to choose a favorite piece. Stop by the library to take a look. While you are here to check out the china, take a look at the large banner hanging upstairs on the west wall. It is one of 25 street banners purchased by the Humboldt Public Library Foundation to celebrate our upcoming 100th birthday in 2008. Someday soon they will be flying from street poles throughout town. Where the banner is hanging, we usually have a quilt displayed. So far these have been new, handmade quilts. Starting in November we will be changing our quilt monthly. If you have a quilt you would share with the library, please let me know. It can be new, old, homemade or purchased. Quilting is an underappreciated art form. Our display case is another spot that we need help filling. When the hand-painted china is removed in mid-October, Jack Curran will share his rock collection. December we will probably dress the display case in holiday attire. Come January, I am out of ideas. If you have a collection of something you would like to share, please call me. Otherwise, I will be forced to search my own basement for whatever didn’t float away during the August water event. One of my neighbors named it “Sewerfest 2007”. Let’s hope it doesn’t become an annual event. LIBRARY NEWS by Nikki 09/26/2007 "SURVEY ON YOUR HUMBOLDT PUBLIC LIBRARY" Every three years our library, and all others, must apply for state accreditation. It is important to remain accredited as that is the criteria to receive state aid. Libraries in Iowa receive only modest state funding. Ours amounts to around one percent of our total budget. The remainder of our funding comes from city and county monies. The accreditation report is full of choice gems such as :”The library follows statutory requirements as to fiscal year, audits and budgeting, and makes annual and other reports to its funding authority(ies), the Library Service Areas, and to the State Library of Iowa.” What librarian worth her paycheck would answer “no” to that one? Every three years they ask the same questions: do we have a mission statement? How many hours per week is the library open? Does the library have a web site? Recently they have added the question “Does the library provide adequate seating”. I have to go around and count each chair. There doesn’t seem to be a chart anywhere telling us how many chairs is enough-I think they are passing this info on to chair manufacturers. The potion of the survey that strikes fear into the heart of every Iowa library director is the community analysis. Every five years each library must provide information about the community. Last time I squeaked by providing a written description of our community-the age of citizens, education, employment, etc. that I gleaned from census records. The state library will only approve of that form on occasion. What they truly want is for the library to send out a survey to every household in town asking if your family uses the library, what services you use and what changes you would like to see happen at the library. I can imagine the copying, folding and stapling that would require. Plus the cost of mailing. And just how many of those surveys would ever make it back to the library? Then, someone (probably me) would have to compile all those answers into some sort of form that I could then submit to the state library. It wouldn’t do any good to just ask everyone who comes in the library. We need to find out what people who don’t come in would like to see us offer. I’ve come up with a very clever (if I do say so myself) way to survey the community. For the month of October a library volunteer or library employee will be at the door of our grocery stores on Friday afternoons. She (or he) will be the tired looking body with a clipboard. We will ask everyone entering the stores to answer three quick questions about the Humboldt Public Library. It shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes. Please be kind. We don’t really want to do this anymore than you do, but it is a necessary step to maintaining our accreditation. If you will kindly answer the questions, and they will vary from week to week, we will reward you with our thanks and a nifty key chain. I can then turn in all this useful information and I promise not to bother you for another five years. LIBRARY NEWS
by Nikki 09/19/2007 "2008 GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY CALENDARS NOW AVAILABLE " The new 2008 calendars printed by the genealogical society have arrived. For those of you who don’t know, the Humboldt County Genealogical Society publishes a calendar each year. They sell for the modest price of $5. Each month is a photo of local historical interest. Sometimes a photo may be of a Humboldt building that no longer stands. It might be a portrait of a family from a long ago day. This year the calendar is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Humboldt Public Library and to the 20th anniversary of the local genealogical society and to Dakota City’s 150th birthday. January shows the letter received from Andrew Carnegie’s office granting $10,000 toward the construction of a new library in Humboldt. February shows the program for the library dedication which was held on February 9th, 1909 at the Congregational Church. Although the construction began in 1907 and the library opened in 1908, for some reason it wasn’t dedicated until 1909. Do you suppose that the good folk of our town wanted to make sure that libraries weren’t just a passing fancy? Maybe people will get tired of this reading tomfoolery and books will go out of style! Whatever the reason, we plan to hold a 100th anniversary party in June 2008. No formal ceremony, probably not even a speech – just an old fashioned good time with music and ice cream. The rededication in 1992 was also held at the Congregational Church. This time, I think we should celebrate the library AT the library to let our glorious building be part of its own party! The August calendar girls are the library directors, past and present. There have only been six of us in 100 years. Nellie Pinney served the longest…1912-1963. Virginia Hart replaced her. Most of you know that Virginia returned to HPL to work a few years ago in a substitute position. Virginia and I were walking out of the library building together the other day. A particularly noisy teen event involving electric guitars and drums was just beginning. I asked her what Miss Pinney would think of such happenings in the library. She told me that Miss Pinney wouldn’t have been the least bit ruffled. I suppose if one is to last in a job 51 years, one learns to roll with the punches. The July calendar photo is a large group of small children sitting on the steps of the library following a library story hour. We think that the photo was taken in the early 1980’s. In an attempt to identify the kids in the photo (there must be 40 or so of them) we have posted a copy in the library. If you were the small person in the middle of the group crying, or the lucky winner of a new children’s book standing up proud and tall on the front row, or the young lass holding her baby brother, let us know. We would like to have them all named. Stop by the library and purchase a calendar or several. They make great Christmas gifts for friends and loved ones who have left the area. Just remember when you turn to August, that a camera really does add 10 pounds. LIBRARY NEWS
by Nikki 09/05/2007 Did your child, now grown, have a garage band? Envision him/herself the next Ringo Starr or Gene Krupa? Did that very same child leave the drum set behind in your garage when he/she left for college? If so, I need to talk to you. In addition to the other lively and noisy events happening in our teen library, we have recently added Open Mic Night. The talented (and even not so talented) are welcome to come in to play music or sing to entertain the group. So far, the musicians have been bringing in their guitars, amplifiers and drum sets. The drums require a parent with a large vehicle for delivery every time. If we could locate a loaner set of drums & cymbals, we could store it away here at the library and have it ready at a moment’s notice. If you would like to clean out that corner of your garage or basement, give me a call at the library. We have some exiting upcoming events for grownups, too! Beginning September 19 and continuing through November 7 we will offer an introductory writers workshop at the library. Valerie Goodman, who grew up here in Humboldt, has agreed to facilitate these sessions for fledgling writers. Valerie holds a Master of Arts degree. She is a lecturer in English/Creative Writing and Speech Communication at Iowa State University. The first session will be an introduction to the different types or genres of writing. The second session on October 3 will emphasize the writing of poetry. On this date writers and those who would like to be writers will have the opportunity to attend an early workshop, attend the Humboldt Area Arts Council artist reception and follow up with another workshop session at the library. The guest instructor/presenter that night will be Emily Plum, an award winning poet from Iowa State. Emily’s book will be on sale at Sherry’s Hallmark. The third session to be held on October 24 concerns the writing of fiction. The topic for the last session on November 7 will be writing nonfiction. The cost of the workshop is $12 or $10 for members of the Humboldt Area Arts Council. The sessions will be held from 6-8pm with the exception of the October 3. On the 3rd times will vary due to extra events that evening. If you’ve ever thought about writing, plan to attend. We will all be rookie writers, you won’t be alone. There is still time to pick up a copy of the Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd for our next Humboldt Reads! discussion. We will meet at 5:30 at Vinny’s on September 13 for a good dinner and book talk. Please join us, we always have fun.
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| 30 6th Street North · Humboldt, Iowa · 515.332.1925 | ||