Finding the Future: Inside NYPL's All-Night Scavenger Hunt | Cover Story

Finding the Future: Inside NYPL's All-Night Scavenger Hunt | Cover Story

Dandelion Wine (1957) by Ray Bradbury

Amazon

Every time summer approaches I feel my hands reach out for this book.  With this book Ray Bradbury has plucked up summer memories and stories, has bottled them and left them to ferment all these years for the readers of today to drink up its golden splendor.  Really though, every sentence of this book is like taking a sip of golden honey summer.  Although it is one work of fiction you can really read this book as a collection of stories which is also what is so delicious about it.  On a lazy summer day I find myself flopping on the couch, listening to the cicadas, and reading slowly a tiny section of this book.  It's not to be rushed!!!  It's to be enjoyed long and slow and lazily like the best summer day.

The stories take place in the summer of 1928 lending it to be a very nostalgic book.  It leaves you yearning to try out what simpler times were like.  It leaves you wanting to make your own pie from scratch, wanting to just sit out on your porch at night and wave to your other neighbors on their porches.  The story focuses on Douglas, a twelve year old, and his little brother Tom, a ten year old.  Throughout all that happens this summer both Douglas and Tom learn many life lessons and of course so does the reader.  This book is ultimately about family and neighbors and people and the funny things people do and just when you think this book is tame it jumps out and surprises you and reminds you that its genre is Science Fiction after all!

I first read Dandelion Wine when I was seventeen.  It was assigned to me as summer reading by a wonderful teacher, named Mr. Keck, before entering my senior year AP Literature class.  Although I didn't appreciate the text then as much as I do now I still believe this is an excellent book for young people to read.  I would even read this to my own children as young as twelve.  I also believe this to be a book that can truly be appreciated at any age and I am confident that in my eighty's and ninety's I will still look forward to the beginnings of summers when my hands will again find this book to reread it and take yet another sip of its golden honey prose.

Happy Reading!

The Calm and Quiet... Before the Storm (I’ve been accepted into an MLIS program)

So I sit here quietly at my desk.  My certificate of admission granting me access into one of the top MLIS degree programs in America at my side and I am quiet.  I found out that I got in two days ago, when I got home at 1:30 am from the airport (after accompanying my husband on a business trip in the South West).  And it hasn’t been till now that I’ve actually allowed myself to sit down and let it sink in.  I haven’t checked the “yes, I will attend” box yet.  It seems too magnificent a gesture to do just yet.  Because by checking off that box will change my life.

            There are definitely a few concerns to consider before checking yes.  One is, where will I get the money?  The program will take about three semesters to complete and will cost around twenty thousand dollars.  Will I manage to get a few scholarships? or at least a loan?  Will I be able to work while pursuing the degree?  Do I continue to take Italian on the side?  How will the workload of being a grad student affect my life and relationships?  Is this degree worth twenty thousand dollars?  How hard will life get until I get this degree?  Can I be successful working as a librarian?  And the worst question of all… what happens if I am unable to get a library job when I get out???

            It might seem odd that after years of saying “I should have been a librarian” and after creating a blog, a tumblr, and a twitter account and after going through all the effort to apply to grad school that when I finally get accepted I am not outwardly bursting with joy; I am not screaming, jumping up and down.  Instead I am quiet and calm.  Instead I am pondering.  You may wonder why the title to this post isn’t I GOT INTO LIBRARY SCHOOL!!!!  Believe me there are rumblings inside of me that are screaming that, but I want to be honest.  And as awesome that it is that I got into grad school it is a big decision to make and I want to make sure that I give it the complete attention it deserves.  Because when I want something and when I decide to go for something, I am all in 110%.  So I have to ask myself just a few more questions:  Am I ready to fight the good fight?  Am I ready to fight for what I want?  Am I willing to fight for what I believe in?  Am I willing to fight for the life I deserve?  Am I willing and do I have the courage and do I want to be… A LIBRARIAN!

            I have wanted this for a long time and various reasons have held me back, now I am the only person who can possibly hold me back.  I think about the years that I have fantasized about being a librarian, I think about the moments I pretended I was already a librarian.  I think about all the librarian job searches I have put into google.  I think of the books, articles, and blogs I’ve read about librarians.  I think of how I try to surround myself with all things library in the digital world.  I look to my vision board and see pictures of books and librarians from movies.  And then in the center of my vision board I see the best advice that one could ever bestow:  FOLLOW YOUR HEART.

            And my heart knows.  My heart knows there is no other way.  I must be a librarian.

Congratulations!  I have just been accepted into Grad School!
Yes, I will attend!
I am now a Future Librarian!

Up (2009)

I am embarrassed that it took me this long to finally see this amazing film!  Up is Uplifting!  Fun!  Beautiful!  Creative!  And comes with a powerful message!  I generally don't watch PG rated or children's films but if there are more like this I may have to add the genre to my repertoire.  In the middle of winter when it may seem like spring is a long way away this movie will bring you COLOR!  If for nothing else I would watch this film for the beautiful, colorful scenes.  This is also a film that can be enjoyed by all ages 5 to +105!

Just to give you a little background.  The movie is about an old man out to realize a lifelong dream, however he picks up a few unexpected side kicks along the way and meets unexpected adventures.  This movie is about life and gives important life lessons for old and young.  You may need a tissue for this one, but don't worry there are plenty of giggles and good feelings in store!

Also, as of now, you can watch Up instantly on Netflix so please go, sit back, relax, and enjoy of wonderful film!

PS:  You will absolutely fall in love with these characters!

Application hiccups!

It just wouldn't feel like you were actually applying to school if there weren't a few hiccups, a few frustrations, a few reasons to make you want to turn around and start running.

So here's my frustration:  I am in process of applying to grad school for my MLIS.  I need to successfully write a personal statement.

The MLIS website tells me the personal statement should focus on

presenting a personal view of the library and information science profession

and

your aspirations and goals for your future in the library and information science professions. 

But...  then I get to the actual application and it tells me the personal statement is this:

In an information age how do you see yourself working as a librarian?

 I wish I had known this before spending hours and hours and I mean like six hours! working on the former focus!

So now I am going to try to mold my former essay into a response to this new question.  I was hoping to have applied to grad school today and have everything done but in order not to go insane I think I will need to stop for today, revise a little tomorrow, and tomorrow will be the day I apply to grad school.

How humbling to be reminded of what if feels like to be a student again.

Matched (2010) by Ally Condie

Amazon.com

I'm trying to remember how it was I came across this book.  I think I saw it on Amazon.com.  Anyway, after reading a description about it I just had to read it.  Luckily I got it as a gift from my mother-in-law and dove into it right away.  The book is a dystopia.  It is set in the future in a "perfect" society.  The Society knows everything about everyone, including what job is best for individuals, what food is best for individuals, and which life partner will be best for individuals.  In short, the people residing in the Society never have to choose for themselves because everything is chosen perfectly for them.  The story is told from the point of view of seventeen year old Cassia.  She is being "matched" by the Society, meaning they are going to reveal to her who her husband will be.  The problem is that the Society accidentally reveals two boys!  What does this mean?  What will Cassia do?  Who will she choose?  Who is her true match?  You will have to read the book to find out!

It's a quick and easy read.  At first perhaps a little too easy, but a good book to read at night when you're tired and can't handle anything too complex.  The book is for the YA age group and will be much enjoyed I'm sure by any one aged 14-18 but is also enjoyable for adults.  Hey, if you've read Harry Potter and Twilight why not this?  Also, if you've enjoyed books like The Giver you'll like this and you can think of it as a young persons G rated version of 1984.

I didn't feel this way in the beginning but as I read more and more of the story I began to feel I was having a love affair with this book.  It was easy for me to fall in love with the characters and it was easy for me to put myself in the place of the main character and feel what she felt.  It took me back to when I first met my boyfriend, now husband and brought back that rush of first love and the unknown, similar to what Twilight does for readers when they picture themselves as Bella and their lover as Edward.

Overall, I cannot strongly recommend this book.  I was interested and so just had to read it, but it is not one of the best books I have ever read nor is it a must read.  It was good for me, interesting and I enjoyed it.  I do think however, that a young person, the audience the book was intended for, would very much enjoy this book.

Happy Reading ;)

Note:  If you do happen to read this book and enjoy it you'll be happy to know that it is only the first of the matched trilogy:)

For Librarians by Hans Ostrom

For Librarians by Hans Ostrom

For Librarians

Imagine you can consider all ideas And images represented by all words And numbers in all libraries worldwide. Open the book of this consideration. Touch the paper. See the illustration Of you, reading, when you were ten In your local library. Turn Several pages. Now read how you And that other person ignited romance In, of all places, the stacks, third floor, In quite a different library. Snowflakes Brushed against dark glass as you two Stood between PQ and PR. Now go to the index. Find “possibility.” Look up from the book. The librarian Who looks away was watching you. She knows how to phrase the question You want answered. Librarians know where wisdom’s stored. They catalogue the countless forms Of silence and tell people what they Didn’t know they wanted to know. They treat the mentally fractured As if they’re whole, the dull as if they’re Sharp, Winter as if it’s Summer. A band of sunlight angles through high Windows, brightens shoes of a librarian, Who knows the patron in the gray enormous Coat will steal a book about sex or wiccans. She knows some Christians will steal books Deemed Satanic, ignoring a commandment And the homeless person sleeping in a chair. She knows some atheists treat Library as Church, so when she moves into shadows, She does so quietly. She worries for books. For the librarian knows books are easily burned, Recycled, or digitized, reduced to oxygen, carbon, Silicon, and such basic elements as hate and Budgetary cuts. She wishes presidents of The United States would consult librarians Before going to war. It would save so much time, So many lives. She knows exactly which references Know how badly any war will go and how soon Citizens come to loathe their leaders. She knows How to find stories about all the libraries Wiped out by war. She knows patrons who’ve Been harmed by war. Sometimes they set off alarms. Someone asks her, “Can you help me find out If I’m related to Napoleon? ” Yes, ” she answers, “Come with me, please.” All libraries may now gather inside invisible Electrons. After closing time, books in Sweden Send emails to maps in Chile. A librarian in Topeka Posts a reply to one in Tokyo, adding to a blue thread Wrapped around the globe. As sincerely as librarians worry for books, for shelves, For catalogues, buildings, and best practices, So should we worry for librarians, for images and ideas. At a table in a library, a circle of light Lies on a book. The hand not writing turns The page, and something important happens. Hans Ostrom