This blog began in 2003 as Mrs. Rabbitt's Bookbag and continued as From the Library Director from 2005-2010. You can read my newspaper columns at FromtheLibraryColumn published Thursdays in the Norwood Transcript and Bulletin.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Carrying On

My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.
Eulogy for Robert F. Kennedy, June 1968

For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
Addressing Democratic National Convention, August 1980

I hope for an America where neither "fundamentalist" nor "humanist" will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of good will look at life and into their own souls.

I hope for an America where no president, no public official, no individual will ever be deemed a greater or lesser American because of religious doubt -- or religious belief.

I hope for an America where the power of faith will always burn brightly, but where no modern inquisition of any kind will ever light the fires of fear, coercion, or angry division.

I hope for an America where we can all contend freely and vigorously, but where we will treasure and guard those standards of civility which alone make this nation safe for both democracy and diversity.
Speech on "Truth and Tolerance in America," Oct. 3, 1983, Lynchburg, Va.

With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion. With Barack Obama we will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and straight against gay.
Endorsing Sen. Barack Obama for president, January 2008.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Home Sweet Ireland Dorm


View Ciara! in a larger map

Self Help is Just Around the Corner


It all started with the car window that wouldn’t close. My kids make fun of my minivan, which I’ve defended to the last dent. Until, that is, I tried to raise the passenger window on a recent Monday morning and it wouldn’t budge.

I enjoy a gale-force breeze as much as the next passenger, but halfway home from a weekend on the Cape I’m burrowing into my hoodie ready to join my canine companion in the back seat when I glance over my shoulder and, uh oh, no Duffy. As I said, I blame it on the window. Since I’m due at the Morrill Memorial Library reference desk at 9 a.m. there’s no time to turn around.

But being the resourceful librarian I am, I immediately call my neighbor Story Fish—his real name, and yes, he’s a fisherman—who rescued the pup waiting patiently at my back door. Story was chuckling but I was horrified. I mean, I’ve left my kids behind before, sure, but never my dog.


Read April Cushing's complete hilarious column in this week's Daily News Transcript.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Online Death

Read Time Magazines article: How To Manage Your Online Life ... When You're Dead. Great advice and thanks to Rita for the link.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Amazing SocialMedia Stats

Thanks to ALA for posting the link in ALA Online.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Where The Wild Things Are

Tourist Trap

What do Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and Plymouth Rock have in common? They are both the U.S.'s Most Overrated Tourist Traps, according to Yahoo Travel.

I recently returned to Castroville's Giant Artichoke Restaurant near Monterey, California after many years. It's amazing how much smaller the artichoke was in my half-century-older eyes. Where did that 'giant' artichoke go? The restaurant was so worn down and tattered - definitely an overrated tourist trap from my memory. The fried artichokes were still good, but I heard that there are many more places to buy them in Castroville these days.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

What I Read On My Summer Vacation

Some 30 years later, my daughter experienced her own version of the “Giant Peach” vacation when we happened upon a small, stone building that houses the Shelburne Free Public Library in Shelburne, Mass. We were fortunate to be passing by while the library was open, as it is only open for three hours every other day. The building had seen no renovations, and consequently had the smell and feel of a cozy one-room schoolhouse. What it lacked in modernity, however, it made up for with charm and a surprisingly good selection of books overflowing the wooden shelves.


Read Kelly Unsworth's entire library column in the Daily News Transcript.

The Mad Hatter






Looks like Johnny Depp will creep us out again (think Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland on March 5, 2010. Looks great to me.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Read Faster

Sounds good to me. I'll try it.




More DIY videos at 5min.com

For Reading Out Loud

Reading aloud has become somewhat of a lost art in our culture and in the 21st Century. Before television and radio, and mercy me! computers, families spent valuable time reading to each other. And not just to children. Rhythms and language, descriptions and visions were shared with utmost attention to the written word by entire families of all ages. The Read Aloud America and United Through Reading groups are two of the non-profit organizations encouraging a rebirth of a read-aloud generation.

Most experts agree that reading to children is the single most important factor in later reading success.

As adults, we know the importance of reading to our children. We stop – or our children stop us – at some point in the chain. We rarely read to them after a certain age and certainly not to each other. While the electronic audio books serve its purpose well, listening to audio books in any format is a solitary activity. Too much of our present-day e-World is convenient but lonely as it lacks the connectness and comfort we find in the shared experience of listening and reading to each other. There is something lost in the translation – the attention we must pay to read and to listen.

Read my entire column in the Daily News Transcript this week.

Monday, August 10, 2009

The Governors Highway Safety Association
is a nonprofit association representing the highway safety offices of states, territories, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. GHSA provides leadership and representation for the states and territories to improve traffic safety, influence national policy and enhance program management. Its members are appointed by their Governors to administer federal and state highway safety funds and implement state highway safety plans. Image and text from the GHSA website.
You'll find cell phone, seat belt, mature driving laws state by state.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Power of Dreams

Honda has four short films in a series they have producing on the "power of dreams":


Mobility 2008


Failure: The Secret to Success



Kick Out The Ladder


Dreams Vs. Nightmares

Thursday, August 6, 2009

A vs B

Some words on the difference between A and B. That's Amazon's Kindle vs. Barnes and Noble's eReader. The word's not final and it ain't over yet.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Men in Film



Video by Philip Scott Johnson

Monday, August 3, 2009

Tweet, Tweeting, Tweeted

Twitter’s claim on its homepage is that you can “share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.” My problem with Twitter is that the world is a very big place. I can’t possibly keep up with all my email, my Google Reader aggregator and my online feeds, my Facebook family and friends. How can I possible discover and share with the rest of the world in constant 140-character Tweets? Why do I have to know these things?
Recent studies of this phenomenon called Twitter have found that millions of others haven’t caught on either. Recent studies (on the Internet and in print media) claim that Tweeters flock to the site and then never return. Around 60 percent of those who register are just not staying around to “get it.” Some predictions claim that only 10 percent of all Internet users are really using Twitter.


Read my entire article this week in the Daily News Transcript.

eReading

Another article on the eReaders.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

It's All In the Delivery

It’s a bird … it’s a plane … No! It’s a book! And it’s on its way to your library.
Most Morrill Memorial Library users know that they can request a book (or an audio book, a music CD, a DVD, or a video) from another library within our Minuteman Library Network. Most know that it arrives at the speed of…well, a book. Have you ever marveled at how this system works so well and so fast? Do you wonder how we work this magic?


Read the entire article this week in the Daily News Transcript.