Reversing it

Thanks to my high school friend, Lorri, for reminding me about the U@50 AARP Challenge. This video was submitted by Jonathan Reed, a twenty year old, in 2007.

Speaking the Truth

Captain Kirk to Spock: "There are times Mr. Spock when I think I should have been a librarian."
Mr. Spock to Kirk: "The job of librarian would be no less challenging Captain, but it would undoubtedly be a lot less dangerous."

Thanks to the YouTube post and the M Word Blog (Marketing Libraries.)

Books and Librarians Find Their Ways Onscreen

I was thrilled to see Kate Winslet accept the award for best actress in “The Reader”, a film adapted from the book of the same name by Bernard Schlink. It was written in 1995 (translated into English in 1997) and has been widely read around the world in the past decade. The story is fiction and is not just a Holocaust story. One of the prevailing themes is illiteracy, of course a topic near and dear to a librarian’s heart. A favorite and touching scene for me was when Kate Winslet’s mid-life adult character enters the library and checks out her very first library book. The shame of both illiteracy and of a generation too-far removed from the atrocities of the Holocaust are woven throughout the story of both the movie and the book.
There are several databases (on library websites) from which you can search the literary beginnings of the majority of movies. “Based on the Book”, a website compilation by Mid-Continent Public Library system in Missouri, is one of them and it is searchable in four ways: by the movie title, the film release date, the book title and the book author. Are you curious about which of Charles Dickens’, John Grisham’s or Philip Roth’s books have become movies? Did you know there were more than eighteen that hit the theaters in 2008, among them “Horton Hears a Who” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”? The latter was based upon a short story of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald. You might be very surprised how many movies had their beginnings in literature. One surprise book-to-movie connection is “Slumdog Millionaire” based on the 2005 book, Q &A, written by Vikas Swarup. Another 2008 award nominee was “Revolutionary Road” based on the book written by Massachusetts writer Richard Yates in the 1960’s. Even “Hellboy” and “The Watchman began as books” – graphic novels. The hit movies “Coraline” and “Twilight” began as books for young adults. Other websites list the movies that will come out in 2009, including My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Piccoult and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.
Now getting back to Kate Winslet and her library book, I must tell you that cringed when I witnessed her circling words with pencil … in her library book. Perhaps her librarian forgave her – the audience did I’m sure but I hid my gasp in my fist in the theater. Librarians are portrayed very interestingly on film and run the gamut of stereotypes. From Parker Posey’s nonsensical “Party Girl” to Marian in “The Music Man”, librarians are portrayed as sweet as River City Pie to maniacal shrews. Yet who can forget James Whitmore’s portrayal as a bright and caring librarian, albeit a prisoner himself, in “Shawshank Redemption.” Of the devoted Donna Reed in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” There are several websites devoted to librarians on film – The Film Librarian, Librarians in the Movies and Movie Librarians. There is even a movie devoted to our brand – Hollywood Librarian, a full-length documentary including many, many film clips and published in 2007. It was presented in special screenings in … libraries. Seemingly, only librarians themselves are interested in this type of study as we try to figure out just why the public bestows us with their knowing smiles … or extends their shaky hands.
Perhaps the some of the best quotes we can find about libraries and librarians as portrayed in film are from “IQ” (1994):
“I always imagined heaven to be one enormous library, only you can't take out the books”. Or from “Doctor Who” (2005):

"You want weapons? We're in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world! This room's the greatest arsenal we could have - arm yourselves!”

From the Daily News Transcript, From the Library, Charlotte Canelli, columnist

Please call the library (781-769-0200) or visit our website (www.norwoodlibrary.org) to see if we have your favorite book or movie.

Amazing Posts

From the blog, Amazing Posts comes this:

Put it into perspective, says this blog post: If you took the world's population and shrunk it to 100 people, this would be the make-up of that population:
57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere(both north and south),8 would be Africans
52 would be female, 48 would be male
70 would be non-white, 30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian, 30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual, 11 would be homosexual
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death;
1 would be near birth;
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education;
1 (yes, only 1) would own a computer.

Atlanta Daze

One of my favorite things about Atlanta is the architecture - streets and streets of 20th century Craftsman-style bungalows and neighborhood after neighborhood of front porches. Deep front porches where I imagine the city lives in the heat of spring, summer and fall. What to do in Atlanta? Eat at the Flying Biscuit Cafe - breakfast with the creamiest grits and lightest biscuits I've ever had. I heard the restaurant is owned by the Indigo Girls. Beer and Shepherd Daughter's Pie at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur and margaritas at El Taco on North Highland.

What to do in Atlanta? You could try the Three-Day All-Atlanta Daze. Start with the Georgia Aquarium and don't miss the Ocean Voyager section  and journey among the giant fish overhead and around you.  Walk across the grass to the World of Coca-Cola and taste seventy worldly tastes of beverages: the sugary sweet of Latin America through Africa, North America, Asia and on to the slightly bitter tastes of Europe.  A slightly uphill walk through Centennial Olympic Park brings you to a studio tour at CNN where you see actual news anchors and behind-the-scenes reporting. 

This ends your FIRST day. If the weather is good and you need another commercial break ... your second day begins with a visit to Stone Mountain Park ... but don't go in the winter when they've turned it into Snow Mountain. Spring and summer and fall are great times for hiking and lazing on the grassy slopes overlooking the largest bas relief sculpture in the world. Visit Hannah's Glass and watch authentic glassblowing . Finish the fine-weather day with a trip to Zoo Atlanta and catch up on the baby panda, Xi Lan or the gorilla families playing in the midst. This ends a SECOND day. The next morning must bring you to the Atlanta Botanical Garden where if you are lucky to have relatives you'll receive a personal tour. Gorgeous Meets Glass in Orchid Daze, there through April 5, 2009. If you STILL have any energy left, visit the High Art Museum and China's Terracotta Army, there through April 19, 2009. Remember you can do ALL of this and more using Atlanta's City Pass for $69.

Weird Massachusetts

When Jeff Belanger was in his late twenties, he did what many of us might dream of doing; he relinquished his paid employment and pursued his love – writing. Not quite a decade later, Jeff has nine books for sale on Amazon.com.

Jeff began writing when he was very young, was published while a teenager and became well known in the “ghostly” community after founding his own Web site, www.ghostvillage.com. Jeff has become so well known among the circles exploring “the unexplained” that October of every year has become a month of non-stop radio interviews and public speaking. He has appeared on over 100 radio and television programs including NPR and the History Channel. Luckily this kind of schedule leaves many other months to pursue his love of writing.

Read the entire From the Library column in the Daily News Transcript. Visit Jeff Belanger's website here.

Seach for Tainted Peanut Butter Products

Compliments of the FDA.
FDA Product Recall List

Bright Lights, Big Cities

I just discovered the CityPass site today as we leave for Atlanta this weekend. It seems like a very good deal in Boston, as well.

Love Was In The Air

As a library director, two words I can’t hear enough are “thank” and “you,” and in that exact order. It’s not necessarily because I am looking for thanks or compliments. No, it is rather that, as a librarian, I am hoping to find exactly what you’d like to read, view or listen to. This past Sunday there was plenty of thanks to go around and I couldn’t have been happier.

Read the entire From the Library column here in the Daily News Transcript.

Ellen Schwartz and Roger Bruno are the duo of Too Human. Photo from that website. 

Borrowers We Love

Read about Capt. Sullenburger's lost library book.  You have to love that man.

It Was the Best of Times ...

Watch a video of Time's Best Inventions of 2008 or read all of Time's Top 10 of Everything, 2008, including the 2008 Top 10 Magazine Covers. Here's Number 1 from the The New Yorker, Nov. 17, 2008. 

or The Top 10 Quotes.  Number 9: "The path will be a little easier next time."
—Hillary Clinton, thanking her supporters after ending her bid to become the first female President of the United States

Relatively Speaking

From the Dynastree website:

Would you like to know the geographical distribution of your surname in the US? Here you will find the distribution of your surname sorted by states. Type your surname in the search field!
Here you find the absolute and relative distribution of your surname: the absolute distribution will give you an approximate number of persons with the surname living in a certain state. The relative distribution indicates the proportion of persons with that surname in a certain state in relation to the total size of the population.

Hallelujah for Books

New York Times, February, 3, 2009 and a very happy birthday to my daughter, Beth, born on February 3, 1982!

2nd Best Part of the Superbowl - The Ads!

After the fantastically exciting game, vote on the best ads of 2009.

Watch the 2008 ads - down memory lane. During and after the game, watch the 2009 ads here.

On MSNBC you can watch and vote on the best Superbowl commercials shown over the years including the infamous Apple “1984″ ad..

No. 1 Apple Computer, '1984'

Watch some teasers of the line-up of ads at Adweek Media Superbowl XLIII

Read and watch the 15 Best Tech Ads from Mashable.





Tired of football? Watch the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet.