But I don't. Yesterday I got ripped a new one by this guy who has been coming in with his laptop to make use of our high speed connection. Unfortunately he waited until the afternoon to come in and set up in our computer lab, so I had to tell him that a class from the middle school would be using the lab in about twenty minutes and that the lab would be closed to the public. He was not a happy camper. For someone who I'd say is in his mid to late forties, he threw a better tantrum than my friend's two-year-old son. It was a sight to behold.

We did the wrong thing and rewarded his bad behavior by letting him stay in the lab with the kids. I told him he wouldn't want to stay in there with a bunch of middle school students, but he insisted that he did. Fast forward twenty minutes when about eight of the students rushed through the doors of the lab and startled the bejesus out of the guy. I don't think he realized how loud kids can be when you get them together in groups, even a small group of ten or eleven kids. He kept looking up nervously from his laptop every few minutes, and all I could think was, "Dude, this is nothing. Wait until our gangbangers get here." And once those three kids arrived, the lab was hopping. All I could do was giggle.

Out of curiosity, I did check in on the group periodically. The later it got into the day, the more hunched the gentleman was over his laptop. I noticed that at some point he had put headphones on to block out some of the noise, but I don't think that really helped. He still would twitch and look around whenever the kids startled him.

Hee hee hee....

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I did something selfish and took a long weekend. And it was really selfish of me, because taking it meant that I had to leave town without finishing the community newsletter. And that's practically scandalous behavior for me. Even when I was in Egypt I managed to get everything for the newsletter taken care of. I don't know if my recent bought of crabbiness would account for it, but I'm not really feeling all that responsible right now. So I took off with a, "Sorry, someone else will have to finish this." I'm never that irresponsible.

Which might explain how it came back to bite me on the butt over the weekend. I took my lazy attitude with me to Iowa, and ended up fouling up the whole weekend. Don't get me wrong, I still had a good time. But there were some very tense moments that could have been avoided if I had been behaving like my normal self. Case in point: directions. If I am going someplace strange I normally take directions with me. Not this past Friday however. Friday I decided my super librarian powers would allow me to remember directions I had looked at on Tuesday. Yeah, I think you all know where this is going.

We had decided to visit the Victorian Manor in Geneseo on our way to Princeton (Illinois). To be fair we had driven to Geneseo before, so it seemed logical that one of us would remember the way. We didn't and got spectacularly lost. And we both knew we were lost, but both of us were unwilling to acknowledge it. So we just kept driving until a big sign that said Welcome to Galesburg acknowledged it for us. Yeah. Not a good thing.

You would think I had learned my lesson, right? Wrong. On Saturday we took off (not needing directions as we had been where we were going before) without pertinent pieces of information like would the place we were going actually be open when the got there or would the place be open at all.

I'm in a funk that I need to snap out of. I've got way too many important things coming up (referendum, new class, teleconference, RT, etc.) to have such a laissez-faire attitude. I need an attitude adjustment fast.

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I can't tell you how excited I am that it is only February 16 and I already have 19 students registered for my reader advisory class. I'm going to have people begging me to get into the class (I hope). I would love nothing more than to have a huge group of people to work with. I can't wait for March 30 (the first day of class) to arrive!

So today at lunch I was doing some research for the class (again, I'm really excited for it to start), and I came across an intriguing idea for an assignment in this book. In the book the author discussed her annual Five Book Challenge. Each year she selects a genre/subgenre that is new to her, and reads five books from that genre. She noted that doing this gives her an appreciation for the genre, in addition to a better familiarity with it.

How cool is that? Not only is this something I think I will implement into my own reading this year, but I think this would be a perfect final project for my students. I was already planning on having them do a genre study for their final project, so this would only be expanding on the idea a bit. The only thing I can't decide is the number of books they should read. Five is probably unreasonable for a ten week class. Would asking them to read three books make me a complete bitch? Or is that reasonable? Any help would be appreciated. :-)

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This morning was a bit odd. After writing up a stack of order cards for things I wanted to add to our collection (which I finally accomplished yesterday afternoon), I had to go through the next step of the process: turn the cards in to Joan. Back in the old days when we were swimming in money this was no big deal. I would simply say Joan we need this, and it would get ordered. Fast forward to the present where it can be a bit of an ordeal. I feel like I have to justify everything I write up, especially to Joan. We have a significantly reduced book budget, and Joan is very protective of the money we do have. She wants it spent wisely, and I can't really blame her. But that doesn't mean I'm a happy camper when we argue (sorry, negotiate) about whether or not to order a book.

Some books are really easy for me to push through, while others I have to fight a bit more for. This morning I ended up sorting my cards into three different piles on the front counter:

1) The absolute must haves; these books I would take a bullet for.
2) The delayed must haves; these books I could wait a month or two before ordering. I wouldn't be happy about it, but I would wait.
3) The maybe haves; these books I felt should be in our collection, but would be willing to give up to ensure a book from pile #2 made it to the order list.

From there we started the negotiations. After much discussion I got to merge piles #1 and #2 into an order pile, and I got move a good portion of pile #3 to the order pile as well. Score! Granted, I had to make some concessions for the future, but I ended up with only four cards left in the maybe pile. And considering that pile started off with at least ten cards, I'm very happy with the end result.

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This morning before work I went to the DMV to renew my license. Despite this being the third time I've pointed this mistake out to them, my new license still says I'm a man.

Sigh. It's going to be a long day.

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After all my playing around with this site before it went live, it turns out that I still have a few kinks to work out. The biggest problem has been fixed (I hope). Some of you may have noticed that Blogger's commenting option didn't work very well, so I went back to using HaloScan. So please feel free to share and/or scare with confidence. :-)

Oh! Before I forget, there is now an RSS feed available for those of you who use a news reader.

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After reading the latest post on Romancing the Blog about books with embarrassing titles, I started thinking about a conversation I had yesterday with my head of circulation. We were discussing the latest issue of RT and got on the topic of covers. The past couple of issues of RT have featured several letters to the editor about the December 2004 issue and its "scandalous" cover. Joan and I were joking about book covers we had seen that were much worse, and before I knew it we actually started to go through the magazine to find covers that were much more scandalous. Juvenile, I know, but amusing. As we paged through the ads we stumbled across this cover, and I started to rant about publishers and covers.

As a librarian, I am responsible both to my profession and my community to uphold the Library Bill of Rights. I believe strongly in free access to information/materials and abhor the idea of censorship. However, when I see a book cover like the one above I know that there is no way in hell I could have it in my library. My board and patrons wouldn't stand for it. While I was amused by Jennie's recent challenge, I do realize that there are certain objections patrons can make that have validity we can't fight. Just as Jennie would not put the first season of Queer As Folk on her shelves, there are certain books I know I could never put on my shelves. Not because of content, but because of cosmetics. It is incredibly frustrating to me that a cover that does not impact the story at all manages to keep a book off library shelves and off our readers' radar.

Some might say that for me to make that statement is not fair as the book cover above is for an e-book, and many of the e-book covers are a bit raunchy. That might be true, however, some e-book publishers (like the publisher of the above cover) are now moving into the print arena as well. A book with a cover like this, this, or even this (all available in paperback) would never make it to my library's shelves. Again, not because of content, but because of cosmetics. How fair is that to our patrons? It's not fair at all. Could it be avoided? Absolutely.

Please do not think I am picking on the content of the books. I'm not. I have a very good friend and a couple of patrons who have purchased a couple of the books I just mentioned and loved them. There are several I've heard rave reviews about and would love to be able to purchase for my library. But I can't. Not as long as they have the covers they do.

And please do not think I'm deliberately picking on one publisher (Ellora's Cave). Most publishers are guilty of producing a cover that libraries would find objectionable at one time or another. The only reason I am mentioning some of EC's books is because a couple of their titles were the first one's I thought of when this topic came up. I do want to point out that they do publish covers that I would have no problem having on my library's shelves, whether it be this one, this one, or even this one.

Which leads me to my point (I knew I had one somewhere in here). Why do publishers release books with covers that our patrons (some, not all) would object to? Joan says she thinks it is because libraries are not their target audience. But that can't be true, can it? Why would you deliberately cut yourself off from one particular market? A market that not only increases your readership, but introduces your company and authors to new readers. Doesn't that seem foolish if that is the case? I'm sure there are patrons out there who would love it if their library owned some of these books.

I realize that my opinion is probably not a popular opinion, and that I will probably receive some hate mail about my views. So be it. But if anyone can explain to me why publishers do some of the crazy things they do, I would truly appreciate it.

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What would be a better way to celebrate moving my blog to its own grownup address than by kicking off Project Author Appreciation? Absolutely nothing. So without further ado, I give you February's Author of the Month (who we all need to appreciate): Ann Brashares.

I remember my first experience with The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I was working late one night, and was doing my usual book lusting on Amazon. I don't know how I got to it, but somehow I eventually browsed my way to the listing for it. Intrigued by its description, I made a bee-line to my local bookstore after work. I then proceeded to stay up half the night reading it. While very few novels can make me give up sleep, even fewer novels have the ability to move me to tears. I can honestly say that The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is the first novel to ever make me cry. The very next day I brought the finished book into work and said to my friend Penny, "Read this immediately. You'll love it." I've been sharing the book with my friends ever since.

If you haven't read Ann's Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, I have one question for you. Why the hell not? Seriously. The books are amazing. In a time where I feel like almost every YA novel I pick up has a Mean Girls theme (whether its directly tied to the plot or a mere sub-plot), the Sisterhood is a celebration of friendship between four very different girls. And when I say different, I mean very different. Bridget, Carmen, Lena, and Tibby are as different from one another as they can be. And yet the friendship that exists between them is so strong and powerful, you can't help but be touched by it. Which I guess is another reason why I love this series so much. It reminds me of the friendships I have been fortunate enough to have made over the years. I have a Tibby, a Lena, and a Bridget, which I guess makes me the Carmen of our group.

Last night I got the opportunity to attend a reading/signing with the author, as she is promoting her latest release Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood. So I was able to thank her in-person for sharing the Sisterhood with us.

Thank you again Ann. I can't wait to read the next (and last - sniff) Sisterhood book.

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Feeling a bit disoriented? So am I. I decided yesterday that I wanted to make the website I've been toying with for awhile (my very first personal website) live. It's not quite ready for prime time yet, but I figure the pressure of an audience will get my butt in gear on adding things to it. I've been wanting to do a website for awhile now, so hopefully this will not be a complete bust.

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There is a certain message board that likes to nitpick about the goings on of my little village. At one time or another everything and everyone (including me) has been discussed and/or alluded to on this board. As my library is once again going to referendum (That right kids, hang on to your knickers. I'm going to be very crabby on April 5.), I knew it would only be a matter of time before the people on this board began talking smack about us. Last week the mudslinging began, and I must say it has been very educational. So far I've learned:

1) Librarians should not make more than $30,000. Ever. Furthermore, librarians don't need to receive benefits. There husbands' jobs can make up the difference.
2) Librarian is just a fancy title for book guardian. Because that's all librarians really do.
3) Libraries wouldn't be in the financial mess they are in if it weren't for all the free donuts and fancy coffee their workplaces are providing. Oh! And the free gas. Can't forget the free gas they're getting.
4) Librarians could help their book budget by buying books on CD and them duplicating them to CD-R. Why buy two at full price when you can make yourself a dozen for next to nothing?
5) Two words that could save my library: champaign fundraiser.

Sigh. I guess you're never too old to learn.

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My friend the public library director called me Friday night to share some news. She is now facing her first item challenge. Since she has been at her post almost two years now, I think it's a little surprising that this is only her first complaint about something on one of her shelves. Especially when you consider how conservative her area of the state is. The complaint was not about a book, but the DVD of Angels in America. While it is never fun to have someone challenge an item, the complaint about the DVD had me doing the loud snort-laugh. Apparently the gentleman who lodged the complaint, "kept waiting for the angels to come down and save them from being gay."

Just imagine what will happen when my friend adds a copy of Rent to her collection. There will be some good times ahead I'm sure.

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I had an epiphany today while reading Beth's blog. I'm an ungrateful reader. How did this happen? I'm a librarian. My job is to pimp books. I love having wonderful books to pimp, and I know the hard work and dedication that goes into every book I read/pimp. So why have I gotten so complacent about what authors do? Is it because there are so many great books being published that I'm starting to take what is being written for granted?

I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions this year, but I think it's time I do. From now on whenever I read a book I thought rocked the house I will email the author and thank them. I will thank them for making my experience as reader more enjoyable, and I will thank them for making my job as a librarian a lot easier.

Oh! I just had a thought. It happens so rarely it's kind of hard for me to recognize one when it happens, but I'm sure I had one. I could do an author appreciation thing on my blog. Maybe pick an author every month to appreciate. Thoughts?

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