Librarian porn

Design Sponge did a post on book storage. Librarian/English teacher porn, I tell you. (This isn't bad, either.)

A few years ago, I heard a designer say a bookshelf filled with books is too much, and we should break the books up with other "stuff" on the shelves. It made me irrationally angry. Shelves filled with books are so beautiful! I'm thrilled to see the Design Sponge folks seems to "get" that!

Oh, the simple joys ;)

Rickety old fair rides

Do you remember that ride at the fair where you were in a spaceship-like room with everyone facing the center and leaning against the wall? Do you remember how the ride spun around so fast that the panel you were leaning against slid to the top of the room? And then, when you got off, your head felt like it was going to explode, and it took a minute to walk the uncertainty out of your steps?

I'm on that ride. 

I've never been so challenged by a class. My brain is spinning, and I don't have time to sleep. When I hang out with a friend, talk on the phone, or leave the house, I'm always thinking about getting back home and doing some more homework. I can never get ahead, and I can never take a day off. 

It's kind of like the Gravitron. It's fun, I think, but, really, I'm just waiting for the ride to be over. 

I don't want my head to explode, you know.

Gettin' down in the library

This is my favorite part of the article because it seems like a "typical" librarian's response:

 Library staff caught wind of the event through the social networking site, and while they did not sanction the flash-mob rave—“I don’t think we could pull something like that off if we wanted to,” library spokeswoman Judith Panitch toldAmerican Libraries—staff felt it would be more harmful to stand in the way of students than to let them rave. “So we just kind of braced,” she said.

Panitch expressed hope that the partyers had a positive feeling about their experience at the library and attributed the two raves’ success to a responsible student body, nothing that some celebrants even stayed around to clean up afterward. “I guess the library is a natural gathering place for students,” Panitch said.

The gift of words

Most of us are busy--really busy. I've always believed, however, that we make time for that which is most important to us.

Jessica and I went to an orientation to be literacy tutors at the public library. We found out that over 100 adults in Livermore are incapable of reading, want to learn to read, and have nobody to teach them. Most of the people who enroll in the literacy program do so because they want to be able to read to their children and help them with their homework. Can you imagine? Jessica and I both got a little teary eyed as the coordinator told us about them.

Jessica literally teaches children to read, and I try to teach teenagers to enjoy reading. Now, we're both going to teach adults who ardently desire the gift of words. We get to be the one to give them that gift! What an honor!

Here's information about the Livermore READ project, but I'm sure your local public library has a similar program. Did you know it only takes a 1-2 hour commitment a week? Will you join us?

Those crazy monks

I finished my introductory class and started my first "real class" tonight. I'm reading about the history of libraries and, oh man, this stuff is great.

During the 9th century, monastaries would loan books to laypeople, but they were really hard on them about returning the books. (People had to leave a book of their own for collateral and the monks would excommunicate them or place a curse on their heads if they didn't return the books.) My professor tells us there's a wonderful old curse that goes:

"For him that stealeth, or borrow and returneth not this book from its owner, let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him. Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members blasted. Let him languish in pain, cry aloud for mercy, and let there be no surcease to his agony til he sing his dissolution. Let bookworms gnaw his entrails in token of the worm that dieth not, and when at last he goeth to his final punishment, let the flames of hell consume him forever."

How great is that? I'm going to hang that up in the book cabinet in my classroom!

Also, do you know anything about Melvil Dewey? One of this week's articles says, "If you think 'Melvil' is a strange spelling, it is. His name was 'Melville,' but he was such a fanatic about time-wasting that he devised his own spelling system to eliminate superfluous letters. So he dropped the last two letters of his first name. He even tried to promote his last name as 'Dui,' but that was too much." He was a rebel, too. He wasn't about to do things the way he was expected to by his superiors. 

Who knew the fun to be had in the history of libraries? Oh wow. I can't wait to read the rest!