Patrons of Christmas Past

Several years ago a librarian in Ludington, Michigan, wrote a fictionalized account of life at the library. She was immediately fired. It seems that while her tales of various community characters was meant to be an eye-opening yet fun portrayal of working in a public environment, her boss didn’t think it helped her case when she put a photo of the library on the book cover. Even if the names were changed, everyone recognized everyone else, and so her real story began. It seems that free speech is great, until someone is speaking about you.

Sally Stern-Hamilton committed the ultimate library sin. She crossed the line of confidentiality, even though she thought she had covered her tracks, her descriptions of library patrons and scenes of everyday life at the library broke the rules when it came to library customer service. She put herself and her motives before the needs of the patron.

Working at a library, or any public service position, is not a job where you can talk much about your day. It is not a place where you will get a pat on the back or a medal for good conduct because your story is always someone else’s story and usually it’s a story that’s not meant to share.

The building itself is quiet, the voices of patrons past are silent yet a spirit fills the library with shadows of people who have scanned the shelves or looked for someone to guide them to that piece of information that would bring them some peace.



“I need to find out about mesothelioma”, one woman asked. “The doctor says my husband has mesothelioma but I couldn’t understand the diagnosis. Can you help me?”



“I need the number for the closest military recruiting office. It doesn’t matter which one.”


How do I find out about filing for Emancipation from my parents? The court said I could get a form here.”


“Where are your books about pregnancy?”


“Can you help me find a free lawyer? I don’t have money to pay my ambulance bill and I may lose my house.”


“Where do you go when you can’t pay your heating bill?”



The laughter of a hundred children is not enough to drown out the voice that asked for poems that could be read at a child’s funeral. A boy who once came to check out “The Great Gatsby”, now waits in a hospital for an operation to fix his leg, broken in three places in an accident. His friend who was driving died. A mother waits at the window for a child who won’t be home for Christmas, ever again. People searching for answers, searching for help, pass from door to desk and back again.


The navy recruiter pulls up to the door and someone slips the boy a twenty dollar bill because he has no other money in his pockets and maybe he’ll need lunch.


And how was your day at work? Fine...same old stuff.


The library is silent, and still.

Star Review

Maybe I’m just a tough critic but after years of writing book reviews for School Library Journal, this month’s issue contains only the second “starred review” I’ve ever submitted. Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea was only the second book that I thought deserved to be elevated to the status of “starred”. The first book I ever awarded a star to was Chicken Boy by Frances O’Roark Dowell, and that was in 2005.


Because of Mr. Terupt is a great book, well written, with believable characters and a theme reminiscent of Leave it to Beaver and Welcome Back Kotter all rolled into one. Each chapter is a separate narrative by one of the seven students in Mr. Terupt’s classroom. From the students’ distinct voices, readers come to understand the different personalities and backgrounds that define them. The chapters are short, some less than a page, each skillfully arranged to keep readers moving headlong into the conclusion.

But why only two starred reviews in a decade? With all the books being published you would think it would be easy to fill a library with award winning literature. But take a look at the publishing business and how it has evolved. Michael Larson, author of How to Get a Literary Agent, claims that the publishing business is changing faster and more radically than at any other time in history. Globalization is shaping the future of media and having profound effects on what is available at your library, book store, and cinema.


Reed Publishing sends me books every month. As one MLIS student told me, “Just give them all a star review, that way you get more free books”. This was what her professor was doing and he encouraged his students to reap the wealth of free books. I’m wondering if she ever noticed how many of these fiction books had characters using a lot of British slang and Australian settings.


Enter the Six Sisters of Publishing. During the first half of the century hundreds of publishers and imprints were formed. Mergers during the last ten years have resulted in the loss of 90% of the publishing imprints. Of the six big houses that remain only one is a US owned company. Here’s the breakdown in simple terms:



• Bertelsmann AG (German) owns 70 imprints including Random House, Knopf, Ballantine, Crown, Pantheon, and Vintage



• Simon & Schuster (US) includes Pocket Books, Free Press, Scribner, Touchstone

• Hachette Book Group (France) owns Little Brown and Company and Grand Central Publishing



• HarperCollins (Australia) includes Harper Paperbacks, Harper Mass Market, HarperOne



• Penguin Group (United Kingdom) includes Penguin, Putnam, Viking, Berkley, Signet, Plume, Grosset



• Macmillan (Germany) includes Henry Holt and Company, St. Martin's Press


Even my latest star reviewed book was a re-release of a previously published book. If it was ever turned into a movie that Paramount would produce and Mattel could manufacture the toys for and a publisher could re-release yet again the same book but with a glossy movie tie-in cover, then perhaps more people might get there hands on a good book.

While global forces dictate what we will read the genre of books sold show how media tie-ins affect sales. Thanks in part to Stephenie Meyer and her Twilight series, 17% of books sold in 2009 were related to vampires and the paranormal. When I first started reading Charlaine Harris, back in 2000 her characters Lily Bard and Aurora Teagarden had no idea that Sookie Stackhouse would come on the scene some ten years later becoming the inspiration for HBO’s True Blood series. Harris herself had a total of nine titles in the top 100 sellers in one year.

The mother daughter Cast team had six books in the top 100 in 2009, all part of their House of Night series. Add some zombies in the mix with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith and it would make sense that almost 20% of books being purchased have some walking dead factor.


I guess that reading books, where ever they are published and by whoever owns the company, is not a lost art. But having a character that is dead would help your chances of getting published. Write a book with a vampire or a zombie as the main character, add in a British accent and a Canadian setting….then your sitting on a best seller.

There's an app for that

Where there’s an app there’s probably a book for that. When that need hits you to check if a book is on the shelf at your local library, consider downloading The Library Company’s (TLC’s) new LS2 mobile app that allows you to interface with your school of public library anywhere you have a wireless connection. Currently the app has only been released for Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iTouch but the developer claims the app will be available for the Android market soon.

Reviewers claim that even the newest versions have some bugs still to work out and may not interface with your local library if they do not subscribe to the TLC format. Sure, you can always just go online to the library’s website and search the catalog through your web browser but patron’s appetite for free apps is hard to overlook.



According to Mobclix, there are more than 27,000 app-based books available on Apple’s App Store, with games falling behind at 25,400, and entertainment at a distant third place of 17,164. This month also saw Amazon release the Kindle app. This free download makes the more than 750,000 Kindle books available to anyone with a computer or smart phone. No longer do you have to own a Kindle, although I’ve put down paper books and now read exclusively on mine, but you can download books to your phone, Blackberry, or Windows computer.


Consumer Reports has the Nook from Barnes & Noble rated third under the Kindle as best overall eReader. But already the December issue of the magazine is out of date as new releases hit stores in time for holiday giving.
The iPad also faces some challenges. While it blazed a trail the fact it is expensive and lacks options now standard on other tablets like a built in web cam, USB port and high resolution camera have consumers looking at other less expensive models with more functions like the VILIV Netbook and the Samsung Galaxy tablet.

OverDrive Media Console is a free, easy-to-use application that allows you to download audiobooks, music, ebooks, and video. This free download allows you to check out media from local libraries for viewing and listening on your computer or mobile device. This Ohio based company is continually expanding and offers more than 100,000 titles.

 Use the library to help you sort through all the technology available for this month’s gift giving. Consumer Reports is available in our magazine section as well as online through our Ebsco database that is accessible from home as long as you input your library card number. Getting to the online version of Consumer Reports through Ebsco allows you to find articles and ratings without having to pay a fee required at the magazine’s online site.


Books to help you through the techno maze include How to Do Everything Facebook Applications for those who want to understand the ins and outs of the popular networking site. The popular “Dummies” series now includes BlackBerry For Dummies and Twitter for Dummies. For those looking to gain knowledge the old fashioned way consider the New York Times book Smarter by Sunday: 52 Weekends of essential knowledge for the Curious Mind. Chapters include A History of Classical Music, Physics, and Ancient Egypt.

Even with a three week checkout time you’re bound to gain a few segments of new knowledge that may help you if you find yourself in a conversation with Alex Trebek. Consider then Carved in Sand : When Attention Fails and Memory Fades in Midlife by Cathryn Jakobson Ramin. Thank goodness it’s available in Large Print.

 This is the season…the season of technology, whether we’re ready for it or not.