Healthy debate

I am pleased to observe that our Book Discussion Forum is perking up a bit lately. These things seem to go in cycles, and the latest resurrection (since the Great Purge of December '07) is due in part to the debate between those who do and those who do not anticipate the release of the movie version of Twilight, the vampire-themed romance by Stephenie Meyer. I'm not sure yet where I weigh in on this controversy, but there's no doubt that the trailer looks promising. The movie poster is certainly destined to go up on many bedroom walls. And to think I spent part of this weekend getting the red-eye out of a bunch of photos.

A day of contributions

Aliisa's contribution to the current display. Drawn free hand!


Andrew's contribution to Abe. Really spiffs up the reference area.


Fiona's and Lisa's contributions to library security. [Or, what happens when two freshmen get into the recycling box and the library tape.]


Kareem's contribution to the senior auction. [Or at least the winnings from his contribution. And the reason we need security in the library.] Natalie is impressed.

Brand loyalty

Some of us find interesting ways of expressing it.

Liberries in the movies

Eighteen movies that feature scenes in libraries. Though I don't think I'd go as far as Entertainment Weekly and call them "18 Sexy Trips to the Library Stacks." {via}

Guilt

I think I am reaching my personal threshold as a participant in online social networks. I've started to say no to Facebook apps and groups. I'm not even tempted to try Twitter (though that may change if I ever get an iPhone). But there's one realm I've neglected that I feel loads of guilt over. I've never given a serious chance to the social networks that help you keep track of what you've read and connect you to books (and readers) you are likely to love. Is it laziness? Lack of self-reflection? In a long-ago moment of weakness, I accepted a friend's invitation to join GoodReads. So now, almost daily, I get updates of what all my GoodReads friends are reading, have read, and plan to read. In the meantime, my own profile sits there nearly empty, with only the one book I entered almost a year ago. I'm very sure that the most recent friend request I got on GoodReads was from someone who thought that I, as a librarian, would have heaps of book titles and reviews for her to browse through. But no dice.

As an alternative, I've outsourced some of this work. A group of Computer Literacy 2 students are entering our graphic novel collection into LibraryThing for their semester project (when they come close to finishing, I'll kvell about them at greater length). I don't feel this exactly lets me off the hook, but it does relieve some of the pressure.

Back yard library

Running out of space for books in your house? Our new issue of ReadyMade has a feature on prefab "retreats" - tiny little buildings you can make and then escape to when the mood strikes. Here's one created by Modern Shed for an animator's vast collection of art books and as a home office away from the kids.



Don't know why I'm so obsessed with these book environments, but I am.