Blogging About Books

I did a tiny little bit of blogging this past year...as a library book blogger.

They were seeking new blood for the library's blog, and I put my name in.  It's not very often, but gratifying.  I've been posting under the name Enji because there already was a Heidi writing for the blog.  This is going to end, and my future posts will be under the name Heidi H.

Here they are:

Great Books I Never Would Have Chosen
(I forgot to submit a title, so it's not exactly a title in my style.)

YA for Grown-ups: Historical Fiction Edition

Highlanders, Fairies, and Vampires, oh my!

YA for Adults: Tough Girls You'll Love

Mary Doria Russell: From Sparrow to Doc

In July, we had to cut hours and staff at the library, so the library's blog went from several posts a week to one post or less.  We all have less time to do these kinds of things, because you know if a library's hours reduce, there aren't necessarily any less items checked out, right?  We're just that much busier during the times we're open.

Oh, should I mention, if you live in Multnomah County, you should be voting for the Library District?  That's right, I knew I didn't have to, because you already are planning to vote Yes.  You are not my friend if you are voting No. Ppffffthhht.

PS
Hey, I just noticed the Google Doodle for today is commemorating the 161st Anniversary of Moby Dick.  And a few minutes before that I noticed my own blog's post with the highest page views (6705) is Moby Dick: Chapters 29-34, from my slow read.  I don't know why that one over all the other ones.  My second-highest page view is Moby Dick: Chapters 55-60 with 2695 views.

Thoughts on facilitating a book group

Fall yellow with library stained glass

I've been reflecting on the different ways I've been involved with books and groups lately.  For the classes on "Soto Zen" I wasn't very comfortable putting myself in a position of being the authority.  When an instructor, I work best more as a facilitator.  I count on the wisdom of the group, and don't expect that I will have all the answers.  Still, as the leader in a situation like this, they look to me to talk the most.  Something I had to learn from this series was how to create more specific open-ended questions than I am used to, though I still wanted to resist my mentors' tendencies to ask questions intended to solicit specific answers.  I also resisted the suggestion that I have some summary statements ready, as this would assume I knew just what would be pulled out of the class discussion.   To me, a successful class happened when participants pulled something out of the material that had passed me by.

St. John's College, Santa Fe

I primarily want to talk about facilitation of a book group, but before that I want to touch on my experience with my fellow alumni and our seminar discussions.  Seminar is our collegiate word for our book groups fashioned after our particular college experience.

Unlike other book groups, we aren't expected to bring in background information on the author, on the history of the times, or especially other people's interpretations on the work.  Almost as a rule, we skip the Introduction.  We expect the book or selection to speak to us on its own merits.   We generally begin with a question that arises from the text, and discussion ensues from there.  We're quite all right with a weighty silence as we digest the question and our thoughts on how we can pull responses from the text and our interaction with it.  Unlike our college experience, some of us may bring in background historical information, just for fun, and to elucidate the text.  For example, we just read Frankenstein, and I found it useful to find out when grave-robbing for medical experiments was at its height. We don't make efforts to make sure everybody has a chance to speak, or to head someone off at the pass who is talking too much. We are a leaderless group, and after the opening question, more questions may arise and no conclusions may be reached.  There can be moments where we are awed by the results of our collective inquiry.

I bring aspects of this sensibility to my facilitation of book groups.  Over time, regular attendees begin to get it as I guide them to raise questions that explore what we can get out of this book, what it teaches about the world and ourselves, and move beyond the impulse merely to allow the book to entertain and inform.  A book really comes alive when we can interact with it, explore implications, argue with it, and learn a deeper knowledge within ourselves.

Sometimes the books we read urge us to look at our own experiences and family histories and share them with others.  Sometimes the books need to be figured out, and sometimes those books have no correct answers.  If we all just say, "I liked this," "I loved that," or "I hated it," there isn't much discussion to be had.

If I have the time, I will look into historical background, author biographies, and other related information that occurs to me.  I'll have that available if it comes up during the conversation.  Even better, I'll simply have a computer with me if we want to look up some factoid.  A tablet or smartphone could do just as well, but a laptop at least will have a screen large enough to share images.  Rarely will I kick off a book group with a monologue of information.  It's much more interesting to volunteer the information as a need for it arises.

I'll usually begin a group with a round robin, asking people to say their names, and what they hope to talk about from the book.  Even with that question, people will still say how they loved or hated the book, but enough will have questions or themes they want to explore.  When people get excited and start talking at once, or a couple have a side conversation, I'll raise a finger and ask for one conversation at a time.  If there is enough time, I'll ask for another round robin, asking for reflection, or if there's something anybody didn't get a chance to say.  Sometimes, a book has so much depth to figure out, I'll ask an opening question just like at St. John's, but then also ask for a round robin reflection about twenty minutes before closing.

Friends and Dia Photos

So many things were on hold for the last, oh 3 or 4 months, while I worked on the Buddhist Festival. (and I'm not quite done for the year...this Sunday we have a debrief meeting, and there are some tasks I need to complete before then.) Yesterday I thoroughly vacuumed. I'd only done quick run-throughs a couple times these past months.

This evening I cleared off the accumulated nest of papers, junk mail, flotsam and jetsam that were landsliding off of my coffee table and my kitchen table. I couldn't just sweep it all into recycling. This took me hours, but I finally got them clear and clean. I can now see the cluttered collection of mementos. See here:



I still have a mountain of stuff on top of the dresser-turned-coffee table in my library. At least it's down to one horizontal surface.

Last night I got a couple more sets of photos uploaded that I shot earlier this spring.

In March, I spent a little time with my twin friends. They were being dinosaurs, and the game that naturally evolved for a little while was my trying to "catch" them with my camera.

You see how elusive they were?





The rest are here. If you use the slideshow tool, be sure titles are turned on for viewing.

In April, I got to go on a field trip at work, i.e. I got sent to another library branch to help them with Dia de los Ninos.

I was so happy to do that. Some may recall that I was working at that branch last year for the festival. Again, I got my picture taken with the celebrity of the day. Guess who?



You can see the rest here.

Cool New Haunt

I've known this woman for several years, and worked with her mom for more years. Most of what I know of her has come from her mom. This young woman has finished many things earlier than most of us: teenage rebellion; rebellion recovery; high school; college; library school. It didn't take her long after she got her MLS (Masters in Library Science) to get a job as a librarian at a University here in Portland. She is one smart cookie. Her mom used to joke she would be our Library Director one day. Now I'm thinking she's going to be an international mover-and-shaker.

Recently she moved to Dubai, yes that Dubai that most of us here know nothing about except that a company in Dubai would have run ports in the United States and George Bush would have let them. She works at the Dubai Women's College as a librarian. Right now they are understaffed and she is likely doing the work of three people. Her blog promises to be an interesting mix of anecdotes and photos of her life as an expatriate in Dubai. Until now, her posts have been sparse, but she promises she'll be posting more regularly now that she has the internet at home.

Learn about such things as the alcoholic card, sandstorms, how Dubai girls view her, and Dubai shoppings centers. I introduce you to SalazMeyer.
(photo from her blog, by her, I presume.)

Just Ahead, or Behind the Tide

I've been so busy, it hardly seems like two weeks since I returned from Wisconsin. Tomorrow (today) is my brother's birthday. I need to remember to call him.

Lemme see, what have I been up to? I'll work backwards:

I've been exploring del.icio.us. I'm giving it a try after sampling and rejecting it a couple or a few years ago. I didn't think I needed yet another web tool to suck me into exploring more of the web. I gave it a try because an MCL librarian convinced me it could be quite useful for managing bookmarks, better then those clunky Favorites folders. i thought of those dusty old links on my computer....yep....i just usually re-find them using Google. and then i thought of my bloglines feeds, and how i have over 100 saved blog posts just in my 'books' folder. So I signed up, especially since I could get started on work time.

You see, my library has begun a Library 2.0 learning program, and all employees are encouraged to work through the activities designed to give us a taste of web 2.0 tools. Our director even used YouTube to broadcast her introduction to the program for us. (I'm not going to link to that one...if you really want to see it you can work for it...it's not hard to find.)

I will be quite familiar with some of that stuff, such as this blogging thingy, and flickr, but there will be some things I haven't been of a mind to explore. I'll share some of the posts I do there, here.

Yesterday I woke up with a dream that I saw my first husband at the mall movie theater. I greeted him, friendly, "Hey, Jimmy, what are you doing here in Portland?!" He seemed pleased to find me, and it appeared that was why he was there, but then he was only interested in finding this other seat in the theater and petulant over having to pause to talk to me. He looked the same as I remember, and I was eager to get a chance to talk and catch up, but after his first greeting he wouldn't settle to talk.

The day before I woke up with a dream that I was in a group at the Zen Center, my teacher Kyogen included, and we were trying out a new sutra/song to chant for services. We were doing it with a catchy beat, drums and bells, and it was the Song of Milarepa. Awake, I knew I was getting yet another dream from myself telling me to WAKE UP and practice meditation already. Is that a thing, Song of Milarepa? Lemme look it up. OK, from what dim recesses of my brain did that come from? I knew there's a Tibetan figure called Milarepa, but I did not consciously remember Songs of Milarepa, nor have I studied them. Now what, I wonder, would be the Song of Milarepa?

I digress with dreams. I took a civil service test on Friday, trying for that promotion to Library Assistant. The competition is fierce (but genteel). 23 (or is it 26?) people qualified for these exams. There are currently 3 positions that need to be filled, and we will be hired based on our score on the written exam and the oral interview. It's been 4 years since they did this thing, and this new hire list will last only a year. The opportunities are slim. If I get the promotion, I won't gain much money through this at first, but to do reference all the time would be quite enjoyable. Eventually I would earn more money, because while I won't get any more pay raises as a clerk, I would as a library assistant. I've been a clerk for 10 years; I've topped out on the pay increases. So...to prepare I've been subbing as an LA, studying training materials, and making sure I knew where to look for obscure things. My oral interview is at the end of the month.

Thursday our new sofa and bed from IKEA were delivered. Steve and I moved the couch to his bachelor pad, and I took apart the old bed (not as easy as it sounds) and cleaned the bedroom in preparation. The delivery came later in the day than expected, so I put the sofa together, Steve came home, and we both put the bed together. It was a very long day, and quite a workout. But within two days my back felt completely better. I've had back pain for months, maybe over a year. Ah, the new bed is the trick. I travelled by Max to IKEA on Tuesday to order it and set up delivery. We ordered the new sofa before Christmas. They had a sale: we got a gift card for 20 percent of the cost of that, and this, our new chair. I used the gift card to pay for most of the new bed.

Oh oh, the fun stuff. Last night I went to a friend's 40th birthday party. She had us play the game where we guess our identity by asking other party-goers questions about who we were. (Sticker with name on your back, yes-or-no questions.) She has 3 kids, and she wanted to get wild because it was the first time they were not there and she was having a party. There was much sexual innuendo among all, especially as the levels descended in the bottles of rum. (But oh so innocent, I could so corrupt her if she wanted...)

And over a week ago I got to attend the world premier of the home movie of the scientists in Antarctica, doing their scientist things like taking radar and gps readings of ice movement or loss or some such thing. We saw sped-up video of camp setup, and Tina walking around and around doing the very important business of keeping warm while she waited the 15 minutes for the equipment to do its stuff. They dig a hole in the ice for their open-air porta-potty. Someone joked about scientists a thousand years from now taking ice samples. It's not yet, but at some point when it's public I can share the link. Here's a little memento of her stay:

Fun with Reference Books

From January through May, I got a temporary gig as a Library Assistant. That is one rung up the promotional ladder, and this was a valuable chance to hone my skills for the next time the job recruitment is posted. This job entails providing reference information, I call it "junior Librarian." We may not have the Masters degree, but the Librarians teach us all they know about helping match people with the materials they need. It slides into that nebulous career category called paraprofessional. As a Library Clerk, I don't think I even fall into that category.

While gaining this valuable experience, I had plenty of time to study, yes study, reference books. That smaller branch library is waaaaay slower than my usual location. Thus my earlier adventure with faery...that was my sample word that I plucked out of my brain to test Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Thus also my new obsession with blogs...I went to a library training on blogs, and consequently signed up for bloglines and subscribed to waaaaay too many blogs on books. Paraprofessional development, ya know. Working on whittling those down now....I blame the blogs for my now having over 100 items checked out on my library card.

OK, OK, so one book I attempted to familiarize myself with is Black's Law Dictionary. I have a complete lack of imagination when it comes to playing around with words of law. What could I look up? I found the section on Legal Maxims. What good are legal maxims? The dictionary tells me, "Of course many scholars have long been intolerant of those who use maxims.... But there is an element of fun in legal maxims: they sometimes express surprising insights--and these from ancient writers. Though they will not clinch arguments, they will delight many readers who have a historical bent."

I said to myself, fun eh, well maybe it could tell my fortune?

I said as much to my co-worker seated next to me, and I opened the section to a random page, pointed blindly, and found "Scripta litera manet." The written word endures. (Take heed, Heidi. Get cracking on that written word.) Hers didn't go so well. I didn't think to write it down, but I seem to recall it had an ominous tone to it.

Around that time, I was watching the TV show, The Riches. I think I've met some travellers here and there...especially in my past life as a convenience store clerk, and especially as a convenience store clerk in Nevada. I thought to myself, now Doug Rich could use this book. Need an argument? Open at random. A grifter pretending to be a lawyer could make a lotta hay with those maxims.

As exciting as it was getting to know some of those books better, often gripping them with a covetous need for tangibility, I found the experience didn't much loosen my use of Google to do that job. Sometimes I would go to the shelf, pull this book or that book out and peruse tables of contents and indices, find something close but not quite what the patron needed...then I would go to Google and find an answer in 5 seconds. The more experienced workers next to me admitted to same.

Uh uh uh...before you start repeating the admonition that Google is replacing libraries...just how quickly can you discern the legitimacy of the websites you find? Librarians work at discernment. In fact, while Kids These Days may wear techno gadgets like newly grown appendages, have seductive photos on MySpace, and be super-quick to find websurfed answers, they may be pretty bad at judging those answers.

Library Stuff

Librarians Use Bloglines
I try to go to a monthly reference forum training, last month the topic was blogs and blogging. Blogs make it easier for people to publish on the web, and there are plenty of blogs simply devoted to books. Some librarians look to blogs as a source for readers advisory (the libarian's term for helping people find a "good book to read"). Unlike book review journals, blogs will cover older books, or specific types of books from specific genres. I got the impression librarians like to use Bloglines. I've been using My Yahoo for RSS feeds, but as the number of blogs I read grows, that's getting clunkier. (One person said, "They make blogs sound like a drug!" Several of us chimed in response, "It is!") So...maybe I will give it a try. I do like to have online sources for favorites lists, because then it doesn't matter what computer you're using, you can still access those regularly visited pages.

Making Cities Stronger
Page 3 of this document, picture of my branch library, said to be the busiest branch library in the nation. Apartments above, coffee shop to the left, and quite a few restaurants, antique stores, banks, grocery stores within four blocks. The document is a report by the Urban Libraries Council on why libraries are so good for economic development, and what it is libraries do that support economic development. I haven't had time to read the whole document, but the conclusions make sense. "Central libraries manage to make a considerable mark on the look and feel of downtown areas." In commercial strips and mall, libraries are "contributing the valued commodity of foot traffic to local businesses, anchoring redevelopment, and providing quality of life amenities to neighborhoods." In mixed use develepments, like my library pictured on page 3, libraries add "significant public amenity value to burgeoning commercial, office, and residential corridors." Interestingly, our libary system was not one of the survey sites or one of the case study sites...but we're pictured!

No Doubt You Heard about the Case of the Dog's Jewels
Here's a good synopsis. It occurs to me that this squeamishness over the words scrotum and vagina might not be due only to religious tyranny, but to corporatization of America. Not all that long ago, many families lived on farms. They wanted their animals to mate and reproduce. Children would have been quite familiar with animal parts and what the animals did with those parts. Chances are they just called a dog's balls a dog's balls. Now, not so many families living on farms, growing up naturally with the facts of life. Agribusiness rules the land while families shield their children from the facts of life.

The funny thing about this award-winning story, I thought, was that the inquisitive girl overhears a drunk telling a story about a snake biting the dog's scrotum. Now wouldn't the drunk say "balls" or "nuts"? A teacher used it in her lessons, asked the kids what they thought would be controversial in the story. They thought it was the drinking.

The author herself weighs in here. For those obviously titillated by the mention of private parts in children's literature, Gelflog made a list for you.

Web 2.0
Neat little youtube demo on the difference between the first web, and web 2.0, here. At the very end, the director says, "We'll need to rethink a few things. Copyright. Authorship. Identity. Ethics. Aesthetics. Rhetorics. Governance. Privacy. Commerce. Love. Family. Ourselves." (Only in a more dynamic digital way than this.) He missed one. Libraries. Libraries are rethinking ourselves in this world too. There are 8,320 results for the keyword "libraries" on youTube. At the very least, librarians are making sure they know what's available so they can better serve the people who come to the library to use it. The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County took that learning online with a blog and contest for Learning 2.0.

A Better Wikipedia
A cofounder of wikipedia wants to create a more accountable wiki encyclopedia. Librarians don't like to use wikipedia because they want reliability in their reference sources. I will tend to use it to help me find the words I need to refine a search for a patron, as it is often near the top in google results. Citizendium will rely on "gentle expert guidance."


oh boy. was that too geeky?

Everybody Reads Midnight at the Dragon Cafe

This year our library's Everybody Reads event features Midnight at the Dragon Cafe by Judy Fong Bates. Every book group hosted by the library this month is reading this novel about a Chinese family of immigrants in Canada. They live in a small town, and own and run the one Chinese restaurant that also doubles as the greasy spoon diner. The author gives a glimpse of what it is like for a girl to grow up straddling two worlds: her isolated Chinese-speaking family, and her English-speaking friends and classmates. Her mother's faith speaks in signs and prophecies, her friends' faith, in church. Cramped by secrets at home, Su-Jen (aka Annie after Annie Oakley) finds some ease in the free-flowing household of her best friend. Family dynamics play out in a tragic Sophoclean destiny, at the center a little girl who may yet outwit any Eastern or Western channeled destiny.

Book groups at book stores and elsewhere are also reading this book this month. My library branch's paperback copies (with no due date) were snapped up within days. Related events pulled in participation by Portland State University, Barnes and Noble, and the Portland Chinese community. Do check out the events link if you're in Portland, there's still some great stuff for thinkers and for families. I hope to attend one of the author's lectures, among others.

I went to the panel discussion called Chinatowns in the Pacific Northwest.

Marie Rose Wong came down from Seattle, author of Sweet Cakes Long Journeys: the Chinatowns of Portland, Oregon. She shared slides from Seattle's International District. When asked why she wrote about Portland, she told us she started looking at the prison records, I guess due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. Portland's records were made public before Seattle's. She meant to spend a day and a half, and descended from the archives two and a half years later. Everything was so well catalogued it became a rich source of history of the Chinese people.

Marie told us there are clues you can look for for the 'real Chinatown' like old buildings with the shadows of signs leaving their imprint. She advised when you do go to an ethnic community, get off the main drag, find the side streets and alleys...that is where you find the real flavor of the community. We learned that what we think of as typical Chinese architecture, the pagoda, is actually a complicated religious structure; Chinatowns don't always look like Chinatowns

In Seattle many buildings are being renovated, and the whole International District is historic landmark, so buildings can't be changed outside, as well as a certain percentage inside. She would like to see more market level housing, not just low income housing, which is what is happening. "We need their money!" she said. I thought about that. This is probably happening because not enough low income housing exists in the first place? And nimbys won't let it in their already gentrified parts of town? That seems to me an astute economic steering. She mentioned mixed use, but she was talking about not just mixed use, but mixed income neighborhoods. Plan for that and more of the money can flow in a neighborhood. That makes sense, but for the nimbys that won't want the working class and poor in their hoods.

The first person to speak was Chet Orloff, director emeritus of the Oregon Historical Society. Some bits I remember:

• evolution is a story of immigration and migration, so the story of the Pacific Northwest immigration goes back 14,000 years
• John Day, Oregon. A Chinese doc set up shop, including his pharmacy. During the great flu epidemic none of his patients who drank his medicinal tea died. His pharmacy is preserved there.
• After the railroads nobody wanted the Chinese, they literally went underground, built a town under the town of Pendleton (A bit of syncronicity...this tidbit reinforced by the teen fiction book I just started reading, fantasy about the Shadow City under Manhattan. The girl studies and learns of all these other underground cities around the world....but her Manhattan city is never mentioned.)

The second person to speak was Carl Abbott, professor of Urban Studies at PSU. Carl liked the numbers. 33 percent of Toronto is Asian. In the novel, Toronto was the one place where the Mom from China felt at ease, among family and people who shared her culture and language. He compared 18 percent in San Francisco, 11 in LA, 24 in Vancouver BC (or did i get couv and toronto switched?)

A final question related back to the book...how did people fare when they were all alone in the small town. Chet Orloff's answer, they became "distinguished." they stood out. Could they make a better life without the competition? Not answered. My thought, no. More businesses all around encourages commerce, and in the novel, Toronto sounded more prosperous than the little town. Marie Rose Wong said there are 90 restaurants in the international district, and they are all open, doing well.

New York: Brooklyn

On this my fourth day of vacation in New York it was a little harder to get moving. Not sleeping well without my own bed, a backache, not really being able to relax. I begin to feel old, not much made for prolonged travelling. So, my companion was slow to find his way from Brooklyn, and that was ok because I was slow to get my creaky body out the door and down the street four blocks to Starbucks for that daily coffee. Let's not forget noon in New York is 9 am my time.

So I was late getting to Brooklyn to see the Art Museum there, and the Brooklyn Library a block away.



Yeah, I'd have been better off going to the Met, but I wanted to see the library where my former big boss was wooed to, Ginny Cooper. (She's now been hired in Washington DC, where our current library director, Molly Raphael, came from.)

I found the Brooklyn Library getting a face lift. The front entrance was closed, and we could enter at the side through the children's library. Now that was a noisy library, about 3 times noisier than my busy library branch, even if the busiest in the nation. There were moms with their kids waiting for a program or a storytime. There were about a dozen teens at the tables in the back. A security guard was discussing a conflict that had arisen between the teens. I heard that same "but he did this..." "but she..." thing that I'd heard from teens when I worked on the reference desk.



I wanted to check my email and check in for my flight the next day. I'd found when I went to Wisconsin checking in online is almost absolutely necessary...airlines are cancelling flights that aren't full enough. I found that I could either get a library card or get a guest card that cost $2. I got the guest card, which expired in an hour and gave me a half hour or so of internet access, but I didn't have to do any registering. (I wasn't able to check in online after all. Something odd happened to my e-ticket. When I got to LaGuardia I rushed about in the wrong line here and there and finally got my boarding pass and through security and got to the gate just as they began to board passengers.)



I found the section called the Popular Library. I wonder if it has always been called that, or Ginny Cooper changed the name. In our Popular Library we have fiction, recorded books, teen materials, dvds and videos, and a few internet computers. This one seems only to have media and computers. While I was there a couple of teens managed to accidentally topple one of the bookshelves standing next to the information desk, cd jewel cases snapping and shattering like they wanted to be glass houses but couldn't find the noise. I couldn't imagine that happening in one of our libraries. The safety czars would never allow freestanding tall furniture like that.

My friend was supposed to meet me, but called when he couldn't get through to me in the thick-walled building, so he gave up and went home. Yeah, well.

On my way back to Flushing, people were flooding the subway for the final Mets game of the season. I realized later that my friend probably wanted to watch the game with greater baseball fans, thus he blew me off. I tuned in to the game on the radio for the tension-filled bases loaded, two outs moment. Here's a little something I wrote in response to a baseball lover on one of my email lists:

that was sad about the mets.

i was on the subway headed back to my hotel when people were getting off the train at shea stadium.

what a neat time to be on that train.

two young men had their tallboys in paper sacks, sitting across from me. they were getting a head start.

the operator annouced "shea stadium. ....shea stadium? i believe that is the word of the day....shea stadium!" (cheers)

as people got off a lengthier salute, well-spoken. more cheers.

later, in flushing's chinatown, people in sportsgear shop, people in bubble tea cafe, eyes glued to television.

A Few Notes on Libraries

Web-searchable card catalogs
Casey Bisson just noticed and commented on my post from back in May on his take on the google economy. He said it just showed up in technorati. I think that's because I just added labels (ie tags) and re-published almost all my posts. So I tootled on over to his website, and I find he's won the Mellon Award. Mr. Bisson talked that day about his software application that allows library collections to be searchable on the web. He works at PSU, that's Plymouth State University...not PSU, Portland State University.

Wireless in Libraries? People have been asking...
Free wireless is now available in Portland. Right now just close in to downtown. It's possible people will be able to connect from within the Central Library. I learned from a library memo that we are seeking ways to make it work inside buildings, as well as bring wireless to the non-Portland MCL branches. Meanwhile, the Personal Telco Project continues to work on blanketing the city with ad-free wireless.

Satisfied Customers
According to the County Auditor's Survey, people are very satisfied with the Multnomah County Library. Our director said her favorite stat was that "81% of those surveyed said that they were "very satisfied" with the "assistance provided by library staff". Add to that another 16% who were "somewhat satisfied" and you will see a 97% total satisfaction rating." No wonder we're the busiest public library in the nation for the 4th year in a row.

American Library in Burma
The New York Times recently had an article about the library provided by the American Center in Burma. The junta tolerates it even though the US is their enemy. There used to be more such libraries in many countries. It seems they were a cold war weapon, and after that ended, they were dismantled. In 'war on terror' countries, the libraries must hide behind protective walls. Burma seems to be in that diplomatic grey area where the library is still needed, but still safe to be openly available. The library staff person that brought this to our collective attention had herself witnessed the "thirst for books" in Burma, with people sharing books two readers at a time.

Library E-News
Local readers, have you signed up for your MCL library E-Newsletter yet? Here's where you can do that.

Oh, and one more thing. You can now rate books in our card catalog. Some people are using that as a way to remember what books they want to place on hold, because a person's ratings are attached to the library card account. Personally I've always wondered how useful online ratings could be, since they aren't random samples, but people who care enough to share their opinion. But this, this could be useful for personal booklists.

New York: Erotica in Chinatown

It just so happened that while I was in New York, a free reading of erotica was happening in Chinatown, so I went. I've liked reading Lusty Lady's column in Village Voice, and she hosts this monthly reading series at Happy Ending Lounge. My companion and I went different ways after seeing Wicked, he to check up on his 'stepson', me to find the library so I could look up just where the erotica reading was. For some oddball flaky pms-y scatterbrain reason I left the printout that I carried all the way with me from Portland back in the hotel room. This was a trip full of obstacles. Some would say the cosmos was trying to tell me something, or at least my subconscious. He said he would call me to find out where we would meet. (He didn't. Why couldn't he just say he didn't want to go? I could tell that, but he still acted like he would meet me. Sheesh.) Before he went the other direction, he pointed me to the library at Bryant Park. (Now I know that the entrance with the lions I found on my last NY visit is temporarily closed. This time I found the right door.)

That was an experience. Here in my Multnomah County Library visitors get a guest pass good for an hour. This was a research library of the NYPL system, and they simply gave me a card good for three years, compete with photo.



You sign up on the computer, are given a computer and a time, and a receipt prints so you don't forget. The guy before me leaves a few minutes early so I gain a few minutes. I go to the Village Voice website. The sex columns are blocked! Good grief, thanks to CIPA, this research library that needs federal funds, in which I don't see anybody under 25 years, has filtered web access. With a little creative googling, I find out the actual name of the reading series, and the blogspot page for In the Flesh is not filtered. Hallelujah. I guess that's what they mean when they say there are ways around the filters.

Now I knew where I was going and what subway to take and I only had about an hour to get there. I almost missed the door. This Chinatown was grungier and dirtier than Flushing Chinatown. The address led me down a narrow alley with the closed metal doors everywhere. I almost walked by, but I did see the address on the awning. I looked closer at the 2-way mirror doors. Was that a bar? Here in Portland the only places I know of with doors like that are the dirty movie theater and the dirty bookstores. Closer, closer, in tiny print, grey on silver, Happy Ending Lounge. The gatekeeper opened the door for me.

A dark hallway lined with candles led me to a tiny bar, hardly bigger than my living room, I thought. The walls were lined with velvety red cloth, padded. Three or four half-circle booths to my left, curved benches and little ottomans for seats. To my right, a curved wall with bench, little low tables and more ottomans. I asked a pretty blond with drink and open binder notebook if the seat next to her was taken. She gladly bade me sit next to her, and introduced herself as Christen, one of the writers. She was having trouble deciding what to read, because her book Baby Love wasn't exactly erotica, but did have some sexy passages. She was working on her first drink. I figured I'd better get one, since the show was free. Ten bucks, another buck for a tip. I decided since I wasn't really interested in drinking I would nurse that ten buck drink through the evening.

Christen was buoyantly hopping up and returning to her seat: to the restroom; to greet other people; to talk to the host, Rachel. Each time she returned, I picked up her binder notebook and handed it back to her, which earned me a "You're so sweet!" (Takes one to know one.) We developed a comfortable table-mate camaraderie. Her reading turned out to be last, and she admitted right up front that she'd had a couple of drinks so she didn't quite know how it would work out. She was fabulous, quite a performer, and had a funny sexy story about facing her libido's shyness by preparing to masturbate while nursing...but then the fedex guy rang the doorbell.

When I first arrived I wondered how few people they expected, since the room was so small, but we got cosy. There were 6-8 people on our wall bench, where I thought there would be 3 or 4. There were about a dozen people standing near the restrooms. So I would say there were around 50 people in the space, everybody happy and sexually charged by the readings. It didn't hurt that Rachel scored free cupcakes for us, and handed out books she'd got for review. I scored a whodunit mystery with lesbian romance...I can't remember the title because I read it on the plane, and when I finished it I donated it to the Friends of the Library.

Some of the writers were simply readers, some with really great writing, some just ok. Some were performers. I was especially impressed with Mo Beasley and his team of performance poets, as were we all. Christen and I shared a moment of lustiness for Mr. Beasley. He was so fine...and talented. I was thinking it was a good thing my companion didn't show after all. Should I ever visit New York again, I would look for the Urban Erotika performers.

I also especially liked the writing of Stephen Elliott and Jami Attenberg. I told Christen I couldn't believe this was free! I was happy I had the chance to sit next to her.

Changing Times in a Google Economy

A couple of days ago I went to a class offered through work...well not so much a class but a motivational talk looking at our future. Every once in a while some article looks at the fate of libraries in these googling times, and some intrepid researcher compares the answers got from googling to those got from a librarian. Librarians usually come out looking pretty good, but an impression still remains with Joe Q Public that the future will hold no books nor will there be a place for libraries. As one who works at possibly the busiest branch library of its size in the country, I and my co-workers have to snicker. We know libraries continue to get more popular with the increasing access people have to the web and the internet. We also know that librarians use google...they won't be replaced by google.

So I went to this class wondering, what could be so great about this presentation that this guy was brought here all the way from the other side of the continent? Plus the photo he chose for his biographical page makes him look somewhat like Carrot Top. (I'm a little nervous saying this because he revealed himself to be the blogging geek he is, and he'll know I'm writing about him.)

In a nutshell, his message to libraries is that we need to make our presence known on the web. To do that, we need to break down the walls separating our card catalogs from the web, and we need to use google marketing tricks to get pages from our websites to come out on top. To do that, we also need to understand how the web works for people, recognize it as a social space over and above an information space.

Thus we must think of how the google economy works. People don't go where there are barriers, example Encyclopedia Britannica versus Wikipedia. If we have to pay to get in, or if contents are hidden behind a login wall, we won't go there. People do go to top-ranked searches, so we also need to understand how to increase our rank, and that is directly connected to the social economy of the web. Rank is determined by how many times a page gets linked to, and that happens because people are talking about you. (When I got home, my equally geeky husband pointed out that it's not that simple. If you get linked to from a big site, that does a lot for your rank. It's all in who knows you.)

It was clear to me that Casey Bisson's message comes from a culture of blogging. At one point he asked, "Who here has a blog?" He seemed quite sure that a beginning blogger who "hadn't done much" would certainly do more, get hooked in. I dunno, real life keeps getting in the way of my time here. But, I could see a glimpse of the blog-addled vision. This social space is as much a part of our future as churches (or church gossips) used to be. He remarked that if he's working on something, he puts it on his blog. Then he knows where to find it. A good tip for this blogger wannabe.

I certainly came away with realizing there were many ways I could make my projects more noticeable. I've been busy working on Portland's Buddhist Festival in the Park. I need to encourage the Buddhist groups involved to link to it. While I had the vague notion that part of blogging culture is to make comments on each others' blogs, tit for tat linkage...I shy away from the Machiavellian nature of that kind of sociability, and I just don't have time to read a lot of blogs or make a whole lot of comments. But what I can do is make sure when something is important enough, that I get those connections made.

What we have here is a new landscape. First there was the physical landscape. Then there was an internal landscape. We developed a sense of being, and carried knowledge from past to future. Then there came a landscape of knowledge that was preserved, oral history and written history. Now we have this landscape, and people are rapidly exploring the different ways we can navigate it. If we want to find the best shores for our cities, we have to be quick to stake our claims.

The two hours ended far too quickly. I didn't get to ask him what he thought of the current threat to net neutrality.

Scenes from a Library Overhaul: Day 1

Death of a card catalog

Several years ago the local governing agency put forth the call for a new library catalog fitting for a crown jewel of a library system. Several corporate suitors sought the hand of this demanding princess, but only one could win. In the end, Innovative Interfaces met the demanding conditions and won the contract over all other suitors, assuring the local government that their product Millenium would best meet the needs of the library. Nobles, scholars, computer wizards, squires, and pages of the library system gathered repeatedly to consult and protect their diverse needs and wishes for the new catalog system, and the company did its best to construct its wizardly tool to answer even the lowly page's request, "Larger font for printouts, please." Officials reassured patrons and pages alike that this company would best meet their needs, why, even their big sister library, King County, uses it.

Library computer wizards worked day and night to assure the smooth transfer of all bits of knowledge and its relations from one container to the other. They constructed their wizardly spells while business continued as usual among the library caretakers and users. Well, not completely as usual, as the many workers who would use this new catalog needed to learn how to use it without having the completed product to work with. Those who rely heavily on visual cues secretly chewed their nails as they were repeatedly told, "This is not what it's going to look like." But as all wizards (and those who study wizards) know, no one can really convey what a spell looks like until it is completed, but if one can understand the logic of the spell, the change shouldn't be too bad.

Now clearly Day 1 of this library overhaul did not begin on September 11, 2005, but as this humble scribe looks back, it's hard to know where to start, so why not the day the old catalog died? After all, even before the proclamation seeking corporate suitors, the nobles of the fiefdom of Multnomah County had long recognized the continual need to meet change opportunistically, and the library has seen many sweeping shifts in policies, protocols, as well as the magical technology.

This scribe was there when the first of the library's many buildings was completely renovated and brought back to life to include the magical windows into the world called the internet. One by one the buildings were improved with electrical potions and wizardly objects to improve the fiefdom's subjects' access to that internet. Indeed, the advent of the World Wide Web and the continual improvement of computer wizardry brought about the end of the dynix catalog system. Wizardly support is no longer provided to the worn-out DYNA, and most libraries now choose web-based catalogs (and for all this scribe knows, may be the only large catalog system provided these days). Besides, the nobles had a duty to spend the taxes they'd collected for technology on technology, or they would have been fined.

The many scholars, squires, pages, subjects and nobles were quite used to using the old DYNA catalog. Some could even create rudimentary spells with it. One fellow squire tells me DYNA came into use back in 1989. Another squire told me back then they were told a few things, and were set loose to sink or swim. Nowadays we have intensive training to understand the many functions the wizardly tool provides. Some of the teachers were frustrated that they could not yet provide such complete training to their co-workers on the new catalog, but most merely shrugged, knowing at least we wouldn't literally be at risk of drowning. [not at all meant to convey any of the preparation and process was incompetent.]

The library computer wizards and the corporate computer wizards did all they could to make the princess's transition from one catalog to another as seamless as possible, but when it came down to it, when one died the other couldn't immediately be born. So on 6 pm, Sunday, September 11, DYNA was shut down at Multnomah County and squires and pages, whose job it is to check in books and shuffle them to their various places had to stop doing so for three days. Thanks to the foresight of the nobles and other middle-management types, they were not required to shuffle books about aimlessly for those three days, but gatekeepers locked the doors and pulled up the drawbridges until the books and other conveyors of thought and entertainment could be processed in the usual manner. The heralds made proclamations far and wide, so it is to be hoped the subjects heeded their words and don't leave their library materials outside the gates at risk of theft.

Reviews

Book: I started reading Why We Love by Helen Fisher sometime in August or September, put it down, and finally finished it sometime in December 2004. I've mentioned earlier that I found it useful in understanding the biochemistry of love. Near the end, I also found the strategies useful that Dr. Fisher gave for getting over a love. Among them were doing new things, keeping busy, getting exercise. These help raise natural dopamine levels. She also suggested doing new and exciting things together as a means to sustain an existing love, again to raise the dopamine levels. Considering she recommended these strategies that work with our bodies' nature, I thought she rather cavalierly dismissed polyamory as idealistic and impractical, tossing off jealousy as a reason it just couldn't work. She seems to pick and choose where we can make choices, depending on what she's trying to prove. It's still a useful book for understanding the nature of love.

Book: Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold is a great escape book. A girl raised by wolves could possibly be a lost princess. The author hints that this is a world previously colonized by a more advanced people, and it's possible "magic" is magic, or lost technology. With the court intrigue of a medieval age, SCA types would love this, I imagine. On the other hand, pagans would also love this for the wise royal animals, and the protagonist's ongoing wish to really be a wolf. A great combination of passion and complexity, but not too complex, this is good for forgetting about yourself, work, the world, etc. This review assumes it takes place on Earth, but this could be a new world colonized long before. The first of four books, I suspect as different alliances unwind between the countries, more history will come to light.

DVD: I guess I'm going to have to stop saying, "I'm not into anime," since I love Cowboy bebop, and anything by the director of Spirited Away. I just saw Tokyo Godfathers and I loved it. In an interview, the director said most anime is about cute girls, robots, and explosions. This one isn't. Three homeless people find an abandoned baby on Christmas night. They call her Kiyoko, for being so 'pure' on this purest of nights. This movie is a cross between one of my favorites, Raising Arizona, and It's a Wonderful Life. Like the baby in Raising Arizona, Kiyoko causes all sorts of fortunate circumstances to arise simply by being in the vicinity. She's the angel that inspires her godfathers to their full potential: the teenage runaway CAN go home; the middle-aged drop-out can become an action hero and a worthy father; the poetic drag queen can make the sacrifices of a mother for her family.

Website: Here's a nifty new website for library users. Everybody wants to be notified before their items are due, but that would bog down our telephone and computer notification system. They finally have their wish with libraryelf.com. I find myself wondering how a library gets listed on their system, because I know people who use our library as well as neighboring Clackamas County or Fort Vancouver. My sweetie might be pleased to know his home town's library is listed. I find myself wanting a bookmark to hand to those families who all have separate cards and all use them, and one harried mother or father feels compelled to keep track of the different due dates.

Life Happens

Life happens, and a month and a half goes by!

I finished this book: Pucker Up: A Hands-on Guide to Ecstatic Sex by Tristan Taormino. Taormino does a regular column for the Village Voice on sexuality. I love this book. I read it on my palm, usually while on the bus, so I've started to get turned on by riding transit! If there was any doubt in my mind, I now know I have strong submissive tendencies. (mmmm, the section on spanking and flogging) Taormino writes from a compassionate view of helping individuals and people in relationships explore their fantasies and inclinations. No judgement, either from the prudish end, or the kinky end (like assuming everyone's a top or bottom.) She writes with a sensitivity for the shyness people can feel about their hidden inclinations. She gives tips on how to broach the subject of fantasies with a possibly reluctant lover.

I went to Fat Girl Speaks, and wrote this poem while still drunk from the many drinks I imbibed with my husband, his girlfriend, and her friends:

i went to 'fat girl speaks' tonight.
and wowed
steve's girlfriend's girl friends.
(they said i'm 'good people')
and got
so fucking turned on
by all the sexy
fat girls
struttin their stuff.

so fuckin incredible
to see fat women
dancing burlesque
and stripping
without that
tentative fat girl
'may i exist?'
body apology.

so fuckin sexy
they were on stage
flabulous
and sexy
(and there were so many lesbians there,
why didn't i get any phone numbers?)

3 versions of 'fat-bottomed girls'
oooooo yeeeaaahh
that's ok
it did not get old

Other things that happened this month:

The new Central Seattle Public Library opened, and I must go see it. I cannot fathom this building until I experience it in person, it's so different.

My husband's birthday came and went. He, his girlfriend, and I went out to dinner at a fabulous restaurant.

My birthday came and went. I got my birthday spanking early at the Masturbate-athon. I organized the cloakroom volunteers and planned the party games, more volunteering than I've done for a Darklady party before. Several of us were quite happy to play Spin the Bottle, having missed our chance when kids. Truth or dare was a hit. My husband and I went to another pretty damn good restaurant on the day of my birthday.

Writing on my novel has taken a back seat to the work behind Change Your Mind Day in Portland. After all that work, I'm hoping a lot of people show up, and I'm nervous that they won't.