. . . OR SHOULD IT BE “THE GRIEF”?

I’m holding a 100 year-old copy of Edith Wharton’s The Reef that is part of West Chester Public Library’s collection.

In a search to find out whether it was recorded in the library’s old accession books, we found the following:
The Reef, by Edith Wharton, published in 1912, was purchased early in 1913 from John Wanamaker’s store, Philadelphia, for $1.17.
(I didn’t know that Wanamaker’s sold books, but according to the accession records, WCPL purchased numerous books from them. I wish I could have seen the store in 1913!)

I’m thinking this copy must have been required reading at some point because of the commentary on the opening page. Someone wrote (thankfully in pencil) “good” in the corner. Another person followed that with “good?” and in still different writing, someone had replaced the title with “The Grief.”

Wouldn’t you like to know how
many people have picked up this
very book in the last 100 years? I,
for one, love the feeling of holding
a 100 year-old book in my hands. I
think I’ll read it.

Contributed by a Staff Member and Devoted Reader.

LG’s note – this book suffers from the 100 year curse, meaning the curse of acid paper.  The pages of this book are already very brittle; dog-ear one of the pages, and the corner will simply break off.  We’ll retire this little tome to the special collection shelves and replace it with a new copy.

The 6th Annual Literacy Heroes Breakfast when we honor eight literacy heroes is fast approaching.  Set for Friday, April 8, 7:30am at Longwood Gardens, the breakfast is an occasion to honor  individuals, organizations and businesses that have fostered and promoted literacy in Chester County, and sometimes beyond, in the past year.

And, the library has its heroes too: heroes who support the Literacy Heroes Breakfast and WCPL’s mission and work in the community.  This year’s stellar sponsors are Verizon (Literacy Heroes Presenting Sponsor), and QVC, Inc and Exelon (both Literacy Heroes Lead Sponsors).

Not only do these wonderful folks support library programs and services with their sponsorships, they also assist with myriad tasks to help make the Literacy Heroes Breakfast a success.

Our other 6th Annual Literacy Heroes sponsors, some of whom like Verizon have been with the event for six years, are:

Category Sponsors :    CTDI, Hankin Group, Otto’s BMW

Contributing Sponsors:  1-2-3 Awards, Halladay Florist, Reino’s Design Print Mail, VideoNet, 6abc Action News, The Daily Local News, West Pharmaceuticals, CCIU, 1NBank, Proflowers.com, CitadelFCU, Kevin High Photography, PECO, West Chester LLC.

Read more about Literacy Heroes and on April 8 check back to see this year’s winners unveiled!  You’ll love the stories.

Today, two wonderful new children’s books crossed our desk.  Both elevate the humble book to art, delighting both the eye and the spirit.

The first is a simple story of two children and their families – one from Australia the other from Morocco – titled Mirror, by Jeannie Baker.  Sounds like a trite topic.  In the hands of author and illustrator Jeannie Baker the trite becomes magical.  There is an introductory text given both in English and Arabic.  The rest of the story is told in wonderful pictures – collages Baker created to tell the story of the seemingly vastly different lives of the two main characters.

The key is that Baker tells the stories of the two families side-by-side: the “English” story moves from left to right on one side of the book; the “Arabic” from right to left on the opposite side.  You have to see this, hold it in your hands and page through the book to truly appreciate the art – both of the collages and of the construction of the book itself.  The pictures here only give you the general idea.

The other book is one I want on my shelves!  What fun…

Barney Saltzberg has created a wonderful little book designed to encourage creativity (not just in children!) and a willingness to see a Beautiful Oops! as a new possibility.  Saltzberg plays with a torn page and a spill, a bent corner on a piece of paper and a scrap of paper, not to mention the inevitable “little drip of paint,” to create a crocodile or a penguin or a fun playmate. 

There are flaps to lift and peek under and pages to turn to see what happens to the “oops.”   Exploring the hole in a paper is the best, in my estimation!

More photos are over on our Flickr page.

Now that I have a B&N Nook I’ve been looking for ebooks to read.  One place that has turned out to be a fun look into the past, and source of some interesting reads, is the Gutenberg Project.

At first, it looked like most of what was listed was digital versions of musty, boring old tomes that didn’t look in the least bit interesting.  Then, I found the Cooking & Food listing (I’ll share how I got to this and other lists in the GP files in a moment).  I collect cookbooks (very selectively) and was fascinated to find not just English language cook books listed, but some in French, Spanish and German.

I was able to look through a 1918 war-time cookbook that gave homemakers recipes that saved on “Wheat, Meats, Fat and Sugar” – foods desperately needed by the US Army to feed soldiers and in the effort to keep Europeans from starving.  Interesting to note that this little cookbook advocates eating less red meat for health reasons!

Another list of interest was Travel.  There I found travelogues covering Russia in 1858, France in 1917, the “new found lands of Virginia,” and “a lady’s life on a farm in Manitoba.”  You can read Henry James’ account of his travels in France and Anthony Trollope’s A Ride Across Palestine.”

These titles are all free to download and read when you want for as long as you want.  You can easily access this list through the Chester County Library System’s website, then click on the Downloadable Audio & eBooks icon.  The direct link is here.

To download, view and transfer titles (to an ereader) you’ll need the Adobe Digital Editions software, available here. Follow their instructions to set up an Adobe account and authenticate your PC.  Then plug your ereader into the PC, download/save the GP title you want to your PC, add it to the ADE library(via the “Library” drop-down menu), and then transfer to the ereader.

Happy reading.  Who knows what you’ll find.

The Collegium Charter School Elementary Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Mrs. Theresa Sundwall, did a fabulous job of entertaining folks who stopped by the library for the Holiday Open House on Friday evening December 3.  A big thank you from the library!

Sometime every summer, a little list slips onto the YA shelves near the School Summer Reading titles. Every once in a while, books featured on that list are on display and teen readers snatch the books up. This quiet little list is actually not that quiet at all. It is a nationally recognized list of books chosen by teens, for teens, and mostly about teens from a variety of genres.

This list is the Teens’ Top Ten Nomination list (compiled by YALSA-American Library Association).

Just by looking at the list this year, there are some really, really popular books everything from titles everyone can’t stop talking about to titles that make you remember “Oh yeah, I wanted to read that.” To me, this year’s list is extra good as I often find that almost everything is checked out!

Have you (or parents, your teen) been reading the titles? Have you read only a handful, but feel they are the best? Vote! Yes, vote for your favorite books and see if they make it to the Teens’ Top Ten List! Voting opened on August 23rd and goes until September 17th! Winners will be announced in October 2010, during Teen Read Week.

Until then, vote and tell your friends to vote, and pass the word! After you vote, check in October 2010 to see which books are the Teens’ Top Ten Books of 2010.

Remember this post where we sampled some of what maybe the most anticipated books-to-movies coming out for 2010?

Once again, 2010 is just full of books-to-movies coming out. Some of the latest have been:

• Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World based on the Scott Pilgrim series by Bryan Lee O’Malley.  (Due out August 13)
• Flipped based on the book by Wendelin Van Draanen (Due out August 27)
• It’s Kind of a Funny Story based on the book by Ned Vizzini (Due out September 24)

And some books to TV including the Pretty Little Liars series, which is based off of these books.

In Twilight news, Break Dawn is slated for a two part release, one in November 2011 and another in 2012.

Don’t forget to check the catalog for the books and for the DVDs (when they are released). Some in the previous post may be on DVD now.

Did we forget something you’re looking forward to (such as Beastly based on the book by Alex Flinn which has been pushed from 2010 to 2011)? Let us know in the comments.

We’re still here! And so is Y.A. Wednesday! We are in full Summer Reading Mode with lots of books being checked out as well as activities for Children and Teens hence why the blog has been quiet. Have you noticed the “Important News” toward the top of the web page? This is where we list upcoming events and closures so if you want to see what we have happening this week, just check that!

With the return of Y.A. Wednesday, I’d like to draw your attention to the Teen Summer Reading Program. Teens (ages 13-18) still have time to sign up if they’d like a chance to win one of the two gift bags we have left or collect Book Dollars for the Big Bash on August 20th! The last day to sign up is August 6th by 5 PM! After that, teens will have 2 weeks to collect Book Dollars for the Big Bash or Raffle Tickets for the last prize bag so there is plenty of time to get something.

If you have signed up for the Teen Summer Reading Club or know a teen who has, but hasn’t been collecting Book Dollars or Raffle Tickets because s/he lost their log in information, contact us!

Happy reading!

Just a little history I was reminded of while watching Swing Kids last evening.   Not sure how the connection came, but the German resistance, in this case by young people with a passion for American jazz and swing, reminded me of a little known event of 56 years ago that also involved resistance.  I remember it only because a family member witnessed it.

The event in question is the workers’ uprising in Berlin of June 16-17, 1953.  Some 6,000 people showed up for a protest on the 16th and on the 17th some 17,000 or more took to the streets.  They were met by Soviet and East German tanks who opened fire on them.   Many were killed, thousands arrested.  The uprising was crushed, nevertheless, it planted the seed of future revolts against the Communist regimes of the East Block countries.  There are a number of accounts of the events surrounding the 17th.  And, this YouTube video has photos of the day, including protested taking down the flag from the Brandenburg Gate.

So, what did my eyewitness see?  Hundreds of people listening to speeches in a public square.  And then, the sound of tanks approaching – they entered the square at one side and advanced on the crowd.  Many clambered over a six-foot wall to escape and then they ran.  One thing my eyewitness saw was a young German effectively stopping a tank – by ramming a crowbar into the tank tracks on one side.  Made the tank go around in circles since the jammed track could not advance any more.

My eyewitness, an American who could not afford to be caught in East Berlin, made out and back to the western sector of Berlin.  My eyewitness’ account of this day still gives me the shivers.

There has been lots of verbiage going around on the ‘net about Facebook’s privacy policies or lack there of.  Many folks now advocate opting out by deleting one’s account (not an easy thing to do; Facebook really really wants you to stay) and Dan Yoder over at rocket.ly has is list of Top Ten Reasons You Should Quit Facebook.  The fact that nothing you post on Facebook is ever truly private is a compelling reason, if that is something you are concerned about (there are lots of reasons why many people do care about privacy).  To counter Yoder’s position, read David Lee King’s 10 Reasons NOT to Quit Facebook.

Which ever way you go, remember that your personal information is yours to control.  You can tailor your Facebook profile and feed to suit: read this post by librarian Bobbi Newman on opting out.  Also look at Facebook’s own Help Center pages like this one on Social Plug-Ins.

Regardless of your decision about Facebook, or any other social media, be aware of what you are putting out on the Internet about yourself.  None of it really ever goes away and some of it can come back to haunt you.  Or worse.

Quick update on another issue with Facebook profiles and apps, from Today @ PCWorld blog.