Book Review Friday: A Drowned Maiden's Hair

 

 In 1909, an 11-year-old orphan named Maud is adopted by the three elderly Hawthorne sisters from the Barbary Asylum for Female Orphans.  The Hawthornes tell Maud she will be their secret child, their angel child.  And though she is dressed in fine clothes and finally has enough food to eat, Maud is kept hidden in the house and sees no one except the Hawthornes and their deaf maid, Muffet.   At first, Maud is thrilled with this new arrangement, but something isn't quite right and the more Maud learns about her new family, the more troubled she becomes. The three old ladies are mediums and they put Maud to work in their seances as they attempt to fleece the gullible hoping for contact with the spirit world. The story is spooky and charming with an over-the-top ending.   A Drowned Maiden's Hair: A Melodrama was author Laura Amy Schlitz's first novel, published in 2006.

Other books by Laura Amy Schlitz:

The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village
The Night Fairy
Splendors and Glooms

How does your library's website rate?

Here's a great blog post about the importance of the library's website from the reDUX blog from the Libraries of Indiana University.  In "The Library Website as Place," author Anne Haines explores the idea that "... our website serves as our front door for a rapidly increasing percentage of users, and it needs to be at least as welcoming, as professional, and as helpful as our physical entry points are."

Reading Wildly? What a great idea!!

I came across a great blog post by abby the librarian.  Abby is a youth services librarian in Indiana looking for ideas on how to get her staff to move from good readers' advisory to great readers' advisory.   Reading more seems to be the key.  We can only do so much with reviews and Novelist.  Really being able to talk about books involves reading them.

Several librarians commented on methods they are using at their libraries to encourage staff to read more.  Some are required to submit a book review to their library's blog each month.  Others do book talks at monthly staff meetings.  One suggested a genre reading plan organized by librarians down under in Australia called read watch play. Others post reviews on a shared Google doc.  Abby suggested organizing a program of "reading wildly" and encouraging her staff to read around the genres.  She's creating a Good Reads account and will ask staff members to create accounts also and record reviews there. 

My library doesn't have an organized plan for encouraging us to read more.  But I try to read a lot and post titles and some reviews to my Shelfari account.  This year I think it's time to step up the reading and especially to read more titles outside of my comfort zone.  I don't know about Horror, but perhaps some Chicklit, Urban Fiction, and Westerns? 

The end of Reference?

I visited a local library yesterday that has done away with its Reference collection.   The books are gone, the space has been repurposed.  There is a small ready reference collection behind the Information desk.  I noticed several copies of the most popular college guides in the circulating non-fiction collection.  I hope some of their other reference works have also been moved to circulating non-fiction.  There is a print encyclopedia in a corner of the YA department.  The head of Adult Reference explained that she felt the collection was unused and therefore unnecessary.

I wonder.

The Reference collection is the most underused collection in the library.  But does that mean it is unnecessary?  I don't think so.  I think it is time to re-think the Reference collection.

To that end I did a little (very little) research and found this blog post from Brian Herzog, the Swiss Army Librarian (cool library blog), about the overhaul he gave the reference collection in his library in Massachusetts. In brief, they weeded the heck out of the collection, moved many of the single volume books into circulating non-fiction, and converted the remaining reference collection into small, free-standing, easily accessible subject collections.  The circulating reference is 7-day, non-renewable, and non-requestable (by other libraries). They converted the space into three 8x8 quiet study rooms.

I like it.

I like that there's still a Reference collection.  If we dump the entire collection aren't we throwing up our hands and saying 'Google wins'?  I like the fact that Herzog recognized that patrons want more access to the books not less.  Is it scary to let a big, expensive reference book walk out under the arm of a teenager?  Absolutely.  But isn't it scarier to let that kid go home thinking the library is a pain in the butt and it's easier to find his answers on Google?

I think it's time to reintroduce our patrons to the Reference collection.  Tell them what we've got.  Show them how it can help.  It's time for a little good old fashioned marketing.  Maybe some subject heading signs next to the Dewey numbers.  Maybe a display of some eye-catching Reference.  Could we make the first 5 photocopies free if its a Reference Book?  And maybe, just maybe it's time to let them check a few of our babies out.

Pinning in the Library

I have been having fun playing with Pinterest lately.  I've created lots of pinboards to organize my own interests.  One of my boards is labeled Library and I pin all the great display ideas, funny or pithy quotes, and other library related items I find on that board.  Then when we're talking about such things at work, I can actually find them again to show my co-workers because they're all in one handy place.
Something I've noticed (and love) is the number of libraries that are creating Pinterest accounts and using the boards to showcase displays, events, and booklists.  Very, very cool.  If you want to browse these library accounts go to Pinterest, search for "libraries" and limit your search to "People."
Over at the RA for All blog, Becky has written a couple of posts about using Pinterest in the library.  I'll try any tool that will help connect people with books they'll love.