All Hail National Library Week!

Darn that American Library Association and their need to make the focus of National Library Week as broad and all-encompassing as ever! This year’s theme for National Library Week (April 13-19) is: Lives change @ your library [sic]. Well, sure they do—libraries are the cornerstone of education and community.

We at Langsdale would like to join in celebrating patrons and their library experiences at this special time in April, but in order to make it meaningful, we’ve narrowed our focus to make this occasion something a little more manageable thematically. That’s why this Thursday, from 8-9 p.m., we’re hosting the Library Basement Reading Series: We Heal with Words. (Healing is life-changing, right?). Seven MFA students will share their original fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Join us and Kendral Dickerson, Sharea Harris, Amanda May, Jessica Welch, Nick Richard, Michelle Junot, Lisa Vanwormer, and emcee Ron Williams.

Recommended for YOU

Have you ever noticed the ‘recommendations for you’ section on many retail webpages, and do you wonder how the items are chosen? Well, if you go by Amazon, you’ll have to do some mind meld with the techies in that company, because they won’t share the algorithm they use to determine recommendations. There seems to be some connections being made from our searches, purchases and even the amount of time you spend on a product’s page that can influence the items Amazon will recommend for you.

My job here in the Book and Document Delivery department requires us to obtain publisher information, page counts, the ISBN, (International Standard Book Number, in case you wondered what ISBN stood for) even book size/dimensions. I use Amazon as a reference tool to locate information about items we do not own.

Of course this can really throw a wrench in the suggestions I receive, since my searches range over the wide selection of areas of study here at UB. From highly technical writing to poetry to books on fly fishing. Here are the titles of the top 5 recommended books for me from Amazon this week:

F in Exams: The Very Best Totally Wrong Test Answers

Practical Candleburning Rituals: Spells and Rituals for Every Purpose

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

Research Methods for Everyday Life: Blending Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Female Authority: Empowering Women through Psychotherapy

Have you ever checked out the items recommended for you from Amazon? Do you think they “know” you better than you know yourself? In my case, I must answer “no”. I guess that would be a way for my boss to determine if I’m “shirking my duties” ... if she ever looks up my recommendations and all she sees are books on gardening, low-carb cooking and murder mysteries. Then she would know what I’ve been doing all day.

Lists for Some. Miniature American Flags for Others.

A general accounting is in order. Or anyway, that seems to be the custom this time of year. Thanksgiving just passed--a time for us to think back on all the stuff we're thankful for--and New Year's Eve is just another few, short weeks away. And since it seems we're already predisposed toward going over the whirl of time that has so quickly passed us by this last year, it seems only natural that many enterprising websites, newspapers, and magazines would distill what they believe the most important, or best, or most shocking, events into an easy-to-swallow list. I'll stay away from "events" in a strict sense (news, celebrity, etc.) and give you a selection of Best-Books/Movies lists below-- think of this as a best of the best-of lists:

Best Books

• New York Times "100 Notable Books of 2013" & "10 Best Books of 2013"
• New Yorker "The Best Books of 2013, Part 1"
• GoodReads readers poll of "Best Books of 2013"
• The Seattle Times "31 of the Best Titles of 2013"
• Slate "Best Books 2013: Slate Staff Picks"

Best Movies (and a list of Worst Movies)

• New York Times "Feasts for the Eyes, 1,001 Nights’ Worth: A. O. Scott’s Top Movies of 2013"
• Los Angeles Times "AFI Announces its Top Movie and TV P rograms for 2013"
• Indiwire.com "John Waters Lists 'Spring Breakers,' 'Blue Jasmine' & More On His Top 10 Films Of 2013"
• Indiwire.com "Quentin Tarantino’s Top 10 Films of 2013 (So Far) ..."
• The Week "The 10 Worst-Reviewed Movies of 2013"

A Dystopian Love Affair

With the holiday break quickly approaching, take some time to explore new authors!

Kristen Simmons is an upcoming young-adult author. Her first publications, Article 5 and Breaking Point are part of a trilogy; with the third installment, Three, due to be released in early February, 2014.

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials and maybe worse. People who get arrested don’t usually come back.

Get to Know Jeffrey Hutson

Jeffrey Hutson, Associate Director

Jeffrey received a master's degree in library and information studies from Simmons College in 1999, where he graduated with honors. He also holds a master's in theology and a bachelor's in education, from St. John's University School of Theology and St. John's University, respectively.

Prior to arriving at UB, Hutson worked as a religious studies librarian at the Catholic University of America's Mullen Library, and as a public services librarian at St. John's before that.

As Jeffrey is sharing his collection of postcards in the display case located on the first floor of Langsdale, we asked Jeffrey to tell us a little about his collection:

For many years I’d been interested in postcards and would pick them up here and there. Then for a few years I managed a small library gift shop which afforded me the opportunity to go yearly to gift fairs in New York and/or San Francisco where I’d notice these free modern advertising postcard racks in restaurants and bookstores and movie theaters. So I’d make it a point to grab one of each of the cards. My collecting really took off when I was living in Boston while working on my library degree; the postcard racks were all over Boston and I had a list of venues where they were placed, so when I needed a break from studying, I’d go around and pick up cards on a monthly basis. With the help of friends who live in large cities, I’ve been able to add to the collection and over the years I’ve acquired about six thousand cards. My most recent acquisition (picked up at the American Library Association meeting in June) is a set of seven postcards promoting the services of a company named Backstage Library Works.

Organize Your Summer Reading

I don't have much time for leisure reading during the school year, so I try to keep track of books on the bestseller lists from the New York Times and Amazon, and lists from magazines, book reviews, and books buzzed about in the news. When the pace slows down a bit over the summer or on vacation, I like to make sure I have some ideas for new books to dive into. There's a lot of great ways to organize books you've read or books you want to read. Here are just a few:
 

Goodreads
This social media site for readers lets you see what you're friends are reading, what your friends want to read, and you can post updates to let others know how far you are in a book and write reviews. It's the one tool I use to keep track of my reads and to get ideas for what to read next. You can even create or join discussion groups, like this one for Anne Arundel County Public Library.

LibraryThing
Make your own library out of your book collection using this website. It lets people post reviews, recommend books, and keep track of what they are reading.

WorldCat Lists
Langsdale Library uses WorldCat Local as a way to search for books. You can also create an account to create lists of books, like this user-created list. Langsdale creates its own lists for things like books by UB Faculty.

Pinterest
A social media site based around images, many people have created book-based pin boards to keep track of books they love, book reviews, or books they want to read. The Pinterest page for Enoch Pratt Free Library has pin boards for book reviews, special collections, and pictures of Enoch Pratt library.

Twitter
With a limit of 140 characters, #1book140 has managed to create book discussions on Twitter. The page also posts information on books and other book clubs. Maryland libraries are using the twitter tag #summerreading to talk about summer reading programs and to give book recommendations. You can easily join the conversation and share what you're reading by using the same tag #summerreading

What do you use to organize your reads?

List of Lists

Almost everyone loves a good list.  That is one reason why several sites like Amazon, GoodReads and LibraryThing allow readers to make lists of books.  These lists can often be a source of inspiration if you are looking for your next read.

Langsdale Library 's catalog also has a list making option and we have started to create several lists that could help you find something in the library that you never knew we had.  Among the list of items in Langsdale are DVDs, books written by UB faculty or alumni, new reference books (several of which are available online as ebooks) and items from our new fraud library.

If there are other lists you would like to see let us know, or go ahead and make one yourself!

Tomes About Toys

Feeling playful?  To dovetail our February case display theme—vintage toys—Langsdale has some particularly juicy reads in its collection about invention and the business of playthings. The books Barbie and Ruth by Robin Gerber, and Toy Monster by Jerry Oppenheimer are specifically about Mattel, Inc., the California-based powerhouse responsible for such iconic toys as the Barbie doll and Hot Wheels miniature cars.  

Barbie and Ruth is a biography focusing on the life of Ruth Mosko Handler, who, along with her husband Elliott Handler, founded Mattel in the late 1940s. She is most famous worldwide for her creation of Barbie, a perennially popular fashion doll that debuted on the market in 1959. While Elliott Handler was a gifted artist, designer, and toy developer, business-savvy, hard-charging Ruth provided the impetus that got Mattel—the entire company, mind you, not just Barbie—off the ground. Mattel stepped into the toy biz at just the right time, as baby boomers became Mattel’s primary demographic, and children and their parents were clamoring for a never-ending supply of new and novel playthings. Eventually Ruth took a gamble on buying year-round advertising (unheard of at the time—previously, most toy advertising was confined to the holiday season only) on the Mickey Mouse Club, which debuted in 1955. Genius move: Mattel’s sales skyrocketed.

A few years later, despite a nearly unanimous chorus of (mostly male) colleagues and experts advising Handler against marketing the busty Barbie doll (most dolls on the market were baby dolls, encouraging girls in traditional wife-and-mother role-play), Ruth forged ahead with Barbie. She was convinced that the tiny “teen fashion model” reflected the aspirations of little girls everywhere, and that the doll provided a blank screen upon which they could project their fantasies of adulthood. 

Gerber’s book doesn’t shy away from discussing the competitively-charged ruthlessness of the toy business and even of Ruth Handler herself, but Oppenheimer’s Toy Monster goes one step further, pitting Handler against Barbie’s other alleged creator, eccentric engineer and inventor Jack Ryan, in a high-stakes game of corporate one-upmanship.  Ryan, the designer of the Sparrow and Hawk missiles for his former employer Raytheon, was hired by Mattel for his design savvy and facility with space-age materials. He retooled the German Bild-Lilli doll into Barbie (Bild-Lilli was the blueprint on which Barbie was based, which resulted in some litigation between the doll’s German makers and Mattel), made revolutionary talking mechanisms for dolls such as Chatty Cathy, and improved upon the designs of Mattel’s largest toy car competitor with the invention of the Hot Wheels line of miniature cars.  Mattel was so reliant on Ryan’s many patents that Ruth became uncomfortable with the power he wielded, as well as and the vast sums that Mattel had to pay him.  Eventually Handler found a way to make Ryan’s patents obsolete so that the company wouldn’t have to compensate him. Handler’s reign at Mattel ended in 1974, after she was charged with securities fraud and nearly bankrupted the company.

Both of these books are a fascinating glimpse into the inner workings of the toy biz. Even if you aren’t a fan of Barbie, it’s fun to read about the art and business of invention—particularly when the protagonists have a reputation for playing dirty.

Getting to know U, Senior Year

Meet Adele Marley

Adele works in the Circulation department here at Langsdale. Having started here not too long ago, Adele has stayed close to her old place of employement, the Decker Library at MICA, only a few steps away from UB's campus and the Langsdale Library.

Adele is the last staff member this summer to participate in the "Getting to Know U" series of display cases and materials recommended by our staff. We asked Adele some questions to help everyone get to know her better.

Adele is a newlywed, and a voracious collector. Her favorite must be her Pyrex collection. For this display, Adele has shared her collection of hankies, napkins and table cloths designed by Tammis Keefe.

Why did you start collecting? How long have you collected? Which is your favorite?

"I am fascinated by graphics and textile design (even though I don’t sew), particularly vintage graphics. I’m not sure how I started noticing Tammis Keefe items except I was probably searching for kitty-themed tea towels, and found one designed by TK. The graphic was so charming that I started seeking her stuff out. She’s interesting to me because she was only active and prolific in textile design for a short time (during the “mid century” boom in design), but I think she was really a hard act to follow. Unfortunately Keefe’s career was cut short by fate (like my other fave creative genius, writer Flannery O’Connor.) Her designs are so witty—like showing drunken elephants dancing on cocktail napkins, or depicting pigs and cows on a BBQ-themed tablecloth. In my view, when you’re creative AND funny, you’ve got it all in terms of being an artist.

My favorite pieces are my kitty tea towel, my BBQ tea towel (where a pig and cow have little lines drawn on them highlighting their anatomy as cuts of meat.) My top favorite hanky I gave away. It had little raccoons on it, wearing bandit masks; they were carrying sacks of money. It was so cute. Anyway, I brought it with me to my father’s funeral, and my sister started to weep when we were at the gravesite, so I slipped her my hanky. She hasn’t given it back yet--- dang!"

What story does your family always tell about you?

"I’m the youngest in my family by far, so my brother and sisters have a lot of dirt on me.

Story 1: I don’t know how funny this is. To me, it’s just weird. Anyway, I’m told that I loudly declared I wanted to be a nun at the dinner table when I was in 2nd grade. My siblings snickered, and my father shot them a dirty look. Dad was probably remembering that Sunday in my infancy when a bunch of nuns asked if they could “borrow” me for a few minutes. For some reason, my father consented. The nuns all gathered ‘round and prayed over me—they needed an infant for some “offering.” This ritual had to do with what Catholics call the Sacrament of Vocation. The hope is that if they pray over the infant, the baby—or some baby somewhere—will someday become a nun like them. My father was overjoyed that this had happened to me. I was a teenager by the time he confided this incident. No slur on Catholic nuns, but I found it very unsettling. Also, it didn’t take. Oh, well. Never say never.

Story 2: Another sister recalls that as a toddler I locked her and my mother in the basement when they were surprised by huge black snake while doing laundry. Honestly, what’s the big deal? I didn’t want the snake to come upstairs. Besides, they wouldn’t stop screaming."

What was your favorite food when you were a child?

"A hamburger. So boring, right? My mom HATED packing lunches because I didn’t really like anything but tuna fish or cheese and crackers. Once in a blue moon, I’d open my Holly Hobby lunch box, and she would have packed a cold hamburger as a treat."

What is one of your favorite quotes?

“Drinking is the cause of—and solution to—all of life’s problems.” -Homer Simpson

If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose? 

"Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, no question. Not that I’m really into Disney stuff, but I love my Maleficent costume so much that I wish I could have worn it to my wedding! It’s completely BADASS."

If you could paint a picture of any scenery you’ve seen before, what would you paint?

"I love the photorealist streetscapes of painter Richard Estes. If I had his ability and art smarts, I would definitely paint urban scenery. His work makes everything seem so hyper-real and detailed. You realize that your perspective on street scenes is selective—you seldom notice telephone wires, trash in the gutter, discarded gum darkened and hardened in splats on the sidewalk. But it’s all there."

And finally, Adele has recommended some library materials to be added to the the display, we asked Adele to tell us a little about her choices.

'I like trash! No, really…I do. I think the theme that runs through what I like to read and watch is that there’s an exploitation aspect to it. For instance, in Sayo Masuda’s Autobiography of a Geisha, the author reveals that her life as a low-level geisha at a Japanese spa is tantamount to sexual slavery. Masuda was sold into this life by her impoverished family, and the worst part is that she’s pretty bad at what she does. Eventually she loses 'sponsors' in her work as concubine, and has to make her own way—a nearly insurmountable task given her lowly social status. That Masuda survives on her own terms and still manages to find joy somehow in her life is amazing to me. So, really, you can learn a lot from trash—or at least what the ratings board would call 'adult situations'. "


Check out Adele's list of recommended items here:


http://ubalt.worldcat.org/profiles/HorizontalDisplay/lists/3002739

Four for the Fourth

Looking for something to read for the 4th of July? You have a whole day off, you might as well take advantage of it by reading one of Langsdale Library's fascinating books.

How about kicking back with a copy of The Fourth of July, by Peter de Bolla. This book talks about the history of the holiday and how the date of the celebration is somewhat misleading, since the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 2nd. In fact, why not celebrate tonight and then read the book on the Fourth?



Ever wonder what women were doing during the Revolutionary War and before? Check out Revolutionary Mothers by Carol Berkin. Read about women writing propaganda and raising funds for the army. Learn about how they ran farms and businesses when their husbands were away at war. Some women apparently served as spies and warriors themselves.




More interested in modern times? Take a look at The Business of Holidays, edited by Maud Lavin. This witty book takes a look at modern celebrations throughout the year and the role retail plays in the way we play. Filled with full page color photos, this might be a good one to flip through during a barbecue. Try to avoid getting grease stains on the book, though, please.



America's Boardwalks: From Coney Island to California, by James Lilliefors looks like a fun trip through history. Why not take this one to the beach?