Parenthetical

Note: Even more than usual, note the disclaimer. I am speaking my own mind, not that of my Library Director (quoted in this article) or my school. Today’s New York Times includes an online Room for Debate feature: Do School Libraries Need Books? The debaters include James Tracy, Head of the now infamous in library [...]

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I’m too cheap to attend the American Library Association conference for real. But I am not too cheap to spend $35 on an exhibit pass when the conference happens to swing by my town! That $35 easily paid for itself in free ARCs this evening alone: The Prince of Mist, Carlos Ruiz Zafon Green Witch, [...]

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The kids are always horrified by this, but sometimes we get rid of books. Usually there’s a good reason. Sometimes there’s a very, very good reason. I want to share with you some of the best that cross my desk on their way to the “free books” cart… Crosbie, John S. Crosbie’s Dictionary of Puns. [...]

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We were delighted to host the charming Shannon Hale a couple of weeks ago! She signed great heaping piles of books while chatting with our kids, gave a fabulous presentation to a room full of rapt middle schoolers, and even handled their slight rowdiness (born only of enthusiasm, I assure you) like a teaching pro. [...]

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ETA: This seems to be confusing people, so I’ll make it extra-clear: this is not my school! Just another independent school in MA. Our li’l MA independent school library world is national news: the headmaster of Cushing Academy was interviewed on Here and Now today (listen to “Technology in the Classroom”). What’s the deal? Basically, [...]

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Given their “rather fluffy skeletal structure,” Peeps have some special difficulties using the library… but in their research and printing practices, it turns out that they are much like college students. Comment here

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Or at least, a cake pan: Check out a cake pan from your library Apparently they have Spiderman and enchanted castles! Because I’m a librarian, my first thoughts were: a) that must be expensive to send through interlibrary loan, and b) which low-level employee gets stuck with scrubbing the poorly cleaned cake pans? I know, [...]

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I’m not generally in the habit of posting pictures of myself in this blog (or anywhere else on the internet), but I figure if I’m going to use my real name, I can use my real face. And I’m unreasonably proud of this: (My colleague is making a display of librarian favorites, and she asked [...]

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Voting is over, unfortunately, but you should go watch the finalists of the Gale Cengage Librareo video contest. (If for some reason you can’t get enough amateur music videos about books, all of the entries are available on YouTube.) My two favorites were “Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse” (whose song is written to the tune of [...]

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When I first read the title of today’s Library Link of the Day, from The Times Online — “The new library fad: borrow a person” — I assumed it was a clever way to structure knowledge sharing sessions. Want to learn to set up an email account or knit a scarf? Borrow one of the [...]

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