Month: July 2013

Elissa Gershowitz addresses the issue of trashy book and tween/teen readers in the July/August issue of “The Horn Book Magazine.”  Trashy books almost always contain steamy stuff (sex or lust), controlled substances, wish-fulfillment and, of course, escapism.  You usually don’t find any on a school reading list nor do most have any literary merit.  Most lack staying power, but some “take on a life of their own and continue to circulate among readers over years and even decades.”

It is too early to tell, Gershowitz states, whether the “Twilight” series will continue to be popular in the years to come.  It has, however, gained such popularity and spawned so many imitators that it looks like a good bet to do so.

Before there was Stephanie Meyer, there was V.C. Andrews, “the grande dame of literary trash-lit devoured by teens, who, spectacularly, put the “ick” in gothic when it comes to taboo teen sex.”  In 1979, “Flowers in the Attic” was published .  Four other titles were part of the Dollanganger series.  These novels swept their teen readers away.  In “Flowers in the Attic” beautiful Cathy is tragically removed from the outside world.  Would any of the readers want to actually be Cathy or Bella?  Probably not–but in the pages of these books, this kind of escapism really captured the imagination of their teen readers.

Other books in the classic “trashy” novel list are “Go Ask Alice” by Anonymous and the boy version “Jay’s Journal.”  These were cautionary tales dealing with wild parties, sex, drugs, and alcohol.  “Forever” by Judy Blume also makes the list.  In the 1970s, this novel was deemed scandalous.  Today opinion is divided.  Some people see it as “pornographic trash; others (notably librarians who are forced to defend it whenever Banned Books Week roll around) view it as worthy, groundbreaking young adult fiction.”

Newer possible additions to the “trashy list” are Cecily von Ziegesar’s “Gossip Girl” books and Sara Shepard’s “Pretty Little Liars.”  Just as the movies has kept the “Twilight” series popular, television has contributed to keeping Gossip Girls and Pretty Little Liars in the public eye.

Whether these contemporary “bad books” stand the test of time and take their place beside the books of Andrews, Blume, and “Anonymous” only their publishers and time will tell.

This is the title of an article in the March/April issue of Public Libraries in “The Wired Library” column. The author is R. Toby Greenwald, the Virtual Services Coordinator @ Skokie PL in Illinois. The main thrust of his column is the need for better ways to analyze data for measuring the effectiveness of libraries besides circ counts. Greenwald interviews a systems and training manager for a 54 member library system in upstate NY, Emily Clasper. She stresses the need for a method in place for libraries to collect “meaningful” data on non-circ related services, for example, ” library programming, online services, user engagement and facilities use” to better determine the return on investment (ROI) for her libraries. As services continually expand, Casper wants to see better use of data to measure how effectively libraries serve their patrons.

Greenwald then addresses four areas that he would like to collect data on, the first being the use of devices. For example, he suggests using patterns in Wi-Fi traffic to determine what devices people prefer, or to discover when to expect a spike in usage of broadband. Another area to examine is what he calls “third-spacers”: patrons who spend time in our areas for study or work, which sounded interesting. Many patrons do spend a good deal of time in libraries, but is this really taken into account with current statistics? The next area Greenwald uses calls “deep circulation,”: combining two measurements in analyzing circ data, such as looking at the time between cko’s to measure a book’s popularity. The last area is “user mapping” to use geographic info systems software to plot data over a map of a library’s service area, to determine any geographic barriers. I’m not too sure what he means by this last area, but it’s all food for thought.

We recently acquired two new juvenile biographies that explore the lives of two mathematics/scientists.  “On A Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein” was written by Jennifer Berne and illustrated by Vladimir Radunsky.  Berne has done an admirable job in telling the life story of man who gave the world so much insight into the complex universe and does it  in a way that children can understand.  Tracing his life from birth to old age, she explains Einstein’s early difficulties in school.  In spite of this rocky start, Einstein never stopped questionning how the world worked.  Radunsky’s illustrations complement the story.  The drawings are funny and unfussy.  His drawing  of Einstein is a caricature , wiry hair and all, of the man who would be called a genius.

“The Boy Who Loved Math:  The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos” is by Deborah Heiligman with pictures by LeUyen Pham.  Erdos was an eccentric probably from his earliest years.  He was catered to by his mother and governess to the extent that he could not as an adult do the simplest tasks like cooking his food or doing his laundry.  Numbers were the only thing he cared about.  Heiligman focuses on the accomplishments that Erdos achieved.  His personal life, including the fact that he took amphetamines, is not discussed.  Pham infuses each page with numbers and number symbols.  Notes from the author and illustrator, at the end of the book , offer more in depth explanations of math theories.  Any budding mathematician would find this an interesting story.

Someone mentioned to me that some libraries do not allow children under age 5 to join the library program (not Palisades). They were unhappy that their children were not welcome to join as a “being read to” patron which would encourage and motivate them to read. I am glad we allow the younger set to join as non-readers to encourage their reading and entice them at an early age to be library users.