eCampus Workshop at Ocee - January 19th

This workshop is designed to acquaint you with the continuing education courses available to you through the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System's eCampus. If you are interested in attending, email juree.hall@fultoncountyga.gov to register, or to ask further questions.

Thanks!

We had a GREAT turnout at our recruiting meeting and were so excited to meet a really diverse group of interested volunteers. It's giving new life to our Friends group, and we are even going to plan a book sale for March now!  We'll be having another strategy meeting December 12th at 7 PM to figure out where we want to go from here, and then we'll have a meeting in January to plan the book sale. If you're interested in a position on our board, please attend the December meeting, and if you'd just like to help us with the book sale, keep an eye out at the end of the year for more details on the January meeting.

One of our prospective board members (thanks, Patricia!) sent me some information to share - this really interesting Library Calculator, that shows the monetary value of your library use, and also news about an author talk:

Anne Lamott Speaks

Mon., Nov. 19 at 7:00 pm
First Baptist Church of Decatur

Lamott returns with an inspiring and compelling new book, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. This is a free event. No reservations required; doors will open at 6 p.m. Sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book and FBCD Conversations Ministry.

Some more information on Lamott's talk is here; Anne wrote one of my all-time favorite books, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year (available at Ocee). Her focus has mostly turned to spirituality with her latest books - the one she will be speaking about at this event (not yet available at the library) has gotten some great reviews.

One of our board members (hi, Aileen!) is giving out rave book reviews as well: she loved The Round House by Louise Erdrich (available through the library's floating collection), which won the National Book Award last night (and was also named Amazon's Book of the Year this week), and In the Shadow of the Banyan Tree by Vaddy Ratney (available at Ocee), a "fictionalized memoir of Khmer Rouge and the fall of Cambodia through the eyes of a child in the royal family driven from life of privilege into the chaos of the takeover by communists". There are currently waiting lists for both of these titles, but they sound like they'll be worth it.

Hope to see you Nov. 9th!

Additional info can also be found in the post below.

Changes are afoot!

So maybe your kids are back in school, or you're newly retired, or between jobs (this would look great on a resume!), and you've got some time on your hands? Maybe you're a member of a book club, or a group of friends or neighbors who would love to make a difference in the community? Maybe you belong to a service organization that needs a new project? Well, have we got a deal for you!

We want to shake things up here at the Friends of the Ocee Library. We're looking for people who love the library and have some time and energy to spare, and would be interested in serving on our Board.

The Ocee Library needs the support of a Friends organization - our charitable fundraising (primarily in the form of book sales) funds programs and buys materials that make the library such a great resource for the community. And none of this can be done without people like you, and we want to take this opportunity to reach out and ask for your help.

Most of our current board have been with us since the beginning: we were the ones passing around petitions to have the library created, and we were the ones shelving the new books once the library was built, and we were the ones whose faces you've seen at all the book sales and well, you get the picture. We've been around since the "stone ages", and it's time for some new blood and new ideas!

If you would like some more information about serving on the Board of the Friends of the Ocee Library, please let us know via email@oceefriends.org, or by attending a meeting Friday Nov. 9 at 11:00 AM. Hope to see you there!

Structure

Here are a few interesting links relating to the architecture of libraries...

A Former Walmart Becomes America's Largest Single-Story Library (from ArtInfo)

Exterior & Interior views of converted train car library in Chile

10 Wonderful Libraries Repurposed from Unused Structures (from Flavorwire)

Harbor Island, Bahamas home library - Photo: Steve Brook

Stunning Home Libraries (from Architectural Digest)

All photos courtesy of their respective websites - original credit given where known.

Still more to read

Harriet Russell - NPR.org

Still looking for something to read?

Lesser-Known Lit: Seeking Summer's Hidden Gems from NPR

Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half 2012 Book Preview from The Millions

The Big Novels of 2012 from The Guardian

Oprah's Summer Reading List from O Magazine

Beach Reads for Smart People from The Atlantic Wire

Don't let that last link intimidate you though: I'm all for reading a good "trashy" book on the beach (or anywhere else for that matter - books should make you happy!) and the Wall Street Journal backs me up on that: "Snubbing the Book Snobs".

Bookmobiles

1949 Chevy Bookmobile

I've always had a thing for bookmobiles* so I love Paris Review's roundup of  Bookmobiles of the World.

          *as does Alec Baldwin apparently: he bought the bookmobile he used as a child

1st book in the series: The Case of the Missing Books

All of which reminds me of one of my favorite book series, Ian Sansom's Mobile Library Mysteries (so, so funny and so, so recommended even if the library doesn't own the 4th book in the series -hint hint-).

No pretension here!

I just finished reading Charlie Haas' The Enthusiast, a "charming, funny, wise, and real*" novel set in the world of niche magazines. As good as the book is though, the best part may be the P.S. ( a section  Harper Perennial frequently adds to its trade paperbacks). The P.S. usually includes information about the author, additional insight into the book, and questions for reading groups.
                                                                *according to Anne Lamott anyway, and she might know a thing or two about writing...

Haas' P.S. is hilarious: not only does he include a mix tape list with a song for each character, he also has my hands down fav list of book club questions.  Usually, these questions involve such things as motivation, theme, etc. but Haas' are as follows:

Who brought this salad?
Is someone sitting here?
Did we talk about changing to Thursdays?
Is this the nonfat?
What does anyone think about painting this room orange?
Did you read the book? Will it ruin it for you if I talk about it?

 Love it!

Summer books

Photo credit Stephen Webster for the Wall Street Journal

The Read or Rot website has an aggregation of summer reading lists from all kinds of sources - something for everyone!

Little links I like

Photo: Steidl

My favorite link of the day: perfume that makes you smell like a book (via Jezebel).  (There is also a scent called Paperback from Demeter if $115 makes you wince!)

Some amazing children's books in iPad app form (via The Digital Media Diet)

New fiction recommendations (via Kirkus Reviews)

A guide to walking and reading at the same time (via Time.com) - I can't imagine doing this in NYC, as the author does, but I can read 100 pages in 3 miles on Alpharetta's wide open sidewalks :)

And here's a link to the library's Adult Summer Reading Program: hit the "Click here" link on the top line and you'll have a chance to submit a book review and be entered in a drawing for some great prizes (your very own Friends of the Ocee Library donated a $25 Amazon gift card that you could have a chance to win, among other prizes) - good luck!

Roundup

For those of you who like to plan ahead, we will be having a used book sale Friday July 27 & Saturday July 28. I'll post more details later, but consider this your 'Save the Date' card!

I also got word that the library system will be having an adult summer reading program (in addition to the traditional children's program) for the first time this year, so keep an ear out for more information on that as well.

From this week's media:

Here's a solution to all the books we have left over after a book sale! (This particular 'book igloo' was actually constructed from the remains of a Navy base library after it was decommisioned.)

Flavorwire has 10 Beautiful Buildings Inspired by Famous Books - this particular one is a tribute to Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Danny Fein has a series of lithographs called "Litographs" based on famous books. This one is Moby Dick - you can see a close-up at the bottom that shows you how the words from the book are used to create the design of the finished work. You can read more about them at Brain Pickings, or purchase one from the artist's web site.

This and that in the news

Stuttgart City Library, Stuttgart, Germany

 Flavorwire (always a big fan of books and reading) has a list of the 25 most beautiful public libraries in the world.

Two more library related articles were in today's Atlanta Journal Constitution (thanks for all the coverage lately, AJC - libraries can use all the positive press they can get these days!):

• Libraries add more to the mix
• The other was a "My Opinion" piece by Karen Huppertz (which I can't unfortunately find online to link to, but was on Metro page B5 in the 4/22/12 AJC), which actually gives a shout-out to Friends of the Library organizations and encourages donations to them!

Another piece of book related news concerns the Pulitzer Committee decision to not award the Fiction Prize this year (a real slap in the face and very unpopular decision).

More newspaper articles

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution published two library related op-ed pieces yesterday on its Atlanta Forward page: one by John Szabo, the Director of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System, the other by a researcher from the Pew Trust who studied urban libraries (including Atlanta's). Both address the problem of having to do more with less money in the tight economy. AFPLS's solution to this problem has been to hold onto operating hours and staff, and cut book budgets. Other systems (Gwinnett County, for example) have made the opposite choice. It's a difficult conundrum - one that will only become more complicated when the new planned branches in Fulton County open their doors and require a share of the operating budget pie (the money to build the new branches is coming from special bonds voted on in a special referendum a few years back).

Speaking of the new branches, the East Roswell site has an architect attached now, and is about to break ground: you can read more about it on the Appen Newspapers website.

Recently in the AJC:

Grasping the e-book era

and

Metro libraries cope with money woes

Also, have a Happy Library Week!

Finding Books in the Oddest Places

In a phone booth in New York City...

In an iconic English phone booth...

In Little Free Libraries all over the country...

Even here in Atlanta ...

Great trend, I'd have to say!

March winds blow...

in this WPA piece from the 1930's.

This & That

via tanaudel

From the Atlanta Journal - Constitution: Reading... for life without 'Downton'

J.K. Rowling’s plot chart for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

From Flavorwire: Charts and Diagrams Drawn by Famous Artists 

       Illustration by Jessica Fortner

From the New York Times: Learning to Love Airport Lit

From the News-Gazette: High Schools Add to Reading Lists

“What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”     

                             Anne Lamott

Books to Look Forward To

Book Pages' 30 Most-Anticipated Books of 2012

Flavorwire's 10 New Must-Reads for January

Indiebound's Next List for January

Amazon's Best Books of the Month 

And in case you made a certain New Year's Resolutions, Daily Beast's 12 Best Diet Books of 2012