Clear Blue Dei

I just finished an excellent book by Sheri Tepper called “The Margarets”. Sheri Tepper is one of my favorite authors. She frequently writes about interesting issues from a different perspective, such as matriarchy and women in “The Gate to Women’s Country” (another excellent book). She writes science fiction/fantasy, but from a distinctly female perspective. Being a woman, while I primarily read SF/fantasy, I prefer a female protagonist/characters. That is one of the downsides of SF sometimes, they are overloaded on male characters and the female characters are frequently just side characters or caricatures. That said, there are also many SF/fantasy books (usually by women authors) with female protagonists.

The Margarets starts with a female child named Margaret who has no other children to play with and makes up imaginary character versions of herself, such a Queen Wilvia, Naumi the warrior, the spy, the healer, etc. As she reaches various decision points in her life, one of her makes one decision and one makes another and they off and go on to various different lives on different planets based on their decision. There is a prophecy involved (isn’t there always :)) and the Margarets are the key to the prophecy.

Of course, it is interesting how the book resolves and it is done in a way that makes a lot more sense than most, but I especially enjoyed just reading the stories of the different decisions made. That is something I really appreciate about Sheri Tepper’s writing and what I look for in a book. While I like SF/fantasy, I prefer “philosophical” SF over “hard” SF. In other words, I prefer writing that explores different ways of thinking, living, society, etc. rather than the SF that concentrates on new war machines and fighting. I think that is more the male-oriented SF and I’m just not into it as much, although I have read some very well-written stories that I greatly enjoyed. I still like more characterization than I do great battles though. I like reading about warriors and their quests or battles, but not so much about soldiers fighting battles with the battles being the main focus.

In any case, if you think you might like what I like, I highly recommend the “The Margarets” and Sheri Tepper.

List of Sheri Tepper books

Also, on a Web 2.0 note, the links to amazon above were created using my Amazon Associates ID and a widget provided by Amazon. For every purchase on Amazon made through a link of mine, I get some (very small) percentage. I currently have accumulated $2.46 in my account so I’m not going to get rich but it is an interesting concept and someone could really create a good site with interesting Amazon content and make some money. Here’s a link to the Amazon Associate’s Information page.

Take care and enjoy!

~Susan Mellott

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I was just catching up on reading the weekend newspaper so I could throw it away and I saw an article in “On the Scene” in the Journal-Gazette Weekender about one of my very favorite activities at our local library.

It is called Paws to Read and is one of the many programs the ACPL provides for kids. Quoting from the article in the Journal-Gazette:

“Good ol’ Fido. Not only will that lovable mutt of yours fetch your newspaper, keep your feet warm at night and search your garbage for any half-eaten cans of beans you might have “accidentally” thrown away, he’s also the world’s best listener.

He never gossips, judges you for not switching to energy-saving light bulbs or teases you about your inability to pronounce the word “pulchritudinous.”

This is why Fido – and a host of other therapy dogs – arrives weekly at several of our local library branches for Paws to Read, an opportunity for kids to read aloud to a smiling, tail-wagging pup.”

Euneisha Bright, 9, gets encouragement from therapy dog Phil while reading with the Paws to Read program at Hessen Cassel library.

Arial Lee, 11, reads a story to Phil. Doesn’t he look like he is reading along?

Photos by Cathie Rowand | The Journal Gazette

This was also written up on the ACPL’s Innovation through Technology blog and the comments talk about how great it is that kids get to read to someone friendly and non-judgemental.

Other libraries are also doing this type of program. Gail Wechsler Says: There is a similar program in the St. Louis area called, I believe, Love on a Leash. Part of the success of these programs, I think, is that animals are not judgmental and are not intimidating so kids are not afraid of how they will sound as they read to them.

You can look on the ACPL main library Children’s Services programs page and the ACPL Branches Children’s programs for more programs.

And just for fun, here’s a link to a post and pictures of the Dupont Branch Llamas @ the Library.

And check out all these pictures from the various ACPL children’s programs (and a little more).

I love my library!

What: Paws to Read

When and where : 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Aboite branch, 5630 Coventry Lane; 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesdays at Dupont branch, 536 E. Dupont Road; 4 to 5 p.m. Tuesdays at Georgetown branch, 6600 E. State Blvd.; 7 to 8 p.m. Thursdays at Grabill branch, 13521 State St., Grabill; 5 p.m. Mondays at Hessen Cassel branch, 3030 E. Paulding Road; 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Mondays at Little Turtle branch, 2201 Sherman Blvd.; 7 p.m. Mondays at Tecumseh branch, 1411 E. State Blvd.; 4:30 p.m. first and third Mondays at Waynedale branch, 2200 Lower Huntington Road.

Cost : Ear scratches and belly rubs

~Susan Mellott

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We Wear the Mask by Paul Lawrence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,–
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

This is how the preface begins in this timely and evocative book called Unmasking Identities: An Exploration of the Lives of Gay and Lesbian Teachers by Janna Jackson, PHD.

From the back cover:

“Based on a qualitative research study of gay and lesbian teachers, Unmasking Identities: An Exploration of the Lives of Gay and Lesbian Teachers explores how these educators negotiated their gay and teacher identities in a climate where the two have historically been pitted against each other. …Janna M. Jackson demonstrates that these gay and lesbian teachers made direct and indirect connections between their experiences related to being gay or lesbian and their classroom practices of creating safety, promoting social justice, and building on students’ understandings. …Unmasking Identities provides theoretical understandings and practical advice for teachers, administrators and policymakers who are concerned about gay and lesbian issues. This engaging text will appeal to those interested in gender studies and issues in education.”

Janna is an assistant professor in the Graduate College of Education at the University of Massachuesetts, Boston. Prior to receiving her PHD from Boston College, she taught high school English in Fulton County, Georgia.

But more importantly to me, Janna is my cousin. I just got back from a vacation in Florida where I visited my Mom and sister and my Uncle Dick. My cousin Jason and Janna and her wife Carrie and their Aunt Dot were visiting Uncle Dick so I got to hang out with them too, which I greatly enjoyed. Janna and Carrie are wonderful people and a wonderful couple and they were able to marry because they live in Boston where they can legally marry. So few gay and lesbian couples have that option now. Hopefully that will change, and soon.

Janna and Carrie are really unpretentious, down-to-earth, nice people and I really like Carrie. This was the first time I’d met Carrie and she is just as nice and down-to-earth as Janna. Since that is the way I am (well, down-to-earth anyway and I like to think I am nice), we got along right off the bat. Here is a really cute picture of them that I took at Weeki Wachi in Florida a couple of weeks ago:

And here is a picture of Janna holding her book, Unmasking Identities: An Exploration of the Lives of Gay and Lesbian Teachers.

Janna has written a book that not only studies gay and lesbian teachers, but also tells their personal stories. And it gives practical advice to teachers and administrators on how to address this sensitive issue with understanding and in a way that promotes growth and acceptance.

And someday perhaps, we will be able to look at each teacher according to his or her skills and ability to teach and inspire our children, rather than their gender, color or sexual preferences. We have a way to go, but as we open our minds and our hearts, we can do it.

~Susan Mellott

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Cory Doctorow is an author. But not just any author. He has provided much of his works for free, via the internet. Here is an excerpt from his bio on his blog.

“I write science fiction novels — three published to date (Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, 2003, Eastern Standard Tribe, 2004, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, 2005), and a short story collection (A Place So Foreign and Eight More, 2003). These novels sell well, win awards, and are published by Tor Books (novels) and Avalon Books (collection). They’re also given away for free on the Internet as Creative Commons-licensed downloads. They can be freely shared, and in some cases, remixed or translated and sold in developing countries.

I believe that we live in an era where anything that can be expressed as bits will be. I believe that bits exist to be copied. Therefore, I believe that any business-model that depends on your bits not being copied is just dumb, and that lawmakers who try to prop these up are like governments that sink fortunes into protecting people who insist on living on the sides of active volcanoes. Me, I’m looking to find ways to use copying to make more money and it’s working: enlisting my readers as evangelists for my work and giving them free ebooks to distribute sells more books. As Tim O’Reilly says, my problem isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity. Best of all, giving away ebooks gives me lots of key insights into how to make money without restricting the copying of bits. It’s a win-win situation.

I write other stuff: I’m on the mastheads at magazines like Wired, Popular Science and MAKE. I freelance for newspapers like the New York Times, and I contribute to lots of websites, like Salon. I also co-wrote a nonfiction book called The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Science Fiction (2000), with Karl Schroeder.

I’m the co-editor of Boing Boing, a very popular weblog about technology, culture, and politics. My three co-editors and I publish to about 1.7 million unique readers a day (as of Jan 1, 2006), and we’re the most linked-to blog on the Internet, according to Technorati. It’s as fun as fun can be: I get to write what I want and I get to bounce around ideas that end up in articles and books.”

And this is just some of what he has done. Sounds mighty interesting, doesn’t he!

Here is his page that lists his stories and here is his page that lists all his novels and leads you to a page for each of them where you can find online and downloadable copies and podcasts and more.

And Salon.com has several stories and articles by and about Cory Doctorow.

Since I am getting ready to go to the Magic Kingdom I am partial to starting with Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. This is where you can download it in just about any format known to man.

And here is the link to the Down and Out podcasts by Mark Forman and his blog is Mark Forman: 2.0 Getting a Leg Up. I have downloaded them to my laptop and plan to listen to them on my trip. No, I don’t have an mp3 player yet, I just use my laptop.

And here is the full online text of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

Pretty cool, huh?!

~Susan Mellott

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In case you didn’t know, it is Banned Book Week (9/29/2007 - 10/6/2007). And surprisingly (to me), “And Tango Makes Three“, an award-winning children’s book based on a true story about two male penguins who raised a baby penguin, topped the American Library Association’s annual list of works attracting the most complaints from parents, library patrons and others. You can read more about this at Newsvine’s Book on Penguins Tops `Challenged’ List and more about Banned Books Week in general at the ALA Banned Books Week site.

Banned Books Week has been observed at the end of September since 1982 to celebrate and support Intellectual Freedom.

But there is something very new and exciting. The ALA (American Library Association) has moved into the Web 2.0 world with a vengeance to celebrate and support Banned Books Week this year.

From Flickr, MySpace and Facebook all the way to Second Life, ALA and many others will have a presence and be holding events for BBW 2007.

This year, OIF is working with the Alliance Library System, Alliance Second Life Library, TAP Information Services and the new ALA membership group Virtual Communities and Libraries to provide an interactive experience centered on Banned Books Week, September 29–October 6, 2007, on Second Life, Teen Second Life, MySpace, and Facebook. Our aims are to help librarians and others to feel comfortable in social networking spaces and to reach out to new audiences.

Check out the events in Second Life:

To tie in with this year’s theme of “Aye, mateys…celebrate your freedom t’ read!,” ALA has created a “Pirate Paradise” in Second Life (SL), a 3D virtual world complete with pirate ship and a wharf with interactive displays on banned books. ALA Banned Books Week graphics will be used to create virtual posters, displays and T-shirts that can be worn by Second Life avatars. (See example above!) The Topeka and Shawnee County (Kan.) Public Library has loaned a virtual display on banned books they created for their National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Big Read initiative. All ALA Second Life activities will take place on ALA Arts InfoIsland. (Note: link is to Second Life URL.)

On September 29 (following the Chicago Read-Out!), ALA will host a kickoff event in Second Life: a pirate’s party with the theme “Aye Mateys—Celebrate Your Freedom t’ Read!” Later in the week there will be fireworks displays, book discussions, and other intellectual freedom educational programs. Throughout the week, visitors will have access to a professional welcome center, a listening station for podcasts, and an interactive classroom on one of the most frequently challenged books, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. An updated calendar of SL and real world BBW activities can be found at various SL kiosks and at www.ala.org/bbooks.

Second Life Programs scheduled to date are listed as follows (note: all times are in “SL” time, which corresponds to Pacific Daylight Time). Dates and times are subject to change:

* September 29, 6:00–9:00 p.m.: Kickoff Pirate Party, “Aye Mateys - Celebrate Your Freedom t’ Read!” Featuring a pirate ship, music, dancing, displays, fun, and free banned books and posters
* September 30, 7:00 p.m.: Fireworks
* October 1, 5:00 p.m.: Book Discussion, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, moderated by Tom Peters of TAP Information Services (Second Life name Maxito Ricardo).
* October 2, Noon: Fireworks
* October 2, 5:00 p.m.: Book Discussion, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, moderated by Tom Peters
* October 3, Noon: Intellectual Freedom Program, “Frequently Challenged Books,” moderated by OIF Deputy Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone (Second Life name Pachelbel Dagostino)
* October 4, 5:00 p.m.: Intellectual Freedom Program, “Challenges and Customer Service Opportunities” presented by Rose Chenoweth, Alliance Library System (Second Life name Enya Theas - pictured above).

For more information on Second Life events, contact Lori Bell at lbell@alliancelibrarysystem.com or in Second Life as Lorelei Junot, or Tom Peters at tapinformation@yahoo.com or in Second Life as Maxito Ricardo.

And on Teen Second Life:

On Teen Second Life, there will be an underwater pirate ship/banned books display on Eye4You Alliance during all of Banned Books Week. On October 5 from 4:00–8:00 p.m. (Second Life/Pacific Time), there will be a “Dress as Your Favorite Banned Book Character” party also on Eye4You Alliance.

For more information about Teen Second Life events, please contact Kelly Czarnecki at kczarnecki@plcmc.org or in Teen Second Life as Saryn Farnwood. The Eye4You Alliance island on Teen Second Life is sponsored by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

And more:

Facebook

ALA has set up a Facebook group for librarians and the public who want to share ideas, experiences, events, and banned book recommendations. The name of the group is “Celebrate Your Freedom to Read! Banned Books Week 2007.” Beginning September 24, members of the “Celebrate Your Freedom to Read” Facebook group will receive a Banned Books “Challenging Fact of the Day.” All are welcome to join the group (search for Banned Books Week 2007).

MySpace

ALA also has a MySpace page for Banned Books Week. The page features a blog about BBW activities, music, videos, photos from BBW events, and more.

Flickr
ALA now has a Flickr group, on which anyone can share photos from Banned Books Week events in their area. If you’re on Flickr, just upload your BBW event photo, join the BBW 2007 group, and click on “Send to Group.”

For more information, Read this article called “Celebrating Banned Books Week in the Virtual World“.

See you there?

~Susan Mellott

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Just for fun, I created an old-fashioned card catalog card for the book I had downloaded from baen.com/library using John Blyberg’s card catalog generator. You have to enter the data by hand (I copied the information from Amazon.com) but it makes a really fun graphic. With some programming, you can make a mashup that uses this. A mashup is a website or application that combines content from more than one source into an integrated experience.

Sean Robinson (my husband and head of IT Technology at the ACPL) created this book wall called Books we added to the catalog yesterday combining the new material checked in each day at the ACPL (Allen County Public Library) with data from Amazon. It shows pictures of the actual book covers for each book and if you click on a book cover, it will show you an old-fashioned card catalog for that book and information on it from Amazon (if the book is brand new, it doesn’t necessarily have review info yet).

Then you can click on “Look this up in our catalog” to see the ACPL card catalog information on that book like how many copies there are and if they are available and where they are located and do all sorts of neat things like add it to your list or put it on hold. You can also find more books by that author, more books with those topics or browse nearby call numbers (books that would be on the library shelf with this book).

Go check it out and play around with it. It is a great example of how you can combine Web 2.0 tools to create something new and exciting and useful.

For this and more innovative ways the Allen County Public Library uses Web 2.0, visit their Library 2.0 site: ACPLib2.0. ACPL Rules!

~Susan Mellott

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