Library Musings: Kankakee Public Library

Dog Days of Summer

2010-07-14T08:48:00.000-07:00

Recently, my live-in boyfriend, Jordan, and I made the decision to get a dog. We already had two cats, Digit and Lily, but we longed for an animal companion who we could take for walks, bring to the park, and play fetch with. We have tried to do all of these things with our cats unsuccessfully. I even bought a kitty harness and leash for our more playful cat, Lily, in hopes that she would accompany me on walks around the neighborhood, but found that as soon as I strap the harness on her, she immediately goes stiff and falls over on her side as if she is made out of cement. She made it clear to me that she was not going to be doing anything while wearing that harness, much less walking.

And so, this past winter, we started entertaining the idea of adopting a dog. We agreed on getting an older puppy or young adult dog, because we didn’t want to go through the hassle of house breaking and training. We started looking into adoption and went to go meet some dogs at the Kankakee County Humane Society. We fell in love with one, an 8-month-old Australian Shepherd mix, and decided we would name him Merlin. We were just about to go put our deposit on him when I got a call from my brother. His Australian Cattle Dog was pregnant, and he was wondering if we’d like to take one of the puppies when they were born and old enough to give away. We weighed our options.

Getting an older dog would mean that we wouldn’t have to worry about house breaking and training, but we would miss out on the cutest stages and those early bonding opportunities. Also, we were getting ready to move into a new house, and the extra time before the pups were born and ready to go would be helpful.

Our minds were made once the pups were born and we went to see them in March. There were 6 of them, 2 girls and 4 boys. Two of the boys were red, and the rest of them were black with brown faces and paws, and a couple of them had white on their chests. They were just a couple weeks old, and so tiny and adorable. They were just big enough to romp around and play with each other. Immediately when we entered the room, 4 of the pups ran up to greet us and crawled on our laps, but then easily got distracted and went off to go play. While the others were playing, there was one little female, a black and brown one with a white T on her chest, who seemed a little more shy than the rest. She came up to me, crawled on my lap, and went right to sleep. This was the one I wanted!

While the puppies grew and developed at my brother’s house, we tried our best to prepare ourselves for what was about to come. I checked out a bunch of DVDs and books on puppy training from the library’s collection, and we did our homework. We also went and bought toys, food, treats, a little pink collar, and all of the necessities. We decided on a name- Priscilla, or “Prissy” for short.

In May, the time came to bring Priscilla home. She cried most of the way through the first few nights, but seemed to adjust pretty quickly and get used to her new routine and surroundings. Also, she seemed to be doing a great job with not going potty in the house. Had we chosen some miracle puppy that wasn’t going to be any trouble or work at all for us?

The answer, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, was no. Within a week, her angelic façade had started to wear thin, and her true puppy nature began to show through. As is natural for new puppies, she has been a lot of hard work for us. She is now 4 months old and 30 pounds (she is expected to reach 60-70 pounds), and has the idea pretty much down that she should only go potty outside, but she still has an accident almost every day. Also, she has started teething, and has chewed up some of our window sills, corners of walls, and pulled up some of our carpeting. She greets us by jumping up on us and getting our clothes dirty. She bites our hands when we play with her. She bites our feet when we try to walk away from her. She tries to herd the cats and any small children that come into our house or yard. When we go for walks, she pulls so hard it feels like my arm might come off. She barks at the neighbors, garbage men, mail carriers, and anyone else who might dare to come within 30 feet of our house. But for each of her bad habits, she has at least a dozen redeeming qualities.

She is very intelligent, and very sweet. I have already successfully taught her to sit, stay, lie down, beg, jump, and dance. We are working on speak, but she doesn’t ever bark in the house, so she’s having a hard time getting it (which is actually a good thing). She loves to play fetch, and will play for hours on end. She is a very cuddly dog, and still tries to get up on my lap with her bone in her mouth, even though she is now too big for all of her to fit on my lap. She is protective of us, and lets us know with a soft but alert “woof” if there is someone or something outside of our house. Though a little on the timid side, she is very happy to meet new people and loves to make friends with other dogs. I enjoy taking her with me to the Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings, on long walks almost every night, to my friends’ and family members’ houses, and on the weekends, we like to go to Prairie Trails or the State Park and go swimming in the river or play Frisbee in the grass.

Having her in our home and life has been an adventure, but mostly a good one. We are enjoying watching her grow and learn more every day. She has given me something extra to look forward to when I come home, and even though there are days when I come home to messes on the floor or chewed –up walls, it is difficult to stay mad at her, especially since she is just doing what puppies do. I know with work, she will eventually grow out of her bad behaviors. Also with work, we will grow to be better dog owners and not give her the temptation to be bad. We look forward to the days when she is the epitome of a perfect dog, but for now, we are enjoying these fleeting moments of her puppy-hood.

Sarissa Johnson
Adult Services Media Lead
Kankakee Public Library

Mom Spa

2009-09-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

Come with me to the “Mom-spa”

A few years ago, I was given a children’s book entitled Five Minutes Peace by Jill Murphy. In it, Mrs. Large, an elephant mother of three rambunctious children, decides to retreat to the bathtub for “five minutes of peace.” After settling herself into warm bubbles, complete with a cup of tea, her five minutes are interrupted one-by-one by her children, all wanting to share something with her. Eventually, all the children decide to join her in the tub, and Mrs. Large escapes to the kitchen, where she has “exactly three minutes and forty-five seconds of peace.”

As a single mom of two active daughters, I can relate to poor Mrs. Large, which is probably why I was given the book. (Well, that and the fact that I collect elephants…but that’s a whole other blog.) I’m can guarantee that I’m not the only one, either.

It is difficult, however, to even get to where Mrs. Large was in the book. As I climbed into the shower the other night, it struck me that it had been years since I was able to take a bath. Showers, yes; baths, no. In my childless youth, I loved to sink into a nice hot bath, maybe even with some soft music, candles, bubble bath, the works. That’s not really feasible anymore. Since preparing a bath takes quite a bit of time, you want to really make it worth the effort, but trying to take a chunk of time out at home – with pets, kids, phone calls and everything else – is next to impossible. And if you can’t stay in until the water is cold and/or you’re nice and pruney, what’s the point?

Wouldn’t it be nice if someone opened a Mom-spa? I’m not talking about a place where you drop a couple hundred bucks to sit in mud or be wrapped in plastic. I’m thinking of a spa for those of us who clip coupons, buy generic, and actually celebrate when we find a dollar in the pocket of a pair of jeans we haven’t worn for awhile. In other words, the Mom-spa would be affordable.

The Mom-spa would consist of several rooms with bathtubs where a mom could escape for about an hour. You call in and make your reservation. The staff would run your bath to a specified temperature and add whatever luxuries – bubble bath, salts, oil, rose petals, etc – you desire. The atmosphere would be to your request as well. If you want low lighting with candles and soft music, you could have it. Perhaps one or two rooms would have a skylight for an evening soak. A gentle chime would tell you when your time is up. In the Mom-spa, absolutely no one knocks on your door. (Unless the building is actually burning down, which, incidentally, is not equivalent to “the cat threw up on my shoes.”)

Of course, the Mom-spa would provide one of those turban towels to keep your hair dry and a nice, fluffy bathrobe to use when you get out of the tub. When you come in, it’s all ready and you can have a nice long soak. No children are allowed in the Mom-spa. There are no arguments in the Mom-spa. Cell phones do not work in the Mom-spa. Messages will be taken for customers whose family members have misplaced their math homework or need the correct spelling of “explanation.” Peace and quiet are the rule.

Unfortunately, the Mom-spa is just a lovely fantasy, but there is a place where a Mom can escape for a little while. The Kankakee Public Library has a number of programs for kids, teens and adults to have fun, learn something new or discuss a new book. The fall programming has just started. If you don’t receive KPL’s newsletter “The Mane Event”, stop in, pick up a copy, and see what events might be your “Mom-spa.” You can even check out a copy of Five Minutes Peace.

Teresa Cline
Adult Services

Coming of age - 21st century style

2009-07-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

Decisions have never been my strong suit. I can decide things like “Where should we go for dinner?” or “Does this look okay with that?” but when it comes to making serious decisions – ones that involve money or are potentially life-altering – I need a lot of time and a lot of information.

You can imagine, then, my dilemma as my elder daughter’s 14th birthday approached, and the one gift that came up over and over was…you guessed it, a cell phone.

For the past year or so, both my daughters have bombarded me with an endless litany of which friends had acquired a phone, why their lives would be greatly enriched by joining this coveted group, and how could I possibly continue to stunt their social development by denying them this valuable technology.

The arguments fell on only partially deaf ears. I have never been one to buy into the “Everyone’s doing it” philosophy, but as both girls have become increasingly involved in sports and other extra-curricular activities, maintaining consistent communications has been a problem. Practices are changed, games get rained out, I run late – all these become issues when there’s not an easy way to share the information. About 6 months ago, I told both girls that I was thinking about the cell phone idea, but they’d have to prove to me that they were mature enough to handle the additional responsibility. My older daughter rose to the challenge, setting her sights on a cell phone for her birthday.

Of course, once I’d laid the foundation, I needed to follow through, which meant making a BIG decision…or a several small ones, as it turned out. Contract or pay-as-you-go? Verizon? Sprint? Cricket? A few I’d never heard of? Camera or no? Texting or no? I went into information overload more than once as July 25 loomed closer. The biggest question of all was, were we ready this?

I discovered it wasn’t the cell phone decisions throwing me for a loop, it was the idea that the sweet 6-year-old that I brought home nearly 8 years ago is growing up…too fast. (Both my daughters were adopted at age 6.) Gone are the days of Barbie, Legos and Magic School Bus videos. Now it’s computers, cell phones, and the Jonas Brothers. Boys are more than just baseball teammates. As a single mom working two jobs, this prospect is a bit scary.

I was thrown a lifeline of sorts last month when I came to work at the library. We’ve had cards for some time, but now that it’s my second job, my girls have been spending a lot more time here. While I head to the third floor, they remain in the Teen Zone; reading books, hopping on one of the teen computers or usually a combination of both. They love it. Once school starts, the library will be an excellent place for them to do their homework – quiet but with access to computers for research.

In the end, I can’t do anything about my daughters growing up. Like it or not, it’s happening. One thing I can control is the atmosphere in which they grow up, and KPL has become an important part of that. If you’re a parent, check out all that KPL has to offer your child. You’ll be glad you did.

By the way, I FINALLY decided on a cell phone and plan the day before her birthday. Now I can relax until October. That’s when her sister turns 14.

Teresa Cline
Adult Services

How to Shop at Your Farmers' Market in 7 Easy Steps

2009-07-13T12:45:00.001-07:00

I've mentioned before what a huge fan I am of farmers' markets. I also volunteer at mine two or three Saturdays a month, and in talking with folks I've learned that people can be intimidated by the farmers' market with all of the assorted mounds of produce, baked goods and plants - let's face it...so much selection can be overwhelming! Also, many shoppers are not used to having a vendor present while they look at the goods. I've spent some time observing the way people shop at the market and of course, I have plenty of experience shopping at my own farmers' market. Here are some tips:

1.) Bring cash. Set an amount that you are comfortable with each time you go and try to take only that amount. Most vendors don't take debit or credit (though some do), and also you will want to make sure that you are not spending more than you'd like each time you go.

2.) Bring a big reusable bag or tote with you - throw your wallet and keys in there so you're just carrying one bag and not multiple bags to keep track of.

3.) Go once or twice around the vendor circuit telling yourself that you aren't buying anything right away. This will give you a chance to see everything that is offered and giving you a mental list of what you want to buy before delving in.

4.) Buy refrigerated items like eggs, meats and cheese, and big items like plants last.

5.) If you are intending to buy bread, buy that first as the good ones tend to sell out quickly. And if you're intending to buy cheese, make that the first of your refrigerated purchases as the best flavors tend to sell out quickly.

6.) Don't be afraid to ask questions of the vendors. The vendors are there not only to sell their wares, but they love talking to customers and sharing their knowledge of the product. You don't have to buy from a vendor if you ask them a question - they realize that not everyone is going to buy each time! The plant vendors are good sources of explaining what you can do to help keep your plants alive (which is always helpful to those of us who's thumbs are not quite yet a lovely shade of green). Herb vendors can help you with recipes incorporating the herbs. These vendors are there because they love their product and want you to love it, too! Ask away!

Also, the market info table, or the market manager, is a good source to ask questions of what vendors are there each week.

7.) Early shoppers have benefits that later shoppers miss out on - the most popular items usually go quickly. However, if you're wanting to have a bit more of a social experience with bigger crowds of locals and music, arriving a little later or midway through the market hours is your best bet.

And here is a tip for vendors: Mark your items clearly with signage!...many shoppers may feel uncomfortable asking for the price of an item, or may not want to wait in line just to find out the price. If price info or names of items are not clearly marked, they may get frustrated and move on to the next vendor.

Check out the book Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets by Deborah Madison - this is one of my all time favorites! Also, if you're interested in getting into the business of being a vendor or just fascinated by all things farmers' market, a good book to read is The New Farmers' Market: Farm-Fresh Ideas for Producers, Mangers & Communities by Vance Corum, Marcie Rosenzweig and Eric Gibson.

And there you have it!...7 easy steps to getting the most out of your local farmers' market (and a couple of good books, too). Enjoy shopping, reading and eating local!

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services
Kankakee Public Library

Midnight Nation

2009-05-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

I have a wonderful job working in the Adult Services department at the Kankakee Public Library. I love reading a wide array of books. From chick novels to murder filled non-fiction to young adult books. More recent additions to my reading selections are graphic novels. If you have any negative preconceived notions of what they are I am asking you to throw them out the window. For those who don't know, graphic novels are basically longer versions of comic books. Sometimes they are a complete series of comic book stories all bound into one large book other times they are their own story. One of the most popular graphic novels is Watchmen by Alan Moore which was named on Time Magazine's 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.

Two people turned me on to this genre. First, was Leah Bill who came to the Kankakee Public Library to complete her practicum for her Master's in Library Science. She was telling me about her class on Trends in K-12 Literature and I took notes as she told me about great graphic novels for my 8 year old daughter to read. Babymouse, Nancy Drew, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Bone, Amelia Rules and many more. My daughter loves these books very much and is always asking me to find her more.

The second person to turn me on to these books is my friend, comic book artist, Don Kramer. What better person to suggest these kind of books than from someone who does the artwork for them? He has loaned me stacks of his favorite ones including Midnight Nation by J. Michael Straczynski.

Midnight Nation is a deep and thought provoking book. This book doesn't have flashy superheros in capes. It has a world of people who have slipped through the cracks in life and find that they are invisible to ordinary people and can only interact with things that have been discarded by the living. Detective Grey awakens to find himself in this strange world. A beautiful guide, Laurel, appears and tells Grey that his soul has been lost and that with her help they need to retrieve it. On their journey they encounter the Walkers who they have to elude in their quest for David's soul. The Walkers are other lost souls, like David, who want to keep his soul in their world and make him one of them. David is forced to review his life. How he lived it, how he affected others, how he hurt his wife and has to make a difficult decision. What confronts him in the end is eye opening and surprising to him and us. Midnight Nation is the kind of book you can read over and over and pick up something new each time.

Since these two people have brought graphic novels to my attention I now notice them everywhere. Next time you go to a bookstore or better yet your local library be sure to look for the Graphic Novel section. You will be truly surprised at what you see. I know I was surprised by the selection of books geared towards girls and ones that are based on classic stories. I read Beowulf by Stefan Petrucha and Kody Chamberlain and loved it. I have fond memories of reading the original Beowulf and it was a lot of fun to read a shortened, illustrated version. You can also find works by Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells, Charlotte Bronte...I could go on but just do an internet search on your favorite. Happy reading!

Vicki

Great Mommyhood Myth

2009-04-14T09:07:00.000-07:00

I was recently at a party with other non-children-like beings that are often referred to as adults. Of course, the children were nearby (because let's face it - I'm not lucky enough...er, it's not convenient to be at a party without them). As the respective parents of these children congregated in the kitchen, while the kids scampered and played, I found myself talking shop with another mother. This particular mother is what I refer to as a mommy. In my experience, there are two kinds of mothers - there are "moms" and there are "mommies". Mommies are the ones who save toilet paper rolls by the bagful because one day, they will want to make toilet paper pilgrim crafts for Thanksgiving. Mommies never forget early dismissal days at school. Mommies always make sure their kids have a healthy, balanced organic breakfast every morning, as opposed to dry cereal in a Ziplock baggie as we're running out the door. Moms are....well, moms are like me - flawed.

I always thought of myself as a mommy....until I actually had kids. As a child, my dream was to grow up and be a stay-at-home mommy, making homemade dinners every night presented on a perfectly set dining table, with two children - a boy and a girl. Upon growing up, getting married, and actually having my first child, I was shocked by how much work it was and how no one - and I mean no one - warns starry-eyed, optimistic, soon-to-parents on how much work children really are. I had read all the parenting books before I was pregnant, during my pregnancy and even after I had my children. None of them really prepare you for what is the hardest career you will never get paid for. It was a matter of months before I found out that I wasn't a bad parent - I was perfectly normal, but I wasn't a mommy. I was just a mom. Now I think I'm a pretty good mom and I like it well enough that I even had a second child...and once I got over the guilt of not regularly doing crafts with my children, I came to respect and admire my own type of parenting.

Back to the party - as I was talking to this mommy, she and I were discussing the public school system (she and I both have kids at the same school it turns out) and how much we adore the school. She mentioned it must be very challenging to work outside of the home full-time at the library and be a parent to too. I leaned in a little closer and said, "yes, and you know, everyone thinks that we have to be perfect all the time. I guess that's the unspoken rule of motherhood, right? How we really can't be perfect and we can't talk about it either." She stared blankly at me for a few moments and just blinked her mascaraed eyelashes. After a pregnant motherhood pause, we changed the subject. But there was something in the way she looked at me after that conversation that made me think she understood. Underneath that mommy facade, I could see she knew from which I spoke. Perhaps we're not all that different after all? I'll try to remember that sentiment the next time I'm desperately searching the contents of my purse for my cell phone to order take out.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Vicki's Food Adventures

2009-01-14T14:15:00.000-08:00

A lot of changes are going on in my life, mostly good, but sometimes I feel like I am having a midlife crisis. It’s possible some day you might see me with hair plugs while driving around in a convertible. Part of this midlife crisis is what I decided to call my Food Adventures.

My first adventure started at work a couple of years ago while talking to my coworker, Betty. She was really selling hot dogs to me. I hadn’t eaten a hot dog since I was in grade school. The movie the Great Outdoors had a line in it that conveyed that hotdogs were made of undesirable pieces of the animal and that prompted me to stop eating them. So, one day Betty takes me to Boz’s where I order a Chicago-style hot dog. I also attribute my intrigue of hot dogs to author, Adam Selzer, who has a website all about hot dogs. (dragitthroughthegarden.com) The hot dog experience was a positive one (although my gripe there is that they didn’t have french fries at Boz) and the next thing you know I am buying packages of them at the store and eating them on a semi regular basis. I found it was best to eat them with a tasty root beer and Baked Ruffles potato chips.

Just over a year ago when my brother was in for Christmas I decided to try a family favorite. Cardoons. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardoon) We serve these in a batter and fry them up. At family parties my cousins fight over them and I never understood what the fuss was all about. Pete wanted to make these for our immediate family Christmas Eve dinner (normally we just have them on Christmas Day) so I decided to try one right out of the frying pan. Well, dangit if these things weren’t delicious! Pete thought I was nuts putting a little bit of sour cream on them but they reminded me of a potato pancake. I realized that I didn’t like them at our bigger family get-togethers because someone makes them early in the day and puts them in a dish to stay warm. They get soggy when you do that and I prefer them when they are crispy.

Also a year ago, someone had bought two cream cheese spreads. One was cranberry-walnut and the other was pumpkin. For years I always protested that I hated pumpkin. I sniffed around at the pumpkin container and was surprised to find out that it smelled wonderful. It was very yummy and I was stunned! Did this mean that I like pumpkin? All these years of being a baby about it and I was missing out on something like this? This past Thanksgiving I tried pumpkin pie and thought it was gross, but I do like pumpkin cake and other pumpkin flavored things.

Cute side note here. My daughter, Abby, got pumpkin scented soap and lotion from Bath and Body as a gift. Even I thought it smelled great. One day she put some lotion on her hand and a dried out, discolored blob of lotion squeezed out and she exclaimed “Look! A piece of pumpkin came out!”

Another food adventure came about because of my bookclub with my friends. I have always hated olives and I hate that I hate them because they look so good! I’m Italian! I should like them! My friend Karriann brought a container of olive tapenade and a loaf of bread. It was passed around to me and I started to refuse but I thought what the heck, I’ll give it a try. Yup, you guessed it…delicious! Why didn’t people tell me all that I have been missing out on?! I even managed to bogart the leftovers.

So, this past Thanksgiving rolls around and I geared up for trying escargot. Here is where I let you in on a secret. I am self conscious when I try these new foods. I have protested for years about not eating seafood, hot dogs, pumpkin, etc. that I feel silly and maybe a bit like a hypocrite when I try them. I prefer to do it when no one is looking and report later. So, I get myself a piece of garlic bread and put a slimy, unattractive piece of escargot on a plate and run upstairs to be by myself. This will be my first piece of seafood since sometime in early grade school. I sniff it. I poke it. The escargot is mocking me. I am laughing at myself. Several times I start to put it in my mouth and then put it back down. A couple of times someone walks in on me. I wind up wandering into the kitchen to talk to my mom and I put it down and I confessed to her what I was up to. She found it amusing. Unfortunately, right around this time my Uncle Mike walked into the kitchen and it was at this time he said he wasn’t feeling well and he collapsed in my arms! It was quite scary and he wound up being ok but we had to call the paramedics and I went to the hospital with my two aunts. My mom kind of giggled though when she found my hidden plate of untouched escargot while I was gone at the hospital.

Upon returning from the hospital I still had time to have dinner. I decided to try the cranberries which I normally ignore. They look gross and slimy. They were really good but when I tried them again at Christmas someone different had made them and they weren’t as good but in general, thumbs up to cranberry sauce!

My favorite food adventure so far is my first trip to Chinatown. A friend took me to Café Huong which I have been told was on the show Check Please. I left the ordering up to him and informed him that I wanted to try some new foods. I had crab rangoon that was really good and quite possibly my favorite so far. I also tried a spring roll that had shrimp in it. I didn’t die from eating the shrimp which is a good thing but I have got to say that my brain was really freaking out while I was eating it. I used to eat shrimp, crab and lobster all the time when I was little but suddenly stopped. There is something about the texture and smell that I find unsettling. This was also the first time that I had noodles served with my Chinese food. This is definitely one of my favorite meals of all time.

What prompted me to write this today is that I decided to give coffee a try. I don’t feel this is going well. I used a package of sugar and two French vanilla creamers. I feel like my breath is disgusting and that I might as well give the ole cigarette smoking a try. Those two combos on a person’s breath should be illegal. Plus, I kind of feel like I have the shakes and that I am getting a little too giddy. No one needs a giddy, goofy Vicki on coffee at work. Just plain giddy and goofy is good enough. It’s a good thing no one is here with me because I think I would be talking a mile a minute and no one would understand me. I am reminding myself of Hammie from the movie Over the Hedge. It took me 7 and half minutes to write this whole blog. Is that a caffeine high?

I have also tried a bit of salmon, calamari and crab cakes that my mom ordered while we were at a restaurant. The hard part of all this is it adds a whole new dimension to ordering off a menu when it was already hard enough to decide as it is! I think it’s great that I am trying new things and I encourage everyone to do the same and have some adventures of your own!

A Challenge

2008-12-29T08:05:00.000-08:00

I challenge you to watch this video without smiling:

Dancing

Happy 2009 everybody!

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services
Kankakee Public Library

Both Feet

2008-11-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

There were times when I am quite sure that Cindy Fuerst thought I was crazy. And Steve, the Assistant Director here, and Camille, the Youth Services librarian. And Roland, the Project Next Generation supervisor. Heck, there were times when she probably questioned her own sanity for being the director at such a non-traditional and often quirky library.

For examples....when I said three or four years ago that libraries might want to consider going the route of a then-up-and-coming service called Netflix, but with the focus on books rather than movies - she probably thought I was out to lunch.

When Camille suggested that we start having poetry slams with dozens of junior high school students writing original poetry that may contain (gasp!) actual teen issues (like racism, sex, teen pregnancy and...homework) Cindy mentally weighed the liklihood of angry phone calls from parents or school officials.

When Roland said he'd like to start taking the PNG students on field trips to Chicago, teach them to make and edit their own videos on YouTube, and start buying Macs rather than PCs - Cindy decided to throw caution to the wind.

When Steve encouraged Cindy to let the staff blog and share their actual thoughts (and even complaints) about our very institution to the world...she hesitated, but she jumped in with both feet.

"Jumping in with both feet" is actually a good phrase to describe Cindy's tenure as director of the Kankakee Public Library for the past 13 years. There have been many times over these years that I know she has wondered if we were doing the right thing - exceling in areas that are foreign to most public libraries, and perhaps questioning the value of more traditional library services. There have been times where I am sure she was scared. With any risk, comes a sense of doubt. But she has always led us with pride and optimism because trying something new - even if we are to fail - should be goal of any good public library.

We are now the ones who are going to need to be brave over the coming months, as we will have to continue her legacy here at KPL while she begins a new one at a different library. Cindy will be the new director at the Vernon Hills Area Library in Lincolnshire, Illinois beginning in January of 2009. Vernon Hills is one lucky library, as have we been these past 13 years.

All my best wishes, Cindy! You have made this library, and even this community, what it is today.

Allison Beasley
Adult Services Supervisor

No Wrong Moves in This Game of Chess

2008-05-06T19:42:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine sent me this link the other day as a gag on how ridiculous 1980s pop videos were. She also noted that "the dance sequence on the chess board starting at around the 3:05 mark of the video is particularly riveting with the white dancers trying to squeeze in a few of those newfangled break-dancing moves into their otherwise jazz-dance-esque routine."

One Night in Bangkok video

Now any normal person would watch the link, mock its ridiculousness and then move on. Not me. I'm reminded of what a fun song this was and hence feel the need to educate my friend on the concept from which this video was based. One Night in Bangkok was a song from the Tim Rice Broadway play Chess and if you've seen the musical it makes a lot more sense! It's all about a Cold War rivalry chess match between an American chess player and a Russian chess player. It was fabulous - albeit now quite politically outdated. The musical was based upon the real-life chess tournament of Bobby Fischer and Victor Korchnoi.

I saw this musical as a pre-teen and it was an introduction to two things that would impact the rest of my adolescence. The first of those was realizing my insatiable love of the theatre (and also my perhaps innate desire to spell this word "theatre" instead of "theater" because it makes me feel fancy). My parents took me to the City to watch this production and before the show I saw men in tuxedos and ladies in fabulous sequined-dresses (it was the late 80s) dancing to "Mac the Knife" in a fancy club. I thought, "This must be what the cool grown-ups do" and I vowed one day to be a cool grow-up like that.

The second introduction was an awareness of AIDS. My uncle, who lived in New York City at the time, gave us tickets to see Chess because his good friend was in it. I learned that his friend, Nephi, had AIDS and died shortly thereafter. The latter introduction was not a fond one, but important nonetheless.

Here is to the game of chess, cheesy 80s dance moves and Broadway plays. You can check out books on chess or the soundtrack to the musical chess in our library's catalog.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Julie Andrews? Really ALA?

2008-04-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

The American Library Association (ALA) has chosen Julie Andrews to be the National Library Week spokesperson this year. Now I don't personally know of anyone who loves Julie Andrews more than me. She is a graceful, beautiful, skilled actress and star of some of my all-time favorite musicals. But she is also quite traditional and appeals to perhaps an older and more conservative audience these days. Though musicals like Mary Poppins and Sound of Music are timeless treasures to people my age (31) and older, are they readily identifiable to say an African American 12-year-old in a more urban library or a 21-year-old college student? Who are we appealing to with National Library Week - librarians or our users? I think Julie Andrews is very appealing to librarians, but I am not convinced that she is the best match for reaching out to our users.

(Though for the record, I do know all the lyrics to the entire score of Sound of Music and have been known to perform "So Long, Farewell" in its entirety in my office with the Kankakee Public Library's Assistant Director)

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

....and the geeks shall inherit the earth.

2008-01-26T13:38:00.000-08:00

Let's start this blog with a horrendous confession: I grew up with a very serious science fiction problem.

Though my "problem" has mostly remained dormant over the last several years (due mostly to being crowded out by obsessions over avant-garde cinema and godawfully obscure music), it's begun to poke up every so often in recent times: a little bit of Heinlen and Herbert's novels,a sprinkle of the new Battlestar Galactica here and there, a taste or two of Fireflybetween a helping of Jeffrey Eugenides and Cormac McCarthy. My latest guilty pleasure has been in the announcement of a new film that will "reinvigorate" the original Star Trek story.

As I sat at my desk the other night, reading through PC Magazine reviews and fawning over the iPhone I will never afford to own, I had a twofold realization smack me squarely across the jaw: A) the future of which we collectively dreamt in 'Star Trek' is now (and even cooler than what we'd dreamed!)and B) as much as I'd love to disown it, that science fiction is partly to thank.

For every step humankind has made, there has been a wild-eyed dream that fueled it. Our first rocket flights to space? Jules Verne dreamed up combustion rockets that blasted explorers into space nearly a century beforehand. The artificial satellites that orbit our earth and transmit data in giant networks? Imagined by Arthur Clark well before they ever hit the sky. How about those shiny and glorious networking iPhones over which I've drooled endlessly? Take a look at Roddenberry's original Star Trek series; you might see something familiar. Not long ago, sci-fi novelists talked of mapping and manipulating genes; today, the Human Genome Project is using their completed draft map to explore the purpose of over 20,000 genes in our bodies. Though Asimov could only dream of handheld computation devices in 1950, today we can not only compute but also network, design and entertain, often in packages even smaller than the golden-age writers predicted.

Okay, so maybe we haven't terraformed Mars or built HAL-9000, but that's still a pretty darn good track record.

Heck, sci-fi has even shaped some of our scientific directions in-progress. Did you know that, partly inspired by the visions of Romulan Cloaking devices and invisibility gear, scientists have begun building devices that bend light around particles so as to make them invisible to the naked eye? They have! Did you know that the obscure work of Dröscher and Heim have reignigted the possibility of unification between general relativity and quantum mechanics and, consequently, created a theoretical model of subspacial travel that brings to mind books like "Dune" and "A Wrinkle in Time"? Heck yes.

Aren't these exciting times in which we live? Hello, new sci-fi world of gene-mapping and commercial spaceflight! So, yes, perhaps I'm still a bit ashamed of my hang-up on science fiction, but little realizations like these make me a little less ashamed- maybe even a bit proud. Even as we dream, long and wish, we as humans take a step forward.

Rejoice, oh, ye of sci-fi revelry, for you have inherited the earth!

Nick Garcia
Adult Services Dept.

Best of 2007

2007-12-28T14:19:00.000-08:00

I really hate best/worst of the year lists. This year you’ll see Britney Spears’ on most of them, and it leaves me with so many ‘why’ questions. Why does anyone care about the family problems of a bad pop singer? Why did she beat out the Iraq War, or the fires that blazed through Southern California as a worst of 2007? Well, that may be a bit of a straw man, not all lists will value Britney Spears over an ongoing war, but I like picking on mainstream media.

Now, here are a few of my silly favorites from 2007.

Favorite TV show 2007: Mythbusters

On the surface this show is about two offbeat special effects artists that blow things up, but if you dig a little deeper you’ll find the value of science and truth, while at the same time being severely entertained.

Favorite Book 2007: God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens

Hitchens supplied a new voice to the atheist/secular movement this year. His wit and keenness on the subject of religion pushed his book up the best-seller list reaching #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list in its third week. The library does own a copy, but you’ll have to get on the waiting list.

Favorite Movie 2007: Alien vs. Predator – Requiem

It’s the only movie I saw this year…it was bad.

-Mitchell Haug

The End is Only the Beginning

2007-11-24T11:31:00.001-08:00

I know I've posted about this before, but I simply have to blog again about how much I love these guys! Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer of DOK, Delft Public Library in the Netherlands were here in the US again - this time for what they called the Shanachie Tour, which started in New York and swept across the country to California, ending at the 2007 Internet Librarian Conference in Monterey in October.

You can watch their final episode of their tour here, which is well worth the 12 minutes:

Shanachie Tour

There is something so intrinsically likeable about Erik and Jaap that meeting them is an unforgettable experience. Erik's mantra is that everyone has a story to tell and librarians can help people share their stories, which is a concept that we believe in wholly at the Kankakee Public Library. The Shanachie Tour may be over, but the inspiration definitely lives on throughout the libraries that they've touched.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services
Kankakee Public Library

One Librarian's Plea to Larry King

2007-11-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

Oh, if only Larry King would utilize his friendly neighborhood library for some researching skills, he’d avoid embarrassing scenarios like asking Jerry Seinfeld if his show got cancelled:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NZfUgVSfKdQ

and calling Ringo Starr "George":

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Kb7MuasFXmY

Larry, call us. The friendly Kankakee Public Library Adult Services staff is here to help with your research needs, 815-939-4564.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

A Systematic Approach

2007-10-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

The Kankakee Public Library is a member of a library consortium called the Prairie Area Library System (PALS). What this means is that this library and many other regional libraries throughout over 20 counties in northwestern Illinois and even into Iowa use one library catalog and share materials with each other via a system-wide delivery. Many users don't realize – or really care to know - about our consortia membership on the surface, but we are all happy to reap the benefits of being in a library system when it works for us. But what happens when it doesn't work for us?

Sometimes at KPL we ask ourselves the issue that consortium members don't regularly talk about – do we still need the system? The State of Illinois is having extreme economic hardships right now – we feel these hard times when we're turned down for state grants and we see the toll that the State's financial woes has on our own library system's financial situation. No matter what the financial status of the state, the trend in libraries is that the systems are gradually fading away. Member libraries have become more self-reliant and systems (like our own) have become so large and cover such a vast geographical area that, some would argue, systems nearly become impossible to serve their member libraries effectively.

Now, I've worked at KPL for 8 years and the library system has been the backbone of our institution. They didn't get us where we are today (our tireless director and the Mayor of Kankakee did that); however PALS has humbly supported us and allowed us to shine with their staff support. During my 5 ½ years of heading the Circulation Department at KPL, a day didn't go by where I didn't receive assistance, guidance, and support from PALS. In the past 2 ½ years that I’ve headed the Adult Services Department here, though my reliance on the PALS staff for everyday support has lessened, the consultation and technological support they've given me has been invaluable. PALS IT staff has gotten us out of a few dozen technological jams, answered my relentless software issues and pretty much entertained my every idea about how I think the system could improve – and they do it all with humor and kindness and with warmth. All systems are flawed, of course, and PALS is not exempt. For example, it is a challenge for library staff to attend meetings where the most "centralized" location in the system is 2 hours away. But whether the users of the Kankakee Public Library realize it or not, being a member of a library system has proven to be beneficial, both directly – for example with delivery of interlibrary loan material, and indirectly – with library staff support. It's hard to say where PALS or any library system will be in 10 or 20 years, but at least for now, we're secure in knowing that the alliance we've formed in this consortium has been very worthwhile.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services Dept.
Kankakee Public Library

Hot Ticket Item For a Thought Provoking Book Discussion

2007-08-30T09:20:00.000-07:00

We currently have three adult book discussion groups here at the library and I am very fortunate to help mediate the group dedicated to highlighting African American authors called "The Soul Collections". One of our regular participants in the group asked if we could revisit some of the classics we read as youngsters and do a comparison on how we differ in our feelings of the books as we have gotten older. My first dubious task was to locate a classic that was readily available (reference the blog by Allison Beasley on January 13, 2007 on "Where is all the Black Fiction?") I decided on Black Boy by Richard Wright for our August 28th discussion. This book is required reading by many public high schools, so I knew there would be plenty of copies in public and school libraries and I was lucky enough to request the ones needed before students got back to class in August and grabbed all the copies.

For those of you that have not (yet) read the book, it is Richard Wright's autobiography. His style of writing is so descriptive and flows so smoothly that the book reads more like a novel instead of non-fiction. He was unbelievably graphic in telling his life story beginning at age 4 in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow laws and prejudices and continuing with his struggles after his move north and his discovery of the power of words – his own words, his own writing.

Well let me tell you, if your book discussion group is looking for a surprisingly thought provoking discussion – this book is the ticket. I went into the venture a little tentatively because although our group highlights African American writers, we are a very mixed group. We are young and old, African American, White, and Hispanic, male and female – well, you get the idea. We always have a very lively discussion whether the material is fact or fiction, and I thought the content of Mr. Wright’s autobiography would cause some apprehension in the group. I also thought people would be afraid to speak their mind on the issue of race relations both then and now. How far from the truth that turned out to be! Some of our older members were actually born in Mississippi during that same time and were more than willing to speak their mind on the issue of discrimination (then and now) and even gave personal stories of things that had happened to them in the South. Some of the younger members that were born north and never had to live through the civil rights struggles of the South could not even relate to some of the things that were commonplace down there - such as separate drinking fountains and waiting rooms and the list goes on and on. No one in the group felt the least little bit intimidated by the subject or the conversation and even though the group was relatively large; everyone got a chance to get in on the discussion. Our meeting is usually from 7 until 8 but it was still going strong as the clock moved on toward 8:45. When we finally broke up, some of us still discussed Mr. Wright as we moved down the stairs to the first floor.

For a man with very limited "formal education" he was a genius with pen and pad.

Yvonne Croswell
Head of Circulation

Talking to the Wall

2007-08-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

I'm sure this sounds odd – and it probably is. But the picture of Mary Jo Johnston (see Library Musings blog entry below) that I keep on my bulletin board at work not only serves as a reminder to me (and everyone who comes in my office) of that remarkable woman, but it also serves as a means to communicate with her. I'm not talking candles and séances. But every day I talk with MJ and ask her for advice. She always says the same thing to me, "Oh, Allison, you know what to do!"

I'm gearing up for fall – we all are at KPL. It's our busiest time of the year in Adult Services. And this is the first fall we're doing programming without Mary Jo's wisdom, experience, and drive.

I'm reminded of the lyrics of her favorite Bob Dylan song that her family played at her funeral, Forever Young...

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.

Well, the winds of change have definitely shifted with her passing. I hope that Mary Jo would be proud of all of us at KPL who are trying to carry on her legacy of outstanding author programs, and the courageous Friends of the Library who are going to ensure that the group remains strong without her. Before her death, Mary Jo had booked two amazing speakers to visit us and do talks this fall – Jonathan Eig (on September 27), the author of New York Times bestselling books Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season and Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig; and also New Yorker contributor Liesl Schillinger (on October 25). If you're a local reader of this blog, you'll likely want to seize the opportunity to come hear these renowned writers and better yet – consider joining the Friends of the Library to help keep their membership going strong.

I'll continue to talk to MJ's picture on my bulletin board on the wall – she may always give me the same advice, but as with everything that Mary Jo said, it's exactly what I need to hear.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

The Heart of It

2007-08-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

I would tell Mary Jo Johnston (MJ as I fondly called her in my emails) that I hope I never have to plan library programs without her – she was one of the main people at the Kankakee Public Library who makes work…well, not work. Mary was the tireless Program Coordinator for the Friends of the Library and also a Library Trustee. In her Program Coordinator role, she and I worked closely together to ensure that the Friends programs were well marketed and publicized. Mary was the brains behind many of the well-known authors and speakers (Luis Urrea, Richard Peck, Lois Lowry, and a Tuskegee Airman, to name a few). She helped put the City of Kankakee and the Library back on the map. She and I certainly fed off of one another's energy. When I would feel drained and tired (and there were times I have), she'd give me one of her patented "you can do anything!" motivational emails or talks and I'd be as good as new. I need one of her talks right now more than ever. During a program at the Library at the end of July, she suffered a severe stroke that left her comatose. Mary died last night.

As I sit here and type this, there's a mixture of disbelief, overwhelming sadness, and anger that she's gone. They say that mourning is really about the survivors – the departed feel no hurt. And there is a citywide hurt with Mary's passing.

I miss MJ in big ways and I miss her in small ways. Her very presence in the Library and the City was so large that the sadness of her death looms over everything. But then there are small things like when I re-read an email the other day that she had sent me months ago enticing a "big city" author to visit Kankakee. She was trying to tell him to check out the KPL podcasts and vodcasts but she mistakenly typed "check out the KPL podcasts and vodkas at www.lions-online.org." I laughed out loud and instinctively hit "reply" to chide her about luring authors to KPL with vodka. But then I stopped.

I honestly can't imagine her not being here for the Library and for me. If KPL were a body – she'd be its heart.

But that, of course, is all the more reason to ensure that Mary's work was not in vain. The legacy of hope and pride that she has instilled in this community will be continued by those of us she's left behind. It has to. And it will.

I miss you so much, MJ.

Allison

Ministry of Truth

2007-07-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

Allison’s previous entry on control got me thinking about all of the tongue biting I have to do as a librarian. Every now and then I might be asked for books on astrology, or anything written by Sylvia Browne, and right then my rational thought process is screaming to take some jabs, but as a decent librarian, I must forfeit over the Dewey decimal numbers – tongue in teeth. It’s hardest, though, when ideology and morality become an issue. Recently, a patron asked me to help him find articles about counseling bisexuals into heterosexuality because he wanted to do exactly that. Sirens went off in my head immediately; I couldn’t agree with that practice any less.

I had a few options:

A: Give him a piece of my mind.
B: Pretend to do research and say I couldn’t find anything.
C: Find articles for him.

I went with option C, and developed a speech impediment. After all, I am a librarian working for the Kankakee Public Library, not the Ministry of Truth. My job is to allow access to information even if it is used for delusional, misguided, or misinformed purposes.

-Mitchell Haug

Disclaimer: This message has not been approved by the Ministry of Truth.

Control

2007-07-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

A problem I have always had is giving up control. I am...a...control freak. It's true. From personal experience, on both the giving and receiving ends, I can assure you that control freaks are hard to work for. My director is not a control freak and that's one of the many reasons I love working for her. My staff, on the other hand, does not have that luxury with me. I have had to work very hard to delegate and let my staff be...well, fabulous.

And they are fabulous. Nowhere in Mitchell's job description does it read that he can create documentaries for the library. But after he shared some of his youtube videos that he'd made like this http://youtube.com/watch?v=dQmNjh5SgWA and this http://youtube.com/watch?v=3IyDWhYIJ_w I realized that there was some serious untapped KPL potential there. Mitchell is now Video Lead and currently working on a documentary local history project. Mitchell has also produced music for KPL podcasts.

Nowhere in Nick's job description does it read that he should be taking pictures. But after learning of his incredibly sensitive photography skills illustrated here http://flickr.com/photos/nikku_neko I'd be foolish not to try and thread this talent into his daily KPL activities. Nick is currently working on "A Week in the Life of the City of Kankakee" with photographs that he and others have taken around the city as a library project.

Mitchell and Nick have had to give up control of their own talents somewhat, as well. Whenever an artist creates something for work, they're always giving up a little (or big) part of it – not only with copyright – but also with trust that we won’t abuse the integrity of the art. Mitchell and Nick have both trusted me and KPL with their talents. Thankfully, I’ve given up control to them, too. If I had not done so, they may not have been able to grow as creative library staff in this institution. That's control worth handing over.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

It's All About People

2007-07-17T13:05:00.000-07:00

When I ask patrons what it is they like about visiting the library, the first response I get is almost always the same - the staff. When I ask library staff what is it that they like about working at the Kankakee Public Library, the answer is always the same - the patrons. It's no surprise what a patron-staff Mutual Admiration Society we've got going on here considering how much the staff here goes out of their way to do things for people. Last week, for example, Vicki in Adult Services was taking flyers around the area for an upcoming library concert and in our parking lot an older, confused-looking gentlemen approached her, "can you help me? I'm not from here and I need to find a phone." It turns out, sadly, he was in town for his daughter's funeral. She brought him inside the library to the Circulation Desk so that he could use a phone and helped him to find the bus schedule. It was a small gesture on Vicki's part, but a big deal to the gentleman from out of town during a stressful time in his life.

I think that non-library people may be surprised that the word "books" wasn't used here. But is it books that brings patrons back time and time again? Of course books have something to do with it - but certainly not everything. I've been approached by would-be library students who have asked me why they should be a librarian. I always ask "do you like people?" If I don't get an emphatic "yes!" then I am hesitant to urge them to go into the profession. I even committed what I am sure some people would consider Library Heresy by pleading with one library student to *not* continue with library school because of his blatant dislike of people.

It's all about people. You don't have to be an avid reader...you don't have to be a techie geek...but if you don't like people - you're not going to be happy or successful working in libraries.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Backwards Progress

2007-06-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

"Only a genealogist regards a step backwards as progress." - Author unknown

I haven't spent much time in the Genealogy department since I've worked in Adult Services. I am fortunate to have two of the county's foremost genealogical researchers (Betty Schatz and Nancy Arseneau) on my staff and a genealogist-in-training Mitchell Haug. So, I spend little time poring over genealogy records. But every now and then, there is an inexplicable force that pulls me toward the genealogy room - its worn volumes of passenger lists, local histories and census records, patiently waiting to be explored by hopeful patrons.

This morning I spent some time in the Library's genealogy room, immersing myself in old city directories and plat maps locating some information on an old house that interests me in Kankakee. Tracing the house's owners from the early 1900s until present day, I can only imagine the stories that old home must have. After wiping the crumbled bits of disintegrating book spine off of my clothes, I spent some more time exploring census records in Ancestry.com, delighted to see how easy it is to explore the census there. I was trained years ago to look through census on film, which is far from easy on my eyes. But I was able to rather effortlessly locate information about the original homeowners and found out when they emigrated from Germany (first moving to Paducah, Kentucky before settling in Kankakee, Illinois). I love it when technology and history come together so effectively.

I've always had a soft spot for genealogists and historians. I find them to be imaginative and romantics at heart, a need for facts but not afraid to fill in the blanks with what probably was true. Even if I spend 90% of my time in front of my computer, there's still a little part of me that longs to be back there among those dusty old volumes with the other researchers. Maybe some day I'll have more time to spend there, and I know Kankakee’s ancestors will be waiting patiently for me.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Stranger than Fiction

2007-05-16T18:04:00.000-07:00

I just finished Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors last night and all I can think is I will never complain about my childhood AGAIN. This is the witty and eccentric biography of Burroughs childhood after his histrionic mother and alcoholic father divorce, leaving young Augusten to be raised simultaneously by his mother and his mother’s psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. I use the term "raised" loosely as his bringing up was more akin to being shot out of a canon. Augusten’s pre-teen and teen years were spent mostly in the Finch home filled with drugs, statutory rape, absolute filth, a staged suicide attempt and……a Christmas tree that stayed up past May! Gasp!

It is almost unfathomable to me that this was actually his true story. Running with Scissors reads more like a horror novel to responsible parents everywhere than a work of non-fiction! My childhood was a stay-at-home PTA mom who baked cookies and made 4 dozen gingerbread houses into the wee hours of the night for her kid’s class. It was school dances, family vacations, and spending summers at the neighborhood pool. My childhood was what I assumed every kid’s childhood was. Very different from Augusten Burroughs.

Half of the time I was reading this book, my mouth was fixated in a look of horror and disgust, and the other half of the time I was laughing in a fit of hysterics at the sheer ridiculousness of these situations. Burroughs writes in a David Sedaris-esque way, but unlike Sedaris, Burroughs’ childhood is more one of sheer lunacy than quirkiness. But he writes about his childhood with just enough charm so that the reader doesn’t feel sorry for him. He acknowledges his unusual past and owns it in a way that’s almost victorious.

We’re discussing this book tomorrow night at our Non-Fiction Book Discussion at KPL and I can’t wait to hear what the others thought of it. Most likely the folks at book club will describe this book with a mixture of bewilderment and awe that the author survived it all. People say truth is stranger than fiction and in this case it’s true – I can’t think of anything stranger than Running with Scissors.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

The Exciting World of Newspaper Archives

2007-05-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

I was scrolling through a few old issues of the Kankakee Daily Journal and found some interesting things.

This man is fond of corn.

A riveting tale in Library Land.

A man in mid cackle.

In case you didn’t know, the library has Daily Journal archives, on microfilm, all the way back to 1867. If there is an old article or maybe an obituary you’re wanting to find, you could come search the archives in the library’s genealogy room. If you live far from the library or just can’t make it in, feel free to call or email us and we’ll find it for you.

Our reference email is ref@lions-online.org
To reach us by phone call (815)939-4564
You could also reach us through an instant messenger
-Yahoo: Lionsreference
-MSN: KPLReference
-AIM: KPLReference

Mitchell

What We're Reading/Listening To....

2007-04-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

A poll of what some of the KPL staff is reading, listening to, and watching...

Allison:

Reading: I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris
Listening to (Music): The Postal Service and Damien Rice
Listening to (Podcasts): This American Life and The Third Coast International Audio Festival

Mitch:

Reading: 1984 by George Orwell and Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright
Listening to: Radiohead, Bob Dylan and Death from Above 1979

Nick:

Reading: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Listening to: Pedro the Lion
TV: Enterprise Season II

Vicki:

Reading: The Secret Life of the Sushi Club by Christy Yorke and Physical by James McManus
Listening to: Simon and Garfunkel and WGN

Betty:

Reading: On Agate Hill: A Novel by Lee Smith

Simon and Garfunkel

2007-04-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

There have been two men who have been a constant in my life. I can depend on them no matter what and my love for them is practically indescribable. Sometimes I will forget about them for a while but when I think of them they welcome me with open arms that envelope me in the warmest, softest hold that no other can provide to me. Those men are Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.

Growing up we had a large piece of furniture that looked like part of our dining room set but actually consisted of speakers and a record player. We listened to all of our vinyl on this bad boy. Some of my earliest memories are my mom doing spring cleaning while Simon and Garfunkel was on the turntable. I can just picture the house and smell the scent of Windex and spring air. Just hearing one of their songs can put me in a way back machine and BAM! it’s 1979 again and I am four. Now that I am a grown woman with a house to take care of my own when I wash the windows Simon and Garfunkel must be on.

Just hearing their music puts me in the best frame of mind that I can possibly imagine. Their words, the music, the melody…everything about them is just so beautiful. When I listen to their music I just want to lay on the floor, relax my body, close my eyes and just let the sound and words wash over me.

No other artist can move me to tears with their songs. Songs like America, Kathy’s Song, Bridge Over Troubled Water and Slip Slidin’ Away resonate so strongly with me and my life. I can cry at one of these songs at the drop of a hat and the next moment be laughing and smiling at the 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Goovy) or wanting to spin around and dance with Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard or Kodachrome.

In 2003 I was blessed with the opportunity of seeing them live in concert! It was a costly ticket but well worth it to attend and enjoy the experience with my mom, who without her I am not sure I would have the same love for Paul and Art.

Vicki Stankewicz

Business Better Left Unfinished...

2007-04-10T14:20:00.000-07:00

I have a long list of my favorite things I’ve never finished. A very fine copy of “Gravity’s Rainbow” is gathering dust, a bookmark stranded somewhere in the middle of Part I. Metroid Prime is sitting inside my Gamecube’s disk drive, awaiting the defeat of the final titular antagonist. In my fridge, a growing pile of undeveloped Fuji Reala film canisters is starting to overtake the nearby package of soy cheese. It’ll all be finished one of these days.
Somewhere near the top of my unfinished list is Mark Danielewski. Danielewski is the kind of literary aberration that only comes once in a great while, silently slipping his genius in between the wash of disposable contemporary novelists. In fact, it wasn’t until five years after the publication that I found the volume that reigns supreme on my list: House of Leaves. Once I discovered it, however, rarely did a month ever pass without it being abducted from the fiction stacks by yours truly.

House of Leaves follows in the Ergodic tradition of being a wolf in sheep’s clothing. On the surface (read: on the book jacket) it seems so foolishly simple, but once the spine is cracked, the deeper implications become apparent.

House of Leaves follows a multitude of plots and a whole host of characters.
The book is disguised as an academic paper by “Zampano”, a blind researcher writing on the symbolic and historical implications of “The Navidson Record”. The Navidson Record is apparently an obscure documentary about Navidson, an award-winning documenter who has discovered that there’s something odd about the spatial dimensions of his new home. Navidson’s ensuing video documentary, in raw, messy and unbridled steps, begins to bring light to the fact that this house is bigger inside than it is outside. Something is growing in the unnoticed corners- stretched hallways, new doors, an unquenchable blackness.

As the book progresses, however, footnotes begin to appear that have been written by someone else: Johnny Truant, a young lowlife who happened to take Zampano’s manuscript after his death. As the manuscript details the horror of Navidson’s great and empty house, Truant weaves in his tale of his own unraveling sanity. One story echoes another, and soon it is all but impossible to discern one from the other. Footnotes lead to other footnotes which lead to notes hidden in the margins- which in turn refer to volumes and volumes of research- some of which don’t even exist. Each footnote adds a story, an idea, a snippet of a thought.

The effect is disconcerting- where does the academic nature of the work end, and where does the fiction begin? Terrifyingly enough, many of the references in the book are real. Danielewski draws us into the madness with this- the line between fiction and nonfiction is lost in the fine print. Is it a horror story? An analogy of the breakdown of the American nuclear family? A satire on the nature of research documentation? An experiment in typographical style? Each time I read it, it takes on a new face.

A patron once said to me that Finnegans Wake, like the Bible, is one of those books one is never finished reading. The deeper I delve into House of Leaves, the more I feel it is another of the same type. Behind each door is a winding hallway of possibilities and ideas; each exploration unveils another twist, another detail. House of Leaves is less a novel than it is an enigma. It is a multi-faceted artifact that begs us not to complete it in a sitting or a week or a month, but to explore it. It is one of the few books that should remain unfinished for a long time, so that we may better explore its branching caverns and savor each line of its calculated madness. It’s so good that I hope I never finish it.

Nick Garcia

The Time Traveler's Wife

2007-04-09T08:21:00.000-07:00

One of my absolute favorite parts of this job is hosting book discussions. We have the most intriguing conversations (sometimes about the book and sometimes not). Tonight we discussed Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife and all of its literary goodness. I actually read the book a couple of years ago and opted not to re-read all 500+ pages of it for this discussion, but it's been a favorite of mine ever since. The book is simultaneously told from the perspective of Henry, a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago who has a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel into various points of his own life, and his wife, Clare.

When asked if this book was written specifically with women or men in mind, Rhonda, a thirty-something regular book club attendee, commented that her husband would read this book. "Well, actually," Rhonda clarifies, "not my real husband, but my imaginary husband who lives in my mind would read this book and he would love it!" The women in the room broke out in a fit of laughter because we all seem to have (or have had) both real husbands and imaginary ones who reside only in our minds. My imaginary husband is cleaning the kitchen as I type this. My real husband is watching The Sopranos on cable.

Allison Beasley

Peeps!

2007-04-04T12:42:00.000-07:00

When people think of marshmallow Peeps, people think Vicki Stankewicz.

I have always loved getting Peeps in my Easter basket so imagine my delight when I found out they started doing Peeps for all seasons! A lot of people don’t realize that you can get Christmas trees, Halloween bats and pumpkins, Valentine hearts and Fourth of July stars all year round. According to the folks at Just Born, Inc. – Peeps are always in season!

In 2003 Peeps celebrated their 50th anniversary by converting two school buses into what I call Peepmobiles. There was a giant Peep atop the bus and the inside was a mini museum. I had the good fortune of tracking down the Peepmobile in Tinley Park where they stopped for a scheduled visit in front of the K-Mart. I wish they would have kept touring because it was so much fun.

I love finding anything Peep related in the stores. I find that JoAnn Fabrics and Target are especially Peep friendly. Both carry Peep merchandise other than the candy. Target is extra special because they have exclusive rights to red Peeps.

New this year in all stores is the color green which was added to blue, purple, yellow, pink and white.

So, next time you eat a Peep, see them at the store or anywhere else - think of me.

www.marshmallowpeeps.com

Be sure to check out our Flickr page that has pictures of the Peeps visiting the Kankakee Public Library.

Vicki

Poker Power

2007-03-30T13:11:00.000-07:00

About two years ago or so my brother was in town over Labor Day weekend and we went to hang out with some of his friends. They were playing Texas Hold'em poker. I hadn't ever played before and didn't know a whole lot about it. The only card games I was proficient in were War, Go Fish and Solitaire, none of which help much in learning poker. Instead of just sitting and watching I paid my buy in and got initiated by fire.

We played at a friend's apartment in Chicago. It was a typical (or to me what seems typical) bachelor's pad. There was no air conditioning unit and it was crazy hot. I will always remember this as my first poker experience.

I belong to a book club with a bunch of girlfriends and when I found out that some of the husbands and other guy friends got together to play poker while we were discussing our books I quickly found my way into their group. It is quite comforting to me that they treat me like one of the guys. They don't hold anything back just because there is a girl sitting there at the table with them. Whether it be swear words, belching or passing gas. Everything is fair game. I have always appreciated that they have taken me into their group and don't treat me any different than they would another guy.

I simply like to play poker. It's fun and interesting. I do like to win but I mainly just enjoy it as a social thing so it's okay if I don’t play well. That being said it is quite an exciting thing to win. It's like a high when you get great cards! I love to play and feel like I am going through withdrawal if I don't get to play about once a month. My hands crave holding and shuffling the cards.

A friend turned me onto a book called Positively Fifth Street by James McManus. This was one of those books that I couldn’t put down. I took it with me everywhere I went just to try to squeeze in a page or two whenever possible. McManus was writing an article for Harper's magazine about women playing in the World Series of Poker at Binion's Casino in Vegas and wound up turning the trip into a book. He decided what better way to cover the story than to enter the tournament himself. The book is the story of him playing in the tournament, a bit of history of cards and poker and coverage of the Ted Binion murder trial.

I was loving this book so much that as I was halfway through I thought I would have to write the author and tell him how much I loving it. Then a light bulb went off! He teaches a class at the Art Institute of Chicago! Maybe he would come to the library! I tracked him down and indeed he is interested in coming to speak here at the library. I am really hoping that we will have a great crowd for when he comes.

His most recent book is Physical and is about his check up at the Mayo clinic and healthcare in America and is also very good.

I am so excited for Jim’s visit and I don’t know if I will be able to hold out until September 25, 2007 when he plans on coming to the library.

Vicki

Filters in Space

2007-03-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

My 5 1/2 year old son, Andrew, is fascinated with space and the solar system. His uncle shared with him DVD footage of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon the other day and it's nice to know that nearly 40 year old space footage still has relevance to a child born in the 21st century. I was somewhat disappointed to learn that Pluto, recently demoted to a dwarf planet, is still being referred to as a planet in Andrew's kindergarten lesson plan on the solar system. Perhaps his school needs some updated books on the planets? Like most kids, Andrew also has a certain fondness for Mars. We talked a little about NASA's Mars explorer program and this is especially exciting to him. He got a telescope for Christmas and it's amazing to him what can be seen with the naked eye versus what he can look at through the telescope. I love to see kids excited about science! Andrew says that he's going to go to the moon someday and that he won't be scared at all. I explained that he needs to study very hard and do very well in science and math. My husband and I want to nurture his love of science and hope to see him receive his PhD (Magna Cum Laude, of course) from this school (approved by his uncle).

Another subject that Andrew takes great interest in is voting. On Election Day back in November, Andrew and my infant son came with my husband and I to our polling place to vote. I explained to Andrew what it means to vote and offered a very simple explanation of the electoral college. Andrew was also very fascinated by the voting process and wanted to know "how many sleeps" before he could vote. Quite a few, thankfully.

Speaking of voting, you may have heard the buzz about House Bill 1727 on Internet Filters in Public Libraries. You can read a summary of the Bill and its full text here. The Kankakee Public Library doesn't rely on software to filter pornography and graphic violence from the public internet computers. We use something far more powerful and effective – the Library Staff! The Kankakee Public Library Staff is 100% committed to keeping our children and teen users (and all users) SAFE.

And furthermore, if you wanted to read this blog post on a computer with filters, you'd be disappointed because the bolded words would have been filtered out since they are deemed "inappropriate" by most or all software filters. (The only one that may need some explanation is the "Mars exploration" – ending in the letter "s" and the next word starting with the letters "ex" hence forming the word "sex.")

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

An Evening with Elizabeth Berg

2007-02-26T19:51:00.000-08:00

A former library co-worker of mine once told me a story about going to Chicago to meet one of her favorite authors at a book signing. Anticipation had built up on the drive there and standing in line to actually be in front of this person who had inspired her greatly. When it was finally her turn, my former co-worker confessed to the author that her life was changed after having read her books – she sobbed with them and she grew with them. The author smiled briefly and said, " And who do I make this out to?" (blink, blink)

I am ecstatic to write that this was most certainly NOT the case when I met one of my all-time favorite ficiton writers Elizabeth Berg last week. She is beautiful, warm and true (and funny!) – much like the books that she writes. I had the pleasure of going to dinner in Kankakee with her and some other library folks. Here are some stories and factoids that she told:

Once when her children were small they had a massive snowstorm and in turn a snow day from school. Elizabeth wanted to turn this into something positive so exclaimed to her kids, "Let's play shoe store!" as they arranged all of their shoes for trying on. Her kids were giddy with delight at this whimsical play. That is until the phone rang. And their friends called for them to play outside. That, of course, was the end of Shoe Store. This little story stuck out at me because it’s the kind of thing that my mom and my sisters and I would play.

Elizabeth must have been a very playful parent as she also told a story of how her kids wanted their stuffed animals to get married. She clapped her hands in excitement and said, "Excellent! We’re going to make a tiered cake!" and then proceeded to plan the stuffed animal nuptials. I, too, remember attending/planning many a wedding of my stuffed animals and my cats (though, they were dubious of this commitment).

She said that she does narration of many of her own books for the audio versions and that one of the most time consuming ones was We Are All Welcome Here because of the heavy accents in the story.

Elizabeth also talked about her love of cover art and how she has cover art approval in her contracts. She gave us a sneak peek of the cover of her newest book, Dream When You’re Feeling Blue. I told her my favorite of her books is What We Keep and she chuckled and replied, "Oh, that’s a good one, isn’t it?" I agreed! Elizabeth said that the cover of that book is actually a picture from her editor – the two girls on the book are Elizabeth’s editor and her editor’s sister.

I was equally taken with Elizabeth’s companion, Bill. He knows a lot about everything and especially everything in the book industry, which makes for fun conversation for me.

At dinner when it came time to order, Elizabeth chose ostrich. That's right – ostrich, as in the big, non-flying bird. She’d never eaten it before and all I could think of was the episode of Mad About You where Paul orders Ostrich for the first time and then proceeds to get sick and have weird dreams that resemble Rowan and Martin's Laugh In episodes. Please don’t get sick and not speak at the Kankakee Public Library, Elizabeth!

She didn't. She said the ostrich was fabulous.

If you are already one of the millions of Elizabeth Berg fans, you may want to listen to the podcast or watch the vodcast of her talk at the Kankakee Public Library. If you’re not yet a Berg fan, check out one of her many books at KPL or at any library or bookstore.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

A Non-Traditional Student

2007-02-20T08:19:00.000-08:00

It's a fact that a large percentage of the staff at Kankakee Public Library are currently students of some sort. High school, undergrads, grad students, you name it - you can find them here at the library. Which brings me to the topic of this blog post - the non-traditional student. I, along with many others, happen to reside in this demographic of non-traditional student. I am a 31-year-old (it's true!), married mother of a teenager, embarking upon a brand new career in health care. A co-worker/friend asked me the other day what my perspective on college is now as opposed to when I first started my collegiate journey 12 years ago. I had much to offer.

There are major differences:

1) The financial responsibility that is now mine instead of my parent's.
Gone is the hope for talent based scholarships and work study to supplement my weekly existence. Tuition these days is my problem and mine alone.

2) My grades are outstanding. The distractions that prey upon people in their early 20s are no longer an option for me, so I can focus on my studies better. Besides I'm older and haven't the time or money to waste on repeating classes (see #1).

3) My choice in my major is not up for discussion. Between 1994 and 1997, I am sure I changed my major at least 6 times. I'm older and wiser and I've done my research. My career path at this point is much clearer (see #1).

4) My appreciation for my professors is much greater. I no longer view my teachers as my tormentors and I hold them in the highest regard. As opposed to when I was younger and thought I knew everything; I now realize that I'll never know enough. We learn something new every day, sometimes
in the least likely of circumstances. I've learned to be a student of
life. (I think I read somewhere I can get college credit for that?)

5) Most of all I no longer view college as an option. Statistically, it's just not feasible these days to achieve your optimum success in life without a college education. The job market is much more competitive and without a degree, one's resume can often remain at the bottom of the pile or even worse.

Oh what a difference 12 years makes!

Tich Richardson
Youth Services Dept.

On Burning out, Growing up and Crashing SuperVillain conventions...

2007-02-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

Finishing a college degree can be a bit, let's say, "frying" for the mind. Don't get me wrong, I love learning for the sake of learning, but working three independent projects in Chicago while commuting, working and living in Kankakee is a surefire way to turn your cerebellum into gelatinous meat byproduct. After all that schoolwork in December, a break was in order. Reading was set aside in favor of sleeping, making music and enjoying my biggest guilty pleasures, video games and films. I had finally come out of my reading slump at the end of January, and I already had drawn up a mammoth list of literature to devour over the next few months.

And that, dear reader, is where Joe Meno comes in. Though I'd never attended any of his classes or lectures, I knew that he was a creative writing professor at Columbia College. What a better way to celebrate graduation than by reading a work by a professor of my alma mater? (I certainly wasn't going to reread Ted Uzzle's Technical Fundamentals of Audio, as much as I liked the guy.) In fact, two of his works were sitting at the top of my list: Haircuts of the Damned and The Boy Detective Fails. I found myself surprisingly disappointed by Meno's critically well-received attempt at a coming-of-age story (Haircuts of the Damned), so I expected very little from the Chicagoan's next effort. However, the moment I laid eyes upon the small glob of introductory text tucked into the lower right corner of the first page, I knew that this work would be a special one.

The style of Boy Detective is a departure: the narration takes on a deceptively simple structure reminiscent of the genius child-sleuth genre. However, rather than presenting us with a handsome and sharp young genius child, Meno introduces us to a veritable has-been: former child genius Billy Argo, a nervous, pill-popping wash-up of a man, newly released from a ten-year stint at a mental hospital after his sister (and fellow sleuth) Caroline takes her own life. Alone and unsure in a world very different from the one in which he solved crimes as a child, Billy tries everything he can to get by - avoidance, distractions, feigning helplessness- until he gives in and does the only thing he can: solve the mystery that is the life around him.

The resulting story is simultaneously surreal and touchingly realistic, mixing bizarre crimes (disappearing buildings, scheming corporate overlords, absurd super-villain organization conventions) with mundane postmodern existence (dead-end jobs, antidepressants, social anxiety). Wry humor keeps the book in place throughout - well enough, in fact, that I found myself laughing out loud on several occasions. Meno knows, it seems, how to touch his readers on many fronts. The novel slyly poses the question to us: "What happened to the wonderment and adventure of childhood?"...and answers that question quite well. For any one of us who ever faced failure in adulthood, being burnt-out after the brightness of childhood, or the loneliness in the working world, The Boy Detective Fails is for you.

Nick Garcia
Adult Services Dept.

Falling in Love With the Dutch...

2007-02-14T16:19:00.000-08:00

It seems appropriate, being Valentine's Day, that I admit my newfound love for the Dutch. I first fell in love with Delft, Holland when I read Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring - a beautifully written book that took place in 17th century Delft. But I fell in love with Delft all over again - and more to the point, two Delft librarians - last week when they visited the Kankakee Public Library.

Erik and Jaap of DOK Delft Public Library in the Netherlands are filming a documentary on gaming in libraries and visited Chicago last week to visit some "innovative libraries." Lo and behold, Jenny Levine of The Shifted Librarian and also the American Library Association suggested that Erik and Jaap might check us out. Kankakee Public Library in a documentary? By Dutch librarians? You don't have to ask us twice! We were driving up to University Park to pick up Erik and Jaap at the Metra station faster than you can say "Goedemorgen!"

I cannot accurately describe the enthusiasm and humor that these two brought with them. Erik and I began talking from the moment we met and didn't stop for the next few hours. Erik and Jaap are both truly amazing. The DOK Delft Library website reads "DOK is on a mission to become the world´s most modern library" and boy!...are they ever! Read on...

"In order to do this we believe we need to have the best communication with our users possible. Therefore we our working very hard on innovations. One of these has been presented recently on a seminar Publishing beyond look and is called Tank U. TANK U wants to be a place in town where passers-by may download information on their mobile phone. Made available free of charge by their public library to inspire users with suggestions for reading, viewing or listening. Not the usual run-of-the-mill stuff, but suggestions that broaden one’s horizon and get the user in touch with all things beautiful the library has to offer."

TANK U is only one of so many innovative things that they're working on over there. Erik and Jaap at DOK are definitely ones that I'll be watching in the coming years. It is people like this that truly make me LOVE this profession. Goedenacht, Erik and Jaap! You have a devoted following here in Kankakee!

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

An Hour in Reference...

2007-01-16T17:05:00.000-08:00

I worked the Reference Desk in the Adult Services Department today alone for an hour and these were my favorite reference questions from that hour:

1.) "please list all states that have forest fires and then list every governor of those states along with their addresses"

2.) "please name all the newspapers serving Itasca, IL"

3.) "I have a 2 foot statue of Native American holding a pan. It appears as though he has nails in his stomach (not real nails but the illusion of nails). What is the history of this statue and how much is it worth?" Sadly, I haven't found the answer to this one yet.

and finally...

4.) "Do you have any of the W-D40 tax forms?"

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Where is All the Black Fiction?

2007-01-13T07:31:00.000-08:00

I am disheartened.

Two years ago, nearly to the day, we launched a book discussion group called Soul Collections. It was created as a book group dedicated to reading and discussing books by African American authors. KPL has had great success with this; however, the biggest challenge is finding books to read! There are so few books by African American authors in the Praire Area Library System's online catalog. Now, there are nearly 400 member libraries in this system. Our newly merged catalog will have 8 million holdings. And very few of these are black fiction? Certainly, we buy our own copies for KPL but we need at least 15-20 copies of these books so the group can all read them. Is it the responsibility of the other libraries in the system to buy books for a KPL book group? No. But, my question is - are we the only library that has readers who are interested in black fiction? Surely not.

Yvonne and I have racked our brains trying to come up with a solution to this challenge. My idea was to create book sets of our own and hope to find a couple of libraries in the system who would be interested in doing so, as well, until we can find a grant to apply for that would fund this. I sent an email out to the system libraries asking if any of them had book discussion groups that featured African American authors. And then I waited. And waited. And heard crickets chirping. Not one library replied. I did some searching and could not find any other library in the entire system who featured a book discussion group like this.

We decided that we would buy these book sets on our own. We went to Baker & Taylor's website (major book distributor) to purchase them and were disheartened there, as well. There were very, very few copies of any of the popular black fiction books in any of the B&T warehouses across the U.S.

KPL is buying the book sets (through Amazon.com, no less) on our own and we will launch this service in February for Black History Month. We would happily share these sets with other libraries; however, I'm guessing the system-wide demand will be low. I am hopeful that we will find a grant that will help us fund these in the future. Yvonne and I have not given up. We are reminded of this in particular because Monday we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday and all that he stood for (and still stands for today). As Dr. King once said, "Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle."

Information for the books we are reading and when Soul Collections meets can be found here.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Tag - We're It...

2007-01-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of months a game of tag has been going around the Blogosphere called 5 Things You Don't Know About Me. Guess what - we've been tagged. Tagged by our good friend, Ivan Chew of Singapore. It's hard to believe that we have readers in Illinois - let alone Singapore! Here are 5, er, 20, Things You Don't Know About 4 of Us...

5 Things You Now Know About Mitchell:

1.) I've spent over a grand on James Bond memorabilia. Why? Because.
2.) I'm allergic to most fruits. Usually, when I eat fruit, my throat itches inside and I start hacking obnoxiously.
3.) I've been bludgeoned in the face with a metal baseball bat.
4.) I was an altar boy in junior high.
5.) For a short period of time in my life (thankfully) I was a non-showering hippie.

5 Things You Now Know About Vicki:

1.) I used to be shy. Anyone who has met me since college is always stunned by this. I went away to college and totally came out of my shell. I haven't stopped talking since. (Editor's note: This is true. Vicki never stops talking.)
2.) I can out-belch almost anyone. The doctors say it's harmful to hold them in! It's a great party trick - it really impresses the guys.
3.) I am a proud cancer survivor of almost 5 years. Wow, that goes by fast.
4.) I know absolutely nothing about current music, with the exception of Gwen Stefani. My favorite group of all time is Simon and Garfunkel. I am 31 years old. Also, people are surprised to find out that I was a head banger. When all my friends were listening to New Kids on the Block (barf) I was frequenting the concerts of Poison, Motley Crue, Metallica, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tesla.
5.) I am a huge fan of talk radio. Hmmm, maybe that is why I don't know anything about current music. I am a rabid fan of all things WGN. Again, I am 31 years old. Not 50. Go ahead and make fun of me if you want, you have no idea what you are missing.

5 Things You Now Know About Nick:

1.) Before I graduated high school, I was FAT. No joke. 200 pounds. Where did it all go after high school? Beats me.
2.) My actual birthdate has been disputed ever since I was born. My birth certificate reads "12:00 am, 29 January." Legally, a new day is not set until 12:01, so no one knows if it's on 28 January or 29 January. I just picked a date and ran with it. Arguing semantics is too tiring.
3.) Even though I am now an enthusiastic vegetarian and animal-rights activist, the catalyst for my lifestyle is a bit less honorable. My first girlfriend bet me that I couldn't go meatless for a week. I bet her that I could. I started this bet on 2 January 2000 and I've never looked back since, even after she dumped me.
4.) I love videogames. I'm a closet videogame lover, actually. When I'm not being a snob, Nintendo rules my life. My current addictions? The Metroid series games, Wii Sports and Animal Crossing.
5.) I collect Hello Kitty - calendars, toys, clothes, anything. My favorite item? My brown-and-tan Chococat wallet.

And Lastly...

5 Things You Now Know About Allison:

1.) Many years ago when I first met my friend Steve, I jokingly told him my middle name was Kashmir like the Led Zeppelin song. I whole-heartedly believed that he knew I was joking. It wasn't until about 10 years later when he referred to my middle name that I explained that that was, in fact, a joke. He was appalled that what he though was true all that time, was actually false!
2.) I am related to Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain)
3.) I was raised to celebrate Jewish Holy Days in this church and didn't celebrate Christmas for the first time until about 10 years ago.
4.) In college, I was the first straight president of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Allies Union!
5.) My 5 year-old-son, Andrew (rabid Spider-Man fan) named his baby brother Parker after Spider-Man's alias Peter Parker.

And that is WAY more than you wanted to know about us. Now in an attempt to turn this blog entry into something Library-related we will tag the following friends of the Kankakee Public Library - these fine folks have visited us by doing a program or performance: Pulitzer-nominated author Luis Urrea, folk legend Arlo Guthrie, DC Comic artist Don Kramer, Kankakee-native author Kalisha Buckhanon, and newly published author and soon-to-be KPL podcast interviewee Adam Selzer.

Vicki's Version of "Saturday @ the Library"

2007-01-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, so Allison's account of our Saturday working together is correct. I'll give her that. However, she left out the important part of the story! What she neglected to tell you was that I found a whole lot of shenanigans going on in the Oversized Book section, in addition to a CD jewel case that had been busted open and a CD stolen!

During the course of the day I sensed the shenanigans and theft going on and it was just a matter of time until I was able to put all the pieces together. I knew the books weren't just being "used" by a patron! They were being violated! The books were taken off the shelf and put in unusual spots and turned backwards by some bored youth. The disheveled books were calling my name, pleading for me to save them from the kid who was back there abusing them. They didn't want to be thrown around with the paper garbage I found and the chewed up lollipop sticks!

Thanks to my sleuthing I have a lead on who did this "crime." Remember, you are always being watched!

Besides, Allison loves working with me. I am an endless source of entertainment! I like to keep things interesting around here.

Vicki S.
Adult Services Dept.

Do You Trust Me? I Trust You....

2007-01-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

Sometimes the Library staff just likes to have a good Trust Fall.

Joanna: "Do you trust me, Pam?"
Pam: "I trust you, Joanna."

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Saturday @ the Library

2007-01-09T14:20:00.000-08:00

I asked Vicki if she could go around the non-fiction stacks and clean
up some of the books that are just sitting around on the empty shelves so that the shelvers would put them away. It was just a quick Saturday project - I didn't even think much about it. So, she does and then continues on with her work. Well, a couple of hours after she finished cleaning up the stacks, she comes up to me with this big stack of oversized books and a stick from a Blow Pop, and she just gives me a look that is a mix of skepticism and fury.

Allison: "Yes?"
Vicki: "Do you SEE these? Do you know where I found these?? They were in the stacks!"
Allison: "Um, yes?"
Vicki: "I *just* cleaned up in the stacks and someone took these out and had them all lying around! Who was back there do you think?"
Allison: "Well....I'm guessing....a patron."
Vicki: "But I *just* cleaned up and I found this Blow Pop stick, too!"
Allison: "Ewww, Vicki, throw that away."
Vicki: "I will, but *someone* is going around and taking books off the
shelves and using them and then just laying them around!"
Allison: "Oh my Gosh! Someone....has....been....using....BOOKS....in the library? What next??"
Vicki: "Now you're mocking me."
Allison: "Yes."

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Make Your Vow

2007-01-05T16:00:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of televangelists. Robert Tilton is my favorite, hands down. I searched Google for the best picture I could find of Robert Tilton.

He's definitely cute.

And Holy.

Did you know that if you send Robert a large sum of money, god will ensure some wonderful things to come to you? He typically asks for one thousand dollars, but you can give any amount you wish, and in return, Tilton will place his hand over your money, bless it, and put it in his bank account. If you don't have any money to send then I'm sorry, Tilton won't bother to give you any benediction, you cheapskate. Tilton says, "Your tithe (10%) of your income belongs to God and is what you owe in Thanksgiving for past blessings." Remember how it is claimed that god is omnipotent? Well, wouldn't an omnipotent god be able to control his finances?

As of late, I have developed an obsession with Robert Tilton and those alike. I try to catch as many Tilton broadcasts as I can, which is difficult since he has secured the prime time of 3:00 in the morning. I have noticed something about his broadcasts. He spends more than fifty percent of his time asking for money (this was estimated to be much higher in a recent study), and zero percent of his time talking about the scandal that arose in the early nineties. What?! How could you suspect a scandal?! Well, ABC did an investigation on Tilton's ministry, and they found that Tilton and his servants never paid any attention to the prayer requests that came in the mail, but they certainly attended to the money. In fact, they narrowed down the final location of the prayer requests; I believe it was a dumpster.

So, here is where I struggle to find a reason to talk about Robert Tilton on a library blog.

Let's see, Let's see.

Ah, Yes! Robert Tilton has written a handful of books with titles like, Dare to Be a Success, Face Your Problems with Christ, and Solving the Mystery of the Miracle Money. Basically, they're all about how to make money with the help of god, or in his case, the exploitation of god.

Now, in order to save all of the Kankakee area Tilton fans some time, I went ahead and checked the catalogues of all the libraries in our HAL system. The HAL system includes libraries within Grundy, Kankakee, Kendall, LaSalle, Putnam, and portions of Bureau, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Kane, Lee, Marshall and Will counties. Guess what? I couldn't locate a single Tilton book within the system. I was kind of disappointed because I had considered reading one. Surely, I thought, BarnesandNoble.com will have his books. Well, they don't, unless you're interested in an unwanted, used copy. Gee, Tilton, not even Barnes and Noble wants to infect the world with your farce words.

Hallelujah!

Mitchell Haug
Adult Services

Saturday Night Live

2006-12-28T14:41:00.000-08:00

I was raised on Saturday Night Live. SNL and I were born the same year - 1975. I remember being a youth trying to stay awake at night just hoping and praying that it would be the night that they would feature Mr. Bill. I remember Eddie Murphy as Gumby. These childlike-looking skits flew right over my head. I thought Chevy Chase looked a bit like my dad - I got a kick out of watching these adults act so silly.

SNL was with me during my high school years when it became cool again with the Church Lady, Sprockets, Hans and Franz and Wayne's World. Everyone watched it. You weren't cool if you didn't. Catch phrases like "Isn't that special?" and "asphinctersayswhat?" were everywhere.

I have always been proud to admit that my childhood home is located one block south of the famous car spindle that was featured in the Wayne's World movie. (Sorry folks, that spindle is not located in Aurora, IL. It is in beautiful downtown Berwyn, IL!) Oddly, it was only this past October that I took the opportunity to take a picture by it.

I was with it during the rise of Jimmy Fallon and Tina Fey and I am still with it today. There is a great book Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live, as Told By Its Stars, Writers and Guests that goes in depth behind the scenes.

Somehow, I don't think it's cool that I watch it anymore but that doesn't stop me. Although Andy Samberg seems to making a name for himself with his digital shorts and helping keep SNL in the news, it seems hardly anyone that I know watches it anymore. I don't know if it's hip for the young kids to be watching it these days.
Lorne Michaels left the show for several years in the early days and it just wasn't the same. I don't know what will happen when he is ready to retire but I just can't imagine a time when it's not on my Tivo. It seems like it would be the end of an era.

Vicki S.
Adult Services Dept.

Ode to Ron

2006-12-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

Ron Chesko of Tech Pro Logic is our beloved IT guru. He visits us every few weeks, uses "the force" and makes our computer problems go away. We ply him with Chinese food, purified water, and candy to stay in his good graces.

I asked Ron if he'd mind posing for a little picture to demonstrate the true adoration that we have for him. And it went a little something like this....

and this...

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services Dept.

Have You Tried My Jesus? He's Alright!

2006-12-20T11:17:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I have found myself constantly checking my political correctness regarding the celebration of Jesus' birth. "Don't say Jesus." "Let's read a story about a magic star." "Happy Holidays." "Season's Greetings." "Merry X-Mas." I know it's because I work for a municipal institution and have to be mindful of that whole "separation of church and state" thing. But this year I think non-Christians are going overboard. Hello people! Christmas is exactly that. CHRIST-MAS! Factually and historically, there would be no Christmas without Christ. Let's give Him his props. Celebrating Christmas without acknowledging Christ is like coming to someone's birthday party, eating all the food, opening all the gifts and playing with all the toys while the birthday boy is locked in a closet. What's so bad about celebrating the birth of someone who teaches us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves? We celebrate Columbus Day and the only thing he taught us was how not to ask for directions. Why is it better to put emphasis on fairy tales like Rudolph, Frosty and Santa than to tell about a man who really existed and Christmas is named for? Nobody gets uptight about Kwanzaa, or Festivus or Hanukkah. Why so much hoopla and disdain for a Christian holiday? I am certainly a fan of holiday cheer, decorations and the whole bit. But when I am frowned upon for celebrating this holiday in the way that it was created to be celebrated, I start to wonder who is more narrow-minded Christians or non-Christians? Why is anything Christ related so heavily censored and considered non-inclusive? What's so bad about "Peace on earth and good will toward men?" Contrary to popular assumption Christ did not come to condemn the world, he came that we would have life and that more abundantly. So with that I say, don't be so uptight. Celebrate the true meaning of Christmas without fear of being considered right-wing or politically incorrect. Love, peace, joy and charity are always correct, no matter the season or the reason.

Tish Richardson
Youth Services Dept.

Transcendence: Or How the Emo Generation Finally Grew Up

2006-12-19T14:25:00.000-08:00

It's about time that I wrote about happiness. Yeah, that's right, happiness. Even the art-school snobs like me run into it from time to time. I have a story, and it goes something like this:

It must have been 9 or 10AM. I'm somewhere on route 57, with a stomach full of Pad Thai and a heart that's relatively content. The stereo is playing the last album by the Promise Ring, and it fills me with a hope and joy that few things can surpass. In fact, I can think of very few artistic statements that make me as sincerely happy as this little gem. Why? You may ask... Because, simply, those silly little songs spoke volumes to someone like me. This is our affirmation: the angsty underground of Generation Y grew up, it says to me. All those pained pseudo-intellectuals finally made the step past a long-overextended adolescence. Happiness had finally found them - and us.

We grew up part of a miserable generation. In the hot lights of the mainstream, the rockers lived in a perpetual cloud of angst and gloom. Drug addiction, suicide, alienation were the subjects of the day. The big rap acts were embroiled in that deathly East Coast/West Coast rivalry. As far as art was concerned, life was war, life was pain. The economy of the time may have been better, sure, but that still didn't make the world seem like a friendlier place.

Underground, in the snobbier parts of the record shop, things weren't much better. Pedro the Lion was recounting the sins of our meaningless lives in every album he could spit out. Dashboard Confessional (yes, they were once an independent entity) was writing out a laundry list of every breakup in recent American history, and American Football wasn't far behind with their poppy teenage sobs. Sunny Day Real Estate and all their descendants were mourning their spiritual loss and loneliness. Boys Life was sobbing about something, but we weren't sure what.

And we were just lapping it up. An entire generation believing that art, music and intellectual endeavors should be misery to the roots. The heated yelp of one brief musical statement suddenly became the stance of an entire community. Artistry didn't concern itself with happiness, at least not in the independent world. Anything happier than, say, Tolstoy was pure heresy.

But that, dear reader, is where the Promise Ring comes in. Or...wait. No, let's back up about six months.

It must have been middle 2001. I remember seeing the Pedro the Lion vinyl for Progress packaged with something called "A Guitar for Janey." Dereck, our residential hipness guru, filled in the blank for us: it was a storybook. Alongside what could be the most depressing 7" in history was a children's storybook. Why was it there? "All the hipsters grew up and had families," he said with a shrug. "They got tired of being sad." And sure enough, it became even truer with time.

The Promise Ring gave us their final record that year, a magical little piece called Wood/Water, and the indie community went up in arms. No more frantic guitars or impassioned cries - it was a straight, calm pop record. And it was about finding happiness. This wasn't the sound of "the statement" of the last several years, but that was okay. We're tired of this eternally miserable stance, cried the music. We're ready to move on to something...more.

They were urging us to put down our misery for a bit - Just as the punk rockers of the 1970's finally set down their sociopolitical angst to explore other areas of the human experience (as well as explore the bounds of electronic, reggae and pop music), so was the emo generation doing, a good 25 years later. Braid, those lovestruck mopers, cried out on their last record: "Let's not settle for satisfaction /We are women and men of action/let's stop clapping/let's start doing/ a dream for the teens/ and inbetweens /and twenties yet unseen..." They spoke of being more; they spoke of reaching out to the stars and beyond to fulfill themselves.

Maybe not everyone grew happy, certainly, but it seems that growing up was in order all across the board. Death Cab for Cutie moved on from the throes of relationship death to explore aging, solitude and mortality on Plans. Joan of Arc and numerous others threw down on the political front and tried to make a difference in the stilted bipartisan battlefield. The Appleseed Cast explored the abstract fringes of music and the human existence. Rainer Maria's jagged and impassioned howls became sharp, angular explorations into intellectualism and existence.

And from there, the indie scene exploded outward into an era of post-emo exploration...In the same right, however, please do not read this as a rebuttal against misery in art. Certainly, we do need it as an element - J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, The Smashing Pumpkins' Adore, Beethoven's 7th Symphony, Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea. Misery is there as a matter of being the obstacle for our transcendence: The 7th Symphony leads to the glorious and joyful affirmation of the 9th, Adore's turbulent center leads to calm understanding at the end of the record.

Certainly, Wood/Water or Frame and Canvas will most likely not take the historical importance that emotionally-charged precursors like 30º Everywhere or The Age of Octeen, the same way that Husker Du's Candy Apple Grey will never take the same historical spotlight their Zen Arcade has. More often than not, the heated moment is the one that stands out in history, but look deeper: sometimes the most understated moments are the most complex, the most genius.

For those of you who are interested in reading more about some of the independent music I've mentioned today, try Andy Greenwald's Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers and Emo, published by St. Martin Griffin or Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991.
If you'd like a faster introduction to the independent world of the last few years, try Wikipedia's articles on indie and emo, or try this hilarious parody of the genre's latter-day followers. Any of the records should be available at your local record shop or online at amazon.com. If you want a sample before you buy, try epitonic.com or any of these bands' record labels. If you feel that any of these records or books should be part of your local library, put in a request to the librarian - they'll be more than happy to consider the addition to the collection.

Until next time,

Nick Garcia
Adult Services Dept.

Comics and Ketchup

2006-12-14T09:19:00.000-08:00

I've said it before and I will say it again...what a fun job I have! Something interesting happens on a regular basis here, this job is far from boring. You might think that since I work at a library that it's always quiet here and I spend the day shushing people. Nope. Interesting characters come in on a regular basis, sometimes we get visits from the local police, sometimes we get exciting news about the library and we close the office door and scream and jump up and down with delight, and other times we have way too good of a time behind the desk conversing with coworkers...

Notably, it's exciting to be able to have the chance to meet public figures and to be able to interact with them. Most recently, local comic book artist, Don Kramer, came here to give a presentation. Myself, along with two other staff members took Don and his son out to eat before his presentation was to begin. It's great when speakers come and give us the opportunity to meet them in a more real setting while they are at ease. This isn't always the case when we have speakers. It's kind of a let down when someone comes in and gives a great presentation but acts aloof with the staff and the patrons who come to meet them.

Don gave a great presentation and there were tons of people there eager to meet him and get his autograph and he obliged every single one. He took time to talk with everyone and in one case a young boy, named Charlie, showed him a sketch of Batman that he wanted to share with Don. (There is a really cute picture that I took of this on our Flickr account).

While we were sitting at dinner I have to admit that I felt a little bad. I am not a comic book fan. I don't have anything against them it's just something I have never gotten into or was ever exposed to. I have heard of DC and Marvel comics and am familiar with Stan Lee, mainly because I've seen Mallrats, but still at least I have heard of him! So, while my coworkers gushed over him about comics I sat and politely listened.

Come to find out that Don and I have something very exciting in common. We share an unnatural love of ketchup. When he found out that I too enjoy the red liquid sent from heaven, he heartily clapped me on the back. We discussed the finer points of eating (or drinking as I have been accused of) ketchup, how one of those small bottles you get at restaurants isn't enough for you and the other people at the table, that when you eat a hamburger you have to dip it in the ketchup. We talked about that the fact that some people dip their potato chips in ketchup, that there are ketchup flavored potato chips in Canada (not available in the US), and how I put pepper on top of the mound of ketchup just to add some extra zing to it.

There are t-shirts that say "I put ketchup on my ketchup" and people frequently ask me if I would like fries to go with my ketchup. I like ketchup - it's like tomato wine.

So, my point is...well, I have no point. I just wanted to blog about how much I like ketchup and how cool Don Kramer was! Be sure to check out his podcast. Sadly, there is no mention of ketchup in his presentation but it's still good. Maybe I can start a program or a support group here at the library for ketchup lovers. My name is Vicki and I am addicted to ketchup...

Vicki S.
Adult Services Dept.

Staff Inservice Day

2006-12-12T14:13:00.000-08:00

Last week we had an amazing morale-boosting staff inservice day on cultural diversity guided by Tracie Hall of Dominican University. Every now and then, and especially this time of year, it's nice to be reminded of what an absolutely fantastic and talented staff the Kankakee Public Library has. We are as diverse as the day is long - white, black, Latina, gay, straight, religous, agnostic...you name it and we have someone here represented!

I thought I'd share with you this cute picture of Mike, Joanna and Jake being adorable.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

The Jane Austen Book Club

2006-12-11T07:57:00.000-08:00

My husband doesn't understand why I love Jane Austen. This is not surprising to me given the fact that he considers the film Team America high quality entertainment. What he doesn't understand is that people of Austen's time (nineteenth century) weren't able to emote the way we do today. There is so much going on beneath the surface of her characters that one has to really pay attention to the dialogue and the dynamics of their interactions with one another.

Jane Austen fans and members of the fiction book discussion group here at the Kankakee Public Library got together last week to discuss a book about a Jane Austen book club, appropriately named...The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Fowler. As good book discussions often do, it went beyond the characters in the book or even in Austen herself. We contemplated the lost art of reading the classics, what significance a nineteenth century writer has on today's society and most importantly, why Colin Firth made the most dashing Mr. Darcy in any film adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.

Most of us agreed that we enjoyed Fowler's book, but frankly any excuse to discuss Austen is a treat. My husband still shakes his head in amazement that I (or anyone) would voluntarily discuss an author who has been dead for nearly 200 years. I'm just hoping that people will be discussing her in another 200 years.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Confessions of an Unpopular Reference Librarian

2006-12-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

I am not always a popular person among reference librarians. With a Bachelors degree in communications - TV/radio production and marketing, and no MLS, some reference librarians may think that I'm lucky to be running an Adult Services department in a posh public library in an expanding community. Well, the truth is - I did get lucky. I lucked out when my director took a chance on me knowing that the world of Reference is rapidly evolving into a different form of library service altogether. For years Reference consisted of providing information to people who came to the library to enquire. Reference librarians were the gatekeepers to an almost unattainable world of facts, and with that position came a snobbery that still remains in places today.

Well, technology has produced a new savvy information consumer among the masses. These patrons, have become accustomed to having information delivered to them in whatever format they desire - whether that be in an email, an RSS feed, or even delivered to the door. Disappearing are the days when people actually go the library to find out the acidic content of an orange (one of my first reference questions asked in 1996) or what paper money is made of (another old favorite of mine). I am proud to say that this library (and this Reference department) does deliver content in a variety of methods and we're constantly exploring new ways to get that content to the people. However, libraries still need patrons to come to us, and this is one of the ways my director has been a great visionary. Our focus has shifted to programming - hosting authors, politicians, musicians and artists at the library. Not only do we bring this talent here for people to see, but we also are podcasting, and now vodcasting, these performances so that people can access them from their own computers. One might think that this is just another reason for patrons to not come to the library; why go there if they can get it at home? But our statistics show that these new technologies are added incentive for patrons to visit our building. They want to be a part of something that is exciting. And don't we all?

There are reference librarians out there who will say that we've got it all wrong. And there will be reference librarians who say I just got lucky. Let them say what they will...I hope this luck never runs out.

Allison Beasley
Head of Adult Services

Photography

2006-11-23T18:40:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, I've become quite a shutterbug lately. Some of you may have already fallen prey to the swift shutter of my S2. Many of you have probably seen me firing away at trees or piles of books or something else that won't run away. I've got the photo fever so badly that I've taken to carrying my camera everywhere I go. Actually, come to think of it, it seems like the entire Reference staff has been bitten by the bug: Mitch started scanning and saving his film shots from his old Pentax onto Flickr.com, Steve bought a brand new EOS Digital Rebel and Vicki has been going into serious overtime with her Kodak (as well as with Steve's EOS, which often gets enlisted for library photos on our public Flickr page). I'd say I started the trend when I started showing off my Canon S2IS after I won it on eBay last month, but that'd be a bit over the top, wouldn't it?

So...why is a reference clerk going on about camera work? Shouldn't he be ranting and raving about the historical accuracy of the latest David McCullough book? As off as my clocks might be, I think we're all on to something here at KPL. Books, it seems, aren't the only medium for us.

Photography has quickly become an art in its own right. From the moment Joseph Nicephore Niepce first committed his "View from the Window at Gras" to a polished pewter plate in 1826, the delicate balance of mathematic and aesthetic has developed as a veritable language of expression for the peoples of the last two centuries. But it's not just that, either: it has become a device of remembrance, a volume in reference, a catalog of history. The photograph is as important to us and our posterity as the written word was to the children of Phoenicia, Rome and Israel. Like the Phoenician alphabet and its early offspring opened a doorway to cultural preservation never before imagined, so did the camera do for a rapidly expanding Western World: The sprawling expansion of the wild American West...the ravages of war, both civil and international...the social and cultural revolutions that shook the peoples of the Old and New Worlds...the rise and fall of minds unparalleled in science, math, philosophy...As moments rose to the eyes of the post-industrial world, a camera was there to document them-a scribe for future eyes. The importance of these documents is undeniable. The importance of this device is undeniable.

With all of this long-winded argument in mind, I suddenly reflected upon a recent inquiry about my own photographic blunderings. After a particularly heavy flurry of pics, a friend of mine asked, "Why do you shoot so much in black & white?" I'm sure I shot out some spur of the moment response, either horribly cheeky or horribly geeky in nature (depending on whatever my mood was at the time), but the question just lingered in my head. Why is that, really? What is it about Black and White that's so intrinsically profound? Now that I'm knee-deep in this, I think I can answer that question...

There's an elegance, a classicism to monochrome photography that I can find nowhere else. B&W is neither cursed by the gaudy nor the trendy: it flattens the assault of color, garish light saturations, busy clashes of color coordination and not-coordination. It erases the bias of temporarily hip shades and hues; it flattens out the allegiance of national, regional or political colors; it takes us away from the flash and glamour of all the details. Colors of skin become unified as mere shades of grey; race is united under the gloss of a singular shade.
It draws our attention to shadow and light, shape and contour. It forces us to look away from shades of our subjects and instead toward the nature of them- their expressions, their motions; essentially, it brings us to the heart of the matter.
Distance between 'them' and 'us', 'now' and 'then' utterly disappears. A photograph of 1963 could be any day in 2006; a moment taken now could be any time in 2084. It's Classic. Pure Classic.

Well, that's how I see it anyway.

Heck, now that I've written that out, I'll probably have my camera firing away all evening in color, and by next week, I'll be writing an argument as to why color photography is a superior medium for the immortalization of culture how it is superior as a textural element or blah, blah, blah. That's art for you...

If you're interested in photography, Kankakee Public and our Prairie Area Library System brethren have a variety of photographic works on book, as well as some great guides and how-to books to get you started.

If you're really interested, drop us a line, and maybe we can even consider a camera club or a few photography classes. Who knows? The possibilities are endless.
Oh, and here's the photo page for the library:
http://www.flickr.com//photos/kankakeepubliclibrary
If you hunt through the community hard enough, maybe you can even find my page!

Nick Garcia
Adult Services

Poop Is Always #1 With Us!

2006-11-17T13:46:00.000-08:00

How ever you look at it, poop is probably the most useful stuff on Earth! - I'm serious; to most of us poop is nothing more than a "waste," but poop can be used for a plethora of things from fertilizer to building materials, and maybe even rocket fuel...If you can think of it, poop is probably used for it, and I'm not just talking about people. Animals use poop in amazing ways too! Did you know Michelangelo used to age his sculptures by scrubbing them down with animal feces? Makes you question his artistic "genius" doesn't it?

I know what you are thinking, what's with all the talk about poop? Over the past month the Youth Services staff has been hard at work researching our "gross" bodies. That's right folks, Grossology, the study of really gross things. And believe me I have learned more than I care to about my body and its various functions; for instance: the average person farts fourteen times a day, never put anything smaller than your elbow in your ear, humans swallow about a quart of snot a day, the medical word for vomit is "emesis", and that's not even mentioning all the functions of poop. I never would have imagined all of the useful possibilities of poop, or that I would have enjoyed talking about it! Once I got past the initial taboo of the word, my eyes were opened to the wonderful world of kaka!

Poop comes in all shapes and sizes, and each species of animal has its own distinct kind. Anyone want to take a guess at the largest poop on the planet? Here's a hint: it comes from the largest animal on the planet...The turd from a Blue Whale is about a foot wide, and several yards long. Aren't you glad no one has to scoop its poop? To find out more about what it is, where it goes, and what we can learn from it (scientist have even found fossilized T-Rex droppings!) be sure to check out two of my new favorite books: Poop, A Natural History of the Unmentionable by Nicola Davies, and The Truth About Poop by Susan Goodman. Interested in other bodily functions? Then be sure to stop by the second floor of the Kankakee Public Library and check out some of our other "gross" books.

Joanna Thompson
Youth Services Staff

The Dangers of Being a Librarian

2006-11-17T12:10:00.000-08:00

I've been living a dangerous, dangerous life. DANGEROUS. I sit next to the microwave while it's running. I run with scissors. I cross the street when the DO NOT WALK sign is flashing. I sometimes eat food I dropped on the floor AFTER THE 5-SECOND RULE HAS EXPIRED. And on top of all that, I work at a library. You know, being in CONTACT with THE PUBLIC.

Exciting and terrifying, I know.

I'm not the first in my family to run the public service gamut, either. My father, a veritable bear of a man, has been wearing the Kankakee City Police badge for several years, and had been wearing the St. Anne Police's insignia for many before that. I have seen this man deal with everything from irate, drunken Masons to irate, hormone-dripping siblings while simultaneously juggling eighteen pears and building a serviceable garden shed, and have only seen him lose his temper a handful of times. I'm not sure how he does it; I have the lingering suspicion that he has mastered the use of the Force, as well as maintained a steady diet of Buddhist monks for many, many years.

Despite the occupational gap, father and son do have one thing in common: we both work with the public, and we both walk the tightrope- the thin red line- between order and service.

We've spoken of this before, this dangerous little dance we do between one demand and another. The public must be kept happy; we must supply them with the information, service and access that they demand. Simultaneously, we have to define the difficult lines of acceptability in public, creating order in a vague and uncertain world. And in between it all, there's the secret self, the heart of personal interest we must maintain. Municipal service of any kind is a discipline in and of itself, one that demands separation of the public self and the private self.

There is a Japanese proverb of which I am terribly fond that tells us a man will always have three hearts: a true heart which he shows everyone, a truer heart he reveals only to his friends, and truest heart which will remain a secret for his own person. (Otoko no hito wa kokoro ga san-ko aru...) I've never told you this before, but under all these sweaters and collared shirts, there is a strong-minded liberal- tree-hugging vegetarian, mild supported of socialism, a protestor of the current political *cough*regime*cough*, a happy agnostic, a follower of existentialism and the Buddhist precepts. It's a strong passion that I have, but it has no place in my service to the public.

As much as I want to berate every patron looking to find a veal recipe or a dissertation on why religion should stay in schools, it is not my place to do so. I'm sure good old Dad has had the urge, once or twice, to tell those domestic dispute participants/juvenile delinquents/drunken Masons exactly what he thinks of them, but it hasn't happened yet.

Even when a patron is wrong, it is not my place to point that out to them. I cannot count how many times I have had rather stilted discourse with cardholders who believe that kamikaze means 'suicide' or that the internet is separately stored on each one of our shiny little computers or that Buddhism is the worship of Buddha or that all of the books in all the world are certainly housed in this one three-story building. We're lucky in the fact that library service embodies respect. It is my place to respectfully facilitate those users' needs, no matter how deeply-rooted their ignorance is, to help them in their journey- to show them the pathway to the enlightenment they seek.

We as librarians are moderators, objective guides into the world of literature, data, information. Excuse me for being so geeky, but I see librarians as the Jedi Knights of the public- keepers of order and peace, custodians of freedom of information. We are required to be the most wise, the most patient, the most objective; we have dedicated ourselves to the ancient discipline of literacy. (We are also known to occasionally use Jedi mind tricks on patrons, but that's our little secret, okay?)

My only wish is that they would issue us lightsabers at our library. Mine would be green. Maybe blue.

Okay, so I've never honestly earned my MLS, and it may be some time before I do; nonetheless, I do feel like I've become part of the librarian community. Baptism by fire has brought me into this amazing world; only Darth Vader and herd of wild gun-toting horses could ever drag me away from it. Bring on the insanity and the uncertainty; I wouldn't have my world any other way.

Nick
Adult Services Dept.

From the Trenches

2006-11-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

When I entered the library world a few years ago never in my wildest dreams did I imagine it would be like this! I started out in a very small quiet library and thought that was how libraries were; quiet boring institutions with little old "shush" ladies around every corner. Well, since coming to Kankakee Public Library I have been awakened to what libraries could (and should) be. The circulation department here is very busy, extremely fast-paced and sometimes demanding. Being a people person is a must in order to excel in this department. We are exposed to people from every walk of life every day - all day. We have judges, lawyers, doctors, business moguls, teachers, regular Joes and of course people who may be currently a little down on their luck. We are happy to see them all, greet them all, and service them all.

My background is in customer service - I worked in commercial banking in downtown Chicago for 16 years before changing my career path, and I have had a chance to use all of that background and training every day here. We learn from the tough situations and relish in the good interactions. The huge turnouts for the never-ending programs in the Youth and Adult Service departments, here at the library help to keep the Circ staff hopping. The Circulation department here at Kankakee Public Library is one of the best and by far the busiest I have ever been exposed to and I look forward to its future growth.

Well, back to the trenches for more circulating and percolating!

Yvonne Croswell
Head of Circulation

The God Delusion

2006-11-15T13:22:00.000-08:00

Religion is a source of much joy in my life, or rather, the refutation of religion. As a recovered Catholic I find myself constantly on the lookout to destroy those paper thin arguments that desperately try to prove the existence of a god. Why? Well, I find the truth to be so much more delicious than those stale communion hosts.

The hardest part, I find, in arguing the illegitimacy of religion is backing up statements with well explained proof. Kirk Cameron, in his show "The Way of The Master", purposefully exploits the unlearned atheists' vulnerability to make non-believers appear stupid by asking them questions that only well studied scientists could answer. Cameron then makes it seem as if all non-believers have this same limited knowledge. (See for yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7uA-P8TsPM ). It's people like Kirk Cameron that have driven me to this wonderful religious cynicism, and also to a wonderful book.

The book is The God Delusion, written by Richard Dawkins, an Oxford scholar and prominent atheist. The God Delusion is the "holy grail" of arguments for atheism, containing points not fueled by opinion, but by rational, scientific explanation. I was fortunate enough to see Richard Dawkins on Book TV (yes it's true, a book channel). Person after person shot questions at Dawkins trying to trip him up and disprove his arguments, but the unbeatable Dawkins was, well, unbeatable. His jaw dropping intellect has caused quite an uproar in the religious world, even with the infamous Ted Haggard who once threatened Dawkins with an arrest if Dawkins did not leave the preacher's property.

I recommend this book to peoples of all beliefs. If you're an atheist you will find pages and pages of argumentative support. If you are a believer of a religious faith of any kind, then why not challenge those beliefs since they seem so true to you?

"Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence." - Richard Dawkins

Mitch
Adult Services Dept.

Sweet Valley is Suuuhweeet!

2006-11-15T11:46:00.000-08:00

So, my coworkers are mocking me on a regular basis. Heck my own brother is too. I am okay with this...a good mocking is healthy once in a while. Is it so wrong to want to relive a little piece of my childhood? Is it wrong to be of a certain age and want to reread the Sweet Valley High series of books? Is it?!

This series started coming out in 1984. I remember my mom taking me to Crown's Bookstore near our house about once a month so I would be able to get the latest masterpiece by Francine Pascal. At one time I owned #1-50 in the series but sadly gave them away at one point. I have come to recently find out that there are about 150 in that series alone. Not to mention that there is Sweet Valley Senior Year series, and Sweet Valley University just to name a few.

For those of you not familiar with these books they follow the adventures of identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield and their friends. You can always count on Elizabeth to be the rock in the story and she continually bails out her sister Jessica. There are great classic lines like, "the beach disco was in full swing" and Elizabeth's favorite teacher reminds her of the dreamy Robert Redford.

As if the books weren't great enough this was briefly made into a TV show (it's on my Xmas list this year) that was fairly successful. So, mock me all you want (I will admit to being slightly embarrassed to read these in public) but Sweet Valley Rocks!

Vicki S.
Adult Services Dept.

RIP Rainer Maria

2006-11-15T09:39:00.000-08:00

Rainer Maria, one of my favorite bands of the last ten years, just announced their breakup today. They've left quite an intriguing and challenging body of work in their wake, and I recommend them highly to anyone interested in pop music as a poetic art. Try any one of these works as your starting point (though I've starred* my personal recommendations):

Rainer Maria (EP)
Past Worn Searching
Look Now, Look Again*
Atlantic*
A Better Version of Me*
Ears Ring (EP)
Long Knives Drawn
Catastrophe Keeps Us Together*

As a side note, some of you may have recognized their name as a reference to the 20th century German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. He is a strong and unique voice in the Modernist movement. Regardless of whether you are a casual reader of poetry, a literary fanatic or a poet trying to find inspiration, he's worth a read or two. Here's a list of some of his work to get you started, which should be available at any library or bookstore:

Letters to a Young Poet
Selected Poems (translated by C.F. MacIntyre)
*another fine translation is available from Stephen Mitchell
The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (tr. Anita Barrows & Joanna Macy)
Uncollected Poems (selected/translated by Edward Snow)
The Roses and the Window

Have fun!

Nick Garcia,
Adult Services Department

My First Hand at Blogging

2006-11-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

I am currently working on the latest edition of the newsletter. The previous edition was my first hand at doing such a project and I loved doing it and was very proud of the end result. I can't wait - 2007 is going to be an awesome year! I am mostly excited about Elizabeth Berg coming in February. It's awesome to be able to brush elbows with people like her, Arlo Guthrie and Lois Lowry, just to name a few. I have only been working here a year but I have been loving every single minute of it!

In addition to working the desk and teaching computer classes I have been helping make our library go "2.0". I will be maintaining our Flickr account so please check out the site. I did not personally take all the photographs, I'm responsible for about half of them, but it was a lot of fun picking the best that we had and putting them on the account to share with other people. Be sure to check the site out and to post any comments. And who knows? Next time you are at a program and you see me with a camera you just might make it onto the website!

The book, Marley and Me by John Groban, is our latest selection for my personal bookclub with my friends. I bought the book last night and started reading is at 8pm. At 1am, I put the finished book down. It was such a good read. My dog growing up was not a pain in the rear end like Marley but reading the book brought back so many happy memories. Like Marley, my dog Max, lived to a rather old age for a big dog. We got him when I was in fourth grade and he lived until a year after I graduated from college. We loved that bag of fur just like a regular family member. We dressed him up in a Chicago Bear's jersey for the '85 Superbowl and we tortured him by taking an E.T. photo of him - any free toy or stuffed animal was put around him so only is head was visible. We took tons of pictures of him. We called him "Triever" because he never retrieved anything, he only ran away with stuff. Not everyone can understand the bond between pets and their owners but if you have ever had a beloved pet then you can really relate to Marley and Me.

Vicki S.
Adult Services Media Lead
Kankakee Public Library