Reference Librarians rock it again!

Recently, a patron told me "I wanted a picture of my great grandfather's tombstone (located in a far western state) that was located on private property. The person I contacted about it wanted TEN DOLLARS for the picture! When I told Mary Jo, Reference Librarian Extraordinaire, she said...."Let me work on it." Within a short time, she had obtained the same full color picture for me for free!"
Hidden behind the librarian's (usually) mild exterior lies a tremendous resource. There is no question about the veracity of the popular bumper sticker:
Ask and a Librarian will tell you where to go!

Brett Favre: Top 5 Ever?

So on the eve of the Super Bowl, it is always interesting to talk about who is the greatest at various positions, with quarterback being the most intriguing. Completely un-library related, but still a good topic to debate-- is Brett Favre one of the five greatest QBs of all time?

Interesting question, one that was debated on the local sports radio program last week. My take on it? In a word, No. He's a great QB, probably top 10 all time, but there are two factors that take him out of the running for top 5. 1) He holds the record for most Interceptions all-time. Partially a factor of his longevity, yes, but more a function of factor 2) The dude is too reckless, too impulsive, too much of a gunslinger to be rated at the same level as Joe Montana, Peyton Manning and Johnny Unitas.

The latest meltdown in the NFC Championship Game pretty much illustrates the point-- no, it was not Favre's fault that the Vikings put the ball on the ground as many times as they did, but once they started doing that, once the game was close despite the Vikings superior overall play, he felt the need to make a play. Force a play. And he did. And it probably cost the Vikings a trip to the Super Bowl.

A veteran QB, a future first-ballot Hall-of-Fame QB, has to know, simply has no excuse not to know, that the one thing you can't do is turn the ball over. At the end of the game, in field goal range, you simply must not give the ball away or take a sack that takes you out of field goal range. But Favre tried to make a play, to "sling it" into a place that he had busy trying to hit and which was absolutely disastrous for his team.

Do you recall Joe Montana doing that? Ever? Elway, Manning, Unitas, even Brady? Aikman, Bradshaw, Starr? They all make mistakes, and Elway tried to force some balls that he had no business trying to force, but not at the critical moment in the game where an interception absolutely destroys your teams chances.

So, despite all the records, all the great throws and unbelievable plays, Brett Favre is simply not one of the best 5 Quarterbacks ever. He has now cost two teams a chance to go to the Super Bowl by making a really bad decision at a really critical point in the game. A pretty good case can be made that Brett Favre should've appeared in at least four Super Bowls, but only made two because of his own flaws.

For the record, I'd take Joe Montana as the greatest QB in history, but if Peyton Manning wins today, and gets back to the Super Bowl a time or two more, I might have to reconsider that conclusion.

Great New Business Database!

The new ReferenceUSA Residential Module is now available! Check it out-- the residential module is a very useful tool for businesses who sell products and services directly to consumers. It's also great for just finding reliable directory information. You can access this excellent new database, plus a variety of other business resources from the Waukesha County Federated Library System's (WCFLS) Business Resources page: http://www.wcfls.lib.wi.us/business/

I Didn't Realize It Had Been That Long

One of my favorite comic strips of all-time is Calvin & Hobbes. Brilliant, hilarious, irreverent and often touching it was one of the few strips I looked forward to reading every day. Just came across a recent interview with the strip's creator, Bill Watterson, where it points out that Calvin and Hobbes went "dark" fifteen years ago.

Wow.

One of those thudding realizations that a big chunk of life somehow went by in what feels like a brief flash. Fifteen years ago I was single (and had just met my wife to be), had no children, had a cat instead of a dog, was living in an apartment on the east side of Milwaukee and was bartending to support myself while I went back to grad school to get my Masters degree in library and information science. Yikes.

It's a fascinating interview, although a very brief one. It is well worth a read, and an interesting look into Watterson's perspective on his own art. If you'd like to revisit those bygone strips with the incorrigible Calvin and his best friend Hobbes, the library has several collections of the strip. They are in our non-fiction section, under the call number 741.5 WAT.

Expansion Meeting Tonight

There is a Village of Mukwonago Board of Trustees meeting this evening, Feb. 2, at the village hall. The hall is located at 440 River Crest Court (behind the NAPA store on ES/Main St.) and the meeting starts at 7:30 pm. A major portion of the evening's agenda will deal with the Library's expansion plans, so if you are interested in our expansion project, please stop down.

We'll have drawings of the newest version of the expansion available for review, and the Library Board and the Village Board will be discussing financing and the future of the project.

Tonight, Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 7:30 pm at village hall. Hope to see you there!

Rant or Rave: The Godfather

A commonly held believe amongst avid readers and book lovers is best summed up by the catch phrase: "Don't judge a book by its movie." Movies rarely manage to capture the magic, richness and character development of books, and many movie adaptations of good books are mediocre or even dreadful.

Another popular and widely held catch phrase is: "It is the exception that proves the rule."

The Godfather, by Mario Puzo, is the exception that proves the rule-- the movie IS better than the book. Indeed, Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 epic film is widely considered one of the finest films of all-time, coming in at #2 at IMDB and at AFI, as well as being in nearly every "best of" movie list ever created. The movie deserves its kudos-- it is brilliant in nearly all of its facets. But what of the book that was its genesis?

Written in 1969, The Godfather is a very good book, but it is most definitely not a great book. Puzo, at his best, captures the Sicilian and Mafioso lifestyles and mindsets extremely well, and there are many aspects of the book that provide additional content and context to the movie. Unfortunately, there is also a fair amount of extra, often comparatively dull, material in the book.

While the majority of the book follows the plot line most of us are familiar with from the movie, roughly a quarter of the book deals with events in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. There, we follow the career of singer turned actor Johnny Fontaine, and also of Lucy Mancini, bridesmaid to Connie Corleone. Only briefly touched upon in the movie, these portions of the book often drag, and the characters frequently come across as more two-dimensional and stereotyped. Part of the difficulty with these parts may actually be that there is no film equivalent for them-- you can't picture Marlon Brando or Al Pacino saying the words.

A nice "extra" for the book is that it spends a little bit more time with Michael Corleone during his time in Sicily and provides more detail and back story to his whirlwind romance and wedding there. Additionally, the story of how Vito and the family finally manage to bring Michael home from Sicily safely is also intriguing and much more clearly defined in the book. And we spend a little more time with Kay and with Mama Corleone.

Overall, however, the book too often spends time on minor and even irrelevant topics, losing some of the pace and muscle of the movie. So, a qualified Rave for the textual version of The Godfather. It is certainly well-written and worth reading, both on its own merits and because it will help "fill in" some of the details that the film brushes past, but it is also most definitely the exception to the rule. The movie surpasses the novel in nearly all respects.

Online savings just a click away!

I have not used coupons much. It seems like a lot of trouble to scan the sale papers and cut out coupons. Half the time I am doing well just to find the scissors! But todayI saved five dollars with coupons I found on the internet.
I was looking at a report from a CAFE libraries workshop entitled "Handling House and Home in Hard Times" to see if the links would be useful to reproduce for our patrons, when I came across the website http://www.couponmom.com/ . The description was as follows: "Has coupons you can print, helps you find coupons, gives you strategies on how to use them to make them most effective, and a whole lot more". I always always ALWAYS check links before I recommend them to people and this one turned out to be a winner! You do have to register to make best use of the site, but I found it to be well worth it.

I have a copy of the report at the reference desk, which has dozens of other links to useful websites such as http://www.cheapcooking.com/ for information on food savings, http://www.gasbuddy.com/. where you can search for cheapest gas prices in your area, or http://home.ivillage.com/, which contains information on everything from home organizing to budgeting.

Sometimes it is worth the trouble to look around.......now, where did I put those scissors?

Family Film Night

Tonight we have a 6 pm showing of the recent animated movie about food raining from the sky and spaghetti tornados. Based on the well-loved children's book, the movie got good reviews and is a lot of fun, so stop in! Bring along a pillow and blanket, or sleeping bag, or even a bean bag chair if you wish.

Actual Reality TV

Full Disclaimer: There is nothing Library related in this post. Also, I don't watch a lot of TV and virtually no "reality" TV. Dabbled in the Amazing Race a few years ago, that's about it (except for a very strange diversion with the family one night when we watched "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" and all had a blast with just how crazy the games were). But I digress. To my sensibilities, the only actual reality based TV is... sports.

Now, point shaving NBA referee scandals aside, sports are completely unscripted. Bizarre things happen. Games that everyone expects to be low scoring affairs wind up as offensive shootouts. And vice-versa. Superstars make boneheaded plays. People that nobody except their families have ever heard of make the big play to win the game. You never know what is going to happen next, and even sure bets sometimes aren't-- case in point, even the Detroit Lions are showing signs of being a legitimate NFL team!

A less snarky example is yesterday's painful, but incredibly entertaining, Packers game. This would be the script if it weren't an actual, live sporting event:

Team A commits several boneheaded errors early in the game, allowing Team B to jump out to a big lead. Team B is driving for another score, one that will pretty much put this game away early in the second quarter, then-- BAM! Team A forces a fumble and recovers. Not quite dead, yet. Time for scrappy Team A to counter-punch.

Showing plenty of grit and determination, Team A scores a touchdown and begins to chip away at Team B's lead, a challenge because not only are they already down big, but their defense is having a terrible time slowing down, much less stopping Team B. But they go into half-time down 14 and still hanging in there.

The second half is a crazy shootout. Touchdown Team B-- 21 point lead, game over? Not even close. Touchdown Team A. Onside Kick! Team A recovers! On fourth down, Touchdown Team A! Now it's only a 7 point game. Momentum is on Team A's side, right? Maybe not. Team B scores a touchdown in a minute and a half. Team A responds, goes 80 yards and scores a touchdown in 3 and a half minutes.

Finally, Team A stops Team B from scoring and gets the ball back, early in the fourth quarter, down by a touchdown. Three plays and less than a minute later, touchdown! Game tied! But wait, there's more!

Team B takes the ball and scores again, this time an extended, 11-play, 6 plus minute drive. Less than five minutes left. Team A takes the kick and goes 71 yards, touchdown! But, oh no! They did it too quickly. Team B still has nearly 2 minutes left and only needs a field goal. Bing, bang, boom-- they've driven it down to the 16 yard line with 14 seconds left, leaving only a chip shot field goal for the victory. Boom goes the kick and it's... NOT over! Team B's kicker pulls it wide left! Overtime.

Would anybody buy that? A TV exec would read that script and probably laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all. No way Team A converts an onside kick AND a fourth and 5. No way the teams combine for 56 points in the second half. And ABSOLUTELY no way that Team B's kicker misses from point blank range to keep this craziness going into overtime. Maybe, if the kick were a long one-- 52 yards or some such-- but not a little 34 yard job. It's just too improbable.

BUT... if it all played out that way in a TV or movie script, you just know that Team B is now toast. After struggling all the way back from 17-0 down, nearly 24-0, Team A is now destined to win. They just have to-- it's what the script dictates.

And lo, so it seems it will happen. Team A wins the coin flip, and the play is there. First play in overtime: a deep middle post to Team A's big play receiver, who has two steps on his defender and is gone for the touchdown! Except that the pass was just a little off the mark, incomplete. Two plays later, sack, fumble and touchdown Team B!

Phew. Would anybody write it that way? Would anybody believe it if it wasn't actually happening? It was crazy, and nearly unbelievable. Sports is the best, and really the only reality TV. So-called reality shows have a goodly dollop of reality to them, but they are edited, and even directed in many cases. The people on the shows are selected by the creators of the show and many of the twists and turns that impact the people in the "reality" show are known and planned by the creators of the show. Not so sports. You never know if you'll get an epic upset (NC State over Villanova in 1983 anyone?) or boring old blowout (Florida destroying Cincinnati in this year's Sugar Bowl). Sports rule!

Now, since in the above example Team A was my beloved Packers and Team B was the "I'm okay with them, but not a fan" Arizona Cardinals, this was a deflating loss. But, I am curiously philosophic about the game-- it was the Packers' first post-Brent Farve playoff game. They are very young, learning a new scheme on defense, playing on the road against a team lead by a likely hall-of-fame QB who played one of the best games of his career. And they were THIS close to winning. They could easily have folded up their tents and slunk away into the off-season after two early turnovers and a 17-0 hole. They didn't. Rodgers played great, setting a Packers' post-season record for yards, and we should have a playoff contending team for several years now, hopefully longer if we can improve our offensive and defensive lines (they went from bad to mediocre over the course of this season, but mediocre still isn't good enough).

So, bravo to the 2009 Packers who played better than I expected and showed a lot of heart and talent despite losing yesterday. And I now become a New Orleans Saints fan and also look forward to March Madness. Go Saints, Go Badgers, Go Golden Eagles!

BBB Books: The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons

Monty Python's Flying Circus was, and is, a tour de force of comedy, satire, cultural insight, and good old-fashioned belly laughs. It was crude, it was rude, it was exquisitely funny and it was, perhaps above all, so quintessentially British (even though one of them was American). The Pythons: Autobiography by The Pythons is Big-- oversize coffee-table format and over 300 pages in length-- Beautiful-- chock full of photographs and screen captures from the show-- and, Bold-- could it be anything else, being Python?-- but is also an extremely good history of those six crazy lads from Britain (ok, four crazy Englishmen, one crazy Welshman, and one crazy American).

It is also a great history of their show and subsequent movies. How they actually wrote and performed the skits. The different influences each member had on the show. Terry Gilliam's recollections of how primitively he did his animations. Their transition to movies. The interactions of six brilliant, but radically different, personalities. The effect of fame and recognition on them. Outstanding.

On top of all that, this book really is in many ways an autobiography of Monty Python. Each of the members: Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Graham Chapman and John Cleese has a portion at the front of the book talking about their youth and family. Photographs from childhood and prep schools. There are recollections by each Python on how they met the other Pythons. Diary excerpts and interviews discussing how they got started, what the creative process was like, the impact of their growing fame on the group's dynamic.

Beyond the individuals, there is also a true autobiography of the troupe. The way Terry Jones and Michael Palin tended to write with each other, ditto John Cleese and Graham Chapman, with Eric Idle contributing on his own or to both of the other pairings and Gilliam's animation rolled into the mix as well. How they decided on what bits got in and which bits didn't. The filming process and how changes in their lives (various romances, Graham Chapman's drinking, etc.) affected the group.

Great stuff. Fascinating stuff. All of it simultaneously serious and completely irreverent, in typical Python fashion. If you are a Monty Python fan, you will enjoy this big, bold, beautiful book whether you read it cover to cover, sample bits and pieces, or simply browse the pictures and captions. It is in our Oversize collection with call #: 791.45028 PYTHONS

Upcoming and Ongoing Events

A heads up on a few upcoming events, plus some ongoing activities:
Upcoming

• Family Film Night, Tuesday, Jan. 12 @ 6:00 pm. Strange, food-based weather is the center of this movie (which, because of licensing restrictions we can't actually name) based on a well-loved children's book. Bring a pillow, sleeping bag or bean bag chair and some snacks!
• Origami Workshops, Monday, Jan. 25 and Friday, March 5 @ 3 pm. These workshops are open to 4th-12th graders. Previous experience is helpful, but not necessary.
• Wacky Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 18 (Teens only, grades 7-12) and Friday, Feb. 19 (grades K-6), both at 3:00 pm. Not quite the bobsled or ice hockey, but we will have marshmallow shot put and potato hockey.
• Winter Wisconsin Winters with Books: Adult Reading Challenge. Enter each week starting January 18 and running through March 17. Weekly prizes. Full details here.
  

Ongoing

• Pop Open a Good Book: Winter Reading Challenge. Open to grades K-12, the challenge runs through February 13. It's not too late to come in and sign up.
• Magazine Title Scramble. Open to grades 7-12. Correctly unscramble a list of magazine titles for a chance to win a 1-year subcription to your favorite magazine (some exclusions apply. Value not to exceed $40).
• Guess How Many Kernels of Popcorn Contest. Guess how many kernels of popcorn are in a container in our display case and you could win the PASS THE POPCORN game. To be eligible, you must not go over the number of kernels. Open to students in grades K-12.

Rant or Rave: Rose Parade Edition

Watched much of the Rose Parade with my family yesterday. Great fun. My wife, Jenn, and I lived about three blocks off the parade route 12 years ago, and it was very cool to roll out of bed on New Year's day, walk a couple of blocks (with temps in the 60s) and enjoy the floats.

Of course, we lived towards the end of the route and things are a little different there then at the beginning where the TV cameras are. At the end of the route, the floats are a little less... dynamic than at the beginning. The trucks underneath the huge, floral creations breakdown causing large breaks in the flow. As I remember, the longest break we had was about 45 minutes long.

On top of that, many of the floats with moving bits are broken by the time the parade is over. One of the floats we saw was a bee, with moving arms and antennas-- very cute and cool. Except that by the end, two of its arms were dangling by its side, completely useless, and one of its antenna was just kind of spastically twitching, instead of swiveling smoothly.

So, a rave for watching the Rose Parade-- good fun, and the announcers aren't too horrible (unlike the New Year's Eve hosts/hostesses). But, an even bigger rave for attending in person. You get to hang with the other New Year's Day celebrants, watch some cool floats, and see some cool floats fall apart. As an additional plus, you can also go see the floats being constructed days in advance of the parade at the Rose Bowl, which is really cool. It's an amazing process.

Some day I hope to go back and see another parade in person. Ideally, I'd like to take my kids with me.

Happy (almost) New Year!

2009 was a good year. A lot of progress was made on the expansion front, both in “concrete” terms—building plans, drawings, cost estimates, etc.—and in “soft” terms—building connections to the community. We are always looking for suggestions and other feedback, so please let us know your thoughts on expansion!

Visits and check-outs were both up and demand for the library’s computer stations was up significantly. We had some terrific programs during the year, and another hugely successful summer reading program. The Winter Reading Challenge is in full swing right now, and plans for the Summer are already in the works.

Our collection was further weeded in 2009, a process begun in December of 2008, and nearly all areas of our holdings have now been weeded. While still short of stack space, the weeding has allowed us to add new titles and formats to our holdings and even provide us with a little space to grow into until the expansion is ready.

Thanks to the generosity of many of our patrons we are closer than ever to our fundraising goal, plus we have some new CD racks, a beautiful “Tree of Giving” in the lobby and will soon have wireless printing. It’s been a great year, and we’re looking for even better things in 2010!

Happy New Year everyone!

Rant or Rave: Treasure Island

I've been going old school lately, catching up on some of the classics I know I should've read when I was younger and never quite got around to. Hence, my last entry, Around the World in Eighty Days, and the current Rant or Rave title, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. I've seen a variety of Treasure Island movies, including the muppet version (awesome, as nearly all things muppet are) and Disney's animated SciFi version Treasure Planet (not bad, with an interesting twist), but I had never read the actual book.

A big rave for the book for this simple reason: If you want to know how to talk like a pirate, THIS is your book. The parlance of the pirate is pretty good in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but the lingo is better in this one. Far more authentic feeling, perhaps because it was written at a time when there really were still pirates around, not a hundred plus years after the fact. Indeed, much of what makes the Pirates of the Caribbean series so much fun was done first in Treasure Island.

Beyond the dialog, this is just a fun read. Full of adventure, danger, treasure and all the fun things of youth with a dollop of coming-of-age, morality and the search for a father figure thrown in for good measure. The novel is a fairly quick read, but it is fun throughout, with enough variation from the subsequent versions I have seen that I wasn't even certain how the plot line would unfold or the story conclude. Treasure Island is a terrific book for anyone over the age of eight, or thereabouts, who likes a good adventure story or wants to learn how to really talk like a pirate.

For an extra special treat, listen to the audiobook of the novel, read by Michael Page. It is a terrific piece of narration, one that really captures the cadence and quality of the pirates' language.

School's Out-- Come In to the Library

We hope everyone enjoy's their break and has a wonderful Christmas. With school out next week, stop down to the Library. You can sign up the kids (grades K-12) for our winter reading program, Pop Open a Good Book; every reader who completes the challenge will receive an ice cream coupon and a raffle ticket for a chance to win the Grand Prize. Enter the "Guess How Many Kernels of Popcorn" contest while you're here for a chance to win the Pass the Popcorn game.

On Tuesday, Dec. 29, we'll have a movie double feature. At 2 p.m. a group of guinea pigs-- with the aid of a fly and a cockroach (no, really)-- will attempt to save the world (naturally-- it's amazing how often the world needs saving). Later, at 6 p.m., a teenage wizard and his friends (who could they be?) will have to... wait for it... save the world! This is movie #6 in the series, and it is quite good, so bring a pillow and blanket, sleeping bag or bean bag chair and snuggle in for the show. As a bonus, there's no school the next day! Extra double bonus-- popcorn will be served!

Wednesday, December 30: FWii 4 All!

No school—come play! Everyone is invited to Wii with us from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Some great new games will be available to “test drive” including New Super Mario Bros. Wii andLego Rock Band. Traditional favorites like Super Smash Bros. and Wii Sports Resort will also be available.

BBB Books: Stalag Wisconsin

Did you know that Wisconsin was a popular destination for WWII German Prisoners of War? Neither did I up until about two years ago while I was doing research for my history of Caledonia and I came across this book:

There were PoW camps all over the place!

It was pretty common for the German PoWs to be "hired" out to local farmers to help cultivate and harvest crops-- something there was a high demand for since most of the able-bodied men of the country were off fighting in Europe or the Pacific. The prisoners were low-risk, no SS or high-level Nazi officers, and many of them were highly educated individuals, often professionals. Guards from the PoW camps would go along to keep an eye on the Germans, but they rarely caused any trouble.

It is a fascinating and little known chapter in Wisconsin's history, but one well worth checking out. Waukesha County had a PoW camp in Genesee, where 280 prisoners were held in two barns (p. 132-137). Stalag Wisconsin has over 75 photographs (says so right on the cover, so I know it is true!), and some of them are quite cool (see p. 85-88). The book is available in our non-fiction area under the call#: 940.5472775 COW

Fun Sites for the Holidays

Here are a few websites to visit for some Holiday frivolity:

• Elf Yourself. From the clever folks at JibJab, with underwriting by OfficeMax to keep it free, elfyourself.com is a fun, and surprisingly easy (they've really improved the interface from last year) way to send funny holiday emails to your friends and family.
• Chin Carolers. They don't sing the entire song, unfortunately, but they do know the refrain from an awful lot of holiday tunes. (Hat Tip: Lois Duckey)
• Tracking Santa Claus. NORAD tracks Mr. C's progress around the world.
• Design Your Own Gingerbread House. Pretty intuitive and inventive. Allows for truly artistic creations, or just plain silly stuff, like adding a fish to your gingerbread house.
• Christmas eCards. A variety of cards are available: some funny, some religious, some animated. 123greetings also has non-Holiday cards-- all for free.
• Christmas Screensavers. If you want to make your computer more festive, this is a good website for you.

Most of these sites have advertising of some sort or other, which is why they are free, but the intrusion level isn't too bad. Have fun!

Upcoming Events

Tonight, Tuesday, December 15: Expansion Open House

At 6:30 this evening there will be an open house regarding the library's expansion plans at Village Hall. Please join us for an informative and exciting look at where we're heading. At 7:30 there will be a village board meeting which will include a further discussion of expansion.

Monday, December 21: Pop Open a Good Book

The start of our winter reading challenge "Pop Open a Good Book". Registration begins on the 21st and every reader who completes the reading challenge will receive an ice cream coupon and a raffle ticket for a chance to win the Grand Prize.

Tuesday, December 29: Harry Potter for the Holidays

Join us Tuesday, December 29 at 6 p.m. for a showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Bring a pillow and blanket, sleeping bag or bean bag chair and snuggle in for the show. As a bonus, there's no school the next day! (Though there is Wii play at the Library)

Wednesday, December 30: Wii Play
No school—come play! Everyone is invited to Wii with us from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Some great new games will be available to “test drive” including New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Lego Rock Band.

Bold, Bizarre, Beautiful Books

This will be an ongoing, occasional series of posts highlighting some of the cool, strange, and beautiful books we have at the Mukwonago Community Library that most of us don't know exist. No particular criteria for inclusion other than I found them to be intriguing and/or fun and want to let others know about them as well.

BBBB #1: Skyscrapers

Over a foot-and-a-half in length, this book is a terrific photographic and historical review of skyscrapers and our fascination

with them. While this tall, but narrow, volume would serve well in a "coffee table" capacity, it is also chock full of fun details and intersting narratives about the quest to build the tallest buildings in the world. Why do we build up? What is our fascination, and sometimes dread, with being high up above all else?

This book examines those questions as well as providing some terrific photographs. It both eye-candy and history, rolled together with a little societal examination and exploration of human nature.

Particularly poignant is the section on the World Trade Center, pages 66-67, which opens with the following passage:

At 12:18 p.m. on Friday, February 26, 1993, everyone's worst urban nightmare came true: a bomb exploded in the World Trade Center (WTC), collapsing walls, igniting fires, and leaving 50,000 workers and visitors gasping for air and stranded in darkness in the shafts of the 110-story towers.

Of course, it turns out that wasn't the worst urban nightmare, only a foreshadowing of a far more horrific and tragic event.

Overall, though, this is a fun book and an informative one. It begins with ancient "skyscrapers" like the pyramids of Egypt and the Mayan temples in Central America and follows mankind's desire to build up all the way to the partially completed Kuningan Persada Tower in Jakarata, Indonesia.

Skyscrapers can be found in the oversize materials section, near the reference collection, under the call # OV720.483 Dupre.

Expansion Open House: Dec. 15

Join us in one week at village hall for a look at the preliminary plans for expansion! On Tuesday, December 15 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the village hall board room, the library and our architects will have drawings of what an expanded library might look like and how it might be arranged. Del Wilson, of Uihlein-Wilson Architects, will be available for questions, as will the Library Director and Library Board members.

Stick around at 7:30 for a Village Board meeting which will include a presentation about the expansion and a Q&A session with the Village Board members. As we head into a new year, it is time to get excited about all the terrific things an expanded and renovated library can offer the community!

Come on down to village hall, Tuesday, December 15 and see how our plans are progressing.

Mukwonago Community Library: Rooted in the Past, Growing for Tomorrow.

Rant or Rave: Around the World in 80 Days

Though I have seen movie adaptations of Jules Verne's classic story, and read some variations on the theme, I had never actually read Around the World in Eighty Days. This hole in my reading was recently addressed, and I must say in a most enjoyable fashion. As is usually the case with these things, this post will be a rave.

In and of itself, the story is a good one and Verne tells it very well. His characterizations of the unflappable, proper British gentleman, Phileas Fogg, and his overly emotional, volatile French valet, Passepartout, is both amusing and reflective of 19th century norms and mores. Their trip around the world is fascinating and fun and there is enough tension to keep the reader engrossed from beginning to end, even when knowing the ultimate resolution of the journey (as I did).

Beyond the story itself, however, was the great fun of being taken back in time by Verne. Though his contemporary, H.G. Wells, wrote The Time Machine, Verne's work most definitely serves as a trip backwards in time, to a different world. The flavor of a world deeply imprinted by British imperialism is clear throughout the book, and so to are Verne's depictions of 19th century India, China, and the American west.

Today's world truly is smaller than ever before, but a sense of the vastness of the earth for 19th century travelers can readily be found in Around the World in Eighty Days. Ship journeys took weeks, not days and transcontinental railways could be interupted by buffalo herds-- or require disembarkment because the rail lines haven't been completed (despite advertisements to the contrary).

So, a big rave for Verne's classic-- it holds up well more than a hundred years later. It is fun and it is fascinating as a travelogue of the past.

Reading List

Facebook has tons of little games, apps, notes, quizzes, and widgets flying around it. One that caught my eye was this one: "The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?"

Interesting question. Well, here's the list-- the ones that I have read have an X after them. How does your reading compare?

1 Pride and Prejudice -
2 The Lord of the Rings - X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte -
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - X
6 The Bible - X (much of it. I know I haven't read all of it)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte -
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell - X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman -
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - X

Section 1 = 5

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy -
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - X
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - (complete!?! Nope. A lot of them, but... wow)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier -
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk -
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - X
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger -
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot -

Section 2 = 4

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell -
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald) - X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens - X
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy -
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - X
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - X

Section 3 = 6 (what a weird mix)

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy -
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - X
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - X
34 Emma - Jane Austen -
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini -
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres -
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden -
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - X

Section 4 = 4

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell - X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving -
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery -
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy -
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood -
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan -

Section 5 = 3

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel -
52 Dune - Frank Herbert - X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons -
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen -
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth -
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon -
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley -
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon -
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -

Section 6 = 2

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov -
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt -
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - X
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - X
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy -
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding -
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie -
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville -

Section 7 = 3

71 Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens - X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson -
75 Ulysses - James Joyce -
76 The Inferno – Dante - X
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome -
78 Germinal - Emile Zola -
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray -
80 Possession - AS Byatt -

Section 8 = 4

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell -
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro -
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert -
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry -
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom -
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - X
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton -

Section 9 = 3

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad -
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - X
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks -
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - X
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - X
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute -
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - X
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - X

Section 10 = 7

Total = 41

Cool-- now I have some more books to add to my reading list. And some of these I only vaguely remember, having read them in high school and college.

Libraries Are a Bargain

First of all, I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. For myself, I believe I am fully recovered from the food coma that was Thursday. The Packers smoking the Lions helped.

Now onto more mundane stuff-- it is difficult to pin down the exact economic impact of libraries, but recent studies indicate that it is significant. In Wisconsin, a study done in 2008 indicated that for every tax dollar spent to support libraries, the state's residents got back over $4 in goods and services. The full report can be found here, along with links to other studies.

This echoes findings found in the rest of the country, as well. Studies done in Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Washington show similar results. In Ohio, a study showed that nine public library systems generated an annual economic impact of nearly four times the amount invested in their operations.

Libraries draw people to a community, bring people in to shopping districts and downtown areas. We offer job training and retraining help in difficult economic times, and help to those learning the vital computer skills so important in the 21st century. We connect individuals and groups and offer a backbone of knowledge that benefits not just our patrons but everyone they interact with before and after their visits.

The Wisconsin Library Association had a catch phrase a few years back that I think sums it up well: If knowledge is power, than libraries are power plants.

And we are-- efficient, highly flexible and adaptable power plants.

Thanksgiving Hours

Well, there aren't any. We're closed tomorrow. But we are open on Friday and Saturday for our normal hours (9-5 and 9-4 respectively).

Happy turkey day everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a remarkable holiday—one dedicated to appreciating all of our blessings and good fortune! I mean, I like all of our holidays-- celebrating Christmas or Valentine's Day or our Presidents or brave soldiers is all good. And the candy and costumes on Halloween is cool. But Thanksgiving is one that really invites us to take a step back and take stock of all that is good and right and, yes, lucky in our lives. It is easy to get lost in the nitty gritty of daily life and lose track of the important things-- family, friends, helping others, appreciating life in all its joys and tragedies-- so having a day dedicated to appreciating all that we have is a tremendous day indeed.

The library is thankful for all of the wonderful volunteers and donors that help us year in and year out. We are lucky to have such wonderful and dedicated supporters, willing to give of their time, talent donors that help us year in and year out. Truly, the library would not be the wonderful, community jewel that it is without the help of the people and businesses that support us year ‘round.

As director, I am thankful for the wonderful staff here at the library—day in and day out they provide great service and do all they can to make the library the best it can possibly be. I am also thankful for the opportunity to serve the wonderful community of Mukwonago. Seeing the range of people who use the library for personal growth, family entertainment, interaction with friends and neighbors... well, it's a wonderful and satisfying feeling.

And there's more to be thankful coming up-- Midnight Magic is next week! Lots of fun family activities, including Applebell the Imp on Tuesday night, the annual Tree lighting on Wednesday night and a variety of great things to do on Saturday, December 5th. Watch the parade, then swing into the Library to do some Christmas shopping at the Friends of the Mukwonago Library bake sale and silent auction, then meet the local authors who will be joining us between 1 and 4.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tree Lighting: Wednesday, Dec. 2

The traditional kickoff to the Chamber of Commerce's Midnight Magic festivities is the lighting of the Village Christmas tree by Santa Claus. The Library is fortunate to have that very tree in our "front yard". Please join us on Wednesday, December 2nd at 6:30 for the tree lighting, followed by some caroling.

We will then move inside, to our meeting room, where Tracy Hein, principal at Prairie View Elementary School, will read A Visit From St. Nicholas, more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas. After that, the children will have a chance to sit on Santa's lap and tell him some of their Christmas wishes.

Last year, the weather was cold but the turnout was still very good and everyone had a great time. Hopefully this year the weather will be better, but regardless everyone will have a good time as we kickoff the holiday season in style. We hope you can join us on the 2nd!

Some photos from last year's tree lighting:

Genre Links

For those of you who like particular genres of fiction-- mystery, romance, SF, etc.-- this post is for you. The Waukesha Public Library has put together a fine list of genre specific websites for your viewing enjoyment. These websites vary in quality, timeliness and thoroughness. Inclusion of a site on this list does not constitute an endorsement by either the Waukesha Public Library or the Mukwonago Community Library.

Romance

• The Romance Reader (www.theromancereader.com)
• All About Romance (www.likesbooks.com)
• Romance Writers of America (www.romancejunkies.com)
• Romance Reader at Heart (romancereaderatheart.com)

Horror

• Monster Librarian (www.monsterlibrarian.com)
• Horror World (www.horrorworld.org)
• Horror Writers Association (www.horror.org)

Mystery

• Mystery Ink (www.mysterinkonline.com)
• The Mystery Reader (www.themysteryreader.com)
• Stop, You're Killing Me! (www.stopyourekillingme.com)
• Mystery Writers of America (www.mysterywriters.org)
• The Hidden Staircase (hsmb.omnimystery.org)
• Reviewing the Evidence (www.reviewingtheevidence.com)

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• SF Site (www.sfsite.com)
• Speculative Fiction Reader (www.sfreader.com)
• Locus Online (www.locusmag.com)
• SciFan (www.scifan.com)
• Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America (www.sfwa.org)

Expansion-- Preliminary Plans

We had another round of presentations/discussion with our architects last week and things are starting to round into shape. These are all very preliminary, of course, but they at least give a taste of what we're looking at and how it might fit with the existing structure:

Option A (expand west and north)

Option B (expand east)

Option C (expand east and north)

Each option has its strengths and weaknesses, but overall, the consensus was that C was the best of the three. It takes nothing out of the western green space, allowing full development of that area as a park, and is the most efficient to build and operate, saving money during construction and in the long-run.

Remember Our Veterans

Today is Veterans Day, a day to remember and honor all of the brave men and women who have served in our country’s armed services. It is held on November 11 in remembrance of the ceasefire on November 11, 1918 that effectively ended World War I. Originally meant to honor the veterans of that war, the day has grown to include all who have served in our country’s armed services.

This year, the Library is honored to have a display of memorabilia from the Badger State Chapter of the 82^nd Airborne Division.

Currently in our lobby, the display features photographs, equipment, badges and more from Wisconsin 82^nd Airborne veterans of World War II.

The 82^nd Airborne was organized on March 25, 1917 and is an elite paratrooper unit of the U.S. Army. Members of the unit typically parachute behind enemy lines and work to disrupt enemy supply lines and communications. They were a vital component of D-Day during World War II, as they were dropped behind the German lines with a mission to destroy bridges and railroad lines in order to cut off the Germans ability to resupply their forces in Normandy.

Unlike most units, the 82nd Airborne drew recruits from across the country, rather than being geographically focused. It is truly an All-American force with a long and proud history of service to our country.

The display will remain at the library for the next three months.

Rant or Rave: Something Wicked This Way Comes

In high school, Ray Bradbury was one of my favorite authors. I revisited Dandelion Wine a while back and was just as entranced by it as I had been twenty-five years earlier. I'll take that back-- I think it resonated more with me as a nearly 38-year-old than it did as a 16-year-old.

But I had almost no memory of Something Wicked This Way Comes. I know I read it, and I remember the general gist 0f the book-- evil carnival comes to town, two young boys are the only ones who really know what's going on, tension and mystery ensue-- but that was about it. So, when the library got in an Audiobook of Something Wicked, I had to check it out.

What a treat. First off, I read it at just about the perfect time of the year, starting it just before Halloween and finishing it shortly after. Suspenseful, creepy and surprising, the book is made for cool fall evenings filled with falling leaves, and hints of winter. It is a book of contrasts: Good and Evil, Youth and Age, Innocence and Guilt, Day and Night... oh so many wonderful contrasts.

The language is gorgeous. Rich, descriptive yet not heavy-handed or over-wrought ala Anne Rice or Charles Dickens. Bradbury's prose is nearly lyrical, in many ways a poem. Perhaps it is this that makes it sound soooo good read aloud.

The imagery is deep, and beautifully executed, though I suspect some of Bradbury's allusions might be lost on a teenager, or even a twenty-something-year-old. But even if you didn't get all of what he is trying to convey, every reader will get more than enough to be "on the edge of their seat" for much of the book. It also gives a glimpse back through time, to the Depression era and what life in the Midwest was like in the early 1930s.

It is that rare treat of a book that you can't wait to finish, yet you want to last as long as possible because you know there aren't that many books in the world that will delight and entertain you this thoroughly. If you haven't guessed yet, this is most definitely a Rave posting.

Bonus points if you listen to the CD audiobook-- Paul Hecht does a marvelous job narrating the story.

Rant or Rave: Angels and Demons

Dan Brown is a talented writer with a creative mind-- but he suffers greatly by being too clever by half, in my opinion. So, a tampered Rant against Angels and Demons. Minor spoilers likely exist below-- read at your own risk.

First the good news-- the drama builds well, the storyline is engaging, and the overall writing quality and storytelling is good. The "treasure hunt" across Italy is quite well done and fairly suspenseful, though the fire in the church scene is a little hard to believe-- Really, the bad guy had time to run everybody out of the church, string the Cardinal up, stack up all those pews and start the fire? And nobody noticed or interrupted him? Really?

Now the bad news-- the characters are rather cartoonish, the dichotomy between church and science is far too black and white, and Mr. Brown's prejudices shine through far too often and in a rather garish fashion. More significantly, there are not one, not two, but at least three separate cliff-hanger endings and not one, not two, but three separate Hitchcockian surprise twists at the end. It's all too much, too convoluted, too over the top.

Oh, and Robert Langdon should've been dead many times over. Long before his completely improbable (I won't say impossible because, well, I guess it could happen) survival from the doomed helicopter, he should've been dead. Seriously, he's a Harvard professor who is a good swimmer against a trained killer. The hassassin had... three, four opportunities to kill Langdon?

The escape in the fountain was pretty good, the others... not buying it. And the whole Pope/Camerlengo back story "gotcha" twist at the end? Also not buying it. Suspension of disbelief only carries you so far, even with some great storytelling.

I won't say Angels and Demons was a complete waste, it had some fine moments and the philosophical questions raised are intriguing ones. But I really do think Dan Brown was being too clever by half. Oh, and he's kind of an academic version of a name dropper-- it would be interesting (or maybe not) to try and count the number of obscure references to academic peculiarities and topics mentioned or briefly described in Angels and Demons. Enough already!

This could have been a fine, intriguing suspenseful book without a good third of the "intrigue" and "surprise!" twists that Brown throws in. Instead, I found myself shaking my head and, on at least one occasion, groaning out loud as the tortured plot device was dragged into the storyline.

As a side note-- The da Vinci Code is better. It too suffers a little from Dan Brown's desire to be extremely clever, but it is less heavy-handed than Angels and Demons.

Goodbyes and Hellos

Long-time librarian Jacquie Hipsman will be sorely missed. She was a dedicated, friendly, and enjoyable professional for nearly two decades to both the library's users and her colleagues. Her laugh was contagious and her curiosity was boundless. She knew all the ins and outs of the library and was always willing to share her knowledge and experience with others. Arizona's gain is most definitely our loss.

But I believe you will all find Kim Blaha, our new librarian, to be a friendly, knowledgeable and helpful presence at the library. Kim started on Monday and is rapidly learning our library.

She comes to us from Indiana, where she worked as a reference librarian in a community very similar to Mukwonago.

In addition to her reference experience, Kim has also done a variety of programming efforts, including developing the Young Adult program at her previous library. Kim is both curious and quick and she has an excellent sense of humor. She has already hit it off well with the rest of the staff and I'm sure she'll hit it off with the community just as readily.

Say “Hi” to her next time you’re in.

This Thing On?

Wow, has it really been that long since I posted anything? Yikes! Sorry about that.

Okay, well some catching up to do then. Expansion plans are still moving ahead, though we did reschedule our final meeting with Uihlein-Wilson into November to allow time for full development of all our options. Depending on the Village and their fiscal situation, we hope to be able to further develop our plans in 2010 and break ground in 2011. We'll see how it plays out.

Jacquie retired (waaah!), but we have hired a friendly, experienced replacement for her, so I think we'll be okay.

The library participated in a variety of Halloween events, including the Rotary Club's inaugural Halloween Haunt. I think things went quite well for a first year effort.

Thanks to the generosity of Jeanne and Bob Romanowski, we have some new, attractive and user-friendly CD racks in the library.

More and more and more, but I'll try to expand on the above and fill in the gaps during the course of this week.

Sorry for the long absence!

Books on DS

A strange, yet intriguing, concept. Hopefully they do a little more than just transfer the text to the screen-- the interactive capabilities of the DS is really a large part of its charm. With the stylus and touchpad technology, it would be possible to allow the reader to be a bit more "active" in the story.

Thinking about it, the "ideal" book to put on a DS or other handheld would seem to be the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I loved those books as a kid, but the DS format would allow more seemless adventuring and also potentially some great graphics and mini-games to further immerse the reader.

Still, intriguing. We do check out DS games at the library, so I think we'll have to purchase a few of these when they come out to see how well they work and how much demand there is for them.

Rant or Rave: Audiobooks

Overall, I love audiobooks and generally rave about them. They make long trips much more enjoyable, and even the commute to and from work, or one of the many activities my kids are engaged in, more entertaining. Plus, I am "reading" works of literature that I doubt I would otherwise have found the time to begin, much less complete.

But there is a flaw in the audiobook appeal-- most of the books are read by a small number of narrators, a few hundred or so. Consequently, eventually you will hear a voice you have heard before reading to you. This isn't necessarily bad, but it is disconcerting. For example, I am currently listening to Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, which is fairly entertaining, but by no means a great book. It is being read by Richard Poe (one of the most common and popular of audiobook readers), who does a good job with the material. The problem is that the last book I heard Poe read was John Steinbeck's East of Eden.

Now, Dan Brown is a pretty good author with a knack for intrigue and puzzles. But he is not, by any stretch of the imagination, in the same league as John Steinbeck. Yet, hearing Poe's voice still brings back images and recollections of East of Eden and it takes a little bit of adjusting for me to shift gears to Angels and Demons. I suppose this is a testament to the quality and lasting resonance of Steinbeck's work, but it is still... weird.

So, a minor rant against... well, what? I'm not sure exactly. But whatever it is, I wish it would stop.

Diva's Still Got Game

Got give credit to Brett Favre. He can still play and the Vikings look very good.

That said, if he still played behind the Packers Offensive (and it is pretty offensive) line, he'd probably be dead now. That unit is awful. I believe Ted Thompson made the right call on moving forward with Aaron Rodgers despite the fact that Brett's skills clearly haven't deteriorated that much.

That said, I think Ted Thompson has done a lousy job of making sure our offensive line is both talented and deep. At this point, it is neither. Similarly, the defensive line. Not as bad as the O-line, but part of the appeal of the 3-4 was supposed to be a more effective pass rush. How's that been working out for us? Anybody seen ANY pass rush, much less an effective one?

Not too early to panic, but there is an old football adage that games are won and lost in the trenches, which is to say, on the offensive and defensive lines. Which is not terribly reassuring. As always, Gregg Easterbrook's take on the NFL is definitely worth a read-- and though he gives credit where credit is due to the diva, his overall take on Favre and the amount of attention he gets (and craves) is spot on, in my opinion.

Return of the Diva

So, there's this football game you might have heard about coming up Monday. Vikings vs. the Pack, with some old dude quarterbacking the Vikings. Not looking forward to the non-stop hype this weekend.

Should be a good game, though, and I really think the Packers will win-- if for no other reason than that the Vikings hired Mr. Noodle from Sesame Street to be their coach. And though I don't want Brett to get hurt, I wouldn't be at all upset if he were to play really, really awfully. A Pick-6 to Woodson or Harris would be a nice finishing touch, really.

For football news that only briefly touches on Brett Favre, check out this week's Tuesday Morning Quarterback. For my money, still the best weekly football essay out there. With a free, and clearly explained, global warming analysis to boot!

Meanwhile, the Brewers continue their long fade back into the depths of mediocrity and the Badgers look to continue their strong start to the season. And the leaves are changing. I guess fall is here!

TTDNTMiLS #6: Buildings and Grounds

The property the library actually occupies was rarely, if ever, mentioned in library school. Shelves, desks, reading areas, study rooms, meeting rooms, and many more interior aspects of a library were discussed, but the outside... not so much. Consequently, upon becoming Director of the fine Mukwonago Community Library, I was surprised to learn that I was not only responsible for the inside of the library (including, restrooms, HVAC units, wiring, light bulbs and... well, you get the idea), but that I was also responsible for the outside of the library.

Now, the village does do our lawn mowing and snow removal and they do help with many other routine maintenance tasks, but they don't help with garbage enclosures. Honestly, I had never once thought about garbage enclosures at libraries before becoming the director of one. But we all have them, and they need to maintained and updated just like everything else. So, we're in the process of getting a new enclosure. The old one was too small, too rickety, and hard to access for both the staff and the disposal guys.

The new one, by comparison, is a virtual mansion. Over twice as large, much sturdier and much easier to access. Plus, it will be comparatively inexpensive because the industrial arts program at the Mukwonago High School is providing us with the labor needed, meaning the only cost is the materials themselves. Good experience for some enterprising students and a lower cost for us-- super!

Another thing they never talked about in library school: landscaping. Fortunately, our entirely volunteer Garden Committee does most of this for us, and they do it exceptionally well. Here are a few samples of their work:

The Economic Impact of Libraries

Many people love their local library. We love the books. We love the smell. We love the movies and the programs and the computer access and the magazines. We love studying there, researching there, and going to storytimes and other programs there. For us, the library is a wondrous place, full of fun, full of adventure, full of opportunity.

But what about those folks in the community who don’t love, or even use, the library? It’s important to for them to know just how valuable a good local library really is—not just in societal or cultural terms, but in cold, hard economic terms. A recent survey we conducted indicates that over 90% of the people that visit the Mukwonago library do other shopping and business within the village during their trips to the library. Additionally, in a 2007 survey of Wisconsin residents, 29.7% of respondents list access to a good library as a strong factor in deciding where to live. Another 31.7% list it as a contributing factor—nearly two-thirds of those surveyed consider the local library in deciding where to live.

Finally, it should be noted that the Mukwonago Community Library is not only an economic asset for the community, it is also an incredibly efficient municipal entity. We have the lowest cost per circulation in the county and among the lowest in the country. For every tax dollar that goes to the library, nearly six dollars worth of materials and services are made available to our patrons. So tell everyone you know how economically valuable the library is!

We're on Facebook

The Library has three places to visit us on Facebook. There's the main Library page, plus both our Adult Services and our Teen Territory departments have joined the web 2.o revolution. Not tons of content as of yet, but we're working on it. Join our legions of fans! Okay, okay, join our dozens of friends.

Plus, I have a profile there now, too.

If you're a Facebook fanatic (or even casual user), check us out, write something on our walls, let us know what you think. Photos and other stuff to come.

The Dogs Are Back In Town

Actually, they never left, but just as a reminder-- the library now has four therapy dogs that stop in for our Paws to Read program. The dogs are excellent listeners, providing a safe, non-judgmental audience for young kids unsure of their reading skills or older folks learning English as their second (or third) language. We have Scooby the Golden Retriever here from 7-8 pm on Monday Oct. 5 & 19, Navarre the Samoyed here from 7-8 on Tuesday Oct. 6 & 20, B.J. the Rottweiller from 6-7 pm on Wednesday Oct. 14 & 28, and Cinnamon the Afghan Hound on Thursday Oct. 15.

Disturbing... Yet Funny

In one sense, this article in The New Scientist is profoundly disturbing. That papers should be published, thus tacitly endorsed as scientific and accurate, that are complete gibberish is worrisome. As is the trend of charging authors to publish their work-- as noted in the article, the very definition of vanity publishing, and it certainly does not reflect well on the potential validity of such "science".

But the actual submission is really amusing. I think my favorite line from the "paper" is this one: "On a similar note, we show a novel application for the study of semaphores in Figure 1." Semaphores, you say? Wow, that actually sounds a lot like Terry Pratchett's satirizing of the World Wide Web in recent Discworld books. Gotta love a good semaphore.

The whole thing is a hoot. Another high point is the opening to the Implementation portion of the paper:

Our implementation of our methodology is pseudorandom, wearable, and collaborative. We have not yet implemented the centralized logging facility, as
this is the least private component of our method.

Absolutely love a wearable implementation. It's an experiment and a stylish, yet comfy garment! What more could you ask for?

Rant or Rave: The Colour of Magic

The Colour of Magic is Terry Pratchett's very first Discworld novel. There have been more than 30 since that one. I love them all. They very in their flavor and overall enjoyability, but that range is from good to absolutely fantastic. At his best, Pratchett is in my top five favoritest authors. At his worst, he is still better than the majority of authors I have read in my life. Oh, and as you might guess from the spelling, he is British.

But this isn't a Rant or Rave about the book, which is frankly one of the weakest of the Discworld books, but of the made for TV movie of the book, also British. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I haven't read the book in many years, so my enjoyment wasn't overly colored by my perception of the movie's "accuracy", but it definitely captured the feel of Pratchett's world and it's overall satiric and ironic over- and undertones.

The heart and soul of the Color of Magic (American spelling) is the Luggage, Twoflowers and Rincewind. And the movie pretty well nails all of those quite nicely. The acting is very good, the CGI and other effects are good, occassionally great, and the script and pacing work quite well.

So, a big rave for The Colour of Magic. An even bigger rave for Terry Pratchett and the Discworld books. If you haven't read them and enjoy British humor (along the lines of Monty Python or, perhaps, Eddie Izzard), then I strongly recommend them to you. They are all extremely funny, and the best of them are also highly satiric, lampooning such things as Death, the Cinema, Anthropology and Mythology, Economics, Race Relations, Police forces, Art, Music, War, and... well, probably a little bit of everything else as well.

About That Poll...

Initially I was discouraged by the results of the poll in last week’s Mukwonago Chief, but a few things reassured me. First, it was only 125 votes, hardly representative of the Mukwonago community. Second, online polls are notoriously imprecise and, as noted in The Chief, unscientific. But here’s the most interesting fact about it—it is still open. Go to http://www.livinglakecountry.com/polls/56715842.html and you can still vote. As I write this entry, the vote had changed considerably—55% in favor and 45% opposed, with 215 total votes. So, a huge thank you to everyone that voted in favor of expansion.

We have a tremendous library, but it is too small and too old to best serve the community. We need study rooms for all our students, traditional and returning; we need another, a larger meeting room to meet the needs of our growing, inter-connected community; we really need a bigger, separate children's area so that kids can be kids (with apologies to Chuck E. Cheese) and have some fun while they read and learn at the library; and we need more shelves to hold our collection, so that we don't have to pull a book off the shelves every time we add a new one.

A Slightly Different Poll
The library surveyed 265 of our patrons two weeks ago, and 83% of them shop or run other errands as part of going to the library. This number is even higher for out of village patrons, with nearly 95% doing other things in the village when they visit the library-- shopping at the grocery store, visiting the pharmacy, eating lunch at one of the many restaurants and fast food joints in town, going to Ace Hardware or Home Depot, etc., etc. Which reassures me that the library is a strong component not only of the social and cultural life of Mukwonago, but also of its economic well-being.

If the library doesn't expand and the inevitable age and space constraints begin to take their toll on our ability to serve this community, we could easily start to lose our patrons to other libraries. And if they go to another library to meet their information, reading, viewing and other library needs, they'll go to some other community's grocery stores, gas stations, drug stores, restaurants, bike shops, hardware stores... well, you get the idea.

Rant or Rave: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

I enjoyed the Harry Potter series quite a bit. I don't fully embrace them as enthusiastically as some, and exactly why Harry was such a HUUUUGGGEEE hit is still unclear to me, but they are very well written, the characters develop extremely well during the series and the general tone and character of the books got better as they went along.


Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, book #6, was probably my favorite of the series. I loved the gradual revealing of Voldemort's past, the interaction of Harry with Dumbledore, and the ending was absolutely riveting.


But I approached the movie version of the book with considerable reluctance. Overall, the movies had failed to live up to the books. Not that surprising, most movies fail to live up to their books, but the thing that always made the Potter movies at least pretty good representations of their written originals was the absolutely terrific casting of the movies. With one, glaring exception. When Michael Gambon took over the role of Dumbledore in movie three after the death of Richard Harris, that casting went from just about perfect to pretty darn poor.


Gambon never fit the role in movies 3, 4 and 5, alternating between abrasive arrogance and fidgeting impatience. He never conveyed the sense of quiet confidence and compassion that is so central to the Dumbledore personae and which Harris achieved seemingly effortlessly.


Which was the central reason for my concern over movie #6. The Half-Blood Prince involves Dumbledore far more often, and more signficantly, than any of the previous books. With that in mind, and my serious reservations over the casting of Gambon as Dumbledore, I really wasn't expecting much from the movie.


So I put off going to The Half-Blood Prince but this past weekend, finally broke down and went to see it. I was pleasantly surprised when Gambon seemed rather more like Dumbledore than I had ever imagined possible. He was actually quite good in the role. And the movie itself found a good pacing, rolling in enough of the multiple plot lines of the book to make it a rich experience without losing the overall flow of the story. The cinematography reflected the darker, more somber atmosphere of the sereis by book number six, but there was enough of the book's good humor to leaven the darkness and dread. As always, the acting was stupendous.


And then came the finale. And I was sooooo disappointed. The rest of the movie had well captured the tone and tenor of the book, so by the time the climax came around, my initially lowered expectations had begun to rise. This was a good movie, one that was not always "true" to the book in literal terms, but was a very good big screen adaptation of it, along the lines of Peter Jackson's treatment of The Lord of the Rings.

So, I was really looking forward to the conclusion since, as I mentioned above, I thought the ending to book six was just riveting. But they CHANGED it. I won't go into detail, but I can't figure out WHY. There was no reason to do it, and the changes they made weren't insignificant ones. Rather, they were substantial changes, and not a single one of them made the movie better. Dreadfully disappointed.


Rant or Rave? I really liked the first 90 or 95% of the movie. Big raves for it, with only a few minor complaints. But the ending... urgh. I left the theater thinking, "Boy that could have been a really, really good movie. Why'd they have to screw it up at the end?" So, a big rant against the changes made, for no discernably good reason, at the end.

Are You Ready for some Football?!

Okay, okay, this is pretty much completely un-library related, but I am a passionate sports fan and have been an enthusiastic Packer backer for my entire life. With that comes a life-long disdain for the Chicago Bears. So, Sunday night's hard fought, frequently ugly but ultimately beautifully ending 21-15 victory over the Bears was a fine, fine event.

What was most encouraging was that they managed to pull out a close game-- the Packers lost 7 games last year by 4 or less points-- and the defense looked good. Really good. Granted, the Bears offense isn't going to remind anyone of the brilliant San Francisco 49'ers offense under Bill Walsh, but they should be at least average this year.

Also encouraging is the fact that they won even with Aaron Rodgers and Donald Driver having off nights. Rodgers got rattled a bit early when his right tackle kept wiffing on protecting him from getting smacked by 260 pound Adewale Ogunleye, and Driver dropped a couple of tough passes, but the type he nearly always catches despite their difficulty.

In addition to the football itself, the return of the NFL also signals the return of one of my very mostest, favoritist, bestest sports writers, Gregg Easterbrook, and his always interesting, often funny, and usually very enlightening weekly column, Tuesday Morning Quarterback.

Can the 2009 Packers bring the Lombardi trophy back to Wisconsin? I sure hope so-- and I'm looking forward to watching the attempt, one week at a time.

Guitar Hero: Bassoon Edition

Okay, not really. But this little gem of a YouTube video does capture what classical music might be like on Guitar Hero or Rock Band. It is fascinating to watch, and really gives you a sense of the depth and richness of that most famous of all symphony openings. How Beethoven managed to hold all that in his head is amazing. But then, I suppose most geniuses are amazing in their realms of expertise.

Workshop Completed

We had our second two-day workshop with Uihlein-Wilson Architects yesterday and Tuesday. Very good sessions, lots of information. I'll try to post a more substanative summary in the near future, but there is a lot to digest. Sorry for the light blogging. Okay, non-existent blogging.

To fill the void a little, what could be more appropriate than celestial bodies in the void of space.

Perfect:

These are only a few of the amazing images you can view at the Hubble Site. If you like space, the final frontier, you can spend much happy time at the Hubble web page.

When did Monopoly become a franchise? Even more peculiar, when did Scrabble? I stopped at Toys R Us with my son tonight, and I couldn't believe how many variations of Monopoly and Scrabble they had. No exaggeration: 16 versions of Monopoly and 10 versions of Scrabble. Star Wars Monopoly, Classic Monopoly, Monopoly Jr., Dog Monopoly, Travel Monopoly, New and Improved Monopoly with fully Irridiated Chance Cards (ok, maybe not, but sheeeesh).

Several versions of Operation, including a Hulk version. A new and improved Game of Life. Three or four different Risk variations, Disney Sorry, Simpsons Clue.

Apparently the major toy manufacturers have totally run out of ideas for games and are simply sticking other merchandising properties onto existing games. How pathetic.

Fortunately, there are some good games out there. They are more expensive, take longer to play and you have to go to a speciality game store or buy online to get them, but they are out there. I happened to like the Empire Builder series, but the Formula Deux racing games, Settlers of Catan and other Mayfair Games and Steve Jackson Games offerings are a lot of fun.

Actually, this fall or winter, I hope to start a game evening at the library to highlight some of these great games. They really are a lot of fun. Stay tuned!

School's In For Autumn II, Humor Edition

Doesn't seem like summer can be over, but there you have it. Part of the problem is that it rarely got warm enough to seem like summer. Which was great in many ways-- I'm a big fan of temps in the 70s and lower humidity, but June, July and August really did feel more like an extended spring rather than actual mid-summer.

At any rate, if you now have some more time on your hands with the kiddies off to school, feel free to waste some time at the Museum of Animal Perspectives' flickr site. Truly a mind-bending experience-- who would have thought sticking a camera on an animal's head or back could be so fascinating?