The first bookmobile, 1905

According to the Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science, outreach is defined as a library public service program initiated and designed to meet the information needs of an unserved or inadequately served target group.

A bookmobile is a large vehicle designed for use as a library. Since the establishment of the first “library wagon” service in Washington county Maryland in 1905, bookmobiles have remained an important tool in the outreach programs of many libraries. Mary Titcomb, first librarian of the Washington free county library, emphatically made the case for bookmobiles, arguing:

“Would not a Library Wagon, the outward and visible signs of the service for which the Library stood, do much more in cementing friendship [than current outreach efforts]?…No better method has ever been devised for reaching the dweller in the country. The book goes to the man, not waiting for the man to come to the book.“

The original bookmobile was a wagon drawn by two horses and driven by the library janitor. Bookmobiles have come a long way since then and many variations on the original theme have sprung up.

A pair of notable ones include Columbia’s “biblioburro” (a mobile library transported on donkeys) and Chicago’s book bike (which distributes books donated by publishers at public parks throughout the city).

Closer to home, DCPL had a bookmobile service at one point (briefly detailed here in paragraph five), though this is no longer in operation.  We do, however, have other outreach services including Library Take-Out (where we go into different communities to introduce library services to recent immigrants and residents of DeKalb who are not familiar with the library), Mailbox Books (where we mail books to library patrons who are unable to visit the library), Daycare / School Visits, and many Literacy Outreach programs.

Vegetarian cuisine may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Atlanta’s dining scene, but it appears that local restaurateurs are doing a brisk business feeding those inclined to avoid meat products. According to a recent article from the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Atlanta ranks as number 4 in a list of the top ten most vegetarian-friendly big cities in the US. The ranking is based on the number of vegetarian and vegetarian-friendly restaurants per capita, as well as input from PETA supporters. Atlanta ranked higher than such notable metropolises as San Francisco and New York City; the top three slots in the list were taken by Washington, D.C., Portland, OR, and Albuquerque, NM. While Atlanta is still home to a thriving culture of meat eaters, the increase in alternatives is good news, whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, or an omnivore who just craves more variety.

Despite all the great restaurants, it’s rarely feasible to eat out every day, and the library has a wide selection of vegetarian and vegan cookbooks for when you’re spending mealtime at home. Two titles I’ve had good experiences with are Vegan with a Vengeance and Veganomicon, both by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and both chock-full of tasty recipes that will satisfy a variety of different tastes.

The Decatur Library auditorium will be host to five touring wizard rock bands on Monday, July 19^th.  The free concert starts at 5:30pm and is appropriate for ages 13 and up.  Click here for the event listing in the library’s online calendar.

What is wizard rock?  Wizard rock, or “wrock,” is music based on or inspired by the Harry Potter books, and there’s more of it than you might think.  Wizrocklopedia, a site devoted to all things related to wizard rock, lists hundreds of Potter-themed bands.  Nearly every character (as well as many inanimate objects) in the Harry Potter universe has a band named in their honor, and many bands sing their songs from the perspective of their chosen character.

Wizard rock bands demonstrate their passion for reading through their songs, and they inspire others to think about books  in new and exciting ways.

We love what wizard rock has done to promote reading and literacy, and we’re proud to host the ROFLCOPTOUR, featuring  5 of the wrockingest bands in the movement:

ALL CAPS

Kristina Horner and Luke Conard met each other through their respective wizard rock bands three years ago. After a while, they decided to take one step outside the Harry Potter genre and expanded their music repertoire to include a myriad of other nerdy topics.  They have released two full length albums and a handful of successful music videos on YouTube.

The Whomping Willows

The Whomping Willows is the solo project of singer/songwriter Matt Maggiacomo. Combining an offbeat sense of humor with light political commentary and catchy melodies, Matt has written five full-length albums and two EPs (loosely) from the perspective of the violent tree at Hogwarts.

The Moaning Myrtles

Lauren Fairweather and Nina Jankowicz, also known as The Moaning Myrtles, have been having the time of their afterlives writing and performing music from everyone’s favorite whiny bathroom ghost’s perspective since 2005. They are known for their piano-heavy songs with catchy harmonies, but the Myrtles occasionally take the form of a solo guitarist.

Justin Finch-Fletchley

Justin Finch-Fletchley performs music from the perspective of a classmate who witnessed most of the events Harry, Ron, and Hermione experienced. Justin combines wit and insight along with an unbridled amount of passion and energy to bring eager wizard rock fans their dose of catchy sing-along acoustic rock music.

The Parselmouths

Kristina Horner and Eia Waltzer are The Parselmouths, a wizard rock band that take the Hogwarts
experience from the perspective of spoiled, popular rich girls. Their girlband has been writing and performing folky, upbeat, slightly ‘evil’ songs since 2004 and have played shows in a plethora of venues all over the country.

For more about the history and creation of Harry Potter fandom, check out Melissa Anelli’s Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon.  You’ll find a few of the touring bands mentioned in the “Rocking at Hogwarts” chapter!

ShareReads appears on the DCPLive blog on Fridays. Each week, a different person will share a little about what they’re currently reading, and why they like or don’t like it.  The heart of ShareReads will be responses from blog readers, and the window of opportunity here is wide. Feel free to respond and discuss the book or author being mentioned, ask or answer a question, or even take the conversation in a different direction: mention what you are currently reading, and how you feel about it.  The point of ShareReads is to have an ongoing discussion about books and reading.  Remember: posting a response also counts as an activity for the Summer Reading for Adults program.

Last week, DCPLive featured an interesting post about local, organic food. Part of the slow food movement involves buying food which is locally grown, thereby supporting local farmers. Considering this brought me to the notion that writers bring seeds of ideas to readers in much the same way that farmers grow vegetables. They keep returning to them over and over, nourishing them with patience and diligence until they’re ready for our consumption. No matter what you eat this summer, it’s the perfect time to enrich your reading diet by trying (and supporting) a local author.

We’re very fortunate that DeKalb County is the home of the Georgia Center for the Book. This organization has featured many Georgia authors in DeKalb libraries, including Terry Kay, Mary Kay Andrews, Karin Slaughter (who will be at the Decatur Library on July 1st), and Joshilyn Jackson (who will be at the Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library on June 29th).

I’ve recently finished a wonderful new book by a local author who presented a GCFTB program back in May. David C. Tucker loves to write about movies and television, and his latest book, Lost Laughs of 50s and 60s Television: 30 Sitcoms That Faded Off Screen, is a wonderful tribute to some shows which got lost in the sands of TV history. Some actors featured in the book, like Harry Morgan (Colonel Potter on M.A.S.H.) Francis Bavier (Aunt Bee on The Andy Griffith Show), or Marion Ross (Richie’s mom on Happy Days), are much better known for their other work. Other actors have been largely forgotten. That’s a shame, and you’ll enjoy reading about them too.

Since it’s hard to see these shows today, I’m grateful that Lost Laughs includes many photos. This is truly a user friendly book, containing an appendix charting the shows in chronological order (I mention this because the shows are presented alphabetically). You can read the book in chapter order, or mix it up in any way you choose. My three favorite shows are Angel, Mrs. G Goes to College, and Wendy and Me. I’ll pique your curiosity by telling you that Angel was created by the man who brought us I Love Lucy, and Wendy and Me featured George Burns.  It’s hard for me to imagine why these three didn’t last longer, but I’m sure you’ll have your own wish list once you’ve picked up this book.

If you’d like another actor fix, I also recommend David’s other books, The Women Who Made Television Funny, and Shirley Booth: a Biography and Career Record. There’s another good dose of wit and entertainment to be found between those covers.

So, do you have a favorite Georgia author? There’s a lot of great writing to celebrate, and some of it is being created right now at a computer keyboard near you!

Do you know where your food comes from?  Neither did I, until a couple of months ago; I used to buy food from the big supermarkets.  But, partially fueled by books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and movies like Food, Inc., there has been a recent surge of interest in this question of where our food comes from, and what chemicals have been put into it.  I’ve not read or seen these books or documentaries myself, as I have a huge fear of finding out all the horribly true facts that I’m totally happy ignoring.  However, I’ve started going to local organic farmers markets, which are cropping up all over the place.  Even if you didn’t care where your food comes from, it’s still a refreshing experience attending these markets.  Each farmer sells you his or her veggies, fruit, meat, milk, eggs, pastries and/or cheeses themselves.  I find it especially reassuring that each of my dozen eggs is of a different size and shape, which is the way it should be!  And they taste much better than grocery store bought eggs.  Also, I know that my vegetables are freshly harvested from Georgia clay often within the last 24 hours, instead of being trucked across the country from who knows where.  Here are some of the local organic farmers markets that I’m aware of.  If you know of any others in or around DeKalb County, please share with us in the comments section…

• Decatur Farmers Market – there is one every Wednesday at the corner of Church and Commerce from 4pm to 7pm (Winter hours are 3pm to 6pm).  There’s also one run by the same people on Saturdays, from 9am to Noon across the street from Chic-Fil-A on N. McDonough.
• East Lake Farmers Market – Saturdays from 9am to 1pm at the corner of Hosea L. Williams Dr SE & 2nd Ave SE.
• East Atlanta Village Farmers Market – Thursdays 4pm to 8pm May thru November at 1231 Glenwood Ave (Village Hardware)

More books and movies about eating locally grown organic food that I haven’t read:

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver – a memoir of a year of eating locally
• What to Eat by Marion Nestle – cutting through the hype, nutritionist Nestle tells us what we should eat
• Fast Food Nation (DVD) – the history and inner workings of the fast food industry
• King Corn: You Are What You Eat (DVD) – our food woes through the lens of one grain

Although you can get many magazines online these days, to me there’s nothing better than sitting down with a good cup of coffee or tea and perusing the nice shiny pages of a magazine.

The library offers over 300 choices from AARP to Z magazine. This breaks out to 1700 subscriptions among the branches. We have three subscriptions in Chinese, three in Spanish and one in Russian. The issues found at most of the branches include Oprah, Newsweek and Essence.

Did you know you can check out up to five issues at a time for three weeks? If you’d rather look online, you can use GALILEO to search EBSCOhost or ProQuest. (See your reference librarian if you’re not sure how to do this.)
Unfortunately, DCPL has been hit with cutbacks and many subscriptions have been cut. My branch alone cut nearly thirty titles. There is a bright side to all this, the library accepts gift subscriptions from patrons like you. So the next time you’re missing your Economist or InStyle magazine, know that you can give back to DCPL.

We are beyond lucky in DeKalb County to be the host site for the Georgia Center for the Book.  The GCB’s mission is to provide support to libraries, literary programs and, whaddaya know, literature.  They do it in fine style and though the mission is to serve the entire state many of the programs are based in the metro area.  Over the years I have attended many GCB events at the Decatur Library and the Carter Center.  I missed Christopher Moore discussing Fool and Paula Deen sharing her story in Paula Deen: It Ain’t All About the Cookin’ because I had to work, but I also had the great pleasure of meeting  Annette Gordon Reed when she was here discussing her amazing, Pulitzer prize winning  The Hemingses of Monticello.  Many of the GCB Author Talks are also available on the website as downloadable podcasts.  As a children’s librarian I have a tough time keeping up with adult literature and have to work hard to find things I might like.  Thanks to GCB programs I have read many books I would otherwise have skipped (Finn by Jon Clinch and Martha Washington: An America Life by Patricia Brady) which is why I’m so pleased to see the “25 Books All Georgian’s Should Read” list.  I probably won’t  get to read everything on it in 2010 but I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into this list.  You should try it out too.  See the completed list here.

Embry Hills Staff Members: (l-r) Zakiyyah Williams, Deborah Stone, Frieda Lesser, Ann Wooten and Jnai Walker

After a year of renovation, remodeling and expansion, the Embry Hills branch is now open to the public again. The little neighborhood branch on Chamblee-Tucker Rd. has undergone a dramatic transformation in size (an additional 4,000 sq.ft.  of space) and appearance.

Over this past weekend, the Embry Hills community had the opportunity to get a glimpse of their newly expanded library at Saturday’s  re-dedication ceremony.  Library staff, patrons and esteemed community members, including Library Trustees Eleanor Duke, Elizabeth Joyner and Dr. Curtis Clark and DeKalb County Commissioner for District 7, Connie Stokes, were on hand to commemorate the re-opening and to tour the facility. Thus far, community response has been positive (so much so that several patrons have already joined Embry Hills’ nascent Friends group).

Amber Northrop, Embry Hills Staff Member

For their part, the Embry Hills community has been quite patient with the expansion process, so they deserve our thanks and appreciation (The staff also greatly appreciates the patron who offered us a gift of chocolate truffles on our opening day! Thanks, Ms. Wieder!)

With excitement and anticipation running high, Embry Hills officially re-opened its doors on Monday at 11 am. In the first few hours, foot traffic was light but, as staff suspected, patrons began trickling in at around  2 pm, likely still operating on Embry Hills’ former business hours. But with an expanded space come additional hours of operation, so please be sure to visit us on  Mondays and Tuesdays from 11 am to 8 pm and on Wednesdays through Saturdays from 11 am to 5 pm. For pictures of Embry Hills’ dedication and of the new building click here to see our Flickr page.

If you are then I suggest you get yourself off to a baseball game.  Not the Braves, at least not the Atlanta Braves–nothing against the Braves, it’s just that I still haven’t gotten over the 1992 season.  No, what you need if you’re stressed is minor league ball.  Luther Williams field in Macon will always hold the place in my heart as the perfect baseball park.   It’s the place where I learned it is possible to buy boiled peanuts with one’s beer.  It’s also where I saw a lot of the guys now in the majors when they were still wet behind the ears.   Minor league ball is where you’ll find young families out for a nice evening as well as the serious guy who’s scoring the game.  Perhaps the best part, for me, is that moment when the sun has dropped, the sky is that gorgeous shade of blue-black  and then suddenly the smell of the dew hitting the grass is all around.  I cannot think of a better way to spend a nice June evening than by measuring it out in strikes and hits.  Georgia is rife with minor league teams, but if you can’t get to a game try out these titles.

The Southern League: Baseball in Dixie by Bill O’Neal

Not-So-Minor Leagues by Douglas and Kathleen Gay

Small Town Heroes: Images of Minor League Baseball by Hank Davis

Stolen Season by David Lamb

This post is purely self-indulgent.  It isn’t going to give you a snappy list of titles we have in our collection.  It isn’t going to direct you to something useful on our website and even though it is in fact National Goof-Off day, I am not going to carry on about how you can kill a few precious minutes messing around on icanhascheezburger.com.

According the Bureau of Labor Statistics “over 2 out of 3 librarians is over the age of 45.”  An article in the Journal of Academic Librarianship called it the “graying of librarianship.”  Here at DCPL it has become a vivid fact.  Last week we honored a colleague who served DCPL for 23 years.  This week we will do the same for another colleague.  We lost several library “elders” last year and will be losing several more later this year.

We miss these folks, we  notice empty chairs at meetings for a while, and call their names during discussions.  Patrons ask after them, sometimes stunned by their seemingly abrupt departures.  Their absences create gaping holes in the fabric of our community but they leave us all, staff and public alike, with an extraordinary gift.  Each one of our retirees spent countless hours during her career coaching and coaxing young, dangerously enthusiastic librarians in the fine art of Service to the Community.  They took the time and considerable trouble to share hard won knowledge.  They pushed where pushing was needed to get talented support staff headed in the direction of library school (www.ala.org in case you, too,  have an interest in joining the ranks.)  They did everything in their power to bring up the next generation of  library leaders and to ensure that the provision of services to the public would continue in an unbroken line.

It is easy to be passionate and joyous at the beginning of a career, before the day to day reality destroys all the pretty ideals of library school.   The greatest legacy from our retirees is this—they demonstrated that librarianship is not meant to be just a job, but a career that will sustain not only one’s self but that is meant to enrich the lives of the people we are privileged to serve.  They have retired, they are retiring and they will retire, but every last one of them still displays the passion and joy, now tempered by time, that this profession can bring.  Thank you, my friends.