Beyond Our Gates Forum

Today I had the great opportunity serve as a panelist at a forum talking about arts and culture in the San Joaquin Valley. Stockton's University of the Pacific has hosted a series of Beyond Our Gates fora each of which presented a panel of speakers on a given topic. UoP is interested in hosting these conversations as a method of investigating new ways that the University can develop productive partnerships in the region and, thus far, has gathered a wealth of information.

I shared the stage today with folks from the Stockton Symphony, the Stockton Arts Commission, the Cultural Heritage Council of San Joaquin County, the local public television station, The San Joaquin Film Society, the Haggin Museum, and the Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Lodi. What a wealth of information was shared with the audience concerning our perspectives on the strengths of the region's art and culture assets as well as our thoughts on how we could partner with UoP to further develop the arts in our region.

Here are my comments from today's session:

"Nurturing the arts and culture begins with providing avenues for the enjoyment of the arts. One has to experience artistic pieces, regardless of media, in order to develop an appreciation for how such works can add value to our lives. With that in mind, residents of the San Joaquin County region have available to them a wealth of quality institutions toward that end. Symphony and museums, ballet and film, even opera, not to mention the venues right here at Pacific, the Conservatory of Music, Reynolds Gallery, and Long Theatre all combine to afford a wealth of opportunities to develop and deepen a love of fine and applied arts for the residents of our community.

Of course, it should be no surprise, among the list of culture-building organizations in San Joaquin County that I would mention, there is the region’s own public library system: the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library. Not only do libraries provide the most accessible venue for enjoying the art form that is the written word, libraries also provide an extraordinarily low cost method for parents to introduce their children to the world of art through books that depict the world’s greatest visual arts, CD’s of the worlds greatest music, and video of the world’s finest theater, cinema, musical, and dance pieces.

Through events that take place at the Library every day, children beginning in their infancy are introduced to skills and concepts that provide a meaningful foundation for both educational success and lifelong cultural appreciation. Learning about the concepts of books and reading, developing an ear for rhythm and a sense of physical movement coordinated to the sounds they hear, and an introduction to the art of handcrafting “art” of their own all provide children the mental toolbox to appreciate art as they grow.

Studies have indicated that the importance of an art-filled life is, without doubt, not only important to a sophisticated elite. People from all walks of life have been shown to rate highly having accessible an array of opportunities to both enjoy the work of artists and to create works of art on their own. This might mean viewing an organized exhibit of art or attending a concert. This also might mean having the resources available to instruct citizens in how to create their own art. Again, the public library fills both roles mentioned here very well.

Because this panel is comprised of a wealth of representatives from the region’s cultural institutions, I’ll limit my comments concerning how Pacific can partner with the region to build on our collective cultural strengths to possibilities for Pacific’s partnerships with the public library. One such example of which I’m sure the level of interest in the community would be high is that of a lecture series in local library branches presented by UoP faculty from a variety of disciplines concerning a topic of timely interest. For example, the issue of environmental disaster as approached through the lenses of experts in the fields of biology, economics and literature or film might be addressed. Certainly this kind of event already takes place on the campus at universities in many cities, but reaching out into arenas in which many of our community feel more comfortable may enable us to include an entirely new audience for our discussions.

Certainly, our library spaces can provide similar venues for the talented students of music and of the visual arts to introduce to those in our community who don’t frequent the Pacific campus to both the vast talent represented by these students and to the students themselves, thereby allowing the youngest in our community to meet “real artists” and to understand that anyone is capable of becoming an artist themselves."

Put the Book In Their Hands (however we can)

I still find myself amazed sometimes about how much our lives have been affected by the Internet and the various ways to interact with the Internet that people have developed. This morning, I read the introduction to a novel I'm going to read and came across the mention of an old horror story I'd never heard of, "The Wendigo", by Algernon Blackwood.

(As an aside, I suppose that I, as a fan of horror, ought to have known about this story since my research shows that it is considered a masterpiece of the genre. I guess I have some catching up to do!)

My amazement was engendered by the fact that within minutes of first encountering the title of this story, I'd downloaded to my iPhone a complete version of the story completely for free using the Kindle for iPhone app. I'm still in my pajamas on a Saturday morning; that I can so quickly and easily acquire a story I want to read really is amazing considering what my options would have been even 15 years ago.

And there are some, I'm sure, who would question the pleasure of reading a story on an iPhone; I might have until last week when I read a good chunk of The Call of the Wild for Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library's Big Read. My first foray into reading on the iPhone changed that impression! The readability is great, even in bed with the lights off. The manipulation of the "text" is intuitive and simple. I think that this is very valid approach to reading.

So, is this just evidence from a librarian of the impending doom of libraries, then? I'd argue against that conclusion. If libraries focus on service provision rather than content delivery as a means for adapting to a very rapidly shifting environment, we can take advantage of the ease and comfort of reading a book on a smartphone to provide better service to our customers.

I'm certainly not suggesting or predicting that the delivery of physical books and other materials won't be a primary focus for libraries for many years to come. I believe that we'll be in this business for a long time yet. However, I know how disappointing it is for me to work with a customer who is looking for something to read only to find that we don't have what they're looking for. It's disappointing for the customer, too. And it still isn't very uncommon for less-than-frequent library users to turn down an offer of having an item sent from another branch even with the promise of obtaining the item in two or three days. It won't take many of these "no gratification" experiences before a potential lifelong library visitor discounts us as useless.

My thought is that, if staff can be trained to be comfortable and adept at the ins and outs of finding and downloading free reading material on smartphones, we have just increased the likelihood that we can have a successful experience with our customers. This, in turn, enhances the value of the library as resource for the community. Think about it, so many people already have smartphones and all research points to a near future when handheld, web-enabled mobile devices will be ubiquitous. I'm talking very near future! And there is a lot of great, free (and much for .99 cents or so) reading material available on the Internet. If we are able to include these resources among those we offer on the spot to our customers (the one's with smartphones, anyway), the chances are much greater that they'll keep coming back to us. Because the process of downloading an e-reader app and then something to read takes all of a minute or two, this seems a very viable concept. It's just incumbent on librarians to get this knowledge into the hands of the folks providing the front-line service.

And it's clear, too, that libraries need to plan seriously for providing the devices for e-reading, as well. This is certainly already happening but we're very early in our steps in this direction. It really makes sense though. Think of "the classics" that students everywhere have to read each and every year. Imagine how many copies of each of these a library will purchase over the years! I recently heard Jason Griffey suggest the idea of downloading a few hundred of these titles (almost every one is public domain and freely available!) on inexpensive e-readers. Circulate these devices instead of hoping a title is available on the shelf and save a lot of money over the long term.

I'm really only catching up myself in this arena. I certainly need to think a lot more about this, though, because both the reality of how people will want to access information and the long-term financial stability of public libraries are changing.

Just a Bit of "What I'm Reading"

Probably the one aspect of being an executive in a public library that I looked forward to most yet the one I've failed thus far in making time for is a simple advocacy for reading. In my personal life, I just love reading and, as the City Librarian, it seems natural that I would be one of the most visible advocates for reading in the region where I work. I've allowed the more administrative responsibilities of my position to take up too much of my time, so I just wanted to write some about a few good books I've read recently that I think others would enjoy!

Revenge of the Witch (geared toward readers in elementary and middle school), Foundling (teen lit), and Her Fearful Symmetry (aimed at older readers) are all books I've enjoyed a great deal and all, in one way or another, feature themes of the fantastical and horror; two of my favorites! By the way, I'd have preferred to link the titles above to the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library catalog but, since Sirsi Symphony seems to not support the creation of persistent URL's (at least without inordinate trouble), I'm not able to. One more reason to look at open source...

For librarians who do reader's advisory work with younger readers, both The Last Apprentice and Foundling are great choices. Neither has yet really found a large audience so the chances are that your readers may not have already read these and they are both part of larger series (The Last Apprentice and Foundling or Monster Blood Tattoo respectively). So, for readers who discover these and find that they like them, there is a lot more to follow!

Revenge of the Witch is actually something I'm reading right now (and haven't yet finished!) so I'm probably not even supposed to recommend it yet. However, I'm really enjoying it thus far so I don't feel bad about my faux pas. It's the story of a twelve-year-old boy living in a rural part of what seems to be an alternate universe version of England or Ireland. As the seventh son of a seventh son, he is selected to be the apprentice to the local "Spook" whose trade involves managing the myriad boggarts, ghasts, and witches who inhabit the region, keeping all the rest of the County residents safe from harm. Sadly, though the work of a Spook is vital, those in the profession are usually shunned by those whom they serve. The story is fast moving, really a bit scary at times, and with good character development.

Foundling is the first book in what had been previously called the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy. Apparently, due to a failure to really take off in the U.S. in spite of its brilliance, the Australian author, D.M. Cornish, has taken the advice of his publishers who feel the series needs some "re-branding". The new cover art is much more "mature" and quite attractive, too. You'll notice that the blurb at the bottom of the cover equates Foundling with the Tolkien; it's clear from the cover art that that's a similarity the publishers want to push.

Marketing aside, I've read the entire trilogy and am at a loss as to why this series isn't more well known. Some of the best fantasy I've read in a long, long time, Cornish describes a world (the Half-Continent) of Dickensian England (with German overtones) where humans are constantly fighting to keep the world of monsters at bay. In fact, killing a monster is a high honor commemorated by tattooing oneself with the blood of your slain opponent (hence the original title of the series). This really is great stuff. The young orphan (or "foundling"), Rossamund, is entirely likeable and his closest "friend", the renowned monster killer the Brandon Rose is so memorable in her blend of fearsome appetite for the slaying of monsters, her legendary beauty, the rather disgusting biological demands that her profession makes of her, and her uncharacteristic sympathy for a poor orphan. This series is neither "only" an alternate universe fantasy-horror-adventure; Rossamund's sympathetic view of a world of monsters he feels "misunderstood" brands him as something of an outcast among his own kind while making a not always subtle statement about our propensity for demonizing our enemies.

Lastly, Her Fearful Symmetry, written by Audrey Niffenegger, was lovely. I first came across it in a bookstore (gasp!) where I judged the book by its cover (gasp!). As an aside, one of my favorite hobbies since getting an iPhone is to visit bookstores, find books I want to read, and, scanning the barcode with my phone which then links me directly to my library account, I request the titles from the library; I love it!

Anyway, that's how I first encountered Her Fearful Symmetry. It looks scary. The description sounded kind of scary. But when I read it, it wasn't scary. Sure, there is no denying that it's a ghost story. It's a story about a ghost who lives in her former London flat adjacent to Highgate Cemetary with her two, live, American nieces. Beautifully written with a cast of very engaging characters in a slow moving study of the nature of relationships (with parents, with siblings, with spouses, with lovers, with pets!) I found myself entirely loving this book even though it wasn't what it was portrayed to be. Until the final chapter or two, when this story suddenly bloomed into unexpected horror. How totally awesome! I wouldn't dare reveal the shock but I'm telling you I was shocked! Wonderful read!