Nancy, we will miss you!

 

I’m sorry to report our friend and colleague, Nancy Albrecht, is leaving us to enjoy her much-earned retirement.

  Nancy has worked at the Avon Lake Public Library for over 24 years, starting in the Children’s Department and then moving to Technical Services where she has served as the Acquisitions Specialist for children’s materials.  Nancy processes orders for books and other materials and then receives them and prepares them for the cataloger.  It involves a lot of detail work and a good deal of organization.  Nancy excels at it. She also works at the Circulation desk where you may have had the pleasure of being assisted by her and been treated to one of her warm smiles.

She’s also a wonder at team work, pitching in for other staff and doing whatever it takes to get the job done.  Even more importantly, Nancy is valued for her warmth, her kindness and her evident joy in life. Her co-workers are grateful for her frequent words of encouragement when one of us takes on some new task we’re not quite sure about.  And we will miss her laughter (and husband Skip’s gifts of cinnamon bagels whenever Nancy worked a Saturday!).

Nancy plans to spend time with her mother, enjoy her grandchildren Maya, Andrew, Katie, Jack and Henry, and travel with her beloved husband Skip.  Our loss is their gain.

Enjoy yourself to the fullest, Nancy, and come and see us all often!

 

Latest info on Rachel’s Mugs and the new library in Benin

Regular readers of this blog and visitors to the Avon Lake Library may recall Rachel’s Mugs. Rachel Miller is a peace corp worker from Painesville working in Guinagourou, Benin. Rachel is working with the community there to build a library and her mom, Susan, who’s a skilled potter, created and sold some gorgeous mugs to raise money for the project. Our patrons and staff purchased many of those mugs. Rachel is home on leave for her sister’s high school graduation and she and Susan stopped by to say hi and give us an update.

All the money has been raised, the foundation poured, and Rachel worked along side community members of all ages to make 8000 huge bricks! The roof, made of tin, will be raised shortly. The first books are on order and six teen intern librarians have been chosen to work under a village teacher’s supervision to staff what is truly a community library!

Rachel, Susan and the people of Guinagourou are grateful for the support of the people of Avon Lake who contributed half the money needed to make this library happen. And we’re grateful for our beautiful mugs (dishwasher and microwave safe even).

We’ll miss Marleen!

  Our beloved colleague, Children’s Assistant Librarian Marleen Rippeth, will be leaving us for warm and sunny South Carolina.  Marleen is leaving a big hole at Avon Lake Public Library.  She holds that highly unusual combination of superior organizational skills, whacky creativity, and an intrepid heart!  And most of all we love her because she’s a great team member.

 Marleen can make fun out of any opportunity, a trait our young patrons are going to miss.  She’s been one of the madcap geniuses behind our amazing children’s parties here at the Library, creating remarkable crafts and games for the children.  Marleen has posed as the Cat in the Hat, a read’n cowpoke, and a waffle chef.  Except that last one wasn’t a pose: Marleen taught the children to make waffles one day, bringing a book alive for them.

Marleen is also fearless.  Only Marleen would dare combine peanut butter, melted chocolate, and a score of preschoolers!  The result was messy, hilarious, and a riot of fun for the children (someone ought to write a children’s book about the Librarian Who Made Buckeyes)!  Then there was the summer reading video that featured a fire in the Library.  Guess who volunteered to be hosed down by the Avon Lake Fire Department?

Side-by-side with all the fun, is Marleen’s incredible organizational skills.  Even among librarians, Marleen is notorious for her tendency to alphabetize things the rest of us would never dream of!  And believe me, we’re grateful.

Marleen has been great to work with.  She’s one of those special people who shares freely of herself, working for the good of all and sharing the credit for all the wonderful things that have a way of happening around her.  We’re going to miss her a lot!

Here’s the poem Marleen wrote to lure author Judy Sierra and illustrator Marc Brown of Wild About Books to our Library in 2004.

Wild About Books

It started the summer of 2004,

When Wild About Books arrived at our door.

 

With the help of some beavers, a stork, and a gnu,

We watched in amazement as our Zoobrary grew.

 

It delighted our patrons, they came young and old,

The Avon Lake Zoobrary was a sight to behold.

 

Then one Thursday morning as the clock struck nine,

A class of first graders marched in, all in a line.

 

As they listened , we talked about taking good care

Of the books that they own and the books that we share.

 

They loved Judy’s story, Wild About Books,

And Marc’s illustrations inspired their new looks…

 

They turned into animals (Well maybe not quite.)

Then they searched to the left and they searched to the right.

 

They searched high and low, and in all of the nooks,

To find animals reading their own Zoobrary books.

 

Each child was given a blank book as well,

For we know that they have their own stories to tell.

 

Three cheers for the Zoobrary, Judy and Marc too,

We’re wild simply wild, about their marvelous zoo!

 

 

Listen to the Mustn’ts Child

 

Materials Processor Anne Herrilko is one of the two Library staff members who prepare every item in the Library for our shelves.  After each book, magazine, CD, DVD, kit or whathaveyou is cataloged, Anne or her co-worker Cheryl Harmon label, sticker, box, stamp, inventory, reinforce and otherwise prepare for the shelf each item.  You may never see these two workers in action, but the LIbrary would ground to a halt without them.

Anne is also a mom and she has successfully strived to teach her son just how much he can accomplish.  One of her lessons has come from a Shel Silverstein poem: Listen to the Mustn’ts Child, from Where the Sidewalk Ends.  Anne says this is a family favorite.  ”We spent many an evening reading Shel Silverstein to Mike when he was younger. Now, we carry this poem in our wallets and I know most parents wish this for those they love.”

We’ve got ten titles of Shel Silverstein’s books in our collection, most of them in our Children’s Library, everyone of them a great deal of fun.  And now, on our new non-fiction shelf, A Boy Named Shel: The Life and Times of Shel Silverstein. 

The Library in Poetry and Prose

Children’s Librarian Sally Klepper gets to spend a fair part of her days selecting children’s books, creating clever crafts and sharing both with children. It’s rough, but somebody’s got to do it! Yesterday, she shared with me the poem I’m Going to the LIbrary, from poet Jack Prelutsky’s new book, My Dog May Be a Genius. The Poetry Foundation has named Prelutsky “the nation’s first Children’s Poet Laureate.”

We have numerous books by Prelutsky in our Children’s Department. He’s a sure bet with both children and fun-loving adults which makes any of his books a great way to introduce poetry to any children in your circle of love.

Now this issue of unreturned library books is not limited to children or children’s literature! Comic mystery writer Ian Sansom’s librarian hero Israel Armstrong has strong opinions on unreturned books. The second book in the “Mobile Library Mystery” series, Mr. Dixon Disappears, begins with Israel’s rant, “He was sick of the excuses and the lies. He was tired of the evasions and the untruths, of people refusing to stand up and speak the truth and take responsibility for their own actions. It seemed to him like yet another symptom of the decline of Western civilisation; of chaos; and climate change; and environmental disaster; and war; disease; famine; oppression; the eternal slow slide down and down and down. It was entropy, nemesis, apotheosis, imminent apocalypse and sheer bad manners all rolled into one. People were not returning their library books on time.”

Our staff doesn’t quite get this bent out of shape over late returns, but some of our patrons waiting for their turn at the book (or other item) do!

See you at the book drop!

Jabberwocky

 

Prodigious Reader and Assistant Cataloger Cheryl Paganelli contributed two poems to our poetry collection here at the Library.  Here’s the second for your enjoyment:

 

Jabberwocky

by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Did you know that the Jabberwock is a character in

 Through the Looking Glass, the sequel to Alice in Wonderland.

 Of course, we have both books and

 The Walrus and the Carpenter. Come check them out!

somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond

 

Another love poem today!  Cheryl Paganelli,  Assistant Cataloger, contributes this incredibly lovely poem by e.e. cummings:  somewhere i have never traveled, gladly beyond .  Can’t you just feel the poet’s love for his beloved?

Cheryl reads widely and enthusiastically and can almost always recommend a good book to suit your taste.  She has a good ear for poetry too.

Joy and Sorrow

 

In our poem-a-day marathon for April, I missed yesterday.  40 lashes with a wet noodle for me and two poems today for you.

 

The first comes from Adult Services librarian Deb Switzer.  Deb is creative enough to spout original poetry at the Reference desk while selecting materials and running statistic reports.  Don’t be alarmed at this poem.  Deb was having a bit of a stressful day, but she really is just fine. Her good sense of humor seems to bring her through just about everything.

Half Asleep

half asleep

 

half awake

 

in the water

 

drowning.

 

Today’s second poem comes from Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran, most famous for his book The Prophet.  HIs cousin, the American born artist and inventor of the same name, died just a few days ago in Brooklyn, NY. This poem, from The Prophet, was published in 1923, just out of the reach of copyright.

 Joy and Sorrow

Then a woman said, “Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.”

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

 

Reader, do you agree with Gibran?

Short-lived

 

Young Adult Associate Librarian Nicole Balough offers this poem she wrote herself while in college:

Short-lived

 

The worn oak tree looms

over grandma’s front porch:

one gaunt arm etching

The frosted window panes.

Gray, grizzled, feeble.

Susceptible to the unyielding

harshness of the bitter cold.

The last of its offspring

clinging, ice their suit of armor.

One by one, their lives fall idly,

teardrops from their mother,

to carpet the footsteps of the world.

Another scratch added to the glass,

an epitaph for her lost children.

Nicole brings the same sensitivity of this poem to her work with the young people who frequent our library and provides exceptional service to all patrons, young and old. 

The Red Wheelbarrow

Substitute Librarian Betty Kunes remembers studying William Carlos William’s poem, The Red Wheelbarrow in college English and being amazed at the depth and complexity of such an apparently simple poem. First published in 1923, this one is now out of copyright, so I can publish it here.

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

If you like William Carlos Williams, check out Wiiliam Carlos Williams: Selected Poems from our literature collection. This pediatrian/ Pulitzer Prize winning poet was a beautiful writer and human being. I particularly enjoy This is Just to Say. It always makes me smile.

Betty retired as an academic librarian at Lorain Community College and now substitutes for us throughout the library. Betty’s an expert searcher and especially knowledgable about legal and literature resources. Come in and give her a try with your reference questions!