Will Unwound

In my city manager days, I had an engineer on my management staff who was always making reference to various aircraft to set up what he had to say at staff meetings. He had a helicopter view, which meant that he was hovering around the details of an issue. Next was his 35,000 foot 737 flyover, which meant that he was taking a broader perspective. Finally there was his moon shot, which meant that he was going to get into the whole ‘we are all one planet’ vision thing. Pretty imaginative for an engineer I always thought.

Tonight it’s late. My wife and I have been laboring all weekend to get the upper wood trim painted on the house that we are building. We basically had 48 hours to get it done because the gutter guy is coming bright and early tomorrow morning, and when you are building a house there is a critical path sequence to things. The trim comes before the gutters which come before the felt which comes before the clay tiles. We painted the last foot of trim just as the sun was setting into the Pacific Ocean.

My point is that I have basically been on top of a ladder today. So to paraphrase my old engineering colleague this post will be my “15 foot tettering on top of a ladder all weekend” point of view. Yes, it may be a little shaky but it also may be a bit more elevated than usual.

Things I was thinking about while on top of a ladder:

• Generational Disconnect: I hired the college kid next door to do the trim on top of the roof. I tried the whole roof thing last weekend, froze up there, and they almost had to call the fire department to get me down. There is a reason I was a librarian by trade. Anyway this college kid is a really good kid and as it turned out a very good worker. But when he called me Thursday to tell me that he would do the job and wanted to know the starting time, he didn’t leave his phone number on my answering machine. All he said was “You can call me back at this number – it’s my cell.” But he didn’t give me the number. I was puzzled until I realized he just assumed I had a phone with a “calls received” feature. It never dawned on him that I might have a phone only slighter younger than Alexander Graham Bell. So I drove over to his house and we worked things out. He was actually shocked that not all phones have a “calls received” feature. Where am I going with this? I have always been a very big believer in generational differences. To get into my father’s head you had to know about the Great Depression. To get into my head you have to know something about rotary dials and party lines. To get into my college student/roof painter’S head you have to know something about smart phones. We are to a great degree formed by the time period in which we grew up. It’s a big reason I retired when I did. Best to make room for the youngsters before you are officially deemed obsolete.

• Generational Re-Connect: I may be on the very cutting edge of obsolescence, but I am not dead (yet). Last night I picked up my old computer (a Gateway desktop) that I bought four years ago when I retired. It took them three weeks to fix it. In that 3 weeks I bought a MacBook Pro and completely retooled my brain and my hand/eye coordination. The first week was a frustrating transition; the second week was immersion, and the third week was connectivity. For whatever reason the MacBook is the very first machine that I have embraced with enthusiasm and even a bit of wonder. I hate cars, televisions, and radios with a seek button. I am just not a machine guy…at least until now. Anyway, I picked up my old Gateway from the Geek Squad people, took it home, turned it on, and really felt like I was driving an orange Pinto stationwagon (a car I owned in the mid 70s). This really surprised me. Finally, today while we were painting I noticed that my college painter helper was up on the roof with his iPod. This initiated an interesting conversation about the whole Apple family of products. I mentioned how I had gotten a MacBook and suddenly we were not so far apart generationally. In his eyes I had made a comeback from an old fogey with an antique phone to a cool old guy with a MacBook Pro.

Before you begin meditating on this weekend’s puzzler you absolutely must watch this video: ipad baby.

Now here is the text to go along with the video:

• “Technology codes our minds, and changes our OS. Apple products have done this extensively. The video shows how magazines are now useless and impossible to understand, for digital natives. It shows a real life clip of a 1-year old, growing up among touch screens and print. And how the latter becomes irrelevant. Medium is message. Humble tribute to Steve Jobs, by the most important person : a baby. 

I’ve been puzzling over this video clip since one of you Unwinders sent it to me a week or two ago.  In the midst of all my head scratching, one thought keeps emerging: what if books didn’t exist.  Let’s just pretend for a minute that humankind never got beyond the scroll.  Let’s say we went from the scroll directly to the personal computer/e-reader/ithingy.

Then a Steve Jobs like wizard began to “think different” and suddenly came up in 2011 with a paper and glue book with a table of contents in the front, pages with numbers in the middle, and an index referring to those page numbers in the back.  I know this is an absurd proposition but please bear with this little thought experiment and think it through objectively.

How would this new invention be received?

Think about it and comment.  I’d love to hear your thoughts because I am really struggling with the concept.  There’s a part of me that says that the tech intelligentsia might actually concede that a more user friendly format that addresses all the flaws of the scroll and the ebook has finally been developed.

What say you?

Multiple Choice Question: Most adages (old and new) are:

1. mostly true
2. mostly false
3. sometimes true and sometimes false
4. it depends on the adage.

Correct answer: 4

It really, really bothers me that certain adages become laws that people resort to in order to justify their complacency, incompetence, and cluelessness.  Here are a few examples of adages that should not be adages:

• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  I can’t think of a single instance in which this is correct.   Shouldn’t the adage be Fix it before it breaks?  Can you think of a certain thing or person that could not use some improvement or repair?  And doesn’t this very popular adage actually encourage complacency? If you doubt my point of view just consider what happens to libraries that are named “Library of the Year.”
• It is what it is.  It is what it is because that’s what you are willing to settle for.  It doesn’t have to be what it is if you are willing to rise up out of your complacency and fix it.  It’s a free country, use your freedom.  If you don’t like your library’s funding, mobilize your board to get active and aggressive.
• You can’t judge a book by its cover.  Actually you can.  If you can’t look at a dust jacket and tell a bodice ripper from a philosophical treatise we need to get you out of reader’s advisory toute suite.  This is why it bugs me that academic libraries throw away dust jackets.  It’s not just tossing away art and design; it’s tossing very important information.  A dust jacket speaks volumes.
• Think outside the box.  This gets at my quibble with Movers and Shakers.  Sometimes I want to put Jack back in the box and keep him there.  If there are patrons lined up at the reference desk, I don’t want Jack in the back room re-designing the library’s Facebook page.
• It’s the journey that’s important; not the destination.  Okay, kids, pack the trailer, get a good night’s sleep, and say goodbye to Rover.  We’re heading out on a really cool adventure so that Mom can re-locate to the Baffin Islands Library System.  Right.
• Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  Don’t bother going for that increase in your library’s budget because we’ve been shut out the last three years.
• Government is not the solution; it’s the problem.  Fine.  Tell me who is going to build your roads, educate you kids, treat your sewage, inspect your meat, and provide your drinking water?
• Libraries should be run like a business.  Really?  Which ones – Lehman Brothers, GM, or Bernie Madoff Inc.?

It’s been a great week here at the Tavern with all the talk about favorite childhood books, the importance of starting the reading habit at a young age, and the importance of libraries as the treasure houses of stories.

From time to time I think it is critically important to reflect upon what is essential in our lives, and everyone here in the Unwinders Tavern agrees that books are essential to their lives.  It then is no stretch of logic to say that if books are essential then libraries are essential.

In city government, however, at budget time, a distinction is inevitably made regarding “essential” and “non essential services.”  Here is how it usually gets broken down:

Essential Services

• Police (crime and anarchy prevention)
• Fire (property protection and medical emergencies)
• Water (water = life)
• Wastewater Treatment (health and public safety)
• Streets and Sanitation (transportation, health, and public safety)
• Building Safety and Fire Inspection (property protection, health and public safety)

Non Essential Services

• Planning and Zoning (preserving and protecting residential neighborhoods)
• Economic Development (tax incentives to lure businesses)
• Parks and Recreation (keep kids busy and off the street)
• Library (the university of the people)
• The arts (the icing on the municipal cake)

You may not like this breakdown and I may not like this breakdown but the reality exists and to pretend otherwise is to ignore the massive budget cuts that have devastated the non-essential service areas.  I always used to plead that if libraries weren’t absolutely essential to sustaining human life, they do provide the resources that make life worth living….and, hey, isn’t that a pretty good definition of what is essential?

I wonder what would happen if library boards and library administrations made the same distinction at budget time about what is essential and what is non-essential.  In most case that never happens and when budget cuts come they are usually applied across the board so that all services are given the same percentage cut.  But if we were to create an essential and non-essential list of library services, what would such a list look like?  Here is my attempt:

Essential Library Services

• Books, audio books, and the bibliographic tools that make the books accessible.
• Reference and readers advisory services
• Public access computers.
• Children’s and young adult programming.

Nonessential Library Services

• All audio visual materials for checkout with the exception of audio books.
• Adult programming
• PR and marketing.

Clearly, what I am trying to achieve here is positioning the library as a “reading” and educational center with an emphasis on children and on individuals who do not have home computers.

If essentiality is the name of the game in the municipal funding arena, aren’t we better off positioning our libraries as providing the “basics” as opposed to the “frills?”

Question of the day: What would you label as “essential” and “non-essential” in your library?  Note: this includes all types of libraries: academic, school, and special.

The Unwinders Tavern will be open all day and all night and you can drink deeply to your heart’s content on me.  Just remember to tip Boris and Maggie.

Why am I feeling so generous?

I have been spending most of the last 48 hours reading, re-reading and re-re-reading your comments from Monday’s post “Who Was Your Miss Pickerell?”   What wonderful writing! Your comments were overwhelming, eloquent, heartwarming, at times funny but always fun, and finally very, very significant.

Unwinders, do you know what you did?  You stated over and over again the most compelling case imaginable for the importance of school and public libraries.  You went to great lengths and in great detail to fondly narrate the importance of stories and books not just in the development of your educational and professional careers but in your lives…you know – your basic, eating, drinking, thinking, day dreaming, worrying, crying, laughing, and sleeping existences.

What is a life but a series of stories connected by some central theme?  Sure maybe some people look at life as just one darned thing after another and each day as pretty much the same as any other day,  and I won’t deny that we can all fall into that rut, but when you take some time to reflect on things there is a story line connecting our daily dramas one to another.

How do we know this?  Very good question.  I don’t think we are born with the notion that we are creating our own narrative.  We learn it from stories.  You know…”once upon a time” and “they lived happily ever after.”  That’s right, as a child we begin to understand that things have a beginning and an ending and in between is this sometimes interesting, sometimes routine journey.

Just today after I read Sleeping Beauty to my three year old granddaughter, Sophia, she looked up at me and asked, “Grampio, will I live happily ever after like Sleeping Beauty?”  My answer to her was “TBD…to be determined.”  She nodded like she knew what that meant.  Maybe she did and maybe she didn’t, but this I know: she is beginning to understand that her life is moving toward something.   She gets this from stories.

Too often in our profession we get obsessed with information and how it is delivered and extracted – the shiny gadget syndrome.  In fact sometimes I think we get more preoccupied with the gadgets themselves than the info inside them.

But libraries are also about stories.  Some are sad, some are funny, some are sad-funny, and some are even timeless.  As you showed in your many comments on Monday, these stories really take hold when we are young.  All of you who listed your favorite childhood books, answer this question: What would your life be like if you didn’t have books and stories when you were growing up?

That’s why librarians are so important.  We are the keepers of stories.

In the beginning was the word.

Most historians agree that the first written records appeared in ancient Sumeria in 3500 BC.  The Sumerians scratched signs onto tablets of damp clay with a pointed stick that was called a stylus.  The tablets were then left in the sun to bake.  What resulted was a very durable and very stackable written record.  At first hundreds of these records were produced and then thousands and then millions.  The stacks of clay tablets got bigger and bigger and as they got bigger and bigger it became harder and harder to keep track of them.  Obviously something had to be done to put them in order.

That’s when God sent to earth from a faraway galaxy a species of creature called the cataloger. In general, these catalogers adapted well to earth conditions, but they were aliens and they had their own way of doing things.  That’s why the average ancient Sumerian library patron had as much trouble as the average modern American library patron in using the catalogs and indices created by catalogers.  That’s the reason reference librarians were hired – to help the public decipher the earliest clay tablet catalogs.

Ancient Sumeria was a dynamic, creative civilization that represented a revolutionary breakthrough for humankind.  Before Sumeria, tribes of humans roamed around hunting game and gathering seeds and berries. There was the occasional town or village but these were of a transitory nature.

It wasn’t until Sumeria that men and women gathered together on a permanent basis to form a true civilization complete with taxes, armies, and lawyers…the 3 hallmarks of a truly civilized society.

The great thing about Sumeria was that for the first time, young people no longer were limited to being hunters or gatherers.  Now their futures were unlimited.  They could do almost anything – irrigation engineers, mathematicians, businessmen, architects, even metalworkers.  That left a small minority of young people who went to college and majored in the humanities and had no technical or practical abilities other than the fact that they were great with people and loved clay tablets!  So these tablet loving “people persons” became the first reference librarians.

Most historians agree that full scale library reference service first appeared in the ancient city of Uruk at the turn of the third millennium BC.  Not only have archeologists unearthed what appear to be monthly reference statistical reports from that time period, but they have also discovered a clay tablet that attacks catalogers for their continued use of “idiotic” subject headings.  This clay tablet is thought to be the work of a reference librarian named Ralph the Hairy.  This is the first shot that we know of in the 5,000 year war between catalogers and reference librarians.

You might ask, “what was the first reference question ever asked?”  After examining the remnants of the reference desk from the Royal Library of Urak, archeologist Helmut Flapmeyer, came to the conclusion that the first question ever asked was “Where’s the bathroom?”

What evidence does Flapmeyer have for this claim?  He found a handmade bathroom directional sign on top of the desk.  Using a highly sophisticated carbon dating process, Flapmeyer determined that his crudely made sign was just slightly younger than the desk itself.  Obviously the first reference librarian got tired of pointing the way to the bathroom.

The moral of this short history?  There will always be a need for libraries to house public bathrooms and there will always be a need for reference librarians to point the way.

Retirement is full of surprises but only if you take advantage of opportunities.  I’ve got a lot going on now right now.  I’m building a new house (been painting on a high ladder all weekend), serving on the library board, speaking at library conferences and staff development days all over the country, running a taxi service for two grandchildren, writing columns and a blog, working on a collection of short stories, and volunteering at my grandson’s school library.

The school library opportunity popped up about a month ago and I asked myself if I really needed another obligation.  The answer of course was yes. ..mostly because I am a huge advocate of school libraries.  This comes from growing up with little or no art talent.  In elementary school, three times a week we were given a free period of 45 minutes to either do art work or go to the library.  My career as an artist can be summed up by the fact that at first I was disappointed that my art work was never displayed at art night, but later on when I realized how very bad it was I was relieved it was never displayed.  The school library was my refuge, the place where I learned to read for pure pleasure.

Now  55 years later I am in the position of helping young people discover the pleasures of the printed page.  Early on, it became apparent to me that they all want the same things… Wimpy Kid for the second graders, Harry Potter for the fifth graders, and Twilight for the seventh graders.  Not much for me to do there.  But it turns out I am needed for two reasons: some kids have read through all the fad books, and there are only so many fad books to go around.

Then they turn to me and ask me for suggestions.  That’s where I am put on my Readers Advisory hat and ask them what they are interested in.  It’s very satisfying to put a book in their hands and a smile on their faces.

Today, I am asking for your help.  I am interested in what were your favorite books growing up.  I hate to have you identify your age but if you are not too age sensitive maybe you could at least give us a ball park figure.  For some reason Miss Pickerell was a book I picked up in my school library many, many years ago and I liked it.  Last week I recommended it to a skeptical young girl and she came back the next week beaming.  She loved Miss Pickerell.

That got me to wondering if today’s children might enjoy the books that you enjoyed when you are young.  That’s why I need your help.

This should be fun.

You know it and I know it: You Gotta Have Friends.  Here’s an email I received a few days ago about that annual event that we are all familiar with: the Friends of the Library Book Sale.  The message brings up some interesting points.  In light of the subject matter I thought it would be fun for everyone to discuss your local Friends book sale.

Dear Will: 

After volunteering at the largest Friends book sale of any public library in the state, I thought I’d enter some of my thoughts on the sale this year.  First, as I was trying in vain to find the book by Jeremy Scahill on Blackwater, I was noticing that, in general (since I volunteered once before for this sale), there always seems to be an inordinate amount of print materials in the Political Science section written by right wingers in relation to the amount of materials written by those on the left.  In my opinion, these sales always seem to be the dumping ground for an enormous amount of right wing dribble.  I also got a big kick out of seeing (as I was walking the floor), in the Religion section, books about women by such “authorities” (Ha, ha) as Pat Robertson & James Dobson.  Although I was on my feet for 3 1/2 hours volunteering for the sale, I really like volunteering at it.

I will say, though, that there were 2 things that were mildly irritating.  First, although I didn’t know that the day of the sale set aside for Friends members only was yesterday, my sister & I had wanted to stop in before the sale shut down for the evening.  We arrived 40 minutes before closing to check it out & the lady in charge was reluctant to allow us in, since we weren’t Friends (although I was signed up to volunteer for the next day); she only allowed us in after I told her there was only 40 minutes remaining for the evening. 

Second, while everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, I wasn’t feeling in the very generous mood when it came to what my sister thought of the sale.  The big book sale in the section of the state where I originally lived (and where she still lives) is at a Presbyterian church & they always make a ton of money.  Naturally, my sister said she liked that one better.  Again, she’s entitled to her opinion but, considering the present situation in this country & the financial situation of public libraries, I was in no tolerant mood.  I, naturally, couldn’t resist in saying, “Yeah, but they’re in it for themselves!”  She, naturally, had to agree with me on that.  As I’m sure you’ve already been able to conclude, I know I’m opinionated but this particular climate hasn’t exactly put me in the tolerant kind of mood.

I don’t necessarily care if you post this to your blog but, if you feel you should, I would like this to be signed as “Public Library Supporter.”  Thank you.

Comment from Will:  As always, I will get the ball rolling with a comment of my own.  Here in Livermore (CA), the local friends group provides a wonderful community service.  They run a used book shop in the public library which is open during normal library hours.  I have found the book stock to be diversified, of high quality, and constantly changing.  Whenever I am in the library, I stop in the book store.  I characterize this operation as a wonderful community service because Livermore does not have a book store at all.  This fills that void.  I love it, and the Friends do a great job with it.

In yesterday’s blog post, I provided a link to 35 of the most beautiful libraries in the world.  I was struck by one of the comments about library #17.  Jessica wrote: “If there is any justice that’s what heaven looks like.”

I guess on second thought it shouldn’t surprise me that a librarian would envision a beautiful library as a kind of heaven.  Imagine having every book you ever wanted to read and being able to read it in a library of otherworldly beauty.  Paradise indeed.

On the other hand, even though I too see this scenario as heavenly, I would hope that it would be just one little aspect of a richly diversified heavenly landscape.  I have been a Roman Catholic my entire life and the one aspect of my religion that I have struggled with the most is the traditional vision of heaven…the floating clouds, the choirs of angels singing church music, and the harp.  Especially the harp.  A few days ago one of you Unwinders mentioned in a comment that the difference between heaven and hell is that in heaven they greet you with harp melodies and in hell you are greeted with accordion polkas.  I don’t know about you but for me that’s a very difficult choice.

Of course, whenever I brought up my objections to heaven to Father Giglio during my long tenure as an altar boy, his eyes would light up and he would say that heaven is the gift of being in the presence of God, the being than which nothing greater can be conceived.  I wasn’t impressed.  I wanted to know if there was baseball in heaven.  Father Giglio would shake his head and walk away.  Now I want to know if there are golf courses in heaven.  I heard that Father Giglio passed away a few years ago.  Maybe somehow he could get word to me.

I do find it fascinating that while traditional church membership is dropping dramatically in our country, Americans still believe in God (92%) and heaven (85%) in big numbers.  Clearly there is a yearning for the things of the spirit even if there is declining interest in finding those things in church.

Why do so many people still believe in God and heaven in a time when churches are becoming emptier and emptier?  I have a theory.  My theory has a lot to do with life.  Life is a very painful proposition full of trials, tribulations, and suffering.  We Catholics call it the “vale of tears.”  If you scratch below the surface you will find that almost everyone has some kind of a cross to bear: undying grief for a deceased loved one, a financial catastrophe, a physical tragedy, an addiction, a serious illness, and even an inability to find a job.  Look beyond our borders to countries around the world and the pain and suffering increases exponentially.

Deep down inside most of us is a sense that there has to be some kind of relief or even justice from all this suffering.  That relief would be heaven.  A hungry person wants a paradise of plenty.  A poor person wants a heaven where poverty does not exist.  A grieving person wants unification with his or her loved one.  A person who has sacrificed his life to Jesus wants to be at his side in the next world.  A soldier dying on the battlefield wants peace and tranquility.  A sick person wants wholeness and healing.

We value most in heaven what we don’t have in life.  In a perfect existence (and somehow we have this Platonic notion of perfection in our DNA) we look to heaven to erase all that we suffered on earth and pay us back a hundred fold.  To paraphrase   the Unwinder quoted above – “If there is any justice, heaven will look like this…….…”

Question of the Day: How do you fill in the blank?

Personally I see it as a joyous reunion with those we have missed for many years.  A reunion that ideally would take place in a beautiful library!

Earlier in the week here in the Unwinders Tavern we discussed the library job happiness index.  There were 12 happiness factors listed.  One of those factors was a beautiful building.  While most Unwinders did not give this criterion a very high rating, most were quick to add that almost any library could be considered beautiful in its own way.

After spending the afternoon today volunteering in my grandson’s school library (as I do every Thursday), I would have to agree.  This particular library is a simple one room affair in a handsome old California mission style school building next to a beautiful 100 year old mission style church.

What I love about the library is that they have not over weeded.  Yes, they have all the new stuff (Harry Potter, Wimpy Kid, Twilight) in all the many different formats young people prefer, but they have not thrown out the wonderful old books that have made children’s literature special over the years (Miss Pickerell, Mr. Popper, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle).   In fact I had one of my great retirement victories today when the skeptical little girl to whom I had recommended Miss Pickerell (“it looks so old!”) came in today and said, “I loved Miss Pickerell!”

The point being is what’s not to love about a room full of books and a group of enthusiastic readers looking for “something special?”

Well…there are libraries and there are libraries!  For your weekly Friday fun I am giving you a link to what is the closest thing to library pornography that I have ever encountered.  But before you click on the link please be advised that it is guaranteed to induce in you lust, an increased heartbeat, and possibly audible panting.  In sharing these visual delights with you I ask only one thing in return.  Please tell us all in the comment section the photos that seduced you the most.  For me, numbers 25, 18, and 5 will be in my dreams tonight.

Here’s the link: Have fun with library pornography.