Prompt Response 16 – Past, Present and Future

Twenty years ago I was living in Spain. English paperback books kept my brain busy on the subway, and an occasional translated book really tried my Spanish skills. (Relámpagos by Dean Koontz, El Señor de los Anillos by Tolkien, and Yo, Robot by Asimov are examples.) I read late into the night fairly frequently, and I remember reading John Grisham, Michael Crichton, and Tom Clancy while I was there. Also, since I was working with an English speaking school, I would occasionally read kid’s books since they were available in English in the school library. I generally tried to save the beat-up paperbacks for trips on the subway since I needed to be able to put them in my pocket.

There was a time that I did quite a bit of shopping at the used book store. That has slowed down now that I work a regular schedule at the library. Also, I picked up the habit of listening to books in the car and at the house. That surprised me. While I am the computer guy at work and I teach classes on tablets and computers, I do not actually own a tablet or a smart phone. I do have an older e-reader. The thing about it that surprises (and disturbs) me is that I find the text is easier to read in larger sizes. I also like the fact that huge books fit quite nicely into an e-reader. Also, I’ve recently found myself doing less browsing even though I work at the branch. It is much more convenient and more informative to browse online. I’ve also found that I generally like to either read a series or listen to it completely. In other words, if I listen to book 1, I’ll try to listen to all the books in the series. If I read book 1, I’ll read the others. I’m not sure what would happen if I could check out the fancy books that can switch back and forth.

Looking twenty years into the future is difficult. In that period of time, computers should have doubled in speed ten to 13 times. That is to say, they should be 1000 to 8000 times as fast. The memory capacity of a computer should be roughly 2000 times what it is today. The computer should fit into a much smaller space, but there should be the option of having many processors in the same device (which will still be ridiculously small). If prices trend as they have, the price of a computer or tablet should be half what it is today even if the minimum wage doubles.

What will that mean for books? That is difficult to say. At the least, that will mean that my entire branch would fit nicely into the palm of my hand in twenty years. That isn’t just the books – the books, the CDs, and the movies would all fit. That doesn’t mean that I would be able to afford an entire library, but it would all fit. Also, for clarification, the entertainment of twenty years from now will be such that only a selection would fit on the device.

There are a few standard e-book formats, and they have been in use for a few years. However, the format will almost certainly have changed. At some point, the change will probably be fairly major. In about twenty years, we’ve gone from VCR to DVD to Netflix. In the next twenty years, the change from books to e-books will likely be made obsolete and irrelevant by a newer format superior to both. There isn’t anything particularly wrong with them necessarily, but twenty years is a long time. I’m not quite sure what will change, but something will. I’m also not sure what will push the change. My guess is that the change will either come about because of school textbooks or magazines. Both of those sorts of documents translate to digital formats with difficulty. However, both could make use of larger screens, high definition images, highly stylized layouts and regular updates of content. When someone works out how to update the seventh grade US History textbook with (for example) a video of the presidential inaugural address between one day and the next, books will change.

It is possible that books will still be printed twenty years from now. Actually, I find it highly likely that many will be. However, as time goes forward, I suspect that print books will begin to look more and more like a black and white movie. In twenty years, that change may have been complete. There are still occasional black and white movies made. Schindler’s List was nearly black and white, and The Artist was black and white. 

So, yes, I suspect that there will be books printed several decades from now, but in the same way that there are occasionally black and white movies made. Books will be numerous. I'm just not sure what form they will take.   

Prompt Response 15 - Book Promotion

My job has been as the computer guy. As such, one question worth consider is how can I promote books digitally? I’ve actually tried to think this through before, but I’ve actually made some recent developments that are work related.

I teach some computer classes at the branch, and I have talked about how to use the OPAC as part of computer classes. I have a class coming up on Wowbrary, LibraryThing and RottenTomatoes. I’ve done a class on GoodReads before. Mostly these are classes on how to use web sites that happen to mention library-related tools. They indirectly promote books. I’ve occasionally used actual books with the computer programs, but they tend to be props. However, indirectly promoting books by directly promoting review sites and explaining the OPAC is a start. If people sign up for updates from Wowbrary, there may be a very direct effect on circulation even though I’m not promoting a particular book.  

The other thing that I did for the first time just recently was that I wrote a staff pick and a kid’s pick. For a system our size, the staff pick is monitored by someone downtown, and individual branches only submit picks twice a year. It was interesting to write up a staff pick to post on the library blog site. (It hasn’t been posted yet. I have found myself checking on a regular basis.)  It was remarkably like creating a blog posting for this class. The kid’s pick had to be around 75 words, and that actually made it much harder to write.

I’m thinking about a Pinterest class down the road. While playing with my first Pinterest account, one of the things that I only recently noticed were the social media buttons on Overdrive’s book listings. It looks like you can post, pin and tweet a book. That might be a good way to have a digital presence to tie-in with an event or display. From what I’ve seen so far, it looks like I can pin an item then share it to Facebook. (Sharing it directly to Facebook generated a rather strange message. I have no idea why.) However, I may begin to create Pinterest boards that would serve as virtual book shelves. Whether this will help or not, it looks like it will be fairly entertaining to learn about it.

Screenshot of one of my tests. Facebook, Overdrive and Pinterest are all squished onto the screen.

In the non-digital world, I'm thinking that as a librarian I'll do displays and so forth, too. I'm thinking I'd do more movie, superhero and graphic novel displays than are normal in my branch currently. I would want to do fun topics rather than important ones. 

Prompt Response

On the adult side of the library, I would be against separating out GBLTQ fiction and African American fiction.

• One of the reasons not to separate out these two types of fiction is that the way that the organization for most items in the library is by primary content of the book. This extends to fiction in that genres are pulled out. For GBLTQ fiction, this would imply a mystery with an openly gay detective is no longer a mystery. If the sexual content of a mystery so overwhelms the other elements of the story that it is no longer a mystery, then perhaps it is really a romance novel or a work of erotic fiction.
• For African American fiction, if the definition applies to works by African American authors, this would imply that for purposes of organization, the physical characteristics of the author trump the content of the book that the author wrote.
• Another question would be one of degree. If books were separated out of the mysteries and science fiction section because of gay and lesbian encounters in the book, how much of the book would need to be dedicated to those encounters before it moved from one section to the other?
• How will the cataloger know about the GBLTQ content in the book if it has been reviewed as a Fantasy novel? Likewise, how will the cataloger know about the race of the author of a fiction book?
• If an African American author markets a book as a mystery, does it still go into the African American collection?
• Are we really sure that Heat Rises was not written by an African American author?
• Can someone born outside the country to Black parents move to the US and write African American fiction? It would seem that describing a book as African American fiction would be distinguishing a book by both the race and the national origin of the author. (This would mean that the cataloger could not merely look at the picture on the back cover to determine whether a book would fit into African American fiction.) Do Black Puerto Rican authors’ books go on the African American shelf?

If both types of books were pulled out, in which section does Sirena Selena: A Novel belong? According to Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Sirena-Selena-Novel-Mayra-Santos-Febres/dp/0312263929) and Wikipedia.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayra_Santos-Febres and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Puerto_Ricans_of_African_descent), this novel is a work translated from Spanish. It is written by a woman who is Black Hispanic, born in Puerto Rico. She holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University. The book is about a homosexual male drag queen.

Young Adult Annotation - City of Fallen Angels

City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

Young Adult. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books in 2011.

City of Fallen Angels is the fourth book of a series, The Mortal Instruments, by Cassandra Clare. At the end of the third book, the Downworlders came together with the Shadowhunters for the Mortal War. Jace and Clary discovered their true family history, and Clary was able to save the life of Jace, her true love. Shadowhunters befriended Downworlders. At the end of book three, the world was saved.  

The fourth book starts a new story arc in the series.

Someone is killing Shadowhunters. Moreover, the bodies are made to implicate the Downworlders – the Seelie Court, the werewolves and the warlocks. The new accord with the Shadowhunters and Downworlders are fragile. Further, an old vampire has returned to New York, and she  has approached Simon for help in retaking control of the local group of vampires. Simon, a vampire who can walk in daylight and who does not want to drink blood, was marked by Clary with a powerful rune. Even though he wants no part of vampire politics, he is a powerful vampire and draws the attention of beings who crave power.

Perhaps more importantly, the relationships get complicated. Simon has two girlfriends – Mia, a werewolf, and Isabel, a Shadowhunter. Clary’s mom is getting married to the leader of Mia’s werewolf pack. Clary is still Simon’s best friend, and both Mia and Isabel will be at the wedding. Both expect to be at the wedding with Simon. Worse still, Clary feels that something is wrong between herself and Jace. Is Jace pulling away? Jace just knows that something is wrong – he can’t sleep, he can’t eat, and he just can’t be with Clary.  

The majority of the main characters are teens, and the story is basically an urban fantasy set in New York City. The fantastic creatures are a big part of the story, and there are a few scenes with fights involving magical creatures.  However, the relationships among the characters are the real focus of the story.

City of Fallen Angels ends in a cliff-hanger. The fifth book, City of Lost Souls, has been published. According to Amazon.com the sixth book, City of Heavenly Fire, is due out in May 2014.

Additionally, it is worth mentioning that City of Bones, the first book in the series, was recently made into a movie.  

Amazon.com suggested the following books (and other titles in their respective series): 

• Divergent by Veronica Roth 
• Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia 
• Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead 
• Matched by Ally Condie 
• Legend by Marie Lu

Prompt Response - Street Lit, Graphic Novels and Young Adult Books

Street Lit

My view of Street Lit is a strange one. I’ve never read any of the titles, but I’ve handled several as a member of the circulation staff at the library. I do not understand why, but for some reason the Street Lit books frequently look like they’ve been through a war. I do not know if they are made differently, but we consciously keep Street Lit titles in circulation which show quite a bit of wear. Otherwise, the books were being deleted for poor condition after very little use; then the books weren’t available.

Additionally, one branch (not my own) had a large, separate collection of Street Lit – even though the books were cataloged as general fiction and had to be manually pulled out by eye for shelving. The same branch had several anti-theft policies specifically for Street Lit.

Setting those impressions as a clerk aside, how should I look at Street Lit? Our library system does have Street Lit. There are a couple of things that would help. First, pulling the Street Lit out of the fiction would probably help. Currently, Street Lit is in the general fiction. That would also include the romances, the majority of classics, literary fiction, and Amish fiction.  Separating the Street Lit from Amish fiction would make sense in many ways.

Several titles are also included as e-books, and to the extent that there is a difference in the physical books themselves, collecting books in e-book format would tend to negate physical differences in a book.  

Graphic Novels

Graphic novels are an interesting case. The graphic novels discussed in the readings were curious in that only the manga titles mentioned were ones that I have seen circulate regularly. The “normal” (forward reading) adult and teen graphic novels that seem to circulate well at my branch are the Walking Dead and books related to comic book characters. Some of those comic book characters are older than I am, and the big name DC and Marvel characters are the main ones. There are a few of the comic strip-type comic books that circulate also. Garfield and Dilbert are examples of these.

Graphic novels seem to operate in a different sort of market than most other books since several of the “classics” are also collectibles. The other odd thing about graphic novels is that they seem to be poorly represented in digital formats for libraries. I can think of several reasons for this, but as titles become available, it would make sense to add e-book titles to the collection. This would make sense from an archival perspective at the least. I expect that digital versions of graphic novels will become increasing available to libraries. Specifically, the Disney Digital collection of e-books makes me think that some of the Marvel titles may be made available at some point starting with kids’ books and working upward. I would hasten to add that graphic novels and comic books (the magazine sort) in digital form would seem to work nicely in Zinio. If the publishers and Zinio figure that out, that could open a new type of item for libraries to collect. Currently, my system collects graphic novels and manga but not magazine-type comic books. Many of the reasons for collecting graphic novels over comic books would fall away in a digital format. It will be interesting to see if digital comics or graphic novels work their way into Overdrive or Zinio any time soon. So far there have been attempts, but they seem half-hearted.

Young Adult Books

First, let me just say that some graphic novels are also young adult books. To the extent that they are, the following also applies to them.

Popular young adult books are not the sort of books that the library needs to merely collect. These are the titles that the library needs to use as an enticement to visit the library in the first place. This might include give-away books as part of summer reading, inclusion of tie-in movie DVDs and TV show boxed sets in the collection, and posters from the movies on display. Divergent and Hunger Games have received quite a bit of buzz because of movies. Why not take advantage of the free press?

Young Adult books are an interesting collection of books. I’ve been trying to work out what puts a book into a particular section in my branch. Sometimes the line between jFIC and TEEN is narrow, and similarly, the line between TEEN and SF can be narrow as well. My sister and I chatted about young adult books this morning over coffee. Her take was that young adult books have broad appeal. They generally have little objectionable material – they tend to be safer than adult books. They are books that parents might read with or to their kids; moreover, they are also books that adults would enjoy by themselves. She went on to mention that several of these get made into movies and TV shows because they have broad appeal. She also talked about the Lord of the Rings being thought of as a young adult book when it was published even though it is shelved in the adult section (at my branch). It is unusual in that it doesn’t have anything objectionable that would force it to be in the adult section even if as a kid the black riders were scary. The prequel, The Hobbit, is shelved in both the jFIC and SF sections. (It has separate entries.) Does that make this a timeless, ageless story or does that just make it a silly kids’ book?

Further Thoughts on Young Adult Literature

Be warned, my view of the library is from a teaching background and a technical background. My background is not a literature background at all.

The truly, truly odd thing about not collecting young adult books is that it might be rather short sighted. Think of stories from your childhood that

• Were read to you or given to you by a teacher or parent. 
• Were enjoyed by the adult (first) and you (later). 
• Were wildly popular. 
• Have been made into movies or TV shows. 
• Are still popular today.

That narrows things down to an interesting, weird, scary list. It is a list of stories that have become part of our culture because they were told to us and because we are re-telling them to our children. The Cat in the Hat, Ebenezer Scrooge, Santa Claus, Spiderman, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, George Washington and Mickey Mouse are part of our heritage. They are stories to which we can all allude with the characters we all know. They are part of how our brains think and form thoughts. These characters were used to teach us how to talk and how to think. These are the stuff of commercials and coffee break chats. These characters are from classic stories whether or not they are called such.

The popular young adult books that are read by kids and adults are well on their way to becoming part of our culture. They are just this side of a classic if two generations have already enjoyed them and if they have transcended their original medium. Why would a library not collect them?

Would it be true to say most non-English majors read true “classics” at or before their first year of college? This might be in middle school reading class or on the bus to a high school game or as part of a class to fulfill the English requirement of a B.S. degree. It might be from a reading list, as part of a class or for fun. In any of those instances, the person doing the reading is very likely a teen – 13 (middle school) through 19 (freshman year at college). After all, how could a classic be used to pass on some part of our culture and heritage without exposing kids and teens to it? One of the weird requirements for a classic to be a useful classic is that it must be readable by teens. Eliminating young adult literature from the library would essentially eliminate the majority of the books that even have a chance of becoming a functional classic.

Put differently, while The Hunger Games may not ever be considered a classic, there is every reason to suspect that Katniss Everdeen will be teaching the English language to our grandchildren.

Prompt Response - Non-fiction Matrix

Killing Jesus by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

Henry Holt and Company, 2013.

Narrative Continuum:  Parts of the book read in a narrative style, with a few sections straying more into the style of a magazine article or opinion column from a newspaper.

Subject: The subject is the death of Jesus of Nazareth. Part of this comes from the Gospels; however, there are other historical elements added to it. For example, the death of Julius Caesar is given some coverage. The question of how Jesus would have been viewed by the political and religious authorities who carried out his execution is also explored. The history and views of Roman, Jewish, and Galilean political authorities as well as Jewish religious ones are explored to give some insight into their perceptions of Jesus of Nazareth and his message.  

Type: This is largely a historical narrative. It is researched, but not academic. There are notes, maps, and lists of sources and such. It has both the feel of a history text and enough narrative elements to make it read fairly easily. The note to the reader at the start of the book make the point that the book is intended to be historical rather than religious in purpose. At the same time, it also states that both authors are Roman Catholic, and that the Gospels were used as historical source material.  

Pacing: The book reads rather easily. There are many facts, but they are not presented academically, but rather in an accessible way.

Characterization: The main characters in the book are Jesus and a variety of political and religious leaders. Julius Caesar, Tiberius, King Herod, and Caiaphas (the high priest) and Pontius Pilot are part of the book.

Storyline: The purpose is to be factual, but the book was made to be accessible and readable. The purpose is also one to set out a history of Jesus and his times.

Detail: There is a note at the beginning of the book that sets out the purpose. There are some pictures of artwork and a handful of maps throughout the book. Further, there are several lengthy notes on some pages. The source materials used are listed at the end of the book along with an index. While the approach of the book is not exactly scholarly, the approach does seem to be quite serious.

Learning / Experiencing: Part of the purpose seemed to be to lay out some elements of the Gospels chronologically and look at those elements with the addition of the history of Jerusalem, Israel, Galilee, and Rome.

Language:  The writing style is simple and accessible. When there is commentary, it tends to simply stated. As a consequence, most statements are stark and bold.

Setting – The book describes the city and time of the action as possible. The number of places includes Jerusalem and Rome, but several other locations are included as well.

Tone- The tone is not dark, but serious. Further, the book does not shy away from some of the grisly details of flogging and crucifixion.

Additional Note:  One side note concerns the audio book version of the book. The narrator is Bill O’Reilly. For some, that may affect their experience with the audio book.

 

Prompt Response - E-books and Such

Helping patrons with e-books and audio books is part of my job. Along with helping with computers and printing I also help with tablets and laptops. In part, that is helping with the Wi-Fi connection, and in part that is helping patrons load apps to use library services. This includes the Overdrive app, the Zinio app and the Kindle app. Part of the process with Overdrive is to pick a book to check out.

Screenshot of results from a search for "philosophy" in Overdrive

For me this has become almost a ritualized part of the process. As the patron enters their information into the Adobe site (a process that takes a few minutes), I ask who their favorite author is. Generally I get an answer. Occasionally I get a response that indicates a particular kind of book or a title. I search for that type of book in the downloadable catalog. If it something unusual – I had a patron say that he likes to read books on philosophy – I also try to determine how to find that kind of book for their device easily.

If they still dodge, I choose James Patterson. Partly this is out of convenience. There are several titles; he has e-books and audio books; and he has titles in fiction, mystery, teen, science and juvenile fiction sections of our library. For middle school age kids who doge, I normally use Rick Riordan (who wrote The Lightning Thief). For younger kids, I look for The Magic Treehouse (Mary Pope Osborne).  

When the device is authorized, I help them search for their kind of book on their device. Particularly for phones, I demonstrate on my screen as they search. I have them pick a book to check out. (This may actually take time, depending on the patron. Some take this choice rather seriously for what is essentially a system test.) Note that some kinds of requests may require training on how to find that kind of book. (Philosophy, for example, might require some special searching, and searching for Kindle books available now requires special searching also.)

Generally I hear from them again only when they have a problem. For some this is when they have with the second (or third) download. Occasionally it is a conversation on how to return books to get more. So far, the help that I have been given in picking books has been when installing the app. In fact the majority of help that I have given in reader’s advisory at the library has been while helping to install the app because in my role as the computer lab assistant “normal” reader’s advisory questions (ones not involving a tablet or laptop) would be referred to the librarian.  

There have been a few special cases with tablets. Some patrons have used downloadable materials to serve a particular purpose – one that a print version would not serve.

• A family member went to Europe. She quite happily told me that when she ran out of reading materials, she checked out more books in Europe. For her, that was timely and convenient.
• I have had one or two patrons that I have helped with setting the font size on an e-reader to be large type. Currently, many of the patrons who read large type books do not have tablets, and they like books. At some point, the folks who read large type will discover that all e-books can be large type. Some have. I know that I generally kick the font up a couple of notches when I read a book. For my library system this means that the selection of downloadable large type books (nearly the entire collection of e-books) is huge.
• I have a different family member who was a route driver. She talked about downloading audio books to listen to while driving her delivery route. While I never quite figured out where her route took her, she was driving back and forth across Indy for most of the day. She listened to the audiobooks while she drove. For her, the format – downloadable audio on a phone – was what made it possible to listen to the book. She really enjoyed the books.
• Several truckers (or trucker’s spouses) have come in to check out books on CD. One asked me to put a few items on hold. While doing that, I mentioned downloadable audio books. I demoed the site. The titles he was interested in were available. Something I said must have been compelling. He told me to cancel the holds, and put the items in his hand back on the shelf. He then said that he would be back. Later that day he returned with a brand new tablet. He loaded the apps onto it, and I helped him pick out an audio book. He was back a couple days later with a couple of questions while downloading his second audio book. He was happy with books on CD, but he was excited (and willing to spend money) on downloadable audio from the library.
• I have a family member who is younger than me and who is technically able. When chatting with her about library books and formats she explained her opinion: when she checks out a print version of a book it is because she couldn’t check out the e-book version. That either means that the number of holds was ridiculously long or that the copy didn’t exist in an e-book version. In any case, for her, each print book she brings home from the library is providing good but second-best service. She prefers the e-book. A print library book requires a trip to the library, and that isn’t always easy to work in.
• I regularly download audio books. I started listening to books on CD when I lived on the opposite side of town from my workplace. It was almost exactly one CD from my garage to work and back. Over time I decided that listening to an audio book while working on dishes and laundry was more productive than reading a book while not working on dishes and laundry.

There are two other appeal factors worth mentioning, both involve kids. First, on one of the visits to a Pike High School freshmen library, the librarians mentioned that they buy non-fiction for curriculum support in always available unlimited e-books whenever possible. They bought that format because it suited their particular need: they needed books that could be checked out and used by several classrooms of kids simultaneously. (If eight classes of kids are doing a Black History Month report, how many kids will be able to actually use even 100 print books? Would the kids in the last class to visit the library even have single book on topic to share among them? Books with the correct license would serve all the kids in all the classes.)

The second appeal factor is probably something appealing, but I’m actually not sure. There are a few e-books on the library’s site that have some additional features. They are kids’ books. I’ve demoed them to parents and teachers, and I’ve received some interesting reactions, but I’m not really sure what they think of them. Again, if everything goes well, I don’t hear anything. However, I regularly have Bueno Nacho (a Kim Possible story) and one of the Cars books in my bookshelf to demo some of the features of the books. Personally, I think they would make an excellent station in an elementary classroom or a nice way to include some reading time when kids are otherwise playing on the computer. However, I honestly don’t know. I’m intrigued, but I honestly don’t know if it is useful at all.

That’s what I’m seeing.

PS: Also, one of the most interesting searches I’ve done was the one for philosophy. I’ve included a screenshot of one of the results. I will freely admit that Dr. Who, Dr. Seuss, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Downton Abby and Mad Men all in the same set of results was a bit of a shock. I had to stifle a grin (and a chuckle) while asking the patron to choose a title.