It's a new post. I don't know whether or not to count break as a week, so I've given up numbering.

I'm a little confused about whether or not we're supposed to blog this week, since our only assigned readings are for our book clubs, but I'm going to jump in with my thoughts on class last week and then talk about other library related stuff.

Class

The highlight of class almost two weeks ago (geeze, break has gone by quickly) was watching the Socratic seminar. First of all, to all of you who were up there, way to go. The pressure of answering questions about an article that your entire audience read did not get to you! The demo gave me a better idea of how the seminar works, particularly for the person presenting questions. It was also surprising to me to see how many people had experienced these seminars in high school and hated them. Like I said in my last post, I wish my class would've had these. But, who knows, maybe I would have felt differently when I was in high school.

Library News

Harper Collins

I don't know how much other people's bloggers have been talking about it, but the issue of Harper Collins limiting the circulation of ebooks has been all over the ones I follow (or, at least, all over Agnostic, Maybe). I'd love to hear your thoughts on this issue and what you think libraries should do to combat it.

Personally, it's hard for me to get over how it will affect the library I work for. Because the consortium of libraries that CDL belongs to (The Library Network) has the membership with Overdrive (rather than each individual library) the 26 checkouts will be used up incredibly quickly. And though I'm sure Harper Collins thinks that this means the library will run out and buy another ecopy, I don't think that's the case. Money at TLN is going to be increasingly tight, with libraries and branches closing (so far Romulus is closing and Waterford is shutting down a branch) or leaving the consortium because they can't afford the membership fees. Replacing ebooks is just not going to be a priority.

Andy Woodworth, author of Agnostic, Maybe, wrote a post with interesting suggestions of how libraries can show their discontent with HC without completely boycotting them. Do people have other ideas of ways libraries can stand up for themselves?

Troy Library Closing

As I'm sure those of you in tune with the Michigan Public Library scene have heard, the Troy Public Library will be closing, effective May 1. Many of the libraries in the surrounding area do not allow non-residents to purchase library cards and will not begin to offer this service. On our staff board at CDL, a page-long list of the privileges (or, more, lack of privileges) that Troy patrons will have at surrounding libraries was posted. I was astounded (in a bad way) that libraries were not willing to sell non-res cards to people from Troy. Aren't we all about sharing information and making it public? It just doesn't seem right to me. I brought this up to my supervisor who said that these strict rules were put in place so that the people of Troy would have to go without a library (with the idea that this would make them realize they needed one). I can understand this tactic, and I certainly agree that Troy needs a library, but I just can't wrap my head around denying people borrowing privileges. Again, I turn to you all to see what you think.

CDL Facebook page

Starting soon (probably this week, but maybe next) I will be posting "Book Talk Tuesdays" on the CDL Facebook page. A few weeks ago, CDL decided they wanted to have more of the staff update the Facebook page (and have more posts that are more than program plugs). I've been reading Alison Circle's marketing blog, and I got really excited about her idea of initiating short conversations about books by asking questions like "A book you faked reading" or "A book you wish you could read again for the first time." So, now I'm doing it! I'd love it if you would participate (if you want), and I'd also love suggestions of topics, since Circle just gives a list of about 8.

UPDATE: A little bit about book club readings

Since we aren't all in the same group (and we're going to be having discussions about what we read this week), I don't want to get in specific details. But, in reading my pieces, I got thinking a lot about character names. It started with "The Goose Girl" where most characters are not given names (and instead are just referred to by their title, such as the queen, and the maid in waiting), but for some reason, one of the horses gets a name (falada) and the boy who tends the geese does, too (Conrad). Why are some worthy of names? Then, while reading "The Last Question," you could tell that names were chosen particularly so that readers could see the evolution of names throughout the generations. I'm don't think names has much to do with libraries, but I think it could make an interesting part of a book club discussion, particularly in stories where naming is not consistent or seems deliberate.