Read, Grandma, Read

Guess what I did at 7:30 this morning?  I read the first two chapters of "Captain Cold's Arctic Eruption"  to my four and a half-year old grandson.  The night before we had read a Superman novel and I promised to start the Flash novel today.  I didn't know it would be at 7:30, but he couldn't wait.  What a way to start the day! But it was wonderful.  He was all snuggled up and hanging on every word.  He is totally obsessed with superheroes and he learns about them through reading.  That is the power of reading.  I will read all the superhero novels he wants because I know that the subject matter isn't what is important.  It is the act of listening and reading.  It is amazing how long his attention span is and how rich his imagination is when I watch him play.  That is because he has been read to since birth. 

I know this is cliche, but reading is fundamental.  Children learn so many skills from being read to.  They learn how to hold a book, they learn how to turn pages, they build visusal literacy by following items on the page while listening to a story, they learn letter sounds and words, they learn how a story goes.  All those skills from sharing a book!  Those skills will be used later when they learn numbers and sequences.  How can you do a math story problem if you can't read?

My soap box is clearly labeled.  Read to any child you know.  Encourage your children to read to their children.  Buy books as gifts.  The latest plastic toy will break, but books last.  Support your schools and libraries because they are places that children read. 

Bring the child in your life to library story times.  Jill and Elisha do a wonderful job of bringing reading to life in those 45-minute sessions.  They share songs, activities, crafts, and they read stories.  Who doesn't like to hear a story?  Story times help teach early readers how to to be in a group with other children, they learn to listen and respond to the actions in the story.  Jill and Elisha build on the story with related songs, poems, and action rhymes.  Check our website and join a library story time group next week.

The library program I want to bring to your attention this week is at Epworth on Monday, October 29th at 5:15 p.m.  Join us at the Highview Cemetery for an informative talk from a local expert. Please wear sturdy walking shoes and bring a flashlight. The cemetery is located off of 1st Ave. NE past the Epworth Ball Park.  Lifelong Epworth resident Bill Mausser and co-author of "History of Epworth, Iowa" (1976) will guide a walk through Epworth history and the individuals buried at Highview.

Last week a group toured the Farley cemetery with Mayor Jeff Simon and his dad who is a local historian.  A great time was had by all as even long-time residents learned new things about their town. 

I want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween.  Stop by your local library when you go out trick or treating.  We have a small treat for you.  The big treat is that visiting the library will help your child succeed in school and in life.  No doubt about it.  Kids who read succeed!

All Hallows Eve

I told you this is my favorite time of the year.  And Halloween is my favorite holiday.  Some people go all out to decorate for Christmas, we decorate for Halloween.  Right now a mummy, a crow, a rat, and many spiders reside on my front porch.  Along with them is a pair of talking skeltons, a screaming doormat, a lighted bat, and miscellaneous body parts.  Ghoulish?  You bet! 

Halloween is an ancient celebration.  "Halloween as it is celebrated these days is but a pale representation of its rich and multicultural history. It is not, as some would call it, a celebration of the Devil or of Hell or of the Damned, but rather a blending of the celebrations marking the end of the growing season, a heralding of the coming of the winter months and folk traditions that told of the day when the veil between the living and the dead, ever a transparent, gossamer veil at that, would lift and ghosts and ghouls would walk among the living. From those many traditions, coming to us from the Celts, the Roman rituals and even Catholic tradition, we get the stirrings of what would eventually become Halloween." (www.halloween.com)

The very best Halloween book by far is Ray Bradbury's "The Halloween Tree."  I remember discovering it after reading Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine."  "The Halloween Tree" is set in the same idyllic small town.  Amazon says this about Bradbury's contemporary classic, "Eight boys set out on a Halloween night and are led into the depths of the past by a tall, mysterious character named Moundshroud. They ride on a black wind to autumn scenes in distant lands and times, where they witness other ways of celebrating this holiday about the dark time of year. This is a superb book for adults to read to children, a way to teach them, quite painlessly, about customs and imagery related to Halloween from ancient Egypt, Mediterranean cultures, Celtic Druidism, Mexico, and even a cathedral in Paris."  Bradbury captures the excitement and dread of this holiday of the dead.

If want another spooky, classic story.  Remember to read "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving.  Here is the genesis of the headless horseman who rides the country roads of upstate New York.  Written in 1820, this still holds up as a great, spooky read. 

I try not to go into the deeper meanings of the holiday such as recognizing our own mortality, but I do think it is okay to learn to be a little bit scared as long as you have the refuge of a loving family to run back to.

The library is celebrating with storytime programs and Halloween parties.  Check out website for dates and locations.  The staff is having fun preparing Halloween surprises.

Speaking of the dead, join us for a cemetery walk to learn about local history from an expert.  We had a great group at Farley this week and next up is Epworth.  Lifelong Epworth resident Bill Mausser and co-author of "History of Epworth, Iowa" will lead the walk through Highview Cemetery. The cemetery is located off of 1st Ave. NE past the Epworth Ball Park.  Please wear sturdy walking shoes and bring a flashlight.  The walk begins at 5:15 p.m. on October 29th.

Next up is a series of special storytimes about health.  The library received a grant from the Alliant Energy Foundation to update the health, nutrition, and wellness areas of our collection.  We have ordered books and DVDs about good food, meal planning, exercise, diseases, and related issues such as bullying and eating disorders.  To feature these new resources, we will be having "To Your Health" storytimes on November 8th at three library locations--9:30 at Peosta, 11:00 at Asbury, and 6:30 p.m. at Farley.  As a special treat, every child will receive a free "Good Health Habits" coloring book.  The coloring book teaches about nutrition, exercise, handwashing, toothbrushing, and all those good things.  We will also have a resource list of the new materials so you can see what we have added to the collection. 

So stop by the library and get in the mood for Halloween.  Boo!! 

Dawn

October in Libraryland

What a beautiful day!  It is very hard to stay inside when the air is cool and the sun is shining.  I love fall.  It brings back memories of Friday night football games.  In those days, we wore sweaters and wool dress slacks to the games.  I still remember some of those outfits along with homecoming corsages and nights at Little King in Cedar Rapids eating deep fried cheese sandwiches.  Those were the days.

October is also big in the Iowa Library community.  The statewide conference is always the second week in October.  The conference moves around the state each year to give local libraries the opportunity to attend at a reasonable cost.  This year approximately 600 librarians and vendors descended on Dubuque for the festivities.  This is great.  I was able to send most of my staff members for a least a day of the three-day event.  The conference affords them the chance to meet other librarians from all sizes and kinds of libraries.  Each day is packed with seminars on issues of interest to our kind--new ideas for children's and adult programming, new technology, and advice for building community support for your library.  There are 80-100 exhibits for librarians to visit with representatives of products such as furniture, computer systems, and supplies.  There are always book vendors and attendees can even meet some authors.  The annual conference helps our profession keep up to date with trends and issues.  It is time well spent and it is good for the city of Dubuque.  During their visit, librarians spent their hard-earned money on meals, hotel bills, and shopping.  A real win-win situation.  Conventions are good for the local economy and that's why open borrowing across the state is so important.  When the bowlers or the dentists come to town, they should be able to use the services of the local library.

Because this year the conference was in Dubuque, the State Library Commission (the governor-appointed board which oversees library service in Iowa) met at the Carnegie-Stout Public Library on Wednesday.  As part of their agenda, Mary Wegner (State Librarian), asked both Susan Henricks (Director of Carnegie-Stout) and me to address the commission regarding the open access issue.  We both presented the challenges of local budgets and the need for fully funding the program so that Iowans can use the library which is most convenient for them.  Libraries are very good at resource sharing and this program encourages an open system of borrowing all across the state.  The commission is aware that inequities in the system are not only in Dubuque.  The Quad City libraries experience similar problems.  The commissioners asked good questions and seemed very thoughtful about our presentations. 

This coming week at Dubuque County Library we are excited to be hosting local author, Heather Gundenkauf, at our NICC Peosta location on Thursday evening at 6:30.  Everyone is welcome.  River City Lights will be providing copies of all of Heather's books for sale and Heather will be talking about her work and signing copies. 

Next week we are also continuing our series for children on dog training and safety.  The programs will be presented by Cindy Ludwig, M.A. owner & manager of Canine Connections LLC and Ginger, her collie mix therapy dog.  Cindy will talk about how to approach dogs correctly, how to choose a dog as a pet, and what is involved in dog training.  Ginger is a nice, well-behaved dog and the children have loved meeting her.  Check our website for program times and locations.

That's all for now.  Stop by and visit us.  We are eager to serve you.  Enjoy the brilliant weather.  Dawn

Another viewpoint

Advertising people and press agents say that any publicity is good publicity.  I hope that is true.  You may, or may not, be aware that library service has been in the newspaper a great deal lately.  The controversy centers on who's paying for library service and for whom. 

Both Carnegie-Stout and Dubuque County libraries belong to the state of Iowa Open Access program.  The terms of agreement states, "The purpose of Open Access is to provide Iowans with direct access to more library materials and information resources.  It is a reciprocal borrowing program that enables customers from a participating library to go to other participating libraries and directly check out materials they own."  The goal of the program is to increase availability and provide convenient access.  The program's initial target was to reimburse each check out at $1.00.  The first year of funding, back in 2000, was 39 cents.  Due to the success of the program and no incremental growth in funding, the current reimbursement is 19 cents per check out.  In 2012, that reimbursement should be closer to $3.00.  That substantial gap is what Carnegie-Stout is feeling.  They are buying additional copies of books and DVDs because of the demand by county patrons. 

Effective October 1st, Carnegie-Stout added another restriction on Open Access (non-Dubuque cardholders) using the downtown library.  Open access borrowers can no longer place holds on popular materials and can no longer ask that a book or DVD they are interested in be purchased by the library.  This restriction is within the terms of agreement along with other restrictions that Carnegie-Stout already had on Open Access users.  Open Access users cannot download materials (ebooks and audiobooks) and they do not have access to the electronic databases such as EbscoHost which are available to local borrowers through the library's website.

Dubuque County Library regrets the inconvenience for those who regularly place holds downtown, but we want county residents to be our customers.  We encourage all of our cardholders to place holds with us for those same popular materials.  We have shorter waiting lists and if the list for a certain title gets longer, we will purchase additional copies to meet demand.  Let us know if you cannot find something in our collection.  We will purchase it for you.  Dubuque County Library belongs to a consortium to provide a collection of ebooks and audiobooks from our website.  Dubuque County Library, because of a state contract, is able to provide access to many of those same databases.  If you live in the rural areas of the county, the city of Dubuque, Cascade, or Dyersville, or any of our contracting cities (Epworth, Farley, Holy Cross, Asbury, Peosta, New Vienna, Graf or Luxemberg), visit one of our branches and we will get you a library card.

It is unfortunate that Carnegie-Stout feels the need to pull back at this time. The Dubuque County Library is striving to improve its collection and meet the needs of its customers, but this won't happen overnight.  It will take time.  This year the County Board of Supervisors approved a significant increase for our materials budget so that we can buy more books and DVDs.  With five locations, we need to buy more copies of popular items.  Also, the city of Dubuque should remember that county residents contribute significant tax dollars to their coffers because they work and shop downtown.  County residents buy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners as well as shoes and hairspray from merchants in Dubuque. 

Dubuque has done a wonderful job of improving downtown.  There are more exciting stores, the riverside, including the Mississippi River Museum, is invigorating and inviting, and the library is beautiful.  This renovation is attracting visitors and conventions from all across the state.  It would be a shame if an Iowa resident who is visiting Dubuque could not check out a DVD for their hotel room or an audiobook for the long drive home because Carnegie-Stout is no longer a participating library in the state system.

What needs to be done?  Citizens need to reach out to legislators to ask for full funding of the Open Access program.  Dubuque County Library needs to continue to grow and provide more resources to its customers.  And Carnegie-Stout needs to have adequate resources to remain a partner in the Iowa library community.  Everyone who values library service, no matter which library they use, needs to speak up to their legislators, council members, and supervisors.  As an Iowan you deserve quality, accessible, library service.  You may need to demand it.