Books are Life's Inspiration

I just finished reading Julie and Julia--now a popular movie--about a woman who decides to cook every recipe in the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julie Child. It got me thinking about how much a book can be a life inspiration. Another example is an article I'm reading by Ian Frazier (The New Yorker) and his travel across Siberia. Several times in his narrative, he refers to writers who have traveled across Siberia before him. How could these people have undertaken such wonderful and difficult life journeys without the help of a book?
Books are like time travel--they can take you to places you'll never go on your own and introduce you to people--to the point where you feel an affection and closeness to them even though you've never met them. The real Julia Child didn't think much of Julie Powell or her blog about cooking her recipes, but never mind, it was the book itself that was the guide and impetus. They whole experience also changed Julie's life in positive ways, giving her fame and (presumably) fortune.
Next time you are looking for a way to change your life, look in a book. Or write one.

How to Find out the Books in a Series

I am learning how to make screencasts. This one shows how to use Novelist--one of the ECRL databases. I apologize for the last few seconds.

Screencasts and videos online

Be an Artist

With a summer reading theme called"Be Creative" we had to have a day of doing art projects. Fortunately we had Gail Dahlgren--budding art teacher--volunteer to show Mille Lacs Lake readers how to imitate the art of Henri Matisse and Claude Monet. Carolyn Avaire read a story called "Bonjour, Mr. Satie" by Tomie dePaola about Picasso and Matisse. Maybe because it was a rainy day we had a good turn out of 13 children on Friday, July 17th.

Reader's Theater

Reader's theater was a concept that I wasn't familiar with until this summer. It was an idea in the big book of summer reading materials. Luckily one of our patrons--Margaret Vos has had some experience with Reader's Theater. She came to our little group on June 26th and put together a cast for two little skits. She gave good advise to the children as we read through the scripts. The Baker's Dozen and Three Little Fishes and the Big Bad Shark were performed on Tuesday June 30th to admiring parents and storytime preschoolers.

Thing 43 - On-line TV and Video

I got a chance to join HULU yesterday afternoon. I looked at a little of the Daily Show and also the Office--two of my favorite shows, but I guess everyone else's too. They were readily available. I know that on-line TV is already changing people's habits. I have patrons who come into the library to watch the shows they missed the previous night--like Grey's Anatomy. For some people, going to a movie or even watching one is sort of social, but for others who just want to see the movie--the computer avenue may be the best route. It also could be a good way to find movies that are no longer available through their satellite dish. Television is already becoming more individualized with niche programming, but on-line viewing choices will make tv less of a shared experience. I can see the new way of watching tv affecting my daughters and their eventual children and families, but my husband and I will probably still watch TV together. I might start to catch up with The Daily Show and the Office now that I know how to through HULU though.

Thing 41 and 42 -- Mash up and Music

I am listening to Pandora music--like John Mayer--so far so good. I've liked the first three songs. My daughter Alice has been telling me that I ought to try this site, so now I finally have. I have also put a jazz station widget on my blog--at leat I hope that I have. I have used radio on-line previously. My other daughter, Livia, was a d.j. on a college radio station so I listened to her a few times. It was hit and miss as far as whether I could get her or not, but the last few times I was able to get her through Quicktime--have a Mac at home. I think this on-line radio and music is certainly the wave of the future. Both my daughters have their laptops with them constantly, so that seems to be one of their modes of listening to music, along with their i-pods of course. Not sure how this will affect libraries, except maybe that people will be listening to the radio while they are doing Internet business. Most of the kids who come in request headphones. We've gone through many pairs in the past few years.

I also signed on for Livestream.fm, but not sure how it will affect my life--didn't have too many things to put on it--Twitter, blog, facebook and delicious. I don't know anyone who uses this service, so that will affect my usage also. Trying to rush through the last few things--definitely wanted to try the music and it has been fun, but I could do more experimenting with radio stations.

Mashups--Thing 40

Mashups have been a challenge for me. I tried many, but somehow I just didn't really understand what made them different from other Internet applications. I asked my daughter Alice if she knew what a mashup was and she said no, so that stumped me further. I did find a little icon that shows places to go for lunch (nothing in my zipcode) and I am in the process of joining a twitter sight about books. I made a Warhol picture of my daughter sunning herself with Big Huge Labs. This site is somehow related to flickr. I also made a magazine cover of my friend Jean Francis who comes into the library to read People--put her on the cover of People with lots of innuendo--that seems to be lost in cyberspace. Libraries are always doing programming, so any way to generate more graphics can be an effective way to promote an event. The mashups themselves (at least the Big Huge Lab) was fun to use, but as usual, my postings are hit and miss--I was happy to be able to get my flickr pictures to my blog so easily. I can't say I've gone looking for mashups because I wouldn't know one if I saw one. I did read on Twitter that one of the people that I was following finished all of her Things on a Stick--before the deadline. I let her know I was impressed--not looking like I'll finish, but I'll try a few more things.