The Wheels of Change

Well, it's been a while since our last posting, and much has happened.

With the departure of Alison, there was a huge void here at the bookmobile that needed to be filled. I, for one, have a much greater appreciation for ALL that she did, as I am still learning all the aspects of my new position.

So, as we move forward, we have hired someone to help fill some very big shoes. Please welcome Gloria Lawler to the bookmobile. Some of you have already met Gloria, as she has worked a couple of Saturdays in the month of August. But her first official day was Monday, August 25th. Gloria came to us from South Fayette Public Library, where she served as the Library Director for the past five years. Prior to that Gloria was a a reference and instruction librarian at Saginaw State University, a youth services librarian with the West End Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and an elementary school librarian in Brentwood and Pittsburgh. With such varied experience and knowledge, Gloria is a huge asset to our operation. So, please, as you come out to the bookmobile, introduce yourself and say hi to Gloria. She will be working all our community stops (Wall/Wilmerding, South Allegheny, Pine, Marshall, Ben Avon, West View and Ross).

And to Alison, if you get the urge to read the old blog once in a while, you are missed and everyone here and on the road hopes that you are well and enjoying your new position!

Going off the road

This will be my last posting for Mobile Library Services. I took my last ride in the bookmobile on Saturday, working the community route as always. I was talking to George, a driver and friend that has worked for the bookmobile for years, about the fact that I probably won't get another chance to ride a bookmobile. I said I would have to regain my land legs. And that is just what I will have to do. After nearly 10 years with the program, riding far and wide around the county, weathering a variety of breakdowns, traffic jams, generator problems, and everything else that makes bookmobiling challenging, fascinating and down right fun, I am moving to New Hampshire to a new library experience.

I want to introduce you to my successor as Operations Manager - Chuck Arrigo. He started working for the bookmobile a couple of months before me, so we have had very similar experiences, found our way in the program at the same time, and share a very strong passion about bookmobiles and the important work they do and the important service they provide. He's an all-around great person, and he will be taking over this blog. Come back and see what views from the road he will be sharing. He actually drives the bookmobiles, so there will be a difference right away - I have always just been able to enjoy the ride and relied on our wonderful drivers to get us where we were going.

I have to thank each and every member of my staff for their dedication, hard work and ability to adjust to the surprises that bookmobiling brings to work life. They have all taught me so much and have made me a better person, librarian and manager. They all do great things for the program, and I know they will carry on with their new fearless leader.

So, be sure to come back in a couple of weeks and continue this journey - just with a new narrator. Just like any trip, you aren't sure what is around the next corner or over the next hill, but you know it will be worth the trip.

DVD: Rocky and Bullwinkle, season 1
Book: U-Turn: What if you woke up one morning and realized you were living the wrong life, by Bruce Grierson
Book: Yes man, by Danny Wallace

Summertime and the living is easy

I know that there is still a month until it is officially summer, but the weather finally got hot, Memorial Day has come with the first big picnic of hotdogs, hamburgers and potato salad, kids are counting the days til school is over. We are all thinking summer.

I'll be showing my age, but thinking summer brings thoughts of taking that long trip in the big family station wagon to visit our grandparents in Maine. That trip was something we prepared for for weeks. My mom would seal all open packages of food in the cupboards and clean the house. My dad was in charge of making sure the car was ready for a long trip - washing it inside and out, checking the 'fluids' and so on. My brothers and I would carefully consider and reconsider what we would be sure to take, since we each had only one small suitcase that we could take. The best part of the preparation was going to the bookstore and selecting one book each for the trip - we were gone the whole summer so library books were not an option. We tended towards collections of comics: BC, Peanuts, Pogo. My mother would get a few magazines. My dad didn't get any since he drove the whole way, of course. We weren't allowed to look at the books or magazines until we were actually in the car and on the road. I can remember sitting in the dark car (in the middle of the back seat on the hump of course) waiting until it got light enough to see the pages. We set out as soon after 4 AM as possible, so it was quite a wait. Of course the book was read in the first couple of hours, leaving the next 6 - 8 to travel games like trying to find all the license plates for all the states (no trucks allowed) or racing to do the alphabet from signs along the road (you can do the whole alphabet driving through Worcester either way).

When I started traveling with my own children, now driving the even longer trip from Pittsburgh to Maine to visit the grandparents, I followed the family tradition - but thought about the voracious appetites my kids had. We went to the bookstore (didn't want to risk forgetting the library books) and got stacks of books - 4-5 each kid at minimum. The books had to last the whole trip there and a few days before we could hit the local library. We would leave the books there and get another batch to travel home with. It resulted in a nice library of books there in the cottage in Maine, waiting for our annual visit, inviting us to revisit books we had enjoyed a year or two before. The comic books are a big part of travel reading still for me - Foxtrot, Pearls before Swine, Zits - as are magazines.

There is nothing more comforting than traditions. We embrace them, build on them, and hand them down to the next generation. I am sure my kids will just assume that they need to stock up on books for a trip with their future families. This time of year, I see many families coming onto the bookmobile to stock up for their trips. More movies than books nowadays, but maybe that is part of that family's traditions. As long as they think of including the library, I won't quibble.

Book: Family traditions, by Gretchen Super
Book: Traveling with children and enjoying it, by Arlene Kay Butler
Movie: National Lampoon's vacation

A celebration

It came as a surprise to us here at the bookmobile to realize that it has already been 5 years since we changed our name from the Bookmobile to Mobile Library Services. 5 years! To think that back around that time, there was real concern that the program would be ending. When Allegheny County decided that they could no longer afford to be in the 'library business', the future looked pretty dim.
The future just ended up looking different: different focus for the service, different model for funding, and a different staff. I won't go over the details again - it is a story that has been told many times - but I know that there were many in the county that couldn't imagine that the bookmobile could survive all the changes.
I'm delighted to say we survived and thrived, thanks to a great, hardworking staff of dedicated people and the support of the great libraries here in Allegheny County. We continue to provide high quality services, we visit nearly 100 locations around the county each month, and bring the library to thousands of county residents 6 days a week.
So we thought it appropriate to celebrate our success, and most importantly, celebrate the people who rely on the bookmobile for their library. We call it our 5th (plus 50) Anniversary Celebration. These past 5 years have built on the solid foundation of 50 years of service in Allegheny County and we are looking to current and past users and staff to share their reminiscences and experiences. We are planning a scrapbook of everything we gather, something solid to house what is so ephemeral, our memories. We will have an online copy too.

Please take a moment and jot down what makes the bookmobile special to you, your family, your community. Have a funny story? Share it! Have an old photo of the bookmobile or a visit on board? Share it! Have you been coming to the bookmobile since you were little and now bring your kids? Tell us about it! Do you now bring your mom and dad? I know some of you that do - share the story! Did you used to work for the bookmobile? Share one of those great stories that have been passed down from bookmobile staff generation to generation. Do your kids - or you - love to draw? Draw us your image of the bookmobile! You are only limited by your imagination - we are ready for just about anything: poems, drawings, video, posters, photos, letters, anecdotes and so on and so on.
Get all your great memories down on paper or cd and to us by July 31st - of course we will be thrilled to get your input any time. Ask your bookmobile librarian for further information.
I know I am looking forward to what you all have to say!


Book: In search of our ancestors: 101 inspiring stories of serendipity and connection in discovering our family history, compiled by Megan Smolenyak
Book: Creating junior genealogists: tips and activities for family history fun, by Karen Frisch
Book: 601 great scrapbook ideas, by editors of Memory Makers Books
DVD: Heritage album tips and techniques
Movie: Joy luck club
Movie: Avalon

Stepping outside of your comfort zone - part 2

I did exactly what I recommended a few weeks ago. I closed my eyes and pulled out a book at random to read. Now I will be honest, I was really really relieved that it wasn't science fiction, but who knows what will happen next time!

The book was The Virgin of Small Plains, by Nancy Pickard. I have to say, the cover was uninspiring, no hint of anything suspenseful, just a pretty, bland cover. The book is described as a novel of suspence and involves an unsolved death in a small Kansas town from 17 years ago. While you could consider it a mystery, it really tips over into a hint of Alice Hoffman, a touch of Jodi Picoult as we explore the effects of the death on a variety of townspeople. I listened to the audiobook of this and was really drawn in by the plot and the characters. As some reviewers have said, there is a little of something for everyone - a nice romance, an interesting mystery and a thread of how justice is ultimately served in unexpected ways. Is it the greatest book ever? No. Great literature? Probably not. Was it a good read? I thought so and recommend it to anyone willing to take a chance.

Another title I tried, I really tried thinking it would be an entirely different kind of book. This book was City of Masks, by Daniel Hecht. I had read briefly about it and it was referred to as a new mystery series featuring Cree Black as the investigator. I had just come off a period of reading mysteries featuring American Indian detectives. With that background I jumped to the conclusion that this was a new series to try. While I was treated to a great book that forced you to wrap your mind around some bizarre things, there was no American Indian detective - Cree being short for her real name, and she turned out to be a paranormal investigator. This is a good book if you are into ghosts, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, X-files and are prepared to take a leap into the paranormal. Not my usual area of interest, but I couldn't wait for the next in the series.

What it all comes down to is that there are so many possible new books to try - who knows what you will end up discovering. The next time you read another book by your favorite author and think that it was ok, but a little disappointing, take a risk and try something entirely new. It can lead to some great reads, and just maybe, a new author to watch for.

Books: Land of Echoes, by Daniel Hecht

Small change, by Belinda Yandell

Spring revealed

We finally have enjoyed a bit of lovely warm weather and suddenly all the early flowers are blooming all around us. It is a time that reenergizes us gardeners, a siren call demanding us to come out of winter hibernation and get to work. We gardeners come in all sorts from those of us who plant some annuals to brighten up our patch of yard to those of us who have the kind of Martha Stewart garden that is the envy of all privileged to see it.

I got into gardening late, having lived all my life with serious gardeners (my mother is a member of the Herb Society) and never saw the reason to get down in dirt and mess around. Then about 10 years ago, my husband and I moved into a house with not a scrap of a flower to be seen. For some reason, a passion - some would say drive - to garden was born. We are not good gardeners, our philosophy is to plant it and if it lives great, if it doesn't, we will plant something different. We don't prepare the soil like you are supposed to. In fact we use a posthole digger to plant everything. We stop at every place that sells plants and we have tried a little of everything, expanding the planted area each year to the point that we have very little grass left. We have no plan other than always choosing perennials. We are oddballs in the neighborhood and not too many understand what we do, but everyone admits we have a riot of color and flowers from spring through fall.

You can see, our neighbors don't embrace our gardening style - and this is just the beginning of the season and a few years ago. There is way more planted there now. We take time each day to see what has just blossomed, or what has finally started to regrow. We watch the migration of our daisies around the property. My aunt sent me seeds years ago and they continue to reseed each year - coming up somewhere new and unexpected. I am out weeding all the time - I love it! It takes care of all my stress, gives me a chance to vent in a constructive way and I get such a sense of accomplishment. It is so much a part of me now that I itch to weed where ever I go.

But that is the gift of gardens. They come in all shapes and sizes and are there to give pleasure and satisfaction in life. They really are a lot like books. Follow me on this for a moment. What are Martha Stewart gardens like? Those gorgeous coffee table books, gorgeous feasts for the eyes that are there for everyone to enjoy. Then there are those little hidden gems, a few blooms where you least expect them. These are like those occasional books you come across that aren't big bestsellers, but affect you quietly but profoundly. There are standard, well groomed gardens that are like those dependable authors that always give you a reliably interesting book, without much of a wow. The act of gardening is similar to self-help and diet/healthy lifestyles books. Working in your garden can be relaxing, be good exercise, can allow you to explore your creative side and in the case of vegetable gardening, feed you as well as your soul.

And when the love of gardens and gardening intersect, we have books about gardening. Lovely photo-laden books that make you open them up and browse through looking for new plants and fresh ideas. Fascinating little books that talk about the passion for gardening that suddenly grips you without warning. Helpful books that tell you how to get started, how to solve whatever is going wrong in your garden and challenge the most skilled gardeners. It is an endless journey working in a garden, so like our endless journey through the ever fresh, ever changing variety of things to read waiting on a library shelf.

Books: Invisible garden, by Dorothy Sucher
From the ground up: the story of a first garden, by Amy Stewart
Night Gardening, by E. L. Swann
DVD: Rosemary and Thyme ( an English series about 2 women gardeners that get involved
with solving crimes)

One book, one community

As we move into April, it's time for the annual One Book, One Community event here in Allegheny County. The committee responsible for selecting the title works hard and long on the process - I attended several of the meetings and can vouch for how seriously the members take their responsibility for selecting a title that is readable, interesting to a broad audience, yet has literary merit.

Using the 250th anniversary of Pittsburgh as a basis for considering titles, I believe the committee made a perfect selection. The title celebrates one of our finest residents, Fred Rogers. Mr. Rogers was and continues to be respected and beloved not only locally, but nationally and even internationally for the sincerity and caring he demonstrated at all times. A wonderful embodiment of what locals always reference when talking about Pittsburghers - we are friendly and good neighbors. That is one the of the first things I heard about when I moved here more than 25 years ago, and by celebrating this man, we celebrate ourselves.

So, read the book: I'm Proud of You, by Tim Madigan. It is a quick read and makes us consider the meaning of neighbor and mentor. The purpose of the One Book program is to try to get as many people in the community thinking about and discussing the same book. Being a bookmobile program, we are limited in how we can bring together you and our other users to discuss the book. I hope that many of you will go to As the Wheels Turn, our Book Discussion Forum, to do just that - talk about this book with others in your community. There will be various topics as starting points for a discussion, and you can always start your own discussion point for others to comment on. After all, it is the neighborly thing to do!

Book: Pay it forward
Movie: Pay it forward