Series: Pratt Profiles

Paula lives around the corner from the Central Library and uses much of her free time since retiring from the Social Security Administration roaming our aisle for foreign films, topical documentaries, and music of all genres (though she’s most partial to jazz from the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s, and vintage ‘50s and ‘60s R&B singers like Big Joe Turner).

When asked what attracts her to our Foreign Film collection, Paula replies, "Hollywood movies are just too predictable. I like to watch foreign films to get a better perspective on how other  people live and what’s going on in the world." Her favorite movies are the colorful song-and-dance spectaculars from Bollywood and gritty Brazilian films like City of God ("I own a copy now") and Black Orpheus ("Which I never get tired of re-watching").

Part Cherokee herself, Paula also likes to watch Native American movies like Smoke Signals and The Business of Fancy Dancing, as well as documentary series like We Shall Remain: America Through Native Eyes.

The ever-curious Paula always looks forward to checking out our "new releases" display, and has seen so many movies that we sometimes joke, "We're running out of materials for you—you've seen everything!"

As a child, I spent many afternoons poring over my grandmother’s photos, the majority of which were stored in albums. However, the oldest images—black-and-white or sepia-toned pictures in various stages of decay—lived in a cardboard box that gathered dust in an ignominious place: beneath a large metal desk. My fascination was reserved for these items, especially the scattered assortment of cabinet cards—turn-of-the-century studio portraits that had been affixed to cardboard.

Unknown, Baltimore, ca. 1890s

When I was young, I brought handfuls of these photos to my grandmother to see if she could identify the people in them. Some of the faces were familiar to her, but it always seemed that the oldest and most fascinating images failed to stir any recognition. I was always disappointed (and somewhat startled) whenever she shook her head and handed these pictures back to me saying, "I don’t know who they are." Sometimes I brought her the same photo from week to week, hoping that repetition would jog her memory. It never worked. She would say things like, "He was probably an Ashley," in reference to her mother-in-law’s family, or "She could have been a neighbor when we lived on such-and-such street."

At the time I wondered how one could own so many photographs of people whom one did not know. My questions about why no one had ever tried to identify these faces when grandparents and other relatives were still alive always generated similar answers: "People didn’t ask about those things back then," or "People didn’t tell stories about family members," or "My parents would have told me to forget about these pictures of dead people and to focus on the present."

Unfortunately, this code of silence among generations past has culminated in some tricky challenges for today’s family historians. Many of us who wrestle with unanswered questions and brick walls would not fare so badly in our research today if our ancestors had been less reticent about sharing stories with younger generations. Just last week, when I helped a customer with searching the U.S. Census, he reflected that his lack of knowledge about his family stemmed from the fact that "people just didn't talk about things back then." The reasons for this silence can be numerous; some people are innately shy, or dislike talking about themselves. Others may feel that they don’t have anything interesting to tell. Then, of course, there are the proverbial family secrets that may inspire a general atmosphere of restraint. And some people, like those in my family, urge their children and grandchildren to focus on the present.

Unidentified, Baltimore, ca. 1920s

This last point invokes one criticism of genealogy and those of us who dabble in it, that we are too preoccupied with the past. People argue that we readily neglect our present-day lives to bury ourselves in old records, crumbling photos, and other detritus left behind by our long-dead relatives.

Last month, during the annual RootsTech family history conference, FamilySearch International President and CEO Dennis C. Brimhall reminded the audience that living people have a responsibility to tell our stories, and create our own paper trails. The conference theme, in fact, could be summarized in a single question I now paraphrase here: What will your great-grandchildren wish you had done? Genealogy is not exclusively concerned with the past. Our family histories are ever unfolding, and we shouldn’t forget the fact that someday our descendants might come looking for us.

Baseball Game at Herring Run, Easter 1940

I know what I wish my great-grandparents had done in their lifetime. I wish they had shared their stories, and their parents’ stories. I wish that my grandparents had grown up in an atmosphere that welcomed questions and encouraged curiosity about family history. I wish I knew more about my ancestors’ likes and dislikes. One set of great-grandparents lived in Canton during the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904—yet I have no knowledge of what they saw and how frightened they must have felt. In several cases, I have little more information than names and dates; and even those are missing for most of my ancestors. Anyone who works on family histories knows that there is more to genealogy than dates on tombstones, and other vital records. The stories that happen in between those dates make our ancestors come alive for us. When we do research of any kind, it’s easy to get tunnel vision. One of the pitfalls of genealogy is our tendency to focus only on the past and on the lives of those who are long dead. But, as Dennis C. Brimhall reminds us, we shouldn’t neglect the stories of those living in the present—including ourselves.

The Pratt Library has several books that might be helpful for those who are interested in writing about themselves and their families, such as The Legacy Guide: Capturing the Facts, Memories, and Meaning of Your Life, Living to Tell the Tale, Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory, and To Our Children’s Children, which contains several chapters of sample questions and prompts that address topics such as habits, education, food, holidays and celebrations. For additional prompts, see the genealogy resources provided by the John Parker Library at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Did your ancestors leave any stories behind? Did they share any information that became a critical detail of your family history? Are you planning to share your own stories?

All photos Copyright Claire Wang.

I love Fairy Tale Festival. If the truth be known, I love it more than I love summer reading, mostly because it’s not as hot outside, but also because I adore fairy tales. But the main reason I love Fairy Tale Festival is because of how much fun we have at the library. During this year’s Fairy Tale Festival, the Patterson Park Branch had its third annual Fairy Tale tea party for our youngest library patrons.

In preparation, we decorated the library, prepared snacks, and dressed up in our finest tea party outfits. Even Curious George got into the spirit and performed a puppet show of Little Red Riding Hood for some animal friends while in full Fairy Tale garb.

When children and their caregivers arrived at the library, they enjoyed a puppet show rendition of the Three Little Pigs complete with audience participation. The audience all seemed to side with the Big Bad Wolf. Truly, if the wolf had the combined lung power of our tea party guests, even the third pig’s brick house would have fallen down.

After the puppet show, the real fun began. We played dress up, with party guests arrayed as fairies, princesses, knights, Vikings, wizards, and any combination of costumes, such as fairy princesses or, my personal favorite, Viking fairies. There was a rousing game of tag (for some reason, I was always it, and I never caught anyone). And of course, we ate.

After the snacks were gone, it was time for an afternoon nap (for the children, not for me), so everyone went home, and we went back to our regular Wednesday afternoon. That regular afternoon seemed like a letdown after the great fun we’d had. But there’s always next year. The tea party is a tradition now, and as long as we keep having this much fun, we’ll keep hosting.

Can you really judge a book by it's cover?

The original cover art for Sherman Alexie's book	What if the book had been written by a woman?

A fascinating article published on the blog The Huffington Post asked some interesting questions:

• Does the gender of a writer affect the cover art selected for his/her book?
• Does the appearance of the cover art affect readers’ perceptions of the book’s quality?

For teen fiction author Maureen Johnson, the answer to both questions is yes. Johnson is an avid user on the social networking site Twitter. She recently lamented about the frequent requests from teenage boys asking that the covers of her books appear less "girly," and thus, more appealing to male readers.

I do wish I had a dime for every email I get that says, "Please put a non-girly cover on your book so I can read it. - signed, A Guy"
—maureenjohnson (@maureenjohnson) May 6, 2013

This observation led Johnson to consider how the artwork for her books affected the way readers view the potential quality of her work when deciding whether to read her books. In her opinion, gender plays a huge role in the way a book is marketed.

"A man and a woman can write books about the same subject matter, at the same level of quality, and that woman is simply more likely to get the soft-sell cover with the warm glow and the feeling of smooth jazz blowing off of it."
—Maureen Johnson, The Huffington Post

Maureen Johnson enjoys using her Twitter account to spark interesting discussions and to issue challenges to her followers. This debate about gender and cover art led Johnson to start the Coverflip Challenge. She asked her followers to imagine how the cover art of popular books might differ if the author’s gender were flipped.

Follow the Coverflip Challenge discussion on Twitter. The hashtag is #coverflip. There are already a number of submissions posted on The Huffington Post’s website. Take a look at them, and let us know if you think a book’s cover art affects your level of interest in that book. Do you think gender plays a significant role in the design and marketing of popular fiction?

The Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Reisterstown Road Branch was awarded the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf grant, one of only eight grants awarded in Maryland. The Muslim Journeys Bookshelf is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities Bridging Cultures initiative.

The Bookshelf is a collection of books, films, and other resources that will introduce the American public to the complex history and culture of Muslims in the United States and around the world. The Pratt received 25 books, 3 films, and access for one year to Oxford Islamic Studies Online.

Oxford Islamic Studies Online features reference content and commentary by renowned scholars in areas such as global Islamic history, concepts, people, practices, politics, and culture.

Join us for a welcome celebration of the "Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys," a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, conducted in cooperation with the American Library Association. Dr. Vadim Jigoulov, lecturer of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Morgan State University, will present during this introductory program on the collection. Support was provided by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Additional support for the arts and media components was provided by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

Upcoming programs at the Reisterstown Road Branch related to the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf:

• Muslim Journeys Bookshelf: An Introduction, Presented by Dr. Vadim Jigoulov of Morgan State University, May 14 at 6pm
• Koran By Heart (film), June 18 at 6pm
• Prince Among Slaves (film), July 23 at 6pm
• Artistic Collaboration in the Islamic World, Presented by Dr. Amy S. Landau, Walters Art Museum, Associate Curator of Islamic Arts and Manuscripts, August 27 at 6 pm

For more about the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf, its themes and resources, check out the official website under the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Many of the books I handle in my volunteer job in Special Collections are "tender" (their bindings are loose) and some are "cocked" ("usually caused by either reading the book, or stacking cases of beer on it," as one humorous glossary puts it). Some covers are simply "bumped" or "rubbed"; others may be "gnawed" around the edges. The vocabulary used to describe the special features and condition of a book is itself often "tender," and sometimes amusing.

I have been learning this vocabulary as I have been assessing the condition of the books and other materials that are part of the Library’s Edgar Allan Poe Rare Book Collection. Poe is connected to Baltimore, having family here, living and writing in the city at different periods in his life, and as many know, dying in Baltimore in 1849. Poe was an extraordinarily prolific author for someone whose life ended at 40. The Library holds copies of all his published work, in various editions, as well as numerous books about him. In all, the book collection totals over three hundred—and that doesn't even count the manuscripts in the Edgar Allan Poe Collection, can be viewed online in the Enoch Pratt Free Library Digital Collections. (Download a PDF of the Edgar Allan Poe Collection Finding Aid here.)

Under the supervision of Michael Johnson, manager of the Special Collections Department, and the Library’s conservator, Martha Edgerton, I got my first lessons in assessment. Martha introduced me to the vocabulary for describing the condition of older and rare books—the kinds of deterioration in the binding and the text block that can happen over time—and what can be done to repair or at least diminish them. Together she and Michael developed a database to record both the basic bibliographical details of a book, including the book’s measurements and a brief description of its design, as well as the crucial aspects of the book’s condition. Once complete, we will use this information to determine a book's need for repair or protection.

As I am building the condition database, Jeanne Marsh, another volunteer, is continuing to build an inventory that includes the book’s (or piece’s) place in its printing history, its donor to the library, and its monetary value to booksellers and collectors in today’s market.

The purpose of both parts of the Poe Project—as Jeanne and I "ponder... over many a quaint and curious volume," like the narrator of "The Raven"—is to give both library customers and scholars, the world over, access to the details of the Pratt Library’s substantial holdings relating to one of Baltimore’s most famous and favorite sometime-sons and an author of continuing international appeal—for either research or sheer pleasure.

Interested in volunteering at the Library?
Visit the Volunteer at the Pratt page to learn more about volunteer opportunities.

Series: Pratt Profiles

Here at the Pratt Library, we interact with a lot of interesting—even (dare we say) "unusual"—people who frequent the library on a regular basis. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Sights & Sounds (SAS) Department on the main floor of the Central Library.

Not only is this department a busy passageway between the Central Hall lobby and the Annex's Public Computer Center, but it's also home to a large collection of both educational and popular entertainment audiovisual materials—everything from fiction audiobooks and music CDs to DVDs of popular television series, Hollywood movies, critically-acclaimed foreign films and award-winning documentaries addressing every conceivable topic.

Naturally, we get lots of people just looking for the latest popular entertainment titles—be it this year's Oscar-winning movie Argo, the new album by Justin Timberlake, an audiobook version of Fifty Shades of Grey, or the latest season of  Downton Abbey. But we also tend to attract a number of regulars that might best be described as "creative" or "artistic" types—film, music, and literature fanatics who veer off the well-beaten track to traverse the roads less travelled.

Their ranks include local musicians Caleb Stine, Eddie Chabon of The Swingin' Swamis, and Jason Sage of Telesma; independent filmmaker and Maryland Institute College of Art instructor Allen Moore (a frequent cinematographer for documentarian Ken Burns); Sondheim Award-winning artist and 14-Karat Cabaret performance space founder-curator Laure Drogoul; and experimental filmmaker-instructor Karen Yasinsky, to name but a few. We consider them to be not just Pratt patrons, but our friends as well. But not everyone is a celebrity. Some of our most frequent visitors are just regular citizens.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will feature three of our best regulars as part of the Pratt Profiles Series. First up: Peter Geier, Blogger.

When he's not talking Orioles baseball, former Pratt volunteer and life-long "cinemaniac" Peter Geier is foraging through our Foreign Film and Documentary racks to find more material for his impressive film review blog, Moom Pitchers Not To Miss (which is old Baltimorese for "moving pitchers").

Though this well-traveled writer has lived all over the world in the past, he currently lives within walking distance of the Central Library, so he visits our department almost daily. After stocking up on our DVDs, Peter usually heads to the Annex in the Central Library to power up his laptop, jump on our wi-fi, and post his latest review.

Peter most enjoys discovering lesser-known movies in our collection, be they early "pre-code" Hollywood films, 1950s British Free Cinema documentaries, post-war productions from communist East Germany's DEFA Studios, or Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin's rarely seen American independent features Little Fugitive and Lovers and Lollipops/Weddings and Babies.

In addition to knowing a lot about film, Peter's a polyglot who speaks four languages, including Russian, German and Turkish. In fact, when we received some Russian language-only movies, it was Peter who checked them out and told us what they were about!

He's probably seen more of our collection than our staff, so in future we might have to use him as a Viewers' Advisory resource!

Line your pockets full of quarters and head on down to the Central Library this Saturday, May 11, to watch Wreck-It Ralph. This screening is part of the Library’s Free Family Flicks series, the once-a-month film series for the whole family that shows in Wheeler Auditorium.

Wreck-It Ralph longs to be as beloved as his game's perfect Good Guy, Fix-It Felix. Problem is, nobody loves a Bad Guy. But they do love heroes. So when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun, Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan—win a medal—but soon wrecks everything, and accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade. Ralph's only hope? Vanellope von Schweetz, a young troublemaking "glitch" from a candy-coated cart racing game who might just be the one to teach Ralph what it means to be a Good Guy.

Directed by Rich Moore, 2012, 101 minutes, rated PG, Walt Disney Pictures. Featuring the voices of John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, and Jane Lynch.

See the movie trailer here:

Upcoming Free Family Flicks at the Central Library include:

• Monsters, Inc., Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 2 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium

Bring the whole family for some movie magic!

Lynne Parks, a part-time library professional associate at Pratt's Light Street branch and a full-time, self-taught artist, was one of three local artists—from a pool of over 700 candidates—who won 2013 Baker Artist Awards! Along with the other winners, installation artist Jonathan Latiano and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Dariusz Skoraczewski, Lynne will receive $25,000 and be featured in an exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art from February through March of 2014.

Lynne Parks on Maryland Public Television's ArtWorks This Week.

The announcement was made May 2, 2013 on a special episode of Maryland Public Television's ArtWorks This Week with Rhea Feikin and special guest Jeannie Howe, Director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

Watch Lynn's appearance on ArtsWorks This Week (she appears at the 15-minute mark):

Lynne was also interviewed by WYPR's Aaron Henkin for a segment that will air at 7 p.m. this Friday, May 10, on the weekly radio program "The Signal."

"I had a lot of fun doing that interview," Lynne says. "Aaron came to our house in Charles Village and had a blast looking around at my materials, clinking ceramic doll parts together and saying, 'Lynne, tell me what this is and why do you have it?'"

The juried annual Baker award, officially known as the Mary Sawyers Baker Prize, was established in 2008 to encourage and provide financial assistance to regional artists across a range of disciplines (painting, sculpture, photography, music, film). Artists nominate themselves and may submit up to 10 projects for consideration. In addition to the major award, $1,000 grants are also awarded to deserving artists. Lynne, who has submitted her work every year since the Baker's inception, won a $1000 grant in 2011.

Lynne's 2013 submission package included photographs of everything from decaying buildings and rusting bits of scrap to street graffiti and trash piles. Visit the nomination page to see all of Lynne's award-winning Baker Prize entries.

Trash bits found in alleys and gutters. Photo by Lynne Parks.

When she's not helping library patrons or making art, Lynne also volunteers with the birdwatching activist group Lights Out Baltimore, and her photographs of migratory birds tragically killed by collisions with lights and buildings were a highlight of the 10 works she submitted for this year's competition.

Common Yellowthroat Birds. Photo by Lynne Parks.

For her part, Lynne says that the award will go toward paying medical bills—since age 14, she has been been afflicted with a rare inherited illness that causes aggressive (sometimes cancerous) tumors—and purchasing photographic equipment.

Lynne's illness and her art seem to be inseparable, as her numerous tissue transplant operations over the last thirty years have made her feel like a "Patchwork Girl," one who is "drawn to the discarded, forgotten, and obsolete which are by no means inert." As she told the Baker Award jury, "My artwork reflects what I see in the mirror—reassembled disparate parts. In the areas surrounding aging, unkempt buildings I become enraptured by unexpected patterns in piles of detritus and the shimmering qualities of oxidation. I identify with broken, patched together things. I am a new kind of patchwork girl. In my work, I hope to achieve a reconstituted wholeness."

Besides her award-winning photography, Lynne also creates collages and assemblages, many inspired by the object "fragments" she finds in "the marginal spaces of alleys and abandoned buildings, trash heaps, gutters, salvage yards, and flea market bins."

Now she can collect even more. And maybe even upgrade her camera (though the images that won her her Baker Award seem hard to top to me!)

Morever, the exposure she's received from the Baker Awards will help this "fragmented" Patchwork Girl forge an even greater connection with the regional arts community. Though the 45-year-old librarian received a bachelor's degree from Hollins University with an independent major in creative writing, theater and film studies, she is a self-taught visual artist who, given her medical issues, has had very limited means to pursue her art.

But now there's a silver lining to her photography portfolio. Besides the monetary prize, there's the priceless thrill of recognition—the Baker Artist Award web site alone gets over 250,000 views—and of connecting with the arts community.

As she told the Baker Award jury, "Baker has provided me with exposure and encouragement that I would have been hard pressed to find elsewhere. Opportunities have arisen for shows, collaboration, feedback, and camaraderie. The community they have created is hugely supportive and inspirational. I am deeply honored to be a recipient of a Mary Sawyers Baker Award."

And we're honored to work with our talented Pratt Library colleague!

Related Links:

• Musing Relics (Lynne's web site)
• 2013 Baker Artist Awards
• 2013 Baker Artist Awards on Vimeo
• Baker Artist Awards blog
• Baltimore Sun profile

The best Book Club Ever meets at the Brooklyn Branch Enoch Pratt Library. Soda and coffee served as refreshments, an it is a comfortable and relaxed setting. There is a group of us ladies who meet every three months to discuss the books we have read and general issues concerning the neighborhood and the library. Our last meeting was in March, 2013 and it was quite interesting because for the first time a gentlemen came to the book club and shared some of his ideas with us.

The ladies in this club are very avid readers and I will name them according to what they like to read: We have Ms. "Murder Mysteries"—she has read all of James Patterson’s & Mary Higgins Clark; Ms. "I’m Versatile"—she has read everything from Anne Perry  to David Baldacci; then there's Ms. "Feisty"—she has read every Janet Evanovich book, and she is serious—do not play with her—if we’re reading a book she has not read, and there is only one copy, she has to have it first.

One of the librarians at the Brooklyn Branch, Ms. Linda Schwartz, heads the book club. She is an advocate non-fiction books, so I will give her a nickname too: Ms. “Non-Fiction”. Some of the books she has recommended (and that I have enjoyed reading) are This Life is In Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, And A Family Undone by Melissa Coleman, The Girl with the Braided Hair by Margaret Coel, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

Joining this book club is one of the smartest decisions I have made. Think about it—I get to read and learn for FREE.

That is the best part.

To learn more about all the Book Discussion Groups at the Pratt Library, visit prattlibrary.org/bookgroups.

This spring, the Enoch Pratt Free Library provided customers with free tickets to Port Discovery’s early literacy event Countdown to Kindergarten Day (CTK Day) on April 20. This event is hosted by Port Discovery with support from partners in the collaborative Countdown to Kindergarten organization: educational, cultural, and community groups who work in partnership to support the school readiness of Baltimore City children. Each year at CTK Day, these organizations provide attendees with resources and activities. This year, there were crafts, stickers, games, and information to support early literacy and school readiness.

To support Countdown to Kindergarten Day, other community organizations in addition to the Pratt Library also distribute free tickets to the event so that children have the opportunity to go to Port Discovery without the extra cost. Most of the exhibits at Port Discovery were open to this year's attendees. Ms. K from the Pennsylvania Avenue branch attended the event and saw many of her customers. Parents and children were grateful to have a free fun family event! One patron hugged Ms. K and said, "Thank you so much for the tickets. There is no way I could have afforded to take [the kids] on my own. They are having so much fun!"

On April 10, 2013, the author, L. Divine spent an hour at the Forest Park Branch talking with a group of teens and a few adults about her series, Drama High, and the art of writing. The group was very intimate and informal and conducive to an open conversation.

Ms. L., a former educator, explained that Drama High grew out of a response to two girls fighting over a boy in the classroom. She wrote a poem about the experience and her former students really loved it. She further developed the poem in graduate school. The poem grew into a longer story with an outline of events and characters. Ms. L. says that she was also inspired by the Sweet Valley High series, but wanted to capture the African-American experience in her series. The Drama High series, Ms. L. revealed, is loosely based on her life and the area where she grew up.

Ms. L. also gave some technical advice from a writer's perspective. She commented on the grueling task of meeting deadlines and writing content after an editor's mock-up. Ms. L. told the group that this process made her cry, but she had to stick with it. She relayed the experience of having only 15 days to create a manuscript of 60,000 words while taking care of her newborn son. She says, "Even though it is a hard process, it is a fun process, especially when you know it is clean, it is good, and you have faith in it, and I have confidence that you’ll love it, and you’ll love the story." For aspiring writers, Ms. L. suggests creating an outline of your work, getting your work edited and then self-publishing your work as an eBook. She says that this process is best because then you could prove to publishers that your eBook has already reached potential readers.

Ms. L. understands the changes that occur within young adults. She loves to write about teens to show how they evolve. Teens, she believes, are a great source of stories since something new and different happens to them practically every day. She challenged the teens to write and tell their stories. She is waiting to read them!

More information:

• Learn more about the Drama High series from the official Drama High website.
• Find the Drama High books in the Pratt Library catalog.
• Watch this video of Ms. L talking about her editor during the program:

Your name?
Jeff Dugan

Your age?
31

Where are you right now?
The Pennsylvania Avenue Branch

What brought you to the library today?
Preschool Leaps.

What is your favorite thing about the library?
There are many great resources, I appreciate the lectures, programs and the play area for young children. I think there is some way the Library can enrich the lives of all Baltimore residents.

Jeff and Ikechukwu in the Early Literacy Play Area:

On April 16, Waverly Branch hosted an exciting children's program called Chemistry in the Library, presented by Dr. Sandra K. Young, the Materials Research Engineer/Program Manager at the US Army Research Laboratory.

With the increasing emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education the Waverly Branch has been lucky enough to have hosted an ongoing science program for the past several years. In the Chemistry in the Library program, Dr. Young engages elementary and middle grade students in hands-on science experiments. On her last visit she introduced electronics using snap circuits. Participants from ages 8-14 learned about circuit components by creating burglar alarm, doorbell, and flashlight devices. It was exciting to see children so engaged in science.

As a Children’s Librarian, it is gratifying to see a "spark" of deep curiosity in just one child who just happens to come to a program and discovers something that opens up a new area of exploration. Dr. Young has exposed children to everything from nanoscience to robotics in past programs.

Purposeful learning occurs in an environment that promotes curiosity. Chemistry in the Library promotes curiosity in children AND in the librarians who see her workshops!

Since early 2011, the Pratt Library has offered customers presentations about eBooks and eReaders. Yet, as digital reading technology continues to evolve, people still have plenty of questions. Though we cannot answer every question customers may ask about eBooks and eReaders, Pratt staff members strive to provide as much information as possible. With that goal in mind, here are ten frequently-asked questions and answers about eBooks and eReaders:

1. Is every book in the library available as an eBook?

Unfortunately, no. There are a variety of reasons why a book may not be available in the Library as an eBook. Some of these reasons include:

• Unavailability as an eBook: Some publishers (and authors) purposely choose to restrict the formats in which their books can be published. Additionally, older materials that are out of print, but still covered by copyright protection, may not have been converted to eBook format.
• The eBook is unavailable to libraries: Some publishers (or copyright owners) do not license their eBooks to libraries for public lending. The reasons stated for this decision include concerns about piracy and the possible effect on eBook sales.
• The eBook may be prohibitively expensive: Currently, eBook and digital audiobook prices widely vary. Some eBooks may not be worth the cost if they are unlikely to get any use.
• The eBook is not available through the Library’s current vendors: Pratt Library uses OverDrive as its eBook provider for materials that can be checked out. The Library also provides access to databases that feature full-text materials that can be read online. These databases include Safari Books Online, Black Drama, Black Short Fiction, and Black Thought and Culture.

2. I didn’t know the Library had eBooks. How long has that been going on?

The Pratt Library has offered eBooks and digital audiobooks for checkout to its customers since 2005.

3. Will library eBooks work with my eReader (or tablet, smartphone, computer, etc.)?

eBooks borrowed from the Library will work with most digital devices. The eBooks available come in a variety of formats to accommodate a wide selection of devices.

4. Do I have to have a library card to get eBooks?

That depends. To borrow eBooks from the Maryland Digital eLibrary collection, customers must log in with a library card account. This is not the case with all materials on the Maryland eLibrary website, though. eBooks in the Always Available collection, which consists mostly of free public domain materials, can be downloaded without logging into an account, and these eBooks do not expire and can be kept. Other websites that provide public domain materials, like Project Gutenberg, do not require accounts, either.

To read the eBooks available through the Pratt Library’s databases, you will need a valid library card to access the content.

5. Do I have to pay for all eBooks?

No. There are websites that allow users to download eBooks freely, like Project Gutenberg and Open Library, and readers also have the option to borrow eBooks from the Library, or read eBooks from the databases Safari Books Online, Black Drama, Black Short Fiction, and Black Thought and Culture.

6. Do I need special software to read eBooks?

That depends. eBooks borrowed from the Maryland Digital eLibrary collection can be downloaded onto a computer or device, or they can be read directly in a Web browser without downloading a file. If you choose to download an eBook for offline reading, special software is needed. For computers and most eReaders, except Kindle, the Adobe Digital Editions application is required to read eBooks downloaded from the Maryland eLibrary collection. For tablets and smartphones, the OverDrive Media Console app is needed to download and read borrowed eBooks.

Readers borrowing eBooks from the Maryland Digital eLibrary collection also have the option to read directly in the Web browser using the OverDrive READ feature. No extra software is needed, but an Internet connection is needed to use this feature. Similarly, eBooks available through Pratt databases are read using the Web browser.

7. Why doesn’t this eBook work with my device?

There may be a few reasons why an eBook is not working on your device, including compatibility issues, DRM technology, or problems with the eBook file or device.

eBooks come in a wide variety of formats. It is important to know which formats your equipment can support. For example, Kindle eReaders and apps cannot open eBooks in the ePUB format, while other types of eReaders, like NOOK, cannot open Kindle eBooks. Information about the file types supported by your equipment can be found in the device’s user guide or online.

Another issue that can interfere with eBook use is DRM, or Digital Rights Management. In many cases, with the exception of public domain materials, eBooks are protected by software that controls how that eBook works. These controls can include when and where an eBook can be used, who can access it, and how many times it can be accessed. When a user or a device does not have permission to access or use that eBook, DRM technology will "lock" that file to prevent it from opening.

Sometimes, an eBook file may have technical problems that prevent it from functioning properly. If the file is corrupted, it will not work, and the file may have to be deleted and downloaded again. Users should also check their equipment to ensure that it is not the source of the issue.

8. Why can’t I borrow this eBook from the Library even though I can purchase it?

Libraries obtain licenses to lend eBooks to their customers. However, there are publishers, authors, and copyright holders who do not license their ebooks to libraries for public lending. The reasons stated for this decision include concerns about piracy and the possible effect on eBook sales.

9. Can I renew the eBooks I borrow from the Library?

Currently, eBooks borrowed from the library cannot be renewed. Customers can check out the eBook again by visiting the Maryland Digital eLibrary website.

10. Where can I get help for eReaders and eBooks?

Customers can get help with eBooks and eReaders a number of ways:

• First, talk to a librarian. Pratt staff members have several resources available to help answer your questions. Some libraries provide eReader consultations by appointment, in addition to public events about eBooks and eReaders.
• Check the user guide that came with your device. Basic operating instructions and troubleshooting tips are often included the user guide, and reading it can help you get started with your equipment.
• Read information on the Internet. There is a wealth of information online about eBooks and eReaders that address everything from the most basic tips to advanced hacks. The Pratt Library has information about eReaders and eBooks on its website, and the Maryland Digital eLibrary website features in-depth help pages. YouTube is another source of information about eReaders and eBooks.

If you want an extra special film experience, come to the Central Library this Saturday, April 27 at 2pm, to watch E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Whether you are revisiting this classic or seeing it for the first time with the kids, it's sure to be an out-of-this world experience. This showing is part of the Library’s Free Family Flicks series, the once-a-month film series for the whole family that screens in Wheeler Auditorium at the Central Library.

A being from outer space is accidentally stranded on Earth. In his search for refuge, E.T. wanders into a backyard where he is discovered by 10-year-old Elliott. Elliott assumes responsibility for E.T.'s safety while searching, in a race against time, for a way to reunite E.T. with his own kind in this heartwarming story of friendship and discovery.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, 1982, 115 minutes, rated PG, Universal Pictures. Featuring Dee Wallace, Henry Thomas, and Drew Barrymore.

See the movie trailer here:

 


We have more Free Family Flicks coming up at the Central Library:

• Wreck-It Ralph, Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 2 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium
• Monsters, Inc., Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 2 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium

Bring the whole family for some movie magic!

After 2 years of care and feeding, the Berkman Center, Harvard University, is ready to step back and push the little Digital Public Library of America bird out of the nest. And so, on Thursday, April 18, at 12:00 noon, with the push of a button (and the symbolic ring of a bell), the DPLA was launched. Check out the beautiful new website at dp.la:

During the 2 years that DPLA was in development, librarians, business people, computer technology magicians, attorneys, and others gathered in cities across the country to discuss details of how to create a digital library that was vast, free, accessible, and included unexpected and the unique content in digital formats. This process involved collaboration between an eclectic and energetic set of minds that pieced together huge amounts of data. With great success, an already-formidable set of digital collections has launched with free access for everyone, not only to the collections but to the metadata and API that the DPLA is built on—meaning that anyone with the know-how can create their own web and mobile applications based on DPLA collections.

Enoch Pratt Free Library CEO Dr Carla Hayden is a board member for DPLA and served as co-chair of the Audience and Participation workstream, which was responsible for identifying the DPLA audience and envisioning tools that could be created to serve their needs.

The official launch of the DPLA was scheduled to take place in Boston at the Boston Public Library—in front of which one of the bombs exploded during the April 15 Boston Marathon. The launch event was canceled out of respect for the staff and community working to overcome the tragedy. Rallying to support the few DPLA people who were in Boston, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. thoughtfully threw out a last minute invitation, to whomever could make it, to a small version of the launch. It was a wonderful expression of support from 40 or so DPLA supporters and participants from the DC, Baltimore, and Virginia areas (and the Girl Scout cookies were delicious!).

Visit dp.la today to explore an incredible variety digital collections from across the country.

April is National Poetry Month, and to continue the Pratt Library’s festivities, we’ve invited Old Songs members Chris Mason (of The Tinklers), Mark Jickling (of Half Japanese), and Liz Downing (of Lurch and Holler) to perform ancient Greek poetry in the Poe Room, Wednesday April 24 at 6:30 p.m.

Mark Jickling, who learned ancient Greek in college to read Homer, responded to my questions.

What is it about Sappho and other ancient Greek poets that echoes to us over 2,500 years later?
Greek lyric is still interesting because for the first time you have poets saying this is what happened to me, this is what I saw, and here's how I feel about it. And not censoring themselves at all. Their thoughts and feelings are like ours (when we're inspired, anyway), even though society was obviously different in many ways. Part of the fascination is that we know so little about pre-classical Greek life, beyond the material conditions that archaeology reveals.

Image Courtesy of
The Walters Art Museum

An example is the constant reference to divinities and divine rivers and places in the poems. What did the poets really believe about the supernatural? [Liz Downing discusses this in her introduction to Old Songs/All Birds, published March 2013 and not yet available in Pratt's catalog.]

Finally, it's worth noting that most of the texts we have are fragments, which are naturally evocative to post-Dada sensibilities.

Part of the delight of Old Songs’ approach to performing Greek poetry is the folksy, familiar American roots music they join with ancient voices who speak of love, hunger, joy, and yearning. How did Old Songs come up with the idea to set ancient Greek poetry to American folk music?
We're musicians, so we approached the Old Songs project as "let's start a band." Chris had just learned Greek—on his own, amazingly enough—and wanted to put it to use. My basic intuition has always been that since these poems were composed to be sung, translated words on the page are just not going to put them across.

How do Old Songs members go about translating Greek poetry?
Our translations are on the literal side, even when we use very colloquial English. For the sake of melody, we rearrange words, and repeat phrases that are not repeated in the Greek, but we don't add anything new. (Although bilingual puns are sometimes irresistible.)

My philosophy of translation is that whatever principles you bring to a job, you will eventually abandon them.

What are your favorite Greek poems or authors, and why?
Sappho, for thinking of us thinking of her, and Hipponax, for his sweet nightmare quality.

Listen to Old Songs performing Sappho on Mindspring.com.

For more Poetry & Conversation with Old Songs, please join us in the Poe Room April 24 at 6:30. Follow @librarypoems to learn about other poetry events at the Pratt Library, & join the conversation at #PrattPoetry.

Lori Powell. Click to Enlarge.

Ah, April! You may be the cruelest month, but in Maryland you're a month full of poetry and birdsong. Those two elements came together for Lori Powell, who won the Pratt Library's second annual Poetry Contest, sponsored in partnership with Little Patuxent Review, with this poem:

To the Bird That Wakes Me

Beyond my window,
a stairway floats in the trees.
Three notes up, three down:
your song at first light
climbs to unlock the morning.

How long I’ve followed you
up these stairs and down,
grateful to put one foot
before the other.
Then this morning
you change your rhythm,
add a flourish of notes,
a finial at the end of your stairway.

What do you mean
by this sudden Baroque turn?
Have pity on me,
wedged in this skin of reason,
finger tracing circles in spilt coffee,
while the world shifts
within its speckled egg.

You can hear the poet reading the poem in this video from the CityLit Festival, after an introduction by Gerry LaFemina, one of the contest judges:

I asked Lori Powell to share some thoughts about the origin of the poem with our blog readers.  She wrote:

Poems often begin by focusing on something small. By the end of the poem, though, that small thing is shown to have connections to larger meanings.

My poem starts with a small, ordinary thing: a bird. It was a real bird that woke me every morning one summer at dawn with its loud, piercing call: three notes up, three down. At first I was annoyed and would shut my window. But gradually I came to listen for the bird, to appreciate its persistence. Then one morning, as the poem says, the call changed slightly. Was it the same bird, or a different one? If it was the same one, what had happened? The more I thought about this small mystery, the more I realized how impenetrable it really was. I had come to depend on my bird, but the essence of the bird was mystery.

Our lives are filled with many such mysteries. Most of them we don’t even think about, or we consider them commonplace. But when we really focus on the mysteries around us, the world does shift.

Poetry appreciation doesn't end when April does. Lori Powell and other contest finalists will join the contest judges on May 1 at 6:30pm for a special reading called "The Judges and The Judged." Please come!

This year the theme for our Fairy Tale Ball, which took place on April 11, was Fairies and Elves. I had a friend who planted a fairy garden in her back yard and I thought it would be fun to do something like it at the Library. Instead of an actual garden, Branch Manager Lynn Distance and I created a fairy village. There were an assortment of dwellings made from bird houses, discarded books, and various recyclable containers and objects. Find inspiration for your own Fairy Village from these Google Image search results.

Assistant Branch Manager Michael Rios brought in a gigantic papier-mâché fanciful creature that he wore in a parade. We felt it would be a perfect addition and guardian for Fairyville. We wondered if he would be too ferocious, however our young visitors seemed to feel that he fit right in. They were enthralled with him.

Children’s Library Fairy, aka Karen Burdnell, and the Fairy Totem became good friends.

For our Fairytale Ball, the dietitian from the Moravia Park Judy Center attended with her students and provided healthy snacks and punch for refreshments.

The Ben Sherman Trio provided dancing and mood music, with Ben Sherman on guitar, Jay Dulaney on bass, and Lucas Lechowski on violin. Meanwhile the craft stations activated guests' creativity.

Children’s Librarians Shamia Brightful, Orleans Street Branch, and Kinshasa Vargas-Pile, Pennsylvania Avenue Branch, were wonderful helpers with the crafts.

There are so many ways to celebrate poetry! That was our goal for the April meeting of the Poetry Circle at the Reisterstown Road Library.

What is the earliest poem you remember hearing? Who shared it with you? For Marcia, one of the Poetry Circle members, it was the poem "The Land of the Counterpane" by Robert Louis Stevenson. She reflected, "I remember my father reading it to me in bed, and I used to picture it. I used to see the things upon the bed, and I could picture it! It was my earliest memory." Marcia read us the poem from a copy of A Child's Garden of Verses, which the library is fortunate to have a number of different editions with various illustrations, which you can see in this video:

Another way we celebrated National Poetry Month was preparing poems for Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 18, 2013. The idea is simple: you select a poem you love during National Poetry Month then carry it with you to share with co-workers, family, and friends. You can also share your poem selection on Twitter by using the hashtag #pocketpoem. The Poetry Circle members selected some of their favorite poems and wrote them out to put into a basket at the library.

Learn about more ways to celebrate poetry on National Poetry Month's official website.

Held on the Wednesday of National Library Week, National Bookmobile Day began in 2010. This day recognizes the role of bookmobiles and direct delivery outreach services in fulfilling the mission of libraries.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library launched Baltimore's first horse-drawn public library book wagon service in 1943. This 1945 photograph of the book wagon during a visit to the 1000 block Dallas Street in Baltimore shows a crowd of children and adults reading in the street.

We introduced our first modern Bookmobile truck in 1949, which was such an immediate success that it circulated more than 132, 000 books in its first year on the road.

Enoch Pratt Free Library currently has two bookmobiles in operations. The Book Buggy services WIC Clinics and nonprofit daycare centers in Baltimore City. The Bookmobile services schools, senior apartment buildings and centers, government office buildings, and neighborhoods that do not have a library branch within walking distance. The Bookmobile also participates in city/community sponsored parades and fairs.

You can visit the bookmobiles at their regularly scheduled stops to see the vehicles in action. Check out the Mobile Library Services page on our website for the current Bookmobile schedule.

National Bookmobile Day is sponsored by the American Library Association's Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS), The Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services (ABOS), and the Association for Rural & Small Libraries (ARSL).

The Mayfair and The Stanton killed two birds with one double bill in 1963

While planning my FILMTALK screening at the Central Library for April 20, I wanted to do something a little special, as it was to be the 10th anniversary of the Saturday morning program (see a list of all FILMTALKS 2003-2013). So, I went down to our Periodicals Department to search the Sunpapers microfilm archives to see what was playing at local theaters exactly 10 years ago on this date. I didn’t find that much that was interesting and that we could show. I went back to 1993, 1983, 1973, and then 1963 before I hit paydirt.

Playing just two blocks from the Pratt Library that year, on Howard Street, were To Kill a Mockingbird at the Mayfair and The Birds at the Stanton (formerly known by its original name, the Stanley). On the web site Cinema Treasures, I even found a photo of the Mayfair and Stanton theater marquees showing this fine-feathered double bill (as pictured above)! Both films celebrate their 50th anniversary this year.

April 20, 1963 double bill listing in the Baltimore Sun

Long-time Baltimoreans can probably remember pleasurable hours spent in these theaters. Unfortunately, the Mayfair (shown below) is long abandoned…

The Mayfair today

…and the site of the Stanley (shown below in its heyday) has been a parking lot for many decades (it’s currently the Chesapeake Commons lot).

The old Stanley Theater

You can find out more about these and other Baltimore cinema houses in Robert Headley’s book Motion picture exhibition in Baltimore: an illustrated history and directory of theaters, 1895-2004 or on the website Cinema Treasures. If you want to see more about what was going on in Baltimore 50 years ago, you might want to do some searching in the Historical Baltimore Sun (1837-1987) database.

I spoke to Tom Warner, who curates the Saturday afternoon films, to see if he was interested in doing a 50th Anniversary double feature of the two films, and he readily agreed, adding that the timing was perfect to screen the film that marked Tippi Hedren’s film debut.

"Given the resurgence of interest this past year in both Hitchcock (with the 2012 theatrical release of Sacha Gervasi's Hitchcock) and Tippi Hedren (thanks to HBO's The Girl, which examined the complicated relationship between Hitch and the blond actress who claimed the smitten director destroyed her career when she rebuffed his advances), now is the perfect time to look back at their first film together," he said. "Apparently, all the terror in The Birds wasn't just in the skies above."

Watch The Birds trailer below:

Hedren wasn’t the only star making a big-screen debut in 1963, as Mockingbird also marked the first film appearance of Robert Duvall as the mysterious Boo Radley in director Robert Mulligan’s critically acclaimed film adaptation of Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel. Horton Foote won the Oscar for best screenplay adaptation (possibly the best screen adaptation ever), while Gregory Peck's portrayal of Atticus Finch won him the Best Actor Oscar.

Watch the Mockingbird trailer on YouTube.

So on April 20, 2013, it will be déjà vu all over again when we screen these two classics from 1963, with To Kill a Mockingbird starting at 10:30 a.m. followed by The Birds at 2 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium.

Reposted with permission from Yankee Skeptic.

I recently went to visit my good friend Ellie Luchinsky. She is a librarian at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore Maryland. I was raised in Maryland, so it was good to go "back home", to see marble front steps and corner restaurants with names like the "Crab Shack". I had never been to the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and so it was a new delight to walk up and behold such a beautiful library.

The library is located in a part of Baltimore that is undergoing regeneration, and also is reflective of the tough economic times. The library was endowed by Enoch Pratt in 1882, and is one of the oldest free libraries in the United States. Enoch Pratt was man ahead of his time.

My library, shall be for all, rich and poor without distinction of race or color, who, when properly accredited, can take out the books if they will handle them carefully and return them.
— Enoch Pratt

The main library, where my friend Ellie works, is an anchor in the community. Too often we forget that not everyone can afford internet coverage or even a computer. We download a book onto our Kindle or order it from Amazon. We live in an information age, and never think that there are those that can’t afford to take part in it. Libraries, especially those in our inner cities, provide that information link to the communities they serve.

The library was filled with people. They were using computers and the internet. Today most jobs require you apply for them online. There were books and readers galore of course. The Enoch Pratt Library is a building of great beauty. Inspiring art, such as the statues of Edgar Allen Poe and Billie Holiday abound in this building built on a grand scale.

People were reading everywhere, including Victorian nooks with comfortable chairs that a Vanderbilt or Rockefeller would envy. The library is a mansion, but it is a mansion that belongs to the community. It contains the knowledge and information that Enoch Pratt wished to endow to all, rich and poor, because he understood books and information should belong to us all. It should never belong just to the rich.

I hear so many people complain, "Why are we spending so much money on libraries?" They haven't been to a library for years. They are able to access any information they need from their homes, but only after having paid for a computer and a monthly internet plan. They can call up any movie they wish, order any book they care to read, and all they have to do is pay the price. Almost everyone I know pays to belong to this instant information age, and considers it as much of a need as heat and food.

They never stop to think of how many people, that can perhaps not afford even heat and food, truly depend on public libraries. Knowledge is power, and if knowledge is only held by those that can afford it, the poor are slaves indeed. Today knowledge is so much more than books. The Enoch Pratt Free Library reflects this, with computers and books featured in room after room.

The children’s day room with the beautiful crane sculpture soaring above. I was pleased also to see the beautiful children’s areas. Obviously the Enoch Pratt Free Library cares very much for the children of the community. There are two delightful play areas, one a "day room" and one a "night room", which has a movie viewing area with a night sky. No millionaire has a home theater that can even begin to compare to the one the children of Baltimore enjoy. The children have a home at their library that is welcoming and warm and beautiful.

I was reminded of visiting a community in Latin America. The village was very poor. The roof of the local school had collapsed, and water supply was from one well. Most of the children were barefoot. The only thing of beauty in the village was a large church. I visited the church, and found a large building, indeed a mansion, in the midst of a hungry village. The priest came over and pointed out the history and beauty of the building. He also wanted a donation. I explained I would rather donate to the school, so they could fix their roof. The priest shook his head, he explained "This church belongs to the people, it reminds them that while their lives are hard here, one day they will die and go to heaven and live in a mansion like this church." I asked if there were a library, and the priest said there was no need of one, as most of the villagers could not read.

I donated to the school, perhaps my being raised in an Episcopalian church that fought for Civil Rights and empowerment for people in this life biased me against the village priest and his vision for his church.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library is instead my idea of a mansion that belongs to the people. Rich not just in beauty, but rich in knowledge and promise for the community that the library belongs to. I could tell from the tour Ellie gave me the pride she has in serving the people of Baltimore that come to their library.

The next time someone suggests closing libraries, or asks what use libraries are when all the information we need is just at our fingertips, suggest they go visit the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. It was truly an honor to visit this wonderful library that belongs to the people of Baltimore.

Read more from Kitty Mervine on her blog, Yankee Skeptic.

Our fantastic Central Library Children's Department publishes a new video each month of a librarian performing a Handy Dandy Rhyme. April's rhyme is Down by the Station, performed by former staff member Kelli Ostrom (recorded while she was on staff).

My first thought when I heard this rhyme today was, "what on earth is a Pufferbelly?" As a child, I pictured rows of adorable dragons—clearly from the Puff the Magic Dragon lineage.

Imagine my surprise when I finally looked up "pufferbellies" to learn that it actually refers to steam locomotives! Steam locomotives are nearly as exotic as dragons these days, and far more interesting. Where dragons tend to be the destinations of adventures, steam locomotives carry people on their adventures—and we all know that journeys offer us the most memorable experiences.

Try taking a visual journey through our Maryland Digitial Cultural Heritage website today. You may find things along the way that you never expected to see!

Bloomington, Maryland, ca. 1916: Seventeen Mile Grade to Mountain Park Lake, MD
From MDCH.org

A few weeks ago I visited my optometrist because I’d been getting a lot of headaches, and I wondered if I needed a new prescription for my glasses. The good news is I don’t need new glasses. The bad news, I’ve been reading too much. Imagine my dismay when I heard the news.

I’m a librarian! I read books for both work and pleasure! But alas, focusing my eyes so much on things close to me strains my eye muscles and causes me to have headaches. Basically, my doctor told to spend at least a part of each day looking at things in the distance, rather than right by my face.

In an effort to follow my doctor’s advice, I’ve decided to listen to more things on audio. The Pratt Library has a wide variety of materials available in audio formats, from picture books to epic fantasies to language courses, on CD or available to download.

Here are a few ways I’ve found to use audiobooks:

• Listening to a full cast production of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. I’m going to see the play on stage next month, and this was a fun way to familiarize myself with the story.
   
• Brushing up on my French language skills. I took French in college, but I’ve let it go in the years since I graduated. The library has many different French courses available on CD.
   
• Using audiobook downloads from Maryland’sDigital eLibrary Consortium as a motivator when running. Nothing makes a run more invigorating than listening to an action packed story. My personal favorites are the excellent audio recordings of the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan.
   
• Rereading books that I wouldn’t otherwise have time for. I always have a large pile of books by my bed waiting to be read, so it’s tricky to go back and reread books I love. Listening to audiobooks while I’m driving or cleaning my house not only lets me enjoy certain books again, but it also makes those unpleasant tasks fly by. Recently I’ve enjoyed listening to old favorites Persuasion by Jane Austen and The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner.

I’ll never give up reading altogether, but I’m certainly enjoying my experiences with audio, and I’m glad that the library has so many different audio options.

Well, it’s spring time, and for many people it’s time to dust off the old bicycle and hit the road for some jovial jaunts and freewheeling flings. But before you hop on your bicycle and start peddling away, it’s a good idea to do some basic maintenance checks. Here is a list of what to look for, from your friendly librarian/bicycle mechanic:

• Inspect the frame: (This is especially important if you were in any wrecks.) Are there any cracks or dents? If so, you may want to have it looked over by a mechanic, just to make sure there are no safety issues.
• Inflate the tires: This will make your ride that much smoother and more pleasurable. Also, how do the tires look? Are there any cracks?
• Do a “safety check”:
  • Are your wheels secure to the frame?
  • Do your brakes work? Do they feel too tight or spongy?
  • Bounce your bike and listen for any rattles—do you hear any? If so, where is it coming from? Does anything need to be tightened?
  • Are the handlebars straight and snug?
  • Do the wheels spin freely, without obstruction?
  • How does the bike fit? Do you need to adjust the seat post?
• Inspect the chain: Does it need a wiping-off due to last year’s grime? If so, clean it off using a clean rag. Is it bone dry and does it need some lube? If so, apply some bicycle chain lube—NOT WD40, because it’s actually a degreaser—and use a clean rag to wipe off the excess.

Now, if you’re interested in further maintenance suggestions and guides, check out our bicycle maintenance manual collection, or register to come to one of the upcoming Bike Friendly Workshops being offered at different Pratt Library locations throughout May. Also, you might want to see what the local nonprofit Velocipede Bike Project has to offer to you, and vice versa. Of course, you can always take your bike to a local bike shop for an inspection, or tune-up.

Here are some of my personal tips for riding; as with any suggestions, you may take 'em or leave 'em as you please...

• Get familiar and comfortable with being able to change your bicycle’s inner tubes, and carry the necessary tools for fixing a flat when on a long ride.
• If riding at dusk or at night, use a front and rear light, and make sure the batteries are strong.
• I know of many cyclists who saved their noggins by wearing a helmet...
• No matter how fast you’re going, you’re not on the road alone—isn’t it better to be aware of what’s going on around you? If you answer in the affirmative, rethink wearing those earbuds while cycling.
• Ride for yourself, however, don’t be self-obsessed. And seek out ways to ride with your friends, such as a group ride, like the upcoming Tour Dem Parks, Hon ride.
• Any day you can get on your bike is a good day, or at least better than average.

You may also want to checkout Grant Petersen’s Tips for Happy Riding over at Rivendell Bikes.

Again, here are some other books in the Library’s collection that you may enjoy, or find inspiring to get you in the saddle again:

• Just Ride by Grant Petersen
• The Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne
• The Enlightened Cyclist: Commuter Angst, Dangerous Drivers, and Other Obstacles on the Path to Two-Wheeled Transcendence by BikeSnobNYC
• The Lost Cyclist: The Epic Tale of an American Adventurer and his Mysterious Disappearance by David V. Herlihy

Thanks, and happy & safe riding!

This Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7 we will be celebrating the 11th Annual Fairy Tale Extravaganza at the Central Library. The event will be taking over Central Hall as well as much of the children's department, with storytellers, magic tricks, crafts, costumes, and music. You have to see it to believe it, and as usual every part of it is free thanks to the generous support of our sponsors PNC Grow Up Great, Transamerica, and the Jim and Patty Rouse Charitable Foundation.
 

Below is the schedule of events and activities,
which you can also view or print as a PDF:

 
SATURDAY, April 6, 10:00 am - 3:00 pm 

10:00 am – noon
Free craft activities at our partner tables. Visit with The Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, the Jewish Museum, Maryland Zoo, National Aquarium in Baltimore, Pets on Wheels, Port Discovery, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, and the Walters Art Museum.
Dress-up corner with costumes to wear

Live magic tricks performed by Magic Mike
Free face painting by Theresa from Pets on Wheels
Early learning area for children ages birth to five
Central Hall

Make your own crown
Children’s Department

10:15 am
Mother Goose Baby Steps Storytime (ages 0-3 and caregiver)

Meyerhoff Children’s Garden
 
11:00 am
Musical Storytime with Dr. Cardany from the Peabody
(ages 3-5 and caregiver)

Meyerhoff Children’s Garden
 
12 noon
“Rumpled” performed by Single Carrot Theater
Enjoy the fairy tale “Rumpelstiltskin.”
Children’s Department, Night Room

1 -3 pm
Free craft activities at our partner tables
Dress-up corner with costumes to wear
Live magic tricks performed by Magic Mike

Free face painting by Theresa from Pets on Wheels
Early learning area for children ages birth to five
Central Hall
 
Make your own crown
Children’s Department

3:00 pm
Free Family Flick: Brave
Children’s Department, Night Room

SUNDAY, 1-3 pm

In Central Hall:
Free photos of you on our royal throne
Free craft activities at our partner tables
Dress-up corner with costumes to wear
Live magic tricks performed by Magic Mike
Free face painting by Theresa from Pets on Wheels
Early learning area for children ages birth to five

In the Children’s Department:
Fairy Tale Ball with live music, dancing, and refreshments
Make your own crown

If you miss the Extravaganza this weekend, don't worry: there's lots more to do at the Fairy Tale Festival, which runs throughout April. See the Fairy Tale Festival schedule here.

Hop on over to the Enoch Pratt Free Library this Saturday for another edition of Free Family Flicks. To get you in the mood for any egg hunting you may be doing this weekend, we will be screening the movie Hop for the whole family.

Please be aware that the library is closed on Friday and Sunday, but we will be open Saturday for this movie showing and anything else you might need.

Blending state-of-the-art animation with live action, Hop tells the comic tale of Fred, an out-of-work slacker who accidentally injures the Easter Bunny and must take him in as he recovers. As Fred struggles with the world's worst house guest, both will learn what it takes to finally grow up.

This 2011 film is directed by Tim Hill, is 95 minutes, rated PG, and released by Universal Pictures. It features the talents of Russell Brand, James Marsden, and Elizabeth Perkins.

See the movie trailer for Hop below:

Come to the Fairy Tale Festival, a month-long celebration of folk and fairy tales happening the whole month of April. During the kickoff weekend of April 6-7, see an encore screening of Brave in the Children’s Night Room (right next to the Children’s Department), on April 6 at 3 p.m.

Upcoming Free Family Flicks at the Central Library include:

• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 2 p.m. in the Wheeler Auditorium
• Wreck-It-Ralph, Saturday, May 11, 2013 at 2 p.m. in the Wheeler Auditorium
• Monsters, Inc., Saturday, June 8, 2013 at 2 p.m. in the Wheeler Auditorium

Bring the whole family for some movie magic!

I recently spent ages planning a children's program entitled "Let’s Make Butterflies," and I was very excited to share it with my regular kids. You can imagine my disappointment when I got a Jury Duty Summons the day before my big program was scheduled! But fear not, luck was on my side that day, and I was not selected and I was able to attend the program I so carefully prepared (I am fortunate to have an understanding boss who was willing to fill in if necessary, so the kids wouldn't have missed out).

What was this program about, and why was it so meaningful to me, you may ask? Since I first learned to read, I have always had an interest in World War II and the Holocaust, and the book I Never Saw Another Butterfly was particularly meaningful to me. This beautiful book is a collection of artwork and poems created by children who were living in the Terezin Concentration Camp located in Poland. In order to honor these children and all children who perished during World War II (the total is 1.5 million), the Houston Holocaust Museum is collecting butterflies made by children across the world to display in an upcoming exhibit.

I invited a 5th grade class from Maree G. Farring Elementary/Middle School to join in the event. A total of 26 students and 2 teachers attended my event. I was thrilled with the turnout for the event, and not only did each student make a butterfly for the museum to display but each also created a second butterfly for me to display at Brooklyn Branch. It was great to see the children so involved and interested in creating something for the museum while learning about the history covered in the book.

Check out this slideshow of photos from the program:

As a part of the program for the month of March, I made a display that highlights the poem and artwork from the book as well as provided other books about World War II. If you are interested in reading more on the subject, here is a small reading list:

• I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp 1942-1944, by Hana Volavkova
• The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank
• Hana’s Suitcase, by Karen Levin
• Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry
• The Upstairs Room, by Johanna Reiss
• A Faraway Island, by Annika Thor
• The Lily Pond, by Annika Thor
• Good Night, Maman, by Norma Fox Mazer

For two weeks this March, the students who frequent the Roland Park Branch got to experience several fun activities as part of the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s annual "Spring Fling."

Jewelry Making was the first activity, which proved to be popular with both teen girls and boys, most of whom gave their jewelry to the girls in the very same program with them! With a variety of materials and beads available, our teens learned the techniques and skills to make earrings, bracelets, and a variety of other jewelry.

While an unexpected snow day meant rescheduling our T-shirt design workshop, it did not dampen enthusiasm for our Drawing and Caricatures program several days later! The teens, and at least one staff member, learned the basics of drawing using geometric shapes, and how that can translate into the fun, cartoonesque style of caricatures. All of the program participants learned some great drawing fundamentals and went home with personal caricatures.

Our last, and most popular event, was the Temporary Tattoo program. Thirty teens lined up to listen to a brief history of tattoos as well a discussion of the dangers of actual tattoos. A temporary tattoo is created not with a needle and ink but instead with an air brush and paint. Using stencils, a skilled artist can create a vivid and detailed temporary tattoo that looks every bit like an actual tattoo. Depending on a person’s skin and use of lotion, a temporary tattoo can last for just over a week. Not only did the teens all get one, and many waited in line for a second tattoo, but the entire staff also opted to boost their street cred by getting "inked" as well.

"Spring Fling" is just starting at most of the Enoch Pratt Free Library branches, and these programs, as well as many others, are available as after school activities for teens. Ask your local librarian when they are having "Spring Fling!"

Watch this slide show to see more photos from our "Spring Fling!"

"A rose is a rose is a rose." - Gertrude Stein

Words: they are everywhere. Conversations, texts, mutterings, speeches, emails, treatises, colloquialisms, essays, signs, etc.—all brought forth through words. There is perhaps nothing as linked to the ephemeral world of thought than words, as evidenced by the fact that if human life were to cease this instant, this world would fall nearly silent, and the alien archeologists of tomorrow would find only minute evidence of the how we truly lived.

With language binding the world as it does, is it any wonder that many of the questions we receive on the Telephone Reference line here at the Enoch Pratt Free Library are concerned with words and language? A random sampling of questions dealing with language runs the gamut:

• "Does this sentence sound grammatically correct?"
• "How should I address a Doctor and his wife in this letter?"
• "Can you tell me what this German word means?"
• "What is the rule for using parentheses within parentheses?"
• "How is ______ spelled?"

This last question is probably one of the most frequent and popular.

For this reason, one of the most utilized tools in the Telephone Reference office is the American Heritage Dictionary, which helps locate the "correct" spelling, application, and pronunciation of words. We also have the Oxford English Dictionary, also known as the OED (I like to say that it’s a good day when I get to refer to the OED for questions of etymology.)

Ah, the comfort that comes with turning to a dictionary as an irrefutable and sagacious source for putting to rest our befuddlement with words... or so I thought, until I read a chapter in James Gleick’s book The Information entitled "Two Wordbooks." Here, Mr. Gleick points out that the job of lexicographers and editors of dictionaries—as they themselves adhere to—is not to be the "arbitrator and exemplar" of a word’s usage and spelling, but rather to try and show a snapshot of the fluidity of language, and how words are being spelled and used by the public in general. Hence why the fish "maccarel" has thirty different spellings in the OED—Mr. Gleick explains that the lexicographers and editors would:

never declare these alternatives to be wrong: misspellings. They do not wish to declare their choice of spelling for the headword, mackerel, to be ‘correct.’ They emphasize that they examine the evidence and choose ‘the most common current spelling’....They know that no matter how often and how firmly they disclaim a prescriptive authority, a reader will turn to the dictionary to find out how a word should be spelled. (70)

Reading this passage sent chills down my spine, because it showed that even in the world of precise definitions, the ground is not solid and is capable of shifting. But isn’t this what makes language so interesting and vibrant—its ability to change? However, as long as there are questions about words and their spellings and meanings, I think it’s safe to say that we will continue to put our faith in the tenacity and educated guesses of lexicographers, and continue to turn to dictionaries as credible sources of such information.
The following are some of the more interesting language questions I’ve received while manning the Telephone Reference line:

• How do you spell the name "Delilah," etc.? (Names especially do not have pre-ordained set spellings. We can only refer to the most popular spellings.)
• How do you spell "Fallschirmjager?" (A WWII German paratrooper)
• How do you pronounce "Habakkuk"?
• What does the Hebrew word "Moshia" mean? ("Savior")
• What is the correct spelling of "kryptonite?" (There’s an irony searching for the correct spelling for a fictional element, no?)

If you are interested in learning more about dictionaries, here are some other suggested readings:

• The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
• The Story of Ain't: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published by David Skinner

"I can't wait to see how they film the Red Wedding."

"The series should end with Tyrion, Jon, and Daenerys riding dragons into battle."

"Winter is coming!"

These are frequent topics of conversation in my home. Yes, I'm married to a Song of Ice and Fire enthusiast. And although it's now officially spring, this year millions of fans of the hugely-successful George R.R. Martin series have shifted the start of the winter season to March 31.

That's when the television show Game of Thrones, based on the series of fantasy books, will premiere its third season on the cable network HBO. So don’t be surprised in the weeks ahead if you start to hear your friends and neighbors talking about wights, the Wall, or green wildfire. If they’re really hardcore, they might try learning how to speak Dothraki.

The Song of Ice and Fire series, which Martin began writing in 1991 and is two books away from finishing, is known for its meticulous attention to cultural, historical, and sensory detail within the boundaries of a unique world that is surprisingly grounded in actual historical fact. My medieval historian friends have said it does a better job of capturing the mindset of that period than most historical fiction. Think of it as what our world could have been once upon a time, had dragons and a limited amount of magic actually existed. And oh yeah, in this world, the winters can last for up to a decade at a time (think mini ice ages).

I have to confess that I have yet to finish reading A Dance with Dragons, the fifth and most recent book in the series. Mostly, this is due to the fact that I work in a library and am constantly distracted by other books. However, I like to tell my husband that it’s because the hardcover clocks in at a ridiculous 1016 pages and weighs approximately 3 pounds.

If you have also been daunted by the length or weight of the books, take heart! The Pratt Library owns copies of titles in this series in multiple formats, including paperback, audiobook, and ebook and eaudio. We also allow renewals for most materials, in case (like me) you need some extra time to finish. And don’t forget Marina interlibrary loan, in case holds on the books get heavy (which can happen around Game of Thrones premiere time).

Happy reading!

Also of note:

• George R.R. Martin writes at—shall we say—a "leisurely" pace. Here are his reading recommendations for impatient fans. Many can be found in the Pratt Library catalog.
• The world of Song is grand, sprawling, and unruly. A Wiki of Ice and Fire provides a wealth of information on characters, houses, chapter summaries, and more, in case it’s been awhile since you’ve started reading and have forgotten anything. George R.R. Martin himself uses fan-created guides like this to help him remember details as he writes!
• Plan a Game of Thrones premiere night dinner party with authentic medieval food!

The Roland Park Branch, in collaboration with the Open Space Campaign for Greater Roland Park, is hosting a three-part book discussion series this winter and spring. The books in this series were chosen for their relevance to the theme of "The Value of Open Space". The Roland Park Civic League’s Open Spaces Campaign grew out of the 2010 Greater Roland Park Master Plan, and it is in the process of raising money for several initiatives in the community such as restoration of the Roland Water Tower, improvements to Stoney Run Valley, and replanting the neighborhood’s tree canopy. A more detailed discussion of the campaign is available on the Roland Park website.

Librarians at the branch selected two of the three titles in the series and asked the community to vote for the third title out of a number of books featured in the library's regular column, The Book Nook, in the Winter 2012-13 edition of the Roland Park News (pdf). Thank you to the Roland Park Library Action Group, our Friends of the Library group, who generously purchased copies of all three titles that the library can give out to people who want to attend the discussions.

On Saturday, March 9th, a dozen readers met for the first discussion of the series. What the Robin Knows by Jon Young was the non-traditional, but very appropriate, title for our first discussion. Young is a lifelong naturalist and master of what he calls "deep bird language." Young has spent his entire career trying to figure out how birds use sounds to communicate information about their environment to other birds and even other species. Hunter-gather cultures used their knowledge of this bird language to aid them in hunting, finding food, fitting in with their local environment, and avoiding predators and danger.

What the Robin Knows book discussion group, March 9

Young’s book never gets too technical and teaches you how to better understand the world of your backyard. Visit the book’s website to hear samples of different kinds of bird calls and their meanings.

Our second discussion will be on April 13 at 11am. The book will be Central Park in the Dark: More Mysteries of Urban Wildlife by Marie Winn. Winn spent years examining the lives of the denizens of Central Park, both animal and people, that inhabit one of America’s great urban parks after the sun goes down.

Our last discussion will be on May 11 at 11am on the book Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability by David Owen. Owen turns the green movement on its head by suggesting that a densely populated, urban core is more environmentally friendly than living in the suburbs or in the country. You can register for both or either of these discussions and receive free copies of the books at the second floor information desk at the Roland Park Branch.

The library has also partnered with Blue Water Baltimore to provide two additional programs as part of this series. Blue Water Baltimore’s mission is to restore the quality of Baltimore’s waterways for the good of the environment, the community, and the economy. On March 20th, we will be presenting a program titled "Creating an Eco-Friendly Home: The Impact of Your Home on the Chesapeake Bay"; this will be proceeded by a short, interactive story called "Who Polluted the Bay." Lastly, on May 4th, Blue Water Baltimore returns with Herring Run Nursery for a program called "Birds, Bees, and Butterflies: Ecosystem Gardening for Baltimore". The vast majority of flowering plants rely on pollinators, and this program will teach you how birds, bees, and butterflies to your backyard.

Libraries serve as the heart and soul of their community and can be a nexus for the connection between community groups, ideas, and the people living in the neighborhood. "The Value of Open Spaces" series at the Roland Park Branch shows how a library can be responsive and proactive to community initiatives, can provide a community gathering space, and be an active partner with other groups in the city.

Wide Angle Youth Media partners with the Enoch Pratt Free Library on the Baltimore Speaks Out! Program to provide youth ages 10-15 with free media education in their own community.

Peyton, a fourth grader at Monarch Academy in Baltimore City, joins our [Wide Angle Youth Media] communications team as a Youth Reporter & Blogger!

Peyton giving a tour of her favorite photographs at our High School Family Night event this past January.

Our students and staff met Peyton at our high school family night this past January. She is an inspiring young person who is interested in reviewing films. At the event, we challenged her to look over the exhibit, and then describe her favorite pieces from the Youth Media Festival Committee’s photo exhibition to our guests and youth artists. As a Youth Reporter & Blogger, Peyton will be reviewing and reflecting on our students’ films as well as issues in Baltimore that matter to her.

Peyton’s first response is on "The City Through Our Eyes" made by middle school students in our Baltimore Speaks Out! Program:

We are thrilled to have Peyton as a Youth Reporter and Blogger! Students in our [Wide Angle Youth Media] Mentoring Video Project are working on a short documentary about inspiring young people, like Peyton, who have discovered their personal passion and how that opportunity connects them to lifelong success.

Are you or do you know a young person between the ages of 10 and 25 who has found their passion? Nominate yourself or someone you know to be featured in this upcoming production.

Children at the Southeast Anchor Library are rolling in the dough... Pratt Bucks that is! Since the introduction of Pratt’s Read Down Fines initiative in January, the children’s department has seen a significant effort by children to bring delinquent and barred cards back into good standing. Staff were surprised to find that many of our regular after school crowd didn't have active library cards.

After announcing the program, children started coming out of the woodwork confessing that they had fines on their cards. Most of these children just assumed they would never be able to pay off these fines; the idea that they could read away their debts delighted them!

Jennifer and Cristian Hernandez were quick to hop on the Pratt Buck bandwagon. Both Jennifer, age 10, and Cristian, age 9, have read their cards back into good standing in the months following the introduction of Read Down Fines. The brother and sister pair come in most afternoons after school and participate in various programs, hang out with friends, and chat with librarians but until the introduction of Read Down Fines they were never able to check out their own books.

Working together diligently, with Jennifer keeping Cristian on task, the siblings were able to put a dent in their collective fines. Like most children, the Hernandez kids were enamored with the idea of "reading for money" and would wait eagerly as the librarian filled out their Pratt Bucks and then rush to circulation to "spend" them. On one banner day, Jennifer and Cristian cashed in a total of eight dollars in Pratt Bucks!

The Hernandez family aren’t the only ones taking advantage of the new program, Joshua Schuler, age 9, renewed his love of the library with the help of a handful of Pratt Bucks. Joshua’s mother Susan confided that Joshua, an avid reader, was embarrassed to come to the library after he lost his card privileges due to a lost book. Joshua would come reluctantly, and check out books on his mother’s card, but the thrill of checking out books was tainted once his card was barred.

After learning about Read Down Fines Joshua hit the ground running, he came weekly and would read for over an hour at each visit. Joshua finished reading the entire Wimpy Kid series and started on Big Nate by the time he had read his card back into good standing. After using his Pratt Bucks to pay off the last of his fines Joshua triumphantly placed Big Nate From the Top on hold and is anxiously awaiting his first check out in over three years!

Staff at the Southeast Anchor Library are thrilled with the success of the program and are sure that Joshua and the Hernandez family are just the first of many children who will be given a clean slate thanks to Read Down Fines!

The Pratt Library's new initiative to help young readers Read Down Fines is an innovative approach to get our children and teen customers back to reading and checking materials out. Since the start of the program, the Reisterstown Road Branch has been excited to introduce this program and encourage our customers to participate. As the young adult librarian, it has been challenging to get the teens excited about this endeavor but with every step there has been progress.

By promoting the program by word of mouth and with print material, we have been able to engage a few teens in the program. Not only have they begun to ask questions, they’re actively participating. It has been rewarding to see our teens take great pride in assuming responsibility for their library fees and to enjoy the process—reading. While the journey got off to a slow pace, we are now gaining momentum. As we look towards the future of Read Down Fines the bigger picture is clear: more teens will begin to be responsible library customers.

One customer shared this story about her experience with Read Down Fines:

I am loving the Read Down Fines program at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. As a grandmother who frequents the library with my granddaughter, this program has disciplined my granddaughter in caring for her borrowed books. She is reading more, comprehending more, and doing more book reports. She understands more the value of keeping up with the books and appreciating the time spent reading books for the one Pratt buck. She loves getting the bucks. She is always looking forward to coming to the library more. It is an excellent program.

With Summer Reading quickly approaching and the start of summer assignments for school, more teens are going to flock to our branch for assistance. Unfortunately, many of our teens will not be able to leave with the materials needed because of fees and fines on their account—but Read Down Fines provides the redemption that many of our teens need. Read Down Fines is more than just paying off your library fees by reading. It equips our teens with the tools necessary to be independent, responsible, and successful individuals and library customers. Come in, relax, and Read Down Your Fines!

I am not too sure of when I had my first taste of wanderlust, but I can recall reading Jack London and Jack Kerouac during my formative years, and feeling the itch for the open road. Either way, here I am today—still smitten with touring the world, and reading stories about traveling. It seems a natural extension that I would become interested in that era of the American epoch when hitching a ride on the rails and living an itinerant life seemed as natural as breathing. I am talking of the hobo’s life, of course.

Click to enlarge

Imagine my surprise, then, when looking through Carl G. Liungman’s Dictionary of Symbols (we have a copy on the Telephone Reference Wheel) only to discover that the American hobos had their own language of symbols that they would use to pass information on to fellow travelers. These graffiti-like signs would be scrawled on walls, fences, posts, and railways—a subterranean means of communication between the initiated for the utility of surviving life on the road (Mr. Liungman also has entries on the English and Swedish hobo signs, and points to their similarities and differences).

I found the utility, as well as the oddity, of these symbols intriguing, and I am not the only one, as academia has taken up the study of dissecting hobo signs, and the language has even been featured in Hollywood (anyone that is familiar with the show Mad Men may have seen the episode from the first season entitled "The Hobo Code" in which this vagabond pictorial language is given a center-stage role...). There are even some funny, "modern" hobo signs floating around the Internet, for today’s hipster hobo.

While doing research on hobo signs I could not help but see the similarities between the messages that both they and the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s own hobo-like sign convey: This squiggly emblem symbolizes the meandering path that is often undertaken when seeking out information, emphasizing the journey, as well as the beginning and ending points. Hence our motto: "your journey starts here."

Interested in learning more about the hobo lifestyle? Here are some sources for you to check out:

• If you’re wanting a historical or first person perspective of this time in America, we have plenty of books, including: Done and Been: Steel Rail Chronicles of American Hobos by one Gypsy Moon.
• I would be remiss not to include some folk heroes who spent time on the rails, including Woody Guthrie’s autobiography Bound for Glory, or Wallace Stegner’s novel Joe Hill.
• If you want to learn the origins of such phrases as "chicken feed" (meaning "small change") or "angle," then check out the reference book we have in our Humanities collection entitled American Tramp and Underworld Slang by Godfrey Irwin. Not only will it have you speaking like an old-timey hobo, but it includes lyrics to tramp songs!
• Jack Black’s You Can't Win focuses on the darker element of the vagabond lifestyle, and was heralded by William S. Burroughs as an inspiration.
• Here is a nice article over at Vice Magazine about the state of American hobos today.
• Also, if you get a chance, check out the Bill Daniel’s documentary Who is Bozo Texino?

For more than 20 years Stan "the Fan" Charles has kept his finger on the pulse of local Baltimore sports. The Ravens, the Orioles, the Terps, he's covered them all. Currently he is the publisher of the immensely popular monthly publication PressBox and host of the weekend sports talk show PressBox on ABC2.

On Wednesday, March 13 at 4:30pm, Stan will speak at the Brooklyn Branch.

Stan will share his many years of experience in sports journalism and give tips on breaking into the exciting business of covering professional and school sports, addressing the profession as it applies to radio, TV, print, and the Web.

Curious about Sports Journalism?
Since the early days when Stan the Fan began broadcasting from an AM radio station, sports journalism has evolved into a 24/7 profession with media saturation covering every square inch of the globe. Working in this highly competitive field can mean blogging, broadcasting, writing for print media, or even capturing that magic moment of sport in a single photograph.

Stan Charles (right) interviews Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos

Sports journalism has come to be considered so integral that universities have created concentration areas for it in their journalism programs. For example the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism is part of the Penn State journalism department. Internships with established news outlets provide valuable experience for budding sports journalists.

As in any profession, it’s important to know what the field is really all about and what is expected of those entering. That’s where Stan Charles comes in; his expertise will provide a realistic glimpse into a fast paced field that is sometimes glamorous as well as gritty.

Of course, there will also be time to get his take on how the O’s will do this season and who will be on the Ravens roster for next year!

Join us for Sports Journalism 101 with Stan Charles on Wednesday, March 13 at 4:30pm at the Brooklyn Branch.

One of the interesting facets of working in a library is the opportunity to discover fascinating books in the stacks. It can be any number of things about a book that initially attract attention, including the title, the author, or the appearance of the book’s cover. Many times, cover art plays a huge role in drawing readers. Such is the case with the exquisite works of photographer Andrew Zuckerman. The plain, white cover with a dramatic image and bold text immediately catch the eye.

Andrew Zuckerman is able to capture vibrant images of his subjects by using his signature photographic technique. In his first book, Creature, Zuckerman features a variety of portraits of animals set against a stark, white background. The resulting images direct the reader’s attention to the animals in the photographs, especially the sharp details and bold colors. The sparse use of text prevents distraction from the images, which are the focus of the book. The combination of these elements make Creature eye-catching and irresistible.

There is also a version of this project for children, Creature ABC. Creature ABC goes through the alphabet with Zuckerman’s photographs of different animals. The book is not laden down with a lot of text, and this makes it easier for young readers to follow. Additionally, bright colors boost the book’s visual appeal to children.

Bird, another of Zuckerman’s works, uses the same concept of Creature, but focuses on birds. Like Creature, each of the birds photographed appear against a white background. Some of the photos capture the birds in flight. At the end of the book, a summary lists each of the birds that appear in the book, and gives a brief bit of information about each animal.

In addition to the books in the library’s collection, Zuckerman has several other works. His works include Wisdom, which features interviews with a variety of people, from Desmond Tutu to Vanessa Redgrave, discussing what their life experiences have taught them, and Flower, a project similar to Creature, but with flowers as his subjects. Take a look at some of Andrew Zuckerman’s works, and information about his current projects, shows, and background.

"Youth services librarianship, a profession whose work centered on selecting and recommending books to young people in school and public libraries, was an established profession. Yet, in 1938, the profession found itself struggling against an upstart medium: comic books."
- Carol L. Tilley, Of Nightingales and Supermen: How Youth Services Librarians Responded to Comics Between the Years 1938 and 1955

Skimming Larry Tye’s new biography Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero (Random House, 2012), I came across a quote that lauded the Pratt Library for its foresight in championing comic books both as a tool for improving young reader's advisory and boosting circulation: "Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore was the first to use Superman to attract kids in 1940, and the technique spread." Intrigued, I decided to investigate the Library’s connection to America’s most enduring superhero, who made his national debut in Action Comics #1 some 75 years ago.

Created by the team of writer Jerry Siegel (based on his 1933 short story "The Reign of the Super-Man") and artist Joe Schuster, Superman debuted in the June 1938 issue of the DC Comics-predecessor National Allied Publication’s Action Comics and became an instant sensation. That first issue quickly sold out its run of 200,000 copies, with the series soon approaching sales of almost 1 million copies per month as Superman became the most popular superhero in America.

By the spring of 1940, Elizabeth Hart, a librarian at Waverly Branch, had become a fan after stumbling upon a "recommended book list" of over 100 children’s classics appearing in Superman Quarterly #4 (Spring 1940). Hart cut out Superman’s book list, added her own "reader's advisory" (a fundamental library service used to suggest titles to readers based on age, reading level, curriculum or interests), and posted it on the library’s bulletin board. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response the list generated among boys and girls alike at Waverly Branch, Hart developed a window-sized poster of Superman, as well as flyers to further publicize the recommendations.

Hart wrote about her promotional experiment in the library’s Staff Reporter newsletter that March (Vol. 7, No. 5, March 1, 1940, which can be found in the Maryland Department). Her article "There's a Giant on the Beach" discussed the popularity of comic books and revealed that her own interest was piqued after observing that "young people frequenting Branch 9 [Waverly Branch] often brought their own copies of Marvel Mystery Comics, Slam-Bang Comics, Amazing Mystery Funnies, etc. to read in the library in preference to our books."

She decided to read some comic books to better understand them and suggested that all librarians should follow her example for a better understanding of the "psychology of the American masses." She recommended "advertising juvenile classics" with the help of the Superman book list and directing young people to the fantasies and adventure works of writers such as Doyle, Wells, and Stevenson. She concluded the article with this resolve: "If we librarians can't keep this giant tied down, we can at least enlist him in our service."

A little more than a week after Hart's article appeared in the Library’s internal newsletter, the Baltimore Evening Sun published a brief article "Superman Does Super Job for Library Circulation," about the library’s experiment.

Baltimore Evening Sun, March 9, 1940
Click to enlarge

"The Enoch Pratt Library enlisted the aid of the Superman today and the man from a distant planet performed a near miracle with his usual dispatch," the Evening Sun reported. A sub-headline added that the Man of Steel’s "recommendation" brought young readers to their "special self."

Assistant librarian Francis St. John told the Sun, "Superman has succeeded in a project wherein the library’s success was limited—he has convinced the library’s young readers that they should read books that the library has been recommending in a select list for young readers."

Although librarians had already been recommending titles like Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island, Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe and Roger Lancelyn Green’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, St. John observed that Superman’s personal "stamp of approval" instantly boosted circulation of these young adult classics. (And, after all, Superman’s biological mother Lara Lor-Van was a librarian-archivist on Krypton, so giving reader’s advisory may well have been in his blood!)

In Carol L. Tilley’s book Of Nightingales and Supermen: How Youth Services Librarians Responded to Comics Between the Years 1938 and 1955, the author speculated that the Pratt Library’s experiment may have motivated DC/Action Comics to develop additional book lists in hopes of other libraries utilizing Superman materials. Regardless, soon other libraries across the nation were undertaking similar trials and experiencing similar boosts in circulation.

One thing is for sure: the Pratt Library's experiment in letting children's reading interests guide reader's advisory lists, rather than the other way around, helped change one of the basic tenets of "youth services" librarians: that kids should be told what to read.

The Pratt Library’s once-radical leadership in this area is now an accepted norm of reader's advisory, a lesson we see in action today as children's and young adult librarians across the nation program Wii events, sponsor anime clubs, and amass graphic novel and manga collections—all guided by the principle of youth interest and appeal factors.

Related Links:

• Library Service to Children in the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 1927-1952 by Elizabeth Hart
• Of Nightingales and Supermen: How Youth Services Librarians Responded to Comics Between the Years 1938 and 1955 by Carol L. Tilley

I can never decide what I like to read better-a series, or a stand-alone book. There are perks and problems with each. My favorite thing about a stand-alone book is that there’s no waiting. You read it, and you immediately know what happens at the end. You don’t have to go find the next book or, horror of horrors, wait for the next book to be published. There’s no years-long, thousands of pages commitment to be made to a stand-alone book. Plus, there’s something exciting about seeing a complete story in one neatly bound package.

The problem with stand-alone books is that there isn’t any more to read, even if you really want there to be. When I read the first Harry Potter book, I didn’t wish for a sequel simply because Harry hadn’t defeated Voldemort yet. I wanted a sequel because I loved Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and I wanted to spend more time with them. My favorite thing about reading a series is getting to spend those years, those thousands of pages, with the same set of characters. Unless I don’t like them. Then I really wish it had just been one book so I hadn’t wasted my time.

My least favorite thing about reading a series is, of course, the suspense. Last October, when I finished reading The Mark of Athena, the third book in Rick Riordan’s Heroes of Olympus series, I felt as though I might go crazy before book 4 was published. And then it will be another wait for book 5. You’d think that reading a new Harry Potter book within 24 hours of its publication and then settling down to wait for a few years for the next volume would have taught me patience, but it hasn’t. I think it’s made me even more anxious. On the bright side, there are many series that are already complete, and the only wait I have with them is however long it takes for my holds to come in at the library.

My recent reads have been a mix of series and stand-alone titles. My favorite stand-alone title so far this year is Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, the story of two British girls during WWII, one a spy and the other a pilot. My other favorite book so far this year is Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman, a fantasy novel about a girl who is uniquely qualified to understand the tension between humans and dragons. Alas, Seraphina is the beginning of a new series, and book two isn’t expected until 2014. I’m glad that Code Name Verity is complete, and I’m glad that I’ll get to read more about Seraphina and her world in a sequel. Both types of reading experiences can be so rewarding.

How about you, readers? Do you prefer series or stand-alone books?

It was amazing to drive up and witness the line (in some cases 2 or 3 people deep) wrapped completely around the building. The Justice was warm, gracious, and personable. I'm looking forward to reading my (autographed) copy of her book.
—Vera Fattah, Manager, Reisterstown Road Branch

Last night, an audience of 900 people packed the Main Hall and Wheeler Auditorium at the Central Library to hear Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor read from her memoir, My Beloved World, and speak about her experiences. Enthusiastic visitors traveled from across the city and surrounding counties, forming a line that wound its way around the block, to see the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice in person and get a signed copy of her book.

Justice Sotomayor shared stories about her journey to becoming the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice, and third woman to ever serve on the Supreme Court. With a candor and intimacy never undertaken by a sitting Justice, her memoir recounts her life from a Bronx housing project to the federal bench, a journey that offers an inspiring testament to her own extraordinary determination and the power of believing in oneself.

The first question of the evening came from an 11-year-old girl named Amanda O'Neil, "When you first became Supreme Court Justice, what went through your mind when you first walked into your new office?"

Listen to Justice Sotomayor's response here:

Last night's event offered the chance to share in the experiences of an incredible, inspiring woman. We will be publishing video excerpts and a full-length audio podcast in the near future. Please follow our YouTube channel and Podcast Page to get them as soon as they are live.

The arrivals and departures of boats make such beautiful subjects for poems, which are always abandoning or landing at places inside ourselves. Think of "Where Go the Boats?" by Robert Louis Stevenson, "Arrival at Santos" by Elizabeth Bishop, "Arrivals, Departures" by Philip Larkin, and "To the Harbormaster" by Frank O'Hara, for example.

When I asked Karen Garthe, a New York-based poet, to share a poem with our blog readers, she picked one inspired by coming-and-going boats. Garthe will return to Baltimore, where she grew up, on March 5, to appear in the Poetry & Conversation series with her one-time teacher, Clarinda Harriss.

About her boat-inspired poem, Garthe writes:

I was living in Gateway Plaza on the Hudson (just north of The Battery) and my window looked out on the North Cove Marina. The World Financial Center presided in headwinds like a throne overall... the river with Jersey on the other side, the apartment buildings, the park benches, all the boats. An architectural fence on one side of the cove is wreathed with Frank O’Hara’s quote:

One need never leave the confines of New York to get all the greenery one wishes.  I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store or some other sign that people do not totally regret life.

Image by wallyg

The marina was filled with extreme yachts, shameless luxury vessels you’d imagine moored at the lips of Dubai. I was fascinated by big boat comings and goings, riveted when captains slipped them in and out of what was only a little squared-off pond. At that time, there were only a few boats for chartering, whereas now—post 9/11—the luxury yachts are mostly gone and everything that remains is for hire.

This poem is from watching boats.

Then, too, I was especially in love with, even preoccupied with Barbara Guest’s poem "An Emphasis Falls on Reality" from her book Fair Realism. CHARTER is my poor homage and my imitation of her poem’s cadence and song.

Here is the poem (click to enlarge):

For more Poetry & Conversation, please join us in the Poe Room March 5 at 6:30. Follow @librarypoems to learn about other poetry events at the Pratt Library, & join the conversation at #PrattPoetry.

In honor of Black History Month, Leonard "Doc" Gibbs, a notable African-American musician, presented the musical program, Drum, Dance and Percussion, at the Forest Park Branch on February 6, 2013. Although not a medical doctor, Doc Gibbs uses his skill and expertise on a variety of percussion instruments with the same grace and precision of a master physician. For 10 years, Doc Gibbs could be seen delivering delightful music on Emeril Live!, a popular cooking show with Emeril Lagasse, on The Food Network.

Kalimba
Image: Wiki Commons

The Forest Park Branch was honored to be one of four branches, along with the Reisterstown Road Branch (featured on Pratt Chat last week), who hosted an all-around-the-world trip through the sharing of music and various percussion instruments. Doc took us to various places on this journey. We went from the southeastern Asian country of Thailand to Switzerland in central Europe, and then down to the eastern South American country of Brazil, and finally, onto the shores of West Africa in Guinea, and a little further inland, to Mali. Just as a doctor cares for his patients and gives medical advice, Doc never let his audience down as he shared the sound and sometimes unusual names of the various instruments.

Hang Instrument Family
Image: Wiki Commons

For example, he played an instrument from Brazil called a "hang," which is a steel drum that he equated to a "George Foreman grill." Another interesting instrument was the "cuica." This instrument gives a high-pitched squeaky sound. Doc also demonstrated the "kalimba." He related the playing of this instrument to texting on a smartphone. Doc said the only difference between the two would be that with the kalimba "you have to use your mind and spirit to create a melody in your heart."

For a couple of hours, the customers, mostly African-American youth, of the Forest Park Branch imagined themselves on a musical trip filled with the sounds of far away places that they may never see. They were not only able to hear Doc play the percussion instruments, but he also invited them to play, sing, dance, and learn. Sometimes we do not like to listen to our doctor’s orders, however, this night, all listened, and listened well to Doc Gibbs!

Check out this video from the Doc Gibbs' performance at Forest Park Branch:

Why are women in the Bible such a rich subject for contemporary female poets? What draws Linda Pastan to Eve, Jo Shapcott to Noah's wife, Wislawa Szymborska to Lot's wife, Mary Szybist to Mary? Perhaps it's the space the Bible leaves around these characters, in which imagination can flower. Perhaps it's the wish to give voice to quiet ancestors, or the drive to make something ho-hum a surprise.

All this ran through my head when Clarinda Harriss sent me an email the other day. She will join Karen Garthe for a Poetry & Conversation reading on March 5, and I invited her to send me a poem for the blog readers. She sent this:

Blasphemy is the Child of Faith and Doubt

    1. Eve Stands at the Bureau Mirror

holding a smaller mirror.  Views her spine,
so scoliated she has only one real hip.
Turns, count her ribs down each side.
Always the same number : one short
on the left.   Her old man—thin, pale,
bent as the bone that made him—now
long gone, she ponders pros and cons
of setting the story straight.   Her reptile
memory glides behind her eyes.  Who
would  believe a word she says?

    2. Lilith Discusses Her Impending Divorce

"He was big and dull.   A  hulking child.  Always
pointing at things, crowing the silly names
he made up.  
Look at me! I  have been folded
in the black wings of Lucifer, I have felt all
his silky tongues.   What could I feel for a
for a foolish creature who prattled 'pussy,'
giggled 'tits'?   Who wanted lots of 'kids'?  Yes,
he called them kids.   Finally I called on God,
my lawyer:   'I want out! Let him marry
that blond doxy who gave You (oh, don’t
imagine I don’t know) her body once, to do
with as you liked.  Hell, let him have the house.'"

    3. Magdalene Admires Her Old Man’s Body

"It was risky to marry a second Jew after
the first hurled himself under iron wheels—
history, politics, fate, and faith.  Thanks,
my comfortable dear, for only minor
terrors—bankruptcy, high blood pressure,  
your mother’s fat (she should rest in peace).
Thanks for taking after your father, all brain
and tough muscle.   I mean God the Lawyer
who fathered us all.   Your lean brawn
is your birthright, I suppose.  But you both
know possession in perpetuity is outlawed
in most States.  So, old man, old dear, you
must have earned your body’s beauty.
Were you munificent?  Did you hug lepers,
rescue desperate wives from stony death?  
Give your goods to the poor before we met?
Were you a Jew as good as Christ? I see
my Christ, my brooding boy, my first love,
in your length of limb, the Jacob’s ladder
of your ribs. Oh, you ivory Jesus, you
antique piece of work lying cruciform
beside me in our cozy bed, can you see me
as I saw myself: begger, long-haired whore,
kneeling at bony feet.to wash or kiss them?
Saint me.  Come to me in a burning bush."

Here are Clarinda Harriss's comments on her poem:

People have commented on my "courage" in writing and publishing this poem. I'm grateful but not sure where courage comes in; fact is, I've always been certain that Jesus had a wife AND that I knew exactly who she was.

Mary Magdalene has been a favorite figure in my life ever since I came across her in a very old Bible Story Book whose glorious black-and-white illustrations had been colored in with poster paint by my mother when she was a very young child. She lavished her most passionate coloring on Mary Magdalene and her long, long, foot-washing hair.

The courage may in lie in starting off with a very personal aspect of Eve: scoliosis. My backbone looks just like the new photos of Richard III's, and so does "my" Eve's in the poem.

Looking for more Poetry & Conversation? Come hear Clarinda Harriss & Karen Garthe on March 5 in the Poe Room at the Central Library at 6:30pm.

My job in Collection Managment is a "behind the scenes" assignment. My usual work involves websites and spreadsheets. A bright spot in my work week is the time I spend working at the Information Desk in the Business, Science, and Technology Department at the Central Library.

The BST desk is always interesting. Questions range over a wide range of subjects. They cover Psychology, Health, Medicine, Small Business, Big Business, Business plans, Computers, All Sciences, Engineering, Building, Cooking, Gardening, Job Hunting, Test Preparation Books and all sports—including chess.

Finding the answers doesn't always involve books. BST provides 2-hour job-hunting computers, research computers, and access to databases. Recommending databases, recommending websites and even troubleshooting equipment are included in the job. My turn at the desk is never routine.

Recently a customer asked me to help with a tough problem. She needed to take an online exam, but had not had a chance to reserve a computer center computer in advance. It seemed like all the computers in the whole library were reserved. Was there anything we could do to help? Fortunately, Pratt's Central Library loans laptops for in house use. I was happy to guide her the circulation desk. The customer borrowed a Pratt Laptop, then she found a desk in the comfortable laptop lounge. She had wireless Internet access to take the test in a comfortable place with no time limit. Another win at Pratt Library!

See images of our comfortable laptop lounge in this slideshow from our Flickr stream:

Last Tuesday (February 12) was Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, and in celebration we decided we wanted to try something new. The Library has always been lucky enough to have gracious supporters, and over the years they’ve given us some very cool things. One gift in particular fit perfectly with Lincoln’s birthday; back in 1940, Mrs. William F. Bevan donated an original presidential appointment signed by Abraham Lincoln.

One of the top perks of working in Special Collections is the opportunities I get to actually touch history. It’s a privilege to be able to get this close, and to help others get close, to a document that actually crossed the desk of one of our greatest presidents, something that was actually in his hands. It’s what people mean, I guess, by bringing history alive. The actual original stuff of history makes it real, especially if you’re only kind of interested in it. For example, to me, history is the ancient Greeks and the Romans. I love them. I love the period, the philosophy, how radically different life was to them. I’ll read almost anything about them. But other time periods aren’t quite as real to me. That’s where primary sources make the difference.

I can’t say I’m overly fascinated by the Civil War period beyond its obvious and undeniable importance, but I also can’t deny the amazing moment I experience when I realize this document must have been in Lincoln’s hand less than a month after he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, or perhaps just moments after thinking of the terrible costs of the war. Looking at the real thing brings all that to me in a moment.

I’d love to be able to exhibit this longer, but because of the age and nature of the paper it’s really best to limit its exposure. In order to exhibit a document like this we had to protect it from the light as much as possible. The Main Hall in the Central Library has enormous skylights, so we knew we would have to limit the display to one day; but even for that short a period of time it needed to be properly kept. So here’s a hearty thanks to Martha Edgerton who was able to use a frame with ultra violet (UV) protection and build a wonderful box for its exhibition. I think it came off nicely.

The Reisterstown Road Branch Library is excited to be hosting a plethora of programs for the month of February in celebration of Black History Month. On February 5, 2013 local performing artist Doc Gibbs stopped by the branch to teach us on all things African Drum, Dance, and Percussion. The show that Mr. Gibbs and his ensemble presented was engaging, interactive, and kept rhythmic sounds of Africa flowing throughout the library. Mr. Gibbs took us on a journey through music and how it has traveled out of Africa to share its vibrant sounds with the world.

The excitement of the audience intertwined with the strong sounds of the percussion reminded us why it is important to celebrate the rich heritage of the African American race. Join us for more programming that will empower, enrich, and enhance the quality of your library experience.

Many of us associate words like “root canal,” “cavity,” “crown,” and “extraction” with our teeth and going to the dentist. While none of these things are particularly pleasant, many are preventable. Keeping a healthy mouth starts when children are very young. Did you know that as soon as a baby has teeth, parents should start to brush them?

And while we don’t often associate our teeth or the dentist with a visit to our local library (thankfully!), Maryland’s Public Libraries have teamed up with the Maryland Dental Action Coalition’s Oral Health Learning Alliance to bring tooth tips to storytimes.

During February, all Pratt Library locations will be celebrating National Children’s Dental Health Month with a storytime all about brushing your teeth and oral healthcare. Check in with your local library for more information.

In the meantime, you can get information about how to brush your teeth along with free activity sheets like this maze all from the American Dental Association. You can also have fun exploring teeth in The Tooth Book: A Guide to Healthy Teeth and Gums by Edward Miller. Who knew that barbers removed rotten teeth in the 1200s? Curious to see what a real X-ray of a tooth with a cavity looks like? This book has it all!

While you’re brushing your teeth at night, you can always sing this classic Raffi song “Brush Your Teeth" (you can check out the CD, too!).

Happy Reading and Happy Brushing!

"Well, girls, it is all settled, we have decided to leave Steventon in such a week and go to Bath."
—Jane Austen's mother to her daughters Jane and Cassandra

Family lore holds that Jane Austen learned of her parents’ decision to leave their home and move to Bath with this abrupt announcement. Since Jane Austen set two of her novels (Northanger Abbey and Persuasion) in the city, and remains one of Bath’s most famous residents, modern-day readers might assume that she received this news in a favorable light. However, multiple sources suggest that she fainted.

Jane’s father, George Austen, an Oxford-educated clergyman, had been rector in several country parishes, including Steventon, which had been the Austen family home for more than thirty years. In 1800, he announced his plan to retire, and leave both the Steventon home and accompanying parish to his son James and his daughter-in-law Mary. George, his wife, and unmarried daughters Jane and Cassandra, would relocate to a rented house in Bath.

Jane was devastated. Regardless of whether she fainted, her parents’ abrupt decision thrust her into circumstances over which she had no influence or input. These plans not only required leaving the only home she had ever known, but also parting with many treasured family possessions; Austen biographer Claire Tomalin writes that these items included "her father’s library of 500 volumes, which he intended to sell, along with most of the furniture, the piano on which Jane had learnt, practiced and played over the years, and ‘a large collection of music.’" In addition to the physical loss, Jane also endured the emotional impact of "watching the breaking up of everything familiar and seeing what was left eagerly taken over."

As for Bath itself, Tomalin writes that "[Jane] had enjoyed [the city] as a visitor and used it as a writer, but she had no wish at all to live there." The main attraction at Bath—a small city located about one hundred and twenty miles west of London—and the impetus behind the Austens’ decision to retire there, is its natural hot springs, which has enticed visitors since prehistoric times. According to legend, King Bladud, Trojan refugee and the father of King Lear, first took note of the area's healing properties about 3000 years ago when a jaunt through the muddy swamps cured his pigs of leprosy. Lonely Planet England reports that the Romans established the town of Aquae Sulis in AD 44, along with the existing bath complex. Over the next several centuries, "Roman patricians would gather to immerse themselves, drink the mineral waters, and socialize."

After the Romans left the area, the spas were abandoned until the late 18th century when bathing became in vogue. During this period, residents constructed the existing Georgian building and the Pump Room, which was built next to the Roman Baths between 1792 and 1796 as "a rendezvous for members of the 18th-century and 19th-century Bath society." It was in this expansive setting where Northanger Abbey’s Catherine Moreland and Mrs. Allen "paraded up and down for an hour, looking at everybody and speaking to no one."

Today, the space in the Pump Room isn’t exactly conducive to parading up and down, as it serves as a place to entertain visitors with tea and live music. And for 50p (roughly equivalent to $1 US) you may take a sample of the allegedly restorative mineral water, which Fodor’s England describes as "fairly vile." Charles Dickens, who tried the mineral water during his visit to Bath, included a more colorful description--"a very strong flavour o' warm flat irons"--in The Pickwick Papers. Contemporary visitors compare the taste to "blood" or "old pennies," though others claim that the flavor wasn’t as offensive as they thought it would be. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I tried it during my visit in 2005, but the pungent, sulfurous steam rising from the Roman Baths themselves ought to have tipped me off. (Imagine drinking hot sea water that had boiled in a rusty can.)

Bath’s official tourism website offers a more modest assessment of the water—"it has a rather unusual taste." Most visitors, however, are content to glimpse the water in the Roman Baths—the "best-preserved ancient Roman spas in the world"—at a comfortable distance, and admire the Georgian architecture, which consists of pale buff-colored local stones that often give off the same "white glare" that Anne Elliot experienced in Persuasion.

The first view of Bath in fine weather does not answer my expectations; I think I see more distinctly through rain. The sun was got behind everything, and the appearance of the place from the top of Kingsdown was all vapour, shadow, smoke and confusion.
—Jane Austen in a letter to her sister, Cassandra

Another Austen biographer, Valerie Grosvenor Myer, notes that when the Austens arrived in Bath in 1801, "[they] had great difficulty in finding a comfortable place to live" as "the fashionable streets such as the Royal Crescent and the Circus were well beyond their means." Although the family eventually found a suitable house to rent, Jane herself "was soon bored and irritable" with the town. Even the task of having gowns made for dances in the Upper Rooms held little appeal.

There was more to Jane’s gloomy frame of mind than mere melancholy over the move. The Austen family had arrived in Bath when the city was undergoing a dramatic shift in the social dynamic: "The public assemblies which Jane had attended as a girl, which Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey enjoyed, were no longer smart places to see and be seen." By 1801, Brighton had supplanted Bath as the destination of choice among the smart set, and the majority of those who remained in Bath consisted of the elderly and infirm. Adding to the ignominy of Jane’s circumstances was the fact that Bath "was not only an old people’s pleasure ground but also a place for husband-hunting." Claire Tomalin writes that Jane and Cassandra, who were both unmarried, must have "[felt] a stinging sense of humiliation at any idea of being paraded in the marriage market."

Jane never wallowed or outwardly indulged in her misery; her letters conveyed a sense of duty, and "much keeping up of spirits" during this period. Despite all appearances to the contrary, however, her depression was severe enough to have had an impact on her literary productivity. In the years leading up to the Austen family's departure from Steventon, Jane had written three novels. Although her years in Bath undoubtedly provided a store of experiences and observations to use in future writings, she was unable to sustain her previous momentum and did not produce any published work during this period.

Shortly after George Austen's death in 1805, his widow and daughters left Bath and shared Jane's brother's home in Southampton. In 1809, they moved to a quiet cottage in Chawton village, which became Jane's home for the next eight years, until her death in 1817. At Chawton, she regained a sense of peace and productivity as a writer—in addition to resuming her work on Sense and Sensibility, she penned Mansfield Park, and also began revising an earlier work called First Impressions. This novel, which would become Austen’s most famous work, was published under the title of Pride and Prejudice 200 years ago, on January 28, 1813.

For more about the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice, Fodor's Travel Blog has a suggested travel itinerary. Check out the Pratt Library catalog for Jane Austen's other works and biographies.

Your name?
Ellie Luchinsky

Your age?
58

Your local branch?
Central Library

Your favorite spot in the library?
A single favorite spot? There are so many! I'll have to go with the Children's Department, with the fish pond, the fireplace, the open book hassock, and the kids running around.

What are you currently reading?
I never read only one book at a time. Right now at home I'm reading Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, which I've never read before. At work on my lunch break I'm reading The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson. I carry a Kindle in my purse for all other time I can grab to read, and there I'm re-reading Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
Flim Flam! The Truth about Unicorns, Parapsychology, and Other Delusions by James "The Amazing" Randi. It's a fun introduction to critical thinking by a magician who writes like a curmudgeon and is actually one of the sweetest people I've ever met.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman. I thought it would focus more on his accomplishments in the lab than it did.

What are your job title and location?
Department Manager, Humanities Department

What does your job entail?
I over see the work in the department, supervise the staff, approve the book and audio orders each month, help customers, answer all sorts of questions, fascinating and otherwise, and work together with other managers.

Describe your typical workday:
I spend two to four hours a day helping customers by answering reference questions, finding books and audios, and aiding in computer use. At other times, I check on schedules, work on bringing the collection up to date, and work with other managers to help keep this library at the top of the field.

Describe up to three things you like about working in the library:
I love working with the public. It's an adventure every day, and you never know what will happen next.

I work with some amazing people. It's like working in a candy store.

Whenever I think of something I want to read, it's right there for me!

Watch a video tour of the Humanities Department with Ellie Luchinsky.

Even in these days of e-books and electronic communication, the Pratt Library continues to thrive as a set of lovely, historic buildings where people encounter one another face to face. Take the upcoming Poetry & Conversation event, for example. If you are in the old-fashioned Poe Room of the Central Library on Tuesday, February 12, you will hear poets Adam Robinson and Chris Mason read and comment on their work.

The value of real places is a theme in Chris Mason's forthcoming book, Where To From Out, to be published by Furniture Press in April 2013. The book consists of a series of poems, he told me in an email:

Each poem in the series has its title taken from a place which is somehow important to me. There is at least one poem for each letter of the alphabet, and they are ordered alphabetically. Many of them are somewhat autobiographical and many of the poems that are not autobiographical deal with historical or scientific time. So it's like an x-y axis of places on the x-axis and time on the y-axis. All of them are long and skinny, having lines alternating between 3 and 5 syllables. I like to write in lines with a fixed number of syllables.

I wrote at least one for each letter of the alphabet because it forced me to write about a lot of places I wouldn't have otherwise thought of. The nice thing about a project like this with a structure is that you get to keep writing poems for a long time. It helps you generate new work.

Here's one of the poems, inspired by the Pratt's neighbor, Normals Books and Records:

Normals Books and Records
  425 E. 31th St.
    Baltimore
      Maryland

     Filling in
 at register so
     Rupert can
go to Post Office,
     see used book
just brought in – book of
     my poems
 I gave girl I liked
     thirty years
back – inscribed “Ill-met
     by moonlight
proud Titania”.
     Coffee stains,
finger-smudge,  corners
     of pages
curling, spine bloated
     or spine cracked,
books sent out come back
     older.     The
flautist performing
     at Normals
Books and Records, her
     notes altered
electronically,
     is daughter
of director of
     J. S. Bach
Society my
     mother in
Minneapolis
     sang Bach in,
their notes in moonlight
     now dispersed.
Each book on shelf at
     Normals once
lay open, face down,
     on someone’s
stomach, half-asleep,
     half-mouthing
words just read to self.

Ready for more Poetry & Conversation? Come to the Poe Room on February 12 at 6:30 p.m.
 

On February 12, 2013, Lincoln's 204th birthday, the Enoch Pratt Free Library is displaying a Presidential Appointment signed by Abraham Lincoln in the Main Hall of the Central Library. The display will only be available only for one day due to the sensitivity of the document to light.

The document is the appointment of Walter Graham of New Jersey as Consul of the United States of America at Cape Town, January 19, 1863. It was signed by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward. This was a gift to the Pratt Library by Mrs. William F. Bevan in September of 1940.

Walter Graham was a native of Scotland and a naturalized citizen of the United States. He served as Consul of the United States to Cape Town, South Africa from 1863 to approximately 1866.

The Lincoln document is part of the Pratt Library’s Special Collections Department. Special Collections provides access to the Library's unique and historically significant documents, rare books, and ephemera. You can find manuscripts, prints, photographs, posters, post cards, greeting cards, 19th century travel books, the history of wine and beer, the history of printing and lots more.

On February 3, the Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers. The Pratt Library placed a bet with the San Francisco Public Library that the library in the losing city would have to stage a performance of a poem by a famous poet from the winning city while wearing the winning team's jersey.

In an excellent show of sportsmanship, San Francisco Public Library City Librarian Luis Herrera recited Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" in the SFPL atrium, wearing a Raven's jersey (#52 for Ray Lewis!). With each "Quoth the Raven," he was joined on stage by additional staff members chiming in, "Nevermore!" We love all the details: from everyone reading "The Raven" on purple paper, a Raven stuffed toy, and even one member member wearing a Raven tie.

Thank you to our friends and colleagues at San Francisco Public Library! We are all indeed winners with such proud literary traditions in both cities.

If the had Ravens lost, Pratt Library CEO Carla Hayden would have had to recite George Sterling's "The Cool, Grey City of Love" in the Central Library Main Hall wearing a 49ers jersey.

Watch the video of SFPL's reading on YouTube:

It's the perfect pre-Valentine's Day evening event for anyone in a romance with language: Poetry & Conversation on Tuesday, February 12. Reading from their poems and answering our questions, Adam Robinson & Chris Mason will remind us of the magic that can be worked by words.

In an advance Q&A, Adam Robinson talked about some of his poetic loves.

What book are you reading now?
Right now I'm rereading Matthew Savoca's "I Don't Know," I Said for the fourth (fifth?) time. It's a great novel about America and these two sad and adventurous 20-somethings. I'm putting it out in April through my press, Publishing Genius. I'm going through the advance copy and finding little bitty things to improve. It's a lot of fun.

What three books would you take to a desert island?
Such a hard question. I have to say the Bible, so really I only have two choices. I guess I could finally finish Infinite Jest. People say that's pretty good. And then, since it's been sitting next to me for a month, and since I think it would go really well with the Bible, my third book would be the new BOA Editions Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton.

What is one poem by someone else that you wish you had written?
I keep going back to James Wright's poem "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm." It is flat but it is elegant, and the last line makes it necessary to go back and rethink the whole poem, or to be grandiose the whole world. (Don't watch this video. It's too weird. Just listen to it.)

What recently published or forthcoming books do you recommend?
Aside from that massive Lucille Clifton collection, lovers of poetry should check out Emily Toder's new book Science (from Coconut Books). It's a brisk and surprising collection. Here's the first poem, "The Problem of Water."

Do you have a favorite line of poetry or sentence from a poem?
There's a title by local writer Megan McShea that's been going through my head for months. It's "Crap Collapse on the Slow Channel." I mean, come on. It's total wow, every line in that poem. Megan writes the sort of writing I don't want to write about with actual words. Check this out, from "Short for Halpert": "Hal got a mushy schmutz stuck under his floorboards, but he bungled a bottle not hid too good, realizing once he done it how it hadn't just been his only chance, but his right hand, wasted fudge rumpled under an Alka-Seltzer. I'm a pigeon! I'm a pigeon! called one of the kids..." Her book, A Mountain City of Toad Splendor, is coming out on March 19.

Please share a poem with our readers.

Rapture

My childhood home would fall from the blue
Sky with my childhood dog inside it but
My third apartment would just hang there that
Dull apartment would bang poof and fwip away to

My roommates who would leap and free
Fall all their limbs awave afrantic their
Hands smelling like sandwiches their
Milk spilling from glasses corking through that blue

Sky the sentence "Here's one for the mouth stomach" would
Fall our vacation in China would wind a giddy path down
Into our sad memories of sad memorials and
My inability to say anything in Chinese like

Cesuo, which means toilet
sezwo, chesoo I cannot say it

When my childhood house fell from the sky my
Childhood dog ran through the rooms yelping my
Mother trilled The William Tell Overture and
We pathed down the sky with grace tumbling

For more Poetry & Conversation, come to the Poe Room of the Central Library on February 12 at 6:30 p.m.

Follow Adam Robinson @PubGen, & follow @librarypoems for updates about poetry at the Pratt Library. Join the conversation at #PrattPoetry.

The first time I heard of Jane Austen, I was twelve years old. It was 1996, and the famous Pride and Prejudice miniseries starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth had just aired for the first time on American television. My older sister, who had cable, recorded all six episodes of the show for us with her VCR, and we watched them, one hour at a time. I had no familiarity with the story, and I desperately wanted to know what happened. From the very beginning, I loved Elizabeth, and therefore I hated Darcy (I couldn’t even find him attractive, in spite of the fact that he was played by Colin Firth). I felt everything that Lizzie felt, so over the course of those six episodes, my feelings changed a lot. Almost immediately after we finished the miniseries, I rushed to the local library and got the book, which promptly became one of my favorites. I’ve reread it many times in the years since, and to this day it remains a joy to read.

Pride and Prejudice was originally published in 1813. It wasn’t Jane Austen’s first book (that would be Sense and Sensibility), but it is the best known and most popular of her six finished novels. She initially wrote the book, which she titled First Impressions, from 1796-1797. Her father tried unsuccessfully to have it published in 1797. Fourteen years later, in 1811, Jane Austen revised First Impressions into Pride and Prejudice, the book we know and love today. It was so popular that a second edition was published less than a year after the first.

Now, 200 years after Pride and Prejudice was first published, it continues to capture the hearts and imaginations of people everywhere. Aside from the continued popularity of the original book, there are countless adaptations, continuations, re-imaginings, and homages, from Shannon Hale’s Austenland, about a woman obsessed with Colin Firth’s portrayal of Mr. Darcy, to Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood style adaptation, to Seth Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, to The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a web series that has modern-day Lizzie Bennet narrating her own story in a series of vlogs. 

Here at Pratt, we’ll be celebrating the 200^th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice with a series of blog posts as well as several events, including a book discussion at the Govans Branch on January 31 and a lecture by Jane Austen scholar Dr. Juliette Wells of Goucher College on February 21 at the Light Street Branch. Whether you’re a first-time reader of Pride and Prejudice or a life-long fan, this anniversary is the perfect time to celebrate the extraordinary novel and the woman who wrote it.

Your name?
Patrick Joust

Your age?
35

Your local branch?
Central Library

Your favorite spot in the library?
The roof... It's nothing especially exciting, it's just the roof, but I like high and airy spaces.

What are you currently reading?
Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think by George Lakoff.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It's a large Russian novel, which makes it intimidating from the start, but this book somehow manages to cover most of the basic philosophical questions behind human existence and behavior. There's some heavy stuff in it, for sure, but it's also humorous and surprisingly accessible for something written in the 19th century. I've read it twice (the Andrew R. MacAndrew translation/Bantam Classics edition), but it's been a few years, so I'd love to read it again in full sometime in the next year. A fellow librarian introduced me to the Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear translation. I've read a few sections and I've been very impressed.

In addition to being a librarian, I'm also a photographer. One book that I've found especially inspiring is Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, which was published to coincide with a retrospective of Frank's work. What I like most about the book, and the exhibition, was the emphasis on process, particularly editing. Editing is a difficult skill to master, but something that anyone interested in photography should explore. While this book is by no means instructional, I found the description of Frank's editing process interesting and useful.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
I'm a huge fan of the work of Haruki Murakami, but I found myself getting bogged down in his newest book 1Q84. The crazy thing is that I'm actually only 50 pages from the end. I'm reluctant to criticize the work itself. I found myself fully engaged for most of it, in much the same way as I have with his other books, but I found myself wanting to read something new after a while. I've read just about everything Murakami's written, that has been translated or written in English, so I know I'll get through those last 50 pages at some point, but now I need to go back further in order to re-immerse myself in his universe.

What are your job title and location?
Librarian, Information Services Department (Central Library)

What does your job entail?
Information Services is kind of a catch all department for the whole library. It's a fun place to work because it allows me to do a lot of different activities throughout the day. I answer questions through our Telephone Reference Service and Maryland AskUsNow, but you can also find me in the Public Computer Center helping people out with job applications, resumes, etc. I also manage the computer class program at Central in which I, along with other instructors in my department, typically teach 15 to 20 sessions per month on anything from basic computer skills (Intro to Computers, Intro to Windows) to how to use the Microsoft Office Suite as well as classes on how to edit and manage digital photos.

Describe your typical workday:
A great thing about my job is that it's never typical. I can be working throughout the building at any given time, but I almost always have a few hours of reference work in which just about any kind of question may be asked. I'm also often spending time doing some kind of instruction and/or developing/improving class curriculum.

Describe up to three things you like about working in the library:
I like the fact that it's a place where anyone can go to pursue a whole range of interests, whether for education, entertainment or workforce development. Enoch Pratt is truly a public library where you can do just about anything you want and it's great to work in an environment that supports that. I also enjoy my colleagues who have a variety of backgrounds and interests and from whom I've learned a great deal over the last 7 years. Above all, I enjoy working with the diverse group of patrons that come to the library in person or virtually, everyday. I love being able to help someone get through a few humps in their job application process so that they can achieve success. I also really enjoy the learning environment in which I uncover something new by researching a good answer for a patron's question.

There are some things I immediately and pleasantly associate with childhood, including: my first crush; collecting and reading comics; playing baseball until after dark; and the wonder of exploring the library. However, there are some things that don’t bode too well with a carefree childhood, namely, fines on a library card. In many ways, a youth’s library card is a rite of passage, maybe even a first step, into the world of responsibility; but as Spider-man taught us, "with great power comes great responsibility," and so it is with a library card.

Fines on a youth’s library card—usually acquired through not returning, or losing an item—are the Wicked Witch, the Lord Voldemort, and the Venom to a child’s heroic endeavors into the library. They’re a real bummer—the shard of troll-mirror lodged in the eye, freezing the hearts and minds of tomorrow’s leaders, keeping them from being able to check out material and have full use of the library. Is there no way to vanquish this obstacle? Thankfully, yes, there is, with the Read Down Fines program recently launched at the Pratt Library. And like all good hero stories, the power resides in the actions of the youth themselves.

Throughout 2013, children and youth up to 17 years old can come in to their local Pratt Library branch, check-in with their librarian, or attend a Read Down Fines event, crack a book, and start reading down their fines by earning Pratt Bucks, which they can then apply like real cash to their fines at the Circulation Desk. Children 12 and under earn one Pratt Buck for every 15 minutes of supervised reading time, and teens ages 13 to 17 earn one Pratt Buck for every 30 minutes. (Sorry, but you can’t read and gain Pratt Bucks towards a surplus savings to swim in like Scrooge McDuck or to apply to future fines—you can only apply them to fines already on your card.)

Read Down Fines is a way to empower kids to work towards a tangible goal through the act of reading, and is another way of fostering responsibility. As Selma, the head Children’s Librarian at the Central Library, explains: "it’s important for kids to find value in their own reading," and this is another way (figuratively & literally) for them to do so. Another great aspect of this program is that homework counts towards the Pratt Bucks; also, reading magazines, as well as listening to audiobooks counts. Basically, you just need to show up and take in a book in some form.

This initiative is only going through 2013, so be sure to check out when your library is having a Read Down Fines event, or come to the Central Library’s next one on Saturday, February 16 at 2 p.m. Unless you wind up with an awesome job, kids, this may be the only time where reading can earn you more than just knowledge!

We are celebrating along with the great City of Baltimore the Super Bowl win of our home town team, the Baltimore Ravens!

Pratt Library staff members and patrons alike are wearing their purple shirts with pride today. We are especially beaming because we won our Super Bowl bet with our dear colleagues at the San Francisco Public Library.

Now San Francisco Public Library City Librarian Luis Herrera will have to recite Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Raven" in the atrium of the SFPL Main Library wearing a Ravens jersey. They also have to post it on YouTube.

"Congratulations to the Baltimore Ravens, my dear friend Carla and the Enoch Pratt Free Library," said Herrera. "A great Super Bowl, two great libraries and two super teams. I'll be looking for a Ravens jersey and looking forward to a fine reading of Edgar Allan Poe's classic poem. We're all winners with such great literary traditions in both Baltimore and San Francisco!"

If the had Ravens lost, Pratt Library CEO Carla Hayden would have had to recite George Sterling’s "The Cool, Grey City of Love" in the Central Library Main Hall wearing a 49ers jersey.

We are coordinating the date and time with SFPL when Luis Herrera will be reciting "The Raven" in their atrium. We can't wait to see him sporting a Ravens jersey. Should he go for a Ray Lewis jersey? Or Flacco or Rice?

Recently, the New York Times released their 46 recommended travel destinations for 2013. At first glance, the featured activities on this list are as varied as the locations in question. Descriptions boast attractions and amusements that range from brand-new museums and medieval taverns to casinos, hiking trails, and dining options in regions around the world.

One location in particular stands out. Although Ireland is not an uncommon travel destination for American tourists, this country has made the New York Times' list because of a year-long program called The Gathering. According to the website, the affair will "showcase and share the very best of Irish culture, tradition, business, sport, fighting spirit and the uniquely Irish sense of fun." Everyone who is interested in Ireland and Irish culture is welcome to partake, but organizers are especially enthusiastic about reaching the "70 million people worldwide [who] claim Irish ancestry"—which runs the gamut of "those who have moved away, their relatives, friends and descendants"—and "[inviting] them home."

As a Social Science and History librarian, I find that the subject of Ireland never slips off my radar. Customers who wish to undertake either physical or intellectual journeys regularly request materials on Irish history, travel guides, and genealogy. Regardless of whether programs like The Gathering inspire you to plan a trip to Ireland, or to read about Ireland and the Irish American experience, the Pratt Library has a number of resources that may be of interest.

Newer titles in our collection about Irish History and Irish Americans include The Irish Way: Becoming American in the Multiethnic City, Looking for Jimmy: a Search for Irish America, The Irish-American in Popular Culture, 1945-2000, Irish Immigrants, and The Irish Americans: a History, as well as classics such as The Course of Irish History and The Story of the Irish Race.

Popular family history items include A Genealogist’s Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors, Tracing Your Irish Ancestors, and Finding Your Irish Ancestors: A Beginner’s Guide. Family historians may also wish to browse the records of Ellis Island, which has digitized all passenger manifests generated during the years the facility operated as an immigrant processing center. You can also read about Annie Moore, a fifteen year-old Irish girl who earned the distinction of being the first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island.

Finally, don’t forget to check out the items in our travel collection, which includes copies of Lonely Planet Ireland, Rick Steves’ Ireland, and Fodor’s Ireland 2011, as well as a number of Dublin city guides.

The Oscars will not air on television until Sunday, February 24, but before then you can catch a screening of one of the nominees right here at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Nominated for the best animated feature film for the year 2012, ParaNorman features the story of a young boy who can see and talk to the dead and goes on an adventure to save his town.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library will show ParaNorman in the Central Library, Wheeler Auditorium this Saturday, February 2 starting at 2 p.m. Bring the whole family for this spooktacular flick. As movlic.com and Swank Motion Pictures, Inc. write, "When a small town comes under siege by zombies, who can it call? Only misunderstood local boy Norman, who is able to speak with the dead. In addition to the zombies, he’ll have to take on ghosts, witches and, worst, of all, grown-ups, to save his town from a centuries-old curse."

If you miss the screening this Saturday, make sure to see it at the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch on Monday, April 15 at 5 p.m. or at the Southeast Anchor Library on Saturday, April 6 at 11 a.m.

This 2012 Focus Features film is directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell and the running time is 92 minutes. It is rated PG and features the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Anna Kendrick, Christopher Mitz-Plasse, and a plethora of other Hollywood A-listers.

Watch the trailer for ParaNorman here:

Upcoming Free Family Flicks at the Central Library include:

• Hop, Saturday, March 30, 2013 at 2 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium
• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 2 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium

The Enoch Pratt Free Library has Purple Fever. As the Baltimore Ravens and the San Francisco 49ers get ready to battle it out on the grid iron this Sunday at Super Bowl XLVII, the Pratt Library is joining Ravens Nation as it dares the San Francisco Public Library into a Super Bowl-Library bet.

"It’s going to be a cross country battle of the libraries," said Carla Hayden, Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Here’s the bet:

If the Ravens win on Sunday, San Francisco Public Library City Librarian Luis Herrera will have to recite Edgar Allan Poe’s "The Raven" in the atrium of the SFPL Main Library wearing a Ravens jersey.

If the 49ers win, Pratt Library CEO Carla Hayden will have to recite George Sterling’s "The Cool, Grey City of Love" in the Central Library Main Hall wearing a 49ers jersey.

Whoever loses will also have to video their director reciting the poem and post on YouTube.

"We are confident that the Ravens will win on Sunday and SFPL's Luis Herrera should be shopping for a Ravens jersey now and practicing reciting The Raven," said Hayden. "This bet allows us to support our home town teams, spotlight our library systems and showcase Baltimore and San Francisco's literary side. But we know come Sunday night, purple will prevail."

Your name?
Ellen Dorsey

Your age?
59

Your local branch?
Central Library

Your favorite spot in the library?
The Fine Arts and Music Department

What are you currently reading?
Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
Any book written by Toni Morrison, but particularly The Bluest Eye (1970) because Ms. Morrison wrote this book while she was teaching at Howard University, and she was a single African American mother of two.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
I don't ever want to stop reading the Holy Bible because it's the most wonderful book ever written. It is the Holy Word transferred to man by God's Holy Spirit for man to live and eat by.

What is the last thing you came to the Library to find?
Research information on fashion designing, which is one of my hobbies and special interests.

What is your favorite memory of the Library?
When I was a little girl, I loved coming to the Enoch Pratt Free Library. I was in elementary school and my favorite teacher took my class to the library. I was so excited and in awe of the library as a little girl.

What is one thing you want everyone to know about the Library?
The library is wonderful. It's magical, and has a vast variety of information and knowledge. The library is my peace and sanity.

"Heavens, I recognize the place, I know it!" says Elizabeth Bishop in the middle of one of my favorite poems, as she realizes that a painting by a stranger shows a countryside where she has been in real life. Moments when we see how mundane experience can transform into art are such a pleasure.

This kind of happiness will be free to all takers on January 30, when we welcome Sue Ellen Thompson and Kathleen Hellen for the first event in the 2013 Poetry & Conversation series. These poets will not only share their poems but also answer your questions about how their poems are made.

As a preview, I asked Sue Ellen Thompson to share a poem and some musings on it for Pratt Chat.

The Blue Blanket

Toward the end, my father argued
with my mother over everything:  He wanted
her to eat again.  He wanted her to take

her medicine.  He wanted her
to live.  He argued with her in their bed
at naptime.  He was cold, he said,

tugging at the blanket tangled
in my mother’s wasted limbs.  From the hall
outside their room I listened

as love, caught and fettered, howled
at its captors, gnawing at its own flesh
in its frenzy to escape.  Then I entered

without knocking, freed the blanket
trapped between my mother’s knees and shook
it out once, high above

their bodies’ cursive.  It floated
for a moment, blue as the Italian sky
into which my father flew his bombs

in 1943, blue as the hat I’d bought her
for the winter she would never live
to see.  My father’s agitation eased,

my mother smiled up at me, her face
lucent with gratitude, as the blanket
sifted down on them like earth.

—Sue Ellen Thompson
from The Golden Hour (Autumn House Press, 2006)

Sue Ellen writes:

Sometimes a poem will simply "happen"—as opposed to my having to drag it out of my memory or imagination. Something will occur that strikes me as embodying the essence of poetry: that fleeting moment that reveals so much and that begs to be captured in language.

When my mother was dying of cancer in 2002, and she and my father were settling down for their customary afternoon nap, I heard them bickering over something and went into their bedroom to see if I could help. When I realized they were competing for the warmth of a blanket, and that I could resolve the issue by covering them both—the way they had covered me so many times as a child—I knew immediately that I had just experienced life in the act of becoming a poem. All that was left was the writing.

For more Poetry & Conversation, come to the Poe Room on January 30 at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free and open to all.

The 2013 Youth Media Awards sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) were announced this morning in Seattle, Washington. These prestigious awards given to the best books for children and young adults set the gold standard in literature for young people. If you're curious to learn more about how these awards are selected, you can read Pratt's own Ruth Anne Champion writing about the process and her experience serving on both the Newbery and Caldecott Committees.

If you're like me, you might simply be excited to be able to read these fantastic books. Here are a few of the big award winners:

The Coretta Scott King Award is given to African-American authors and illustrators who communicate the African-American experience.

This year's winner for illustration went to: I, Too, Am America illustrated by Bryan Collier, wiritten by Langston Hughes. You have a chance to meet and hear this year's award-winning illustrator Bryan Collier, when he visits Pratt in February!

This year's author winner went to: Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America by Andrea Davis Pinkney.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Randolph Caldecott Medal which is awarded to outstanding illustrations in a children's book. The medal went to This Is Not My Hat, written and illustrated by Jon Klassen.

The John Newbery Award for distinguished writing for children was awarded to The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate.

The Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal for a nonfiction book for children went to: Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin.

The Michael L. Printz Award for distinguished writing for a young adult audience went to: In Darkness by Nick Lake.

For more information about the different awards and a complete list of winners, you can visit ALA's Youth Media Awards site. Don't forget to click on the hyperlinked book titles to find a copy at your local Pratt branch.

What’s that book with the shiny medal on the cover?

Each year the American Library Association (ALA) presents many awards for distinguished books and media published for children and young adults. The awards range from the oldest, the John Newbery Medal, awarded to an author for distinguished writing since 1922, to the more recently established Theodore Seuss Geisel award for beginning readers, first awarded in 2006. Starting in 1970, the Coretta Scott King Awards have been awarded to African American authors and illustrators who communicate the African American experience. In addition to awards for writing and illustration, the Odyssey Award is for the best audio book and the Andrew Carnegie Medal is for an outstanding video production.

You can see the range and diversity of the awards to be presented on the ALA website.

The 2013 awards will be announced in Seattle, Washington, on Monday, January 28, 2013 at 11:00 AM (Eastern Time). You can be among the first to know the winners by attending the live webcast of the 2013 award announcements at the Central Library in the Children’s Department Night Room. It has been said that this event is the "Academy Awards" of children’s literature. That may be true, but you won’t see any evening gowns; only hundreds of book enthusiasts, many with their bags packed and ready to travel home.

Have you ever wondered how a book gets to be an award winner? Book awards are the consensus of a committee. For each award, a committee is formed by members of the different divisions within the ALA. For the "major" awards, like Newbery and Caldecott, committee members are appointed by division leaders or elected by members. They read and reread hundreds of books throughout the year and share suggestions with each other via electronic communication. In the fall they nominate serious contenders. This becomes their discussion list for the midwinter meeting. They follow a process where they discuss the books, eliminate non-contenders, discuss the books again, eliminate more, and vote until they have a winner. If you are reading this on Friday, January 25 or Saturday, January 26, those committees are deep in that process right now!

Winning authors, illustrators and publishers are called on Sunday or Monday morning, and it’s all a big secret until the Monday morning announcements.

Two awards given by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) are named for Margaret Edwards, a pioneer in Young Adult Services who worked at the Pratt Library for more than 30 years. You can find more information about the awards by following these links:

• Alex Awards
• Margaret A. Edwards Award

The Caldecott Award is for the "most distinguished American picture book." It was first awarded in 1938 and this year’s award will mark the 75th anniversary. There’s no way to guess the winner; I can only wonder if my favorites, like Extra Yarn by Mac Burnett and Sleep like a Tiger by Mary Logue will end up with a shiny medal on the cover. I can't wait to find out!

Ruth Anne was a member of the 2011 Caldecott Committee and the 2005 Newbery Committee.

Among the many changes present at the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch, one of the first people see is the girl on the window. Library customers have come to know her face, and now she has a name.

When the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch held its grand reopening on November 14, 2012, Sheila Wiggins, the president of the Friends of the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch Library, announced a "Name the Girl" contest.

The purpose of the contest was to invite library customers ages 7 - 13 to choose a name for the girl on the window of the library. The contest ran for one month, and several entries were submitted. Members of the community were chosen to pick a winning name.

The Pennsylvania Avenue Branch’s most prominent reader is officially named Penny. The young man who chose her name is Mason, a fifth grader who loves to read. He and his family are regular customers at the library. The winning name will be etched into the window next to the image.

During the January meeting of the Friends of the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch Library, Branch Manager Willie Johnson awarded Mason the contest grand prize, a Sony Reader. All contest entrants who submitted names received gifts for their participation.

Your name?
Meredith Veatch

Your age?
29

Your local branch?
Patterson Park Branch

Your favorite spot in the library?
The Children's area, where we have storytime. I love the big round rug that the kids sit on during storytime and the dinosaur mural that's on the wall. It's the funnest place in the library.

What are you currently reading?
Rainbow Valley, by L. M. Montgomery. It's the 7th book in the Anne of Green Gables series. I like the earlier books better, but it's pretty fun to read about Anne's kids.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
The Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. This is my favorite book series ever. It has something for everyone. A little fantasy, a little romance, a lot of adventure and political intrigue, plus the best surprise twists I've ever read. After you've read the first four books, you can join me in obsessing over what will happen in book five, whenever it comes out.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
Life is too short to read books you don't like, so I start a lot of books that I don't end up finishing. A recent one I couldn't get into was A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I thought it was really boring.

What are your job title and location?
Children's Librarian, Patterson Park

What does your job entail?
I'm in charge of Children's services at my branch, which means I plan all the activities for kids, like storytime and after-school crafts, as well as doing community outreach with local schools, evaluating the children's collection, working on the Summer Reading program, and answering reference questions.

Describe your typical workday:
I spend most of the day at the reference desk, so I can help people with whatever they need. Interspersed throughout the day, I shelve books, plan programs, do storytime, make book displays, and help people with computers. After school, I spend a lot of time helping kids with their homework.

Describe up to three things you like about working in the library:
I love being involved in the lives of kids who come to the library. Hopefully, I get to make a difference for them, whether I'm a grownup they can trust, someone they can talk to, or just a nice lady who gives them books to read. I also love being one of the first people to see the new books that we get, although my to-read list is about a million books long now.

Meredith is a regular contributor to Pratt Chat. Read her posts here.

Umberto's Night: doesn't that have a terrific ring to it? This darkly musical phrase is the title of a new book by Kathleen Hellen, whom we welcome to the Pratt Library on January 30 for the first Poetry & Conversation event of the year. Hellen will share the stage with local poet Sue Ellen Thompson, where they will read their poetry and answer your questions.

Poetry & Conversation offers writers and readers a chance to celebrate poetry together in a friendly and intimate setting. I started the conversation with Hellen early by asking her a few questions.

What three books would you take to a desert island?
Three I return to, again and again, are Final Harvest, Emily Dickinson's collected poems; Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus; and The Selected Poems of Federico García Lorca.

What recently published books do you recommend?
Louise Glück’s Averno and Nikky Finney's Head Off & Split.

Over and above their interest of meaning, these are the "best words in the best order." What better way to learn than from masters?

In Head Off & Split, Finney's 2011 National Book Award winner, the language reveals and destroys, each poem a hunger plain-spoken, each line a blade. She teaches us how to be brave in words. She names names, juxtaposes history and calamity to tell it as she knows it to be.

Glück is luminous. In Averno, a National Book Award finalist, she writes at the entrance to myth and dream, teaching us that the rift in the soul is a beautiful line—lucid, strange—that you are not alone in the dark tunnel.

What is one poem by someone else that you wish you had written?
"Spring and Fall" by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Please share a poem with our readers, and some musings on your process in creating it.

Anthem at Graduation: The HBCU
For James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) and Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970)

We sing the Book of Numbers
Mums, gladiolas swelling in their ribboned dress

Vaudeville of rejoicing, each a Lazarus
A choir of black faces, staged

Not run away but faith rehearsed
in normal schools for coloreds
in run-down auditoriums

There is a prayer after despair
Be not afraid

The old auditorium on the Baltimore campus had been named after James Weldon Johnson, whose anthem we were singing. "Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us," the words tell us. It was October. The stage boasted yellow mums and purple gladiolas. I had on the required regalia—cap and gown, symbol of my own passage into the great discourse of humanity.

Although the Civil Rights Movement had ended many years before I entered college, the anthems that had scored those turbulent years still resounded in my memory: "We Shall Overcome" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'." Hendrix's electric distortions of "The Star-Spangled Banner" still served as an anthem against the abuses of power.

As we continued with "Lift Every Voice and Sing," often called "The Negro National Anthem," the raw emotions surfaced. The whole history of civil rights distilled in that moment with the sense of how different it had been for these young students sitting here that day. And yet how little things had changed.

Most were first-generation college students and many ill-prepared for the rigorous coursework they faced; many were from single-parent homes, some were parents themselves. Many were poor. Perhaps one in every 10 had at least one incarcerated family member. Perhaps six out of every 10 knew someone battling substance abuse. Almost everyone knew somebody who'd been shot.

When you teach at Coppin State University where the graduation rate is among the lowest in the nation, every convocation, every new semester, is cause for rejoicing. I wrote "Anthem at Graduation" as a praise song for my students at this historically black university. Their faith and courage sustain me.

Join us for the next Poetry & Conversation event on January 30 at 6:30 p.m. in the Poe Room of the Central Library. Admission is free and open to all.

Libraries strive to be comfortable, inviting places that people enjoy using. This is especially the case with library spaces designed for children. Like many libraries, Pratt Library understands the importance of developing early literacy in young children. Encouraging reading in young children includes providing engaging spaces built around books. The Early Literacy Play Center at the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch was created with those principles in mind.

During the reopening of the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch, the new Early Literacy Play Center was unveiled. The Early Literacy Play Center focuses on developing literacy among children ages birth to three. The Play Center is spacious and decorated with bright colors. It features a large play area with a mock kitchen including toy food, costumes, blocks, a slide set, and a set of activity vests. The Play Center also offers a collection of picture books and board books covering a wide variety of basic topics, including colors, letters and numbers, shapes, and everyday objects.

The toys in the Play Center help children learn important life skills. The mock kitchen and the food toys help develop recognition of common objects. The costumes, which include a firefighter, a police officer, and a doctor, stimulate imagination and creativity. The vests help build dexterity by offering the opportunity to practice tactile skills like zipping, tying, buttoning, and clasping. Small puzzles teach shape recognition and problem-solving.

One of the best aspects of the Play Center is the interaction between children and their parents. When children are using the Play Center, they are accompanied by the parent or caregiver. This allows the parents to foster the basic skills their children need to develop during their early years. These are the types of positive experiences Pratt Library strives to create.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library is launching a year-long campaign called Read Down Fines to help children and teens reduce or eliminate their library fines.

It's easy to participate:

• Children and teens  check-in with a librarian at any Pratt Library branch citywide.
• Afterwards they can read a book, magazine, newspaper, textbook, or e-reader at the library and earn Pratt Bucks.
• Children 12 and under earn one Pratt Buck for every 15 minutes of supervised reading time, and teens ages 13 to 17 earn one Pratt Buck for every 30 minutes.
• One Pratt Buck is equivalent to one dollar, and can be turned in at the Circulation Desk to pay down late fines and other library fees.
• We still encourage patrons to return overdue materials.

"We’re hoping this campaign will allow kids and teens to reconnect with the library," said Carla D. Hayden, Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. "We found that library fines were an obstacle to some kids and teens because they could not pay. Read Down Fines will eliminate this obstacle and have them reading again."

Currently, there are nearly 43,000 young people with Pratt Library cards who have fines.

Children and young adults can read down their fines at Pratt Library programs like Storytime, PAWS to Read, and more. Check the calendar for events at your local branch. This program will run until December 31, 2013.

Your name?
Jack

Your local branch?
Central Library

Your favorite spot in the library?
The Fiction Department.

What are you currently reading?
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
It depends on what they're interested in. If they're interested in my kind of books, I'd recommend the Medusa Girls series by Tera Lynn Childs, the Tempest series by Tracy Deebs, and the Fallen series by Lauren Kate.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr. It started out with fairies playing pool. It was just totally ridiculous.

What is the last thing you came to the Library to find?
The book I'm reading right now.

What is your favorite memory of the Library?
Just sitting down and reading.

What is one thing you want everyone to know about the Library?
You have good people working here.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Reisterstown Road Branch was awarded the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf grant, one of only eight grants awarded in Maryland. We are bringing the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf and related programming to this branch as part of our effort to bring to the public an awareness of the rich resources available about Muslim authors and themes, provide cultural outreach to our Muslim constituency, and raise community interest in ongoing Muslim literature discussion groups.

The Muslim Journeys Bookshelf is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities Bridging Cultures initiative. The Bookshelf is a collection of books, films, and other resources that will introduce library visitors to the complex history and culture of Muslim people in the United States and around the world.

The Pratt will receive 25 books, 3 films, and access for one year to Oxford Islamic Studies Online. The books selected have been organized into five themes, including American Stories, Connected Histories, Literary Reflections, Pathways of Faith, and Points of View. There will also be a Muslim Journeys companion website with digital resources relating to the Bookshelf. All of these resources will be available in the coming months. There will also be upcoming programs at the Reisterstown Road Branch related to the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf.

The programs will build on other diversity awareness-themed programming offered at the Reisterstown Road Branch. In 2006, we hosted "Voices from the Middle East," a discussion of fiction by Middle Eastern writers led by Dr. Arthur Lesley. Last year, this branch hosted the American Library Association’s exhibit, "A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-1965." It was a tremendous success with 246 attendees. Many of our customers requested more programming regarding other cultures represented in the community. This year we are collaborating with The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Place of Weinberg Senior Living on "Building Strength in Difference," a series of programs, book discussions, and guided discussions around issues related to diversity.

Contact the Reisterstown Road Branch for more information.

We would like to extend our thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities and look forward to bringing these resources to the Pratt community.  For more information, check out these resources:

• Press release from the National Endowment for the Humanities
• Brochure on the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf

Your name?
Ryan O'Grady

Your age?
29

Your local branch?
Hampden Branch

Your favorite spot in the library?
My favorite spot is the laptop lounge on the second floor of Central Library. I love the window and the light patterns that shines through. A close second is the Poe Room, a very special and relaxing room.

What are you currently reading?
Second Skin by John Hawkes. I like to read a lot of science fiction and one of my friends recommended this to me. I am also making my way back through some Alfred Bester, one of the best sci-fi writers of all time.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz. When I was about 15, I got a copy of his short story collection Drown and I was immediately hooked. I had my copy on hold at my local Pratt branch, then I picked it up, read it in a few days, and returned it. It was remarkable and in line with the rest Diaz's writing. His Pulitzer was well deserved for his last book, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
I did not finish In Search of Lost Time, the multi-volume novel by Marcel Proust, and I hope to finally read it all one day. The reason I never finished is fairly simple--it is very long! I started reading it in college and I am hoping to finish it as an adult one day soon. He spent his entire life writing and drafting it, so I hope I can manage to finish reading it.

What are your job title and location?
I work in the Sights and Sounds Department of the Central Library as an Audio Visual Technologist.

What does your job entail?
I mostly work with the technology for different events and have recently been working on more podcasts and video-making to promote all the amazing things the library has to offer.

Describe your typical workday:
The majority of my day is spent working with library staff and guest speakers and presenters to ensure events proceed smoothly. I try to fill in my time between with small gaps of browsing the stacks, walking around and talking to different people about upcoming projects, and working on ongoing departmental video projects.

Describe up to three things you like about working in the library:
The People: Pratt staff are the best around. The Building: I enjoy the history of working in this building and the mission the library stands for. The Location: I live in Baltimore City, and you cannot beat having a job close by your home.

See Ryan's posts on Pratt Chat.

"I thought book publishers just gave you their books!"

If only it were that simple. How do we really fill the shelves at the Library?

We have a large department behind the scenes called the "Collection Management Department"—"Collection" meaning collections of books, magazines, DVDs, audiobooks, and anything else that the Library offers for reference or check-out. Staff manages all the tasks necessary to select, order, catalog, process, and mend all the materials that the Library purchases. The Library adds over 100,000 items each year.

It all starts with the Materials Selectors: a staff of six librarians studies reviews from libraries, publishers, and popular media, including Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, The New York Times Book Review, and School Library Journal. The Selectors follow the guidelines set forth in How Baltimore Chooses: Selection Policies of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, 8th ed., 2007.

In addition to selection evaluation criteria outlined in HBC, the Selectors also request feedback from librarians who work with the public in the branches and in the Central Library. They pass along customer requests and help the Selectors to purchase materials to build collections in specific subject areas, such as business, health, cooking, how-to, homework support, sport, and literature.

The two questions most often asked of Collection Management Staff are:

1. Can the Library add my self-published book?
   It depends... any book must meet the selection criteria in the Library’s selection policies. We do ask that the authors become familiar with How Baltimore Chooses and to supply any reviews or recommendations to support their requests.
   
   
2. Why does it take so long get a new book on to the shelf?
   We order not one but ten to fifty copies of any book title because we are ordering for 20+ library locations across the city. We purchase materials from the same book wholesalers that book stores use. 

So, selection is just the first step in purchasing and acquisitions is the second step. A staff of six in the Acquisitions Unit manage the physical ordering and receiving process. They send the orders electronically to the vendors online. Then they add all the order information (purchase order, number of copies, distribution, program notes, etc.) to the Library’s automated Acquisitions system. The Library’s catalog is an automated system composed of four modules: Acquisitions, Cataloging, Serials, and Circulation. All of these modules work together in an Integrated Library System.

The great thing about this system is that as soon as a book is ordered, it appears in the online public catalog and you can place a reserve on a copy before the Library has received it. That way, you know that you will get a copy and don’t have to remember to keep checking the catalog to see if we bought it.

When Acquisitions receives the books (or DVDs or audiobooks), they must be unpacked and matched with purchase orders, then property stamped, barcoded, and reinforced or covered if necessary. Invoices are received and matched with packing lists, approved, and sent to the Library’s Business Office for payment. The new books are then organized on book trucks to be sent to the Cataloging Unit.

Cataloging is the third step. The Cataloging Unit is composed of eight professional and paraprofessional catalogers. The professionals are librarians with Master’s degrees in Library Science and they have specialized experience in cataloging materials. Catalogers write the description of the book or other materials so that they can be organized in the catalog for easy access. The paraprofessionals catalog the "routine" or popular materials, while the professionals tackle the more complicated items, such as government documents, foreign language materials, or local history.
The catalogers add the copies to the online catalog so items can be easily located or reserved. 

The Collection Management Department also includes a Serials Unit of two staff members who manage a periodical collection of over 3,000 subscriptions, and a Documents Unit of four staff members who collect both federal and state documents. They coordinate The Maryland State Publications Depository and Distributions Program and have created an online repository of electronic state documents for easy access.

It’s amazing what you can find the Pratt’s Collections, from the newest best-seller to small town church records to government reports to online databases to eBooks. Check it out!

A December Forbes article identified tablets and eReaders as some of the most sought-after gifts this Holiday Season. If you received a new reading device and are interested in borrowing library eBooks (why wouldn’t you be!), I have some great news. Maryland’s Digital eLibrary Consortium powered by OverDrive recently received a facelift. This is good news for you because the update succeeded in making Maryland’s Digital eLibrary Consortium more user friendly, thus making it easier for you to borrow eBooks!

A generous grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has also made eBooks more accessible by allowing for the establishment of The Pratt eLibrary. The Enoch Pratt Free Library was able to purchase eLibrary stations and new Sony eReaders for circulation, and has also increased the number of books available to Pratt Library card holders via Maryland’s Digital eLibrary Consortium. And having a Pratt Library card increases the number of books available to you because you also have exclusive access to the Pratt Library Advantage Collection.

3 great Maryland’s Digital eLibrary updates

1. The menu is available at the top, from any page on the website. The menu allows you to easily search for eBooks by categories such as eBook Fiction, Audiobook Nonfiction, etc. The ability to access the menu from any page of the website allows you to search and find eBooks with greater ease.
   
2. The borrowing process is more streamlined; three clicks and you are ready to download an eBook. If the eBook is available, you click Borrow, then click Go to Bookshelf, and from the Bookshelf you are able to select an eBook format for download.
   
   
3. My favorite improvement is that OverDrive now offers a new in-browser eBook reader. It works like any eBook reading app, except you don’t need to activate or install extra software. This feature provides flexibility when you don’t have your eReader with you. If you have access to a web browser, then you have the ability to read your eBook!

3 quick tips to make sure you have a positive experience with Maryland’s Digital eLibrary

1. If you visit the Central Library or the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch, look for the Pratt eLibrary station. The Pratt eLibrary station is a large touchscreen monitor that allows you to easily browse Maryland’s Digital eLibrary collection. It’s helpful to know what the Maryland Digital eLibrary has to offer before diving into the eLibrary on your own device.
   
   
2. Always sign in with your Pratt Library card before searching for eBooks so that you have access to the Pratt Library Advantage Collection.
   
   
3. You can change your lending period for eBooks and Audiobooks by clicking the Account icon at the top of the web page and then going to the Settings page. You have an option of choosing a checkout period of 7, 14, or 21 days.

3 ways to Get Help

1. The OverDrive Help is a great resource. You will find information about most eReader devices, Library lending policies, as well as OverDrive Media Station and Adobe Digital Editions Software downloads that are required to read eBooks on some devices.
   
   
2. The Pratt Library has published a Help with eBooks and eReaders web guide. Take a look at upcoming eBook training opportunities. The eBooks 101 class is offered at the Central Library, and the first class date is Wednesday, Jan 16, 2013 (6:00 pm–8:00 pm). There are also ongoing eReader clinics at the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch. Sign up for a time slot and receive one-on-one attention and instruction from a librarian.
   
   
3. Don’t forget to ask a Librarian! If you can't make it to a Library location, you can call Telephone Reference (410-396-5430) to receive help over the phone.

When I think of my favorite book characters, Vesper Holly from the Vesper Holly series by Lloyd Alexander immediately comes to mind. I always admired Vesper Holly for being so much cooler than me. She was smart and bookish, something I definitely related to, but she also travelled the world having thrilling and dangerous adventures.

I’ve always loved Lloyd Alexander for creating not only Vesper Holly, but also for writing two of my favorite fantasy series, The Prydain Chronicles and the Westmark trilogy, as well as more than twenty other books. His first book was published in the 1950s and his last, The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio, was published in 2007, a few months after Alexander passed away. From the time I read my first Lloyd Alexander book in elementary school up through when I was in college, I checked to see if the library had a new Lloyd Alexander book every time I went. I was especially pleased to find one final Vesper Holly book in 2005, fifteen years after the previous book was published.

After Lloyd Alexander died in 2007, many of his things were donated to my alma mater, Brigham Young University. In a small room in the campus library, you can see manuscripts, artwork, Alexander’s violin, his Newbery Medal from The High King and a replica of his office, including one of the typewriters he used to write his books. Although I visited Alexander’s Box a few years ago, I was still pleased to read more about him and his connection to my school in a recent edition of the alumni magazine.

In a visit to BYU’s campus in Provo, Utah a few weeks ago, I returned to Alexander’s Box, and once more marveled at what I saw. Lloyd Alexander sat in that chair. He played that violin. He may have written a Vesper Holly book using that very typewriter. For many kids like me, born before the age of Harry Potter, the books of Lloyd Alexander were our first foray into fantasy. For me, that first adventure has led to a life-long love of reading and an affection for fantasy that remains to this day. I will always be grateful to Lloyd Alexander for those gifts. His books are available for checkout at the Pratt Library.

You can read more Alexander’s Box and see pictures of the exhibit in the BYU online magazine.

If you are looking for some free entertainment in the new year, check out Free Family Flicks at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Come celebrate the fourth anniversary of the series, which has been running since the beginning of 2009, with the Disney/Pixar film Brave. This is a "bring the whole family" event.

As the Pratt Library CEO Dr. Carla Hayden says, "We understand times are tough for the average family during these difficult financial times. These free film screenings on our big screen are the ideal family activity without breaking the budget."
Each of the movies in the Free Family Flicks series are held at the Central Library located at 400 Cathedral Street, upstairs on the third floor, on the big screen in Wheeler Auditorium at 2 pm. Free Family Flicks is a once-a-month event.

The next flick is a screening of Brave on Saturday, January 5th at 2 pm in Wheeler Auditorium. According to movlic.com and Swank Motion Pictures, Inc., "This film follows the heroic journey of Merida, a skilled archer and headstrong daughter of King Fergus and Queen Elinor. Determined to carve her own path in life, Merida defies an age-old custom sacred to the unruly and uproarious lords of the land. Merida's actions inadvertently unleash chaos and fury in the kingdom, and when she turns to an eccentric Witch for help, she is granted an ill-fated wish. The ensuing peril forces Merida to harness all of her skills and resources – including her clever and mischievous triplet brothers – to undo a beastly curse before it’s too late, discovering the meaning of true bravery."

This 2012 Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation film is directed by Mark Andrews, the running time is 100 minutes, it is rated PG, and it features the voices of Emma Thompson, Kelly Macdonald, and Kevin McKidd.

Watch the trailer for Brave:

Upcoming Free Family Flicks at the Central Library include:

• ParaNorman, Saturday, February 02, 2013 at 2 pm in the Wheeler Auditorium
• Hop, Saturday, March 30, 2013 at 2 pm in the Wheeler Auditorium

Bring the whole family for some movie magic!

Your name?
Miriam

Your age?
60

Your local branch?
Reisterstown Road Branch

Your favorite spot in the library?
Audiobooks collection

What are you currently reading?
The ...in Death series by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts' future cop series). Neuromancer by William Gibson. The Dog Who Came in from the Cold by Alexander McCall.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
Books by Joe Haldeman, since he will be the Guest of Honor at Balticon 2013.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It was too long and turgid.

What is the last thing you came to the Library to find?
The Last Dickens by Matthew Pearl.

What is your favorite memory of the Library?
As a representative of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS), running the Harry Potter quizzes at the Port Discovery Pratt satellite location [which has since closed], and staffing the BSFS table at the Fairy Tale Festivals downtown.

What is one thing you want everyone to know about the Library?
The best use of your tax money, after fixing potholes.

It is no secret that the world is changing daily at a pace never before seen in history. Librarians, authors, journalists, and academics and have been engaging in public discourse for years on the best ways to keep the public libraries that have always been repositories of physical books relevant in an increasingly digital world. This discourse has shaped many exciting initiatives around the world, including at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

ELibrary
Most recently, the Pratt has responded to these changes with an expanded eLibrary, where eBooks, audiobooks, and eReaders can all be checked out. Many studies have shown that readers are moving in droves to digital reading experiences, and we are keeping up with their voracious demand, thanks to a generous grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation for our eLibrary. Read more about the studies in these articles:

• Print Book Reading Wanes as E-reader Usage Surges by Joann Pan, Mashable
• Readers gravitating to e-books by Cecilia Kang, The Washington Post
• What Is the Role of Libraries in the Age of E-Books and Digital Information? by Jenny Shank, PBS MediaShift

Courses and Training
Pratt Library customers can attended training in computer skills, job searching, genealogy, physical fitness and more. The library is not just a place for reading and research; it is a community hub where neighbors of all ages and cultural backgrounds can gather to learn and share. Learn about upcoming classes on our online calendar.

Bridging the Digital Divide
In 2008 fewer than 40% of Baltimore City households subscribed to broadband Internet. Every Pratt Library branch has computers and a wifi network so customers can access the Internet for free. Also, through our partnership with the statewide Sailor program, we offer free dialup Internet connections to Maryland residents.

Recent Articles
Here is a small selection of excellent articles published in 2012 about the future public libraries.

• Do We Still Need Libraries? in Room for Debate, The New York Times
• How Libraries are Reinventing Themselves for the Future by Allison Berry, Time Magazine
• My View: Why libraries matter more than ever by Molly Raphael, CNN Schools of Thought

The Enoch Pratt Free Library is an anchor to communities throughout Baltimore City. We will continue to adapt to the world as it changes around us, and librarians will always be available to help you find a book, an answer, or a program, in whatever form is most relevant to the current need.

The first five years of a child’s life are crucial to developing skills that will make sure he or she is primed and ready to learn when kindergarten begins. Early literacy skills are especially important, as so much of a child’s other learning skills are dependent on the ability to read. At the library, we offer programming focused on children birth to five, and there is a children’s specialist at each branch to help recommend age-appropriate books and activities for your child.

These 5 simple parent practices can help your children develop the mental skills they will need to be ready to learn how to read!

Talking
That’s right—it’s that simple! Take time to talk to your children, even if they’re too young to talk back. When you’re doing household tasks or running errands, describe the things around you in detail. What color is the item? What shape? What is it for? What letters do you see? This is great in the grocery store, at home, on the bus, or any time you’re in a new place. Tell them family stories or the story of the day they were born.

Reading
This is the number one most important thing to do to develop literacy skills in your child, but it doesn’t have to be a plain old read-through of a book! Consider taking a "Picture Walk." Don’t read a single word, but instead look at the illustrations and ask your child questions about what they see on the page. Let the pictures be your guide! Explore wordless picture books: no words, but still plenty to "read!" Some favorites include The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney, Wave by Suzy Lee, and Chalk by Bill Thomson.

Singing
This can be as simple as singing some classics like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or "The ABCs." Singing songs introduces new vocabulary and also slows words down so that each individual sound is easier to hear. Try clapping out the rhythms to the syllables in phrases and words like your child’s name.

Writing
There are lots of fun ways to help your child make a connection between the spoken and printed word. Try playing with shaving cream in the bathtub and spelling out words and names on the walls. Take a tray of rice and "trace" words, letters, and names. Use tape to make giant letters on the floor.

Playing
You may or may not be surprised to know that playing is the way that children learn about a lot of things, not just literacy. Imagining that a paper towel tube can become a wand or a sword helps children understand that one thing can represent another, just like the printed word represents the spoken word.

Try some of these activities with your children, and you’ll be developing their early literacy skills and having fun at the same time. Don’t forget to stop by your local library for storytime and to pick out books!

Your name?
David Donovan

Your age?
58

Your local branch?
Central Library

Your favorite spot in the library?
The Fine Arts and Music Department's first stack in the Central Library. The first stack has the rich collection of rare and wonderful books in our department.

What are you currently reading?
H.L. Mencken's The American Scene, selected and edited by Huntington Cairns. Mencken's view of American life, culture, and institutions are still fascinating reading.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie. It's a well written book that traces the history of Bach performances and why this great composer still matters to listeners today and into the future.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
Thayer's Life of Beethoven. I own an edition of this book. It's a book I return to time and time again. It is the best documentary study of Beethoven ever, but I have never read it from cover to cover.

What are your job title and location?
Library Associate II, Fine Arts and Music Department.

What does your job entail?
Working the reference desk in the Fine Arts and Music Department. I'm also responsible for the collection area that covers music history and theory, and I'm charge of the classical CD collection. In addition, I work at the Central Hall Information Desk and Maryland AskUsNow! interactive online reference service.

Describe your typical workday:
Three to four desk hours, and then a few project hours to do behind the scenes work.

Describe up to three things you like about working in the library:
The variety of different questions. Working with the public. Working with my fellow staff members who make the job fun and interesting.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library has so much to be grateful for this holiday season. We owe it to the nearly two million people who visit the library every year. From the children who participate in Mother Goose Baby Steps to people who attended our Writers LIVE events; from seniors attending computer classes to job seekers using our Career Center. Our commitment in providing free resources, services and programs will continue into 2013.

We want to thank our patrons, donors and our Pratt Chat blog readers with this wonderful holiday video by Pratt CEO Carla Hayden.

So from our family to yours, HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Here we come a-wassailing
Among the leaves so green;
Here we come a-wand'ring
So fair to be seen.

Confession: When I first heard the traditional holiday song "Here We Come A-Wassailing," the first stanza sounded a lot to me like "here we come a-waffling among the leaves so green." In my defense, I was only six years old, and the word "wassail" would not enter my vocabulary until many years later when I read Beowulf. (Other listeners have misheard the lyrics as "here we come a-rustling among the leaves so green," which makes more sense than my first interpretation.)

Even when I finally got the lyrics right, I had assumed that "wassail" was a generic term for eggnog and various punches served at holiday parties. Its origins, however, are more complex: The term is both a noun and a verb, and can refer to spiced ale/mulled wine, or the act of reveling and singing carols from house to house at Christmas. Speaking of Beowulf, it turns out that the earliest mention of wassail in English literature is found in this eighth-century poem. The word stems from a combination of the Old Norse ves heil and the Old English vas hal, which means "be of good health" or "be fortunate." According to the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture, wassail evolved from the Middle English terms for "be well."

Over time wassail morphed into a drinking salute, as well as the word for drinks used in the toast. The earliest form of wassail—spiced wine made with ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg—was a luxury as all the ingredients were imported to England. When ales became more widely available, families would concoct their own recipes using whatever spice combinations they could afford.

All this hearty wassailing prompted the creation of a special drinking vessel dedicated to the purpose. As of the thirteenth century, carousers would dip cakes and bread into a Wassail bowl. The Encyclopedia of Food and Culture claims that "[wassail] is shared as a loving cup passed from one person to the next so that each can share its contents in a companionable way." Other traditions hold that masters of the house would prepare eggnog, which they would then offer to servants on Christmas. It was not uncommon—even in nineteenth-century America—for caroling strangers to carry wassail bowls door to door in return for money. If you’re curious to know what a traditional wassail bowl looks like, here is a seventeenth-century example from the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery; as you can see, it looks more like a chalice or goblet than an actual "bowl." Even today, some traditionalists—in a nod to the practice of dipping bread in alcohol—will float toasted bread slices in their punch bowls. (Ever wonder why we refer to drinking salutations as "toasts?")

Cecil Hunt describes another curious custom involving wassail and the Twelfth Night celebration (i.e. January 5th) in British Customs and Ceremonies: When, Where, and Why. He writes: "In parts of the west country [of England] the custom persists of wassailing the apple trees, particularly in the cider-apple orchards. Cider or beer is poured over the roots and cake soaked in cider is placed in the branches. Traditional songs are sung, urging the fertility of the trees, as in the days of pagan rites. Cider is also indulged in by the wassailers."

Recipes for holiday punches or wassail are innumerable, so there are plenty of variations to suit anyone’s palate—whether you prefer alcohol or not. If you’re looking for other menu ideas, there’s plenty of time to visit the Pratt Library to check out our selection of Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa cookbooks. I haven’t yet decided what I’m planning to cook for the holiday, but I can promise that it won’t involve dunking toast in eggnog or watering my Christmas tree with a nice pint of Guinness.

On Wednesday, December 12, the Reisterstown Road branch had the privilege of hosting two extraordinary Baltimore area musicians for an evening of classical music.

An audience of close to 40 was in attendance at the branch as Lukasz Szyrner, cellist, opened the recital with several solo pieces for cello by Johann Sebastian Bach. Violinist Qing Li joined him for duets for violin and cello, including pieces by Franz Joseph Haydn and a famous arrangement of Handel’s Passacaglia by Harvolsen. This last work highlighted the virtuosity and dynamic range of both musicians and truly impressed the audience. One concert-goer noted that the duo at times "sounded like five or six musicians." Exclamations such as "exquisite," "magnificent," and "passionate" were also heard from those in attendance.

Librarian and Pratt Chat blogger Becky Hass produced this short video of the concert:

If you are interested in further exploring the music of some of the composers heard at this recital, several recordings can be found in our catalog. Here are a few selections:

• Piano Trios by Joseph Haydn
• Bach Cello Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach
• Great Handel by George Frideric Handel

Lukasz Szyrner plays cello with the Mid-Atlantic and Lancaster symphonies as well as leading his own chamber music trio. Mr. Szyrner came to Baltimore from Poland in the 1990’s to attend the Peabody Conservatory. Read more about Mr. Szyrner on the Mid-Atlantic Symphony site.

Qing Li, is a member of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Li came to Baltimore from China to attend the Peabody Conservatory. Read more about Ms. Li’s musical accomplishments on the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra site.

Your name?
Harriet Lynn

Your age?
67

Your local branch?
Roland Park

Your favorite spot in the library?
The Poe Room and the Maryland Department at Central Library

What are you currently reading?
In Full Glory Reflected by Ralph E. Eshelman and Burton K. Kummerow.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
The same book. It is beautifully illustrated and contains great information about the War of 1812 in Chesapeake region, including a lot of detail and little known facts that Marylanders should know.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
A World on Fire by Amanda Foreman. I planned to finish it, but it is really a big book to read and other things got in the way.

What is the last thing you came to the Library to find?
My mother's drawer that is still not in its "home." [For a time, donors to the Library could choose to create a library card catalog drawer in their name or the name of a family member.]

What is your favorite memory of the Library?
There are so many. I've loved going to the library since I was a child and the adventures I would find there.

What is one thing you want everyone to know about the library?
The staff is always willing to help—always. Also, I just wanted to add that my office at the Maryland Historical Society is actually situated in the first level of Enoch Pratt's House on W. Madison and Park Ave.

See Harriet Lynn's post on Pratt Chat.

Our good friend, the jolly ol’ Santa Librarian, was chilling (literally) at the North Pole Public Library and decided to put together a list of books and movies to recommend to his favorite library friends this holiday season.

Today, Santa Librarian shares his list of Top 10 Nice Holiday Books and Movies:

1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas: The Grinch (a.k.a. Santy Claus) tries to keep Christmas from coming by stealing all the presents and Roast Beast from the Whos down in Whoville, but it comes anyway. Could it be that Christmas is about more than presents? And you don’t need to be Cindy Lou Who to know the best animated holiday musical is the Boris Karloff-narrated cartoon by the same name!
   
   
2. Miracle on 34th Street: Based on the book by Valentine Davies, this holiday must-watch film stars Edmund Gwenn as Kris Kringle, hired by Macy’s to play Santa in the Thanksgiving Parade who must prove that he is the real Santa Claus in court.
   
   
3. Love Actually: Intertwined stories of love and cheer in London starring a who’s who of Hollywood: Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Bill Nighy, and Keira Knightley.
   
   
4. The Christmas Carol: The classic by Charles Dickens reminds us all that our actions today really can chart the course of our future. One of the most fun adaptations of this story is The Muppet Christmas Carol, starring Michael Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge and all of our favorite Muppet friends filling out the cast.
   
   
5. Better Off Dead: "I want my two dollars!" is one of the many memorable quotes from this 1985 film starring John Cusack as Lane Meyer, a teen dealing with his girlfriend dumping him among family crises, homicidal paper boys, and a rival skier.
   
   
6. The Holiday: Two women with problematic love lives (Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet) exchange homes for two weeks at Christmas to escape their troubles, and their lives are changed forever by the experience and the new men that they meet.
   
   
7. A Charlie Brown Christmas: Originally broadcast as a television special in 1965, this is Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang at their best. Feeling that the true meaning of the holiday is being lost amid commercialism, Charlie Brown tries to organize a Christmas pageant and save the saddest Christmas tree ever. I dare you not feel warm and fuzzy when Linus places his beloved security blanket around the tree to help prop it up!
   
   
8. The Santa Clause: A busy toy company executive (Tim Allen) accidentally kills Santa (Oops!) and inherits the job in this comedy for kids of all ages.
   
   
9. Elf: "SANTA'S COMING! I KNOW HIM!" A human baby accidentally ends up at the North Pole and grows up in the elf community. When Buddy (Will Ferrell) turns 30, he leaves the North Pole in search of his father in Manhattan. When Santa’s sleigh crashes in Central Park, it is Buddy to the rescue!
   
   
10. The Polar Express: Written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg, this beautiful story is the tale of a magical train ride that takes a young boy to the North Pole on Christmas Eve to receive a special gift from Santa. The film version of this children's book stars Tom Hanks in a multitude of roles.

Because the NICE list can never be long enough, here’s a bonus movie that makes Santa Librarian laugh quite heartily: A Christmas Story. Luckily, it plays for 24 hours on Christmas Eve on basic cable so Santa Librarian can catch his favorite quotable lines over and over again:

“Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian.”
“I can’t put my arms down!”
“I like The Wizard of Oz. I like the Tin Man.”,
and, of course, “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

“This is my wish for you: peace of mind, prosperity through the year, happiness that multiplies, health for you and yours, fun around every corner, energy to chase your dreams, joy to fill your holidays!”
—D.M. Dellinger

Santa Librarian, among many other things, is a fan of Norse mythology. When Baldur, the Norse god of truth and light, was born, his mother, Frigg, made every single thing promise to never harm Baldur. She managed to extract that promise from everything except the mistletoe plant, which claimed to be too young to make such a promise. At a drunken mid-winter revel, Baldur’s blind brother Hod threw sharp weapons at Baldur just for fun. Then Loki, their brother, wrapped a blade in mistletoe and gave it to Hod to throw. Baldur died, Hod mourned, Loki got left out of the gift swap, and the mistletoe ended up in a boot camp for juvenile offenders.

Thus began a tradition of drunken family holiday feuds and mistletoe-fueled mistakes and regrets. In keeping in that tradition, here are some naughty Christmas choices:

1. Scrooged: This retelling of the Scrooge story stars Bill Murray as a brutal TV executive who is mean to everyone. With the typical visits from three atypical holiday spirits, Murray learns to embrace the holiday spirit.
   
   
2. Hogfather: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is the longest running series in fiction, and in Hogfather, he turns his satirical eye to Christmas and Santa Claus. What better way for a people with a pork-based economy to celebrate a mid-winter holiday than with a visit from the Hogfather? Except he’s gone missing. Now Death, complete with hooded robe, scythe and a sleigh pulled by pigs, must take his place for the night, or humanity will lose all sense of hope and belief.
   
   
3. Unholy Night: Balthazar, a thief known as the "Ghost of Antioch", has escaped the clutches of King Herod and his guards, only to end up in Bethlehem where Herod’s Guard have a family with a newborn surrounded in a stable. From the author of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, this retelling of the first Holy Night includes humor, action, and the divine.
   
   

4. Bad Santa: Billy Bob Thornton is a drunken and greasy professional Santa Claus who travels from town to town each year, fleecing the stores that hire him. This raunchy comedy was one of the last films from comedian Bernie Mac and the final film for John Ritter. Usher the littlest angels out of the room for this one!
   
   
5. A Christmas Story: Based on Jean Shepherd’s short stories and radio broadcasts, this film was a near bust when it was released in theaters, leaving the taste of Lifebuoy soap in the studio’s mouth. Three decades on, this movie is "fra-gee-lay"—that’s Italian for a Special Prize—to be unwrapped each Christmas.
   
   
6. Gremlins: Many Christmas presents come with instructions—not following them usually means a broken whatzit. In this case, it means having your town overrun by Furbies with a bad attitude. This film stresses the importance of following directions and highlights the dangers of shopping local; if by local, you mean a creepy old man.
   
   
7. Holidays on Ice: Trust me—get the audio version of this David Sedaris book. The stories from Sedaris’s time as a Macy’s Elf, his childhood Christmases, and the Noel traditions of the Netherlands are top notch; add in Sedaris’s unique narration and you get comic gold. Listen to this one while sleighing your way to Grandma’s house.
   
   

8. The Nightmare Before Christmas: Written by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick, this film shows what happens when Halloween meets Christmas. When else can you find a bogeyman torturing Santa Claus to a finger-snapping tune?
   
   
9. The Stupidest Angel: Santa has just taken a shovel to the back of the head in Pine Grove, CA, and the dimwitted Archangel Raziel has answered a young boy’s prayers by bringing him back to life, in a manner of speaking. Horror meets the holly in this book by Christopher Moore.
   
   
10. Batman Returns: It’s Christmas in Gotham, and the Dark Knight is facing one of his most grotesque enemies, and he happens to be dressed as the Penguin, too. This is Tim Burton doing what Tim Burton does best, which is make Christmas both creepy and fun.
    
    And just because being naughty means not following directions, here are my 11th and 12th choices!
    
    
11. Santa’s Twin: Santa’s evil twin, Bob Claus, has kidnapped the jolly old elf, and he has filled the sleigh with cat poop and broccoli. Even the reindeer have been threatened into cooperation. Two sisters must race to the North Pole to save Santa in this not-for-children picture book.
    
    
12. Die Hard: Yippie Kai-Yay, Holiday Shopper! The original film in this 20+ year franchise taught us many things: Making "little fists" with your feet will relieve jet lag, always keep your shoes on, and be prepared when you go to the company Christmas party for armed Euro-trash terrorists to play Grinch to your yuletide reconciliation. Christmas Eve has never been so explosive!

And if A Charlie Brown Christmas isn’t your animated cup of tea, I recommend watching the Boondocks’ episode, "A Huey Freeman Christmas." I think you will agree with Riley Freeman that "...Santa’s got to pay what he owes!"

Check back tomorrow to read Santa Librarian's Top 10 Nice Holiday Picks!

The Grand re-Opening of the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch on Nov 14 was a lot of fun. I had the opportunity to meet library customers from the neighborhood and ask them, "What does this library mean to you?"

Helen Williams is a new resident to Baltimore, living in the Pennsylvania Avenue area. It was her letter to the mayor's office that kickstarted the entire renovation process, and I was honored to have the opportunity to interview her.

Sheila and Anjanette Wiggins are a power mother-daughter duo at the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch. Anjanette is a young adult librarian, and regular contributor to Pratt Chat. Sheila is the chair of the Friends of Pennsylvania Avenue Branch, a group which was key in supporting the renovation efforts.

Finally, in case you missed it, Ryan O'Grady and Roswell Encinca produced a great video all about the Grand re-Opening.

Marc Sober in the Humanities Department has been hosting "FilmTalk," a once-a-month Saturday morning film and discussion series, for almost 10 years. Tom Warner, in the Sights & Sounds Department, has been running a Saturday afternoon film series on the same date for almost as long. Usually the two films have no relation to each other, though many people make a day of it and attend both films at the Central Library.

But occasionally the stars line up and we have an old-time "double feature." Just a few months ago, we screened Orson Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons in the morning, followed by Welles’s rarely seen adaptation of Kafka’s novel The Trial in the afternoon.

And this week, on Saturday, December 15, we have a double bill of two Paramount Studio films from the golden days of the Hollywood studio system: Mitchell Leisen’s Remember the Night (1940) and Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944). The double feature presents Paramount stars Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in their first two onscreen pairings. They worked together two more times in the ‘50s for other studios—The Moonlighter (1950) and There’s Always Tomorrow (1956)—and both ended their careers with hit 1960s TV shows (The Big Valley and My Three Sons).

The double bill also highlights two of Paramount’s greatest "behind-the-camera" talents in writer-directors Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder. Sturges wrote the screenplay for Remember the Night and later that year wrote and directed The Great McGinty (1940), which paved the way for other writers to step into the director’s chair. Wilder was one of them, earning his first writer-director credit with 1942’s The Major and the Minor. And lest we forget, Paramount's Mitchell Leisen directed films written by both Sturges (Easy Living, Remember the Night) and Wilder (Midnight, Hold Back the Dawn).

In Remember the Night, Lee Leander (Stanwyck) is a petty shoplifter on trial for swiping an expensive bracelet from a jewelry store; when her trial is postponed until after New Year’s, sympathetic Assistant District Attorney John Sargent (MacMurray) bails her out of jail and invites her home for the holidays. This being a holiday movie helmed by a director known for romantic films, they naturally fall in love along the way! Sturges was so impressed by Stanwyck's performance that he subsequently cast her as the lead in his 1941 film The Lady Eve.

Watch the "Remember the Night" trailer

The crimes are not so petty in Double Indemnity, which was based on James M. Cain’s 1943 novel and is considered one of the most literate and elegantly constructed of all of films noirs. In it, insurance agent Walter Neff (MacMurray) and greedy blonde bombshell Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck) plot to murder Phyllis’s husband and collect the double "accidental death" payout. But Neff’s colleague and mentor, Barton Keyes (Edward G. Robinson), harbors suspicions and foils the lovers’ plans with his snooping.

Watch the "Double Indemnity" trailer

Director Wilder wrote the hard-boiled screenplay with "Philip Marlowe" private eye creator Raymond Chandler, transforming it into a quintessential film noir characterized by "the interacting traits of greed, lust, murder, betrayal, and a pervading, oppressive darkness in which evil's grasping hand is free to entrap anyone who thinks of straying from the moral path" (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic). But where Cain’s double-suicide ending would have shocked audiences and critics alike, Wilder and Chandler substituted their brilliant coda in which Neff proves himself the ultimate dedicated insurance agent—one who risks his life going to the office to file a self-incriminating report that "closes the Dietrichson case."

Good agents like that are hard to find (even if they do cut a few corners with the law!) and we're sure Walter Neff would approve of Saturday's killer double bill that promises to deliver a double payout in entertainment value.

Your name?
Jessica Keyes

Your age?
30

Your local branch?
Waverly Branch

Your favorite spot in the library?
Sitting at the piano in Wheeler auditorium.

What are you currently reading?
Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart. It portrays a dystopian future in which nothing is private and everyone sees the world through their mobile devices. It rang so true that it could easily be just 10 years in the future. Also, while the main characters are a bit difficult to like, the writing style is very compelling and totally pulled me in.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. I got bored when they left Pakistan and the main character couldn't talk to the other children any more.

What are your job title and location?
Assistant Web Manager, Central Library

What does your job entail?
I manage Pratt Chat and the staff intranet, I make updates to our websites, and I manage site redesigns and other Web projects.

Describe your typical workday:
I respond to email, publish the day's blog post, correspond with bloggers, attend meetings, design things in Photoshop, write computer code, and edit the websites.

Describe up to three things you like about working in the library:
I really enjoy working with the Web team, the Central Library architecture, and the amazing group of people who contribute to Pratt Chat.

See Jessica's posts on Pratt Chat.

As a Young Adult Services Librarian, I spend much of my time reading teen literature. I always enjoy coming across a book that introduces a new reading experience, apart from the typical fare. So, imagine my delight when I discovered Chopsticks by Jessica Anthony.

In Chopsticks, piano prodigy Glory’s life is one of strict routine: school, piano practice, and concert performances. Her father dedicates himself to furthering Glory’s career as a pianist after the death of her mother. It seems that little will change until a boy from Argentina, Frank, moves in next door to Glory and her father. A passionate romance begins between the two teens, and when torn apart, Glory’s world, and sanity, begin to unravel.

While the book’s plot is not unique, Chopsticks offers an interesting, visual experience that feels like reading someone’s personal scrapbook. Instead of written text, the story is told in the style of a scrapbook, with photos, newspaper articles, notes, and cards. The reader uses these visual references to interpret and understand the narrative. This format makes the story and the images seem more personal, as though you are looking at a personal journal. The intimate nature of the narrative helps to evoke an emotional investment in the characters and their stories.

Chopsticks is not the only visual book available, but what sets it apart from others is its narrative style. Other image-based books like Cake Wrecks, or the PostSecret series, feature a collection of images about a related theme, though the images themselves are usually independent of one another. Anthony’s book uses images to tell a story; each image is related to the others, and the reader follows them to see the narrative unfold.

I think visual readers will enjoy this book’s format, and the opportunity it provides for reader-driven interpretation. Chopsticks does two things very effectively: first, it attracts attention with its bold imagery and lack of distracting text, and, secondly, its open-ended narrative forces readers to think about the story that has been presented. This is an excellent read for teens and adults who want something a little different from the typical teen romance fiction.

As the song goes:

City street lights,
Even stop lights,
Blink a bright red and green,
As the shoppers rush home
With their treasures.

It's the season of giving and shopping. And if you visited the Towson Town Center over the weekend, we're hoping our festive window display caught your attention.

On Saturday, we unveiled the Pratt's holiday window, Free Your Imagination at the Pratt, on Level Two of Towson Town Center. The display showcases the beautiful puppets made by Baltimore City children during the library's recent Imagination Celebration. During the week long celebration, children of all ages enjoyed sharing stories, making new ones and opening up their imagination at all of our locations. Children hand made these puppets with the help from the Black Cherry Puppet Theater.

The window also spotlights the variety of children's programming provided by the Pratt Library including Mother Goose Baby Steps, PAWS to Read and the annual Fairy Tale Festival. We are hoping the window will give attention to all the great and free children's programs all Maryland libraries provide year round.

For decades the Central Library Cathedral Street windows have promoted library events, programs and Baltimore life. The new window display at Towson Town Center is an exciting expansion of this tradition during the busiest shopping time of the year.

The window is located on the Level Two of Towson Town Center in the old Ed Hardy store, next to the Lacoste store and near the new Apple store. The window display was designed by the Pratt's Graphic Artist Jack Young.

It’s the Holiday Season, and for many Marylanders it is a time filled with trips, treks, and layovers. And for many dealing with the rigors of yuletide traveling, the ideal companion is quiet, a source of information and/or entertainment, and small enough to stow in a bag. I am, of course, referring to the noble book, in all of its variable formats.

Although there is a certain risk in taking a genuine library book travelling with oneself, I dare say that it is a safe bet that these books are leading adventurous lives outside of the confines of the library’s walls. Do I know this for certain? Of course not  But I may infer the travels of a book by the artifacts left inside them by their borrowers.

Take, for instance, books that have sand caught in their pages, or between the clear protective cover and the dust jacket—such evidence points to a jaunt to the beach. (As long as books can take the rigors of beach-going better than digital gadgets, it’s safe to say they will remain a reliable beach partner.) Then again, I have found countless ticket stubs—from trans-Atlantic airline stubs, to Greyhound bus tickets—lodged in many-a-returned library book, hinting at a life of globe-trotting beyond the library; enough to fill this librarian with wanderlust, and to wonder: to what majestic lands are these library books travelling?

I will admit that the ability to borrow ebooks from the library is convenient because it cuts down the risk of loss or damage that may occur to a physical library book, and also, there are no late fees that can accrue, for the book is automatically returned through the magic of technology. However, I enjoy the migratory stories hinted at by the accidental remnants left in physical library books, and will always enjoy uncovering such artifacts. In a poetic sense, the library books not only reflect the world, but also migrate through it via our patrons’ journeys, only to return again.

Almost as important as having a book to travel with is having the right book to travel with; the following are some of my favorite travel-themed novels that served as great touring companions:

• The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
• The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin
• A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
• The Discovery of Slowness by Sten Nadolny
• The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna
• Mount Analogue; a novel of symbolically authentic non-Euclidean adventures in mountain climbing by René Daumal

What about you? What have been some of your fondest traveling companion books, or what are you taking with you this Holiday Season?

Bruce Haack made electronic records for children

I only recently discovered underground electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack, while browsing through Pratt’s Central’s "best-kept-secret" collection of phonograph records (those archaic round pieces of plastic with a hole in the middle that are suddenly popular with retro-loving Millennials).

Intrigued by its space age cover art, I pulled something called Captain Entropy (1972) out of the Children’s Record bin and was immediately impressed by its strange sounds. It was, well, really weird for a kiddie record. Full of beeps and zaps and New Agey lyrics, it sounded more like Hap Palmer backed by Kraftwerk than your typical Raffi singalong platter. But it was also very educational—I mean, who else was teaching kids about the thermodynamic principle of entropy?

It immediately struck me that Haack was a kindred spirit to composer-electronic music pioneer Raymond Scott, whose music—as adapted by Carl Stalling—provided soundtracks for many Warner Bros. "Looney Tunes" cartoons. (Scott was rediscovered in the 1990s thanks to his music appearing on the Ren and Stimpy cartoon show.)

Thanks to Wikipedia, I quickly learned that Haack (who passed away in 1988) was a Canadian who made children's records throughout the '60s and '70s, often collaborating with children's dance instructor Esther Nelson. And though he had little formal training in electronics, he made his own synthesizers and modulators out of any gadgets and spare parts he could find. He even demonstrated his electronic inventions on a number of television shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.

Listen to Haack on the Mister Rogers show.

Haack was definitely a product of his peace, love and astral plane-flying '60s times, calling his friends "Starchildren" and confessing that while he didn't mind fame in the here-and-now, he was ultimately more interested in obtaining a "telepathic following."

Apparently it worked, because in 2005 various indie musical artists like Beck, Stereolab and Brother Cleve of Combustible Edison answered the call to re-record several Haack songs on a tribute album called Dimension Mix.

Perhaps anticipating today's digital download culture, Haack also envisioned "a time when all people would create and share their music ELECTRONICALLY without record company involvement." But instead of the Internet, he believed we would share and communicate music "directly from mind to mind/soul to soul." (Yes, he was out there!)

But Haack’s music still flies well under the radar. Although Philip Anagnos directed a 2004 documentary called Haack: The King of Techno, it is far from comprehensive. Though it provides the only visual record of Haack’s music to date, Haack’s few live performances are interspersed with uninformative clips of no-name hipster musicians and DJs who smugly celebrate their discovery of Haack without ADDING any technical or historical insight beyond, "He was like, a genius man; I mean he was on Mr. Rogers!"

Thankfully, Haack has a web site, www.brucehaack.com where the curious can learn more about his incredible legacy.

Pratt has a total of 10 Haack titles on vinyl, including The Way Out Record for Children (1968), The Electronic Record for Children (1969), This Old Man (1974), Funky Doodle (1975), Ebeneezer Electric (1977)—and four kiddie dance records on the Dimension 5 label (the '60s Dance, Sing and Listen trilogy and 1972's Dance to the Music).

I just wonder who, besides electronic music buffs, actually check this stuff out of the library—because The Wiggles it's not!

Your name?
Ny'ilah Covington

Your age?
38... how did the number get so high!

Your local branch?
Central

Your favorite spot in the Library?
Where I eat lunch. My current lunch spot is the mezzanine of the Fiction/Teen Dept, but it will be changing soon I think.

What are you currently reading?
Knitting books, vintage clothes books, and "The Paradise Prophecy" by Robert Gregory Browne.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
I love to listen to audio books, so I would recommend listening to "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. The reader made the book captivating and exciting. I can't wait to listen to the next in the series, "Catching Fire."

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
"The Breed" by Chase Novak. A couple is so desperate to get pregnant that they go to horrific extremes to make it happen. I'm not entirely sure, but I think they actually wanted to eat their own children and the thought of that made me physically ill... eeeeeekkkkk. I now realize that the horror genre is not for me anymore.

What are your job title and location?
YA Librarian/Assistant Manager, Central Library.

What does your job entail?
Along with doing librarian duties like readers advisory, completing the pick list and assisting with homework, I am doing class visits, helping to manage FIC/YA. I also collaborate with School and Student Services.

Describe your typical workday.
Reading email, pick list, completing reports, possibly scheduling meetings, class visits, and learning others parts of my job (I am not a "Seasoned Vet" at at Central yet)

Describe up to three things you like about working in the library.
My co-workers in FIC/YA Dept, having access to more materials to assist the public and BOOKS a PLENTY!

A customer with a question about reading eBooks on her iPhone recently phoned the Library for help. The conversation resulted in a helpful one-on-one session in the Central Library’s Wi-Fi coffee shop. In just 10 minutes, we were able to set up the mobile site for eBook loans on her iPhone and check out a book to her Kindle.

Does the library have eBooks? Can you help me with eBooks? How do I check out an ebook? These are all frequently asked questions at the library’s Information Desk, and we have the answers. From experts to beginners, people have questions about using eBooks with a range of devices including Kindles, Nooks, iPads, smartphones, laptop, and desktop computers.

One example of the services provided by the Library is at the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch. We offer an eReader Clinic service for customers with questions about eReaders and eBooks. Customers make 30-minute appointments on the second and fourth Saturdays to discuss their eReader and eBook questions with a librarian. EReader Clinic sessions have covered questions about setting up a device, exploring the features of a particular device, downloading an eBook, and consumer research about different eReaders on the market. You just need to bring your devices and your questions.

Pratt eLibrary: Get more for free

As part of our new eLibrary initiative, we have set up a page on our website where you can find everything you need to get started. Access the Maryland Digital eLibrary Consortium, our partner site that manages eBook and audiobook downloads, get help with eBooks and eReaders, and learn about borrowing an eReader from the Library.

During this time of year, its good to reflect and appreciate our blessings and achievements. Our biggest thanks will always go to our patrons and our donors. Nearly two million people visit the Pratt Library every year. We are fully aware of the impact our resources and services provide every single person who walks through our doors.

To show our appreciation we made this video to showcase how the library is not only helpful but transformational to generations of Baltimoreans. Stories like these are happening every day at all 22 Pratt locations. Here's one from the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch.

All of our programs and services would not be possible without the generosity of our donors. Recently the The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation awarded the library a $350,000 grant over two years. Its the largest grant to a public library in support of eBooks and eReaders.

If you’ve ever visited the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Central Library location, then you know how large of a building it is—filled with bound volumes of passed-down thoughts from bygone ages, as well as today.  And if you’ve ever come to the Central Library looking for a specific item, the librarian assisting you may have disappeared for a few minutes to retrieve the item from the ubiquitous Stacks. Here are seven facts about the Stacks you may not know:

• There are three levels of Stacks beneath the first floor of the Central Library, which run the length of the city block. There are also smaller sections of Stacks located on the 2nd and 3rd floors. It is for this reason that…
  
  
• Approximately 70% of the Pratt Library’s entire collection can be found in the Stacks.
  
  
• During the 1950’s, the bottom, first stack was designated by the government as a fallout shelter, and was supplied with large drums containing food and water (All that is left of this designation today are some fallout shelter signs on the first stack).
  
  
• The rigid metal shelving units that make up the Stacks are integral to the building’s infrastructure, acting as a steel skeletal framework. The Central Library is thus literally being held up by the books it houses.
  
  
• Approximately 3000-5000 returned items are sorted in the basement everyday by the Stacks & Shelving Department, and then returned to their proper areas in the library.
  
  
• Given the above figures, is it any wonder that the hardworking Stacks & Shelving Department won the prestigious Enoch Pratt Free Library Department of the Year Award for 2012?
  
  
• The Stacks & Shelving Department is also responsible for hosting the Annual Book Sale, which occurs every first weekend in December at the Central Library. The manager of Stacks & Shelving, David Baldwin, estimates that there will be approximately 80,000 items for sale at this year’s event.
  
  

Although no one has gotten seriously lost in the Stacks, their sheer size makes them labyrinthine and intimidating; but once immersed in their depths, wandering through the Stacks becomes an adventure, because you never know what treasures you’ll find.

Come out and indulge your treasure-hunter instincts, while at the same time supporting the Library by attending this year’s Annual Book Sale, which begins today, Friday, November 30, and run through Sunday, December 2. And if you come to the Book Sale on Sunday, you can fill your own box with goodies for only $3.00. (If you need a box, it is $4.00.) Hope to see you there!

What is the cure for too much politics? Why more politics, of course! Or at least some really great films about politics. With the recently-released "Lincoln" and "Argo" playing at your local multiplex, it appears that Americans have more of an appetite for political wrangling on the big screen than they do on their TV screens.

The just-released "Lincoln", loosely based on Team of Rivals, the New York Times bestseller by Doris Kearns Goodwin, is set in the last few months of the Civil War, but it has virtually no battlefield scenes, at least not in a traditional sense. The battleground in this film is the halls of Congress and the back rooms of power, and we see Lincoln in a way we haven’t before: the consummate political power player, a man of the people, and a besieged family man. "Lincoln" not only restores the humanity to Lincoln, but it also celebrates the best parts of the American political system.

"Argo", based on the book of the same name by Antonio Mendez, is about one of the darkest moments in modern American history, the Iranian Hostage Crisis. With the lives of six Americans who are hiding from Iranian Revolutionaries hanging in the balance, bureaucratic infighting and Hollywood horse trading lead to an unusual solution.

In no particular order, here are my top ten favorite political films:

1. Primary Colors (1998)
Based on the book by "Anonymous" which is allegedly based on Bill Clinton’s 1992 Presidential campaign.

2. Control Room (2004)
This documentary examines the Arab news network, Al Jazeera, as it covers the second War in Iraq and makes a name—good or bad—for itself just as CNN did with the first Iraq War.

3. Wag the Dog (1997)
A scandal before an election causes a Presidential administration to fake a war with Albania using the media to win re-election. Based on the book, American Hero, by Larry Beinhart, this film’s title has passed into the lexicon of modern politics.

4. The War Room (1993)
This documentary is an inside look of the 1992 Clinton Presidential campaign and primarily features James Carville and George Stephanopoulos as they change the tactics of the modern political campaign.

5. In the Loop (2009)
With some characters drawn straight from the BBC show "The Thick of It", this film plays like a mash-up of the "The West Wing" and "The Office." When the U.S. President and the British Prime Minister decide to go to war in the Middle East, they leave it up to middle management, the Assistant Secretaries and lesser Cabinet Ministers, to find a casus belli. With the look of reality TV and catch phrases like "room meat" and "climb the mountain of conflict," this dark comedy hits the mark.

6. State of Play (2003)
Originally a British TV show, and later remade as a Russell Crowe film, this mini-series follows a politician that becomes the center of a murder investigation.

7. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
A masterpiece from Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart in the role of his lifetime, this classic of a man unwilling to back down from corruption in Washington DC is best known for its filibuster scene.

8. John Adams (2008)
Paul Giamatti plays John Adams, the irascible second President of the United States and the intellectual giant who formulated so many of our nation’s founding documents and institutions.

9. Our Brand is Crisis (2005)
James Carville and others from the two Bill Clinton Presidential campaigns formed their own consulting firm to start exporting American election tactics to politicians in other countries. This documentary examines what happens in Bolivia when those tactics run into a fragile, fledgling democracy.

10. All the President’s Men (1976)
Based on the Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein book of the same name, this film follows the two investigative reporters as they follow the trail of the Watergate Scandal that eventually brings down the Nixon Administration.

There are so many more great films that could be on this list, too.  What's your favorite political film?

Your name?
Tracey Gilchrist

Your age?
20

Your local branch?
Edmondson Avenue

Your favorite spot in the Library?
The kitchen.

What are you currently reading?
Possess by Gretchen McNeil

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green—it's good for a good cry. I started sharing everything I check out on my library card or topics library related on my new blog called My Library Card. Check it out for more recommendations!

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
I could not finish Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk—I just couldn't get into it.

What are your job title and location?
Office Assistant II, Edmondson Avenue Branch

What does your job entail?
Returning and checking books out to the public, preparing reports (missing, transit,and claims returned), and ringing-out the cash register.

Describe your typical workday:
I come in, I do the book drop, process holds that people requested, and work with the public—helping them check out books and answer their questions.

Describe up to three things you like about working in the library:
Books, books, and movies.

It's that time of the year again when the temperature starts dropping and cuddling up in a blanket with a great book sounds like a relaxing and magical way to spend a quiet evening.

Regularly, I make book recommendations on the air to both WBAL-TV and WYPR's Maryland Morning. Here's my most recent book selection. Most of my November recommendations celebrate family and friends and the comfort of food.

• The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo
• Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat by Bee Wilson
• John Saturnall's Feast by Lawrence Norfolk

Steven Spielberg's new movie "Lincoln" has received a lot of high praises from audiences and critics alike. Its based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's bestseller, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. This season, another U.S. President is also dominating must read book lists, Thomas Jefferson. Here are several new books:

• Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
• Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves by Henry Wiencek
• Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee: How a Founding Father and His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America by Thomas J. Craughwell

Here are several more books that I hope you will enjoy.

• American Lady: The Life of Susan Mary Alsop by Caroline de Margerie and Frances FitzGerald
• My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop edited by Ronald Rice
• Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm: A New English Version by Philip Pullman
• The Cutting Season by Attica Locke
• Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

During the Fairy Tale Festival, we put up a castle wall above the computers at the Patterson Park Branch. It looked great. It transformed the whole space, and it created a lot of interest in the festival. There was only one problem. Once we took the castle wall down, the space where it had been seemed plain. Very, very plain.

You might even say that it was ugly. Our wall, which we had never noticed in any significant way before, began to bother us. We tried unsuccessfully to ignore it. We tried to remember that we never cared before. During summer reading, we covered our wall with signs advertising the reading program, which helped, but as soon as summer ended, we had the same problem. Our unremarkable wall taunted us with its blandness.

Fortunately, a few months ago, we came up with a great solution: Introducing the Patterson Park Wall of Art!

Once a month, the staff and patrons of the Patterson Park Branch make an art project to decorate our wall. It cheerfully greets everyone who enters the library. In October, we had a pumpkin patch, with pumpkins ranging from traditional jack-o-lanterns to 3-D creations to homages to Baltimore’s sports teams. For November, we made a Thankful Turkey. Each colorful feather has words or a picture describing something that we’re thankful for.

Every month, we’ll be putting up something new to celebrate the season and all of the artistic talent we have at the library. Drop by and see us sometime. If you time it right, you could help us with our next masterpiece.

It’s November, and the fall is finally in full regal: there are pumpkins on stoops, rich yellows and oranges, and an air of mischief in the cool night airs. This air of degeneration is captivating, to the point that the December Holidays—already looming—threaten to eclipse this too quick passing season.

However, before we are inundated with Christmas carols, nothing marks the onset of the changing seasons for me than listening to another form of music... a guilty pleasure, if you will: post-punk European bands from the early eighties.

That’s right, I admit it—for years now, I have found that the perfect soundtrack to the cool autumn nights to be albums cut by gals and blokes with macabre sensibilities, and thrashing guitar riffs that are as haunting as they are dark and catchy.

Here are some albums which comprise my perfect fall playlist:

Echo & the Bunnymen: Ocean Rain (Wikipedia)

Siouxsie and the Banshees: Once upon a time: the singles (Catalog)

Depeche Mode: The Singles 81>85 (Catalog)

The Fall: 458489: A and B sides (Catalog)

The The: Soul Mining (Wikipedia)

The Smiths: The Queen is dead (Catalog)

The Cure: Join the dots (Catalog)

U2: October (Wikipedia), or anything pre-Joshua Tree

Tears for Fears: The Hurting (Wikipedia) & Songs from the Big Chair (Catalog)

Admittedly, there are other dark musicians/albums that complement the fall. (For instance, Jandek and Black Sabbath come to mind.) However, for me, the overall oeuvres of the post-punk European bands have the ideal groovy machinations to celebrate autumn.

How about you? What is your perfect fall playlist?

On this Thanksgiving Eve, many of us are preparing to gather around the centerpiece of this beloved tradition: food. Although no two Thanksgiving menus are exactly identical—regional fare such as sauerkraut and crab casserole have appeared on my family's dinner table—core components such as turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie are served in some variation.

Our annual observance of this holiday attaches a sense of continuity and ritual to Thanksgiving—but just how authentic is our present-day celebration? Did the English Pilgrims and Wampanoag really celebrate the First Thanksgiving with turkey and pumpkin pie on the fourth Thursday of November? And have Americans commemorated this event every year for nearly four centuries?

Not exactly. According to the authors of Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving Recipes and History, From Pilgrims to Pumpkin Pie, "the 1621 celebration shared by the English and Wampanoag is the only harvest feast in early Plymouth that we know about, and this event did not begin an annual tradition."

Historians believe the First Thanksgiving occurred sometime between September 21st and November 9th, which coincided with Keepunumuk, the Wampanoag time of harvest. The English colonists had just endured a very difficult first year in North America—only one-third of the original 150 who made the voyage on the Mayflower lived to experience the harvest feast. In celebration of the colonists' survival, which coincided with the harvest of native corn and the return of migratory birds to the Plymouth area, Plymouth Governor William Bradford invited an unspecified number of Wampanoag People "for three days of entertainment, feasting, and diplomacy."

By current standards, the bill of fare was likely lean and simple. Surviving documentation mentions only two food items (deer and wildfowl), and it provides no details about preparation or how much food people consumed. Although birds appeared to play a role in the original menu, turkey—the cornerstone of Thanksgiving feasts in present-day America—may not have been among the varieties on the Pilgrims’ table.

As for potatoes, the English and Wampanoag would not even have recognized them as food. The Smithsonian Magazine reports that "white potatoes, originating in South America, and sweet potatoes, from the Caribbean, had yet to infiltrate North America." They didn’t cover their meat in cranberry sauce, either—the concept of boiling cranberries and sugar didn’t enter English cuisine for another half century. And although the early settlers had pumpkins and squashes, the first recipes for pumpkin pie didn’t appear until later in the 17th century.

So how and when did Thanksgiving become an annual tradition? And who initiated the idea of turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie? It all goes back to a Philadelphia woman named Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, and according to the Smithsonian, "a real trendsetter for running a household." In 1827, Hale initiated a lengthy campaign to petition the President of the United States for a national holiday to give thanks. After several fruitless decades, she successfully made her case to Abraham Lincoln, who thought that Hale’s idea would help unite the country during the Civil War. In 1863, Thanksgiving became a national holiday.

But Hale's influence didn’t end there; we also owe our traditional Thanksgiving menu to her. In between petitioning the presidents, she was publishing menus and working on a series of cookbooks for the holiday she'd hoped to create. Historian Kathleen Wall writes that "a lot of the food that we think of—roast turkey with sage dressing, creamed onions, mashed turnips, even some of the mashed potato dishes, which were kind of exotic then" had their roots in Hale’s publications. When Lincoln arrived at the White House, scores of housewives had already read Hale's recipes and were eager to prepare the dishes that Americans would forever associate with Thanksgiving.

Visit the Plymouth Hall Museum to learn more about the First Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims, and the Wampanoag. The Plimoth Plantation website also contains recipes for traditional Wampanoag dishes. For general Thanksgiving trivia, such as the origins of Thanksgiving Day football or the fate of White House turkeys who receive the Presidential pardons, check out the National Geographic article, Thanksgiving Day Facts: Pilgrims, Dinner, Parades, More. The Pratt Library also has several books about the early English settlers , Native Americans, and the origin of American Holidays.

Your name?
Tom

Your age?
55

Your local branch?
Central

Your position at the library?
Librarian, Sights & Sounds Department

Your job description?
Performing viewers' and listeners' advisory, shelving materials, answering reference questions, weeding, assisting teachers/librarians/general public find audiovisual aids for their curriculum and other needs, planning and assisting other staff with film program ideas, submitting interlibrary loan requests for materials we don't have, researching performance rights, posting calender events, blogging in Pratt Chat about collection highlights.

Typical Day?
All of the above - except on those days when there's an earthquake or Frankenstorm.

What do you like about the library?

1. You meet an eclectic mix of people - art students, teachers, counselors, home schoolers, WIRE cast members - with a wide and divergent range of interests. (I've met Ken Burns's cinematographer Allen Moore, John Waters, actors George Figgs and Mary Vivian Pearce, and Sondheim Award-winning artist Laure Drogoule, to name but a few.)
2. You are on the front lines of what's hot in books, movies, music and the community. Not to mention conspiracy theories!
3. I save money by checking out a lot of free movies, cable TV shows and books that I otherwise couldn't afford.

Your favorite spot in the Library?
1st Stack, where all the old (often out-of-print) film and music books are stored! And the 3rd floor A/V Inspection room, where Pratt has over 2,100 16mm films. Our experimental shorts collection is amazing, with Suzan Pitt's Asparagus and Jim Henson's Time Piece my personal faves.

What are you currently reading?
Andrea Camilleri's Voice of the Violin; it's the 12th book I've read by this Sicilian author who's had 14 of his "Inspector Montalbano" mysteries translated into English. They're well-written mysteries with a touch of humor and reflect the way Sicilians feel like the lesser cousins of mainland Italy.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
Melville's Moby Dick, right now and forever! It's the great American novel. Also, Young Adult Novel by Daniel Pinkwater (funny!) and anything by Franz Kafka (funny in an existential way!), Haruki Murakami (Wind-Up Bird Chronicles) or Raymond Chandler (The Long Goodbye).

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was finals week at college and I had to choose between reading a 700-page novel or wooing the classmate that I later ended up marrying. I chose real love over love of literature (and still got a B on my Russian Lit. essay!)

I rarely forget how powerful words can be, but if I ever did, I'd remember as soon as I ran into Tim Ward. Tim, a seemingly sturdy man with a big, deep voice, has made it to almost every one of the Pratt’s Poetry and Conversation readings, enlivening the Q&A with comments that are passionate and uncensored, like drafts of poems.

He also plunged with gusto into the free poetry-writing workshops that Towson University Professor Emerita Clarinda Harriss offered at the Pratt last April. When I saw him in the Fiction Department in May, we had not officially met, but I felt that I knew him. "It's you!" I said. "The Poet!"

Though he has always read voraciously and never stopped writing, I learned, Tim has written "seriously" only in recent years. In 2003, he retired from a long career as a cab driver. After losing a second job in 2009, he began frequenting open mics and poetry readings at an impressively long string of venues—not just the Pratt but also Minás Gallery, Poets in Preston at Preston Park, the Creative Alliance, the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, Evolver Baltimore, and Station North. In 2011, after losing his home and moving in with his brother, he returned to his writing with new zeal.

When he showed me some of his poems, I found them to be just like him—free, surprising, and bursting with natural music. Listen to this:

I want to be naked and beautiful in
The harsh light of a secondhand lamp in
My twenty-seventh apartment—you visited in
March

and this:

At times my dog visits
Where he has no home

and this:

A huge crane lifts the whole wheel
Out of the center of the Earth where the tireless people live—
They are digging more and deeper every day[...].

Tim, who describes himself as "full of love, laughter, and mad anger at injustice," sees writing as something that "allows me to kick over the bushel basket and send it helter-skelter spilling emotions into Albert's Universe. Unlike Albert [Einstein] I do not know what shall spill out..." He writes of "loneliness or hopeful simple domesticity” and dislikes “to be held to forms," though he did practice some in Clarinda Harriss's workshops: "She wanted a sonnet, I wrote one," something "ate it, so I wrote another quick, quick, quick, on the bus ride home."

Tapping Pratt’s librarians for recommendations, he reads deeply and widely and recently enjoyed Heather McHugh, Linda Gregg, William Carlos Williams, W. H. Auden, and Emily Dickinson. Among local poets, he admires E. Megg Magee and Fernando Quijano III.

It takes more than poetry to inspire a poet, though. Months after I greeted Tim by saying, "The Poet!" he told me that this greeting was what he needed to hear. Shortly before, he had performed his first public poetry reading, sharing "At Times My Dog Visits" at the Village Learning Place. A woman who attended the reading saw him somewhere else later and said, "You're the Poet." The similarity between my comment and this stranger's, Tim says, gave him faith in his work. It makes me happy to believe this, to believe that just two words—"The Poet"—can make a community: Tim, me, a nameless woman, and a dog who means something to all of us. Words! They do wonderful things.

Visit Tim on Facebook. Check out upcoming poetry programs at the Pratt.

What are graphic novels? We know them when we see them—they have text and pictures together. Isn’t that the same as comic books? Essentially, they are two kinds of works using the same methods, just as two painters who work in different styles both use paint.

Scott McCloud, in his book Understanding Comics (in graphic novel form!), spends time examining what and how comics, graphic novels, and manga work.

Comics, as we know them, are generally issued over time as series. Often, when a series is completed, the issues are collected into one book, a graphic novel. This is similar to the way novelists like Charles Dickens used to work, publishing their stories in magazine and newspapers and then having an actual book made. Just as novels can be on any topic, so can graphic novels. One difference is that we’ve gotten used to calling any work done with art and text mixed together a graphic novel, even if it’s non-fiction. Since this terminology has become so common, we’ll just have to get used to it.

To take just two popular examples, Watchmen is fiction (of the superhero apocalypse variety), and Maus is a non-fictional account of Art Spiegelman’s father’s Holocaust experiences and their effect on him and his family.
Two other examples of autobiographical comics are American Splendor: the Life and Times of Harvey Pekar and Persepolis. It’s hard to classify the Logicomix: an Epic Search for Truth, the work of mathematicians Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou. It combines a spiritual biography of mathematician/philosopher Bertrand Russell’s life and an exploration of the areas where philosophy and mathematics intersect with stories of the authors' own lives for good measure.

Joe Sacco’s visual accounts of Palestine and war in Bosnia and cartoonist/animator Guy Delisle’s reports on his visits to the Far East, Pyongyang: a journey in North Korea and Shenzhen: a travelogue from China are good examples of using comics as journalism.

Not so far afield, but just as interesting is Alice in Sunderland, Bryan Talbot’s tribute to his hometown in northeastern England, to comics, and to Alice in Wonderland. This is a personal favorite, but if you have no interest in learning about Sunderland, it is still interesting for the various graphic techniques upon which Talbot draws.

Toward the end of his life, Will Eisner, the man known as "the father of the American graphic novel," examined antisemitism in two works: Fagin the Jew, in which Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist villain tells his side of the story; and The Plot: the Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, telling the story of one of the most wide-spread works of antisemitic propaganda.

Those who want to sample the variety of ways today's graphic novelists treat classic works of literature might want to see The Graphic Canon. Vol. 1, From the Epic of Gilgamesh, to Shakespeare, to Dangerous Liaisons.

Thanks to a grant from the Small Book Expo, Pratt library’s collection is becoming even more diverse; the 40 new titles have just started arriving.

For good surveys of what’s available in the very broad area of graphic novels/comics, one might want to check out 1001 Comics You Must Read Before You Die and Graphic Novels: Everything You Need to Know or 500 Essential Graphic Novels. You’ll find that there’s something in the comics/graphic novel format for everyone: fiction, non-fiction, entertainment, education... And because graphic novels are not always shelved where you might expect them to be, be sure to consult the Pratt catalog, or a friendly librarian.

I love fall—the colors, the crispness in the air, and the excuse to turn on the oven and bake. As I was planning for the first meeting of the new Poetry Circle at the Reisterstown Road Branch, I thought what better theme to get us started than the inspiration of fall. We tried our hands at a number of different poetic exercises including similes, acrostic, haiku, and free verse using fall as our muse.

I would bet that many of us were first introduced to writing poetry with similes and metaphors. A simile is an easy way to compare two things using the words “like” or “as.” We encouraged the broader community to get in on the fun with a display on fall similes.

Here are some of the simile submissions:

• The leaves are like a prism, twirling colors in the sunlight.
• The smell of hot chocolate filled the room, warming me like a crackling fireplace.
• Autumn leaves are like Midwestern tornadoes spiraling out of control
• The sky was as gray as galvanized sheet metal.
• The changing of the leaves are like the changing of the guard for the next phase of the unexpected.
• I felt my life was changing like the leaves in the crisp autumn breeze, changing into something colorful and beautiful.

An acrostic poem is a poem that uses the letters of a word to begin each line vertically. Off of each vertical letter, another word or phrase is written that begins with the same letter.

Here are some of the samples from the Poetry Circle:

Wet wide sandy spaces
Across the world she spreads her beckoning fingers
Temperature ranging from warm and soothing to frigid
Everyone gathers to have fun in the sun
“Return to me,” she whispers seductively

Linger on the Autumn leaves
Invisible banter of sun and shadow
Give yourself over to the progression
Hope for the new dawn on the horizon
Time spreads itself out like a mother’s blanket

Librarian Greg Fromme’s favorite fall poem is "After Apple-Picking" by Robert Frost. What are your favorite fall poems? Try your hand at a fall-inspired poem and share it below in the comments.

The Poetry Circle meets monthly at the Reisterstown Road Branch on third Mondays at 3pm. Check out the calendar for thefull list of dates. Hope to see you there!

Libraries are known for keeping and providing access to the printed word, whether it’s on the page or the screen. What we’re really keeping, though, is more than words. We’re keeping stories.

This year, the Pratt Library is pleased to partner with the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc. (NABS) for the Imagination Celebration: a week-long festival dedicated to storytelling and story making. Each of our libraries is receiving a special performance by one of the NABS master storytellers visiting Baltimore for their annual conference and 30th anniversary.

TAHIRA performs for a group of
students at the Brooklyn Branch.

Formed by storytellers Mary Carter Smith of Baltimore and Linda Goss of Philadelphia in 1982, NABS provides opportunities for African-American storytellers to be heard and to share and preserve the rich heritage of the African oral tradition. The first NABS festival was held in Baltimore at Morgan State University and comes “home” to Baltimore every ten years.

Along with the national organization, there are several smaller affiliates around the country, including the Griots’ Circle of Maryland here in Baltimore. Pratt has several master storytellers from the Griots’ Circle on staff, including children’s librarian Karen Burdnell (Herring Run) and branch managers Lynne Distance (Herring Run) and S. Butler (Walbrook). Mr. Butler also runs a Growing Griots program at the Walbrook branch, which helps engage young adults in the African oral tradition and teaches them the skills related to storytelling.

The week of storytelling culminates in our Imagination Celebration for all ages at the Central Library on Saturday, November 17. During the day, stop by to visit and do an activity with our partners from the Walters Art Museum, Port Discovery, the Maryland Zoo, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore, and friendly dogs and volunteers from Pets on Wheels. In addition, check out our other fun activities happening that day:

• Make your own puppet with our friends from the Black Cherry Puppet Theater
• Get your face painted by Theresa from Pets on Wheels
• Watch our Free Family Flick Madagascar 3 in Wheeler Auditorium at 10:30 am
• Hear master storyteller and published author Dylan Pritchett at 12:00 pm in the Night Room
• Read a story to a friendly dog at our PAWS to Read program at 2:00 pm in the Children’s Garden

Join us for a whole day of sharing stories and making new ones on Saturday at the Central Library!

We would like to extend a huge thank you to all our readers who voted for Pratt Chat to win the Baltimore Sun 2012 Mobbies award for Best Organization Blog. You are the reason we do this.

Jessica accepting the Mobbie

Thank you also to our bloggers, editors, and guest contributors for making Pratt Chat a roaring success. We are unique among library blogs. The dedication and thoughtfulness through which our team members make their contributions has shaped our blog into a formidable voice for the Enoch Pratt Free Library and Baltimore City library visitors.

We now have 21 regular contributors and editors, and a large cast of guest contributors. Anyone who has participated in a collaborative or organization blog will understand the significance of this number: In most organizations, as with the Pratt Library, blogging is not part of employees’ job descriptions, and it can be difficult to convince them make time in their busy schedules for blogging.

We believe that Pratt Chat’s greatest success is the amazing response we’ve had from staff. Our team collaborates daily with enthusiasm to produce high quality content that represents the breadth and depth of knowledge held within the Pratt Library.

It is a pleasure and a privilege to work with this talented team of librarians and library-lovers to share our stories, recommendations, and insights with you, our readers.

We would like to take this opportunity to extend an invitation for your feedback on Pratt Chat. Please fill out the comment form on the Community Guidelines page and let us know what you think. Your remarks are important to us, and we will use them to grow and improve.

Your name?
Caitlin.

Your age?
29.

Your local branch?
Central.

Your favorite spot in the Library?
Periodicals.

What are you currently reading?
Burr by Gore Vidal.

What book would you recommend to readers right now, and why?
The collected short stories of Shirley Jackson... Especially We have already lived in the castle! Her stories are dark, involving, and eccentric (and easy to read)... Similar in tone to Roald Dahl's short stories for adults.

What is one book you could not finish, and why?
I have difficulty finishing books because they often end in ways i dislike or disagree with. I usually come within the last few pages of a book and then put it back on the shelf. I prefer to come to my own conclusions than to be disappointed.

What is the last thing you came to the Library to find?
Artforum.

What is your favorite memory of the Library?
I always enjoy the motley crew of fellow readers in the Central Library's periodicals department. To me this is emblematic of the public library: different people taking time out of their day to read disparate things in the company of one another. I think this kind of space is so very important. A place to gather that is free and open to everyone. A place to make individual choices about what to read, learn, and think about. It's exciting.

What is one thing you want everyone to know about the Library?
That interlibrary loan is amazing and you can get you items that the Pratt Library doesn't have in its own collection.

This is the first post in a new series called Pratt Profiles. This series will feature interviews with Pratt Chat readers, Library customers, and staff published each Wednesday.

When the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch first opened to the public on January 15, 1953, the former director of Pratt Library, Joseph Wheeler, commented that "It's the finest public library (branch) in the country. It has the rest of them backed off the boards."

After spending many weeks closed for renovations, we are celebrating our Grand Re-opening on Wednesday, November 14 at 10:30am, and all are welcome.

From the Outside In
The current revitalization of the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch invites customers to a host of improvements and new services to enhance their library experience.
The first change customers notice about the branch is the new design on the building. It is a vibrant decal of a young girl reading. It displays an image of curiosity and learning.

Several aesthetic changes welcome customers inside. The walls have been painted, some with bright accent colors, and new carpeting was installed throughout the building. Eye-pleasing signs replaced the old green ones added in the 1980's. Additionally, the branch's meeting room received technology upgrades, and opened more space for events and meetings.

There is also new furniture throughout the building, both for public and staff use.

A New Artistic Vision
As part of a community with a rich artistic history, it is only natural that part of the branch's renewal involve art. A large mural covers the Lobby wall behind the Circulation desk. The images are based on the book Dizzy by Sean Qualls and pay homage to Pennsylvania Avenue's jazz heritage.

Beautiful illustrations from nine picture books adorn the walls of the Children's area. Eye-catching colors and energetic scenes make them a must-see for visitors.

Jack Young, the Library's graphic designer who coordinated the new art for the branch, states that, "The goal was to select images that were culturally relevant, historical, empowering, and related to the community in some fashion. They were hung in a way that lead to a color harmony between the palettes. Ultimately, adding the spotlights to shine on the pictures enhances them and brightens the children's area."

Children Are the Future
A new early literacy center is among many changes to the Children's area. It features a play area, where children age three and younger can learn basic motor and thinking skills, and has a collection of early literacy reading materials on topics from the alphabet to shapes.

Technology, More for Free
Technology plays a significant role in the revitalization of the branch. A large digital display shows upcoming events as customers enter the library. The Job and Career Center features five new computers dedicated for employment searching activities.

The newest addition to the branch is the Pratt eLibrary Station. This touchscreen station, which is part of an eBooks grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, lets library customers view Pratt's growing collection of downloadable eBooks and audiobooks.

Pratt is also lending new Sony eReaders to customers. Customers will be able to borrow and download eBooks of their choice directly to the device. The Sony devices are part of the Weinberg grant designed to augment Pratt's eBook presence.

The community's response to these improvements has been immediate and positive, and this renewal project provides the library with the opportunity to continue to be a beacon within the Penn-North neighborhood.

Please join us for our Grand Re-opening Wednesday, November 14 at 10:30am at the Pennsylvania Avenue Branch, 1531 W. North Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217. All are welcome.

We don't want to hitch our dreams to the wrong man. That's why, for months now, America has been abuzz about a major decision. When one of us is summoned to embody an ancient vision for all of us, feelings run deep. The presidential elections? Heavens, no. I'm talking about the decision to cast Tom Cruise as the hero of the movie out December 21—Jack Reacher.

Everyone loves Reacher, the hero of Lee Child's bestselling suspense series—at least, everyone I know who knows Reacher loves him—and no wonder. A crushing righter of wrongs, Reacher is also a vulnerable loner, who happens upon people in trouble, helps them, and moves on. Attached to virtually nothing but his toothbrush and ex-military-cop pension, he drifts from state to state, a modern knight-errant. He speaks little. He cares for women deeply, but never settles. He fights on his own terms, on his own time, for his own beliefs. As a force for good who's cut off from official systems, he lets us imagine we can be powerful without ceasing to be ourselves, to be free.

Reacher's personal appearance helps illustrate this dream, like visual poetry. At six-foot-five and 220+ pounds, he's huge. Yet his brawn always serves his brain and heart. Though he kills, it's not in rage, but for justice, and he solves his cases largely through Poirot-like insight. Combined with his inner life, his size suggests a marriage of brute strength to sensitivity.

Do Pratt readers feel that Cruise can embody this vision? To find out, I conducted a casual survey. Of 12 Reacher readers from five branches, all but two opposed the casting. Here are some quotes:

Errol: "I think Cruise is going to do a good job."

Richard: "As long as Reacher is tall, fit, moderately good looking (but not tooooo good looking), and able to cultivate that i-don't-give-a- attitude, anyone, including Cruise, should be able to do it."

Pat: "I don't think of Reacher as someone with Tom Cruise’s good looks. I would have picked somebody a lot more craggy-looking."

Sharon: "Cruise just doesn't fit that character. Reacher is more of a no-nonsense type."

Cleaveland: "The size issues are enormous, and I just don't think Cruise, at five-foot-seven, comes across as Reacher, even if Cruise were a foot taller."

Jim: "Reacher's physique is integral to feats he must accomplish in each book... Cruise literally just doesn't measure up."

Michael: "Cruise is a ridiculous choice, too short and not intense enough."

Whitney: "He’s just not manly enough!"

Avidreader1: "He’s just not 'substantial' enough, and seems somewhat soulless."

Joyce, Central Librarian: "Reacher is more a symbol of the triumph of good over evil and Cruise is more a whiner. Reacher could inspire legions to troop through the gates of Hell and  Cruise can't inspire me to spend good money to walk through the doors of a theater."

Julie Johnson, Roland Park Library's Manager: "NOT going to see the movie. NO way."

Anonymous, who was in an airport when he heard about the casting: "I screamed."

Pratt readers unhappy with the Cruise casting are not alone. Over 6,000 people have "liked" the Facebook page "Tom Cruise is not Jack Reacher." Though Child supports Cruise, he says he understands his fans' concern. Reacher would understand too, if he were real, since loyalty to a dream which Hollywood may have betrayed is nothing if not Reacher-like. When he sidesteps a woman's charms for the sake of a woman to whom he’s already pledged, in Running Blind, the jilted woman says admiringly, "I like that in a guy... Steadfastness."  It can also be attractive in a reader.

What do YOU think about the casting? Please leave your comment below.

While waiting in line to pass through security at BWI Thurgood Marshall International Airport last week I gave some thought to the evolution of our busy, ultra-modern airport. I go way back with this place. Trips to the airport were not unknown in my youth. A favorite stop on a sunny day was a drive out to the airport to watch planes from the outdoor observation deck (a dime to enter and another ten cents to use the mounted binoculars!). Before becoming a mega-airport, BWI was Friendship Field International Airport, an important step in Baltimore’s bid to become a major metropolitan market.

Friendship Airport on the cover of the
1960 Baltimore telephone directory

Dedicated by President Harry S. Truman, Friendship opened on June 24, 1950. It was named after Friendship Methodist Church, on whose land the $15 million, 3200-acre complex was constructed. A grand opening committee made up of prominent Baltimore businessmen and civic leaders knew the new airport would be a major attraction for the City and planned for an expected crowd of 100,000-200,000 for the opening ceremony.

With only one two-lane access road (Belle Grove Road) to get to the airport, it could have been the greatest traffic jam in local history because the Baltimore-Washington Parkway was not completed at the time. However, when June 24 rolled around the weather was so hot and unpleasant (95 degrees) only about 10,000 people made it to the dedication. Fifty-six aircraft used the airport on its first day.

Friendship was the most modern of all the post-war terminals. It even offered the latest in comfort, 22 air-conditioned roomettes on site for the weary traveler. (Room service was not available as there already was a coffee shop and snack bar in the building).

The success of the location and the growth of passenger travel via air prompted the State of Maryland to purchase the complex from the City of Baltimore in 1972. The name was changed to Baltimore-Washington International to improve marketing the airport to the Washington region. Expansion and renovation began in the 1970’s and has continued as the number of carriers and flights have grown. Today many consider BWI to be the best U.S. airport of its size. Impressive, considering the new airport was built right over the original Friendship building.

With about 700 flights a day and more than 2 million passengers a month, BWI Thurgood Marshall rivals the bigger airports for convenience and service. In fact, it boards more passengers than Dulles or Reagan airports in D.C.

Friendship Airport in 1950,
2nd level observation deck in red

My only disappointment is that there’s no observation deck. There is a large window for viewing planes near Concourse B, but it is not the same as that wonderful observation deck at Friendship (which, by my estimation, was just about where Concourse C is today). But don’t go out there looking for it. In the post-9/11 world you’ll need a ticket and have to pass through security to get that far into the complex.

If you enjoy airports too, stop by the Maryland Department at the Central Library. We can show you material on all of Baltimore’s airports or any form of transportation in Maryland.

I have read articles by Carlin Romano, professor of philosophy at Ursinus College, on various web sites and found them informative. When I learned that his new book, America the Philosophical (2012), touted the U.S. as a center of philosophical thought, it sounded counterintuitive to me: many do not generally think of the U.S. in those terms. Since the book is located in the Humanities Department, I decided to read and review it.

At the beginning of America the Philosophical, Romano makes an astonishing claim:

America in the early 21st century towers as the most philosophical culture in the history of the world, an unprecedented marketplace of truth and argument that far surpasses ancient Greece, Cartesian France, 19th-century Germany, or any other place one can name over the past three millennia.

Really? Could the culture that gave us The Jerry Springer Show and Joanie Loves Chachi also be the incubator of the world’s foremost philosopher-kings-and-queens?

Romano’s book is in part a response to Richard Hofstadter’s book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963). Hofstadter portrayed the United States as a “business civilization” marked by materialism, conspicuous consumption, and a strong hostility to the life of the mind.

Besides giving the titans of American philosophy (Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, John Dewey, etc.) their due, Romano bolsters his case by considering the works of some thinkers who are not generally thought of as philosophers at all, such as Martin Luther King and Cornel West.

Romano points out that the United States is now a much more open-minded and diverse nation than it was when Hofstadter was writing. He makes a persuasive argument that, despite subjecting us to a constant bombardment of kitsch, American culture is also a source of important philosophical achievement. Now all he has to do is convince the American intellectual establishment that he is right. There are worse lots in life, but not many.

If you are interested in further reading about the great American philosophers in Romano’s book, you can find many titles in the Pratt Library catalog by clicking on the author names in this post.

Joe has worked as a Reference Librarian in the Humanities Department at Pratt for two years. Before that, he was a Reference Librarian in the Social Science and History Department for twenty-four years.

On this election eve, we should all be excited to exercise our freedom and be part of this democracy. As Americans, it is our responsibility to engage and participate in this process that helps shape the future of our nation. Your vote also has an impact on our great city.

Baltimoreans will have an opportunity to vote on the “2012 Bond Issues A to I.”  Voting for this year’s bond questions will help Baltimore grow and make our city better and stronger.

Bond Question "E" is of the utmost importance to the Enoch Pratt Free Library:

E. Public Buildings Loan: $17 million
The Department of General Services is responsible to the capital construction and maintenance of all City buildings including libraries, health department facilities, police and fire stations, and City-owned landmarks. This loan will be used to address life safety issues, such as fire suppression systems, buildings, envelope retrofits, such as roofs and windows, and code compliance, such as ADA accessibility, for the city owned buildings. In addition, this loan will provide capital funds for Enoch Pratt Free Library modernizations.

Renovated Edmondson Avenue Branch

Voting for Question E is also a vote for the Enoch Pratt Free Library. It will be an investment in making your neighborhood branch better. In the past, dollars were used to renovate branches in communities in this city like the Edmondson Avenue and Reisterstown Road branches. In 2011, nearly two million patrons visited the Pratt Library. Nearly 150,000 attended free programs for children, teens, adults and seniors.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library is now more than a repository of books and resources. Every day, each location is a community hub where people get together to use computers, search for jobs, meet best-selling authors and are safe places for your children to visit and enjoy.

We need your help to ensure the Enoch Pratt Free Library remains an inspiring educational and cultural resource for generations of Baltimoreans to come. So please vote FOR Question E on your ballot. It’s easy to remember, E for Enoch Pratt.

Your support will make all the difference! Go out and vote!

Renovated Reisterstown Road Branch.

This Saturday, November 3rd from 1-5 at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Poe Room, sophiajacob, a contemporary art space dedicated to a continuous program of exhibitions by emerging and established artists, will present its fall symposium. Currently in its second season, the sophiajacob lecture series brings together artists, curators, and thinkers to present on a number of contemporary topics and issues.

sophiajacob's lecture symposium welcomes four local and national speakers:

• Christine Armacost, a PhD candidate in American Literature at Fordham University.
• Lisa Dillin, a Baltimore-based artist most recently exhibited in Future Daze at Open Space Gallery, The Alternate Present at Flashpoint in Washington, DC and as a Sondheim Finalist at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
• Brian Garner, a Printmaker/Artist who has been based in Baltimore since 1985, and has taught art and printmaking at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Davidson College, Towson University, and University of Maryland, College Park.
• Maiza Hixson, the Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts and the founder of the SHAFT Space with Lauren Ruth.

Founded in 2012, sophiajacob, located in walking distance to the Central Library at 501 W. Franklin St., is directed by Baltimore based artists David Armacost, Jordan Bernier, and Steven Riddle.

I had the opportunity to ask Armacost, Bernier, and Riddle four questions about the upcoming lecture, and the role of the Library in Baltimore’s art community:

Why did sophiajacob choose the Pratt Library as the location for your second lecture series?
The Enoch Pratt Free Library has a long history of cultural endeavors in Baltimore City. They support a wide range of art, film, and music events as well as readings and lectures. In addition, the Library is an institution that relies very heavily on the patronage and input of the community. The free, democratic nature of our public library made the decision very clear. It's somewhat strange that such a centrally located, free, open, and vast resource is not talked about and utilized more often within the local artist community.

Also, the Poe Room is most appropriate for our series. It is intimate, comfortable, and accessible; a prerequisite for our programming. This event is something of an experiment for us; lots of people have been asking us about the event and we hope for it to be a great success.

How did sophiajacob choose the four speakers?
We chose the speakers from a curated list developed months in advance. Generally speaking, each presenter is someone whose work or research we admire, yet we may not know much about their process or concepts.

Did sophiajacob have any re-occurring topics or themes in mind when choosing the speakers?
Each lecture date is a curated event, and while symposiums are generally organized around a single topic, sophiajacob attempted to find breadth in its curation of a symposium via the medium, concept, history, and location of its speakers.

What do you think the Enoch Pratt Free Library has to offer local artist?
The Enoch Pratt Free Library is one of the most exciting, democratic, cultural institutions in Baltimore. It's quite reasonable to book an event at the Central Library, and every occasion is free and open to the public as a rule. I think that makes the Enoch Pratt Free Library an indispensable public institution. I think that as artists we often forget about libraries as friends just like galleries, museums, conservatories, universities, and other cultural institutions. The Library is a resource that is dedicated to the idea of free information which is essential to a functioning democracy. Every living artist today has a responsibility to those ideas.

The sophiajacob lecture symposium is this Saturday, November 3rd from 1-5 at the Enoch Pratt Free Library Poe Room. You can find more information about the symposium on the gallery’s website.

If you’re a regular Pratt Chat reader, or if you tried to drive through Mt. Vernon during the last weekend of September, you probably already know about the Baltimore Book Festival. Still being relatively new to Baltimore, this was only my second time attending the festival. I enjoyed myself when I went before, but I didn’t plan out my visit, so I missed the panels I really wanted to see. This year, after looking at the schedule and lamenting the fact that I couldn’t see everything, I decided to attend on Friday evening and go to the “Once Upon a Slightly Different Time” panel in the Children’s Bookstore Stage.

Six authors were part of the panel: Ellen Datlow, Michael Buckley, Sarah Beth Durst, Shannon Hale, Jessica Day George, and Adam Gidwitz. I was already a fan of several of these authors, and I knew that they were all involved with fairy tale retellings, a genre that I’ve loved ever since reading Robin McKinley’s Beauty in elementary school. The topics they discussed ranged from inspiration to familiarity with the original tales to how long it takes to write a whole book. People in the crowd—many standing because the chairs were filled almost half an hour before the panel even started—asked questions and hung on every word of the engaging and hilarious hour-long discussion.

I was excited to find that the members of the panel would stay to meet the crowd and sign books. As I waited in line to get my own books signed and to say a few words to some of my favorite writers, I vowed to be cool. I’ve met a few other authors in the past, and each time, that elusive mix of effusive fan and mature individual seemed to elude me. I’m usually so excited that I just gush incoherently for a few seconds before deciding that a quick getaway is the only way to salvage the situation.

Writers are magical. They create entire worlds in their heads and somehow make me live there. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is. Considering that, I suppose my slightly crazed reaction to meeting them is understandable. This time, I personally talked to two of the authors. The first meeting was typically awkward and embarrassing, but still one of the highlights of my grownup life. The second meeting was a complete success. I felt cool. We talked, we laughed, I got a great note in the front of my book. That night was one of the most enjoyable I’ve had since I moved to Baltimore almost three years ago.

Local blogger Aine Fey was also at this panel, and she wrote up a great post with her notes from the discussion on her blog Aine's Realm.

What about you? Were any of you at the festival? Have you ever had any good or embarrassing encounters with authors you admire?

Happy Halloween from Pratt Chat!

Check out this new time-lapse video of our special Pratt Library pumpkin carving. The photo of our glowing pumpkin logo is the current profile pic on our Facebook Page.

Produced by Ryan O'Grady and Becky Hass.

“And here are the dead man’s eyeballs!” announced the storyteller. Next to me, an equally spooked friend leaned over and offered me a box just big enough to fit my hand. Inside, I felt what I truly thought to be a pair of dead man’s eyeballs. Despite my ever-growing fear, I couldn’t wait to receive the next box that would contain the dead man’s brains, liver, heart, hair, and a series of other wet, slippery body parts. I would come to find that these were, clearly, not body parts, but rather peeled grapes, cold spaghetti, canned tomatoes, cooked chicken, and damp yarn. This sensory story experience stuck with me through the years; when I had an opportunity to try it out myself as a librarian, I experienced an even greater thrill in telling the story and witnessing the children’s reactions.

From that point on, I couldn’t get enough of scary stories. I started with Alvin Schwartz’s famous Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a collection of short, spooky tales brilliantly (and terrifyingly!) illustrated by Stephen Gammell. These stories allow your imagination to fill in the details that the simple stories leave out; the black-and-white drawings are hauntingand provide just the right amount of scary.

In addition to Alvin Schwartz’s series, here are a few of my other favorite scary reads for children. Remember, everyone has a different tolerance for what is scary, so preview the following books before handing them off to children.

Robert D. San Souci has a series of great books called Dare to Be Scared. While Alvin Schwartz’s books tend to tell a lot of urban legends and tried-and-true stories, San Souci explores new territory with his short stories, many of which have a more modern feel and approach. These books are best for older elementary children and middle schoolers.

Part of what is most appealing to me about scary stories is that they have a long history; every culture has its own set of traditional spooky folktales. Jim Haskins shares some great stories from the African-American tradition in Moaning Bones: African-American Ghost Stories. Check out the Maryland-based story, "The Ghost in the Backseat." These tales average only 2-3 pages in length, and are perfect to share when time is short. They are also great for elementary school children.

For something a little different, I recommend Are You Afraid Yet?: The Science Behind Scary Stuff by Stephen James O’Meara. This small book contains lots of information on what many people consider to be fictional subjects like Bigfoot, monsters, and ghosts. The illustrations are done in comic book style, and there’s a lot to learn about the "reality" behind some of our most feared creatures. This title is a bit more complicated, so it is best enjoyed by 4th-5th grade and up.

There’s a lot more out there beyond just these few books, so make sure to stop by your local branch and ask your children’s librarian for more suggestions. It’s fun to create your own scary stories, so let those imaginations go!

In the meantime, feel free to share your favorite scary stories or books. Are there any that have stuck with you or your children over the years?

The Fine Arts and Recreation Department is hosting an exhibit called One View of the World, featuring photography by Danni Downing. The exhibit runs through December 9th at the Central Branch/State Library Resource Center.

Downing, who is originally from New Hampshire, lives in Maryland and works as a photographer in Washington, DC. I had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her work while she was visiting the library to install her exhibit.

What kind of subjects do you shoot and why is the library a good place to showcase your work?
I shoot landscapes, nature, and, on occasion, architecture. The library had the idea to not only provide access to information about the various forms of art, but to actually provide access to those forms of art. This is wonderful on so many levels: the library adds another dimension to what it has to offer the public. Also, patrons of the library can get up close to the art, and local artists get exposure. I’m so honored to have been asked to be one of those artists.

What sparked your curiosity and interest in photography?
I grew up in New Hampshire, surrounded by mountains, forests, lakes, and fields. And it’s an environment that changes every couple of months. Each season is so different and so beautiful in its own unique way, but so temporary and is never the same from year to year. When I was ten, I got my first camera and I was finally able to hold on to that beauty. I could make that one, unique moment last forever. Photography has the added benefit of allowing me to share the beauty of the world I see with others. I think that’s my favorite part of photography—others who might otherwise never see so much of this world can still experience it through photographs.

I see from your web site that you have some photos from the set of one of the Transformers movies. Was that a fun experience? How did you gain access to that movie world?
I’m a huge Transformers fan (starting with the cartoons when I was a kid to the movies now). And I’m lucky enough to work in DC, the setting of many movies. So when I saw that Transformers was being filmed in DC, and that the staging area was the parking lot right across the street from my office, I was ecstatic. I brought my camera to the office every day, and when I’d see them lining up to roll out, I’d run down to the street to photograph them. Optimus Prime would lead the way, followed by Bumblebee, and the others. And the staging area was open to the public, so we were able to get fairly close in. So cool!

You also take a lot of nature and animal shots. Which ones are your favorites and why?
There is such an endless variety of critters, and they’re all fascinating. And the vast landscapes and close-ups of nature are equally awe-inspiring. I can’t choose between the two.

In this video Downing talks about her exhibit, her inspiration, and the stories behind some of her photos.

Danni Downing is a full-time editor and photographer for a non-profit in Washington, DC, a position she has held since she earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1999. She hails from New Hampshire, where she developed her love of nature, and her desire to bring its beauty and wonder to others through photography. Danni has had exhibitions in New Hampshire and California, and was co-Artist-in-Residence for the Everglades National Park in April 2012. Her work can be seen at www.dannidowningphotography.com.

Do you have an artistic fire burning in you? Maybe you have a nice new DSLR camera that someone in your family gave you, and it has just been sitting on your shelf for the past year. Or maybe you own a point-and-shoot camera that you love taking pictures with at family and friend gatherings. Or perhaps you simply use your cell phone to capture the world around you.

The Library staff supports your artistic endeavors. On Tuesday, October 23, we launched a new class called the Digital Photography Workshop at the Reisterstown Road Branch.

Customers and staff explored the ins and outs of photography—from choosing the right camera, creating the right composition, editing, preservation, storage, and publication. We also moved outside the classroom and went on a neighborhood walk, during which we captured the world around us and found interesting subjects for the camera.

Check out some of the photos we took on our walk:

If you have an interest in taking on photography—either as a hobby or as a serious interest—please let us know in a comment on this blog post: we'd like to hold more of these classes in the future. If you want to learn about computer photo editing and storage, or attend other computer classes (such as Microsoft Word, Keyboarding, or the Internet) check out the Enoch Pratt Free Library's class schedule. The next "Photo Editing, Sharing and Storage class" taught by one of our librarians, Patrick, will be held December 6th from 10 am to 12 pm.

Remember: All the classes are free! Call and register today.

In the course of putting together a Pratt Library guide to the best web resources for watching full-length feature movies, I was surprised to find that so many great classic films by critically acclaimed directors are available to download or watch online for free. Read the guide here.

Some of these films (like Orson Welles’s rare Shakespeare adaptation Chimes At Midnight) have either never been commercially available on DVD or are only available in pricey DVD editions. All of the films listed below have either entered the public domain (which means they are completely legal to download, screen, or watch online for free) or are offered in versions licensed for free viewing on sites like YouTube, Google, Hulu, Open Culture or the Internet Archive.

While some of these films can be checked out from Pratt’s Sights & Sounds collection, this list provides a “backup plan” for watching these great films in case a title is currently unavailable. All you need is a computer, TV, or mobile device with an Internet connection and you’re set to watch free classic movies right now without having to register an account, download a player, or worry about due dates and late fees! Simply click on the highlighted links that follow to view these free cinematic gems.

Remember, this just a sampling of what's out there on the web. Good resources for further exploring are the web sites Open Culture (which lists 500 Free Movies Online and links to other free movie sites) and WhatCulture.com's 10 Little Known Classics You Need To Watch!

Arthouse Classics

1. Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) | Watch now (Google Video)
2. Powell & Pressburger’s Stairway To Heaven (aka A Matter of Life and Death, 1946) | Watch now (Classic Cinema Online)
3. Fritz Lang’s M (1931) | Watch now (Openflix, YouTube)
4. F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) | Watch now (YouTube)
5. Luis Bunuel’s L’Age d’Or (1930) | Watch now (YouTube)
6. Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) | Watch now (YouTube)
   
7. Jean Cocteau’s Blood of a Poet (1932) | Watch now (YouTube)
8. Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Vimeo) and Vampyr (1932, YouTube)
9. Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930) | Watch now (YouTube)
10. 3 Charlie Chaplin silent classics (YouTube): | City Lights (1931, YouTube), The Gold Rush (1925, YouTube), Modern Times (1936, YouTube)
11. 3 Russian masterpieces by Andrey Tarkovsky: | Solaris (Google Video), Stalker (YouTube) and The Mirror (You Tube)
    
    

Film Noir Classics


12. Fritz Lang’s The Big Heat (1953) | Watch now (YouTube)
13. Joseph Lewis’s The Big Combo (1955)| Watch Now (Internet Archive)
14. Stanley Kubrick’s Killer’s Kiss (1955) | Watch now (DailyMotion)
15. Edgar G. Ulmar’s Detour (1945) | Watch now (Internet Archive)
    
    

Cult Classics


16. Roger Corman’s The Terror (1963) | Watch now (Internet Archive)
17. John Sayles’s The Brother from Another Planet (1984) | Watch now (YouTube)
18. Charles Brown’s The Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield (1968) | Watch now (YouTube)
19. Curtis Hansen’s Night Tide (1961) | Watch now
20. George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) | Watch now (YouTube)
21. Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (1962) | Watch now (Internet Archive)
22. Jose Mojica Marins's At Midnight I Will Take Your Soul (1963) | Watch now (Retrovision.tv)
23. Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1962) | Watch now (YouTube)
24. 3 crazy '60s Japanese sci-fi movies starring superhero Starman: Attack from Space, Evil Brain from Outer Space and Atomic Rulers of the World (Retrovision.tv)
    
    

Documentary Classics

25. The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) - "Best Documentary" Oscar winner | Watch now (YouTube)
26. Morgan Spurlock's Oscar-nominated Super Size Me (2004) | Watch now (SnagFilms)

Pop the champagne! The results of a new study by the Pew Research Center has us celebrating: More than eight in ten young Americans (ages 16-29) read a book in the past year, and six in ten used their local public library. Many say they are reading more in the era of digital content, especially on their mobile phones and on computers.

In this age of Facebook, Twitter and reality shows this may come as a surprise to many. But contrary to the belief that millennials don’t read anything more than 140 characters, this study is very encouraging. The Pratt Library has numerous programs and initiatives to encourage more younger Americans to use the library. Free programs include Wii games at multiple branches, eBooks and eReaders available for checkout and innovative programs by the Pratt Contemporaries.

The report highlights that Americans under the age of 30 are more likely to read their eBooks on a cell phone, computer and eReader. That's why the library has a mobile site for easy access to our catalog and eBooks. And next week, the library will have a major announcement that will hopefully have more people checking out eBooks for free. "More for Free" is coming October 30.

Here are the findings by the Pew Research Center: 

• 83% of Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 read a book in the past year. Some 75% read a print book, 19% read an e-book, and 11% listened to an audiobook.
• Among Americans who read e-books, those under age 30 are more likely to read their e-books on a cell phone (41%) or computer (55%) than on an e-book reader such as a Kindle (23%) or tablet (16%).
• Overall, 47% of younger Americans read long-form e-content such as books, magazines or newspapers. E-content readers under age 30 are more likely than older e-content readers to say that they are reading more these days due to the availability of e-content (40% vs. 28%).
• 60% of Americans under age 30 used the library in the past year. Some 46% used the library for research, 38% borrowed books (print books, audiobooks, or e-books), and 23% borrowed newspapers, magazines, or journals.
• Many young e-book readers do not know they can borrow an e-book from a library. Among those ages 16-29 who have not borrowed an e-book from the library, 52% said they were unaware they could do so.

"High schoolers stand out in several ways. We found that libraries are a large part of how readers ages 16-17 get their books, more so than older adults. These high schoolers are more likely than other age groups to use the library, including for research and book-borrowing," said Kathryn Zickuhr of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, a co-author of the report.

From the Report:

Book readers by age
% of all Americans who have read a book in whole or in part, in any format, in the past 12 months

Source: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Reading Habits Survey, November 16-December 21, 2011. N=2,986 respondents ages 16 and older. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and on landline and cells.

E-books beyond e-readers
Among people who read e-books, the percentage in each age group who read their e-books on the following devices. For instance, 41% of e-book readers ages 16-29 read e-books on a cell phone.

Source: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Reading Habits Survey, November 16-December 21, 2011. N=2,986 respondents ages 16 and older. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish and on landline and cells. N for people who read an e-book in the past 12 months=793.

"Journey all over the universe in a map, without the expense and fatigue of traveling, without suffering the inconveniences of heat, cold, hunger, and thirst."
- Cervantes, Don Quixote

Why do we look at maps? To see where we’ve been? To locate where we are? To see where we’re going? Or to see where we have not (yet) been?

I have used maps for all of the above reasons; however, I also enjoy simply looking at maps—especially old maps, or replicas thereof. The various skills a cartographer displays in the making of a map are wonderful, and to behold a map is to see the world from a different vantage, or through some else's eyes. But no matter why you may have an inkling to look at genuine paper maps, the where should be in the Maryland Department, and the Social Science and History Department here at Central Library, and this is why...

The Maryland Department: With over 2000 maps in the collection dating back to the 17th Century, this is the place to see early maps of Maryland. Want to see the evolution of Baltimore or your hometown over the years? (Can you believe that the Jones Falls was a river before it was an expressway?) Or maybe trace your family’s path? Again, this is the place. From historic maps to historic atlases, the Maryland Department is a cornucopia for any map enthusiast. All of this and about 95% of the collection is ready and waiting for public perusal in vertical files in the back of the Maryland Room. You may also view some of the collection’s treasures from the comfort of your home via the online Digital Collection.

The Social Science & History Department: This is where you will not only find books on explorers and cartography, but also a collection of over 100,000 maps—from historic maps dating back to the 17th Century, to current street and road maps (that you can checkout) to help plan your next trip. Maybe you’re researching an obscure, tiny town that existed in German in the 19th Century, but you cannot find its location today? The librarians in this department might direct you to the old Andrees Hand Atlas from Germany. Planning your next bike tour, and—despite Google Map results—you’re curious where the steep hills are? No worries: they have the USGS topographic maps to help give you the lay of the land.

From the old, to the new, to the bizarre, stop in and explore the maps in these departments; the librarians are knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and will show you the way.

Also worth checking out is the Library of Congress' digitized Map Collection, which you can browse online. And the following books might pique your interest, as well:

• The Fourth Part of the World: the race to the ends of the Earth, and the epic story of the map that gave America its name by Toby Lester
• The map as art: contemporary artists explore cartography by Katharine Harmon

Happy exploring!

A hobby is an excellent thing to pursue when you have leisure time. A hobby helps to relieve stress and it can keep both the body and mind active.

Reading is my number one hobby. I can't remember when I started reading but, I've always loved the written word. The love of books was passed on to me by my mom who was and still is an avid reader. Through books, I have traveled, fallen in love and scaled the highest mountain. I have more or less conquered the world. But, I do have other hobbies, they include knitting, crocheting, computer gaming, sewing, jewelry making, journaling and solving logic puzzles.

Where did I learn to do all of these things? From books of course. Where do I find the books? At the public library. The library has information on hundreds of other things that you can do in your leisure time. Got a passion for fashion? Want to know how to raise rabbits or grow roses? We've got the information that you need right here at the library. Not sure of which hobby to choose? Take this quiz at CNN.COM to see "Which Hobby Best Suits Your Personality". Then take a trip to your nearest branch to get information about your new hobby.

For example, if you enjoy knitting and crocheting like I do, you can find a few books for the seasoned knitter and expert crocheter:

Knitting In the Details: Charming Designs To Knit & Embellish by Louisa Harding has a collection of 24 patterns to knit. Each pattern has a decorative detail that will enhance the knitted garment. Such embellishments include beading and embroidery.

Knitting Out Of Africa: Inspired Sweater Design by Marianne Isager includes sixteen patterns of sweaters influenced by traditional African fabric or cloth. 

Loop d-Loop Crochet: More Than 25 Novel Designs for Crocheters (and knitters taking up the hook) by Teva Durham is one of my favorites. It contains patterns for the whole family with easy to read diagrams and charts.

If you are new to both knitting and crocheting you can check out our how-to books and videos. There are also plenty of sites on the Internet that will give you free instructions and patterns to download for your personal use. I recommend these sites:

• Lion Brand
• Ravelry
• Crochet Pattern Central
• Knitting Pattern Central
• Drops Designs
• Knitty.

YouTube has tons of videos that will offer you additional help and instructions. Here is one for the beginning crocheter presented by All Free Crochet entitled, Learn How to Crochet - Part 1- Basics for the Absolute Beginner.

Other places that hobbyist might look for more resources are social networking sites such as FaceBook, or Pinterest, an online bulletin board. If you are interested in learning how to knit or crochet, several of our branches are offering classes. Just check the prattlibrary.org calendar for available classes. For classes at the Forest Park Branch, click here.

I love Baltimore
I love its streets, its parks
Its rainy afternoons
When I curl up with that good book
That comes from my beloved Pratt
I love its markets
Where the seafood beckons
And its vegetables delight my eye
Where the “arabs” wander
And their calls remind me of my childhood
I love the old brick buildings
With their rounded doorways
I love the past keeping up with the new
But most of all I love the feeling
That this city is my birthplace
And all my memories are part of its history.

“I LOVE BALTIMORE” Poem by Ruth Garbis
(February 3, 1920 – July 18, 2011)

My mother, Ruth Garbis (née: Rochkind), was a gifted poet who did not take her work seriously. However, she was passionate about the written word, and would literally surround herself with books. The Enoch Pratt Free Central Library was her “beloved Pratt” as she referred to it in her winning 1985 poem.

The Library is also the perfect host site for this year’s Baltimore City Senior Citizens Poetry Awards 2012 program, which will be held on October 20th, at 2:30pm in the Poe Room of the Central Library, as part of Free Fall Baltimore and Literary Arts Week.

My mother’s love of reading began early in life: one of her favorite memories was getting her first library card as a child, in the Walbrook area around North Avenue where she grew up. Reading unlocked her from a poor environment into other worlds, and her love of learning and living never stopped.

My childhood trips to the library were adventures, and my mother used these occasions to pass on her adoration of books, authors, poets. I would not ever have asked her to choose between her books or her children; I am sure the answer would have been too painful for both of us.

Her Enoch Pratt Free Library card was one of her most precious possessions. My sister and I took her probably a month or so before she passed in the summer of 2011 to her "beloved Pratt" – the Central Library. I can see her now sitting there so raptly engaged in reading a book. The world around her stopped when she was reading. It was her solace and her way of protecting herself too, I believe. I felt if she could just crawl into a book and live she would have been so happy. She would say, "My books are my friends.”

When she passed we had a memorial service in her honor in the Poe Room in September of 2011 and there we shared many of her poems, writings, and photographs with family and friends. We (her four children) donated to the Enoch Pratt Free Library in her name and choose to create a "library card catalogue" drawer in her name. It was up on the second floor for a short period, and it gave me comfort to know I could go by and visit "her" there—her spirit tucked in her own drawer since I know she would be happiest here among the books she loved so much, and the place that gave her so much pleasure. But I must say, my mother's spirit was bigger than life and I don't think any drawer could contain her.

I have saved many of the poems that my mother wrote and read to us. Although she never pursued her writing talents seriously, she instilled a love of the arts in her children for which I am forever grateful.

Holding a poetry contest in her memory not only gives me a chance to be closer to my mother--and to the things she loved--but also to give others an opportunity that she had back in the days of Mayor Schaefer (another larger than life individual who loved this city, too). My mother’s winning poem, “I Love Baltimore,” is the inspiration for the title of this year’s event: “Baltimore: My City, My Home.”

I think my mother would have loved the event, and in many ways she remains a part of the Library today; she lives on in our memories, and her words and influence on others continue to endure. How lucky I was that she chose me to be her daughter.

One of my first Baltimore memories comes from one of my dad’s infamous road trips. He would ask, “Do you want to go for a drive?” and you never knew where you’d end up. On this trip, we ended up in the graveyard outside Westminster Hall looking at Edgar Allan Poe’s memorial. When Dad asked what I thought, I remember one word came to mind: creepy. I loved it, and I’ve loved Poe ever since. So I was delighted to see Poe introduced to a new audience recently as part of The Big Read.

The Big Read, a National Endowment for the Arts program, is designed to restore reading to the center of American culture, and bring together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. This year's book is The Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.

Both Centerstage and the Pratt are participating in The Big Read with a month-long series of events, performances, and educational outreach focusing on the life and works of Poe. Check out a library copy of Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, come to a Big Read event at the library, or check the full listing of Centerstage’s programs. 

Local director and actor Tony Tsendeas recently performed a portion of his original work, "The Poe Show”—including “The Black Cat” and the poem “The Conqueror Worm”—at the Reisterstown Road Branch. One customer called the program “eye opening, entertaining, and educational.”

Branch manager Vera Fattah marveled that even though she knew the story of “The Black Cat,” she still squealed at Tony's description of the murder scene. Mrs. Fattah wasn't the only one!

Nothing puts you in the mood for Halloween like Edgar Allan Poe. Get into the Halloween spirit with Tony’s rendition of “The Tell-Tale Heart” or pick up a book by Poe for the first time at your library.

Let’s be honest, some of the things we do at work are done because we’re deeply interested in the topic and some things are just done. We’ve got work to do, and not everything can always be absolutely fascinating, right?

But then that’s where surprises come in, when something sparks an interest you didn’t expect, and the "kinda boring" becomes the "kinda interesting".

We’ve got 71,000, yes, thousand, greeting cards in Special Collections. They’ve been donated over the years by lots of people and the collection just kept growing and growing. We’ve had a bit of interest in them lately, so I thought I’d scan a few and spruce up the Finding Aid and let people actually see what some of them look like.

Click any image to see it larger.

I guess there was something about seeing them close up, and really looking at them, that surprised me, thinking of how much detail and craft went into the handmade cards, and how the hand-colored woodcuts still have vibrancy even though they were made so long ago.

Some of the cards are just plain strange. Why is there an egg strapped to the back of that bird? Did the bunny take the day off? Or is it some sort of jetpack?

It’s also interesting to see what was actually on a Christmas card back in the late 1800s. Who would have thought that the Yule log was really big back then? I’m not sure I really know what one is, other than something people are dragging all around on these cards. (I’m sure someone will fill me in.)

There are 71,000 of these. Not just Easter and Christmas, but Mothers Day, Weddings, you name it. I’m sure there are some more cool things to discover so come on in and take a look.

What do Harry Potter, Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby, Atticus Finch and Christian Grey have in common? All are characters from banned and challenged books.

Its hard to believe some of our beloved classics like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, and Catcher in the Rye as well as recent best-sellers like the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series have been challenged by certain groups.

Thats why the Enoch Pratt Free Library's young professionals group, Pratt Contemporaries, celebrated these banned books during a special happy hour at the Central Library.

For fifty years, the American Library Association has been saluting and commemorating Banned Books Week. Its an annual celebration to read. It highlights the value of free and open access to information. Banned Books Week brings together the entire book community—librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types—in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some considered unorthodox or unpopular. Check out the ALA's frequently challenged books to explore the issues and controversies around book challenges and book banning.

The Pratt Contemporaries celebrated banned books with a fun happy hour among its members and their guests. Everyone had an opportunity to get their banned books mug shot taken, tour the historic Central Library, look at a display of rare books and enjoy beer, wine and snacks provided by The Wine Source and Harris Teeter. See more photos from the event.

"The Pratt Contemporaries support the ideas and mission of the Pratt Library system," said Kate Powell, Chair of the Pratt Contemporaries and Pratt Library Board member. "Through social networking events for young professionals in their 20s, 30s and 40s, we are introducing future donors to the great work and service the Pratt offers the Baltimore community. We put the 'fun' in fundraising!"

To date, the Pratt Contemporaries has raised nearly $200,000 for the library system. Funds were used to enhance the Pratt's children and teen literacy efforts and renovate branches like the Edmondson Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue Branches. Their signature event, Black and White Party, has sold out every year. Their next event is a Trivia Night scheduled for November 1 at the Central Library. Register here.

10. Self-Checkout
For customers who prefer self-service, self-checkout is available at five branches: Reisterstown Road, Northwood, Roland Park, Orleans Street, Edmondson Avenue, and Southeast Anchor Library. Self-checkout stations allow customers to scan their library cards, then scan the books, and a receipt prints out with the due date. This is a quick, convenient way to get library materials.

9. Pratt Computer Classes
For those who need to learn about computers, Pratt has free computer classes at six different locations: Central Library, Northwood Branch, Southeast Anchor Library, Orleans Street Branch, Pennsylvania Avenue Branch, and Walbrook Branch. The classes cover topics ranging from the basics to advanced skills for experienced computer users.

8. Circulating E-Readers
The world of digital reading expands every day. Pratt has e-readers customers can check out to begin becoming familiar with the digital reading experience. Nooks can be checked out from any Pratt location, and come preloaded with 22 titles.

7. Maryland Digital eLibrary Consortium
Once you have become comfortable with digital reading, check out the virtual library collection of e-books and digital audiobooks available through the Maryland Digital eLibrary Consortium website. This statewide collection is a joint effort of the public library systems in Maryland to provide customers with an enhanced selection of digital reading materials to download to their computers, e-readers and mobile devices.

6. Résumé Review
Pratt offers a résumé review service by appointment. Call (410)396-5317 to schedule an appointment, bring in a copy of your current résumé, and a librarian in the Job & Career Information Center at Central Library will review your résumé and give you pointers for improvement.

5. Marina Interlibrary Loan
For those times when a customer wants something that is not in the Pratt Library’s collection, they can get it through Marina, the inter-library loan service for Maryland public libraries. Inter-library loan agreements allow libraries across the country to share items from their collections with each others’ customers.

4. HelpNow Online Tutors
Pratt Library offers live chat with online tutors through its HelpNow service, powered by BrainFuse. Students from kindergarten to college can chat with tutors about any number of academic subjects, from math to reading. Services are also available in Spanish.

3. Research Databases
Research databases provide access to scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles on a wide breadth of topics, and are designed for a variety of target audiences, from elementary school students to industry professionals.

2. AskUsNow! Live Chat
There are times when you may need to talk to a librarian after the library has closed for the day. Fortunately, the Maryland AskUsNow! service offers live chat with reference librarians in Maryland, the U.S., and abroad, around the clock.

1. Pratt Library Staff
By far, the most important service Pratt offers is its staff. Librarians and office assistants know their communities and local resources that are important to library customers. Feel free to contact the library when you need us.

Like the rest of Baltimore, the Pratt Library is under the spell of Orioles magic. We will be cheering on the hometown team during this afternoon's critical Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees.

The Pratt Library and the Orioles have a long history of working together and supporting each other. From the Summer Reading Program to our Get Carded campaign, the Orioles have been there with free tickets for our top readers, have encouraged the community to sign-up for library cards, and have participated in reading stories to children.

The library also has an amazing collection of Orioles memorabilia. For more than a century, Maryland has played a significant role in the development and promotion of sports. These pieces are drawn from the thousands of items in the Ephemera Collection of the Maryland Department at the Central Library/State Library Resource Center. 

The library's Orioles collection includes a 1940 Schedule of Games, Mr. Boh's 1954 Baseball Schedule and a 1954 Official Souvenir Program called "On to Victory!"

From figure skating to jousting, and from amateur to pro, Baltimoreans and Marylanders can be proud of their involvement in sports history. So, when you speak of the relationship of Marylanders to sports, remember that the greats from our state go way beyond Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken, Jr.

We are also hoping to add memorabilia of our current Orioles greats to our collection: Adam Jones, Mark Reynolds, and of course Buck Showalter.

So BUCKle up everyone! Wear your orange with pride. Watch the game then visit our digitized collection of Sports in Maryland online or see it in person in our Special Collections. But for now, LET'S GO Os!

If you’ve ever used Census records to hunt down family members, you may have noticed something unusual about your ancestor’s name. 

Perhaps you didn’t find your family on the Census at all. Although there are a number of reasons why they could be “missing,” one common cause is that the listed names are radically different from the ones people used in real life. 

Example: You are trying to track down a family member named Lena, who does not appear in any Census records prior to 1930. One possibility is that the relative whom you always knew as, “Lena,” used a nickname throughout her life, and family members never knew her full or proper name. When the Census enumerator knocked on Lena’s door, the occasion may have prompted her to give her full name. In the absence of corroborating or supporting documentation (such as a birth certificate), it’s up to you to determine what her real name might have been. Was it Elena, Helena, Selena? Or was her proper name something less apparent, such as Paulina or Mandelina?

Although many present-day nicknames run along the lines of common variations (such as William/Bill) and are easy to decipher, others—especially those used in previous centuries—are much less intuitive to us in the present day. You may not know, for instance, that Jean and Jane were often interchangeable, that Bedelia and Fidelia were variants of Delia, or that Ib, Nibby, Tibby, and Issy, all trace their roots to Isabel.

In other circumstances, nicknames may not have played a role at all; Census records and other family documentation are often rife with misspellings. Although most family historians are conscious of variations and spelling differences, even less-challenging deviations may still lead to ambiguity. In worst-case scenarios, spelling issues may obscure an ancestor’s identity to such an extent that researchers will overlook certain records altogether.

Unfortunately this scenario is common in family research. On a UK message board one bemused researcher described a painstaking, five year-long search for an individual named Sarah Horsfield. When the UK Census failed to show a match for that surname (and other predictable variations), the searcher immediately assumed that Sarah and her family had moved away. But something didn’t feel right. Subsequent searches for the Horsfields’ neighbors in other Census records allowed the researcher to narrow down the possibilities, which showed that Sarah and her family were listed in the Census after all. So why didn’t the researcher find them? It turns out that their surname, Horsfield, had been recorded by the enumerator as Horsefeeder.

If the transition from Horsfield to Horsefeeder seems implausible, consider the case of a Pratt Library customer who recently attempted to locate an ancestor named Toliver Miller in the US Census. Both my co-worker and the customer were amused to find that, throughout the late 19th to early 20th century Census records, Toliver Miller had been recorded as Taliver Miller, Talcafen Miller, and Falifrom Miller. 

Getting around these roadblocks may be daunting, but it isn’t impossible. If you’ve encountered similar issues in your family research, it always helps to search for the names of immediate family members. If you know their address, and the Census enumerator recorded the street name and house numbers on the forms, it might be possible (albeit tedious) to find your ancestor by scrolling through the pages. 

You may also have heard of a popular tool called the soundex indexing system, which helps researchers find surnames that have been recorded with various spellings. From the National Archives: “The soundex is a coded surname (last name) index based on the way a surname sounds rather than the way it is spelled. Surnames that sound the same, but are spelled differently, like SMITH and SMYTH, have the same code and are filed together.”

If you’re still stumped, the Pratt Library offers several genealogy resources that may help; our Genealogy on the Web guide contains links to the soundex surname index and the RootsWeb surname list. Please also check out the family history and surname books in our catalog—and don’t miss one of our favorite reference items, the Dictionary of American Family Names.

First-time and experienced genealogists are also invited to swap family history anecdotes at the inaugural meeting of the Pratt Genealogy Circle on Saturday, December 8, 2012 from 10am-Noon.

"The legacy of heroes is the memory of a great name and the inheritance of a great example." -Benjamin Disralei

The Library began with Enoch Pratt’s endowment gift of $1,058,333 in 1882, and it continues today as a place that is rich in knowledge. It maintains a strong willingness to provide free access to all, and has a dedicated staff and volunteers who have devoted many years of service. 

On September 27, 2012, the Staff Association (the Library’s social committee)--in cooperation with the Human Resources Department and the Administration--was given the opportunity to say “Thank You!" to staff and retirees for years of service and wisdom. It was also an opportunity to discuss the accomplishments and new developments at both the Central Library/State Library Resource Center and the Neighborhood Branches.

Over fifty former employees attended the luncheon and were warmly greeted by their former colleagues and friends. The day began with a presentation by Wesley Wilson, the Chief of the State Library Resource Center, on new developments at the Central Library, such as The Pratt Café and Laptop Lounges, Public Programs such as "The Civil War in Your Attic," and the Pratt Contemporaries.

Eunice Anderson, Assistant Chief of Neighborhood Services, gave a similar presentation for the neighborhood branches, highlighting the opening of the Southeast Anchor Library, building enhancements and technology upgrades in several branches, and major public service anniversaries (from 100-125 years) at the Canton, Forest Park, and Patterson Park Branches.

Librarians Ny’ilah Covington and Anjanette Wiggins concluded the presentation portion of the day with a discussion of several new technologies, such as the Nook, Sony E-reader, and the Apple iPad.

This enjoyable day ended after a delectable lunch and social hour with the former and current employees, volunteers, and administration. The retirees were most gracious and appreciative recipients on a day which celebrated their contributions to this historic institution.

Thanks again, Pratt retirees!

It’s well known that you should never judge a book by its cover. Usually when people say this, they’re not actually talking about books. Unless you’re in the library, in which case they’re almost certainly talking about books. I have urged people not to judge a book by its cover, especially when I’m trying to convince them to check out one of my favorites that may be unfortunate to look at. I’ve found myself defending books with covers that were perfectly respectable when I was a child, such as Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry, or The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. These excellent books with somewhat old-fashioned covers have been a hard-sell to the children at my library. 

Of course, I can’t be too hard on the kids, because there are certain book covers out there that provokes a negative reaction in me. I tend to avoid “torso books” (the ones with shirtless guys on the cover), “fancy dress” books (those with a girl wearing a fancy dress on the cover), and “big face” books (pretty self-explanatory). I don’t really like books with people on the cover at all. Well, I say I don’t like them, but that’s just my cover judging talking.

But judging covers can also go the other way. I’ve picked up books before based solely on how attractive their covers were. This strategy, much like avoiding books with people on the cover, can meet with mixed success, but I’ve found a few really excellent reads that way. Some of my recent favorites that I chose based on beautiful covers are Troll Fell by Katherine Langrish, an excellent fantasy based on Scandinavian folklore, Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork, which tells the story of a young boy with Asperger’s and his struggles to fit in with “normal” people, and Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel, about a boy whose family attempts to raise a chimpanzee as human.

There are exceptions to all of these examples. I’m perfectly fine with people on the cover of my book if they’re cartoon people. They still should have shirts on, though. If the fancy dress book is a fairy tale retelling, I’ll allow it. If someone I trust tells me a big face book is the best book ever, I’ll avoid looking at the cover so I can still read it. And I’ve certainly read books with pleasing covers that I have not enjoyed at all. So there you have it. It’s not effective, but I do it anyway. What about you? Have you ever discovered a great book because of a beautiful cover? Are there any types of book covers that you avoid?

The Pratt Library will host a special afternoon concert and lecture on Saturday, October 6:
A Centenary Celebration of Pierrot Lunaire* with Paul Mathews and the LUNAR Ensemble (*Pierrot lunaire is a melodrama for voice and small ensemble by Arnold Schoenberg, based on 21 poems by Albert Giraud.)

You might say the modern world turns 100 this fall, at least from the standpoint of classical music. The Enoch Pratt Central Library/State Library Resource Center will celebrate the centennial anniversary on October 6th with a performance of a one-of-a-kind musical composition, Pierrot lunaire, featuring the Baltimore-based LUNAR Ensemble.

Back in 1912, Europe was just about to fall into the abyss that became World War I. Since the turn of the twentieth century, increased militarism, nationalism, and imperialism among great powers like Germany, France, England, and Austria-Hungary, had ratcheted up the tension to almost unbearable levels. The whole thing would explode less than two years later in 1914.

Contrary to stereotype, artists and musicians live in the real world, too. In reaction to the growing chaos around them, famous painters of that day created vivid, intense, and jarring images--twisted and distorted--characterized by violent colors and frenzied drawing.

Arnold Schoenberg photo
by Florence Homolka, c. 1948

Classical music’s anxiety also bubbled over in 1912 with the premiere of the melodrama Pierrot lunaire ("Pierrot in the moonlight") by Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951). Schoenberg creates a sense of eerie unreality to the piece in a couple of ways. First, the music is ‘atonal’ (meaning there are no ‘C Majors’ or ‘G minors’ to make the listener feel at home and comfortable). Second, the main character, Pierrot, does not really speak or sing his role. (Although Pierrot is male, the role is always sung by a woman). Instead, Pierrot performs a dramatic combination of speaking and singing at the same time which is both unsettling and unforgettable.

Classical music is an inheritance of human experience, offering a chance to understand something of how the world felt to the artist who created it. So go ahead and take that opportunity. Come see the upcoming performance of this unique work, Pierrot lunaire. After all, there’s plenty of anxiety around today, just as there was a hundred years ago, and you might discover that you have something in common with Pierrot, wandering around out in the moonlight.

Join us for A Centenary Celebration of Pierrot Lunaire on Saturday, October 6, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. in the Central Library.You can also learn more about the Pierrot Centenary Project and the Lunar Ensemble at www.lunarensemble.com.

Many years ago when I was a bright-eyed, eager graduate student, my mentor librarian asked, “Why do you want to work in libraries?” I had about forty different reasons in my head, and I quickly scanned through the list for the top contender. “To be honest,” I said, “it’s because I really love working with people.” The librarian leaned back in her chair, nodded at me, and said, “Good. Most of the time, people tell me it’s about the books.” 

What I know well and, hopefully, you know, too, is that libraries are nothing without their people: the public, staff, volunteers, supporters. These are the folks who make libraries what they are. We have such devoted people at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, that we even have groups who support us called “Friends of the Library.” These hard-working, roll-up-their-sleeves, dedicated people sponsor all sorts of incredible programming and fundraise for the libraries they support.

On a gorgeous, sunny September day, the Friends of the Govans Library were hard at work throwing a Fall Celebration for the families in the community. Nearly two hundred people stopped by to enjoy the arts and crafts, live fiddle music, delicious snacks, wool spinning, face painting, and storytelling, all in the spirit of the harvest. This year’s extravaganza marked ten years of fall celebrations, each one the result of the dedicated Friends and their collaboration with branch staff. 

Peggy Egan, President of the Friends of the Govans Library since 2004, is passionate about the importance of festivals like this. She writes, “The Govans library is a meeting place for the entire local community, and we strive to bring more and more patrons to our functions. We want the library to be a fun place. My own children grew up at Govans and I would like to pass that legacy on to today’s children.”

Councilman Bill Henry and Friends President Peggy Egan.

This celebration, like many others put on by Friends groups and volunteers at our branches, are a gift to the community and library alike. “The single most important part of the day,” writes Ms. Egan, “was the generosity, expertise, cooperative, and enthusiasm of the Friends board, library staff, presenters, and other Govans volunteers. Without them and their ingenuity and careful planning there would not be a Celebration.” I’d even argue that without them, we wouldn’t have libraries as we know them.

See a slideshow of photos from the celebration here.

Baltimore lost a visionary poet and artist last week, when Chris Toll suddenly passed away. I was very fortunate to count Chris as one of my oldest friends, so it came as a devastating loss to hear that he had died. But since both his meticulous collages and his exacting poetry are so full of the humor, heartache, and gentle devastation of insight that formed his personality, we are left with so much rich art and wisdom to pore over. I'd like to share some of these items with the library community, as well as some of his favorite books and movies that we have here the library.

I'll begin with a quote from Chris's fellow poet and dear friend Rupert Wondolowski: "Because of the naked yearning and whimsy in Toll's writing and the interweaving of lowbrow/pop culture with his more erudite side, I've always thought of him as The Emily Dickinson of Mars. "The Queen of the Vampires" assembles her "army of zombie shamans./They storm Jerusalem and rescue Jesus./No cross is is erected on top of Golgotha." He is as familiar with The Bible as he is with Marvel and DC Comics, Poe and Plath sit comfortably in the mad swirl of zombies, vampires and werewolves."

You can hear Chris Toll reading The Shaken is My Shepherd for his book trailer:

The following tributes from his fans, friends, and gifted writers tell more than I could in my own words:

• Chris Toll (b. 1830, d. 1886) by Adam Robinson on HTMLGIANT is
  full of collected memeories from friends and fans
  (the birth and death dates in the title refer to Emily Dickinson)
• Baltimore Poet Chris Toll Earns Tearful, Funny Memorial Service
  by Robert O'Brien on baltimorefishbowl.com
• "The We in Weep": Chris Toll Calls for Revolutionary Love
  by Rupert Wondolowski on The Shattered Wig Press blog

Some Chris Toll lines that are resonating with me now:

from Why Isn't Try In Divinity?
"Your heart is a seed. Let it break."

from The Abyss Has No Biographer:
"How long can I stay in the inn in innocent?
Love is so hard, and it’s all we came to do."

I'm also a big fan of Chris Toll's recent book of poetry, The Disinformation Phase. You can read some of those poems online here.

And here you can view Toll's I'll Be the Invisible Girl Till the Day I Die, a PDF Chapbook from Publishing Genius. Also available as a printable PDF download.

The next piece was one of several read at his incredibly moving memorial service, published in Volume 3 of Artichoke Haircut, A Literary Arts Magazine Publishing the best poetry & fiction from Baltimore and beyond:

This Is How We Make a Broken Heart
By Chris Toll
Approximately 13.7 billion years ago,
an antimatter scientist
drops an antimatter test tube.
In the summer of 1966,
Bob Dylan leans
as he steers his motorcycle
into a curve.
Beneath a lilac bush,
the FBI sniper takes aim.
Behind the tinted glass of a limousine,
the imposter memorizes the lyrics
filed in a loose-leaf binder.
My poem comes from far away
and it’s going far away –
I’m just in the middle
like a lonesome TV station
with no employees.
The Angel of Death
has a black leather trench coat
draped around her shoulders.
She steps out of an elevator
and pulls her suitcase behind her.
Two accordion folders full of legal briefs
balance on top of the suitcase.
Her black wool sport coat
lies across the uppermost accordion folder.
The sport coat falls off and hits the floor.
Side effects include unusual dreams.
When I stand up from my dead body,
my face is a howl of stars.

I leave you with some of Chris's favorite books and movies, all of which are available from the Pratt Library. Enjoy.

If your child wants to practice their reading skills, I have a great idea for you to consider: come to PAWS to Read! If you and your child are seeking the company of some cuddly dogs, I have another great idea for you: come to PAWS to Read!

OK, so it is the same idea, but ever since I found out about PAWS to Read, I have become hooked. The PAWS to Read program at The Enoch Pratt Free Library is designed to get children to interact with friendly dogs in a way that helps them practice their reading skills. The library’s web page description states: “Come to the library to read aloud to a dog. Improve your reading confidence and make a new friend. Volunteers and their dogs from Pets on Wheels will be here to listen. Registration suggested (but drop-ins are welcome!)” Read the original press release here.

The organization that coordinates the availability of dogs and their caretakers is called Pets on Wheels. Pets on Wheels was founded in May of 1982 and has steadily expanded since. Volunteers bring their pets to a variety of places—nursing homes, hospitals, and libraries—just to name a few, and the pets help patients in a myriad of ways. The Pets on Wheels web site has this quote from the Dr. Furstenberg who founded the organization: “the stimulation of playing with animals benefited the patients by getting them back to a higher quality of behavior.” Read more about Pets on Wheels here and here.

I have been volunteering with the organization for a few months now and I can speak from firsthand experience about how rewarding the experience is. Just a short time ago, I was visiting with my dog at the Brooklyn Branch of The Enoch Pratt Free Library and it was remarkable how much the kids enjoyed reading to the dogs. There was even a shy and timid reader or two—but by the end of the hour, they had not only read to the dogs, but they had even had the courage to pet the dogs!

Jessica Hoptay Brown, the Children’s Services Coordinator here at the library, has answered a few questions about the program to explain more about it.

What should people know about PAWS to Read?
What's best about PAWS is that reading to a dog gives children the opportunity to read aloud without judgment: a dog isn't going to criticize, correct, or read over the child. A frequent barrier to kids' reading success is their ability to gain confidence without fear of error or adult influence. This program presents reading as something fun and gives children a unique opportunity: they get to be around dogs in a safe, fun environment, and can learn how to treat an animal and interact with it.

How can people get involved?
Ultimately, we want children to participate in the program and we want to build reader confidence positively. We would also love people to volunteer their pets as a part of the Pets on Wheels organization and come to the library!

Anything else?
All of the owners are incredibly friendly and dedicated, and I can't say enough good things about it!

For more information on how to attend a session, see the calendar on the library web site. Each PAWS event is from 2-3pm on Saturdays, and there are seven different sites: Brooklyn Branch, Central Library, Govans Branch, Light Street Branch, Northwood Branch, Patterson Park Branch, and Reisterstown Road Branch; please contact the location you are interested in visiting.

For more information on how to volunteer with Pets on Wheels, go to www.PetsOnWheels.org.

What a book-tastic success! The Enoch Pratt Free Library tent at the Baltimore Book Festival this year was all about technology. We had eReaders on display for visitors to learn how to use, on Friday I participated in a Nintendo Wii playing and learning session, we handed out collectible Pratt Chat Minicards, and we registered people for library cards over our wifi network.

It was a great weekend and I had a lot of fun. While we had very few physical books in our tent space, because we were emphasizing our digital presence in the community—we were surrounded by books populating many other spaces: Ukazoo had a tent, City Paper had a book swap, there were authors selling their own books, and we even had our own Pratt Library bookmobile up the road. It was an odd inversion for me—so many days I spend inside the library surrounded by books and I feel like I am working to incorporate more and more technology; whereas at the book festival, it was very freeing because our focus was on technology and what we can offer visitors, yet we were surrounded by books from other places. Usually people come to visit the library to get books!

One thing I learned from the festival is that people still crave knowledge and access. I helped sign one visitor up for a library card because she was from Severn, MD and had few resources around her. She remarked that she took the free Charm City circulator bus in and now that she knew about it, she would take it more frequently. For me, it was inspiring to see someone travel (even a short distance) to come to a book festival, and it gave me hope that even though we have a lot of new technology that is entering the library right now, there will always be a demand for books and reading. We chatted a bit and we agreed that the two can continue to co-exist side-by-side far into the near and distant future. Plus, now she has a reason to take the Circulator into town more often—to use her new library card!

See more photos in this slideshow from our Flickr stream:

The first time I went to the Baltimore Book Festival I had a crab taco. It was love at first bite, and I’ve been back every year since. This year I’m looking forward to helping at the library’s tent, but the events I’m craving are at the Food For Thought Stage. Recently, I learned about the glorious 00 flour, so I’m especially excited to hear Aliza Green talk about her book, Making Artisan Pasta on Saturday, September 29 at 3 pm.

Cowvin cookies by Sticky Fingers Bakery are a sign of a really good day at my house. Doron Petersan shares her secrets in her new book, Sticky Fingers’ Sweets:100 Super-Secret Vegan Recipes on Saturday, September 29 at 5 pm.

I love trying out new spices. My latest find is cinnamon bark from India, which can be used in everything from tea to rice dishes. Jeffrey Saad brings the world to your kitchen is his new book, Global Kitchen: Recipes Without Borders on Sunday, September 30 at 4 pm.

Fall is the perfect season for baking, and the Baked series of books by Baked NYC is one of my favorite places to find new pastry recipes. Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito keep it simple in their latest, Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients on Sunday, September 30 at 5 pm.

Come check out the many top chefs, cooking demonstrations, and so much more this year at the Baltimore Book Festival. Happy cooking!

The Baltimore Book Festival kicks off on Friday, September 28, and for the first time, the Pratt Library will have a tent at the Festival. We’re looking forward to being a part of the festival and sharing information and programs that highlight our role as a 21st Century Library.

• Want to get a library card? We can sign you up.
• Want to learn about the digital and online resources we offer? We can show you.
• Have a question about your eReader or eBooks? We can help you.
• Need a suggestion for your next great read? We can recommend something for you.
• Want to be a self-published author? We have a panel of successful authors who can teach you.
• Want to play a game on the Wii? We can challenge you.
• Interested in meeting other social media addicts who love their library? We have a tweet-up for you.
• Want to enjoy some fun live music, thoughtful poetry, or amazing storytelling? We got you covered.
• Want to try to stump the librarian with a super hard question? We can answer it for you.

Come visit our tent at Charles Street and Mount Vernon Place in front of the Peabody Library. We have a little something for everyone, and if we don’t have it, we can help you find it. After all, we’re librarians!

Related Posts

• Baltimore Book Festival: the Foodie Edition by Beckie Hass
• Cover to Cover at the Bookfest: All's Well That Ends Well by Ryan O'Grady

Baltimore has a rich and amazing collection of art. That's why when the Pratt Library was approached to be part of the Walters Art Museum's Off the Wall Open Air Exhibition we rolled out the red carpet to help show off their treasures.

Off the Wall is an an open-air exhibition that brings reproduced classic paintings to Baltimore’s main streets and outdoor spaces. Works are on view November 2012 through April 2013 at the businesses, parks and community spaces listed on this map.


The beautiful piece of "Othello" by William Mulready is on display outside the Reisterstown Road Branch. Mulready spent most of his career in London painting genre subjects. Many of his major works are now on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Here, he has portrayed the African-American actor Ira Aldridge (1805 -1867), who won renown in Europe for his Shakespearean roles, including Othello, Lear, and Macbeth. This half-length portrait shows Aldrige in battle armor, with a flag at his right, in front of a stone archway.

Other pieces are on display at 22 other locations across Baltimore including City Hall, Patterson Park, Clarence Mitchell Courthouse, Maryland Zoo and even outside restaurants like Bertha's Mussels, Rusty Scupper and The Horse You Came In On Saloon. Complete map of all locations.

The art moves to new locations every six months, so after visiting the Reisterstown Road Branch, check thewalters.org for the latest locations and keep your eyes peeled for new entries!

Each month the managers of the subject departments at Pratt review the number of times the web the pages linked to their sites are viewed. In the Maryland Department popular pages include our guides on genealogy or searching the history of a house. Makes sense. These are topics included in the collection that are always being used. There is however, one page that turns up as one of the top five without fail. Is it the War of 1812? The directory of historic Maryland newspapers? Edgar Allan Poe?

Guess again—it's yearbooks. That’s right. During the first eight months of 2012 the Maryland yearbooks page has received more than 2700 views, an average of roughly 335 per month.

In the past there had been some use the small collection of yearbooks in the Maryland Department. People generally want to view their relatives or perhaps their own graduation picture. It’s great fun just to look at the hairdos and clothes from your high school or college era not to mention the quotes and messages written in the books. But they can be used for other research too.

The late mayor and governor, William Donald Schaefer.
From the 1942 University of Baltimore yearbook, The Reporter.

We recently had an out-of-state customer who was adopted at birth call to see if we had a yearbook photo of the man she had identified as her birth father—a Johns Hopkins graduate. Also, a British writer emailed looking for a photo of a lacrosse coach who taught at the University of Baltimore in the 1940’s and 1950’s. No problem—we had the yearbooks for both.

The Cracker
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, 1972

About fifteen years ago that we began soliciting for donations of yearbooks to broaden the range of schools and time periods. Donations have poured in fairly steadily for some years. Most times people give them to the Library when they’re downsizing or cleaning the attic but of late we have a few customers who are on the lookout for old yearbooks to give to the Library.

We have done our best to spread the word across the state—we need your old yearbooks! Our appeal has resulted in much better geographic coverage than our original Baltimore-centered yearbooks. We now maintain more than 1200 high school and college yearbooks that date from 1878 and cover Cambridge to Oakland and Westminster to La Plata.

We’re always looking to add new yearbooks. You may contact the Maryland Department if you are interested in helping the collection grow.

Next time you receive an advertisement online to find your classmates or buy an old yearbook, give us a try first. Our holdings list is always up to date and easy to use.

A. A. Milne and son
Christopher Robin Milne.

Mention the name "A.A. Milne" (1882-1956) and it’s a safe bet that most readers of a certain age will respond, Winnie-the-Pooh. They would be quite correct, having probably been raised, as was I in the 1940’s, on the two books of poetry for children and the two classic storybooks about Pooh and his fellow stuffed animals in Milne’s son Christopher Robin’s nursery. Mention Pooh to those under 45 and they probably will respond "Disney," but that’s another story.

It would also be a safe bet that most people in both age groups do not realize that Milne was a very prolific writer.

Alan Alexander Milne's unofficial literary career began with assorted writing throughout his school days. At Cambridge he edited Granta, the school’s undergraduate magazine. As a professional, by the time he was 24 years old he had already had 30 pieces published in the English magazine Punch. He also served as its Assistant Editor. After the war, he left that publication because he really just wanted to write, period. His wife wasn’t happy about him leaving a steady job, but leave he did.

Over the years he penned hundreds of light articles for Punch and similar American magazines. Collections of them eventually appeared in books.

Milne also published short stories and novels. Among them was one of his very successful plays, Mr. Pim Passes By, that was re-written as a novel. He also gained renown with The Red House Mystery, a detective story. His rule for a successful novel: "Few people, short time, small scene."

It would seem, however, that writing plays was his real love. Over the years he wrote more than 30, but do we see any of those produced today? Probably not, though they are available in collections. (I do know that there was a reading of one last spring at a local retirement community.)

It was, however, the four works for children that took the world by storm in the 1920s. After what we might today term "prequels"—the poem "Vespers" being probably the most famous—he published When We Were Very Young in 1924, followed by Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926 and Now We Are Six in 1927. The House at Pooh Corner, in which we meet the energetic Tigger, brought this quartet of children's books to a close. But in a way, that is not really true, for as Milne phrased it at the end of that book, "Wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place at the top of the Forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing." They continue to "play" today, for the books are still in print, and the Disney versions continue the popularity of the beloved characters.

Do read or re-read "Pooh" and the books of poetry, and delve into Milne’s writing for adults.

Ann Weller Dahl taught for 31 years at Calvert School in Baltimore.  In retirement she both lectures and leads workshops about the lives and writing of three authors: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Robert McCloskey, and A.A.Milne.  Ann has been and remains active on several committees at the Pratt.

I thought I knew everything there was to know about Enoch Pratt, but the 204th birthday celebration held at the Reisterstown Road Branch Library proved me wrong. There is nothing like an hour spent with Mr. Jeff Korman, manager of the Maryland Department at Central Library to show the importance of Mr. Pratt and the significance of the library.

As a young girl growing up in Baltimore, one of the first things I remember learning about the Enoch Pratt Free Library was that it existed because of a philanthropist (a big word for my vocabulary at thirteen). This humanitarian act made a lasting and profound impression on how I viewed this man and libraries in general.

Did you know that Central’s first building was much smaller with its entrance located on Mulberry Street? Mr. Korman said it was not an unusual occurrence to see Mr. Pratt at the library every day. When Mr. Pratt gave his sizable donation, he had the idea that a portion would be used perpetually to sustain the library's operation. He was a man for all people, wanting to provide free service without distinction of color or class, a message that was ahead of its time.

I remember visiting the bookmobile as a child when it stopped in my neighborhood. That’s where my love for books turned into a passion, reading authors like Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume and Franklin Dixon’s Hardy Boys Mysteries. I enjoyed learning that the Bookmobile was not always mobilized by an engine but was once a horse-drawn carriage filled with books.

Pratt's book wagon, 1940, Photo courtesy of Maryland Department Photograph Collection, EPFL/SLRC

I’ve always enjoyed reading and since I've always had access to the Enoch Pratt Free Library system as a child and young adult, for me, it has become my standard for what libraries should be. Perhaps that’s why this library holds a special fondness for me. Happy Birthday, Mr. Enoch Pratt! You would be proud of your library; I know I am.

Cherlene has been a customer at the Enoch Pratt Free Library all her life, and attends many of the programs put on by the library.

I was born in the northeast of the USA and so H. L. Mencken was somewhat of a mystery to me when I moved to Baltimore six years ago. Working at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, every day I have the privilege of walking past a few display cases that highlight Mencken’s life achievements and what he means to the city of Baltimore. Out to dinner with some friends a few weeks ago, we broached the subject of Mencken and my friends had a few questions. “When was Mencken born?” and “Around what time was he writing?” and “When did Mencken die?” Through what must have been some unconscious daily osmosis I was able to supply the answers to most of their questions—around 1880 he was born, he died in the mid-1950s, and he rose to writing prominence in the 20s. Okay, so I was off by a few years here and there, but you get the point: living with Mencken every day at the library has been an educational experience.

In that vein, Mencken Day 2012 was a real treat. I, and many others, got to hear a lecture by Towson professor H. George Hahn in the morning and one by Richard J. Schrader, professor emeritus of English, Boston College, in the afternoon. I am sure that my unconscious osmosis worked again, and at some future date I will be able to spout out an idea or two that I gleaned from these great lecturers. Listen to the podcast here. Watch the video here.

Professor Schrader lectured on The Scopes Trial and how Mencken reported on it and felt about it. The Professor also mentioned how Mencken (a.k.a. the fictional E. K. Hornbeck) had been played by several different actors. Below is a trailer for "Inherit The Wind" from 1960 in which Gene Kelly played the role based on Mencken.

See Gene Kelly in action:

Another great part of being and working at Pratt is access to Mencken’s rich history. Just recently we have had two other posts on our blog about Mencken: one by the current editor of Menckeniana, and one by our curator of the Mencken Collection here. As part of my work here, I have been able to film and get a close look at Mencken’s books and musical compositions. The fact “Mencken was a musician” is one of the first things I learned during my time here at the library. Which leads me to my next point: David Donovan of the Fine Arts Department here at the Pratt Library will deliver a lecture titled H.L. Mencken and the Saturday Night Club later this month, September 29th, at the Southeast Anchor Library branch. Below is what David has to say about his upcoming lecture.

H.L. Mencken and the Saturday Night Club will give the public some sights and sounds that I have collected while studying this interesting collection of music-loving friends. In 2005, I wrote an article for Menckeniana about the colorful shield of the Saturday Night Club. Shortly after its publication, I was asked to speak about the Saturday Night Club to the Mencken Society in 2007. I realized that the Shield Article was not enough material for a lecture. So I started to examine the collection of music that was given to the library by Mencken and the Club in 1951. It was amazing that this music had not received a systematic study in over 50 years.

What I discovered was a collection that was huge and contained original manuscript compositions by members of the club who were some of the movers and shakers in the Baltimore music scene in the early 20th Century. This study led to an exhibit: Treasures of the Saturday Night Club in 2009, an article about my research by Richard O’Mara in the May 2009 Urbanite magazine entitled “Waltzing With Henry” and finally a concert at the Engineers Club with Ed Polochick and the Concert Artists of Baltimore of 11 works from the collection. The concert was called the “Saturday Night Club on Sunday.” My talk will include material from all these events and the audience will even hear H.L. Mencken himself talk about music. A preview of that is here.

Ahoy! Did you know that September 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day? Aye! You didn’t know there was such a thing as Talk Like a Pirate Day? Believe it or not, there’s pretty much a day to celebrate everything under the sun, so why not Talk Like a Pirate Day? It’s a great excuse for those of us fascinated by the “scourge of the seas” to break out our favorite skull and crossbones gear and roll our RRRR’s like there’s no tomoRRRRow.

In fact, 2012 marks the 10th anniversary of the worldwide celebration of International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Way back in 2002, two guys named Mark Summers and John Baur sent an email to columnist Dave Barry with an offer for the Pulitzer Prize-winning author to be the official spokesperson for a holiday they had been celebrating for years within their circle of friends. To their surprise and amazement, he agreed, and Talk Like a Pirate Day was officially launched and has quickly become a worldwide phenomenon.

Check out the official Talk Like a Pirate Day website for some pirate lingo you can try to incorporate into your conversations today. For the bold pirates out there, there are even some pirate pickup lines you can try on your favorite beauty! For quick help to Talk Like a Pirate, there’s also this English-to-Pirate translator. You can also find out your pirate name, read some corny jokes with Arrr! in the answer, or sing along with a sea shanty extolling the joys of being a pirate:

Many people may ask... ”What’s the point?” Well, dear readers of the Pratt Chat blog, the point is... there is no point. It’s just something fun and silly you can do, matey.

To get you landlubbers in the spirit, here are a few of the best pirate books we have discovered:

• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson - Long John Silver isn’t just the name of a place to get fish planks and hush puppies; it’s the name of the archetypal pirate from this classic that created the whole pirate genre.
• Silver: return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion - This modern sequel to Treasure Island stars Natty, the daughter of Long John Silver, and Jim Hawkins as they return to Treasure Island to search for the treasure left behind twenty years before.
• The requiem shark by Nicholas Griffin - Ship’s Musics never hang! That’s the theory, at least, if you are a musician taken captive by a band of seadogs. Turns out that if you develop a taste for thievin’, stabbin’, burnin’, and general anti-social behavior, then a hangin’ is in your future. This work of historical fiction is an accurate and wild depiction of the free-bootin’ life!
• The foundling by D.M. Cornish (Monster Blood Tattoo, book 1) - In a world where monsters control all the land between towns, you would think you wouldn’t have to worry about pirates. Not so! When you are a Foundling, or orphan, like young Rossamund, it seems hard to avoid being kidnapped by pirates or running afoul of their machinations.
• Red seas under red skies by Scott Lynch - Part Ocean’s 11, part Pirates of the Caribbean, this second book of the Gentleman Bastard fantasy series combines the long con with savage sea-battles. Buckles will be swashed! Fools parted from their money! Scurvy dogs put to the blade!

Have some fun today with Talk Like a Pirate Day, or we’ll make you scallywags walk the plank!

New books about zombies and hordes of the undead seem to appear nearly every week. They are in popular fiction, re-imagined classics such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, graphic novels, and even children’s literature. Yet, one of the more captivating aspects of the surge in zombie literature is in nonfiction.

Many of the nonfiction books concerning zombies begin with the premise that they are real. Of course, these works tend to be satirical parodies, but they are interesting nevertheless. One of the more popular titles in this fairly new genre is The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. The book is a thoroughly detailed parody of a survival guide, written to help teach readers how to prepare for and weather zombie outbreaks. It even includes a section relating historical accounts of attacks.

After the success of Zombie Survival Guide, Brooks followed up with World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War, a collection of personal accounts from survivors of a worldwide zombie outbreak. Written in memoir style, survivors from various countries recount their experiences of encounters with the undead, and the chaos that ensued. Part of the appeal of World War Z is the intimate feel of the stories; they sound real and believable.

Both of Brooks’ books insert zombies into real historical and political events, a popular trend in this genre. Other books expand on this theme even further.

Worm Miller’s A Zombie’s History of the United States purports to uncover the hidden involvement of zombies in key events of America’s history. Miller analyzes encounters with the undead from a massacre at Plymouth Rock to today’s secret war against development of zombie-related terrorism.

In Theories of International Politics and Zombies, Tufts University professor Daniel Drezner examines how various theoretical political systems would respond if zombies appeared and began to attack the living. Among the political entities he discusses are national governments, the United Nations and nongovernment organizations (NGO). Though the purpose of the work is to introduce students to international political theory, it is interesting that he chooses a zombie outbreak as his medium to appeal to readers.

Jonathan Maberry, author of several works of zombie-focused horror fiction, explains how to detect zombie attacks forensically in Zombie CSU: the Forensics of the Living Dead. The book covers zombie attacks from scientific, psychological and legal viewpoints, and it urges readers to use this information to protect themselves from the undead.

For fans, the current renaissance of zombie literature is an exciting trend. The variety and volume in this growing genre offer something to capture the interest of just about any zombie fan’s taste.

The Battle of Antietam was the first major engagement in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It was also the bloodiest day in the entire four-year conflict. When the guns on both sides fell silent, the aforementioned infantryman was one of the 3,650 lives which had ended on that day. An additional 19,500 soldiers on both sides were either wounded or missing.

Due to Baltimore’s proximity to the town of Sharpsburg, Maryland I have traveled to the Antietam battlefield quite often. My first visit took place when I was very young, about five or six years old, and it made quite an impression on me—not because of my enchantment with the park rangers who led tours in period dress, the imposing granite monoliths that loomed over us in memory of the fallen, or the surrounding hillsides with their crops of wildflowers that formed a riot of color in the parched summer grass. What lingers prominently in my memories of that day is the abundance of marble slabs, tombstones, and other granite markers indicating mass graves of “unknown" dead. Although a young child may grasp the concept of war as an affair that claims lives, my first visit to Antietam marked the moment when I first realized that it also had the power to snuff out people’s identities.

After most battles, survivors on both sides made attempts to bury their deceased. By all accounts, however, the majority of post-Civil War battle graves were shallow, hasty affairs. Western Maryland Historical Library reports that “grave markings were haphazard; stone piles, rough-hewn crosses and wooden headboards...Identities of the dead were discerned, where possible, by marks on belts or cartridge boxes, letters, diaries, and photographs." Scores of other individuals—especially those who had carried no such personal effects or identifying documents—were consigned to eternal anonymity. The grounds of Antietam National Battlefield alone contains over 1,500 unknown soldiers.

When the war ended, the government dispatched paid laborers to locate fallen soldiers and give them proper burials in military cemeteries, such as the National Cemetery at Antietam. But some unmarked graves went undetected, such as that of the middle-aged soldier who was mortally wounded during the battle on the Sunken Road. His remains, along with those of three other men, were not discovered until 1988, when relic hunters noticed human bones in a field next to Antietam National Battlefield. Based on the location and accompanying artifacts (e.g. New York state buttons, “buck and ball” ammunition, Catholic rosary beads), National Park Service archeologists speculated that these unidentified men had likely served in the 63rd New York Regiment of the Irish Brigade. Researchers took special interest in the older man because his unique age (the average soldier was about 26) enabled archaeologists to hone in on the man’s identity. Some sources report that he was Private James Gallagher, a stone cutter who originally came from Kilkenny, Ireland.

On September 17, 1989, the 127th anniversary of the battle, the National Park Service reinterred the four soldiers at the National Cemetery at Antietam and held a Roman Catholic mass at the Sunken Road, now known as Bloody Lane. Even now, in the 21st century, the soil of Antietam National Battlefield continues to yield up its dead. (The most recent discovery occurred in 2009.) As more artifacts come to light, recent advances in archaeological science will hopefully shed more light on the infamous battle of September 17, 1862 and connect the anonymous deceased to their lost identities.

The National Park Service is running a series of upcoming programs from September 14-22, 2012 in commemoration of the 150th anniversary. For more general information about Antietam, please visit the Antietam National Battlefield website, and check out the books in our catalog. National Public Radio also has an image gallery that enables users to view photos of Antietam in both 1862 and the present day. For additional web resources, visit the Pratt Library's Antietam and Emancipation Proclamation. 

One of the most successful program partnerships in Young Adult Services in recent years has been the ongoing presence of Wide Angle Youth Media, a non-profit organization that provides Baltimore youth with media education to tell their own stories and become engage in their communities. Our current partnership program is Baltimore Speaks Out!, which operates in the fall and spring, and provides youth ages 10-15 with free media education right in their own community. This 12-week after school program teaches young people video production, critical thinking, public speaking, team-building, and leadership skills.

By the end of the semester, students in the BSO program will have created their own video about youth and community concerns that will be screened locally and around the world.

Through regular attendance, students are eligible to earn service learning hours for their participation. This fall the program will be offered at the Reisterstown Road branch and a program that is open for only Patterson Park Public Charter students in partnership with the Patterson Park branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. There is open enrollment for the Reisterstown Road program.

Click to view larger. Photos courtesy of Wide Angle Youth Media.

When Pratt’s youth services was in the early stages of developing what would become the Community Youth Corps Program, the library reached out to other youth serving partners, especially those who were interested in providing activities for young people that employed youth development principles: positive interaction with adults and peers, chances to grow and learn, exploration of new areas, and opportunities to give back to the community.

The mission of Wide-Angle Media Youth Program has brought all of these attributes and more to teen services at a various branch libraries in the Pratt System. Through our partnership, the Library has been able to provide media training to youth in communities served by the Pennsylvania Ave, Orleans Street, Herring Run, and Reisterstown Road branches.

In addition the library has hosted Wide Angle’s Video Extravaganza (WAVE), a celebration of youth producers, ages 11-20, who have participated in Wide Angle Youth Media programs and workshops. The Library has also featured some of the student films on its teen web page.

Those of us who work with teens, either in direct public service or in administering programs recognize the important role media plays in the lives of all young people. This partnership allows our teen customers a chance to be more than consumers of media. This program gives teens a chance to create the media that will give voice to their unique stories.

In Our Shoes- Baltimore Youth Speak Out About Their Challenges & Joys from Wide Angle Youth Media on Vimeo.

To apply for the Baltimore Speaks Out! Program, please visit Wide Angle Youth Media.

As I travel to every corner of Baltimore in the passenger seat of the Book Buggy, I never get tired of observing people doing double-takes and smiling when they spot our colorful bookmobile. I have been the librarian for the Book Buggy, Pratt’s early literacy bookmobile, since it first took to the streets in the fall of 2001. We have traveled to Head Start sites and other childcare centers throughout Baltimore, bringing the library experience to children ages five and under.

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My job is possibly the most fun and rewarding job at Pratt. How great is it to be greeted by excited, happy three-year-olds every time I show up? After enjoying a storytime in their classroom, the little ones can’t wait to come out to the Book Buggy to look at books and perhaps choose one or two to check out using their brand new First Card. (At least one youngster thinks it’s his very own credit card.)

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Afternoons, when the children are in nap time dreamland, the teachers have the Book Buggy to themselves. This is their chance to pick out books for their classrooms, stocking up on material for their upcoming teaching units with themes like transportation, the five senses, farm animals, and so on. It’s always nice to hear comments such as "I’m so glad you come here—it saves me a trip to the library."

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Currently, the Book Buggy travels to childcare centers and WIC Clinics in high risk areas of Baltimore, providing early literacy outreach to communities in need. Nonetheless, being a mobile public library, everyone is welcome to pay us a visit, wherever we may be parked.

Although many children think we’re the ice cream truck the first time they see us, they are never disappointed when they hop aboard and see all the treasures inside: books galore, CDs and DVDs, kids' magazines, and computers to play games. One adult, however, was a bit disappointed when he poked his head in and said, "Oh, books... I thought you had ice cream."

The Southeast Anchor Library has been hitting the streets... Conkling Street, to be exact. Librarians from the Southeast Anchor have been participating in the Highlandtown Farmers’ Market on the first Thursday of each month by staffing the Free Family Fun Tent with free activities for children.

The Farmers’ Market, located at the corner of Eastern Avenue and Conkling Street, is presented by Highlandtown Main Street, a program of the Southeast Community Development Corporation. The market is filled with vendors selling produce and baked goods as well as artisans with clothing, jewelry, and other crafts. The eclectic group of vendors and market-goers makes it a great location for library outreach; we are visited by many of our regular patrons but also get the chance to meet with residents who are not yet familiar with our library system.

Offering different activities at each outing, the Library's tent is a great place for children to pass time while their parents shop and socialize with other community members. During the Market on September 6, we had decorate your own fuzzy bookmarks with the kids and had hula hoops available for kids of all ages to play with!

In addition to providing free activities, the librarians also used this as a chance to advertise upcoming programs and educate market-goers about how to obtain and use a Pratt Library card. This unique outreach opportunity also gives our librarians a chance to meet the parents of many of our regular students; it has given us an opportunity to introduce ourselves and develop relationships with parents whose children we interact with on a daily basis in the Library. And the children love seeing the librarians outside of their natural habitat!

Also, by getting out into the community, we are able to advertise our services to people who might not otherwise visit the Library. Since participating in the Farmer’s Market, the librarians have met many Highlandtown residents who were not familiar with the concept of a free library system. Residents are surprised to find that the library is not just a place for academics, but a place for the whole family. By getting outside of our building, we are opening the Library to a more diverse group of potential users. People who were hesitant to come into the branch before now see it as the great free resource that we intend it to be.

The location of the Market provides a wonderful spot for outreach since the Library is visible from our tent. Newcomers to the neighborhood who have never visited us before can look right across the street and see where the Library is located.

The Highlandtown Farmer’s Market is held every Thursday from June 21 to October 18 from 4:00 to 8:00pm in the 400 block of Conkling Street, and you can find your Southeast Anchor librarians there on the first Thursday of each month. So, come on and meet us in the Market!

The same time you are reading this there is probably a big flashing sign on your TV or on news websites announcing: "Breaking News" or "Just In" or "Exclusive." Everyday it feels like we are hit with a tidal wave of news and information from TV, websites, radio, newspapers, Twitter, Facebook and so much more. And especially during this highly charged election year, we can't get away from political ads and political pundits telling us what to think.  This leaves the viewer and readers with the difficult task of dissecting the truth and the facts and distinguishing the "news" from opinions.

That's why the Enoch Pratt Free Library has teamed up with the American Library Association (ALA) on a new campaign, "News Know-How." This campaign hopes to engage librarians, journalists, news ethicists and students across the country in a news literacy education project. "News Know-how," is supported by the Open Society Foundations.

The Pratt Library, along with the Chicago Public Library, Oak Park Public Library in Illionis and several rural and urban libraries in Iowa, were chosen to be part of this project. The campaign will have seasoned journalists help Baltimore middle and high school students sort fact from fiction in the digital age. The project teaches students critical-thinking skills that will enable them to be smarter and more frequent consumers and creators of credible information across all media and platforms. It seeks to light a spark of interest in students to seek information that will make them more knowledgeable about their communities, the nation and the world.

Photo courtesy of
News Know-How Iowa

"In today’s mass media environment it is critical that students are taught to analyze news coverage," said Barbara Jones, director, ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. "Through the support of libraries under this initiative, students will be given the tools to assess the accuracy and credibility of news and information access across various media and platforms. They will also be encouraged to practice news literacy by engaging with the media in their communities."

Students will create projects that will be shared online. Students will start their "News Know-how" training later this September at the Central Library. The lead training organization for “News Know-how” is the News Literacy Project Inc. (NLP), a national nonprofit education program active in schools in New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Bethesda, Maryland.

"Get your groceries at your local library" is not something that most people think of when they think of their local library. The Baltimarket Virtual Supermarket Program is a partnership between the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the Baltimore City Health Department, and Santoni’s Supermarket.

With the Baltimarket, Baltimore residents can order their groceries online and pick them up at one of the three participating Pratt branches: Washington Village, Orleans Street, and Cherry Hill.

All of the neighborhoods the program serves are considered "food deserts," areas that don’t have access to healthy and affordable food. The Baltimarket is at libraries in food deserts to make it easier for residents to get healthy and affordable food without the hassle of taking multiple buses or taxis. Customers pay only for the groceries they receive and there is no delivery fee. Residents can pay for their groceries with cash, credit, debit, and food stamps.

Health experts recommend eating five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, but in many neighborhoods it is hard to find fresh fruits and vegetables. One of our customers told us that before the program she had to buy all of the food for her family at Dollar General and CVS. She knew she wasn’t getting the healthy foods her family really needed because neither store carried fresh produce. Now she orders her food with the Baltimarket and she is able to get fruits, vegetables, and all of the healthy foods her family needs at great supermarket prices.

To see if the Baltimarket is in your area or to see our hours please visit our website at baltimarket.org.

Photo by Laura Adams

Listen to the story, Check It Out: Get Your Groceries At The Library, which originally aired on NPR's All Things Considered April 26, 2010.

The Baltimarket Virtual Supermarket Program was the result of a National Endowment for the Arts funded partnership between the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore City Health Department, the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University, and Real Food Farm. Read about the research and design process in the online book, Supplying Demand: Designing Solutions for Baltimore's Food Deserts.

You never know when an outreach opportunity might present itself. This one started at my book club where I met Cindy Zonies, Director of Service Coordination for the Weinberg Senior Living. Ms. Zonies saw a chance for the Library and Weinberg Place to work together in a new way. Weinberg Senior Living provides quality, affordable apartments for seniors and younger residents with disabilities. Weinberg Senior apartments were developed by CHAI, a local non-profit developer with the support of the Weinberg Foundation and other partners.

The Enoch Pratt Free Library has a long history of working with the Weinberg Place. Years ago, the library supplied a deposit collection for its tenants. Today, it is one of the regular stops for the Pratt Mobile Library. In June 2012, the Reisterstown Road Branch participated at the CHAI Info Resource Fair, which hosted a number of community resources for seniors.

Currently, the Weinberg Place is developing a year-long series of programs called Building Strength in Difference: a Cultural Diversity Program designed for their tenants to learn about the varied respective histories of their neighbors. They are starting with a kick-off event on Friday, September 28 titled How We Live as Neighbors: Then and Now. At this occasion, they want to focus on shared historical events sharing food dishes representing different countries and cultures.

The Reisterstown Road Branch will help support this series with resources from booklists to podcasts, like author Antero Pietila on his book Not in My Neighborhood. The branch also has meeting room space for small group discussions, which can be held at the library. Since the library is now on the Senior Shuttle run, tenants are also able to get to library programs.

One upcoming program the tenants are encouraged to participate in is a photography workshop, which will start in the classroom with the basics and then form breakout groups, which will take neighborhood walks to find interesting subjects for the camera. We look forward to this partnership, recognizing the traditional resources in our materials but expanding the community’s expectations of the library as space and as a place for community exploration of important topics like cultural diversity.

This week Pratt Chat will be featuring posts by librarians and guest contributors about some of the great community outreach efforts the Library organizes.

Waverly Branch Bake Sale, Sept 8, 2012

Thanks to these Library programs, children and adults in daycares and at-risk neighborhoods can check out books and talk to a librarian, families have access to healthy food through their local branch, youth receive training in video and photography production, and more.

This is the first of many regular, in-depth series to be featured on Pratt Chat. We will be sharing six profiles of Library outreach programs over the course of this week. As posts become available, the links below will be activated.

Schedule:

• Monday, September 10
  Building Strength in Difference with The Weinberg Place, by Rebecca Hass
  
  
• Tuesday, September 11
  Virtual Supermarket: Delivering Groceries to your Neighborhood Library, by Laura Fox, Baltimore City Health Department
  
  
• Wednesday, September 12
  News Know-how Campaign: News Literacy Project at the Pratt Library by Roswell Encina
  Hitting the Streets at the Highlandtown Farmers' Market by Cindy Kleback
  
  
• Thursday, September 13
  The Book Buggy: Better than the Ice Cream Truck! by Marilyn Hage, Librarian
  
  
• Friday, September 14
  Baltimore Speaks Out! with Wide Angle Youth Media, by Deborah Taylor, Young Adult Librarian

Please join the conversation on our Facebook page and on Twitter with the hashtag #PrattOutreach.

Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it.
— H.L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), a talented and prolific journalist known fondly as the Sage of Baltimore, had a long and friendly relationship with the Enoch Pratt Free Library . As a child, he used the branch that was once located at Hollins and Calhoun Street. As an adult, he often visited the Central branch. Later in life he generously donated a collection of books from his personal library, as well as his letters, photographs, drafts, and other memorabilia. This is the most complete and important Mencken collection in the world.

Mencken Day will be held this year on Saturday, September 8 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m at the Central Library. Each year for over forty years the Enoch Pratt Free Library has offered events and exhibits featuring Mencken's work and stories of his life.

 Mencken Society Annual Meeting
Wheeler Auditorium, 10:15am
Dr. H. George Hahn, Chair of the English Department at Towson University, will deliver a talk to the Mencken Society entitled "The Campus Trials of Mencken's Satire." The Mencken Society, founded in 1976, has done much to help keep Mencken's flame alive.

Mencken Memorial Lecture

Wheeler Auditorium 2:30 p.m.
Dr. Richard Schrader, a professor emeritus at Boston College, will deliver a lecture entitled "The Scopes Trial: How the Letter Kills". Mencken's writing on the Scopes trial may well have been his most important work as a journalist. It is, beyond argument, some of his most controversial commentary. He was reviled as the devil incarnate and revered as a champion of free speech.

Dr. Schrader follows in a long line of distinguished speakers including such figures as William Manchester, Alistair Cooke, James T. Farrell and Murray Kempton.

A reception in the Poe Room will follow Dr. Schrader's talk.

Pratt Chat recently feature and article by Menckenian editor Jackie Watts about Mencken's coverage of the Scope's trial.

Exhibits

The current Mencken Room, which opened in November, 2003, houses three permanent exhibits:

• "The Mencken Room"
• "Mencken and Schattenstein" (in 1927, Nikol Schattenstein painted the famous Mencken portrait which graces the room's east wall)
• "Sara Powell Haardt Mencken: 1898-1935"

Three additional exhibits will be mounted in the Humanities corridor on the third floor.

• "Mencken and Charles A. Fecher, 1917-2012"
• "Mencken and S. L. Harrison, 1930-2012"
• "Mencken and Max Brodel, 1870-1941" Curated by David Donovan of the Library's Fine Arts Department, an expert on Mencken and music.

The library also has Mencken online, all the time.

• Digital Collection on H.L. Mencken
• Mencken the Musician
• Mencken and the Pratt Library

With the deaths of Mr. Fecher and Dr. Harrison this year, the Mencken community suffered considerable losses, and condolences are offered to family, friends, and colleagues.

I recently participated in a webinar for public service workers called Connecting Marylanders with Food Supplement Program (FSP) Benefits. This training program by Maryland Hunger Solutions taught me how to help Pratt Library customers apply for Food Stamp Benefits using SAIL, the online benefits application system in Maryland. Federal Nutrition Programs have many names, FSP, Food Stamps, SNAP, and they provide monthly assistance to low-income families to help them buy food and eat healthy.

The training proved to be valuable beyond the initial goal of learning to navigate SAIL. I learned that the Maryland Hunger Solutions website offers great resources for planning and preparing healthy, low cost meals. I have found some of their guides such as Healthy Eating on a Budget and $16 Grocery Lists and Recipes very helpful. Their website also has information about the Food Stamp Challenge, Voices of Hunger and Hope, facts and statistics of hunger in Maryland, as well as ways to get involved to help fight hunger in Maryland.

I also enjoyed the training because as a new Library Associate I was reminded of the continued importance of libraries as a place for the community to receive help and resources. As a newcomer to the field, knowing that the institution I work for plays such an important role in the community reinforces my decision and commitment to a career in public libraries. A great article by the Public Library Association, and one that perhaps requires its own blog post, highlights 23 Reasons Why Your Library is the Most Important Place in Town.

Pratt librarians from all over the system participated in the Connecting Marylanders with FSP Benefits webinar and have the knowledge and resources to help library customers. The Enoch Pratt Free Library also helps to fight hunger in the communities we serve, the Cherry Hill, Orleans Street, and Washington Village Branches participate in The Virtual Supermarket Program. The Virtual Supermarket Program brings food to neighborhoods with low-vehicle ownership and little access to healthy foods (commonly called food deserts).

More about the Virtual Supermarket Program and other Enoch Pratt Free Library Outreach Efforts will be highlighted during the Pratt Chat’s first (exciting) Blog Series premiering next week, so please stay tuned!

The Enoch Pratt Free Library received a generous gift from the Small Book Expo on Tuesday: $5,000 worth of graphic novels for all ages. This wonderful gift includes 240 books compromising of 40 graphic novel titles.

The Pratt Library is this year's recipient of the Small Book Expo's 2012 Graphic Novel Gift. The goal of SPX’s Graphic Novel Gift Program is to expand the reach of graphic novels to readers of all ages who utilize public libraries and school libraries. The program also wants to promote learning and literacy through the availability of graphic novels and provide library systems with additional resources. 

"We are so honored and delighted that Small Press Expo has chosen the Pratt Library as this year’s recipient of their Graphic Novel Gift," said Carla D. Hayden, Chief Executive Officer of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. "It’s important to emphasize that reading is fun. Sometimes students get so busy they forget that there’s more to reading than just school texts."

"In these days of challenges to the acquisition budgets of all library systems, Small Press Expo is proud to help the Enoch Pratt Free Library put more graphic novels on its shelves," said Warren Bernard, Executive Director of the Small Press Expo. "The gift of 240 books comprising over 40 titles was chosen by the library’s Collections Management Department. It is hoped that this new selection of books will be widely read throughout Baltimore and bring pleasure to those who utilize the great resources that the Pratt library brings to the city. On behalf of Small Press Expo, we are glad to help the Pratt Library and the people of Baltimore get access to these fine examples of the graphic novel medium."

The Pratt Library currently carries countless graphic novels and comics in the Humanities Department of the Central Library and a manga collection at all Pratt locations. They are definitely among the hottest items to check out for both adults and teens.

The Small Book Expo will be held September 15 and 16 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. It is open to the public. For more information www.spxpo.com.

The new collection is currently being cataloged, but will be available soon. Here are just a few of the first-rate titles in the donation:

• Burma, Jerusalem, and Pyongyang by bestselling Canadian graphic novelist Guy Delisle
• A Drifting Life and Goodbye by award-winning Japanese manga artist Yoshihiro Tatsumi
• Clumsy, Undeleted Scenes, and AEIOU or Any Easy Intimacy by American cartoonist Jeffrey Brown

In "Thank You, Enoch Pratt" she shares her experiences of visiting the library awestruck as a young girl, and now proudly as an adult.

Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved going to the library. Especially in the summer. Walking out of a steamy summer night and into the library, I'd sigh with relief as cool air washed over my body. This cool and quiet land was a place of wonder and I'd stand stand amazed by the sheer volume and variety of books surrounding me.

I'd stare in awe at glossy hardcovers with bold titles and polished author portraits on the back. I'd slowly pry out a classic wedged on a bottom shelf, carefully brushing my fingers over its crumbling binding. I'd flip open front covers and skim through summaries searching for stories to grab my attention. Someones deepest thoughts and dreams printed clearly on paper for me to read - I knew books were special.

Gathering book after book into my trusty cloth bag, I'd walk through the library like a triumphant farmer after a bountiful harvest. I signed up for a library card and couldn't believe that just by printing my name on the back of a small piece of plastic I could access all of these books, whenever I wanted, for free!

It was magic.

She closes the post with a beautiful observance of a father signing up his son for a first library card. Please read the full post on her blog.

September is “Library Card Sign-up Month.” It’s a time when the Pratt Library reminds parents that the most important school supply of all is a library card. But nowadays, it gives you more than just books.

Your Pratt Library card is your ticket to exciting new and free services. It now allows you to check-out e-Readers at several neighborhood branches.  The card also gives you access to thousands of e-books available for download for free from our website, prattlibrary.org.

In tough economic times, your library card also gives you free access to programs, computers, homework help, assistance with resumes and job searches, accurate financial information, adult education courses, CDs, DVDs and so much more.

Last year, we started an amazing and fun campaign called, Get Carded. Every day in September, we showed a different celebrity, author, athlete and politician holding our gigantic Pratt Library Card. We had no shortage of famous people who were eager to hold the card for pictures including Ravens players Joe Flacco and Ray Rice, Cal Ripken Jr., Orioles Adam Jones, The Wire’s David Simon, WJZ news team, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake, best-selling author Laura Lippman, actor Hill Harper and the pirates from Urban Pirates.

This year we promise a new group of famous celebrities. Every day in September we will unveil who gets carded on our Twitter, Facebook and Flickr accounts. Who would you like to see?

So get carded this September! And join us on this incredible journey.

Did you know that the Pratt Library offers all customers free Wi-Fi access in most all library locations? With the temporary exception of the Washington Village Branch, any Pratt Library location you visit around Baltimore is equipped to connect you to the internet for free. We have public computers, of course, and in the Central Library you can borrow a library laptop, but you can also bring your own laptop, tablet, or smartphone and use our connection, without having to sit at one of our computers. You also don't need to be in an designated area to get an internet connection, it can be anywhere in the library.

New second floor Laptop Lounge
If you haven't seen it yet, an alcove on the second floor of the Central Library was recently converted into a gorgeous "Laptop Lounge". This is the area at the very top of the decorative window grating that extends all the way up from the front entrance below, so the main feature is that beautiful window arch. It's dark enough to feel cozy and somewhat private, but the natural light and modern furniture will make you settle in quickly, feeling like you've found a wonderful secret spot for your web browsing, writing, or e-reading.

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More friendly, comfortable places to sit
The idea for that first Laptop Lounge actually came about from a complaint. I'm a member of a sort of staff think tank called the Best Practices Group; we take suggestions for improvements to the library from staff around the system. Someone had asked for signs in the first floor Pratt Wi-Fi Cafe, specifying time limits so that people wouldn't spend so long there, hogging the available seats. We discussed pros and cons of posted time limits and customer service, and then someone asked why customers don't use all of the other seats we have around the library with their laptops. After all, the place has three floors of public areas, and it's a whole block long! As we talked more, we realized two things:

1. people may not know that the entire building has free Wi-Fi
2. people like to hang out in the Pratt Wi-Fi Cafe because it's nice there

Click an image to view larger.

We decided to both create signs to let everyone know that they can spread out around the building, and to set about creating more laptop-friendly spots around the building. In addition to the fancy second floor window lounge, there are several other spots around the building that have been rearranged just for that purpose, and more are being planned. Take a look around, or ask a librarian if you need a nice web-connected spot to sit.

Beyond the cafe and Lounges: Wi-Fi access everywhere
When the Pratt Cafe was first set up years ago, we had received a corporate grant for Wi-Fi just in that area. But those days are gone, and you can now connect from anywhere in the Central Library building, as well as any other Pratt Library in your neighborhood. Many areas have electrical outlets available, but others just have a quiet spot or a sunny window waiting for you. One of my favorite spots is a big window well by the Travel section in the Social Science & History Department. Do you have any favorite spots at your library? If so, let us know in the comments below.

Click an image to view larger. 

From the Hi-Fi days of smoking to Wi-Fi days of web surfing
The "modernization" of our public library spaces for laptop use brings to mind an old (and now very humorous) newspaper article about when part of this same library was renovated—with a private donation—to accommodate our customers who feel more comfortable smoking while they read in the library. Some excerpts from The New Enoch Pratt Free Smoking Lounge, The Baltimore Sun, 1954:

"Next Monday a new lounge is to be opened in part of the library's central hall, and in this lounge smoking will be permitted. A considerable selection of books will be handy to the lounge, and there will be comfortable chairs and plenty of ashtrays." "...having made the books available, it is good sense (means permitting) to provide conditions appropriate to reading." "If his chair is uncomfortable, he is distracted. And—let us admit it—if he is a slave to the weed he finds it a lot easier to concentrate and extract the full measure of satisfaction from the book before him, if he can puff at a pipe or take an occasional drag on a cigarette. The smoker is not only happier, he can get more out of his book, if he is smoking."

We feel pretty sure that laptop lounges in the library are a better modern-day solution than a smoking lounge, but who knows what our customers will want to feel more comfortable here another 50+ years from now. In the meantime, come to the library to work on your laptop or relax in our many areas with free Wi-Fi. For more information, learn more about the Pratt Library's Computers, Internet, and Wireless Access.

One of my favorite collections at the Pratt is the War Posters Collection. Not being a war buff, and not being any kind of expert on early 20th century history, it surprised me a bit at how much I liked them.

The earnest patriotism and calls for sacrifice are combined with portrayals of the enemy in stark terms of good and evil that are difficult for me to imagine today. They reflect attitudes and a social environment far different from the time we live in, and it's absolutely fascinating.

During the first and second World Wars, the U.S. Government had posters created to help mobilize the public and make them more aware of the needs and danger of war. The posters were more than just slogans; they used the powers of art and advertising to instill certain social, economic and political ideas, particularly the strength of the middle class, consumerism and free enterprise.

Still not long after the depression the posters celebrated business, workers and American capitalism, and urged everyone to work, save, and sacrifice for the war effort, which included giving up their luxuries and buying war bonds.

The posters aren’t short on fear and danger, either. The enemy is shown to hate religion, persecute labor, burn books, and ruin family life. Some of the most interesting posters in the collection warn of the dangers of simply talking. There could be a spy around every corner and 'loose talk' could cost American lives.

There are over 1000 posters in the Special Collections Department. You can check out our over 500 of them in our War Posters Digital Collection, and if you’d like to take a closer look in person, give us a call (443-984-2451) or send an email.

Baltimore, a city capable of major industrial production, was key to military preparedness during World War II. Thousands went to work each day in the shipyards and steel mills, yet everyone in the country was called upon to do whatever necessary to help win the War. The numbers of volunteers and the mobilization that went on in this area is astounding. Beginning in 1942 everyone in their way contributed to the War effort. Perhaps lost in the stories of the crowded USO’s, the air raids, rationing and the general disruption to everyday life was the part played by the Enoch Pratt Free Library in the War.

Click to view larger.

Joseph Wheeler, Library Director, noted in his 1940-41 report to the Library Board that the general feeling among staff was reflected in the comment of one branch librarian who declared "Let us all take a hitch in our belts and make books more useful to win the war".

Sure, books were an important part of the effort. Photographs of the prominent Cathedral Street display windows show the Library promoting books to aid every facet of the effort.

Yet the Library staffer’s involvement went way beyond promoting reading. To name two:

• Pratt Libraries were among the more than 300 air raid shelters in Baltimore City.
• Pratt Library staff were responsible for preparing the official leaflets distributed by the Office of Civilian Defense that were necessary to educate the public regarding safety and how to handle other wartime concerns.

Click to view larger.

In April 1942 Mayor Howard Jackson sent a letter to the Library’s Board of Trustees outlining his concern that too many Americans take the liberties, opportunities and blessings of our country for granted. He went on to say:

Events of the past few years, however, have plunged us into a war, on the outcome of which depends our ability to preserve our American institutions. ...the time has come to re-examine our institutions of government; the liberties, privileges and rights that American citizens enjoy.

The Pratt Library’s response to this plea was the creation of a reading list that outlined a course in citizenship.  But wait, there’s more!
The list was the basis of a familiar wartime theme—a reward for those at home who supported the Allies effort during the hostilities. Anyone who read at least six books (or twelve articles or pamphlets) would receive a certificate of achievement in the Citizenship Education Course.
It worked much like today’s summer reading programs:

• Anyone of any age could enroll.
• The course must be finished within six months
• The enrollee would go to any library, fill out a registration card with their intention to complete the course and the topic they selected.
• The card would be taken to a librarian to discuss the topic and get the books or reading material.  The librarian was empowered to allow the registrant to select books not on the list if they deemed them appropriate.
• When the reader returned the book to the branch the librarian or an assistant were to ask questions necessary to assure that the material had actually been read!

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When the course was completed, the librarian "will scrutinize the record and attest to completion of the course."

It truly was a world unlike anything we have to endure today. If you find this period interesting stop by the Maryland Department in the Central Library. We have plenty to show you!

Whether summer seemed to fly or was the longest two months of your life, there’s no denying one thing: School is back in session.

The library has changed,
but it's still a great place to study.

Here at the library, we’ve heard both opinions. In the last few weeks, school-age patrons have been alternately complaining of boredom and lamenting school’s imminent return. They’ve longed to return to their friends and wished that summer could last forever. I don’t know anyone who’s looking forward to homework (indeed, several students doing school summer reading reports have come to the library in a panic recently), but maybe those kids are just being quiet about it.

In any case, no matter how we feel about it, the young people of our city will be in school from August 27 until the beginning of June.

The library will certainly be a different with school back in session. The summer party atmosphere will be gone, and in its place, a slightly more studious feeling will emerge. I’m looking forward to it. As much fun as the summer is, with Summer Reading, special performers, and actual parties, one of my favorite moments each year is the first time a child asks for help with homework after school.

The library is a fantastic place to do school work. We have books on a variety of topics, and if we don’t have it on site, we can get it for you. We have newspapers for current events and databases to help you get accurate information and current information online. Using our computers, you can access the internet, type and print assignments, make presentations, and more. And of course, the library has friendly and knowledgeable staff to help if you get stuck.

We also have fun programs and enjoyable books when you need a break from school work for a little while. Whether you’re in Kindergarten or graduate school, we have something to offer this school year. See you at the library!

Call the Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Telephone Reference Service (TRS) with a question—ranging from the correct spelling of "insurrection," to what the heck is in scrapple?—and librarians are waiting to answer your questions using both computers and books.  But while computers are prone to their glitches, fusses, and viruses, there is a tried-and-true partner for these information detectives that is spinning into its 45th year of operation: the information Wheel (a.k.a. “information carousel,” or “Lazy Susan”). 

The Wheel of Information, 1967.
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TRS began as a independent department in October of 1967 with the purpose of giving patrons a ready-reference service, as well as to transfer calls that need more in-depth or specialized research to the appropriate subject department. The Wheel was custom built in 1968 by local Acme Visible Records, Inc. in conjunction with the needs of the librarians in TRS. It is one of the first of its kind in the United States, and has been used as a model for other library systems wishing to build a similar tool.

The Wheel stands at the center of the TRS workspace, with four computer & phone work stations branching-off of its radius. Imagine it standing over six feet high and holding up to 800 books on five tiers, and you get an idea of the Wheel’s impressive stature. (Each tier is able to spin independently of each other, allowing for smoother operation in a multi-person work area.) Like any tool the information Wheel makes the TRS librarians’ job easier by being a centralized area for quick access to reference books, which is still a necessity in this modern age because the internet does not have a reputable answer for every question.

A perusal of the Wheel’s contents today would make any polymath delighted: they are general and wide-ranging, and include books from the major subject fields, as well as popular categories, such as local interests.  The main qualifications for a book to be included are: the book should have a good index; should contain short, concise information; and, of course, should be a reputable reference source in relation to its topic.  Thus, today you will find the current 22 volume World Book Encyclopedia and the classic Joy of Cooking among the Wheel’s diverse collection.

Amongst all of its years of spinning, and the information Wheel has never needed to be serviced, which is a testament to its construction.  The Wheel has proven itself to be an essential tool for the TRS for these many years, and will probably survive the computers currently being used by the librarians today.

If you are interested in making your own Lazy Susan bookshelf for your home or office, check-out The Design Sponge at Home by Grace Bonney.

Or put the Wheel to use by giving TRS a call with your question at 410-396-5430.

The Wheel of Information Now

What I like best in Baltimore is the people, the neighborhoods and what goes on in the neighborhoods. Each has its own stories, own diners and own quirks. It's about community.
— Barbara Mikulski, U.S. senator

This week marks three months since the launch of Pratt Chat. This successful blog is the product of contributions from more than two dozen people, including 15 contributors, four editors, and numerous guest contributors from inside and outside the library.

As a newcomer to Baltimore (I just celebrated my own first anniversary of my arrival last month), I have been struck again and again by the pride that residents have for this city. I find Baltimore to be challenging, complex, rich, exciting, and full of people working together every day to make it better.

For me, no institution represents this pride and these incredible people like the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Library branches around the city support individuals on their quests for knowledge and bring people together for programs ranging from lifelong learning, to musical performances, to exercise classes.

Creating Pratt Chat was my first task as a new employee at the Library, and from day one I have envisioned this space as one in which people who represent all these diverse cross-sections of Baltimore can share their stories about experiences at the Library, books that have inspired them, and programs they have participated in.

The Pratt Chat team has fully realized my hopes, and then some. This talented and dedicated group of contributors have ensured that we have had high-quality, interesting posts every day since our launch on May 21, 2012. We are celebrating this milestone with a small redesign, which you now see in front of you.

Today we offer two new features: Rotating banners with images from Baltimore and quotes we love, and a Featured Posts area in the sidebar, where we will highlight content that we don’t want you to miss.

Whether you are visiting for the first time, or a regular reader, thank you for visiting Pratt Chat, and we hope you’ll come back often.

I have always felt a kinship with sardonic writers who offer their unique perspective on how to live in this world. I’ve seen David Sedaris speak a few times—he usually visits Baltimore about once a year—and this is one of my favorite quotes from one of his books, Naked:

I haven’t the slightest idea how to change people, but still I keep a long list of prospective candidates just in case I should ever figure it out.

This post is not about David Sedaris, but it is about someone whose life was inextricably bound to Sedaris’: David Rakoff. A brief history: David was born in Canada to parents who were both doctors; he left home to study in the United States at Columbia University, and subsequently became a permanent resident and then a US citizen, while still maintaining his Canadian citizenship. He wrote a myriad of essays, mostly autobiographical, and some that dealt with his bouts of illness (Hodgkin’s disease and a more recent diagnosis of cancer near his collarbone). He worked in publishing and met David Sedaris through that job, eventually becoming a regular contributor to a popular public radio program alongside Sedaris.

I’ve always been interested in what I call "nomadic writers"—authors who just can’t seem to sit still for their entire life in one place, and usually aren’t content with simply one genre or avenue of performance. Rakoff wore many hats: essayist, journalist, radio presenter, voice-over artist, film actor, and screenplay writer. One of my favorite pieces by him is called "Christmas Freud" which aired on This American Life, a weekly radio program produced by Chicago Public Media and distributed by Public Radio International (usually it airs on your local NPR station; in Baltimore it airs on WYPR on Saturdays and Sundays).

In fact, This American Life profiled David Rakoff this past weekend on their show. A warning: there is adult language contained in this program.

Rakoff was also a regular (read: yearly) guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Here is an excerpt from a late 2010 interview, where he discussed his book of essays Half Empty.

David Rakoff was involved with This American Life early on—during its beginnings—and became fast friends with David Sedaris and Ira Glass, the host of the show. I’m sure Rakoff was not on Sedaris’ list of prospective candidates to change, and should anything be said about Rakoff and his career in general it’s that he was here on this Earth for far too short a time.

As Rakoff himself cynically wrote: "In my brief glimpse of what is to come I realize how little I care to witness it. I have seen the future and I'm fairly relieved to say, it looks nothing like me."

When Patricia (Trish) Rawlings drops by the Fiction Department, she hovers over our new books like an excited hummingbird. Trish is more than just a passionate reader, however. A writer and artist herself, she's also an example of how the Pratt Library fuels talent.

In an email interview, Trish summed herself up: "Madcap. Compulsively creative. Night-owl. Chronically distractable. First to laugh, first to cry. Indecisive. Contrary. Loves The Word. No, loves The Image. (See?)." Retired, she has worked many jobs in order to guard "the creative impulse." Her focus has changed over the years—from portraits, mostly of imagined people, to landscapes, to forms that combine word and image such as the photo-illustrated novel that she created while earning a creative writing master's degree. Lately, she has gone in even more directions, working on a picture-free novel, studying lost wax sculpture ("nothing will awaken sleeping hands like sculpting"), and resuming a project called The Blocks:

Years ago I had a friend cut from strips of molding little inch-and-a-quarter-sized blocks, whose six sides I could paint any way I wanted. I loved that this allowed endless experimenting and a chance to dance with infinity.

Eventually I packed the blocks away. Their smallness and humility made them easy to forget about, and I did. But one day my hand, groping blind in a box at the back of a cupboard, came across them. They begged for companions, so I ordered fresh blank blocks and took up a brush.

Now I have what is amounting to a "sidewalk" of blocks laid out on my living room floor. I'm currently up to 1,600. And still going. The flirtation with infinity is now a romance.

Since Trish once showed me books about Fra Angelico that she hoped would help her create a "flat" family portrait, I asked if other library finds had shaped her craft. She recalled stumbling on Digital Art Studio, co-authored by Dorothy Krause. After corresponding with Krause, she decided "to take my photographs and print them on transparencies, then lay them over paper I'd made and decorated to create mixed-media images that I combined with a poem to create a whole new thing." Krause's book and the first Pratt Library Altered Books Contest, where she entered that creation, were "hugely inspiring."

Click an image to view larger.

What other books has Trish loved lately? She adored Tom Rachman's novel, The Imperfectionists—"I like the idea of imperfection as something more interesting if not more perfect than perfect." And The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal had "irresistible" components: "Artist/author. The rise and fall of an incredibly wealthy, fascinating European family. Nazis. Japanese carvings. A hare. A hare with amber eyes." Artist/author? Sounds familiar! What a pleasure to serve people like Trish, who are as colorful as what they read, and enrich our community with their art.

All images on this page are copyright Patricia Rawlings, who may be reached at trill43@verizon.net.

Four generations of children and adults have enjoyed the classic novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957) known collectively as the Little House books. Wilder was 65 years old when the first of the nine books about her family and her husband’s boyhood was published in 1932. Before that, beginning at age 44, she had spent 15 years as a journalist for a regional paper, The Missouri Ruralist. In her bi-weekly articles she expressed an upbeat, wholesome philosophy of life:

Life is often called a journey... Usually when referred to in these terms, it is also understood that it is a “weary pilgrimage.” Why not call it a voyage of discovery and take it in the spirit of
happy adventure?
—"Life is an Adventure." March, 1916

A feeling of pleasure in a task seems to shorten it wonderfully, and it makes a great difference with the day’s work if we get enjoyment from it instead of looking for our pleasure all together apart from it.
—"The Man of the Place." January, 1920

Learning things is most fascinating, and I think it adds joy to life to be continually learning things so that we may be able to go on with it creditably.
—"Learn Something New." April, 1924

Read more of Wilder’s articles in Little House in the Ozarks, edited by Stephen W. Hines.

Wilder lived most of her married life in Mansfield, MO, where she shared the responsibilities of Rocky Ridge Farm with her husband, Almanzo. Already an active member of her community and a published journalist, she was encouraged to write the family history by her daughter Rose Wilder Lane, herself a famous author whose novels were often serialized in such magazines as the Saturday Evening Post.

Wilder described her inspiration for the Little House books in several ways: she wished to preserve her father’s famous family stories, and she wanted children to understand life during the late nineteenth century. Being pragmatic, she also realized that royalties from the books would provide much-needed income, and she wanted to demonstrate that people could live without assistance from the government, something FDR’s New Deal offered but which she and Rose disliked.

Here are my favorite reasons why the Little House books became instantly popular and have remained a touchstone of American children's literature:

• They are stories about real people living in real places that anyone can visit today.
• Wilder described people, places, and things extremely well through the use of literary devices.
• The positive values reflected in the books are as timely today as in the late nineteenth century.
• The books get harder and longer as the children in the books grow and as the readers mature.
• The popular television show by the same name, produced in the 1970s and 1980s, introduced the books to a new audience.

Whether you’re reading Wilder's Little House books and her other writing for the first time, or returning to them for a second or third time, consider the messages they invoke that continue to resonate with contemporary American life.

Ann Dahl taught for 31 years in the Day School of Calvert School in Baltimore and wrote very detailed literary curricula for the School’s home school (and now also charter school) division. She is now a professional speaker, presenting around the state on beloved authors Laura Ingalls Wilder, Robert McCloskey, and A.A. Milne.

As a member of the Nintendo Generation, I was ecstatic to learn that the Pratt Library Wii system was going to make its debut at the Roland Park Branch. I was asked to pilot the three-day Teen Wii program because of my teaching experience with teenagers and my experience assisting Stefanie Thomas, the Roland Park Children/Teen Librarian with Mother Goose and Preschool Leaps programs.

I began by recruiting teens through word of mouth. I was excited that just as I finished setting up the Wii on the first day, ten teenagers entered the Meeting Room ready to go. Monday’s game was Wii Sports. I established a rule that the teens could only play four player games so that everyone could have more time to play the game. The teens voted on regular bowling and played six rotations. This game was brilliant because both boys and girls enjoyed it. When they tired of that game, they switched to one hundred pin bowling until it was time to end the program. Some of the teens played Uno while waiting their turn while others decided to play the role of spectator. Their conversations ranged from the game, to what they were doing on summer vacation.

On the second day, five more teens joined for a total of fifteen. It was Mario Kart day. The teens were busy discussing the best overall character/”kart” combinations. Finally, they asked me to play a race. I chose Baby Peach and the Cheep Charger. The kids sniggered because the baby characters are very light and can easily get knocked off course by the larger characters. The flag went down and I flew through all three circuits around the track. They were in shock and my “street cred” was firmly established among the teens.

The final day Super Mario Bash Brothers was played with a total of twenty teen participants. If I thought the discussion on characters and “karts” was heated the day before, I was in for a treat on that day!

As the Wii Marathon was coming to a close, the teens were enthusiastic and asked if the Roland Park Branch would get the system again. The Wii Marathon at Roland Park was a success! Would I run the program again? Absolutely! It is enjoyable and I have to retain my title as the best Mario Kart driver!

Smart phones, tablets, and computers are dominating our lives these days. So, it’s only natural that we turn to these devices to see what they can do for kids. With apps and eBooks galore, it’s hard to know which are quality, which to avoid, and which to explore. Have no fear! We’re here to help.

Before sitting down with your kids and iPad, it’s important to note that the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages media use by children younger than 2 years. The term “media” mostly refers to anything with a screen: smart phones, tablets, computers, televisions, and the like. Read the full policy here.

Many sources that are known for reviewing books have taken up examining apps and enhanced picture books. Two of the best are School Library Journal and Kirkus. You can read School Library Journal’s “Best of Apps and Enhanced Books” article from July. If you’re looking for something more comprehensive, try reading Kirkus’ “Best Kids’ Book Apps of 2011” (we’re not quite through 2012 yet, but look for that review to come this December!). Kirkus’ article even includes side bar navigation to help you sort through book apps for the youngest readers or apps that are based on print books.

Now that you’re ready to explore apps for kids, consider trying one of these two based on an original print book.

Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley. Developed by Night & Day Studios. What’s great about this app is that the original print book already lends itself to an interactive experience, giving kids complete control over sending away this monster, piece by piece. The app includes fun animation of all of the monster’s features, and Emberley himself narrates the story if you want to hear it aloud. There’s also an adorable song that goes with it, written and performed by Emberley’s granddaughter. This is a great preschool app.

Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt. Developed by Random House Digital, Inc. and Smashing Ideas Inc. This is a delightful and fun adaptation of the 1940 classic that is still loved today. The app invites preschool kids to pop bubbles, make stars twinkle, and even have the book read aloud to them. Everyone remembers the mirror from the print version of the book, and this app even includes the mirror function, making use of the front-facing camera on smartphones and tablets. You can watch the “trailer” below!

I’d suggest taking these apps full circle and introducing your child to the print version of the book first, and then engaging them with the app. They will make connections between what is in the book and what’s on the screen and the interaction will be all the more meaningful as a result. Sound off in the comments: what are your favorite apps for kids? What sources do you look to for reviews and suggestions for the best apps around?

On Your Mark... Get Set... Go!

The first annual Baby Olympics were held Thursday, July 12 at the Southeast Anchor Library! Prior to the games, our athletes displayed their Olympic spirit by creating torches and laurel leaf crowns out of paper. This arts and crafts activity was then followed by a parade of nations through the library’s atrium. After the parade, each child donned their athletic gear and tested their abilities in a series of indoor games and activities. Events included Jump Roping, Tunnel Crawl, and Stuffed Animal Toss. We also had a special reading corner highlighting Olympic-themed books from the library’s collection.

The showcase events of the morning were the Baby Crawl and the Toddler Dash. Both events drew large crowds of spectators. Family members cheered on their favorite kid athlete. In the end, everyone was a winner, and every participating child earned a gold medal.

Closing ceremonies included a meet and greet with the kid athletes and an international food buffet sponsored by families and staff.

Get ready for 2014, the return of Baby Olympics!

En sus marcas... listos... Go!

Los primeros Juegos Olímpicos del bebé se celebraron Jueves, 12 de julio en la Biblioteca Southeast Anchor. Antes de los Juegos, los atletas demostraron su espíritu olímpico mediante la creación de antorchas y coronas de papel. Estas actividades de manualidades fueron seguidas por un desfile de las naciones a través del atrio de la biblioteca.

Después del desfile, cada niño se puso su ropa deportiva y probaron sus habilidades en una serie de juegos y actividades. Los eventos incluyeron salto la cuerda, el túnel de rastreo y el lanzamiento de peluche. También tuvimos un rincón de lectura especial para destacar los libros con temas olímpicos de la colección bibliotecaria.

El punto culminante de los juegos ocurrió durante las carreras de atletismo para los bebés y niños pequeños atrayendo grandes multitudes de espectadores. Al final, todos eran ganadores y cada niño que participó recibió una medalla de oro.

La ceremonia de clausura incluyó saludos con los pequeños deportistas y un buffet con comida internacional patrocinada por las familias y el personal de la biblioteca.

¡Prepárense para el 2014, el regreso de los Juegos Olímpicos de bebé!

What are YOU saying about the Summer Reading Program this year?

"This year’s summer reading was awesome! Books like “The Kite Runner” inspired me to keep writing!" — Chantia Banks

"I like the summer reading program because you win cool prizes and read interesting books." — Amir Muhammad

"Summer reading was great! I enjoyed reading all those books in the library! I got prizes, such as a pen, coupons, and a stereo headset. I even got a book about shorty named Yummy. That book was very interesting! Summer reading was awesome!" — Diarra Boatswain

After the Reisterstown Road branch’s three year hiatus summer reading came back in full force this year. This summer's theme was "Dream Big, Read!" The program started June 2 and ended August 4. We had over 700 individual and group participants. Here is another quote from one of our participants, "Summer reading really provided an opportunity for my daughter and I to bond this summer. I liked being able to chart the books we read. It's exciting to be part of summer reading. We're first-timers as a first-time Mom." Thank you to the children and adults and who made summer reading at the Reisterstown Road branch a terrific success this year. — L. Scott

Summer Reading 2012 "Own the Night" was a great experience at the Reisterstown Road branch for the teens. It boosted the morale amongst the staff and community and has ignited a new appreciation for the library at-large. This year’s participation was filled with positive energy, a plethora of registrants, and spirited curiosity and anticipation. With this new found appreciation teens look forward to spending more time reading an eclectic genre of material and depending upon the library to be an ally in their literary discovery. If 2012 SR can bring on this new spirit then SR 2013 should be filled with endless opportunities. Until next summer, I bid a good night to my SR Night Owls!!! — Lamar Pinkett

The adult readers at the Reisterstown Road branch showed us kids aren’t the only ones who have fun with summer reading. We had over 65 participants who read almost 300 books. Even the Friends of Reisterstown Road Branch Library got involved with summer reading, and their president turned in the most entries of any participant. Thank you to everyone who helped make this year such a success! — Becky Hass

Through the years, the Friends of Light Street Branch have made significant contributions to the library. The group has purchased a book drop, given $500 to enhance the children’s book collection, and have enthusiastically and financially supported branch programs. So it is no surprise that the Friends generously sponsored the recent Altered Book Competition held at Light Street.

The Friends made free books available to the public to alter, transformed paint brushes into participation prizes, and donated a gift card to a local art supplies business which was awarded to the winner of the Altered Book Contest. Light Street Friends President, Rob Jacobs, was on hand August 6 to present the awards.

Winning Best in Staff and bragging rights was Caitlin Huddleston with her entry entitled “I am half sick of shadows.” Her inspiration was “The Lady of Shalott” from Alfred Tennyson: the Major Works. The Lady of Shalott is cursed and bound to her tower where she weaves all day. She weaves images “shadows of the world” and the outside world (Camelot) that she sees through a mirror. Sir Lancelot rides up and at the sight of him she leaves her tower and her loom believing she is in love with him. She finds a boat by the river and floats away toward Camelot and dies. Caitlin chose to literally weave the lines of the poem.

Upon viewing Caitlin’s entry, Contest Judge Mark Cottman (Federal Hill artist and art gallery owner) commented, “The words flow from the boat like a dialogue with only a gentle ribbon to hold them in, making you want to see more.”

Winner of Best Book Alteration and the gift card was Jenny O’Grady. Jenny thought it would be fun to work with a semi-trashy novel and found inspiration in “Rock Star” by Jackie Collins. Her submission entitled “Rafealla: 1975” referenced the main page of the book where two girls compared their bodies.
She found it completely over the top and decided to create an erasure poem from it just as ridiculous. Using photos of up-and-coming female artists from the most recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine, Jenny created a tiny glitzy guitar book to hold them, because Rafealla’s dream is to become a glamorous rock star.

Art Exposure Director and judge, Ann Wiker, found Jenny’s entry to have “the best use of book theme in artwork. “ She liked the way there was a book within the book and how it interacted.

Thank you, Light Street Friends, for always looking for new and innovative ways to show your support for the library! The Altered Book entries will be on display at the Light Street Branch through the end of September.

Follow our Pinterest board, Altered Books, to see beautiful and wild images to inspire your book altering adventures.

Want to become an official Altered Books pinner? Send us an email using the contact from on our Community Guidelines page. (You will need a personal Pinterest account to participate).

It’s a fact: Regardless of skill level, experience, or serendipity, all family historians will encounter dead ends in their research.

My first stumbling block appeared in the form of a great-great grandfather. Although I could trace his spouse’s lineage to a Scottish immigrant who arrived on the Delmarva Peninsula in the 17th century, he appeared to be a mysterious drifter who wandered into Somerset County, got married, and then inexplicably whisked his bride off to Baltimore.

His origins remained a mystery. Was he born in the United States or was he an immigrant? Did he have siblings or other family? His death and burial place were also unknown. The entirety of his existence on paper consisted of a marriage certificate, spotty appearances in the U.S. Census, and a misspelled entry in my mother’s baby book. Beyond these items, my research was stalled. I had hit a brick wall.

As a new genealogist, I (falsely) assumed that the apparent lack of records meant that I had exhausted all possibilities. For the next two years I gave up on him, and focused on other ancestors who had been kind enough to leave a more discernible paper trail.

But my great-great grandfather’s inscrutable origins continued to nag at me, especially as the passing years expanded my knowledge and understanding of genealogy resources. When I revisited the search, some new pieces fell into place. City directories shed light on his livelihood and gave me a rough estimate of his death year. I also searched again for the children listed in my great-great grandparents’ household on the U.S. Census. Whereas nothing turned up on my first attempt, I now discovered a newly-transcribed newspaper obituary for one of their daughters on Find a Grave. Since the listing identified her burial place, I consulted the cemetery’s registers for other family members.

From there, I hit pay dirt: my great-great grandparents are also buried there, and the records contain the dates of their internment and causes of death. Newspaper archives contained another critical item. A search for my great-great grandfather turned up an obituary for his brother, a sibling I never knew he had. Since the article identified Somerset County, Maryland as the brother’s point of origin, it stood to reason that his other family members likely came from Somerset as well.      

Although most new genealogists are aware of other resources beyond the U.S. Census, it often helps to keep the following in mind when you’re starting out:  

1. Don’t assume that the information does not exist. Contact or visit local historical societies and city/state archives for vital (birth, marriage, death) records.
2. Be patient. If at first you can’t find any information on your ancestor, try again in a few months. People are transcribing records every day and publishing new resources online.
3. Don’t forget to check city directories, archived periodicals, military rolls, local history books, etc. The Pratt Library offers free access to these resources on the Database section of the website.

Visit the Pratt Library's Genealogy and Ethnic Heritage page on the calendar to see a list of upcoming programs.

Seventy years ago, in an American city not much different from our own, a young family of three walked down the wrong street known as Crime Alley, and history was changed forever. Minutes after seeing “Zorro” at their local cinema, a vibrant husband and wife, pillars of their community, lay dead, and their young son was an orphan with lasting emotional scars. We know how a boy left alone in the world and wanting vengeance instead turned his thoughts to justice.

We know how this boy, the heir to a vast fortune, donated his money to help his blighted city. A product of his times, he devoted endless hours to forensics and other sciences in hopes that they would aid in his future crusade. He traveled to the exotic Far East, like many of the well-heeled of his generation, not as a tourist, but as a student, learning all he could of the fighting styles of many cultures. A permanently scarred victim of gun violence, he would forever swear off guns, knowing that it would put him at a grave disadvantage to his foes.

Returning home to America, he adopted a guise that would strike fear into those he stalked, men like those who had killed his parents. In time, his name would become synonymous with justice and for the darkness that waited for those who would prey on the weak. Forced to live a double life, he embraced the night but fought to bring about a new day. His story has been told in every medium possible: film, comics, books, television, and cartoons. He has become an icon in the United States and all over the world. Millions of us lined up to see the final chapter in the latest film version of his life.

When we awoke the next morning, we were all horrified by the events in Colorado that stood in such stark contrast to the story of hope that is the core of the Batman legend. It is a story that resonates from generation to generation; I learned the tale at the feet of my mother, whose generation was the first to know it. It was a tragedy that filled me with fear for my best friend who lived a dozen miles from that theater in Aurora. I feared there would be a backlash against something that is important in my life.

The difference between fiction and legend is those who believe. The difference between legend and myth is longevity. Two weeks ago, we saw the beginning of a myth. The thing about myths is that mad men will try to rewrite them or write themselves into them, but the best of them stand above all that as beacons. In this case, it might be the words of Christopher Nolan that ring the truest right now: “Why do we fall down? To learn to pick ourselves up again”.

For more stories, check out the Bat Canon in the Pratt Library catalog:

• Batman, the Killing Joke by Alan Moore. Prior to Heath Ledger, this was the graphic novel that showed the Joker to be a true psycho as he assaults and paralyzes Barbara Gordon, Batgirl.
• Batman: the Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. In this tale of a future an old Bruce Wayne re-dons the mantle of the Batman to take on Superman and a city out of control. This is really where the grim Batman stories started.
• Batman, Year One by Frank Miller. A young Bruce Wayne has spent years training his mind and body and now returns to Gotham just as a young police officer named James Gordon starts his career. Often said to be the source material for the movie Batman Begins.
• Batman: No Man’s Land by Greg Rucka. Years before Hurricane Katrina, Rucka wrote this story about a massive Earthquake that devastates Gotham and forces the US government to abandon the city. Only Batman, his allies, and a few members of the Gotham City Police Dept. stay behind to take the city back one block at a time.
• Under the Red Hood by Judd Winick. No like the second Robin Jason Todd, and when DC Comics let fans vote, they decided to kill him. He returns as the vigilante the Red Hood, with all of Batman’s training and none of his restraint.

We believed that anything that was worth doing was worth overdoing.
—Steven Tyler

On August 11, the Central Library will host a special 30th anniversary screening of Urgh! A Music War (1982), director Derek Burbidge’s cult concert film that many consider the best-ever "Rockumentary." Long believed to be unreleasable due to music rights issues, Urgh! was finally released on DVD in 2009 as part of Warner Archives' on-demand catalog and features the top Punk/New Wave acts of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

If you miss Saturday’s screening, the Pratt has another rare cult "Rock Doc" in its collection, Rock & Roll. Co-produced by the BBC and WGBH and narrated by Liev Shriever, it originally aired as a 10-part PBS miniseries in 1995. It traces the history of rock and roll music from its 1950s R&B roots through the advent of folk-rock, soul and psychedelia in the ‘60s, heavy metal, glam, funk, punk, and reggae in the 70s, all the way up to the emergence of rap and techno in the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

The nature of Rock & Roll's mission—attempting to document the evolution of R&R over the course of almost 50 years—limits its scope to selected themes and clips, but what really sets this series apart from other similar efforts is the quality of its shot-on-Super 16-film archival footage. To a much greater degree than typical video stock, the Super 16 film captures intense colors and subtle shifts in lighting, resulting in breathtaking visuals.

And then there's the quality of its interviews and their settings: Iggy Pop is interviewed in a Midwest cornfield, Lou Reed in a New York City boxing gym, and so on. I especially like the episodes "The Wild Side" and "Punk." "The Wild Side" features clips of Wayne County, the transsexual musician whose appearance in the 1971 London theatrical production of Andy Warhol's Pork, wowed David Bowie so much that he started wearing makeup and embarking on his androgynous Ziggy Stardust look soon after. Viewers also get to see rare footage of Julian Beck's experimental Living Theatre, a group whose confrontational stage style greatly influenced Jim Morrison of The Doors and may have culminated in his infamous Miami concert arrest for profanity and indecent exposure.

Watch a clip from the episode, "The Wild Side."

The "Punk" episode goes into great detail about the influence of Jamaican dub, rocksteady and reggae on Brit punk groups like The Clash and Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols. It features rare archival clips of Patti Smith (from footage that had been stowed away in a fan's refrigerator for 14 years), early Television with Richard Hell, and a pre-Blondie Debbie Harry dancing around with The Stilettos.

Watch a clip from "Punk."

Though each of the 10 episodes is broadly organized by genre, stories often converge and overlap, creating a sort of musical pilgrimage in which viewers visit key moments in the history of rock & roll. Thus, Rock & Roll can be enjoyed as both an intro for the uninitiated and a highlights reel for diehard music fans.

In May 2011, e-retailer Amazon.com announced that sales of e-books outpaced sales of print books on its website. This past June, the Association of American Publishers issued a report indicating that for the first time in the U.S., e-book sales surpassed hardcover book sales. Similarly, tablet and e-reader ownership doubled between December 2011 and January 2012.

Clearly, digital reading and the devices that facilitate it are gaining ground with increasing rapidity. Yet, a June report from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found that only about 12% of library patrons borrowed e-books from their local library. Most patrons surveyed, about 62%, did not know if their local library provided e-book borrowing services, despite findings that about 76% of libraries in the U.S. now lend e-books. Libraries need to do more to market their digital lending services to their customers. In that vein, Pratt Library increased its digital lending profile over the past year by offering an e-reader lending service, presenting e-reader and e-book workshops, and expanding its collection of digital reading materials.

In August 2011, Pratt customers started borrowing Nooks from the Reisterstown Road and Waverly branches. Since then, the service has expanded to Central and all neighborhood branches in Pratt’s system. Customers can borrow the e-readers for three weeks and enjoy twenty-two preloaded e-books. The service aims to familiarize library customers with e-reader technology and give them a taste of the digital reading experience. Reserving a Nook is an easy process: visit Pratt’s online catalog, search with the keywords ‘Nook’ or ‘ereader’, then place a hold using your Pratt Library card.

Teaching customers about e-books and e-readers is another facet of Pratt’s e-reading effort. Over the past year, library customers attended workshops about e-books and e-readers. The workshops covered a variety of topics including understanding different e-book formats, reviewing and using some of the popular e-readers available, finding resources for free e-books and audiobooks, and demonstrating the e-book borrowing service available to Maryland library users through the Maryland Digital eLibrary Consortium website. The response to these workshops has been exciting and very encouraging. However, Pratt isn’t the only library system involved with digital reading services.

Pratt Library is part of a consortium to lend e-books and digital audiobooks to library customers throughout Maryland. The Maryland Digital eLibrary Consortium is a collaboration among the public library systems in the state to build and lend a collection of e-books statewide. In addition to the statewide collection, each library system has developed collections exclusively for the use of their own customers. The materials can be read with a vast selection of digital reading devices, and some e-books can be read directly in a web browser without downloading any files. New titles are added regularly, including some bestsellers.

Lending digital reading materials is another way that Pratt Library strives to stay at the forefront of providing library customers with new, interesting, and relevant services.

Looking for an exciting and interactive learning tool for your toddler or young child? Look no further. Here at The Enoch Pratt Free Library State Library Resource Center Children’s Department, we post a new “Handy Dandy Rhyme” every month.

These are rhymes, songs, and finger plays that are often used in our popular “Mother Goose Baby Steps” programs (aimed at children birth through two years) as well as the other two programs that are part of our stepping stones to school readiness, “Toddler Jumps” (two year olds) and “Preschool Leaps” (three to five years). You can find the videos posted on YouTube under KidsBuzz, on SchoolTube under "enochpratt," and on our Kidsbuzz video page.

We usually incorporate puppets the first time we present the rhymes and then repeat the rhyme without the puppets. In this way, caregivers can replicate them without feeling they have to have a puppet to be successful.

Our goals are twofold:

1. To encourage caregivers to reinforce these classics at home. Current baby brain research emphasizes the importance of repetition in child development. If a caregiver is not sure of the words or movements that they see in a live program, they can start to feel comfortable by seeing how we do it; and, of course, there is the bonus option of repeating it until they know the rhyme. (Caregivers can watch them all with their children too!)
   
   
2. To create an atmosphere ripe for a special closeness between caregiver and child. The all-important bonding experience can take place at the spur of the moment. These rhymes are often either nonsensical and joyous or both. Singing/acting out these traditional rhymes is just the kind of playful interaction that makes lasting memories.

Join us to wiggle your fingers, clap your hands, and grow your child’s brain at the same time!

Here is August 2012's Rhyme of the Month:

On July 29, 1845, Betsey Nugent, a free woman of color living in the Howard District of Anne Arundel County, bought her daughter Harriet from slaveowner Rezin B. Simpson for $260. She had borrowed some of the funds for her daughter’s purchase from George Bond, who provided her with a receipt when she repaid the debt in full. At 4 o