December 2024 Books

 I wasn't planning to read an even hundred books this year, but as December got underway, and I had read a few books, I realized that if I read eight books this month, it would make it 100 for the year. And so I did that! 

1. Skipping Christmas (2001) by John Grisham. This was my first ever John Grisham book. His books are thick and just never were something I wanted to read. But this was my neighborhood book group's choice for this month, and so I read it. I liked it--it was short and sweet! For those who have seen the movie Christmas with the Kranks, this is the book upon which that movie was based. With their daughter not coming home for Christmas, the Kranks decide to skip their regular traditions and go on a cruise. Life has other plans for them...

2. On the brink of everything (2018) by Parker J. Palmer. My friend Lynn asked me to look for this book for her, which had been recommended by another friend. Our library didn't have it, so I ILL'd it for her, and then read two chapters before I gave it to her, and finished it very quickly when she returned it to me two days before it was due! (It is not a big book, so it was do-able.) It is a book written specifically for us people who are growing old--what now? Hence the title--on the brink of we know not what, but it's going to be good, right? Nice philosophical read.

3. Here one moment (2024) by Liane Moriarty. Susanne read this last month, and seeing her post reminded me to look for this book, because as I have said before, I do like to read the Moriarty sisters! This book was great, and interestingly enough, the phrase "on the brink of everything" also appears in this book, as many people, of all ages, ponder their mortality. Moriarty ties up so many threads so neatly! Elegantly written.

4. The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary & Sewing Circle (2001) by Lois Battle. I can't remember how I found this book, which I also borrowed through ILL, but it was really good. The Cherished Lady (lingerie) factory has closed suddenly, and all the seamstresses are out of work. Bonnie Duke Cullman is hired to run a re-entry program at the local college, with some federal grant funding for one academic year. 

5. All the little liars (2016) by Charlaine Harris. In this Aurora Teagarden mystery, Roe's brother Phillip and his best friends and other random teens have disappeared. Were they kidnapped? Did they run away? Are any of the other teens and preteens telling the truth about what they "know" about it?  (No. They are not. At least not some of them.)

6. Foul Play (1978) by James Cass Rogers, based on the screenplay by Colin Higgins. Huh. I wonder what it would be like to read this book if I had not seen the movie a bajillion times. I love this movie!! It was weird: since it is a novelization of a screenplay, and not the other way around, this was like reading a movie. I could skim over description because I would "see" the scenes in my mind, having already seen them. The dialogue was exactly the script. I could say the lines because I knew them already. 

7. Delicious! (2014) by Ruth Reichl. I read this book because it was recommended by someone in the library book club at the November (food-themed) meeting. It started so food-filled that I wasn't sure I wanted to keep with it, but then I got sucked into the story, and it was pretty deep and multi-layered, told partly through letters found that dated to WWII. Very interesting how she drew all the characters together and made a compelling story (also very, very, full of food.)

8. Beasts of extraordinary circumstance (2017) by Ruth Emmie Lang. I was working at the 5th floor reference desk on December 23, and it was super boring because nobody was in the library, really, and it isn't my desk or computer, and the log-ins are weird, so I had nothing to do. I spied this book on the "staff picks" display, and so I began to enact the cliché of the librarian who has nothing to do except sit at the desk and read. A very compelling wolf/nature/human nature read! 

In other December news, I "attended" Kallie Glass's funeral virtually yesterday. Very tender but with fabulous music! Her parents spoke, her brother, our student, Carter spoke. I was proud of him. That was hard to do. Her bishop and stake president were both barely holding it together--it is very hard to deal with the seemingly pointless death of a lovely young person. (They were, of course, seated on the stand, so I had a visual of their cycles of stoicism and tears.)

And of course, one more death to round out the month: Lloyd Miller died on December 27. Let me quote from our mutual friend, Jeremy Grimshaw here:

My friend Lloyd Miller passed away this morning. Lloyd was a marvelous jazz musician as well as an ardent advocate for music of the Middle East. In fact, just last night I was grinning ear to ear and feeling gratitude for Lloyd as I graded my students’ world music end-of-semester projects, several of which involved learning to play one of the many Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and other instruments Lloyd donated to BYU over the years, and which we recently made available for students to borrow. I wish he could see the delightful videos they made as they explored these instruments.
It may seem impossible now, given the current state of that region of the world, but in the 1970s, before the Iranian revolution that ousted the Pahlavi monarchy and put the Ayatollah in power, Lloyd lived in Iran and even produced a variety show on NIRTV in Tehran. The surviving footage available on YouTube is really mind-blowing. Please enjoy this clip in Lloyd’s memory. Love and condolences to his wife, Katherine St. John.
https://youtu.be/eGgbgJwN03o?feature=share

I was the steward over those musical instruments, and was so HAPPY to repatriate them to the School of Music after they were wasting away in the library for two decades. (Some were on display, but most were just in cupboards and closets doing nobody any good for far too long.) 

Once, some people in England, some Iranian expats, were making a documentary about Lloyd's life, and they came and filmed in the library, and I was in it, talking about the instruments. Only then that project bit the dust. But later, someone did make a documentary about Lloyd's life, and Janet and I went to the premiere. I wonder what became of that documentary--I looked and found what is called a documentary of his life on YouTube. So here you go! But this is not the same thing as the documentary that we watched at the premiere. 

This video is a great demonstration of the Lloyd I know. Three of my kids were fortunate to have classes from Lloyd. He was a little zany, a little crazy, but unforgettable!!! 

Oh wait!! Here is the trailer for the actual film that we saw at the premiere. And a link to the IMDB profile for the documentary, Sufi, Saint and Swinger. 

Christmas 2024

 We did a family Zoom call. Thanks to Nancy for arranging it! After I took this picture, Allen joined, and then Rosie and her little family joined. I did not take another screen capture though, because I don't know how to do more than one!

Honestly, having so many people on a Zoom call is a bit overwhelming for me, BUT at the same time, I am very grateful that we have the technology to do this, and it was awfully nice to gather together in this virtual way!

Wait!! Nancy had a picture of all participants!

Meals:

Christmas Adam - Bruce made ham and cheese omelets. Yum!

Christmas Eve - Leftovers from Sunday (potatoes, carrots, onions in gravy with chicken) plus cornbread stuffing. (I was the cook.)

Christmas Evening - perogies with bacon and asparagus prepared by Josie. Also yum!

We each took a turn to cook!

See: December is hard

We got a new, bigger screen at our help desk! We were expecting it early next year, but it came at the end of last week. Compare to the picture in the earlier post to see the difference. 

To demonstrate that December is hard, instead of a funeral this weekend, one of our student employees had a tragic death occur in his family. His younger sister, also a BYU student, was killed in a car accident while traveling home for the holidays. The funeral is still in the future. Here is what her mother wrote about her in a Facebook post:

Kallie was a force for good in this world and loved everyone she met. We have decided to honor her and continue her legacy of love with a scholarship fund in her name. If you would like to donate in lieu of flowers, donations can be made through Venmo.

December is hard

 Well, December is halfway over! On to January (which normally I look forward to, but this year, not so much...but at least it will be lighter again, right? So there is that!)

I do not like to write when I am not feeling happy, but that is probably a time that I need to write, maybe.

So, there have been two Saturdays in December, and the first one, I went to a funeral for the mother of one of my BYU students from 23 years ago. Like, I hired him 23 years ago. It was a non-traditional funeral, kind of more like a wake--that was what she wanted. I didn't stay for the whole thing, because my old friend and former student, Josh, was not there. He has generally poor health. Poor guy! He is so young, only 48, but disabled. That is not the future we envisioned for him 23 years ago!

And then yesterday, I also went to a funeral, this one for my husband's cousin Ron. Ron was such a nice guy, but I was surprised to realize that he is younger than me! He always seemed older to me. He was very nice with Nancy's little children at family reunions. His funeral was really good--the Duggar Family Choir was amazing, I thought. It takes a while to die of brain cancer, and so Ron had time to plan for this funeral, the way he wanted it to be. It was full of tears and laughter. His sister Denise, just 14 months younger than him, was relegated to reading family memories of him, About the song the choir sang, "If you could hie to Kolob," Denise said that once he was sitting beside her and while the "there is no end to" part of the song was going on he leaned over and whispered, "there is no end to this song..." so she didn't know why he chose it for the funeral! But he did. He also chose the opening song, "Called to serve" because he wanted the funeral to be more like a mission farewell--since he was called to move on, apparently.

Weirdly, another of Bruce's cousins, Rick, is also in the process of dying of brain cancer. And Jolene's husband, Greg, also died of brain cancer. He is not genetically related, but it is kind of unusual to see this pattern of brain cancer in the extended family.

Here is a cousin group from the funeral. We were all talking, and I saw that Missy and her husband were standing close by, and I saw Jolene where we could grab her for the picture, and my mother raised me to always take pictures--we are so lucky that everyone always has a camera!--so I said we needed to take a picture, and Bruce's cousin Pam said we all needed to take off our coats, and she is the second oldest cousin, so we all obeyed her.

We took a picture without Jolene first, but I don't have it on my phone. I told everyone to hold their pose, and Missy's husband went and grabbed Jolene to be in our picture. Without her, we only represented four of the five siblings that made up the family that made us cousins. With Jolene, all five were represented. 

So Jolene (representing the Leonard Duggar family of which Ron was a part), me (representing Bruce and Evon's family), Debbie (daughter of Uncle Tom), Pam (daughter of Uncle Buck, and she is the sister of Rick who also has brain cancer), Ken (Bruce's brother so also representing Evon's family), Diane and Suzanne (also daughters of Uncle Tom) and Judy (daughter of Uncle Glen). In case you want to know, Judy is the oldest cousin (daughter of the oldest brother) and Pam is the second oldest (daughter of the second oldest brother). Then next was David (Leonard's son--the third oldest brother) and then Bob (the oldest son of Evon)--look how those siblings took turns having children in the order of their birth!! Although after that, the order gets messed up, with Evon taking turn after turn after turn! (I am kidding--other people had more children, too, but less rapid-fire!) And Uncle Tom starting having children at some point. Debbie is his oldest daughter, and I believe she is 69, so Evon had four children before she was born. 

The Duggars are lovely people. I wish we knew them better. 

I am so glad that back in 2000, Jolene was assigned to work with us to plan the 2001 Duggar reunion. I do not remember that anyone particularly liked our plan--and I don't even remember what it was!--but they reverted to not delegating the planning to us after that, so I don't think it was a hit. BUT it did give us the opportunity to get to know Jolene and Greg and their kids, and I am so thankful for that friendship. Our kids got to know their kids, and I always feel so seen and welcomed by those children. Which is why, when in November (November 9th, specifically) Kelli did some driving for a high school band and ended up at the state championship, Patrick told her to look for Jordan Hope. And Kelli said she was trying to find Patrick's friend, and we reminded her that he is actually Patrick's cousin, and so therefore also HER cousin. Jordan is the band director at Lone Peak High School. And she found him, and they took this picture:

Well, I did not take a picture with Jordan yesterday, though I did talk to him, and hug him, and meet his girlfriend--and I think in this picture with Kelli his (very luxuriant) hair is in a pony tail, but yesterday it was loose, and his beard has also bloomed. He looked like a younger version of Santa Claus, with the thick, wavy, long hair and beard!

At work, my office is now a literal island of not-deconstructed in a sea of deconstruction.

Our student Anna A. is the one who is in charge of our holiday decor. We had a student, Suah, who is now a missionary in Mongolia, started this tradition of making posters by cutting poster paper. I do not know if there is a word for it. Here is what Anna did for Christmas:

Those four figures are cats hanging on for dear life to the Christmas tree after they have knocked it over.

Speaking of Christmas trees, Josie and I bought a real tree in a pot, which we will attempt to keep alive, and then plant it. We are not good at remembering to water it.

And Josie bought some lovely LED lights to put up in our window. I really appreciate her making the effort, because I really love Christmas lights, but I really dislike that putting them up has been all on me for decades. Like, I just don't want to bother anymore. (I understand my Grandma, who was of a different generation, and she just did not "get" all the fuss over Christmas. Like, she liked Christmas programs, and she was a fan of the concept of Christmas, but in her day, you put the tree up for one day, because candles, so it wasn't something you could keep going for an entire month, unless you wanted to burn your house down.) Anyways, they are very pretty, and help me to feel better.

In other December news, Olivia had a baby on December 8, a boy named Shiloh. We were not allowed pictures of him for a couple of days, but then we were. She doesn't want pictures posted, though.

And also on December 8, David's daughter Millie was very ill and hospitalized. Poor little sweetheart!

Instead of a favorite blanket, she has a favorite pillow-in-a-specific-pillowcase. (There are two, so they can wash it and switch them up!) So she took that comfort item to the hospital with her.

On December 12, it was my birthday and also Ethan's first birthday! Josie got me a cheesecake (small one) and Mi Ranchitos for dinner. It was perfect!! Nobody got me a present, and that made me very happy because presents stress me out. When I went to bed, I felt much less stressed, and thinking back on the day, it was because no presents!! I just have so much anxiety over presents, so it was wonderful not to have to worry about would I react wrong, which is my ever-present worry with presents.

Ethan was not happy on his birthday because Millie had shared with him the RSV that put her in the hospital, but he did not get as sick as she did, fortunately. Just sick enough to spend most of his birthday crying because he didn't feel good. But he is feeling better now!

Bruce's birthday was of course yesterday, the day of his cousin's funeral. He doesn't go to funerals, so it wasn't too bad for him. We did get him presents. I got him egg nog (gag!) and some chocolate filled cookie things. Josie got him an advent puzzle. I cooked a pot roast in the oven, and we had one of his favorite pies, strawberry rhubarb, instead of cake.

Bruce is playing catch-up with the advent puzzle, since it is assuming you will start on December 1, and he is starting on December 15. You are supposed to do one puzzle a day, and there are 1000 pieces total in 24 little boxes, that will all add up to make one puzzle. That is a cool puzzle idea!

Memories of Christmases Past: California

 Nancy sort of asked for Christmas memories from my perspective as a young and middle aged mother. I thought surely I had written about that already on this blog, but I can see that there are some slim pickings.

Like, my first Christmas as a mom was in 1980. (I did write about this--quoting from the journals I kept for the girls, but didn't really describe anything in detail!) We had moved to the San Diego area that summer, and were living in El Cajon. So that was my first not cold Christmas. (I had experienced no snow on Christmas before, but at cold Alberta temperatures!) Because of the weather and general ambience, it was a very different Christmas, but I loved it. I remember that we did go Christmas-light-looking--Grandpa Lund drove us to somewhere in maybe Spring Valley or Lemon Grove where there was a street known as Candy Cane Lane because it was so lit up. (I can find lots of Candy Cane Lanes out there but not in the same place any more!)

But my favorite Christmas-light-looking was at the harbor, where all the boats were decorated, and seeing the colored lights reflected off the water, and kind of foggy weather, was so beautiful! 

We had Christmas dinner at G & G Lund's house, with Arlene & Michael & Jenna, and us and our two girls. Maybe Susan was there, too. Probably for at least some of the time. Grandpa Lund would slip pieces of turkey to the dog, and Grandma Lund would fuss at him about that. 

And I remember that we went over to Aunt Nancy's (Kathleen Lund's older sister, who had children old enough to have children who were Michael and Susan's ages). For a Christmas tree, Aunt Nancy had  a living broad leaf tree (I don't know what kind of tree!) strung with colored lights, with Christmas elves in red and green decorating the branches. I thought it was delightful!!

I also wrote about Christmas 1981. We had moved into the little house on the Quicks' property on Anza Street, maybe in November? Not too long before. What was memorable about that Christmas was that Santa Claus "found" us even though we were at work and not at home!! (The girls were amazed!) Bruce and I both worked for Visutron, a home security company, which included 24/7 monitoring of the alarm systems. Someone else worked until midnight, and then Bruce covered midnight to 8 AM, and I covered 8 AM to 4 PM on Christmas Day, so we got permission from the owners to celebrate Christmas at work. We used the tree that was there on the premises, and spent the whole day there. Our house was tiny, so the space at work was fun for the kids to play with their new toys, and listen to Christmas music and dance. 

Christmas 1982, I was expecting David, who would be born two months later. And that was our last Christmas in El Cajon. That was the year that Arlene and I took our girls to be Christmas Day entertainment at La Mesa Convalescent Hospital, which was really nearby to Arlene's house. 

Each of our Christmases in California was different, but there were some things the same: Christmas light looking (both by car and at the harbor), Christmas programs sometimes in the days before Christmas, and in 1982, on Christmas Day itself. New pyjamas for the girls. Christmas was easier with only two small children who had no expectations, and were delighted by anything and everything!

November Thanksbookings

 We planned almost nothing for Thanksgiving, but then ended up making a nicer dinner than I had supposed--I just wanted the Magleby's Buns that we have not made for a long time! Then, we ended up having Michael Torrie come for dessert, which we did not get much notice about, and when I texted my brother to see if he wanted to come for dessert, too, found out that he was alone because Sara was in Hawaii (with Helaman and his family) so I asked him to come for dinner and stay for dessert (Michael was eating T-Day dinner with Heidi and family) and so that is what happened.

Here is our small Thanksgiving Day crew:

And now for the eight books of November reading. I started off the month with a Jennifer Lynn Barnes book, and then my hold came for a Katherine Cowley book, and guess what? I set aside JLB to read KC!! That is a compliment to Kathy, honestly, because Jennifer is a NYT best selling author, while Kathy is a newcomer author, and yet I chose to read her book first. Well, maybe I am not the best judge of books, but still, I stand behind my choice.

1. So, while it wasn't the first book I started, the book I finished first was the second book in the Miss Mary Bennett series, The true confessions of a London Spy (2022) by Katherine Cowley. In this book, Mary Bennett is living in London with the Darcy family, for the season. It is a little hard to sneak around spying with Elizabeth looking over her shoulder all the time! Again, Mary's so very Mary-like personality shines through, in all her social awkwardness. 

2. The first book I started and set aside was The Brothers Hawthorne (2024) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes. As I stated last month, I should have read this book before the one I read last month. Now I understand the other book much better! I liked this book; it was good. Much focused on the middle two of the four brothers, though all four do make appearances.

3. Somewhere, I read about The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance (2009) by Elna Baker, and our library had it, so I read it. A very fun read about a Mormon girl living in the Big Apple, trying to live her religion and date and do all the things in a precarious balancing act.

4. Onions in the Stew (1955) by Betty MacDonald. I realized I had not read this particular Betty MacDonald title. (I had read The Egg and I and The Plague and I already, though years ago now.) This is about the MacDonald family's move to Vashon Island, and their house and garden, and the trials and joys of island life as their girls are growing from preteens into young womanhoood. Fun read of a very different time than the one we live in today!

5. The lady's guide to death and deception (2022) by Katherine Cowley. I really enjoyed this, the third and final book in the series. (I enjoyed this entire series!) Kathy is good at characterization, and that is very important to me as a reader. I was again impressed with how Kathy handles history while fabricating a story around it, and I appreciate her notes that explain what is fact and what is fiction in the story. Well done! 

6. My father's voice: the biography of Lorne Greene (2004) by Linda Greene Bennett. I got this book through ILL because of my research on the dancer Jo Anna Kneeland. Her son mentioned that she went to Canada and attended Lorne Greene's Academy of Radio Arts. I was all like... was that really a thing? When I wikipedia'd Lorne Greene, I found it was indeed true. I wanted to read more about it, so I looked in WorldCat and found the biography, and asked for it. Very interesting. Lorne Greene is often associated with Bonanza, but he was a Canadian who got his start during the war as "The Voice of Canada," and also "The Voice of Doom" because he often had to announce terrible things on CBC Radio. He ran the academy for seven years, 1945-1952, then moved to the US to get into television.

7. What's on Tapp? The Gordie Tapp Story (2006) as told by Gordie Tapp to John Farrington. I read this book because of reading the Lorne Greene book--Gordie Tapp and pretty much all the Canadians with recognizable names when I was a child were graduates of Lorne Greene's Academy of Radio Arts. I thought perhaps Jo Anna might appear in either book--she didn't--but I am glad I read the books. I think Gordie Tapp was a pretty great person as well as a great entertainer. I knew him as a child from "Don Messer's Jubilee," but most Americans would associate him with Hee Haw, which he was on for 25 years. 

8. Our library book club was reading books about food for November, and one person recommended Christmas Cupcake Murder (2020) by Joanne Fluke. So I read it, but I didn't love it. There was no murder (only an amnesia patient who was actually a victim of attempted murder, but nobody knew for sure) and there were so. many. recipes. And they were not short--they were pages and pages long! I do not love food that much, and also most of them were chocolate, so I am not even going to make them. Apparently Joanne Fluke is a big deal, a NYT bestselling author, with a dozen or so Hallmark movies based on her books. Huh. I did not know.

And that is all!!

Unofficial Library Visit

 Yesterday afternoon, I was just finishing up a conversation in my office with Mary and Kellie, my two desk supervisors, when a not very tall, mild-mannered unassuming man appeared in my doorway, calling me by name, and I was all "Oh, Mack! Hello! I have not seen you in person for a long time. Only on the screen."

It was Mack Wilberg. Sometimes he comes to the library to find folk songs to arrange, because he does a lot of choir arrangements for Oxford University Press, and sometimes he needs to hit up the library to find ideas. But I am sure it has been ten years since I last saw him. (In the flesh, and not on the TV or computer screen.)

Poor guy! He drove all the way down to Provo (because this is the library he knows best, having been both a student and faculty at BYU) and then we are in so much construction! He said, "I wanted to come and browse the stacks, but I can see that isn't a plan that is going to work today."

So I offered to set him up in the reading room (which is embarrassingly drywall dusty everywhere, even though there is plastic up and theoretically it is supposed to be clean) and have a student bring him a cart of American folk song anthologies, which is what he wanted to look through.

I led him over to the students and said, "Hey, do you guys want to meet Mack Wilberg?" They were affected differently, the two Annas who were at the desk. One Anna was like, "Who?" and the other Anna was like, "Who!!!" That is the Anna who went and confronted the horrible, drywall-dusty plastic shrouds to find a bunch of books for Mack.

She said, "Would it be appropriate for me to ask for a selfie with him?" 

I told her to go for it--Mack is the nicest, most humble person. I figured it would make him secretly happy to be recognized, because when he isn't in a suit in front of the world, he looks very ordinary. 

But she was too scared to do it. I am not scared, so when I went in to check on him, to see if the materials were what he needed, I said, "Anna was too shy to ask you, but she would really like a selfie with you. Would that be okay?"

And he smiled and said, "Sure."

So here it is:

Made her day!! I think her help to Mack also made his day--he drove all this way, and was confronted with not only complete change, but chaos on our floor! So her help finding what he needed was pretty great.

The other Anna said that he first came to the desk and said, "Do you know where David Day's office is?" Because I don't know if he peaked behind the tarp in that hallway, but if he did, clearly all the places that used to be there, like David's office, are gone! So Anna, clueless to who he was, said, "His office is now in L. Tom Perry Special Collections."

And he may have trooped down there, only to find out that David is out of town, something that I knew, but Anna did not know. David is always Mack's first choice, because they were college roommates for many years. Mack's second choice would be Janet, but he would already know that she is retired--he also has known her since they were students, and also Daron still plays in the Orchestra at Temple Square, so he is up on what they are doing. So I am his third choice, and that's okay with me.

So I imagine him trooping back upstairs, and asking the same Anna about me, and she pointed him toward my office. (By then, she knew who he was, because one of her friends who was studying nearby came up to her after his first question and said, "Do you know who you were just talking to?" and she said "No." And then she was told who it was.)

So, that is when he came and talked to me, and I showed him the cart I had in my office full of saxophone quartets I have for Daron, and I said we could easily make a cart of American folk songs for him. (Easily was a lie. Making that cart of quartets for Daron was awful. I had to wash a lot of dust off myself after I got them. And also I got a lungful of drywall dust when I got an unexpected drywall dust shower in front of my face!) 

But this cart of folk songs for Mack was easier (for me!) because I delegated it to the other Anna, the one who knew who it was, and who was tickled pink to get to help him AND to end up with a selfie to prove it!)

Visiting Scholar

Every year, we invite a guest librarian as a visiting scholar that we can all learn from. This year, we have Ann Thornton, who is both Vice Provost and University Librarian at Columbia University. Her talk this morning was titled "Leadership Lessons from Iconic Libraries." Libraries, plural, because before being recruited by Columbia, she was at New York Public Library. These two libraries are both iconic and both  private institutions--we think NYPL is a public institution because "public" but actually, the way it is funded puts it in the private category. Who knew?

Libraries are about people: to strengthen their knowledge, to advance their knowledge, to strengthen their communities, to help them draw inspiration from those who came before, and those who are currently able to inspire them.

New York Public Library was founded in 1895. By 1911, there was a huge influx of immigrants who began using the library. The library workers wanted to make it accessible for them, so they invested in 100,000 foreign language books to fill the needs of people who spoke 25 languages. In 1911!! Because libraries do what communities need. They were heavily criticized by patrons and the press, some of whom saw immigrants as a threat. But library workers understood that in a democracy, our culture is enriched by newcomers who bring things we can learn to the table. And we want them to learn to thrive in their new environment, so we need them to be able to have information accessible in their own language AND to help them learn English AND to help them learn to become good citizens. (Fastforward 99 years, and NYPL is an official setting for naturalization ceremonies, which Ann finds to be very moving.)

When Ann went to NYPL in 1996, her role was as the library's first internet training person. She saw the library's role as a great equalizer--to bring this new technology to all people. To teach all people digital literacy. To be a part of the library's ability to change lives. 

One person who inspired her was Pura Teresa Belpré y Nogueras who was the first Puerto Rican librarian in New York City, who joined NYPL in 1921. She initiated storytelling sessions. She believed that stories bridge cultural divides. She was also an author and translator. Even though she has been gone from NYPL since 1968 (although she then began working at the South Bronx Public Library) and died in 1982, her influence for good is still felt in NYPL, and initiatives she started continue today. 

Ann was recruited by Columbia and began her work there in 2015. There, one person who inspired her was Pat Battin. She was the first woman to lead a library at an Ivy League institution. (Fun fact: Melvil Dewey was also a Columbia University Librarian back in the day.) Pat was no longer at Columbia, but her influence was still very apparent. She was a leader in (book) preservation and access, and in digital libraries and digital preservation. Ann called her a "thought leader"--a person who has good ideas, and can influence the thinking of others.

From Pat and others, Ann has learned to value longevity in libraries. That is a leadership lesson: build on what came before. To build on it, you have to learn to know it. Ann has learned to value the creators of metadata (cataloguers) who give us a foundation that can be leveraged to use with new tools, including AI, to assist in enhancing discovery. 

This has been a challenging year for Columbia. (You can find out why by googling news from Columbia in 2024.) But Ann has gotten through by clinging to her library's core values, which mirror the ALA core values:

1. Access for everyone.

2. Equity and an inclusive environment.

3. Intellectual freedom, which allows for curiosity and encourages people to get ideas because they can explore diverse points of view.

4. Privacy, so individuals can research what they wish.

5. Public good. Libraries help create informed, connected, empowered communities.

Ann spoke about how libraries need to be LED from every level. Her library is huge. She leads, but she depends on the leadership of others at every level. 

What impressed me about Ann was her humility. She said that she continues to grow and learn as a leader. Even though she is leading this super important library, she knows that she doesn't know everything and doesn't do everything perfect, and she polls her workers every year so that she can do better. She encourages people throughout the organization to be able to meet because innovation comes when people get together and share ideas.

The last question Ann took from the audience was from one of our AULs, who has known her for many years. He said "I know that you are a woman of faith. How has your faith impacted your library leadership?"

She responded "I am a woman of faith." Her husband is in fact a clergyman. She said that from her faith she has learned one most valuable lesson: LOVE YOUR PEOPLE. You can't really lead unless you love because PEOPLE ARE HARD. They are DIFFICULT. She said it takes a lot of prayer to love your people sometimes.

She ended the session with a poem by Beatrice Warde, which was originally called "This is a printing office."  But Ann had adapted it to a library. (Thanks to Janice for taking the picture of the slide.)

This poem reminds me of a quote from a BYU president, Howard S. McDonald who said, "He who invades the domain of knowledge must approach it as Moses came to the burning bush; he stands on holy ground; he would acquire things sacred; he seeks to make his own the attributes of Deity..."

October Books

 I was surprised today when I went to add the book I finished last night to the spreadsheet to discover that the date I needed to record was indeed November 1! Even though of course I knew that Halloween had happened, and so therefore it was of course November, it still took me by surprise!

That meant that I had read only six books in October. Which is fine--just recently I seem to have been reading eight or ten, even though I am perfectly okay with only reading six, because there are more things to do than read.

1. Sweetgrass Basket (2005) by Marlene Carvell. I didn't like this book immediately, and was going to give it a pass, but due to not wanting to read other books I had on hand on a weekend, I did in fact read it, and grew to like it. The book was about Mattie and Sarah Tarbell, who are two Mohawk sisters sent to the Carlisle Boarding School in Pennsylvania. I had no argument about the content, and in fact that was what had interested me in the book. It was the fact that the book was told in prose poetry in alternating voices. I am not the biggest fan of prose poetry for an entire novel. 

2. Poppy Done for Dead (2009) by Charlaine Harris. This was a quick, light, mystery read--another Aurora Teagarden book. Even so, there was a lot going on in this book. Roe's sister-in-l aw Poppy is murdered. Her little brother hitchhikes to Georgia from Los Angeles, and Roe has to figure out how to parent a teenager for awhile, since he doesn't want to go back home yet. And Robin proposes. All while there is a murderer on the loose. 

3. What time the sexton's spade doth rust (2024) by Alan Bradley. I read this book because my book group was reading The sweetness at the bottom of the pie (2009), the first one in the Flavia de Luce series. I didn't need to re-read book one, which I read before I started tracking my reading (which was in 2014) so I read the last book (11th in the series) instead, having read all the rest. Bradley was 71 years old when the first in the series was published, and is now 86. There was a bit of a gap between books 10 (2019) and 11, and I really got the idea in this book that he is ready to stop writing about Flavia. He kept her age 11 or 12 for many of the books, but I think she is more like 14 or 15 in this book, and he gave hints that she was ready to grow up. I have loved this character he created, but also, I think he is right in not wanting to carry on with her. 

4. The secret life of Miss Mary Bennett (2021) by Katherine Cowley. This debut novel by Nancy's friend Kathy was nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Why did I read this book? I think Nancy asked me about was it in our library? Anyway, I emailed my colleague Robert, asking him if he knew about this series by a BYU graduate, letting him know about the award nomination, and he immediately ordered them. However, I got this book through ILL before it arrived in our library. I really liked it. Mary is so delightfully awkward, just like Mary should be! Jane Austen Fan Fiction done so well.

5. The re-invention of Edison Thomas (2010) by Jacqueline Houtman. This was a lovely story about a young neurodivergent socially awkward young man, and his character is so well-done! To quote from the Amazon blurb: "Eddy Thomas can read a college physics book, but he can't read the emotions on the faces of his classmates. He can spend hours tinkering with an invention, but he can't stand more than a few minutes in a noisy crowd, like the crowd at the science fair, which Eddy fails to win." It is lovely to watch Eddy develop friendships without even realizing he is doing it!

6. I had been listening to The New Testament while exercising, and I finished it this month. July 8 to October 27, 5-10 minutes a day.

5th floor vandalism

Boy, I dunno. Kids these days. (Adult students at a university these days?)

On Monday, Robert, a colleague, sent this email to his student workers:

Thanks for the great job you’re doing. I do have one question: when I left on Friday, there were some “dupes” on one of the book trucks – outside my office, waiting for me to review and take away for withdrawal – and this morning, Monday, the books are gone! (AND both book trucks were “parked” in a rather peculiar way, too.) Does anyone know what happened to these books? Were they taken directly to be withdrawn? I really need to see all the books before we make final decisions about them, AND I’m keeping a count that helps us know how much space we’re making available. Please fill me in if you can.

And then, after they were all shrugging their shoulders in consternation:

I think we were vandalized on Saturday sometime… It’s a real mess and we are trying to put things back in order now. I don’t see that there are any cameras around for Security to check but if there are some hidden somewhere I’d love to find out who did this…

And then this from another colleague, Mary:

We just discovered that someone has gone through our print reference collection and moved a lot of books randomly to other shelves putting everything out of order. We are in the middle of weeding the collection and this is going to now take longer because we need to put everything back in the correct order. On top of reordering all the HUM books, they also interfiled a cartload of Robert Means books to be withdrawn that he must have had parked outside of his office.

I’m guessing somebody or a group of people must have done this as a prank on Saturday after the desk was closed. Do we need to report this to security as a form of vandalism?

Then Mary's formal report to security:

Here is my report:

1. On Monday late afternoon/early evening, Madison noticed that there was a pile of humanities reference books on a HUMREF return shelf and asked me about it. When I looked with her, we realized that the shelves that were once emptied from the weeding we’ve been doing, were now full of books that belonged on other shelves. Upon closer inspection we also found that all the books that were once on two carts outside Robert Means’s office were also shelved among the scrambled reference books. These were not reference books, but rather circulating books he was reviewing for an assessment. Some people had pulled books from all the other HUMREF shelves and placed them on the shelves on ranges 4 and 5 and taken Robert’s cart of books and interfiled them with the mixed-up reference books. We estimate about 300+ books were moved in no apparent order. It was a lot of work to put everything back in place.

2. Lindsay shared that on Monday morning when she opened, she noticed that the spider webbing that used to cascade from the suspended mummy was detached. She’d assumed that it fell sometime over the weekend and tried to fix it. Later in the day some of us noticed that the mummy’s head was slouching and that the mummy seemed to be suspended from higher up. And we noticed that the gothic windows on either side of the mummy were now crooked and seemed to have been switched and no longer anchored above the way we originally had anchored them. One of our students had taken a photo of our Halloween display on Friday and so we looked at it and compared it to how things are now and it confirmed to us that someone must have taken the mummy and the windows down and messed around with them and then attempted to put them back up.

We think both vandalism events occurred on Saturday evening between the time the desk closed at 6pm and when the library closed at midnight. We checked the Gallery on Five and it doesn’t look like anything was disturbed there. I wonder now if there should be an additional camera installed in the central portion of the floor that could watch over the computer area, Gallery on Five and the help desk space. Yesterday I alerted a student security officer about what happened, and he said he would check the camera footage for Saturday evening and see if anything was captured. The current cameras are just on the north and south study spaces so I’m not sure if they would be able to capture any activity in the central portion of the floor. I haven’t heard from him yet and didn’t get his name, so not sure what he found.

Asking around, it was determined that a group of students asked for a media pass to film in that location. A girl had stopped to tell Mary this one day last week, but the girl said they would film after the workers had left (desk closes at six on Saturdays, though the building is open until midnight) and they would not bother them. 

Although there are no security cameras in the immediate vicinty, they were able to capture some of Saturday's action on cameras further away.

Thanks to the video footage it was determined that the students on the filming team were the culprits. The video shows them moving cart loads of books to ranges 4 and 5 that were previously emptied during weeding. They are seen moving things and filming for about three hours. They did not return the books to their original locations but just left them scrambled after finishing filming. There was a column in the way so the camera could not capture them moving the Halloween display mummy and windows, but we are fairly certain that they did remove the items for filming. Security also has footage of the students entering and exiting the building with their equipment and props. These students showed a total disregard and disrespect for others and were ignorant of the disruption they caused.

I asked Roger if he could contact the students who filmed and let them know they acted badly and irresponsibly and caused disruption to our work and collections. Personally, I think they should come to our floor and help us with the shift we will be doing soon as a sort of consequential “community service”. Roger told me that they do not keep records of who they give media passes to and so there was no way to contact them. Frankly, I was surprised to learn this. With all the concerns the library has about security, it seems records should be kept of who is approved for media passes. I suggest that in the future when people request media passes that we keep record of who they are along with a description of what they will be doing. I also suggest that some sort of document be presented to them that outlines what they have permission to do while recording. The document should include verbiage about not moving or altering anything in the space without permission from the space’s manager/supervisor.

So that was fun! Not. Hours of work to (hopefully) find all the misplaced items and get things organized again.

Also, picture evidence of them messing with the Halloween / Dia de los Muertos display: