Kentucky Pedagogicon 2014 Conference Notes: Morning Sessions

This event took place on Friday May 16, 2014 on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University. This was my first time, and given that I did find it valuable and productive, I do hope to attend next year. One of the best parts is that it was a one-day event. In addition, it is pretty much local librarians and faculty presenting for other local librarians and faculty, which made it accessible, productive, and a positive learning experience unlike many regional or national conferences dependent on some hot shot scholar or rock star librarian preaching to the masses. Anyhow, let me just get on with it. I am posting my notes mostly for future reference, but hey, if anyone finds them useful, good for them.As usual, these are notes; any additional comments I add will go in parenthesis.

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Conference Keynote Speaker. The keynote was delivered by Dr. Robert L. King, president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. The speech was mostly a bit of getting the troops rallied and a bit of a look at the topic of student success and teaching.

• Topic: "Making Kentucky Stronger by Degrees." 
• We are urged to be "soldiers" that take ideas and new practices back to our campuses. Be soldiers to help improve education results across our campuses and the state collectively. 
• What is student success? What does it mean to be student-centered? 
• We are getting less underprepared students due to teaching improvements, but we are still getting a good amount of underprepared students.
• There is the old notion of the professor who says, "I teach. Learning is your problem." Should this change and go away? (question was asked. I certainly say yes, we should make fossils out of such professors). 
• When surveyed, very few students revealed that they had a professor who cared about them. (Dr. King was referring to this piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education that highlights results of the Gallup-Purdue Index Report. You will get better context if you actually read the Chronicle piece at least).
• Meeting teaching challenges: 
• New pedagogy styles. 
• Team course development. 
• Flipped classrooms.
• "Guide on the side."
• Experiential learning. 
• Differential instruction. 
•  High Impact Practices improve outcomes. 
• Academic achievement.
• Persistence. 
• Graduation. 
• Engagement in educationally purposeful activities that connect to employer expectations. 
•   Reference to the book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (on a side note, my library does have the book. For contrast/counter, here is a small piece on the topic out of The Chronicle of Higher Education). The speaker presented a pie chart from the book that highlighted results of students being asked how they spend their time in college. This is self-reported, for a 168-hour week: 
• 51% socializing and other. This led the speaker to observe that the notion that colleges overload their students with work is not true. 
• 9% attending classes. 
• 7% studying. 
• 9% working, volunteering, clubs. 
• 24% sleeping. This is estimated.
• Conclusion: the simple act of staying enrolled does not ensure learning. 
• Ask yourselves: what is your role in yourself and your classroom to have more student-centered learning. 

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(There were various concurrent sessions, but since I have not figured out how to clone myself yet, I could only be in one place at a time. Therefore, notes are for the sessions I did attend).


Session 1: "From Yoda to Ironman: Selecting Technologies That Best Fit You, Your Students, and Your Course."

(This was a basic presentation of a list of good practices and advice when selecting technology for your classes. A handout was included, but sadly it was not made available online, However, I am jotting the list of items from the handout here). The speakers mention that often lists of liked and hated classroom technologies overlap; for instance, people often love and hate Prezi. This tells us that often the issue is in how we use the technology, not the technology itself. The principles the speakers presented:

• Focus on pedagogy, not technology. Start with good ideas, THEN select the tool. 
• Set expectations early. Make instructions for your students clear and specific. 
• Choose high-quality content and ideas over high-tech. Think about what is best for your class or discipline. (Heck, for some teachers, a piece of chalk or a dry erase board can be the best educational tool. Don't believe it? Ask some math teachers in college). Ask what technology works best for what you are trying to accomplish. 
• More technology requires more organization. You need to plan beforehand. This includes having how-to guides, tutorials, and other items needed for students who need to learn about whatever technology you have chosen to use (don't assume every student has been exposed to your new shiny toy). 
• Accommodate before you innovate. For instance, geographic challenges, say rural areas with poor Internet. Or financial challenges in affording the technology. (For me, the geographic and financial are always big issues, and it is a pet peeve when, to borrow the old term, Two-pointopians just assume everyone will adopt or rush to buy whatever new tech du jour they advocate or want to use), Disabilities, not everyone can access your pre-recorded lecture if they are, for example, visually or hearing impaired. 
• Appeal to multiple styles of learning. See also the ECAR surveys, that show preferences of print over mobile. Main ECAR site: http://www.educause.edu/ecar (they just mentioned this).
• Don't let technology make you mechanical. Goes back to "Just make sure they know that you care." Quote by Dr. Loys Mather. 
• Use technology to teach, not entertain. The technology must serve a purpose. 
• To legitimize, you must personalize. Make it your own. Personalize the assessment. 
• Prepare for technology to fail. Be prepared to work and get around the technology. 

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Session 2: "If It Weren't for Those Meddling Librarians...: Shifting from 'Sage on Stage' to 'Meddler-in-the-Middle' with Team-based and Cooperative Learning Techniques."

Overall, this session was mostly an illustration of the technique. I did like the idea using the differently colored handouts for the students in groups to work on developing their research topics. An idea I hope we can integrate into our library instruction here.

• Point here is to get students to guide the learning and the instruction.
• Use a topic no student group is working on when you do your instruction. 
• If breaking in groups in groups for the students to come up with keywords, one group can then give feedback to another. 
• Group brainstorming. Can identify a leader to guide the brainstorm, make sure all speak. 
• Use colored sheets, for example, as a way to define groups. 
• Once the brainstorm is done, the teacher draws on their examples to guide the creation of search strings, truncating, so on. 
• For advanced searchers, cover topics like truncation, citation mining, subject headings, cited references, and limiters. 
•   To put students in groups, manipulate settings. Gather together by topics, by major/curricular program, randomly (using those colored sheets for instance). Assign group roles: scribe, moderator, so on. 
• If a topic is too narrow, the librarian guides them to broaden out. (For me, this was a question. Here at Berea one of the General Studies classes does require having a "Berea" or other localized topic that may not lend itself as well to broadening. However, the issue often is not broadening as it is either students thinking too literally or worse professors who are inflexible. The popular bad sample topic, to provide an idea: the student wants to write about the story of food service at Berea College. This material simply does not exist, so you either have to disappoint the student or get them to broaden their idea. Often the challenge is getting the professor to accept that yes, a bad topic like that simply does not have research material available. Our Archives and Special Collections, as good as they are, are not limitless). 
• To get some additional engagement, another idea can be use of "clicker" technology. (For example, Turning Point, which by the way, we had a demo of this on our campus recently. No, not shilling for them, simply came to mind due to timing).

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Session 3: "Feeding the Teaching Soul: Faculty Reading Circles to Stimulate Conversation About Teaching."

(On a different track, I went for something dealing with the faculty. Given that we are interested in doing more outreach here, including under the mantra of "bringing the faculty back" --yes, we are going with that slogan), I figured this would be a good session for me. The presentation did feature a PowerPoint, but again, no online link available. Organizers should definitely consider collecting handouts, so on for online access, not so much to be green, although nice but assumes all have access, but maybe so folks like me have something to refer to later.)

• What are challenges faculty face in the classroom? 
• Organizational development: how to help the organization. 
• Faculty are not often pedagogical experts (I was impressed they actually said that with a straight face. This is something I have known to be true forever, then again, I DO have a teaching degree, something most faculty tend to lack. Now, if I made that statement, I am sure some butt hurt faculty member would be griping at me. Go figure). 
• So, how can the developer help them? Help empower the way they teach and empower the students to learn. 
•  For a faculty reading circle, at the beginning, set ground rules for things like safety, openness, respect, collaboration, so on. 
• You are not just reading a book. Take reading through the reader's experience and draw on outside resources and ideas. There is what you bring to the circle and what you take from it. 
• Reading circles can be built around events, such as a relevant author coming to campus. 
• 7 to 10 members is an ideal number for a reading circle. It is OK for people to come and go. Participation varying is OK but you want to aim for that 7 to 10. 
• Also try for short period of time, say reading a book over a month so your group meets maybe once a week, or biweekly and go two months. Do not draw out over a semester. 
• Reference. See book The New Science of Learning by Terry Doyle (mentioned by the presenters). 

Article Note: On Intentional Informationists

Citation for the article:

Hoffman, Debra and Amy Wallace, "Intentional Informationists: Re-envisioning Information Literacy and Re-designing Instructional Programs Around Faculty Librarians' Strengths as Campus Connectors, Information Professionals, and Course Designers." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 39 (2013): 546-551.

Read via Science Direct. 


This article draws on social justice research, and the authors present a new term: intentional informationists. This article has applicability for us here given our very strong social justice history and commitment. This new definition can help further enhance our information literacy program, and I also think it can go well with some programs here like our General Education program. When I came to my current workplace, a big reason to stay was that we share a vision for our students to be lifelong learners. How they apply information literacy skills and critical thinking after college is of interest to me, and the concept of an intentional informationist has potential to enhance that vision here. In addition, some of the article reminded me of previous Paulo Freire readings I have done before (I have blogged about Freire and his influence at various times, such as here and here); no surprise since there is at least one citation to Freire in the works cited section.

The authors advocate creating partnerships outside of the library, especially outside the "usual suspects" of composition and rhetoric. Go with folks in places like education (this actually makes a lot of sense to me, and as a former school teacher and adjunct professor, puzzles me with instruction librarianship does not as a profession and in academia work more with schools of education), business, and communications and media. Librarians can create and design courses for credit; in fact, the authors describe work they have done in this area creating courses that do sound intriguing (and that I would not mind replicating here). In addition, or if that is not a viable option (for instance, I know with my current duties, there is no way I could design a course let alone have the time to teach it), librarians can also serve as guest lecturers in classrooms for topics other than information literacy and library sessions. We do have expertise, in varying degrees, in topics such as writing, community engagement, activism, censorship, copyright and intellectual property, open access, and others. We should leverage this. It would also add to our professional standing if we get faculty to see us in different lights (it might also help the constant feelings of insecurity a lot of librarians tend to display over things like professionalism, expertise, and being an academic, but I am briefly digressing).

In the end, much of the point is for librarians to play to strengths that they already have. 

Notes and quotes to remember:

• The authors state: "We believe that it is our responsibility as librarians and faculty to provide them with an educational experience and opportunities that challenge them to reflect, engage, and act" (546).
• The answer to this is yes. For us, this really should be a no-brainer: "If information is a bit part of everyday life and librarians are intimately familiar with the interests and inequalities in the information realm, shouldn't we as a profession work to integrate social critique with pedagogical techniques that help students reflect, advocate, answer, and develop information related questions and issues that impact our students' everyday lives?" (547). Then again, this may include giving up to a big extent on the illusion of neutrality the profession so often wants to cling to no matter what. Sooner or later, as a profession, we have to choose to do the right thing. Sure, presenting a diversity of information and opinions is a noble thing, but it should not be at the expense of allowing misinformation and ignorance to stand. 
• On this question, the latter should be the answer (in my humble opinion, which if you add it to a couple of pennies you might get some gum from the gumball machine): "Should we be teaching undergraduates concepts and skills in order to simply function in the information age, or should we be equipping students with the theoretical framework and critical thinking skills to define, consider, solve, embrace, and champion the ethical, political, social, and cultural opportunities and dilemmas that are presented to them?" (547). 
• This is sad, and it needs to be addressed if we are to create better citizens: "The typical undergraduate has not, and probably will not, receive an introduction to information theories on the ethical, political, social, and cultural opportunities and dilemmas surrounding its creation and use" (547). By the way, I did read The Information Diet, which the authors cite in their article. 
• The authors observe that many libraries employ standardized assessment measures for information literacy competencies. Here we use the HEDS assessment; the college piloted this past year, and we will decide whether to do it again or not. I think we'll likely continue a year or two, in part to see how it works. However, between reading this article and other reflecting and thinking, I know we will outgrow that eventually, but for now given we are building up a culture of assessment, it does give us something to start and get at least a base. I do want to know more, and I want my students to know more, so there goes my thinking for the future as I want to be able to assess critical thinking and reflection when it comes to information and its various implications. 
• The authors' term: "Our definition of an intentional informationist is simple: she is a person that has the contextual, reflective and informational skills to identify information opportunities, tackle complex information problems and pitfalls, and provide solutions or considerations that do not just meet her individual needs" (547). 
• "We believe that undergraduate students can and should be introduced to theories of commodification and ownership of information, ethical  uses of bio-recognition and genetic information, and convergence, as well as age-old dilemmas such as information haves and have-nots, information noise and overload, misinformation and privacy which impact them on a daily basis" (548). I certainly believe this as well. These are issues that are out there, even if more often than not the mainstream media ignores or hides them, and that affect them. Even the so-called "old-age" issues are barely touched, and libraries have a great opportunity in their advocacy roles to help with this.
• This caught my eye: "Those who use libraries will need to reframe the discussion away from cost cutting to bigger issues of information access, information literacy, circulation monitoring, and safe information spaces" (549). Then again, this would mean common people would need to pay attention, something they are notoriously negligent about given topics like net neutrality that rarely get news coverage anyhow. Again, something librarians could be doing something about in the larger scheme of things instead of fussing about the not so large molehills they often do. 
• And again, on librarians needing to do more than "the usual" things: "We believe the first big leap for librarians is to consider themselves as full partners in curriculum development, and not just there to inform collection development and promote library collections and services" (550). For some, it may mean more education and/or more training, but the way I see it this is a profession where you are supposed to continue learning throughout your life and career. For me, having a teaching degree in addition to being a librarian has been very handy. 
• The authors mention finding success via outreach programs and activities. Certainly helps validate for me why instruction and outreach are linked. 

Side note for me on a couple of things cited I need to read or review soon:

• Accardi and Kumbler, eds., Critical library instruction: theories and methods.  On the positive, my library has it. On the negative, they have it as an e-book (and reading books that way on the EBSCO platform is, to be perfectly blunt, a pain in the ass. I know this both as reader and from students who constantly ask for "the real book" when offered an e-book. I may either order a print copy or get one via Interlibrary Loan).
• Jacobs, H. (2008). "Information Literacy and Reflective Pedagogical Praxis." The Journal of Academic Librarianship 34.3. I honestly thought I had read this, but I have no record of it on the blog, so either I read it and did not jot it down, or did not. So, may as well grab it again.
• I. Shor's books Critical Teaching and Everyday Life and Critical Literacy in Action. The first one we have here. The other I would be requesting via Interlibrary Loan. 

Article Note: On E-book Literacy and Undergraduate Experience with E-Books

Citation for the article:

Muir, Laura and Graeme Hawes, "The Case for e-Book Literacy: Undergraduate Students' Experience with e-Books for Course Work."  The Journal of Academic Librarianship 39 (2013): 260-274.

Read via ScienceDirect.


I was interested in this article because we are in the midst of discussing our philosophies or approaches when it comes to e-books. We are asking questions now such as:

• what is the role of e-books?
• are they just for brief, scholarly uses? 
• do we want or wish to encourage people to actually read them? 
• academic books versus popular books? which to collect? how much of each? do we even bother with or consider popular reading materials as e-books? 

I was also interested in this article due to a recent reading experience. I read a book on readers' advisory, and I wanted to see if I could get other titles in that series. My library has a couple of the titles in question as electronic books (part of the EBSCOhost e-book collection). I noticed that to "borrow" it and download it to a reading device (if I recall, it would work with my iPad with Bluefire in this case), after setting up an account with the EBSCO system, I could only have the book for five days give or take. I can read fast, but I cannot read that fast, so naturally I ask our electronic resources manager about it. She informed me that the loan could be renewed if need be or that in the long term we (the library) could decide to change the loan limit. That got me thinking what about other people who may want to read a full book for any number of reasons and they get the issue I got. This is a bit of a long way to express some of the things I am thinking about as I read this article.

The article reports on an observation-based case study where students were given an assignment that required the use of e-books. The idea was to see how the students used the e-books and to learn about their experience with them. The study took place at St. Andrews University, and it was students in a Quantum Mechanics class. To collect data, they did a pre-assignment questionnaire, a direct observation of a sample of students that had taken the questionnaire, and an interview after the tasks. The article includes appendices so readers can see the survey instruments. I know that some of the questions in the initial survey are ones we might want to integrate in our data gathering down the road.

Notes from the article, with some comments:

• "Some of the reasons for slow acceptance of e-books have included limited academic e-book provision by publishers, lack of awareness of e-books among potential users, user discomfort from reading online and poorly designed interfaces on e-book platforms" (260). (Not to mention different platforms, and they all have different technical requirements and obstacles to overcome, and more.)
• From the literature review, reasons given for the appeal of e-books: 24/7 availability, "instant online access," and "no need to visit the library" (261). This from a 2009 study by Chelin (link to Chelin article here).
• "If e-books are to be widely adopted as an alternative to the printed book for academic work, then they must provide better user experience and tangible enhancements for scholarly work" (261). (We are are way behind on this issue. It is a big reason why when we offer students an e-book, they almost inevitably answer, "do you have the real book?")
• From the findings of the first questionnaire: "Most of the students (98.3%) had used e-books prior to the study. Of these, 95.2% had used them for academic study." Now, what we really need to pay attention to is this: "However, this does not imply that they had successfully mastered the features of e-books and it was evident (in the observed task) that some of these students struggled, even with basic navigation, despite having used e-books previously" (262). This also prompted me to ask if we should be adding some instruction on how to use e-books to our library instruction program, be it in the instruction sessions or maybe as workshops (the article will make a case for e-book literacy, so it would certainly provide me with evidence to support making such a case here). 
• Notice the latter part of this statement: "This suggests that the students had perhaps used e-books because they were instructed to do so, or out of interest or desire to explore the format, but that further engagement with e-books would be driven by need to access a text in whatever form was available (with print as the preferred option)" (262). And do note the part in parenthesis. In other words, e-books may tolerated as the only option available, but they are not the preferred option, and in my experience at the reference desk e-books are the option to avoid unless there is nothing else available. Now I think some of that has improved a bit over time, but there is still a long way to go. In classes, we may show students that we do have e-books, and we may highlight a feature or two, but there is certainly no formal instruction on how to use them. This is something I realize we need to work on, but then the usual question of time constraints in an instruction session arises. 
• Students often reported problems with the search functions of e-book platforms. This caught my eye because often when talking up e-books, the fact that "you can search it" is a talking point. However, depending on the platform, the search function may or not do what one intuitively expects it to do.
• "Most of the participants in the observed task struggled with page to page navigation: from discovering the features which allowed them to navigate the pages; to using them properly; to general frustration at the slowness of page loading and the inability to scroll down through pages" (266). This right here is one of various reasons that e-books are not going to beat print books any time soon no matter what some tech guru says.
• Furthermore, a student respondent: "I'm thinking about using a [print] textbook as opposed to this, in terms of finding something unknown it would be a bit quicker because, you know, you can flick back and forth through the pages at a faster speed." [Student E]" (267). For me, as a user of e-books (a lot of them being books I review), this is a big reason I prefer print books. Nothing that frustrates a reader faster than trying to move back and forth in a book and the pages "freeze up." 
• Yet not all hope is lost. Here is something contrary to the common wisdom: "This suggests that students will read e-books online at length where they perceive the value of doing so" (267). Making those e-books work better certainly would help more. 
• In addition, the inconsistent nature of platforms, access, and other issues with e-books could raise other concerns, such as "accessibility issues could arise for students with additional learning needs (such as Dyslexia or Dyspraxia)" (268). Overall, many of the e-book platforms I have observed are not necessarily the most friendly to students who may have learning or other disabilities.
• Here is a totally cynical observation on my part as to why e-book issues do not get fixed (or at least do not get fixed in any reasonable time frame): it is not commercially viable for the providers to fix them. After all, as the article quotes, "a solution which addresses user requirements but is not commercially viable is of no value. . . " (272). It's of no value to the e-book provider that is. 
• On what librarians can do: "Availability is only part of the issue, however. Librarians have a role to play to effectively market and promote collections and make e-books easily discoverable via Library OPACs-- perhaps even at chapter level. . . " (272). 
• This goes to my previous question on e-books and instruction: "For librarians and academics, the onus is on developing skills for effective use of e-books. This study has revealed that current approaches to training students to use e-books effectively for scholarly activity is generally lacking. Instruction tends to be focussed on locating the e-books for study rather than on their use to achieve students' goals" (272). How can we address this becomes my question. Additional workshops? For the students? In our campus here, could we do it with the peer tutors? For faculty? The authors propose a useful typology of skills and use experiences. For me, I do wonder then how it can be integrated into our information literacy program's objectives and assessments. That is thinking a bit further down the road for me. 

The article certainly gave me a lot to think about. I did briefly discuss it with my library director, and I know this will be a topic we will continue to explore. 

Booknote: The Readers' Advisory Guide to Horror (2nd Edition)

(Crossposted from my personal blog, The Itinerant Librarian)

Becky Siegel Spratford, The Reader's Advisory Guide to Horror (2nd edition). Chicago: ALA, 2012. ISBN: 9780838911129. 

Genre: Nonfiction
Subgenre: Library science, readers' advisory, horror

This book was a serendipity find for me at the public library. I picked it up to get a refresher on the genre and help keep up my RA (readers' advisory for my non-librarian friends) skill set. I did take the coursework for RA in library school, but I am also an avid reader and strive to keep up with various genres. After all, if this academic librarian gig does not pan out, I think I can still get employed at a public library. Plus, for me, reading is fun. As for the horror genre, I would not consider myself a "horror reader," but I do read in the genre, which I enjoy now and then. This book is part of ALA's RA series, and it was pretty good in providing an overview of the genre. It is a good aide for librarians who may not know much about horror.

The book focuses on horror; it does address what could be labeled as "related" genres such as dark fantasy or paranormal, but the bottom line here is true horror. However, in this day and age where paranormal fiction (often romance with paranormal elements) is such a big hit with readers, it needs to be acknowledged in any discussion of horror, and the book does that, providing some small guidance on those given the crossover appeal. This is to address, for instance, the nice lady who reads, for example, Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series and wants to read more "horror." What that reader probably wants is more paranormal fiction, possibly with romance elements, but it has vampires and werewolves, so it has to be horror, right? The librarian does not have to "correct" the lady. Just know the distinctions so you can provide the best advice possible and help your reader get to their next great read. Yet at the end of the day, the core of the book is horror.

For the purposes of the book, the author defines horror as:

 "a story in which the author manipulates the reader's emotions by introducing situations in which unexplainable phenomena and unearthly creatures threaten the protagonist and provoke terror in the reader" (13). 

That definition is the starting point.

The book's first three chapters provide a history and genre overview. The next set of chapters provide annotated lists with some readalike suggestions in these horror topics:

• classics, 
• ghosts and haunted houses
• vampires
• zombies
• shape-shifters
• monsters and ancient evil
• witches and occult
• Satan and demonic possession
• comic horror.

The last two chapters deal with using your collection and marketing. The chapter on whole collection RA was good as it reassures librarians they may already have many horror titles in the collection they can start promoting right away. This chapter also looks at other genres such as supernatural, paranormal, nonfiction, and graphic novels that horror readers may like as well.

The book is mainly designed for librarians, especially public librarians. However, I think the chapters with book lists could help some advanced horror readers as well as readers new to the genre. As I mentioned, I do read some horror; I have read some of the basics, including some mentioned in the book, but I also found some new reading suggestions that I jotted down.

Overall, this is an accessible, concise book that provides a lot of reading ideas and suggestions. As a reader and librarian, I really liked this one. It does make me willing to go look for other books in the RA series too.

I am giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

* * * 

This is the list of titles I jotted down from the book to add to my TBR list. In parenthesis, I am putting the label the book used and any comments I may have. I am also including WorldCat links to help my four readers and me find them later.


Books I jotted down from the opening chapters (i.e. caught my eye right away):

• Joe Hill, Heart-Shaped Box (I have been told this is pretty much classic. Only Joe Hill I have read, which I enjoyed, is his Locke & Key graphic novel series.) 
• Brian Keene, Castaways (the author mentioned this book a few times, deals with one of those "Survivor" type of reality shows.)
• Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes (I have read Bradbury, and I can't believe I have not read this. We need to fix that gap.)
• Arthur Conan Doyle, Tales of Terror and Mystery. (1906)
• H.P. Lovecraft (I have actually read some of his works, but would love to read more)

Other books I jotted down as I read the book:

• Ray Garton, Live Girls (vampires)
• Otto Penzler, ed., The Vampire Archives: The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published. 
• Brian M. Stableford, The Werewolves of London (shapeshifters. I have read his The Empire of Fear, which is a vampire novel.)
• Bentley Little, The Return (Monsters and ancient evil)
• Bryan Smith, Depraved (Monsters and ancient evil)
• Martin H. Greenberg, et.al., eds., 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories (Witches and occult)
• Clive Barker, The Hellbound Heart (Satan and demonic possession. This is the basis for the film Hellraiser. I have seen the film. As for his books, only one I have read is the graphic novel adaptation of Great and Secret Show- link to my review.)
• Joe Hill, Horns (Satan and demonic possession.)
• Tim Pratt, ed., Sympathy for the devil (Satan and demonic possession.)

Booknote: The Library at Night

(Crossposted from The Itinerant Librarian. Given it deals with libraries, reading, and literacy, I figure it can be shared here as well.)

Manguel, Alberto, The Library at Night.  New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. ISBN: 978-0-300-13914-3.

This is a beautiful and pleasant book book that sings the praises of libraries, books, and those who work in them and use them in an erudite and elegant way. If you are feeling down from bad news of library closings or not getting enough funding, or are you just sick and tired of the next "trend" in libraries making it sound like libraries are dead fossils, then toss all that away and curl up comfortably with a serving of your favorite beverage and this book.

Manguel employs rich language and imagery to create a book that is not just to be read. It is one to be savored. In a time when librarians think everything will go online and some even scoff at the idea of physical libraries (you know, the ones who see themselves more as "information professionals" or other fancy non-librarian title), Manguel shows us the significance and importance of libraries through the ages and in all forms, even the electronic ones, with reverence and respect. If you are a librarian,  you will likely embrace this book. If you've used a library and/or you have one of your own, this book will bring warm feelings and evoke great memories.

Overall, this is one I definitely recommend. I am giving it the full 5 out of 5 stars.

Books I've read with similar appeal that I have read (links go to my reviews):

• Jean-Claude Carrière and Umberto Eco, This is Not the End of the Book. 
• Leah Price, Unpacking my Library. 
• Paul Collins, Sixpence House. 
• Harold Rabinowitz and Bob Kaplan, A Passion for Books. 
• Lawrence Goldstone and Nancy Goldstone, Warmly Inscribed. 
• Gabriel Zaid, So Many Books.

* * *

Additional reading notes: I found myself making notes as I read and jotting down passages and quotes to remember. If interested, you can feel free to read on.

I loved this image:

"I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books" (37). 

It is a very romantic ideal, to take your books with you in eternity. I think I would that for some books, but let the rest in my personal library be sold or given to friends and family so that, as another writer I read once said, others may experience the joys of reading and discovery in those books as I did. 


Even Manguel knows:

"And yet, both libraries-- the one of paper and the electronic one-- can and should coexist. Unfortunately, one is too often favoured to the detriment of the other" (77). 

Unfortunately, even a good number of librarians favor one to the detriment of the other. Let's not even go into the many problems of electronic record preservation, which Manguel does discuss well in the book by the way. Further on, Manguel writes,

"In comparing the virtual library to the traditional one of paper and ink, we need to remember several things: that reading often requires slowness, depth, and context; that our electronic technology is still fragile and that, since it keeps changing, it prevents us many times from retrieving what was once stored in now superseded containers; that leafing through a book or roaming through shelves is an intimate part of the craft of reading and cannot be entirely replaced by scrolling down a screen, any more than real travel can be replaced by travelogues and 3-D gadgets" (79). 

On the power of readers:

"The power of readers lies not in their ability to gather information, in their ordering and cataloguing capability, but their gift to interpret, associate and transform their reading" (91).

Libraries as subversive and even immortal:

"Libraries, in their very being, not only assert but also question the authority of power. As repositories of history or sources for the future, as guides or manuals for difficult times, as symbols of authority past or present, the books in a library stand for more than their collective contents, and have, since the beginning of writing, been considered a threat. It hardly matters why a library is destroyed: every banning, curtailment, shredding, plunder or loot gives rise (at least a ghostly presence) to a louder, clearer, more durable library of the banned, looted, plundered, shredder or curtailed. Those books may no longer be available for consultation, they exist only in the vague memory of a reader or in the vaguer-still memory of tradition and legend, but they have acquired a kind of immortality" (128). 

On why it's good to have a study. Also why I cherish mine:

"A study lend its owner, its privileged reader, what Seneca call euthymia, a Greek word which Seneca explained means 'well-being of the soul,' and which he translated as 'tranquillitas.' Every study ultimately aspires to euthymia. Euthymia, memory without distraction, the intimacy of a reading time-- a secret period in the communal day-- that is what we seek in a private reading space" (188).

Manguel does not that sometimes we can also discover euthymia in the communal space of the public library.

On a library reflecting its owner:

"What makes a library a reflection of its owner is not merely the choice of the titles themselves, but the mesh of associations implied in the choice. Our experience builds on experience, our memory on other memories. Our books build on other books that change or enrich them. . . " (194).

I love that idea. I wonder what associations I would see in the books I've chosen for my personal library.


On readers choosing books to read:

"We pick our way down endless library shelves, choosing this or that volume for no discernible reason: because of a cover, a title, a name, because of something someone said or didn't say, because of a hunch, a whim, a mistake, because we think we may find in this book a particular tale or character or detail, because we believe it was written for us, because we believe it was written for everyone except us and we want to find out why we have been excluded, because we want to learn, or laugh, or lose ourselves in oblivion" (222).

A lot of this sounds just like I do when I choose my next book to read. How do you choose your next book to read. Feel free to comment and let me know.

 On "have you read all these books?"

"The fact is that a library, whatever its size, need not be read in its entirety to be useful; every reader profits from a fair balance between knowledge and ignorance, recall and oblivion" (254). 

And further on Manguel adds,

"I have no feeling of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me till the end of my days" (255). 

I think I should use that answer when anybody asks that about my personal library and books.

And finally, a quote, a verse,

"Those who read, those who
          tell us what they read,
Those who noisily turn
         the pages of their books,
Those who have power
         red and black ink,
         and over pictures,
Those are the ones who lead us,
        guide us, show us the way."

--Aztec Codex from 1524, Vatican Archives.