Kids in the News Making Things Work!

It seems that a 9-year old boy may have solved one of the more pervasive sources of domestic discord. Weary of consistent reminders, Jake Wulf of Iowa has created a foot-activated toilet seat lifter he’s calling the “Privy Prop.” He got the idea from observing a trash can with a similar mechanism.

I wonder if one of the books on Jake’s shelves is David Macaulay’s The Way Things Work. Large and colorful diagrams guide your eyes around the mechanics of the daily items we take for granted, like a hand-held can opener, to the more obscure ones we only wish we could get our hands on, like a virtual reality headset.

Ever stop to consider those enticing red laser beams and the barcodes they pass over on your library books? Those black stripes and white spaces are little storage bins that contain bits of computer-coded information. These bits combine in infinite ways to form unique identification tags, which are represented by infinitely unique barcodes. The job of the red laser beam is to reflect this unique code back to the scanning device in the form of light. The scanning device converts this light signal to an electric one and sends it to the computer. The computer then translates this electric signal into the barcode number, which uniquely identifies the item that you are checking out. (Hint: you can leisurely and discreetly ponder this if you use the self-check machines.)

Macaulay’s book is a delight for all ages, and he wrote it especially for those who find technology a “bit” intimidating. We’ve got the book as well as his updated The New Way Things Work; check them out! What will we invent next?

by Jami, Youth Services Librarian

RINCON LATINO: UMBERTO ECO Y EL EFECTO DE LA TECNOLOGIA

A Paso de Cangreso -es decir, hacia atrás- es como parece caminar la historia en este nuevo milenio. Todos los avances científicos y los progresos democráticos que auguraban un espléndido futuro se han convertido en conflictos e insatisfacciones. ¡El mundo no va bien! Contra esta inquietante situación lanza Umberto Eco sus afilados dardos, sus reflexiones. En este libro Eco desenmascara el mensaje salvador de la tecnología; la promesa de la tecnología a desencadenarnos de nuestros propios temores, prejuicios e inquietudes. ¡Todo lo contrario! ... escribe este profesor de semántica. Personalidades nefastos como el actual primer ministro italiano Silvio Berlusconi y el empresario estadounidense Bill Gates, el primero por su manipulación majestuosa de los medios en apantallarse como un mesaías a sus compatriotas, y el otro como presentar la tecnología como un instrumento a facilitar la transparencia tanto en lo personal como lo gubernamental. Este libro tiene un enfoque más académico que las demás obras literarias que ha escrito este prolífico autor.

Ken Burns is a hit!

At the Central Library on Thursday evening, a large, very satisfied group of people were witness to the brilliance of filmmaker Ken Burns as he answered questions posed by participants in five libraries throughout California. If you missed the videoconference, it will soon be available to view on the website of one of our sponsors--The California Center for the Book.

The three questions Sacramentans asked were, "Did you obtain stories from WWII veterans which impressed and touched you but which were not highlighted in your series? If so, could you please share one of these?"

"Now that you have documented in great depth the stories of two wars, what feelings, if any, do you have about how humans deal with conflict?

"We so appreciate the quality of your previous works, so could you talk a little bit about the national parks project you are currently working on?"

For his answers to these questions and the many others asked of him, please remember to view the California Center for the Book's website.

RINCON LATINO: Ganado el arroz y habichuelas: reseña de Worker in the Cane

[El trabajo de ferrocarril] es un trabajo donde el arroz y las habichuelas son una cosa segura aun en el tiempo muerto, mientras en la caña en el tiempo muerto las cosas se ponen duras, muy duras.

En el libro Worker in the Cane, Anasacio Zayas Alvarado nos comparte la dureza de su vida durante la cumbre de la industria azucarera de la isla de Puerto Rico. A través de un relato de estilo de entrevista, Anastacio enumera como ganaba su arroz y habichuelas trabajando la caña y las varias tareas como cavar una zanja, trabajo de riego, el trabajo de ferrocarril, que hizo en la plantación.

También, lo seguimos por los cambios culturales, sociales y económicos desde el ocaso de los hacendados al surgimiento de poder del central por una sola Corporación. Buscó mejorar su vida (y la de su esposa y diez hijos vivos) por su participación en la política y los sindicatos. Cuando se le decepcionaron por esas instituciones, se le consolaba la religión evangélica.

Aunque Anastacio (alias "Don Taso") cuenta su propria historia, muchas veces hay algunas interpretaciones hechas por el autor Sidney W. Mintz, profesor de antropología, quien nos ayuda ver más claramente lo que quiere decir los cambios en la vida de Don Taso. Una parte de mi se rebeló contra la idea de un académico afuera de la situación sacando una conclusión, pero me di cuenta de que nunca podría entender por completo el mundo de Don Taso sin un interprete. Desafortunadamente, esas pausas crean la ilusión de que Don Taso podría ser cualquier hombre del pueblo. Perdí el hilo de la voz de Don Taso y terminé con el concepto de que el texto representó todos los obreros de caña en vez de ser la historia de una sola vida.

Fue facil leer Worker in the Cane. Los cuentos detallados me dejó visualizar la vida cotidiana de un pueblo pequeño puertorriqueño hasta tal punto que gané entendimiento de mis propias experiencias de "shock" cultural en el país. Me gustaría haber leído Worker in the Cane en el español original del relato grabado, como seguro se perdió la sazón de las expresiones de Don Taso por la traducción inglés. Eran los vislumbres breves de su sentido de humor que ayudaron a quitar el tono académico de la obra. Para formar una imagén fiel del mundo de Anastacio, las fotografías de la época que salpican ligeramento el libro son inapreciable al lector desconocido a la cultura del medio siglo 20 de la clase obrera puertorriqueña. En general, este libro es un recuerdo excelente de parte de la cultura de Puerto Rico que no ha sido grabado mucho.

No tenemos Worker in the Cane en nuestra colección pero si puede tomar prestado el libro por el servicio de Link +.

Book Review: Gold Rush Capitalists: Greed and Growth in Early Sacramento:

It all started on an early spring day in 1851 in Sacramento with a game of Monte, a classic game of the Old West. What resulted was the death of two men, Charles Myers, a wheelwright from Ohio, and Frederick Roe, a career thug and gambler from England.

As it turned out, accusations of cheating were discharged toward Roe; he protested, a fight broke out, and when model citizen Myers tried to break up the row, Roe leveled a pistol at his head and pulled the trigger. The results were mayhem and an eventual lynching of the Englishman from a massive oak at the Horse Market, or what would today be where 6th Street rests between “K” and “L” Streets.

Although a simple vignette within Mark Eifler’s larger text, Gold Rush Capitalists: Greed and Growth in Sacramento, the Roe lynching typified the growing pangs of the new American West, a place where few civil institutions existed. Eifler gives careful discussion to the young city’s behavior in the wake of the shooting, where Harvard-educated, landed merchants were driven by blood lust against the will of underpaid and undermanned policemen who implored due process. There is further value in Eifler’s look at one of the American West’s first class wars, known more commonly as the “Squatters Riot.” Child Sacramento was the domain of the wealthy speculator until migrants arrived from far and wide seeking cheap, workable land. The result was revolution on a miniature scale.

To Eifler, both of these events had meaning for a city slowly slouching toward stable economic and political institutions. It’s almost as if life in the antebellum west reflected a social experiment; an academic took a cross-section of America, threw it into a cultural, political and legal vacuum and simply stood back to see what happened. Eifler tells the story well in addition to providing a full history of the early city.

Videoconference with Ken Burns

The California State Library and the Center for the Book will be hosting a public conversation and videoconference with Ken Burns at five California libraries to discuss the making of his latest documentary, The War, and the Sacramento Public Library has been chosen as one of the host sites. The videoconference will take place at the Central Library in the Galleria East Meeting Room on Thursday evening, November 8th from 5:45-7:30 p.m. The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions of Ken Burns. Registration is required in order to attend, as seating is limited. To register, please call (916) 264-2920 or visit www.saclibrary.org.

Internet Librarian 2007 Conference

Last week I had the great privilege to attend the Internet Librarian Conference in Monterey, California and absorbed the wisdom of 15 presentations and three dynamic keynote speakers. I plan to share many of the exciting tips and hot topics that were offered, starting with the search engine, Exalead. Search expert, Mary Ellen Bates said that if we hadn't heard of Exalead yet, we would all know about it in the upcoming year. Try it out, compare it to the ubiquitous Google and let us know what you think.