How They Do It in Hawaii

I am visiting Mom for a week. Mom lives in Kailua, a bedroom community on the windward side of Oahu, in the same house she bought in 1960. It's just a couple of blocks from the Kailua Library, where I got my start in the library business as a shelver.

Kailua Library is a busy branch that sees a lot of visitors because of its proximity to the "best white sand beach in the world." Yesterday, I stopped in to say hi to the staff, and to sign up for a visitor's library card. The card costs $25 and is good for 5 years! (Residents of Hawaii get free cards, of course!)

Libraries in Hawaii are suffering the same kinds of funding shortfalls as the Sacramento library system. They are expecting a 10% budget reduction in the next fiscal year, which means they will have to "close branches", in the words of the Kailua branch manger.

Although there is Internet access in all branches, only two branches offer wi-fi. The State can't afford it, so if a branch wants to offer wi-fi, I it needs to come up with the funds - usually through the Friends of the Library.

I am hoping to visit additional branches this week, and collect more info to share about this unique library system.

Beautifulcataya's photo used with permission.

College bound?

Are you gearing up for your college career? Are you planning your goals and objectives for life after college? Both quests can be met with daunting anticipation, yet present exciting challenges. The overall objective in meeting both of these challenges, of course, is success. The path to success is through thoughtful planning and preparation. Planning and preparation for your college and career objectives is the focus of Central Library’s College & Career Center. It is here that you will find the materials and guidance you’re seeking in kick starting your climb to the top and in meeting the challenges along the way. Focusing first, for example, on your career goals will help you prepare your educational landscape. Titles such as What Color is Your Parachute zero in on recognizing skills, interests and aptitudes for the right career path. The Encyclopedia of Careers and the Occupational Outlook Handbook explore the many career opportunities available, the trends in today’s career marketplace and the educational requirements needed to attain that career of choice. The Top Careers series of titles present opportunity ideas that motivate and inspire. In preparing for your educational objectives, look to proven resources such as the College Blue Book, a six part systemic approach that guides you to the right educational program, also available as an E-Book via the Virtual Reference Library.

Along your route to success, you’ll encounter a myriad of tests, including college prep tests such as the SAT and graduate level tests, such as the GRE and GMAT. Study guides are available for these and other tests for checking-out. In addition, the Center also has the largest collection of civil service occupational testing guides in the library system. Free government literature is available, including financial aid booklets, such as Fund Your Future and Funding Education Beyond High School. And for that personal touch, professional assistance is available through an on site guidance counselor. If your objective is success, Central Library’s College & Career Center is your road to get there.

Teen Books for Adults: Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Teen books are the best books ever!

I’m not just saying that because I spend much of the day on the lower level, meaning my reading choices are limited to whatever is down here, ordering lists, e-mails and other miscellaneous paper work. They’re really good books. Why? Because you’ll never pick up a teen book and discover the heroine’s problems all disappear when some billionaire bachelor sweeps her off her plain, pathetic, poor, uneducated, I-hate-my-job-and-need-an-intervention feet. (Because what rich man doesn’t want to marry a basket case?) Like movies from the 1970s, teen books are edgier and they actually have work through their problems.

At the top of my must read teen books list is Monster by Walter Dean Myers. This book literally flies off the shelf, and not just because I press it into the hands of every teen who makes the mistake of looking bored or sitting at the computer too long. A National Book Award finalist, Coretta Scott King honor book, and winner of the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, this book has so many honors that if we lined the spine with award stickers you wouldn’t be able to read the label.

Yes, it’s that good.

Steve Harmon is young and black.

Steve Harmon is an amateur filmmaker.

Steve Harmon is on trial for murder.

Was he the lookout for a fatal shooting or was this a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

Guess there’s only one way for you to find out…

Your Personal Genealogist

Central Library is really fortunate to have two great volunteers working in its Genealogy Center on the 4th floor. Both Bernard Marks and John Burke have been generously giving their time for the past year so that the library can offer its popular – and free -- Book a Genealogist service to the public. As volunteers, Mr. Marks and Mr. Burke meet individually with people who are interested in getting a little extra help with their research – both beginners who would like some direction in getting started, and people with genealogy experience who might benefit from suggestions on new research strategies.

By working on his own family’s history for nearly twenty years, Mr. Marks has become passionate about the importance of genealogy and of teaching people to do their own research. He finds that being multilingual helps when working with people who have questions about the spelling of surnames. The ten languages he speaks include Polish, Russian, German, Spanish and Yiddish.

Mr. Burke’s interest in genealogy came from his desire to have a connection with his unknown Irish ancestors – to learn each one’s story. He describes the excitement of finding a long-missing piece of information about an ancestor’s life as “a real rush.” Now Mr. Burke’s goal is to pass along the information he uncovers to his children and grandchildren.

Without the help of these two dedicated volunteers, Central Library could not offer the Book a Genealogist service!

If you’re interested in meeting with one of Central Library’s Book a Genealogist volunteers, please make an appointment by calling the library at 916-264-2920, or visit http://www.saclibrary.org/.

B. Daugherty

RINCóN LATINO : PELíCULAS EN ESPAÑOL

"La Sierra"

El título de esta película documental se refiere al barrio bravo de la ciudad colombiana de Medellín. Un barrio perpetuamente en estado de guerra. Un barrio como un centenar de otros esparcidos por toda Latinoamérica donde sus habitantes trapichean con drogas, venden armas, asesinan a sus compatriotas , y donde también aman a sus familias, comparten la desesperación y buscan vanamente en sobrellevarse día tras día. Las escenas son crudas y desgarradoras exhibiendo una realidad poca conocida por la gran mayoría de gente. La Sierra es uno de los barrios más violentos del mundo comparable a ciertos localidades del mundo como la Franja de Gaza, Beirut, Londonderry y las famosas favelas de Rio de Janeiro y Sâo Paulo.


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La Palabra del Día

recordar

"Los antiguos creían que los sentimientos residían en el corazón. Para Aristóteles, el corazón era el órgano fundamental del organismo humano, y el cerebro, apenas un mero coadyuvante. En esa época se creía que la memoria estaba alojada en el corazón; de ahí que los romanos emplearan la palabra recordari, derivada de cor 'corazón', que llegó a nuestra lengua como recordar. En el portugués contemporáneo, saber una cosa de memoria es conocerla de cor (etimológicamente, 'del corazón').Si los sentimientos se alojaban en el corazón, nada más natural que, cuando dos personas se ponen de acuerdo, digamos que concuerdan o que acuerdan, con lo que el corazón ya está presente otra vez (del latín vulgar accordare). Y si no se ponen de acuerdo, decimos que discuerdan. En el español antiguo -y en muchas regiones, en el contemporáneo- acordar o recordar significaban 'despertarse, volver en sí después del sueño'. "

Sacramento History Photo of the Week: Issue No. 11

Edward Cleveland Kemble, circa 1880. After a 20-year-old Kemble visited Sutter’s Fort in 1848, he wrote in vivid detail about his journey by “adobe cart” from Sutter’s Embarcadero on the Sacramento River to the Fort, a route that would take him along Alkali Flat. “A forest of Noble sycamores, dense and deep, guarding a mighty solitude like a vast army of giants” he wrote, stood amidst “miniature lakes…prophets of the floods that were to drown the fortunes of thousands in subsequent times.” While indeed prophets of flooding, they too would portend the drying, then deposit of alkali rings and a Sacramento district’s eventual namesake. Kemble went on to found Sacramento’s first newspaper, the “Placer Times.”

This photo and many more like it can be found in the Sacramento Public Library’s Sacramento Room which is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5, and Thursday 1 to 8.

Central Library volunteer

Dalma Miller
July 24, 1925 to March 17, 2009

For years Dalma Miller used my desk and computer accomplishing her volunteer work at the Central Library. She worked for the State of California for over 53 years. Done with her day job she would walk the few blocks to Central and continue working for fun. I met a person recently who remembers her volunteering, after work, at the Arden Library in the 1970’s. I think she began volunteering with Sacramento Public Library after her husband, Lorne, died in 1972. Meanwhile, she continued working for the State at the Witkin State Law Library of California downtown in Library and Courts Building One.

Dalma’s work at the Central Library was an alphanumeric journey through the Sacramento Periodicals Index cards. She started in the A’s. Her job was to enter the index cards in a database which will eventually be used by all to find articles in old Sacramento area magazines. I think she may have even typed many of these original cards she was making electronic. Three days a week, from 4:00 to 5:00pm she would tenaciously enter information from each card into the computer. We started with a WordPerfect data file, transferred the information to a Paradox database, then to an Access database. She even worked in an Excel spreadsheet. For those who have been around, you can follow the adventure of Dalma’s work just by imagining yourself struggling with these various programs. She stopped in the S’s, over 35,000 records later.

She started working on this database with me when she was in her early 70’s. She would arrive smiling her way up and down the staff area, greeting many. She knew a lot of people who had worked, and were still working at Central. Often I would find a note, written in a fine cursive hand, telling me she would be out for a day, or was visiting either her brother in Nebraska or Arizona. If she wasn’t going to be in she would tell us. When she didn’t come in we worried. She was as much a part of our staff at Central as she was at the State Library. Everyone loved her. Everyone misses her. I miss her.

Gerry Ward