Stalking Saturn

Saturn's Majesty, in the Infrared
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/halloffame/





Saturn and those fabulous rings. Rings that make a scientific and aesthetic statement. Rings that capture our imagination and challenge our notion of what is possible. Remember making the model of our Solar System in elementary school? Did you agonize over what to use for Saturn’s rings? Fuzzy pipe cleaners? A slice of Styrofoam? (a definite carving disaster) Should there be glitter?

But while the model was interesting, Saturn and a host of other planets and stars are up there in the sky, visible and accessible. Ever had a wonder-moment of stargazing – when someone points out Polaris, the Big Dipper, and if you’re lucky, Saturn? Except 5 minutes later, the sky returns to dots. Just dots. Nothing looks like a dipper. But everything looks like a dot.

That is my dilemma: a deep interest in astronomy, yet a lack of navigational skills. The stories about the stars and planets, however, kept my interest alive. The mythic Olympian crowd and their in-fighting, the all-knowing Zodiac (“You’re especially intuitive today… and feeling very optimistic”) and the brilliant, awe-inspiring scientific discoveries.  I’ve existed on their stories alone until very recently.

This is what happened:

One evening last week, I saw a group of our neighbors gathered on the street: necks craned, phones pointed at the sky. Ambling aimlessly (zombie-like would be accurate, but I’ll refrain from using the z-word because I like my neighbors).  Turns out, far from being undead, they were using an app that brings information about the celestial bodies to you: interpreting the heavens, literally from where you stand. Want to see Saturn? Jupiter? The trajectory of the Sun and where it will set? (Think of the photo opportunities here…knowing exactly where the sunset will be. No more last-minute dashes around trees or rocks to capture the perfect sunset). The immediacy of information is incredible and powerful.

So I joined my neighbors in the street, tracking Saturn, the moon, and finding Polaris. I don’t know why it is so wonderful knowing which celestial body is which. It just is. To be able, at last, to smile up into the night sky and say good evening to Saturn: it’s wonderful. To stalk Saturn across the heavens: exhilarating. Now the stories and the physical nature of the cosmos can coexist in my reality.

That’s the beauty of learning something new. Everything else adjusts to let the new knowledge in, and once the dust settles, you find your brain ticking just a little bit faster- checking for parallels, bridges to new ideas, inconsistencies and applications.



(a few titles  -available at the Chandramohan Library- to whet your appetite for celestial information:

How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. –Mike Brown (call number: 523.492 BRO).

Powers of Ten: About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe. –Philip Morrison and Phylis Morrison, and  the Office of Charles and Ray Eames. (call number: 523.1 MOR).

Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love. –Dava Dobel. (call number: 520.92 SOB).

A Walk Through the Heavens: A Guide to Stars and Constellations and Their Legends. – Milton D. Heifetz and Wil Tirion (call number: 523.8 HEI).

Moonscapes: A Celebration of Lunar Astronomy, Magic, Legend and Lore. –Rosemary Ellen Guiley. (call number: 523.3 GUI).

Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution. –Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith (call number: 523.1 TYS).)

-Mrs. Eldridge

What We Make and Who We Are

Taylor Mali is a contemporary poet I’ve only recently discovered.  I received a link from a librarian colleague that impressed me so much, I feel compelled to share it with you…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuBmSbiVXo0&feature=related 

Yes, this poem is about teachers, but I’d like to take a little leap into the topic of *What Librarians Make*.  Our careers are on the line in many school districts across the country.  Some administrators call the position of librarian antiquated.  One independent school in Massachusetts took the radical step of ridding the library of all its print books, purchased more computers and Kindles, and added a coffee machine to their former library.  Said the headmaster, “When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books.” (Boston Globe, “Welcome to the Library. Say Goodbye to the Books” by David Abel.  4Sep, 2009.) What???  Have we not kept thousands of beautifully illuminated scrolls and manuscripts in our libraries and institutions of higher learning, despite the advent of the printed book?  Not all books in or out of print are available in electronic format.  Not all Google sites are created equal. 

So, back to my original thought…What Librarians Make…we make books, periodicals, scholarly journals, vetted websites, media, and databases available for our library users.  We slog through  less-than-accurate web sources to supply the very best information for students and teachers.  We help students find strategies to develop research skills, how to evaluate websites, how to cite sources, and, of course, how to find great books to read.  There’s more, but I won’t belabor the point. 

The bottom line?  The old model of the librarian and library are long gone, but they’ve morphed into something pretty darned exciting.  The incorporation of databases, eBooks, rss feeds, blogs, wikis, QR codes, and a wide variety of media haven’t replaced the books and periodicals we already have.  Technology works alongside print material and traditional media.  It can enhance the information and literature we find in print and often makes it readily available to many users at once.  I can’t think of a better career.

Mrs. Hodge

Wish List

 3 good books in a row. Does it get any better than that? The Night Circus, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand and the Handmaid's Tale. Reading this week by headlamp, without the distraction of Internet and electrical (time-saving) appliances, was delightful and reflective. It gave me time to think about types of fictional writing.  Some works are escapist, allowing a full and complete immersion into another world. A blissful disconnect from reality. By contrast, other works provide such a disparate setting, premise or characters that you can only relate to them through a comparison of your own concept of reality. These works invite a dialog between the text and the reader. To parse out the significance of big philosophical ideas like cruelty, or fidelity.  Or to contemplate the quirks of a character. But whether your taste is for escapism or a contemplative novel, the real deal in fiction....... is the story. This chewy quote from The Night Circus flies straight to the heart of story:

Someone needs to tell those tales. When the battles are fought and won and lost, when the pirates find their treasures and the dragons eat their foes for breakfast with a nice cup of Lapsang souchong, someone needs to tell their bits of overlapping narrative. There's magic in that. It's in the listener, and for each and every ear it will be different, and it will affect them in ways they can never predict. From the mundane to the profound. You may tell a tale that takes up residence in somone's soul, becomes their blood and self purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words.

And you? What are you looking forward to reading during the quiet moments of the holiday season? Will it move you to contemplation? Or whisk you away?

The students naturally gravitate to the book on the counter, picking it up and marveling at the recipes (Green with Envy Pesto Pasta, Fightin' Fried Squirrel, Butter Cookies from Peeta's Father). But then their eyes widen as we tell them that the author is sitting at the librarian's desk, that she went to school at Prep and yes, she really did write the book. This week in the library, we've had the pleasure of working with Emily Ansara Baines, a former Flintridge Prep student (class of 2003) and author. We've enjoyed showing off her new book, The Unofficial Hunger Games Cookbook. And while she was here, she agreed to write a guest blog for the Very Unusual Librarians.

When I embarked upon my middle school Prep education in the fall of 1997, I had two measures for success: having a million friends, and publishing The Great American Novel.  As Prep had less than a million students, and I had yet to learn the difference between effect and affect, these were lofty if not impossible goals.
Still, they were mine, and the publishing goal especially I kept close to the chest, like a warm blanket I could snuggle on those cold Californian nights when I was crying over the chromosome chapter in my AP Bio textbook or the fact that I had not been cast in my dream roll in the all-school musical.  This too will pass, I told myself with each passing year, and one day I will be published.
The creative writing teacher at the time, Mrs. Leidenthal, wisely told me that if my only reason for writing was to be published I’d never become a good writer.  This was sound advice, so of course I ignored it.  Every short story I wrote for every class, I set aside to send off to a literary magazine.  I was so cool I signed my name at the end of each submission with a purple sparkle gel pen.  Of course, if I heard back at all, it was your standard rejection.
College came, and while I never found my college English classes as difficult as, say, Mr. Vaughn's Honors American Literature class, my writing improved with age.  Beloved writer and mentor Aimee Bender (check out her work!) spent many hours helping me improve my craft, and while T.C. Boyle called one story of mine a great disappointment, he praised my second effort. I learned to manage rejection with much more elegance and much less bitterness than I had at Prep.  As I spent hours considering the harsh reality that most of my stories would never see the light of day, I remembered how to enjoy writing for writing's sake.  And then I started to get published.
This is no fairy-tale.  The best things I've ever written have been rejected hundreds of times, while stories I would vomit out in the span of seconds enjoy some moderate success in often unknown online publications.  The story I am still most proud of I wrote in elementary school (it was about seven cats that go shopping).  Taste is fickle.  People, no matter how proficient the prose, will reject you for reasons you  might never understand.  This fact is not just part of being a writer, it's part of life.

Indeed, while I have a cookbook out, and I am beyond thrilled and grateful for such luck, I am still far from my goal of writing and publishing the next Great American novel.  I may attempt to write it, I may become distracted by other projects. Yet, I know Mrs. Leidenthal-- and all the teachers at Flintridge Prep who echoed her message-- were right.  Captivating writing, perhaps even great writing, the writing you read in the books we play watch guard over here at the library, is not accomplished by some child with the singular goal of publication.  It is accomplished when the author has something to say, without regard to whether one person or a million reads their words.  I struggle with this constantly, I think all writers do, but this is the best piece of advice I can offer any and all the writers at Flintridge Prep.  If you sit down and write that essay, that poem, that short story simply because Mr. Bachmann or Mr. Myers requires it, you're not going to write anything worth reading.  But if you write even a paragraph because you have knowledge or an opinion to impart, you're on your way to a good -- if not downright interesting-- piece of prose.

Now if only that helped me on my goal of making a million friends.  Current Facebook Friend Count: 674.



Emily Ansara Baines

Advocacy

Libraries are popping up in the news, but the news may not be good. As libraries come to terms with difficult economic times, those who love libraries are stepping up, being vocal, and becoming advocates.

Library Advocate Steve Lopez directs our attention to the value of libraries. His column in the Los Angeles Times  last week was a pointed defense of the purpose and usefulness of libraries in our communities.



checking out the Mac

 Advocacy is one of the best ways of keeping a library and its message crisp, viable and visible. Library advocates can bring fresh eyes to the scene, capture marketing opportunities and suggest new services and resources.



Some of the LAC members

 Here at Prep, we have a student advocacy group called the Library Advisory Council (LAC). A powerful force, with both vision and follow-through, their suggestions show innovation and creativity. This fall, LAC completed a major goal , introducing two circulating Apple MacBook Pros to the library.  It seems fitting, as Thanksgiving approaches, to mention how thankful I am for their presence at Prep. The group's positive energy brightens our library. More than once I’ve been swept away, along with them, in a current of positive energy. That’s the beauty of advocacy: it pushes forward the essential message. And that helps our library stay crisp, viable and visible.

By the time you read this, the Chandramohan Library will be live online with a new resource: LibGuides. Designed to be a powerhouse of resources for a specific target audience, LibGuides can point students to the best resources to complete an assignment (see the guide for the Community Impact Project) or introduce a selection of great reading titles.

LibGuides allow us to create a custom, one-stop turbo-charge to help students easily identify resources and practices that will be useful in completing a specific assignment. Students might find a Youtube video on selecting keywords that return über results, a section on note taking and avoiding plagiarism or hints for scouring the Internet without getting overwhelmed (or underwhelmed). We can point out helpful databases, books or high authority websites, too.

Look for the LibGuides link on the Prep Website, on the librarian’s page (left navigation sidebar). We’ll be adding new guides throughout the year, and looking to exploit the full potential of LibGuides. Stay tuned…..

Savoring the Journey



Neil Gaiman's Basement Library. Photo by Kyle Cassidy; courtesy of Shelfari

 

Surprise! A guest blogger.

This entry is written by Mike Miley, who teaches English (9th and 12th grades) at Flintridge Preparatory School. He is a writer, observer, and passionate participant in the discourse of film criticism, literature and life in general.

I ought to find libraries and bookstores intimidating. After all, I'm entering a place stuffed with books I haven't read, things I don't know. Yet I'm always comforted when I open the doors and see stacks upon stacks of books because those unread tomes represent my future.

I love that there's something I still need to know. It means I have something left to do, something new to discover. I smile with the anticipation that someday soon, I will read these books and my life will be fuller, richer. I hesitate to say my life will be more complete, because I don't ever want this to stop.

Think about it: what if I have yet to read my favorite book of all-time? In fact, I hope I haven't, no matter how awesome INFINITE JEST is.

Some people's dream houses look like mansions. Mine looks a lot like a library.

-Mike Miley