Snipe Hunting. Really.



Photo by Alfred Yan
used with permission



A brief sound burst,

A flash of wings,

An arc of flight.

“Ruby Crowned Kinglet!” the voices sound in unison. My brain says, “bird.” We walk a few more steps…to the place where the elusive Wilson’s Snipe lingers. The Snipe, camouflaged and cautious, remains motionless until we are within arm’s distance, then it flushes and banks past us to another settling pond.

It took our guide two years to discover the habits and location of the Wilson’s Snipe in Hahamongna Park, but only twenty minutes to reveal this shy bird to us, so that we could experience its form, flight and habitat.

Monday was top-flight. Walking side-by-side with an experienced guide, I absorbed the ways of bird-watching:

            -Looking became conscious observation.

                        Skyward for Swifts in motion.

                        Left- to- right for movement in the leaves, and down for ground birds.

            -Hearing became focused sound analysis:

                        “Did you hear that sound?”

                        “You mean like someone running a butter knife over a saw blade?”

                        “Yup. That’s an Anna’s Hummingbird.”

            -Walking – the act of touching the ground – became a lesson in risk analysis:

                        How long can I watch the sky before path and feet are no longer in sync?

But, what really sticks with me is the notion that experts - through diligence and the practice of their craft – have worked out shortcuts for us:.

            -knowing where the Snipes hide

            -describing the precise features that differentiate 2 similar birds

            -using patterns of behavior to increase chances of spotting a particular bird.

While my companions' amiable chatter sounds to me like the barista’s call-outs for coffee orders, it really represents the distillation of hours of practice. Our guide shares willingly and generously – making sure that we all see the Snipe, and the Ruby Crowned Kinglet and 27 other different types of birds. Experts convey enthusiasm along with an obvious delight in the subject matter and delivery. That could be why they are revered: as their students, we are positively affected by their enthusiasm and passion. Whether we hope to become experts ourselves, or merely appreciate the skill, our interest level is increased. We also share genuine moments of happiness; the kind of elation that comes from the pure joy of discovery and the satisfaction of fitting new information into our own brain-grid.

There are lots of experts. Finding a local expert made me appreciate the knowledge base of our area, and the richness of our natural resources. Thank you, Darren, our expert guide. And, thank you Joe, for suggesting a brilliant way to spend the morning.

-Mrs. Eldridge

5 Quick Things





Last week I spent a glorious (and mind-stretching) four days in Monterey for Internet Librarian 2012.  The days were packed with new, thought-provoking and useful information.

Richard Le (from San Rafael Public Library and San Francisco Public Library) and Thomas Duffy, Jr. (from San Francisco Public Library) gave an engaging, fast-paced presentation: 50 Great Mobile Apps for Librarians. Here are just a few highlights:

1.      RedLaser (iOS, Android): scan a book barcode and find the book in a library or bookstore.

2.      Epicurious (iOS, Andoid, Nook Color, Windows Phone, Kindle Fire): enter your main ingredients and see the recipes that match. All recipes are rated with reviews.

3.      Congress (iOS, Android): Read the latest bills, hearings and floor activity. See how your elected representatives voted.

4.      CamScanner (iOS, Android, Kindle Fire): turn your phone into a document scanner and fax machine. (this is a surprisingly fast app. It digitizes the text within the image  - and creates a searchable PDF. You can upload the PDF to Google Docs or Dropbox. Amazing research potential)

5.       Evernote (iOS, Android): keep your notes organized, record audio, manage to-do lists. (Sarah Stewman, a fellow participant, emailed me the audio from one of our presentations, along with her notes – it was a fast and efficient way to share information, and the audio quality was excellent)

Thank you, Richard and Thomas, for the utility and grace of your presentation and for the succinct descriptions used here.
-Mrs. Eldridge

The Power of Words



From my Pinterest board


I collect quotations.  I have a big fat file of quotes here at Prep, two huge file folders at home, and a board on Pinterest, entitled "Inspiration--Words".  Some are adorning the walls in my home, complete with calligraphy & lovely artwork matted and framed.  I'm a huge fan of people who can turn a phrase, create a mood, and weave words into a beautiful tapestry.  Throw in some wisdom, and you've got the total package. 

In childhood, you may have read, “Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”, a line from Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne.  Simple.  Optimistic.  What books spoke to you when you were young?  Do you still remember the lines by heart?  What words of wisdom will you read aloud to your children?

Mrs. Hodge

  

Read a banned book lately?

Another Banned Books Week has come and gone (but the display lives on!)  The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom creates a list of books that were formally challenged the previous year.   And each year, I feel my blood pressure rise as I look over the latest list of most banned books of the previous year.  Really?  Brave New World?  Still?  Or what about this one:

 

My Mom's Having A Baby! A Kid's Month-by-Month Guide to Pregnancy, by Dori Hillestad Butler
Reasons for challenge: nudity; sex education; sexually explicit; unsuited to age group

Geez.  Imagine a book explaining pregnancy without pictures of the human body, sex education, or sexually explicit language.  If  parents want to wait to describe pregnancy and childbirth to their children, that is absolutely their prerogative; however, demanding that a library remove such a title doesn’t leave the parents who would like their children to read this book the opportunity to do so.  As I once told a mother who was upset about a young adult novel her 13-year-old daughter checked out of our public library, “If you are concerned about your daughter’s book selections, you may want to go to the library with her and speak with her about making appropriate choices.”

Ready for another one?

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Reasons: offensive language; racism

So let me get this straight.  An author trying to show an example of rampant racism is not permitted to illustrate this with the offensive language and racism that illustrates her point? 

Be sure to take a look at the books we have on display in the case on the library’s upstairs landing.  And, if you have the time and the inclination, please check out a banned book to read.

Mrs. Hodge

Makin' it.

A Pathway of LED lanterns

Describing and analyzing our surroundings and psyches, the magazine collection in the Chandramohan Library is a great resource. It covers a range of topics and interests.

Some of the well-loved titles like Sports Illustrated and People are more likely to be found left on a table than on the magazine rack. Some titles, however, languish ….undiscovered. Make, for example, is a small-format magazine with neither the brand recognition of Vogue, nor the flash of Spin. Yet, if content and ingenuity are measures of success - Make has it made.

Make has a generous portion of hands-on DIY projects (like the photo of LED lanterns in the picture above), as well as a section of mid-level skills projects (want to make a battery that runs on the bacteria in mud?). It also sprinkles its pages with “wow” projects – way beyond DIY- that reinforce the “can they really do that?” response. My favorite “wow” project is the active building skins – exterior coverings that react to temperature and light. Thickening when temperatures climb, or shifting panels to allow more light to enter the interior of the building when cloud cover is present.

But back to the LED project. Imagine a group of lanterns frozen into light cubes keeping things cool under (but not in) the Halloween punch bowl. Or, illuminating the pool. Plus, they can float at different levels (fishing line and weights), flicker, or sport festive colored filters. Could you ask for more? Even though I quake at the thought of projects with the word capacitor or microcontroller in the supplies list, Make has detailed instructions, and links for more help. And once I create a batch of lanterns, I might even tackle something more complex. And, that’s the true test of a magazine designed to boost your interest and proficiency level. Does it inspire you to move forward? To think in a new way? To discover?

The next time you find yourself browsing the library’s magazine collection, I hope you will explore a new title, or just revel in the variety and richness of our collection.

Mrs. Eldridge

Insights.....

Yesterday, the latest issue of Prep Talk and the 2012 Commencement Supplement appeared in my mailbox. Oh, the class of 2012 - they gave their smiles, performances and insights generously. Eli Weinstein (2012) penned the following eloquent and relevant piece for the blog. Thank you, Eli.

June, 2012.

There’s definitely a difference between libraries that are really, really big and libraries that are small. If you’re a librarian in a really big library (or a really big bookstore), you just buy every book you see and let your collection grow. And your job mainly comes down to organization: keeping track of where all the books are, making sure they’re in good shape, knowing your Dewey Decimal System really well, etc. But librarians who run small libraries have an extra problem. They have to make decisions: of all the books in the world, which ones do they order? Which ones do they display?

            If you think about it, this is actually a very sophisticated challenge. A librarian rarely knows in advance exactly what each book they buy will be used for. Instead, they have to decide what could be useful – what’s interesting, what’s thought provoking, what’s engaging. A good librarian at a small library is like an expert wine taster, or a skilled museum curator. They have to have taste. And they have to have taste not simply in books or in writing, but in information.

            If you think this is trivial, let me assure you – it’s not. There are a lot of second rate libraries and bookstores out there. You walk into them and you find yourself getting bored far too easily, you start browsing more quickly, taking books out and then immediately putting them back. I’ve spent far more quality time in Prep library aisles than in aisles ten times as long in other libraries, and it’s not simply that each of the books individually is unusually interesting – it’s that the collection fosters connections. It lets you see, physically, relevant information across disciplines. It’s a truly interdisciplinary location.

            There’s one really big trap, though, that libraries and bookstores often fall into. It has to do with book displays. The standard book display is all devoted to new books, to recent arrivals, to the latest releases. It’s devoted to staying on top of the trends, like a Twitter newsfeed. In contrast, the truly great book displays, like ours at Prep, provide a mix of old and new. The reason this is so profound is that it creates connections. It shows continuity in intellectual history, it shows where the new books come from, and then suggests to you – you the thinker, you the actor in the modern world – where things might be going.

            Pasadena’s Vroman’s Bookstore has stayed in business for 118 years, and the reason is not simply because it’s got a great atmosphere, or a café, or stationary. Remember, Border’s had all those things but went bankrupt. It’s that it knows how to pick books. It doesn’t just auto-order from the major publishers; instead, it finds things that are interesting, and puts Herodotus next to Jared Diamond, or the Human Rights Watch Annual Report next to a business best-seller. It lets its staff review and suggest books, and ends up with a supremely engaging collection, not unlike Prep’s own.

            But why is all of this so important? Aren’t libraries and bookstores becoming anachronistic? Won’t the inevitable march of information technology push them to the side?

            Frankly, it might happen. Libraries, sadly, might become out of date. But librarians, I think never will. In fact, they will become more and more important, precisely because of their talents as information connoisseurs. In the modern age’s blizzard of information, we need people to act as guides, to help sort the relevant from the inane, the interesting from the boring, the profound from the shallow. And good librarians have that skill in spades.

            One thing to keep in mind though is that librarians are far more sophisticated thinkers than the news aggregation sites the modern web is filled with. The critical difference is that librarians think with more dimensionality. A site like the Huffington Post is driven by headlines: it has short articles and they’re all dealing with the present. Librarians, by contrast, have to think with enormous depth. The stock of their trade is not flat articles, a few pages long at most, but rather books: deep, three dimensional objects, which provide a range of information not only among them but within them. Furthermore, librarians, unlike news sites, must be aware not only of the present but of the past, and even of the future. They have to think infinitely harder. They are literary geniuses to the Huffington Post’s trashy paperback writers.

            So, as you face the complex and dizzying future, keep in mind that you are not without help. Find yourself some good libraries, some good bookstores, some good librarians; they’ll lead you through the storm. And best of all, you can start with Prep’s very own – they just so happen to be the best in the business.

-Eli Weinstein, Class of 2012

Olympic Reflections

My husband and I concluded our bi-annual tradition of losing sleep for the two weeks of Olympic coverage that lasts until midnight.  The sporting events have been remarkable.  Stories about Oscar Pistorius, Gabby Douglas, Kirani James, and countless other athletes touched our hearts.  It's been a wonderful experience, full of inspiring stories of dedication and sacrifice by athletes and their families.  For us, the back stories and kind gestures are maybe the biggest reason we watch the Olympics.

One of the stories that captivated us was the story of gymnast Olga Korbut, who didn't simply win gold medals (though she won four of them), she changed the face of women's gymnastics as well as the perception of Soviet athletes.  In the 1972 games in Munich, this 17-year-old joyfully charmed the audience with her talent.  This YouTube video shows her floor exercise.

After the games, the Soviet team was invited to meet with President Richard Nixon at the White
House.  It was said by some that this meeting helped prompt President Nixon to reach out to the USSR

and begin diplomatic relations.  The Olympics serves not simply as an athletic contest, but as a vehicle to know people from other countries, other cultures, other ethnicities.  Maybe it's the euphoria from the we-are-the-world closing ceremonies talking, but I can't help but think that it is from understanding one another in a neutral venue such as the Olympics, that is the key to the possibility of peace in the world.  My 1960s idealism is rekindled; no doubt about it.

In our library, we have the opportunity to connect with other cultures through our collection, whether in book or electronic format.  One of my favorite general titles is How to Be a Perfect Stranger, a book that lets the reader know what to expect when attending a religious service or celebration of various faiths.  Whether you're interest in world religions, cultural or food traditions, or want to explore the various ethnic and cultural areas of Los Angeles, we have a wealth of material to help you do just that.

Happy exploring!

Mrs. Hodge