Summer Reading 2013

Spring has sprung here in Hutchinson and though it seems far away at the moment, the end of school is just around the corner. One of the most important things parents can do for their children during the long summer break is to get them involved in reading. When it's too hot to play out side or some downtime is needed, reading will keep their vocabulary skills honed and their minds sharp heading into the next school year.

Here at the Hutchinson Public Library, we will be digging into reading all summer long! With story time programs for pre-k and elementary-aged children and reading programs for children, young adults AND adults, it shouldn't be hard to keep everyone reading. The articles I've linked above point out the problems and offer many solutions. The main idea though, is that as long as your child remains engaged with books and learning during the summer, losses to grade-level skills will be minimized or eliminated.

Our programs are free to the public, our library cards are free with proof of address, and our services, including a huge array of children's and young adult programming, are too many to list here.

SF Book Discussion

This past month's book was The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. Considered by many to be the best war-themed science fiction novel ever written, our group tackled it with what seems to be our trademark skepticism. To summarize the discussion, I don't think any of us did NOT like the book, I just don't think any of us were convinced that it is THE penultimate SF war novel.

The novel, written in 1974, is a criticism of war in general and is specifically a parable of the Vietnam War. It works as such and the reader gets a very definite impression of the futility of war. I really did like the book. It has a disconnected, dispassionate feel to it that really gave me the feeling that it didn't matter what happened to Private Mandella or any of the other characters. The higher-ups had decided to test out the Earth's war machine and the individual was simple a grunt or pawn to carry out the experiment and see if we were tougher than "them". If you want a lesson in the effects of war on individuals as well as a lesson on relativity, I would recommend you read this book! If you click the jacket art, it will take you to the library's catalog and you can check out The Forever War.

We will read the classic Alfred Bester novel, The Stars My Destination for next month's discussion. The discussion will take place Thursday, April 4th at 7pm in the library's conference room #2 on the second floor.

eBooks at HPL

If you have a Hutchinson (Kansas) Public Library card and are interested in reading e-style, then you might want to check out our website. Click on the E-Everything tab and you will find 2 sources for ebooks and 2 sources for eaudiobooks:

ebooks: 3M Cloud Library
ebooks: OverDrive

eaudiobooks: OneClickdigital by Recorded Books
eaudiobooks: OverDrive

Also, if you have a State of Kansas library card, you can access the resources provided state-wide at the Kansas EZ Library. They also have a selection of ebooks and downloadable eaudio.

All this to point out one of our oldest, yet handiest (I think) electronic tools:  Wowbrary.It's a simple, free weekly e-newsletter with a big punch.Once you are signed up, every Wednesday Wowbrary will send you a newsletter showcasing everything HPL has added to it's collection in the previous week - including ebooks!

SF Book Discussion

Our Science Fiction Book Discussion group met this Thursday for our first meeting of the year. Our new schedule is a monthly book discussion on the first Thursday evening of every month at 7pm. Meetings are held in the Conference Room #2 upstairs at the library.

This month we discussed J.R.R. Tolkien's classic, The Hobbit. The bulk of the discussion revolved (not surprisingly, I suppose) around the book's recent translation to film. We spent a good deal of the discussion talking about the relative merit that should be given to some of the criticism of Tolkien's most famous "children's book".

Next month (March 7th) we will discuss Joe Haldeman's war novel, The Forever War. Written by a well-known and celebrated science fiction author as well as Vietnam veteran, the book is probably his best known. It is an interstellar war story in the vein of Heinlein's "Starship Troopers", but there the similarities end. I am looking forward to reading this book.

On April 4th we will discuss Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. Written several years after Bester's Hugo Award-winning The Demolished Man, it is a sort of proto cyber punk novel mashed up with a tale of a man who is shipwrecked and abandoned.

SNAPSHOT: Tell us how to serve you better!

The Hutchinson Public Library is conducting a week-long snapshot survey to help us focus better on the things you really want us to do or provide. Please help us by filling out the survey (if you are or might become a patron here).

There are a couple of simple, specific questions we're asking, but most of the survey is open-ended for you to tell us about what you would like or how we could help you. The entire survey can be completed in about 5 minutes, unless you have a lot to write! Please help, and "Thank you!" in advance.

HPL apps and tools

New tool round-up:

• 3M Cloud Library
• OneClick eAudio Service
• Transparent Language Online
• And my new favorite - OWL iLibrary.

This last tool is a handsome and powerful app that allows you to use the library's catalog and your library account like you would using a traditional computer and browser.  It's available for Apple and Android-based devices and it's free.

If you read (or listen to) your books "e", then HPL has three different services for you.

• We have OverDrive, which has both ebooks and eaudio downloads.
• We have the 3M Cloud Library, a new service which is ebooks only.
• We have OneClick Digital, another new service that is eaudio only.

If you are interested in learning a new language or brushing up on a disused one, we also have a new learning program called Transparent Language Online.

If you click the library logo, you will be taken to the Hutchinson Public Library website.  From there, click on the "E-Everything" menu on the far right of the gray bar.

The only prerequisite for using any of these tools is an active Hutchinson Public Library card - and that's free too!

We've been "MacMillan'd"!

Maybe that's not the catchiest phrase, but public libraries have been graced with the possibility of "buying" and circulating ebooks from one of the Big 6! This should be great news, right? It is not terrible news, but it fits in the grand scheme of things at about the "meh" level.

First, it is a pilot project. Second, the titles are from the backlist of MacMillan's Minotaur imprint which publishes mainly crime/mystery fiction. Third, the titles will cost libraries $25 each and have a "shelf life" of 52 circs or two years, which ever comes first.

In other words, we get to circulate to you, our patrons, old titles you may already have read and unlike old PAPER titles you may already have read, they won't languish on our virtual shelves - they'll automatically weed themselves in two years!

Maybe I should be more worried, sooner rather than later human librarians will be obsolete.  We are being replaced by publishers who are cutting out the middle man.  Don't worry though, the business men will look out for culture and history.  They'll make it all available to the individual, I'm sure...for a low recurring monthly payment.