Summer Reading - Hutchinson Digs It

The Summer Reading Programs are finished, there's nothing left but sweeping up and clearing the bats out of the Children's Department (drop by to see what I'm talking about!)

The great news is that HPL patrons are avid readers - voracious even! Over the past 3 years, we have concentrated on increasing the number of children who finish the reading program. We are definitely headed toward our goal of having nearly every child complete the 10-books-or-10-hours requirement. Here's what happened this year:

• 1,092 - Number of children registered for the program
• 581 - Number of children who turned in completed reading logs
• 1,460 - Number of children attending summer story times
• 440 - Number of children attending the 4 craft days (average 110 per event)
• 120 - Number of Young Adults "Questing for Read-a-lot"

What can we take from this? The main thing is that children in Hutchinson and Reno County read well over 5,810 books or hours during June and July. I think that's pretty fantastic! We've achieved an increase in completion rates of more than 6% over last year - that's also pretty fantastic.

Children need to read - we need to make sure they learn to love reading. It helps in every aspect of their educational lives and provides an avenue to relaxation that can be a life-long pursuit. The fact of the matter is that modern technology is changing the way we learn and the unknown is whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Numerous studies and books have been conducted and written on the effects of the Internet on our attention spans (overview article here). It is important, in my opinion, to re-enforce deep, critical thinking skills and reading whole books can help this.

Libraries and Modern Psychology

We have had a disaster of sorts here at HPL beginning a few days ago. As of this morning, it looks like it will continue for at least for another week. This disaster is vexing to both staff and patrons. Although we are able to open the doors every day, it is amazing to me and apparently HUGELY distressing to the patrons who have complained to me, the effects of our disaster.

So what happened? Fire? Thank goodness, no. Flood? No. Electric failure or water main break? Closer. The disaster that befell us is that our WiFi system completely died. Dead. Kaput. And frankly, this is what WiFi means to me and many others these days:

Many of you may recognize this as (mostly)psychologist Abraham Maslow's famous Heirarchy of Needs. I have taken the liberty of crudely modifying it to fit my needs, but I think the illustration is appropriate to the situation. I cannot take credit for this joke, I've seen it spread all around the Internet (though not on my tablet here at the library this week!)

I hate to admit it, but I really am quite reliant on my mobile devices for my day-to-day activities. I feel the pain of our patrons during this very trying time. To be honest, Internet connectivity actually helps me realize some of my "self-actualization" needs on Maslow's chart. I'm creating this post on a wired computer, but WiFi helps me to do that anywhere inspiration strikes.

There is good news to come out of this. Replacing our clunky old WiFi box was on the slate of projects for this year and very soon we'll have a slick, new, load-balancing system with an easy-to-log-into interface. Coverage will be much better in our building and we'll have a strong signal in the meeting rooms and other public areas. In the meantime, there are a number of ways to cope with WiFi withdrawal. Go outside! Get some exercise! Dare I say it? Read a book!

Graphic Novel & Comic Art Festival!

This is going to be great fun! On Saturday, September 21st, come to the library to learn about the art and craft of graphic novels, comic books, and comic art.

Check the library’s web site at http://www.hutchpl.org for updates!

Ande Parks Baldwin City, is a professional American comic book artist, known for his work as an inker and writer in the industry. His greatest notoriety has come from his stint with fellow artist Phil Hester on DC Comics' Green Arrow series from 2001 to 2004 and writing the graphic novels UNION STATION and CAPOTE IN KANSAS by Oni Press. Ande will provide a behind the scenes look at graphic novel development using his book CAPOTE IN KANSAS, which was named a Kansas Notable Book in 2006.

Joe Sutliff Sanders Manhattan, is a specialist in children's and adolescent literature, and he teaches a broad variety of courses relevant to books for young readers at K-State. He also has a particular passion for comics, graphic novels, fantasy, science fiction, and horror. Joe will lead a graphic novel discussion of SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY during a brown bag lunch, as well as speak on “The Gleeful Science of Comics” later in the afternoon. To reserve a copy of SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY to read for the discussion, email Annette, amsmith59@gmail.com

John Eberly Hutchinson, was an extraordinarily active artist in the mid-1980’s and gained an international reputation as an underground cartoonist, also producing scads of zines and Xerox publications under the umbrella of Mumbles Publications. John’s presentation will be a history of publishing “commix”, and will include a discussion of underground comics of the 60’s, ‘70’s, and early ‘80’s, the advent of self-publishing in the 1980’s and the “NET” as precursor to the Internet. He will include a demonstration of how to make your own “comix”. *Includes adult themes, parental guidance suggested.

Bryan Dietrich Wichita, is the author of a book-length study on comics, Wonder Woman Unbound, and six books of poems, Krypton Nights, Universal Monsters, The Assumption, Prime Directive, The Monstrance, and Love Craft. He is also co-editor of Drawn to Marvel, an anthology of superhero poetry. Bryan will present “Drawn to Marvel: Pop-Classicism and Poetry of Comics”.






There will be comic art in the library as well, including work by “Hutchinson as Smallville”
advocate Christopher Wietrick. The display cases will be full of action figures, memorabelia, and more!

This Festival is funded in part by the Kansas Humanities Council, a non-profit cultural organization promoting understanding of the history, traditions, and ideas that shape our lives and build community.

eBook Sales Decline?

That seems like an exaggeration to me, but the numbers show a dramatic slow-down in the pace of sales increases. This article from Slate by author Robert Rosenberger is a fascinating read. From the article, the most plausible speculation as to why this is happening is the rise in tablet computing. The dedicated ereader has fallen by the wayside as tablets have become more affordable. Compared to a dedicated ebook reader, tablets offer a tremendous variety of things to do BESIDES read.

So, are people simply reading less altogether? The article doesn't delve into this much, but I can tell you that while foot traffic in our library has never been greater, paper book circulation has declined over the past 12 months. eBook circulation here is still in its infancy due to the slow growth of the collection and the ridiculous tactics of big publishers and their treatment of public libraries.

Public library problems aside, the notion that reading at length is declining is a very scary prospect. Will Rogers, I think, gave us this thought about reading / learning:

There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

I hope the Slate article does not turn out to mean that the latter group is growing - that's not a good thing. But I wonder what this means for all the money we've been pouring into ebooks.

Who Goes There?

Last night the SF discussion group screened the Howard Hawks' version of John Campbell's novella Who Goes There? Following the film we discussed the differences (there are many) between the two. Hawks' "The Thing" is definitely and adaptation and reflects the time in which the film was made, 1951.

Campbell's novella features scientists in the antarctic, the discovery of ancient alien life frozen in the ice, and the eventual discovery that the "Thing" will take over world if the few men at the station can't stop it.

Hawks' movie is set near the North Pole and features a heavy presence of military activity and Cold War paranoia that the Russians are up to something. The Thing cash lands near an outpost and a group of scientist are sent to investigate the site. After a mishap with the alien craft, an alien body is found and transported back to the station. The movie then centers around the familiar motif of scientists-versus-military, alien friend or foe conflict between the human characters. Of all the B-movies I have seen though, this one ranks high in the watch-ability category.

I don't want to spoil either movie or novella if you haven't experienced them, but the fact that the movie and story are quite unlike one another doesn't really make a difference. Campbell's writing is tight and his story is suspenseful. Hawks' film is definitely a loose take on the novella, but is good fun if not exactly...scary.

All-in-all, I thought this was a fun exercise and hope we can do it more often!