THE AMBIDEXTROUS LIBRARIAN

Sometimes you read a book, and it really inspires you. I'm sure you've had the feeling.  It's like when you read a book on a new health fad and you're thinking - my GOD, all the answers to my health problems and weight issues and ageing fears will all be fixed by this wonderful new eating regime!  It's so obvious!!  I will start it immediately and I will be SO HEALTHY. And so you start down the track of religiously following all the ideas and themes laid out in the book.  Then a couple of weeks go by and some old habits start sneaking in, just here and there.  Then it's a month and there are whole days where you forget the book and its life-changing ideas (mainly because, well, maybe your life hasn't changed as much as you would have hoped).  A year later, the book and it's ideas are at the Op Shop. This trajectory of events happens with fiction books as well.  A story grabs you by the shirt and drags you through its emotional depths and giddy he...

It's Saturday.  I'm at work. I work Saturdays - Saturday is my permanent shift and I gotta say I am used to working them now, it also helps that I don't have any other family routines to conflict with the concept of the weekend.  I used to think that one day was pretty much like the other.  The sun rises, you do stuff, the sun sets.  Turns out though the cultural attitudes and expectations that are associated with certain days (Monday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday), still linger quite strongly, even if your schedule is no longer based upon the routines that give these days their flavour. So now my Saturday is like my....  Tuesday.  Kind of.  Friday is Monday.  Monday is Friday.  Does that make sense?  Probably not.  Either way, working in an institution that is open every day is a little weird (and I'm also talking Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years, even if it just for chute clearing).  The entire year just morphs into a ...

As part of my endless quest for professional development, I am currently undertaking an online course via www.futurelearn.com entitled "The Right to Education". ALIA sent through the link some months ago and it piqued my interest, despite the fact i'm not really an educator.  The course is based on the idea (or should I say "ideal") that all children should have access to free, quality education - regardless of their physical, psychological or social circumstance, but most of the content centres around the issues that prevent the realisation of this ideal. It would be Captain Obvious of me to say there are a LOT of barriers to education. Poverty, location, geography, war, gender, resources; just to name a few. If you live in a war-torn country, or a community that struggles for basic food, water, shelter or safety - education is going to fall a little low on your priority list.  But here in Australia, in all the glory and random luck of our first world birt...

MUSIC AND WORDS The other day my favourite bookshop (Readings) opened a new branch in a mega mall in Doncaster.  I'm not usually one for mega malls, but I felt the need to go and support Readings and basically give myself an excuse to browse and buy books (accompanied by another Librarian friend, of course). One of the books I bought was Music and Freedom by Zoe Morrison.  It so happens that this title just won the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction for 2016.  Totally justified win, it has to be said. I am a Librarian.  I am a mediocre musician.  I love all things creative that centre around words and sounds, so this book spoke to me in spades.  But spades of what?  Spades of discomfort and rage.  Spades of melancholy and infuriation (is that even a word).  Spades of happiness and hope.  Spades of curiosity.  A wide spectrum of spades. I would suggest that you start reading this book with the author's biograph...

Sometimes realisations will come to me in a flash.  Like someone has given my brain a solid nudge, and some loose piece of knowledge will finally settle snugly into its rightful place.  This happened to me the other day when I was serving a young man. He wanted to join the library, which was totally cool.  I love it when people join the library.  So I went through the usual spiel of asking for photo ID, proof of address, yadda yadda.  He gave me his Learners Permit.  Usually that's all you need. Except his Learner's only had one name, printed twice, and his birthday was 01/01/1996 or something like that.  I was a little bit suspicious.  "Do you have any other ID with your name on it?" I politely enquired.  At which point he gave me a couple of other cards, all with the same information.  I couldn't really question 3 forms of ID with the same info, so I just went ahead and created his library card with the details he had provided me....

There were a number of practical, on-the-job type things that we did not learn in Library School.  We did not learn how to repair staplers.  We did not learn how to navigate paper jams or troubleshoot WiFi on the millions of different devices that exist.  We did not learn the fine art of disentangling oneself from a patron who single-mindedly keeps telling you about their Telstra woes, even when they can see the queue of people growing behind them. And they did not tell us about the sickness. The sickness!  I don't have kids.  This is evidently my first problem.  My immune system has not been fortified by the varied and wondrous bugs and bacteria that kiddy-winks amass in their school years, happily sharing them with their folks.  My immune system has, up to this point, sailed through adulthood free of the stress of a constant barrage of public illness (even though much of my previous career was spent working with hospitals).  Ahhh but this t...

WHEN THINGS GET TENSE Not sure how to start discussing this one.  It was a weird night in the library.  And as the title of this post suggests, things got a little tense.  I guess I can expect to see this sometimes, or maybe more than sometimes.  When you're in an public space that's warm and inviting and entertaining and comfortable, people are going to want to hang out.  Unlike your lounge room though, you don't really have a say as to who that is.  Sometimes the odd person wanders in who is a little different, or perhaps has taken something they shouldn't have, and things get tense.  We are dealing with humanity here.  We're a diverse bunch. We had a young guy come in tonight who is known to staff.  He has his issues, whether they be mistreatment or a bit of neuro-diversity or maybe a bit of both, who knows.  He likes to pace and sometimes can be a little loud, but for the most part he keeps to himself.  Mostly.  I guess...

FREEDOM TO SKIP PAGES, IF NECESSARY Jonathan Franzen - don't get me wrong, I really do love his books.  But as with every book lover (that's a sweeping generalisation, but I have the freedom to generalise), sometimes you just go through bit of a reading lull. I found this when reading Franzen's Freedom .  I have had Freedom  sitting there for yonks, but have been intimidated by its size.  Mainly because I had become used to reading YA novels, and I felt like I was back in those teenage years taking the first tentative steps into the ocean of adult literature.  I was daunted by the depth and complexity that I knew would sit beneath the lines. I don't know why I make myself believe that every foray into adult literature needs to be such an exercise in analysis and insightful questioning.  It must be the high school English student in me has never really graduated.  Why can't I just relax and enjoy the book?  I did, for the most part, really en...

AN UNEXPECTED CASE OF THE FEELS I am a couple of months in to my time at one of the busiest (if not the busiest) and most needy libraries in Victoria.  I am loving every minute (I say this seriously), aside from the disconcerting feeling that life is flying by.  No longer do the work weeks drag or the afternoons push through molasses.  I come to work, I help lots of people, I go home and the day is done.  I will be planning my retirement before I know it. The other night it was a little quieter than usual.  I was in the non-fiction section, perfect ordering, shelf tidying, nothing too taxing.  A young girl who must have been like, 19 or 20 wanders in, with numerous double-bagged plastic bags full of what looked like text books and notebooks, a bulging purse and a sweet, cheery-faced boy of about 4 who happily followed her around, non-complaining, eating a jam sandwich and grinning. She looked harried, and let's be honest she looked like she had had a ...

THE GENTLE ART OF CONFLICT AVOIDANCE As part of my public library persona, I have to (unsurprisingly) deal with the public.   Being in one of the busiest and most diverse communities in Victoria I also deal with some interesting customers.  Thankfully, my employer is fairly insightful on this front and so recently arranged for us newbies to attend a full day of "Conflict Resolution Training". Our trainer was no slouch.  He seemed fairly laid back, but then casually mentioned that he is one of only four high-level hostage negotiators within Australia, and has trained in negotiation with the SAS and the FBI.  Not that I imagine a heated overdue fine discussion will ever end in a hostage situation, but I guess it depends on the size of the fine.  As with any typical training session, there was a lot of whiteboard writing and workbook reading and question answering - but what was most interesting was watching video snippets of previous students navigating their ...

PD IS NOT A CHORE. I am pretty new to this whole Librarian thing.  I only graduated in 2015 and can count the number of library jobs I have held on one hand - but my inexperience and untarnished idealism mean that I am keen to throw myself straight into the mosh pit.  I ain't afraid of getting few bruises, or perhaps a scuffed Dr. Marten in the chin. Having just gained employment at both a public and academic library, I have so many "Professional Development" options to choose from.  It's kind of overwhelming.  I'm not even sure which career path I wish to take; but I do know that I want to keep up and keep learning.  Drink my coffee in places where all the interesting stuff is going down, the ideas are fresh, the music is good and (most importantly) the coffee is decent.  But being new to the block, how do I know where to go? It seemed to me that the most obvious choice was to seek guidance from my professional association.  Enter ALIA (the Aust...

NORWEGIAN WOOD (Haruki Murakami) Murakami is a strange reading experience.  If you like solid, fast-paced realism with a clear, satisfying ending - Murakami is probably not for you.  If you like something a little more gossamer and ethereal.  Something that floats around the edges of magical realism, or perhaps dips its toes lightly in a pond of peculiar every now and then - you will love Murakami. Having said that, Norwegian Wood has no magical realism in it at all (sorry about that), but it still embodies that floaty, misty, breathy (how many adjectives can I insert here?) mood of his writing.   Norwegian Wood is a tale of a boy and a girl making their way gradually into adulthood.  One tragic event from their past keeps them joined, yet also keeps them apart.  Set in the late 60's amidst the urban mass of Tokyo, Murakami still manages to take this landscape and puff wistful. lonely tendrils down it's back alleys and dormitories.  And yet the ...

After a minor interruption to service, I'm back and I've installed an upgrade! For those of you out there who may actually read this blog (the one or two of you, hi Mum), life has been more than a little busy of late and has interfered with my ability to read, and to blog.  Basically, I have been experiencing a career crisis.  Actually that's a bit dramatic it wasn't really a crisis (I just like the familiar-sounding alliteration), it was more that I really didn't like my job.  Don't get me wrong, my colleagues were AWESOME and that counts for so much in a workplace, but as a new Librarian, the job itself was probably as unchallenging and backward as it could get.  A career cul-de-sac.  A dead end.  A career coffin.  A place of final rest. So what was the position?  It was at a school.  A lovely school of a certain educational philosophy that was rather anti-technology and fairly set in its ways.  I sort of knew this when I started,...

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (M.R. CAREY) This book was totally worth every last cent of the $12.00 I paid for it.  Wandering the isles of Big W in an attempt to kill some time, I (naturally) gravitated towards the book section and was overcome by the psychology of the retail displays.  10 minutes later I had parted with my money.  Kudos to the marketing psychologists for a job well done! I was sucked in by the bright yellow cover, and the fact that it was crowded with glowing reviews, one of which was by Joss Whedon and I thoroughly respect anything that man has to say.  I didn't even really know what the book was about, as the jacket was so crammed with praise the actual blurb was very brief.  Perhaps that helped in the end - I'm not sure I would have picked it up if I knew the story was about zombies. That's not to say that I don't enjoy a good fantasy / sci-fi.  And I do really enjoy the current popularity of zombie apocalypse tales; they are ...

THE SINGING BONES (SHAUN TAN) This book is extraordinary. I have written on Shaun Tan before, but in case you missed it, he has an uncanny ability to inject a subtle sense of unease and disquiet into his works - both written and visual.  There is something that is simplistic and mesmerising about his art.  I find myself staring at the tiniest detail with a furrowed brow, all the while wondering how the simple curve of a line, or detail of shadow, can make me feel like I should look over my shoulder; like there is something waiting for me just beyond that dark corner. When I discovered that Shaun Tan had published a book of Grimm's Fairytales, and had created artworks to depict each narrative - I dived on it like a seagull on a chip.  And I haven't been disappointed.  The book does not seek to retell each tale in its entirety - each double page spread presents a small but flavoursome morsel of the tale, which is then enriched by Tan's sculptural interpretation...

THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO (PATRICK NESS) This book has been on my "to read" list for ages .  I finally read it.  Sweet hallelujah.  For other Librarians out there who may be reading this, you know what I'm talking about; the sheer pleasure of managing to ACTUALLY FINISH A BOOK from the ever growing pile.  I feel like I should have a drink to celebrate. And so, the talented Patrick Ness.  We recently acquired The Rest of Us Just Live Here  for the collection (another for the "to read" list), but I thought I would start with The Knife of Never Letting Go  because it has awards slapped all over it, and it's been around for ages and y'know, people generally rave.  Published back in 2008, it's been around a while now.  And it's a sort of near-future sci-fi dystopian tale.  Interestingly it was dystopian before  The Hunger Games  opened the floodgates. Todd Hewitt is a boy about to become a man.  He was born into the...

THE CAT WITH THE COLOURED TAIL (GILLIAN MEARS) I'm a Librarian, so there is a high statistical probability that I am also a cat lover (yep, it's true).  I gravitate towards cat themed stories with the same level of uncanny intuition that primary school girls have for horse and pony stories.  It's a gift. When one of my colleagues suggested we obtain The Cat with the Coloured Tail , I naturally thought it was a fabulous idea.  It arrived a couple of weeks ago and has already been borrowed once; when I put it back on display I was reminded that I should really take it home and read it one evening. And then Gillian Mears died. Gillian Mears - Sydney Morning Herald I knew of Gillian Mears; you can't be a Librarian and not know of  Foals Bread,  and I have The Grass Sister sitting on my bookshelf downstairs.  But I had not yet delved into her children's fiction, and so on the news of her passing I felt it was time to read what was to be the final fru...

LITTLE REBEL CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARDS 2016 Subversive, intelligent children's books.  Could I find a better topic to talk about? The Little Rebels Children's Book Awards ( administered by the UK's Letterbox Library as part of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers )  are a relatively new thing, having been around for only a few years (since 2013 it seems).  Is this because it is only recently that authors have felt the need to tackle big societal issues in children books?  I pondered this for a while and then realised that Dr. Seuss would argue with me (and win) on that point. Let me start by saying that although I think the title "Little Rebels" is awesome, I am actually going to say that I think there should be nothing deemed "rebellious" about reading literature that encourages us to think and form our own opinions.  In fact, I dislike my own description of the nominees as "subversive", but I'll maintain that adjective to argue my...

GOTTA #LOVEOZYA I actually went and did a little "Professional Development" the other day, dragging myself into the city to attend a Teacher/Librarian do that Readings Hawthorn hosted.  The evening consisted of four fabulous Australian YA authors talking on their latest middle years and YA offerings (and there was also wine!). I didn't really know what to expect, but I certainly didn't expect to walk out of there feeling as inspired as I did.  It was awesome, and really quite uplifting. Emily Gale and Leanne Hall tackled the difficulties of writing for those odd middle years - not really a kid, but not quite a teenager.  If you can cast your minds back (I found it hard) it's a time when your folks are expecting you to act more mature, and you're feeling more mature, but no one is really giving you any credit or independence.  How do you reach that readership, and as an adult write something that doesn't sound either too simple, or like you're ...

#somethingwickedthiswaycomes It seems I may have been dwelling these last few days on innovative ways to get people reading.  After the comments I made in my previous post about possible future iterations of "the book", I stumbled across this example whilst aimlessly surfing the Googles: Macbeth is #killingit  (link to Booktopia) Yep, it's #Macbeth.  And apparently #Macbeth is #killingit. This is somewhat stretching my idea of what I was talking about in my previous post, i.e. innovative ways to engage kids in reading.  I dunno, this just seems somewhat... lame.  I mean, on the cover Lord and Lady Macbeth appear to have their heads substituted with emoji.  With. Emoji.  And they are checking in to their various locations and presumably hash-tagging their adventures whilst snap chatting the latest #epicdeadbody or #crazylady.  Students can see though this guise pretty  quickly, they are very wise to these adult attempts to ap...

SUNSHINE, DECKS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS So, that's another year out of the way! I hope you enjoyed the school holidays.  I certainly did.  For me, it wasn't so much bookish as practical.  I cleared some land, levelled it, landscaped it and made a deck.  Not much time for reading in between all that but it was therapeutic to get out in the sun. Because all this practicality left me little time to actually read, I decided to focus on something a little less wordy, but no less relevant - the graphic novel.  Now, I did read a few but they are a little too adult to be termed YA so I probably won't review them here (one was an excellent memoir of growing up in Yorkshire when the Yorkshire Ripper was on the loose - highly recommended, but not particularly YA friendly). Devouring these graphic novels made me realise that literature comes in so many forms these days.  Traditionalists may find it easy to dismiss the graphic novel, but having read several excell...