The Manyholds List

The list of the titles with the most people waiting for them, the Books You're Willing to Wait in Line For, has been refreshed. The top dozen or so books people want to read are shown below; there's a higher proportion than usual of non-fiction. The current list is always available from the main page of the catalog (where it's called 'Current Popular Titles', and from the About Books & Literature page.

• The shape shifter / Tony Hillerman
• Nature girl / Carl Hiaasen
• The innocent man / John Grisham
• The inheritance of loss / Kiran Desai
• Cross / James Patterson
• Echo Park / Michael Connelly
• Wild fire / Nelson DeMille
• I feel bad about my neck : and other thoughts on being a woman / Nora Ephron
• The collectors / David Baldacci
• The audacity of hope : thoughts on reclaiming the American dream / Barack Obama
• Sweet swan of Avon : did a woman write Shakespeare? / Robin P. Williams
• Palestine : peace not apartheid / Jimmy Carter
• The emperor's children / Claire Messud
• Dear John / Nicholas Sparks
• The omnivore's dilemma : a natural history of four meals / Michael Pollan
• Blood and thunder : an epic of the American West / Hampton Sides

Comet McNaught in the Southern Hemisphere

There's an absolutely jaw-dropping photo of Comet McNaught, taken in Aukland, New Zealand, at spaceweather.com. Go look. This comet's tail is so large and sweeping that observers are managing to spot the further reaches of it in the northern hemisphere sky... Spaceweather has a gallery with many more images.

P.S. The particular photo we are pointing to will only be on top for a day. It's this one by Jamie Newman, and will remain available from the gallery page.

Watch WorldCat Grow (Again)

You can watch a selection of the titles being added to WorldCat, a freshly minted piece of data every eight seconds (during which time several dozen other titles may have been added as well). The page has been redesigned, but the action is just as mesmerizing as when we first posted about it, and more pertinent to us now that you have access to the whole WorldCat database through your library card.

To look up titles in WorldCat, go to the Magazine, Newspaper and Database page, click on "WorldCat from home with your library card" and you are on your way. If you don't have a Santa Fe Public Library card, you can use Open Worldcat. It gives you the same titles, just doesn't give you quite as much detail...

The display tells us there are 1,110,159,021 holdings... there are 1,110,159,195 holdings... 1,110,159,438... 1,110,169,003... What does that 'holdings' number mean? Suppose you are looking for Barbara Ehrenreich's 2005 title, Bait and switch : the (futile) pursuit of the American dream. Two thousand fourteen libraries own it at the moment. One title; 2014 holdings. 74 million titles; 1.1 billion holdings. Like that.

The really amazing thing is that occasionally in spite of 41,000 libraries on the network having among them those 74 million titles (see WorldCat Facts and Statistics), sometimes our Interlibrary Loan librarians are unable to find a title on the network, and so we can't borrow it from out of town for you. 74 million titles and what you want may still be unique. Or it may be added to the database in the next few seconds. Someone just added The house stood forlorn. Legacy of remembrance of a boyhood in the Russia of the late nineteenth century. Illustrations by M. Sochachewskv. Author, Cohen, Joseph J. Pub. Date, 1954 . Was that the one you wanted?

Main Library Storytime

NEW at Children's in the Main Library
February 7 to April 25 at 10am to 10:30am (every Wednesday) we will be having story time for 4 and 5 year olds. Call 955-6837 for registration or more information.

7th Annual National Storytelling Week 27th January - 3rd February 2007 This occurs in the British Isles but we can celebrate it here too.

Community Read

Mayor David Coss has invited the whole community to read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America this winter (January—March 2007) for Read on Santa Fe! Santa Fe's First Annual Community Read. The mayor says "Nickel and Dimed is about changing the way America perceives its working poor. Santa Fe is proud of its accomplishments to support working families. This community read is a great way for Santa Feans to continue the discussion of how to deal with the very serious issue of poverty in our community."

The City will host a series of related community events in March 2007 including discussions and films. Come by the library to pick up a copy of the bookmark (right) with some suggested additional reading.

Corect Speling

Spellcheck has arrived in the catalog. It works only in the keyword searches (and, yes, the keyword search includes authors, subjects & notes as well as titles). If you search for 'corect speling', for example, the catalog will cheerfully ask you "Did you mean correct spelling?" and let you either click on that or click on 'more' for additional choices. Search for 'Hawthone scarlet' and it will ask you "Did you mean Hawthorne scarlet"? Click on that and there you are with Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter. And so on.

It only works when it works; the words must be in the spellcheck software's database. But it's pretty nifty when it does work. And the array of choices you may be offered have their own poetry...

Holiday Reminder

We will be closed on Monday, January 15th, for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday. See you on Tuesday.

Daytime Comet

The weather here is not on our side for trying this, but spaceweather.com says Comet McNaught is now so bright it is visible in daylight. The website says "The secret to seeing McNaught: Get rid of the sun. You can do this by standing in the shadow of a tall building or billboard. Make a fist and hold it at arm's length. The comet is about one fist-width (5 degrees) east of the sun's position. Try it! Warning: Binoculars dramatically improve the view of the comet, allowing you to see structure within the tail. But please be super-careful not to look at the sun."

Waiting... Waiting...

Soon the building will inhale the staff, the collection, the computers.

Books and Babies

Registration has begun for the present cycle of the Books & Babies program. It will run from January 24th through February 28th, meeting on Wednesdays from 10:30AM--11 AM at the La Farge Library. Call 955-4863 to register.

Books and Babies is a six-week program for babies 6 months to 2-years old and their caregivers. It's never too early to start your child on the road to reading! Come join our play and language group. Your child will enjoy books, and songs, and finger finger games from the comfort of your lap. Oral traditions and books will provide an important pre-reading experience for your child. Learn how everyday experiences can pave the way to learning success in the future.

Registration begins Tuesday, January 15, 2007. To register or for more information call the children's room at the La Farge Branch at 955-4863. This is a free program. ADA accomodations available. Sponsored by the Brindle Foundation.

Manga Makes The Dictionary

Merriam-Webster posted a sampler of new words which are being added to the next edition of their dictionary. Manga, spyware, ringtone, biodiesel -- these make sense as words that won't evaporate. But they also think that "mouse potato", "drama queen", and "supersize" are going to last.

It does help to know the right words for things. We had a little boy come to the reference desk who wanted a book about how to draw anime. He was so clear and articulate about what he wanted that we almost told him we had books about anime but no how-to books, before realizing we needed to ask, 'Anime generally means movies. Is it manga that you want to draw?' Yes. Good. We've got lots in the catalog (any of the 21 'most relevant' hits might work), and there were even several on the shelf. Yaay.

Thanks to Our Descent Into Madness for pointing this one out.

More Bests From Readers in the Neighborhood

We're continuing to hear from people about the best book they've read in the last year or so. Here is today's batch:

Julian Barnes, Arthur & George
anything by Carl Hiaasen
David Dorado Romo, Ringside seat to a revolution : an underground cultural history of El Paso and Juárez, 1893-1923
Monica Ali, Alentejo Blue
the noir mysteries of Ken Bruen
Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States
Karen Russell, St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves second mention of this one!
Steve Erickson, Days Between Stations
Chuck Palahniuk, Survivor
Mary Roach, Stiff : the curious lives of human cadavers
      Again, we'll order the ones we don't yet have
Sarah Arvio, Visits From the Seventh
Carol J. Adams, The Pornography of Meat

Schedule Lite

There's not much on the calendar for January.

PreSchool Story Time registration has begun. The next cycle will run from February 6 to April 17th, on Tuesdays at the La Farge Branch Library. Two sessions run concurrently, 2 & 3-year-olds, 10:30 AM to 11:00 AM; 4, 5 & 6-year-olds, 10:30 AM to 11:15 AM

Children will enjoy stories, songs, finger games, puppets, and crafts. Call 955-4863 to register. Open enrollment. For more information call 955-4863

Monday, January 15th
The libraries will be closed in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., Day

Thursday, January 25th
A Tribute to Concha Ortiz y Pino
Kathryn Cordova, author of the book ¡Concha! Concha Ortiz y Pino: Matriarch of a 300-Year Old New Mexico Legacy, and Ana Pacheco, editor and publisher of La Herencia magazine, will present "A Tribute to Concha Ortiz y Pino" Thursday, January 25, 2007 7-8 pm in the Community Room of the Main Library, 145 Washington Ave. The program honors one of the best-known and most powerful women in New Mexico and her impressive accomplishments.

Afloat in the (E)Mailbox

A sharp-eyed mystery reader of the DorothyL email list found an article on an English language site from Sweden about a strongly negative book review-- for a book that wasn't ever written...

A librarian on the Public Libraries email list pointed out that Google now has a patent search. It has been possible for a long time to search the US patent database directly, but it's now possible to use the familiar Google interface and clarity of results display. Click on the About Google Patent Search link for more information.

One of our readers sent us a story about San Francisco Public Library's outreach program for the homeless; and another story from the Journal of the Online Bookseller's Association by a librarian who fell in love with the work of children's book illustrator Louis Slobodkin, and began collecting his books both personally and professionally.

If you're following the development of open access to journal articles, the SPARC Open Access Newsletter posted a fascinating summary of progress in 2006.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft team gave us a collection of terrific images for a seasonal gift, including the one to the right of Enceladus transiting Rhea, and a 3D view of Pandora (where oh where are those red-and-green spectacles that used to be on my desk!?).

American Library Association put out a press release with a seductive list of websites they have recently added to their Great Websites for Kids page. They also pointed out in the American Libraries newsletter that someone has posted the 1969 Monty Python skit about the Gorilla Librarian to YouTube.

"The Best Book I Read In The Last Year"

We're asking around. Here's the first batch of answers:

Karen Russell, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves
Kiran Desai, The inheritance of Loss
Michael Pollan, The omnivore's dilemma: a natural history of four meals
Sarah Waters, The Night Watch
anything by Terry Pratchett; his newest is Wintersmith
Colin Cotterill's mystery series about Dr. Siri Paiboun
Louise Erdrich, The Master Butchers Singing Club
John M. Barry, The great influenza : the epic story of the deadliest plague in history
Hal Duncan, Vellum
Umberto Eco, Baudolino
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals : the political genius of Abraham Lincoln

plus a couple we don't have and will be ordering:
Victor Villasenor, Macho! we did used to have this one, we'll get it replaced
Edward Bloor, London Calling

Southside in Snow....

The portal and entrance were still snowed in on Tuesday, but it will be what greets our patrons in the near future as they enter the Southside Branch Library. Under the snow on either side of the front entrance are over 400 bricks inscribed with names of friends, community members and loved ones, both human and from the animal world. The support of the community is greatly appreciated and these names will be a legacy to their generosity.

Books are scheduled to arrive in early February—over 60,000. We envision at Spring Break, the branch will be a beehive of students and community members attacking the shelves for information!

Snow and Ice Removal Update

The City's Public Information Officer has asked us to help get the following information out:

City of Santa Fe crews continue to work day and night to remove snow and ice from Santa Fe's streets.

The city is using every possible resource to remove snow and ice as quickly and efficiently as possible, mobilizing crews and equipment from various departments and divisions citywide, including Parks, Water, Wastewater and Parking as well as contracting with YouthWorks to remove snow and ice from ADA ramps and bus stops.

Last night, city crews were able to remove snow and ice from Don Gaspar, Water, Lincoln, Washington, Palace and Marcy. Crews are working to finish snow and ice removal on Johnson Street right now. This afternoon crews are working on Camino Cabra, Cruz Blanca, Monte Sol and Garcia. If there is time, crews will also try to get to Acequia Madre.

Tonight through tomorrow morning, crews will work on Galisteo, Cathedral, Canyon Road and East DeVargas in addition to finishing up the west end of San Francisco.

Again, in order for the city to be able to clear Canyon Road, all vehicles must be moved off the street by 11 p.m. tonight. It is difficult to impossible to clear the road properly with cars parked on the street. Parked vehicles also pose significant safety hazards to the machine operator and could result in damage to any parked vehicles.

Notice the important information in the last paragraph. Please don't leave your cars on Canyon Road tonight.

Snakes In Boxes

Last week's "Snake Awareness and Conservation" program was a big success. A lot of people, many being towed along by their eager grandchildren, came to to learn about and experience snakes. You can probably expect to see this program on the schedule again. P.S. For the phobic: all snakes were accounted for when they left.

A Song of Praise For The People Who Write Subject Headings

Did you see this wonderful passage by Matt Weiland in the New York Times Book Review? It's the opening paragraph of a review of Kockroach, by Tyler Knox; we haven't read the book, but this paragraph might warm any librarian's heart.

Our finest literary critics hold no endowed chairs and never win prizes, yet their work has the poetry of truth about it and there’s nobody better at answering the fundamental question about any book, a question always more interesting and always harder to answer than whether it’s any good: what is it really about? I mean, of course, the anonymous librarians who prepare the Cataloging in Publication data for the Library of Congress, the brief descriptive classifications that appear on the copyright page of most books. Is there a more succinct description of John Updike's "Rabbit, Run than "Middle class men — Fiction"? What writer doesn't envy the economy and force of "Massacres — Fiction" for Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" and "Industrial accidents — Fiction" for Don DeLillo’s "White Noise"? And will there ever be a finer gloss on Marilynne Robinson’s "Housekeeping" than "Eccentrics and eccentricities — Fiction"?

Many thankyous to Mr. Weiland, and to the New York Times, for permission to quote the whole paragraph.

Happy New Year, and Keep Shoveling :-)

We were too demoralized by various infrastructure issues to get out and take pictures of the big snowfall. But George Johnson of Santa Fe Review went out on snowshoes in his eastside neighborhood and got some nice ones for his December 30th, Snow Day, post....

One of the news stories which came up this weekend while we were all snowed in was about the Ayles Ice Shelf, which broke off Ellesmere Island (the news was new, the shelf itself broke off in 2005). There were interesting articles (1)(2)(3). As to size--15 kilometers by 5 kilometers--it is not in the same league as the big berg which broke off the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica in March of 2000. That one, whose name was B-15, measured 300km x 37km, and has been bumping along the Antarctic coast slowly breaking up ever since. But the removal of that big slice of the Ross shelf was considered a normal adjustment; the fate of the Ayles Ice Shelf, on the other hand, is being construed as a highly significant indicator of conditions in the Arctic Ocean, and attributed to global warming.

There is not necessarily any connection between our big snowstorm, or any other single piece of extreme weather-- or for that matter any individual extreme season-- and the larger-scale changing of the climate, except in the sense that more extremes of weather are one of the predicted consequences of the warming. (If you google the phrase 'increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather events' you get a lot of climate change sites back, with almost no hint of an original source. We think it might be one of the IPCC documents, but haven't found a proper citation yet.)