WordStock

New Mexico Literary Arts sends word of an upcoming event: WordStock
Poetry Gathering, Fundraiser and Friendraiser
Sponsored by New Mexico Literary Arts
Saturday, Nov. 12th-Noon-6pm
Poets, writers, artists, publishers, booths, books, food, fun.
PLUS: Poetry Fortune Cookies!
NMLA board reading 1pm
Youth Reading: 2:30pm
Haiku Hooha: 4pm

Meet and Greet and Eat
Pot Luck!
At Desert Academy
313 Camino Alire, Santa Fe

First Things First

Proceedings proceeding at the site of Southside Library:

Unplugging for Just a Few Days

For a few days the library's principal blogger is going to be where there is little connectivity. Don't panic, we will be back on October 30 or so, and resume our more-or-less six-days-out-of-seven routine. 
       We've put up a whole flock of posts in the past couple of days, hoping you won't quite notice we're gone. Meanwhile if you start craving library blog input, try Sites and Soundbytes (Green Lake, WI); SJCPL Lifeline (Saint Joseph County, IN); Marin County Free Library (CA); Thomas Ford Memorial Library (Western Springs, IL); or Off the Shelves from La Grange Park Public Library (IL) (where the post on top at the moment is the list of the National Book Awards finalists).

Halloween Party

Don't forget about the Childrens Department's Halloween Party, Saturday, October 29th at the Main Library. There will be a special performance by Clan Tynker. Come in costume and enjoy the magic, juggling and treats. Main Library, 2 PM. (If you're a grownup, bring a kid.)

The Lawrence Map

I was having what NPR calls "a driveway moment," sitting in my car listening to the story about T. E. Lawrence's recently rediscovered hand-drafted 1918 "peace map" of the Middle East. What got me out of the car was rushing to see whether (oh surely!) the map itself would be viewable online. Yes, of course.
       Isn't the Web wonderful?

Crane Kids On the Move

The Fifth Ultralight-led Whooping Crane Migration, Hatch Year 2005, is on its way. To follow their progress, go to the Follow the Fall Migration page and click on the most recent date. You will find a graphic marked with their progress.

The Camp at Casa Solana

It's a frequent reference question: what can we find about the World War II relocation camp which held Japanese-American civilians in Santa Fe? It was in what is now the residential neighborhood behind the Solana Center, off West Alameda Street. In 1999 a historical marker was placed in Frank Ortiz Park overlooking the site.
       Though we have a lot of resources generally about the evacuation and relocation of the Japanese-Americans, we have very few print resources about the Santa Fe camp in particular: a chapter in Essays in 20th Century New Mexico History; a brief tunnel-vision account of its conversion from an old CCC camp in Michael E. Welsh's U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Albuquerque District, 1935-1985; a depressing clipping file including typewritten articles, news stories dating from several decades, material printed off the web. One of the recent articles shows an aerial view of the camp overlaid with the modern street grid.
       Available online resources include a website which pulls together information, photos, writing, and paintings, Many Mountains Surrounding (from the internees' name for Santa Fe); a page at the Japanese American National Museum about artist George Hoshida, which includes some of his drawings from the Santa Fe camp; an online book at the National Park Service site, Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites, that includes the Department of Justice Internment Camp in Santa Fe; a recent story from the New Mexican.
       The Department of Justice camp in Santa Fe held only men, mostly middle-aged. Much more has been written about the camps scattered around the west which held families--Manzanar, Heart Mountain, Topaz, Amache--memoirs, childrens books, novels. A recent example is Julie Otsuka's 2002 novel, When the Emperor Was Divine.

What's Happening NOW : Southside Pix

Actually, this week's pictures look a lot like last week's. They are still shaping, scraping, pounding, and moving the dirt around. There will be a Southside Library!!

New Mexico Energy Rebate Table

The New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department has posted the schedule of rebates per tax return for the 2005 New Mexico Personal Income Tax Energy Rebate.
       You don't have to do anything. The check will be in the mail if you filed a state income tax return this year.

Reference Question : Hurricane Names

The short answer to the question which is on many people's minds as Hurricane Wilma prepares to bear down on Florida is that Wilma is the last name prepared for this season--q, u, x, y, and z are not used--and if they need to name additional storms they will move on to the Greek alphabet.
      Names are recycled every six years, except that influential hurricanes have their names retired. There won't be another Katrina, or Andrew, or Hugo. There's a chart available on the Unisys Weather Page.

Book Arts Group : 7th Annual Exhibit

This weekend the Santa Fe Book Arts Group in partnership with the Santa Fe Public Library will present their 7th Annual Exhibit, Celebration of Books. The exhibit will be at the Main Library in the community room, on Saturday, October 22 from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, and Sunday, October 23, 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM.
       Many beautiful One-of-a-Kind books will be on display, and there will be a demonstration video of bookmaking showing continuously.

The Penguins Are Back!!

One of our readers stopped by the desk to point out that the penguins returned on October 14 to Penguin-Cam at the German Antarctic Receiving Station (GARS) O'Higgins on the Antarctic Peninsula. Yaay!!!! It is so nice to see them there on the camera, we both were grinning from ear to ear. There's a weather link on the site, and lots of other information.

Large Print Lists

Lately we updated the printed list of Large Print titles. It's printed in 16-point type so it will be large enough for people who need to do their reading in large print. All three branches have copies of the list.
       Of course, it was out of date the day it was printed, as we slowly but regularly add titles to this part of the collection. The lists we keep online are updated once a month or so, and include a separate list of the most recently added Large Print titles.
       The very most recent titles to turn up in the database: Prophecy : what the future holds for you by Sylvia Browne; Polar Shift : A Novel From The Numa Files by Clive Cussler; Close to You by Christina Dodd; Unexpected Blessings by Barbara Taylor Bradford; and a little flock of Louis L'Amour titles someone donated, which bring our count of L'Amour in large print to 17 titles.

Just Some Webby Stuff

• LIS News pointed us to Paleo Art, a gallery of beautiful paleontological illustration.
• A discussion on the Public Librarians' mailing list turned up a World Factbook of Criminal Justice Systems at the US Department of Justice site.
• A mostly fruitless hunt for regularly updated satellite images of the eastern hemisphere yielded the Blue Marble imagery at NASA.
• A reference question about Diego Archuleta led to a terrific short account at the Latina/o History Project -- (interesting guy, Diego Archuleta; lots of mentions and paragraphs and single pages in many of our Southwest history books, but nobody seems to have done even a whole chapter about him, nevermind a whole book or a dissertation.)
• Snowed out of the high country last weekend, we hiked instead at Kasha Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. Looking for some good images, we found a detailed hike description with photos at the ExploreNM site, and a truly beautiful image by Drew Milsom.
• The soundtrack for this post: 30-second audio clip of the Beach Boys having "Fun fun fun". (Direct link doesn't seem to stay functional. If it won't play, try this one; and scroll down for audio clips...)

There's Snow on the Mountain

9400' elevation, October 12, 2005. And Baldy looks like it will be white for the rest of the season...
       So how are we doing for water?? The city's reservoir is holding at around 60%, despite what seems to be LOTS of recent precipitation, not to mention thunder at sunrise a few days ago... This number is very similar to what it was last year this time, and--lest we be discouraged--vastly better than 2003 or 2002 (when it was down to 23%!!)
              Reservoir Information Total % of Capacity at this date
                     2002 23%
                     2003 51%
                     2004 61%
       The National Weather Service's Drought Status Report for September 2005 shows our June-August precipitation was only 2.55 inches, 47% of normal. (Latest report always available from the Albuquerque Latest Drought Information page.) The New Mexico Reservoir Storage page doesn't have any data at the moment, but the charts for September (and a lot of other data) are in the New Mexico Drought Monitoring Work Group report. This report says that our rainfall for January--August was just about normal, 9.54 inches.
       But it also says, "ENSO-neutral conditions are expected to continue for the remainder of the year and into 2006. This means confidence in seasonal forecasting is not especially high right now. However, long-range models are suggesting the coming winter is more likely to be on the dry side instead of wet. Limited tools available suggest the coming winter will be significantly drier than the winter of 2004-2005." (emphasis added)
       Sigh. This explains the persisting-drought graphic for our part of New Mexico on the Seasonal Drought Outlook.

Mountain of Mud on the South Side

We are about one month into the construction of the Southside Library, and it's been pretty wet and muddy out there. The construction workers hauling out stones broke early on Monday as they were concerned that they were dropping so much on the streets. In the background of the photo, you can just see the Zona del Sol building which will house youth services such as the Boys and Girls Club, just across the street to the West of the Library.
       A little more about Zona del Sol (after all, they will be one of our closest neighbors), from an email from Ana Gallegos y Reinhardt of Warehouse 21:
       "Zona del Sol in Tierra Contenta becomes alive! Ten years in the making and over 1 million buckaroo's for 5.4 acres of land, architecturial planning, organizational planning and construction for first building. The 2800 sq ft building will be done mid-October. Due to set-up needs it will probably start in January although a grand opening this fall. 1/2 of building will be for 24 YMCA childcare 2-5yr olds and there is a community room for other member programs. Girls Inc. will kick off their Girls program in 2006. Zona and YMCA have offices, there are 4 bathrooms and a kitchen. A playground will be created and used by YMCA...
       "Youth Provider/Organizational members: W21
Girls' Inc, SF Children's Museum, City of SF, SF Public Schools, Catholic Charities,
YMCA."
       Their building is a lot further along than ours...

Harold Pinter, Nobel Laureate

This morning's news is that Harold Pinter has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. We do have a number of his works, though not perhaps all of them.
       He has his own website. There's a nice profile at wikipedia, with photo and gossip. And zillions of news stories.
       It does kind of make one wonder what goes on behind those closed doors at the Nobel committee.

The Reading Cure

The Waterboro Lib Blog always rewards a visit with fascinating posts. Most are about books and literature, but certainly not all of them.
       Recently there was a link to an article at Mother Jones, "The Reading Cure" about "How to Organize a Book Group With a Social Conscience"; the article gives a step by step set of moves for starting a reading group, and a list of suggested titles. Other recent posts at Waterboro are obituary notices for M. Scott Peck and August Wilson, a pointer to Booksense's top 20 picks for kids books, a pointer to an NPR inverview with Ruth Rendell, reading lists of several sorts, current affairs links, and groovy websites.

Storytelling Program on Thursday

On Thursday, October 13th, Paulette Atencio will tell traditional Hispanic New Mexico stories and lead songs and dances. This is a program for Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15). The program will be at the La Farge Library, 3:30 PM to 4:30 PM, for school age children. It's free, and no registration required. 955-4863 for information.

Harry Potter, The Movie

November 18th is the release date for the fourth Harry Potter movie. There are trailers online.
       Whee.
       Thanks to Alexandrian Public Library's blog for pointing out the film clips.

Tree of Life

We saw a very nifty critter crawling by the lens of the underwater camera at Orca-Live. Spikes on top, tube-feet on the bottom. Plainly orange-ish. Looked quite a lot like the picture of a California sea cucumber which we found in Brock Filer's Biognomen pages.
       He points to a couple of other evolutionary trees, the Tree of Life Web Project, and the Phylogeny of Life pages at the University of California Museum of Paleontology site. But for starting with a critter and working backward to see where it fits in, we like the Biognomen pages. Mister Spikes-and-Tube-Feet comes clearly labelled as Animalia- Echinodermata- Hemichordata- Rhombifera- Crinoidea- Ophiocistioidea- Holothuroidea-Parastichopus californicus
       (Just in case you like that much specificity... )

Columbus Day Holiday

The libraries will keep their normal hours Saturday and Sunday, but will be closed on Monday, October 10 for the Columbus Day Holiday. Plan ahead to cover your holiday weekend reading, homework and movie-watching needs! Maybe you want to check out a couple of good books and go up the mountain to read under the aspens. (The Forest Service has put up a nice information page about fall color in New Mexico.)
       The list of scheduled holiday closings for the whole year is always available from the About the Library page.
PS. No, those are not this year's aspens. But it is our mountain.

Authors Guild Sues Google, Yahoo Weighs In

You probably saw in the news that the Authors Guild has taken Google to court for copyright violation built into their scanning project as planned. Peter Suber has an extensive and detailed discussion with links in the SPARC Open Access Newletter. (SPARC? Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.) This is an extremely entangled issue, and of course Suber has his own slant (Open Access), but his links lead you to all opinions, documents, and background information.
       Meanwhile, and quite suddenly, as of Tuesday Yahoo moved into the realm of scanning books. Here are news stories from the Globe and Mail, Infotoday, The Register ("Yahoo! follows Google into print minefield").
       When the library first got online, about 12 years ago, library users innocently imagined that if they could see a book listed at Library of Congress, or elsewhere, it meant that the Whole Book Was Available online. Right then, and maybe for free. So now it's twelve years on, and it looks like the technology world is about to catch up with our imaginings as soon as some of the more explosive complications are ironed out.
       Perhaps this is a good moment to point to one of the earliest imaginers, Vannevar Bush, whose essay "As We May Think" in the July 1945 Atlantic Monthly first floated the idea of machines making all the contents of libraries accessible. Wikipedia on Vannevar Bush's "memex" ("memory extender"): "[Vannevar] Bush described the device as electronically linked to a library and able to display books and films from the library and automatically follow cross-references from one work to another. This idea directly influenced computer pioneer Douglas Engelbart, and also led to Ted Nelson's groundbreaking work in concepts of hypermedia and hypertext."

More People Happier Sooner

We just love it when people donate copies of the titles in high demand. We rush them right into the collection and into the hands of the next person waiting. Recent donations include the following titles which have people waiting in line for them (several of them are not new books but reading-group perennials):
  Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men
  Sue Monk Kidd, The Mermaid Chair
  George Lakoff, Don't Think of an Elephant! know your values...
  Jung Chang, Wild Swans : three daughters of China
  Bob Woodward, The Secret Man : the Story of Watergate's Deep Throat
  Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
  Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point : How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
  Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat
       We just updated the list of titles with the most holds. If you happen to be reading any of the books on this list and were planning to donate it to the library eventually, bringing it over right away would make more people happier sooner.

Santa Fe Arts & Culture Portal Calling for Contributors

We received this message from the Santa Fe Arts & Culture Portal, which is planning its official launch on October 26th. They are looking for contributors to the youth section:
       "The Santa Fe Arts & Culture Portal is just about ready and we are issuing the call for content contributions from Santa Fe's creative. My name is Giuseppe Quinn and I am the Youth Liaison for the Portal's Youth sub-site and I seek ongoing and one time contributions from, for or about the youth of Santa Fe. I am also seeking content and alliances with those already serving the Santa Fe youth community and offer a concentrated local, national and international audience.
       "Any topics will be considered. The main criteria will be appropriateness to the WWW and community and that it be for Santa Fe's youth. Youth will mean different things to different people, but I will consider anything submitted, if it addresses Santa Fe's youth somehow, regardless the age of the contributor. I am building what will be called SFYouthView, like the Baker Street Irregulars contributing content from every aspect of the World or Santa Fe Experience for its youth. Music, arts, events, etc. planned, reviewed and documented. Photographers, poets, filmmakers, monologists all welcome to add their flavor to the youth section, which will be its own sub-site within the larger Santa Fe Arts & Culture Portal.
       "This section will be for the youth audience and as much as is possible by youth, depending on contributions of content. Please spread the word to any young or youth oriented artists, writers, poets, filmmakers, videographers, painters, musicians, journalists, critics, humorists, cartoonists, contortionists, web designers, animators, etc. to contact me at zoom@redquyn.com with any questions, suggestions, contacts or candidates.
       "The Santa Fe Art & Culture Portal is a project of New Mexico CultureNet in partnership with the City of Santa Fe Economic Development Division. Additional support provided by: New Mexico Economic Development Department and McCune Charitable Foundation."

Nearly Local Mystery Author

Albuquerque author Pari Noskin Taichert will be at Borders on October 6 at 7PM. Ms. Taichert is also very New-Mexico-local in the sense that she likes to set her mysteries in the smaller towns of the state. Her first title was The Clovis Incident. The new one is The Belen Hitch. And the one she's working on is set in Socorro.

Program on Wednesday

On Wednesday, October 5th, Liz Mangual of "Tales and Trails" will tell traditional stories incorporating both English and Spanish. This is program for Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15). La Farge Library, 7:30 PM to 8:30 PM for school age children. No registration required. 955-4863 for information.


PS. Notice that book on the table, The Littlest Audience. It's about some rabbits who live in the hills and go to the Santa Fe Opera. Very sweet!
PPS. Start planning your costume for the Halloween party Saturday, October 29th, 2 PM at the Main Library. There will be a special performance by Clan Tynker. Come in costume and enjoy the magic, juggling and treats. (If you're a grownup, bring a kid.)

The Litblog Co-op Picks Again

Aha. While we were thinking about other things, the litblog co-op has put up a Fall Read This! selection: The Angel of Forgetfulness, by Steve Stern.
       OK, good, we do own that one. Other titles the literary bloggers nominated and discussed in this go-around include Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers (just ordered)--and Elizabeth Poliner's Mutual Life & Casualty, Kirby Gann's Our Napoleon in Rags, and 10:01 by Lance Olsen, none of which we have. Yet. We'll work on it.
       A list of the 21 participating literary blogs is a little ways down on the left side of the litblog co-op page.