Voter Registration

Yes, we have Voter Registration forms at both the Main Library and the La Farge Library. Ask at the circulation desk. Once the form is filled out you may mail it in, take it to the county clerk, or leave it with us to be picked up by the county. They come once a week, on Mondays.

But time is getting short. The registration deadline for the November election is Tuesday, October 10, 2006.

Here are some other dates to keep in mind:

• October 10 (Tuesday) last day of voter registration
• October 10 (Tuesday) First day that a voter may vote by absentee paper ballot.
• October 21 (Saturday) Early in-person voting begins (List of early voting site locations.)
• November 3 (Friday) Last date county clerk will mail absentee ballots.
• November 7 (Tuesday) General Election Day

As You Saw In Today's Paper

We weren't all that happy with how the casting director of The Lost Room had envisioned their archivist/librarian character. As ably portrayed by Santa Fe actress Lois Geary (the crew gave her a round of applause when they were finished shooting), an archivist/librarian is small, frail, whitehaired and sensible. By the end of the afternoon we had struck back, and were wearing t-shirts that read "Santa Fe Public Library: Not Your Stereotypical Librarians...". We got kind of rowdy, too; the movie guys had to shush us so they could finish their work. :-)

And When The Doors Open

The Southside Opening Day Collection is coming along very nicely. We have been tracking the various categories to make sure we meet our goals. The "ODC GOAL" is how many items we hope to have on the shelves when we open the new library. These numbers should allow for plenty of great materials on the shelves, while still allowing us room to grow. The "In Catalog" numbers include the transfers from our closed Bookstop location, gifts that have been added by Technical Services at the library, and items that our vendors have finished processing and are storing until delivery. The "Vendors" column is the number of items that are currently on order and backorder with our vendors. "Left to get" is what we still have to order. The library wants to make sure that we have a good selection of current and newly released titles at the time of the opening.

Sort of Like a Trainwreck

The Lost Room (Update)

Not so much a lost room as a Lost Library. You might want to consider using La Farge today...

We hear they were filming at the Penitentiary last night until 10 PM; and that from here they go on location at the Cathedral.

These Books Are Made for Walkin'

Don't forget to "Walk for Your Library" this Wednesday. Come show your support for Santa Fe Public Libraries from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006, at the first "Walk for Your Library" event.

The walk is being held by Friends of the Library in conjunction with Tierra Contenta Day. The walk will begin at Zona del Sol, near the corner of Jaguar and Country Club Road, and continue for a short loop through the Tierra Contenta Neighborhood, past the new Southside Library and the new Fire Station No. 8.

The walk is free, but donations are appreciated. All money raised will benefit the Southside Library, and all participants will receive a special water bottle.

The Lost Room

Lions Gate Entertainment will be filming their production of the Sci Fi Channel serial, "The Lost Room" in the Southwest Room of the Santa Fe Public Library on Wednesday, September 27. It is the Sci Fi Channel's premiere event for 2006 and stars Peter Krause from HBO's "Six Feet Under" and Julianna Margulies from "ER". During the filming, study space will be available in the Community Room on the second floor of the Library. Library users may request materials to be retrieved from the Southwest Room at the Reference Desk.

The parking lot may be rather full of dressingroom trailers and generator vans and so on. The parking places along Nusbaum Street will be reserved for library users only.

Local Bloggers RoundUp

This week, several local blogs gave us interesting material: Going To New Mexico had a lovely first-snow photograph; as did Taoseño JHFarr's Fotofeed (1) 2). At Santa Fe Review, more water & development-politics news; newcomers Our Descent Into Madness offered a link to hair-raising news about the Arctic (ok, the news isn't local, but the bloggers are).

Sheriff Greg Solano continues to blog a few times a month. He's tres techie, includes youtube videos. Political blogs — like Joe Monahan's, Jim Baca's Only in New Mexico, New Mexico Matters, Democracy for New Mexico, many others — are heating up. New Mexican music columnist Steve Terrell keeps on keeping on; as does the Santa Fe Reporter's editor Julia Goldberg.

New finds: Wil Cone's Moyen Age has a nice set of photos taken at Burning Man; kind of puts Zozobra in the shade... The collection of writers at Duke City Fix have a blogroll with dozens of Albuquerque blogs. If you know of a good long blogroll for Santa Fe blogs, please let us know.

Irrelevant postscript: As these things happen on the web, the Duke City Fix blogroll led us to Hedgeblog who led us to the micro-sculpture of Willard Wigan. How does he do that? Why? (Dig the gold tiger in the eye of a needle, or the one that Hedgeblog liked, the six wives of Henry the VIII, same location.)

The Shape Shifters

Finally, Tony Hillerman's new title, The Shape Shifter, is in the database and you can put your hold on it. We've ordered large print and CD versions as well as regular print. You'll want to line up some other things to read for the moment: it's still not scheduled to appear until November.

Interior Barrel Vaults Framing Is Underway

The Architect's Field Report for the Southside Library mentions the following Work In Progress: "A partial lath inspection was completed on the north and west portion of the building. Scratch and Brown are underway at north and west walls. Data runs are that are being installed have been halted. Power is being installed. Steel framing moment welds have been inspected. Interior barrel vaults framing is underway. Sound Insulation is underway. Wet blown insulation is complete. Sound batts are being installed. Roofing for the electrical data room has been completed. Study rooms remain to be roofed. Window frames are going in. They are in place in the clerestory windows. Concrete crews will be pouring exterior flatwork and curb and gutter. Plumbers working on gas line in roof and in boiler room." A complete run of construction photographs beginning the month before we started is available on the Progress page.

'Scratch and brown'? So glad you asked (we had to ask Google): "A fiber-reinforced cement plaster designed for three coat, traditional application.

Just Added To The Database

The Just Added to the Database list has been updated, and is looking particularly seductive. It included the best title of the season, How to boil water : life beyond takeout ; new nonfiction by Thomas Cahill, Hampton Sides, and E. O. Wilson; a novel by Snoop Dogg; new mysteries, novels, reference books, and more.

The other What's New lists are in the process of being updated.

There's Snow on the Mountain!!!

Last night's stupendous rainstorm not only strangled the frogs in neighborhoods around town, but also delivered the surest sign of autumn: there's snow up on top. If you have a chance, step out and look at the view before it melts.

The equinox itself is not until September 23rd at 04:03 UT (10:03 Mountain Daylight Time). But obviously, fall is here.

Banned Books Week Program, Sunday September 24

LIBRARIES KICK-OFF BANNED BOOKS WEEK: CELEBRATE THE FREEDOM TO READ

Thousands of libraries and bookstores nationwide, including the New Mexico State Library, the Santa Fe Public Library, and the Palace of the Governors, will celebrate the freedom to read during Banned Books Week, September 23-30, 2006.

The State Library encourages the general public to attend this year's presentation "Banned Books Exposed!" on Sunday, September 24 at 2 pm at the Santa Fe Public Library, 145 Washington Avenue. Featured presenters are Val Nye, assistant professor and librarian at the Fogelson Library, College of Santa Fe and Beth Aeby Teel, library specialist at Sombrillo Elementary School in Espanola who tours the state telling stories and singing medieval ballads as the New Mexico Troubador and is currently writing a book to accompany her ballad on the history of the first atomic bomb.

Following the "Banned Books Exposed!" presentation, Pamela S. Smith, author, guest curator, former director of the Palace Press will lead a tour of Lasting Impressions: The Private Presses of New Mexico, at the Palace of the Governors. Smith is author of Passions in Print: Private Press Artistry in New Mexico, 1834 - present. The afternoon event is free of charge and open to the public. Banned Books Exposed! is a "Lasting Impressions" event funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The IMLS, a federal grant-making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities, supports the New Mexico State Library and Palace of the Governors.

What kind of books are we talking about? The challenges are most often initiated at schools and school libraries by concerned parents. According to the ALA, the "10 Most Challenged Books of 2005" were: "It's Perfectly Normal" by Robie H. Harris; "Forever" by Judy Blume; "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger; "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier; "Whale Talk" by Chris Crutcher; "Detour for Emmy" by Marilyn Reynolds; "What My Mother Doesn't Know" by Sonya Sones; The Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey; "Crazy Lady!" by Jane Leslie Conly; "It's So Amazing!" A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies and Families" by Robie H. Harris.

Off the top ten list this year, but on for several years past are the Alice series of books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain. Also not in the top 10 but of interest locally, Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima" is fairly frequently banned, most recently in Colorado in 2005.

'Cistern and Sleeving Work Will Be Going On'

A lot of what appears in the architect's September 11 Field Report for Southside Library sounds familiar. Bit by bit these tasks move forward: "Work in progress: A partial lath inspection was completed on the north and west portion of the building. Ducts rough in is now complete. Data runs are that are being installed have been halted. Power is being installed. Steel framing is almost complete. Interior walls are being framed. The supply and return hot water runs for the heating system are being run. Rock and block at the East Patio has been done. Wet blown insulation is complete. Batt insulation is underway. Batt insulation has been approved to be installed in the areas that will not have drywall. This will be done after gypsum board is installed. Roofing for the electrical data room has been completed. None of the roof miscellaneous metal is complete. Window frames are going in at the west and north walls. They are in place in the Children’s west wall and the Multi-purpose west wall. Cistern and sleeving work will be going on. Concrete crews will be pouring exterior flatwork."P.S. Bradford County Public Library in Starke, Florida, is building a new library, and they have a blog to track their progress. They seem to be at the bare dirt point, where we were a couple of weeks after groundbreaking. We'll keep you posted.

Tuesday at 5 PM

We received the following message from New Mexico's State Librarian, Richard Ackroyd:

"The New Mexico State Library is pleased to announce that Charlie Carrillo, who recently received the 2006 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) National Heritage Fellowship Award, will speak at the State Library on Tuesday, September 19 at 5 pm. 'Literary Passions: Southwest Authors and Their Publishers' is the third of a four-part lecture series hosted by the State Library. The lecture is free and open to the public.

"Charlie Carrillo is known for his many awards as a painter of santos in the tradition of Northern New Mexico. But he also has a distinguished career as a published author. He first wrote Hispanic New Mexican Pottery and followed it with A Tapestry of Kinship, which he wrote with Jose Antonio Esquibel. His book, Saints of the Pueblos, received the 2005 Twitchell Award from the New Mexico Historical Society. In 2006 Carrillo also received awards from the Hispanic Culture Preservation League and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Spanish Colonial Arts Society. Carrillo has written many articles in Tradicion Revista Magazine as well as other publications.

"The second featured speaker at the September 19 Literary Passions lecture series is Father Thomas J. Steele who has been a published author for over 30 years. His book Santos and Saints has been reissued three times and continues to be a best seller. He has also written Religious Architecture in Hispano New Mexico with Tom Lucero, Archbishop Lamy in His Own Words, and was the editor for Seeds of Struggle. His research into Archbishop Lamy prompted his work compiling all of Lamy’s writings and he published the first electronic book in New Mexico. Both authors are published with LPD Press in Albuquerque.

"The lecture series is being held in conjunction with 'Lasting Impressions: The Private Presses of New Mexico' exhibition at the Palace of the Governors, and the 'Library Legacy: A History of Printing in New Mexico' exhibition at the State Library. In addition to the lecture, many New Mexico book publishers will be on hand to display and sell their books.

"This event is sponsored by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the New Mexico Book Association, the NM Book Co-Op, the New Mexico State Library, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, KNME-TV, and the Palace of the Governors/Museum of New Mexico."

Ways You Can Support...

You can support your Santa Fe Public Library in many ways by joining with our supportive business partners:

• Whole Foods on October 5th--the Whole Foods Benefit Day. A percentage of all sales that day will benefit the Library-—plan ahead to stock up and have even have lunch there on October 5th!
• Albertsons Community Partner: The Friends of the Santa Fe Public Library has joined the Albertsons Community Partners Program. This is a great opportunity for all our friends to raise money for the Library – just by buying groceries! Albertsons has a simple registration form for the Partners program. Just sign up and let them know you want your non-profit gift to go to the Friends of the Santa Fe Public Library! Then, each time you shop at Albertsons, a percentage of your purchase will be donated to the Friends of the Library.
• Coca-Cola and Allsups: Purchase a case of Coca-Cola (or any Coca-Cola product) at any Santa Fe Allsups by December 31st. Coca-Cola has pledged a minimum of $18,000 from sales to the Southside Library Fundraising Campaign!

Please share this information with family and friends—these are easy ways to ensure that your Library has funding for books and other materials.

For more information on any of these partnerships with our supportive community businesses, contact Pat Hodapp, Director of Libraries, at 955-6788.

Man-Booker Short List

The Short List for the 2006 Man-Booker Prize has been announced (1)(2)(3).

• Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss
• Kate Grenville, The Secret River
• M. J. Hyland, Carry Me Down
• Hisham Matar, In the Country of Men
• Edward St Aubyn, Mother’s Milk
• Sarah Waters, The Night Watch

Yikes. We have only two of them. (We do have other books by Kate Grenville.) We'll work on getting the others.

Tim Flannery Says...

Still reading global warming books. We have received a couple of new ones since the last time we posted. James Lovelock's The revenge of Gaia : earth's climate in crisis and the fate of humanity will really startle you. Lovelock thinks it's all over for civilization. Read what a reviewer at Real Climate thinks about Lovelock's vision. We have also received Kicking the carbon habit : global warming and the case for renewable and nuclear energy ; and the book version of the Gore film, An inconvenient truth : the planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it. You too can be talking to your friends in sentences that begin with phrases like, "Tim Flannery says..."; "Elizabeth Kolbert says..."

You can keep an eye on incoming materials on this topic by running the catalog search 'global warming' or 'renewable energy' or 'climate change' or 'climate and civilization', sorted in reverse date order and then saving it to your Preferred Searches, and running it now and again. Or, of course, construct your own search on this or any other topic. (You need to be logged in to your library record to save a Preferred Search.)

There's plenty to read on the topic no matter where you look, from news articles about California's carbon-emission legislation, to stories about creeping dead zones in the ocean, technical papers concluding the "likelihood of acceleration of ice sheet disintegration and sea level rise", or innumberable more discursive pieces like Bill McKibben's Worried? Us? essay in Granta, or his article a couple of weeks ago in the Boston Globe. Or books only implicitly relevant, like Douglas Erwin's surprisingly readable Extinction : how life on earth nearly ended 250 million years ago.

Accessing Government

There is a pretty interesting article in First Monday, Public access computing and Internet access in public libraries: The role of public libraries in e–government and emergency situations. It's really too stuffy to be readable (you could try just skimming the pull quotes to get the gist), but it illuminates one of our service areas that people who don't NEED the service rarely think about. So far, this pertains more to the Federal government than to the State or the City, but more and more, all the arms of government expect us to access them online. So what can the not-computer-literate person do? Come to the library, of course.

(P.S. "Pull quote"? We had to thrash around quite a while before we found a terrific Print Glossary that gave us the words we needed...)

WorldCat From Home

Finally. You just log in with your library card from the Periodicals/Databases page, and the entire database--more than 67 million bibliographic records, more than 54,000 participating libraries worldwide, now in full detail--is available to play with.

P.S. While you’re on the Periodicals page, remind yourself of all the other databases which are available. They’re yours for the clicking.

Walk For Your Library

Come and walk for your new Southside Library! Wednesday, September 27, 2006, 6:00 p.m., as part of Tierra Contenta Night at Zona del Sol. From the corner of Jaguar and Country Club Road, join with friends and neighbors to walk around the neighborhood, from Zona del Sol past the new Southside Library to the new Fire Station. ( one mile and a quarter distance).

All participants will receive a special water bottle! Suggested donations (proceeds will benefit the new Southside Library):
   $1.00 per child*
   $1.00 per pet*
   $8.00 per adult
Sign up that night and walk!
*must be accompanied by an adult

Library Book Sale This Weekend

Friends of the Library Book Sales : The Autumn Booksale will be held Saturday and Sunday, September 16 and 17, Main Library, 145 Washington Ave. All books and materials were donated to the Library.

Friends members have the opportunity to have first selection from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Memberships start at $10.00 and are available at the door. The sale opens to the general public at 1:00 p.m. both days.

The Southwest Room has individually priced better books and selected materials. The Community Room book prices are a bargain!
   Hardcovers $1.00
   Paperbacks $.50 Cassettes, Videos and CDs $.50
   Sunday is bag day—we provide the bag-- $2.50 per bag

Other Upcoming Sales: There will also be a sale at La Farge, November 18 & 19, and the big Holiday Sale at Main Library, Dec 2.

All funds raised are used to purchase new materials for the Library system.

Sculpture on the Front Lawn

Lexeme IX, Fabricated Bronze, 2006, by Bill Barrett, has been installed on the front lawn of the Main Library.

Thank you, Mr. Barrett; and thanks also to the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission's Art in Public Places Program, who arranged the loan of this piece.

Museum as Muse

The Palace of the Governors is having a terrific program this weekend. The flier for the event doesn't seem to be online, so here is a scanned version. "Discover the role the Palace of the Goverors plays as a muse to published authors. Participate in a writing workshop and a public reading of your work!"

The program is in three parts. Friday, September 15, 5-7:45 PM, authors Michael McGarrity, Pamela Christie, Jon Bauman and Barbara Beasley Murphy will read passages from their work set in the Palace or on the Plaza. Panel discussion to follow. Palace Courtyard. Free Friday night. Open to the public.

Saturday September 16, 1-4 PM. Writing workshop: Miriam Sagan, poet and director of the Creative Writing Program at the Santa Fe Community College, will lead a workshop on writing and revising a piece for public reading. Pam Smith, guest curator, and Tom Leech, Palace Press, will lead a tour of the Lasting Impressions exhibition. Fray Angelico Chavez History Library. Free. Registration limited to 25 people. High school age through adult. For more information contact Rene Harris, 476-5087.

Sunday, September 17, 1-3 PM. Public reading of pieces written in the Saturday workshop. The Palace of the Governors Courtyard. Free. (Museum admission on Sundays free to Ne Mexico residents.)

Interiors

It's going to be harder to discern progress from week to week as the action at Southside Library moves indoors. For one thing, until the lights are installed it's a bit dark in there...

New Sculpture Arriving Monday

Lexeme IX, Fabricated Bronze, 2006 by Bill Barrett will be installed in front of the Main Library on Monday September 11 at 7 AM. This is part of the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission's Art in Public Places Program. Bill Barrett is very excited about placing his work at the Downtown branch. We hope to get him to give a program about his work some time this fall.

We'll have pictures of it for you as soon as it arrives.

Library's Fiesta Hours Reminder

Library Hours during Fiesta, September 7-8-9-10:

• Thursday, September 7th, Main Library will close an hour early, at 8 PM.
  
• Friday, September 8th, Main and La Farge will close at 1 PM.
  
• Saturday, September 9th, Main Library closed; La Farge open 10 AM - 6 PM.
  
• Sunday, September 11th, Main Library closed; La Farge open 1 PM - 5 PM.
  

The library's full schedule of holiday closings is available from the About the Library page.

UNM Zimmerman Fire Recovery Update

From an email to the New Mexico Library Association: "I want to update you on our progress recovering from the fire in Zimmerman Library on April 30. While there is still a great deal to be done, we have taken major steps towards recovering over the last four months.

"The cause of the fire, which happened in the basement of the library in the periodicals and microforms area, is still under official investigation. The total damage is estimated at over $10 million. Approximately 30,000 journals in American history, Latin American studies, ethnic studies, anthropology, geography and cultural studies were destroyed. All surviving journals have been taken to an out-of-state disaster recovery company to be cleaned.

"The basement was very heavily damaged; all the flooring, ceiling titles and walls have been removed. The area will be redesigned and rebuilt, and will not re-open before summer, 2007. The second and third floors are open, as is the Center for Southwest Research. Most of the first floor is open; only the former reference area is still closed. That first floor reference area is being repaired and remodeled in order to provide more public space, more computers and a sprinkler system. The first floor will re-open in the late fall.

"The Library's web page at http://elibrary.unm.edu has links to more information about the fire and our recovery... Fran Wilkinson, Professor of Librarianship, Interim Dean of University Libraries"

Scraps and Follow-Ups

There's a really interesting article about Wikipedia, Who Writes Wikipedia, which casts a further light on some of the topics in our post of August 14th.

At last, at last,, we have Dick Francis's new book, Under Orders, in the database, so you can put holds on it. There's a nice article about him in the Times Online. No, Tony Hillerman's new title, The Shape Shifter, hasn't appeared in the database yet, but it will any minute now, because our distributor has it listed (still with a November publication date).

The sixth hatch year of whooping cranes for the eastern flock is not on the move yet, the target starting date is October 1st. But over the summer the first wild hatchlings were born. This is thrilling and essential news. Otherwise everything to do with the eastern flock is only a picturesque experiment--New Mexico's experimental flock never bred, and we no longer have any whooping cranes at the Bosque del Apache.

The ever-entertaining Waterboro Lib Blog had a wonderful list a while back, Drowned Towns, books about towns covered by reservoirs. (The mystery section is called 'Reservoir Noir', a phrase coined by Peter Robinson in 1999, when he and Reginald Hill came out almost simultaneously with really excellent mysteries with the same theme...)