The big bad library denies children books

PA Library Tells 7-Year-Old: You Can't Borrow Books reads the headline in SLJ. With a big picture of a wide-eyed child.

Okay, the situation stinks. A library in Pennsylvania erroneously issued a free library card to a family that lives outside its district. When the child's picture appeared in the paper, library staff realized that the family lives in a district that doesn't pay for the library. When the child's library card expires in January, they won't be able to renew it. Instead they'll have to go to a different library where their burrough does pay for library use.

Now, I don't know how all this was dealt with. The article mentions that the family is embarrassed, so I'm guessing that it could have been dealt with better. If library staff recognized the child in a photo, they must be heavy library users. I'm hopeful that the Memorial Library of Nazareth will examine the incident and figure out what they could have done differently to spare the feelings of this family.

But you know what? Libraries need money. You pay for your local public library through your property taxes. Maybe your county or city or state funds the library, also. If you live in an area that doesn't pay a tax for the library, you may have to pay to get a library card.

It would be wonderful if everything could be free and everyone could have a library card and get free books and magazines without paying a single cent. That is the dream, folks.

But someone's got to pay for the books, the salaries, the internet access, the databases, the newspapers, the electricity, the tiny pencils with no erasers (I hate those things)... et cetera.

Libraries need money. I'm not trying to make the argument that people who don't pay taxes don't deserve library use. I'm just saying that money doesn't grow on trees.

The situation stinks, but I don't know that the Memorial Library of Nazareth deserves to be made out as the Big Bad Evil Library Denying Children Access to Books Mwa Ha Ha!!!

ETA (12:58): Or, we could just lighten up and laugh about it. Colbert style. Thanks, Jill. I needed that. ;)

Around the interwebs

Okay, okay, everyone has already ooh-ed and aah-ed over the list of National Book Award Finalists in Young People's Literature:

Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (Simon & Schuster)
Kathi Appelt, The Underneath (Atheneum)
Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)
E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hyperion)
Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now (Alfred A. Knopf)

Of these five, I've read (and loved) three. And I'll certainly be getting my hands on What I Saw and How I Lied and The Spectacular Now at my earliest opportunity.

I found out via Jocelyn that ALA has announced the Teens' Top Ten List:

1. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
4. Vampire Academy by Rachel Mead
5. Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson
6. City of Bones by Cassandra Clare
7. The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
8. Extras by Scott Westerfeld
9. Before I Die by Jenny Downham
10. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

No surprises there and I'm particularly happy to see Before I Die on that list, as that was one of my favorites of last year.

Speaking of spectacular booklists, the lists of the Cybils nominees are up! There are 136 nominees in the YA Fiction category, so I'll be a busy little librarian for the next couple of months! Certainly the Cybils shortlists will be excellent resources for book recommendations, but there's something to be said for the nominee lists as well. Although some of them won't be your cup of tea, it's a great starting place if you need to, say, come up with some middle grade novels or picture book nonfiction books for booktalks.

And speaking of booktalks, The YA YA YAs have a post up about booktalking tips that you'll want to check out. I'll heartily second Trisha's advice to find your own style (there's not one way to deliver a perfect booktalk... do what works for you and what you are comfortable with) and Gayle's advice to practice, practice, practice! From my own bag of tricks, I'll add that what I try to do with booktalks is to find the hook... When you started reading the book, what made you keep reading it? What made it interesting to you? What built suspense?

Lastly, I want to report that the ALSC blog will have a new feature starting in November: "Things I Didn't Learn in Library School..." ALSC bloggers will post about things they've learned since being on the job and anyone is welcome to submit anecdotes (head over to their post to share). It's certain to be useful and probably amusing, so I'll be on the lookout for those posts.

RIP Coleen Salley

Via Read Roger and Fuse #8 I learned that Coleen Salley (author of my beloved Epossumondas) has died.

This makes for a very sad Abby.

If you haven't already, do yourself a favor and track down Salley's audio recording of Epossumondas Saves the Day.

Incidentally, I just read Epossumondas to a group of K-4th graders at an after school program last week. They loved it.