Celebrating Beth Reynolds

That Beth.

I arrived one recent Saturday morning to find the remnants of her Friday night Read-a-thon-Sleepover... children in their jammies who'd stayed up all night to read a designated number of pages in exchange for some pledges, the better to help purchase more books for the Children's Room.

Beth Reynolds, NPL's amazing children's librarian, had been up all night with them, literate little maniacs that they are, steaming through a hot release, Brinsingr, by Christopher Paolini (no, that title isn't misspelled, but it sure looks funny). It's one of those huge hardcovers that looks as if it's for the big kids, but there they were, some of them close to polishing it off in a night. Her sidekick and assistant Peggy Ramel was right there with her, cheering the children on, helping to serve the treats, vacuuming the room once everybody had gone home.

This morning as I tapped away at my paperwork, I could hear Beth with much younger children (infants to 3 years) singing away at Wordplay, her weekly story time for them. I couldn't stop thinking about how very fortunate they were, and how lucky the rest of us are, for her ability to bring children together of all ages to create communities of young readers who can share the excitement of good books with one another.

A nanny who was new to the area came in to inquire about our story times today. "Are they structured?" she asked. Apparently she'd been to another library where all the kids did was to color.

I thought of Beth's storytimes, which are rich in oral language--songs, poems, finger plays. Good picture books read aloud with interpretation and enthusiasm. Friday's Lunch at the Library, for slightly older children (ages 3-6), a time of stories and crafts, each activity as lovingly prepared as a lesson plan, only without the pop quiz.

I nearly forgot the Friday afternoon group, Knit Happens (used to be Chicks with Sticks), a merry band of girls and women from the community turning out comfort dolls for children in Darfur, warm hats for kids in Afghanistan, and now tiny clothes for premature babies for the March of Dimes. Beth doesn't miss a trick.

NPL is blessed indeed to have this talented young woman, all hard work and inspiration, showing our community's children just how exciting a good book and good effort can be.

The Hang-Glide of Inter-library Loan

It's a system patrons used more than 500 times at NPL in the last year, and demand is on the rise.

That is, NPL patrons borrowed books from other libraries through Interlibrary Loan. Correspondingly, more than 500 patrons from other libraries borrowed books from NPL. The system, librarians from here and elsewhere, makes the relevance of the small, local library possible.

At NPL the process starts with a patron request. We scour our own catalog first, just to make sure that the book is indeed not a part of our collection, and then ask whether the patron would like for us to find it through ILL.

"Us" is actually Lisa Milchman, our ILL goddess (my term, not hers), and she performs this job masterfully. Lisa double-checks our collection, gathers more request information from a couple of data bases, which include entries from all registered public, school, and college libraries, and begins the process of tracking the book down. She then takes to the telephone or email to make her request and gets information on the book's availability.

"About 90 per cent of our requests can be filled from somewhere in the state of Vermont," says Lisa. The other 10 per cent will either come from out of state (recently from as far as Kansas and California) or ultimately be unavailable. It's the rare book that's unavailable.

Timing does play a key role, however. Books that have been in a library's collection for only three to six months can be in such demand at the home library as to be unavailable for interlibrary loan. In that case, some waiting is advised.

Once books are located and permission for the loan is granted by the sending library, the U.S. Postal Service steps into the picture. A book of average size costs about $2.25 to mail at the library/media rate. Books circulate for two weeks, with renewal possible, though not always. Renewal depends on the demand, or lack of it, at the home library. If a patron has requested it there, home it must go. It's best to call or email Lisa a couple of days in advance of the due date to request renewal so that she has time to contact the sending library. Fines for overdue ILL books are comparatively high, 50 cent a day, to underscore the importance that NPL places on holding up its end of the borrowing bargain.

There have been some recent bumps on the road to interlibrary loan efficiency. One is an increasing number of overdue books. "Interlibrary loans operate on a basis of good faith," Lisa explains. "We're trying to get back a book right now that was lent to us months ago, an older, somewhat rare book. We can't even contact the patron anymore. It's probably going to cost us about $50 to replace, and there's the feeling that we've let the sending library down."

Another of Lisa's druthers is that patrons who have found alternate means of getting a book they've requested would let her know by phone or email that they no longer need the interlibrary loan. "We don't mind the actual cost of a book that someone's going to use, but we'd rather not lay out the cost for something that nobody will pick up."

Altered Books: What to Make of a Diminished Thing

As we pursue sustainability in its many forms, there's something comforting about the development of the altered book art form.

Books, after all, deserve long lives. A friend of mine who has authored several major non fiction titles, told me about the fate of many remaindered books whose publishers haven't the space to store them: the dreaded shredder.

I am reassured, therefore, by the emergence of the altered book.

Taking books that might otherwise be consigned to the landfill, artists are creating new art objects from old titles, sometimes commenting artistically upon their subjects or themes. Take this artist's re-make of Whitman's Leaves of Grass; its blades are the lush lines of the poem, sprouting anew from the volume.

This emerging art form is the stuff of NPL's fall fund raiser, Uncovered. An impressive array of Vermont artists and writers have undertaken book alterations of their own. In November, amid glittery celebrations, they will be auctioned off.

Approaches to the alterations of books are as varied as the artists and the books themselves.

This is a form that is in the process of taking off. Go here to see the work of artists who work in this medium.

It's going to be fun to see what our local artists come up with.

The Beauty of a Waterfall

What nicer surname could there be than Waterfall? What nicer Waterfall than Cornelia?

It's fitting that Cornelia's area of dedication at NPL is watering our many plants, and thank the heavens that she is here. Before she came, we did our best to remember the green friends that lend beauty and oxygen to our dailiness, but we weren't always as attentive as we could have been. The arrival of Cornelia meant a level of attention that we just hadn't mustered before.

It's also fitting that this angel of aquarian attention should be the creator of a garden that's just a pebble's toss away from NPL. Cornelia lives right behind us in Norwich Senior Housing, and she's created an island of beauty in front of her apartment there. I stopped by recently to drop off some plants and to view her progress thus far.

There I saw a stone bench nestled at the foot of a tree, surrounded by primrose, hostas, and Solomon's seal. There were sculptures among the forget-me-nots that reminded me of three members of a singing group, their voices raised in a doo-wop classic--or was it the Hallelujah Chorus? A soaring spiral rose in spotlighted shade.

Cornelia, who hails from upper New York state, fashioned gardens on her ten acres, linking the "rooms" of her garden with winding paths. After she arrived in Norwich, it was only a matter of time till she would create her special brand of beauty here.

Cornelia has the artist's eye. She can combine the beauty of flowers with the whimsy of discovered objects. She reminds me of people who collect "found" poems.

I freely confess that these pictures of Cornelia's garden are already dated. Hers is a work in progress, and after all, it's spring. She's added lots of plants since I pedaled by on my bike a couple of weeks ago.

Having Cornelia walk into NPL is like getting a shot of vitamin B. Her ongoing enthusiasm and the wit of her observations enrich our days.

Volunteer Spotlight: God's (Latest) Gift to NPL

There's a spark of the divine in NPL volunteers--they're giving the most precious gift anyone can give: their time.

For Kenneth Cracknell and Susan White, pursuit of the divine has been a full-time job: they're theologians.

They have authored boxfuls of books individually and together: he on interfaith dialogue, she on women and worship, they on the history of Methodism, among their many topics and titles. Kenneth was the head of interfaith dialogue for the British Council of Churches. Their theological pursuits seem to be more about the search for unifying truths than rationales for narrow doctrine.

Nearly two years ago the two decamped from their last full-time gig at a Texas divinity school to head to Norwich, where they immediately rolled up their sleeves to give their time to a variety of community causes. Both came right in and volunteered at the library. In addition, Susan sings in the choir and is a deacon at the Norwich Congregational Church. She role-plays patients with a variety of disorders and dysfunctions to students at Dartmouth Medical School. Kenneth runs a fascinating and well-attended theology study group from their home, for which Susan bakes a variety of decadent desserts and chimes in as the spirit moves her. He's taught classes on religion for the ILEAD program at Dartmouth. He's treasurer of the Friends of the Library.

And those are just the commitments that I know about. God only knows (pun intended) what else these two are up to.

For two people relatively new to the community, their familiarity with NPL patrons is extraordinary. They make me think of my own mama's conviction: there's hardly any such thing as a stranger. They are as warm as they are wise.

If I didn't know Whom to thank for such bright lights before, I have a pretty good idea now.

It's the Lost and Found Fashion Show!

Ours is a community of plenty in a land of the same name. So it's inevitable that some of the largesse of our town will wash up on the banks of NPL.

Our lost and found basket overfloweth.

I am old enough to have had a mother who grew up in the Great Depression. Whenever I misplaced a jacket she hounded me until I tracked it down. To her consternation, there was one car coat that eluded recapture. (I am old enough to have had a car coat, too.)

Recently we decided to hold a Lost and Found Fashion Show of Wayward Apparel for this blog in order to post images of the treasures that overpopulate the basket behind the circulation desk. We recruited Micheline Lyons, because every fashion show, however humble, should feature a glamorous French woman. At the top she, Sue Bridge, and Lisa Milchman are modeling some of the exquisite chapeaux we offer for reunion with their owners.

Hats are especially abundant in this year's L&F collection. Here Lisa Milchman, fearless leader Lucinda Walker, Micheline and Sue model additional options. I tried to stack bicycle helmets on top of one another To Make a Point (subtlety has never been a virtue of mine), but they tumbled off, so here are Lucinda and Lisa, with Sue Bridge lurking in the background, playing the parts of Lands End-type tourists to highlight the bicycle helmets, hats and gloves available to today's trendy outdoor enthusiasts. (The pink camera is part of the collection, too. Is it yours?)

Not only are hats, gloves, jackets, and a single pair of children's snow pants awaiting you, but books and toys grace the basket as well. It's no accident that several images from our photo shoot feature Lisa thoroughly absorbed in a book left behind by what must have been a particularly philosophical child.

Lisa has never been one to shrink from life's Big Questions, so it was no surprise that she should immerse herself in Who Lives in the Pond? a book as padded in presentation as profound in inquiry. Who, indeed, lives in the pond? And under what auspices, hmmm?

I don't suppose that this is the season for noticing that winter hats are missing, but we do reach out and hope that some parents who are reincarnations of my own waste-not, want-not mama will drop by and relieve us of a few of our treasures.

The Sweetness of Spring

That we are all ready for warm weather, sunny skies, and brilliant blooms goes (almost) without saying.

But there are other pleasures of spring, some of which come through the chores of the season.

Last week the kindergarteners from Marion Cross School descended upon us, rakes in hand, to assist with spring clean-up. Out went all the leftover leaves, fallen branches, and other detritus of winter. In came the sweet spirits that seem to run on limitless energy and delight in small things.

The children work mostly in the back yard of the library, a place that we adults don't see often enough. Just peeking in on them reminds us of why school kids enjoy the area so much on sunnier days.

Spring clean-up is an annual tradition that bridges the library with the school community. We appreciate and enjoy it immensely!