I visited an English Conversation Circle this week for the first time since they started in 2008. They were started at the Weekes branch of the Hayward Public Library. Librarian Melesha Owens has been leading them since then. Now they have expanded. We have them at a variety of times and a variety of locations. In addition to the Main Library’s Monday session which meets from 11:30-12:30, we have Tuesdays 6:00pm – 7:00pm as well as Weekes Branch Saturdays from 10:00am-12:00noon and the Day Labor Center( at 680- Tennyson) Thursdays 6:00pm-7:00pm.

We are always looking for volunteers who want to help us help people who want to improve their English Language skills. When the groups started and I helped out with a few, they had a bit of the feel of a free lunch offered to very hungry people. There was a hunger for knowledge that was responded to in an immediate, straight forward,if not necessarily, pedagogically, organized way. Now I am pleased to see a great overall organization. We talked about idioms while answering simple straight forward questions. The session dealt with health questions. Do you have allergies? Do you catch more than one cold in a year? They also taught some health related idioms; clean bill of health, right as rain,  alive and kicking. It was great fun as well as instructive.

Seeing adults learning a language is always inspirational. People don’t stop to think how complicated a trial it is. So many idioms make no sense when they are considered out of context. Raining cats and dogs; dressed to the nines, we use these expressions without thinking about what exactly they mean.

Join us, volunteer, help people learn English.

By Trudy Toll

On January 29, 2009 I wrote about the volunteer opportunities for people to help the Hayward Public Library.

Here is the paragraph on the Friends:

The Friends of the Hayward Public Library group exists simply to support the Hayward Public Library. They raise money which helps to further the library staff’s professional development, buy supplies and prizes for programs held at the library, and for many other special projects outside the library’s normal operating budget.

The Friends hold book sales every two weeks, and “Bigger than Usual” sales several times a year, as well as selling some of the more valuable books on the Internet. In preparation for the  book sales, dedicated Friends sort through donated books & other materials. There is a history of devoted Friends who have worked tirelessly for tens of hours a week, week after week, year after year. Some of them spend as much time and energy as they did on their regular jobs, because they enjoy the work so much. They also find the rewards gratifying, they can see what their efforts accomplish in the library. Other Friends only volunteer a few hours a week, or help at a book sale once or twice a year. They are looking for a range of volunteers, from people to simply help with the Saturday book sales to someone who loves to sell online and looks for the challenge involved with that. If interested in volunteering for the Friends, contact:

Friends of the Hayward Public Library

510-293-3328

admin@friendsofthehaywardcapubliclibrary.org

The opportunities have increased. The books sales for the Friends held at the Farmers Market have been going very well. The good news is that the Friends need more volunteers. If they had more volunteers, they would be able to have more books sales, maybe even every weekend. The Friends would love to have volunteers who love books, and who would like to help sell the donated books at the Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. These volunteers would be friendly, outgoing and would enjoy standing at the Library’s tent at the Farmer’s Market. There are also opportunities for people who would like to assist in selling the donated books online, the Friends would love to talk to you.

Many of you have heard me talk about the importance of the Friends to our events and other programs here. The Friends supply us with the additional funds we need in these lean economic times. The friends organization is always crucial to a public libraries well being. If you can’t volunteer, remember they do take cash donations as well. I thank you in advance for any assistance you can and will give the wonderful FRIENDS OF THE HAYWARD PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Trudy Toll

Adult Services Librarian at the Hayward Public Library

What do you think about the EBooks?  Have you tried them yet? In my September 11, 2009 post, I mention that we here at the Hayward Public Library have Ebooks to check out. People sometimes think that you have to buy an Ebook reader like a Kindle but you don’t. You can read our books on your regular computer. That’s what an Ebook really is. It is a book you read on a computer screen instead of between either paperback or hardcovers. As you can see below, they have features regular books don’t have. You will note that there are dictionary features, you can take notes on the side.  These are small photos so know that real ebooks you can make the text as big as you want or need.

Many people think that all books will soon be ebooks because they cost so much less, there is no printing, no shipping, no storing, and no returning. Those are all very real everyday costs for  traditional publishing. They might not seem like much but they add up and are very significant. Ebooks also represent another advantage over traditional publishing, you can do it yourself  without a publisher.

That means that many people who might not have been published by a traditional publisher. They might not get a traditional publishing contract because of their story idea or maybe because of their point of view. Traditional publishing has to sell a certain number of books to break even.  Electronic books have a much lower cost so they can have a lower sale price. Many Ebooks sell for under $10.00. There is a movement afoot by ebook consumers to make sure almost all ebook  pricetags stay under ten dollars per book.

There are those people who think ebooks take away from ones appreciation of traditional books. I don’t think so. I think they are an additional way to enjoy getting stories. I can now read hardcover books, paperback books, I can listen to books in my car by using books on cds or cassettes,  I can download audio books into my computer and transfer  it onto an MP3 player so I can listen to it when I am walking, raking leaves, cooking, or waiting in a jury waiting room. I now can add to all that an ebook that I can access on my computer, or I can use one of the specialty proprietary readers like a Kindle. Kindles are made by Amazon and they of course want you to buy their ebooks. Our Ebooks are through Net Librrary so they can be used with the nook from Barnes & Noble, Sony Digital Readers (PRS-300, 505, 600, 700 and 900), as well as the COOL-ER.

Let me know if you have used Ebooks, how you like them and when you use them. I would be interested in what kind of books you use in which category.

Trudy

Are you reading something great? How did you find it? Working in a public LIbrary, of course, I have an advantage. Many people come in and recommend great books. I also have friends who are always asking me if I have read x or y.

How do you choose?  Sometimes I choose it by the cover, or the blurb, sometimes by the author, but sometimes it is by the person who recommends the book.

I love it when someone recommends a book to me and I read it because of my friendship but then end up enjoying the book because of its content.

A friends of mine and I enjoy J.D.Robb books. She read them first and then insisted that I read one. Insisted. I obeyed. Wow! Now I have 30+ good memories because we share this enjoyment of this one author. I even found a friend at work who has read all of J.D. Robb so I can bask in a JDRobb fest whenever a new book by her comes out. We can ask each other; “Have you read her latest? Did you see where it was going?”

 This same friend also enjoys the Elizabeth Peters novels about Amelia Peabody. That one I told her about. I didn’t insist, but I did suggest that I thought she’d enjoy them. She did.

This friend loves Ancient Rome. I don’t. I havent’ read her favorites about Rome simply because I am never that desperate for books. I love India. She ignores my recommendations about books about India because she is never without reading material. It works out as reading friendships go.

I find it awkward when someone new in my life says,”You have to read X! You will love it!” I always wonder what makes that person omniscent, how they will know with such certainty that I will love this X.  Recommending a book is more complex than some people lead you to believe.

There are the beach reads. Grafton, Patterson(before his plots and charcaters got too sociopathic to read) you know novels that you don’t expect to remember, that you will enjoy for the moments you are reading them but they will not change your life, you will probably not comment to yourself about the skill of the writing, you will not copy any phrases out to remember and you probably will prefer to borrow them from the library versus fork over the  full list price of the hardcover. These are easy to recommend with the comment that they are popular and so they are probably a fun read.

Then there are the books which are more customized. These are not for everyone. They have some specialized content. They might be about a particular era or certain area. They might involve some life based drama. They might be an Oprah book club choice, they might be some book that your best friend is pleading with you to read and she has taken into consideration your personal history, your  attention span, your language useage, and what you usually like. These books are the bigger risk and often the bigger reward.

Then there are the books you find on your own and even when you love them, you can’t recommend them to anyone because they are so tricky. The book A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry is one of those books for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it but I would not recommend it to anyone unless I knew they liked long, India and real human misery. I thought it was amaing. I believed almost every word of it but I know very few people would go through the whole book.

Do you have books that you loved but you can’t recommend to anyone? What are they? I do think it’s interesting what we read, why do we enjoy it and who we share these tastes with.

Let me know what books you are enjoying and why.

Good Reading…

Trudy

Have you noticed that people are always giving us advice? They do it in magazines, in beauty parlors, in line, online, in blogs, in tweets EVERYWHERE! Let’s think about all those times when people gave us advice that was unwanted-

High School - “You should cut your hair, it’s a stupid color.”

College - “You should never wear that color orange, it doesn’t go with your skin tone.”

You got advice from friends, from relatives, from inlaws, from co-workers, from partners( significant others).

But in truth, we are always looking for advice.

“Which CD is going have a better interest rate over 18 months?” “Which TV should I get?” “Is now really the time to buy a Toyota?”

We love to have people advice us when we’re at a crossroads. We love it and we hate it. We love it if it meets our criteria and we can figure out how valid the advice really is.

Seeing all these blogs devoted to advising us, got me thinking how we love advice that we can disregard. You can get advice on anything on the internet, it is up to you to decide if it is any good.

I know people are interested in advice on how to carve a turkey like some MAD MEN episode, or learn how to take better digital photos like a Ken Burns production but I would caution( see even I’m giving you advice) always be aware of who is advicing you and what is in it financially for them.

I love being able to learn from blogs. I love being reminded of good avice I’ve heard before and have forgotten. I love being able to choose to ignore everything I see or read if it suits me to do so. There is no Great Aunt Bertha saying with a sneer, ” Hey you didn’t listen to my advice to buy Microsoft when it was still just a glimmer in Mr. Gate’s eye, why should I go out of my way to now advis you on anything?”

Trudy Toll

We have gone a while without anyone commenting so the question arises; should this blog continue? If there are any positive votes we will continue, in the absence of any votes, we will close it down. You be the judge. If this blog has interested you, helped you, let me know. If there is silence, then it will end. In that case I thank you and will see you at the Hayward Public Library.

Trudy Toll

I want to tell you about part of Hayward’s History. Jody Snyder is a Public Librarian.

Jody started here at the Hayward Public Library as a Library Assistant, then became the Library secretary in the administration office to then Library Director Webster. In 1982 she was hired as a Librarian at the Hayward Public Library. She has seen us through the invention of the internet, of computers, of faxes, of photocopying machines, of music cassettes, of CDs, of VHS, of DVDs, of the computerization of both the card catalog as well as the start of data bases and electronic resources, through shifts in collections (she remembers when the Public Library loaned art, sculptures, LPs, reel to reel movies, when the card catalog consisted on cards, when the process of circulation involved photographing the date due cards from the pockets inside the library books), she has seen the physical building change, grow, get remodeled, get re-arranged. She has seen hundreds of staff members come and go, some come and grow. She has trained people. She has learned the new technologies as they came and went and as they came and stayed. Throughout all these evolutions, she has provided great service to the people of Hayward.

She was entitled the “Crackerjack Librarian” by Hayward Daily review columnist Ray Orrick. She was often referred to by San Francisco Chronicle columnist, Herb Caen. To Hayward Public Library staff, she was, is and always will be Jody. Jody who would find the answer to any question. Jody who would be able to find any piece of music because music is one of her life’s passions. She knows so much about movies, about Hayward history, Hayward geography, Hayward people, she is in short a living resource. In Library School, when one takes a reference course, they list the resources available to any type of inquiry; there are electronic resources of all types, there are print resources, and then there are PEOPLE. Jody is one of those PEOPLE. She willingly searches for an answer, a solution, a lyric, an obituary. Jody is customer service personified. She represents so much of what the field of Public Librarianship stands for. There is never a profit motive near her consciousness. She is never interested in personal recognition. She is a team player. I don’t know that there is even an “I” in her personal alphabet.

I am sorry to see Jody leave the Hayward Public Library, but I will keep her on my shoulder instructing me how to mentor, she has mentored me, as well as tens of others. I will keep her on my shoulder to remind me how to be cheerful in the face of sometimes exhausting work. Jody has a great sense of humor as well as being a punster. I will keep Jody on my shoulder to remind me to be willing to look silly sometimes to inject whimsy into the Library. Jody is known as a Librarian who would wear hats, costumes or celebratory tee-shirts at work to celebrate Halloween, to celebrate Bastille Day, to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Jody brings a hard work ethic to anything she does.

Like so many parts of History, there will be many versions of why people admire Jody Snyder. I have just told you my version of why I admire Jody Snyder, why her example is going to always be with me of how to be a dedicated public Librarian and my example of how a little whimsy can make any library just a bit better.

Jody you will be missed, remembered and your example will be followed. Keep in touch. Though you never received the official designation from the City of Hayward, to me, you will always represent the qualities of the Heart of the Bay award. Service, service, dedication to the city, and service. Thanks from one colleague and I know I speak for many others.

by Trudy Toll

I am interested in hearing from the people who would like to be part of a group focusing on these forms of writing.

Contact me by email at :

trudy.toll@hayward-ca.gov

or you can sign in and comment on this blog.

I look forward to hearing from you.

By Trudy Toll

By Trudy Toll, Adult Services Librarian at Hayward Public Library, Hayward,CA

Once again I am going to talk about being touched by the intersection of people and history. I have mentioned more than once the Digital Story Project I am working on here in Hayward. Sunday May 23, the city of San Leandro held a great event. They presented 19 digital stories on the Nisei internment. There was a power to having all the stories around not only one theme but also such an incredibly, egregious period of our history. To make the afternoon more amazing still, the storytellers were there, alive and in person.

We here at Hayward, are going to have an afternoon where we show many of our movies made in the last two years. I can only hope that ours will be nearly as powerful. We have not limited ourselves to one topic so there will be diversity where they had depth. We have people speaking about many aspects of the past, their own and this city’s.

Do join us on Saturday, June 12, 2010, here at the Hayward Main Library. The screening will start at 12:00 Noon. The storytellers when possible will be attending. Come see history, be a part of history.

Call me at (510) 881-7974 for more information. Remember it is never too late to come forward and have us record your Digital story.

By Trudy Toll, Adult Services Librarian at Hayward Public Library, Hayward,CA

Someone was talking about quotes the other day. Quotes and poetry. It got me thinking.
We used to say that greeting cards,( Hallmark etc) could say for us what we ourselves couldn’t say.
I think books of poetry used to fulfill that function as well as Bartlett’s Book of Quotations. Let’s say I admired someone greatly, but I felt awkward going up to a co-worker and saying that I thought they were super great. I would feel awkward if it were Trudy speaking but if it were a poet or a quote from someone of note, then the sentiment would be received but it would be less personally delivered. It wouldn’t be Trudy speaking, it would be Plato, or Mark Twain or whomever.
These last two weeks a co-worker helped me repeatedly with a computer problem. I say, “ Thank you Cornelio, you really helped me. I appreciate it.”

But if I felt awkward, or didn’t know him I might chose that other method. I might use other people’s words not my own.
I would say to him;
“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) from Essays, ‘Friendship’
“A friend in need is a friend in deed” a Proverb.
These are from The Macmillan Dictionary of Quotations, Edison, NJ: Chartwell Books.(2000)
A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.
Elbert Hubbard
A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.
Leo Buscaglia
A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.
Arnold H. Glasow
From http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_friendship.html
Be A Friend
by Edgar A Guest
This is just an excerpt taken from http://www.famous-poems.biz/friendship_poems/Be-A-Friend-new-friendship-poem-by-Edgar-A-Guest.html
Be a friend. The pay is bigger
(Though not written by a figure)
Than is earned by people clever
In what’s merely self-endeavor.
You’ll have friends instead of neighbors
For the profits of your labors;
You’ll be richer in the end
Than a prince, if you’re a friend

I think that these were devices used by our predecessors to say what they couldn’t say to their friends, colleagues and countrymen.  I think we still do that by using the internet and clicking and dragging.
We can now send a whole page listing songs about friendship
http://www.friendship.com.au/media/songs/
movies about friendship
http://www.friendship.com.au/media/movies.html

This is all from the Friendship webpage!
http://www.friendship.com.au/index.html
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So we’re still saying things using other people’s words instead of our own. Use your own or other people’s words  but just always say thank you to those who help you.
Thank you again Cornelio. I appreciate your help.

Trudy