Kudos to Patty!

August 26, 2007 at 5:42 am (Food for Thought, Random Observations, advocacy)

I cut and pasted this since the D and C links usually don’t stay live for very long :-(
It appeared in the Aug 25th D and C .

Golden Pen: Try these book selections post-Potter

(August 25, 2007) — In her 24 years of work in the Monroe County Library System, Patricia Uttaro has learned how frustrated parents can become when trying to get their children to sit down and read. Over the past decade, the popularity of the Harry Potter series — among readers of all ages — has proven this task is not insurmountable. The July 24 editorial “Reading resurge” touched on this topic and prompted Uttaro to write the following letter, first published Aug. 17:

Your editorial about the final Harry Potter book struck a chord with me. As a librarian, a parent, and above all, a reader, I applaud your encouragement of reading beyond the Potter-mania that has consumed our culture.

There are many avenues for young people to find their way to books just as satisfying as Harry Potter, perhaps the most accessible being our local libraries. Librarians are always ready to recommend new and exciting stories to anyone who asks, and many libraries offer reading lists of all types for all ages.

For those of you who were devastated by the end of the Harry Potter series, I will offer these suggestions for future reading adventures: Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series, Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, Matthew Aiken’s Endymion Spring, Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice and Henry Neff’s Hound of Rowan.

For older readers, books by Robert Jordan, and, of course, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings will satisfy your craving for more excitement beyond the halls of Hogwarts.

A native of Rochester’s South Wedge, Uttaro now lives in Chili with her husband, Cosmo, and their two children, Scott and Elizabeth. Though she has worked in several area libraries, she now specializes in personnel and communications for the county system, and also serves as assistant to the director.

Uttaro advises parents to let kids’ interests guide their literary selections. “Eventually, reading the classics will come. Don’t try to force it,” she said Wednesday. “They’ll get enough of that in school.”

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The Boy Who Was Raised by Librarians

March 18, 2007 at 7:46 pm (Food for Thought, advocacy)

I received one of those friendly little alerts from Amazon.com this morning about this book so I headed over to Amazon to check it out, pre-pub. At first, I thought it was illustrated by the same guy who did one of my all-time favorite children’s books, Double Trouble in Walla Walla written by Andrew Clements & illustrated by Sal Murdocca. Alas, it’s not, but the cover art still rocks. Here’s the Amazon blurb…

This humorous tale of a curious young boy and his single-minded quest for knowledge is a heartfelt and affectionate tribute to librarians everywhere.

Every day after school Melvin goes to the library. Everything has its place in the library and Melvin likes it that way. And his favorite people–Marge, Betty, and Leola-are always in their places, behind the reference desk.

When something interests Melvin, his librarian friends help him find lots and lots of books on the subject. When he collects creepy bugs in a jar, they help him identify, classify, and catalog the insects. When he is cast as the Enormous Eggplant in the school play, Betty reads aloud from Organic Gardening to help him find his motivation.

As the years pass, Melvin can always find the answers to his questions-and a lot of fun-in the library. Then one day he goes off to college to learn new things and read new book. Will he leave the library and his friends behind forever?

Readers will enjoy Brad Sneed’s delightful illustrations that colorfully capture the fun-loving spirit of Carla Morris’s story about the contagious enthusiasm of learning.

Lucky librarians know a kid like this; luckier ones know several kids like this. There really isn’t anything more satisfying than seeing a kid who has used the library regularly –I mean really used its resources — grow up to become something special. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing several kids like that and when I’m doubting my choice of profession, thinking about these kids always brings me back around.

There’s Karl Slominski, who was part of my very first young adult book discussion group back in 1996 and who, at age 13 created a full-sized wall mural in my old library and called it “The Stuff that Dreams Are Made Of.” Karl is now a successful graphic artist who work can be see at Slomotion Art. Last I heard, he was working on storyboards for a new Edward Norton movie.

Then there’s Kaylen Lott, who was part of my young adult volunteer group back in the late 1990’s and who is now doing graduate work in immunology at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse. I remember Kaylen telling everyone she was going to save the world, and now she’s on the way to doing just that.

What I love so much about books like The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians is that they do such a fabulous job of explaining what we do and how much of an effect we have on children. Now the real challenge is getting some of those kids whose lives we change in the positions of power that control the money. That’s why I love George Maziarz so much. Every time I see him, he tells the story of how he grew up right next door to the Tonawanda Public Library and how he spent so much of his childhood inside that building. And today, he is one of the strongest supporters of libraries in Albany. We need more like him.

This post is also published on my book blog — It’s All About the Book.

Patty

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Need Some Ideas…

January 27, 2007 at 4:04 am (Marketing, advocacy)

I spent part of this afternoon visiting with NYS Senator George Maziarz as part of our annual lobbying efforts for state aid. He made a great suggestion for making the case to other legislators and to the Governor, and I’m going to ask for some ideas to help to make his suggestion a reality. George talked a lot about how Governor Spitzer’s goal is to reinvigorate the upstate economy, and that we should make sure the Governor knows exactly how public libraries can contribute to that goal. I managed to find a study done by the Urban Libraries Institute that does just that, but I’d really love local examples to use in Albany.

This suggestion came on the heels of another one from NYS Assemblywoman Susan John, who recommended that we have a “hook” to present to Albany when asking for that 27 million dollar increase in aid. She focused on tying libraries into education, which led me a couple weeks ago to look for quantitative research which shows a correlation between public library use in the pre-school years (birth to 4) to later performance in school. There’s plenty of research featuring school libraries, but nary a one featuring public libraries. I thought I’d found what I was looking for in a study done in Philadelphia, but it really didn’t provide the information I wanted. I may suggest to Judith Robinson at UB that perhaps a faculty member or student there might want to tackle this topic because I suspect there is a connection and wouldn’t that be sweet information to hand to the Governor of New York State?

So, anyone out there have specific examples and anecdotes to share about either topic?

Patty

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