Reading between the lions…a redesign of the New York Public Library lion logo…..

The library lion has shed its shaggy mane for the digital age.

For the first time in at least a quarter century, the New York Public Libraryhas unveiled a new logo, this one designed to work both online and in print. Consisting of a profile of a lion inside a circle, it sheds the fussy detail of the old one. Instead, it uses bold, simple lines that evoke the style of stained-glass windows, woodcuts, or old printers’ marks.

The old logo of the New York Public Library would lose detail when it was too small.

The strong lines allow for the logo to be scaled to different sizes — a requirement in an age when people are as likely, if not more likely, to see a logo on their computer as they are in print. “It’s got to be able to work that small and that large,” explained Marc Blaustein, art director for the library system, who oversaw the creation of the logo. The old logo had a hard time maintaining its detail as it shrank, Mr. Blaustein said.

At the same time a logo can’t be overly simple. “If it gets too minimal, then it doesn’t have any energy,” said Brian Collins, a designer who has been involved with a number of logo redesigns, including one for Yahoo.

The new logo has already been introduced on the library Web site and will be adopted eventually on library signs, library cards, and printed materials. (One hopes it will have a more positive response than the New York City taxi logo.)

The library started considering a redesign more than a year ago, in large part because it wanted to convey a more modern and digital-friendly image. The process also included adoption of a new color palette and a new typeface. Instead of going to an outside agency, the task fell to the library’s own staff. “This is an in-house product,” said Paul LeClerc, president of the library.

The logo started with a lion — specifically, Fortitude, the northern of the two lions that flank the steps to the main library, also known as the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The other lion is Patience.

(”It’s primarily based on Fortitude, but it’s a combination of both,” said Mr. Blaustein. “The angle is Fortitude, but some of the features are inspired by Patience.”)

While the lion had to be the focus, the conceptualization of the design was left open. “We explored dozens of concepts and did hundreds of drawings,” Mr. Blaustein said.

After searching through hundreds of typefaces, the staff settled on a sans-serif typeface called Kievit, which was designed by Michael Abbink in 2001. It was chosen in large part because it was contemporary and worked well on the Web and in print.

In contrast, there are fonts, such as Microsoft’s Verdana, that are designed to be screen-friendly. But the migration of some of these fonts into print, as in the case of the Ikea catalog, can be very controversial among typeface aficionados.

One enduring mystery: the origins of the old logo and its age. Mr. Blaustein said his search had turned up little about its history. “No one knows who designed it,” he said. Libraries excel at preserving history, but not always, it seems, their own.

As cited  from the New York TImes blog, November 9th, 2009, by Jennifer Lee http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/a-new-look-for-the-public-librarys-lion-logo/

 

Do schools need libraries and librarians? A teaching assistant and award-winning librarian explains why they do.

Many primary schools have libraries, but often these potentially fantastic sources of inspiration and imagination are not utilised properly. No one’s really in charge of them and children receive little guidance on what they might enjoy reading. Some schools have no libraries at all – it’s argued that they are a luxury which simply can’t be budgeted for.

It’s no surprise then that schools with libraries and librarians to run them are evangelical about the benefits. It’s a lot more common in private schools than state, and in secondary schools rather than primary, even though we all know how important it is to start the reading bug while young. However, some state schools are determined to hang onto people whom they find inspirational.

Last month Lucy Bakewell, from Hill West Primary School in Sutton Coldfield was announced as the School Librarian of the Year. It was the first time a librarian from a primary school had won the award.

“Today, when schools are striving to raise standards in reading and writing, we need champions to place themselves at the heart of school strategies. Their aim – to engage pupils in and enthuse them about books.

It is the most exciting time in history to be a school librarian. Never has there been a better point in time to create effective information centres for our children. Ones that play a crucial role in raising attainment, creating readers and developing skills for life.

With the advent of the internet, much funding for libraries has been reduced. Some have even suggested that libraries are no longer a viable facility in schools and are replacing them with ICT suites: ‘Why do we need a library when we can find all the information we want on the internet?’

Although it cannot be denied that the internet is an incredibly powerful research aid, it cannot replace the personalised service or information delivered by more traditional hands on approach. Even in the most modest of school libraries, every resource has been quality controlled, assessed, catalogued and sorted for easy access. Therein lies the necessity of a skilled Librarian.

It takes a truly dedicated individual to create an inspiring school library. The job is not to create the ‘perfect’ library, but to create the perfect library for the individual school’s needs. To do this the school librarian has to wear many hats: teacher, information specialist, administrator, promoter, advisor and most importantly inspirer.

I believe that school librarians change lives by supporting learning and teaching in their schools. It is fundamental to capture children’s interest and imagination at a young age and make them passionate about reading. Reading is so important in children’s development, expanding their imagination, knowledge and their vocabulary.

The school librarian’s knowledge and enthusiasm for books puts them in a unique position to engage the children they interact with. They are able to promote reading and bring stories to life through many different means: themed events, author visits, reading initiatives, book awards to name but a few.

A school library belongs to the pupils that visit it. It is a sanctuary for reading and inspiration and a place where librarians can help children become truly information literate in an individually tailored way, through a mixture of traditional and new methods.

as cited from School Gate magazine, November 2, 2009

http://timesonline.typepad.com/schoolgate/2009/11/do-schools-need-libraries-and-librarians-a-teaching-assistant-and-awardwinning-librarian-explains-wh.html

 

I’ll fight you for the library.

Thank goodness someone recognised the value of their library as more than a place to hold a meeting surrounded by pretty books.

“I’ll Fight You For The Library” performed by Taylor Mali as part of the Page Meets Stage Series at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City on April 29, 2009

 

DoaWK….Dog Days is finally released….

Behind the ‘Wimpy Kid’ Phenomenon

This is a big week for the grade-school set. Greg Heffley, the crude and clueless protagonist of Jeff Kinney’s wildly popular book series, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” is back.

Like the first three books in the series, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days,” chronicles the misadventures of Greg and his best friend, Rowley, two middle-school students who try to navigate adolescence, home life and the social pecking order at school, all by putting forth as little effort as possible.

Like the others, it is filled with Mr. Kinney’s easygoing first-person narrative and his artfully artless drawings. Its plot revolves around the slapstick, laziness and ethical lapses that have engaged millions of 8-to-12-year-old readers and left parents scratching their heads.

“Dog Days,” which was released Monday, is already the best-selling book on Amazon.com, ahead of the likes of Dan Brown and Glenn Beck. Early interest has been so strong that the publisher, Abrams, increased its initial print run to four million copies, from three million.

The Internet is filled with testimonials about children who were frustrated readers until they got their hands on a Wimpy Kid book. But some parents have been less enthusiastic.

“The words ‘moron,’ ‘jerk,’ ‘dork’ and ‘hot girls’ are used in the first five pages,” complains a reviewer on Amazon of the first book. “This is a poor choice for good character building in your children.”

But given the books’ powerful appeal among both girls and boys, child development experts say parents have a lot to learn from Greg and company. While books like the Harry Potter series create an imaginative fantasy world, the Wimpy Kid books give us a rare glimpse into a child’s ethical mind.

“It really captures the struggle of a child that age trying to figure out what it means to be a person,” said Dr. Joshua Sparrow, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sparrow read the first Wimpy Kid book after a young patient told him about it.

“I think it can help parents tune into what kids know and how they think,” he went on. “It captures what a child is able to get and what’s beyond their reach, and how you have to adjust your expectations because they are still a work in progress.”

Dr. Lawrence Rosen, a pediatrician who founded the Whole Child Center in Oradell, N.J., says he has talked about the series with his third-grade daughter, who says she likes that the main character is “not perfect.”

“The power of the book is about the wimpy kid, a regular kid with regular problems, just dealing with what life brings him,” Dr. Rosen said. “For parents, I suppose reading the books or at least discussing them with our kids will give us a more realistic idea of what their lives are like, the struggles they face every day.”

Mr. Kinney says he originally wrote the stories for adults, aiming for funny and nostalgic recollections of childhood, and “never imagined” them as children’s literature. Rather than offering moralistic lessons, he focused on the humor inherent in the misguided decisions that children often make.

In one much-talked-about scene from the first book, Greg, who is in middle school, benefits from a case of mistaken identity: because he happens to be wearing Rowley’s jacket when he terrifies a group of kindergarteners with worms on a stick, his best friend is the one who faces punishment.

Greg’s mother senses he is struggling with a moral dilemma and advises him to “do the right thing.”

After tossing and turning, Greg concludes, “I decided that the right thing to do was to just let Rowley take one for the team this time around.”

In the end Rowley is punished, and Greg’s mother, who mistakenly believes he’s made the right choice, rewards him with ice cream.

“Greg really does think he’s done the right thing, and thinks he’s learned his lesson,” Mr. Kinney, who is 38 and has sons 6 and 4, told me. “You’re expecting at any moment that an adult is going to set things straight, but none ever does.”

Mr. Kinney says most of his feedback comes from grateful parents who say the books have turned their children into readers. But a few parents do complain that Greg sets a bad example.

“I have complete respect for that position, and I’ve been shocked there hasn’t been much more of it,” he said. “If there is a lesson in the book, it’s to do the opposite of what Greg does. Even my kindergarten child understands that Greg is being naughty, and that he shouldn’t act like him.”

In “Dog Days,” Greg starts a lawn business, but cuts the grass haphazardly and complains when his customers won’t pay. His father remows a customer’s lawn free of charge, but Greg insists he’s done nothing wrong. “I’m trying to find a way to earn money without doing any actual work,” he explains.

Dr. Sparrow says part of the book’s appeal is that it doesn’t moralize. “If you had an omniscient voice saying, ‘Do the right thing,’ kids would tune that out,” he said. “It leaves room for the child to be challenged to decide what he or she thinks.”

Questionable behavior aside, there is no question that kids love these books. When my fifth grader learned I had scored an early copy of “Dog Days,” she wrestled it away from me and began to devour it. Upon finishing, she closed the book with great satisfaction. After a moment, she opened it and started reading it again from the beginning.

As found in the New York Times, October 13, 2009 By Tara Parker-Pope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A librarian’s manifesto 2.0

What we all must strive to work towards….

 

Do you want fries with that Danielle Steel novel?

In Texas, the Houston Public Library is offering a service  which  delivers books, movies, and music to you car– your library curbside to go! Now,  Houston’s citizens who are physically challenged, suffer from agoraphobia,  are in a hectic  rush to get the kids to soccer practice, or who are just plain lazy can now rejoice!  No reports as to librarians being tipped and of how much…..

 

Samuel Johnson…Oxford English Dictionary…300 years later making language matter….

This month we celebrate a leader in the English language,  someone on par with the great English writings of William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson.  As  poet, satirist, critic, lexicographer, and dyed-in-the-wool conservative, Johnson’s birth was recorded in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, on September 18, 1709. The tercentenary of Johnson’s birth just us cause to re-evaluate his influence on the modern dictionary as well as his contributions to English lexicography. Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language is the “work that defined the English language.” when printed in 1755.

Johnson is perhaps the most highly celebrated lexicographer of English. Conventional wisdom claims that Johnson solely conceived and produced A Dictionary of the English Language. Although he invested a number of years of full-time work to the Dictionary, Johnson wasn’t the first professional lexicographer.  That distinction belongs to John Kersey, author of A New English Dictionary, published in 1702,  53 years prior. Also, it has been recorded the Johnson did not work alone;  with the aid of

half a dozen assistants, and the history of lexicography tells us that assistants influence dictionary-making more than either eighteenth-century social hierarchies or the Great Author theory behind Johnson’s reputation admits.

Nor was Johnson’s the first dictionary to illustrate meaning  and  usage. John Florio’s Italian-English dictionary, A Worlde of Wordes was, in 1598, the first at least partially English dictionary to use quotations. Benjamin Martin had used sense divisions into dictionary entries in Lingua Britannica Reformata, published in 1749.  Johnson proposed to “sort the several senses of each word, and to exhibit first its natural and primitive signification,” followed by “its consequential meaning,” and then “the remoter or metaphorical signification.” Whoever came up with it, no one doubts, in retrospect, that it was a good plan.

Unlike its predecessors, Johnson’s Dictionary was written on a grand scale, attempting to perfect the dictionary as a type of book and to change the terms on which dictionaries were valued by London’s literati. In contrast to earlier lexicography, Johnson’s dictionary entries—little critical essays about lexical form, meaning, and usage—talk in voices big enough to carry across the centuries.

Johnson inserted dictionaries into literary culture: He convinced readers that perfect cultivation of the human mind required a dictionary, preferably his Dictionary, not merely as a work of reference, but as a book worth reading for its own sake. Johnson’s great contribution to the history of English lexicography was to conceive the dictionary, not as a schoolroom prop, but as a type of literary work.

Johnson wrote only one dictionary, but in that one he initiated several dictionary genres. Definitions like those for oats, lexicographer, and excise

(“a hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged not by the common judges of property but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid”) were a form of cultural criticism.  Though Johnson was not the first to employ literary quotations to illustrate usage and meaning, he was the first English lexicographer to conceive entries as necessarily incorporating quotations, the first to concentrate on quotations as an aspect of dictionary structure.

His refined use of quotations proposed yet another genre, “the quotations dictionary.”

The OED was first published (somewhat irregularly) in parts, and those interested in the English language subscribed, as though it were a periodical.

Today, we celebrate this epic tome of the school room,  that which sits on a shelf of reverence in our homes, on a specific;y designed stand in a public place.  Samuel Johnson might not have been the first to compose a list of English language words,  though he is one of the most celebrated lexicographers in our past 300 years.

Johnson’s dictionary is most significant for the way it stimulated lexicography, raised the status and interest of the dictionary as a literary and cultural artifact, and generated new genres of dictionary. The Dictionary may effectively be the synopsis and epitome of Johnson’s genius.

as seen in  HUMANITIES, September/October 2009, Volume 30, Number 5

 

A day in the life, part II….or the name game

To further my position that we must offer friendly, responsive services to our community in order to meet their  needs.  In our quest to be  effectual we must give our patrons  the courtesy of  listening to their  wanted services . To aid in effectively changing  our traditional public perception, we as a profession must  listen to our patron’s requests and  better meet them in a respectful, timely and technologically advanced form.

Besides, it is rather funny video ……

 

A day in the life of a librarian…..

What is it that we do?  As public perception portrays us as middle aged spinsters with  glasses and cardigan sweaters,  many of  us within the profession challenge this  image in daily list serve postings, conference  discussion groups and in professional periodicals.  It would seem as of late that there has been a flurry of LM-Net postings regarding  ’what is your title’ and ‘what are your duties’.   While I contend that public perception might need to change, just as our duties  and use of technology has evolved,  I question how would be the best way to do this?

Perhaps by giving the best service we can.

While customer service  might echo  the trade talk of a corporation of a for profit organization,  we can treat our patrons/users in a manner which highlights  effectiveness and use of technology.  We can certainly  ’be more out there’ with our use of social media  tools to better model our profile.

Perhaps we should focus less on  defending our new image and focus more so on giving good customer service  to better promote our image.

Or that is just my opinion……

 

1000 origami cranes….or what I did on my summer vacation…

Could it be a tribute to Sadako and world peace, or  is it an excellent example of  a student Falcon’s dedication to seeing a project through to the end?

Both, definitely. I am immensely proud of  all of my students, particularly those who show initiative and are self  motivated. Charlie is one of those  children.

In April 2009, our grade three class  read Sadako and the thousand paper cranes by E. Coerr as a compliment to their  social studies  program. As part of learning about Japanese culture as well as empathy towards the main character and her quest to fold  1000 origami cranes in order to  wish for good health,  as a class we attempt to fold a few paper cranes.  Origami is an art of  folding paper in precise  forms.  Valley folds,  angles need to match and such.

After our origami class workshop, I noticed Charlie was showing a particular interest in  the project.  I challenged him to  try to fold 1000 cranes over the summer vacation.   Admittedly, I did not think to much about it since that moment. On The first day of school,   Mum delivered two boxes  filled with chains of  ornate paper cranes.  Charlie has done me proud  by demonstrating  his self motivation, by providing something beautiful for others to look at.  Above all, he has given  school library visitors  a chance to pause and think about Sadako and her plight for world peace.

Bravo Charlie. I am so very proud of you and your accomplishment.