nichole's auxiliary storage

Public libraries and people in jail

(just one more post.)

Thanks to Amanda on the JLG listserv who pointed out Public libraries and people in jail by Kathleen de la Peña McCook in Reference and User Services Quarterly (Fall 2004 v.44 no.1 p. 26-30), now available in full text on Ebscohost and elsewhere. JLG's mission is quoted as an illustration of a "kinder philosophical approach to those in jails."

(There, I'm gone.)

Blogiversary and breather

November 25, 2004 marks one year of this blog on TypePad.^* In honor of that occasion, I'd like to thank each and every one of my readers. So, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and thank you (with apologies to Steve Martin).

With that, I'm taking a break - back in a week or two.

^*The first few months on Movable Type for Metadata class was kind of bloggy goes a courtin' - in case you ever wondered why early entries look like crud, it's fallout from that migration.

Juvenile, I know...

Working on titles like "A comparison of media for the maintenance of bovine semen" is nothing special. I wasn't even going to make a prurient comment about "The stimulation of one digital computer by another." But then I saw that a cataloger (or card typist) had miskeyed one title as "Medical facilitits of the U.S. army [...]" and that's too much in one afternoon to keep to myself, even against my better judgement.

In other news, I'll get to key in Abraham Maslow's thesis pretty soon. This job has its perks.

Truth in sentencing

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel kicked off a four-part series Sunday with the article, "Tougher sentencing law carries hefty price," by Mary Zahn and Gina Barton. All signs point to a thorough treatment of the topic:

To assess the impact of truth in sentencing, the Journal Sentinel interviewed more than 100 people over six months, including judges, victims, parole agents, offenders, politicians, defense attorneys, prosecutors, community advocates and corrections officials.
In addition, the newspaper reviewed hundreds of court records and analyzed a database of 123,087 inmate records kept by the state Department of Corrections. That database was used in creating a mathematical model to analyze trends and estimate the added cost of more prison and extended supervision over time.

This first installment gives some background of the truth-in-sentencing laws, the increased costs faced by the state, a brief mention of alternative programs, and some stories of the lives of people in the jail/prison/parole system.

The public library where you get your coffee

Happy She Had Dirty Hands Day from Pretty Girl, whose dangling modifiers are so painfully charming.

Charity

There's the good news: JLG is on Isthmus' Giving mag wish list.

Then the bad news: Wisconsin ranks 46th in charitable giving according to the Catalogue for Philanthropy's 2004 "Generosity Index." At the bottom, again. Nothing to add but a sigh at all the predictable ground that's already covered ⁽¹⁾ - nay, packed hard ^{(1, 2, 3)} by the stomping feet of people with keyboards and theories. Not stomping on keyboards, I mean. Or maybe, in some cases.

Now, looking at a breakdown of giving within each state, maybe by county - that would be interesting.

Putting the raspberries to bed

It will be a while before there's another day like this one, two Saturdays ago already.

Here's my favorite bit of the raspberry patch.

Man, I love Wisconsin.

The best way to boil vegetables

In 1921, Mary Myrtle McCalmont began her 10 page thesis, "The loss of food constituents in the preparation of vegetables," thus:

Too long has good food been wasted in the American kitchen. Part of this has been because of wasteful preparation, part because of careless storage, part because of general incompetency of the housewife.

Her research investigates whether vegetables retain more nutrients when they are placed in boiling water to be cooked, or are placed in cold water and brought to a boil. She found that the water  should be brought to boil before putting in the vegetables, though many stoves boil water so quickly that the loss of vitamins and minerals is negligible. She also recommends that the cooking water be used in other dishes as often as practicable.

I once made bread with potato water that I'd refrigerated overnight. The water had turned bright green, and ended up pigmenting the bread, but it turned out OK.

And one more thing.

Quiet day, so here's some conspiracy-fodder from the NYT: one more reason not to shop Wal-Mart. Via.

Willy Mason

It's cool and rainy here in Madison, a perfect day for listening to all the Willy Mason songs I can find, then being so totally seduced that I can't help but order the CD. (If you only have 5 minutes, make sure you listen to Oxygen. Then imagine how it sounded on November 3.)

Vulgarisation

I like the sound of the French subject heading subdivision ßv Ouvrages de vulgarisation for ßv Popular works.

That is all.

US prison population

CoolGov reports on 2003 US incarceration statistics. Wisconsin posts theirs on the Institution Populations page of the Department of Corrections site, in ugly pdfs for the very determined, with stats on each state facility.

The Dane County Sheriff's 2003 annual report is about all I can scrounge up about the local scene at the moment. Good news: jail bookings were down to pre-2001 numbers.

(Fun fact: the Wisconsin Department of Justice has an arson-sniffing Labrador named Dharma.)

Easy gift boxes

If the relative whose name you pulled out of the hat last year eats food, you're all set with SHARE's gift box of Wisconsin foodie goodness. They do dinners too. Via Terese Allen's column in Isthmus.

Thought I scored

Dammit. The copy of NaS's Nastradamus that I got for $4 from the MPL Friends, from the library's music industry settlement, is in fact the Wal-Mart version.

(That, or NaS was really nice and censored himself, right, John?)

"Two enormous echo chambers"

Aaron is so not amused he's changing up his blog and thinking of eschewing politics. (Never fear, already LiberaLibrarian is on the scene?) My own blogging habits and hopes are different from Aaron's, and so have insulated me from that kind of disappointment. Still, his complaint about "hardening of opinions" strikes a chord.

It's one reason why I stopped taking notes of Mel & Floyd's Summer Replacement Show, which can be great in small doses as part of a balanced media diet, but is no place to arrest one's development. (Volunteers for Madison Indymedia are now posting the actual show, so there's even less need to get in the way of the pure monkey goodness.)

In the meantime, I think Marylaine Block is sharp as ever on partisanship and the library profession.

Combed out

If reading about what bloggers eat bores you, don't bother reading on. The gist is I can't resist eating lunch at Catacombs every dang day. It's $3, it's hot, it's heavy on the vegetables, and I am so not tired of it. But inevitably I come home to eat a dinner that counteracts all the health benefits of eating organic local food. Oscar Meyer's local, though, innit?

Monday.
Lunch: beans and greens; dinner: homemade beef tacos (mostly farmers market stuff).

Tuesday.
Lunch: lentil crepes; dinner: salad at Cousins.

Wednesday.
Lunch: squash curry, spinach salad; dinner: leftover taco meat and cheese on wheat toast, 2 cosmos, nuked plain Oscar Meyer hot dog, in that order.

Thursday.
Lunch: rice croquettes, mushrooms, spinach salad; dinner: bar food.

Monday.
Lunch: vegetable soup in an acorn squash bowl with kale and rice on the side; dinner: Yellowtail shiraz, hot dogs, chocolate chip cookies. Nitrates are so good with alcohol.

Tuesday.
Lunch: spicy pumpkin soup, brussels sprouts and fry-cut potatoes roasted with red cabbage; dinner: 1/2 cheesesteak at Cousins. Tuesday is double punch day, and it was free this time, so we splurged.

Then I lost track until election day. That night we had Cousin's takeout, election night TV, and more cosmos.

Wednesday.
Lunch: End-of-the-world grilled cheese with coleslaw and potato salad.

Aye, it matters not a whit

(linkity-link link link...) Thanks to Dorothea for reminding me of the Journal of books and wenches. I haven't seen it yet, but Malachi Bowles has assured me that my copy is in the mail.

update: speak of the devil, it's arrived. Excellent!

Libraries, arcane poetry, and folk music

The November issue of American Libraries brought my attention to this quote from Dan Bern, folksinger, at the Bradenton Herald:

Bern strongly dismissed a recent Billboard.com poll that shows artist [sic] and celebrities do not influence political views.

"Look at what influences kids, look at what young people get excited about and take as meaningful," Bern said. "Is it speeches? Is it things they read in the library or arcane poetry or is it music? What are they listening to when they are walking around with their headphones on?"

AL reprinted the quote because it mentions libraries, obviously. When it comes to message music, though, I think it depends. Some people choose music for its message, but often as not their minds are made up.

Sure, hearing Ani DiFranco at 15 put a bug in my ear that may have speeded up my rejection of Brio! in favor of Utne Reader (that my mom subscribed to both for me is still a wonderment) but it wasn't the only factor in that change. Even then, it wasn't the values (dogmatism, even) on either side that influenced me so much as the variety of opinions.

For the record, I generally like Dan Bern except for his political tunes, and Billboard's polls are hardly scientific.

Also, bit of an intellectual freedom quagmire to suggest that conscious judgement is suspended whenever media are consumed. Kind of goes against core library values, no?

Another map

Amanda sent me this link to "Blue state secession: the only solution" by Zoltan Grossman, a geography professor at UWEC, my alma mater. One little thing that bugs me in all these maps is the fate of the residents of Washington, DC - 10 to 1 they did their part.

"We know all about waiting."

That's what an inmate said to me after I explained the slim chance he had of getting any Donald Goines books to read anytime soon.

Another guy said as I wheeled the book cart into the pod, "Aw, you don't need to do that, can't none of us read anyway." Later he asked if he could work at the library.

One guy was all, "Do you ever go dancing in Rockford? No, I'm for real! You got a sister there?"

Finally, as I was cleaning up the library room, a guy stopped at the door and asked if he could look at the new books. I said sure. As he picked out a couple romances, he said, "Some guys hassle me for reading these love stories, but I just tell them 90% of them are written by women, know what I'm saying? So you get to know about what women want."

I told him that was pretty smart.

Move to Canada Ohio

Seriously. Or Iowa, or New Mexico. Spread the purple around if you've not entirely given up (two, three). And maybe get off the internet for a while. (Cranky, cranky me. I think I will take a time-out.)

update, like, 2 minutes later:
so, I'm sitting here, thinking I was kidding. But wait. Ohio might just not be so very bad...

Devo.
Great libraries.
Harvey Pekar.
Cheaper houses? (Freakin' BoBos.)
Free oil changes. (That's a secret code, there.)
Cincinnati chili.
My in-laws, who plan to retire to Madison, could retire to their second choice (Paducah, KY) and still be not too far away.

More later, maybe.

Later: hm. Doubts. This would totally be carpetbagging. That's why this post is a JOKE. Back to the grind.

They Might have a keen point there

As usual. That's why They're worth quoting in a freaking ridiculous URL.

Should you worry when the skull head is in front of you or is it worse because it's always waiting where your eyes don't go?

From 1988's album Lincoln.

Free opiates...

...but not as many as a Wisconsin State Journal reporter thinks. On Sunday, Oct. 31, the paper carried an article about the demise of VHS. It was a decent article, but the reporter got the number of DVDs in the public library system wrong by a factor of ten. Would that we owned 93,000 - the correct number given to the reporter was 9185.

As if this mattered today. Feeling crushed (literally - what is that stabbing pain below my ribs?) despite some comfort in a few of my own (Dane) county's choices.

Fifth law of oooh

Sure, it's juvenile of me to transcribe this fragment overheard in a nameless library. But it's late late late and I can't go to bed with Ohio twisting in the election wind.

Librarian 1: Here, on this "What is a library?" poster. I always misread that word.
Librarian 2: What?
Librarian 1: That last word.
Librarian 2: I don't know what it is, so...
[Pause.]
Librarian 1: "A library is a growing organism."
Librarian 2: Nevermind! Ha ha ha.

Costume

I hope the next four years will be a time of more civilized discourse, decreased polarization, and less hyperbole in American politics. That said, I did it. Worn to a smashing party thrown by the folks at Working Knowledge, a new nonprofit here in Madison. (Check them out!)

If Halloween in Madison were a game of Apples to Apples, this is what we'd call "playing to the judge":

The specs:
Protective gear (gloves, 2 Tyvek suits, yellow waders): $5.01 at the ReStore.
Futuristic green workout shirt: $3.99 at Goodwill.
Goggles: American Science and Surplus, years ago.
Paper mask: Home Depot (before the blinds problem).
Placard: $0.50 at Office Max.
Plus some duct tape. Total: less than $10. Fabulous but kind of warm. Best of all, I can use the gloves to clean the gutters, and the waders to brave pruning the raspberry patch.

Cleanup art

Big trash art at Clean up Australia. (via Fark, originally.) Pat Pillai makes artificial reefs out of old bags and cigarette butts; Anthony Heywood made a life size elephant from home electronics and a toilet; John Dahlsen's Thong Totems are stunning. At $4,500, his stuff does bring to mind, though, Shari Elf's Beach Chair Song:

I went to an art show yesterday
There was this really ugly painting
Which a man was trying to sell for three thousand dollars
I said to myself, "S. Elf, I could do that
and I wouldn't even charge three thousand dollars."