http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib155.html

Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians

#155, September 27, 2002

Or why you might want to hire me for speaking engagements or workshops. To see outlines for previous presentations I've done, click on Handouts

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Order My Book

Click HEREto place a direct order for my book, The Quintessential Searcher: the Wit and Wisdom of Barbara Quint

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What IS Ex Libris?

http://marylaine.com/
exlibris/purpose.html

The purpose and intended scope of this e-zine

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E-Mail Subscription?

For a combined subscription to Neat New Stuff and ExLibris, please click HERE, complete the form, and click on "subscribe." To unsubscribe, use the same form but click on "unsubscribe." To change addresses for an existing subscription, unsubscribe from that form and return to the page to enter the new address.

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Highlights from Previous Issues:


My Rules of Information

  1. Go where it is
  2. The answer depends on the question
  3. Research is a multi-stage process
  4. Ask a Librarian
  5. Information is meaningless until queried by human intelligence
  6. Information can be true and still wrong

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Guru Interviews

  1. Tara Calishain
  2. Jenny Levine, part I
  3. Jenny Levine, Part II
  4. Reva Basch
  5. Sue Feldman
  6. Jessamyn West
  7. Debbie Abilock
  8. Kathy Schrock
  9. Greg Notess
  10. William Hann
  11. Chris Sherman
  12. Gary Price
  13. Barbara Quint
  14. Rory Litwin
  15. John Guscott
  16. Brian Smith
  17. Darlene Fichter
  18. Brenda Bailey-Hainer

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Cool Quotes

The collected quotes from all previous issues are at http://marylaine.com/
exlibris/cool.html

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When and How To Search the Net

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Wanna See Your Name in Lights?

Or at least on this page, anyway? I'd like to print here your contributions as well as mine. As you've noticed, articles are brief, somewhere between 200 and 500 words -- something to jog people's minds and get their own good ideas flowing. I'd also be happy to run other people's contributions to the regular features like Favorite Sites on _____. I'll pay you the same rate I pay me: nothing.

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Drop me a Line

Want to comment, ask questions, submit articles, or invite me to speak or do some training? Contact me at: marylaine at netexpress.net




Visit My Other Sites


BookBytes

http://marylaine.com/
bookbyte/index.html
My page on all things book-related.

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Best Information on the Net

http://library.sau.edu/
bestinfo/default.htmThe directory I built for O'Keefe Library, St. Ambrose University, still my favorite pit stop on the information highway.

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My Word's Worth

http://marylaine.com/
myword/index.html
a weekly column on books, words, libraries, American culture, and whatever happens to interest me.

Subject Index to My Word's Worth at
http://marylaine.com/
myword/subindex.html

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Book Proposal

Land of Why Not: an Appreciation of America. Proposal for an anthology of some of my best writing. An outline and sample columns are available here.

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My personal page

http://marylaine.com/
personal.html



SUBJECT INDEX to Past Issues

http://marylaine.com/
exlibris/archive.html

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Neat New Stuff I Found This Week
September 13: children's music, help for mystery writers, crossword help, and more.

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My resume

http://marylaine.com/
resume.html


UNUSUALLY INTERESTING LIBRARY WEB PAGES: MORTON GROVE PUBLIC LIBRARY'S WEBRARY

by Marylaine Block. The Webrary is at http://www.webrary.org/mgplhome.html

The remarkable and pleasing thing about this web site is the extent to which it is used in the service of reading. The site is a virtual love poem to books -- the first of the four categories of information on the cleanly designed home page is Reader's Services.

Those services include several book discussion groups: All Booked Up, the Low Vision book group, and the Thinking Out Loud book group. There's a nice set of bibliographies and pathfinders on a wide variety of subjects -- romantic suspense, car buying, genealogy, science fiction, breast cancer, etc. The Web Sites for Book Lovers page is thorough, and each site is described fully.

But those are things other libraries do, sometimes equally well. What is unique about the Webrary is that, as the home of Fiction-L, it posts the Fiction-L booklists. These are lists that really zero in on reader preferences. As we all know, the fact we like murder mysteries in general does not mean we'll like all varieties; we might despise cozy British mysteries, or have a taste for funny mysteries. We might like romantic suspense but despise regencies. The Fiction-L lists get down to the elements within the genre that appeal to people. The lists include highly specific genres like Asian Magical Realism for High School Kids, Genealogy Mysteries, Little Old Lady Sleuths, Cat Mysteries, and Manly Men Doing Manly Things Manfully (a little tongue-in-cheek, are we?).

There are lists of books involving particular character types, like Adventurous Women, Bumbling Detectives, Forensic Pathologists, Pioneer Women, Inspirational Teachers, Positive Middle Aged Characters (thanks, we needed that!), etc. There are lists of books involving particular times and places -- Humorous Historicals, Irish Fiction, Mysteries Set in Africa, Village Life, Road Novels, and such. There are topical lists -- Fiction Based on Real Events, Circus Books, Computers in Fiction, Environmental Disasters, Multigenerational Fictions, Laugh Out Loud, and more. And there are books similar to particular authors: Bridget Jones Readalikes, Neal Stephenson Readalikes, Terry McMillan Readalikes, etc. There are "Best" lists, and a Miscellaneous collection that includes Books To Movies, Book Discussion Groups, Tear Jerkers, One Day Reads for the Beach.

The same enthusiasm for books is manifest on the Kids Webrary page, which is also filled with book lists: books for boys, books for girls, books about Talking Animals, or Young Inventors and Detectives, Horses, Sports (a very extensive and detailed list, sorted by individual sport), and more.

OK, so maybe other libraries do this sort of thing too. But the kicker is this: the award-winning MatchBook program: "The Morton Grove Public Library's exclusive MatchBook service provides Library users with monthly lists of the Library's new purchases (books and audio-visual materials) customized to each subscriber's specific interests." Patrons just fill in the form to create a profile of their reading interests.

The site provides a very useful backgrounder on the city and government of Morton Grove. Since the town now has a significant Russian population, the web site offers another unique feature: a Russian Webrary.

What's really extraordinary about the Morton Grove web site? The beauty of the web is that a site like this, while serving its own community, can also serve readers, and those who want their children to be readers, everywhere. We can all use these wonderful reading lists. We might also want to consider whether we could adapt the MatchBook program to our own customers. And if we do, we should send a note of heartfelt appreciation to the web team at Morton Grove Public Library.

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COOL QUOTE

By the end of the novel, the missing chums were missing no more, and the Hardy Boys had once again earned their names. And I was reminded again of the magical, transforming power of books, their ability to transport us beyond our puny lives and to shape the very texture of our personalities. But unlike so many other formative influences in our lives, books don't change over the years. No wrecking ball or bulldozer can demolish their place in the world. They lie waiting for us, constant, neatly arranged on the shelves, all their marvels intact, their stories and characters as supple and energetic as they were forty years ago. A voice that stirred us once, whispered dreams to our younger selves, is still there waiting, ready to whisper once again.

James W. Hall. "The Hardy Boys." In Hot Damn! St. Martin's, 2002

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You are welcome to copy and distribute or e-mail any of my own articles for noncommercial purposes (but not those by my guest writers) as long as you retain this copyright statement:

Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
http://marylaine.com/exlibris/
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2002.

[Publishers may license the content for a reasonable fee.]