Banned Books Week resource

How did the Nazi book burnings fit in to the larger pattern of suppression of free speech that began in 1933? Why were books and libraries attacked? Who created the blacklists? What books were destroyed and why? How it was part of the Nazi party's campaign to forcefully promote their narrow idea of "German-ness" and "patriotism" to the German people?

Many years ago I did an exhibit for University of Arizona Special Collections entitled "When Books Burn" about the Nazi book burnings of 1933. The site looks very dated (my web design skills c.2001), but it shows how the book burnings and library raids of May 1933 were part of the Nazi party’s plan to silence all dissent. The translations were written by Dr. Roland Richter, a retired Professor from the UA Department of German who specialized in the literature of the 1930s. To my knowledge it was the first time the documents and speeches had been translated into English.

Hitler was appointed Chancellor in January 1933, the first book/publisher/library suppressions happened in April, the book burnings were in May and by July a law was passed making Nazi Socialism the only legal form of political expression in Germany. Seven months was all it took, and the suppression of books and “cleansing” of libraries were key pieces of the plan.

They’re nasty reading, but take a look at some of the Nazi book manifestos. Are they similar to what you read and hear about today?

The site also has lesson plans created by UA Librarian Louise Greenfield.

• Homepage
• Timeline
• Manifestos
• Lesson plans
• Photos of the 2001 exhibit

Cybils Awards Announced!

The Cybils Awards for 2006 have been announced! This is a wonderful list! Kudos to everyone involved!

From their press release:

The awards cap five months of activity by roughly 80 volunteers, who plowed through 482 books nominated by the public at the Cybils blog, www.cybils.com . The contest grew out of a comment on a blog post last October and rapidly gained traction in the tight-knit community of librarians, teachers, homeschoolers, parents, authors and illustrators, dubbed the "kidlitosphere."

The idea was to find books with literary merit that kids couldn't put down, striking a balance between the highbrow Newberys, for example, and the populist Quill awards.

Any children's or young adult title published in English in 2006 was eligible, and anyone could nominate a book.

Will Sherman article: Why Libraries are Important

Will Sherman (degree tutor.com) has published a list of "33 Reasons Why Libraries and Librarians are still Extremely Important."

I am always a bit surprised when people suggest that libraries have no future because my library is busier then ever. As much as I get a thrill when I discover a new digital resource, I believe that people will always need people and face-to-face contact, and that this is a huge strength of the library: a human voice when you phone, an expert who finds you more than you expected to find, and a place where anyone can go and access information and entertainment with no electronic interface necessary.

Plus, the book is still an incredibly successful technology.

A note to degreetutor.com: please don't make it so difficult to find out the credentials of your writers.

Publisher: YOU

I was intrigued by a recent blog article (Kevin Kelly: Cool Tools) about how easy it is to print your own books using online publishing houses. Costs are surprisingly reasonable: at Lulu, a 100-page paperback (black and white only) will cost about $7 each to print.; color adds another $13-18 to the cost. For color, however, Kelly recommends Blurb, where he says a 100-page book of photographs costs $39.

What uses can you think of? Family stories or a scrapbook? Wedding photos? Records of Harry Potter conferences? Heh. What have you always wanted a book of? What could you promote better with a book?

Blog of book marvels, a digital curiosity cabinet

No, that's not a colossus from Burning Man.

Someone identified only as "peacay" (PK?) is posting digital images of 15th - 19th-century book illustrations on his blog, BiblioOdyssey. The range of images is part of the fun: Spanish zodiacs, 17thC caricatures (see left), Norse Eddas, fashion lampoons, emblemata, theater sets, and on and on.

Give your eyes and imagination a joyride; this is an exceptional collection of historical book art.

Terrific book: His Majesty's Dragon

I just finished His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik, and it was just terrific! If you haven't heard of it before it is high dragon fantasy set during the Napoleonic wars. I loved McCaffrey's Pern books, Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and Eragon; Novik's books share some similarities but ultimately feel quite fresh because of the historical context and because the dragon Temeraire is such a delight. I also loved the character of Laurence. He is the perfect Regency hero: intelligent, sympathetic, loving, and (of couse) stuffed with honor. Begin your love affair with a dragon. Read this book now.

First paragraphs

Are these books you've read?

I was the youngest of three daughters. Our literal-minded mother named us Grace, Hope, and Honour, but few people except perhaps the minister who had baptized all three of us remembered my given name.

My father still likes to tell the story of how I acquired my odd nickname: I had come to him for further information when I first discovered that our names meant something besides you-come-here. He succeeded in explaining grace and hope, but he had some difficulty trying to make the concept of honour understandable to a five-year-old.

I heard him out, but with an expression of deepening disgust; and when he was finished I said: "Huh! I'd rather be Beauty."

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I Didn't Know How Long I had been in the king's prison. The days were all the same, except that as each one passed, I was dirtier than before. Every morning the light in the cell changed from the wavering orange of the lamp in the sconce outside my door to the dim but even glow of the sun falling into the prison's central courtyard. In the evening, as the sunlight faded, I reassured myself that I was one day closer to getting out. To pass time, I concentrated on pleasant memories, laying them out in order and examining them carefully. I reviewed over and over the plans that had seemed so straightforward before I arrived in jail, and I swore to myself and every god I knew that if I got out alive, I would never never never take any risks that were so abysmally stupid again.

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12TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER
I am commanded to write an account of my days: I am bit by fleas and plagued by family. That is all there is to say.

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It was little more than three miles from the Wall into the Old Kingdom, but that was enough. Noonday sunshine could be seen on the other side of the Wall in Ancelstierre, and not a cloud in sight. Here, there was a clouded sunset, and a steady rain had just begun to fall, coming faster than the tents could be raised.

The midwife shrugged her cloak higher up against her neck and bent over the woman again, raindrops spilling from her nose onto the upturned face below. The midwife's breath blew out in a cloud of white, but there was no answering billow of air from her patient.

The midwife sighed and slowly straightened up, that single movement telling the watchers everything they needed to know. The woman who had staggered into their forest camp was dead, only holding on to life long enough to pass it on to the baby at her side. But even as the midwife picked up the pathetically small form beside the dead woman, it shuddered within its wrappings, and was still.

"The child, too?" asked one of the watchers, a man who wore the mark of the Charter fresh-drawn in wood ash upon his brow. "Then there shall be no need for baptism."

His hand went up to brush the mark from his forehead, then suddenly stopped, as a pale white hand gripped his and forced it down in a single, swift motion.

"Peace!" said a calm voice. "I wish you no harm."

The white hand released its grip and the speaker stepped into the ring of firelight. The others watched him without welcome, and the hands that had half sketched Charter marks, or gone to bowstrings and hilts, did not relax.

The man strode towards the bodies and looked upon them. Then he turned to face the watchers, pushing his hood back to reveal the face of someone who had taken paths far from sunlight, for his skin was a deathly white.

"I am called Abhorsen," he said, and his words sent ripples through the people about him, as if he had cast a large and weighty stone into a pool of stagnant water. "And there will be a baptism tonight."

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The temperature of the room dropped fast. Ice formed on the curtains and crusted thickly around the lights in the ceiling. The glowing filaments in each bulb shrank and dimmed, while the candles that sprang from every available surface like a colony of toadstools had their wicks snuffed out. The darkened room filled with a yellow, choking cloud of brimstone, in which indistinct black shadows writhed and roiled. From far away came the sound of many voices screaming. Pressure was suddenly applied to the door that led to the landing. It bulged inward, the timbers groaning. Footsteps from invisible feet came pattering across the floorboards and invisible mouths whispered wicked things from behind the bed and under the desk.

The sulfur cloud contracted into a thick column of smoke that vomited forth thin tendrils; they licked the air like tongues before withdrawing. The column hung above the middle of the pentacle, bubbling ever upward against the ceiling like the cloud of an erupting volcano. There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.

Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him.

Sacred cows

Michael from LibraryCrunch has an interesting editorial on two sacred library cows, Dewey Decimal and Spine labels.

I have always thought that we junk up the covers and spines of our books too much. At my library some paperbacks have more than half the spine covered with the label. Grrr. At least we're not pasting the gawd-awful blank strips for due date stamping anymore, but I grumble to myself everytime I see gorgeous or minimalist cover art with a barcode right over the title or artwork.

I have hopes that processing costs and new security technologies will result someday in fewer of these intrusive labels on covers or spines. When I worked for Borders they had their location/barcode labels pasted right over the printed barcode on the back; I thought that was an elegant solution.

I am less sure that Michael's how-to-do-away-with-Dewey idea would work (too simplistic for even a medium-sized collection), but I definitely have a love-hate relationship with the Dewey Decimal System. Particularly with the way it handles folklore. How much more useful would it be to have them arranged by the originating culture! I believe Dewey arranges then according to whether or not there are animals in the story, which is useless to anyone browsing the collection. He is right that it can be a straightjacket to marketing your collection.
Library Crunch: Spine Labels and De-Dewefication

Jackpot

Well, we found a typewritten manuscript today for Log of an Arizona Trail Blazer with John Rockfellow's own editing marks on it, so we're in business! We also found a map that he made marking all the places that were important to him, and folder after folder of typewritten anecdotes. Most of them are in the book, but some are new! I will start scanning and indexing the book tonight.

And I found a small quail nest with 5 eggs this morning in one of my rose pots. Keep them safe, Mrs. Quail!

Log of an Arizona Trailblazer

I have my great grandfather's book, Log of an Arizona Trailblazer, on my mind a lot lately. A year ago we discovered that the original homestead for his NY Ranch was still standing.

We recently got permission from the land owners to try to protect the building, so now the fundraising starts.

This week Jonetta and I will start our research for a critical edition of the book. We plan to meet at the Arizona Historical Society's library to see if we can find the original manuscript. Its a treasure hunt with white gloves on!

Website for the Rockfellow family and the NY Ranch