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The Library-Lovin’ Challenge

March 27, 2009 by Betsy Bird   73 comments

Bloggers are some of the most selfless people I know.  They’re constantly doing good work, contributing to goodly causes, and being rather upstanding citizens in the process.  And, of course, by "bloggers" I actually mean to say "other bloggers". Not me. I’m sort of a leech on society. I’m high profile but I don’t actually do much with that profile.  Just sorta sit there with a self-satisfied grin on my face, watching the good people go by. And once in a while I’ll link to a good person with a kind of "Go look at the good THEY’RE doing" and then, for some bizarre reason, I’ll have this weird sense of unjustified accomplishment.

It takes a pretty big event to toss me out of my rut, but darned if Susan Taylor Brown didn’t manage it. She informed me that a bunch o’ bloggers are currently engaged in a bit of comment-driven challenges.  Started by Jennifer R. Hubbard the game is simple. You comment on their site and for each comment they’ll donate just a little bit more money to a worthy library.

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Shoot. That’s good stuff.  And look at everyone who’s participating (that I know of):

I’m in.  The problem is that my comment feature on this blog is . . .  well, it’s awful, quite frankly.  Half the time I can’t comment on it myself.  So I’m afraid that the only way to make this fair is to tell you that for every comment that appears on this post (and only this post) between now and Sunday, March 29th I will donate $1 (up to $150) to my own favorite library-based group, Project Cicero .  This is an organization that provides books and other resources to under-funded public school libraries here in NYC.  I adore them.

So comment on me and comment on the other blogs as well.  Tis for a good cause.

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About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

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Comments

  1. I guess I’ve been lucky. The only time I can remember having trouble leaving comments here was at the very beginning (when you switched over from Blogspot) and once at the Heavy Medal blog.

    Project Cicero sounds like a great organization.

  2. I guess I’ve been lucky. The only time I can remember having trouble leaving comments here was at the very beginning (when you switched over from Blogspot) and once at the Heavy Medal blog.

    Project Cicero sounds like a great organization.

  3. Well, there you go. I cursed it. (Fran is actually me-forgot to switch names-don’t count us twice!)

  4. Normally I delete the duplicate comments, but maybe this is just my blog’s way of upping what I give. Wait . . . if I comment does that mean another dollar too? Clearly I’m making this up as I go along.

  5. Thanks for putting the list all in one place. I was trying to figure out how to do that for the Literacy Round-up. Project Cicero is wonderful … go librarians!

  6. Go, Project Cicero! And thanks for helping spread the word about the challenge. IMHO, libraries can’t be loved enough (both fuzzily and with cold hard cash.)

  9. Woohoo – you are rutless, at least for the moment! Thanks for helping us spread the word!

    The list is growing and growing. Jennifer’s blog has the latest. (Tried to post the link but it wouldn’t let me.)

    And GO Project Cicero!

  10. Woohoo – you are rutless, at least for the moment! Thanks for helping us spread the word!

    The list is growing and growing. Jennifer’s blog has the latest. (Tried to post the link but it wouldn’t let me.)

    And GO Project Cicero!

  16. Much as I love your blog’s content, and the comments here, I have to say that the design is….unwieldy. Kind of like an excellent book with an appalling cover. 🙂

  17. I don’t want to be curmudgeonly about this–and I yield to no one in my adoration of the Sublime Betsy Bird–but all these positive comments together are a little dull. People can’t agree on pleasantries forever–the conversation grinds to a halt. So let me pose a question: what is the strangest thing you’ve ever seen happen in a library?

    I’ll begin. Years ago, in my old library, we had a patron who was obsessed with President Tyler. And this gentleman, who ordered every book about Tyler through interlibrary loan (there aren’t a lot of them) used to bleed on the floor. He didn’t bleed much, and I don’t know where he bled FROM. But he bled on multiple occasions. We’d find little drops of blood by the microfiche machine, next to the pile of requests for books about President Tyler.

    I selected him because he was more mysterious than the old woman who carried a bucket of water with her wherever she went, or the old man who wore tap shoes at all times and twittered like a bird, crying, “Oh, my God!” at frequent intervals. But there are a lot of odd people who frequent libraries. Stories, anyone?

  18. I dunno. It’s hard to follow blood, but I’ll give it a shot. I know that in my old library they had a problem with a guy with a sword and a different fellow with a parrot. Personally I always found the adult patron who insisted on checking out the same Diana Ross children’s biography over and over again a bit off. Man… tough question. Oh! And as for the design of this blog, I’m with you. Not like I can redecorate, however. It is what it is.

  19. Thanks for participating! Hope you’ll tell us more about Project Cicero in a future post :).

  20. I have a library story! (and I love this challenge, too). My grandmother, who was deaf, was a prodigious reader. In order to identify which books in our library she’d already read, so my mom wouldn’t check them out twice (10 at a time), she a put teeny pencil initial in the back cover inside.

  21. Betsy, I don’t have an unusual library story. So I will simply suggest an idea for a blogpost. Perhaps you’ve blogged about this before and I’ve forgotten. But I’m wondering how you feel about receiving thank yous for book reviews. I’ve heard it isn’t appropriate to comment on reviews of our work. And of course I understand the need to have a certain emotional distance between reviewer and author. But it does feel really rude not to send out at least a grateful comment. So while I’m tossing this idea out there, I will simply say Thank you. And if it seems appropriate, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

  23. This is more of a coincidence than unusual, but when I’ve never forgotten it. My elementary school didn’t have a library, so we walked to the town library next door every week. The librarian, the wonderful Miss Rosthchild, read to us, then we could check out books. One week she was reading a book about a family who lived in the Swiss alps and their house was buried in an avalanche. Within days, a blizzard hit and our road was closed for what seemed like days because of the snowdrifts. We got milk straight from the cows across the street. I was sure Miss Rosthchild had planned it all, but looking back on it, what librarian worth her salt wouldn’t be reading a book like that in the middle of winter! I can’t tell you now the name of the book or how it ended, but I still go to that library every week. Thank you, Betsy and all the bloggers who are participating in this wonderful project!

  28. The point is not to read every comment but to get down to the bottom and add one’s own.
    Because we love Betsy and WANT HER TO SPEND MONEY.

  29. Because “MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND, WORLD GO ROUND. . .” in a nice German accent.

  30. Some facts about the library of congress:
    1. The Library was founded in 1800, making it the oldest federal cultural institution in the nation.
    2. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 138 million items on approximately 650 miles of bookshelves.
    3. The Library receives some 22,000 items each working day and adds approximately 10,000 items to the collections daily.

  31. OK, library stories: the best I can come up with was the elderly gentleman who kept bringing his lunch into the library every day. Every time I walked by, he’d quickly hide it under his newspaper, just like a guilty little boy–as if I wouldn’t notice the rustling, and the sandwich aroma, and the grease stain slowly appearing on the newspaper. . . and I never had the heart to let on, so I just pretended I hadn’t noticed and let the poor guy finish his lunch.

  33. Library stories? Hmm. My own library, the Newberry Library has been mentioned in a few novels, such as Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning. One mystery and fantasy writer works here, Dan Crawford, and other staff members write scholarly papers and books. Most literary. But any weird stories… I’m blank. But I’d like to hear of other novels set in commentators’ libraries. Hint, hint.

  34. Hooray for all you bloggers! What a great idea. I’m for anything that helps libraries.
    xo
    K

  35. As a young hippie girl I was followed around and watched at your library, Betsy. Like I was gonna steal a book or something. Have no idea why.

  36. Great idea!
    Librarians are awesome. My elementary school librarian would let me hang out and give her a hand sometimes after school when my mom was working late, and I’ve had a soft spot ever since.

  37. Off the top of my head I can’t think of any good library stories, because every time I enter I just hear ”

  38. Wow, your blog is angy at you Fuse. Sorry for the duplicate comment, but it looks like I’ve been struck down dead to prevent me from giving away a library’s secret above. I was saying I just hear BOOKS when I’m in a library and don’t pay attention to other people so much. And that Project Cicero sounds great.

  39. Great idea. I’d like to go back to a question posted here by Joyce Moyer Hostetter about whether it’s appropriate for authors to pop in to blogs say thank you for reviews.

    As a blogger who wears several hats – writing children’s books and reviewing them – I have to say I have met some of the loveliest people this way. I wonder how others feel about it.

    And just to up the stakes here a little (and so it’s not all Betsy out of pocket on this), I’ve looked up the address for Project Cicero and will be sending them a book donation.

    Project Cicero
    53 East 79th Street
    New York, New York 10021

  40. Project Cicero sounds like a great donee. Thanks for the mention, and for joining the project!

  41. We do love us some books! And making Fuse #8 spend money on such a good cause sounds like a heck of a deal!

  43. As a kid, my library did not carry any Nancy Drew books, saying they were not ‘real’ books. Happy to say, they line the shelves now:) Otherwise, I did love my library and still do.
    Thanks for your generosity!
    Bev
    http://www.classof2k9.com

  44. I love the idea of raising money for library causes. I just wish I could figure out how to make it work in support of my own public library that is desperately in need of a new building. But few people read (and even less comment on) my blog, and the poor library barely pays me anything to begin with for me to give it right back….

  48. My favorite work story is the day when I was wearing my Babymouse t-shirt and the kids asked me about it. I handed out all my Babymouse books that afternoon. THEN! A super-macho 7 year old marched up to my desk and DEMANDED a copy of ”

  49. Ugh. It ATE half my comment. Anyway, we demanded a copy of “that pink book everybody else is reading.” It’s been over 2 years, and I still can’t keep Babymouse on the shelf.

  54. Thanks so much for doing this! I put a link to the challenge on my Facebook page.
    Janet Halfmann, Author
    Little Skink’s Tail
    Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story

  56. Fantastic cause, especially in these economically difficult times. School libraries really can use all the help they can get. It’s wonderful that you’re participating!

  60. @Sara O’Leary, I’ve become shameless, I thank reviewers. Betsy has gottne a few shout outs from me whenever she plugs my blog. And if you ever wanted to review my books or interview me I’m open. Melanie Hope Greenberg

  61. I hardly ever self correct my spellin’ misteaks 🙂 And they are abundant. *Sigh* But for charity, I meant “gotten”, not gottne.

  65. As the saying goes, you can learn everything about one thing or one thing about everything at a library! Thank you for doing this!

  66. As the saying goes, you can learn everything about one thing or one thing about everything at a library! Thank you for doing this!

  69. What a great idea! I may tweak this idea and use it soon for my re-entry to blogging after Lent.

    Anyway, library stories: There was the time when I was working reference, and a man called and asked how to spell Gretel. THREE HOURS later I heard my fellow reference librarian spelling over the phone: H-A-N-S-E-L. I never could figure out what caused the three hour time lag between questions.

  71. Hurrah for libraries!

    Here’s my library story:
    darcypattison.com/darcys-books/tornado-and-author-visit/

    Darcy

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