Do some technical difficulties for which I couldn’t fix, I’ve had to move the Wagener-Salley HS podcast page to a new site.   Currently, the site contains podcasts for the 2009-2010 South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Nominees.  I hope to move last years podcast over  to the new site soon.

My wonderful library intern, Amy, has created a bulletin board and book  display for Banned Book Week (September 26 – October 3, 2009).  If you aren’t familiar with BBW, it is a time to bring awareness to everyone’s, even childrens, freedom to read.   Our bulletin board shows just a few of the books our library carries that have been challenged in the United States within the last two years. Why not take some time to read a couple?

Up next is Teen Read Week – “Read Beyond Reality @ Your Library” – look for more details in the weeks ahead.

Recently, someone on the YALSA-bk listserv shared a link to Awful Library Books, a blog that shares covers and tidbits about books that have been weeded (recently!) from library collections.   It then made the rounds of our state listserv.  The examples on the Awful Library Books blog are funny, yet sad at the same time.  They brought back memories of my first weeding adventure as a brand new librarian at Wagener-Salley.

I couldn’t get over the books that I found.  It made me wonder if anyone had ever weeded the collection before.  There were books as old as the early 1900s – some that say copyright 1896, but not sure if that’s true – could be, but I’m skeptical.   I kept a few of the books I weeded in an archive section, simply because they were either ones I wanted to take a longer look at or too priceless:  beautiful field guides from the 1930s; a Grays Anatomy from the 1950s, Essays by Emerson (the 1896 book), and this little gem…

The Happy Bookers: A Playful History of Librarians and Their World from the Stone Age to the Distant Future

by Richard Armour w/ Appropriate Illustrations by Campbell Grant
Copyright 1976
McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York

This was too funny!  I enjoyed paging through it and looking at the illustrations.  I’ll admit that I haven’t read it yet.  It’s been sitting in my back storage closet for when I have that all elusive “free time” I keep hearing about.

Check out these page shots I scanned of the present and future librarians and technology (early ebook reader??)

A.  “She’s come a long way.”  – I guess that’s a past “librarian” and a “today” librarian.  Actually, that’s a pretty accurate depiction of me “today” – just add a few pounds <grin>.

B.  “Disastrous breakdowns.” – I remember those filmstrip projectors from my childhood, but I’ve never had to work one before – I’m so glad for DVDs and streaming video we have now!

C. “Dial a book” – An early look at ebooks?  Not too far off, just not quite right.

Each year in April, originally just out of curiosity, I run a report to determine which books are the most circulated.  I usually can guess, but sometimes there are surprises – this year, not so much.  The report also provides me with a great bulletin board and display option for the end of the year.  This year the top 10 titles are:

Number 10.  The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

“Bobby’s carefree teenage life changes forever when he becomes a father and must care for his adored baby daughter.” This is the third year the book has been on the list.

Number 9.  Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

“Having fallen for a human boy, a beautiful teenage werewolf must battle both her packmates and the fear of the townspeople to decide where she belongs and with whom.” This is the first time Blood and Chocolate book has been on the list.  I attribute the revised interest in this older title to be due to the Twilight phenomenon.  The Silver Kiss by Klause is also on the top 25 list.

Number 8.  Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

“A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in high school.” Speak has been on the list off and on over the last seven years.

Number 7.  Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

“Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, provokes unexpected violence when he turns the school nerd into Prince Charming.” I have to plead guilty to “pushing” this title every year.  It is one of the two that I can usually entice the fellas into reading.  Ms. Giles made it so easy for me by writing such a grabbing opening paragraph.  I simply have the unsuspecting male read it and they’re hooked.   In case you haven’t picked this one up, the opening lines are:

“Simon Glass was easy to hate.  I never knew exactly why, there was too much to pick from.  I guess, really, we each hated him for a different reason, but we didn’t realize it until the day we killed him.”

Number 6.  Payback by Paul Langan

“Originally published as The gun.  Bluford freshman Tyray Hobbs, the class bully and tormentor of Darrell Mercer, is determined to get revenge on Darrell, the only boy who ever stood up to Tyray.” The Bluford High series is a relatively new series for WS.  I was lucky enough to receive a small monetary donation from our local public library’s “Friends of the Library” association to purchase two sets of the series.  Townsend Press is a godsend by selling them for only $1 each.  All of the titles in the series are constantly checked out!

Number 5.  Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

“After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle’s dangerous work for Britain’s intelligence agency, MI6.” This is another title I “push” with my male/reluctant readers.  I tell them it’s like reading an action-adventure television show – constant action.  Usually, they’ll come back for the rest of the books in the Alex Rider series.  Very few have ever brought it back unread.

Number 4.  Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

“Bella must choose between her friendship with Jacob, a werewolf, and her relationship with Edward, a vampire, but when Seattle is ravaged by a mysterious string of killings, the three of them need to decide whether their personal lives are more important than the well-being of an entire city.”

Number 3.  New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

“When the Cullens, including her beloved Edward, leave Forks rather than risk revealing that they are vampires, it is almost too much for eighteen-year-old Bella to bear, but she finds solace in her friend Jacob until he is drawn into a “cult” and changes in terrible ways.”

Number 2.  Breaking Dawn Stephenie Meyer

“Continues the story of the human Bella and the vampire Edward whose love is threatened by their difference, a werewolf named Jacob, and other outside influences.”

— drum roll please —-

And the number one circulated book at Wagener-Salley is…..

…. as if you haven’t guessed ….

Number 1.  Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

“When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.”

No shock to me that the most circulated book would be Twilight.  I guess to be fair, I should have grouped all of the Twilight saga together in order to give at least 3 other books a chance to be in the top 10, but I wanted to be absolutely correct in the top 10 list.   We also have a copy of The Host by Meyer and it is in the top 25 list.

For the first time since I’ve been running the report, there isn’t a Sarah Dessen title on the top ten list.  Sara Dessen and Melody Carlson books are EXTREMELY popular with the girls; however, no single title from these authors made the top 25 this year.

Today is Read Across America Day

“The National Education Association annually sponsors Read Across America. Now in its twelfth year, the program focuses on motivating children to read, in addition to helping them master basic skills.  The nationwide reading celebration takes place each year on or near March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss. Across the country, thousands of schools, libraries, community centers, and more participate by bringing together kids and books, and you can too!”

While this notice is a little late, you can still participate and find activities on the NEA website and also on the Reading Rockets website.  If nothing else, you can send your friends, family, and co-workers a Read Across America e-card!

Our school is closed today for a snow day (even if we didn’t get any snow or ice!) so I’m thinking of going to the closet to pull out my old box of children’s books to see if there are still any Dr. Seuss in there.   A couple of my favorites were On Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and “If I Ran the Zoo.”