Sarah the Librarian

If you've spent much time around librarians online over the last few days, you're probably aware of #arcgate. If you're not, I'll try to recap it quickly. A librarian blogger went to ALA hoping to get ARCs (Advance Reading Copies provided free by publishers to help generate buzz) for some books she was looking forward to. Because she was busy being active in other parts of the conference she didn't get to the exhibit hall to pick up ARCs right away and noticed that by the time she got there, most of the ARCs were gone. After she got home she found a video from a couple of bloggers (who are not also librarians) who had taken home literally hundreds of ARCs. She wondered if ALA could be handling the ARC distribution process differently. Chaos ensued. I'd been going back and forth about whether or not I should add my opinion to the fray, but then  Miss Julie pretty much covered it for me .

I recently moved and haven't had time to check out my new local library in person yet, but I've seen in the news that they are going through a lot of changes . Fountaindale, Joliet, Lemont, Plainfield, Shorewood-Troy, and White Oak library districts are leaving the PrairieCat Consortium, which spans most of the width of northern Illinois and parts of eastern Iowa, to form their own smaller, leaner Pinnacle Library Cooperative . Patrons, understandably, are upset because they assume that they are losing access to a wealth of resources from the other PrairieCat libraries. The understanding I have from the new Pinnacle libraries, however, is that they were feeling overburdened from requests from all the other PrairieCat libraries because Pinnacle libraries have bigger, more diverse collections than most PrairieCat libraries.  So it's more likely that PrairieCat libraries will miss easy access to Pinnacle items than the other way around. Also, Pinnacle patrons will still be...

I happened to finish several books this week, and they were all worth mentioning. The New York Regional Mormon Single's Halloween Dance  by Elna Baker , is a memoir of a 20-something Mormon in New York City. The two big themes to her story are that she used to be fat and she's still a virgin even in her late twenties. This isn't a perfect memoir, but anyone who's struggled with trying to live by the rules you grew up with even after you leave the place you grew up will appreciate Elna's dilemmas. Plus, she's pretty funny. Runaway Bride Returns!  by Christie Ridgeway is a Silhouette Special Edition about a firefighter and a librarian who marry in Vegas, only to have the librarian run out on him the next morning. I picked this one up for the librarian heroine, and while I enjoyed it, there wasn't anything extra special about it. Everything I Need To Know About Love I Learned From Romance Novels  by Sarah Wendell - If you haven't gone to Smart Bitches...

I've been meaning to write about the recent news in the libraries lending ebooks debacle, but I'm just now getting around to writing my thoughts out, so apologies if my links are a bit outdated. One of the great things to come out of ALA Midwinter this year was the plan to schedule meetings with the Big Six publishers to discuss the relationship between libraries and publishers when it comes to ebooks. ALA was successful in scheduling meetings with five major publishers, and while all the problems of libraries lending ebooks were not solved at these meetings, I can agree with ALA President Molly Raphael's general assessment that a lot of good information was shared on both sides and that everyone came away with a better understanding of the big picture than they had before and an ongoing dialogue had been opened. One of the main problems identified in the meetings that surprised me (but probably shouldn't have) is that intermediaries like Overdrive have now became ...

I've been reading a lot of teen fiction lately, so the fact that I'm actually reading some adult fiction this week is kind of weird. I was a little intimidated to start Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding . It's so big and with it's simple text cover, it looks so boring compared to all the fun stuff I've been reading lately. But so far I've really enjoyed it & I think there could be a lot of crossover to teen audiences, at least with what I've read so far. The main character is a college baseball player who's obsessed with a book called The Art of Fielding . But the book is more about Henry Skrimshander's life than baseball. It just happens that baseball is a big part of his life. What I'm trying to say is this isn't just a book for baseball fans, but for meaty general fiction fans. I'm not very far, but I can already tell there's a good story here. The other book I've been devoting some time to is Miss Peregrine's ...

For a long time I've been frustrated with the way ebook publishers have been approaching library lending, but my rage has been overruling my sense and I haven't been able to get many coherent thoughts into print. Luckily Bobbi Newman pretty much hit the nail on the head with her " 9 Reasons Why Publishers Should Stop Acting Like Libraries Are the Enemy and Start Thanking Them ". I could go through each of her reasons and expound on why each one makes so much sense and explains a piece of where my frustration is coming from, but I'm going to focus on the points that have been bugging me the most. First from the consumer side, I know I'm not alone in the group of people who don't like to buy books until they're pretty sure they're going to love them. I simply read too much for buying every book I read to make any sort of financial sense. Often that means borrowing the first book in a series or by a new author to see if I want to spend money on th...

200 Recipes for Quick, Delicious, and Nourishing Meals That Are Easy on the Budget and a Snap to Prepare With her website $5 Dinners , Erin Chase has cornered the market on a affordable family cooking. In her first cookbook, she seeks to put some of her most popular recipes into print. Unfortunately I was not in much of a cooking mood while I had this book checked out, so I only got to try a few recipes, but they were all tasty, cheap, and easy to make. I'll admit I'm a little scared by all the extreme couponing going on right now, and Chase's website is heavy with it. Other than some explanations about couponing in the beginning sections, though, there's not much more said about it in the rest of the cookbook, thankfully. I love getting a good deal as much as the next person, but coupons and sales are such fleeting things that I don't want to read a budget cookbook where the only way you can make the meals cheaply is to hit the right sale/coupon window. All...