Webcomics

I've found several new (as in "new to me") webcomics recently, so I decided this month to blog about the webcomics I follow and see if readers might recommend a few more.

First up is Girl Genius, a "gaslamp" (their term) comic set in a world where creative "sparks" are very inventive. Updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There's also a Facebook group. It's been nominated and won several Hugo awards. Several of the collected issues are available in paper.

Freefall is set on a colony planet with humans, robots, a wolf engineer and a humanoid squid. Updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Schlock Mercenary is about a group of space mercenaries. It's been nominated for a Hugo several times. Past issues are also available in paper form. Updated daily.

Phoebe and Her Unicorn I found on Gocomics under its previous title Heavenly Nostrils. A delightful story of a young girl who becomes friends with a unicorn. It's now available in newspapers and past issues were collected into two books, Phoebe and Her Unicorn and Unicorn on a Roll. Updated daily.

Unshelved is the activities of a group of library workers. Updated Monday through Friday and collected issues are available in paper.

Blind Springs is about spirits and the politics of those attempting to control magic. Updated Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Breaking Cat News about three cats reporting on their world, has been picked up by Gocomics, which is going through the back issues. The artist has a Facebook page.

PS 238 is an elementary school for metahumans hidden beneath a regular school. Amazon has both the collected and the individual issues available in paper, so trying to find the collected issues can be interesting (I've found the term 'paperback' worked). This one I recommend starting from the very beginning, as the setup for the school is very interesting.

How to Be a Werewolf is yes, about werewolves. It just started this year.

The following comics have stopped, though the back issues are still online.

Digger by Ursula Vernon is for an older audience than her Dragonbreath series. The completed version won the Hugo award and is the tale of a wandering wombat and the beings she encounters. The collected issues are available in paper.

Gronk is the story of a small monster adopted by a woman and her dog. The fourth book should be out soon.

There are other comics I follow at Gocomics, but those are ones I followed in the newspaper before I started reading the online version of my newspaper. The universes of these webcomics are such much more interesting.

What are some webcomics you enjoy?

On Libraries and Nests

There are two topics I want to discuss this time. First is the topic that-never-seems-to-die. Libraries. It’s been discussed before in YA Authors You’ve Never Heard Of (see the topics in the left frame for earlier installments). But it seems as if every year some personality decides that there is no need for libraries. This year Terry Deary said that libraries have had their day and that they are “damaging the book industry”. This despite the fact that, as a UK author, Mr. Deary is paid every time his books are checked out from UK libraries under the Public Lending Right.

The “libraries are no longer needed” refrain isn’t new – I heard it from a university president in the 90s when the campus was trying to get a new library building built and his argument then was that all information would be online. (the campus finally did get a new building very laptop compatible which ended up being named after him. *sigh*). That refrain usually identifies the speaker as someone who thinks of a library as just a warehouse of books. But libraries don't contain only books. They also have DVDs, CDs, computers, and databases. Libraries are often centers of the community - they offer classes, story hours, homework help, and access to job and testing resources.

The “damaging the book industry” refrain has been popping up more and more lately in regard to ebooks. First the complainers were publishers who were unhappy that ebooks lasted longer than print books and wanted to limit how many times an ebook could be circulated before the libraries had to buy a new copy (did they not know that libraries have mending departments that repair damaged print books, thus upsetting publishers’ estimates of how many times a print book could be circulated before falling apart?). Then there are those authors who see every checkout of an ebook as a lost sale, both now and in the far future. Some have gone to the extreme of comparing libraries to ebook pirates (which is when I give up trying to reason with them, as they have passed the point of listening to any other side).

However, Mr. Deary didn't single out ebooks. Yet, as more than one blogger has pointed out, libraries and bookstores have coexisted for some time now. Indeed, in my town, the libraries (public, school and academic) buy books from (and thus support) the town's one independent bookstore.

It has been encouraging to see authors rally to the support of libraries. Julia Donaldson and other British authors responded to the article in Guardian, while Rita Meade listed ways to help local libraries.John Scalzi remembered how libraries contributed to his love of reading. The comments on his blog are also heartening. So many people responded with their own recollections of using their public or school libraries or their observations of how the usage of libraries have increased in this economy. Foz Meadows focused on disproving the economic side of Deary's argument as well as pointing out that libraries help create new readers.

This past January, the Pew Research Center released the results of a new survey on Americans' attitudes toward and expectations of public libraries. The summary can be found here. It appears that people feel that print books are still important but also want more digital services from their libraries (including more ebooks).

Where do you stand on the subject of libraries?

On to my second topic. Activity has started up once again at the various nest cams I watch. The eagles in Colorado have three eggs so far, as do the owls (also in Colorado), the falcons in San Jose have four eggs, the eagles in Decorah, IA, have laid one in a new nest (without a cam), while the eagles in MN are rearranging their nest. (see the video for tips on how to tell the two apart). Usually nesting among these groups would begin around March, but the seasons have been starting earlier every year. This can be difficult for some locations, as there are still snowstorms this time of year (both Colorado nests and mothers were covered with snow February 21st) and last year the eagle nest in Colorado lost all its chicks in one storm.

There is now a Facebook page for the Raptor Resource Project, which covers several nests. There is also the Raptor Resource Project website with various links to nest cams.

We need Libraries

Yesterday, I got into a bit of a flame war with someone on the internet. Shocking, I know. I am, after all, so shy and retiring.

But this jerk, who was all for getting rid of PBS, by the way, had the nerve to tell me that I, as a librarian, and the library, were obsolete. Why? Because he could "download every book ever written." And so he no longer needed the library.

Huh. Could've fooled me.

First of all, while I work in a library, I am not only a librarian. I am a Media Specialist. Why that name? Because books are only part of my job. I create websites, work with databases, and audio books, and audiovisual material, and a host of other things. I do NOT sit behind a desk and read all day. If you could see the things I've had to do for Graduate School, you would never look at a "Librarian" the same way again. I've made podcasts, and videos, and any number of other things completely unrelated to books.

Yes, I do buy books. And catalog them, and put them into the library. But I take a great deal of care to select books my library needs, and that are beneficial to students and staff. It's called collection development. And it can't be done by any old bozo. But let's leave all that alone and focus on this bonehead's statement. While downloading books is great (I do it myself), his statement assumes that a) he has a device on which to download and read the books and b) he is either paying for the books, getting them from a pirate site, OR downloading them from...THE LIBRARY. So if he's paying, and he has a device, he is then speaking from a place of privilege. And, as we all know, not everyone can afford either a device OR to pay for books.

Hence, the need for the library. But beyond books, whether you get them in dead-tree or eformat from the library, it is a place where INFORMATION can be had FOR ALL, FOR FREE. And since we now live in the INFORMATION age, that's pretty darn cool, huh. If you think Google will find you everything you want to know, well, maybe. But only if you know how to use it properly. I've done comparisons on search engines as part of my coursework. Not to mention that in times of economic downturn, the library is now MORE frequently used.

Why?

Because you can take courses, FOR FREE. On how to write a resume, conduct a job search, take an interview.

You can use computers, FOR FREE. To write and check email, to write and print that resume, to search for a job when you can't afford a computer. Or, if you have one but can't afford internet service... guess what? Most libraries are also a FREE wireless hotspot.

I am not just a librarian, and libraries aren't just for books. They are for children's story hour, and teen book discussion groups and Pokemon clubs and Movie Nights. They are for MEDIA of all forms, and the place where everyone is equally entitled to find information.

So many people of a certain political persuasion are all about what they think the Founding Fathers wanted for our country.

Ben Franklin founded the first public library. Because he believed in access to information for EVERYONE, not just those of privilege.

Libraries I Have Known & Loved

Libraries I Have Known & Loved

Many of our blog entries here are about reading YA books, writing YA books, popular YA books past & present, reviews & lists of suggestions, etc. Oh, and television, just this week! I thought I’d try something new. At least I think it’s new—I may have missed a blog entry or two focusing on the treasure troves of books--libraries.

I would be seriously freaked out if any YAAYNHO contributor or reader claimed to have no favorite library or not remember one fondly from back when they were children. Probably the first library we all loved was that little stack of picture books with our favorites on top, ready for Mom or Dad to read them to us ten times over—even though we already knew every word. A new addition to the stack--filled with fairy tales, or starring our favorite character from TV or film or the next book written by Dr. Seuss--was a big deal.

But as we got a bit older, we learned that there were whole places with shelves and shelves of books! Shelves nice and low too. We could sit in front of them, reach straight over and pull out something that looked interesting. Never mind that three other books came out of the row as well. Maybe one of the others would look even better.

The best, the magic part, was that we could choose a whole bunch—not like in a store—and Mom or Dad and the strange lady way up behind the counter would let us take them home! Yes, there was the sad part of bringing them back. However, sometimes we could just go to the library and take the same ones home all over again.

As I often remind you all, I’m an old fogy. I probably have library memories from before your time, you young chickens and roosters, you. Here’s what I remember:

The first library I can remember was a New Castle (DE) Mobile Library when our family lived in Woodlawn Park Apartments. This camper-like truck chock full of books came by once a week and parked briefly in our neighborhood, so that residents could stop by and return or check out books. I don’t remember much about it except—unlike my description earlier—most of the books were way up in the air. Once in a while, we missed the mobile library when it went by. Major tragedy!

When I was in second grade, I started attending the brand new Brookside Elementary School. Someone must have forgotten to put a library in the plans. All we had was what I recall as the “Closet Library” – rather like a coat check room with the top half of the door open when the library was open. I have no idea how we knew what books to ask for. I don’t think we could see them. Hands down, the worst library I can remember.

Newark Free Library #1. I used to love the original Newark Free Library when it was squeezed into an old white church building at the end of Elkton Road. Our family went to it at the same time I was in early elementary school, so the inconvenience of the Closet Library wasn’t that much of a concern to me. Technically, the renovated church’s altar area was still there but a wooden platform had been built over it. If I remember correctly, different parts of the library had wooden flooring at different levels, each reflecting their original functions: altar, seating, aisle. I found my first horse books there. J

When I was in mid-elementary school, my mother began working in the Memorial Library, at that time the main library of the University of Delaware. You’ve heard of “army brats”? Well, I was a “library brat”. My mom frequently had no babysitter for me, so she would bring me along to work and drop me in the Reference Room under the watchful eyes of reference librarians. I assume I was supposed to stay in there but I’m quite sure that I didn’t always. At least once, I wandered off to the Bookstore, which was in the same building—just down a flight. I came back with a slightly damaged slide rule that had been on sale. Paid my whole allowance for it. I didn’t know what it was for but I loved its white matte finish.

My family went up to Delaware’s “big city” of Wilmington for shopping, back in the day when there were actual department stores, bakeries, jewelers and such on Market Street. While we were in town, we stopped at the Wilmington Public Library, opposite tiny Caesar Rodney Square in the heart of the city. (Both are still there, and looking pretty much as they always did.) Adult books were on the first floor. To reach children’s books, I had to walk down what seemed like a very creepy dark staircase. The creepiness didn’t stop me. Not once. I really hated it when my parents would call to me from the top of the stairs and say it was time to go home.

I might have been in high school when Kirkwood Public Library was built. Brand new and shiny, it had no books. Okay, it had –some- books. The librarians were waiting for the rest to arrive from somewhere or other. In the meantime, we would look up titles in the card catalog, not find most of them on the shelf, and be given interlibrary loan forms at the Circulation Desk. Interlibrary Loan. Little did I know…

I have only vague memories of my high school library. I did use it. Really. I remember one book in particular, but I’m not telling…

Years earlier, my parents went on vacation to Ocean City, New Jersey for the first time, leaving my brother and me in the care of our maternal grandparents. The whole family went there the following summer. That was the beginning of the family love affair with Ocean City. My grandmother and I were particularly enamored of the little town and its long boardwalk. Any time my parents chose not to go to the shore in the summer, MaMa and I did so alone.

During one of those excursions, I discovered the Ocean City Free Public Library in a rather ordinary two-story house on Simpson near the bay side of the island. I was flabbergasted that they lent books to vacationers. I mean all you had to do was show a driver’s license, a hotel/motel room key, give a quart of blood….

While writing this article, I checked the web, and found a picture of the current OC Library. Part of it is still that house but wrapped around almost half of it now is a very modern addition. It looks like a Star Trek transporter accident. (See the picture at the top of the blog.)

By the time I began college, the old Memorial Library on the UD campus had become a classroom building. Taking its place was the much, much larger rectangular mass of the University of Delaware’s Hugh Morris Library. In one of my first college classes, a professor told us to go visit the Reserved Book Room and get familiar with it, since we would be using it a lot. A friend and I strolled over to the building and found the room. We went so far as to check out an article. Who knows what it was—I don’t think we had any assignments from there yet. The lady behind the counter told us that the article was for two hours. We thought that meant we had to stay there—in the room--for two hours. So we did. Bored. Only able to talk in a whisper. With an article between us that neither of us needed to read.

By the following spring, I was working at the library, in the reserve room as a student assistant. I would end up working somewhere or other in the building for more than thirty five years. During the first decade, I discovered the children’s and young adult collection tucked in the middle of the second floor stacks. It was meant for the use of school of education students but they never used. I did.

Newark Free Library #2. I can’t remember when they did it, but eventually the Newark Library pulled up roots and moved to the other side of Newark, planting itself quite conveniently on Library Avenue. Library Avenue. Hmm. Shouldn’t they have realized that that was where they were supposed to be from the beginning? J Bigger, shiny and new, the library housed more books and other facilities than the librarians in the original building could ever have dreamed about. I liked the original better, but I worked in the new version part time for a couple of years.

University of Delaware Library, Version 2.0, 2.1 … By the time, I retired from Morris, it had gone through two expansions and a lot of re-arranging. I had gone through a bit of re-arranging too. Before I quit, I had worked in the Reserve Room, Circulation, Cataloguing (during our change-over from Dewey to LC), and finally Interlibrary Loan (during our changeover from manual charges and a card catalog to complete automation).

In the meantime, I mutated from a reader into a writer of YA/adult books. The first bits and pieces of my first manuscript, “Seabird”, were written in the library on index cards using a golf pencil—both of which could be tucked into a pocket.

And my library today? Just a month ago, I joined LibraryThing on the web:

( http://www.librarything.com/home/SherryThompson )

( http://www.librarything.com/profile/SherryThompson )

So far, I’ve input data on seven hundred books from my collection. Given that my books fill maybe eight to ten bookcases, with more tucked into cabinets and such, I guess I still have a half to two thirds of my collection to add. Lots of them are young adult and/or speculative fiction. A very few--greatly treasured--are very old children’s books.

Please tell us about your favorite library!

Question for authors: Are any of your books in libraries? And, if you don't mind saying, were you the one to put them there? ("Seabird" is in the Newark Free Library YA collection because I gave them a copy.)

Readers & authors: Have you ever wondered if a "hidden treasure" young adult or children's book is in a library somewhere? Maybe one close by? You can find out by checking WorldCat--a database that thousands of libraries use. Don't forget, if you find that title, you can have it sent to your local library, via interlibrary loan.

http://www.worldcat.org/advancedsearch

Libraries and Research

There are those who think that the Web is the only source of information. Want to find general information on a topic? Find a website. Ah, but how good is that information? Is it a reliable source? How about finding a newspaper article? Check online for the newspaper’s site. Okay, how about finding a magazine or a journal article? Several of those have websites and some of the articles are free to read online – if you don’t might putting up with ads.

Information is definitely available on the Open Web. However, there is also a great deal of information on the Invisible Web--what search engines can’t get to because the access is owned by proprietary databases.

There are several good free databases of information on the web, yes. Many of them are through the government, such as tax information and forms, education documents through ERIC, and medical information through PubMed and Medline Plus.

But another relatively cheap information resource is as close as your local library. As well as books (both paper and electronic), libraries provide access to databases of newspapers, magazines and journals - often both within the building and from home. Each state has a different mix of magazine, journal, and newspaper databases shared by their public, university and school libraries. In Minnesota, the shared collection is Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM) and in Wisconsin, it's BadgerLink.

Want to read newspaper or magazine articles from the 1980s? 1960? How about the American Revolution or the Civil War? Local libraries often are great sources of regional information. Minnesota has Minnesota Reflections which provides images and documents of cultural history. My university library decided to fund the digitalization of our local town’s newspaper and make it available for free. The thought was that only people in Minnesota would be interested in what life was like in Winona from the 1800s – back when it was just a lumber town on the Mississippi River – during the Civil War and through the Vietnam War. Instead we've found people around the world have been reading the articles. It can be found at the Winona Newspaper Project.

Authors who wanted to find out how many libraries had their books used to have to go to their library to use WorldCat. Now there is a free version WorldCat.org .

When you start to research your next novel, don’t forget your local library.