What is truth? How shall we become wise? Why does the phone ring every time I take a bath?
If you're a human being, you ask questions. Some of these questions are of little consequence. Others are broader, more universal.
Books can be divided into similar categories. Today's publishers are looking for "blockbusters," glitzy soups of sex and money, soon-to-be-major-motion-pictures packaged in glossy paperbacks and displayed at the grocery store checkout counter. Such books do account for a lot of business, at libraries as well as the commercial trade outlets. And why not? Popular fiction is fun and can be relaxing.
But most of the blockbusters are surprisingly transient. They get hyped onto the bestseller list, the authors make appearances on a score of national talk shows -- and five years later, no one remembers either the books or the authors.
Other books stick around, resurfacing year after year, sometimes century after century. The test is simple: classics last. And they insinuate themselves into our minds, changing the way we look at the world and ourselves.
Classics have long been used to challenge minds of every age, to introduce them to the big questions of life and to map out the conceptual course of a culture. The Great Books Program, founded by the University of Chicago several decades ago, subscribes to this grand tradition.
In a Great Books session, a "leader" meets with a group of students (classes drawn from grades 4-12, or groups of interested adults) to discuss a classic selection. The leader's job is to keep people talking by doing what Socrates did -- asking questions.
What did the author say about some of the broad issues we all must face -- for example, dealing with death or betrayal? Do you agree with what the author said? Why? Does this book affect you or the way you live your life? If so, how?
There are no right answers. There aren't any grades. The idea isn't to get you to agree with anybody. The idea is to get you to think. The Great Books people call this a "shared inquiry."
It happens that a local woman named Linda Loudon would like to start a Great Books program in Castle Rock. At the Philip S. Miller Library in Castle Rock, on Monday, August 2nd, at 7 p.m., she'll have an information meeting. I'm hoping that she'll be able to gather a goodly group of interested readers.
The people that decide to participate will be tackling twelve pieces of literature over the next year, including selections by Sigmund Freud, Thucydides, Adam Smith, Claude Bernard, Flannery O'Connor, and Joseph Conrad.
There is a cost. You have to pay $8.95 (plus shipping and handling), which buys you a book that has all the selections in it. But you get to keep it. You can even take notes in it, although personally, I have never been able to bring myself to do that.
There are a few other costs, too. All participants are asked to make three other commitments:
* to read the selection twice before each (probably monthly) meeting;
* to share areas that were confusing, conflicting, or sparked a question;
* to come to all twelve sessions.
As I have written before, education is not something done to you, it's something you do for yourself, and it doesn't stop when somebody hands you a piece of paper.
If you'd like to converse with some of the finest minds in history, maybe this is just the opportunity you've been looking for.
Friday, July 30, 1993
Wednesday, July 14, 1993
July 14, 1993 - local history
My maternal grandmother, called Mimi, was a true Southern Lady. And from my earliest memory, Mimi was telling stories.
There was the story of my Great Uncle Paul, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 22. He also taught my grandmother to dive from the pier into the Gulf of Mexico, dive so clean that she could enter the water without a splash, and turn up so quick that she'd barely get her back wet.
There was the story of the little ghost that lived in the foyer of Aunt Hazel's house. It seems it loved to rock in the rocking chair, looking out the front door window, and leaving the rocker turned that way. Then, one morning, Aunt Hazel gave it a stern talking to. "Little ghost," she said, "now you're welcome to rock in that chair all you please at night, but you put that chair back where it belongs in the morning, you hear?" And from then on, that's exactly what it did.
I spent at least two weeks every summer with Mimi, and heard the same stories over and over, stories about great-grandparents and genealogies, big bragging stories about the War Between the States, sly stories about flappers and flivvers, hushed stories about family scandals, suicides and bootleggers, story after story, spilling well into a summer's night. I never tired of them.
I realize now that those stories had a lot to do with defining my sense of self. They told me where I came from, they rooted me in my family, they helped me identify potential gifts and weaknesses in my own character.
Not every family is fortunate enough to have a Mimi, someone who lovingly collects, possibly embellishes, but at minimum passes on all these stories to the open young minds that follow. But every family needs one.
This may sound odd, but I believe that one of the jobs of the Douglas Public Library District is to serve as the Mimi of Douglas County. Who else can collect stories about the whole community, and see that they get passed on to the generations who will follow us?
Our new Local History Collection, housed at the Philip S. Miller Library in Castle Rock, formally opened on April 23, 1993.
Many, many people have been involved in this project. Johanna Harden, Conservation Specialist for the library, did an outstanding job of working with several historical societies in the county to identify, gather, restore, and describe numerous historical documents relating to Douglas County. Then, she assembled and revised a variety of guidelines for historical collections from around the state to provide a comprehensive policy and procedural framework for our collection.
Along the way, we have relied upon the rest of our Technical Services staff, as well as the unflagging efforts of Sally Maguire and Joan Buttery, volunteers extraordinaire, to aid and assist the establishment of the collection. The Collection also enjoys the strong support of the Library Board of Trustees, who adopted the complete policy and procedural manual at its June meeting.
The Purpose of the Collection (from our Collection Policy) is as follows: "The Local History Collection of the Douglas Public Library District is dedicated to the acquisition and preservation of material, including but not limited to books, newspapers, manuscripts, business records, maps, minutes, photographs, and personal papers, primarily deriving from and relevant to the pre- history, social and natural history of Douglas County, the High Plains, the Divide area of the Front Range, and the State of Colorado. The Local History Collection will be used for research, educational purposes and exhibition."
The collection is still fairly limited. And as the policy goes on to say, "The District cannot engage in indiscriminate acquisition." Too, we can't provide permanent exhibit space for materials. We are a library, not a museum, and we do want to keep the focus as much as possible on the local area.
On the other hand, we are keenly interested in acquiring materials that fall into that category. Please note that donations to the Local History Collection are tax-deductible, although we cannot ourselves appraise the value of those donations.
Right now, the collection lives in a locked room at the south end of the reference department, and is available for public use by appointment only. As time goes on, I expect that the district will have to dedicate even more space and staff to the collection. But at least, we have begun.
In a sense, the establishment of the Local History Collection is a sign of the coming of age of the larger community. Only with maturity does the mind reach back to its past.
For a copy of our Collection Policy, stop by the library, or give Johanna Harden a call at 688-4875.
In memoriam. Perry Park resident David Campbell died in a car accident last week. His wife, Dorothy, has asked that anyone wishing to make a donation in memory of David please consider the Friends of Man in Denver (P.O. Box 2919, Littleton, CO 80161-2919, phone 337-377), or the David Campbell Memorial Children's Collection, c/o the Douglas Public Library District, 961 S. Plum Creek Blvd., Castle Rock CO 80104
There was the story of my Great Uncle Paul, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 22. He also taught my grandmother to dive from the pier into the Gulf of Mexico, dive so clean that she could enter the water without a splash, and turn up so quick that she'd barely get her back wet.
There was the story of the little ghost that lived in the foyer of Aunt Hazel's house. It seems it loved to rock in the rocking chair, looking out the front door window, and leaving the rocker turned that way. Then, one morning, Aunt Hazel gave it a stern talking to. "Little ghost," she said, "now you're welcome to rock in that chair all you please at night, but you put that chair back where it belongs in the morning, you hear?" And from then on, that's exactly what it did.
I spent at least two weeks every summer with Mimi, and heard the same stories over and over, stories about great-grandparents and genealogies, big bragging stories about the War Between the States, sly stories about flappers and flivvers, hushed stories about family scandals, suicides and bootleggers, story after story, spilling well into a summer's night. I never tired of them.
I realize now that those stories had a lot to do with defining my sense of self. They told me where I came from, they rooted me in my family, they helped me identify potential gifts and weaknesses in my own character.
Not every family is fortunate enough to have a Mimi, someone who lovingly collects, possibly embellishes, but at minimum passes on all these stories to the open young minds that follow. But every family needs one.
This may sound odd, but I believe that one of the jobs of the Douglas Public Library District is to serve as the Mimi of Douglas County. Who else can collect stories about the whole community, and see that they get passed on to the generations who will follow us?
Our new Local History Collection, housed at the Philip S. Miller Library in Castle Rock, formally opened on April 23, 1993.
Many, many people have been involved in this project. Johanna Harden, Conservation Specialist for the library, did an outstanding job of working with several historical societies in the county to identify, gather, restore, and describe numerous historical documents relating to Douglas County. Then, she assembled and revised a variety of guidelines for historical collections from around the state to provide a comprehensive policy and procedural framework for our collection.
Along the way, we have relied upon the rest of our Technical Services staff, as well as the unflagging efforts of Sally Maguire and Joan Buttery, volunteers extraordinaire, to aid and assist the establishment of the collection. The Collection also enjoys the strong support of the Library Board of Trustees, who adopted the complete policy and procedural manual at its June meeting.
The Purpose of the Collection (from our Collection Policy) is as follows: "The Local History Collection of the Douglas Public Library District is dedicated to the acquisition and preservation of material, including but not limited to books, newspapers, manuscripts, business records, maps, minutes, photographs, and personal papers, primarily deriving from and relevant to the pre- history, social and natural history of Douglas County, the High Plains, the Divide area of the Front Range, and the State of Colorado. The Local History Collection will be used for research, educational purposes and exhibition."
The collection is still fairly limited. And as the policy goes on to say, "The District cannot engage in indiscriminate acquisition." Too, we can't provide permanent exhibit space for materials. We are a library, not a museum, and we do want to keep the focus as much as possible on the local area.
On the other hand, we are keenly interested in acquiring materials that fall into that category. Please note that donations to the Local History Collection are tax-deductible, although we cannot ourselves appraise the value of those donations.
Right now, the collection lives in a locked room at the south end of the reference department, and is available for public use by appointment only. As time goes on, I expect that the district will have to dedicate even more space and staff to the collection. But at least, we have begun.
In a sense, the establishment of the Local History Collection is a sign of the coming of age of the larger community. Only with maturity does the mind reach back to its past.
For a copy of our Collection Policy, stop by the library, or give Johanna Harden a call at 688-4875.
In memoriam. Perry Park resident David Campbell died in a car accident last week. His wife, Dorothy, has asked that anyone wishing to make a donation in memory of David please consider the Friends of Man in Denver (P.O. Box 2919, Littleton, CO 80161-2919, phone 337-377), or the David Campbell Memorial Children's Collection, c/o the Douglas Public Library District, 961 S. Plum Creek Blvd., Castle Rock CO 80104
Wednesday, July 7, 1993
July 30, 1993
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what kind of relationship makes sense between the public school and the public library.
Clearly, we cover a lot of the same ground. Both institutions are publicly-funded, both of us buy books, and I hope both of us come to mind when parents want to help their children learn something about the world around them.
There are areas where our services overlap, and other areas where we go out of our way to cooperate with one another.
Most of the overlap happens between school and public libraries. In both these organizations, you'll find children's literature. You'll also find lots of general non-fiction materials.
Both organizations teach children how to use the library. In the schools, this tends to be a more formal and regular process. At the public library, generally we only provide instruction to whole classes when a teacher asks us to. Otherwise, our instruction tends to be on a more individual basis.
The Douglas Public Library District even offers a special Teacher Library Card -- which allows classroom instructors serving Douglas County students to check out our books to supplement the resources available to them through the schools. In turn, several schools in Douglas County have adopted the Colorado Library Card, which opens up their doors to parents and community members.
A more recent sign of cooperation between the Douglas County School District and the Douglas Public Library District is our submission to the Colorado State Library of a grant for over $11,000. I'm very pleased to report that we got it, too.
This project, called "The Electronic Highway," will enable us to place, by this fall, DPLD computer catalog terminals and a PC- based reference workstation in three outlying elementary schools: Roxborough, Larkspur, and Cherry Valley. The school district will even provide delivery services back and forth between each school and the public library -- helping us to get library materials out to the people who don't happen to live close to one of our branches.
Beyond all this, it seems to me that school and public librarians just plain like each other.
But there are differences as well. School libraries have as their primary responsibility the support of the curriculum. Assuming they know what the curriculum is, and they've got some money, they can succeed at this task, providing precisely targeted materials to accomplish instructional goals.
The public library serves a broader clientele, and therefore requires a broader range of materials. Public library collections are more diffuse, less focused. Our mission is to represent some reasonable cross-sampling of the literature of our entire culture, with attention to the special needs of various age groups, from pre-school to senior citizen.
Unlike the school libraries, we can never succeed at this task -- until American and world culture itself becomes well-organized, which I find unlikely.
Sometimes, it may seem that our missions have been confused, and even reversed. In some schools, the focus has shifted away from formal instruction in reading, and toward a greater emphasis on recreational reading. But then some parents turn to us for curricular support, especially in such areas as phonics.
On occasion, the public library has even sponsored classes. For instance, Les Simonson has taught several classes at the public library on the writing of short stories and mysteries.
On the other hand, public libraries sponsoring classes on writing is like a restaurant sponsoring classes on cooking. It's just planning for the future.
The public library also makes space for individual literacy tutoring, provided through the Adult Center for Training. But again, you could argue that such an arrangement is in our own best interests. People who can't read don't use libraries.
Over the next couple of months, the Philip S. Miller Library will offer two kinds of support for yet another player. You may have read in the paper about the Academy Charter School. This is an attempt to form an alternative, publicly-funded elmentary school in Douglas County, under recent enabling legislation by the state.
Materials provided by the organizers of the charter school will be available at the Philip S. Miller reference desk. Completed forms (indicating interest in participating) may also be returned to the reference desk.
Ultimately, it seems to me that the public is well-served by alternatives. Let's face it: there's a big informational, educational, and intellectual marketplace out there. The wise consumer shops around.
Clearly, we cover a lot of the same ground. Both institutions are publicly-funded, both of us buy books, and I hope both of us come to mind when parents want to help their children learn something about the world around them.
There are areas where our services overlap, and other areas where we go out of our way to cooperate with one another.
Most of the overlap happens between school and public libraries. In both these organizations, you'll find children's literature. You'll also find lots of general non-fiction materials.
Both organizations teach children how to use the library. In the schools, this tends to be a more formal and regular process. At the public library, generally we only provide instruction to whole classes when a teacher asks us to. Otherwise, our instruction tends to be on a more individual basis.
The Douglas Public Library District even offers a special Teacher Library Card -- which allows classroom instructors serving Douglas County students to check out our books to supplement the resources available to them through the schools. In turn, several schools in Douglas County have adopted the Colorado Library Card, which opens up their doors to parents and community members.
A more recent sign of cooperation between the Douglas County School District and the Douglas Public Library District is our submission to the Colorado State Library of a grant for over $11,000. I'm very pleased to report that we got it, too.
This project, called "The Electronic Highway," will enable us to place, by this fall, DPLD computer catalog terminals and a PC- based reference workstation in three outlying elementary schools: Roxborough, Larkspur, and Cherry Valley. The school district will even provide delivery services back and forth between each school and the public library -- helping us to get library materials out to the people who don't happen to live close to one of our branches.
Beyond all this, it seems to me that school and public librarians just plain like each other.
But there are differences as well. School libraries have as their primary responsibility the support of the curriculum. Assuming they know what the curriculum is, and they've got some money, they can succeed at this task, providing precisely targeted materials to accomplish instructional goals.
The public library serves a broader clientele, and therefore requires a broader range of materials. Public library collections are more diffuse, less focused. Our mission is to represent some reasonable cross-sampling of the literature of our entire culture, with attention to the special needs of various age groups, from pre-school to senior citizen.
Unlike the school libraries, we can never succeed at this task -- until American and world culture itself becomes well-organized, which I find unlikely.
Sometimes, it may seem that our missions have been confused, and even reversed. In some schools, the focus has shifted away from formal instruction in reading, and toward a greater emphasis on recreational reading. But then some parents turn to us for curricular support, especially in such areas as phonics.
On occasion, the public library has even sponsored classes. For instance, Les Simonson has taught several classes at the public library on the writing of short stories and mysteries.
On the other hand, public libraries sponsoring classes on writing is like a restaurant sponsoring classes on cooking. It's just planning for the future.
The public library also makes space for individual literacy tutoring, provided through the Adult Center for Training. But again, you could argue that such an arrangement is in our own best interests. People who can't read don't use libraries.
Over the next couple of months, the Philip S. Miller Library will offer two kinds of support for yet another player. You may have read in the paper about the Academy Charter School. This is an attempt to form an alternative, publicly-funded elmentary school in Douglas County, under recent enabling legislation by the state.
Materials provided by the organizers of the charter school will be available at the Philip S. Miller reference desk. Completed forms (indicating interest in participating) may also be returned to the reference desk.
Ultimately, it seems to me that the public is well-served by alternatives. Let's face it: there's a big informational, educational, and intellectual marketplace out there. The wise consumer shops around.
July 7, 1993 - schools and public libraries
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what kind of relationship makes sense between the public school and the public library.
Clearly, we cover a lot of the same ground. Both institutions are publicly-funded, both of us buy books, and I hope both of us come to mind when parents want to help their children learn something about the world around them.
There are areas where our services overlap, and other areas where we go out of our way to cooperate with one another.
Most of the overlap happens between school and public libraries. In both these organizations, you'll find children's literature. You'll also find lots of general non-fiction materials.
Both organizations teach children how to use the library. In the schools, this tends to be a more formal and regular process. At the public library, generally we only provide instruction to whole classes when a teacher asks us to. Otherwise, our instruction tends to be on a more individual basis.
The Douglas Public Library District even offers a special Teacher Library Card -- which allows classroom instructors serving Douglas County students to check out our books to supplement the resources available to them through the schools. In turn, several schools in Douglas County have adopted the Colorado Library Card, which opens up their doors to parents and community members.
A more recent sign of cooperation between the Douglas County School District and the Douglas Public Library District is our submission to the Colorado State Library of a grant for over $11,000. I'm very pleased to report that we got it, too.
This project, called "The Electronic Highway," will enable us to place, by this fall, DPLD computer catalog terminals and a PC- based reference workstation in three outlying elementary schools: Roxborough, Larkspur, and Cherry Valley. The school district will even provide delivery services back and forth between each school and the public library -- helping us to get library materials out to the people who don't happen to live close to one of our branches.
Beyond all this, it seems to me that school and public librarians just plain like each other.
But there are differences as well. School libraries have as their primary responsibility the support of the curriculum. Assuming they know what the curriculum is, and they've got some money, they can succeed at this task, providing precisely targeted materials to accomplish instructional goals.
The public library serves a broader clientele, and therefore requires a broader range of materials. Public library collections are more diffuse, less focused. Our mission is to represent some reasonable cross-sampling of the literature of our entire culture, with attention to the special needs of various age groups, from pre-school to senior citizen.
Unlike the school libraries, we can never succeed at this task -- until American and world culture itself becomes well-organized, which I find unlikely.
Sometimes, it may seem that our missions have been confused, and even reversed. In some schools, the focus has shifted away from formal instruction in reading, and toward a greater emphasis on recreational reading. But then some parents turn to us for curricular support, especially in such areas as phonics.
On occasion, the public library has even sponsored classes. For instance, Les Simonson has taught several classes at the public library on the writing of short stories and mysteries.
On the other hand, public libraries sponsoring classes on writing is like a restaurant sponsoring classes on cooking. It's just planning for the future.
The public library also makes space for individual literacy tutoring, provided through the Adult Center for Training. But again, you could argue that such an arrangement is in our own best interests. People who can't read don't use libraries.
Over the next couple of months, the Philip S. Miller Library will offer two kinds of support for yet another player. You may have read in the paper about the Academy Charter School. This is an attempt to form an alternative, publicly-funded elmentary school in Douglas County, under recent enabling legislation by the state.
Materials provided by the organizers of the charter school will be available at the Philip S. Miller reference desk. Completed forms (indicating interest in participating) may also be returned to the reference desk.
Ultimately, it seems to me that the public is well-served by alternatives. Let's face it: there's a big informational, educational, and intellectual marketplace out there. The wise consumer shops around.
Clearly, we cover a lot of the same ground. Both institutions are publicly-funded, both of us buy books, and I hope both of us come to mind when parents want to help their children learn something about the world around them.
There are areas where our services overlap, and other areas where we go out of our way to cooperate with one another.
Most of the overlap happens between school and public libraries. In both these organizations, you'll find children's literature. You'll also find lots of general non-fiction materials.
Both organizations teach children how to use the library. In the schools, this tends to be a more formal and regular process. At the public library, generally we only provide instruction to whole classes when a teacher asks us to. Otherwise, our instruction tends to be on a more individual basis.
The Douglas Public Library District even offers a special Teacher Library Card -- which allows classroom instructors serving Douglas County students to check out our books to supplement the resources available to them through the schools. In turn, several schools in Douglas County have adopted the Colorado Library Card, which opens up their doors to parents and community members.
A more recent sign of cooperation between the Douglas County School District and the Douglas Public Library District is our submission to the Colorado State Library of a grant for over $11,000. I'm very pleased to report that we got it, too.
This project, called "The Electronic Highway," will enable us to place, by this fall, DPLD computer catalog terminals and a PC- based reference workstation in three outlying elementary schools: Roxborough, Larkspur, and Cherry Valley. The school district will even provide delivery services back and forth between each school and the public library -- helping us to get library materials out to the people who don't happen to live close to one of our branches.
Beyond all this, it seems to me that school and public librarians just plain like each other.
But there are differences as well. School libraries have as their primary responsibility the support of the curriculum. Assuming they know what the curriculum is, and they've got some money, they can succeed at this task, providing precisely targeted materials to accomplish instructional goals.
The public library serves a broader clientele, and therefore requires a broader range of materials. Public library collections are more diffuse, less focused. Our mission is to represent some reasonable cross-sampling of the literature of our entire culture, with attention to the special needs of various age groups, from pre-school to senior citizen.
Unlike the school libraries, we can never succeed at this task -- until American and world culture itself becomes well-organized, which I find unlikely.
Sometimes, it may seem that our missions have been confused, and even reversed. In some schools, the focus has shifted away from formal instruction in reading, and toward a greater emphasis on recreational reading. But then some parents turn to us for curricular support, especially in such areas as phonics.
On occasion, the public library has even sponsored classes. For instance, Les Simonson has taught several classes at the public library on the writing of short stories and mysteries.
On the other hand, public libraries sponsoring classes on writing is like a restaurant sponsoring classes on cooking. It's just planning for the future.
The public library also makes space for individual literacy tutoring, provided through the Adult Center for Training. But again, you could argue that such an arrangement is in our own best interests. People who can't read don't use libraries.
Over the next couple of months, the Philip S. Miller Library will offer two kinds of support for yet another player. You may have read in the paper about the Academy Charter School. This is an attempt to form an alternative, publicly-funded elmentary school in Douglas County, under recent enabling legislation by the state.
Materials provided by the organizers of the charter school will be available at the Philip S. Miller reference desk. Completed forms (indicating interest in participating) may also be returned to the reference desk.
Ultimately, it seems to me that the public is well-served by alternatives. Let's face it: there's a big informational, educational, and intellectual marketplace out there. The wise consumer shops around.
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