Last month was an easy month. We used to say this in my previous library all the time. Little did we know that the sentence will travel through continents and decades. The #rutgersurbansketching project is almost over and I am ashamed to realize didn’t have time to create a single sketch in November 2021. Without any … Read More
Last month I participated in a bibliotherapy session called On the Road geared toward Hungarians living outside the country. What a great idea, I thought when I saw the invitation. I was not disappointed. For those new to the concept of bibliotherapy, it implies guided reading, including subsequent conversation, for therapeutic purposes. The texts usually … Read More
Remember the Urban Sketching Project at Rutgers? Hosted by art librarian Megan Lotts in last November, this creative project invited students, faculty, and staff at Rutgers to grab an pencil or fire up the iPad and start using that unused part of the brain. No experience needed, suggested Megan in all her posts as well as in … Read More
As I was fixing up a summary of the latest library challenge in Wyoming in Hungarian for KIT, a weekly newsletter on libraries, information, and society, it dawned on me how a picture of the threatened transgender magician can tell a thousand words. The issue, which points beyond the walls of the libraries, again, reminded me … Read More
Does a book’s main character always have to be likable? If you think back on your favorite main characters, many were almost surely ones you liked, or at least admired or related to on some level. Even villains are sometimes not totally unlikable, especially when they have a powerful quality or a character flaw that … Read More
This post starts with a confession: Middlemarch, by George Eliot (pen name of Mary Anne Evans), is widely considered one of the greatest novels ever written––certainly the odds-on favorite for greatest English novel. It is my fiancée’s favorite novel and she has written about it extensively. She’s not alone––many of the greatest literary critics of … Read More
Books have been banned, challenged, censored, or even burned by organizations, schools, and parent organizations for a lot of reasons. What defines a banned or a challenged book? A banned book is one that has been removed from the shelves completely. Books that have been challenged are an attempt by a person or group to remove … Read More
Last week we celebrated Banned Books week in an event called BANNED: A Virtual Banned Books Read-Out & Discussions on the Freedom to Read at Rutgers. In my flash talk at the online event, I mentioned a library and information science-related weekly newsletter called KIT Hírlevél (Library, Information & Society News) in Hungary. The newsletter polled its readers … Read More
A children’s book shredded in public by a member of the parliament. A poster outside a bookstore warning customers of books with “homosexual propaganda dangerous to children.” A mayor demanding that a book should be removed from a library display, upon (alleged) complaints from the public. Finally, a newsletter polling librarians whether professional organizations should raise … Read More
If you’re appalled by violence and graphic details in a book or movie but––pun intended––you’d kill for a good mystery, cozy mysteries are for you. Rest assured, you are not alone. Cozy mysteries became one of the most popular escapist genres during the pandemic. What the heck is a cozy mystery anyway? Sounds like an … Read More