May 10th, 2008 Brian Herzog
A few weeks ago, I got an email at the library from a librarian working towards a Masters Degree in American Studies. She was researching Mark Twain, and specifically whether public libraries during his life censored his works.
She was contacting all the libraries in the country that were open at the time (Chelmsford’s Adams Library is usually dated at 1894, but various library associations in the town date to the 1790’s), hoping our accession records would indicate which Twain books were held by the library, and whether they were shelved as adult or childrens books.
Up until this question, I had a vague understanding that we had old library records, but I didn’t know how extensive they were, what condition they were in, or what was in them. So I was happy to get this question, as in the course of helping someone, I also had an excuse to check out these records.
It turns out, there is a lot in the library archive. Much of it are treasurer reports or invoice logs, and were either uninteresting (to me) or indecipherable (just columns and columns of numbers). But I also found library member rolls from the late 1800’s, and one ledger even had the circulation history of the patrons (all done in longhand).
But getting down to brass tacks, I was very happy to find book lists from the era, which listed the books, author, publisher, date, call number, and a few other things. And it turned out that there were two libraries operating in Chelmsford at the time, which were later merged into the single library I work in today. So, I was able to research this question in both sets of records.
But here’s the best part: one book in the archive was entitled “List of Books (not all juvenile) for Boys” and was prepared by Librarian Emma J. Gay. It consisted of handwritten pages broken up into sections (Stories, History, Biography, Travel, Scientific, Natural History, Games and Amusements, and Miscellaneous). The title page, along with a title page for each section, was professionally typeset and printed, and the whole book was professionally bound in hardcover.
In the Stories section, there is the following entry:
Clemens, S. L. (Mark Twain)
Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1505 [accession number]
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1803 [accession number]
I really want to do something with this book, but I don’t know what. I’m guessing it dates to the 1880’s, and it was interesting flipping through seeing what books back then appealed to boys.
And for the record, here are the Mark Twain holdings I could locate in the archive:
| Title |
Author1 |
Date |
Call No.2 |
Source3 |
| Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain) |
1881 |
c625.2 |
NCLA |
| Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain) |
1885 |
c625.1 |
NCLA |
| A Tramp Abroad |
Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) |
1889 |
c914.8 |
NCLA |
| The Innocents Abroad |
S. L. Clemens “Mark Twain” |
1894 |
c625.2 |
NCLA |
| Prince and Pauper |
Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) |
1895 |
c55.7 |
CFPL |
| Adventures of Tom Sawyer |
Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) |
1895 |
c55.13 |
CFPL |
| Sketches New and Old |
Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) |
1895 |
c55.9 |
CFPL |
| American Claimant |
Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) |
1895 |
c55.1 |
CFPL |
| Joan of Arc / Personal Reflections of |
Samuel Langhorne Clemens |
1896 |
c55.2 |
CFPL |
| A Tramp Abroad |
Samuel Langhorne Clemens |
1896 |
c87.22 |
CFPL |
Notes:
1: It was interesting to see the different ways his name was written, and that “Mark Twain” was always secondary
2: Most of these are a mystery to me
3: NCLA: North Chelmsford Library Association; CFPL: Chelmsford Free Public Library
|
Some of the records were too fragile to use, and some of the handwriting illegible, so I don’t think this is a complete list. I emailed what I found to the patron, and she was very happy, and it was fun to this kind of real historical research for a change.
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Posted under Books, Library, Reference Question | No Comments »
February 23rd, 2008 Brian Herzog
I know I said I wasn’t going to post anything this weekend, but I’ve heard a lot of talk about this and wanted to help disseminate:
Libraries get solicitations and purchase suggestions all the time. A few times a week I’ll get emails from authors or publishers, asking us to buy their books, or from patrons, asking us to buy a book they want to read or that would be a good addition to our collection.
But this week, I (and many other librarians, it turns out) got a cross-over: a message from someone apparently posing as a patron.
I am not providing links out of sheer irritation, and I won’t publish the person’s “name” for privacy reasons, but the email came from someone with the initials M.T., and the text of the message read:
Hi there -
I was searching in the library and trying to find the book [title] by [author], ISBN [isbn] and did not find it.
I heard about it on NPR, BBC America and saw it on Amazon and the author’s website at narcissism.ca.
Will you be getting a copy in soon?
With requests like this, I always check our catalog to see if the book is available from another library in my consortium, and I look up the patron to place them hold for it. But this time, I found neither the book nor anyone by this name in our system. But I did read about it on Amazon, so I replied:
Hello-
This does look like and interesting book, so I’d be happy to order it for our collection. I searched for your name in our catalog to place you on reserve for it when it arrives, but did not find a [patron name] listed.
If you can email back your library card number, I’ll be sure you are first on the list when the book arrives. Thanks for the suggestion, and take care.
Brian Herzog
Head of Reference
Chelmsford Public Library
I then got a message back saying “Hi Brian - I just moved. I’ll be down soon to get my card.”
That’s when I started seeing other libraries asking about this strange request. I wrote back saying that when they came to get a card, to come to the reference desk and I’ll order the book then. I haven’t heard anything back.
So, any library getting a similar request can probably safely ignore it, as it is a dishonest sales pitch. It sounds like most library book vendors don’t have it, anyway.
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Posted under Books, Library, Reference Question | 5 Comments »
February 14th, 2008 Brian Herzog
Last week’s Reference Question was about me finding a new source for suggesting good books for patrons - the Mass Book Awards.
Liz’s comment on the post was a good one, and I thought it warranted a bit of research and a full post devoted to answering it. She said:
There are a few websites which allow you to enter some of your favorite bands and it pops out suggestions of similar bands you might like - wouldn’t it be awesome if they had a site like that for books?…
Here are some resources I found that let you search for a book/author you like, and then link from it to similar books:
- WhatShouldIReadNext.com - search for a book to see recommendations
- reader2.com - search for a book to see recommendations; also shows tags associated with each book
- AllReaders.com - search for a title or author, and similar books are listed at the end of each book description; also allows searching by plot, setting, or character
- StoryCode.com - lets you search for a title or author and suggests similar stories (based on user data); also has other features
- LibraryThing.com - offers book suggestions based on user-entered tags; you can also browse tags for books on a certain subject, or use their unsuggester to find books unlike a particular book
- GoodReads.com - seems a lot like LibraryThing, but puts more emphasis on recommendations of people in your friends network rather than cumulative data
- NoveList - the old standby, but you probably need to go through your local library for it
- Amazon.com - it is Amazon, so it’s primary focus is to sell book, not recommend them, but it does offer suggestions based on what people purchase and search by topic (as it were)
There are lots of other sites devoted to book suggestions. A few others I found that didn’t fit above but that are also useful are:
- Listal.com Books - search (hidden in upper right corner) for books and link to others via tags (seems to focus more on social connections)
- FictionFinder from OCLC - offers Subject cloud (like tag cloud) to find similar books; also allows searching, and each book has links to see other books with the same subjects, genres, characters or setting
- Find a Good Book from Hennepin County Library - search for an author to find recommended reading lists where that author’s books appear (plus links to other listings and resources)
- Staff Recommendations from the Skokie Public Library - search for a subject to find books their staff has reviewed and recommends
And here’s a few resources that are list-based - you click the subject you like, and you browse the list of books in that subject:
I’m sure there are tons of others - even my library also has a readers advisory webpage. If I missed one of your favorites, please share it with a comment below.
Tags: advisory, book, Books, libraries, Library, public, reader, readers, readers advisory, reading, recommendations, suggestions See Also
Posted under Books, Library, Resources | 4 Comments »
February 9th, 2008 Brian Herzog
This week’s question is one heard often:
“do you have any suggestions for a good book?”
Librarians either love of hate this question. I’ve talked about various readers advisory tools (and the old standard, NoveList), but I learned of a new one this week.
On Thursday, I went to the Massachusetts State House to attend the presentation of the 2008 Massachusetts Book Awards (photos).
Each year, the Massachusetts Center for the Book evaluates hundreds of entrants in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and childrens books, and selects a winner and two honorees in each category.
Part of the criteria is that the author is a Massachusetts resident or the work in some way is significant to Massachusetts. Their website has the list of this year’s winners as well as winners from past years, and I think this is a great resource for readers advisory. This year’s books included Nathaniel Philbrick (Mayflower), Noam Chomsky (Failed States), and Martín Espada (The Republic of Poetry), among others, so these aren’t local interest-only works.
What I also liked is that the Massachusetts Center for the Book is part of the Library of Congress‘ Center for the Book program. Which means, not only can I refer patrons to these few Massachusetts, but there are 49 other state programs, all evaluating and highlighting significant books.
I’ve used the Center for the Book for other things, but never the award winner lists for readers advisory. So not only was it a fun trip to Boston, but I learned something, too.
Tags: advisory, book awards, Books, center for the book, libraries, Library, ma, mass, massachustts, public, reader, readers, readers advisory, Reference Question, state house See Also
Posted under Books, Library, Reference Question | 1 Comment »
February 5th, 2008 Brian Herzog
Last week, we received a large package from the U. S. Census Bureau. In it was a copy of Census Atlas of the United States and a letter that read (in part):
I am pleased to be able to present the Chelmsford Public Library with a copy of the recently-published Census Atlas of the United States, a volume which I cooauthered with several colleagues at the Census Bureau here in Washington, DC.
…I wanted to personally send a copy to the Chelmsford Public Library as a way of expressing my profound gratitude to the library for the role it played in helping me discover my career as a demographer.
I grew up in Chelmsford…and as a kid spent many rainy Sunday afternoons at the Adams Library. When an elementary school research project required me to incorporate census data, I found myself in the top floor of the old library, poring through Census volumes with the assistance of the reference librarian. I didn’t know it at the time, but those afternoons looking through old census volumes were my introduction to population statistics and to the Census Bureau, and a preview of what is now a rewarding and enjoyable career as a demographer and statistician for the federal government.
…Who knows - maybe [this donated volume] will inspire a future career path for some youngster spending quality in the library on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Not only is this a wonderful story, and a nice sentiment, but the atlas itself is pretty incredible. It is large, 12-1/4″ x 15-1/4″ - and almost every page is a glossy, full-color map of a particular population breakdown. Definitely a nice addition to our reference collection, and probably one that I wouldn’t have purchased.
So, the moral of the story is, once again, a patron’s library experience is critical to the health and longevity of a library.
donation, donations, experience, libraries, library, patron, patrons, public
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