What’s New in History

The library loves to share new book titles with students, faculty and staff just as much as we enjoy opening that new box of delivered books. Usually we pull together a list of the latest and greatest titles and will share this with the community, as well as post them to our Library Thing account. We are adding a new dimension to our “New Titles” list by taking a photograph of the newest books in a given category. Today we begin with new history titles. The full listing of new history books can be found with it’s photograph in Flickr. Stay tuned for other categories of new books in the coming weeks.

Life of a Book - from Selection to the Reader's Hands

Building the library's collection is my favorite professional task. I enjoy reading reviews, gathering suggestions from students and colleagues, or simply going to the Jabberwocky and filling my arms with books. There's nothing like the satisfacton involved in matching a reader to an author or a researcher to a text. BUT, selecting the books is simply the beginning of the books becoming part of the collection. Processing, being entered into the database and added to LibraryThing comprise many steps which different hands complete. We are more focused on the steps involved during the fall when we are adding many books (new and used) to support the Junior History thesis topics chosen. Curious one week about how many steps there really are, we created a step-by-step montage of what is involved. Take a look.....

Academy Alum Invented Wire Trap

The wire lobster trap was created by James M. Knott, Class of 1947. First used off the coast of Gloucester in 1957, the trap was found to be lighter out of the water but heavier in it. Water flowed more easily through the wire mesh than through the wooden slats so the traps stayed on the bottom during rough seas. As the years passed, the traps found more and more acceptance with lobstermen who discovered the traps required less maintenance and had a longer lifespan than the standard wooden traps. On exhibit is a wire trap given by Mr. Knott, articles outlining its invention, and books on lobsters and lobstering. The Gulf of Maine Aqaurium has some great information and pictures on lobsters and the history of lobstering. Visit The Lobsterman’s Page to learn more about the fishery and how the gear is handled.

First Settlers

Did you know that the Pescosolido Library is used for other purposes beyond student and faculty research and book borrowing? We have groups that meet here and use our facilities as well. This week, for example, “The Sons and Daughters of the First Settlers of Newbury”, a genealogical society, met in our Glass Room, a beautiful round room with large windows overlooking our athletic fields. Mr. Carl Panall, the husband of our head librarian, Ms. Susan Chase, is a member of this group, as is Peter Swift, a member of the GA staff. We are happy to accommodate groups such as these in our spacious facilities. The sole criteria for reserving a room would be that there is an educational purpose for the meeting. See you at the library!

Banned on Flickr

Banned Books can be found not only in libraries and bookstores, but on Flickr as well. We have recently discovered a Banned Books Week group where libraries of all kinds are adding their banned books photos. One of the Pesky Library favorites is from the Dayton Metro Library East Branch. The picture includes 99 of the top 100 banned books and they are still looking for someone to come up with the one title that is missing. Can you figure it out? Read the comments below the picture to see what people have guessed so far.

Banned Books Ahoy!

We celebrate our right to read freely this week, a right to cherish and not to take lightly. Book censorship has been with us in America (especially Massachusetts) since our earliest days. The first book was censored in 1650 on the grounds that it challenged Puritan doctrine and was heretical. As time went on "Banned in Boston" became a familiar phrase. According to the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, 2d ed, 1988, "During the 1920s the phrase banned in Boston became famous because the long-established Watch and Ward Society of the so-called Hub of the Universe was forever getting the city censor to ban books from sale. Many publishers actively sought to have their books banned in Boston because they knew the label would increase their sales in the rest of the country..." Now individuals challenge and hope to suppress books that they feel are subversive, especially to young minds. U Penn has a good overview of Banned Books On-line and the reasons for the challenges. Stop by the library and see if you have read any of the titles in our display. You might be amazed at what you find. Read a banned book today!

Bags all around

As part of their orientation freshmen received welcome bags from the library with supplies to help them as they embark on their first year at The Governor’s Academy. Juniors are the next group to receive bags as they embark in a different type of journey: the U.S. History Thesis paper. When Juniors attend their reference interview with a librarian, they will be given a thesis bag with supplies to help them as they research. The bag includes, a highlighter to help locate keywords, sticky notes to mark important pages, note cards to help create and outline, a first edition Pesky Library pen and pencil, and holding it all together is a clip and Moo card. The Moo card will give Juniors the address to the U.S. History Moodle page and library contact information.

Juniors: Step Two

Last week we shared with you in the Pesky Blog how the Junior American History classes were coming to the library for a preliminary introduction to their thesis research. The library has now begun individual reference interviews with each Junior. The interview allows students to further explore their topic to see what resources are available to them by searching OPACs and journal databases, conducting effective internet searching and taking note of citing sources. All of these resources have been pulled together and are part of the US History Thesis course in Moodle. Students can access the Moodle course from on or off campus. Ms. Chase has worked with a number of students this week and all of the librarians are looking forward to assisting Juniors over the coming months.

Favorite author

Do you have a favorite author? Someone who, when you finish his or her book, you feel sad that the characters are no longer in your life? Someone who, when a new book by the author is announced, you get excited at the prospect of a new story that you know you will love? Richard Russo is one of those authors for me. I feel that I know his characters like I know my relatives. His characters are just as quirkey and flawed and lovable as people we know in real life. While reading his stories I feel close to them and feel their joys and sorrows. He wrote Empire Falls, Straight Man and a short story collection titled The Whore's Child. I loved them all. His new book is titled Bridge of Sighs and has been well reviewed. I can't wait to get my hand on it.

A Job Well Done

Attempting to get the workroom organized (finally,) the librarians hauled shelving home from Sam's Club and spent a morning putting it together. It was a truly cooperative effort! Ms. Pinkham and Mrs. Brown are pleased and proud with the results!

To Our Great Surprise

Over the past two years the Pesky Library has plunged into the great wide world of Web 2.0, building on the Pesky Blog by creating a Flickr site for photo sharing, a del.icio.us account for sharing professional library links, and utilizing Library Thing to post new books. We have learned a great deal and continue to learn from those who are also out there posting with these tools, and we are connecting with libraries across the country and overseas. While browsing through the most recent edition of Library Journal, we were amazed to find the Carl A. Pescosolido (Pesky) Library mentioned in the article, “Tags Help make Libraries Del.icio.us” by Melissa L. Rethlefsen. The library was referred to for its use of tagging in Library Thing by adding call numbers to the book tags. With the many libraries out there plugging away and making the effort to connect users with these new tools, we were taken by surprise and felt honored to be mentioned among those who are using tags successfully. To read the complete article click here, you will need to scroll down through the table of contents to view the article. Who knows where the Pesky Library will turn up next!

The Junior Thesis at the Beginning

Students in U.S. History classes started exploring topics for their thesis papers with us today. Mrs. Brown introduced them to the Moodle class designed for this paper. She also refreshed their memories on working within our OPAC and with the Infotrac databases. She then brought them out to Reference, pointing out generalized resources to explore ideas and our resource stacks on specific topics. Ms. Chase and their teacher Mr. Delay helped enlarge upon the possibilities of some of their thoughts and ideas. Some students were raring to go and made appointments with the librarians for one-on-one instruction specific to their topics.

Library Thing

After entering new book titles into Library Thing this evening I was thinking about how our library borrowers might also use this service. Library Thing is an on-line tool that lets people catalog their own book collections, while at the same time learning who owns the same or similar titles, and even lets you "talk" to the books' authors. It is often described as the "mySpace for books" or "Facebook for Books". Check out Library Thing and experience a whole new world of book sharing from the comfort of your own computer. You can even buy a Library Thing T-Shirt.

Art in the Ol’ Barn

Students and teachers alike are taking advantage of each beautiful day we are given here in Byfield before the temperatures begin to dip down. Ms. Struck’s class found a lovely location for their sketching assignment today; a bit of sun, a bit of shade, the birds chirping, the chipmunks scurrying about the stone wall, it is a quiet, peaceful location. The stone you see behind the students has been there for hundreds of years: it is the foundation of the cattle barn from the original farm before the school was established. Ms. Chase mentioned the cattle barn to our new students during orientation, along with many other interesting facts and “things to see” around campus that are of historical significance. The area where the students are seen sketching is located just behind the library, it was nice to see people enjoying the space on such a fine day.

All's well at the Library

The year always starts with a rush at the library - processing the new books, putting displays together, preparing for orientation, greeting returning students, working with new faculty, resetting expired passwords, revisiting all those ideas which sounded great at the end of last year (are they still good?) And then, preparing for the U.S. History thesis process takes over. So, it was a clickable moment for me when I came around the corner and saw these toes with a laptop. I stopped and took a deep cleansing breath. Students are back in our lives and it's swell!

On the Road at 50

Jack Kerouac's seminal novel of the Beat Generation turned 50 0n September 5. The library celebrates with a display featuring a book taken from the original scroll, a couple of contemporary posters, some classic cars, and quotes from Kerouac. You can be "Present at the Creation", an NPR presentation which includes many multi-media links to Kerouac reading from his book or watch curators unroll the scroll.
Although I read the book and encountered the Beat Generation in high school, my loveliest encounter with On the Road came when I myself was on the road in England. A friend and I had traveled to a village in Norfolk to visit a neighbor whose husband had been transferred there. Leaving her, we started a Jane Austen pilgrimage, boarding a train at King Lynn’s station to make our way to Winchester. The tracks went along a canal populated by swans and behind community garden plots complete with dilapidated and tipsy sheds made with scavenged materials. When a young woman sat next to me, I was feeling the effects of being truly in a different place. She was on her way to take a job lettering signs for a traveling circus. She was excited to chat with an American and pulled her favorite book from a rucksack. Had I ever read On the Road, simply the best book ever written? So there I was, on an English road discussing a journey by an author who had lived not 30 minutes from my home. When I tried to tell her about my Austen road trip, she was uncertain who Austen was (but was very polite about my enthusiasm.) Message to me: there’s a literary road for each of us.

Ole! Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the library has a diverse collection of Hispanic authors on display originating from some of the twenty-one Spanish speaking countries in the world. Hispanic Heritage Month began in September 1968 and became a month long celebration from September 15 – October 15 in 1988. September 15 has been designated as the start of Hispanic Heritage Month as it is the day of independence for five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The United States celebrates the culture and traditions of those whose roots come from Spanish speaking countries during this month. Our display covers a wide range of authors originating from countries such as Chile, Peru, Spain, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Bolivia and more. For a complete list of the books included in this display, visit the Pesky Library’s Flickr page. In addition, there are many resources online to provide more information on Hispanic Heritage Month, of interest is the Smithsonian’s Hispanic Heritage Resource Library which provides a Latino Center with storytelling and a virtual photo gallery.

New Ways

Beginning this school year students are using the library in some new ways. For example we have installed the textbook, now called a kinetic book, for Ms. Kali Wilson's Honors Physics class on several of our computers. Students use this program in place of a traditional textbook. The students taking this class are comfortable with this new format and we are pleased to have these hard-working students in our library. The Pesky librarians will keep you posted on the many ways our students use the library in a feature on the Governor's Academy web page titled "In the Library today". It can be found under ACADEMICS-LIBRARY.

2007 Commencement Speaker's Moment of Courage Display

In his speech to students Executive Director of the Anti-Defamation League New England Region Andrew Tarsy said "Hold yourself accountable. If you want to see racism disappear from the world, are you willing to interrupt small acts of prejudice and joke-telling when you see them? Even when it is uncomfortable and may cause you to lose a new friend? Your commitment will be challenged in a few short months." Little did he know on that May Sunday that he would hold himself to that same advice and be roiled in a controversy which would cause him to lose his job for a time and ultimately lead to change on the ADL policy on the Armenian genocide. The display uses chronological articles from the Boston Globe starting with Watertown's questioning their participation in the ADL's No Place for Hate program while the ADL fails to acknowledge the Armenian genocide. Articles on this controversy from many different newspapers are available in a Google news search (try using ADL and either Armenia, Tarsy, or genocide for search terms.) A list of books used in the display are on In the Library Today .

Lost and Not Yet Found

Stuff accumulates in the library. The day starts chilly but turns warm and the morning's jacket is left on the back of a chair. Textbooks and notebooks are left behind on a table when their owners migrate to a workstation. When the lights flash to signal the library's closing, hats and mittens and umbrellas are overlooked as students quickly pack their bags and return to their dorms. As librarians clear the building, they scoop up these student belongings and place them in the Lost and Found bucket by the copier. As a last ditch effort to reunite these items with their owners, we have piled them on a table in the entry where they wait forlornly. So, if you are looking for something from last year, try the table. Things accumulating this year will go into the copy room.

Welcome Class of 2011

We were able to meet many new students last week during orientation as they toured the library and set up their e-mail accounts. We are looking forward to extending a welcome to the freshmen once again as we pass out bags with a few school supplies inside as they begin their studies. The bags displayed include first edition "Pesky Library" pens and pencils, a highlighter, note cards, post-it notes, a glue stick and are sealed with a Moo card and clip. The Pesky Library Moo cards provide students with the library’s e-mail and Moodle page address. We look forward to working with this new group of students and wish them much success during their time here at The Governor’s Academy.

The 2007-2008 Academic Year Has Begun!

Today marks the first day of classes at The Governor's Academy. The library worked with students last week for new student orientation. As part of this orientation, Ms. Chase provided a brief history of the Academy, highlighting those who made an impact on the formation of the school and then influenced changes in early America. On display was the recently conserved Document of Incorporation dated 1782.

For more pictures of the New Student Orientation, take a look at the Pesky Flickr page.

Senior snapshots

Graduation day is drawing closer and our library will soon be missing the seniors who have graced us with their presence over the years. We were able to capture some senior moments before they leave. We wish them well!

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Versatile Library

When rain showers dampen the pre-formal festivities, the library becomes the hub of photos, smiles and excitement as gentlemen in their tuxes and ladies in the gowns fill every corner. Despite the rain, everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and all those who attended looked smashing!

Summer Reading recommendation

Laurie Halse Anderson, one of the best Young Adult writers around today, has written a new novel "Twisted" (FIC AND), and the reviews are great. Her seventeen year old narrator, Tyler Miller, is a high school student who brings back our own memories of how hard those years can be. This is a coming of age story that is honest, if brutal, and the main character is believable and likeable. I recommend this book for summer beach-side reading. Our library has all five titles by this award winning author. Happy Reading!

Leaving Footsteps

Let me preface by saying that the lack of privacy online is appalling! But let me add, that I find our site meter addictive. Not only can I see how many hits our blog is getting and how many pages are viewed per visit but I can see how our readers get there: the referring URL, the search engine, the search words, the entry page and the exit page. I can organize the data by location and see the domain, IP address, continent, country, state, and city. I can recognize the regulars – the readers from our community, the ones who enter from our RSS feed on Classrooms on Elm Street, others who might have us as a feed. Some days are quite intriguing! Like, the past two days. We have had a slew of visitors from Australia: 13 from Victoria, 5 from New South Wales, 2 from Queensland, and one from the Australian Capital Territory. The search terms have been “history boys”, librarian, poet, headmaster and the engine was google.com.au. One searcher even typed in the question “in the history boys, which librarian and poet worked at the university the headmaster attended?” So, who is researching this? Is it an online course? A trivia contest?
The Pesky Library blog came up in the search results because I blogged on a conversation I had with a former student regarding reading and used a quote from The History Boys movie. I think the question’s answer is is Philip Larkin who was an assistant librarian at University College, Leicester and the librarian at the University of Hull until his death (although which was the headmaster’s alma mater I can’t hazard a remembrance!)So does this lead anywhere but to acknowledge the footsteps we leave when we are online? Not really. BUT, I learned something in my truly favorite fashion – serendipitously! The inspiration for Lucky Jim (FIC AMI) came to Kingley Amis while he visited Philip Larkin and saw the common room at Leicester University. Lucky Jim is a comic novel which serves as a wonderful introduction to Amis

Top Five Pesky Circs

As the year winds down and we dust the shelves and gather our end of the year statistics, I thought it would be interesting to see which books have had the highest circulation this year. I limited my search to the top five fiction books with two runners-up. So without further ado, the winners are: The Kite Runner (FIC HOS), Catcher in the Rye (FIC SAL), Prep (FIC SIT), The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (FIC EDW), and Water for Elephants (FIC GRU). The runners-up include, Lord of the Flies (FIC GOL), and Lucky You (FIC HIA). If you have not read the above titles, you may want to pick one up for the summer. Happy Reading!

Become the Change

There recently was a student wandering the library looking for people to sign her petition to help stop companies from investing in Sudan which is linked with the atrocities happening in Dafur. This petition was to be sent to Washington D.C. in a few days. Today I came upon a brief article in the April 2007 VOYA describing Humanitarian Youth Projects, one being the Dollars for Dafur National High School Challenge. This challenge was started by two high school students in Western Massachusetts who have asked others to spread the word using their MySpace and Facebook accounts. The challenge ended on April 30, 2007 and the top fund raising schools are listed. This is a great example of what young adults can do with ambition, energy, and passion. Whether it is a petition being passed around campus, or making connections online, young adults have much to offer and in many ways are taking the lead to make a difference. Very inspiring!

We must become the change we want to see in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Work in Progress

Even a library as new as our Pescosolido Library is a work in progress. With new books to add, and new technology to incorporate into our research process, we found a need for more shelving for our crowded Reference Collection. We no longer had a need for the 3 microfiche readers that were used to research back issues of magazines since students and faculty now research newspapers and magazines on the databases we provide. With all this in mind we have refurbished the Lyons’ Family Alcove with new shelving for the crowded Reference books and discarded the obsolete microfiche readers. We have had many positive comments about the new arrangement.

Wandering Among Dogtown's Boulders

Ever since reading Anita Diamint’s The Last Days of Dogtown (FIC DIA), I have had a hankering to wander around the site. The first house was built in the Commons Settlement area of Gloucester in 1650. The settlement grew and prospered but as trade flourished following the Revolution and Gloucester turned to the sea, the area declined. Now the Commons is populated by cellar holes. You can download a pdf of Thomas Dresser’s Dogtown: a Village Lost in Time and it makes for fascinating yet sad reading.
We chose a lovely spring Saturday afternoon, drove to Gloucester, and realized we had forgotten the map. So, instead of exploring the Commons area, we settled for the Babson Boulder Trail which borders a great terminal moraine. Roger Babson was a descendent of early settlers. He was a philanthropist who founded Babson College. In 1932 he donated 1150 acres in Dogtown to Gloucester for a watershed. During the Depression, Babson hired 36 Finnish quarry workers to carve mottoes on the rocks left by melting glaciers from the latter Pleistocene Era. In his autobiography he wrote “I am really trying to write a simple book with words carved in stone instead of printed on paper.”
Neither my husband nor I are usually affected by place but we both felt a sense of sadness there. The light was silvery on all the tree bark and granite boulders. Forgotten stone walls marked areas which were covered with boulders. A lone field oak made us both say “Blair Witch.” Every so often, a solitary walker would appear and vanish. Having missed finding some of the carved mottoes due to flooded areas from the earlier rains, we are planning to return but will wait until the leaves are out. Maybe then the aura will not send our imaginations to wonder how lonely walking home during November twilight must have been.

Pack ‘em up: gathering the summer reads

On library listeservs, librarians are starting to pull together titles for summer reading. They are looking for suggestions from colleagues for titles on specific subjects and different grade levels. They are also creating their own reading lists for the summer, offering titles of must reads as the season of flip flops, sandy beaches, rest and relaxation draws closer.
Although not necessarily a “beach read”, I would add Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins (302.23 JEN) to the list. It is a fascinating read about how we share ideas: the old ways of reporting, providing information and communicating are coming together with new technologies and behaviors.
I am curious how Chris Bohjalian’s newest book will be discussed during the summer reading season. The Double Bind (FIC BOH) is like no other book I have read before, when people say to keep reading until you get to the end with this title, it is true! I am reluctant to say too much in fear of taking away from the story, it is best to simply pick it up and begin reading. If you must learn more about it, Amazon has a full page of customer reviews, an Amazon blog by Bohjalian and a review written by Jodi Picoult. I hope we can provide those ready for a great read some great ideas. Get ready to pack them up!

And here they gather...

They gather in groups, they assemble, cluster, congregate and convene. They flock and huddle. With the frenzy of the end of the year at The Academy, students find time to work together and relax together inside the library and out.

(Find more descriptive words in the tried and true Thesaurus, Roget's II at 424 ROG)

Beyond the Common Book

Yesterday was a most wonderful celebration of the Common Book - Baghdad Without a Map! Author Tony Horowitz gave a school-wide convocation (excerpt), met with students throughout the day, and signed books during lunch. During the day he often referred to other authors and books. If you are interested, we have several including his own titles. His books are One for the Road (919.4 HOR) about his travels through the Australian Outback, Blue Latitudes (910.92 HOR) recapturing the voyages of Capt. Cook, and Confederates in the Attic (973.7 HOR) looking at how the Civil War still rages across the South.

When asked about the role of women in the Mideast, he recommended his wife's book Nine Parts of Desire (305.48 BRO) by Geraldine Brooks. Talking about the writing process, he quoted from Annie Dillard. We have several of her books including Living by Fiction (809.3 DIL) and For the Time Being (814 DIL.) The other author he particularly enjoyed reading was a British travel author living in the U.S., Jonathan Raban. We have a copy of his Badland: an American Romance (978 RAB) about a trip through the Montana Prairies.

Senior Page

Tonight the library was filled with Seniors working on their "Senior Page. They had to choose 9 pictures of themselves, their friends and their families to be put in their 2007 Yearbook. They also needed to write 525 words about themselves and their experiences at the Academy.
There was much laughter and reminiscing as they looked through hundreds of pictures on their computers. It was fun, but also nostalgic. The end is near of their time at the Academy and they are starting to realize all the people they will miss as they begin a new phase of their life beyond the GA campus. We wish them all the best of luck!

Pesky Tools on the Road

Last Friday, the Pesky Librarians participated in the Northeast Massachusetts Regional Library System Power Program breakfast. We were asked to show how we are using some of the new 2.0 tools to expand our program. Unable to be "live on the web," we used Snag-it to capture images of our Moodle courses, blog, photo-sharing, wikis, librarian shared URL's, and our new books on LibraryThing. Sharing and listening to other librarians present is always challenging. The mind races to make connections and turn others' successes into programs that fit our library and community. Of special interest to us was a "Slacker Book Group." Stay tuned next fall when we'll roll out the Pesky version!

Budding Artists

On a beautiful spring day, these artists found their way outside the library to capture the some of the beauty nature is beginning to show.

Exploring new territory

As we know, libraries are not the same places most of us grew up with, as technology has advanced and changed, so have libraries. With this, many libraries realize that our users are online to find information and to communicate. I thought I would highlight some of the interesting ways in which libraries are marketing themselves online by using video. The following are a number of great YouTube videos from a variety of different libraries:
Williams College Libraries : L-Team (Think A Team), March of the Librarians(an ALA conference spin off on March of the Penguins), Harry Potter Book Club at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, and the video that continues to be my favorite, Ray of Light by the St. Joseph’s Country Public Library.
As I was leaving the library this afternoon, there were some students on the sloped driveway of the library, skateboards and video cameras in hand putting together some sort of video, (time will tell what it will end up being and unfortunatly I didn't have my camera with me to take a picture!) This is were our audience is and wants to be, creating visual projects and sharing them with others. It is a whole new exciting world we continue to discover!

The boys and books of summer

It doesn’t take much for us to feel the effects of a few warm Spring days. After a stretch of miserable weather, the grass has turned green at the Academy. A few students could not resist lazing on the lawn, some even with a book in hand. Along with the weather, baseball season is upon us. When the Red Sox swept the Yankees this past weekend, the euphoria could be felt inside the library and out. Ah, Spring…….. For readers keen on reading about the Red Sox, we have 34 books in the library collection. For fans of other teams or baseball in general, we have a total of 205 titles.

Houses Tell Stories

My book group went on a field trip last night to the Parson Capen House in Topsfield. We had read Where We Lived: Discovering the Places We Once Called Home (973.5 LAR) by Jack Larkin, chief historian at Old Sturbridge Village. And although the home was from 1683 and outside the books parameters of 1775 to 1840, it was an interesting introduction to our discussion. Parson Capen was a Harvard graduate who agreed to take the call to Topsfield. He married Priscilla Appleton of Ipswich who promptly took one look at the parsonage and decided a new home was in order. The house they built is considered “one of the finest standing examples of post-medieval domestic architecture in America.” Touring through, we had several questions: Why was there a second summer beam in the parlor? Why were the ceiling heights on the second floor higher than the first? Did this mean there was a public use to the second floor?
Larkin’s book travels through the America of that time period and traces the development of the houses people called home – not only the styles of the outside but also how they used the spaces inside. Although we are fortunate to have many historical homes preserved to a specific time period, I find more interesting homes like the Coffin House owned by Historic New England that shows how the family lived in it over the centuries, adding and adapting given the family’s needs and the changing domestic technologies (plumbing, wiring, heating.)
Renovating our first home made me very conscious of how those before me had lived within the space. A 2-over-2 post-and-beam house with balloon construction, it had a half-shed dormer on the second floor meaning that I could stand up in that room. When we went to tighten up a living room draft, the wall fell in and we found that the chestnut supports for the walls had been cut for new windows back in the forties. The walls had been reinforced with wood from old crates. I think the layers were holding the home up: clapboards, crates, asphalt, shingles… And when C. Adams added the dormer in 1853, he chalked his name into the beam. Over the past two hundred years, people made the house livable for their wants. We did the same and I am sure that time hence, new owners will leave their story as part of the house.
So, before too much more green explodes around us, take a good look at the homes you go by and try to see their stories. What’s been added to them? How did families leave their stories and their histories on their homes?

And Hailing from Tacoma.....

Each year I am amazed by the generosity of libraries willing to send hard-to-find materials over far distances for our students to use. The Art of Goaltending by Vladislav Tretiak was proving very hard to locate. The student had found it on eBay but was taken aback by the price. He turned to his librarians. Unable to find it locally, we soon turned to our support group at Memorial Hall Library in Andover. We put in the request but, given the scarcity of the copies, we weren't overly confident that the book would make its way here. But thanks to the Pierce County Library System in Tacoma, Washington, our student was able to exercise his right to read, a right supported by our tax dollars. Tacoma Librarians, thank you, both for the loan of your book but also the nice civics lesson for our reader! You created a life-long library supporter.

Explore the World

If you have not yet checked out Google Earth, it is well worth the look and you will find more there than simply a tour of the planet. (Google Earth needs to be downloaded to use, but is quick and easy.) Much has been added to Google Earth since it was first created, including an Atlas of the changing environment, Global awareness: crisis in Dafur, views of 3D buildings, and Jane Goodall's Chimpanzee blog. There are numerous ways in which Google Earth can be used in schools, from the basics of geography, to tracking the global economy, population and growth of countries.
Microsoft also has its own version of our Earth online called Microsoft Virtual Earth. The strength of Virtual Earth is that the view can be changed from the front page to provide a map view, aerial or a hybrid of the two. Virtual Earth has also just launched a city 3D version that is interesting and a perfect tool to use before your travels.
Both tools show how our world is getting smaller and how we can literally go anywhere with a click of the mouse. Enjoy exploring!

A perfect Earth Day

As the campus celebrates Earth Day and a Day Without Walls, the Pesky Blog is happy to highlight a local literary and environmental persona from the past, Henry David Thoreau. He was a man who was captivated by the natural world around him and his reflections on nature continue to endure and inspire. The library’s collection has much to offer the interested reader, including, Thoreau: on Land (818.3 THO), The Journal of Henry D. Thoreau (828 THO), and “In Wilderness Is the Preservation of the World” (779 POR). In Wilderness…depicts photographs by Eliot Porter along with selections from Thoreau’s writing providing a glimpse into the natural beauty of Thoreau’s Concord.




As students find their way outdoors and we move along campus with our daily routines, take a moment to capture Thoreau’s spirit and the simple, natural wonders around us.


Enjoy the day!

McNaugthon Collection

Everyone knows that the Pescosolido Library purchases books, but did you know that we rent books as well? While our purchased titles support the Academy curriculum, the research topics our students choose and our faculty assignments, we also want to meet the need for popular and leisure reading. To that end we subscribe to, or rent a rotating group of book titles that keep our collection very current. The head librarian, Ms. Chase, chooses titles from the 500 or so offered, that she deems will interest our students and faculty. This collection is called the McNaughton book collection. We also have the option of purchasing these titles after we rent them. I highly recommend that you look at this popular collection. It is located across from the New Book collection on the right as you enter the library. New titles arrive each month. This month Mrs. Healey has made a display using the popular McNaughton books.

Island Reading

Ever get the feeling that your setting is too perfect? That any moment a fictional character will hail you or a conversation starts that you know how will end? I had that being trapped in a novel feeling this past weekend. We visited a friend on Sheep’s Island in Cundy’s Harbor, Maine. Although I needed to wear a ski parka in April, the day was glorious. There was the obligatory black lab, the murmuring pines, the loons fishing out front, and the trio of gulls hovering as they rode the breeze. The men all left by boat to inspect the camp that Monty’s building on a nearby island. I was alone and at peace. I could hear a lobster boat around the bend of the island as I sat on the porch, the disembodied voices mixing with the gulls’ cries. (And I knew what the gulls wanted as I had to climb across that very boat to get to the dock and nearly stepped into the box of very aromatic bait!) Suddenly, I knew I had the wrong book in my hand. I was wandering the Lakes District with Beatrix in Miss Potter (921 POT) when I should have been lost among Sarah Orne Jewett’s unforgettable characters in The Country of the Pointed Firs (SC JEW.)
Or perhaps I should have been re-reading Stern Men (FIC GIL) by Elizabeth Gilbert about the feud between two neighboring Maine Islands over fishing rights by the local lobstermen. Ruth returns from boarding school to work as a stern man, caught in the escalating feud until the day she catches sight of Owney Wishnell, lobsterman extraordinaire. She is an unforgettable heroine in a very funny novel of love and class.
My book group recently read a mystery set on an island far off the Maine coast, The Body in the Ivy (FIC PAG) by Katherine Hall Page loosely based on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. It was a good read but probably better saved for a rain lashed day on the island, like the four following our departure. Sitting on a table in the cabin was Dorothea Benton Frank’s Isle of Palms (FIC BEN.) The book was intriguing but I can’t start something I may not be able to put my fingers on to finish. Fortunately, I found a copy in our library, the perfect choice to take when we return in May.

An April Alum

This month is Earth month in the library. We have looked at comments by a former commencement speaker, Bill McKibben, and his recent Step It Up Day, a national day united around a common call to action: "Step It Up Congress: Cut Carbon 80% by 2050." We have a display on Earth Day which centers on what we all can do with recycling. And, it came to our attention that we had an alum who was active in The Wilderness Society. Ben Beach is senior editor at The Wilderness Society whose mission is “Deliver to future generations an unspoiled legacy of wild places, with all the precious values they hold: Biological diversity; clean air and water; towering forests, rushing rivers, and sage-sweet, silent deserts.” We asked Ben to share with us his path from the Academy to his current position, why he is passionate about what he does, and a list of his favorite books. He did more and sent us a beautiful Wilderness Society poster for the library and a stack of magazines for our users to take.
Stop by and meet Ben in our display. Discover that he’s run The Boston Marathon since his freshman year of college and ran his 40th this year! Grab a magazine or check out one of his favorite reads which include: This House of Sky by Ivan Doig: A wonderfully written memoir about growing up on Montana sheep farms in the 1940s and 1950s, John Adams by David McCullough: A long, but superb, biography of our second president. (One minor, but striking, fact in this book: Adams did not learn that his son had been elected president until five days later,) or The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan: An account of the horrible conditions that faced those who lived through the Dust Bowl in the 1930s.

Celebrating Longfellow

The library is highlighting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow this April to celebrate Poetry Month. A local historic figure, Longfellow is a poet who captures the heart of readers young and old. If you feel inspired to go back to the days of Longfellow poetry, browse through some of the books on display, including, Longfellow Poems (821 LON), The Cheif American Poets (821 LON), and Poems of Longfellow(821 LON). For more information and links to other resources on Longfellow, visit the Maine Historical Society webpage (state in which he was born.)

Inspiration from a Tree

We are in the midst of poetry month, usually inspired by the anticipated Spring weather and a time to celebrate the breadth of our poetic history and celebrate those poets who continue to inspire. Not long ago, while walking the campus, this photograph of the contrasting deep blue sky and stark tree was captured. A moment inspired by the beauty nature can inspire on its own. There have been many poets who have captured the beauty of nature, in particular trees, to help further inspire. Some of these poems include; Robert Frost and the Sound of the Trees and Tree at my Window (811.52 FRO), Robert Bly wrote A Hollow Tree (811.54 BLY), and Yeats wrote The Two Trees (821 YEA).
I stumbled upon a poem by Rochelle Mass, a poet living in Israel, called Waiting for a Message. One line captures a bit of what this photograph depicts:
“Trees help you see slices of sky between branches,point to things you could never reach.” To read the complete poem visit the Tree Poems website. Take a look around, you never know what may inspire the poet in you.

Book Lists

What is it about TOP TEN lists that seduce readers? When the New York Times or The Boston Globe print their top ten books of the year, or such library tools as Library Journal or Booklist print their lists, I am always checking to see if I have read these titles and if I agree with their ratings. I look forward to these lists and often choose my own readings based on them. So when I came upon the review of a new book titled The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books edited by J. Peder Lane, I immediately went to the web site (toptenbooks.net/list.html) to see who the 125 writers who responded chose as their favorites. It is beyond interesting to see what titles writers such as Jonathan Franzen, Alice Hoffman, John Irving, Ha Jin, Claire Messud, Annie Proulx or Anita Shreve pick as their 10 favorites. This list should keep me busy for years until the next Top Ten list appears somewhere else and I am side-tracked again. The adage, “So many books, so little time” is oh, so true!