Rivkah's Rambles

It's my last relaxed day in Olympia; I fly home tomorrow so will be consumed with cramming everything into my carry on bag. I wonder if I'll be able to do a Rick Steves from now on and never check a bag. So far, it's worked for my last few flights. Like the fashion ladies say, coordinating is easy, just pick a theme. Mine is black, mostly. Shoes are an issue, though. Next time I leave the pumps at home and pack my sneakers since every morning I wake up early and walk down to Batdorf for my coffee and wireless.

Speaking of fashion, last night was the Olympia Film Festival's annual fashion show (You Have a Body), and it was amazing. Of course, I'm incredibly proud that Ilana was the editor on a couple of the best film pieces, but the show itself was thought provoking, funny, ironic, twisted and touching. "Stare Hard" was incredible: young women shirtless, doing things we wouldn't blink at if guys were doing them; the performance art by Bridget Irish was stunning, especially since her earlier piece in the show was so light and sweet. Finally, Sarah's song about being awesome, so funny. Experiencing something like last night gives me hope. Our jobs and lives may be outsourced, but this convinces me that Daniel Pink is right, the future belongs to the creative class.

I don't want to go all librarian here, but I keep thinking about some recent experiences and wishing that videography was easier. Last night would have been an incredible thing to film and archive, (and perhaps upload to MyLibraryDV?), much like our amazing panel discussion at OPL a couple of weeks ago with Terry Rosenberg, Littleton Alston, Joey Lynch and Patrick Murray. Two hours of intensity about art, words, meaning, and it was only experienced by the 25 people at the program. At least last night I got a great shot of Sarah and the Fly Girls.

It's official, I'm a terrible blogger. I've broken every rule of blogging the the relatively short history of blogging. Life just got in the way. Right this moment I'm sitting at Batdorf & Bronson in Olympia, Washington, enjoying their wireless and fantastic coffee. I'm not alone. It's Thursday. Why aren't these people working? The place is full--I had to fight for a table. Maybe they're working, I don't know. Could this be the future? Sitting side by side, not talking, just typing, typing, typing on our computers, together but not?

Ilana's new apartment is amazing. A family of eight could fit in it. Hardwood floors. The interesting feature? It's on the second floor of a building that is right on 4th Avenue in Olympia, and the single-pane windows don't exactly keep out the noise. I also realized that I'm too old to be using a shower with handles that have to be turned on with pliers. I've become soft in my old age. I've decided that a few days here will be very good for me.

Part of my job means lots of meetings. As a person who isn't always as patient as I'd like to be, I sometimes don't participate as fully or as creatively as I'd like. However, last week, in addition to weekly check in meetings both with groups and individuals, a catch up with the fiscal staff, a Library Board meeting, and an update on a building renovation, one of my meetings was with two of Omaha's creative class, Brian and Trilety. The outcome reminded me why I love my job.

We met at Dundee's Blue Line where I had a wonderful iced green tea that looked like Mountain Dew but tasted like bliss, and started talking about expanding Omaha Reads to include books like The Omnivore's Dilemma. As we talked about sustainability, local food, financial fitness, and getting people to TALK, I realized that what we need isn't Omaha Reads, but Omaha Thinks. I know that one idea I became a librarian is because I love all that access to information, which really hasn't changed from the days I was besotted by the blue binders containing Facts on File, the green bound volumes of Current Biography and having my own copy of the World Almanac. I use different tools, but the idea is still about connecting people and ideas. So what if we really talked about all this stuff that is causing us sleepless nights? What if Omaha Thinks? What if everyone suddenly woke up one day and said, "Wow! Isn't it great that we have this terrific public library that wants to pull it all together for us?" What if we really starting talking about what we're thinking instead of shouting one another down?

I know I'm naive, but just in case anyone wants to try it, I registered the domain name.

I just learned, via LJ Hotline, that Steve Cisler died recently. I was stunned to read it because like so many, my relationship with Steve spanned my awareness and involvement with the Internet, and thanks to the Internet, we stayed in touch sporadically, emailing every so often, sometimes with a gap of a few years in between.

I learned so much from Steve. He was probably the first person to help me understand what the Internet might do for libraries, and how it might affect me as a librarian. Everything I could say sounds trite because so many have said it better, but that doesn't make my thoughts any less sincere.

I remember talking with Steve after he attended a meeting with a group of Luddites. He mentioned that he was thinking of going offline for awhile. As I recall he did, and I remember thinking how brave this was since life is now inextricably intwined in being online all the time. I guess it was just another example of his foresight, wisdom and spirit of adventure.

Thank you, Steve. I think the world is definitely a better place because you were in it.

We're in Portland for the week. Ilana graduated from Evergreen so we used it as an excuse to fly out to see friends and enjoy the Northwest. I'm hoping also to maybe read a whole book.

One thing I hate about my life right now is that I'm too crazed to read more than about one book every two weeks, so I always hope it's a winner. This week's finish was a big one, and I love how I got into it.

I wanted to see "Into the Wild" for a long time. My guilty pleasure is ordering the entertainment DVDs for the library, so naturally it was on the list. When it arrived, I didn't have time to watch it, but Abe did and said it was devastatingly, heartbreakingly beautiful and sad.

I think I must have been in the library catalog to put another hold on the film when I noticed that we own the soundtrack to Into the Wild. I requested it. I love Eddie Vedder. I think he has an incredible voice and I love the poetry of his music. This work stunned me. I can't stop listening to it. Sometimes I listen to one song over and over. The music is riveting. So much so that I decided to read the book by Jon Krakauer. Same thing. It too was "can't put it down." He captured the individuality, idealism, foolishness and beauty of the life of Chris McCandless that must help his mother get through her days. It's a wonderful read.

I know the film will make this experience the trifecta, a perfect synergy of genius. It's Sean Penn, how can it be otherwise?

Speaking of perfection, we watched Lars and the Real Girl a few weeks ago. It's a perfect movie. I love to laugh and cry and be moved. It did all three. It's so beautiful we watched it again with friends. It's one of those movies that if we actually behaved the way the people in the film do, the world would truly be a better place. And wouldn't that be wonderful?

In the Sunday New York Times a couple of weeks ago, who knows why, Abe read an obituary to me. It was for Richard Pratt Prunty and was such a loving tribute from his children that I saved it. Obviously Mr. Prunty was a remarkable ("erudite, sesquipedalian, ebullient, chaetophorous, neo-luddite bibliophile...") man who loved books and words. Of course I never had the opportunity to meet him, but thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, creativity and daily delivery of the New York Times, I too had the opportunity to celebrate Mr. Prunty's life.

It's a convergence like this that gives me hope for libraries, dictionaries, children and the world.

In Mr. Prunty's honor I think all of us should look up a word we don't quite understand, and celebrate curiosity and the public library.

Thank you Prunty children, for sharing your father with all of us.

She was born on January 19, 2000 and we adopted her when she was 18 months old. We knew that racing was not her strong suit because she raced a total of 4 times, coming in last or almost last each time. It wasn't until a few months later that I found the day of her birth on some papers and realized that January 19 is Edgar Allan Poe's birthday. Had we known, we might have stuck her with the name Annabelle Lee. Lacking this information we named her Cleo because Abe didn't like my first choice, Lizzie, short for Miss Elizabeth Bennet, one of my favorite characters in literature. He said the name reminded him of Lizzie Borden and the connotation was just too unpleasant. We thought of Cleo because her eyes were lined in black like Cleopatra's. I know greyhounds are a very special breed but Cleo really was extraordinary. She actually learned to walk off leash because she had no prey drive and chasing small creatures was not to her taste (pun intended). She actually learned things like "shake a paw" (taught by our friend Eva), to sit like a sphinx, to bark when she was hungry (and that was about the only time she did), and to poop and pee on command. She was mellow, perfect and she was my girl.

We still don't know what happened, but in the early evening of April 22 she vomited and started showing signs of distress. By noon the next day she was dead, literally minutes before the vet was going to do exploratory surgery. Remember that line from the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes?" Cicely Tyson says, "...a lady always knows when to leave. " That's how Cleo was. She just went. The hardest thing for me was not being with her when it happened. I literally arrived at the vet's office 5 minutes too late.

So there it is. Our beautiful pooch came in with Edgar Allan Poe and departed with William Shakespeare. Hard as it still is to think about, there's a lovely literary symmetry to it all, don't you think? And I'm so glad I took her to see Henry V at Shakespeare in the Park last summer. She got to hear Henry shout, "I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, straining upon the start. The game's afoot."

So, prey drive or not, I hope she's curled up next to Poe and Shakespeare listening to them debate their literary styles, and once in awhile thinking of me.

I had the good fortune to speak to a fantastic group of librarians at a great conference, "From City Center to the Exurbs: Trends in Public Library Realities." I think of it as the "Bernie Conference" because Bernard Vavrek is the brains behind it. It's great fun and it was a pleasure to hear George Needham, Denise Davis (Director of Research and Statistics for ALA), Andrea Michaels, and others. I had fun talking about all the things I believe about partnerships and collaborations, but my true "aha" moment came at the Milwaukee airport on the trip home.

Being a green tea junkie, and having forgotten to take any with me, I hightailed it to Starbucks when my flight landed at MKE to grab a grande. I ended up talking with Robert who was there cleaning around the Starbucks and flirting with the two young women wearing SBUX aprons. Don't know how it happened, but WHAT happened was one of those conversations with someone whom you realize, in a better world, would be a VP in a Fortune 500 company, a guru of some sort, or maybe even a librarian.

Robert is 19 and just that day found out his girlfriend is pregnant. Being a mom, I did my "you have to go to school" lecture. We talked about how hard that will be and how important, and he said he knew he needed to do it because we "are becoming a third world country." Since I use those very words all the time, I felt a little like Will Smith seeing the butterfly tattoo on the woman's neck in "I am Legend." Robert made me wish I had the kind of money that would allow me to say, "I'm going to cover your costs for school and living for six months. As long as you do well, more will be available. Go forth and build the future so we all have hope. We owe it to our past and our future to help you succeed."

While it breaks my heart to think that a 19-year-old worries about our civilization, it also gives me hope. The question is, what can we do about it?

I'm at the Wellington Airport waiting for the first of my 4 flights back to Omaha. My heart and eyes and mind are still reeling from everything I've seen. I won't even know where to begin. I have so many ideas, and I'm now convinced that everyone should travel by library! It's a great way to see a country.

Wellington was as beautiful as I knew it would be and the libraries exude typical New Zealand health. Central is stunning and even though yesterday was an unusually quiet Friday, it was bustling at 5 p.m., with people of every age doing all kinds of work. I was checking out the children's area when I heard a woman ask the librarian for "naughty" books. I was really curious about what she might really want and did my nosy American thing, thinking she might be wanting The Joy of Sex. Turns out she wanted Noddie/Noddy books (I didn't check the spelling) for her toddler! Obviously I need to spend more time here before I'm fluent in New Zealand English!

My trip has been so magical and amazing that I hesitate to mention any one place because every single library I’ve visited is unique and very special. That said, I keep reflecting upon what I saw in Christchurch, no doubt because it’s so similar in size to Omaha. Population is just about our only similarity since their budget, translated from New Zealand dollars, is about twice as much as ours, so the differences I saw in hours, staffing, collections and programs are astounding. There is a vibrancy that only having enough funding can help produce. Their buildings are beautiful, the newer ones include green features such as a moat that handles rain runoff that is used for the toilets, windows that open automatically to bring in fresh air, louvered shades that provide cooling and open and close to enhance the light. After hearing Blaine Brownell, author of Transmaterial speak at Pop!Tech last year, I’ve been on a quest to build a library that IS the library, where materials featured in the book are presented and explained in a way that they become in essence a living reference book that isn’t so much read as explored and experienced. Christchurch is almost there, and indeed, I visited the Greytown Library today and it features recycled glass from Israel. Obviously, New Zealand libraries can become a Transmaterial library for the rest of us!

It's clear that New Zealand libraries, with a history similar to our, including gifts from Andrew Carnegie, have built on that foundation and planning for a vibrant future. I'm jealous.

I'm writing this from a public machine at the Queenstown airport. It's been very interesting for me to be in a country where people definitely do NOT take Internet access for granted. Most of the libraries I've visited offer it, some charge, some restrict access and don't allow email, some provide it for free. It's definitely a case of the playing field not being as level as I think everyone would like.

New Zealand is a small country, under 5 million people, and high speed internet is not ubiquitous here yet. The libraries I've seen are doing an amazing job, but I think there are governmental restrictions that prevent them from making their vision real.

Given that lately I've been questioning wide open access (well, we do filter at OPL but it's still wide open) and the behavior problems associated with it, I wonder if there's a lesson for U.S. libraries to be learned from our Kiwi cousins? I'd love to talk about this. What I've seen so far are fewer behavior problems (the kind we have that are associated with internet access) and generally libraries that are very pleasant places.

It's making me think.

It's a long way from Omaha, but arrived safe and sound and have been having an incredible day. The Central Library is BEAUTIFUL and the staff is amazing. They do everything right. Can wait to upload a few of the photos I took. The whole look is clean, inviting and well merchandised. The library is an incredible hub of activity, from college students to young parents and babies, teens and even some homeless. It's everything an urban library should be but with fantastic wayfinding, super staff and a fantastic collection. They also have my dream--mobile shelving on the first floor so it can be moved for events! And a gigantic screen that was showing the BBC World News, but placed in such a way that it works without distracting. Well done!

I'm going to New Zealand in a few weeks and thought a blog might be an easy way to stay in touch. One of the coolest librarians in the universe, Amy, is helping me set it up. It's astounding how easy this stuff is. No wonder there's so much sound and fury signifying nothing out there on the web. Any idiot (I'm talking about myself) can set one up in ten minutes!

Don't worry. I will try not to waste your time and I will share my experiences, photos and excitement about visiting all kinds of libraries in New Zealand, beginning on April 1 (no fooling).