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The Space for True Reception: Why We Love Great Verse
By Allan Cross, Reference Department
Poetry isn’t the simplest thing to appreciate. At a passing glance, it may not have the same immediacy of film, music, and visual art. When placed alongside other forms of literature, a book of poems can struggle to match our latest bestsellers in accessibility. For all these reasons, some of us might dismiss poetry as a medium for high-minded wordsmiths, rather than a readership of less heady taste. But exceptional poetry has endured for millennia, and verse as a creative avenue stretches onward still. Why, then, do so many others read and derive worth from it today?
The convenient answer nowadays might be to quote Dead Poets Society. Mr. Keating, an English teacher played by the late Robin Williams, inspires his students (and unceasing scores of audiences) with his speech about why people read and write poetry. One of the film’s great strengths lies, of course, in its poetry readings. These, combined with well-chosen samples, bring forth the emotional meaning that fuels successful verse. The film serves as a great access point to poetry, emphasizing the importance of reading it aloud. When we readers encounter a given poem, we can better involve ourselves by audibly speaking the work. By doing so, we should enhance the piece with our individual voices, each one conducive in its own distinct way.
Testing this in light of three widely known poems seems a good place to begin. The trio we have selected consists of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Rudyard Kipling’s “If–,” and Shel Silverstein’s verse children’s book The Giving Tree.
In the third stanza of “The Road Not Taken,” Frost writes:
And both that morning equally lay/
In leaves no step had trodden black./
Oh, I kept the first for another day!/
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,/
I doubted if I should ever come back.
Andrew Spacey, a commentator for Owlcation, points out that Frost’s work reflects on the many choices we make in life, and how we tend to regret those decisions after committing to them. It is also commonly read as a statement in support of individualism, and the promotion of opinions that contrast with majority views.
Below is an excerpt from Kipling’s “If—”:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;/
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;/
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/
And treat those two imposters just the same;/
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken/
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools/
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,/
And stoop and build them up with worn out tools:
The theme of Kipling’s work, which regards the importance of thought, but not to the point where it impedes action, seems like a stirring antidote to Frost. It acknowledges the significance and moral need for regret, but urges the reader not to allow past mistakes to obstruct the path to future growth.
The Giving Tree addresses similar concerns, as shown in some of its final lines:
“I am sorry,” sighed the tree./
I wish that I could give you something…/
But I have nothing left./
I am just an old stump./
I am sorry….”/
I don’t need very much now,” said the boy./
“just a quiet place to sit and rest.”/
I am very tired.”
Rivka Galchen, in her 2014 review for The New York Times, argues that there is an unavoidable dilemma in The Giving Tree, it being whether we read it as a statement on thoughtless acquisition or unreserved giving. The two characters, the boy and the tree, do what is most fundamental to their natures. It’s up to the reader to then decide how to feel about the situation, including the conclusion about whether it turns out morally right.
The takeaway from all of this, in spite of all the people who attempt to influence our points-of-view, is that we allow ourselves to read and study works on our unique terms. As mentioned earlier, it may prove worthwhile to read these pieces and others to ourselves (at the risk of seeming foolish), in order to bring out their inherent humanity. We should remember that reading can be, in its way, a roomy type of interpretation. There’s a mysterious element of poetry, one we cannot entirely rationalize and so must trail behind. Rather than strain for full understanding, this is the process we might instead come to accept.
Sources:
- https://allpoetry.com/poem/8538991-The-Giving-Tree-by-Shel-Silverstein
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if—
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken
- https://interestingliterature.com/2017/04/20/a-short-analysis-of-rudyard-kiplings-if/
- https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-The-Road-Not-Taken-by-Robert-Frost
- https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/books/review/the-giving-tree-tender-story-of-unconditional-love-or-disturbing-tale-of-selfishness.html
- Weir, Peter, director. Dead Poets Society. Touchstone Home Entertainment, 1989.
- Wikimedia Commons
Poetica
By Howard Shirley, Teen Department
Poetica
Howard Shirley
It’s April.
It’s National Poetry Month.
1996.
There. You have a year.
That’s when it started.
The American Academy of Poets.
That’s who started it.
Not much else factual to say.
But poems aren’t about facts.
Poems are about themselves.
They say whatever they say.
You hear whatever you hear.
That’s a poem.
They’re not about rhyme (though they can be)
They’re not about time (though they can be)
They’re not about meter (rigid or free)
Or fanciful words like “lugubrious.”
Which no one uses any other day.
Or any other way.
Poems are just whatever you want to say.
The way you want to say it.
Your poem is yours.
It can be no one else’s.
It’s National Poetry Month.
So go write a poem.
I just did.
— Howard Shirley
Now it’s your turn! If you are a teenage resident of Williamson County, age 12-18, you are invited to submit your own poems to our Teen Poetry Contest. You may submit up to three poems. Poems are welcome in any form on any subject—the choice is yours (as it should be). A poem may be any length and any style—haiku, sonnet, ballad, limerick, free verse; however your muse takes you. All poems must be your original creations.
All poems must be typed on plain white paper in an ordinary font. Poems with multiple pages should be stapled together. All poems must include the poet’s name, age, school and grade, and contact information (e-mail or phone) at the top of the first page.
We are accepting poems through April 30. You may turn your poem in at any Williamson County Public Library branch, or upstairs in the Teen Room of the Main Branch in Franklin. Contest winners will be announced in May during our Teen Poetry Slam as part of our Summer Reading Kick-off event.
Graphic Novels for Kids: What to Read Next?
By Katy Searcy, Children’s Department
Our juvenile graphic novel section is very well loved here at WCPL. Kids can’t seem to read enough of them. However, their favorites are often checked out, and while this is a fantastic problem to have, we hate to see kids leave disappointed and empty handed. With that in mind, I’ve compiled a brief list of readalikes for some of our most popular graphic novels.
If you can’t get enough Calvin and Hobbes…
Try Phoebe and Her Unicorn!
Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson (J 741.5973 SIM) is a weekly comic strip about a precocious nine-year-old girl named Phoebe and her best friend Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, a unicorn. Their adventures begin when Phoebe skips a rock and accidentally hits a Marigold Heavenly Nostrils in the face. Improbably, this led to Phoebe being granted one wish, and she used it to make the unicorn her obligational best friend. With seven volumes and counting, kids will be reading and laughing about Phoebe and Marigold’s wacky and hilarious antics as long as they like.
If you absolutely love Smile and Sisters…
Try Surfside Girls: The Secret of Danger Point, Pashmina, and Cici’s Journal!
In Surfside Girls: The Secret of Danger Point by Kim Dwinell ( J 741.5973 DWI), things are getting very weird for Samantha. Lately, her best friend Jade explodes into fits of giggles whenever she sees a boy, and it’s throwing a wrench into the laidback summer of surfing and hanging out that Sam had planned. But after swimming through a secret underwater cave, Sam starts to see things. Like ghosts. And pirates. And maybe something even scarier! Can she and Jade get to the bottom of this mystery in time to save their town?
Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani (J 741.5973 CHA) is the story of Priyanka Das, who has so many unanswered questions about her mother and about India. For Pri, her mother’s homeland can only exist in her imagination. That is, until she find a mysterious pashmina tucked away in a forgotten suitcase. When she wraps herself in it, she is transported to a place more vivid and colorful than any guidebook or Bollywood film. But is this the real India? And what is that shadow lurking in the background? To learn the truth, Pri must travel farther than she’s ever dared and find the family she never knew.
Translated from French, Cici dreams of being a novelist in Cici’s Journal by Joris Chamblain (J 741.5973 CHA). Her favorite subject is people, especially adults. She’s been watching them and taking notes. Everybody has one special secret, Cici figures, and if you want to write about people, you need to understand what’s hiding inside them. But now she’s discovered something truly strange: an old man who disappears into the forest every Sunday with huge pots of paint in all sorts of colors. What is he up to? Why does he look so sad when he comes back?
If you think Narwhal and Jelly is delightful….
Try The Great Pet Escape,Cici, A Fairy’s Tale, and Brobots and the Kaiju Kerfluffle!
In The Great Pet Escape by Victoria Jamieson (J 741.5973 JAM), the class pets at Daisy P. Flugelhorn Elementary School want out, and G.W.—short for George Washington—the deceptively cute hamster in the second-grade classroom, is just the guy to lead the way. But when he finally escapes and goes to find his former partners in crime, Barry and Biter, he finds that they actually LIKE being class pets! Just as G.W. gets Barry and Biter to agree to leave with him, a mouse named Harriet and her many mouse minions get in their way.
A lot is changing for Cici in Believe Your Eyes, the first book in Cici, A Fairy’s Tale by Cori Doerrfield (J 741.5973 DOE). Her parents are separating, her wacky abuela is moving in, and on her tenth birthday, she wakes up with fairy wings! Cici’s new magical powers let her see people as they truly are, but what she learns about her friends and family isn’t always easy to accept. She has only one day to decide whether to keep her wings. When Cici wishes life could just be normal again, will she choose to believe in the power of fairies?
Brobots and the Kaiju Kerfluffle by J. Torres (J 741.5973 TOR) begins with robot brothers Panchi, Joukei, and Kouro reeling in a “big one” while fishing. When the giant threatens to demolish their city, the three bro-up and spring into action!
If you like Hilo…
Try Cosmic Commandos, Dream Jumper, and Fish Girl!
In Cosmic Commandos by Christopher Eliopoulos (J 741.5973 ELI), Jeremy and Justin are twins, but they couldn’t be any more different from each other. They both love video games, however, and when Jeremy wins a cereal-box charm that brings his favorite video game to life, villains and all, he finds that he’s in way over his head. Can these two mismatched brothers work together to beat the video game that has taken over their life?
Dream Jumper: Nightmare Escape by Greg Grunberg (J 741.5973 GRU) is the story of Ben, who has the ability to jump into other people’s dreams. So when his friends start falling victim to an evil dream-monster that prevents them from waking, Ben knows he has to help them. But can he get to them in time? With a mysterious companion, Ben might just be able to defeat the monster and save his friends…if he can figure out how to use the power within him.
Fish Girl by Donna Jo Napoli (J 741.5973 NAP) begins with a show at Ocean Wonders, an aquarium filled with several ocean animals and Fish Girl, the elusive star attraction. When Fish Girl has a chance encounter with an ordinary girl, their growing friendship inspires Fish Girl’s longing for freedom, independence, and a life beyond the aquarium tank.
If you need more action-packed adventures like Amulet…
Try Red’s Planet, Clem Hetherington and the Ironwood Race, and Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur!
Red’s Planet by Eddie Pittman (J 741.5973 PIT) is the story of Red, who longs to live in her own perfect paradise far away from her annoying foster family. But when a UFO mistakenly kidnaps her, Red finds herself farther away than she could have possibly imagined—across the galaxy and aboard an enormous spaceship owned by the Aquilari, an ancient creature with a taste for rare and unusual treasures. Before Red can be discovered as a stowaway, the great ship crashes on a small deserted planet, leaving her marooned with a menagerie of misfit aliens. With her newfound friend, a small gray alien named Tawee, Red must find a way to survive the hostile castaways, evade the ravenous wildlife and contend with Goose, the planet’s grumpy, felinoid custodian. Surely this can’t be the paradise she’s looking for.
In Clem Hetherington and the Ironwood Race by Jen Breach (J 741.5973 BRE), Clementine Hetherington and her robot brother, Digory, have run away from the orphanage they’ve been living in since their parents died. Clem and Dig want to follow in their famous archaeologist mother’s footsteps, but no one will take them seriously. Their chance arrives when a man from their past saves Digory’s life, and to repay the debt, they enter a multiday race to recover stolen artifacts! Clem and Dig hope to win so they can give the artifacts to a museum, but their opponents want to sell them on the black market. The Ironwood Race has no rules, and Clem and Dig might be in over their heads!
The first volume in the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comic series by Brandon Montclare (J 741.5973 MON) introduces Lunella Lafayette, a preteen genius living in mortal fear of her latent inhuman gene. There’s no telling what she’ll turn into, but Lunella’s got a plan. All she needs is an Omni-Wave Projector. Easy, right? That is, until a red-scaled beast is teleported from the prehistoric past to a far-flung future we call today! Together they’re the most Marvelous Team-Up of all — the Inhuman Moon Girl and time-tossed Devil Dinosaur! But will they be BFFs forever, or just until DD’s dinner time? And Lunella soon learns that there are other problems with having a titanic T. Rex as a pet in the modern-day Marvel Universe. School, for one. Monster hunters are another—especially when they’re the Totally Awesome Hulk! Then there’s the fact that everyone’s favorite dino didn’t journey through time alone. Beware the prehistoric savages known as the Killer-Folk—New York City’s deadliest tourists! Can Lunella handle all this turmoil and keep herself from transforming into an inhuman monster?
If Dog Man makes you laugh your pants off…
Try Making Scents, Cucumber Quest: The Doughnut Kingdom, and Catstronauts!
Mickey isn’t quite like his brothers and sisters in Making Scents by Arthur Yorinks (J 741.5973 YOR). They’re all stronger, faster, and have a much better sense of smell. That’s because his “brothers and sisters” are dogs―bloodhounds, to be exact. Mickey’s mom and dad are crazy about canines. Their dogs are the loves of their lives and their livelihood. So, naturally, they’re raising their son as if he was a dog, and Mickey wants nothing more than to make his parents proud. Just as Mickey is mastering the art of sniffing, a tragic accident forever changes his happy family. Mickey is sent to live with relatives he’s never met―relatives who are not fond of kids . . . and who hate dogs!
In The Doughnut Kingdom, the first book in the Cucumber Quest series by Gigi D.G. (J 741.5973 GIG), the seven kingdoms of Dreamside need a legendary hero. Instead, they’ll have to settle for Cucumber, a nerdy magician who just wants to go to school. As destiny would have it, he and his way more heroic sister, Almond, must now seek the Dream Sword, the only weapon powerful enough to defeat Queen Cordelia’s Nightmare Knight. Can these bunny siblings really save the world in its darkest hour? Sure, why not?
CatStronauts: Mission Moon by Drew Brockington (J 741.5973 BRO) begins with the world being thrust into darkness due to a global energy shortage. The World’s Best Scientist quickly comes up with a bold plan to set up a solar power plant on the moon. But someone has to go up there to set it up, and that adventure falls to the CatStronauts, the best space cats on the planet! Meet the fearless commander Major Meowser, brave-but-hungry pilot Waffles, genius technician and inventor Blanket, and quick thinking science officer Pom Pom on their most important mission yet!
As always, you can put any of these on hold through our website, and once your kids plow through these, our children’s librarians are ready to recommend even more titles!
Pulling the Digital Trigger
By Lon Maxwell, Reference Department
WCPLtn’s computer lab in the middle of being remodeled.
As many of you have already discovered, the Library is making a lot of changes. The computer lab is being remodeled. The carpet in many places is being replaced. Shelves are getting emptied out. There are new study carrels throughout the upstairs. These changes are all geared to give today’s library patron the best twenty-first century library experience.
Now most of these improvements have obvious reasons, but the empty shelves in our history section and the continued downsizing of our biographies might not be so apparent. Libraries around the world are seeing a huge increase in circulation as they increase their eBook holdings. Some have seen increases, year over year, of 100% or more. While our increases may have not been that significant, we have seen large gains in circulation as our eBooks catalog grows. During our Make-It-A-Million campaign we checked out 223,972 digital items. That is more than double the number of 4 years ago at 104,000+. Considering our readers’ obvious interest and the limited funding we receive, we have made the fateful decision to transition to a fully digital collection[i].
“Gasp!” I hear from the multitudes. How can you get rid of the physical books? It was a really, really easy decision. I mean, those books are really, really, REALLY heavy. In fact, they are far heavier than what we have down in fiction. It will be a gradual change (like I said, they’re heavy. No one’s taking a load of them down stairs in a hurry), especially since none of us like to work out. We prefer reading. The collections that receive the heaviest use will be the first to transition, hence the history and biography section shrinkage. Next will be cookbooks, followed by self-help and the political books. Unfortunately, once the books have been removed we’re kind of stuck with digital since we will have donated all of the books to the Franklin Transit (they’re planning to add bookstores on the trolleys). That means that the non-fiction section, which no one really cares for anyway, is the trial section. If this goes poorly, the print books will be saved in the other sections, and we’ll consider removing the digital collections for those sections. But there will be no going back for the non-fiction section. Dun dun dun…
So what are we going to do with all this space? We are constantly being asked for two things: study rooms and a coffee bar. Now that the non-fiction section is being digitized, we will finally have the space to put those rooms all over the upstairs. Plans are in the works for nine new glass enclosed rooms, lockable from the outside (and only the librarians have the keys… good luck!) and a regionally known coffee shop will be setting up shop between the staircase and the windows overlooking the parking lot (the espresso machine is also available for checkout). There are also plans to replace the periodicals section with a newsstand run by Barnes and Noble. Apparently, they’re a little strict about paying before reading (those glass rooms can also be used as library jails). Um, anyway…
As of right now, it is only the non-fiction and reference sections that are being migrated to digital platforms. The Children’s Section, Young Adult’s, and Fiction will remain as is until at least the end of the fiscal year in June, and then we’ll see how tired our arms are. In fact, we will probably not change the young adult section over at all. Statistics for the last year show a significant drop in teen eBook sales and polls of those between 12 and 18 have shown a marked preference for print books. Go figure!
The library is aware that this may prove unpopular with many of our patrons, but we cannot allow progress to be stymied (eventually the goal is for the library to be manned by volunteer robots). Have no fear though; if you still want the old book feel and smell, you can still get your fix. Because we won’t have that massive amount of paper and other flammable material all over the place, candles with the new “Old book smell” scent will be placed throughout the upstairs. And the desk that was formerly known as the reference desk will now be the Library Guru desk where we will still be able to get your print media for you through interlibrary loans, although you will have to bring an offering of chocolate to speak with us. Luckily, as you are not tied to the total instant gratification that the digital generation can’t live without, the one to three weeks it takes to get the book brought in will not be an issue for you.
So I hope this has allayed any fears you may have about our changes. If you want to let us know what you think please email us at Ha.Ha.WeGotU@HappyAprilFoolsDay.bazinga.
Sources:
- https://www.statista.com/topics/1474/e-books/
- http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/NewsBreaks/Print-Books-vs-Ebooks-Whos-Up-Whos-Down-and-Where-Are-We-Headed-118868.asp
- https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/dec/16/teens-ebooks-ereaders-survey
- The Williamson County Public Library Annual Report 2014
- The Williamson County Public Library Annual Report 2016
- The Williamson County Public Library Annual Report 2017
[i] In fact, this whole blog is a rather elaborate April Fool’s Day Prank. I just believe that no one actually bothers with footnotes until the end. The reason for the empty shelves in the 900s and the shrinking biography shelves is that we are making space for brand new, actual ink and paper books to keep our collection as current as possible.
Easter: Season of Bunnies and Chickens… Wait, What?
By Lon Maxwell, Reference Department
Easter is a holiday that everyone knows is Christian, right? Or is it another pagan festival corrupted to fit the recruitment needs of the early church? Just like a paraphrase of the old Reese’s commercial, you got your pagan in my Christianity or vice versa.
Easter as the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus and the salvation of man is undeniably Christian. It’s not misplaced in the year like Christmas, to help offset the yule festivities, or made up to cover an existing harvest festival like Halloween, All-Saints Day, and All Souls Day. It does have the distinction of being part of the collection of last great moveable feasts along with its associated days of Lent (and for that matter, Mardi Gras). However, it is most certainly a Christian celebration of a Christian concept. There’s no pagan influence in how we celebrate Easter, right? The answer is not so cut and dry as we would like to think. There are three elements of the traditional American Easter celebrations that strike many people as odd. The profusion of rabbits, ducks and chickens is the big one. The inclusion of decorated eggs is another. Finally we have the name. The amazing inundation of pastel colors might be a fourth reason for some of us, but I’m afraid that is an unsolvable mystery.
Colored version of the ancient Mesopotamian eight-pointed star symbol of the goddess Ishtar (Inana/Inanna), representing the planet Venus as morning or evening star
There are a number of theories you will see on the internet or hear from people about the claim that the word Easter is a corruption of the name of the goddess Ishtar, a Mesopotamian goddess of love fertility and war. You’ll hear how there were eggs full of blood smashed on her alter, rabbits regarded as her sacred animals, and how the whole thing was a sacred ceremony celebrating her aspect of the goddess of spring fertility. Almost all of this is bunk. The animal that was most often associated with her is the lion and the only real time we find that big cat in Easter mythology is as a bit of a joke in a certain English candy companies commercials. While she did have a ceremony in the spring, it had little to nothing to do with eggs and mostly involved the equinox and a concept of sacred marriage which may have been anything from a ritual conjoining of the king and the high priestess to a city-state wide activity that resulted in a lot of births nine months later.
There may actually be a goddess who gave her name to Easter. Eostre is an Anglo Saxon goddess of fertility who has cognates with remarkably similar names throughout the Germanic pagan world. Most languages use their version of the word Pesach (פֶּסַח) which means Passover. Not surprisingly, the languages that use something similar to Easter are all in the Germanic family. In fact she may have been a version of the Norse goddess Freya.
Illustration of Ēostre by Jacques Reich, originally with the caption “Eástre… see the bunny?
The Easter Bunny may come by way of Eostre as well. What little we know of her and her various incarnations from around Europe tells us that the fecund little rabbit was one of her symbols. The version we have today probably stems from the Osterhase, an egg laying rabbit native to German vernal traditions dating back to the 1500s. According to the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung,
“A legend holds that a poor woman living in Germany decorated colorful eggs for her children to find in the garden. As soon as the hidden eggs were found by the children, a large hare was seen hopping away. The children thought the hare (Hase) left the eggs.”
There is no doubt that the legendary reproductive powers of the rabbits and hares have been linked to the fertility of spring, but I’m fairly certain the eggs came from somewhere else.
The egg association may have something stemming back to a pagan root. They can’t help but give one ideas about birth and renewal. However the practice of the Easter egg as we know it relates to the fact that for many years, eggs were on the list of foods forbidden to Lenten penitents. People would celebrate the return of eggs to their diet by giving them to each other as gifts. Decorating them began to become popular as well growing in to the modern dyed egg as well as the ornate Ukrainian eggs and even the priceless Faberge eggs.
It really doesn’t matter where the symbols come from. Many people will argue back and forth for centuries to come over the origins of every little word in every liturgy in every faith the world over if you let them. The important thing is to enjoy these festivities in the manner that pleases you best!
Sources:
- https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/easter-lore-superstitions/
- https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/history-of-easter
- http://time.com/3767518/easter-bunny-origins-history/
- The Encyclopedia of Easter, Carnival & Lent by Tanya Gulevich R 349.2667 Gul
- http://herald-zeitung.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/article_a92ef55e-67bc-11e0-99ac-001cc4c03286.html
Be an Online Ninja Part II: How Good is your Google Fu?
By Lon Maxwell, Reference Department
オンライン忍者であること二: ググルのスキルはどれくらい良いですか
You walk through a misty glade. Pagoda are off to the right and torii gate are placed indiscriminately on your left. You approach a small pond, a figure sitting in a simple robe on a rock several feet off shore. He turns and as he does you see it is the rock turning, not the sensei. You also see the Mac book and the familiar coffee cup with a mermaid logo. He looks at you and with characteristic poor dubbing and origin-less wind sounds he waves two fingers at you and says, “How good is your google fu?”
Google (or any search engine) search skills are not something to be taken lightly. Most of us will never need to know how to code or even get into the more arcane formulary ends of Microsoft Excel. Searching for the information we want, or in many cases need, is a vastly more important skill. We’ve been through the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and the Industrial Age. This is considered the Information Age, and strength in this age of man is determined by your ability to access information and keep information secure. We’ve already discussed stealth and security in your ninja training, your defensive skills, now we will work on your fighting skills, your ability to strike fast and accurately when looking for what you need to know.
The white belt is phrasing. First, you don’t need to type a Google search as if it were a question . You are adding words to a search that will give you more responses but may not contribute useful information. Always keep your search terms as short as you can while including all the information you need to find. If you want to know “How do I prevent a heart attack?” Just search the words heart attack prevention.
To earn your yellow belt you need to know your Boolean operators. Boolean operators sound technical but this is really basic, I promise. Looking for Information on J.R.R. Tolkien is going to give you a lot of information. You only need information on his military service. You type in Tolkien and military your search terms limit the returned to just the sites that contain both of the terms Tolkien and military. Even better, you can use and not. We’ll use Professor Tolkien again. You decided that the paper on Tolkien’s military service was too narrow, so you decide to broaden the topic to include all of his life except The Hobbit. You can search Tolkien and not Hobbit. This way you get only sites that don’t include the diminutive people of Middle Earth. You can use the minus sign for a similar effect. Finally, you can use or. You want to go see where Tolkien grew up so you search for information on his birthplace and youth by searching for England or South Africa. Now you have mastered the basic Boolean search.
What happens when you can’t just limit your search to a small number of simple words? Here is where you will learn the information needed to earn your orange and red belts. You can get concise results for multiple terms by putting your search terms in quotation marks. Searching for information on the Jane Austen’s niece would give you information on Ms. Austen and her niece and nieces in general. Searching for “Jane Austen’s Niece” will only give you search results where those words occur together in that exact order. Now here is the best part. You can combine this with your earlier Boolean skills and search for instances where said niece commented on her aunt’s work by searching “Jane Austen’s Niece” and “literary commentary”. In this case you’ve taken a long string that could give you way too many options and limited it to a Boolean string, two specific phrases limited by the word “and”. For the record but, not, and or work just fine here too. There is also a way to search for a term you don’t know. Instead of adding something like and, this time you put in the term you know and add an asterik (*) as a wild card. This will bring up more options for you to browse.
The blue and brown belt level is one of finesse. It is finding the right results among your newly limited searches. If you have a search that brings up what looks like good results you must be wary. Look for the mark that says Ad, Paid, or Sponsored. These are clues to let you know that the sights you see, usually at the top of your results, are from services that have paid to be where they are. While not always, quite often the information or service they are providing will come with a cost. The other thing to be on the lookout for is the Missing: word. This means that the result you are getting does not include one of the search terms you entered.
To attain your black belt in Google fu you must move beyond the realm of the search. You must extend your knowledge of Google to your widest limits. You can use google to translate foreign phrases or even entire websites. You can get currency exchange rates and split restaurant checks as well as calculate a tip. You can even view art from all over the world. These are just a minor selections of all the things you can do without leaving a Google site. Use your new found Google fu search skills to find all the great tricks Google can do.
You are now wise in the ways of Google but there are other ways available to you. Many of these other paths, such as Bing jitsu or Yahoo dö (we promise, we’re not advertising for Google, it’s just the search engine that most people use). The foundations of these arts lay in the same place as that of Google fu. Your Boolean strings and quotation mark limitations will be recognized with them as well and they may have their own special techniques too.
Sources:
- https://www.lifewire.com/best-search-engines-2483352
- http://time.com/4116259/google-search-2/
- https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexfinnis/cool-things-to-do-with-google?utm_term=.inw3m6O1R#.yqVnlJEDP
- The Associated Press guide to Internet research and reporting by Frank Bass 070.40285 BAS
- How to find information online by Amanda StJohn J 025.0425 STJ
NO BUNNIES, NO CHICKS FOR EASTER!!
By Sharon Reily, Reference Department
You’ve all seen the ads that spring up [ha, ha] this time of year marketing cuddly bunnies and brightly-dyed baby chicks as wonderful Easter gifts for your children. If you’re thinking about buying one, DON’T DO IT!! Amy Mott, president of the Clover Patch Sanctuary, a rabbit and small animal rescue organization right here in Franklin, says “You wouldn’t give your child a reindeer for Christmas. Why would you give him a bunny or duck or chick for Easter??” Amen. If you succumb to their fluffy cuteness, you’ll basically ruin the life of a living, breathing creature to provide a brief diversion for your child. A huge percentage of bunnies, chicks and ducklings given as Easter gifts are abandoned as soon as the novelty wears off. What happens to these unfortunate animals next is not a pretty picture.
How did bunnies, hot pink chicks and ducklings become associated with Easter anyway? One theory emphasizes the Easter Bunny’s pagan roots, especially the rabbit’s connection to Eostra, goddess of the spring and fertility. Her symbol was the rabbit because of the animal’s high reproduction rate. But according to Catholic Online, the tradition of the Easter Bunny has distinctly Christian origins. The ancient Greeks thought rabbits could reproduce as virgins, a belief that persisted until early medieval times, when the rabbit became associated with the Virgin Mary. In medieval manuscripts, rabbit images served as allegorical illustrations of her virginity. It is likely that German Protestants invented the myth of the Easter Bunny for their children. Even in earliest folklore, the Easter Bunny came as a judge, hiding decorated eggs for well-behaved children.
No matter how the connection with Easter originated, rabbits, chicks and ducklings have not benefited from the association. The Easter holiday seems to bring out the bunny, chick and duckling lovers in people. They think such animals are perfect “starter pets” to teach children responsibility. So they make an impulse buy and their child goes wild with joy for a day. Reality soon sets in as it dawns on parents that these animals are not the “low maintenance” pets they’d imagined.
According to National Geographic, vets and insurance companies consider rabbits exotic pets, so medical care can be more expensive than for a cat or dog. Rabbits need a lot of exercise and shouldn’t be stuck away in a cage. This means they need to learn to use a litterbox. They’re also prey animals and generally don’t like to be picked up by humans, whom they view as predators. The result is that children who want to cuddle with their baby bunny can be frustrated when it doesn’t respond the way they expect and they quickly lose interest. Many parents don’t realize that rabbits can live more than 10 years, a commitment comparable to adopting a dog or cat. When that once-adorable baby bunny matures at between three and six months old, it can become aggressive and even destructive. Male rabbits will also spray urine if not neutered. Proper exercise, litterbox training, and spaying or neutering curb the problem for most rabbits. But many impulse buyers don’t expect and can’t commit to that level of responsibility, and they scramble to surrender the animals.
These babies deserve forever homes, not to be discarded.
Rabbits are the third most popular pet in America after cats and dogs, but according to the Humane Society of the United States, they’re also the third most abandoned – and euthanized. It’s unclear exactly how many rabbits originally sold as Easter pets are abandoned each year. But rescuers in shelters all over the country report a spike in calls after Easter from people trying to unload their unwanted bunnies. Clover Patch Sanctuary’s Amy Mott estimates that “80-90% of our adoptable rabbits were once Easter gifts to children. We can judge that fairly well by the timing that they came into rescue.” Many more rabbits – possibly thousands – are abandoned outdoors, a cruel death sentence for these domesticated animals possessing no survival skills or instincts.
Left: excellent Easter gift. Right: bad Easter gift.
Chicks and ducklings don’t fare any better. At Easter, fuzzy brightly colored chicks and ducklings can be too cute to resist. To achieve the brilliant hues displayed by some chicks, a dye is actually injected into the incubating egg. Other chicks are sprayed with a fine mist of dye immediately after hatching. Farmers, hatcheries and others who dye chicks claim the process is harmless, but animal rights workers say the experience is stressful for the birds. In addition to the trauma of being dyed, the bright colored feathers help make them seem more like disposable toys than living animals. Many states ban the practice of dyeing and selling chicks. In Tennessee, it is a Class C misdemeanor to “sell, offer for sale, barter or give away baby chickens, ducklings or goslings of any age, or rabbits under two (2) months of age, as pets, toys, premiums or novelties, if those fowl or rabbits have been colored, dyed, stained or otherwise had their natural color changed.”
I’m adorable now, but will you still love me when I’m grown?
But non-dyed chicks and ducklings are still sold as Easter gifts, and like bunnies, they are not ideal beginning pets for children. They can be quite messy. They are extremely fragile and can die from overhandling or being dropped, especially in the first few days before the child’s excitement wanes. Chicks and ducks may also present hazards for children. They can scratch and peck with sharp talons and beaks, but worse, they may spread the bacterial disease Salmonella, which can be especially dangerous to children and the elderly. When the birds preen, they spread the bacteria all over their feathers. So it’s best to avoid contact with them, or at least wash hands thoroughly immediately after touching.
Many people who buy adorable Easter chicks and ducklings have no capacity or intention of caring for adult fowl. Like bunnies, the unwanted birds are often handed over to shelters where they may face euthanasia if they’re not adopted. When abandoned outdoors, they have no experience foraging or avoiding predators. Easter ducklings, many of which are byproducts of the food trade, can swim, but unlike wild ducks, they can’t fly and are vulnerable to temperature changes and make easy targets for predators. One Florida farmer who offers to take unwanted Easter pets does not hide the fact that he will use them for food. He offers to keep them happy while they’re alive, but in the end, he says, “we’re all part of the food chain.”
There are plenty of great alternatives to giving live animals as Easter gifts. Consider:
Animal friendly Easter gifts
- Plush rabbits or chicks
- Chocolate bunnies and candy birds and eggs
- Books and games about bunnies, chicks and ducklings
- A visit to a reputable, educational petting zoo
- A birdhouse or feeder to attract wild birds
- Bunny, chick or duckling figurines
- Make a gift in your child’s name to a rabbit or small animal rescue organization
I’ll let Amy Mott from Clover Patch Sanctuary have the final word on bunnies, chicks and ducklings as Easter gifts: “There is never a reason to give a child a live animal as a present for Easter or any other holiday and/or birthday. Animals are not ‘things’ or objects. The only way to put the breeders out of business is to stop buying from them. The chain has to stop. In this day and age of information and compassion it’s really time to get on the ball with ending the antiquated practice of gifting animals to children. They have to learn from adults that all creatures great and small are worthy and special in God’s eyes.” That really says it all.
