“All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome” at Lake County Library

Cover image: All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome

In my column a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about placing an interlibrary loan request for “All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome” by Kathy Hoopmann. At the time, the book was unavailable in the Lake County Library and its cooperative partnering libraries.

Read a banned book this week

Banned Books Week began Saturday and is being observed through this coming Saturday. As a lifetime reader and more recently as a library volunteer, I welcome this occasion every year to think about the effects of censorship.

New Middletown library breaks ground

The Middletown library groundbreaking on Wednesday was very welcome news to this library volunteer. Each week that I shelve books presents me with an interesting challenge to fit the library’s inventory into its finite space.

‘The Son of Neptune’

The Son of Neptune is the second book in Rick Riordan’s series Heroes of Olympus. If you read the original series, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, or saw the film “The Lightning Thief,” you were introduced to the Greek gods and their demigod offspring.

This new series introduces readers to the gods in their Roman aspects. The members of Camp Halfblood learn that there is another group of demigods, children of the Roman gods, who have historically been the enemies/rivals of the children of Greek gods. For that reason each camp has been kept ignorant of the existence of the other.

Originally posted on Facebook

EqUUal Access: Accessibility guidelines

EqUUal Access has prepared Accessibility Guidelines for Unitarian Universalist Congregations, which were approved Sept. 7 by the EqUUal Access Board. EqUUal Access promotes equality and access for Unitarian Universalists with disabilities.

I served on the policy committee that generated this document. Full inclusion and participation is of personal significance to me and the EqUUal Access policy committee offered a chance to act on this conviction.

From Rev. Barbara F. Meyers, writing at the EqUUal Access blog: “Policy Committee member Cynthia Parkhill wrote the section on Advocacy, and also pointed out that the needs of people using a printed copy of the document were different from those using an on-line copy. This resulted in having two different versions, one for print and one for online use.”

The purpose of the guidelines, according to EqUUal Access, is to address the “inclusion of all people (whatever their ability may be) in activities and physical accessibility to facilities of the Unitarian Universalist Association and its member congregations.

“It is the goal of this document that our religious institutions, the UUA and every Unitarian Universalist congregation become not only fully accessible under the law, but take the next step to truly welcome people with disabilities, and integrate people with disabilities into every facet of UU religious life.”

‘Little Free Libraries Are Coming to Town’

Source: Little Free Library

As reported by Michael Kelley in Library Journal and summarized on Utne.com, Rick Brooks and Todd Bol are on a mission to top Andrew Carnegie’s 2,509 libraries.

“The diminutive, birdhouse-like libraries, which Brooks and Bol began installing in Hudson and Madison, Wisconsin, in 2009, are typically made of wood and Plexiglas and are designed to hold about 20 books for community members to borrow and enjoy. Offerings include anything from Russian novels and gardening guides to French cookbooks and Dr. Seuss.” 

Interlibrary loan expands resources

As a patron of Lake County Library, I have the combined catalogs of Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma counties available to me. Lake County is additionally part of the North Bay Cooperative Library System, which allows me access to the holdings of Napa, Solano and Marin county libraries. Public and community college libraries alike are represented by the cooperative.

‘Libraries and Autism: We’re Connected’

Libraries and Autism: We’re Connected

Scotch Plains Public Library and the Fanwood Memorial Library, with their partners, created “Libraries and Autism: We’re Connected” in 2008. It offers a video and online resources with recommendations for best practices. I particularly like the statement about “using individuals on the spectrum and with other developmental disabilities as staff and volunteers in the library.”