Middletown library denied funding

The second round of library construction grants have been awarded, and Middletown Library did not make the cut. But proponents are already planning ahead in preparation for the application deadline of Jan. 16, 2004 for a final opportunity at funding.

Library construction funds to be awarded Tuesday

The California Public Library Construction and Renovation Board will evaluate applications and award construction grants, 1 p.m. this Tuesday, Oct. 28.

It is then that proponents of a new Middletown Library will know whether or not they have the money they need to proceed with construction.

District 1 Supervisor Ed Robey has organized a vanload of people to travel to Sacramento and lobby on the project's behalf. On Wednesday, Robey indicated that attendees will include Middletown School Superintendent Robert Gomez and school board President Dauna Elledge-Burns. The meeting takes place in the Central Valley Room, on the second floor of the CalEPA Building, 1001 I St. in Sacramento.

Tuesday's awards represent the second cycle of Library Bond Act funding, money raised through the passage of Proposition 14 in March of 2000. The California Reading and Literacy Improvement and Public Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act designated a total of $350 million in funding, to be distributed during three funding cycles.

The grant process is highly competitive. From an available pot of $110 million, 66 agencies have asked for a total of $547 million. When allocating these funds, the state gives first priority to joint-use projects between the operating agency and one or more school districts. The County of Lake is partnering with the Middletown Unified School District to create a combined public and high school library .

Tuesday's meeting includes a welcome and introductory remarks by Dr. Kevin Starr, state librarian of California. The agenda also includes opportunity for making public comment.

Second-cycle grant awards are scheduled for Tuesday's meeting. If the county's application is unsuccessful, the bond's final funding cycle has a deadline of Jan. 16, 2004.

Originally published in the Clear Lake Observer American

Library board issues annual report

The Lake County Library 's application for library construction funding is one of 66 projects declared eligible by the Office of Library Construction (OLC, www.olc. library .ca.gov/).

The Lake County Library has requested $1.8 million in funding for the construction of a new library in downtown Middletown. The library would be a joint use project with the Middletown Unified School District to serve both the public and Middletown High School.

The California Public Library Construction and Renovation Board will meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 28 in Sacramento. At this time, it will deliberate and make grant award decisions for the second cycle of Library Bond Act funding. The grant process is highly competitive, with 66 agencies asking for $547 million in funding from an available pot of $110 million. District 1 Supervisor Ed Robey is organizing a vanload of people to attend the meeting and lobby for the OLC's support.

An update on the Middletown Library project was included in the Library Advisory Board's annual report to the Lake County Board of Supervisors. County Librarian Kathleen Jansen delivered it to the board on Tuesday, Sept. 16.

"A long time dream of the community for a new Middletown Library is becoming a little closer to reality," the report states, adding that Lake County has purchased land across the street from the high school and that preliminary plans have been drawn.

One of the biggest changes to the library system this year is that it now has its own Web site, www.co.lake.ca.us/ library /. In addition, the library has purchased subscriptions to the Ebsco, ProQuest and Galenet databases -- for periodicals, newspapers and for biographies, literary criticism and other references sources respectively. "Galenet is kind of nice for students in particular," Jansen said.

Databases can be accessed from the county's Web site by typing in your library card barcode number.

The Lake County Library 's circulation figures for the 2002-2003 Fiscal Year include:

• Lakeport -- 90,597;
• Redbud -- 50,000; 
• Middletown -- 13,216; and
• Upper Lake -- 8,628.

Since September of 2001, Lake County has been connected to the Dynix automation system, which links it to Sonoma and Mendocino County libraries. According to the report, the number of books the library system loaned out-of-county has continued to increase.

During Fiscal Year 2002-2003, Lake County Library lent 32,662 volumes, compared to 14,873 books lent during the preceding year. It received 17,513 volumes this past fiscal year from branches outside of Lake County, compared to 9,723 volumes the previous year.

Originally published in the Clear Lake Observer American

‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’

Here’s what I knew when I started this book: that someone close to Harry would die. And that at some point within the book’s 870 pages, Dumbledore would tell him, “Sit down, Harry. I’m going to tell you everything.”

It would’ve been hard to miss the hype leading up to the June 21 release date of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Scholastic, 2003). Long before the date was made known, author J.K. Rowling and the fifth book in her best-selling series have been regular topics of discussion in nearly all news media. And the maddeningly few details we were allowed to know ahead of time have been endlessly repeated and speculated upon.

To begin with, we waited for more than two years for Rowling to deliver a manuscript to her publisher. Speculation ran amuck that Rowling was suffering from writer’s block. The details of her personal life – her purchasing a castle, her new marriage and her new baby – were all up for grabs by an inquiring public.

Once the manuscript was delivered, of course, the hype went into overdrive. There were those tantalizing clues that went for more than $45,000 at a Book Aid International benefit auction. There was the book’s $29.99 price tag, the highest to date for a hardcover children’s book. And to top it off, there was the matter of that death that we knew would come.

So after all that hype, is the fifth book worth it? The answer is a definite, resounding, yes! I don’t think I’m engaging in hyperbole when I say this series is possibly the biggest thing to happen to children’s literature in a very long time, if ever.

These books have transcended their primarily juvenile target audience to bring an increasing number of adults into the fold. As for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it is an exciting and fast-paced story. If Book 4 marked a turning point in the seven-book series, then Book 5 builds upon its themes and explores their implications for the wizarding society that forms a backdrop to Harry’s story.

With the news of Lord Voldemort’s return, factions have developed among members of the wizarding community. The Ministry of Magic, which seems as hopelessly mired in bureaucracy as anyone’s worst muggle government nightmare, has taken an official position opposing the warnings of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. The ministry installs a particularly loathsome “High Inquisitor” at Hogwarts, who makes sweeping changes in curriculum and staffing.

The “Daily Prophet” (the witches’ and wizards’ mainstream newspaper) launches a non-stop smear campaign against Harry, who is the only living witness to Voldemort’s return.

After all, everyone knows that Voldemort is dead. He has not returned. Case closed, end of story.

On the other side of the conflict is a secret socity, “The Order of the Phoenix,” whose members opposed Voldemort the first time around. Now that Voldemort is back, the society regroups in preparation for the coming battle.

In the midst of this increasing turmoil, Harry and his schoolmates still have to go about the business of growing up. Now one year older, Hary has much more depth in keeping with his physical, emotional and mental development.

Rowling’s grasp of the maturing human psyche is uncanny when portraying her hero. Harry’s increased belief in his own abilities are beginning to chafe against the protective restrictions imposed by adults. The acting-out of these true-to-life growing pains prompted one unsympathetic muggle of a reviewer to dub Rowling’s creation “Harry Snotter.”

And then there’s the matter of that death. Harry will lose someone who is very close to him. And Harry will have to grieve.

It’s only to be expected that death will enter the picture at some point in a person’s life. And as my husband and I read this book – together, as we read many other books – we remarked to each other that Rowling is presenting an accurate depiction of what a person can expect to grapple with upon losing someone they love. In a way, she’s preparing her readers for the inevitable death of loved ones in their own life process. It’s almost as if she’s saying to her readers, “Here’s what you can expect to go through. You’re going to be sad. You’re going to be angry. You’re going to cling to any possibility that the person you love will come back.”

If you strip away all the magic and fantasy from Rowling’s books, what you’re left with is an intimate and knowing portrayal of the growing up process. In each volume of Rowling’s series, Harry ages one year. The themes he (and Rowling’s readers) are exposed to are increasingly complex. As a result, readers of the “Harry Potter” books are, quite literally, growing up with J.K. Rowling’s boy wizard.

To this reader, at least, they couldn’t be in better hands.

Editor of Clear Lake Observer American

Effective tomorrow, I'm managing editor at the Clear Lake Observer American. Friday was my last day at the Lake County Record-Bee. I wrote as many stories for the paper as I could, and my co-workers gave me a fine send-off. Two cases of microwave popcorn were labeled as being from the Department of Homeland Security and from Cal Thomas, with the latter bearing the scratched-off name of Molly Ivins as its intended recipient.