Wolfner News Summer 2007 

Notes from the Director

Welcome to the summer 2007 edition of the Wolfner News. Our newsletter is packed full of information about current and future Wolfner Library projects and events. We hope you’ll take a moment from your busy schedule to sit down and read it.

Richard Smith, Director

Digital Transition

Neil Bernstein, National Library Service (NLS) research and development officer, was the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Friends of Wolfner Library on April 21, 2007. Neil spoke about the NLS transition from cassette to digital talking books. In his one hour presentation, Neil demonstrated and described the new digital talking book machine and spoke about issues occurring at this time of momentous change in the national library system network. You can listen to the entire speech on our website at: www.sos.mo.gov/ wolfner/friends.asp?id=keynote.

Now Hear This! Wolfner Library’s Talking Website

Wolfner’s bibliographies, called “recommended reading lists,” are compiled by staff using the collection of braille and talking books of the National Library Service. We currently have over 300 lists available online, which cover dozens of fiction and nonfiction topics, and a new list is created each week. Now we have begun publishing these lists in human-voice audio format on our website.

Wolfner’s Coordinator of Volunteers Deborah Stroup and Special Services Librarian Elizabeth Lang are in charge of this project, called Now Hear This! They are working with the recording studio of the American Printing House for the Blind to produce professionally recorded, human-voice audio files of the most popular recommended reading lists.

Our website and the recommended reading lists are available to the general public, which allows anyone, regardless of visual or physical disability, access to our reading lists for their personal use. Anyone listening to one of our lists is likely to discover a book or two they would like to read.

Watch our progress as we add the Wolfner’s Now Hear This! project audio files to our website at www.sos.mo.gov/wolfner/adult.asp.

Richard Smith, Director

From the Editor’s Desk

I recently read a book called Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. When I first heard about this book, my local library didn’t have any on order, so I recommended that they pick one up. Why? Because Joe Hill, whose full name is Joseph Hillstrom King, is Stephen King’s son. And Stephen King – love him or hate him – is one of the alltime bestselling authors alive. I figured Mr. Hill’s book would be worth trying and that it would be popular based solely on the author’s parentage. And indeed, the book has hit the bestseller lists and NLS has it scheduled for production in braille and on cassette.

Heart-Shaped Box is a horror novel with a potentially silly premise: on a whim, an aging heavy metal rock star buys a ghost over the internet, because he thinks it is a joke, but the ghost turns out to be real and angry. In other hands, this story could have been laughable, but Joe Hill makes it interesting and sometimes downright spooky.

So, I’m happy to report that the Joe Hill apple didn’t fall far from the Stephen King tree. Mr. Hill has a way with words that is almost as enchanting as his daddy’s. Given time and a little practice, he may someday be Stephen King’s literary equal.

Here are some additional literary families that you may not know about:

• Tabitha King is the wife of Stephen King and mother of Joe Hill. She writes fiction. Owen King is another son of Stephen and Tabitha. He also writes fiction.



• Mary Higgins Clark is Carol Higgins Clark’s mother. Both write suspense and mysteries.



• Jonathan and Faye Kellerman are husband and wife. Both write mysteries.



• Anne Rice and Alice Borchardt are sisters, and Christopher Rice is Anne’s son. Anne writes horror, fantasy and Christian fiction, while Alice writes fantasy, and Christopher writes suspense.

Elizabeth A. Lang, Editor

Teen Read Week Celebration at Wolfner Library

Teen patrons are invited to read for the fun of it as Wolfner Library celebrates the 10th annual Teen Read Week®, October 14–20, 2007. Our teens can join thousands of other teens across the country who are celebrating this year’s theme, “LOL @ Your Library®.” This year’s theme encourages teens to read humorous books just for the fun of it. Youth Services Librarian Nancy Doering says “Today’s teens seem to have less and less free time, and there are increasingly more activities

for them to take part in during what little leisure time they have. That is why it’s important to encourage teens to set aside some time to read.” According to the American Library Association, studies show a regular reading habit increases reading proficiency. One of the most important ways teens acquire the habit is by watching adults they respect who are avid readers. Parents of teens are encouraged to celebrate Teen Read Week® at home. Nancy offers these ideas:

• Encourage your teen to call Wolfner Library to check out books.

• Set aside time each night for the family to read.

• Share your favorite book with your teen.

• Surf the Internet with your teen to learn about new books or authors. A good place to start is www.ala.org/yalsa/ booklists.

Join or form a book discussion group at your school or local public library. Teens, watch for a mailing later this summer with more information about Teen Read Week®.

Nancy Doering, Youth Services Librarian

 

From the Volunteer Office

Lawyers, managers, teachers, librarians, students, computer programmers, counselors, nurses, editors, secretaries and housewives: what do they have in common? They all volunteer. Wolfner has someone from each of these groups in its volunteer work force. Many are retired, but others take annual leave from their jobs or come in before or after work to do their stint of duty. Another thing they have in common is their dedication to the work that Wolfner library is doing.

In the past year, 38 Wolfner volunteers worked a total of 4,263 hours at Wolfner. For the tapes duplication department, volunteers processed almost 1,000 titles, which included testing over 8,000 cassettes and making over 5,000 copies. For Youth Services, volunteers checked a list of large print books available for purchase against the catalog in order to avoid duplication in purchasing, prepared an inventory of free paperback braille books, and made 45 print/braille books for the collection. For Reader’s Services, among other clerical tasks, volunteers stuffed over 2,500 applications and assembled 150 packets. For the recording program, volunteers recorded 25 children’s books, 21 junior and senior high school books, and 26 adult books. In addition, Telephone Pioneer volunteer groups around the country repaired 1,964 cassette players for Wolfner.

In recognition of the dedication and the hard work involved, an appreciation dinner was held on April 21 in the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center. The dinner followed the Friends of Wolfner Library annual meeting, and it was sponsored by the Friends, many of whom attended. The theme for the dinner was “Making a Difference.” The theme was derived from this little story:

At the dinner, Wolfner volunteers were assured that their efforts are making a difference to many Missourians. They received certificates with the story on them and t-shirts with the theme and the words “Wolfner Library” printed on them in regular text and braille dots.

Deborah Stroup, Coordinator of Volunteers

 

Local Girl Scouts helped serve the catered dinner.

Entertainment was provided by Wolfner volunteers Libbi Gordon and Jessie Newman. Libbi and Jessie are students at Jefferson City High School and have been recording books for about a year and a half. They sang a collection of show tunes.

The dinner was held in the atrium of the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information center.

Focus on Local Books: Blind Man Running

Michael McIntire is an author and Wolfner patron who resides in Eminence, Missouri. Michael was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa when he was in third grade. He gradually lost his sight, and today he can see only light and shadow. However, he has never let his limited eyesight dictate the way he lived his life. He has lived – and is living – life on his own terms.

Michael’s latest creative endeavor has been to write a memoir titled Blind Man Running. He tells of his adventures and misadventures as a person with failing eyesight and an unquenchable fire for experiencing life to the fullest. He says at the end of his book, “As the lights dim and I pass into a world of darkness, being only able to see the flicker of a candle, or the sun on a bright day, I do so without fear, for I am surrounded by love… We are dealt a hand of cards, and how those cards are played is our choice to make.”

Blind Man Running has been recorded in the Wolfner recording booth by volunteers and is available through the library; ask for MOD00122.

Deborah Stroup, Coordinator of Volunteers

Winter Reading Reaps Summer Rewards

The 2007 Adult Winter Reading Program ended March 31, and was a great success. There were 278 participants and together they read almost 4,000 books! That is an average of more than 14 books each, which well exceeds our 12 book goal. In fact, 118 of our winter readers met or exceeded the 12 book goal.

The grand prize winner this year was Virginia Pierce. She read over 100 books to take first place in the contest. Virginia wins an audio book of her choice, plus a summertime gift basket. Ervin Schroeder read his way into second place, and Mae Langston is our third place winner for the second year in a row. Winter Reading certificates were mailed to all participants along with a Wolfner Library magnet. Drawings are also being held for great summertime gifts, such as freezer mugs, insulated drink holders and more.

We would like to thank each of our winter readers for their participation, and a big thank you goes to the Reader Advisors for their help in finding award winning books to send out. We would also like to show our appreciation for the circulation staff who did a great job of getting those 4,000 books out to participants. Also, we need to thank the duplication staff for making sure there were enough copies to go around.

We hear again and again from our participants about how much they enjoy this program. If you have never participated, watch for the announcement next fall and think about signing up for the Adult Winter Reading Program.

Suzy Higgins, Reader Advisor