Five Diverse and Delicious Reads...

Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend.

My favorite author of light and humorous reads. I don't know what I'll do if she ever quits writing. Surely she won't grow old and die before me? It's kind of like how Agatha Christie and Margaret Maron novels are comfort reads but I know there is a finite number available for reading in my lifetime - consequently I savour and save. That's my practical side really, saving good books for rainy days. Too bad I'm not so good at saving coin.

I was more than half way through Queen Camilla when I left Canada. I read it on the way to the airport even...it calmed me amidst all the family drama.

Imagine that the Royal Family has been outlawed, disolved and what's more, banished to an Exclusionary Zone. Estates carefully patrolled and sealed, permits are necessary to leave and the various undersireables of society live there...well so do Camilla and Charles. Doddering around with their garden and their dogs while politics swirl onwards in the real world. So good for a chuckle.

Five Quarters of an Orange by Joanne Harris.

I loved Chocolat, so this was a sure fire thing for the plane (also with my gift card, merci, merci!) Definitely darker, sweeping in it's emotions, portrayal of unhappiness, and the darker needs and sides of the inhabitants of a small French village. Not quite as satisfying as I anticipated...but a lovely glimpse into an interesting past, and a fine piece of storytelling, a writer telling the story within the story...

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M.G. Vassanji.

Written as a memoir, alternating between past and present, Vassanji is a master of telling just as much as necessary to keep the reader tantalized....

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

I read this book for it's preface. I purchased it for my trip with a lovely gift card from some friends. I was a little disapointed with it overall, despite the aclaim it felt a bit like one book in a series from a self-help guru. However it was the right book at the right time, quite providential really...

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh.

I purchased this book for my trip to England two years ago where I was to complete my library practicum. I forgot it at home, my mother stayed in my apartment and returned it to the library (not a library book), retrieved it, and I haven't seen it or finished it since. I picked it up from the English collection at the library here and haven't put it down. This past week has been consumed with the images of India, of tidal country, of Luisibari and the elusive river dolphins sought

It's all so strange...

I was planning on sharing some lovely pictures from the library that I'm volunteering at, but unfortunately I couldn't go in today. I have an eye infection - yuck! You know that recall on Complete Contact Lense solution in Canada, well I've been using it. I booked an appointment at a clinic today before I even heard the news that this solution may be harbouring an evil little amoeba. It may be unrelated...I sure hope it is.

So alas my day was muddled, I slept to rest my weepy eye, and now it's midnight and I'm thinking it's a good time to blog.

I've been doing some reading for a week long summer institute on literacy that I'm attending at the university next week. I've been trying to track down books by the various guest speakers. On Friday I decided to go to the library. Too late. The library closed at four o-clock. Yes, really no wonder everyone leaves work early on Fridays. On Saturday I decided to try again. However, only the first floor of the library was open (housing textbooks only). I decided to at least gain access to electronic resources by visiting. Well, for starters, the front doors were locked. You can only enter through the side. That seems a tad bit unwelcoming to me, though I'm sure there is a good reason. Okay, so next I walked through to the nearest computer terminals. I could not access any of the ebrary books through those terminals. Keep in mind that I can't read any of the signage so it's trial and error. I decided to ask the lone staff person reading a newspaper on a stool at circulation (where all the lights were primarily off, leaving him to squint his way through the sports pages). I tried my standard Do you speak English phrase and received embarassed shaking of the head and shrugging. Okay, so I did what countless non-English speakers have done to me, I pointed at the book citation in my notebook and indicated that I was looking for it. This is where it gets disapointing. He continued to shrug and say I don't know. Now, he was sitting in front of a computer. I know Mr. Newspaper Reader wasn't a librarian, but he was the sole staff member in the building. Feeling close to tears, I smiled and said, it's okay, kitos, hei hei and walked away...wandering aimlessly seeking an available computer work station. I gave up and went home for a little cry.

I don't know why, but my inability to communicate really frustrates and upsets me sometimes. In some aspects of life it's more relaxing. When a drunken crazy person stumbles up to you chattering away, you just say, sorry I don't speak Finnish (Supple Scientist even does this -the lier!!) and the majority of advertising, billboards, flashing electronic signs, just mean nothing. There are fewer books, newspapers, magazines, fewer items of interest in the store, as a consumer your world recedes and simplifies.

I returned to the library on Monday and got some help from a very smartly clad and professional librarian (the only one in the library at the single reference desk!!) - I am not incompetent, the catalogue is simply incorrect. The book I was looking for has no holdings information and the electronic copy was not working for some reason. Hurrah! Unfortunately her phone was ringing off the hook, and having sympathy I left her alone though a myriad of questions were bursting to tumble out across that reference desk. I still can't find a book. Not a single book. It is a completely different system from the public library and not LC like in Canada (and it is baffling). I have to say though that I genuinely prefer the public library in terms of staffing, organization, it's much larger, and there are lots of nice places to sit and work...I'll be spending more time at the university library this week...so we'll see if it grows on me.

Photo credit: Amelie

Poor Neglected Little Blog

Poor neglected LitheLibrarian Blog! Well, I have a solution! My travel blog has too many watchful eyes, parents and relatives and such. I need an outlet for griping, telling embarrassing stories, and writing about the books I've been reading. There's just too much self-censoring with the other blog. So this one will remain in use!

I may not be working as a librarian right now, but I am still the LitheLibrarian! Volunteering at the local public library has been a great experience, and because I reappear each week, people become more and more comfortable sharing the "unofficial" story of the institution. I heard a lot about labour issues when I spent an hour with the head of circulation. Every week I hear about how poorly librarians are paid in the public sphere, but I was suprised to hear this from a library assistant. Librarians and library assistants belong to different unions, however the LA one is much stronger because they have more power for striking. Last time the librarians striked, the LA's filled in. There is a movement for the two unions to join forces. LA's make almost the same wage as librarians, though they do hold 4 year degrees.

So I have been shuffled around, I spent time with the mobile services librarian, the music librarian, the head of adult reference, and the head of cataloguing. And of course, the most fun place to be, I've been most frequently - the children's department! It really is a lovely place. I'll hold off a bit more until I take some pictures. The language continues to be a difficult thing, making me despair that I will ever truly work as a librarian in Finland. There aren't any language classes available in our city at the moment - the adult learning centre closes for the summer, I'm not a student so I can't join the Language Centre classes, and I'm not an EU citizen so I can't join classes at the Employment Centre....I'm doomed to mutter in English under my breath, the crazy wannabee librarian, who blurts out phrases only to have people stare in confusion. My favorite - I have no idea how to spell it - PAHOOOTKA ENGLANTIA? (Do you speak English) and MEEENA ENTEA (I don't know) - not exactly key reference desk phrases...

Fill 'er up!

Welcome to the information gas station - fill 'er up! Yes these are public internet terminals at the main Helsinki library. Pretty sweet eh? Something I've noticed everywhere is that there are no privacy screens. There are generally fewer public computers in the libraries here, it is just so common for people to bring their own laptops. Heck it's ten o'clock am and these stations are free. The socio-economic grid is muc flatter. Wireless is available in all public libraries. The goal is to simply provide a comfortable working space for computer users. One library we visited had little tables on wheels that you simply pull up to the couch, bench, chair, that you choose to sit on.

Something else that makes sense is that almost everything in the libraries is moveable. No earthquakes = shelves on wheels. An adaptable enviroment. Furthermore, computer terminals and OPACs often have wiring going up tubes into the ceiling, making it easy to move everything around when the layout changes.

So...giving my current location kind of blows my anonymous status so I'm undecided what the current future of this blog will be. I may simply copy library related posts from here into my main travel blog (the one that talks about stuff other than libraries!) ... what do you think?

excerpt from Betsy Byars novel, children's author

"Dear Melissa,

I have been thinking of you since breakfast. We only had Corn Pops because the baby had cried all night, and at first I thought my unsettled feeling had to do with an unsatisfactory breakfast.

At nine-thirty I pedaled to Wendy's for a sausage biscuit, and after I ate a sausage biscuit and fries, I was still hungry.

Then I realized my hunger was for you.

The hunger of love, and this is truly the first time I have experienced it so intensely, is a unique experience, Melissa, and I sat in Wendy's until the waitress wiped my table three times and gave me a funny look. Then I went home and had a small box of Cheerios and felt a little better.

Hungrily yours,
Bingo"

3 old posts!

I helped two women find books on grief today. Moments later, I heard loud sobbing. I didn't turn to look. I think the younger woman wanted some privacy, crouched down in the stacks. Such painful heart wrenching sobs, muffled in her arms, my heart went out to her.

Yesterday a woman spoke to me who I see often, however she has never asked for help. She uses a walker, is generally ungroomed, scowling, long wisps of stringy hair hanging in her eyes. Her very elderly mother, who she described as "half-deaf" was unable to hear the sound on the computer with the earphones. They were proudly watching a movie trailer featuring her son, a local actor. She was pleasant, her voice clear and polite and I was surprised. I though her scowl, permanently pasted on, indicated her state of mind, her disposition. I wasn't simply judging the book by her cover, a few weeks ago I also had a near miss in the mall with her as she roared through on one of those handi-darts at high speed, veering around shoppers. I was wrong!

I had two teens figure out that certain publishers publish certain types of materials. We ran a search by publisher to get more juicy chick lit. I wanted to share so much more, I've read a lot of good teen stuff lately. Unfortunately a lot of the new goodies are checked out, all the time, probably by teachers and library school students. I'm such a pessimist sometimes! It was nice, but they left without touching my display of booklist titles and I felt a little sad. Sniff.