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Written on: August 5th, 2009 by: in Reviews
After spending a day at the Delaware State Fair, you can’t help thinking about food and our connection to it! One of the goals of the State Fair is to make sure that people who are increasingly distant from agricultural life remain aware of where their food comes from and the people who provide it- I thought that the picture on the left nicely illustrates the way the farmer’s paradigm differs from the urbanite’s- in the end, Flossy and Mabel are still “the other white meat”, as cute as they look with ribbons in their tails.
The author of Cod and Salt, recently published a fascinating book based in part on the regional guides written by the WPA during the Great Depression. During research, Kurlansky had rediscovered WPA writer’s files on regional cookery and foodways, and has republished them as Food of a Younger Land. Zora Neale Hurston and Eudora Welty were among the many writers who discussed such delicious sounding treats as Montana Fried Beaver Tail and Georgia Possum and Taters (Welty’s contributions included a recipe for Mint Julep along with the assurance that “Yankees are welcome to make these dishes”).
The book is more than just recipes, though- it’s an evocation of an America that existed before fast food and chain restaurants, when the food that people ate was enmeshed with their culture in a way that seems unimaginable today for many- as unimaginable as today’s ongoing debate about “eating locally” would have been to the contributors to this book. You can read an extract from the book here.
There is a chapter on diner slang in Kurlansky’s book, so if you need to know what “burn one, take it through the garden, pin a rose on it and give it shoes” means, this is the books for you (although I’m not sure why this mnemonic, taken from this web site on diner slang, is easier to remember than hamburger with lettuce, tomato and onion, to go!)
Written on: August 4th, 2009 by: in News
I think that we should give this one to ourselves anyway, but if not for the closure of Bridgeville for part of the month, July circulation for the DLC would have exceeded 200,000 transactions- it was actually 199,343 including renewals etc., which is a continuing upward trend for the year as would be expected during the summer.
However, this is despite the longer circulation term, which everything in July was subject to for the first time- and renewals are about 50% lower than they have averaged prior to June- which I think is a substantial savings to staff time as well as a huge patron convenience.
The reduced number of renewals caused the total circulation number for July 09 to be about 14,000 items fewer than July 08, but the actual checkout items number is almost 3,000 higher, which suggests that patrons are checking out more items AND having the time to enjoy them! The Checkout Items figure of 173,000 items looks to be the highest monthly total of items checked out since the consortium came together!
We’re always keen to get your feedback on our performance and standards- you can leave a comment here at the blog or email us at the Division of Libraries’ feedback email address
Written on: August 4th, 2009 by: in News
Earlier this week, the remains of Navy Caption Michael Scott Speicher were recovered in Iraq and returned to the United States, Speicher was the first casualty of the 1991 Gulf War, a Navy pilot who was shot down on a combat mission and whose remains were concealed by the Iraqi desert until locals informed U.S. troops of the possible site of the crash. Positive identification was made by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Rockville, MD.
One of the untold stories behind the headlines is the role of the Army’s Mortuary Affairs Specialists. NPR featured an interesting story on the training regime, based in Fort Lee, VA, for these specialists, who are charged with the dignified recovery and return of U.S. war dead- past and present:
“They do their job so that never again will white markers rise from green fields of honor with the inscription “Here rests in honored glory, a comrade known but to God.” Not or for themselves, but for their country.”
A 2002 story in Soldiers goes into more detail about the role of the mortuary affairs specialists- you can read it with your Delaware Library Catalog library account. While all of the branches of the U.S. military have staff who serve in some form of mortuary affairs, the army has authority over all aspects of this vital role through the Joint Mortuary Affairs Center (JMAC) of the Quartermaster Corps, and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC).
There are a number of novels, mostly thrillers, that use the search and recovery of MIA troops as a plot point:
Tripwire, a Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child, features a number of scenes at the JPAC operation at Hickam AFB in Hawaii. (National Geographic published a fascinating and moving story on the work done by the troops there- a combination of cutting-edge science and incredible grit under gruelling conditions in some of the world’s most inhospitable environments.)
Other works include K.I.A. by Thomas Holland, and One Drop of Blood, where the protagonist is the head of the Central Identification Laboratory.
The New Castle Library catalog also includes Earl Swift’s Where They Lay, a non-fiction account of the hunt for the remains of servicemen and women in Vietnam.
Written on: August 3rd, 2009 by: in News
This is a list of last week’s top 5 most checked out titles from the Delaware Library Catalog. Naruto edges Patterson FTW!!
Written on: August 3rd, 2009 by: in News
Click on the links below to get lists of new items available from the Delaware Library Catalog in various formats:
You can sign up to receive a weekly reminder of new items via email- visit our catalog homepage and go to the “connect with us” section in the lower left of the page and click on “other new item feeds”- enter your email address, look for a verification email, and you’ll receive a reminder when new item links are posted.
Written on: July 31st, 2009 by: in News
Daniel Radcliffe singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to J.K. Rowling
This recent story has a lot of interesting facts about Rowling and the people and places that inspired Harry Potter.
Written on: July 30th, 2009 by: in News
Here are two stories from current news that caught our eye.
A Pennsylvania libraries rather (*ahem) unusual response to an enthusiastic young patron was featured in the new “Nailed ’em!” anti-crime feature on Stephen Colbert’s Colbert Report.
And a happier story from Scotland about a record-breaking patron at the Stranraer Public Library. Louise Brown has been a member for more than 60 years and has borrowed and read more than 25,000 books in that time. She’s an avid romance novel fan who is currently facing the issue of having read nearly all of the books in the library! The Delaware Library Catalog’s most enthusiastic patrons, one of whom uses the Laurel library, the other being a Dover patron, have each checked out a little over 5,000 items each since they started using their libraries.
Written on: July 30th, 2009 by: in Reviews
July 29th marked what would have been novelist Chester Himes’ 100th birthday.
Himes was born in 1909 and his family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. As a young man he found himself on the wrong side of the law and spent the late 1920s and early ’30s in the Ohio State Penitentiary, where he began to write short stories- mostly as a way of staying out of trouble.
On his release from jail Himes worked for the WPA Federal Writers Project, and eventually became friends with Langston Hughes, who facilitated his writing career- Himes was writing literary fiction at this time, and also working in Los Angeles as a screenwriter for Warner Brothers- at least until studio head Jack Warner found out that he was African-American and summarily fired him. Following the footsteps of other marginalized American writers, Himes moved to France where his work had been published in translation to critical acclaim.
He eventually found popular acclaim in the U.S. with his “Coffin Ed and Grave Digger” series of Harlem-based detective stories- a hard-boiled take on distinctly African-American themes that were a significant influence on the later work of writers such as Donald Goines and Walter Mosley.
The Delaware Library Catalog has a number of Himes’ novels and anthologies which include some of his shorter work.
Ebony magazine called Himes “the Black Godfather of Mystery Writing” in a 2003 article that you can read here, and there’s a very useful critical history of the African American detective genre from Crisis Forum, accessible with your Delaware Library Card account number and PIN.
Thanks to NPR for alerting me to the centennial, with this recent story.
UPDATE: We’re also surprised and saddened to hear about the sudden death at age 54 of the popular author E. Lynn Harris.
Written on: July 29th, 2009 by: in News
The Delaware State Fair, that is!
The Delaware State Fair has been packing in the crowds for 90 years, and in these times of household economies and “staycations”, a day at the fair makes as much sense now as did in 1920- you can see some great photographs from the Hagley Library of the early days of the fair at their digital archives site. The picture to the left is of nattily-dressed attendees waiting to get in to the fair.
The Delaware Library Catalog has a number of titles documenting the history of the fair. Click here to find out more or place a hold on a copy.
Written on: July 28th, 2009 by: in Q & A's
A: Librarians’ Internet Index, Internet Public Library, and National Institute of Health have great lists of children’s songs, stories, and fingerplays.
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