While I attended the National Book Festival in Washington, DC in September, I was waiting to write about it later to include the videos or links that the Library of Congress was producing. As of today the videos of my favorite YA authors are still not ready for posting from the LOC. That being said, I am also a procrastinator and I took another fabulous grad course in between.
National Book Festival 2012
The weather was perfect for a fall weekend, still warm and sunny with cool nights. Book lovers and authors from across the country converged on the capital with one thing in mind, talking about and sharing their love of books. I quickly found a map and located my weekend home, The Teen Book Tent. I quickly realized that I should have arrived at least an hour earlier to see and hear my favorite author, John Green, because there was standing-room-only by the time I showed up. The tent was filled with teenage girls and some boys all laughing with excitement in anticipation for the comedic author and video-blogger.
John Green
When he finally hopped onto the little stage, the roar of clapping and squealing could be heard all over the mall. My husband who was at Air and Space heard it too and commented on how great is it that kids get so excited about an author. John Green did not disappoint at all as he read from and discussed his award-winning new book, The Fault in our Stars. He gave a silly back story about the original draft being mostly about him and then finally after writing numerous other novels he was ready to tackle a story about teens who were living through cancer. The book is touching and true-to-life which resonates with teens. Green then answered lots of questions from the kids with his usual humor and self-deprecation. His presentation and discussion were worth the trip.
The next author on my "must see" list was Maggie Stiefvater who wrote the Shiver trilogy. This group of books revolved around the world of werewolves and of course the required love story. While I enjoyed these books and found them entertaining, her latest book which was winning rave reviews was The Scorpio Races which I had just started to read. The book is different, very imaginative and deals with mythological man-eating horses who emerge from the sea. It was not a subject-matter that I would normally jump into, however, the reviews were very positive. Maggie is petite and a ball of energy. She was trained as an artist and has done sketches for her books. She shared her love of all things faerie, folklore and mythology, hence the variety of creature-characters in her books. She mesmerized her audience with tales of her life, writing and love of art and literature. She was a treat. Her new Raven series is also a hit with teens.
Another author I visited with was Ellen Hopkins who discussed her series that began with Crank. These novels are written in verse and delve into the world of teen drugs, pregnancy and all of the associated trauma associated with these events. What many may not realize is that these are loosely based on the experiences of her daughter who had been an honor student who detoured along the way. Another author who was very entertaining was Sukie Stachouse's author, who was a surprise. She appeared to be your everyday middle-age lady who writes the very provocative novels on which the True Blood series is based. The last author I needed to see was David Levithan who is an editor and writer. I had read several of his novels each unique and his latest is winning rave reviews. This new novel is called Every Day. All of these authors were entertaining, inspiring and the reason I love YA literature.
On September 7th I was fortunate to receive a ticket to the Project Runway finale show although the winner of the reality show could not be divulged at that time. It was being taped two months ahead and it was part of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week held at Lincoln Center. With me were my tres fashionable cousins, Rosemary Metzler Lavan and Jane Metzler. We found our seats quickly and stared amazingly at the 50 or so paparazzi that were waiting to get the first photos of Heidi Klum, Jennifer Hudson and the two designer-judges as they strutted down the runway. The audience roared and clapped as the stars strolled by. We all had to admit that Heidi Klum in her gold lame and sequined gown looked pretty spectacular. She waved to the crowd and introduced the first designer who proceeded to then introduced his "line" of clothes worn by the models. The next 7 designers of the 8 remaining in the contest then introduced their individual lines of clothes, each designer hoping to win the grand prize for the season. Each line was different emphasizing the style of the particular designer. We in the audience picked out our own favorite gowns and outfits. The show was exciting and we all took lots of IPhone pictures which did not produce well due to the overhead spotlights and lights flashing from the paparazzi. As we were leaving we saw actress Emily Blunt signing autographs for fans. In the lobby I snapped a picture of a few of the designers from this season's show.
The Delaware Art Museum, worth the trip if only for the inviting Copeland Sculpture Garden, the Chihuly glass bridge, Hopper’s Summertime, or the Peale family of illustrators; provided recently an exhibit appealing to librarians and to all book and art lovers alike. The special show focused on the work of Brooklyn-based artist, Nina Katchadourian, entitled, Once Upon a time in Delaware/ In Quest of the Perfect Book which traces the history of the book and its illustration at the end of the nineteenth-century and early twentieth.
The exhibit is set off in a small room painted in a regal red and gold that mirrors the look of several books in the collection.The artist worked with books from the museum’s newly-acquired M. G. Sawyer Collectionof Decorative Bindings.As one walks along the wall one sees the grouping of books which could be in sets of 3 or 5 books that tell a story simply by the selection of book titles. What also makes it artistically pleasing are the colors of the books as chosen, sky-blue, bright red or forest green.The grouping is also as delightful to read as a poem. For example, three books grouped together read:
1.Somewhere in France 2. The Anglomaniacs 3. Meet the Germans.
Or another example:
1.An Unsocial Socialist 2. Adrift on an Ice-Pan 3. At the North Pole (by Jules Verne)
This books arranged were digitally photographed and encased in plain black frames. The two real books encased at the entrance to the exhibit read:
1.Once Upon a Time in Delaware2.In Quest of the Perfect Book
From her own words Nina Katachourian discusses her method of the art of “sorted books.”
“The Sorted Books project began in 1993 years ago and is ongoing. The project has taken place in many different places over the years, ranging form private homes to specialized public book collections. The process is the same in every case: culling through a collection of books, pulling particular titles, and eventually grouping the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom. The final results are shown either as photographs of the book clusters or as the actual stacks themselves, shown on the shelves of the library they were drawn from. Taken as a whole, the clusters from each sorting aim to examine that particular library's focus, idiosyncrasies, and inconsistencies — a cross-section of that library's holdings. At present, the SortedBooks project comprises more than 130 book clusters.”
To see examples of her work go to her webpage and refer to the "language" link.
The exhibit highlights the art of the book which has recently gained interest and also which is particularly fascinating since there appears to be a paradigm shift in the move away from the printed page to the world of the e-reader.From a primary source perspective, these are all first edition books from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century when artists were commissioned to decorate the cover cloth to advertise the work.This particular form of illustration would then change to a depiction of the book on a dust cover jacket that later had its own style and appeal.
The books in the exhibit, although mostly fiction, display the historical interests of the time in the areas of travel, the “West,” science, Native American life and the “new” automobile.Katachourian says that she also despaired when reading of the “romance” of the Indians in light of the reality of their violent demise.There were also stories of knights, kings and of European history. As a librarian, I found the show to be fascinating, poetic, colorful and respectful of the book as an art form.What was missing for me was the tactile experience of handling the book, opening the old sepia pages and smelling the antique perfume of aged pulp. Perhaps in some way adding a 3D factor would heighten the overall effect by incorporating all of the senses.
The Library of Congress has many digital prints of the book illustrators of this time including the works of Maxfield Parrish, Edward Penfield and Jessie Wilcox Smith (or sometimes Jessie Wilcox). There are considerable prints, photographs and documents under “Edward Penfield. “ There is also an entire digital collection entitled, Cabinet of American Illustration.
This is a one-of-a-kind exhibit that I hope will inspire more artist-booklovers. The show runs through September 16, 2012. Nina Katachourian discusses her process of "sorted books."
Navigating your way around the comprehensive Library of Congress site can be daunting since one photograph may lead to a document which may lead to another photograph and suddenly you are lost and using the back arrow just won't help. In order to assist visitors to the site and keep track of all of your treasures the directors created a folder system that is extremely user-friendly and fun. Every article and picture has a "share/save" button at the top right corner and here you can send your favorite items to friends on facebook, twitter, google or bookmark it in delicious or diigo, and most importantly you can sign up for your own "My LOC" which will maintain your favorite objects in folders organized by you! Read below to hear what they have to say about his new feature. It's like having your own personal file drawer at the Library of Congress!
"The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections. Since the earliest days of the Internet, the Library's primary Web site at http://www.loc.gov/ has led the way in making these rich resources and treasures available to the American people.
The Library's new, personalized site, myLOC.gov, presents many of these items in compelling online exhibitions that reveal our nation's history, knowledge and creativity through primary sources, engaging activities and materials for teachers and students.
Plan your visit. Use this site to get familiar with the Library. Plan a visit to the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. If you’ve already been here, you can revisit the exhibits and build your personal collection of Library objects.
Touch history. MyLOC.gov is also an online museum with exhibitions and interactive features that bring rare historical books and objects to life. See the edits on the Declaration of Independence. Read the hieroglyphics on a Mayan vase. Turn the pages of The Builder’s Dictionary, once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
Get lesson plans. MyLOC.gov has dozens of lesson plans, all created and organized around the books and items on display that will help teachers use primary sources to bring history to life.
Plus, there are cool activities for students. Zoom into maps. Do a word search related to the founding documents of the United States. Try your hand at re-writing the Declaration of Independence" http://www.loc.gov/
On one of our trips to view primary documents, our class visited the Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on University of Penn's campus. Here in the archives department we saw original photographs and documents relating to early Native Americans including government sponsored photography of Indian leaders in their headdress staged for original ceremonies and contract signing. The curator discussed the fact that many photographs were "doctored" to show a change in skin tones from one time to another to elaborate the control that the government had over the early Americans. We also saw a slide show about "going West" that spanned two hundred years from the early wagon trains, cowboys and bandits to western expansion and to current day California and the Sunset Strip.
The museum staff is most helpful in locating items for teachers and their displays and hands-on exhibits are engaging. Their current exhibit is on the Mayans and their calendar.
My courses so far have focused on my interest in using primary sources to enhance teaching and project-based-learning. The Library of Congress in conjunction with the University of the Arts have provided courses that highlight the fabulous collections that are available online for everyone. I have completed the first course which dealt with photography and will soon begin to study the course devoted to poetry. The LOC has constructed a section specifically for teachers that provides overviews, guides and lesson plans to coordinate with their vast collection of photographs, original manuscripts, sheet music, recordings all of which bring any lesson with historical relevance to life in the classroom. The direct link to this page is http://www.loc.gov/
I have also created a Wiki to provide information on primary sources and as I locate new resources I will add them. If someone knows of some great sources of primary material I would appreciate it you would contact me and I will add them to the page. The address for my wiki on primary sources is: http://primarysourcesforprojects.wikispaces.com/
The Library Company of Philadelphia 1314 Locust Street Philadelphia, Pa
The Library Company of Philadelphia was the first museum that we visited as a class and here we were shown a history of photography in Philadelphia from its early beginnings in the nineteenth century with daguerreotypes, stereotypes, personal scrapbooks, early postcards and much more. The staff here were extremely knowledgeable and very happy to share the collection with teachers.
My sabbatical started officially on June 19, 2012 and already I have been busy travelling and taking graduate courses. The definition of the word sabbatical is,
"From Latin it is sabbaticus , Greek tikos, from Hebrew shabbat, i.e., Sabbath, literally a "ceasing") is a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year. Also, "sabbatical" has come to mean any extended absence in the career of an individual in order to achieve something."(Wikipedia, today, yes I am quoting Wikipedia!)
Well, I definitely can appreciate a rest and will try to achieve great things this year with the courses that I am already taking, plan to take and the places I plan to visit. I also intend to try out new technologies, read and review many YA and adult books, travel and spend time with family. I hope to chronical my experiences in a somewhat interesting way in this blog. andI I hope you will join me on my journey into the hiatusphere. (insert sci/fi music).
The next author on my "must see" list was Maggie Stiefvater who wrote the Shiver trilogy. This group of books revolved around the world of werewolves and of course the required love story. While I enjoyed these books and found them entertaining, her latest book which was winning rave reviews was The Scorpio Races which I had just started to read. The book is different, very imaginative and deals with mythological man-eating horses who emerge from the sea. It was not a subject-matter that I would normally jump into, however, the reviews were very positive. Maggie is petite and a ball of energy. She was trained as an artist and has done sketches for her books. She shared her love of all things faerie, folklore and mythology, hence the variety of creature-characters in her books. She mesmerized her audience with tales of her life, writing and love of art and literature. She was a treat. Her new Raven series is also a hit with teens.
