The Big Read: Share and Explore

San Antonio Public Library is celebrating The Big Read in March and April. This National Endowment for the Arts program replaces our One Book One San Antonio program. Our community novel for 2008 is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

To Kill a Mockingbird speaks through the candor of a young tomboy named Scout, who is drawn to and repelled by Boo Radley’s haunting isolation, and is increasingly moved by the civil injustice she observes. An eloquent classic, To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. If you haven't read the book, you simply must—and if it's been a few years, prepare to be surprised by new insights. To Kill a Mockingbird is a great book to share. Express your views at one of our many book discussion groups or on our Big Read blog, which you can find on our website.

We have special guests throughout March and April. Several branches will feature a Magik Theatre dramatic performance that is based on the novel. Dr. Claudia Durst Johnson, a Harper Lee scholar, will offer her insights into the novel's historical and literary significance. Mary Badham, who played Scout in the 1962 film To Kill A Mockingbird, will lead a discussion about her role in the movie. The Big Read calendars are available, so please stop by your library or check out our website for more information on our book discussion groups, special guests, dramatic performances and movie screenings.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest, presented to return reading to the heart of American culture and to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.

We hope you will join us.

Wow + Library = Wowbrary.org

According to Robert Beebe, Collection Development Coordinator at SAPL, the library adds roughly 400 new titles to its collection every week. Whether you're a bookworm, audiophile or cineaste, you'll have a lot of catching up to do if you wait a while to find out what's new. Wowbrary knows that and they're here to help. They're a non-profit project established to strengthen the bonds between libraries and their users through the use of technology.

How it works for the public
Once a week, Wowbrary automagically checks your local library's catalog to see if there are any new titles. It harvests those new records and uses the ISBN numbers in them to pull in cover images and summaries from Amazon.com. This mashup of public library and Amazon data is then crafted into an easy-to-browse website that sorts media into about 30 categories. You sign up to receive a weekly newsletter with the top 20 items added to your library that week, with links to the other categories at your library's Wowbrary page. Then sit back and enjoy being one of the first folks to place a hold on that hot new bestseller.

How it works for public libraries
The free service probably already exists for your library system. Bookmarks! checked and found that public libraries in Boerne, Poteet and Seguin-Guadalupe County were already listed. All that is left is to inform your patrons that they need to sign up for the email newsletter. You can take it a step further, though. Your patrons are going to want to take advantage of this great service and you want to take advantage of the fact that your patrons will be signing up for a weekly newsletter. For a reasonable cost, you can sponsor the Wowbrary newsletter and customize it with more local content, such as announcements of upcoming events at your library. Currently, third-party advertisers support the site, but this model may change.

The bottom line
Bookmarks! has been evaluating the newsletter (and quickly placing holds) since December. Our recommendation: sign up today. Browsing by category is so easy that staying on top of those 400 new titles a week takes about 5 minutes.

Book Club Kits: When You Want and Where You Want

On March 1, the San Antonio Public Library began offering Book Club Kits to the public for checkout. The 25 kits, each one containing a different title, cover a wide range of authors, genres and classics, such as: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, and The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

A book club kit consists of a library tote bag containing 10 copies of a title and a 3-ring binder. The binders have the following materials in each of them: tips and original questions to facilitate book discussions, biographical information on the author, reviews and criticism of the book, an annotated readalike list, a list of major characters, sign-out sheets for the book club’s own use, feedback surveys, and the checkout rules and the replacement costs.

The book club kits have been designed to better serve the book discussion groups in the community that are not library sponsored. The kits may be checked out to any valid library card, excluding homebound cards and teacher cards. Kits check out for 6 weeks and cannot be renewed.

You can find the kits in the catalog by searching under the keywords: “book club kits”. Or just visit the book club kit page for all of the titles and related discussion materials.

Women's History Month

voices we chose to manifest Adriana M. Garcia Maria II 2008, Acrylic on Wood 24" x 79"

This year, National Women's History Month celebrates visionary female artists. San Antonio's own visionaries are the focus of the exhibit Art & Persuasion: Feminine in Flux, currently on display at the Central Library and seven branches.

Exhibit curator Kimberly Garza Campbell says, “The innovative new work in the exhibit pushes the margins of the female role within the social structure that exists in the contemporary United States.”

A group exhibit featuring nine artists is free and open to the public at the Central Library through March 31. Concurrent exhibits for individual artists will be open at the Maverick, Great Northwest, Cody, Forest Hills, Guerra, Memorial and Brook Hollow branches.

Featured Artists

• Katherine Brown
• Lili Dyer Pena
• Adriana García
• Gisela Girard
• Elizabeth Goode
• Mira Hnatyshyn-Hudson
• Vikky Jones
• Anna-Marie López de León
• Marie Jassie Ríos

FEATURED Staff Recommendation

The SAN ANTONIO PUBLIC LIBRARY Staff Loves To Read!

Suzanne Daube (Cody Library) gets a little help from her buddy Kingsley.

CURRENT FAVORITE AUTHOR
Richard Brautigan.

His novels are funny, quirky, highly imaginative and don’t require a dictionary on constant standby. My favorites of his are The Hawkline Monster and The Abortion: An Historical Romance (based in a unique library). Brautigan’s novels are easily recognizable since you’ll usually find him and his at-the-time-current muse on the cover.

FAVORITE GREEN BOOKS
Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century by Alex Steffen, Living Green by Greg Horn, The Lazy Environmentalist by Josh Dorfman, and It’s Easy Being Green by Crissy Trask.

Living green and eco-friendly is a major priority for me. I’m constantly reading up on tips to recycling, organic shopping, and creative reusing.

BOOKS I’VE GROWN UP WITH
The Girl With the White Flag by Tomiko Higa, The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett, Gone South by Robert McCammon, and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Ranging from 4th grade to high school, these were some books I enjoyed reading the most.

CURRENTLY READING
The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe, The Colour of a Dog Running Away by Richard Gwyn and Wonder Tales edited by Marina Warner (Six French Stories of Enchantment).

It is impossible to dedicate myself to only one book at a time. I usually have enough to choose from to fit a particular reading mood that I am in.

SAPL
Events

If you have any questions about the library or would like to see something included in this newsletter, please contact our Web Administrator at librarywebadmin@sanantonio.gov.

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