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February 26, 2007

Quick, name three Mexican authors!

I love international literature. In my twenties I read authors from Brazil and Argentina…in my thirties, I read many books from the land of children’s literature (I had a young child)…in my forties, I read many fiction and nonfiction books about India by Indian and Indian-American authors… now, after reading the article below, I want to read Mexican authors. Join me in this goal and lets share reading suggestions

Take a look at this article February 26, 2007 article that appeared on El Universal …

Random Readings: Book fair fever in Mexico City
By Kelly Arthur Garrett/The Herald Mexico
El Universal

Lunes 26 de febrero de 2007

Maybe it’s my imagination, but there seems to be some kind of book fair going on somewhere in the nation on any given day. These fairs have a mission beyond selling books to the attendees. They hope to close by a centimeter or two the yawning chasm between Mexico’s abundant, world-class literary output and the paucity of people who actually read it.

Mexico is by no means the only country in the region with a take-em-or-leave-em attitude about books. But there’s some pretty good evidence that the reading crisis (if we can call it that) is more acute here. A Congressional report released last spring lamented that as much as 43 percent of Mexican bookstores have closed in the last decade, leaving the country with one book store for every 250,000 inhabitants.

Argentina, by comparison, has one for every 15,000 residents while Spain has one for every 12,000.

What Mexico does have, though, is one heck of a lot of book fairs. One of the biggest and best, second perhaps only to Guadalajara’s prestigious International Book Fair, is in the middle of its run in Mexico City’s Historic Center.
…MORE

posted by Anna at 12:59 pm | Comments (0)

February 15, 2007

Stupidity is serious and can be fatal!

I know most of the public libraries in the Chicago metropolitan area increasingly find themselves serving more immigrants and non-native speakers. This can be challenging but it is one of the roles libraries have always embraced. We are the “everyman’s university,” a place people can come for knowledge and information without being judged or turned away. On this topic, American Libraries has a very thought provoking February 2007 issue with a cover story entitled “Race and Place: A Personal Account of Unequal Access.” The author is someone who I think is one of the smartest human beings in the library profession Tracie Hall. Read this issue, think about it discuss with your co-workers family and friends. Comment on it here.

Also, while scanning todays posts on REFORMA.net I read the chilling news that the KKK has grown 63% with the impetus for this growth being their ire toward immigrants. The CNN story is below.

Klan growing, fed by anti-immigrant feelings, report says
POSTED: 5:30 a.m. EST, February 7, 2007

Story Highlights
• Ku Klux Klan rebounding by exploiting hot-button issues, report says
• Klan uses, stirs up anti-immigrant sentiments, says Anti-Defamation League
• Hate group watchdog says Klan chapters grew 63% between 2000 and 2005
• ADL says Klan cooperating with other extremist groups more than before

NEW YORK (AP) — The Ku Klux Klan has rebounded by exploiting current hot-button issues, especially immigration, according to a new report released by the Anti-Defamation League.

The Klan, and other white supremacist groups like skinheads and neo-Nazis, grew significantly more active in the past year, holding more rallies, distributing leaflets and increasing their presence on the Internet — much of it focused on stirring anti-immigrant sentiment, according to the report…MORE

posted by Anna at 5:34 pm | Comments (0)

Life is fatal but not serious!

I don’t know about you but, this is always a crazy, busy time at the North Suburban Library System. No matter how much you love your job we all need to laugh sometimes. Wishing to spread cheer and brighten your day, I would like to share two library related vids that appear on You Tube.

Introduction of the Book

March of the Librarians

If you enjoy these two (or not), you will want to visit the ever entertaining and informative Arlington Heights Memorial Library V-log!

Now that you have had the corners of your mouth curve upward into a smile, get back to work!

posted by Anna at 5:21 pm | Comments (0)

February 6, 2007

Coming in November: Latino Book and Family Festival

I just got this link off of REFORMANet and thought “How come I didn’t know about this sooner?” The Latino Book and Family Festival seems to be a traveling mini-BookExpo for Spanish language authors and materials. It looks like it has been happening for a number of years and Chicago is one of the places it is held. They don’t have all of the information yet but it appears the event will be the weekend of Nov. 10 and 11, 2007.

If anyone has gone to this event, please let me know how it was.

Latino Book and Family Festival

dward James Olmos, actor and community activist, is the Co-Producer of Latino Book & Family Festival, a weekend event that promotes literacy, culture and education in a fun environment for the whole family. The festival is held in key Hispanic markets across the country.

The Latino Book & Family Festival was launched in 1997 in Los Angeles to promote literacy, culture and education and to provide people of all ages and backgrounds the opportunity to celebrate the diversity of the multicultural communities in the United States in a festival atmosphere.

Today, the Festival is hosted in several major Latino markets across the U.S. including San Diego, Phoenix, Houston, Dallas, the Inland Empire of Southern California, Chicago, and Los Angeles….MORE

posted by Anna at 1:38 pm | Comments (0)

February 1, 2007

When is a bookcart not a bookcart? When it is a piece of art!

Any description I tried to come-up with for this Jan. 22, 2007 post on the Overdue Media Blog, would be totally inadequate to describe this visual feast…….

Unshelved News: Pimp My Bookcart Contest Winners, part I
posted Monday, January 22, 2007 9:55:00 PM PST by Bill

This was a bigger deal than we anticipated. We thought our “Pimp my Book Cart” contest was a funny idea that would spawn a dozen or so entries. But it seemed to spark something, and we started hearing from folks all over the country. It even spawned a “Pimp my Book Trolley” contest Down Under in Australia (we’re judging that one too).

Still, by last week we figured all the fuss had been just that, and that it was still going to be just a few contenders. But then a few days before the deadline, in a display of procrastination that impressed Bill, they started pouring in. We ended up getting over 100. Gene and I scrambled to organize and evaluate them (thanks, iPhoto!). Several times at ALA we left our booth in the capable hands of our store manager Jana so that we could look at almost 400 pictures of book carts that had been pimped up, down, in, and out. Finally this morning we reached agreement on the winner, several runners-up, and many honorable mentions. In the next week we’ll publish a mostly complete list of the entries, but we didn’t want to delay the big announcement. …MORE

posted by Anna at 11:48 am | Comments (0)