Cat's Eye View @ MPL

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Watermelons and Watches

Get to Know Those in the Know (1st in a Series)

I call librarians Masters of the Know, because information is their commodity, "and they sure know how to use it," to borrow a lyric from Hoyt Axton. It occurred to moi that you should get to know those in the know at my Library.

Let's begin with the MPL Circulation Department. Here are two from our Team Circ crew:

Queen Settler, and
Fancy Nancy, whom I'll call the Hamburglar, for reasons that should momentarily become apparent.

Hamburglar (left) and Queen Settler (right)

breaking things in the MPL Staff Room

(?something about breaks?)

Queen Settler was born in Warsaw, Indiana, at about the same time that the MPL Carnegie Library completed its renovations under then-new director Bonita Marley. Her family moved to Mooresville in 1972. Her favorite library memory as a child was the day (probably in fourth or fifth grade) when she was visiting the MPL Carnegie Library and made a life-altering decision. Queen Settler had gone downstairs to the Children's collections, as she routinely did, but she immediately returned to the first floor and the adult collections. She had decided that children's books were "too baby" for her. She was old enough for grown-up fare. Queen Settler, then, had a maturity moment, or "coming of age" instant, on that library visit.

Speaking of favorites, Queen Settler's favorite color is red, and her favorite band is Van Halen. She has worked at the Library for "something like four years; maybe five," she recollected. Her favorite part of working here is customer service. Queen Settler is all about patrons, especially kids, and she loves to welcome them to MPL. Her customer service skills are textbook quality--she ought to be giving guest lectures to business school classes on the subject--and patrons love her. That would have made Bonita Marley truly proud. Mrs. Marley, too, was all about making the Library a warm, inviting institution.

What does Queen Settler geek?

Queen Settler Could Whup Your You-Know-What

Why do I call her Queen Settler? Glad you asked.

Hamburglar (formerly known as Fancy Nancy) was born in Michigan but spent most of her formative years in Speedway, Indiana. She has resided in Mooresville since 1987. Her favorite color is burgundy, and her favorite musician is Jackson Browne.

Why do I call her the Hamburglar?

Fancy Nancy = Hamburglar: 'Nuff Said

Why does she geek hamburgers? Her father was a big-cheese for the Burger Chef Corporation, which was headquartered in Indianapolis back in the 1960s and 1970s. There's an entire book devoted to its history, and my Library has it in the Evergreen Indiana online catalog.

What was Hamburglar's favorite library memory when she was a youngster? The Speedway Public Library constructed a new facility while she was in junior high (i.e., middle) school, and she remembers visiting there (and the Speedway High School library) to research school term papers.

Hamburglar started working at MPL in June 2009. What does she like best about working at MPL? Same as Queen Settler: the patrons. "I love the people who come to the library," Hamburglar explained. "It is a pleasure to serve them." We all feel that way, which is why this is such a great place to work.

Great Team Circ Staff--Yep, We've Got 'Em Here,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Staff News Beat

P.S. Let's hear one of Hamburglar's favorite Jackson Browne tunes: "That Girl Could Sing," from the album Hold Out (1980).

P.P.S. "Jamie's Cryin'," from Van Halen's debut self-titled LP (1978), is one of Queen Settler's favorite Van Halen songs. We already used "Eruption" for a blog posting last week.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Our Kingpin Makes a Spare

Wild Thang, who geeks bowling, provided moi with a decent punchline for a promo trailer that the Library made this afternoon. We borrowed her photo from her Geek the Library poster for our video.

MPL Program Trailer #25

Early Literacy Fun, by Miss Jaymi & Sammy the Toucan

Maybe I'm sounding like a broken record, but I think their early literacy blog and videos are quite groundbreaking (to mix metaphors). The Library needed a promo trailer (you guessed it) to promote their fine work, and so my team of moderately-trained minions jumped into action. Well, stumbled is more like it, but you get my drift.

Need some sunscreen there, "Flat" Cauli II? Those overhead lights really sap your vitamins.

You Know What a Broken Record Sounds Like, Right? Just Asking,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Early Literacy News Beat

P.S. For my readers who have never listened to scratched vinyl (for most 33-1/3 r.p.m.), or shellac resin (for 78 r.p.m.), records, listen to "Magnolia Simms," by the Monkees, which simulated the "pop-and-scratch" and "skipping" sound effects. It didn't actually skip, however. The song, which was written by Michael Nesmith and Charles Rockett, was included on the LP The Birds, the Bees, & the Monkees (1968).

Welcome Back to Where You Belong

April 8-14, 2012 is National Library Week, and the American Library Association (ALA) has some top-drawer suggestions to librarians and patrons how best to celebrate. The ALA website tells you all about it.

How are we celebrating? Well, I made a promo trailer. Minions helped. A little.

Want to see our promo trailer for last year's National Library Week? That's a rhetorical question.

In last year's video, we didn't follow the 2011 ALA theme, which was "Create Your Own Story (@ the Library)." Well, come to think of it, maybe we did. We reminded viewers why it makes sense to support libraries. That's as good a story as any.

Love That Canvas Kitty as My Video Graphic, Despite the Wrong Coloring,

Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
National Library Week News Beat

Sunday, April 1, 2012

A Good Geek Fit, Paranormally Speaking

My Library continues to create Geek the Library posters for staff who haven't gotten around to having them made (or who have been hiding somewhere). This one is hilarious, and it's quite a good fit. Scowl-Face and the paranormal are practically synonymous. Just look at the guy. If he's not paranormal, nothing is.

No disrespect intended to the people included in the original photograph, who were, from left to right:

Reverend Charles L. Tweedale, the Church of England vicar at Weston, who was also a renowned amateur astronomer, violin-maker, and premiere psychical researcher of the early 20th century;
Frank Burnett, Charles Tweedale's father-in-law, who was deceased at the time this photo was taken; and
Mrs. Violet Tweedale, Charles' wife, and daughter of Frank Burnett.

Want to see the original "spirit photograph?" It's Plate XXVII in Tweedale, Charles L., News From the Next World (London: Spiritualist Press, 1st ed. 1940; 2d ed. 1947). Don't have a copy handy? Not to worry. I'll borrow Scowl-Face's.

Is the photo genuine? Rev. and Mrs. Tweedales' honesty and integrity were beyond reproach. There is no rational explanation for how an image of Mrs. Tweedale's father appeared on this photo. Precautions made fraud impossible. No such photo of Frank Burnett directly facing the camera (as he does in the picture above) was ever taken when alive, but the figure is readily recognizable as Frank from photos the family had taken of him during his lifetime (all of which were in different poses, or wearing hats, or with different facial features).

Of course, one purported spirit-influenced photograph cannot conclusively prove anything, in and of itself., regardless of its authenticity. Compile hundreds of similarly validated images, and tens of thousands of veridical cases, and then maybe you've got something. Spend 20 or 30 years researching the subject, and then you can decide what to think about images such as this.

Anyway, Scowl-Face did a decent job with Photoshop. It's funny and appropriate to his arcane interests.

As you can see from the MPL YouTube Channel paranormal playlist, we have several book trailers on this topic. Our first book trailer included the Tweedale photo above. Want to see? You betcha. Sorry if it seems rather crude. It was our first attempt! What did we know way back then?