Winter Warmers 2010

The Winter Warmers reading programme will be running at the Masterton District Library from the 21st of June to 30th of July. Children enrolled on the programme receive a fun booklet that they fill with book reviews and drawings and bring to the library to show to one of the children's librarians. Once they do six they receive a prize and qualify for the Finale. If they go on to do all 10 they receive another prize. There's also a word-find competition, weekly prize draws and kids who qualify for the finale will receive a book and certificate, and it's all free thanks to the funding of the Eastern and Central Community Trust and the support of the Masterton District Council.

If you would like to know more contact the library 06 370 6253 or library@library.mstn.govt.nz Registrations begin on the 8th of June and places are limited so get in quick!

Alexa Johnston

On Tuesday the 25th of May at 2pm the library will be hosting a talk by Alexa Johnston author of the best selling Ladies, A Plate and the follow-up A Second Helping. Alexa will be talking about the continuing popularity of traditional food preparation such as baking. Alexa is in the Wairarapa as a part of the Yarns In Barns festival of reading and will be appearing at the library as part of our regular Seniors Celebrate programme. Alexa will also be talking at Hedley's Bookshop at 5:30pm on the same day.

Goodbye Jannelle

Last week the staff at Masterton Library had to say good bye to one of our long-serving staff members, Jannelle Preston-Searle. Jannelle has been with the library on and off for 16 years - the on and offs mostly being occasioned by the arrival of her three children: Charlie, Sadie and Oscar. Jannelle has been a valuable resource for the library and has had involvement in a range of activities including cataloguing, interloans and displays. We are particularly going to miss the contribution she made to the library through her artistic ability, but most of all we are going to miss her for the personal qualities she brought to the job and the enjoyment of working alongside her. Fortunately she hasn't gone too far - Greytown Library - and we hope that the continuing co-operation between the Wairarapa libraries will mean we will still be keeping in regular contact with her. All the best with the new job Jannelle and we look forward to hearing how you and your family are doing.

Libraphobia?

A few weeks ago at a party I was talking to a woman who told me that she had a fear of libraries. While she could concede that this was an irrational phobia, it was none the less a real fear for her which had physical manifestations and prevented her from comfortably entering libraries. Intrigued, I later did some internet research on the fear of libraries.
There appears to be no end of things people can develop phobias towards ranging from Alliumphobia, the fear of garlic, to Zemmiphobia, the fear of the great mole rat. While some of these phobias seem quite logical such as Lilapsophobia, the fear of tornadoes and hurricanes, others such as Octophobia, the fear of the No.8, or Euphobia, the fear of hearing good news, do require some special understanding. While I have discovered Bibliophobia, the fear of books, so far I have not been able to find any official name for a fear of libraries or librarians.
There are however quite a number of comments from people who share this fear of libraries, and quite a variety in the reasons given for this fear. Some people’s fear of libraries stems from their bibliophobia. This can occur in people who have learning disabilities or difficulty with reading and so their fear of books is easy to understand. Others who are quite happy with physical books, are petrified by the prospect of having to use the library catalogue in order to find the books they want. These concerns seem to be based on either a fear of appearing foolish by not being able to operate the system, or that they might somehow be able to do some irreparable damage to the computer.
Some found libraries oppressive places where they are constantly told what they can and can’t borrow and how they can and can’t behave. It is true that libraries do have rules, but the important thing to remember is that generally these rules are in place for the benefit of the users themselves. At Masterton Library for example we have a general issuing period of three weeks and if no one else has requested the item in the meantime, it can be renewed for another three weeks. After that we ask that the item be returned and impose fines if it isn’t. This rule is simply so that we can be fair to other borrowers and ensure that everybody has reasonable access to the collection.
Similarly the issue of quiet in the library can be off putting for some but again this is done in the recognition of the library being a public space and needing to meet the interests of other users. We are quite happy to allow a reasonable amount of noise but will try to ensure there is no shouting etcetera, as many people use the library for reading or study and appreciate the quiet. It should also be noted that libraries are not always the quiet places they once were. At Masterton Library we often have musical performances or shows by storytellers, and while these shouldn’t necessitate any visits from noise control, they can get quite loud.

Some people have a fear of libraries stemming from a negative experience they have had with a librarian in the past. Unfortunately we do sometimes have to tell people things they don’t want to hear, such as an item not being available or there being a fine on their card. There is no excuse however for this not being done in a respectful and non-judgemental manner, and you should also expect this in response to any question you need to ask a member of staff.
The thing we as librarians most need to convey to the public is that we are here to help them, indeed it’s a major part of our job profiles. This no chore however, in fact it is very satisfying to give someone the book or information they want. It adds variety to our days and gives us a chance to use our knowledge and experience. Nobody should feel any trepidation about asking a member of staff for assistance, whether it be asking for the key to the toilet, or for the definition of Logizomechanophobia (answer - fear of computers).
It is a natural human instinct to be wary of the unfamiliar. We all feel some degree of anxiety when faced with something new or different, and for many people the library is a place and a system they are unfamiliar with. For some it can graduate to the level of a phobia. For others it may not be that bad but may make them reluctant to ask for help, and if they can’t find what they want themselves, they leave the library unsatisfied. A challenge for librarians is therefore to recognise that what seems logical and everyday to us, can seem quite foreign and even daunting to those outside the profession. The challenge for those not comfortable with libraries is to put aside these anxieties and past perceptions and venture into the library. I hope it is one you take up as there’s so much on offer.

Jon Adams
Community Outreach Librarian
Masterton District Library

Books are boring… Yeah right!

A recent promo for the television show ‘Ellen’ featured the host Ellen Degeneres asking “Why not read a book? I’ll tell you why not - books are boring”. Being a librarian this caught my attention. Partly because I know that Ellen has written several books herself, and I wondered if she was including her own works in this statement, but mostly because I can’t help but disagree with this idea. Books are boring… Yeah right!
Saying books are boring is like saying music is boring, art is boring, films are boring. The thing about something being boring (or interesting for that matter) is that it is a very individual judgement. There are certainly television programmes I find boring, but presumably others enjoy them or they would be taken off air, and I wouldn’t say television is boring as there are other shows I really like. Similarly I enjoy watching test cricket, something others compare to watching paint dry, but this doesn’t mean sport is boring, and the same is true for books.
For me the suggestion that books are boring makes no sense at all. I have read books that have been gripping, moving, captivating. They have tug at the heart strings, made me feel sad and angry at the unjustness of the world, and pride and joy at the strength of the human spirit. Books have caused me to gasp in horror, sent tingles down my spine, and made me laugh so hard that the tea I was drinking came out my nose. Books have haunted my waking hours as I think about what might be coming next, and they have kept me up till the early hours of the morning so I can find out how they finish. They have amazed, educated and changed me.
This is not to say that I have been captured by, enjoyed, or even finished, every book I have ever tried to read. There are books that I have found tiresome and difficult, confusing and unengaging. Books that did nothing positive for me except induce sleep. But this doesn’t mean all books are boring, and the wonderful thing is that there are so many of them. If one doesn’t appeal, there is always another to try. And there is a great variety in what readers think makes a book enjoyable. A list I found on the internet for example of the world’s most boring books included Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights, both of which currently feature on the Whitcoulls Top 100 Books list, as voted by readers.
Reading does involve some commitment and like any exercise the habit becomes easier with practice. Reading requires concentration and an absence of distractions, but when this is achieved a real sense of connection with the book, the writer, the story and the characters can be achieved. This is why keen readers get “lost in a book” and “can’t put a book down”. Studies suggest that the brain processes reading in a very similar way to listening to someone talk, and so it seems logical that we can respond to text in as involved a way as if we were having a conversation.
I know that books are not for everyone because reading is not a method of communication that works for everyone, people with reading difficulties such as dyslexia for example. But there are also many others who simply think books are boring, they don’t engage with the story, they can’t concentrate on reading, and it becomes a chore rather than a pleasure. And for them I wonder if they have simply not yet found the right book.
One of the great strengths of the public library system is that for little or no money you can try out a huge range of books, by different authors and about different subjects. The Non-Fiction collection covers almost every possible aspect of human activity. From the Boer War to the lives of celebrities, and from contemporary philosophy to memorable All Black victories, there is sure to be something for almost any interest. Add the Fiction collection where everything that can be imagined can be written about, and the array of books available from your public library is vast.
The other great strength of the public library is that it is staffed by librarians who have a great interest in books, in getting people reading, and connecting people with the book that is right for them. As a librarian there is nothing more satisfying than having a customer tell you that they really enjoyed or benefited from a book, particularly if it is one that you recommended to them. So if you would like some advice on what to read, whether you find books boring or not, please ask a member of the library staff for some help. I think we could even find one for Ellen!

Jon Adams
Community Outreach Librarian
Masterton District library

Baby Boomers and libraries

One of the interesting developments facing public libraries over the next twenty to thirty years will be accommodating the needs of a huge influx of retired people as the Baby Boomer generation come to the end of their working lives. The Baby Boomer generation resulted from the huge increase in the birth rate following the Second World War (generally defined as encompassing children born between 1946 and 1964) and represents a significant demographic group. The challenge for libraries is going to be determining the characteristics of the Baby Boomer generation and predicting and catering for the services they are going to require.
Baby Boomers are generally thought to have grown up in a time of plenty. While the generation before had faced the Depression and the restrictions of the Second World War, the boomers grew up in a time of high employment and general optimism following the darkness of war. However they also grew up in a time of dramatic social change featuring events such as the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, and the birth of Rock’n’Roll. As such Boomers are often generalised as being the ‘me’ generation who ‘want it now’, but at the same time have questioned, challenged and reformed many social and political structures. Some are suggesting that the Boomer generation will now change our ideas of what it means to grow old.
Generally the Baby Boomers can expect to enjoy a longer life expectancy than any previous generation and it is predicted that they will have an interest in remaining youthful and mentally and physically active. They will still be participating in many aspects of society and indeed many will still be wanting or needing to work, at least part-time. Some have labelled the Baby Boomers as the generation with ‘Great Expectations’ and this is unlikely to change now they have reached the age of retirement.
The Baby Boomer generation is generally thought to be better educated than any previous generation and this is likely to have a significant impact on their use of libraries. It is predicted that continuing or life-long learning will play an important part in the desire of Boomers to remain mentally active and pursue education for pleasure. Libraries will therefore need to be equipped to provide or support self-education courses and the skills needed to undertake them.
Through work or leisure many of the Baby Boomer generation will be familiar with advances in Information and Communication Technology, and will expect to be able to take advantage of these developments in their retirement. This familiarity will mean Boomers are likely to be comfortable with using the library on-line, making use of the library’s website to reserve and renew books, and to find out about library services. They will increasingly be ‘virtual’ customers who access and download resources from home. As a result they will expect libraries to be up to date with technological developments.
At the same time, having grown up with traditional books, it is thought that the Boomers will still want to be able to read from books, preferring them to electronic resources for certain types of information and for recreational reading. Libraries will therefore need to continue to provide fiction and information in traditional book format, but also allow access to the huge information resources of the Internet. It is also likely that libraries will need to be able to provide a venue for the different groups and organisations that Baby Boomers will be participating in to meet and the social interactions that these allow.
Women will represent a higher percentage of the Baby Boomer generation than men, and it will be a generation of women who have had more educational opportunities and more workplace participation than any previous generation - they are also sometimes known as the ‘Liberation Generation’. The reality is that many of these women have also had the major responsibility for raising the family and managing the household, so their working years have been particularly poor in terms of leisure time, and time for individual pursuits. For them retirement will allow more opportunities to pursue hobbies and interests and it is notable that in February 2009 women over 55 were the fastest growing demographic on Facebook.
While it is unwise and probably unfair to make too many assumptions on the characteristics of the Baby Boomer generation (particularly that they will all be alike), the fact remains that a very large cohort is beginning to reach the age of retirement and this will have a great impact on society and social institutions such as the library. It is predicted that the life experiences of the Boomers will give them quite different expectations of retirement, and that it will not just be a time of leisure, but also for beginning new activities, a period of productive aging. In both regards the public library is likely to play an important role in helping them make the most of their retirement.
Already here at Masterton we are noticing an increase in the number of recently retired people joining or rejoining the library and with the Wairarapa’s relatively older population, this is likely to be a significant social group we will be catering for. Some of the Boomer generation may not have been in the library for several years and will discover that the modern library still offers books, but much more besides as we continually work towards meeting the needs of our users. Libraries do of course already make provision for what are generally termed ‘senior services’, but it seems we are all going to have to rethink what a ‘senior’ is and wants.

Jon Adams
Community Outreach Librarian
Masterton District Library

Yarns In Barns

Masterton Library is proud to be a part of the Yarns in Barns Festival of Reading which runs from the 20th to 30th of May. This year the festival features sessions from such notable writers and entertainers as Charlotte Grimshaw, Paula Morris, Fergus Barrowman, Dame Fiona Kidman, Bill Manhire, Keith Stewart, Alexa Johnston, Nick Bollinger, Te Radar (aka Andrew Lumsden), Matt Elliott, Jill Marshall, Felicity Price, John Perriam and Theresa Gattung.



The Library will be playing host to a talk by Alexa Johnston author of the best-selling Ladies, A Plate and the follow up A Second Helping. Alexa will be talking about the traditional pleasures of food preperation on the 25th of May at 2:00 pm. This session will also double as part of our regular Seniors Celebrate programme.



Another highlight for us will be the launch on Wednesday the 26th of March of the Wairarapa Archive's latest book Two Men of Mana and Other Stories: a Celebration of Wairarapa's Early Days. Author and archivist Gareth Winter will entertain with stories from the region's past at the launch which will be held at St Mark's Church Hall, High Street, Carterton.

DVDs at the Library

The DVD collection here at Masterton Library has been growing at a steady pace and we recently moved it as it was becoming too big for its old location. It is now sited between the Reference Collection and the Information Desk, to the left as you come in from the Queen Street entrance. This growth is a reflection of the increasing popularity of our DVDs, particularly for the seemingly large number of people who find little of appeal on television. In this article I would like to explain what we have in the collection and how they are issued.

The library does not aim to be a source for popular new releases or big blockbusters as these are already well catered for by the local video stores. Instead we try to fill a niche by providing access to classic movies and television programmes, and those that may not be easy to find elsewhere. We also focus on movies and television series that have some artistic or cultural merit, and titles that have been adapted from books.

We have a good range of movies in our collection including comedies like The Castle and The Life of Brian, dramas like The Queen and The Colour Purple, and action/adventures such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and The Bourne Identity. We have award winners such as Slumdog Millionaire, American Beauty, and The English Patient, and classic older movies like Casablanca, The Sound of Music, and Fiddler on the Roof. We have also made an effort to collect New Zealand films, from older titles like Sleeping Dogs and Utu, to more recent releases such as Second Hand Wedding.

Our collection of television series on DVD has been a real success and again encompasses a huge variety of titles and genres. A number of these have been bought in response to customer requests, particularly for quality British programmes, and these have been very popular. Season one of Foyles War for example has been issued 35 times in just over a year, and had 11 reserves placed on it. Foyles War is a detective series set in England during the Second World War and was created by Anthony Horowitz who also worked on Midsomer Murders (which we also have) and the popular Alex Rider series of books. Other murder mysteries in the collection are Inspector Morse and Silent Witness, and TV adaptations of the exploits of Agatha Christie’s perennially popular Miss Marple.

We have a number of classic comedy series including Open All Hours, Steptoe and Son, and The Last of the Summer Wine. We also have copies of documentary series such as Intrepid Journeys and Country Calendar, and one-off documentaries like The Wahine Disaster. Other highlights include historical adventures such as Sharpe and Hornblower, and adaptations of the dramas of Catherine Cookson. We also have a large number of music DVDs featuring artists as diverse as Andre Rieu, Hayley Westenra, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. There is sure to be something for everyone, be it Doctor Finlay, Doc Martin, or Dr Who.

There are also hundreds of DVD titles available in the children’s section, again incorporating movies and television programmes. The movies include older favourites like Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and The Parent Trap, and more recent titles such as High School Musical, Nanny McPhee and Inkheart. Our TV series range from older titles like Little House on the Prairie, to the more recent Ben 10 and Hannah Montanna. We also have the New Zealand made series Jane and the Dragon and The Adventures of Massey Ferguson.

Our adult DVD movies are issued for one week for a rental charge of three dollars, while the children’s DVDs (movies and TV series) are also issued for one week, but for a rental charge of two dollars. As with the books it is possible for you to renew DVDs (so long as no other borrower has reserved it) but this will incur another rental charge. Most of the TV series we have on DVD are issued for one week for a three dollar rental, but there are a few titles that are issued for two weeks for a four dollar rental charge. We do this when the number of discs in the set mean it would be quite an achievement to get through in a week. We give you more time to get through these as we realise you will all have other things you need to get done in your day other than watching DVDs - like reading library books!