Notes on Weeding and Developing the Folktale Collection

The Emperor's New Clothes by Demi could be considered a variant of the Andersen folktale. Depending on how we decide to organize the section, I might like to revisit this title...

In general, remember to focus on Andersen's tales- do they even belong in the folktale section? they're not listed in the Children's catalog there...

check out Storytelling Art and Technique co-written by Augusta Baker. It's on the staff shelf.

Check into Children's adaptations of famous ballets- Swan Lake, Nutcracker

I believe that giving patrons access to collections of folktales from other countries is important, but what we have is not circulating in a major way. Make sure you look into possibly buying a set of "folktales from around the world" or something like that...

Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan

Celtic Folktales

Sea Legends

Natalie Savage Carlson

I'm curious about whether or not a display of Native American stories would circulate despite the condition of the books... Maybe I could try it before I weed out certain books from the collection.

Beatrice Schenk De Regniers writer
Margot Tomes illustrator

newer versions of the fisherman and his wife

Arthur Rackham

William Pene DuBois

William J. Faulkner- writer

Troy Howell- illustrator

Sid Fleischman

website for World Folklore Series: http://lu.com/showseries.cfm?serid=34

easy reader folktales

John Henry- are there other good adaptations besides Lester's? Or should we just get more copies??

Check back on Faber book of Modern Fairy Tales and The Blue Bird by Fiona French -- both re-classed

King Arthur books

fairy tales from other countries written at child's reading level

One of My Pet Peeves

The use of the non-word "faves" for "favorites". It never was a cool word to use, and it makes people who use it to try to sound cooler even lamer than if they used an actual cool word.
That is all.

Continuing Education I've Done Since Becoming a Librarian

Feb 2006 NY ComicCon- 15 hours
May 2006 Graphic Novel Workshop in Albany- 5 hours?
25 Sept 2006 Early Literacy Workshop- 7.5 hours

Planning Meeting List

CHECK IN for major departmental areas...
Budget Allocations
Character costume spring and summer (Stellaluna and Peter Rabbit)
finish spring programming
afternoon kindergarten storytime
programming aide position description
storytime overflow strategizing
parent child services grant
Zoomobile
Division of Labor (What do we do?)
Folktale Section
Teen Volunteer

Four Small Things

There are many things to be grateful for in a day- a roof over my head, a good job, people who love me... I could fill my time thinking about how grateful I am for my life with these things alone. But a few small things, that I usually overlook, struck me as being wonderful and beautiful and worth being alive for today. I wanted to give tribute to them.

1) Sorting out by number the Return of the Jedi cards Alex gave me for FREE
2) Coming outside at 3:30 to a warm balmy fall day
3) Merging onto 590 north and driving under the bridge when a train was passing over
4) Wanting to coast down Empire Boulevard east of the bay, but not being able to because of the traffic (because it made me remember the last time I coasted down and it was so fun!)

The best part is that all four of these things happened within a half hour of each other! It gets me excited to think that every half hour of my life is filled with such things -- that even if I get caught up in daily life and its distractions and responsibilities, the moment I decide to pay attention, my world explodes with things to be thankful for. How blessed I am!

Inner Turmoil

The thing I love about inner turmoil is that I usually wake up quite early (because I can't sleep) and see a side of morning that I usually miss because I go to bed too late. I also will often go into work early and it is wonderfully quiet here when no one is around. So despite the knot in the pit of my stomach, I'm driving to work, enjoying the low light of morning and the relative lack of cars on the highway and generally feeling peaceful and grateful to be alive. Funny how a knotted stomach can coexist with such positive feelings -- if I'm lucky, it's a sign of maturity and a more balanced view of the world and of life. If I'm not, then it probably means I'm going crazy.

Spike

I've been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer somewhat obsessively over the last few weeks. I am about 8 episodes deep into Season 7 and will probably finish the series this week, as my girlfriend's out of town.
The return of Spike's soul has me thinking about what exactly having a soul means. For a vampire, it seems that it means anguish over centuries of evildoing and general moodiness. But don't humans with souls do evil all over the world without a modicum of remorse? How does one explain the severe reactions of these particular characters to the returns of their respective souls?

Perhaps it's the sheer weight of the evil done over such a long period of time. Or maybe it's particular to those vampires who have had their souls returned: Angel, though quite the rabble-rouser in his day, probably would have never resorted to mass murder in his lifetime had he not been turned. Spike is an even less likely candidate. The sudden return of a basically decent soul to a reprobrate consciousness would probably be quite the shock. And as in the case of Angel, time doesn't heal all wounds. He can only hope that by the end of his days the good he's done outweighs the bad (Spike's path remains to be seen, as I have not yet finished the series).

So if the state if a soul varies from individual to individual, how do explain the mass murderers in our societies who are not vampires? Are some souls defective right from the start? Or do they start out basically good and become overcome by evil- whether supernatural or circumstantial? Perhaps other types of demons get in there and snuff out the good souls, much like turning into a vampire replaces the soul that originally existed in its human host.

Well, without knowing the basic nature of humanity, one cannot really ever answer these questions. So, I suppose I should get back to work. It is fun to wonder, though.