Behind the Scenes at CPL – Selecting New Books

June 19, 2015May 26, 2015 / Louise / 2 Comments

With more than 100,000 items on our shelves, Cheshire Library is a busy place! If you’ve ever wondered how many people it takes to keep our collection humming, you can find out in a new series of posts about what goes on behind the scenes at CPL. Today’s subject is Collection Development – or Buying New Stuff.We have several librarians who are in charge of maintaining the different collections here at CPL. Designated staff members are tasked with ordering Adult print materials, Children’s print materials, Teen print materials, Adult audiovisual materials, Children’s audiovisual materials, and Periodicals. For the purposes of this article, let’s focus on the selecting and ordering of Adult print materials.

Deborah Rutter is the Deputy Director of Cheshire Library, and a large part of her job revolves around the development of our Adult print collection. With a dizzying number of books being published each month, Deb must carefully read professional publications like “Library Journal” and “Baker & Taylor Forecast” for reviews and publishing news, in order to select upcoming titles that would be popular with our patrons. Deb says books about gardening, home decor, history, travel, and self-help are always in demand here at CPL, so she always makes sure to order the latest titles in those subjects!

Fiction buying can be a little trickier. In addition to reading professional publications, Deb can often be seen perusing the “New York Times Book Review”, “Book List”, Amazon.com and lots of other book-related websites to stay of top of what’s got “buzz” in the publishing world. Of course, purchasing the latest books by popular authors is a given. Deb also checks to see what the print runs of upcoming books are, and whether they are being released simultaneously as audiobooks in addition to print. Both of these factors can be helpful in figuring out the predicted popularity of a new book.

Once there’s a list of books to buy, it’s time to decide how many copies we should purchase. A lot of this has to do with our current book budget, but a book with an outstanding review, or lot of patron requests, will also help determine how many copies we should buy.

Patron suggestions are always welcome. We buy many of the books that people request, so if there’s a book you’d like to see in our collection, let us know! There’s a handy form on our website for exactly that purpose. Book orders are made about twice a month, as a rule, so suggestions for purchase can often be accommodated quickly.

Selectors have a tough job. Our collection at Cheshire Library is curated with a lot of care and thought, and it shows. In the next behind-the-scenes post, we’ll find out what happens AFTER the books arrive!

Christian Grey Speaks – His Side of Fifty Shades of Grey

June 15, 2015June 9, 2015 / Linda / Leave a comment

If you are still fantasizing about Christian Grey, then you are in luck. On June 1, 2015, it was announced that E L James is releasing a new version of her bestselling novel, Fifty Shades of Grey, due out on June 18, 2015. Fans of the trilogy will recognize this date as Christian’s birthday. The new book – Grey – is written from Christian’s point of view. In a statement released through Vintage Anchor (paperback imprint of Penguin Random House), James is dedicating the new book to readers who had “asked…and asked…and asked…asked” for a novel narrated by Christian. James adds: “Christian is a complex character, and readers have always been fascinated by his desires and motivations, and his troubled past. Also, as anyone who has ever been in a relationship knows, there are two sides to every story.”

Want to reread the original series? Check out their availability in our catalog – Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, Fifty Shades Freed.

So, get ready to turn up your air conditioner and settle in for some hot reading!

Traveling Through Time with Jeeves and Wooster

June 12, 2015June 4, 2015 / Mary / Leave a comment

Wandering through the fiction stacks looking for a good book, a title caught my eye: Jeeves and the Wedding Bells.

Boy, is that in the wrong place, I thought, knowing that the author of the Jeeves and Wooster series was the late, great P.G. Wodehouse. What was it doing on the shelves near Faulkner? I pulled it off and received a surprise. Sebastian Faulks was listed as the author and the full title was Jeeves and the Wedding Bells: an homage to P.G. Wodehouse.

I flipped open the cover and read the blurb on the inside: P.G. Wodehouse documented the lives of the inimitable Jeeves and Wooster for nearly sixty years, from their first appearance in 1915 (“Extricating Young Gussie”) to the his final completed novel (Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen) in 1974. These two were the finest creations of a novelist widely proclaimed to be the finest comic English writer by critics and fans alike. With the approval of the Wodehouse estate, acclaimed novelist Sebastian Faulks brings Bertie and Jeeves back to life in a hilarious affair of mix-ups and mishaps.

How had I missed this? I clutched my new-found treasure and remembered…

I was fifteen years old and a new Wodehouse fan, having discovered his books via my job as a library page. I was an avid reader and hungrily devouring all the new series that came my way. Granted, Wodehouse was not a new author even back then, but he was new to me and from my first story, Jeeves and the Tie that Binds, I was smitten. Wit, pacing, irony, farce, and Englishmen; I couldn’t read them fast enough.

I recalled my delight at spotting a Wodehouse title that I had never read before and how I would carefully stow it away on my book truck so that I could check it out at the end of my shift. That same joy was surging through me now. A new Jeeves and Wooster tale! For a brief moment, I was fifteen again.

If you have never experienced the joys of a P.G. Wodehouse tale, I highly encourage you to dig in. You can also watch the excellent Jeeves and Wooster T.V. series starring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

10 Books We’re Looking Forward to in June

June 8, 2015May 14, 2015 / Louise / Leave a comment

Is it really June already? There are some terrific books coming to our shelves in June that have “hammock time” written all over them.

Every month, librarians from around the country pick the top ten new books they’d most like to share with readers. The results are published on LibraryReads.org. One of the goals of LibraryReads is to highlight the important role public libraries play in building buzz for new books and new authors. Click through to read more about what new and upcoming books librarians consider buzzworthy this month. The top ten titles for June are:

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave
The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows
The Book of Speculation by Erica Swyler
The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
The Rumor by Elin Hilderbrand
The Precipice by Paul Doiron
My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry by Fredrik Backman
Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship by Robert Kurson

Zen Doodles and Zentangles; When Creativity and Relaxation Collide

May 27, 2015May 28, 2015 / Sharon Tyler / Leave a comment

Zentangles and Zen Doodling are an art form that has become a new trend. Many are using this artistic endeavor like meditation, others are using it to flex their creative muscles, and others are just trying it because it is new and fun. This art form is using structured patterns or forms. Since it all starts with following a series of steps and set pattern there is no real right or wrong way to go. It does not matter if you think you are lacking talent or a phenomenal artist, everyone’s effort is wonderful and there is no way to fail. It can be a great way for the art leery to get started in creative endeavors.

If you are ready to go, we have a Zen Doodle Program on May 29th from 3 to 4:30 pm in our Mary Baldwin room. No registration is required, so join in and enjoy. Interested but too nervous to jump on in? Well, you can always check out some of the books we have acquired on Zen Doodling and Zentangles. Most are new to the collection and offer clear instructions and samples to help inspire you.