Who Are These Writers? #3

John Gorham Palfrey is another writer featured on the Bangor Public Library rotunda whose name & publications may not hold the high stature each held in 1912 during the library's construction.

Palfrey, an ordained Unitarian clergyman, editor, historian, & U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, lived from 1796 to 1881. Palfrey has an extensive list of accomplishments in each of these roles, but our focus here will be on his achievements as a writer. [For a complete biography, have a look here]. Palfrey's most famous work would have to be the five volume [originally planned as three volumes as shown in the above image] History of New England. This set is "an encyclopedic study of the political, intellectual, religious, and social origins of the region from it discovery by Europeans to the eve of the American Revolution" (source: Alexander Moore, Dictionary of Literary Biography, volume 30, 1984). Bangor Public Library owns this behemoth collection, which totals over 2400 pages, including a nearly one hundred page index in volume 5.

This set, published between 1859 to 1890, faces & has faced mixed reviews for most of the nearly 120 years since its completion. In 1984, Alexander Moore noted, "Palfrey displayed the best and the worst aspects of nineteenth century historical writing. His scholarship and attention to detail were unquestionable, but his regional chauvinism and racial theorizing have placed his work in disrepute. In this regard, Palfrey's obscurity is a result of changing trends in historiography, not the datedness of his research or lack of historical insights."

Moore continued: "In the twentieth century writers have ... consistently cited Palfrey's History as the worst example of a bad school of historical writing they call 'filiopietistic' [wow! what a word! its meaning is "of or relating to an often immoderate reverence for forebears or tradition"], 'apologetic' and even 'clerical.' Unfortunately, by attacking Palfrey's ... biases, they [his critics] have not addressed the historical quality of his work. Palfrey's History of New England is a dense, multilayered work, prodigiously researched and annotated with footnotes that stretch, in approved nineteenth-century style, for pages in length. The work contains lists of major political officeholders for all the New England colonies from their founding until 1775."

Moore concluded that Palfrey's History of New England is "despite its bulk, quite readable." He also opined that Palfrey's set discussed every aspect of New England's natural, political, religious, and social history and that Palfrey's "insights into the Puritan mind as well as historical events have proven largely to be correct." Perhaps Moore's greatest compliment to Palfrey was that he felt History of New England (and other Palfrey publications) were "to all historians ... examples of the power of historiographical labels to conceal more than they reveal." In other words, Moore felt that too many historians & readers may be dismissing Palfrey due to over a century's worth of pigeonholing of his work, but in doing so, are missing out on the quality of it.
Yet another reviewer, James Truslow Adams, makes note of the extensive use of the footnotes, which Adams calls "a convenient and useful mine of information as to events and characters in the period" [James Truslow Adams, Dictionary of American Biography, 1931, volume 7, page 170]. In looking at the library's copy of volume I of History of New England I see a footnote on nearly every page (including page 191 which is essentially all footnoted). If nothing else, one gains an appreciation for both the amount of detail & the complexity of organization Palfrey put into his major work.

The first volume of History of New England can be viewed online here.

Another important Palfrey work (also owned by Bangor Public Library, but in our non-circulating collection) was the widely distributed abolitionist pamphlet, Papers on the slave power. In 1843, Palfrey's father died in Louisiana, leaving Palfrey an inheritance which included twenty slaves. While he had been for years a vocal advocate of abolition, the potential of slave ownership sent Palfrey into action. Despite legal difficulties, heavy financial loss, and fractured relations with his surviving family members, Palfrey traveled to Louisiana, claimed his slaves, returned to Boston and freed his slaves. Palfrey had hoped to keep his actions private, but they became public & Palfrey found himself thrust into a greater stature within the abolitionist movement [source: a paraphrasing of Alexander Moore's account in Dictionary of Literary Biography, volume 30]. In this role, Palfrey published a series of essays in the Boston Whig in 1846, which were later collected & published as Papers on the slave power. These essays, according to Moore, contained the narrative of the history of slave trade in the U.S., including a recounting of the compromise on the issue of slavery at the 1787 Constitutional Convention. Palfrey also issued in this work a call to stop the spread of slavery and an aim to undermine it in state is already existed.

This historical importance of this publication of Palfrey's is worth noting on its own merit. However, I would also like to point out how important (and cool) it is to be able to say that I held this publication in my hands today -- all thanks to the fact that the Bangor Public Library owns it & has owned & maintained it for more than 160 years after its publication.

Bangor Public Library's books, as well as its architecture, represent and reflect a culture and tradition of commitment to scholarship, reading, and social significance in the history of Bangor. While people today may not know who John Gorham Palfrey is or what he has added to American & New England culture, it is a comfort and source of pride to know that the people of Bangor did care in 1912. Even more reassuring is that such a commitment by the citizenry of Bangor has continued & flourishes a century later.

The next post in this series will shed light on exactly who Parkman is.Feel welcome to post any comments or questions about this & other Bangor Public Library Blog posts.

Patrick Layne

playne@bpl.lib.me.us

Who Are These Writers? #2

John Fiske is another writer featured on the library's rotunda whose name seems to have diminished in recognition over the last century.

Fiske, a philosopher & historian born Edmund Fiske Green in Hartford, Connecticut, lived from 1842 to 1901. As a child, he was already quite the scholar, noting in his adult writings that by age eight he had read about two hundred books, across a wide spectrum of topics, primarily philosophy. By the age of twenty, he could read in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and so on (the list continues with another thirteen languages, including something called Zend, which turns out to be Zoroastrian-based).

Fiske was a supporter of the theory of evolution well before it had gained any measure of popular validation with Charles Darwin's publication in 1867 of On the origin of species by means of natural selection. Darwin's position, however, was not (and often still is not) without controversy, and those supporting it could face professional hardships. Fiske, for example, had been deemed an atheist so he was not admitted to the faculty of Harvard despite having being a well-regarded lecturer & writer. Fiske, instead, in 1872 was given the position of assistant librarian at Harvard. While this was meant to be a demotion, Fiske found the work rewarding and beneficial to his career. [Fiske included the forty page essay, "A Librarian's Work" in his book Darwinism and Other Essays] .

By 1879, Fiske had resigned his post at Harvard, taking to delivering a course of lectures on American history at the Old South Church in Boston & across the Atlantic in London. During this period in his life, Fiske developed a reputation as the most popular lecturer on history America had even known to that point. The majority of Fiske's writings during this time, however, were primarily philosophical volumes such as Myths and Myth-Makers, The Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, The Unseen World, Darwinism and Other Essays, Excursions of an Evolutionist, and The Idea of God as Affected by Modern Knowledge.Fiske began to focus on historical writing in the late 1880s, a focus which continued into the early 1900s. His works during that time include The Critical Period of American History, 1783-89, The Beginnings of New England, The Discovery of America, and New France and New England. Fiske had made this transition, according to some, based on financial need, and according to others, based on "his wish to study America from the standpoint of an evolutionist" (Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volume III, page 422].
I asked my brother, a history doctoral student at the University of Kentucky, about how Fiske is viewed by today's history scholars. Below are his comments:

"Fiske isn't read by historians too much today. I don't recall reading anything written by him. However, I am sure, given the dates of his writings and his life, most anything he has written has been debunked by modern historians. He was entering the profession just as it was becoming 'professionalized and most of those guys are looked upon differently now. Not that they were generally bad historians, which some were, but that they didn't have to tools and skills that have been developed since their time. I also know that he was a Social Darwinist, and that theory has pretty much been debunked as well, so if that tinge is in any of his writings, then he would get attacked for that has well."

My brother's sentiments are largely echoed in the Fiske biography written by James Truslow Adams from the Dictionary of American Biography copyrighted 1931 [the source of much of this blog post's content]. "In the historical field," Adams wrote, "Fiske was solely a popularizer ... far from making any original contribution of material or interpretation, he merely narrated conspicuous facts, and he did that not authoritatively, but with a charm of style rare among American historians." Adams, however, did view Fiske's role as a historian as "the prime cause of not a few of the distinguished scholars of to-day first turning to history as their life-work" [both quotes page 423]. So, in other words, Fiske is seen as vital as legitimizing & elevating the study of history, but not as all that great of an historian.

While history, Adams, my brother, or I have not been particularly kind to John Fiske, the architects of our library in 1912-13 did not have the benefit of knowing how our society was to change in the next century. One hundred years into our future, some of our most revered scholars & writers inevitably will be seen as outdated as well. But with their efforts, as with Fiske's, each will have played a vital role in the advancement of thought & scholarship in our country. We can celebrate all who have & will continue that cause.

Up next in the Who Are These Writers Series, Palfrey.Feel welcome to post any comments or questions about this & other Bangor Public Library Blog posts.

Patrick Layne

playne@bpl.lib.me.us

Who Are These Writers?

The rotunda above the second floor lobby & just outside the Bangor Room & the Lecture Hall features the names of twelve writers. At the time of the building's construction circa 1912-13, each of these writers held enough public interest to be worthy of current (and presumably future) reverence. Several of these authors, Hawthorne, Longfellow, Emerson and Whittier, for example, remain easily recognizable to readers today. A few, however, required some light detective work to identify.Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Thomas Bailey Aldrich is one of the authors deemed prominent enough for etched-in-stone status when our building was constructed between 1912-13, but whose fame has apparently been fleeting ever since.

Aldrich, a native of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was a poet, novelist, & editor born in 1836 who died in Boston in 1907. Ferris Greenslet's biography of him (available at Bangor Public Library) characterizes Aldrich as "the exquisite lyric poet, the inimitable story-teller, the accomplished editor, the witty, urbane man of letters." Aldrich's work as editor of The Atlantic Monthly from 1881-1890 established him as a mentor to many writers, including other writers such as Lowell, Longfellow & Holmes listed with him on the library's rotunda.
Aldrich's work was regarded as witty and humorous, which contributed to his being quite popular during the peak of his career. He was, in fact, at one point during his lifetime determined to be more popular than Mark Twain and Walt Whitman (source: http://harvardsquarelibrary.org/poets/aldrich.php). That Aldrich is linked to Twain is noteworthy since perhaps Aldrich's most famous book, The Story of a Bad Boy, is considered a forerunner to Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

The Story of a Bad Boy, published in 1870, was a semi-autobiographical fictional story about growing up in Portsmouth, which Aldrich calls Rivermouth in this book. The book predates Huckleberry Finn by 14 years, leading critics to call "this novel ... the first realistic depiction of childhood in American fiction" (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bailey_Aldrich) . Twain himself commented that The Story of a Bad Boy was his inspiration for creating Tom Sawyer (source: http://seacoastnh.com/aldrich/bio.html) .
Greenslet's biography includes several letters written between Twain & Aldrich. These letters have a playful tone, that of two men who knew each other well. So well, in fact, that in an 1871 letter Aldrich makes fun of Twain having a pen name. Aldrich teases Twain that if Twain were to come to Boston & not come to see him, then Aldrich would "put a paragraph in 'Every Saturday' [a weekly illustrated Boston-based magazine which folded in 1874] to the effect that through you are generally known as Mark Twain, your favorite nom de plume is 'Barry Gray.'"

Bangor Public Library owns The Story of a Bad Boy and several other Aldrich works if you'd like to take a look. Aldrich would presumably be happy to have his works revisited since he is credited as saying, "Books that have become classics - books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal - always remind me of retired colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay." [Source: unknown, but referenced extensively on the Internet]

Another Aldrich-attributed utterance, one which seems an apt axiom for adjourning this Aldrich analysis: "What is lovely never dies, but passes into other loveliness. " [Source: Aldrich poem, A Shadow of the Night]

Next up on the Who Are These Writers? series: Who is Fiske? Feel welcome to post any comments or questions about this & other Bangor Public Library Blog posts.

Patrick Layne

playne@bpl.lib.me.us

A Book about a Thousand Things

Last week, I was stopped at a traffic light on Exchange Street in Bangor on the way to work. Across the street stood Cornerstone Barber Shop, the place where I usually go for haircuts & where I always take my oldest son.

Anyway, while stopped in traffic, I noticed the barber pole on the building. I had thought before that I knew or vaguely knew the origin of the stripes on the barber pole. It was something I thought I should look up.

That morning at work, probably not even an hour after thinking about that question, I was standing in the book stacks here & a book title caught my eye.

That book, A Book about a Thousand Things, by George Stimpson, copyright 1946. I suppose I wondered what the thousand things were, so I pulled the book from the shelf to take a look. I opened the book. Curiously enough, I opened the book to pages 94 & 95, page 95 containing the phrase "how did the barber pole originate?"
Call it kismet or dumb luck or simple coincidence, whatever you want, I had found the answer to my question without even knowing (at least not consciously) I was searching for it. Another beauty of this is that is that as I looked elsewhere in Stimpson's book, I found answers to questions I might not have thought to ask, but that I was nonetheless happy to have casually discovered. For example, do you know that Boycott was a person & it was he that was the first to be boycotted? He was a landlord who wasn't very nice to his tenants during the 1880s.

This anecdote well illustrates what I would like to think are the strengths of libraries: either by design or chance, a person will more than likely discover his or her answer here. Or will think to ask here. Or will learn here. Or just happen to find out because a book title or jacket catches his or her eye. One need only be curious.

So, according to George Stimpson, how did the barber pole originate?

"The barber pole with spiral stripes is a relic of the days when barbers were also surgeons. As early as the fifth century A.D. the barbers in Rome extracted teeth, treated wounds and bled patients as part of their professional work. When the London barbers were incorporated in 1461 they were the only persons practicing surgery in the city. In the reign of Henry VIII Parliament passed a law providing that barbers should confine themselves to minor operations such as bloodletting and drawing teeth, while surgeons were prohibited from 'barbery and shaving'. It was not until 1745, only thirty years before the American Revolution, that the barbers and surgeons of London were separated into distinct corporations, and the practice of surgery by barbers was not abolished in France, Germany and other European countries until much later. The barber-surgeons generally bled their patients in the arm, and, in the days when few people could read and pictures and emblems were used as shop signs, the emblem of the profession was a spirally painted white and red pole from which was suspended a brass basin with a semicircular opening in the rim. The white ground represented the bandage used in bloodletting, the red stripe represented the blood, and the basin represented the vessel used to receive the blood. Strangely it has been the barbers and not the surgeons who have retained, it a modified form, this ancient symbol of their profession. In the United States the brass basin is generally omitted from the barber pole, but it is still common in Britain. American barbers also added a blue stripe, perhaps to make the color conform with those of the national flag."
If you'd like, here is a link to another fan's opinion of Stimpson's book: http://www.mickhalpin.com/criticalmick_a_thousand_things.htm.

A Book about a Thousand Things and related books can be found in the 030-032 Dewey section of Bangor Public Library. If you need help finding a book, always feel welcome to ask me or another reference librarian here at Bangor Public Library. You can ask us in person, by phone (947-8336 x130), or by email (reference@bpl.lib.me.us).

Patrick Layne

playne@bpl.lib.me.us

Best Websites for Writers

The May/June 2009 issue of Writer's Digest, in addition to containing a cover story it bills as an "epic conversation on writing" with Stephen King & Jerry B. Jenkins, has a feature article about the 101 best websites for writers.

The article lists a handful of recommended sites that may be of interest to you.

http://sixsentences.blogspot.com: Writers from across the world have posted sharply honed stories that, you guessed it, are no more than six sentences in length. These stories can be read in just a minute or so, but can provide an insight or perspective that lasts much longer. Anyone can try his or her hand at this story telling format as well, as the blog features a link detailing how to make submissions. Readers can browse months of submissions to the blog or set up an RSS feed to receive newer posts.http://grammarbook.com/: This site features the rules for grammar, punctuation, capitalization, & much more, as well as links to video lessons for almost 70 English-usage issues. Even better, there are dozens of interactive & free online quizzes for various grammar concerns. This site may be particularly beneficial to those learning English as a second language, those returning to school after some time off, or anyone else who loves grammar. Note: the site is commercial in nature, so it does advertise for subscribing to extra tests or features. But, anyone can scroll down on the pages, specifically the Free Online Quizzes page, to find the free content.

http://www.bookglutton.com/: After setting up a free account, users can upload samples of their own writing to get critiques of the work. The site also has many book discussion or author discussion forums to join. The Writer's Digest best 101 list has about a dozen sites similar to this which offer similar content & functionality.
http://agentquery.com/: If you have writings you feel are ready to be published, this site of "the Internet's largest and most current database of literary agents" might be your source for finding representation. http://writingcontests.wordpress.com/: On this frequently updated site, you will find information about a parade of writing contests, focusing primarily on short story, flash or micro fiction & poetry. This site also allows users to set up RSS feeds to receive newer posts.

http://jc-schools.net/write/create.htm: Features what is called a writing prompt generator, which randomly selects topics to help start your creative writing engine. Two examples of these random topics are "She seemed like such a sweet old lady. Who would ever believe that she was really . . " and "You have to babysit a pet chimpanzee. Write about your experience."

http://www.flashlightworthybooks.com/: An excellent source for finding the most well regarded books across a wide spectrum of genres, topics & age groups.

Again, these are but a few of the 101 resources recommended by Writer's Digest. You can find the complete list in the May/June 2009 issue of Writer's Digest -- available at the Bangor Public Library for checkout -- or online at http://www.writersdigest.com/101BestSites/?m_nYear=2008.

Let me know if you have other recommendations. Feel welcome to comment to this blog post if you would like. You can email me directly at playne@bpl.lib.me.us also.

Patrick Layne

Economic Stimulus Information

The good folks at the Maine State Library Reference Department have created a timely & detailed quick list of links to information about the economic stimulus package, more formally known as The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

To access this information, go to http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/index.php?topic=LibStaffPicks&id=68480&v=Article.
Or, you can individually view each of the links Maine State Library features in its review. Each is listed below with a brief explanation of each.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

The official American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 page can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/arra_public_review/. From this page, you can click a link to a PDF of the final text of the legislation as reviewed by Congress. You can also leave any comments you may have about the legislation on this page. The U.S. Economic Stimulus Plan

A much more common language version of the plan, created by the Council on Foreign Relations, can be found here -- http://www.cfr.org/publication/18348.

Keep Track of How Economic Stimulus Money is Being Spent

Recovery.gov is, according to its website, a site "that lets you, the taxpayer, figure out where the money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is going. There are going to be a few different ways to search for information. The money is being distributed by Federal agencies, and soon you'll be able to see where it's going -- to which states, to which congressional districts, even to which Federal contractors. As soon as we are able to, we'll display that information visually in maps, charts, and graphics." You can view the site at http://www.recovery.gov/.

State of Maine / American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Governor John Baldacci has released a statement about the stimulus plan on the Office of the Governor website at http://www.maine.gov/governor/baldacci/policy/Recovery2009.shtml. This page also features links to the latest updates, press releases, and other information about Maine government's involvement with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Want to Balance Maine's Budget?

Also on Governor Baldacci's website, you will find an amusing & informative tool which will "allow you to view the most current budget projections, adjust expenses and revenues to see the results, and send me your own balanced budget proposal." In other words, you'll get to try your hand at balancing the budget. I made a slight increase in the education expenditure, quickly putting the state at a $100 million deficit (shown below). This tool, along with other Maine budgetary concerns, can be found at http://www.maine.gov/governor/baldacci/policy/budget/index07-07.html.

I would like to thank the Maine State Library Reference Department for making me aware of all this information.

playne@bpl.lib.me.us

New Search Engine

LeapFish

LeapFish is a new alternative to the Google, Yahoo!, & other search engines that has been getting quite a bit of press coverage & rightfully so. LeapFish has two quickly apparent advantages over current search engine models. One, LeapFish will automatically update the page as you type your search term. In other words, you will not need to press enter or click search for results to be displayed. Sure, pressing enter or clicking search are not terribly time-consuming, but LeapFish has simplified this process in a way that I think most people can appreciate, especially after seeing it for oneself.

The second advantage of LeapFish is that search results are in varied formats. With Google & Yahoo!, a single search can currently only be done for text or images or video, not with all at once. LeapFish will simultaneously find text, video, & images. My search for guitar lessons found, for example, links to websites on the left-hand side of the page, links to videos on the right, links to images on the right, as well as other specialty links.

playne@bpl.lib.me.us

Time Magazine Best 50 Websites of 2008

Time, a noted magazine of our time, has produced an entertaining and useful listing of its views of the best of the online world. These websites fall into categories Time describes as Advice & Facts, Info & Gossip, Handy Tools, Fun & Games, and Hobbies & Interests.

Below are a few of the sites I've checked out & recommend.
http://www.iliketotallyloveit.com/: According to the site's publisher, this site " allows users to publish and share products with the broader public which they find cool, innovative, exceptionally beautiful, or just weird. Included with every item is a link to an online shop where it can be purchased." According to me, this site is a good stop for ideas for gifts for the upcoming gift season. I found a few good ideas rather quickly here by clicking on the Toys link.

http://www.omiru.com/: Omiru is "a style and shopping guide dedicated to real style for real people. We cover figure flattery, fashion trends, and an assortment of articles aimed at making style accessible to all." The site has an exhaustive Archives section dating back to March 2005 as well as links to dozens of online sites for buying items or researching fashion trends.
http://psychcentral.com/: Psych Central is an incredibly useful website for gaining more information about diagnosis, treatment, and helpful resources for a host of mental health issues for adults & children.http://www.geni.com/: Geni is an interactive online site where a person can create a family tree. The site allows for other members of the family to join a tree for discussion, adding photos & videos, and reminders of birthdays & other anniversaries. Best of all, the site restricts viewing & editing of a tree to those authorized by a tree's creator.
http://www.searchme.com/: This site offers an intriguing alternative to the Yahoo! & Google search engines. Searchme "lets you see what you’re searching for. As you start typing, categories appear that relate to your query. Choose a category, and you’ll see pictures of web pages that answer your search." Pun intended, this one has to be seen to be believed.http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php: The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project created by the University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Special Collections is a collection of "cylinder recordings, the first commercially produced sound recordings" which provide "a snapshot of musical and popular culture in the decades around the turn of the 20th century." Browse the collection to hear recordings from as early as 1893 about the first cars & airplanes, about World War I or the Civil War, or songs highlighting individual instruments like a zither or a cimbalom (which evidently is complex zither played especially in Hungary). The recordings of speeches found here may be of particular interest to history buffs or history teachers as they feature historical figures such as Teddy Roosevelt & William H. Taft.
http://www.lookybook.com/index.php: LookyBook, according to its site, "allows you to look at picture books in their entirety—from cover to cover, at your own pace. We know that nothing will replace the magic of reading a book with your child at bedtime, but we aim to replace the overwhelming and frustrating process of finding the right books for parents and their kids." The site is a useful tool for libraries, book sellers or individual readers hoping to preview books before purchase. This site allows searching by specific author or illustrator, by subject or genre, or by keyword. If searching by keyword, though, I would suggest trying, for example, both rabbit and rabbits if you are looking for a book about this animal in the family Leporidae. Using "rabbit" finds six books, but using "rabbits" finds only three.
http://digitalvaults.org/: A creation of the National Archives, this site contains digitized views of 1,200 documents in the National Archives collection. The content of this site is impressive on its own, but the interactivity of the site is what makes it special. I feel silly trying to explain this, actually -- give the site a look to see what I'm talking about.

The entire list can be found here: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/0,28757,1809858,00.html. The list is particularly enlightening & useful in that it often offers other suggestions of websites similar in scope to those selected as the best.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions or questions.

playne@bpl.lib.me.us

The Value of Libraries

A recent Bangor Daily News articles highlights the economic, cultural, & educational value of libraries. The article can be linked to here: http://bangordailynews.com/detail/90917.html.

The most telling part of the article to me is the dollar value of the services at the library used by the author, Rosemary Herbert, during a recent visit to her library in Rockport. In that one visit to her library, Ms. Herbert determined the services provided & materials borrowed to have a value of $233. Without putting too much thought into whether this a tremendous bargain or not, I'm just going to assume that this is a tremendous bargain.

But ... I think I'll also put much thought into this as well.

The most recent annual report for the Bangor Public Library lists the average amount of tax revenue per Bangor resident toward the operating cost of the library at $48.42 per taxpayer.

Here are some figures & observations to mull over:

* A fair estimate for the cost of a home Internet connection through Time Warner, a leading Internet service provider in the area, is around $40 per month. $48.42 is roughly the cost of five to six weeks of a home Internet connection.

*An estimate of the average price for a new hardcover book is between $18 and $30, an average price for a new paperback is between $6 and $15. If you only read books you could buy, $48.42 would limit you only to two or three (new) books per year.

*Most magazine subscriptions for individuals run between $15 to $30 per year, with some specialized magazines costing much more. $48.42 would most likely limit a person to only two subscriptions per year, meaning you'd have to choose between Time or Newsweek (or The Economist or The New York Review of Books) if you also already subscribe to Down East Magazine.

*Most books on CD & cassette cost $30 or more each, while the Playaways offered at the library cost $40 to $60 each. $48.42 might not even be enough to buy one of these, depending on what & where you're buying.

*The databases available on Marvel!, Maine's Virtual Library, utilized by college students, business professionals, health care professionals, and the regular citizen cost the state about seven million dollars per year. This averages out to between four & five dollars per taxpayer, a fair sum considering that many scientific, technical, and medical journals could charge an individual upwards of $40 for a single journal article download. Believe me, I've seen it -- though, fortunately, there are legal ways around being charged that amount whenever the situation has arisen.

*All libraries are heated in the winter & cooled in the summer, an expense not to be sneezed at with the current cost of energy resources. Plus, you know, libraries now have electricity for things like computers & lights & stuff. $48.42 is probably a good estimate for the dollar total of all the electricity currently being pumped into the room for the 29 computers in use right now in the room I'm sitting in.

*Bangor Public Library employs around forty full-time employees who work 37.5 hours per week, totaling around 1500 hours worked per week & around 78,000 hours worked per year. Your $48.42 provides perhaps a dollar a day for one day to each of the employees here. Another way to look at this is that $48.42 is less than minimum wage for one employee working 7.5 hours in one day.

*The library is open 60 hours a week from September to May, 48 hours per week June to August, with the library being open about 300 days &, bear with me, over 2900 hours per year. $48.42 equals about 15 cents per day the library is open for each taxpayer. If you a huge math fanatic, try dividing $48.42 into 2900 hours & you'll get 1.6 cents per hour.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have "ball park" figured some of the math here (including, occasionally for comic -- at least, intended on my part -- effect). And, in truth, local tax dollars do not account for all the revenue sources for the library. State tax dollars provide 5-10% of Bangor Public Library's revenue stream. Also, the library is very fortunate to have well-funded endowments & regular financial donations from many folks with generous spirits which almost exclusively fund our book collection.

For my money (ha + ha!), I'd say $48.42 per year is an incredible bargain. I worked part-time in the Albany, New York, public library system prior to coming to Bangor. In Albany, I believe the average tax burden for the library was just over $100 per taxpayer. And, that total has increased since voters agreed last year to fund renovation & new construction projects.

Of course, not every citizen of Bangor uses the library on a regular or irregular basis. Ten years after the construction of the new addition to the building, I occasionally help someone who notes with neither malice nor presumption that he/she "hasn't been in since the new part was added." At least ten years between visits to the library may beg that $48.42 is too much to pay.

But, I'll argue, the point is that we are here when anyone does need us. Last week, the library held a public forum to meet & hear the candidates for city council & the school committee speak. For many, this was the first & best & possibly only chance they had to better inform themselves about the upcoming local election. This very well attended forum may well have been the only time many folks visited us this year, but it highlights that at any given time our citizenry may call upon us to provide a valuable service or opportunity for them.

We are here & the graciousness of taxpayers & donors makes what we do possible. Your contributions, financial or otherwise, are a trust we hope to continue to honor whether you visit the library hundreds of times a year or not once. $48.42 is just a dollar figure; the real value of libraries isn't in what you pay but in what you & others can get from experiences & resources at the library.

Back in April, I visited the aquarium in Boston. I can't remember how much I paid for tickets for my wife, son & I. But I do remember how cool my son thought the penguins were & how scary he thought the octopus was. Okay, I'll be honest, it was me that found the octopus a little creepy.

My point is, that while, of course, there is certainly a dollar & cents reality to the library's operation, any true determination of a library's value can only exist in the minds of those who visit us. I would like to hope that more often than not that what we provide at Bangor Public Library is invaluable.

Let me know what you think.

playne@bpl.lib.me.us

Political & Social Cartoons

A few years back, I discovered a book called Attitude: The New Subversive Political Cartoonists, edited by Ted Rall. Rall is himself a rather noted political & social cartoonist, whose cartoons regularly appear in over 150 U.S. newspapers. He also is the author or editor of about a dozen books available on the URSUS & MaineCat catalogs, including two updated editions of Attitude.

Attitude features works by cartoon artists not commonly found in the majority of American newspapers. These cartoons are found predominantly in the alternative weeklies of the U.S.'s largest cities. The reason these artists are not regularly featured in most newspapers is that their perspectives typically go well beyond the Peanuts, Cathy, Family Circus, & Ziggy brand of drawing & social commentary. With all respect to the comics featured in most local papers, the typical Family Circus or Ziggy strip seems like it could have been (or was!) written back in 1971, with only an occasional reference to modern culture like American Idol or George Bush to let you know they weren't written in 1971.

Admittedly, the world views of the artists featured in Attitude & its follow-ups are left-leaning on the political & social-consciousness spectrum. Without blatantly giving away or advocating my own political beliefs, let's just say that I don't always agree or disagree with everything I hear on the O'Reilly Factor or on The Daily Show.

Because we live in a seemingly strongly politically & culturally divided country, I think that often fear of offending keeps many people from saying anything (other than discussing American Idol or other trivialities, though we all know Simon Cowell is more Republican than Paula Abdul; note: this is an unsubstantiated generalization -- & probably a pretty bad & way too complicated "joke"). Well, I say, say something at least. Even disagreement with someone is progress -- silence stagnates & insulates democracy.

With that in mind, I'd like to recommend a few links to the online works of a few of the cartoonists featured in Attitude & Attitude 2. [I have not looked at Attitude 3 yet because Bangor Public Library's copy has been checked out since it came in new].

I do advise, though, that some of these may feature words, opinions, or images you may find objectionable. I offer the same warning if you plan to watch an episode of Two & a Half Men, Law & Order, Hannity & Colmes, &/or The Colbert Report. Or, if you read an editorial from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or Bangor Daily News. Or, if you give a look to any of the dozen or so "how the Bush Administration got it right" or "how the Bush Administration got it wrong" books available for checkout at your local library.

Ted Rall: http://www.rall.com/index.html

Andy Singer: http://www.andysinger.com/

Tom Tomorrow: http://www.thismodernworld.com/

Jen Sorensen: http://www.slowpokecomics.com

Ruben Bolling: http://gocomics.typepad.com/tomthedancingbugblog/. Here's a link to a typical Bolling perspective, this one about public libraries: http://archive.salon.com/comics/boll/2000/08/24/boll/index.html.

Keith Knight: http://www.kchronicles.com/

Mikhaela B. Reid: http://www.mikhaela.net/. Reid provides a quote in Attitude 2 which explains the clarity & directness political & social cartoons can have. She says, "As much as I love to read long editorials & articles ... they really never had the same effect on me [as cartoons] ... I appreciated the articles & editorials on an intellectual level ... but they didn't make me care on the same level [as with political or social cartoons]." I agree. Very often, for me, a one panel comic provides more depth to a perspective than a thousand word George Will or David Brooks editorial.

The above are just seven of the 42 artists profiled in the first two books. Contact me if you'd like to know who the others in these books are or if you'd like links to their web sites. And, once again, each of these books are available for checkout either the URSUS or MaineCat.

Because ultimately what I'm getting at here is that a picture can be worth a thousand words, it might seem odd that I haven't included any of the comics of any of the Attitude artists. I have not included any so as to avoid any potential copyright infringement & just to be fair to artist's whose work I respect.

The cartoon below is by an unpublished artist, my son. He made this on Microsoft Paint when he was four years old. To date, he hasn't published this, so I suppose I'm pretty safe in sharing it with you. I'm not sure what his political or social stance here is. Maybe it's a commentary on multiculturalism, about how people of all colors should just accept our differences & stand together through dark times. But, I may be reading more into than need be. I still think it's pretty neat though. Better than I could do.


playne@bpl.lib.me.us