2022-01-28 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 10, Issue 6

Featured Story

Book Covers : a love hate relationship

Book covers.  What can I say?  Don’t judge a book by it… ?  Over the years I’ve had a love hate relationship with book covers.

I remember my days as a patron well.   I visited the bookmobile once a week and would usually pick out a few movies and books for me and my son.  When looking for a book for myself, I gravitated towards choosing books with the prettiest covers. You know the ones that you find mostly in YA with the pretty, shiny accents.   It was silly, but I thought that a pretty cover meant that I was going to enjoy the book.  I was excited as I cradled my new book in my arms, ready to sit down and dive into it.  As soon as I got home from running my errands, that’s exactly what I did.  But as I started reading, I quickly found that it wasn’t the genre that I enjoyed.  It was boring to me.  I could only read through half of the first chapter.  I put it away, feeling guilty.  I checked out this book, and I didn’t like it, but I felt like I needed to keep it the entire checkout period.  I caved and returned it the next week – almost ashamed that I didn’t like it.

Conversely, I checked out a book with a simple, plain cover.  I told myself that I probably wouldn’t like it much (there was nothing shiny on the cover!).  That time when I went home, I ended up reading it so fast that I must have enjoyed it.  I returned that one the next week as well but I had a different experience with it than the other.  I was excited to tell the lady that drove the bookmobile that it was a good book.

As an author, I wanted to design a book cover that was catchy, but I never liked book covers with people on them.  I don’t know why it was such a pet peeve for me, but it was.  I thought I had enough creativity to avoid that but when the book was done and I was banging my head against my desk trying to think of cover designs, I resigned myself to creating covers for my fantasy trilogy with the main characters’ faces blown up across 3/4 of the front.  *sigh*  What had I done?

Then I started working at the library.  So. Many. Covers.  Pretty ones, creative ones, plain ones, sparkly ones, even the dreaded ugly one here and there.  It was interesting to see them all.   I started enjoying covers with food on them – I think it didn’t help much that I was so hungry when I was shelving.  Haha!   Then I started helping people find books.  It was easy at first, because they could give you a title.  Then somehow, it seemed like there was a rush of people that needed help finding a book by the cover because they had forgotten the title.  “It’s the blue book with the dog on the front.  It was about…”  Yeah, you ALL know what I’m talking about. It wasn’t actually a blue cover, it was green, and not only was there a (tiny) dog on it, but there was also a building, a tree and a person…. ?_?

I’ve learned to just not judge a book by its cover…really.  Having a love/hate relationship with book covers brings you to the point where it doesn’t even matter.  The ugliest covered book could contain the best story in the world. The simplest design could have the most profound discovery.  The busiest cover might hide the simplest idea.

– Vanessa Thiele

Fail Forward

We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.

Summer and Surveys

In the summer of 2021, we had this fun outreach idea – to bring a kids activity and a survey (on technology needs) with us while we worked with the Oasis’ Summer Feeding Program in Caldwell. With the outreach agenda created (survey and activity in hand), we hit the parks. On the very first day it was pouring rain. People were quickly coming and going to pick up food. We only managed to get surveys when a line was formed and a parent was willing. This continued on with each location, despite the rain.

Two things about this focus didn’t work. One, the lunches were still being taken home by the families. Nobody was staying at the parks to eat. Two, there were not many parents around to take surveys. Most of the children came alone or in groups with young relatives or siblings.

Luckily, we modified our approach and created kits to compliment the Kindergarten Readiness Kits. Even though we never had an opportunity to play yard dice, we still connected with many families and gained insight on the locations we serve. People were always excited to see us and get some free stuff and library information!

– Monique Gaddy

Crush Corner

Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

Fancy a trip to San Jose to a haunted library to witness some oddities?  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library has a strange collection to be sure!

Hidden in their mystery section there’s, well, a hidden bookcase.  Flip it around and you can hide!  Imagine playing hide and seek in there – or just closing up the library for the night. Haha!

Alice has a special wonderland to visit in this library.  We can’t go though unless we eat one of those magical cookies. XD

When looking for books on housing or accounting, you can hear the haunted turning pages of the ghosts of library patrons. Okay, so maybe it isn’t *really* haunted by patrons, but it’s fun to think of it that way, right?

For Beethoven fans, this library also has a very large collection of Beethoven manuscripts, instruments, and even a lock of his hair.

This library seems to have a lot of hidden gems that make the library a more fun and interesting place to visit.  So today, this is my library crush!
– Vanessa Thiele

SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org

SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-246156-OLS-20). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.