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Borrowing books for Banned Book Club is best [1]
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Date: 2022-08-20
Today I recommended that my library purchase this digital title chosen by the DK Banned Book Club... "they" look just like Freda Kahlo!
It has been more than a year since I first downloaded congressman Matt Krause list of books that he wanted people to get banned from school libraries and began searching for them at my Chelsea District Library’s (CDL) digital collection and requesting books by the authors if they did not already have them in the collection for me to read. I first learned about the list of 850 books from Daily Kos, and have found that it is one of the best sources for book recommendations I’ve found, because I’ve yet to find a boring book on it; all the authors are amazingly skilled, so my thanks to Matt and even more so to Daily Kos. Yesterday I clicked on a DK user poll by Marissa Higgins of the Daily Kos staff that asked if I would read banned books, and of course I clicked yes, since I was already doing so. Today I found an automated e-mail invitation letter to the DK Banned Book Club in my inbox, so I went to my CDLibrary’s homepage, entered the digital collection with the “Download Destination” app “Overdrive” which can also be accessed by the “Libby” app on my cell phone, and began searching for the 5 books mentioned in the Banned Book Club invitation:
All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson
Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith
Scars by Cheryl Rainfield
The last two are future reads, not the ones the book club are currently working on. I started using CDL’s digital library in April of 2019, because I like to listen to an audiobook while I’m working, but I don’t like to expend fossil fuels driving back & forth to the library to borrow (& return) from their physical audiobook collection on tapes, CD disks, and mp3 players. With the digital collection, I can borrow and download books (either print or audio) to my computer or cell phone. I usually use my computer with its big screen to search for books and borrow them, then once I have a week’s worth of “reading” loaned to me, I download the audiobooks to my cell phone to listen to them on headphones as I walk around working in my house or at my desk. When I do an “advanced search” I can search by Title, author, genre, format of book (Overdrive Listen audiobook), or any combination thereof. My experience with Krause’ Book List showed me that it is rare to find the exact title of the book as they are often newer books, so instead I search by Author’s name, and I don’t specify the type of book because I’d like to know if they have any digital books by the author, even if they are not in the audio format I prefer.
There weren’t any digital books by George Johnson owned by the CDLibrary yet, but several popped up as options to recommend to my CDL to buy, including the BBClub’s selected title “All Boys Aren't Blue”, so I used my allotted one recommendation per week to ask my CDLibrary to purchase the book I was interested in hearing, as you can see from the screenshot I took afterwards and used for the leading image in this article. It depends upon how many requests for a work they get, as well as how many awards the work has received, and whether it is addressing issues of current relevance in the media, as well as how much money the library has for purchases remaining in their budget, as to when or if my recommendation will be acted upon. I have had some non-fiction books about (or by) famous people get purchased within days of my recommending them, and others are still on my list of recommendations today as unfulfilled requests. When you look at my list of 28 recommendations below (just the most recent ones are showing), the ones with black bars saying things like “Borrow” or “Place a Hold” are books that are now in the digital collection because I recommended them. It is a bit exciting to know that you are the first person to get to read a new possession of the library, which is now available for other to enjoy too. The other books without the black bars are not purchased yet, but if others recommend them, they will be purchased, and I think if I was the first to request them, I will have the first option to borrow and read them.
My book recommendations to CDLibrary, about 40% filled.
As to my searches for the other authors, the only Susan Meyers in the digital collection was a non-fiction writer for adults, though her books did look interesting. But as I’d already used my single book recommendation for the week, I couldn’t do much about getting her added to the collection, and apparently she doesn’t even have an digital book offerings, probably because she is doing picture books for really small children. CDL may have some of those in their extensive children’s wing, but all the physical holdings of the library are in their main online card catalogue, which is a different search engine from the digital collection’s, so I haven’t bothered to search it before writing this article.
Laurie Halse Anderson appears to be a prolific writer, but the title the BBClub selected, “Speak” already had the audiobook version checked out to another library patron, so I “placed a hold” on it, meaning I got in line to receive it, as you can see in my next screenshot. I am allotted 6 loans and 10 holds at any one time, and I get an e-mail automatically warning me about 3 days before my loans are going to expire, as well as “Libby” notifications on my phone. If it is going to take me longer than those 3 days to read one or more of my loans, I can “Manage my loan” for one or more titles and renew for another 7 days from the time of renewal. If I wait until the very last minute to try to renew, sometimes my renewal is denied because another person has placed a hold on a title, though they offer me the chance to borrow the title again after that person is done. Most often I finish books early and return them early, which restores part of my capacity to borrow more books and shortens the wait for others who have “Holds” placed on the books. As I am first in line for “Speak”, I could even get notified that I can borrow the book this week, which is why I’ve learned to never borrow more than 5 books at a time, and to return them as soon as I’ve finished listening to them, so I always have the capacity to borrow a book when I am notified my turn has come. If I have no capacity to borrow when my turn comes, I am offered the option to let the person in line behind me swap places with me, but as that can mean as much as a 2 week delay in accessing the book, I try to avoid having more than 5 books checked out at once. “Speak” was one of Laurie’s first books and is inspired by her own scary experiences at age 13; on the book’s 20th anniversary a graphic novel version was released, which was Laurie’s first graphic novel.
My “Holds”, with most recent request first.
I did find that 3 other audiobooks by Laurie Halse Anderson were available to be borrowed, so I checked them all out: “Fever 1793” (a historical novel), “Wintergirls” (a novel about 2 girls struggling with anorexia), and “Shout” (a poetry book that relates the genesis of some of her books), in the order of publishing. Also there was an option for recommending Laurie’s 2nd graphic novel, “Wonder Woman; Tempest tossed”, about the 16 year old Diana, princess and only child of her hidden island home, who tries to rescue some shipwrecked people on rafts outside the barrier and ends up accompanying them into their new lives as refugees in New York City. I found a YouTube video about the book (
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ5wfxpgCr4), and consequently I plan to recommend my library purchase it a week from now. It was great to see the artist show some of the original drawn pages even before the coloration, and to hear about a Diana who like most teens has body modesty and would never wear skimpy costumes.
I also was able to “place a hold” for the audiobook version of “The Way I Used to Be” by Amber Smith, as you can see in the “Holds” image above. And although I was not able to find my preferred audiobook version, I was able to find a digital print version of “Scars” by Cheryl Rainfield, which you can see at the top of the next image, as it was the last thing I borrowed. You can see the books I just borrowed today listed at the top of my “History” page below. So of the 5 books listed by the Daily Kos Banned Book Club in its introductory letter, I will be able to read at least 3 when I get to the head of the line, and possibly a 4th if the library choses to act on my recommendation and purchase the book in the lead image of this article so everyone can enjoy it. Not bad for no budget for books, and no wasted fuel, and I’m excited to leave a legacy of new books behind for others to widen their horizons with.
At the bottom of my “History” page is the very first digital books I borrowed from CDL more than 3 years ago, including one, “Unsheltered”, by my favorite author Barbara Kingsolver, and several by my another of my top authors, Margaret Atwood. I’d no idea I borrowed 777 digital books in a little over 3 years, which is a little more than an average of one every 3 days. If they’d all been from the Krause list, I’d be close to finishing it by now, but I’m only in the first couple of pages of the Banned books since I only found the list 1-2 years ago, and I can’t take a steady diet of children’s & youth literature, I have to mix in some adult works & non-fiction from time to time, too. But there are thousands of books in the digital book collection with more being added all the time, and it is great to have a great collection of books at your fingertips that don’t take up physical shelf space in the library or in your home, and don’t cost you a penny to enjoy. I hope you will consider borrowing banned books from your own public library and encouraging your library to add more banned books, whether you’ve learned to like digital books or prefer a physical book, tape, CD, or Mp3 player you can hold in your hands. If “All Boys Aren’t Blue” gets purchased by my library, I will update this article and let you all know.
Read On!
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