The 500 Club

After spending some time in grad school immersed in library ROI (return-on-investment) research, I decided to start a little personal tabulation. Just how much does the library save me in a year? Since I moved in February, I began comparing my library borrowing record with Amazon prices, and kept a running total. In less than a calendar year, I've borrowed over $500 worth of library materials, the vast majority of them still books. Considering that I only borrow 1-2 items at a time, with only the very occasional movie, I was surprised that my total rose so high. Just goes to show how remarkable a library's savings can accumulate. People sometimes complain about their local taxes going to this or that service or infrastructure, but considering the tiny fraction of each individual's taxes that local libraries receive, their return on investment is really quite amazing. Not to mention the really low barrier to entry.  Most public library cards can be obtained with a driver's license or state ID-sometimes without an address even. What other institution is just waiting to give you free stuff basically just for proving that you exist? That in itself never ceases to be an object of wonder for me.

How did you do? How much money did your local library save you this year?

Advent Tidings: Annunciation

The Annunciation and Two Saints [St. Ansanus & St. Maxima/Margaret], Simone Martini (1333) 

cf. Lk 1:26-38

For more about this remarkable painting, check out this quick video from Khan Academy. With each passing season, I am always progressively amazed and delighted with some previously undiscovered-by-me piece of sacred art. 

If you're looking to work through the Jesse Tree this year, check out this great set of printable ornaments. I always struggle each year to find a quality set of ornaments that aren't preschool-grade felt cutouts, and I love that these feature fine art.

Check out Busted Halo for a fun alternative Advent Calendar.

Finally, if you haven't already read the third part of Pope Benedict's Jesus of Nazareth, Advent is a great time to pick up The Infancy Narratives. It's a short little book, but packs a good punch for Advent prayer and reflection.

Worth a Thousand Words: Libraries of the World

Merton College Library, Oxford

CNN now has up a lovely collection of photographs of libraries throughout the world. It is always interesting to see the wide variations in style and architecture of library buildings, especially those that were constructed as works of art in themselves (I personally can never concentrate on research in the more ornate spaces). Like churches, the great libraries of the world were designed to lift up the mind and soul. See the rest here.

Neil Gaiman: Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading, and Daydreaming

For the 'reasons to read fiction' files:

 "...the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using you imagination, create a world and people it and look out through their eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You're becoming someone else, and when you return to your own world, you're going to be slightly changed. 

Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals."

On the digital divide:

"I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle turned up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old; there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath-resistant, solar-operated, feel good in your hand; they are good at being books, and there will always be a place for them."

And more:

"We writers -- and especially writers for children, but all writers -- have an obligation to our readers: it's the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were -- to understand that truth is not in what happen but what it tell us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all."

Read the whole thing here.

Related: MIT scientists discuss the importance of science fiction in nurturing inventors.

Malala Yousafzai: "Books Are Very Precious"

"Pens and books are the weapons that defeat terrorism. I truly believe the only way we can create global peace is through educating not only our minds, but our hearts and souls. This is the way forward to our destiny of peace and prosperity.

Dear sisters and brothers, Books are very precious. Some books can travel you back centuries and some take you into the future. In some books, you will visit the core of your heart and in others you will go into the universe. Books keep ones feelings alive. Aristotle's words are still breathing, Rumi's poetry will always inspire and Shakespeare's soul will never die.

There is no better way to explain the importance of book than to say that even God chose the medium of a book to send His message to His people."

Read more here.