Happy (Belated) Birthday, Little Free Libraries!

Elisabeth Scott

Reference and Social Media Librarian

Small bookshelves on posts... that's all they are, really. These simple little structures have brought indescribable joy to millions of people worldwide since they started popping up in city neighborhoods and rural roads eleven years ago. We want to wish Little Free Library (LFL), the organization behind the "take a book, leave a book" philosophy, the very happiest of birthdays. Increased access to books is the very cornerstone of our mission. We think this fabulous nonprofit has hit the nail on the head and is a great partner for libraries.

Little Free Library 2.0 and Library Consultant and LFL Steward Shellie Zeigler

Punching up the Public Domain

Katie Gill

Cataloging Librarian

Every couple of days, I get an email from my good friend Jonathan Harker. He’s on a work trip right now, visiting Transylvania to help this Count out with a real estate deal. Things are getting weird—he’s pretty sure the Count doesn’t actually have any staff at his giant, crumbling castle? The Count threw Jonathan’s mirror out of a window and called it a “bauble to man’s vanity.” And there was also the part where the Count climbed down the side of the castle like a lizard.

Of course, I’m talking about the book Dracula, by Bram Stoker. But the mention of emails might have thrown people off. Dracula via email? I subscribe to an email newsletter called “Dracula Daily” which emails you the text of Dracula as it happens in real-time. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written in letters and diary entries. With Dracula Daily, you get the May 5th entry of Dracula on May 5th, the May 12th entry on May 12th, and so on. It’s a new way to look at this iconic text that's only possible because Dracula is in the public domain.

The public domain consists of creative works that do not have any intellectual property rights attached. This means that the works can be reproduced, remixed, or reworked without having to pay any rights-holders or wade through any copyright quagmire. The American copyright system is VERY complex, but to paint an incredibly broad stroke, a work is under copyright for the lifetime of the author plus seventy years.

And in my opinion? That’s a huge bummer.

Because you don't have to pay anybody to rework something in the public domain, those stories are ripe for reinterpretation. You could focus on a minor character in the original text, as Geraldine Brooks does in March, which focuses on the absent father of the March sisters in Little Women. You could reinvent the text for a modern audience. The main crux of The Secret Garden, a story of a girl who learns to love nature and flourishes as a person, still holds value today, but the phonetic dialogue and dated references of the time might be a bit too much for a young reader. The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir and Amber Padilla takes the structure of the novel and sets it in modern day New York. You could write a sequel to the original text or put it in a new genre entirely: Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James does both, as a sequel to Pride and Prejudice turns into a murder mystery shortly through the book.

You don’t even have to keep the text itself but can instead rework the book into something new. There are plenty of classic texts adapted into graphic novels. The Secret Garden on 81st Street is one, but if you’re in the mood for something more adult? There’s Frankenstein, adapted by horror manga legend Junji Ito. You could take the text and rework it into a film. The past few years have been banner years for Dracula adjacent movies: The Invitation, Renfield, Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and Monster High: The Movie all benefit from Dracula’s public domain status.

And if you want? You can get even more unconventional with it. One of my favorite public domain reworkings is Rhythm Action Gatsby, a video game that re-interprets The Great Gatsby the way it’s meant to be: a two minute minigame that you can play in your computer browser.

These works aren’t cheap cash-grabs made to tie into an existing property. By reworking the text without fear of censure or fines, authors can bring the original work into a new conversation. The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys examines the very white, very British world of Jane Eyre through a post-colonial lens. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard uses two minor characters from Hamlet to explore concepts like the intersection of art and life. Both works received critical acclaim and have entered the literary canon themselves, to the point where students study them in high school or college. To that point, both were in my AP English curriculum.

So next time January 1 rolls around, why not look at what new works are entering the public domain? Every year, on that day, the Duke University Center for the Study of the Public Domain celebrates Public Domain Day and lists the notable works entering the public domain—here's a link to 2023's offerings. Who knows: maybe you’ll find inspiration for your next great novel, horror film, or two minute browser based rhythm game within their contents.

Meet MLC: Jeremy Hammack

Elisabeth Scott

Reference and Social Media Librarian

Meet Jeremy Hammack, IT Support Technician at the Mississippi Library Commission (MLC). Jeremy installs, upgrades, troubleshoots, and maintains library operating hardware and software systems on-site at MLC and remotely at Mississippi's public libraries. He also assists with on-site technology assessments.

 

Jeremy began working at MLC in February of 2023. He says that his Technology Services team has been very welcoming, with distinct personalities and a shared drive. "I hope to learn a lot from them as we work together."

Jeremy is already a library fan, and adds, "What makes libraries so vital is their potential to expand accessibility of stories, knowledge, and community."

He also loves to read, enjoying stories in almost in any medium. Novels and Manga are his go-to faves.
His current favorite read is The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin; one of his latest reads was The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giefsbrecht. When he's not hard at work battling any tech mishaps at libraries, he likes to write and draw; he says he's constantly crafting characters and narratives. His guilty pleasure is Table-Top RPGs--including Dungeons & Dragons--which he plays weekly, if he can.

Crochet All Day (Or Just an Hour)

Alex Brower

Information Services Director

MLC’s Craft Club had its inaugural meeting on February 15th, 2023. The purpose of the Craft Club is to try out potential kits and programs for public libraries and discuss what worked and what didn’t. For our first class, we watched “How to Work a Crochet Chain” by Edie Eckman on Creativebug. The program worked well and we discovered a few things that could be improved or adapted for future programs.

It only took 10 minutes to set up MLC’s main meeting room for the program. We used size 6 ergonomic crochet hooks and worsted-weight mini-skeins of yarn. I chose the smaller skeins of yarn because they are compact, easy to store, and less intimidating than the giant skeins. The attendees liked the smaller size; they said they appreciated the beginner-friendly supplies. Everyone got a skein of yarn and a hook. I laid these out at all the chairs so attendees could pick their seats based on which color of yarn they liked. You could purchase several of the same color yarn if you foresee an issue with multiple people wanting the same color or if you have a lot of leftover yarn. 

I planned on watching the chain stitch video for the first half of the club and following it up with a lesson on doing a single crochet by the same creator on Creativebug. However, we ended up only doing the first video, as we had some novice crocheters. We were able to take our time, play the video back, and allow for more experienced attendees to help others so everyone was able to get a row of chain stitches before the end of the class. I think taking it step by step and not doing too much made for a better program: there was lots of collaboration which made things fun and cozy. I highly recommend either becoming familiar with the stitches before putting on the program or having someone knowledgeable come in to troubleshoot. 

The Creativebug video was the main teaching tool that I used for our program and most of the participants found it helpful. It focuses on the presenter’s hands, which made it a lot easier to follow along and copy the movements. Videos that focus on people’s faces/fronts can be a little more difficult to follow along as you are doing their movements backward. There were a couple of lefties in the class (myself included) and the video only shows the right-handed method of crochet. It would be helpful to have a left-handed video available, like this one, so you may want to include it, too. Attendees also suggested having printouts of crochet instruction diagrams for those who learn better from seeing something on paper.

There were lots of great suggestions for adapting this program for a library or how to tie in other services with these kits as well. Making granny squares or scarves by going progressively through more difficult stitches and crochet skills would be an excellent long-range program where the patrons would have something to show off when they are done. A library could also have attendees make granny squares and then stitch them all together at the end for a library quilt. Libraries can also make a display of crochet instruction books or resources before the program; if there is a lot of interest in the program, it might help guide collection development. One area of the program that I would like to focus on for future clubs is accessibility. I didn’t think about attendees with physical disabilities that would affect their ability to participate. Having magnifying glasses or large-type instructions would make the program more accessible.

Cleaning up after the program was as quick and easy as setting it up. The participants put their yarn and crochet hooks back in a box, and since we didn’t cut any yarn, there wasn’t any mess to clean up. This was a very successful program and it fit well within an hour. I had lots of good feedback and MLC staff are excited for the next meeting!

One last thing: the Craft Club’s mascot was officially named! Mark Twine was voted in with a whopping 11 votes, followed closely by String Crosby with 8. Look how happy he is!