Arlington Public Library

Director's Blog

The Library Director’s 2020 Book List

Looking for Winter Reading inspiration? Diane shares her list for the New Year:

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa (1940–1993), American multi-instrumentalist musician, composer, bandleader and reader.

That about sums it up. No matter how many books I read, there are still more … too many more. And to compound the misery, I work in a library where browsable book stacks are steps from my office, where I can place an infinite number of holds, where colleagues tell me what their book clubs are reading or give me books as presents. And I am not even talking about the stacks of books on my nightstand at home, awaiting my attention, recommended by the book review podcasts I listen to while walking the treadmill.

In the spirit of new year’s resolutions, I created a “to do” list of books I hope to complete by the end of the calendar year. The list is my own and covers a range from the truly random to guilty pleasures.

All of my picks are available at Arlington Public, your favorite local library. Now to start turning some pages …

Minding the Gap

James Baldwin.  I am embarrassed to admit that I have not read anything by Baldwin … an oversight I must correct as we draw closer to 2024, the centenary of his birth.  The two I have elected to start with “Giovanni’s Room” and “The Fire Next Time”

Fyodor Dostoevsky.  “Oh Boy, Tolstoy!” APL’s adult reading venture of a couple of years ago, got me thinking about Russian tomes.  A wise friend told me that if I want to understand Russian aspirations, read Tolstoy, to understand the Russian soul, read Dostoevsky.  So “Crime and Punishment” it is.  And if I can’t make it through, I’ll tackle the novella, “Notes from the Underground.”

Guilty Pleasures

“The Chestnut Man,” by Soren Sveistrup.  A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen. Can’t wait.

“Disappearing Earth,” by Julia Phillips. A debut novel, two young sisters disappear on the Kamchatka peninsula, the northeastern edge of Russia.  It appeared on many “best of” lists at year end.

Dusting off Classics

John Steinbeck.  “East of Eden,” sometimes you just need a big sprawling morality tale.

Hot Issues

Ralph Thaler/Cass Sunstein, “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.” From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, Richard H. Thaler, and Cass R. Sunstein: a look at how people make decisions.

Bina Venkataraman “The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age.” How to mitigate loss based on short-sightedness and think more strategically about the future.

Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, “Scarcity” How to manage with less than one needs.

An Author I Haven’t Read

Ocean Vuong, “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous,“ by Ocean Vuong.  A son writes to his mother who cannot read. Viet Nam, finding one’s voice, race, class, and the love between a mother and son.

Bernardine Evaristo, “Girl, Woman, Other.” Modern Britain and womanhood, a novel about the lives of black British families, “struggles, pains, longings and loves.” I’ve already started this one --- the writing is lively, fresh, funny. Reminds me a bit of Zadie Smith’s “White Teeth.”

Memoirs

I’ve been working through the NYT’s fantastic list of “50 Best Memoirs of the last 50 years and plucked Annie Dillard’s “An American Childhood.”

Samantha Powers, “The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir.” Political memoir; on the front lines of   American foreign policy.  From 2013 to 2017, Power served in the Cabinet of President Barack Obama and as US Ambassador to the United Nations. Powers modeled her memoir on Andre Agassi’s “Open” which was an amazing book.

Short Stories

I got hooked on short stories in 8th grade. Classics like “Under the Lion’s Paw” by Hamlin Garland, “Silent Snow, Secret Snow,” by Conrad Aiken (now out of print), and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery.”

Lucia Berlin, ed. Stephen Emerson, “A Manual for Cleaning Women.” Alice Munro and Raymond Carver territory.

Nancy Hale, “Where the Light Falls.” A rediscovery of a mid-century master storyteller.  Noir-ish, taboo subjects; subversive and mature.

Fun for Theater and Film Geeks

Ash Carter and Sam Kashner “Life Isn't Everything: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends.”

Alexandra Jacobs, “Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch.”

Re-Visits

Erich Maria Remarque, “All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel.” I first read this more than 20 years ago and there are scenes I can’t forget.

Louisa May Alcott, “Little Women.”  A coming of age story, nascent feminism, in praise of individuality.

Geraldine Brooks, “March.” Historical fiction, the father of the girls in “Little Women” goes off to aid the Union cause in the Civil War.

And finally...

Arlington Reads Spring 2020 Authors

Sponsored by the Friends of the Arlington Public Library, Arlington Reads has grown from one book in the fall of a given year to close to a dozen annual events centralized around a theme and including both fiction and nonfiction.  It goes without saying that I will read each of the selected books and that I will likely read more by the author in preparation for each event.  So right off the bat, I have added exponentially to the task ahead. There’s something for everyone in this year’s themed program, “We the People.”

First up, on Tuesday, March 10, is Roxanne Gay, culture critic and author of “Hunger,” and “Bad Feminist,” among other works of fiction and nonfiction. I hope to see you there!

Browse Diane's 2020 Book List

The Library Director’s 2019 Playlist

Forever "Too Cool for Yule"

Years ago I began creating a holiday playlist each November, known variously as “Don’t Touch that Dial,” the “Too Cool for Yule” blog, and more simply, the Director’s Playlist.

Each playlist is a collection of seasonal tunes -- from schlock (hopefully not too much of that) to rock and everything in between. By now we have managed to amass quite an eclectic set of “mix tapes.” This year is no exception.

Before you start clicking and singing along, however, a couple of explanatory notes (pun intended) are in order:

Peter Tork (born Torkelson in 1942 in Washington, DC) died earlier this year.  Known as the keyboardist and bass player of The Monkees, Tork, along with Mickey Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Davy Jones, formed the mid-sixties American answer to the Beatles and over the course of their career sold over 75 million records worldwide.  Not bad for a made for TV band (track 5).

Soul singer Roberta Flack (track 13) was raised in Arlington, and rose to prominence singing upstairs at Mr. Henry’s, the Capitol Hill bar and restaurant.  Established in 1966 by Henry Jaffe, within two years Jaffe hired a local school teacher to sing in the pub. “She told me that if I could give her work three nights a week, she could quit teaching,” Jaffe later recalled.  The singer, none other than Roberta Flack, would go on to win four Grammys for the songs “Killing Me Softly” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

I’ve closed this playlist as I did last year’s list with a song by Bob Dylan whose lyrics are as relevant today as they were when he wrote them. Released as the title track of his 1964 album of the same name, “The Times they are a Changin'” was Dylan’s attempt to create an anthem of change. Read through the lyrics and see if you agree.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

Open playlist in Spotify

Whether you eat Chinese food and see a movie on Christmas Day, attend a church, binge watch “Mindhunter,” curl up with a good book or board game you borrowed from the library, or sit quietly with your thoughts, all of us at Arlington Public Library wish you and yours the very best.

Diane

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Taking it Personally: National Coming Out Day

Friday, October 11, marks the 31st anniversary of National Coming Out Day, an annual observance to raise awareness of the interests and rights of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Arlington Public Library is honoring this date by displaying Pride flags at all of our locations.

As a gay person, National Coming Out Day holds personal significance.

I take it personally when we discover pages in our Library’s children’s books about gay moms and dads have been deliberately torn or defaced.

I take it personally when a patron writes me and tells me that the Library’s Pride Month book displays promote sexually deviant behavior.

And I take it personally when a patron threatens to trash a branch library because it has displayed the Pride flag.

As an Arlington County leader, my support of National Coming Out Day means that I encourage Library staff to show up at work as they truly are — proudly and without fear of consequence.

As a public library director, National Coming Out Day reminds me that each day in a library is coming out day. Libraries are judgement free zones – safe spaces that welcome all who enter their doors, regardless of beliefs, preferences, country of origin, age, income status or appearance.

And as a gay person, National Coming Out Day affirms a commitment I made to myself: to respect and honor my choices and to be who I am, this day and every day.

Diane

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On the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall

Vital Signs 2019

Several years ago, I was invited to mount a photo exhibit in Zagreb, Croatia. “Vital Signs” was a collection of photographs that chronicled several years in the LGBTQ Movement in the United States.

The show’s narrative arc began with images of quilts from the AIDS Memorial Quilt displayed on the National Mall in Washington, DC during July 2012, and ended with images of New York City’s Pride Parade of 2013, the victory “lap” following the U.S. Supreme Court’s findings on June 26 that both California’s Proposition 8 and Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) were unconstitutional.

The final image in the show was of a plaque commemorating the Stonewall Inn, a bar in New York City frequented by gays, which was the site of riots following a raid there by police the night of June 28, 1969. After Stonewall, the gay rights movement came “out of the closet and into the streets” and into the public consciousness where it has remained since. The first Pride Parade was held in New York City on Sunday, June 28, 1970, one year after the riot.

This year, Arlington County celebrates “50 Years Forward: from riots to rights” and cities across the country, in red states and in blue states, from San Francisco to Omaha and New York to Sioux Falls, will host Pride events to honor the achievements and contributions of the LGBTQ+ community. Arlington County’s Pride Month Proclamation Ceremony will be held on Thursday, June 6 at noon in the County Board Room.

Each June, Arlington Public Library (APL) celebrates Pride, to honor LGBTQ+ Americans and their allies who have fought for and continue to fight for the right to be treated fairly, to be granted equal protection under the law and afforded the inalienable right to be happy. Gay rights are human rights, and libraries have a unique role in supporting the LGBTQI+ community: through our safe spaces where we foster inclusion, our collections which reflect diverse points of view, and our programs that educate and celebrate the differences among us that make Arlington a thriving community.

Two years ago, we signaled our embrace of inclusion with the addition of rainbow welcome signs posted on the entrances to each of our building locations. Last year we flew the pride flag at Central Library and displayed a Pride flag in each of our locations.

Throughout the month, we will be offering a range of Pride events throughout the library system.

And in keeping with our mission to educate, we have created a 2019 Pride booklist.

June is officially recognized as Pride month. Truthfully… every day is Pride month at APL.

For we are always:
Open to accepting others for who they are
Open to embracing diverse points of view
Open to protecting and nurturing those who are most vulnerable
Open to fulfilling hopes and dreams
Open to making Arlington the best it can be.

Our commitment to you.
Happy Pride
Diane

Scrawled DK signature

“Too Cool for Yule” 2018

A number of years ago, I began creating the holiday play list, variously known as “Don’t Touch that Dial,” the “Too Cool for Yule” blog, and more simply, the Director’s Playlist.

It’s a collection of seasonal tunes that I look forward to assembling each year, right around the time holiday music earwigs begin their assault on the senses.  From schlock (hopefully not too much of that) to rock, over the years we have managed to amass quite an eclectic set of “mix tapes,” and this year is no exception.

Black and white filtered photo of pine trees on the edge of a lake in winter

Before you start clicking and singing along, however, a couple of explanatory notes (pun intended) are in order:

In August, the magnificent voice of the Queen of Soul was silenced.  Like many in my age cohort, Aretha Franklin’s music was a soundtrack to my life.  Represented here by a swinging “Blue Holiday” from her second album, it’s a brilliant reminder that ‘Retha was as deft with the keyboard as she was with her vocal chops.

Paul Simon and Joan Baez launched Farewell Tours (NB: sorta kinda, Baez is briefly rebooting in April) and are represented by “Getting Ready for Christmas Day” and “Amazing Grace,” respectively.

I’ve closed the list with two “secular” selections. While libraries were not exactly what Bob Dylan had in mind when he penned the classic, “Shelter from the Storm,” we are indeed that for many in our community - an inclusive and safe place for knowledge, for belonging and for comfort.

And finally, 2018 was the centenary of American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein’s birth and I have chosen to give him the last “word.” Jazz pianist Bill Evans’s emotional rendering of Bernstein’s “Some Other Time” from the buoyant “On the Town” is a pitch perfect ballad for this time of year, when we recall where we’ve been and anticipate where we are going if we have the luxury of time.

“Where has the time all gone to

Haven't done half the things we want to

Oh well, we'll catch up some other time”

Whether you eat Chinese food and see a movie on Christmas Day, attend church, binge on Netflix, curl up with a good book or board game you borrowed from the library, or sit quietly with your thoughts, all of us at Arlington Public Library wish you and yours the very best.

DK

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Free To Be

Coming Out Day

Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018, marks the 30th anniversary of National Coming Out Day, an annual observance to raise awareness of the LGBTQIA+ community, its interests and rights.

Arlington Public Library is honoring this date by flying the Pride flag at Central Library and by displaying Pride flags at all of our locations.

As a gay person, National Coming Out Day holds personal significance.

Watch Diane's keynote speech at Arlington County's 2017 Pride Celebration, in which she tells her own coming out story.

Pride flag flying below the County seal at Central Library
Central Library

As an Arlington County leader, the day represents my encouragement of staff to show up at work as they truly are — proudly and without fear of consequence.

And as a public library director, it is a reminder that each day in the library is coming out day. For The library is the eternal judgement free zone – the safe space that is welcoming of all who enter its doors, regardless of beliefs, preferences, origin, income status or appearance.

We will respect and accept you as you are on National Coming Out Day and every day.

Diane

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Thank You For Participating in the Library Collections Survey

We received 14,504 responses and over 5,000 written comments, a rate of response that absolutely floored us.

We are reading all of the comments, and will publish the complete survey results and findings this fall.

Here’s what we can tell you now:

Will print materials (books) be cut?

No. Arlington Public Library is committed to providing popular collections (bestselling books, DVDs, children’s books) and maintaining the lowest possible wait times. This survey asked about collections that have different usage patterns and cost structures than physical items such as books.

Is the budget cut now in effect?

Yes. As of July 1, 2018, the County is in the FY 2019 budget year. The Library collections budget has been reduced by 17 percent, or $250,000. Decisions on how to absorb this reduction will be made throughout the coming year and we will continue to keep you informed.

How will the Library make decisions about what materials to cut?

The survey will help inform our decisions but it is not the sole factor. We will also look at usage, cost, and what overlap exists among collections. Again, please stay tuned for more information.

 

Thank you for your ongoing support of Arlington Public Library. It’s you who make us who we are.

Diane

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Director’s Blog: Vital Signs

A number of years ago, I was invited to mount a photo exhibit in Zagreb, Croatia.

“Vital Signs” was a collection of photographs that chronicled several years in the LGBT Movement in the United States. The show’s narrative arc began with images of quilts from the AIDS Memorial Quilt displayed on the National Mall in Washington, DC during July 2012, and ended with images of New York City’s Pride Parade of 2013, the victory “lap” following the U.S. Supreme Court’s findings on June 26 that both California’s Proposition 8 and Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) were unconstitutional.

Photo from "Vital Signs" exhibit by Diane Kresh, 2013.

The final image in the show was of a plaque commemorating the Stonewall Inn, a bar in New York City frequented by gays, which was the site of riots following a raid there by police the night of June 28, 1969.

After Stonewall, the gay rights movement came “out of the closet and into the streets” and into the public consciousness where it has remained since.

The first Pride Parade was held in New York City on Sunday, June 28, 1970, one year after the riot. More than 45 years after Stonewall, Pride events are now held nationwide in cities large and small, in red states and in blue states, from San Francisco to Omaha and New York to Sioux Falls.

Every June, Arlington Public Library (APL) celebrates Pride, to honor LGBTQIA+ Americans and their allies who have fought for and continue to fight for the right to be treated fairly, to be granted equal protection under the law and afforded the inalienable right to be happy.

Gay rights are human rights, and libraries have a unique role in supporting the LGBTQIA+ community: through our safe spaces where we foster inclusion, our collections which reflect diverse points of view, and our programs that educate and celebrate the differences among us that make Arlington a thriving community.

More than a year ago, we signaled our embrace of inclusion with the addition of rainbow welcome signs posted on the entrances to each of our buildings.

And last year we added a banner at Central Library acknowledging that June is Pride month at APL.

And this year, for the first time, we joined Arlington County Government and are proudly flying the Pride Flag at Central Library.

Throughout the month, we will be offering a range of Pride public events.

And in keeping with our mission to educate, we have created a Pride booklist.

Watch Diane's Keynote speech from Arlington County's 2017 Pride Celebration.

June is Pride month, but in reality, every month is Pride month at APL.

For we are always:
Open to accepting others for who they are
Open to embracing diverse points of view
Open to protecting and nurturing those who are most vulnerable
Open to fulfilling hopes and dreams
Open to making Arlington the best it can be.

Our commitment to you.
Happy Pride
Diane

Scrawled DK signature

Women’s Work

Hidden Stories of Persistence and Influence

Librarians of Cherrydale Branch Library, August 1961

Many years ago, I was attending a party for Charlie, a work colleague who was retiring. It came time to cut the cake and he turned to me - one of the few women in the room - and asked me to do it, adding that it was “women’s work, anyway.”

At the time, I was the assistant division chief responsible for a couple of hundred employees. But to him, I was a woman and he was not, and there were tasks - cake cutting among them - that it was my “job” to do.

Rather than demur, I did as I was asked, and yet never forgot the experience.

Today (with a bit of tongue in cheek) and in honor of Women’s History month, Arlington Public Library launches a new digital exhibition: 

Women’s Work: Stories of Persistence and Influence

A New Online Exhibit from the Center for Local History

Education

Entrepreneurs

Libraries

Politics

Social Activism

The collection profiles the women who made Arlington the community it is today. Entrepreneurs, activists, educators, politicians, and homemakers, the women of Arlington helped found Arlington’s first hospital, fought to integrate the school system, and established the Black Heritage museum. Even the public library system we enjoy today, a vibrant system comprised of a Central library and seven branches, exists because of the largesse of citizen bequests and the vision and hard work of leaders of Arlington women’s civic and garden clubs who understood only too well that knowledge is a core service. Several years ago, sociologist Robert Putnam warned in “Bowling Alone” that civic engagement was dying and with it the life and hope of communities. But Putnam doesn’t know Arlington’s residents, particularly its women.

As the exhibit unfolds over the upcoming year, through photographs, personal papers, and oral histories, you will find the story of Dr. Phoebe Hall Knipling, science teacher and founder of the Arlington Outdoor Education Association and its 225-acre Lab in Fauquier County, where Arlington students can experience nature and learn how to protect the environment. And Elizabeth Campbell, board member for Arlington Public Schools and founder of WETA-TV, the first public television station in Washington, D.C. And entrepreneur Margarite Reed Syphax, who began a real estate and construction business with her husband William, and who was one of the first black business women to be designated a Certified Property Manager.

This first release presents several stories and over the next year, we will continue to add more. But this collection will never be complete because a “woman’s work is never done.”

Diane

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If you know of an Arlington woman who should be included in this exhibition or if you possess artifacts or other source materials of Arlington women that you would like to donate to the community archive, please contact the staff of the Center for Local History.

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