Library Closed Until Further Notice

Due to storm damage from Irene, the library is closed until further notice. Remember, you can use your Berkeley Heights library card to check out items at nearby libraries including New Providence, Long Hill, Summit and Chatham.

Now on to our regularly scheduled blog post:

Last week summer's film festival just wrapped up at BHPL. Before the movie plays, a powerpoint of reviews for that night's movie runs on a loop. We had some really great films, and they mostly got great reviews. But it's the occasional negative review that adds some spice:

“The Concert was so unfunny, I had to consult IMDB.com to make sure that it was indeed listed as a comedy.” – Rachel Saslow, Washington Post

“Hollywood has a long history of turning highbrow art into middlebrow mush, and Mao's Last Dancer is just one more kick dancer in that long line.”– Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic

“Punitively affirmational parable.” – Jessica Winter, Village Voice on The Way Home

“This is a movie so excited to exist that it overwhelms you with plot. Sitting through it is like opening the door to an overloaded closet. Stuff just tumbles out.” – Wesley Morris, Boston Globe, writing about White Wedding

"Complacent middlebrow tosh" - Ty Burr, Boston Globe, on The King's Speech

The audience at the library liked these movies - there was a lot of laughter, and teary eyes when the lights came up. If you'd like to form your own opinion, these movies are available for check out on DVD as soon as the library reopens.

Wating for Irene: Hurricane Tips

NJ librarians stay in constant contact about all things librarianish by means of a list-serv, which is a closed email network. Each morning NJ librarians can expect an inbox full of library lore, tips, disasters, continuing education opportunities, technology updates and so on. This morning, we received this email about the impending Hurricane Irene which even as I type and you read is barreling relentlessly toward the hapless Garden State. I share it here so I don't have to reinvent the wheel of hurricane preparedness. However, I have highlighted in yellow the stuff you really need to know so you can skim it quickly before running around bringing in lawn furniture, hanging plants and other potential projectiles. This is no laughing matter, being hit by a flying pot of petunias is the leading cause of hurricane related visits to the E.R. involving flowers.  Blogger's notes are in italics and I have reduced the size of redundant or ridiculous text.

"Hurricane Irene Forecast Impact on New Jersey Could be Severe"

It appears the greatest impact from Irene will be felt overnight Saturday through about midday Sunday. Here are some disaster planning, response and recovery resources for your library, for your personal safety, and even for your pets:

STORM TRACKER (nb: this is a link that doesn't work, to a map so you can see exactly where Irene is at all times.)

FOR YOUR LIBRARY (NB: non-librarians can safely skip this part) Emergency Responders: http://ldb.njstatelib.org/Preservation/Emergency_Responders.php
General Disaster & Preservation Information: http://ldb.njstatelib.org/Preservation
Disaster Preparedness & Recovery Tools & Salvage Charts: http://ldb.njstatelib.org/Preservation/Disaster_Planning.php
24/7 Disaster Assistance Hotline, Northeast Document Conservation Center: 978-470-1010
ALA Disaster Response Resources http://www.ala.org/ala/professionalresources/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet10.cfm

FOR YOUR PERSONAL SAFETY FROM FEMA (NB:"good job, Brownie!")
August 24, 2011
No.: HQ-11-134
FEMA News Desk: 202-646-3272

As Hurricane Irene Approaches, FEMA Urges East Coast Resident to Be Prepared
Residents Should Follow the Instructions of Local Officials and Visit Ready.gov or Listo.gov to Prepare for Hurricanes and Severe Weather

WASHINGTON - As Hurricane Irene moves toward the East Coast of the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is urging all residents in East Coast states to take steps now to prepare their families and businesses for hurricanes and severe weather. Visit www.Ready.gov or www.Listo.gov for helpful tips on preparing for hurricanes, flash flooding and other disasters.

According to the National Weather Service, Hurricane Irene is now a category three hurricane and will move across the southeastern and central Bahamas today and over the northwestern Bahamas on Thursday. For more forecast information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Hurricane Center, click here.

"FEMA, along with the entire federal family, continues to closely monitor Hurricane Irene," said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. "We remain in close contact and coordination with all of our state and territorial partners in the Caribbean and along the East Coast that have already or could possibly experience impacts from this storm. Hurricane Irene's future path is still uncertain, and I encourage everyone to visit Ready.gov and take steps now to keep their family safe and secure. The most important thing for people to do right now is to listen to and follow the instructions of their local officials. If you are told to evacuate, evacuate."

As Hurricane Irene approaches the East Coast, FEMA, through its regional offices in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, continues to monitor the storm closely and is in close contact with their respective state emergency management agencies.

In advance preparation for the storm, FEMA has deployed National Incident Management Assistance Teams to staging areas in Georgia and Virginia, in anticipation of further deployment to potential impact areas along the east coast of the U.S. Additionally, at all times, FEMA maintains commodities, including millions of liters of water, millions of meals and hundreds of thousands of blankets, strategically located at distribution centers throughout the United States and its territories. In Atlanta, for instance, FEMA has more than two million liters of water, more than 1.3 million meals, and more than 16,000 cots and 56,000 blankets. These resources may be moved to Incident Support Bases, which are distribution centers located closer to the impacted areas, as needed and requested by state partners.

These commodities are meant to supplement state resources if needed, but it is critical that individuals and families that are able build their own emergency supply kits, so that in the event of a disaster, state and local resources can be focused on our most vulnerable citizens.

FEMA is coordinating across the federal government to ensure territorial and state officials have the support they need as they respond to or prepare for Irene. New actions as of today include, but are not limited to:

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started deploying members of the 249th Engineering Battalion (Prime Power) to Puerto Rico to assist with restoring power to the island.
• The Federal Communications Center (FCC) has deployed two Roll Call Spectrum Scanning teams to the FEMA regional offices in Atlanta and Boston. These teams conduct post scans after landfall to determine which critical communications systems might have been impacted.
• Health and Human Services (HHS) is prepared to provide public health and medical support to states along the east coast in response to Hurricane Irene. The HHS is also coordinating with public health and emergency management agencies in U.S. territories and states along the projected hurricane path to make information available on how people can protect their health as they prepare for and respond to hurricanes and other natural disasters.
• The U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has activated a Defense Coordinating Officer to the FEMA Regional Response Coordination Center in Atlanta in preparation for support to civil authorities as Hurricane Irene approaches the East Coast of the United States.
• The Department of Defense has designated Fort Bragg, North C Incident Support Base to support FEMA operations to respond to Hurricane Irene.

Click here for the previous update on these activities.

FEMA encourages everyone, regardless of whether they live in a hurricane-prone area, to take steps to ensure their families, homes and businesses are prepared for a possible emergency. As a reminder, the month of September is designated as National Preparedness Month (NPM), an opportunity to encourage Americans to be prepared for disasters or emergencies in their homes, businesses, and communities. Individuals and families can learn about events and activities, and groups can register to become a NPM Coalition Member by visiting http://community.fema.gov. NPM is sponsored by the Ready Campaign in partnership with Citizen Corps and The Ad Council.

FEMA's support of disaster response activities in Puerto Rico, and its proactive support for East Coast storm preparations, does not diminish its focus from critical federal disaster response and recovery operations that continue, across the nation, including flooding in the Midwest and the ongoing recovery from the southeastern tornadoes. Every disaster is a reminder that they can happen anytime, anywhere. Now is the time to prepare--visit www.Ready.gov or www.Listo.gov for tips on creating your family emergency plan and putting together an emergency supplly kit.

Follow FEMA online at http://blog.fema.gov, www.twitter.com/fema, www.facebook.com/fema, and www.youtube.com/fema. Also, follow FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate's activities at www.twitter.com/craigatfema.

The social media links provided are for reference only. FEMA does not endorse any non-government websites, companies or applications.

FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

FOR YOUR PETS
Here is New Jersey’s state plan for dealing with pets in a disaster. It was formulated after Katrina, when so many pets were lost or their owner had to leave them behind.
http://www.state.nj.us/njoem/plan/pets-shelters.html

Stay safe!"

Blogger's endnote:    So there your have it in a nutshell. A very big nutshell. Luckily for you, Dear Reader, I have predigested not only FEMA's, but our entire "Federal Family's" press releases for you and so it bears repeating, watch out for flying petunia pots. I recently learned from my Facebook Friends that the reason people buy bread and milk and toilet paper before storms is that these people plan to make milk sandwiches and wrap them in toilet paper to protect them.

Good luck everyone and stay dry!

Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin

I laughed, I cried, it's better than Cats. Well, I've never seen Cats, but I loved Mao's Last Dancer - the morning book group's pick for our meeting on September 2. This memoir written by the ballet dancer Li Cunxin was on the bestseller list for over a year in Australia, where he lives, and was also a New York Times bestseller.

Li grew up in Communist China, the sixth of seven boys. His close-knit family subsisted mostly on dried yams grown on their patch of the commune farm on his father's day off from work. In 1972, at age eleven, Li withstood several painful auditions that tested his flexibility and was selected to attend Madame Mao's Beijing Dance Academy. Although he was homesick and near the bottom of his class his first few years, one of his teachers inspired him and he began his ascent to stardom in the ballet world.

This is an inspirational story about the pursuit of excellence and the pain of being separated from family. Li Cunxin tells it straightforwardly (somewhat disappointing for readers hoping for literature with a capital L) and seasons it with humor. Puzzled by the tights that dancers wear, after one ballet Li's father asks, "Why didn't you wear any pants?"

Mao's Last Dancer was made into a movie that will be shown at the library tonight (August 25) at 7 p.m. as part of the Summer International Film Festival.

Discussion questions for the book are available here. The study guide for the movie asks some helpful questions too. The New York Times ran an interview with Li Cunxin in 2004 called "The Dancer Who Defected Twice". You can watch clips of Li's motivational speaking on his web site.

L.A. Theatre Works

Last week a patron asked us for audiobook recommendations, her only requirement being "good narration" and "no mysteries". The Agatha Raisin radio dramas came to mind, but they were mysteries and something you download from ListenNJ.com instead of checking out of the library. Then I remembered The History Boys, a play on CD that BHPL owns that I enjoyed listening to years ago. It turned out the patron grew up reading plays and was enthusiastic about listening to them.

Most of BHPL's plays on CD are by L.A. Theatre Works. These include:

Bunbury by Tom Jacobson
Bus Stop by William Inge
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial by Herman Wouk
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Eleanor, Her Secret Journey by Rhoda Lerman
I Sent a Letter to My Love: a Musical
Incident at Vichy by Arthur Miller
Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde
A Lesson Before Dying by Romulus Linney based on the novel by Ernest Gaines
Mary Stuart by Friedrich von Schiller
The Norman Conquests: a Trilogy by Alan Ayckbourn
The Odd Couple by Neil Simon
The Real Doctor Strangelove: based on the book by Peter Goodchild
The Ruby Sunrise by Rinne Groff
Shakespeare's Greatest Hits: adapted by Barbara Gaines
Speed the Plow by David Mamet
The Tale of the Allergist's Wife by Charles Busch
Tea at Five by Matthew Lombardo
Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose
Work Song by Jeffrey Hatcher and Eric Simonson

They are shelved by the author's last name in the fiction audiobooks.

The Book of Animal Ignorance

Working in a library means that you daily run across interesting books, but there isn't enough time in the world to read them all. That's how that obnoxious bumper sticker/t-shirt slogan "so many books, so little time" was derived I suppose. Anyway, I often bring books back to the Reference Desk and keep them around to dip into at random, especially non-fiction books like
The Book of Animal Ignorance: everything you think you know is wrong by John Lloyd and John Mitchinson, 2007. (call #590 LLO)

The Book of Animal Ignorance is perfect for browsing. Here are some tidbits from it. "Cheerful dogs wag their tails more to the right side of their rumps. Morose dogs wag to the left." (59) I'll have to check my dog to see if she's depressed or not. I think she kind of wags bilaterally which must mean she is even-tempered and not neurotic?  Hedgehogs win polls as the most popular garden animal in the U.K. (100) Now that implies a lot of strange things, about polling, and about the Brits. My dog's run-in with a hedgehog a few weeks ago was really disturbing. The varmint had fangs you would not believe and did not look the least bit like Beatrix Potter's Mrs. Tiggywinkle. Aside from not wearing a pinafore, it was just plain aggressive. "Pigs can learn to dance, race, pull carts, and sniff out land mines." (161) But would you want your pig to dance? I think not."Sheep, even more than their close relatives the goats, were responsible for the greatest lifestyle shift in human history: the transition from hunter-gatherer to farmer." (192) So next time you impatiently wait for a flock of sheep to leave the road so you can keep driving, just stop cursing them and offer them thanks for our modern way of life.
If you want to know more interesting facts about animals, check this book out.