Author Archives: AdminSherry

Magazines

Do you remember your first magazine subscription? I remember reading “Ranger Rick” when I was little, and somewhere along the line graduating to “Seventeen.” It seems like social media has taken over the time we spent reading magazines. As a consequence, Gering Library has been paring down our magazine subscriptions, but you can still find some great magazines on our shelves. 

When we were cleaning and moving things around in the library I came across a stash of old “Nebraska History Magazines” in the basement.  History Nebraska produces this amazing magazine quarterly. Each issue contains three or four in-depth articles as well as a handful of book reviews in the back. If you are a history buff, or are researching something that happened in Nebraska, this is your magazine. The articles include everything from the history of divorce in Nebraska, to suffragists, to baseball. They also emphasize diversity- in the latest few issues they discussed Kosher restaurants, the Genoa Indian School, and Mexican American communities in the state.

If you like Nebraska, but not digging deep into history, try “Nebraska Life.” Between the covers of this bimonthly magazine you will find interesting articles about Nebraska’s people, communities, history, art, and culture. The latest issue has an article about Ole’s in Paxton and the Orphan Grain Train, a Norfolk based charity that assists where they are needed, delivering everything from hay bales, to clothing, to food. You can also find recipes and poetry and great Nebraska-made gift ideas. It’s a magazine that makes you proud to be from Nebraska.

If you prefer a broader look at  history and culture, we have “Smithsonian” and “National Geographic”- both long standing classics. “Smithsonian” has been around since 1970. People have been saving “National Geographic” magazines in their basements and attics (because they are too good to throw away) since 1888. Sorry, we are not able to take donations of  “National Geographics.”

Looking for a new recipe? You can find “Food Network,””Good Housekeeping” and “Taste of Home” at the library. Yes, you can find recipes online, but magazines have two advantages. First, you don’t have to scroll through seven paragraphs about how Grandma used to make this meal when the author was a child. Second, your magazine won’t go to sleep when your fingers are covered in meat juice and you need to see the next step in the recipe.

If pop culture is your thing, you can check out “People” and “Reader’s Digest” magazines. Remember “Consumer Reports?” We have that too, both the magazine and the annual review book. “Consumer Reports” is an excellent source of unbiased professional reviews of everything from household appliances to cars. Their reviews are not as entertaining as what you will find online, but they might be a better source of information.

We also subscribe to a handful of other magazines; “Air and Space,” Good Housekeeping,” HGTV Magazine,” “Time,” and a health magazine, “Prevention.” The library determines which magazines we subscribe to by looking at their circulation. If you enjoy magazines, but can’t afford a subscription, check them out at the library. Every time someone checks out a magazine, we know it is valuable to our patrons and we can justify the subscription. 

My husband rescued the old “Nebraska History Magazines” from the recycling bin, “Can I take these? They look really interesting.” I had to agree they did look interesting, and he has been enjoying them at home. He even discovered an article by local map enthusiast Brian Croft. My husband is planning to start checking out “Nebraska History Magazine” just as soon as he gets done with the stack at home.

Algorithms

One of my favorite parts of working in a library is what we call ‘reader’s advisory.’ This is what happens when someone says something like, “I’ve read all of CJ Box’s books, what should I read next?” My first thought is that Box writes fast-paced books which take place outdoors and involve crime. I ask some questions to help me discover if the reader likes the pace, the setting or the good vs. evil parts of his books. I use that information to recommend another author for them to try. 

For some reason, computers don’t have that process down yet. I recently read a book called “Galileo’s Daughter.” It was a nonfiction book about Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei (Galileo) and his daughter who had been a cloistered nun. The author researched the book through letters from the daughter to Galileo. Somehow 120 of her letters have survived since the 1600s. It was a good book. I added it to my Goodreads.com page, where I keep track of what I have read. 

Goodreads is owned by Amazon.com. It’s programmed to recommend books based on what I have read. I generally ignore their recommendations, but this one caught me off guard. Based on my having read “Galileo’s Daughter: a historical memoir of science, faith and love,” Goodreads recommended “Daddy’s Naughty Girl.” I hate to admit I judged a book by its cover, but “Daddy’s Naughty Girl” featured a young woman…who was clearly not a cloistered nun, and I firmly hope the content was not nonfiction.

How can the computer be so wrong?  My definition of “algorithm” is “the process a computer uses to guess what you would like based on data.” The Goodreads algorithm had a lot of information about what I read, nearly 2,000 books of information, yet it missed this one by a mile.

Facebook uses algorithms- Amazon and Google do too. Have you ever searched for something on Amazon and suddenly see ads for it all over your computer? In fact, every time you interact with a computer to shop or use social media it is likely using an algorithm to better understand what you might like. Algorithms choose to show you certain products by using information about what you spend time doing online.

Algorithms also help us manage information overload. They notice we don’t interact with that distant cousin on Facebook, so we see fewer of their posts. Based on our Amazon purchases they recognize that we have a dog, so they make sure we see advertisements for products our dog may like, rather than baby toys. But sometimes we stump the algorithm, and it makes an assumption based on data it doesn’t understand.

If you want to stump me, ask me to recommend a fantasy, science fiction or romance novel. Fortunately librarians have tools to help us recommend books in genres we don’t read. There are sites on the internet that don’t use Amazon’s algorithms to recommend books. A quick search on one of those sites will help me find a book that you might like.

At the Gering Library, you can get recommendations by real people who know the difference between historical nonfiction and a steamy (and maybe more than a little bit icky) romance novel. As I always say, “I didn’t write this book, so if you don’t like it, it won’t hurt my feelings.” Letting me know you didn’t care for a book will help me recommend a better book for you next time.

2022 in Review

It’s the end of the year again, time to reflect on what has happened in the last 12 months. Which author’s books were most often checked out by Gering Library patrons in 2022? Will someone finally overcome C.J. Box’s multi-year streak? The results are in, and some of them require an explanation. 

To start with, Gering Library patrons saved a combined $474,804 by using the library in 2022 instead of buying their own books. That’s close to half a million dollars! Now on to the most popular books.

 “Run, Rose, Run” by James Patterson and Dolly Parton was checked out 20 times if you add large print and regular print together. C.J. Box’s “Shadows Reel” tied with Delia Owens’ 2018 book “Where the Crawdads Sing” with 16 checkouts.

Tied at 12 checkouts are “Maybe Someday” by Colleen Hoover, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” by Alan Dean Foster and “The Four Winds,” by Kristin Hannah- which coincidentally tied for first with C. J Box’s  “Dark Sky,” last year. Tied at 11 checkouts are “Maybe Not,” “Reminders of Him,” “Maybe Now,” and “Without Merit,” all by Colleen Hoover,  and “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” by Taylor Jenkins Reid. “Lessons in Chemistry,” by Bonnie Garmus was checked out 10 times.

So who is this Colleen Hoover? Hoover writes romance and maintains a lively social media presence. Her self-published books dominated the New York Times Bestseller list this year making up six of the top ten selling books of the year. She only published two books this year, so many of her readers have just discovered her and are catching up on her older books. James Patterson, by contrast, published an astonishing 22 books this year (we do not have all of them in our collection). He writes fiction and nonfiction as well as teen and children’s books.

The most popular magazines this year were “People,” “Prevention,” “Taste of Home,” and “Reader’s Digest.” All of these magazines were checked out more times than any of the top ranked books. Magazines are published several times per year, giving them an advantage over books.

Classics led the teen checkout list this year. “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton tied with “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyer, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzanne Collins, and “Me (Moth)” by Amber McBride. Following closely were “The Selection” by Kiera Cass and “Loveless” by Alice Oseman. The most popular graphic novel with 11 checkouts this year was “Spiral into Horror” by Junji Ito.

The most popular children’s books this year were “The Way I Feel” by Janan Cain, “Clumsy Crab” by Ruth Galloway, “Crocodiles Need Kisses Too” by Rebecca Colby, “Pete the Cat and the Bedtime Blues” by Kimberly and James Dean, “Llama Llama Gram and Grandpa” by Anna Dewdney, “Delightfully Different Dilly” by Elizabeth Dale, and three books by Dav Pilkey, “Dog Man: Grime and Punishment,” “Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties” and “Dog Man Unleashed.” 

The most popular movies included “Black Panther” followed by “Star Wars: Episode I the Phantom Menace,” Star Wars: the Force Awakens” and “Black Snake Moan.”

I keep track of the books I read on Goodreads. According to these records, I read around 90 books this year (some were children’s books). The only books I read this year that made the list of most popular books in our library were “Dog Man: A Tail of Two Kitties” and “Lessons in Chemistry.”

I’m Sorry

Last week, my daughters were in town, and we stopped at Burger King then drove to a park to eat. When we got to the park, we realized that Sarah had not received the Impossible Burger she had ordered. So we went back. The guy at the counter offered to make us another, but I wanted to ask a manager how someone could put a beef burger in a green wrapper and not notice what was going on. The manager offered us a free medium Dr Pepper coupon and said he would speak to the cook. None of which answered my question. What had happened? It was inconvenient for us to have to go back and insist on getting what we had paid for.

The very next day we went to the lawyer. The receptionist said our lawyer was out of town, and someone should have called us. Then she went to see if someone else could help us. We waited. The lawyer’s assistant was able to help us. She started by apologizing, then halfway through our meeting she apologized again and then she closed the meeting with an apology. As I pulled up to work, I received a voice message from the lawyer herself, apologizing again. We had shown up on time, and waited about three minutes while they found someone who could do what we needed, and then had left satisfied. They apologized no fewer than four times, maybe five or six (more than the situation warranted for sure).

Then that night one daughter said something very unkind, in public, to my other daughter. Second daughter left in tears. An apology was deemed insincere. They didn’t speak at all the next day and the first daughter left town without having reconciled with her sister.

The guy at Burger King didn’t feel the need to apologize for someone on his end screwing up then offered a coupon that cost them 20 cents worth of product for having us drive across town twice to get the meal we ordered.

The lawyer who screwed up fixed the problem in less time than I would have expected to wait in the waiting room in the first place, then apologized to the point where it was almost uncomfortable.

And my daughters who love each other more than anyone else in the world were unable to reconcile in 20 hours, causing one to leave town in tears and the other to regret that her sister had left town early and without saying goodbye to her.

As you can see, everyone from fast food workers to lawyers makes mistakes. How we handle them makes a big difference. A simple, “Whoops, that should not have happened, let me fix it for you,” will go a long ways. A “I’m sorry you had to come back, here’s something of more than minimal value to make up for your inconvenience,” is also a classy move.

It’s difficult for most people to admit they were wrong. It hurts your pride and your sense that you are in control of yourself. But they are words, and as my kids on the speech team will tell you words have power. “I really screwed up, I wasn’t thinking and that was a very mean thing to say. I’m very sorry I hurt you that way. Can you forgive me?” Is it so difficult to say?

When someone you love hurts you, someone you know you will forgive, is it worth the heartache to hold a grudge? Maybe “I am still very upset with you, but I love you, and I expect you to do better, but I forgive you” would be good. I have never gotten apology flowers from a husband (the first was never wrong and the second hasn’t hurt me) but a grand gesture might not be a bad idea if it was an egregious wrong.

“I’m sorry you think I hurt your feelings” is not an apology, by the way.

So if you see me opening my meal to check while I am in the drive through at Jimmy John’s (it’s happened there too) or any other fast food place, this is why.

Summer Reading 2023

By Kira Perez

This summer at Gering Public Library is packed with activities! The summer reading program theme this year is “All Together Now.” We’re focusing on kindness, friendship, unity, and giving back to the community and the earth! All ages can take part in our programs this summer – not just kids and teens – but since I’m the Youth Services Librarian, that’s what we’re talking about.

Our youngest patrons (birth through preschool) are invited to our Story Time & Activity Days every Wednesday in June at 10 o’clock. Meet us at the library for stories, songs, and a fun-filled hour of play and learning. Our themed weeks include music, friendship, community helpers, and feelings. These activities are sure to be fun – we’re planning to build blanket forts, try yoga, and so much more!

For elementary students, we have several community partners helping us create great programs this year! Partners include Keep Scottsbluff Gering Beautiful, a Master Gardener, and Gering High School band instructor Emily Hauck. Kids can learn how to make seed paper, explore the relationship between plants and pollinators, and discover some of the amazing instruments out there. We’ll also be painting flower pots and making some instruments of our own!

Older students going into 6th through 12th grade are invited to our teen programs. These include a Bad Art Night, indigo tie dye, adventure journals, and an anime night. Teens can join our summer program to enjoy snacks and make new friends! Teens can also earn community service hours by helping with programs for younger kids and joining our Teen Advisory Group (TAG). TAG will start near the end of our summer reading program. TAG is an opportunity for teens to help plan library events and choose books for the collection. It’s a great way to get involved!

That’s not all that we have planned this June, though! Everyone is invited to our family events, including our annual pool party, a movie at the Midwest, a night at the zoo, and a performance by juggler Peter Brunette. Families are also invited to Drums of the World, an interactive performance by musician Michael Fitzsimmons that showcases drums from many different countries.

Finally, let’s talk about reading. Kids and teens can earn prizes when they check in library books or complete an activity card. We have a ton of small prizes, door prizes, and two grand prizes per age group. We also have our Summer Reading School Challenge trophy, which goes to the Gering school that checks out the most books this summer.

Kick-off for a fun-filled summer is on May 31st from 3-5 p.m. at Legion Park, but if you can’t make the kick-off, that’s okay! Stop in the library in June to sign up, but keep in mind that activities start the first week of June.

What is a Makerspace

By Hayley Grams

The Gering Public Library has introduced a new MakerSpace to our collection! But what IS a MakerSpace?

A makerspace is an open workspace that has a variety of tools, from high-tech to low-tech, that can be used to make, create, learn, and explore! The Gering Library’s MakerSpace has added a few of these tools to our creative collection: a button-maker, a wire-binding machine, and a Cricut machine and heat press.

The button maker is easy to use. You can even create your own custom designs. You can make a button with a picture of your pet to pin on your backpack, or one with the words, “Vote for Pedro.” The library provides materials for making a button free of charge. If you want your button to show how much you love the Gering Library, come visit us at Legion Park on May 31st from 3-5 pm, for our Summer Reading Kickoff event. We’ll be making buttons for everyone who signs up, if you want to come and see the button maker in action!

Maybe you want to make use of our wire-binding machine. You can easily use this to put together a bound copy of your professional portfolio, or create your own poetry book. You can even put together a bound booklet of your favorite family recipes. You can either bring your own papers ready to be bound, or print something out at the library. We’ll provide the wire-binding for the machine for free. 

The Cricut is a machine that can be used to cut out letters and shapes from materials like paper, cardstock and vinyl. Many of our library displays are made with a Cricut. You can use the Cricut to cleanly cut out huge letters, like for instance, “Go Bulldogs!” The Cricut can also cut out anything from basic shapes, like hearts and stars, to more complicated designs. Just upload any copyright free image from the internet to get an outline. Then, the Cricut will begin its work. 

You can use the Cricut to cut out tiny flowers and glue them to your hand-written thank you notes, or cut out a larger design to hang in your window. Check out the library’s front window display during our Summer Reading Program starting in May to see an awesome example! 

If you want to make T-shirts, the Cricut can cut out your T-shirt design on vinyl, and the corresponding heat press can iron on the design. Get creative by making tote bags with your favorite quote, or add your favorite athlete’s jersey number on the back of a jacket. You’ll have to bring your own materials for most of these projects, but teens will have the opportunity to make their own T-shirt designs if they sign up for TAG, our Teen Advisory Group. If you’d like to know more about this program, please ask our Youth Services Librarian.

What if you’ve never used any of these things before? Not to worry! Each of these machines will have instructions available for you to follow. They’re easy to use, and the first time you use the MakerSpace, we’ll make sure you know the basics of how everything works. If you want someone to give you an in-depth tutorial on any of our new tools, be sure to call ahead and we’ll make sure staff can assist you. 

All the tools in our MakerSpace are free to use, with a variety of materials available to patrons for free too. If you have any big projects in mind, let us know and we’ll see what can be provided by the library, and what materials you’ll need to bring yourself. 

The MakerSpace is available for all library patrons 18 years or older. Kids 9-15 will need adult supervision, to use the MakerSpace and 16-17 year-olds will need permission before they can use it on their own. Visit gering.org/library and click on “Using the Library” to find our MakerSpace policy and release forms. 

Adult Learners at the Library

Scotts Bluff County is home to around 1700 people with developmental or intellectual disabilities. Some of them live with their families, some live in group homes, and some live independently. Those that are able to work often do so, but those that are unable to work often attend a day program where they have a variety of educational and social opportunities.

Gering Public Library hosts a monthly program designed for adults with developmental disabilities called Adult Learners at the Library. Each month we have a class on an interesting topic with a book, a speaker, and oftentimes a craft. Some of our speakers have included registered dietitian Betty Kenyon, weatherman Bill Boyer, staff from the Riverside Discovery Center, beekeeper Ernest Griffiths, nurse Kristen Palser, Leann Sato from TriCity Stormwater, Gering Parks Director Amy Seiler and staff from the Panhandle Humane Society.

Because the Gering Library is not equipped to host a program with a number of disabled participants, this program is held in City Council Chambers. Last month we had about 48 people there, which is about the limit of what that room will hold comfortably.

Sometimes we mix it up. Last summer we toured Oregon Trail Stadium and took photos with Hiram. We also visited the Legacy of the Plains Museum to plant flowers for pollinators. Myra Dillman said, “When I helped the group with flower arranging I was amazed by how much talent they had. If the talent wasn’t obvious, the willingness to participate and have fun was!”

Once a year I host an Open Mic program where I invite local “celebrities” like Mayor Kaufmann, PRCA cowboy Orin Larsen, artist Mary Hunt and TV news anchor Angel Alvarez from NBC Nebraska to talk about something they are passionate about for 3-5 minutes. The class members discuss a variety of things, including coin collecting, riding a bucking horse for a living, latch hook, building models, costumes, South Dakota, fishing, art, quilting, and model trains. An attendee, Hayley said, “It was awesome hearing everyone speak! It’s always fun to hear what different people are passionate about.”also shared something they enjoy doing. We heard some great talks about a wide variety of 

This summer we are having a dance with a live band- Donny O and the Troublemakers, sponsored by Riverstone Bank, NTC Logistics and Wel-life. Band teacher Emily Hauck is going to teach us a tune on the Boomwackers, and at the end of June we have performer Michael Fitzsimmons coming from Omaha to do his “Drums of the World” presentation. In July, Tom Robinson will be talking about the night sky.

Cassie Baker, Vocational Supervisor of one of the groups that attend ALL said this, “Our clients look forward to these programs each month, and continue to talk about them and what they have learned long after they go home. [Programs like this] encourage learning and acceptance of adults with developmental disabilities and offer individuals a chance to learn fun and exciting new things in our community.” 

ALL is designed for adults with developmental disabilities, but the programs are open to the public, and anyone interested is welcome to join us. If you have something you would like to share with this group, or if you know someone who would benefit from this program, please contact Sherry at the Gering Public Library.

Quilts

January 24, 2008

With cold weather upon us, currently two below zero here, I thought I would post a couple of quilt photos. In a burst of domesticity I went shopping today. My book group is due at my house tomorrow, and this gave me the excuse to actually put something on the wall in my dining room. It has been bare since, let’s see…1998. Not that I am jealous, but they all live in new houses, and don’t seem to live in them, if you know what I mean.  A realator’s dream.  I couldn’t possibly compete, and don’t have any desire to, but I thought an update was not out of line.  As you can see, it is a huge wall, and the two items hanging on it were dwarfed by an expanse of white space. I hated to buy a quilt, but neither mom nor I have taken the time to make anything. Quilt presses (hanger thingies) run around $125 in town here, I need to get some oak and go into business. I did find this shelf thing though, and it was less than $50, but more than I had planned to spend. When I got home, I got out husband’s big drill, and screwed in a couple of screws while standing on the table. Don’t know what the ladies learned, but hopefully they learned women can use power tools. They probably learned to stand on the table.  The black thing in our dining room is the dangly from the ceiling fan, not something nasty on the wall.  Ansel Adams, I am not.

Quilt in dining room
Paul's quilt, front
Paul's quilt, back

The other quilt is the one I made for Zach. I bought the back several years ago, because I loved it. Mom found the design on the front, it was very easy. We did the team thing where she irons and pins and I sew. Makes things go pretty fast.

You will have to excuse my photos, I wasn’t able to stand very still.  Feel free to notice that the carpet has been freshly shampooed.  I did it for the first time ever.  From the looks of the water and the lack of stains on the carpet, I need to do this about once a year, rather than once every eight!  Jeez, look at the time, dialup took forever to load my photos, but I got the kitchen cleaned while I was waiting.

Four Things Quickly

January 20, 2008

Four jobs I have had in my life:
Salad bar queen at Wendy’s, Grad student grunt, (aka new and used grass collector), Chef/waitress/bottlewasher at The Rustic, Mom 

Four places I have lived:

Laramie, WY, Pavillion, WY, Lyman NE, Mullen, NE 
Four places I have been on vacation:
Black Hills, Harlingen TX, Yellowstone, Tennessee

Four of my favorite Foods:
Something I didn’t cook, Fresh seafood, Anything Mexican, a good avocado
 Four places I would rather be right now:
Somewhere in the Sandhills, Scubadiving somewhere, Skiing somewhere, In front of a crackling fire with a good book

LOL

January 14, 2008

  1. The Reader’s Digest published an issue on humor a while ago. I had to agree with a lot about the differences between men’s humor and women’s. It explained why my husband says, “you don’t have a sense of humor,” and why I reply, “you have the sense of humor of a 13 year-old-boy.” They pretty much used our words verbatim. I am not sure it is anything I can apply to life, but at least I know that I am not alone, and that I do have a sense of humor.
  2. I especially could relate to the part where they discussed what men and women call their friends. The article, which I no longer have (so this is paraphrased from memory), uses for example four guys meeting for lunch who call each other Fatboy, Red, Matter-o-Fact, and Schmidt Head. The four women called each other Helen, Meg, Annie and Jennifer. Husband calls both of his good friends nicknames, and not really nice ones. They have nicknames for him as well, and ones he deserves. I call all of my friends by their names, or a shortened form of that.
  3. Unfortunately the movie thing threw me a loop. I personally own two of the movies that were supposed to be men’s humor and none of those that were presumably for women. “Blazing Saddles” was my all time favorite movie to watch when I stayed home sick from work. I bought “Fletch” recently, and I still laugh all the way though it. I don’t believe it was on the list, which is a travesty, but surely it would have been on the men’s list.  We watched a Chevy Chase marathon while I was in labor with Lydia, he just slays me.  I saw Annie Hall (listed in the women’s favorites) sometime in the last 24 months, and I don’t remember even thinking it was funny. Maybe it was because I don’t have much in common with the world of Jewish New Yorkers.
  4. My Step dad, Bill, is hilarious. We play a board game called Balderdash. You and your friends have to make up fake definitions for words you probably haven’t heard of, then you get to guess which one is the real definition. My definition for the word “squallop” was something about a brief but violent storm at sea. Someone else came up with a shell fish. Bill’s response was, “An Indian maid with loose morals.” Last night he came up with a definition for “snurp.” My first thought was something to do with Smurfs, but I made up something lame about shoe tread. Bill came up with, “when a person with a cleft palate drinks from a glass.” Please understand my step dad is not someone who would make anyone feel uncomfortable, and he is not prejudiced, or mean spirited in any way, and most of his ideas don’t have anything derogatory in them, it just happens that the two funniest I remember do. (I used to work for Uncle Sam, so I feel the need to put a disclaimer so as not to offend anyone.)
  5. Before she started pre-school last year, I taught Lydia a couple of jokes. The teacher tracked me down and told me she had never heard a funny joke from a student before, or even one that made sense. So why did the chicken cross the playground? To get to the other slide.