Staff Picks Display on LibraryThing.com

The Staff Picks display, which General Reference Librarian Sara has been creating for over a year, is now available digitally via LibraryThing.com! Sara has collected the titles of over 650 books that are staff favorites, and has been displaying them in the Great Hall of the main library. Patrons love to know what librarians are reading, so these books go fast!

Our Staff Picks library on LibraryThing.com can be viewed in either cover view or list view. Each book is tagged with the name of the staff who recommended it; links to the ACPL catalog, member reviews and recommendations are also included. We encourage patrons to explore our staff picks on LibraryThing.com, and if you find a book you like, add it to your own LibraryThing.com library.

If you’re a member, why not add ACPL as a friend?

Melissa, IT Librarian

Still no definitive study of stamp collectors, but until then…

Obituaries and the people who love them: sounds like a bucket of fun, hm?

Actually, yes.

In The Dead Beat, Marilyn Johnson takes what could be a dry and depressing topic and crafts a lively (pardon the pun) yet respectful study. Her wonderfully quirky look at the world of obituaries–the writers who create them, the readers who collect them, the departed who appear as the subjects–is humorous and though-provoking, often in tandem. Johnson pontificates on wildly different obituary styles and the social mores behind them. She probes the reasoning of those who are drawn to the obit section as writers, or as consumers. While the book occasionally feels repetitive, it is ultimately enlightening and satisfying. One can only hope that ones obituary is written with a fraction of the care that went into this work.

PS: Only kidding, philatelics.

~Angela, Grabill branch