Featured Book - I and Thou

Featured Book is a new series of blog posts by our librarians about books in our collection which we find particularly interesting, noteworthy or compelling. We’ll tell you a bit about what we’ve read, and why we liked it.

Martin Buber

I and Thou

Call number: HH PHL BUB

It has been quite some time since I read Martin Buber’s “I and Thou”, but the book made such an impression on me that I remember it quite distinctly. I remember the sense of having something explained to me that I felt I already knew in some way, but had not yet articulated. Books like that are special and rare and always remembered.

As a student of religious studies at McGill, I had heard about Buber, but did not know much about Hasidism or Jewish mysticism. Buber’s idea of dialogue as a religious practice was novel to me at the time, and changed my perception of religious experience. It showed how openness to experience, rather than faith or doctrine, can be fundamental to religious practice. That idea that religion can be experiential is a perspective that is open minded, engaged and accessible.

I subsequently read other books by Buber, but none matched the immediacy and passionate nature of “I and Thou”. It is the book that defined his career, and it rightfully became a classic of theology and religious studies. I think it would be interesting to anyone with an interest in Judaism or religious dialogues or religious studies more generally.

-M.E.

Gardening in the Library?!

Gardening in the Library: Weeding at Hart House Library

By Katya Pereyaslavska (Library Curator) and Stephen Spong (Special Projects)

Hart House Library, nestled away in a quiet corner of the University of Toronto’s Hart House, is a unique and very special collection. Established in 1919 by the Massey family, the library has served a diverse community over the past ninety-two years, reflecting the changing faces of Hart House. Currently, the library, which would fit right in at Hogwarts, holds some 5,000 volumes on its intricately carved and stained-wood shelves; however, it is only now that a proper weeding project has been initiated with the help of twenty student volunteers.

The most difficult aspect of this project is to actually get started on it or, perhaps more accurately, deciding how it should be initiated and how to implement it most effectively. What is to be done with all the past donations comprising of outdated textbooks and poorly-maintained cheap editions of Huckleberry Finn? Should they be assessed or should we just create a “sale truck” where volumes in question can be sold off to raise funds for the library? Are they worth anything? Should they be donated instead? Where do we even start?! These questions and more make laying the groundwork a delicate operation.

While attempting to come to terms with this conundrum, we came upon Zotero, which offered the solution we were looking for. Available as a small, free download, Zotero – a plug-in for Firefox, rather than a stand-alone program – allows one to extract and edit library records from any catalogue record viewed in the browser – from WorldCat, public and academic libraries and even Library Thing where the Hart House Library recently uploaded its catalogue.

Having offered several training sessions and sent out links to online tutorials, the next step was dividing volunteers into teams responsible for specific sections of the library. From there, we have created subject-specific folders corresponding with the appropriate section of the library, and then each one has subfolders named “replace”, “deaccession” and “not found.” This allows for a simple, methodical approach.

The “replace” folder is intended to include classics and must-haves for our library that are currently in poor condition or outdated. Due to the increasingly high cost of book repairs and our modest budget, the library cannot afford to replace all books which are in poor condition. Our aim is to be able to buy newer and more attractive hardcover volumes to replace shabby and overused paperbacks, instead of spending a fortune on repairs. However, before any volumes from this folder are replaced, we shall run the list by a rare book specialist to advise us as to whether it might contain any valuable items in which case we might decide to splurge on repairs or donate these volumes to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.

The “deaccession” folder will contain books that are obviously in need of weeding because they are old textbooks or items that do not fit well into the overall character of the collection. The drafting of newly updated Collection Development and Mission Statement documents that were subsequently distributed to the volunteers provides a clear framework within which to work. More often than not assigning sections based on individual background and expertise allows for a more critical approach to weeding as well as encouraging students to actively participate in compiling lists of contributions for acquisitions.

The Hart House Library is currently in the process of working through the sections and waiting for the folders to be filled with lists of books. The wonderful thing about Zotero is that it actually allows for the exporting of content to spreadsheets as well as for the editing of imported records to change publishing information and add notes on anything (which is especially useful for condition reports). This will prove to be quite useful when studying this part of our collection and making joint decisions with administration. Although the library is small, this makes the project all the more manageable, as well as a fantastic training ground for our volunteer-based staff of library students.

Published in the Special Librarian Association's "The Courier"

http://toronto.sla.org/the-courier/volume-48/v48-n2-winter-2011/gardening-in-the-library-weeding-at-hart-house-library

The Chronicles of Canada Series

Now available at the Hart House Library, the Chronicles of Canada Series was intended as a collection of books on Canadian history for popular reading. Notable contributors to the series include Stephen Leacock and William Stewart Wallace, among others, and the series begins from the history of Aboriginals in Canada and ends with the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. While not regarded as fiction, the prose used throughout most of the books is quite captivating, especially in The Cariboo Trail, a work about the Gold Rush that took place in British Columbian fields, and The War Chief of the Six Nations. Each book can be read in just a few hours, as there are few words per page and many illustrations, so what better way to satiate your curiosity about Canada’s past than to dip into this wonderful series. The books are bound in a decorative cover, which fits perfectly with the library’s historic character.


The series includes:

1 - The Dawn of Canadian History - A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada
2 - The Mariner of St Malo - A Chronicle of the Voyages of Jacques Cartier
3 - The Founder of New France - A Chronicle of Champlain
4 - The Jesuit Missions - A Chronicle of the Cross in the Wilderness
5 - The Seigneurs of Old Canada - A Chronicle of New-World Feudalism
6 - The Great Intendant - A Chronicle of Jean Talon in Canada 1665-1672
7 - The Fighting Governor - A Chronicle of Frontenac
8 - The Great Fortress - A Chronicle of Louisbourg 1720-1760
9 - The Acadian Exiles - A Chronicle of the Land of Evangeline
10 - The Passing of New France - A Chronicle of Montcalm
11 - The Winning of Canada - A Chronicle of Wolf
12 - The Father of British Canada - A Chronicle of Carleton
13 - The United Empire Loyalists - A Chronicle of the Great Migration
14 - The War with the United States - A Chronicle of 1812
15 - The War Chief of the Ottawas - A Chronicle of the Pontiac War
16 - The War Chief of the Six Nations - A Chronicle of Joseph Brant
17 - Tecumseh - A Chronicle of the Last Great Leader of His People
18 - The ''Adventurers of England'' on Hudson Bay - A Chronicle of the Fur Trade in the North
19 - Pathfinders of the Great Plains - A Chronicle of La Vérendrye and his Sons
20 - Adventurers of the Far North - A Chronicle of the Frozen Seas
21 - The Red River Colony - A Chronicle of the Beginnings of Manitoba
22 - Pioneers of the Pacific Coast - A Chronicle of Sea Rovers and Fur Hunters
23 - The Cariboo Trail - A Chronicle of the Gold-fields of British Columbia
25 - The 'Patriotes' of '37 - A Chronicle of the Lower Canada Rebellion
26 - The Tribune of Nova Scotia - A Chronicle of Joseph Howe
27 - The Winning of Popular Government - A Chronicle of the Union of 1841
28 - The Fathers of Confederation - A Chronicle of the Birth of the Dominion
29 - The Day of Sir John Macdonald - A Chronicle of the First Prime Minister of the Dominion
30 - The Day of Sir Wilfrid Laurier - A Chronicle of Our Own Time
31 - All Afloat - A Chronicle of Craft and Waterways
32 - The Railway Builders - A Chronicle of Overland Highways

Green Books

Hart House Library is holding an eco book drive from March 21 to 28, 2011. "What's an eco book drive?" you might ask...well, I'm glad you did! We are looking for donations (from you! and your friends! and your family! and your colleagues!) of environmentally-themed books to help round out and update the Hart House Library collection.

Since Hart House Library is mainly a browsing library, existing to provide casual pleasure reading for patrons, we are looking for current, stimulating, interesting books on all aspects of environmental living. This could include: books on sustainable living, alternative energy, farming & gardening, composting, eco-tourism, farmer's markets, eco-design, green politics...chances are, if you think it's an eco book, we will too. We are specifically looking for books published since 2000 and in good condition, but no textbooks please.

So go through your shelves at home, and see if you have any eco-themed books that you are prepared to part with and share with the world. For bonus points, send this information to your friends, family and co-workers. Bring your donations to the Hub (the main desk at Hart House) and deposit them in the donation box. With your help, we can create an excellent eco book collection at Hrat House Library!

The details:

Who: Hart House Library
What: Eco Book Drive
Where: Donation box at the Hub (main desk inside the West entrance at 7 Hart House Circle)
When: March 21-28, 2011, 7a.m.-11p.m.
Why: To help build our blooming collection!

Looking forward to perusing all those books. If you have any questions, please contact Val Stevens at val.stevens@utoronto.ca

Ode to a Good Read

Ryan Nayler, a second year Masters of Information student, is the contributor of this entry. He praises classic literature, championing the belief that the latest vampire series simply will not be challenging enough for the growth and spirit of many readers. One need only take a glance at a person's bookshelf to gain a greater sense of who that person is. In this post, Nayler suggests that the language we use also comprises our personalities. The image below captures Hart House Library, circa 1942.

My fascination with fiction began through my intrigue with the archetypal figure you might call the ‘deviant gentleman’ (i.e. Dorian Gray, Jekyll & Hyde, Notes from the Underground, etc.). Classy, yet somewhat villainous, through literature I could not resist the urge to tap into these intriguing anomalies of the human psyche. The historic settings and situations evoked the sort of nostalgia and ambiance that is often attributed to literature, but only experienced when you begin to pour over the pages of immersive, eloquent prose, even though some patience is often required. Fifth Business, by the prolific Canadian author Robertson Davies, illustrates this quite well, as the narrator gradually conjures up a haunting atmosphere, where the fates of numerous people become gradually interwoven in such an intricate way that one cannot help but appreciate the calculation and artistry that must have gone into crafting such a story.

A film director might adopt the philosophy, “show, don’t tell”, although a writer realizes that the process of translating what we see and perceive into language helps us understand it much better. In one page, one line even, a clever writer can make us look at that which we have seen a million times in a different light. Thoreau’s Walden is a diary-come-to-life that depicts the connection of a man with nature through vivid articulation of thought, feeling, and philosophy, which cannot be as clearly illustrated through any other medium. I love film as much as the next person but, in this regard, it doesn’t come close to literature.

Librarians and educators seeking to promote sustained reading in this hurried digital era should explore exactly what sets short stories and novels apart from other mediums. Reader’s advisory programs need to include works which best exemplify these qualities which are idiosyncratic to print. Promoting the latest vampire fiction series may encourage literacy among some teens, but educators should also select classics which challenge the common preconceptions that older literature is too dense, inaccessible, or unappealing to younger audiences. Jack London’s Sea Wolf is a personal favourite that I would recommend to any budding, or seasoned, reader. Its antagonist (or protagonist, depending on your perspective), Wolf Larsen, is one of the most fascinating fictional characters I have encountered. Wolf is the ruthless captain of a ship who uses Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest philosophy to justify his tyrannical command of the schooner. He is also described as a sort of beast, with superhuman strength, although the reader is made to sympathize with him. The story is one of an affluent literary critic who inadvertently boards a rogue pirate ship, and is appalled to discover that anarchy prevails among the cutthroat crew, and life appears to be cheap and disposable.

Books such as Sea Wolf, historical fiction, and fantasy or gothic horror novels provide readers with a healthy escape from reality, while still promoting intellectual growth. However, there is a final merit of literature that I would like to highlight. Beyond our interests, or fashion styles, the language we use helps to make up our personality. Language is an art form and a personality trait, and this is perhaps the greatest appeal of poetry. Everyone has their favourite poetic lines or verses, those which really seem to resonate with them because they just love the way the poet captured the essence of something, or made a distinct statement that was deeper than the superficial personality indicators I’ve alluded to. Perhaps it is owing to the fact that the process of reading itself is more active than merely observing something, requiring us to decode, interpret, and compelling us to take notice of the details often overlooked in everyday life. Even as the usefulness of reading fiction remains a topic of debate, there is always something unique and nostalgic about the experience of curling up in front of the fire with an extravagant tale. Hmmm, I know just the place where you can do this!

The image above is of Robertson Davies, circa 1984.
...Feel free to comment with your favourite poetic lines or verses.