Of all the City of Round Rock departments you know about—Utilities, Transportation, Parks and Recreation, Police, Fire, etc.—which group springs to mind when you think of exercise and fitness?

You didn’t name “Library”, did you?

And yet–so far–this year’s Million Mile Month participation by City of Round Rock includes more entries from the library than from any other department.   As of this morning, the City overall ranks 12^th in the nation for the 2015 MMM.

Some of our pedometer-wearing staffers logged premium miles darting from session to session at last week’s Texas Library Association conference at the Austin Convention Center (which hosted an impressive attendance of nearly 8,000).  Five librarians from RRPL’s youth and reference departments were presenters or panelists at TLA this year.

That’s four statistics already.  For literary types, we librarians can certainly obsess over numbers.

When we meet other library professionals, we establish focus by sharing our type of library (school, academic, special, public) and service population size.  Our customer base—over 100,000—prompts the question “How many branches?”—and “zero” is not the expected response.

Another eye-opener:  Did you know that many of the bestselling e-books that the library purchases from Big Five publishers cost $84 for a single, one-user-at-a-time copy?

Customers at the Reference Desk frequently seek numbers.   Earlier this week, requested data involved the population of Texas in 1845, including demographic breakdowns for women, slaves, Native Americans, etc.  Given that 1845 was, while not a census year, otherwise a very busy one for the brand-new state (and that views regarding who is and isn’t significant enough to count are more enlightened today), this was a tall order.

We generate plenty of questions among ourselves:  What percentage of the budget should go to e-books instead of print?  What expectations do new library cardholders bring with them from other states and different libraries?  What reading and information tastes characterize Round Rock?

No wonder we find circulation statistics so compelling.  Thank you, Rhonda and Tricia, for these examples:

Round Rock Public Library cardholders:  57,914
Books checked out by cardholders over the life of their accounts:  6,666,466
Physical items owned by the library:  220,057
Electronic items/products owned by the library:  4,243
Indic books:  206
Chinese-language books:  1163
Spanish-language books:  2057
Music CDs:  4,580

Nonfiction titles with most checkouts at Round Rock Public Library in the past 12 months:
Guinness Book of Records
Unbroken: a World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Cracking the SAT
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Cracking the GED

Fiction titles with most checkouts at RRPL in the past 12 months:
The Husband’s Secret
Gone Girl
Sycamore Row
Target
Gray Mountain
The Goldfinch
Top Secret Twenty-One
Personal: a Jack Reacher novel
The Gods of Guilt
Unlucky 13

Title with the longest queue: All the Light We Cannot See

DVDs with most checkouts at RRPL in the past 12 months:
Saving Mr. Banks
Man of Steel
Iron Man 3

One final count:  how many of Taylor Stevens’ Vanessa Michael Munroe series books does RRPL own?

Answer:  Except for The Vessel— we’re purchasing it in e-book format–all of them (The Mask won’t be out until this summer).  Fans of Lee Child and the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy should look into Stevens’ gritty, suspenseful series beginning with The Informationist.

Better still, come meet Taylor Stevens in person (and learn about her fascinating background).  The New York Times best-selling author will be in the library gallery on Wednesday, May 6, from 6-8:00 P.M.  Frank Campbell of Round Rock’s Barnes & Noble store will be facilitating book sales.

As a certain mid-April deadline approaches, queues for Foundation Communities’ Community Tax Center assistance at the library are lengthening, but not as much as you’d think.  Ever since the sessions opened up back in January, area residents have been streaming in with hopes of completing their returns well and in a timely fashion.

For those among you fortunate enough to enjoy the smugness of early filing, there’s the pleasant option of penciling in an activity that–unlike the project assigned by the IRS–actually celebrates creativity.  Coincidentally, I know of two that also feature April 15 completion dates:

For starters, you could rev up your imagination with the Round Rock Arts Council’s Have A Ball Contest.  The idea is to create a work of art from a baseball (or multiple baseballs).  You can even stop by ArtSpace at 231 East Main to pick up a free ball for your masterpiece. Categories include individuals, businesses and organizations, and elementary, middle school, and high school.  Entries will be auctioned at the Round Rock Express game on April with proceeds to benefit art scholarships and the RRAC.

Just be sure to have your entry in by 3:00 P.M. on April 15–and prepare for some competition.  From what I overheard just this afternoon–and naturally can’t divulge particulars about–the library’s entry will be eye-catching, a quirky transformation.

And it was only one of several unexpected inspirations generated by the creators’ discussion.   Studying the same basic white baseball, everyone imagined distinctive possibilities for translating it into art.  (I have to wonder if our library customers, known to comment on staffers’ grasp of titles, facts, and processes, suspect how much imagination and outside-the-box thinking swirls around in the same heads that appear always focused on library accounts and database selection).

Frank Campbell of the Round Rock Barnes & Noble just alerted us to another April 15 (that’s a Wednesday, 7:00 P.M.) event dear to the hearts of Harper Lee fans.  Anticipating the July 14 release of Lee’s Go Set A Watchman, the La Frontera B&N will host a discussion of To Kill a Mockingbird.  Where this classic is concerned, few folks contemplate the book without the movie (or vice versa), so both will be considered here.  And a special TKAM trivia contest will be part of the fun!

It may be spring break, but folks in Round Rock never stop doing their homework.

The Improvements for Your Home display tower on second floor requires constant monitoring to refill empty slots:  volumes of wiring tips, bathroom plans, room makeovers, repair techniques and such are snapped up by residents determined to get the target project done like the pros would–or to confirm that this really is a job for said pros.  Consumer Reports fans know that the April issue is all about cars and have been asking for it at the Reference Desk; local auto dealers must be accustomed to well-informed shoppers.

Knowing this, when trailers for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel  first appeared, we expected increased demand for our DVDs of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.  As one patron explained, “I know the background from the first movie, but my friend doesn’t–and she really should before seeing this one.”

Like the locals, actors in the Marigold  films are staying busy.  Bill Nighy has at least three roles either in post-production or filming status since Second Best.  Richard Gere, not in the first installment but notably on board for the second, reportedly has two post-Marigold roles in the works, in addition to his photography and social activism via the Gere Foundation.  For Tom Wilkinson (in the first Marigold cast but not the second), Internet Movie Database lists seventeen recent roles, including that other hotel success, The Grand Budapest, and Selma (he portrays LBJ).  Examples of additional work for the Marigold crew—these you can check them out from the library on DVD–include Dev Patel in The Newsroom and Maggie Smith and Penelope Wilton in Downton Abbey.

Among Dame Judi Dench’s film projects are Peregrine’s Home for Peculiars, inspired by Ransom Riggs’ popular Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and directed by (who else?) Tim Burton.

But the mention I most rejoiced to see is Dench’s role in Tulip Fever.  Set in Amsterdam, this drama (due out sometime this year) borrows the unusual backdrop of an early market bubble—17^th century speculation in tulip bulbs.  A 2004 film starring Jude Law and Keira Knightley was ultimately abandoned due to tax issues; this iteration features a screenplay by Sir Tom Stoppard. Coincidentally, the novel behind this movie was written by Deborah Moggach–author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Celia Imrie (in both Marigold films; she also played Colin Firth’s bride-to-be in Nanny McPhee) has completed a new project since Second Best; RRPL cardholders can also watch her in the earlier short film The Man Who Married Himself via the library’s Indieflix subscription.  And now Imrie has published a novel whose premise promises appeal for Marigold and Peter Mayle fans: the charms and hazards of living abroad.  It’s titled Not Quite Nice and judged by Booklist to be “funny” and “over the top”; Library Journal recommends it for “readers seeking a breezy read with a touch of romance and mystery and a heroine they can relate to”.

One of Imrie’s associates tagged it as simply “a very witty novel by a very witty woman”: that’s Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey.

‘Tis Christmas Eve
night, and Round Rock’s slumber-bound,
In the mood for a
holiday story profound.

We desire an account of
Saint Nick’s successes
With gifts all conveyed
before dawn coalesces.

But what if, instead,
this page shared revelations
Concerning the hero of
our expectations?

For Santa’s not perfect:
he’s prone to distraction.
His helpers must
frequently re-direct action.

It now can be told that
the elves micromanage—
But kindly and always to
Santa’s advantage.

For starters, they have
to hide Santa’s e-reader
Beneath a tall,
festively-trimmed North Pole cedar.  

They’ve learned that
their leader’s delivery pace quickens
When he yearns to get
back to John Grisham or Dickens.

The elves also know that
attractions in Round Rock
Represent, for tight
schedules, a stumbling block.

When the windows of
ArtSpace or sculpture displays
Snag Santa’s attention,
they drag him away.

Ditto for the fabulous
Rock’N Lights drive,
Of which (most
regrettably) Santa’s deprived.

On the other hand, Santa
applies to his mission
Perceptions ascribed to
a master tactician.

Supplying his sleigh
with an awesome sufficiency,
He briskly embodies a
modern efficiency.

His app-laden phone can
pinpoint chimney mounts,
And the cookie-and-milk
tracker calories counts.

GPS-guided reindeer
precisely chart courses,
So you’d think all
things digital Santa endorses.

Well, you’d be mostly
right (though no techie device
Has proven to properly
check his lists twice).

No, Santa’s a type both
admired and exemplary:
Respecting tradition and
21st century.

And that is
what–library staffers exclaim–
Endears him to us even
more than his fame.  

Like Santa, we offer a
new-and-old fusion,
So customers’ smiles are
a foregone conclusion.

With our databases,
classics, and fiction debuts,
We even helped Santa
check product reviews.

He never would outsource
the checking of lists
But is glad when the
library lends an assist

With elf-pleasing story
times, demographics, and guidance
On suppliers of toys and
requested appliances.

We pretend that we don’t
comprehend his ID,
Detect his disguise and
his purpose foresee.

He’s a library patron
adored and ambitious
So on Christmas Eve we
set out something delicious.

No baked goods or
dairy—no, we intervene
With a tall foamy mug
brimming full of caffeine.

And thus fortified for
the rest of his flight,
Santa’s certain to wish
one and all a Good Night

And Peace, Joy, and
Happiness, Joyeux Noel,
From all of your friends
here at RRPL!

——————————————————–

From 2013:  “Rocksssanne’s Christmas Eve Ramble”

And, 2012’s “The Night Before Christmas at Round Rock Public Library”

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like a wrapping a present and not giving it.  –William Arthur Ward

There!  With someone else’s graceful expression, I address the ThanksgivingBlackFridayChristmas mash-up constructively — unlike what happened at home:  Schlepping laundry across the TV-viewing area last week, I spied a beloved holiday (hint: not Thanksgiving) production radiating merrily from the screen.  In tones better reserved for violent or slanderous content, I huffed, “Are you kidding me???” and stomped out. 

“Told you,” my daughter observed to my husband.

Thanksgiving, until recently, represented our last chance for appreciative reflection before the onslaught of commercial appeals to max out our credit cards in pursuit of Holiday Magic. However, as confirmed by increasing numbers of retail employees obliged to depart family gatherings early or miss them altogether to staff pre-Black Friday promotions, standards continue to evolve. 

Chief among blessings I count are novels that explore facets of contemporary experience, thus helping us acquire greater perspective and process change.   

These forthcoming books — I’ve already designated them for library purchase — could accomplish that:

John Vaillant’s The Jaguar’s Children (Jan. 2015) imagines the plight of illegal immigrants abandoned in the Arizona desert in a broken-down water truck that has been welded shut in what Luis Alberto Urrea (The Devil’s Highway) calls “…a real-world horror worthy of Stephen King.”

Detroit’s financial troubles precipitate the plight of a hard-working family in Angela Flournoy’s The Turner House (4/21/15) as their cherished investment falls victim to economic decline.

Readers heartened by the posthumous awarding of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to three civil rights workers slain in 1964 should watch for Ravi Howard’s Driving the King (1/6/15), set in 1950s Montgomery but based on an actual incident in Birmingham.  After a friend leaps onstage to defend Cole from a white audience member’s attack and consequently draws a prison sentence, Cole hires him as his chauffeur/bodyguard in Los Angeles. 

The Navy studies of combat roles for female soldiers could spark interest in these stories about other women in traditionally male spheres:  Angelina Mirabella’s The Sweetheart (1/20/15)–women’s professional wrestling in the early 1950s, and Anna Freeman’s The Fair Fight (4/14/15) –a female bare-knuckle fighter pursuing fame in 18^th-century England.

If you’re intrigued by trends in workplace culture, try these soon-available novels, both of which have elicited comparisons to Kafka:  Swedish actor/playwright Jonas Karlsson’s The Room (2/17/15) features a government employee who surmounts his co-workers’ disdain by creating a special private workspace not visible to others.  The Guard by Peter Terrin (1/6/15) envisions a not-too-distant future in which Harry and Michel, confined to the basement of the luxury apartment building they are hired to secure, begin to sense that no one is left to protect…

Not (thankfully) related to actual events, Robert Repino’s Mort(e) depicts an Orwellian upending of society–ants, in league with four-legged creatures, have taken over the world.  Look for it on 1/20/15; in the meantime, be especially kind to your pets.  

And the many fans of Graeme Simsion’s The Rosie Project will be grateful to follow developments (no spoilers here!) in The Rosie Effect, due out December 30.

It’s tempting to channel Eliza Dolittle, imagining what would be architecturally “loverly” even before blueprints for the new library get underway.

Recently I speculated how our workflow would benefit if staff offices were situated close together, so that we could quickly step over and consult with someone involved in cataloging, processing, or some other aspect of collection development.  Julie, who’d just trekked across second floor from her office to return a journal to the Reference office, nodded:   Yeah,” she agreed, “like the Panopticon in Horrorstor!”

Now, that Panopticon is a dreadful (and thankfully fictional) destination.  But take away the torture devices and utter despair, and you have an undeniably collaborative floor plan.  We gave Julie a thumbs-up.

But then ideas from unexpected sources are always energizing.  My current TV favorite, Flea Market Flip, could run for decades before I’d tire of cheering its intrepid contestants. With budget and list in hand, they troll through acres of random stuff, suddenly halting to exclaim over sad, damaged chairs, rusty industrial parts, and unstylish bedroom suites. Combining vision and an encyclopedic knowledge of crafts (and usually spray paint) they rehabilitate their finds into trendy creations sold at a profit.

Though not a fan of the ubiquitous Midcentury end table projects, I admire the fusion of thrift, repurposing, and out-of-the-box inspiration. 

That said, I clearly need to balance imagination with attention to more conventional goings-on.   Here it is November–National Novel Writing Month–and I’m not participating due to zero plot ideas.  But other authors have been alert to life as we know it.  Their titles demonstrate the appeal of burnishing already-relatable themes–less spray paint, more polish:

Monica McInerney’s Hello from the Gillespies   entertainingly considers the Annual Christmas Letter tradition.  Recipients of other families’ oh-so-perfect holiday newsletters (a demographic which includes everyone I know) have surely wondered which events went unreported.  And consider the soul-freeing option of at least momentarily committing to holiday-themed paper (or email) all the disappointments and frustrations blotting one’s past year.  What could possibly go wrong there?

William Hazelgrove gift-wraps another Yuletide standard, the Santa Claus question, in Real Santa.  A classic scenario–father recently unemployed yet determined to preserve a child’s delight in magic—ramps up extravagantly; this father knows the right people (or so he believes) and spares no expense.  From the Booklist review:  “If somebody doesn’t make a movie out of this book, there’s something wrong with the world.”

Julie Schumacher’s heartwarmingly satirical Dear Committee Members stars English professor Jason Fitger in a Grinch-y role.  Fitger’s department is underfunded, downtrodden, and forced to dodge plummeting chunks of plaster while the Economics department one floor above gets a posh renovation.  Furious and faced with a constant inflow of requests for letters of recommendation, Jason finally (and luckily for fiction fans) resorts to decrying wrongs and venting outrage via all those LORs.

Imagine availing oneself of an established informational channel just to publicize one’s observations!  What kind of person would do that?