A few weeks ago we had the good fortune of hosting a musical performance by Gregory Alan Isakov and the Freight. They hail from Colorado and are quite known in the alternative folk/ country genre.  They have played and toured with some of the more established acts of this genre. The musicians were accompanied by their harmonica, violin, mandolin, fiddle, upright base and guitars.  Their style of music seems to meld just right within the Ojai Valley. I particularly love this line in one of his songs, “The Stable Song” : “I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell.”

The band was also performing the following night. They were opening for a well-known country singer/songwriter at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, and I took a few kids who were off campus the night before to see the performance. They were especially giddy when they were able to hang out backstage and take some photos with the band–especially rewarding for me to see their enthusiasm and excitement.

It was a great night topped off by a late viewing of The Hunger Games. I just never know where my job as a librarian will lead me on a Saturday night!

As the librarian, I implemented a book club 3 years ago. The students generally read about 5-6 new novels in the club per year as this is about all their busy schedules will allow. Coincidentally, some of the reads have also been made into films so we’ve been able to read and also screen the films. We’ve even had some guest speakers such as Dr. Del Vecchio who spoke to us about Chinese history during the Cultural Revolution after reading “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.” We then viewed the film of the same name and Mr. Shi’s wife prepared us a yummy authentic chinese meal. Other reads such as “Water for Elephants”, “Never Let Me Go” and “WarHorse” have also lent themselves to the discussion of the book and film translation. Currently though we have read two books with the word rabbit in title : “Down the Rabbit Hole” and “When God was a Rabbit.” Our busy schedules have not allowed us to discuss these yet but very soon. Neither has been made into a film yet either but, they were all the buzz at the “Edinburgh Book Festival” which I attended this past August. I have a feeling one of them will be made into a film when it makes it across the pond to the US. Next up  to read is yet to be determined but, I am almost certain it will not have rabbit in the title!

As a librarian I am constantly bombarded with the issues surrounding this debate. Many of my peer librarians at other schools are pushing all the gadgets that publish books in digital formats. And although I do see value in such items, condone the use of them and provide such items for students, it may be suprising for you to know that many of our students still enjoy feeling the paper and cuddling up in the corner with a book no matter it’s age or condition. ( I offered the ability to read on the IPad to my book club. I barely had any takers.) I am constantly asking for feedback from students about their experiences with reading on the IPad, ITouch, Kindle, Nook, etc. I am searching for them to substantiate all the dogma and propaganda surrounding the death of the book. I have as of yet to conclude that this generation has completely done away with the paper format. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that books will become extinct as of yet, if ever. And yes I have seen the statistics ( I often wonder who is generating them) and  many technological devices that make reading in a digital format possible, portable, easy and all you could want to read at your fingertips. However when I am with other librarians and we are conversing about the needs of our community and library, I find that not always but usually I am one stating how our students still enjoy the book in its paper format. Thacher has recently been referred to as  “Frontier Schooling” and I’d like to believe that in some way we still maintain a little piece of a “Frontier Library.”