Community Picks:Checkout Suggestions From Our Customers

Many library branches offer Staff Picks to their customers, be they books, movies, or other media. We love to recommend the things we have discovered and enjoyed from the library catalog - you can find 1243 items labeled "staff pick" just by searching the catalog! But there is often a give and take to checkout suggestions - we have found out about some really interesting titles from talking with our customers! So, we thought we might turn the tables for a change, and publish some of our customers' recommendations. We've enlisted the help of some library users from the community for this post, but we are always looking for more - let us know your suggestions in the comments or email your name and recommendations to abcreads@gmail.com and we'll post them next time.



Keif from the Guild Cinema recommends some DVDs from the library catalog:

Pickpocket: un film de Robert Bresson

Theory of Obscurity: A Film About the Residents

También la lluvia

Hunt for the Wilderpeople

Rumble Fish

Rebelle [War Witch]


Brandon, a deejay on KUNM's Afternoon Freeform, would like to put in a good word for some of our music CDs!

Camel's Back by Psapp

Feitiço Caboclo by Dona Onete

Metropolis: The Chase Suite by Janelle Monáe 

Sketches Of Ethiopia by Mulatu Astatqé

Black Power: Music Of A Revolution by Various Artists

Artemis by Moussu T et Les Jovents


And Neal from AMP Concerts, a seasoned library user, would like to share some of his favorite library items and services:

I have the pleasure of working in the libraries regularly, as AMP hosts free concerts at the libraries twice a month.  It’s always a fun adventure to get to visit different parts of town and play with the different spaces.  We have some music-loving regulars who follow us around the county, as well as some groups that sometimes come en masse, but the bulk of our attendees come from the local communities, which is a lot of what the program is about.

So I’m guaranteed at least two library visits a month, though I often find myself popping in to some of my regular library stops more often than that.  There are so many features to love in the libraries, and all of our libraries have so many different personalities (which is probably a blog post on its own).

Several years ago I reconnected to my youthful love of comics and started catching up on the book length volumes of GRAPHIC NOVELS that I had missed over the years.  The library has a great collection of graphic novels.  They are a great alternative to my regular reading and it seems like I regularly have a half dozen out at any time.

Every once in a while, I’ll find a hole in the series that I’m reading.  That’s how one of the librarians turned me on to the magic of the INTERLIBRARY LOAN.  For no extra charge, you can put in an ILL and usually in short order, some dedicated librarians somewhere else in the country have shipped the book off to Albuquerque for my enjoyment.  

I usually have my own plans for what I’m reading, but I’m in the libraries enough that I always have time to browse the STAFF PICKS, where I frequently find myself knocked onto a new reading course that’s always been interesting and rewarding.

I’m old fashioned and like books, but I’ve been traveling a lot lately and the books I’m reading are too bulky for long trips.  While I’m not won over, the fact that I can get EBOOKS from the library is a pretty cool thing (and even readers too!)

I also like the history that our libraries capture - from the historic ERNIE PYLE house to our beautiful first library, re-opened as the SPECIAL COLLECTIONS LIBRARY (which even makes a star turn in "Better Call Saul”).  I’ve caught a few history lectures at the libraries too, which are a nice compliment to the buildings and collections.

Those are just a handful of the many great experiences I’ve had at our libraries.  I’m looking forward to my next visit!

 

Picture credit: The Striped Tablecloth. Fine Art. Britannica ImageQuest. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 25 May 2016. http://quest.eb.com/search/107_3349913/1/107_3349913/cite. Accessed 18 Oct 2016.

Putting on quite a display

Believe it or not, sometimes, people don't know what they want to check out when they come to the library.

To help with this knotty problem, every month we offer new displays on different topics, with books set out for easy browsing. At Cherry Hills, our Duchess of Displays (also, your most prolific blogmistress) sets up one large adult display and several smaller once. For October, the large display has featured books that you might like to read in a book group... and highlighted our collection of downloadable books.

The smaller displays, set up in cubes toward the front of the library, might feature anything, from marathon running to jazz music to Eleanor Roosevelt. There's also a rotating display of mysteries, to meet the tastes of any of Cherry Hills' many mystery fans (if you're one of them, you might like our Mystery Book Group!). Just look for the little cubes with the small signs, like this:

Your friendly neighborhood children's librarian (aka, me) doesn't like to see her clientele go without displays, so each month, there is a large display in the children's area, sometimes attached to a monthly event, like Hispanic Heritage Month (right), and sometimes just pulled from thin air, like a popular geography display.

And why ignore the teens? They might want to know what to read next as well. So in the teen area, we set up displays for back to school, or displays of action/survival books, or, as this month, displays related to events like Teen Read Week, this year with the theme "Read Beyond Reality."

So come on in and check them out... you might find something you never knew existed!