It all started with books, of course. Documentary film producer Julia Marchesi saw piles of them, left on Brooklyn brownstone steps, creating an informal book-borrowing system within the borough.

But when she saw a picture in the New York Times of a tree trunk carved out to create bookshelves, Marchesi got the idea for a project that is a continuation of Brooklyn’s book-lending tradition: part public art, part interactive whimsy, with an undeniable creativity built in.

The project is called the 100 Story House, and is a planned mini-brownstone building in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill Park, which will house a “give-a-book, take-a-book” collection that extends the front-stoop tradition.

Kickstarter, a funding platform for creative projects, is helping to back the project.

100 Story House logo, Design: Leon Reid IV

Valentine’s Day is coming up!  Do you have your gifts purchased?  Your plans made?  A skip in your step and a flutter in your heart?

Or do you plan on closing the blinds and keeping your sanity as safe as your credit card?

A recent Time article lays out the quantities of dollars, time, and effort Americans will spend to impress their loved ones this year.  $17.6 billion will be spent on candy hearts and restaurant bills, and 4 million people will be part of a marriage proposal (some as spectacular as this).  But not everyone jumps for joy on February 14.  Some, in fact, wish for the holiday to be cancelled altogether.  (Well, not really, but it’s a funny way to think about it).

Whether you’re a lover or a cynic, there’s a lot to consider about the history of love and the (often questionable) behavior it inspires.  A particularly sharp entry in the World News Digest almanac sums up the matter of Valentine’s Day very nicely.  (What else did you expect from a librarian?)

Did you know that the modern holiday began way back in Roman times with the festival of Lupercalia?  And that this festival involved animal sacrifices to the god Lupercus and public whippings of celebrants?  (The more lighthearted might be happier to know that this pagan festival also began the tradition of wearing your sweetheart’s name on your sleeve).  The holiday was then claimed by Christians in the third century A.D., when two Romans named Valentine made gallant efforts on behalf of lovers (which were much more family-friendly).  They became martyrs on February 14, 289.

The article goes on to reflect on the subject of love in the arts and popular culture – from Shakespeare to Humphrey Bogart to Princess Diana.  It also provides a rather encouraging bar graph of the rising divorce rate in the United States.

But what kind of librarian am I??  Read!  Read on for yourself.  You know where to come with questions.

Anyone who has spent more than 30 minutes in Naperville is already all-too familiar with the Canadian goose.  They’re spread out over every grassy surface.  They form tight perimeters around every pond.  They stop traffic while idly crossing in long, straight lines.  And – oh, please no – sometimes they fly directly over your parked (and freshly washed) car.  Where did they come from?  Why haven’t they flown south?  And why oh why did they pick Naperville?

Well, some of us might actually like our feathered neighbors.  It’s possible.  We don’t judge.

Either way, all we can do here at the Library is learn about them!  (Hey, maybe we’ll learn to love them).  A brief exploration through our online resources can get us to appreciate Naperville’s avian residents a little more:

• Science Online reminds us that geese are related to swans, that they mate for life, and that their feathers stuff our pillows and down blankets;
• The Naperville Sun amuses us with the sheer number of local goose-related articles, and reminds us that goslings are as adorable as all babies;
• Today’s Science teaches us that you can get any goose to fly south if you would only lead the flock in your airplane (Remember Fly Away Home?).

If none of this has charmed you yet, take a look on the shelves at Flights of Fancy by Peter Tate to consider the goose in folklore, or, better yet, The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds by John K. Terres.  Nobody admired the bird world more than Audubon.  Through his eyes, the goose is almost elegant.  (I said almost).

Looking for extra ACT practice?  Taking your U.S. citizenship test?  What about honing your Excel skills or applying to be an air traffic controller?  Whether you’re in elementary school, college, or the School of Life, LearningExpress Library can help!  Available among our online resources, this database offers practice tests, exercises, skill-building courses, and even e-books covering school and life-related learning needs.  Create an account and save your progress.  Naperville Public Library cardholders can even access it from home!

A recent article from the New York Times points to a new publishing and bookselling frenzy around books related in any way to the BBC series ‘Downton Abbey.’  Can you blame fans?  Apparently, viewers tuning into PBS for tales of an Edwardian-era aristocratic family (as well as their clever and sometimes vindictive servants) are also avid readers – and will pull out their wallets for anything like it.  There’s something about sprawling British estates, the secret lives of house maids and valets, and the romance and tragedy of World War I that catches readers’ fancies (and money) on both sides of the Atlantic.

We might as well admit it: we are also fans of the Golden Globe-winning series here at Naperville Public Library, and we can offer some of the Times‘ recommended titles free of charge.  Check them out if you can’t get enough of the Crawleys!  (Synopses from our catalog).

1. Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by the Countess of Carnarvon;

Much like her Masterpiece Classic counterpart Lady Cora Crawley, Lady Almina was the daughter of a wealthy industrialist, Alfred de Rothschild, who married his daughter off at a young age, her dowry serving as the crucial link in the effort to preserve the Earl of Carnarvon’s ancestral home.? Throwing open the doors of Highclere Castle to tend to the wounded of World War I, Lady Almina distinguished herself as a brave and remarkable woman.

2. A Bitter Truth by Charles Todd;

A battlefield nurse during World War I, Bess Crawford, returning to London for a well-earned Christmas leave, finds her holiday fraught with mystery and murder when she agrees to help a bruised and battered woman return to her small village in Sussex.

3. The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes.

A companion book to the popular British series about the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants offers insights into the story and characters and background information on British society in the early years of the twentieth century.

And while we’re at it, we simply must throw these titles into the mix:

4. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro;

Stevens, an elderly butler who has spent 30 years in the service of Lord Darlington, ruminates on the past and inadvertently slackens his rigid grip on his emotions to confront the central issues of his life.

5. ‘Upstairs Downstairs‘ by Heidi Thomas (BBC);

After a new family moves into the house belonging to the Bellamys, the former housemaid hires a new staff for the family and the aristocrats and their servants try to find a way to peacefully share their living space.

6. Anything by P. G. Wodehouse in the Jeeves and Wooster series.

Bertie Wooster attempts to solve his personal problems on his own, but at last is forced to turn to his butler, Jeeves, for help.

With 2011 now in the history books, many of us have enjoyed a good look back on the year. Here at the Naperville Public Library, we’re not experts on celebrity divorces, royal weddings, entertainers and visionaries we’ve lost, or even the progress (or not) in Washington, but we do get excited about the year in books. Elaine Szewczyk of Kirkus Reviews has compiled a compelling list of bestsellers and general best-reads in fiction of 2011. Take a look, and happy mid-winter reading!

The Huffington Post doing a six-part series on the future of public libraries in this country. Some good commentary on how the public library has evolved in recent years, and where we (might!) hope to go. Read the first part of the series here.

A good op-ed this morning in the NY Times on John Wood, former marketing director for Microsoft who is opening libraries around the globe at an astonishing rate. Pretty impressive when you’re outpacing McDonald’s!

Bummed that the issue of Consumer Reports you needed is checked out?  Did you know the Library subscribes to Consumer Reports online?  Click on the Consumer Reports logo above and check it out – all you need is your Naperville Library Card to gain access.  Additionally, you can find this and many more premium databases on the “Resources” tab at the very top of our Library home page.  Happy reviewing!

Expand your reading horizons by joining our book club! It’s a great way for book lovers to enjoy reading and enjoy the pleasure of each other’s company. It can be a useful way to encourage yourself to read more, read outside the genres you normally read,or simply as a way to make new friends and meet like-minded readers. Our book club covers a wide range of topics and crosses between fiction and non-fiction books.