Alice in Chicagoland
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 6:22AM Interview with Alice Maggio, librarian, blogger and online book club facilitator
By Randy Richardson
“If I've either helped someone or sparked their interest in something new, then I've accomplished something,” says Alice Maggio.
By that measure, Maggio has accomplished a great deal. A few years back she started writing her tales of a Chicago librarian as That Rabbit Girl . That blog led to writing the Ask the Librarian column for Gapers Block , a Chicago-based webzine. And as a spin-off of that she became the moderator of the Gapers Block Book Club .
She’s a busy, busy girl. Thankfully, she made time to tell us a little about what goes on behind the stacks at a library and to give us some clues on how a library really can be a writer’s best friend.
Explore Alice's many adventures in Chicagoland.
CWA : Please tell our readers a little about yourself. Just who is Alice Maggio?
Alice :I'm a Chicago native. I grew up in the northwest suburbs near O'Hare, but I currently live in the city. By day, I am a librarian at an applied arts college in Chicago. I have both a master's degree in art history and a master's in library and information science. Then, in my not-so-abundant free time, I have been keeping a weblog and writing for the Chicago-based website Gapers Block for the past three years.
CWA : You write a blog in which you tell tales of a Chicago librarian and call yourself That Rabbit Girl. How did the name of your blog come about?
Alice : The title of the blog started as my own private joke. I had a pet rabbit for a long time, and, at the time, it seemed as if that fact was the one thing people ever remembered about me after meeting me for the first time. After the blog started gaining readers, however, I found that people who didn't know me at all assumed "That Rabbit Girl" was an "Alice in Wonderland" reference because I posted using only my first name, Alice.
CWA : Why did you start writing the blog?
Alice : The blog originally was created as part of a graduate course I was taking at Dominican University towards my master's in library and information science. Everyone in the class was required to start and maintain a weblog throughout the semester. I fell in love with it immediately. Sadly, I'm almost positive I'm the only one in my class who kept writing after the course ended.
CWA : You also write the Ask the Librarian column for Gapers Block. How did that come about?
Alice : Not long after I started writing That Rabbit Girl, I discovered and joined the Chicago bloggers mailing list on Yahoo! Groups. I eventually met the co-founders of Gapers Block, Andrew Huff and Naz Hamid, through that group, and they invited me to join the Gapers Block staff. Just a few months after the site was launched in 2003, we decided to add regular weekly columns, and I proposed the idea for Ask the Librarian.
CWA : In your hat as columnist you've also started the Gapers Block book club which features local authors. Tell us a little about that.
Alice : Although reading groups have received a lot of media attention in the past few years, I never had any desire to either join or start one myself—until about a year ago. I can't explain why I had the sudden change of heart, but I'm glad I did. The book club has become even more rewarding than writing the column in some ways.
Because Gapers Block is Chicago-centric website, it seemed fitting to have a themed book club focusing on Chicago area writers. Some people were skeptical at first, I think, that there were enough "good" books to sustain a reading group with such a narrow focus. I hope the books we've read over our first year have proven otherwise. I think they have.
The book club meets on the second Monday of the month at The Book Cellar bookshop in Chicago's Lincoln Square neighborhood. New members are always welcome, and the discussions are very casual. Every month the conversation is different, and every month I meet new people. It's a lot of fun.
CWA : It must be difficult picking out books to feature for the book club? How do you choose?
Alice : Yes, choosing the books is easily the most difficult part of managing the book club. There are just too many great books to pick from and too few months in a year. But, I solicit book nominations from the book club members on a regular basis, and people can—and do—suggest books at any time. I keep track of everyone's suggestions and use the most requested books or authors as the starting point for making the final selections.
CWA : What kind of books do you like to read?
Alice : I like to think that I read a little bit of everything. But, in non-fiction I gravitate towards travel writing, biographies, memoirs and personal essays. In fiction I read a mix of classic and contemporary authors, including some fantasy, historical fiction, and other genres.
CWA : Roughly, how many books would you say that you read in a year? What percentage of those do you absolutely love? Hate?
Alice : I read about 40 books a year, and my reading list is usually about equal parts fiction and non-fiction. I'd say I absolutely love between 50-65 percent of the books I finish. The rest are either good or average. I never force myself to finish a book I really hate. I'm a big believer in the 50-page rule. If I still dislike a book after reading the first 50 pages, I stop and move on to something else. But, I can only think of a few books in recent years that I disliked enough to stop reading. I usually finish what I start.
CWA : Do you find that there's a love-hate relationship between authors and libraries? After all, readers who get books from the library are not buying those books.
Alice : No, I've never heard that. On one level, there are more than 117,000 libraries in the United States alone. That's not an insignificant market. And many segments of the publishing industry—particularly companies like reference and technical publishers and academic presses—practically depend on library purchases to stay in business.
For fiction and popular non-fiction writers, libraries also have huge advantages. First, the retail shelf-life of most books is not very long. Unless you're on the bestseller lists, traditional publishers don't give titles much of a chance these days before a book is allowed to go out-of-print. Library copies of these books ensure that a writer's work will live on and continue to find readers long after the publisher has given up on it, preserving a writer's work for present and future generations. In the same vein, access to library copies can create demand for future books by a particular writer. I've lost count myself of how many authors I originally discovered at the library whose books I later went to purchase.
CWA : Obviously libraries provide a wealth of opportunity for authors in terms of promotion and helping to get an author's name known. Yet I tend to think that many authors are timid when it comes to approaching libraries. What can authors do to get the most out of what libraries have to offer them?
Alice : Oh, the possibilities are limitless. One of the most important things to remember may be that librarians are information experts. During the writing process, libraries and librarians can provide crucial help for authors doing research, whether its background research for a novel or research for an article or non-fiction work. I sometimes tell people if they spend more than 15 minutes looking for an answer to something and don't find anything useful, then they should stop and ask a librarian. We can help point people in the right direction.
Other ways libraries can help that authors might not consider could include using library meeting rooms to start a writing group, or participating in a lecture or other special program hosted by the library. Many libraries have public programs, which can include talks with authors and writers. Find out what kinds of programs are offered at your local library, or who plans the programs, and see what opportunities you might be able to develop.
CWA : What trends are you currently seeing in the library business?
Alice : Libraries are evolving very rapidly right now, and librarians have a lot of challenges. On one hand, we are trying to reach out to our most technologically savvy users, to bring them the library services they want, where they want them. This can include access to library research databases without having to visit the library, remote reference services through instant messaging and chat rooms, and digital audio books that can be downloaded at home.
On the other hand, libraries are also acting as a bridge between both sides of the "digital divide." Many, many people are uncomfortable with using computers or cannot afford the computers and electronic gadgets others take for granted. Libraries give those people access to computers and information they otherwise wouldn't have access to. Librarians are also providing a lot of training and education to help people become comfortable with using computers, electronic databases and other technology. Even in a college setting, I find myself helping students learn basic skills like adding an attachment to an email, using a scanner or saving a file to a CD.
So, libraries are performing a real balancing act--staying on top of technology trends while also trying to make sure no one gets left behind.
CWA : What is your ultimate goal as a librarian, columnist and blogger?
Alice : The reason I love all three roles is because they allow to me share the things I love with other people, whether it's connecting students or faculty with the information they need to succeed at school, learning about the history and resources in Chicago, or just sharing the websites I stumble across online. If I've either helped someone or sparked their interest in something new, then I've accomplished something.
Alice's in-person book club meetings take place the second Monday of the month at The Book Cellar bookstore at 4736 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago.
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