Blog posts by Off the Shelf Editorial Staff

Borrow a Telescope: One Teen's Mission to Share the Stars

Off the Shelf Editorial Staff, ; Erik Bobilin

The Telescope Lending Library launched on a clear night in November 2021, with an outdoor viewing event attended by an enthusiastic mixture of public, library staff and members of the Amateur Astronomy Association (AAA) of New York. Absent from this experience, however, was the eleventh-grade astronomy lover whose plan to lend telescopes as freely as books—evolved over months of proposals and Zoom conferences—was finally coming to fruition.  Yui H.’s passion for astronomy began with a different plan, formed at age nine while living in Singapore, after several screenings of…

Interview with Author Bonnie Tsui

Off the Shelf Editorial Staff, ; Erik Bobilin

"Water is the great equalizer—no matter your age or size or color or physical ability, it buoys us all. Libraries are the same. They are portals to magical worlds beyond the ones we currently inhabit. And we all could use that right about now." For an unexpectedly rewarding thought experiment, ask yourself: why do we swim? If a flood of fond memories of water and sun return for you, it probably makes little sense at first to ask why we, humans, swim, but as author Bonnie Tsui reminds us, primates are among the only mammals not innately possessed of swimming instincts. “Elephants, dogs,…

Library Staff Reveal Their Reading Goals for 2020

Off the Shelf Editorial Staff, ; Erik Bobilin

From Brooklyn Collection (~1969)
Owing as much perhaps to our accessibility as to the more arcane aspects of our setting, public library staff know that, like the relics we guard, we are objects of some curiosity. For reasons as much our century-old buildings and dewey decimals, as our open doors, free media and ability to meet you where you are, we know we engender some fascination. And, if we’re being honest, we do not mind it. We’re aware of the stereotypes built up through the years and acknowledge that some hew closer to reality than…

Behind the Scenes with the BPL Literary Prize Committee

Off the Shelf Editorial Staff, ; Erik Bobilin

The 2019 Literary Prize Shortlist Announcement: an Opportunity to Check-In with the Committee On Tuesday, September 24, Brooklyn Public Library announced its shortlist for the 2019 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize for fiction/poetry and nonfiction. The eight selections—including two books of poetry, a short story collection, a novel and four works of nonfiction—were selected by a team of librarians. The shortlist constitutes the final stage in a rigorous, year-round process for determining the winners of the annual Prize. Last year, Jeanne Theoharis was…

Interview with Author Beth Macy

Off the Shelf Editorial Staff, ; Erik Bobilin

On Tuesday, August 6th, 2019, journalist and best-selling author Beth Macy visited the Leonard Library to launch the paperback edition of Dopesick--a heartbreaking, essential read that takes the reader into the epicenter of America’s twenty-plus year struggle with opioid addiction. From the publisher: Macy sets out to answer a grieving mother’s question-why her only son died-and comes away with a gripping, unputdownable story of greed and need. She investigates the powerful forces that led America’s doctors and patients to embrace a medical culture where…

Sound Strategies for Summer Reading

Erik Bobilin

Booklists for recommended summer reading often use images of paperback spines stretched across colorful beach towels or exciting covers tucked into a carry-on bag en route to some far off destination to conjure the feeling of getting away. Yet rarely do such lists acknowledge the damage that waterlogged pages and books left behind in rental cars and Airbnbs can do your library card fines balance! We at Off the Shelf are realists and see it as our duty to remind you that e-audiobooks, which take up no luggage space nor become homes to stowaway beach sand, are perfect for passing the hours on…

Whitman's Spirit in the Gig Economy

Erik Bobilin

Walt Whitman (1887), by George C. Cox
To celebrate 200 years of our beloved bard, Brooklyn Public Library hosted a range of activities, from beard contests to poetry readings, to several reverential posts on this very blog. Each event referenced a fragment of the characterological mosaic of Walt Whitman with the hope of conveying some fraction of the immensity of his cultural legacy. Up to this point, we have honored Whitman as the author who gave voice to the soul of our borough, but what about the Whitman who embodied that same spirit as a…

Don't Sleep on These Perfect Books for World Sleep Day

Erik Bobilin,

As someone concerned about his fraught relationship with sleep, I know a considerable bit about the optimal conditions it seems to require--considerably more it seems than I am able to actually implement. In practice I favor a ‘whatever it takes’ approach in which 30 Rock has autoplayed me to sleep more times than I care to count, more effectively than the sheep I care not to count and in full knowledge that it is precisely that type of bad sleep hygiene that Arianna Huffington, et al suggest is keeping me from a sustainably healthy relationship with sleep. No blue light--create for yourself…