Heists: Feathers, Maps and Works of Art

Heists: Feathers, Maps and Works of Art

Charlotte Canelli is the library director of the Morrill Memorial Library in Norwood, Massachusetts. Read Charlotte’s column in the April 30, 2020 edition of the
Transcript & Bulletin.
Our library closed in mid-March due to COVID, but our librarians are still writing weekly columns for the Transcript. We directed our focus on writing about library services beyond the walls of the library building. In this unfamiliar, unprecedented time, we are reinventing our professional lives by working from home. We are committed to teaching our non-library users to sign up for a library card online.
We’ve shared our news about the Chat with Us box on our website that is staffed 9-5 on weekdays. (After-hours chats are addressed directly to our adult services librarian’s email where they are responded to the next morning.) We are expanding our services with more robust 24/7 WiFi available in the parking lot. We are offering online book discussions, children’s storytimes, and other innovative programs by way of Zoom, YouTube, or Facebook Live.
In addition, we are focusing on the library’s digital collection – books, audiobooks, movies, magazines, and music available through our digital services – OverDrive (and the Libby app), Hoopla, Kanopy, Flipster and our newest offering, RB Digital.
If you appreciate non-fiction crime and intrigue, I have three excellent suggestions for you that are available as OverDrive Advantage ebooks – digital copies that are shared only with Norwood cardholders. You won’t have to wait in line with other Massachusetts library users outside of Norwood to check them out.
Two years ago, in the winter of 2018, I attended the American Library Association MidWinter Meeting in Denver, Colorado. As usual, I registered for a morning session of Penguin-Random House book talks. At these events for librarians, we are offered a selection ARCs (otherwise known as advanced reading copies, pre-press copies, or galleys.) These pre-publication copies are incomplete in that they need a final proofread, and sometimes a final cover design. Reviewers are always given copies of ARCs – especially those who will write comments that will appear on the back of the final book. Publishers do, however, always want to get books into the hands of librarians who are going to suggest books to readers. They are hoping that we read them with a great recommendation.
Flying to and from conferences with minimal baggage doesn’t permit me to bring home much complimentary swag, especially books. But that morning, I jockeyed my way around the publisher’s ARC table eager to grab a copy of The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson. The title fascinated me and the subtitle even more: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century. The bright cover with a plethora of blue, green, purple, and red feathers added to the book’s charm. I tucked it, and a few others from various other publishing events, into my suitcas…