From the Library: At our house it isn't exactly TV Turn-off Week

At our house it isn't exactly TV Turn-off Week

 

More like TV Turn-down Week. Sometime or another each evening, Cathy asks if I think it's loud enough for the neighbors to hear, too. So turning down the set was as close as I got to observing this annual event.

Wait a second! I turned off the set and took several walks during the week, read some and didn't stay up late watching TV (well, lights out after Letterman's top 10 list). I think I did clock fewer hours in front of the ol' tube (does it still have tubes) after all! And by the way, today's the last day of TV Turn Off Week so there's hope for me yet.

Speaking of Letterman's top 10 list, did you see his show on March 26 when his list was "Top Ten Signs You're Watching Too Much NCAA Basketball”? Number eight: You name your child "Gonzaga." For the rest, go to www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/index/php/20080326.phtml.

Seriously, we are becoming more aware of the need to reduce our "screen time" and TV Turn Off Week is an excellent awareness tool as explained at the Center for Screen-time Awareness site www.screentime.org/. One of its many Web pages is a useful screen-time fact sheet listing the relationship between too much TV time and problems with weight, attention and reading. Another fact sheet shows that while the average household contains 2.55 people, that home has 2.73 television sets. This certainly makes our household above average. Too bad we can't count our two dogs (as tax deductions either). We treat them like they're human!

If your household is concerned about decreasing the amount of screen-time, consider increasing the amount of reading time. In other words, join the crowd of people coming to the library these days.

We think we're going to be around for you for a long time, but with advancing technologies it has become a popular past-time to predict the demise of books and libraries. Prognosticator Ross Dawson has gone so far as to lay out a whole series of claims in a fascinating Extinction Timeline found at www.rossdawsonblog.com/extinction_timeline.pdf.

So when are libraries going bye-bye? The year 2019, which is a few years before I plan to retire from this profession. Maybe I could work for the post office. But wait, that's scheduled for extinction in the same year. But I consider myself fortunate because my secretary's job will be extinct the year before. No reason crying over all this because real handkerchiefs will be extinct in 2017. And I guess I'd better rethink my retirement plans after all, since retirement will be extinct in only eight years.

We either have 11 more years to enjoy this treasured community service -- or the rest of our lives -- and I lean toward the rest of our lives. If the past six months are any indication (the first fiscal year in our "new" building), the book certainly isn't dead in Grand Island. Would you believe that check outs of new books are up 47 percent compared with the same six months last fiscal year?

Other fun facts: checkouts of young adult materials are up 32 percent, children's fiction and nonfiction checkouts up 22 percent and checkouts of general fiction and nonfiction up 25 percent.

For even more facts about library use, go to our newly designed Web site at www.gilibrary.org. Our home page points you to another great example of how our library is there for you as you reduce your TV screen time -- our recent teen open mic night held during National Library Week. That week we also offered a program for the kids called "The Big (not so) Bad Wolf" and a Mormon Trail Revisited program for adults. Wow, books and other materials, programs for all ages, a very nice facility, helpful staff, and so much more -- better than TV any day!



Steve Fosselman is the director of the Grand Island Public Library.