Notes from a Hired Pen: Three ways freelancers can use the library

Readers!

 

 

Last week, I hopped aboard a PATCO train and headed into Camden, N.J., on a mission: to renew my Rutgers University Libraries card.

I’d been putting this off for years, which is dumb. I live near Camden, and I paid enough for my  Rutgers University-Camden master’s degree that I should use every single alumni benefit available. And I love libraries. I use them all the time! I belong to three: Free Public Library of Audubon, Avalon Free Public Library and now, once again, Rutgers University Libraries.

In addition to using libraries for my personal life, I also use them for my writing. I have too many examples of how librarians have helped me with my writing, but two stand out: First, the librarians at the West Milford Township Library were an enormous help in this story about a short lived but infamous Warner Brothers safari park in North Jersey. And second, I talked to someone at just about every library along the southern part of the Jersey Shore and at Rutgers, Rowan and Stockton universities for this New York Times piece about why people fly their college flags at their shore beach houses. They didn’t have the information I needed, but a few of them put me in touch with people who did.

I would not be able to cover so many topics as deeply and widely as I do without libraries and librarians.

I recently spoke to Brett Bonfield, executive director of the New Jersey Library Association (and was director at Collingswood, N.J.’s library when I lived there), about how freelancers can use libraries, and make the most of these incredible resources.

1. Access endless sources of information. Through libraries, I can delve into everything from journal articles to newspaper archives to magazine back issues to historical pamphlets to of course books, books and more books. That’s true through the two community libraries I belong to, but also — on a much larger scale — an academic library system like that at Rutgers. If you don’t have a college degree or can’t access your college’s library, Bonfield says that doesn’t mean you can’t use an academic library or another community’s library through your local one. Your library can work work with other institutions because “they have access through interlibrary loan to just about anything you want,” he said. That includes things like books, PDFs of journal articles, and historical records that haven’t been digitized yet. Library staff can also identify collections in other libraries that might have what you’re looking for. I’ve also found librarians to be deeply involved in their communities, which can lead to more connections, and they have connected me to the perfect person to speak to about whatever more than once.
2. Tap the expertise of library staff. You are not bothering them. I repeat, you are not bothering them. When he’s working at a reference desk, Bonfield said people will apologize when asking for help. “No, please the whole reason sitting there is I’m hoping someone will ask me a really juicy research question,” he said. “The staff is there hoping and dreaming that a freelancer or somebody with a legitimate problem, that’s actually going to share the answer with other people, come up and avail themselves of their expertise and this collection we work so hard to curate.” I’ve never been rebuffed by a librarian, even those who don’t know me, at libraries where I’m not a member. Instead, they’ve almost always been overjoyed that someone reached out because then they get to go on a mini adventure too. One reason I hadn’t updated my Rutgers library card is because I can just email the librarians, and they’ll happily help me out.
3. Spark ideas and creativity. I budgeted a whole day to get my Rutgers library card settled, not because I thought it was going to take that long to renew it (though it did require a bit of legwork on the librarian’s part because it was so old), but because I wanted to wander around the stacks. I have done this in all the libraries I’ve belonged to, and sometimes when I’m on a road trip and looking for a place to stop and stretch my legs (and yes use the bathroom), I’ll do this in the local library too. If I’m bored and stuck and don’t know what to write about, I used to go wander the mall, but now I’m more likely to head over to the M. Allen Vogelson Branch of the Camden County Library System, where I no longer have a card, but I did when I was a kid, and of course can read whatever books I want on site. Bonfield points out that libraries have all kinds of resources that can spark ideas, whether it’s usual fare like books or movies, or perks like museum passes. The Avalon Library has discovery kits you can check out, like one with beach metal detector and another with binoculars and birding guide. At Rutgers-Camden last week, with my now renewed card, I checked out a memoir by an American soldier who had been in Italy during World War II. It’s old and out of print, and not something I’d have stumbled upon otherwise if I hadn’t been checking out stacks in the library’s basement, where I used to take naps in study carols between work and class. Will it become an article? Who knows — and who cares! The book is waiting there for someone to read it, and I’m happy to oblige.

A couple of notes about the above:

1. It might make sense for you to have an alumni library card or not. I’ve had a Rutgers alumni library card since I graduated, even if I haven’t checked anything out in a while. I live near Camden, taught as an adjunct there, and have written for various Rutgers publications. So before the start of the pandemic, I was on campus a few times a year and used my card just to get into the library building for whatever reason, even if it was to take a break on a busy day of meetings (I am a bit upset that they removed those basement study carols!) But I don’t have a library card for the University of Tampa, where I got my B.A., because the alumni benefits are really for people who can go in person, though their librarians have helped me many times via email. You don’t know unless you ask!
2. Both my B.A. and M.A. are in English Literature, not journalism. I never took a journalism class in college, though I was editor of my college newspaper, of which I am very proud and gave me the practical experience to do what I do today. So if you have kids who are going to college and not sure if they should do a specialized or broad degree, that broader degree can work! I’m proof!
3. Eat in the caf. If you ever find yourself in or around a college campus and hungry, you can usually pay to eat at the cafeteria. It’s a pretty good deal for a buffet, and I’ve never had a bad meal wherever I’ve done this. I took a friend to the University of Tampa cafeteria when we were there for the Gasparilla races, because it was many times cheaper than the fancy brunch place across the street, and had a zero minute wait time. On this last Camden trip, I enjoyed a lovely Cinco de Mayo-themed lunch, which included desert and post-lunch coffee. Plus I got to tap into the college’s free WiFi and chargers at just about every table.
4. Libraries enrich us personally too. I could go on and on about what libraries do for me as a human being. Just this weekend, the Audubon library held a clothing swap and I got a $395 Rebecca Taylor dress for free. But this newsletter is just about for freelancers, even if, like it is for me, my work is very intertwined with my non-work self. All of the books and movies mentioned below came from — you guessed it — the library.

 

Recent Bylines

“What can singing mice say about human speech?” Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

 

What I’m Reading

• Strangers by Belle Burden. On Friday, two old men saw me running up the street and crossed in a way that their path would intersect with mine unless I moved. Then a half mile later, two teenage boys saw me from the other side of a low fence, and timed their jump over it so that I’d crash into them if I didn’t very quickly cut out of the way. With the old men, I said nothing. But the teens? They laughed. I told them to cut it out, after which they yelled things at me too gross to write here. What does this have to do with a generationally wealthy woman’s divorce memoir? Because after Burden’s husband cheated on her, and walked out, he told her to tell people it was a mutual decision. When she didn’t, he declared financial war on her and, by association, their children, who he wanted zero custody of. Women are treated badly and expect to take it, and if we don’t, then there will be hell to pay. Me, Burden, and millions of other women are saying, well bring on hell because we’re already here. This is a quick, gossipy read (Burden is the granddaughter of Babe Paley and descendant of other bold faced names on both sides of her family) that I finished in 24 hours. It’s also hitting the zeitgeist because it’s a cautionary tale published at a time when the government is trying to push women through policy changes, media campaigns and attacks on our rights, out of the workforce and back under under male control. Burden fell into the trap that many women do, which is slowly turning over her power to a man because she feels it’s the right thing to do, first by scaling back her career then giving it up to dedicated herself to her family; taking a back seat and then no seat to the family finances; and then believing her husband when he said they’d get around to cancelling their very unfair to her prenup to an eventually that never came. When he decides “nah,” she’s screwed. What makes this more painful was that there was no indication that anything was wrong until he packed a bag and walked out the door. It’s not a perfect book and I rolled my eyes that on her first ever submission to the New York Times, to the hardest section to get into, she hit the target (after which she gets a plum book deal that’s going to be adapted with Gwyneth Paltrow playing her, which a friend reminded me is not necessarily an indication that I’m a bad writer but that I’m also not Babe Paley’s granddaughter). But it is a buzzy warning sign that all the forces trying to force women to give up the rights we gained are not working in our favor. And also, perhaps women aren’t angry enough.
• The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, read by Gilli Messer. Twelve-year-old Miriam is a German Jew living in Paris in 1942 who manages to escape the The Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup, where French police conducted the mass arrest and then deportation of about 13,000 people to German concentration camps. Very few people survived. Miriam managed to escape before getting into the building and ran with her neighbor’s baby in her arms. With some help, she hides in a French Catholic boarding school near the border between Occupied and Vichy France. Some of the nuns know Miriam is Jewish, but many don’t, and neither do her new classmates, some of whom have swallowed Nazi propaganda and lies. It took a turn I didn’t expect, but not one that bothered me. This is a middle grade book, and yes kids can handle this. I read fiction of similar heft at that age. I listened to this one, as I have most of Brubaker Bradley’s other books. The War that Saved My Life is one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever listened to in all my years of listening to audibooks since high school. I recommend this one too.

What I’m Watching

• Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. Dystopian sci-fi gore fest about what happens if we let AI run unchecked? Yes please. This movie opens with The Man from the Future (Sam Rockwell) walking into a diner with a leaking colostomy bag, telling everyone in they’re going to have to save the world. He’s stuck in a demented Groundhog Day-type time loop. where he keeps trying to stop AI overloads from ruining most of humanity. It’s way funnier than it has any right to be, and as someone who loathes the lying plagiarism machine, it is exactly the kind of take I want to see on this destructive technology right now.
• The History of Sound Can you turn a short story into a full length film? Yes, it turns out. I read the one this is based on (which is also in a collection of somewhat related short stories in the book The History of Sound by Ben Shattuk), and I thought they did a nice job about two lovers (Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, with one of the men played as his older self by Chris Cooper) who travel New England after World War I to capture songs on wax cylinders. My only gripe is they set the journey in the winter and not over a summer, as happens in the short story. I know, actors’ schedules and all, but it just doesn’t make sense. Oh well. I still recommend it!
• Dead of Winter. Do you want to see Emma Thompson with a Minnesota accent in the frozen Minnesota tundra running around (and away from) an off-her-rocker Judy Greer? Sure you do. Like Daniel Radcliffe, both of these women are in the “let them do whatever the fuck they want” category, and if they want to do an OK-ish thriller? Fine by me!

 

Nail Polish of the Week

You Do Blue by Essie If you enjoy the pink/blue fight of the Sleeping Beauty Fairies, this one’s for you. It IS a pale blue color, but it has a pink shine to it. I still don’t know how it works, but this is a favorite.

 

Until next time,

Jen A. Miller (she/her)

Notes from a Hired Pen ebook series

Like this post? Buy Jen a Coffee!

Book links are affiliate links.