Library 10: Ten reasons to be fond of it!

1. An ambitious mission

The mission statement of the Helsinki City Library is to provide a fundamental civic service that is available to everyone. On an interactive basis, it develops the library services that Helsinki residents need.

2. A free public city space

All services of the Library (including the Meeting Point) are free, except for printing. A (free) library card gives access to most functions, for example the use of studios, instruments etc.

3. A friendly relationship with the users

Librarians are easily approachable: they roam the library, talking with everybody. The reference desk has a one-on-one approach, where the customer sits alongside a staff member and together they search for information on the same screen. Users can receive a working lesson on systematic search methods, enabling them greater independence for future information needs.

4. Users are producers and organizers

Customers can come to the library to play, record, and edit their own music, spoken word and videos. They can transform VHS to DVD, vinyl albums and cassette tapes into mp3s. Children can sing in a karaoke chair and leave with the recording on a CD—nice for making gifts for parents and grandparents. Users share knowledge in the laptop club. Librarians are always available for assistance for these activities. 80% of all events are organized and produced by users; Library 10 is providing the means (space, material, and help).

5. Librarians are facilitators

Library 10 is a place where librarians are always interacting with their users, looking for what citizens want “just right now”. And they try to give them assistance very quickly. Kari Lämsä, department head of Library 10 and Meeting point, insists on this point: “we have to be the facilitator. We are the secretaries for the citizens.”

6. Diversified Librarians

At Library 10 you can ask for an audio/video engineer, a music trainer, a laptop doctor (to repair your laptop, install a program, or learn how to use it), a studio assistant (recording, audio and video), a secretary—and all are librarians of course!

7. Help to the local economy

The Meeting Point is a part of Library 10 (situated a few meters further). It’s an urban office, especially designed for use by small businesses, where you can reserve a space to make a working meeting, have facilities like computers, scanners, memory card readers, DVD, CD-RW, USB, ZIP drives… office supplies.  Two secretaries are there to help users with the material. It is a good way to meet other small entrepreneurs. The Meeting Point receives 300 users per day, and each one receives personal assistance.

8. Varied collections

Library 10 is has approximately 9000 books, 7000 pieces of sheet music, 42,000 sounds recordings, and 170 newspapers and magazines. Library 10 receives approximately 540,000 visits per year—more than 1600 users each day—generating 493,000 loans. All this in 800 m²!

9. Inexpensive

Library 10’s operations are economically efficient. All materials may be checked-out at automated self-checkout machines and returned at an automated book return machine which helps to keep the end user’s exspense to a minimum.

10. There are a lot of men!!

The average age of the staff is 35, with 19 males (68%).
The average user is 23 years old and 60% of them are male.

First Vehicles and Nostalgia: Fond Feelings for Jalopies?

Why might we be nostalgic for our first vehicle? 

 

Do individuals have nostalgic feelings for their first-ever vehicle? Even if it was a lemon, is there something about one's first automobile that brings about nostalgic feelings? Let me frame this: A few summers ago a group of my (college) students and I embarked upon a research project which involved collecting stories about Volkswagen. We called our project, "The VW Bug: Stories Told." In fact, we ended up collecting stories individuals had about any kind of Volkswagen-not just the VW Bug. A senior colleague of mine has a 1968 VW Bug. He allowed us to park the car in Canal Park-a tourist area in Duluth, MN. My students and I collected stories from passersby. We did this in shifts over the course of four weeks. Because Duluth is heavily populated with tourists in the summer months, many of our respondents were from outside the state and, in some cases, outside the country. In this sense, we had a lot of diversity in our convenience sample. Armed with signs which read, "VW Stories Wanted" (a play on their ad tagline, "Drivers Wanted"), cassette recorders, and consent forms, we set out to collect stories.

The purpose of this research project was to ascertain the cultural significance of the VW Bug, how individuals' recollections provoke nostalgia, and how that nostalgia facilitates continuity of identity. Subjects were simply asked to share a story about a Volkswagen. My students and I conducted a content analysis of the stories, searching for patterns in the data, discovering themes and, in so doing, also ascertaining the degree and type of nostalgia that was present.
A total of 49 interviews were conducted, but many more stories were told, as some individuals told several stories. Themes that emerged in the data include memories of bad experiences with a VW (such as the car breaking down), which are actually recalled with humor and a seeming fondness for the vehicle; recollections of what the VW was like in the winter (stories, for example, about the heater not working, or about getting up the steep hills in Duluth by going backwards, since the motor was in the back of these vehicles); memories of deviant activities associated with Volkswagen (from pranks among high schoolers picking up VW Bugs and moving them, to friends traveling to rock concerts in a VW bus with marijuana in the vehicle), and underlying themes of the association of the VW with camaraderie and with coming of age.

I have written about this particular study elsewhere. Let me bring this back to my question of interest here, though: Do individuals have nostalgia for their first-ever vehicle? In the VW study, a number of participants did note that a VW Bug was their first car. In such cases, it is difficult to separate the nostalgia that may be apparent due to the cultural significance of the type of vehicle from nostalgia that may stem from the "my first car" status. For most of us, our first vehicle probably wasn't one that had wide cultural appeal. It also probably wasn't brand new nor was it our dream car. More likely, most of us got a parent's or older sibling's "old" car or were given a used car that was believed to be "reliable and safe," not "cool and fast." Some of us earned money and bought that first vehicle on our own. It may be the case that our first vehicle had certain "quirks" that were both annoying and endearing. Those first vehicles may have left us stranded and let us down. As time passes though, and we think back on that first vehicle, what emotions prevail? The nostalgia that may be present could primarily be associated with where we were in the life course at the time we began driving - a time of constructing a sense of identity, experiencing newfound freedom, "hanging out" with friends. The automobile is a symbol of this newfound freedom and the automobile is a ticket for a teenager or young adult gaining status.

It is certainly possible to hear a successful middle-aged person who has the means to buy an expensive car speak with fondness about a jalopy he drove during high school or college. Is this really nostalgia for the object itself or is it more apt to be nostalgia for a particular period of time in one's past? For example, I may fondly reminisce about eating SPAM, but it really isn't so much the food item itself that I am nostalgic for; instead, it is nostalgia for a time of life (childhood).

Questions to consider: What was your first vehicle? What are your memories and emotions about the vehicle? How do those memories and emotions connect to a past time? These questions are intended to highlight the complex (and fascinating) relationship among objects, memories, and emotions - a relationship intriguing to explore.

'fond farewell'

A fond farewell means that although you may not see that person for a very long time, you are wishing them well, or blessing their future with fortune, because of the fondness or love that you have shared with them in the past.
There had a be a bond or relationship or good times shared, for a farewell to be fond. But to farewell (without the fond bit) someone has the same meaning. So "fond farewell" is a reinforced phrase, a little of a truism.
The phrase is a bit of a cliche. 

Your Fond Farewell Guide

A fond farewell gives you one more chance to connect...
Do it right and they'll want to come back.

Are you uncomfortable with goodbyes?

Ever been stuck for what to give as a going away gift or what to write as a farewell speech or letter?

Lost for goodbye quotes or notes for a card?
Or do you need some going away party ideas?

This website will help you navigate the etiquette when it's time to have a good 'bye' and give you some inspiration for a wonderful send-off.

"Thanks a lot to Fond Farewell.. Our Friend, Inge, had teary eyes when she received our farewell tributes to her.. Again, thanks and more power to this site.. Cheers, Rachel" "Your site was helpfull [sic] while researching on how to write my last day goodbye email" (Lucky Felix) "Dear fond-farewell team, I certainly love all what you share on your website. Saying goodbye is extremely hard. But employing your ideas, it can be a great experience on itself. Keep on the great work! Yours, Daniel R." "I just wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate you on your site. Not only is it extremely well written, but it looks very bright and welcoming. In my humble opinion it's a model of how a good site should be. Best wishes for the future, Bruce" "Just discovered your site when writing a farewell. What a great idea this site is." (Louise) "This is a very nice web site. Very touchy [sic] words and keep it up and all the best for your page." (Nina)

Saying goodbye meaningfully is something that we could all do better.

In this modern world, taking time out to reflect on a person’s time in any community, before they move on to a new beginning, is one more chance to really connect with that person.

Think of it as a chance to share joy for those little interpersonal moments.
When people gather to bear witness to that passage of time, the result can be a wonderful form of positive closure.

Everybody likes to feel that the time spent within a community has been special, and that they are appreciated.

Whether as a celebration or a nostalgic goodbye, the most important thing about a fond farewell is to be remembered well, for both the person leaving and the rest left behind.
So that meeting again is all the better.

May your days be many and your troubles be few.
May all God's blessings descend upon you.
May peace be within you, May your heart be strong...
May you find what you're seeking wherever you roam.
(Irish Toast)

 

 

The Sweetness of Feeling Fond of Your Partner

Do you ever catch yourself in a moment of special fondness for your partner? Maybe at a party you see your wife talking animatedly with a friend and feel a rush of fondness for her. Or as you watch your husband working in the garden, you suddenly feel really fond of him.

Fondness is one of the special rewards of a genuinely warm and caring relationship. Obviously, I'm not talking about the "nothing special" form of fondness that people have in mind when they say things like, "I'm fond of him, but I certainly don't love him."

The fondness that I'm speaking about is a gentle, quiet emotion, not passionate or intense but heartfelt - something that is likely to endure. The experience of fondness has little or nothing to do with thinking or attitude. It is instead an act of seeing, in which you catch your partner doing something endearing.
Fondness is a gentle mix of friendliness, affection and affinity. It is the sort of thing you might say about a good friend. To be able to say it about your partner is a special treat. Fondness is often the mellow experience of a well-burnished relationship that has endured for some time.

How do you get to experience fondness toward your partner, if you don't already? You have to like that person; the relationship has to be free enough of conflict for the sun to shine through, so to speak.
You have to experience your partner in order to feel fondness toward her/him. This sounds self-evident, but some people seldom have a simple experience of the other person; instead they are full of ideas, concepts and conclusions, and thinking about those is what passes for experience.

You must have stayed together and worked at the relationship long enough to come to an acceptance of the other person as s/he is. Fondness often is what you feel toward your partner after the tempest, when you have made piece with the relationship as it is. You get to experience fondness after you have stopped trying to change your partner.

 

FOND (adjective)

  The adjective FOND has 4 senses:

1. having or displaying warmth or affection
2. extravagantly or foolishly loving and indulgent
3. absurd or silly because unlikely
4. (followed by 'of' or 'to') having a strong preference or liking for

  Familiarity information: FOND used as an adjective is uncommon.

FOND (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having or displaying warmth or affection

Synonyms:

affectionate; lovesome; fond; caring; tender; warm

Context examples:

affectionate children / caring parents / a fond embrace / fond of his nephew / a tender glance / a warm embrace

Similar:

loving (feeling or showing love and affection)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Extravagantly or foolishly loving and indulgent

Synonyms:

doting; adoring; fond

Context examples:

adoring grandparents / deceiving her preoccupied and doting husband with a young captain / hopelessly spoiled by a fond mother

Similar:

loving (feeling or showing love and affection)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Absurd or silly because unlikely

Context examples:

fond hopes of becoming President / fond fancies

Similar:

foolish (devoid of good sense or judgment)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(followed by 'of' or 'to') having a strong preference or liking for

Synonyms:

partial; fond

Context examples:

fond of chocolate / partial to horror movies

Similar:

inclined ((often followed by 'to') having a preference, disposition, or tendency)