Hold it: The library’s got you covered

Some­times when you look for a book, DVD or other item at the Delaware County Dis­trict Library, you may find that the title is already checked out to another library cus­tomer. While we dili­gently try to sat­isfy the demand for spe­cific titles by pur­chas­ing mul­ti­ple copies, the library’s bud­get (and shelves!) sim­ply will not accom­mo­date buy­ing enough copies of best­selling books or block­buster movies for every cus­tomer who would like to check it out. I hope, though, that you are famil­iar with the much-used “hold” or “reserve” ser­vice at the Delaware County Dis­trict Library.

By plac­ing an item on hold, you add your name to the queue and when your name is on the top of the list, you will receive noti­fi­ca­tion by email or U.S. mail that the book you want to read is ready for you to pick up. Of course, not all items have a hold queue, so your name may be the next in line.

The library processes thou­sands of holds every day. In fact, in 2010, we filled more than 101,000 holds, and last month alone, we filled more than 13,500 reserves.

It’s easy to place a hold on an item, but the library staff is also happy to help you do so. And don’t for­get the “SearchOhio” option that allows you to request an item not avail­able at Delaware Library from one of 19 other libraries around the state by click­ing on the “SearchOhio” but­ton and fol­low­ing the prompts. Library staff can help you with this process, as well.

Even though we pur­chase dozens of copies of the lat­est James Pat­ter­son or John Grisham nov­els, it is not finan­cially respon­si­ble or eco­nom­i­cally fea­si­ble for the library to buy enough copies to sat­isfy the hun­dreds of cus­tomers who want to read these authors’ lat­est works. Using the “hold” fea­ture is a great way to make sure that you get a copy of the book you want to read as soon as possible

What is a Mans­field bar on a truck?

On June 29, 1967, movie star Jayne Mans­field, her lawyer, her dri­ver and three of her five chil­dren were dri­ving from an appear­ance in Biloxi, Miss., to New Orleans for a TV inter­view early in the morn­ing. It was just before 2:30 a.m. when her car came up on a tractor-trailer too fast, not see­ing it because of anti-mosquito fog cloud­ing the high­way. The small car went com­pletely under­neath the truck, shear­ing the top of the car off, killing Mans­field, her dri­ver and her lawyer. Shortly there­after, the National High­way Traf­fic Safety Admin­is­tra­tion made it manda­tory for all semi-truck trail­ers to be fit­ted with under-ride bars, also called DOT bars or Mans­field bars. The steel bar hangs from the main cab and is designed to stop a car before it rolls under­neath the trailer. I checked in How Things Work for this information.

Why is the bikini named after Bikini Island

Accord­ing to In An Influ­en­tial Fash­ion: An Ency­clo­pe­dia of 19th and 20th Fash­ion Design­ers and Retail­ers Who Trans­formed Dress, French designer Jacques Heim’s first tiny bathing suit hit the fash­ion scene in 1946. Tap­ping into the world­wide obses­sion with nuclear physics, he named his cre­ation the “atom.” A few months later, another French designer, Louis Reard, one-upped Heim, reveal­ing an even tinier suit, which he dubbed the “bikini” after Bikini Atoll, the island in the Pacific where the U.S. had tested the atom bomb. The new swim­suit, it was said, was as small as an atom and just as powerful.

Utah isn’t known for its jazz, so why is their bas­ket­ball team named the “Jazz?”

The team orig­i­nated in New Orleans in 1974 and club offi­cials decided to keep the name after relo­cat­ing to Salt Lake City in 1979, as reported in The Undis­puted Guide to Pro Bas­ket­ball His­tory. The Jazz nick­name was orig­i­nally cho­sen through a name-the-team con­test, which pro­duced seven other final­ists: Dukes, Cres­cents, Pilots, Cajuns, Blues, Deltas, and Knights.

If you have a ques­tion that you would like to see answered in this col­umn, mail it to Mary Jane San­tos, Delaware County Dis­trict Library, 84 E. Win­ter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740–362-3861. You can also email your ques­tions by vis­it­ing the library’s web­site at delawarelibrary.org or directly to Mary Jane at mjsantos@delawarelibrary.org. No mat­ter how you con­tact us, we’re always glad you asked.