How much access should be allowed to what other people read, see and look at while in a public library? This is clearly not an easy question to answer even though it sounds simple.

If you think it is clear issue, just read the story and comments in today’s story about the Hendrick Hudson Free Library in Montrose.

State police say the library is not helping investigators look into into the possible viewing of child pornography by a patron.

Last month police seized a computer  from this community library after receiving a complaint from a librarian that a patron may have been using it to view illegal material.  The library  has said its board members are reviewing the matter to determine how to proceed under its guidelines and state law.

Librarians have long contended that the public’s right to have access to materials should be maintained. This extends to patrons’ privacy in accessing information,  whether it is personal medical information, business research or psychological questions.  It is when the issue of pornography comes up that the issue becomes muddy.

There’s lots more to write about this and we’d welcome some insights and opinions.  Comment here or e-mail me at bnackman@lohud.com

Straight from Woodstock, N.Y. poet Susan Hoover was at H.C. Crittenden Middle School in Armonk this week speaking to sixth grade students.

The Journal News/LoHud.com photographer Frank Becerra Jr. was there and he shot some photos. He also posted on our new community blog for northern Westchester communites.  Check it out.

She is a published poet, performance artist, teacher, featured reader at The New School, The Knitting Factory, The Kitchen, and Cornelia Street Café in New York City. Regional performances include several Out Loud Festivals, Woodstock Poetry Festivals, Colony Arts Center, the Albert Shahinian Fine Arts Gallery, Woodstock Artist’s Association, and a member of All Right! Girls, a poetry performance group.

The Briarcliff Manor School District is inviting its community at large to participate in the National Day of Writing and for authors to post their words, elegant or not, online.

“In conjunction with the National Day on Writing sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English, we have created a website that seeks to celebrate the importance of writing in the lives of the Briarcliff community and hope that you will be interested in contributing something that you have written,” the district writes on its home page. Submissions will be screened by the district’s English department.

The district and the NCTE urged everyone from students and parents, to school staff and grandparents, to write something and share it online.  The length must not exceed 2,500 words and the piece could be an essay, a letter or a brief memoir.

The website will be up for viewing from Oct. 20, the National Day on Writing, through June 1, 2010. The deadline for submitting your writing is Nov. 6, 2009 — so there is still time.

I clicked on New York under submissions and found there were 570 pieces filed and some already from Briarcliff.  Keep writing…. and reading!

Here’s a press release from Ossining:

“Author Jessica DuLong has written a book titled, “My River Chronicles, Rediscovering America on the Hudson.” Ms. DuLong will be at the Ossining Public Library on Wednesday, October 28th at 7 p.m. in the Budarz Theater. Books will be available for purchase and signing following the discussion.

“In rich and captivating prose, Jessica DuLong kindly invites the rest of us on the journey of her lifetime: from a dot-com job to the fabled waters of the Hudson River, where she became a fireboat engineer. This is an unusual and fascinating book.” – Jon Meacham, author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House.

“Because of Ms. DuLong’s knowledge and skills, in any given interview Jessica DuLong can discuss the following: What it was like being on the John J. Harvey following the September 11th attacks, pumping river water to firefighters at the World Trade Center site – the only water available to Ground Zero for days, How we as a society find meaning by working with our hands, How America was born on the Hudson River; creating a revolution that affected the entire world and the differences between white-collar and blue collar work. All of these topics make for a great discussion at the Ossining Public Library.

“Ms. DuLong became one of the world’s only female fireboat engineers and tells the story of a mechanic’s daughter and Stanford graduate who left her blue-collar upbringing behind for discovering the waters of the Hudson River.”

In his new book called “The Real F Word,”  Matthew Cossolotto of Yorktown zeroes in on failure, which is what the “F” in his title stands for. He has developed what he calls a “Fix FAILURE First” approach to personal change.

He suggests a process based on what he calls the Three R’s  (Recognize, Reject, and Replace) to  overcome  seven habits that hes says hold people back from achieving their goals.

Three tips include: Reject finger-pointing and take responsibility for your life, stop undermining yourself with negative self-talk, and use positive affirmations to reinforce successful habits.

Cossolotto is president of  the Westchester-based Ovations International. The book is published by Morgan James Publishing and is available from Amazon.com and other sources including his own site.

If you are a fan of “Olive Kitteridge,” the collection of short stories about life in Maine by Elizabeth Strout, then come meet the prize-winning author  and writing professor in person next month in Purchase.

Strout is the featured guest of  Manhattanville’ College’s “Meet the Writers” Literary Series fall 2009. This  literary series offers  readings  and introductions to renowned authors. Events  are  funded in part by Poets & Writers Inc. with additional funding  from the New York State Council on the Arts.

This particular event is  at  7 p.m. Nov. 3 at Reid Castle in Purchase and will feature a reception, Q & A and book signing.  It is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. Contact  Karen Sirabian, Director of Manhattanville College’s Master of Arts in Writing Program at 914 323-5239, e-mail  sirabiank@mville.edu.

Strout is well known for her previous book, “Amy and Isabelle” and other writings. But her  latest short story collection,  Olive Kitteridge from Random House has been quite popular with book groups.  The Somers Library Book Discussion Series talked about it earlier this month and they haven’t and won’t be the only ones.

The National Book Critics Circle said this of the collection:

A series of brief sketches of the residents of a Maine town, Olive Kitteridge ducks the cloying school of small-town portraiture, instead using close-ups of Olive and her friends and relatives to tease away at the threads of anger, pettiness, and fear that can leave a life unraveled and unfulfilled.

Just heard that Falcon, the missing 6-year-old boy from Denver area, was found alive — and at home. So glad, though I think this is just the beginning of a real story.

This  afternoon like many others, I was captivated  by this runaway balloon that took off towards the clouds  and which set off a dramatic search. While watching the minute-by-minute film unfold with planes taking off to bring the silver bubble down, one of my colleagues Robert Marchant said it reminded him of  the 1997 novel “Enduring Love” by Ian McEwan.

That book, McEwan’s seventh novel, begins with the  story of a 10-year-old boy who sails high in a hot air balloon with his grandfather Joe trailing behind. Now today’s Colorado story was not a hot-air balloon, which some posters to LoHud.com pointed out but instead was a helium balloon. Still, the  similarities with the story remain.  It is said that McEwan’s tale was based on a real-life incident.

Isn’t it the case that fact often inspires fiction, and vice versa.

I am still trying to get a handle on the newest winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, writer Herta Mueller.

Really, I don’t know her work, probably because only some has been translated into English.  But this award makes me want to know more about her. She is 56 and originally from Romania before immigrating to German. He  work has been censored plenty.  Some of her novels have been translated into English so I am looking forward to checking out “The Passport, ” “The Land of Green Plums” and “Traveling on One Leg,” about  life in a dictatorship and as a member of a minority.

Interesting pieces about her in NY Times and in USA Today by Bob Minzesheimer, who just might make sure his hometown library in Ossining picks up some copies of her writings. American writer Toni Morrison won in 1993. If you are curious about the entire list of past winners go to the prize’s Web site.

From the Nobel Prize’s site it notes this quote from her:

“who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed”

She joins the list of hundreds of others. The prize has been awarded 102 times. Some I have been familiar with. In 2007 Doris Lessing won  and in 2005 Harold Pinter.

A quick check of Westchester Library System’s catalogs did not show any of her books available.  But this could change.

Bookstores, of course, will order anything and get in fairly quickly.

Any readers of her work want to comment?

OK, so it’s not books. But it’s writing, which is almost as good.

Here’s a press release we got from the National Council of Teachers of English:

“On October 8, the U.S. Senate unanimously agreed to S.RES.310, declaring the importance of writing to the nation and declaring October 20 the National Day on Writing.

On this day, The National Gallery of Writing will go live, unveiling over 5000 compositions in nearly 1500 local and partner galleries. Here’s the link: http://www.galleryofwriting.org/

As National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Past President Kathleen Blake Yancey notes, “People have always had the impulse to write.”  She adds that now, however, writing is “exploding” and taking on a new social dimension.

The first of its kind, the National Gallery will give the nation the opportunity to view writing from people of all ages and from all parts of the country.

NCTE established the National Gallery and the National Day to spotlight just how writing is changing.

Viewers will see an array of compositions that matter to their authors: personal writings, graphic representations, samples of work writings, videos, scrap writing, podcasts, and more. This snapshot, different from collections of school or work writing, will allow NCTE, and its 17 national partners, to begin reshaping a writing pedagogy to better develop writers of the future.”

Tomorrow, the  Westchester Library System and the Greenburgh Public Library will host the Digital Bookmobile.

This is a larger than life download experience for all ages, say library staffers who are inviting everyone to check out the interactive demonstrations and experience audiobook, eBook, music, and video download service. The program is intended to introduce readers to the many services at public libraries.

It takes place inside a  74-foot, high-tech 18-wheel tractor-trailer at Greenburgh Public Library, 300 Tarrytown Road., Greenburgh.  Time is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is free. (This photo from the right is from a previous event.)

The Digital Bookmobile is a service of WLS through funding support from Westchester County, and is operated by OverDrive, Inc.