When my
husband Gerry was a boy, he loved to fish the lakes and rivers in and about his
Framingham hometown. When he was younger, his mother accompanied him. When he
was older, he rode his bike to Lake Cochituate with his rod and reel and
flirted with the trout stocked by the Department of Fishery and Game. He
remembers the dump trucks that released squirmy, tagged fish near the Carling
Black Label plant near Route 9.
At the
end of his adventures, Gerry brought fresh trout home, and after filleting
them, his mother helped him prepare them for dinner, satisfying his family’s
taste and appetite.
Perhaps
because fishing intimately interacted with nature, Gerry began to fancy birds –
the Great Blues that gravitate to the waters all over New England, and
shorebirds he met on his Cape Cod family trips each summer. Later, he nurtured
bluebirds in their wooden houses in his back yards.
Out of
high school, and starting college, Gerry mimicked his father’s love for golf.
That first summer, he began sculpting the lawns and greens of the nearby Sandy
Burr Country Club in Wayland, having time after work for a round or two on the
fairways. This mutual passion with his father led to many of his friendships
based on that same craving for the course, the club, and the ball. Many of
Gerry’s long-time friends are those who bonded with him, playing golf in the
company he has worked with for nearly 50 years.
His annual late-spring golf weekend “down Cape” just celebrated its 42nd
year.
Years later,
Gerry became a gardener. And a colored-pencil artist. And a tie-flying
hobbyist, and a homebrewer. Most recently, he’s a beekeeper, a wine
connoisseur, a Boxer-lover (the dog breed, and stone-wall builder. Our kids
chuckle because Gerry is so easy to please with gifts. There are endless
heavy-bottomed whiskey glasses, bird carvings, local brews, and assorted jars
of honey for Gerry's passions.
And then
there are books. Gerry's collections of books are arranged by subject in our
home library (which doubles as a family room). When we met over 12 years ago,
he declared that he wanted to become a beekeeper. In no time, piles of books I found in the library network
on beekeeping books fell over on his nightstand. Gerry loves to have his
favorite books at home where he can access them, and many books become his
favorites. (Although The Queen Must Die and Other Affairs of Bees and Man,
written in 1985 by William Longgood is still his most beloved on beekeeping.)
It’s no
surprise that Gerry found his relationship with a librarian was tolerably
symbiotic. One book lover supplying another book lover’s habit is mutually
beneficial!
I share
many of my day-to-day professional work with Gerry. He’s up on the lingo and
acronyms of librarianship and understands our strange language that includes
strange meaning for the terms “weeding,” “circulation” and “collection
development.”
I was
surprised, then, when Gerry stumbled upon ComCat (the Commonwealth’s library
catalog), and he'd had never noticed it before. For years, Gerry's been very
adept at finding books at other libraries and having them delivered to his home
library.He is sure to tell me when one of his books from another library has
arrived in Norwood and “would I check it out and bring it home?”
But what
was this ComCat?
ComCat
arrived back on the scene a few years ago, rising like a phoenix from the first
iteration called the Massachusetts Virtual Catalog. The Virtual Catalog was
conceived, created and designed with funding from the Massachusetts Board of
Library Commissioners in the 1990s in the hope that all Massachusetts residents
would have access to a "virtual wealth" of materials. The Minuteman
Library Network joined the Virtual Catalog in 2000 – and that is when Morrill
Memorial Library patrons had access to books and materials beyond the
metroplex.
A bigger
and better-automated system extended the search even further almost three years
ago in the Commonwealth Catalog - or ComCat. Minuteman was the first network
that had accessibility when ComCat went live in March 2015.
This Commonwealth Catalog how houses all of
the library catalogs in Massachusetts, including the Minuteman Library Network,
Old Colony Library Network, the Boston Library Network, MassCat (a small
network serving small and unique libraries in Massachusetts) and the six other
networks across the state. The advantage of ComCat is that library patrons can
find and request materials from these other regions and have them delivered to
their home library. There is no need to
call the library or a reference librarian when you find something in ComCat.
ComCat has a “modern and easy-to-use interface, including book jacket images
and improved search options.” ComCat can be accessed through the Minuteman
Library app and the online catalog,
WorldCat
is a worldwide catalog and another catalog accessible to patrons who may search
the catalog to find an item; however; you must call the library and request the
material through one of our librarians. There is a mailing cost associated with
the delivery of these items - and librarians will always choose a more local
option first.
The day
that Gerry discovered ComCat, he was searching for books on custom painting his
own bass fishing lures. The one book he
found, Making Wooden Fish Lures – Carving and Painting Techniques That Really
Catch Fish! Owned by the Newton Free Library was out – of course. He then
clicked on the ComCat link (above on the right on the catalog search page) and
found a school of books about fishing lures: Fishing With Artificial Lures by
Dick Sternberg owned (appropriately) by one of the SAILS (Southern MA) and one
of the CLAMS (Cape and Islands) libraries and Making Wooden Fishing Lures by
Rich Rousseau.
To be
sure, our library will be watching for more books on fishing, both flies and
lures. In the meantime, Gerry and Norwood's patrons alike have a world of books
at their fingertips.
