美国国家公共电台 NPR--Brooklyn Public Library reveals the list of its most borrowed books

Brooklyn Public Library reveals the list of its most borrowed books

Transcript¹

To celebrate its 125th anniversary, librarians at the Brooklyn Public Library counted down the 125 most borrowed books in the library's history.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

The Brooklyn Public Library is celebrating its 125th anniversary. And to commemorate², the library has published a list of its 125 most borrowed books since the library first opened its doors in 1897.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Among the most borrowed are the classics.

LINDA JOHNSON: Hemingway, Fitzgerald, you know, the great American canon.

MARTIN: That's Linda Johnson, the library's president and CEO. She says the list is as diverse as Brooklyn itself. The Mishna, a collection of oral Jewish law, ranks No. 49 on the list. But one genre³ is the most popular by far, children's books.

JOHNSON: Fourteen of them were Dr. Seuss books, all books that every generations' kids just gravitate to. And I think there's some magic to those books - I don't know - a secret sauce that seems to work.

MART?NEZ: The book in the top spot? "Where The Wild Things Are," by Brooklyn native Maurice Sendak. It's the story of a rambunctious⁴ Max who sails off to an island of wild creatures. Since 2015, that book has been checked out of this library over 5,000 times.

MARTIN: For slightly older readers, the library is now expanding its digital services by giving teens outside of New York free access to the library's online collection. And as libraries have become a battleground in the culture wars, Johnson says expanding access to the Brooklyn Library is a big deal.

JOHNSON: We've gotten extraordinary emails, many of them from teenagers who are struggling with issues of sexual identity and say they can't find books that are about LBGTQ issues. There's a lot of race issues that are being scrubbed from library shelves. And so since April, we have signed up over 6,000 new card holders⁵ from outside New York. And we've lent over 46,000 items to people, you know, virtually.

MARTIN: So while the Brooklyn Library has been looking back to mark this anniversary, it's also turning a page towards the future.

(SOUNDBITE OF SLUG AND NOE MINA'S "LIGHTHOUSE")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 commemorate   

vt.纪念，庆祝

参考例句：

• This building was built to commemorate the Fire of London.这栋大楼是为纪念“伦敦大火”而兴建的。
• We commemorate the founding of our nation with a public holiday.我们放假一日以庆祝国庆。

3 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

4 rambunctious   

adj.喧闹的；粗鲁的

参考例句：

• Their rambunctious son always got into trouble.他们那个不受管束的儿子老是惹麻烦。
• It's not the chirping,rambunctious play that they did when they first arrived.他们现在已经不像刚开始见面那会儿，总是冲着对方乱叫，或者在玩耍时动作粗暴。

5 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。