JSTOR, one of the loves of our collective lives here at the library, is once again doing something neat.

From their announcement:

“We are pleased to announce a new program to make Open Access monographs available on the JSTOR platform. An initial set of titles is available from four outstanding publishers: University of California Press, University of Michigan Press, UCL Press, and Cornell University Press. We expect to add several hundred more Open Access titles over the next year […]

The ebooks, which reflect JSTOR’s high standards for quality content, are freely available for anyone in the world to use. Each ebook carries one of six Creative Commons licenses determined by the publisher. The titles are easy to use, with no DRM restrictions and no limits on chapter PDF downloads or printing. Users will not need to register or log in to JSTOR.”

The first set of books includes some amazing titles like:

“Bread and Circuses: Theories of Mass Culture as Social Decay”

“Dreams for Dead Bodies: Blackness, Labor, and the Corpus of American Detective Fiction”

At the beginning of the year, we sent out a survey to the Upper School asking about what social media you all would like to see us on. A whopping 54% of respondents said they’d follow us on Instagram and you’re in luck, because the library already has one!

So if you’d like to see the brand new books, picture opportunities like our Miss Peregrine’s photos, or general library shenanigans, follow us @castilibrary!

This election California has seventeen propositions on the ballot, which is…a lot. Fortunately there are a plethora of sources to help you figure out what they’re about, and to help you make an informed vote on each proposition, should you be of age. Here are some sources we have found to be helpful.

League of Women Voters (LWV)

The LWV offers an Easy Voter Guide to guide you through the propositions on the ballot in clear, easy to follow language. It’s available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean here. LWV in conjunction with MapLight also offers a website called Voter’s Edge, which is a “a comprehensive, nonpartisan online guide to elections covering federal, state, and local races in the state of California.” It covers the candidates running for offices, as well as the propositions. Both of these resources are nonpartisan–they do not take a position on the issues, they just provide information. LWV as an organization does take positions on some of the propositions, and their positions can be found here.

California’s Official Voter Information Guide

Offered through the Secretary of State, this is the official guide to the California State Ballot. It is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Thai, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. As it is offered through the state, it is nonpartisan. It includes “impartial analysis, arguments in favor and against the many ballot measures, declarations of the candidates, the Voter Bill of Rights, and other important information.” The Secretary of State’s website also information on who is funding the propositions, which is very important information to consider when making an informed vote.

The Republican Party and the Democratic Party both offer positions on and information about propositions they support or do not support, and information and positions on candidates. As publications from political parties, these resources are partisan.

Laurie P., mother of Mabelle P. ’20 and Eveliena P. ’22, was kind enough to write us an article about the pumpkins you may have noticed in the admin building and the library, and the process of growing and competing with pumpkins!

It is hard to miss the bright orange pumpkin greeting visitors at the Castilleja Library. Weighing approximately 75 pounds, this pumpkin has the Castilleja Five C’s permanently etched in its skin. Eleven-year-old Violet, the younger sister of  Eveliena ’22 and Mabelle ’20, grew this pumpkin from seeds she saved from her pumpkin she named “Vivacious” and grew two years ago.

It is the third year that the sisters together scarred the Castilleja 5 Cs on their pumpkins to bring to Castilleja. The pumpkins are scarred in early July, and the scar will harden and grow with the pumpkin until it is ready to be picked.

Pumpkin growing is an important tradition for our family. This October marks the 6th year that the sisters have competed in the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Weigh Off. Together their three entries (“Hamilton”, “Peach,” and “Ghost”) this season weighed over 350 pounds. The family record currently stands at 288 pounds for a single pumpkin. While that is significantly smaller than this year’s 1,900 pound winning pumpkin, we feel like champions just being able to compete each year.

There is nothing like watching the growers from all along the coast bringing in their pumpkins in flat beds and pickup trucks in the early misty morning hours to be weighed the day of the Weigh Off. Most of the giant pumpkins are still being fed with large pails of water or some secret formula right up until they are lifted on the scale.

The Half Moon Bay Weigh-Off was extra special  this year as a woman won the contest for the first time in 19 years. The champion, third grader teacher Cindy Tobeck from Washington State, traveled with her pumpkin by pickup to compete in the Half Moon Bay Weigh Off. It was her dream to win this competition. An interview of the Pasmooij sisters as well as Cindy Tobeck by ABC7 News can be found by clicking here.

We will begin preparing for next year’s Weigh Off almost immediately after Halloween by planting a cover crop of mustard. The mustard plants cut and tilled into the soil will help prevent disease for their future pumpkins. In April the sisters will select seeds and plant them in pots. Their seedlings will grow indoors for a couple of weeks and then will be transferred to the soil in May.

By late June pumpkins will be growing on the vines. Much effort and time will be spent trying to protect the flowers, vines and pumpkins from squirrels. In August or September, the pumpkins will have completed most of their growing. The sisters will be off to the Half Moon Bay hopefully again by next early October with three beauties and have additional pumpkins for Castilleja. Mabelle and Eveliena are happy to share seeds with anyone who wants to try growing!

Last year your librarians spent some time choosing new magazines and periodicals for your perusal. We’ve got some excellent ones now, like Lapham’s Quarterly and Creative Nonfiction, and another one I enjoy is The Believer. How can you not enjoy a magazine that explains its contents as “journalism and essays that are frequently very long, book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and interviews that are intimate, frank, and also very long”?

The Believer features regular columns by Nick Hornby, and Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), articles on subjects such as post-Mao fashion in China, HIV prevention in Tijuana, and having afternoon tea with the high priest of the Church of Satan. Among my favorite regular features is the column A Series of Essential Advice, which most recently featured “How to Field Dress a Deer” and “How to Send Things to Germany.”

So if you are in the mood for some fascinating in-depth interviews or book reviews, or simply have a package that needs to go to Germany, come check out The Believer!

History lovers ahoy! Back in 2014 the U.S. Census website started doing something awesome. Each month on their homepage they take a significant event or person and do a fascinating write-up about it using Census data.

Topics they’ve covered include:

Barnum and Bailey Circus poster from the Library of Congress

Gone with the Wind and the early American film industry

The Galveston Hurricane, still the deadliest natural disaster to strike the United States

P.T. Barnum and the Barnum & Bailey Circus

For September, they have a write up on President McKinley, who is often overshadowed by his successor Theodore Roosevelt. The article featured on the home page changes every month though, so be sure to check back in October and see what’s new!