tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57989079858639912252023-06-20T08:29:43.840-04:00HeatherbrarianThoughts from a recently minted librarian.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.comBlogger861100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-42270253729108518022015-03-25T21:25:00.000-04:002015-03-25T21:25:03.252-04:00Wet books!My library is currently in an older structure. It was a rough winter up here. There were ice dam issues all over the region.<br />
<br />
Have you guessed where I'm going yet?<br />
<br />
Oh yes. A few weeks ago, we had a leak in the stacks. Although I am by no means trained in book preservation, I thought I'd share the story and lessons learned here in case they're useful to someone else.<br />
<br />
First, let's discuss the <b>scope of the problem</b>. We were actually relatively lucky. The water came down the inside of a wall and seeped out starting at the top of a short built-in bookcase 4 or 5 shelves high. It wet the bottom of several oversized books shelved along the top of the bookcase and dripped/leaked down the shelves. The bookcase is only about a foot or 18" wide, so the damage was confined to a relatively narrow area. Most of the water went off the bottom of the bookcase into the carpet, which was soaked through for a couple of feet; a little leaked along the very bottom shelf onto an adjacent shelf and dampened a few books.<br />
<br />
<br />
My/our <b>initial response</b> upon discovering the leak:<br />
<ul>
<li>Get help. I called to my colleague in the back room and ran upstairs to get a volunteer who was doing a nonessential task.</li>
<li>Get the books out of the water, and triage. My colleague and I did a rough sort of books into those that were okay, those that were a little wet, those that were quite wet but possibly savable, and those that were an immediate loss. All told, there were about 20 books that were an obvious loss, and another 30-40 that would need to be dried and evaluated.</li>
<li>Preserve what's possible. I ferried the books that were wet-but-savable to the volunteer to get paper towels inserted between the pages. (This is a trick I picked up from friends taking an archival preservation class in grad school. We went through several rolls.) Too-wet-to-save got tossed on a shelf to be inventoried and discarded later. Books that were damp but not wet enough to have to be dealt with immediately also got tossed on a separate shelf, to be dealt with when the wetter ones were done. Books that were wet along the covers under the Mylar got their covers taken off ASAP.</li>
<li>Sop up water continuing to leak in and leave paper towels there to absorb additional seepage.</li>
<li>Contact facilities.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>In the subsequent weeks, I've been:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Drying the books initially interleaved with paper towels. We have heat/AC vents at the bottom of several shelves and they provide nice airflow. I've been propping books up in front of them and fanning the pages out, a few at a time, till things are dry. Dried books go under a nice big stack of heavy oversize books to flatten out again, which has been working surprisingly well.</li>
<li>Assessing the books that were only damp, and interleaving with paper towels/drying out in front of vents as needed.</li>
<li>Creating an inventory of what got wet. Thank goodness for Evergreen, which made this really easy - a volunteer scanned everything into a bucket, then I chose the columns/fields I needed, exported to a .csv, and saved it to Excel. This is <u>very</u> useful for our insurance claim. I could even include the price listed in our ILS for each book - though that isn't always the same as list price, so we're going through Ingram to check for current prices and whether a given book is still available.</li>
<li>Still yet to happen: actually going through, book by book, and finalizing discards in the ILS/determining what I'm actually going to replace.</li>
</ul>
<br />
Next post: Lessons learned!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-57124332582443011872015-02-26T22:21:00.000-05:002015-02-26T22:23:02.378-05:00Catching upIt appears to have been nearly a year since I last posted. Goodness gracious.<br />
<br />
I hope to have more time to post in the future because I am no longer spending 3 hours per day in the car getting to and from work. That's right... I got a new job! (New commute is in the 30-40 minute range and I am <i>loving</i> that, thank you very much.) In October, I started work as the Adult Services Librarian in Hopkinton, MA.<br />
<br />
It's a positive move, though bittersweet in many ways. I learned so much in my four years at Howe Library and left behind many wonderful colleagues. But this job is going to teach me a lot of new things too, and my new co-workers are welcoming, dedicated, and hardworking. I'm also pleased to be geographically closer to some of my friends and family and back in the general area where I grew up. (I got to re-use my old Minuteman Library Network card from ca. 1991 when getting an account at my new hometown library! It was very exciting.)<br />
<br />
Overall, this new position is a step up for me in terms of responsibility. Before, though I was planning programs fairly autonomously, I was one of a department of several librarians under a department head. Now I'm the "head" of the Adult Services department (of one), working immediately under my director and taking on some of the kinds of things that might be done by an assistant director if we had one. Since I ultimately want to be a library director, this means I'm getting some good chances to observe, learn, and do things that will give me valuable experience going forward. I've got a very supportive director who tries to include me in a lot of things, which is great!<br />
<br />
Here are some of things, large and small, that I'm involved in:<br />
<ul>
<li>Perhaps the biggest: we're about to be renovated and substantially expanded. I came in after the town approvals were dealt with but I'm getting to participate in lots of planning and logistics related to renovating the building, moving to a temporary space, etc. It's fascinating work and I'm really pleased to be able to "ride along" on a major building project before having to actually be in charge of one.</li>
<li>Substantial weeding of the nonfiction collection, preparatory to moving. I honestly really love weeding. It's so satisfying to remove the old, worn out, irrelevant materials and have a collection that looks shiny and fresh and interesting.</li>
<li>We relaunched our eNewsletter using Vertical Response (we were using Bookletters previously; I only had to do a couple of newsletters that way but I was deeply unimpressed). It seems that these were sent sporadically before; I've established a standard once-per-month schedule.</li>
<li>I've started doing displays! This is something I didn't have much time/opportunity to do at my previous job so I've been having a lot of fun with it.</li>
<li>Collection development. We have what is to me a somewhat odd system for collection development here - something for a later post, perhaps. I'm in charge of collecting everyone's suggestions, adding some of my own, and doing the actual ordering for adult books, DVDs, and music.</li>
<li>Programs - this is similar work to what I was doing previously, just in a different library. I'm still having fun with it, though it's much less of my job than it was before.</li>
<li>Managing technology, with the assistance of town IT. One of the more frustrating elements of the job when things aren't working properly (our computers were just down for nearly a week due to seeming malicious activity, so this is particularly fresh in my mind). But I get to learn things like how to re-image a computer and burnish other skills and knowledge that are underdeveloped or rusty, which is good. We've got a very friendly and helpful IT guy, which is an absolute blessing.</li>
<li>Reference work, of course! Volume is variable but usually pretty light. I do almost no readers' advisory, which I'd like to change - but it's hard because the reference desk is a bit out of the way and people usually chat with the circulation staff (who are <i>fabulous</i> readers' advisors) about books up front.</li>
</ul>
There's lots of other things, but that's just off the top of my head.<br />
<br />
It's been an adjustment - Hopkinton is a much smaller library than Howe and in many ways a less formal/formalized one as well. It took me a little while to really suss out the culture. But I'm learning a lot, really enjoying what I do and the people I work with, and looking forward to the next several years - it will be a very exciting time as the library grows!<br />
<br />Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-68401327863143037022014-03-06T17:45:00.000-05:002014-03-06T17:45:09.583-05:00Read Something! THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King<div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Laurie R. King</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b> </b><i> </i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mystery</span></i></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5798907985863991225" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">[First in a series]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Fifteen-year-old Mary Russell is out for a walk on the Sussex Downs when she literally stumbles into one of the greatest minds of her time. Sherlock Holmes, retired to a quieter rural life, is irritated and then intrigued to find sharp observational skills and an intellect to rival his own in this orphaned young woman. With that moment begins an apprenticeship that eventually becomes a partnership as Russell and Holmes confront cunning adversaries in their first cases together. In this series opener, King deftly brings Sherlock Holmes out of the gaslight and into a world on the cusp of the modern era while creating a thoroughly modern young woman as a new foil for the legendary detective.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Three descriptors: woman-focused (i.e. lots of strong female characters, basically all important characters who weren't in the Holmes canon are women), well-written, witty</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Readalikes/watchalikes:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Julia Quinn romances - feature strong women, British setting, light, witty writing; perhaps not a good readalike for people who enjoy the intellectual/suspenseful elements of <i>The Beekeeper's Apprentice</i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">For those who enjoy the new perspective on Holmes, modern TV adaptations/re-envisionings of Holmes stories that maintain the intellectual/problem-solving feel, including the BBC series featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, "Elementary", possibly "House"</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">possibly the Flavia de Luce books (<i>The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie</i>, etc.) by Alan Bradley? Both feature a young, smart female amateur detective coming into her own in the English countryside</span></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-31886411762550954622013-10-23T12:39:00.003-04:002013-10-23T12:39:34.939-04:00Be ready for anything...During my most recent reference desk shift, I...<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Captured a wasp that had found its way into our quiet room, for release outside</li>
<li>Informed three teenage boys that they should not be on the roof of our recycling shed (and asked how on earth they got up there in the first place)</li>
<li>Was treated to a poetry reading by a patron who is known for being extremely cranky most of the time - and who then asked for my opinion of his poetry - I'm not touching that with a ten-foot pole!</li>
</ul>
Just goes to show that when you deal with the public, you've got to be ready for anything.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-71917099072449482032013-09-27T22:17:00.000-04:002013-09-27T22:17:51.273-04:00Read Something! THE RIME OF THE MODERN MARINER by Nick Hayes<b>THE RIME OF THE MODERN MARINER</b><br />
<b>Nick Hayes</b><br />
<br />
Graphic novel / poetry<br />
<b> </b><br />
This timely update of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's classic poem recasts the
wedding guest as a cynical divorcee and the mariner as a harbinger of
environmental doom. This mariner's murder of an albatross curses him to
sail becalmed waters in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, witness the
destruction wreaked upon our oceans and their wildlife by our discarded
plastics and other garbage, confront the horrors of our lust for oil,
and see for himself the devastating effect of humanity's actions upon
our planet. But will his listener actually listen? With eye-catching
visuals and a powerful message, this graphic novel brings home the need
for change in our relationship with our planet while attaining some
degree of literary/poetic merit in its own right.<b> </b><br />
<br />
Readalikes:<br />
<ul>
<li>"The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", Samuel Taylor Coleridge - the poem upon which this graphic novel is based</li>
<li><em>Moby-Duck</em> by
Donovan Hohn - nonfiction, but touches on many of the same topics and
issues; told through the perspective of one man traveling the world to
learn more</li>
<li><em>Sin City</em> by Frank Miller - for those attracted to the unusual and striking visuals of the book, <em>Sin City</em>'s stark illustrations will provide a similar reading experience although the subject matter is quite different (and violent)</li>
</ul>
<b> </b>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-88430091162391912972013-08-26T12:16:00.001-04:002013-08-26T12:16:37.613-04:00Read Something! DIARY by Chuck Palahnuik<b>DIARY</b><br />
<b>Chuck Palahnuik</b><br />
<br />
Literary (?) fiction
<br />
<div>
<br />
Misty Wilmot was supposed to be a famous artist, but somehow that
didn't quite work out. Somehow she ended up with a husband and a
daughter and a dead-end waitressing job at the run-down hotel on
Waytansea Island, where she's found herself living after marriage and
pregnancy deferred her dreams. Somehow she's supposed to manage things
alone after her husband, a building contractor, put himself in a coma
through a failed suicide attempt. After his clients started calling,
complaining of rooms in their houses found boarded-up, of strange
obscene messages left inside.</div>
<div>
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<div>
All Misty wanted was to be an artist, before married motherhood on
this picturesque island distracted her. Now, she's at the end of her
rope. It doesn't help that all her mother-in-law wants her to do is take
up her long-forgotten paints. It's what Misty's daughter wants, too.
And many of the old island families are asking after her art... Something begins to seem not quite right as everyone on the island goes
to increasing lengths to spark Misty's creativity. It's not clear what
her art is supposed to accomplish - but it's becoming increasingly
evident that she won't be allowed to not paint.</div>
<div>
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<div>
This is a dark and snappily written little novel for those of us
interested in just how far people will go, and how awful the things they
do will be, to ensure their own survival. It's by the author of <i>Fight Club</i> - so expect a healthy dose of meta and a plot twist or seven thrown in for good measure.</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-7417012016644211502013-08-15T12:31:00.004-04:002013-08-15T12:31:53.866-04:00Read Something! REDSHIRTS by John Scalzi<b>REDSHIRTS</b><br />
<b>John Scalzi</b><br />
<br />
Science fiction<br />
<div>
<br clear="none" /></div>
<div>
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been posted to the <i>Intrepid</i>,
the flagship of the Universal Union fleet. It's a prestigious post, but
when Dahl arrives on board, he finds that life aboard the <i>Intrepid</i>
is just a little... well, strange. To start off, it seems like the crew
avoids their senior officers. Those that don't tend to get assigned to
away teams, and those assigned to away teams... often end up dead. Then
there's the Box, a device of unknown provenance that consistently offers
solutions to insoluble problems just in the nick of time. Something
isn't right on the <i>Intrepid</i>, and Dahl and his friends are going to get to the bottom of it - even if it means their world will never be the same.</div>
<div>
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<div>
Scalzi
has written a fast-paced, entertaining narrative great for fans of Star
Trek and similar sci-fi shows as well as people who enjoy a healthy
dose of "meta" in their fiction.</div>
<b> </b><b> </b>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-56082473692500883432013-07-01T21:53:00.001-04:002013-07-01T21:53:24.879-04:00Read Something! LOVE AND REVOLUTIONARY GREETINGS by Laurie Levinger<b>LOVE AND REVOLUTIONARY GREETINGS: AN OHIO BOY IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR</b><br />
<b>Laurie Levinger</b><br />
<br />
Nonfiction / history / biography
<br />
<div>
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<div>
Laurie Levinger never met her uncle Sam, though his pictures were
in every house she lived in growing up. Sam died in 1937 in
the Spanish Civil War, to which he had gone as one of the three thousand
Americans who joined the International Brigades fighting Fascism. In
2001, Laurie's father gave her a box of letters and other memorabilia
about Sam - and Laurie's journey to discover who her uncle was began.</div>
<div>
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<div>
<em>Love and Revolutionary Greetings </em>is the story of a young man, idealistic and courageous, who fought and
died in an attempt to create a better world. It is the story, too, of Sam's mother,
of the family he left behind, and of one of the great convulsions
preceding World War II. Levinger has edited an affecting collection of
first-hand descriptions of the war and its aftermath - mostly Sam's
letters and his mother's written attempts to understand his life and his
fate, but also primary source material from others who were in the war
and Laurie and her family's own thoughts about Sam.</div>
<div>
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<div>
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<div>
Readalikes:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><em>World War II Remembered</em> by the residents of Kendal at Hanover? - also first-person stories of wartime</li>
</ul>
</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-79425669715197421672013-06-14T20:46:00.004-04:002013-06-14T20:46:48.499-04:00Read Something! A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ by Walter M. Miller, Jr.<b>A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ</b><br />
<b>Walter M. Miller, Jr.</b><br />
<br />
Science fiction / postapocalyptic fiction / literary fiction<br />
<div>
<br clear="none" /></div>
<div>
In
the centuries after nuclear apocalypse, human society rebuilds itself
almost from scratch. Told in three sections, each set several centuries
after the previous story, <em>A Canticle for Leibowitz </em>shows us the
lives of three men in the Order of Saint Leibowitz, an order of monks
dedicated to preserving what books and papers remain of the civilization
that existed before global thermonuclear war destroyed much of human
society and precipitated a violent backlash against the educated,
technologically advanced culture that had made nuclear weapons possible.
As Miller brings the reader into the hearts, minds, hopes, and dreams
of relatively ordinary people, and as the world moves from a dark age
through a new renaissance into another technological era, the
unavoidable question looms: will humanity avoid its past mistakes?</div>
<div>
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<div>
Warning [and spoiler warning]: This is not a happy ending.</div>
<div>
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<div>
<br clear="none" /></div>
<div>
Readalikes:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><em>Riddley Walker</em>
by Russell Hoban - similar post-nuclear-apocalyptic Dark Ages setting,
questions of what society would look like after a nuclear holocaust,
themes of history repeating itself</li>
<li>Miller wrote a sequel, <em>Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman</em>.</li>
<li><em>1984</em> - similar for sheer bleakness</li>
</ul>
</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-43913449585083495152013-05-27T22:28:00.003-04:002013-05-27T22:28:37.289-04:00Read Something! THREE PARTS DEAD by Max Gladstone<span style="font-size: large;"><b>THRE PARTS DEAD</b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Max Gladstone</span> </b><em> </em><br />
<br />
Fantasy / thriller
<br />
<div>
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Kos Everburning, god of fire, is dead. Without Him, the great city
of Alt Coulumb, dependent on his powers, will soon die as well.
<div>
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<div>
Tara Abernathy left the Hidden Schools in fire and lightning,
expelled post-graduation in a great battle with her former professors.
Despite her irregular method of departure, she's caught the eye of the
prestigious firm Kelethras, Albrecht, and Ao, and now she's an
entry-level associate tasked with finding out who killed Kos, how, and
why. Soon Tara, her only-somewhat-human boss, and their temporary
assistant, the chain-smoking priest Abelard, are avoiding assassination
attempts, chasing vampires, fending off attacks by gargoyles, and
uncovering a web of intrigue that brings them before the reincarnation
of Justice Herself to argue their case.</div>
<div>
<br clear="none" /></div>
<div>
This is that too-rare work of speculative fiction that combines
carefully detailed world-building with well-realized characters who feel
like real people. Add a thrilling plot with plenty of twists, turns,
and adventure, and Gladstone's debut novel (!) is a winner. This book
has it all: murder, magic, intrigue, treachery, power, love - and I'm
eagerly awaiting the sequel, coming in October 2013.</div>
<div>
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<div>
Readalikes:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>The book jacket invokes Zelazny, Gaiman, and Grisham. I haven't
read Zelazny and I'm not sure I concur with Grisham (the legal thriller
aspects are there, but I don't really know that it's the same), but
Gaiman's writing seems to have a very similar atmosphere/feeling to it.</li>
<li>Might be a good stretch for mystery/thriller readers who could be induced to read something in a more fantastic setting.</li>
</ul>
</div>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-86694454225125826262013-05-13T22:05:00.005-04:002013-05-13T22:06:40.346-04:00Read Something! AFFINITY by Sarah Waters<i><img class="en-media" height="200" name="ace04b35-11c1-4c36-8487-d50b3cf2b8a3" src="https://www.evernote.com/shard/s208/res/ace04b35-11c1-4c36-8487-d50b3cf2b8a3.jpg?resizeSmall&width=700" style="float: right;" /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>AFFINITY</b></span></i><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sarah Waters</b></span><br />
<br />
Historical fiction / literary fiction / horror<b> </b><br />
<br />
Surfacing from a deep depression brought on by her father's death,
Margaret Prior takes a family friend's advice and volunteers as a "lady
visitor" at Millbank, a women's prison, where she hopes to become a
positive influence on some of the inmates. In those dreary surroundings
she meets the spiritualist medium Selina Dawes, sentenced to Millbank
after a seance gone wrong resulted in a woman's death. Margaret and
Selina are drawn to each other, but does Selina really talk to spirits?
And what really happened in her past? Alternating passages from Margaret
and Selina's diaries bring us closer and closer to the truth of the
night that drastically changed Selina's life - and to a night that will
forever change Margaret's. This is a dark, psychological novel about
loss and grief, and about living in a world into which one will never
quite fit neatly.
<br />
<div>
<br clear="none" /></div>
<div>
Slight warnings for mentions of attempted suicide, some nonexplicit but non-"vanilla" eroticism.</div>
<div>
<br clear="none" /></div>
<div>
Readalikes:</div>
<ul>
<li><i>The Little Stranger</i> by Sarah Waters - similar slightly
spooky atmosphere, unreliable narrators; both stories are deliberately
vague as to the reality of the ghosts/spirits (at least for most of the
narrative); both set in Britain in times past; both very focused on
characters' psychology</li>
<li>"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman - potentially unbalanced female narrators, similar time
setting, themes of entrapment/imprisonment and haunting, atmospherically
similar <br />
</li>
</ul>
Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-50614887808880090242013-02-08T22:03:00.001-05:002013-02-08T22:03:32.449-05:00I'm published on the ILA Marketing Committee blog!I seem to be writing for other blogs much more than I'm writing for this one! As of this morning, I have a post up on the Illinois Library Association Marketing Committee blog about cultivating staff buy-in. You can find it <a href="http://illinoislibrariesmatter.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/market-to-your-staff-and-cultivating-buy-in/">here</a>.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-34657789287311912742012-08-01T21:53:00.002-04:002012-08-01T21:53:24.079-04:00Read Something! DEAR CREATURE (Jonathan Case)<i><b>Dear Creature</b></i><br />
<b>JONATHAN CASE</b><br />
<i>Graphic novel, pulp, horror, romance</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><b> </b><br />
<br />
This quirky, absurd mashup of romantic comedy, "B" horror flicks, and Shakespeare has to be read to be believed. Grue, a mutant horror from the deep, has discovered Shakespeare through a series of cola bottles cast adrift with the Bard's plays inside. Inspired, he renounces his flesh-eating ways and sets off in search of a lady love. Hilarious and sweet, this book will keep you hanging as you wait to see how Grue's quest for love will turn out. Don't miss the appendix, "An Invertebrate's Guide to Iambic Pentameter", in which Grue's Greek chorus of sarcastic crabs explain the poetic meter using the immortal phrase, "Ba-donk a-donk a-donk a-donk a-donk."<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal Characteristics</u><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Visuals: </b>dramatic use of black and white</li>
<li><b>Visuals: </b>generally realistic art (although Grue is depicted less realistically)</li>
<li><b>Visuals:</b> fairly clean art, but panels are sometimes hard to decipher due to being very busy and not having shading</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> silly/absurd tone</li>
<li><b>Frame: </b>main character is the character who is usually the "bad guy"</li>
<li><b>Frame/plot/characterization: </b>characters and situations are mostly stereotypes drawn from "B" movies/pulp horror</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> romance/lovers who the world wants to keep apart</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> happy ending</li>
<li><b>Plot: </b>loose ends are all tied up at the end</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> plot is not very fleshed out and often relies on pointers/gestures to conventions and stereotypes of a typical pulp horror story</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> moves fairly fast; each chapter presents a new challenge to Grue's quest </li>
</ul>
<br />
<u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul>
<li>???</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-26661863830924907122012-07-27T13:07:00.000-04:002012-07-27T13:07:57.983-04:00I'm on Programming Librarian!I was recently asked to write a post for the Programming Librarian blog about a cool program we do with the local art museum. It went up earlier this week - you can read it <a href="http://www.programminglibrarian.org/blog/2012/july-2012/art-and-books.html">here</a>, if you're interested.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-80184865247648227442012-07-19T13:44:00.001-04:002012-07-19T13:44:46.249-04:00PLA 2012 session notes: Get Involved: Powered by Your Library -- Successful Engagement of High Impact VolunteersFollowing are my notes from the "Get Involved: Powered by Your Library -- Successful Engagement of High Impact Volunteers" session at PLA 2012, held on Saturday, March 17 at 8:30.<br />
<br />
------------<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Statewide volunteerism campaign in CA: "Get
Involved powered by your library"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- Aim = get high-impact volunteers and make them advocates</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- Volunteer recruitment aimed at baby boomers, who are
different from senior volunteers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- Goals: train public libraries in recruiting and
engaging skilled high-impact volunteers, position libraries as centers for
civic engagement, help people find opportunities that match their skills and
interests</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Baby boomers and volunteerism</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Why should we care?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Lots of them (77 million)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Most educated and financially secure generation in
history</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Volunteer at higher rates than past generations did at
the same age</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Nearly 2/3 of Boomer non- volunteers want to get
involved but don’t know how</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Have been in workforce & have professional skills
they want to share to make high level of impact</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Right now, ages 48-66 – not silver-haired</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Different from senior volunteers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">More physical ability than previous generations; 4 of
5 expect to work past 65; "feel younger"</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">View retirement very differently -- see second half of
life as a source of social and individual renewal, not as a time to just rest
and relax</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Think some of their most important contributions lie
ahead</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Not simply extending the years of working and
volunteering -- looking to add deeper meaning</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Different perception of aging -- don’t want to be called
“Seniors,” “Retirees,” “Elderly” or “Older Adults”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Attracting baby boomers</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Offer flexibility and a wide variety of options,
including virtual volunteering</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Engage their skills and expertise</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Show them impact on mission -- how will their work
make a difference?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Provide clear expectations of time, tasks and training</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Go beyond volunteer management – look at engagement in
meaningful ways</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">See Get Involved: Powered By Your Library website for
resources (library.ca.gov/lds/getinvolved.html?)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Idaho is now coming in on this project</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">VolunteerMatch created search widget that gives back
multiple results – library opportunities, then literacy opportunities, than
general opportunities near your zip code</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Last 2 or 3 years, 27% increase in volunteers in
California</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">General insights/thoughts from putting this in
practice</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">One library no longer collects applications for
generic volunteers, only for specific positions</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">High impact volunteers have leadership roles, may
train and supervise other volunteers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Putting volunteers in teams helps in case of turnover
(volunteers often have unpredictable time commitments)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Interview volunteers extensively and basically treat
them like job applicants</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Volunteer management software exists</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Lessons</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">A good job description is key</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- Make it very clear what skills and commitment you're
looking for</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">For high impact volunteers, this <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i> a real job</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- Approach them personally to recruit them</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Professional level interviewing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Look for a good fit, and give them a chance to say no</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Remain flexible</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Communication is critical</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Trust your volunteers, keep them in the loop,
facilitate networks, share successes and outcomes</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Feedback matters (from patrons and staff)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">You can still<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>have volunteers doing more rote tasks – high impact volunteers don't
exclude your having more traditional volunteer work</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Make it fun, and include the volunteers in the process</span></div>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-56995643365630259612012-06-19T13:54:00.000-04:002012-06-19T13:54:43.145-04:00PLA 2012 session notes: Engaging Customers in an Online EnvironmentFollowing are my notes from the "Engaging Customers in an Online Environment"
session at PLA 2012, held on Thursday, March 15 at 8:15.<br />
<br />
------------<br />
<br />
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Three basic levels of online engagement</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1) Social media as primarily a promotional tool –
one-sided</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2) Online engagement: customer-focused communication</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- have conversations with them on topics they’re interested in</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- quality more important than the number of people you reach</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- personalizes the organization, shows you care about what customers
have to say</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">3) Customers feel comfortable starting conversations
with you and others in your network</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Have an online strategy and policy</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Strategy = road map – where you’re going and how
you’re going to get there</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Policy = rules of the road</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Include: goals and measurements, strategy for
publicizing your online presence, an exit strategy (how do we handle it if we
decide to leave a social networking site?)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">First, survey the online environment and your current
presence on social media (whether deliberate or inadvertent)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Metrics are more than followers; consider interactions
and responses</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Think carefully about how many platforms you can
support (don’t overextend)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Who can post? Do you need a coordinator/moderator?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Make sure your branding is consistent across sites</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Legal considerations</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">This is still a fuzzy area; talk to your lawyer</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Look carefully at sites’ TOS documents</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Finding your voice</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Think of your library as a character/persona – what
would its personality be?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">If you have many people posting, sign tweets with the
poster’s name?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“columns” on Facebook – a staff member posting
regularly on a given topic</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Engaging customers online</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 9.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Go to meetups and tweetups locally and talk up your
social media</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Try to use Trending Topics hashtags on Twitter</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Create and use your own hashtags</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Surveys, questions, staff columns</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- first person to answer correctly gets a prize (to be
picked up at an event IRL?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- Make sure you’re being authentic (“question of the
week” fizzled out b/c it was too formulaic)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Being engaging = sharing personalized info – share
inside information (statistics?) – have exclusive content for followers</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Hey girl, let’s jump on a meme</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- Andy Woodward got Old Spice guy to talk about
libraries</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- library created video of Old Spice guy</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- failblog.org – Memebase category</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Listening to the crowd – sometimes the conversation
isn’t happening in your feed/on your Facebook page/etc</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">- set up Google Alerts</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><br /></span></span></u></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Platforms</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Look for what your patrons are using (and how it
correlates with demographics)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Initiate/develop partnerships w/community
organizations</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Friend potential partners with your personal account,
and communicate with them that way</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“Like” local organizations</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Measuring success</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Stop if you aren’t meeting objectives, or if it isn’t
interesting to you anymore</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Look at other organizations to establish baselines</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Online book club for teens done via Ning chat (Ning
also offers message boards) – but Ning is now paid service</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“Where in the world is the bookmobile?”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Library has laminated cutout of bookmobile; staff take
it on trips and post photos, asking patrons to guess where the bookmobile is</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Pinterest</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Create booklists (covers link to reviews?)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s next?</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Facebook app letting people reserve and check out
books</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">One library shares “how to” videos from YouTube –
start creating them?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Giving patrons the opportunity to create content, or
finding content they’re creating and promoting it</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Make your personal use of social media professional –
connect with other librarians etc. through your personal accounts</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Q&A</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What if you’re doing “everything right” (asking
questions, etc) and people still aren’t engaging/answering?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -9.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Find a couple of people to engage regularly – it
breaks the ice – maybe even staff?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Promote sites in person to make people feel a more
personalized connection to your social media</span></div>
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<br /></div>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-44487406401357260292012-05-14T20:49:00.001-04:002012-05-14T20:49:45.809-04:00PLA 2012 session notes: Building Your Base (& Your Budget)Following are my notes from the "Building Your Base (& Your Budget)" session at PLA 2012, held on Thursday, March 15 at 4:15.<br />
<br />
------------<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Speaker is from NY's Mid-Hudson Library System</span>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">You can't just sit back and see what happens in library
votes – you need to actively tell supporters you need them to vote/act/speak up</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">MHLS created campaign structure to get the vote out</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* midhudson.org/vote – Public Library Vote Toolbox
(works for general advocacy to boards, etc. too)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">When a vote fails, <u>who voted no?</u> Who actually
came out to vote? Do you know them? What are their characteristics/what are
they like?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* The day after a no vote, you have to get right back to
convincing them</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Garnering support has to happen year round</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Start "inside" – know who is using the
library</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* What are they into?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Where do they live?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* What do they do when not at the library?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">"Magic Quadrant"</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Most important = heavy library users, registered to
vote – supporters – ensure that they vote</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Heavy library users not registered to vote –
supporters – get them to register and vote</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Registered voters who don't use the library – neutral/potential
supporters – reach out to them</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Try to figure out who they are, and segment the market</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2 basic tenets: Tweak what you're already doing,
harness others to work for you</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Don't avoid publicity b/c you couldn't handle
popularity – if you can't handle the demand, make an argument to your community
that if they want x, this is what it costs/will take</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1) Gain more supporters and goodwill</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Do this even among current users, who may not know about all
services/have all background info, etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">2) Create and build a sense of loyalty</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Don't aim for everyone and don't aim to make them all
weekly users – just make sure they understand your value</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">3) Work smarter, not harder</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Be as simple as possible</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">6 basics</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Regular communication w/current users/supporters (not
just when you need something)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Consistent effort to gain new users/supporters</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Yearly townwide mailing?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Include the VIPs in town</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Increased visibility in the community</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Proactive communication with community leaders</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Strategic thinking about everything you do</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* How can you add a value-added message to everything?
Programs, services, etc</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Practice word of mouth marketing</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Know what you want to say</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* All internal constituents – staff, trustees, etc
should be saying the same thing at the same times</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Tried this system-wide with Mango, doubled usage in a
few months</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Everyone should have some little factoid for
grocery-store-line conversations</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Prep a packet in advance including talking points, a
video, etc. to help train/prepare people</span></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">4 steps</span></u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Choose</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Choose a group – who isn't using the library?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Think lifestyles rather than demographics</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Who is ready to hear your message and help out?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* ESRI tapestry segmentation chart: <a href="http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/tapestry.html">http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/tapestry.html</a>
-- freely available, describes many market segments very specifically </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">[note: I requested a copy of this poster in late March and I haven't heard a peep since]</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Go where the people already are</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Take advantage of already extant communication
networks</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Find social groups that don't have a high rate of
library use</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Explore</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Learn about chosen groups to tailor your message to
their needs and perspectives</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* "Stalk" them online? (Facebook pages etc)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Contact</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Be genuine</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Investigate their communication network, get in touch,
explain what you're doing</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* "why do you want to talk to us?"
"because you're members of the community and we want to serve our
community"</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Ask what they need</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Partner</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Reach out, show and inform, market, educate</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Think about repackaging – talking slightly differently
about what you have to communicate its appeal to a particular group</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Toolkit: midhudson.org/byb</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">How to do this in an online environment</span></u></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Website = fundamental landing point for online
searching for info about your library</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">* Needs to load fast, have info easy to find</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Keep an eye on online reviews</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Find local groups with Facebook pages, promote your
stuff through them (with permission)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Think backwards – start with them and work from there</span></div>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-58698913261008770952012-04-11T21:15:00.000-04:002012-04-11T21:15:44.354-04:00I'm famous? -- part 2Part two of the interview I mentioned in my previous post is up here: <a href="http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/2012/04/10/the-role-of-social-media-for-libraries-part-ii/" target="_blank">http://socialmediaweek.org/<wbr></wbr>newyork/2012/04/10/the-role-<wbr></wbr>of-social-media-for-libraries-<wbr></wbr>part-ii/</a><br />
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(Needless to say, all statements made therein are my own opinions and do not represent the position of my employer. This isn't an "official" statement, just my own personal thoughts on the eBook situation.)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-25248148596576852892012-04-08T22:08:00.000-04:002012-04-10T13:45:06.138-04:00I'm famous?How exciting! I was recently asked by someone I met through Twitter (Tweeting at her from my library's account) if I would like to be interviewed for a blog post on libraries and social media. Of course I said yes. Part one* recently went up here: <a href="http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/2012/04/03/the-role-of-social-media-for-libraries-part-i/">http://socialmediaweek.org/newyork/2012/04/03/the-role-of-social-media-for-libraries-part-i/</a><br />
<br />
While I'm trying to monitor the comments on the original blog post, I'm also happy to engage in the comments section here if anyone has questions or thoughts.<br />
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* (Part two consists of me making a fuss about the eBook situation, and I don't know when it's going to be posted. Personally, I think part one is much more interesting, although part two was more cathartic to write (and required much more editing)!)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-69845921762560230692012-04-06T17:25:00.000-04:002012-04-06T17:25:00.110-04:00PLA 2012: Overall thoughtsOverall, I had a great conference. I learned a lot, got to talk with interesting people, ate delicious food, and sparked my creativity by getting my brain out of the day-to-day routine of my job. I'm so glad that I went!<br />
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A few overall surprises/things I learned from PLA 2012:<br />
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<u>The exhibit hall is so much more relevant when you're actually working in a library</u><br />
<br />
When I went to ALA as a grad student, I enjoyed wandering the exhibit hall, but largely for the free stuff. Going to PLA as a working librarian, the exhibit hall was still a <i>little </i>bit about the free stuff (ARCs! Be still, my beating heart...). But I could also place the exhibitors in context of what I know about my job and my library, and what might be useful. I came back with a bunch of information about possible reference resources, as well as materials about upcoming graphic novels for my collection development. Instead of feeling at a loss in a sea of booths, I was able to selectively approach the ones that offered information or materials that were most relevant to me and my library.<br />
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<u>Talking to strangers isn't so hard!</u><br />
<br />
I am a bit shy and definitely an introvert, so I sometimes have difficulty striking up conversations with random people. At ALA Annual, I had ended up feeling a bit lonely because everyone seemed to know someone else and there weren't a lot of structured chances to meet and interact with new people. So I worried that at PLA I'd wind up eating alone and not really talking to anyone. That concern was part of why I made sure to take advantage of opportunities like the dinner on Wednesday night and lunch with New Hampshire librarians on Thursday. But even without those opportunities I think I would have done all right.<br />
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PLA, as it turns out, is a smaller and cozier conference, with a friendlier feeling, than ALA. I think that part of it has to do with the fact that any two people sitting next to each other in a session are likelier to have more things in common with each other than at ALA. There's a lot of common ground and many people are dealing with the same challenges/struggles/opportunities, which makes it easier to have a conversation. I ended up talking to lots of people before and after sessions, and had no trouble carrying on an interesting conversation at meals (though I did generally eat alone except for Wednesday dinner and Thursday lunch – but at that point meals became nice breaks where I could relax and didn't have to think!). I even quizzed a new library director on how to progress one's career to a directorship, totally out of the blue, and she very graciously offered her advice.<br />
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Not only did I have great conversations, but I semi-inadvertently ended up doing some professional networking as well. I even had one person tell me she really enjoyed talking to me and wanted to keep tabs on my career, which was quite flattering! I never thought that I would find it so easy to make these kinds of contacts in this way. Now I just have to figure out how this "maintaining your network over time" thing works...<br />
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<u>Conferences take <i>a lot </i>out of you</u><br />
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I was amazed by how hard I crashed post-conference, and how quickly it happened. The train ride to the airport was about 30 minutes, and while I had felt peppy when I boarded, by the time we reached the airport I didn't want to get out of my seat. When I called my partner after getting through security and finding my gate, I found it difficult to keep my eyes open while talking to him on the phone! I napped lightly for about 30-45 minutes while waiting for the plane, revived a bit when I started talking to another librarian who was on my flight, but then went straight to bed as soon as I got home.<br />
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I had a day between coming home and getting back to work, and I thought that would be enough to rest. Boy, was I wrong. I was tired all week, and had some difficulty getting back into the swing of things because in between bouts of exhaustion I was still buzzing with thoughts from the conference.<br />
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The next time I do a major conference like this, I think I'll plan for a couple of days of vacation afterward so that I have some time to rest and fully absorb the new information to which I was exposed, before having to get back to work. I think I might also plan to spend some more time in the conference city, either before or after it ends. I felt a lot of pressure to see Philadelphia and didn't end up seeing much of the city at all, which probably contributed to my being so tired.<br />
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<u>Lucky me!</u><br />
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I feel very lucky to have been able to go to PLA. It seemed less common for a young/new librarian (vs. a management higher-up) to be sent by their library, and it was an incredibly valuable experience for me. Not only did I learn a lot, but I had wonderful opportunities to network within my field that would have been much harder to find outside of the conference. I came back with new ideas, information, and connections to benefit my library and my ability to do my current job, but also with ideas, information, and connections that will continue to help me throughout my career. It was a privilege to be sent to the conference, and I'm grateful to my employer for offering me that opportunity.<br />
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Not only did I learn a lot and talk with some really interesting people, I came away from PLA really feeling validated as a professional. There I was, a fairly young librarian with just a couple of years experience in the field, mingling with people who were mostly older, at much higher levels of their organizations, and in possession of much more professional experience than I have – and yet I was included in conversations, and treated as a valid contributor with useful things to say and share. In retrospect, I suppose I should have expected nothing less. But one of the more difficult elements of transitioning to the work world for me has been realizing that I can and should hold my own with people who are not necessarily of my age cohort or equivalent experience level. (In my own day-to-day work, for instance, it took a while to really click that even though I might be the youngest person and newest hire working on a Saturday, as the reference librarian I am nevertheless the person in charge and therefore need to make certain decisions myself.) It was so nice to be really treated as an equal at this conference, and I think that the experience will help me with my professional confidence in future. (It also speaks quite highly to the generosity, open-mindedness, and interest in sharing of my fellow professionals – bravo, public librarians!)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-1399337851107727232012-04-04T16:29:00.000-04:002012-04-04T16:29:00.167-04:00PLA 2012: Saturday, March 17Waking up on Saturday morning, it was hard to believe that later that day I'd be on a plane back home – it seemed like I'd barely been at the conference for any time at all! I slipped over to the Reading Terminal Market for some croissants (okay, but not great) and a latte (good, but a bit expensive!) before the morning session.<br />
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I only attended one session on Saturday: <u>Get Involved: Powered by Your Library -- Successful Engagement of High Impact Volunteers</u>. "Get Involved: Powered by Your Library" is a state-wide initiative in California with the goals of helping libraries to recruit and make use of "high-impact volunteers" (volunteers who have high-level professional skills and are looking for chances to use them for a good cause) and helping talented volunteers to find placements that are a good match for them. The session was very interesting, and left me with some new ideas and ways of thinking about our volunteer program, which I coordinate. I also thought that elements of the "Get Involved" program would translate very well to many of the smaller libraries in my state, which often only have a few staff and need volunteers to do many "extra" things. For instance, one of the smaller libraries represented on the panel, serving a community approximately my library's size, had something like eight volunteers basically doing all of their marketing. That gives me pause in some ways (no one wants to bolster the argument that libraries could just be run by volunteers), but for a small library with few resources it's also an amazing way to get community members heavily involved and able to advocate for the library, while also enabling it to accomplish things it never could otherwise. What a thought provoking session! – and a great way to end the conference.<br />
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Afterward, I went back to the hotel to grab my things and check out, then shipped all of my freebies and other goodies back home (shoutout to the Philadelphia Convention Center FedEx for making that experience quick, easy, and pleasant!*). I stopped at the Reading Terminal Market one last time to get a souvenir for my partner (chocolates from the Amish-run candy store, as he's a chocolate freak) and to sample the fantastic ice cream again (I settled for a shake, for portability). Then it was goodbye to Philadelphia – a train to the airport, and after a nap and some delays, a flight back home.
Even then my conference wasn't quite over until after I landed – I ended up being on the same flight as a library director who also happens to be the head of our state organization, and we talked for a good portion of the wait in the airport and the flight home!<br />
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* As a complete aside, the manager working that day told me that we had basically cleaned out not only every box in the city, but for some miles around – he'd had to order extras from pretty far out of Philadelphia to meet demand. The power of librarians when given access to cheap/free books...Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-71427475715050112642012-04-02T15:44:00.000-04:002012-04-02T15:44:00.150-04:00PLA 2012: Friday, March 16On Friday morning, I attended the ConverStation <u>How to Safely Manage Discruptive Patrons</u>, led by a staff trainer from the Oklahoma City library system and an educator from the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI). This session provided a useful overview of CPI's scale of workplace violence and practical tips on recognizing the state of mind of disruptive patrons (and colleagues!) and handling the situation appropriately. It was another solid, useful session with plenty of good advice. I was glad to hear the presenters making important but often unappreciated points such as that all staff need to be given the knowledge and skills to deal with a disruptive person and that an environment in which discourtesy and disrespect are permitted is the first step to an environment in which aggression and violence (physical or emotional) are possible. I left the session feeling more confident that I could handle disruptive patrons and more assured that it is important to deal with even small disruptions promptly to keep them from escalating (this latter is something that I often struggle with).<br />
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Then – I'll admit it – I skipped out on the second Friday-morning session. I'm a knitter, and there was no way I was going to spend three days in a different city and not check out the yarn stores! Before I struck out, I browsed the Reading Terminal Market. I'd heard it was worth looking around (it is! It's kind of like a bigger, more food-oriented Faneuil Hall, for those who know Boston), and I had only had tiramisu for breakfast so I thought I should get something to eat. I found a creperie and had a sweet crepe with caramel and powdered sugar. It was very good, though I tend to like my crepes a little less cooked; this one was not overdone but was pretty brown.<br />
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In my quest for yarn, I ended up going to Rosie's Yarn Cellar, which is down near Rittenhouse Square. (There's also a store called Loop within walking distance of the convention center, but I only had time for one place; Rosie's was slightly closer and sounded as though it had a cozier vibe whereas Loop sounded as though it was more "modern" and sharp-edged in feel.) It was about a 25-minute walk past some truly gorgeous 18th and 19th century architecture. The store was quite cozy, a small two-room affair tucked below street level. It was chock full of yarn without feeling cramped, and the staff person was very friendly. I ended up purchasing not yarn, but buttons for a sweater I'm working on. Easier to carry back to New Hampshire, anyway!<br />
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I had just enough time to run a couple of necessary errands and grab a (reasonably good) chicken salad sandwich from the deli in the Market before the Unconference began.
I had heard about Unconferences a while ago and found the concept fascinating, so I was excited to finally have the chance to participate in one. Unconferences originated with a person who realized that some of the most exciting and invigorating experiences he was having at conferences weren't in the sessions; they were, instead, the conversations he had with other attendees, because those conversations were addressing the most pressing issues for the people involved. An Unconference is basically a conference without a pre-planned agenda. Participants propose "session" topics at the start of the conference, select which topics they want to discuss, and go from there.<br />
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The PLA Unconference began with the moderator introducing the concept and explaining the ground rules (including the "rule of two feet": if you are neither contributing to nor learning from a discussion, you should use your two feet to move to a discussion where you can contribute and/or learn). Then people proposed topics by writing their ideas on large post-it notes and sticking them up on the wall. Each person had thirty seconds to explain what they wanted to do in their proposed session, then we all voted on which topics we preferred. After that things ran like a (small) conference: there were different tables in the room, and each table was designated as the site for a particular "session". We had two sets of sessions, with a break in the middle.<br />
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The first Unconference session I attended was on the future of public libraries. I didn't take a lot of notes, but it was a good conversation about our current frustrations and hopes. The only thing I ended up writing down was a particularly good point made by one person: that we are defined by our services, not our bricks and mortar. I think that's an excellent thing to keep in mind as we move forward. (It would be interesting to try to envision what a public library without any physical location might look like...) For the second session I attended a discussion on multigenerational programming and programming for boys, and had a great time swapping ideas with five or six other librarians.<br />
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After the Unconference, I meant to get some ice cream (there was a place in the Reading Terminal Market that I had heard was supposed to be fabulous) but instead ended up chatting in the hallway for the whole time, first with someone else who had been at the Unconference and then with someone I'd met at dinner on Wednesday evening. By the time I had stopped talking it was only ten minutes to the next session.
I'd hoped to go to <u>The Elusive Library Non-User</u> – but it was already totally full by the time I got there (!), with a man standing outside the door turning people away. So instead I went to <u>Public Libraries and Academic Libraries: A Town-Gown Collaboration that Works</u>. This was another ConverStation, and this one was actually run like a discussion. I got to share some of how we try to work with Dartmouth and reach out to its students, and listened to a lot of good advice on how to reach out to various elements of the campus community. Most of what I took away from the session was how to work with professors, particularly ways to encourage development of longer partnerships.<br />
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Friday night was the All-Conference Reception. I'd been having success networking so far, so although I am shy and usually don't do too well at these kinds of large gatherings I thought I'd go for half an hour or so and see how things went. First, however, I needed the ice cream fix I'd been waiting for all afternoon! And it was worth the wait. I had mocha chip, which is my favorite flavor, and it was incredibly good – I'd say #2 or #3 on my list of all-time favorite ice cream shops (behind my hometown farmstand, of course).
Then it was off to the reception.<br />
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I'd expected a big room full of people talking to each other, with flowers on tables and hors d'oeuvres being passed around. Instead, it kind of felt bizarrely like prom, but with everyone in work clothes. There was a live band singing a cover of Katy Perry's "Firework" as I approached the ballroom, and there was buffet-style food, including entrees, once I got inside. (I tried the pasta, wasn't a huge fan, and decided to get dinner later.) Within a couple of songs the band was trying to get people out on the dance floor, and a few of us went. It was a lot of fun, and some people were really cutting loose (including some guy in a suit, which was hilarious). I went to sit down for a bit as the band took a short break and ended up chatting with someone else for a while. (She was a new library director, and I asked her for some career advice, which she quite graciously gave.) While I was there, the person I met at the Unconference came over with a friend. I ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the evening, periodically getting up to dance.
I had a blast; it's been a long time since I had a chance to dance at an event like this! I think we surprised the band – they seemed to have been expecting a fairly sedate group, but by the middle of the evening the floor was packed and people were really getting into it. It was so much fun. Next time, I am definitely planning to stay for the whole conference reception if it's going to be like that!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-12839378239938528252012-03-31T15:26:00.000-04:002012-03-31T15:26:00.487-04:00PLA 2012: Thursday, March 15My first session of the day was <u>Engaging Customers in an Online Environment</u>, led by four California librarians. This was a pretty solid session. It covered a lot of basics, but the speakers also offered some ideas and tips that were new and interesting to me, like taking advantage of memes or the need to have a clear goal and measurement metrics for your social media use (should be obvious, I know, but I hadn't been thinking about this this way). The presenters clearly knew their stuff and offered a well-organized, insightful, and engaging presentation.<br />
<br />
During the break I had a meeting with the person in charge of Maryland's One Book program. She had helped to run a forum/get-together for librarians in charge of community read events on Wednesday, but I had arrived too late to attend that event. However, she generously agreed to meet with me to summarize what had been discussed. It was a great conversation and I really enjoyed meeting her in person (we'd communicated by e-mail a bit in the past).<br />
<br />
Then it was off to a "ConverStation,"* <u>Reaching for the Future: You've Got to Take the Risk to Get the Reward</u>. This was the only unmitigated disappointment of the conference. The description made it sound as though this session was going to be a high-level discussion of the future of libraries, incorporating some talk about the need for creativity and how we can work as a field to innovate in the face of the sweeping societal changes and the challenges we are encountering. What actually happened was quite different. First, the presenters spent ten minutes plugging an entirely different conference that they were putting together and wanted us all to attend. They then briefly summarized six characteristics of creativity and presented the idea of having "experience zones", or small surprises scattered around the library for patrons to encounter - such as a puzzle or a cross-stitch for people to work on, or a place where patrons can write what they love about the library on a post-it and then stick it to a wall. When they announced that we were going to break into groups and brainstorm our own little ideas like this, I left. I was stuck standing in the back anyway, and the session was clearly not going to be what I thought it was.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the other session of interest to me was full (one of my only major criticisms of the conference as a whole was that room planning was really not well done - I and many other people were locked out of over-full sessions more than once). So I checked my e-mail at the Internet cafe while there wasn't a line, then went up to the exhibit hall for a while.<br />
<br />
For lunch, I met up with a bunch of other New Hampshire librarians. I had expressed an interest in dim sum, which it is nearly impossible to get in my area, so we went to a place called Dim Sum Garden right near the conference center. It wasn't "real" dim sum but it was amazing anyway - lots of dumplings, most of a kind I'd never tried before. And after all of us were very full, it only came out to $8/person! I am definitely adding that restaurant to my "must-revisit" list for Philadelphia. Conversation was, once again, enjoyable and stimulating. It was nice to get to know some of the people I encounter on mailing lists and at New Hampshire Library Association conferences a bit better.<br />
<br />
Full of amazing Chinese(?) food, I returned to the conference center for <u>Isn't It All Just Improv Anyway? Building Successful Relationships in the Workplace and Community</u>. I admit: I went to this session because 1) I took improv in college and loved it, and 2) I couldn't pass up the chance to meet a real live Second City performer. The session was fantastic. The presenters introduced the five elements of improv (trust, communication, acceptance, building, and spontaneity) and then led us through a variety of improv games that can be played in the workplace to improve relationships, address problems, and facilitate communication. It was fun and thought-provoking - and though I'm not in a management position right now (and I doubt that improv at staff meetings would really fly at my current library), it's definitely something I will keep in mind as a management option later in my career.<br />
<br />
Then it was time for something a little more serious. For my last Thursday session, I chose to attend <u>Building Your Base (& Your Budget)</u>. Led by the coordinator for library growth and sustainability in the Mid-Hudson (NY) Library System, this session discussed the strategies for increasing community engagement and support developed by the Mid-Hudson Library System as part of their "Building Your Base" project. My library is lucky enough to enjoy strong community support, and we already implement some of the ideas from this session (e.g. provide great service first, since that will naturally make people want to support the library). However, it also provided good insight on how to identify non-supporters of the library and find the best way to reach out to them and hopefully change their minds, as well as some solid practical advice on how to improve marketing and outreach efforts without using lots of additional resources.<br />
<br />
Afterward, I took an hour-long walk around downtown Philadelphia. (The architecture is lovely, but I was sad to see many homeless people around the city. They seemed to be more prevalent than in other cities I've visited. I hope that the city is taking some steps to address the issue.) For dinner I ate at Maggiano's, just a minute or two from the convention center and across the street from the Reading Terminal Market. It was a fabulous, typically huge Italian meal, and my waitress slyly pointed out that they offer desserts in individual sizes for $2.50 that can be wrapped up and taken back to one's hotel room. After that, I couldn't resist the tiramisu! It stayed in a bucket of ice overnight and I had it for breakfast in bed the next morning. It was amazing.<br />
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* I think that these sessions were meant to be smaller, discussion-driven events, though none of the ConverStations I attended were small (although they were in smaller rooms, they were inevitably full to overflowing) and some were run mostly like lectures.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-90126261840008203272012-03-29T15:12:00.000-04:002012-03-29T15:12:37.411-04:00PLA 2012: Wednesday, March 14I arrived in the midafternoon, checked into my hotel, registered, read through the conference program and chose my sessions, then started in on the exhibit hall until dinnertime.<br />
<br />
One thing I'd been really worried about before coming was that I would barely talk to people the whole conference. My only previous conference experience was ALA Annual, which was huge and overwhelming; everyone there seemed to know someone else already, so I never really ended up being able to connect with that many people. As a result, I was thrilled to see in a pre-conference e-mail that staff from the Free Library of Philadelphia were going to be hosting dinners at area restaurants for interested conference attendees. I signed up to eat at a Vietnamese place on Wednesday evening, and I'm so glad I did. There were about ten of us, and the conversation was lively and interesting. It was a great start to my conference, and helped me to feel comfortable and welcomed as a young librarian and novice conference attendee.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-44545545923419478352012-03-29T14:53:00.000-04:002012-03-29T14:56:59.243-04:00PLA 2012: Or, I Think I Burned Out My BrainI was fortunate enough to be sent to PLA 2012 in
Philadelphia <strike>last week</strike> the week before last (it took me a while to write up this whole thing!). It was <i>awesome</i>. And exhausting! An incredibly
stimulating experience, both in the sessions and in all of the people I met.<br />
<br />
I will try to post my detailed notes for the
individual sessions I attended, but to start with I wanted to write about my experience in general. Originally this was going to be in a single post, but then the Word document I was drafting it in ran to eight pages... so I'm going to make one post per conference day, plus a wrapup/overall thoughts post, over the next week or so.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0Philadelphia, PA, USA39.952335 -75.16378939.757580499999996 -75.479645999999988 40.1470895 -74.847932tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-47532668723033039252011-11-09T12:58:00.000-05:002011-11-10T17:00:43.786-05:00Public libraries = education? Yeah, that works for me (more or less)On November 4, I attended the New Hampshire Library Association fall conference. I'm not sure I appreciated before how useful it can be to take a little while away from the day-to-day reality of my job to meet with colleagues from many different libraries and talk about our successes, challenges, and ideas. It's so easy to get focused on the nitty gritty of what needs to happen each day that I sometimes find it hard to step back and think about the bigger picture (part of why posting on this blog has been so scarce, I think). So I left the conference feeling refreshed and excited to get back to work, with some new "big picture" things to think about!<br />
<br />
In this post, I'll talk about the first session of the day, which was probably the most thought-provoking and potentially controversial. This session consisted of a webinar led by Valerie Gross, the president and CEO of the Howard County Library System in Maryland, called "Transforming Our Image." If Ms. Gross' name sounds familiar, it may be because you read her article, "Transforming Our Image Through Words That Work", in the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of <i>Public Libraries</i>. I recall reading the article at the time and being intrigued but not totally on board. After the webinar, I felt that her ideas make much more sense to me, although I still have some quibbles.<br />
<br />
The presentation had three main sections: first, Ms. Gross made the argument for re-branding libraries as educational institutions like schools; second, she explored how we can accomplish this re-branding through simple changes in the terms we use to describe our libraries and what we do; and third, she spoke about the logistics of implementing this kind of change.<br />
<br />
Ms. Gross began by stating that by choosing our language carefully, we can control our image and the values that other people assign to us. She noted that in this economy, funding is proportional to the value placed on an organization, and quoted a number of unfortunate statements by various government officials that characterized libraries as discretionary or nonessential services.* Ms. Gross noted that librarians have to constantly make the argument for libraries' importance, whereas schools, for instance, don't. She argued that we have to use words that people understand and that convey our value in an incontrovertible fashion - and that strongly aligning ourselves with education can put us in the same "safer" category as the schools when it comes to budget time. In other words, if we say that we <i>are</i> education or education <i>is</i> our role rather than that we <i>play</i> an educational role or we <i>support</i> education, we will position ourselves to be well-funded instead of having to fear more budget cuts.<br />
<br />
How should we accomplish this re-positioning or re-branding? Ms. Gross argued that it's actually relatively straightforward. Simply changing how we describe what we do, moving from "library lingo" to terms that are more meaningful to the average person and more clearly connected to education, will encourage people to start thinking of libraries as, and therefore treating libraries as, educational institutions more like schools than discretionary social services. A large segment of the webinar was devoted to discussing ways to rephrase what we do. Often, this involved taking a term that can have a broad meaning or a variety of meanings, and/or that often connotes something quite different to librarians than it does to the average person, and finding a more specific and immediately understandable way to say it.<br />
<br />
Some of my favorite suggestions for rewording: changing <i>programs </i>to <i>events and classes</i> (I always feel like I'm going to get misunderstood when I say I'm in charge of "adult programming" at my library -- people tend to think "computers"!), changing <i>reference</i> to <i>research</i> and <i>reference interview</i> to <i>research needs assessment</i>, changing <i>information</i> to <i>education</i>, changing <i>database</i> to <i>specialized online research tool</i> (how many people could tell you what a database is, in the context of a library?), changing "free" to <i>no charge</i> or <i>no admission</i> after all, as we have to emphasize, library programs <i>aren't</i> free -- the funding just doesn't come directly from attendees!), and <i>circulation clerk</i> to <i>customer service specialist</i>.<br />
<br />
(There were a few suggestions I didn't agree with. A reference librarian is just not an "instructor", for instance, as far as I'm concerned. I don't teach people on the reference desk. Nor do I "instruct" when I organize and lead programs -- oops, "classes and events" -- I am usually in the background, doing logistics but not presentation. "Research specialist" is perhaps better but I still don't think it quite covers what we do. I'd rather stick with "librarian" and re-educate the public about what that job actually entails!)<br />
<br />
Ms. Gross closed by talking about how to implement her ideas in our own libraries. This section of the talk was largely aimed at management and was fairly common-sense -- make sure to involve staff and external constituencies, change the way you present yourself to funding authorities by changing your statistics and budget headings, etc.<br />
<br />
My thoughts? Largely, I think Ms. Gross' arguments make sense. Point by point:<br />
<br />
Libraries are absolutely in a place where we need to find a way to legitimize ourselves in the eyes of many funding authorities. <u>Is rebranding ourselves as "education" the right way to go?</u> I was skeptical coming in, but after the webinar, I'm on board with the idea of rebranding libraries as educational institutions. I think that the connection of libraries to education is pretty obvious, and I thought that the idea made some sense even before the webinar. Initially, I had some reservations because I thought that some of what we do doesn't, in fact, qualify as education. Where is there room for leisure reading, recreation, crafts, and other "less serious" things that libraries promote under the umbrella of education? This is probably a common concern, and Ms. Gross addressed it directly by noting that education includes "instructive and enlightening experiences", which would encompass the various "community-center" roles that libraries are beginning to fill as well as recreational reading and activities. I think one does have to make the explicit argument for this being relevant in order for people to see it, but it does make sense. People can educate themselves in ways that are totally irrelevant to what we might think of as formal schooling, just because it enriches their lives. I think a lot of things that libraries do that aren't easy to directly connect to education could fit in under this idea that life-enriching activities and learning are also legitimately education.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Will simply changing what we say make a difference?</u> I think so. Word choice definitely influences what people think -- that's practically the whole idea behind branding and marketing. I also agree that some elements of "library lingo" are not meaningful to our patrons. Words that we use all the time and that are transparent to us signify very little to many people walking through our doors. And even if experienced library users do know what "circulation" (e.g.) means, shouldn't we aim to be comprehensible to <i>anyone</i> who comes through our doors or encounters us online, without having to educate them about basic vocabulary before they can interact with us effectively?<br />
<br />
<u>What about the specific word choices?</u> I listed my favorite suggestions for rewording "library lingo" above, as well as my major objection (i.e. replacing "librarian" with "instructor"). Overall, I think most of the suggestions in the webinar were good. However, I also think this is an area where individual libraries may need to tailor their choices to their patrons. And I am concerned that doing too much rewording could create an environment that is buzzword-y and just as jargony as some libraries currently are. For instance, while "programs and services" is kind of vague, I think that the suggested alternative of "curriculum" is going to be just as confusing to many people who think of a curriculum as a planned series of lessons that make up a coherent course of study -- which is not really what you find at a library. (How about just "what we do" or "what we offer"? I think that would actually work in most cases where we're saying "programs and services".) If we aren't careful in choosing alternative ways of saying things, we could come off as pretentious or just trying to hop on the latest bandwagon to sound "cool", like that executive who always talks about "synergy" but clearly has no clue as to what the word really means.<br />
<br />
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* As an interesting and semi-related aside, my library does not close for (e.g.) severe weather unless the entire town government closes. (Employees are encouraged to only come in if they can do so safely, however; and we have had days with only a few staff actually in the building.) My director's reasoning for this is that essential services do not close for weather, and if we want to be perceived as an essential service at budget time we need to behave like one in other circumstances.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-49236611707844024692011-10-21T18:08:00.000-04:002011-10-21T18:08:38.872-04:00Read Something! PSYCHIATRIC TALES (Darryl Cunningham)<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Psychiatric Tales</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">DARRYL CUNNINGHAM</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">2010/2011</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Graphic Novel, Nonfiction, Essays</i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><u>Summary</u></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Based on his work as a psychiatric nurse, Cunningham wrote the eleven graphic (as in "told in pictures", not as in "explicit") essays collected in this book. The essays discuss specific mental illnesses, work on a psychiatric</span><b><span style="font-size: small;"></span></b></span> ward, suicide, and the author's own mental-health struggles, with an aim toward fostering understanding of and destigmatizing mental illness.<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal Characteristics</u><br />
<ul>
<li><u> </u><b>Pacing:</b> Very short "chapters" -- each one is probably readable in 20 minutes, maximum</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> The text generally consists of declarative/factual statements or quick dialogue; sentences are short </li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> The reader often just gets quick anecdotes about people and is not really told their broader story or what happened to them. (The exception to this is Cunningham himself, who opens up about his mental health in one of the essays.)</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> The stories are pretty much self-contained; there is little continuity other than that they usually have the same setting and narrator</li>
<li><b>Visuals:</b> 6 panels per page, with the text usually at the top of each panel</li>
<li><b>Visuals:</b> Dramatic use of black and white: often white figures on a black background, or showing the same or similar images twice with black and white reversed</li>
</ul>
<u>Notes</u><br />
<ul>
<li>The book touches on suicide and on the author's own struggles with anxiety and depression, so it may be triggering for some people.</li>
</ul>
<u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul>
<li><i>Girl, Interrupted</i>? (I have only ever seen the movie, and that quite some time ago.) -- similar subject matter and setting, both from the perspective of a person who has been within a mental institution (though one as a patient, one as a nurse)</li>
<li>Broadly, I'd recommend this to psychology students, especially those with an interest in abnormal psychology.</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-8916482536282455352011-09-18T17:00:00.001-04:002011-09-18T17:00:48.950-04:00It's amazing how long it takes you to fall into a rhythm once you graduate from school and get a job.<br />
<br />
At least, how long it's taken me.<br />
<br />
In the past year I got hired, moved to a new apartment, bought a car and some furniture, started my job, weathered a 75-mile commute in ridiculous winter weather, moved <i>again</i> (to a much brighter, quieter, and more pleasant apartment, I'm glad to say), bought more furniture, and here I am. Life is just starting to fall into a routine and we still aren't 100% unpacked. No wonder blogging has gone by the wayside.<br />
<br />
But here I am. Still kicking, and smack in the middle of my library's community read programming (10 events in 6 weeks, all of which I'm responsible for organizing though thank goodness I don't have to be in attendance at every one). Busy busy busy busy busy. Ran two recruitment drives to sign local college students up for cards last week, and I have a program to do Monday night.<br />
<br />
Almost a year in, and I'm still greatly enjoying myself. I'm hitting my stride, getting my routines firmly in place. I'm starting to feel like I have a handle on the rhythm of the year. I've made some changes in the way certain aspects of my job are done, introduced a few new ideas, and have a couple of other things on the back burner. Mostly it's small stuff. More forms, new policies, different procedures, little things that help us keep records and help me to stay organized. For instance, we're now asking patrons who attend programs to fill out an evaluation. We've never collected that kind of data before. Part of the form asks where they heard about the program and in six months I hope to use that information to streamline my publicity workflow. We're asking volunteers to sign yearly agreements with us to confirm their contact information and so that we have actual records of who is still with us and what they're doing. (Trying to wrangle a list of the volunteers for last year's statistics was a real adventure -- seemed like my predecessor had had most of it in her head!)<br />
<br />
Now that I'm finding my feet in my personal and professional lives again, I hope I'll be posting here more often. (Famous blogger's last words.)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-48149448954058851092011-08-23T13:51:00.000-04:002011-08-23T13:51:07.327-04:00Read Something! _The American Heiress_ (Daisy Goodwin)<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>The American Heiress</b></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>DAISY GOODWIN</b><i><b> </b></i></span><br />
2010<br />
<i>Historical Fiction, Romance</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
<br />
Cora Cash<i> </i>is the wealthiest of Gilded Age New York's eligible young ladies, and her mother is determined to secure for Cora through marriage the one thing money can't buy: an aristocratic title. True to expectations, Cora makes an enviable match to an English duke. But the straightforward American heiress soon finds that English society is rife with unspoken social codes, secret alliances, and duplicitous betrayals. Set adrift in an unexpectedly unwelcoming new life, Cora must mature from a spoiled rich girl to a woman capable of making her own way in society.<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal Characteristics</u><br />
<ul><li><b>Characterization: </b>multiple strong female characters</li>
<li><b>Characterization/Frame:</b> dark, brooding, mysterious love interest </li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> sex mentioned but not really shown</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> lots of historical detail</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> some parts are from the points of view of servants instead of the socially elite main characters</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> some parts are briefly from the point of view of minor characters who we never see again</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> excellent descriptions make it easy to visualize characters and setting</li>
<li><b>Plot/Frame:</b> love triangles</li>
<li><b>Plot/Frame:</b> lots of politicking/characters trying to one-up each other for social standing</li>
<li><b>Plot/Frame:</b> the state of affairs is pretty clear to the reader early on; we watch the main character figure it out</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> the "right" people are together at the end; a happy ending</li>
<li><b>Plot/Characterization:</b> book is more focused on plot than on developing finely drawn characters</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> midlength chapters broken into somewhat shorter sections</li>
</ul><u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul><li> <i>The Age of Innocence </i>by Edith Wharton? - Wharton is suggested as a readalike on the jacket copy. <i>Age</i> is much more serious, a social novel rather than romantic fluff, but both books center on a love story, contain lots of historical detail from the same time period, and address the differences between European and American Gilded Age societies by throwing a person primarily from one society into the other</li>
<li>Regency romances - This book is only slightly less fluffy than a romance, and is perhaps slightly more about Cora herself than about her romantic relationships... but <i>barely</i>. Julia Quinn (the only romance author I read) is perhaps not a great match except that both she and this book have strong women and lots of period detail; <i>American Heiress</i> seems a little less unabashedly light-hearted than Quinn.</li>
<li><i>Rules of Civility</i> by Amor Towles? - I haven't read it but it just came across my desk as a new book and it could be a match. It's a historical novel (albeit set in the 1930s) featuring a plucky girl who needs to find her own way in a wealthy society with which she is unfamiliar, as well as navigating a romance (and possibly, like Cora, being torn between two men).</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-29708440192569794862011-07-30T12:45:00.000-04:002011-07-30T12:45:30.562-04:00Where on earth have I been?Short answer: Apartment hunting, then simultaneously moving to a new apartment, visiting relatives (both mine and my partner's), and entertaining my mother-in-law for three weeks; also seeing some friends, trying to tidy up our new living quarters, reading, attempting to get some knitting done, spending time with my partner.<br />
<br />
And on the work side - planning our ten-event, six-week Community Read program; trying to wrangle a current list of our volunteers and subsequently revamping our entire volunteer program to improve recordkeeping and bring us in line with Department of Labor guidelines, including writing a volunteer policy and creating a bunch of forms; trying to keep up with graphic novel ordering; fielding a bazillion calls/e-mails/in-person requests from people who want to do programs here (on this count I'm actually lucky, I think - I never have to scrounge for presenters/program ideas); running programs, including a book discussion for which I read <i>The Age of Innocence</i> three times; running most of the logistical stuff for an art show at the library; etc. etc. etc. ...<br />
<br />
So, I've been busy, and thus not posting at all. Hopefully that will change as my life gets just a bit saner.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-18808502245826353732011-04-12T13:57:00.000-04:002011-04-12T13:57:01.723-04:00Read Something! _Black Hole_ (Charles Burns)<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Black Hole</b></i></span><br />
<b>CHARLES BURNS</b><i><b> </b></i><br />
2005<br />
<i>Graphic Novel, Literary Fiction</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
<br />
The Seattle suburbs; the 1970s. A sexually transmitted disease called "the bug" is sweeping through the high school population. Those infected are physically transformed, in unique and often grotesque fashion. Chris is the girl that all the boys want. Keith is one of her admirers. When they each encounter "the bug" and the group of infected outcasts living in the woods, the resulting events will take them from home and profoundly alter their lives.<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<br />
<ul><li><b>Plot:</b> Positive ending (if not 100% happy)<b> </b></li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> Open-ended conclusion; though the plot threads are wrapped up, the characters' stories don't feel totally finished</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> At least three intersecting plot threads, one of which is not really obvious as a plot thread until its climax and conclusion</li>
<li><b>Plot/Frame?:</b> Coming of age story</li>
<li><b>Frame?:</b> Bizarre dream sequences (but outside of dreams, things feel "real" and logical) </li>
<li><b>Frame?:</b> Strong and frequent use of visual symbolism and repeated images</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Teenage/high school characters</li>
<li><b>Art:</b> Grotesque imagery</li>
<li><b>Art: </b>Usually 4-6 regular-sized panels per page</li>
<li><b>Art:</b> Mostly black backgrounds with white figures; heavy shading</li>
</ul><u>Other notes</u><br />
<ul><li>Moderately graphic depictions of sex and violence; male and female nudity; drug use.</li>
<li>Rape is mentioned but not shown; the aftermath of rape is briefly depicted but not very explicitly.</li>
<li>My Noting: Books entry for this book is here: <a href="http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6202-Black-Hole">http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6202-Black-Hole</a></li>
</ul><u>Readalikes </u><br />
<ul><li>???</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-7078724431614783312011-03-15T13:36:00.001-04:002011-03-15T13:37:24.973-04:00Read Something! _The Secret Speech_ (Tom Rob Smith)<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>The Secret Speech</b></i></span><br />
<b>TOM ROB SMITH</b><br />
2009<br />
407 pp.<br />
<i>Thriller/Suspense, Historical Fiction</i><br />
Sequel to <i><a href="http://heatherbrarian.blogspot.com/2010/05/read-something-child-44-tom-rob-smith.html">Child 44</a> </i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
<br />
Having solved the serial murders of 44 children, Leo Demidov has been put in charge of a secret, newly created department to investigate homicides. But life is not easy. Leo struggles to win the affection of his two adopted daughters, in whose parents' death he played a role. Then a secret speech given by Khrushchev, Stalin's successor, is distributed to the entire nation. The speech portrays Stalin's regime as tyrannical, casts blame on those who supported it, and promises change.<br />
<br />
At the same time, someone starts killing off former officers and collaborators from Stalin's regime. And the culprit has a particular interest in Leo, and in what he might be forced to do -- or to endure -- for the sake of a daughter who hates him.<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<br />
<ul><li><b>Frame:</b> Lots of historical/period detail; clearly thoroughly researched</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Relationships between characters are very important/emphasized</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Strong female characters</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> Some subplots/parallel plots, but they tend to tie back in to the main plot somehow</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> Elaborate plot with lots of twists and turns<b><br />
</b></li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Fast-paced; short chapters/sections</li>
</ul><u>Other notes</u> <br />
<ul><li>There is violence, but it is not extremely graphic</li>
<li>My Noting: Books entry on <i>The Secret Speech</i>: http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6199-The-Secret-Speech</li>
</ul><u>Readalikes </u><br />
<ul><li>???</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-43094436043323611382011-01-28T13:17:00.000-05:002011-01-28T13:17:32.135-05:00Read Something! _Rainbows End_ (Vernor Vinge)<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Rainbows End</b></i></span><br />
<b>VERNOR VINGE</b><i><b> </b></i><br />
2006<br />
381 pp.<br />
<i>Science Fiction</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
<br />
In the not-too-distant future, wearable computers enable people to be constantly hooked in to the Internet, even to overlay different "realities" upon the world around them. Alzheimer's, and many other maladies of old age, have been cured. And mass terrorism is a threat to civilization on a scale never before imagined.<br />
<br />
When hints surface suggesting that someone in the United States may be on the verge of discovering a feasible method of mind control, the other world powers know that they must investigate - but covertly. With the help of a juvenile hacker of uncertain identity, they assemble a ring of unwitting accomplices to breach one of the most heavily secured biolabs in the United States.<br />
<br />
But they cannot predict the chaotic effect of their independent-minded hired hacker on their operation. Nor do they know that one of their own is trying to sabotage the investigation...<br />
<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<u></u><br />
<ul><li><b>Frame:</b> Extensive worldbuilding</li>
<li><b>Frame: </b>Near-future setting that seems a plausible outgrowth of today's trends and technologies</li>
<li><b>??:</b> World/plot focused (vs. character-focused)</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> Elements of intrigue/spy thrillers</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> Many loose ends are not tied up at the end; the book just sort of stops </li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Longish chapters</li>
<li><b>Pacing: </b>Slow through the first couple hundred pages, picks up when the major plot event occurs, then slows down again</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Major character is (deliberately) distinctly unlikeable for the opening part of the story but undergoes a change</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> A variety of characters of different ages, races, stations in life, etc.</li>
</ul><br />
<u>Other notes</u><br />
<br />
<ul><li>My Noting: Books entry for this book is <a href="http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6138-Rainbows-End-A-Novel-With">here</a>.</li>
</ul><br />
<u>Readalikes</u><br />
<br />
<ul><li>???</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-90030296974580688082010-12-21T14:00:00.000-05:002010-12-21T14:00:50.788-05:00Read Something! _Mother, Come Home_ (Paul Hornschemeier)<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Mother, Come Home</b></i></span><br />
<b>PAUL HORNSCHEMEIER</b><br />
2009<br />
unpaged<br />
<i>Graphic Novel / Literary Fiction </i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
<br />
A boy and his father try to cope after the boy's mother dies. <i>Mother, Come Home</i> is a powerful exploration of how we can either overcome tragedy or be broken by it.<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<ul><li><b>Frame:</b> Told simply, from a child's perspective (although some comments are clearly those of an adult looking back) but nevertheless grapples with complex and difficult concepts</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> Frequent and adept use of metaphor (usually visual)</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> No happy ending</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Main character is a child who has to deal with emotionally difficult situations</li>
<li><b>???:</b> The art style is very clean; frames often just have a character or two in them and are not very "busy" </li>
</ul><u>Other notes</u><br />
<ul><li>This book deals with death, mental illness, and suicide (though not in a particularly graphic fashion).</li>
<li>My Noting: Books entry for this book: <a href="http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6062-Mother-Come-Home">http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6062-Mother-Come-Home</a></li>
</ul><u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul><li>J. R. Ackerley, <i>My Father and Myself</i>? -- similar frame of a son looking back on a troubled relationship with his father, but honestly not much else that I can think of as similar; I don't know why this feels like a good readalike to me</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-20393419942539230762010-12-13T12:57:00.000-05:002010-12-13T12:57:22.655-05:00Read Something! _The Hidden_ (Bill Pronzini)<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>The Hidden</b></i></span><br />
<b>BILL PRONZINI </b><br />
2010<b> </b><br />
210 pp.<br />
<i>Suspense?/General Fiction</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
<br />
Jay Macklin and his wife, Shelby, are off on a Christmas getaway to a remote cabin on the northern California coast. Jay hopes for a last few days of happiness before he must reveal a secret that might mean the end of their already rocky marriage.<br />
<br />
But the couple gets far more than they bargained for when they find themselves trapped by violent storms, their only neighbors a set of two couples whose relationships are ugly on the verge of becoming violent -- and in the heart of a stretch of coastline haunted by a serial killer.<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<ul><li><b>???:</b> Basically no way to identify the killer before the very end of the book, but some red herrings that keep you guessing</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> All characters (except those immediately dispatched by the killer as soon as they are encountered) play at least a minimally important role; there aren't a lot of extraneous people walking around</li>
<li><b>Plot vs. characterization:</b> Heavy focus on characters for an ostensible suspense novel; much of the middle of the book is about Jay and Shelby's relationship, Jay's psychological state, etc.</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> Characters have major problems that are often surmounted with relatively little effort when the plot requires them to be resolved</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Fast-paced beginning with lots of mysteries, revelations, and suspense; a lull in the middle; an action-packed end where all of the surviving major characters are placed in mortal peril at least once</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> All plot threads are wrapped up very quickly at the end</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Short chapters</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> Atmospheric in tone, with a general mood/feeling/atmosphere built up through careful use of detail and allusion</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> Third person limited point of view, alternating between Jay and Shelby's perspectives with an occasional chapter from the killer's point of view</li>
</ul><br />
<u>Other notes</u><br />
<ul><li>This book is <i>not</i> suspenseful in the gripping, heart pounding way I would expect from something marketed as "a novel of suspense." Perhaps it is literary suspense, but honestly I don't really find it suspenseful at all (which is not to say that it was not engaging or did not keep me interested).</li>
<li>My Noting: Books entry for this book: http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6057-The-Hidden-A-Novel-of</li>
</ul><u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul><li>???</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-35803472714910624152010-12-07T14:02:00.001-05:002010-12-07T14:04:24.484-05:00Read Something! _Swift Justice_ (Laura DiSilverio)<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Swift Justice</b></i></span><br />
<b>LAURA DISILVERIO</b><i><b> </b></i><br />
2010<br />
290 pp.<br />
<i>Mystery/Chick Lit</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
<br />
Charlotte "Charlie" Swift's private investigation business is finally breaking even. Her life is self-contained and self-sufficient, save for the occasional drink with her neighbor or romantic overtures from cop Connor Montgomery.<br />
<br />
Then her silent partner flees the country, and Charlie learns that his abandoned wife, Gigi, wants to hold on to the half-share of the business left by her husband and to be a partner -- but decidedly not a silent one. As Charlie tries to track down the mother of an abandoned baby, she sends Gigi on assignments that will hopefully put her off of PI work forever.<br />
<br />
But then the baby's mother turns up dead, and multiple different people claim that the infant belongs with them. As Charlie works to untangle the mess, she finds that she may need all the help she can get.<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<u><br />
</u><br />
<ul><li><b>Frame?: </b>Humor generously interspersed (often "slapstick" or goofy humor)</li>
<li><b>Frame: </b>Mostly written in first person with a few third person limited passages</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> <i>Lots</i> of details are given about clothing, decor, etc.</li>
<li><b>Frame?:</b> Charlie is threatened but never is placed in really serious danger; the book is generally to light to bear that</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> The case is not 100% resolved but the important facts are revealed</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> Female main character's love life is a fairly minor subplot, but regularly comes up as she periodically dates/flirts with/feels attracted to various male characters</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> Multiple subplots going on at once</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> There are multiple minor characters, each with a defining characteristic or quirk (e.g. sexy cop, priest with a mysterious past, chauvinistic fundamentalist kook, ...) </li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Strong female main character who can take care of herself, including physically - but who also has a more feminine romantic side brought out by men she's attracted to<b> </b></li>
<li><b>Plot vs. Characterization:</b> Unraveling the case is one focus of the book, but the development of Charlie and Gigi's relationship is another</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Suspense increases toward the end</li>
</ul><u>Other notes</u><br />
<ul><li>My Noting: Books entry for this book: <a href="http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6056-Swift-Justice-A-Mystery-Thomas">http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/6056-Swift-Justice-A-Mystery-Thomas</a></li>
</ul><br />
<u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul><li>???</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-76136872730970688472010-12-02T12:59:00.000-05:002010-12-02T12:59:31.169-05:00Read Something! _The Story of a Marriage_ (Andrew Sean Greer)<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Story of a Marriage</i></span><br />
<b>ANDREW SEAN GREER</b><br />
2008<br />
195 pp.<br />
<i>Literary Fiction</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
<u> </u><br />
"We think we know the ones we love," says Pearlie Cook. But when a stranger appears on her doorstep, Pearlie discovers that her husband has secrets she never could have guessed. Given an offer of freedom as yet unknown to her, for six months Pearlie struggles to understand who her husband really is, and what her own deepest desires might be.<br />
<br />
Set in California in 1953 -- a world just out of one war and already engulfed in another, where the slightest hint of nonconformity is severely repressed, <i>The Story of a Marriage</i> is a novel about coming to know ourselves and the people we love, about the damage war does even to those who do not fight, and about the battles we fight to gain and keep our heart's desire.<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<br />
<ul><li><b>Plot:</b> Love triangle</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Characters' histories are slowly revealed over the course of the whole book, gradually deepening our understanding of them as we learn new secrets</li>
<li><b>Plot/Characterization:</b> Character-focused book; the point is the development of each major character and the relationships between them -- not much actually "happens", plotwise</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Fairly slow pacing</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> Meditative/introspective tone</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> First person narration</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> Some plot events and character backgrounds are integrated with real historical events of World War II and the early 1950s</li>
<li><b>Frame: </b>The historical setting, while important, is not overemphasized; it is significant that the book is set in 1953 but more for atmospheric/thematic reasons than for the use of period detail (of which there is relatively little)</li>
</ul><u>Readalikes</u> <br />
<br />
<ul><li><i>The Hours</i> (Michael Cunningham)? Similar time setting (for one of the plots), focus on characters, literary writing... but honestly it has been several years since I read this and I do not have a solid idea as to why my brain is coming up with this as a suggestion</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-63427437441199779892010-11-03T18:25:00.000-04:002010-11-03T18:25:36.723-04:00Read Something! _Ender's Game_ (Orson Scott Card)<i><span style="font-size: large;">Ender's Game</span></i><br />
<br />
<b>ORSON SCOTT CARD</b><br />
1977<br />
324 pp.<br />
<i>Science Fiction</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><i> </i><br />
<br />
Decades ago, the buggers attacked. Then they attacked again. The next wave may spell the end of humanity's existence. Ender, a genius child, is in training to become the leader of the human forces in the next war with the buggers. But will the training itself break him -- or his enemies kill him -- before he graduates? And is even Ender enough of a leader and strategist to beat the buggers once and for all?<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<br />
<ul><li><b>Plot:</b> One major plot, with one distinct subplot occasionally developed (and one semi-subplot, not really a plot but a trajectory followed by other characters that we see unfolding as well)</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Character-focused -- emphasis is on Ender's thoughts, emotions, and experience</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> All major characters are genius children</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Most characters other than Ender (and Valentine?) seem a bit sketched out -- they feel like real people and yet we do not know a whole lot about them; Ender is very clearly the center of this book </li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> Some ethical questions are raised (e.g. relating to destroying other species, the ethics of profoundly damaging one person to save the human race, etc.) but are not very deeply explored -- although the text is open enough to allow the reader to do that thinking/exploration on his/her own</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Card gives us several scenes from around the same time period, then skips forward by months to years at a time; as the book goes on the gaps in time are greater</li>
</ul><u>Other notes</u><br />
<ul><li>My Noting: Books entry on <i>Ender's Game:</i> (not available currently; at the time of this posting notingbooks.com was down)</li>
</ul><u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul><li>???</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-18209797271764180012010-10-02T12:41:00.000-04:002010-10-02T12:41:07.416-04:00Tiny ponies<i>(Note to folks reading this on Facebook: If you could come to the actual post on <a href="http://heatherbrarian.blogspot.com/">my blog</a> to reply to this one, I'd be grateful. It would be nice to have a discussion visible to people other than my Facebook friends. ;) )</i> <br />
<br />
If you have not recently had cause to Google "tiny pony apple", then you may not have seen <a href="http://blog.frankchimero.com/post/1059696119/there-is-a-horse-in-the-apple-store">this amusing blog post </a>about a small horse the author encountered in an Apple store that no one else in the store seemed to notice.<br />
<br />
The post itself is very funny, but I'm not highlighting it here because of its humor. After telling his story, the author makes a broader point:<br />
<blockquote><br />
<i>Since then, John and I have a term called a “tiny pony.” It is a thing that is exceptional that no one, for whatever reason, notices. Or, conversely, it is an exceptional thing that everyone notices, but quickly grows acclimated to despite the brilliance of it all.</i></blockquote><blockquote><i>Cell phones and the ability to make a phone call to anyone from anywhere is a tiny pony. The instant gratification provided by being able to have almost any question answered immediately is a tiny pony. Airplanes are tiny ponies. A black president, whose father is from Kenya and mother is from Kansas, being elected President of the United States is a tiny pony. </i></blockquote><blockquote><i>When does the magic of a situation fade? When do we get acclimated to the exceptional?Is this how we get by? Would anything get done if we were constantly gobsmacked? Is this how we survive, how we stay sane? We define a pattern, no matter how exceptional, and acclimate ourselves to it?</i></blockquote>In the library world, I think we spend a lot of time talking about how to better market ourselves and the services we provide to our patrons. A lot of the time, the problem is that people aren't really aware of what we do. But I think that some of the problem is also that people know what we do but don't stop to think about how great it is that we can do these things for them.<br />
<br />
What are the tiny ponies in libraries? How can we encourage the public to be consciously aware of these things? Is there a way to keep our clientele from getting "acclimated to the exceptional" when they interact with libraries, to maintain a high level of awareness and appreciation of the things we can do?<br />
<br />
It seems to me that if we can answer these questions, we can start finding some really good ways to develop a deep sense of attachment and engagement in more of our patrons. We provide potentially memorable experiences to patrons every day. How can we help our patrons to view them as really memorable/exceptional/impressive?Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-13308969351676810762010-09-23T11:40:00.000-04:002010-09-23T11:40:52.336-04:00Good news!I haven't been able to get back on track with posting here yet because my life has rather unexpectedly continued to be crazy.<br />
<br />
You see, just a few weeks after arriving back in MA, I've been offered a job!<br />
<br />
In October, I will start as the Programming, Public Relations, & Outreach Coordinator at the Howe Library in Hanover, NH. (This is the position I mentioned interviewing for in my last post.) I am <i>beyond</i> thrilled. It is a dream job at a dream library. I get to not only do some reference and collection development work, but to do a lot of programming and a lot of work on connecting the library to the community and to other local organizations with which it could form mutually beneficial partnerships. This is exactly what gets me fired up about librarianship -- both reference work, which I love, and the chance to build connections, to do outreach, to find new ways for the library to meet the needs of its community. The Howe has strong community support, a commitment to excellence, willingness to experiment and innovate, great staff who seem very dedicated to their work, funding, a somewhat unique context for a public library... this job is going to really enable me to grow professionally in big ways while contributing to an amazing library. I am excited and ready to get going!<br />
<br />
The new job does mean that my posting here will remain irregular for some time. As I get settled in I will try to resume a more regular posting schedule that works with my other commitments. But we have apartment hunting and moving to do, and then I have to get used to working full time and commuting (due to my partner's ongoing job search, we are at least for now going to be about 75 miles away from Hanover -- a sacrifice, but one that I ultimately feel will be worth it). I'll be sporadic at least for the next couple of months, I think, but after that I hope things will find a rhythm.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-22747017927933179262010-09-12T22:56:00.000-04:002010-09-12T22:56:15.181-04:00NewsHello everyone,<br />
<br />
I'm settled in enough to make a quick post but not quite enough to make a longer one. So, some quick news/notes:<br />
<br />
<ul><li>The move was fairly uneventful. A couple of our boxes did get destroyed in shipping, so we unfortunately lost a bunch of books. (Word to the wise -- don't ship via the US Post Office, or if you do, make sure you get insurance -- we didn't and they wouldn't even reimburse us the postage for the box that came completely torn up and empty.) We got to drive into MA via Route 2, which I loved -- lots of curvy hilly roads through (sort of) mountains.</li>
<li>I was ultimately not offered the job I interviewed for. The feedback I got when I asked how I could improve was very positive, though, which was encouraging -- I didn't do anything wrong, just got beat out by someone with a bit more experience.</li>
<li>On the very same day I heard about the job just mentioned, I was asked to interview for another position! It's a very similar kind of job (community outreach/public relations/program coordination plus some reference and collection development), and it's at a busy library that enjoys quite a lot of community support. I think the interview went reasonably well. It certainly made me even more excited about the position! The library building is lovely, and the culture meshes well with the value I place on customer service, staff participation in decision making, and collaboration. Plus: I met with a panel of staff members, and beyond being really nice people, they shared my interests: knitting, dogs, baking...</li>
</ul>And finally, to make this post about something actually library-related...<br />
<br />
<ul><li>I thought this post about <a href="http://closedstacks.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/treat-your-volunteers-right/">treating your volunteers right</a> on the Closed Stacks blog had a lot of good advice. Some of it is perhaps common sense (e.g. letting your volunteers know when your institution will be closed (!!)), but overall I think it provides good pointers on how to treat volunteers in a way that ensures both that they feel good about their service and that your organization benefits from their time. As someone who is likely to be overseeing volunteers in a future job (many of the postings I answer seem to include that responsibility) and who is interested in leadership and management, this was a very helpful post for me to read -- and I hope you'll find it helpful too!</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-46432372298603180642010-08-15T00:12:00.000-04:002010-08-15T00:12:18.990-04:00HiatusDue to an impending move to another state, my ability to post to this blog is going to be interrupted. I will try to resume a (semi-)regular posting schedule as soon as I'm settled in.<br />
<br />
(Because I know some people who read my blog will wonder, this isn't due to a job offer -- just to our lease running out. We're joining the ranks of those moving back in with parents until a source of sufficient income presents itself.)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-42954225060384079442010-08-07T21:41:00.001-04:002010-08-07T21:42:01.918-04:00Immigrants and book clubsI thought that <a href="http://lu.com/ranews/jul2010/dali.cfm">this article on immigrant readers (particularly in the context of book clubs)</a> raised some interesting ideas for those of us working (or hoping to work) in communities with immigrant populations. As with any specific population, immigrants have particular needs, and there are particular ways of addressing those needs that may be more or less helpful to the population.<br />
<br />
It is first important to recognize that "immigrants" are not a monolithic group. The article points out that immigrants can be seen as falling into two broad groups -- "newcomers" and "old-timers" -- and that these subgroups have quite different needs:<br />
<blockquote><i>Technically, old-timers can be considered immigrants, but they are a distinctive category with different needs and goals who, by extension, require a different approach and services from public libraries. They are past "the most tumultuous period of language learning and career re-establishment"; and hopefully their lives have acquired "a more stable routine" that allows them to return to habitual leisure reading (Dali 216). Hence, their expectations of public library services can be much closer to those of native-born Canadians and Americans. They may still be looking for good reads in their native languages and might also become interested in something more. This "more" may very well reflect a desire to reach out to English-speaking readers who like the same books. While old-timers may no longer belong in book clubs for newcomers, they may still be apprehensive of joining book clubs for native English speakers.</i></blockquote>This was a useful statement for me because I hadn't really thought of things in this way before. I was aware that immigrants who had been in the country longer would probably have very different needs from new immigrants, but I had tended to lump the former group in with the general population in terms of their needs. Upon reflection, it makes sense that even well-assimilated immigrants would probably continue to have somewhat different needs than the native-born -- that they would probably seek a continued feeling of connection with their home country, for instance. <br />
<br />
The article also points out that there can be a wide range of literacy levels among immigrants. This can definitely impact service provision. For instance, an English learners' class that assumes a higher or lower level of general literacy than most of its participants have may not be effective. In the context of book groups, with which the article is particularly concerned, such groups (which can provide important opportunities for socializing and assimilation) may not be appropriate for immigrants who struggle to read; they may need basic literacy education first. (Alternatively, a book group targeted specifically at immigrants with lower literacy levels could be set up.) <br />
<br />
The article also notes that even fluent English speakers may still want to read in their own language, but that that doesn't mean they would be unwilling to <i>discuss </i>books in English. For librarians looking to help connect immigrant and non-immigrant populations in their communities through book groups, one good suggestion would then be to allow people to read a book in any language, then hold discussion in English. As the article points out, this requires a bit more care in selecting readings -- they must be available not only in English, but in the primary language(s) spoken by the local immigrant community. (As an English major, I also fear that doing this would eliminate groups' ability to discuss the style of the book and the meaning of specific phrases, though those topics are perhaps of greater interest to academics than casual reading groups -- but that added difficulty would be more than compensated for by the opportunities to allow immigrants and non-immigrants to connect with each other.)<br />
<br />
The article closes with a few suggested ways to engage immigrant readers in book clubs. One good and fairly easy suggestion is to make sure that immigrants know that book clubs are for them by creating promotional materials in multiple languages that say that people who have read the book in translation may join. (To go further, I would suggest acquiring copies of the work in translation as well as in English, if the library gathers copies specifically to lend to group members before the group, and advertising the availability of these translated copies.) The article also suggests conducting outreach through ethnic organizations, an idea that I really like. Outreach pertaining to book groups can be folded into a broader program of outreach to these organizations that advertises all of the things the library can do for their members.<br />
<br />
This was a particularly interesting article for me since I'm under consideration for a position in a library that serves a substantial immigrant population, and I've been thinking about ways I could reach out to that population if I were hired. Although it's short, I think that it offers some good jumping off points and basic ideas for creating a book group experience that is attractive to immigrants, particularly "old-timers."Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-18078405313116954222010-07-25T14:40:00.002-04:002010-08-03T11:17:25.401-04:00The Tall One Knows!<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">There’s a semi-regular patron at the library where I intern. She is learning English and is usually in search of books with very short stories or essays to read, so that she can work on her comprehension without having to follow a long, complex series of thoughts. The last time I conversed with her was probably two or three weeks ago, at least; I don’t remember much of the conversation other than that she didn’t like the last book we’d found for her, and I helped her find another.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">When I was at the library last week, a colleague asked me about this patron. Apparently she’d come to the desk with a question about something relating to writing. Unfortunately, because the patron's English is still fairly basic and her accent is pretty strong, my colleague couldn’t understand what the something was; only that it was a three-syllable word. The patron couldn’t write it down or spell it, but just kept repeating the word more loudly. As my colleague admitted defeat, the patron said, “The tall one knows! The tall one knows!”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">I stand four to six inches above almost all of the other reference staff, and I’ve begun to develop a relationship with this patron, so the referent of this statement was fairly clear. Thus my colleague approached me.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">…and I have <i>no idea</i> what on earth the patron was talking about! Admittedly I don’t have much to go on; if I’d actually been there I might have been able to suss it out. But I honestly don’t remember our previous interaction in great detail. I don’t remember precisely what we talked about. I’m now a little petrified of the next time I encounter this patron, because I really do want to help her but I’m not sure I’ll be able to! I joked that they say wisdom is knowing what you don’t know... </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: small;">Above all, however, I am <i>highly</i> amused at my new appellation. It has a certain ring to it, doesn’t it? I am… <i>The Tall One</i>. She Who <i>Knows</i>.</span></div>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-34503979452835865282010-07-21T19:51:00.001-04:002010-12-07T14:04:41.120-05:00Read Something! _The Forest of Hands and Teeth_ (Carrie Ryan)<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Forest of Hands and Teeth</i></span><br />
<br />
<b>CARRIE RYAN</b><br />
2009<br />
310<b> </b>pp.<br />
<i>YA / Horror</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u> <br />
Mary chafes against the demands of her life. Despite the dangerous Unconsecrated who lurk beyond the village fences, she longs to escape her isolated home in search of freedom. When, impossibly, an Outsider comes to the village, Mary's hopes of being able to embark on a new life rise. But the outsider's presence soon becomes a threat, and Mary's escape from the village comes at a high price. Now Mary and her companions are alone in a hostile world. Will they survive, or fall to the Unconsecrated? And will Mary ever find the freedom she seeks?<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<ul><li><b>Characterization:</b> Independent-minded, teenage, female main character</li>
<li><b>Characterization: </b>A few chapters mostly about the characters and their relationships alternate with a few chapters of heightened action or suspense </li>
<li><b>Frame (?):</b> First-person narration</li>
<li><b>Frame (?):</b> Romantic elements/subplot</li>
<li><b>Frame (?):</b> Mysterious elements (but the mysteries are mostly never resolved</li>
<li><b>Frame: </b>Extensive worldbuilding</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Short chapters -- 5-10 pages each -- often ending on a revelation or cliffhanger</li>
<li><b>??: </b>Not very much detailed description of things outside of the main character's feelings and thoughts (visuals, etc. often just get a few words to a couple of sentences)</li>
</ul><u>Other notes</u><br />
<ul><li>Contains death and violence, though not described in extensive detail</li>
<li>My Noting: Books entry on <i>The Forest of Hands and Teeth</i>: <a href="http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/5709-The-Forest-of-Hands-and">http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/5709-The-Forest-of-Hands-and</a></li>
</ul><u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul><li><i>I Am Legend</i>? (I've never read this book, so I really have no idea)</li>
<li>The later <i>Harry Potter</i> books? Both take place in a fantasy world connected to, but unlike, our own (though <i>HP</i> is present-day and <i>Forest</i> is set in the future); similar emphasis placed on characters and their relationships vs. events; similarly dark; similar protagonists (teens, to some extent with the world of the book revolving around them, faced with life or death choices); semi-similar endings that are happy but not quite fully fleshed out or satisfying (yes, that's a subjective judgment, but I couldn't help myself -- these books frustrated me in remarkably similar ways)</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-76430206490840459782010-07-15T00:41:00.000-04:002010-07-15T00:41:00.090-04:00Recap/UpdateI promised an update on my job interview!<br />
<br />
Overall, I think it went pretty well. I was articulate and had some good answers to the questions I was asked. I put together a pretty decent flyer for the MS Publisher test without feeling too rushed to finish it. I am a little concerned that I didn't say as much as I could have about my qualifications. Sometimes the director would make a comment that paralleled something I'd been planning to say later or talked about the importance of a qualification I had, and while I often tried to indicate that I really agreed or that I had the qualification in question, I think I held back a bit more than I should have out of concern about sounding sycophantic. In retrospect, that was a bit silly. But what's done is done, and in the future I'll be more prepared for that kind of situation.<br />
<br />
Of course we also spent a bunch of time talking about the job. And oh boy. The job sounds <i>great</i>. If I were hired, my primary responsibility would be to work on getting the community more strongly engaged with its library. I would also be doing some reference, meeting room scheduling, etc. -- but most of the job would be program planning, outreach activities, and the like. Anyone who knows me should see how this is a great match. To begin with, it ties directly into the whole reason I want to work in public libraries to begin with: my deep interest in how libraries can work with their communities to create mutually beneficial relationships that strengthen the community while ensuring that its needs are being met. I have been itching to get into a position where I can have a major impact on library-community relationships. This particular library is an especially good place for me because it's in a city that is recovering from an economic downturn, in part by rebranding itself as a cultural center. There are tons of opportunities in that kind of situation for a library to meaningfully weave itself into civic life.<br />
<br />
The position also offers a bit more responsibility than the typical entry-level job might, which would also be good for me. It is a bit of a step up from the amount of responsibility I've previously held in jobs and extracurriculars, but I feel ready to grow in that way and confident that I would respond well to the challenge. I think with a little free rein to exercise creativity and initiative, I can really start to put together some great things for anyone who employs me. And at this library, the director seems open to ideas and very supportive of her employees. I think it would be a nurturing environment in which to work, and just the kind of situation that would help me to create and implement my best ideas.<br />
<br />
The job would offer plenty of opportunities to take some initiative and run with my ideas, and really have some impact in a vital area of library work. The people I met seemed nice (the circulation worker who I asked for directions to administration gave me a huge smile and cheerfully helped me -- big points for good customer service!), the location is fantastic, and I think it would be a great opportunity for me to grow while accomplishing concrete positive results. And it plays right into many of my strengths -- my interest in this specific area of library work, my ability to organize and multitask, the analytical and management skills I learned in classes at SI, my creativity and strong initiative. I just hope that I got all that through in the interview!<br />
<br />
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I make the next cut! If I do, the director will call my references, and my references are very strong. I think I've got a good shot at the job if I make it to the next stage.<br />
<br />
For now, all I can do is be patient. If all goes as planned I should hear something quite soon. Send me thoughts of good luck!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-2365262438371458092010-06-30T23:25:00.000-04:002010-06-30T23:25:28.287-04:00Progress on the job front... and with MS PublisherI haven't actually posted about this yet for some strange reason. It must be a <i>very</i> strange reason, in fact, because it's exciting news.<br />
<br />
I have a job interview!<br />
<br />
It's for a community librarian-type position in a public library about half an hour away from where I grew up. From the job ad, it sounds like there will be opportunities to do things I love (e.g. planning programs and services, some reference desk work) and also to gain skills in areas where I'm ready to grow (e.g. supervision/management, overseeing larger programs/projects). It's not 100% clear, but I'm also hoping that there will be opportunities to really go out and engage with the community and figure out their needs and how to bring them into the library.<br />
<br />
I am excited and nervous and just want the next week to hurry up and get over with so I can have this interview! But I still have a lot of preparation to do. I have to go back over my notes on the library and do some additional research about the city it's in. I also need to practice, practice, practice interview questions and make lists of experiences and achievements that would make good examples to use when answering questions (I tend to forget specific experiences way too quickly, especially under pressure). I need to come up with one or two more good questions of my own to ask.<br />
<br />
And I need to keep practicing MS Publisher. I've been told that after the interview I will have 30 minutes to make a flyer in Publisher. Apparently that's an important skill in this job. I have some experience with Publisher, but not tons, so I've spent the past few weeks getting some practice in whenever I can. I needed some inspiration for practice flyers to make, so I've been basing them on books I've read recently. I've made three so far:<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.box.net/shared/1mnx5entdy">One based on <i>Eye of the Red Tsar</i> by Sam Eastland</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.box.net/shared/0a8095khvz">One inspired by <i>The Little Stranger</i> by Sarah Waters</a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.box.net/shared/0jiyuuvqkq">One inspired by <i>The Forest of Hands and Teeth</i> by Carrie Ryan</a></li>
</ul>(The last one is a .png because the computer I was on did not have the necessary add-on to save Publisher files as .pdf, and since it was a library computer I couldn't install anything on it.)<br />
<br />
The interview is on July 8 -- I'll try to update soon afterward to reflect on how it went...Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-64619975201262313932010-06-16T20:58:00.001-04:002010-10-02T12:43:05.124-04:00Read Something! _Eye of the Red Tsar_ (Sam Eastland)<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Eye of the Red Tsar</i></span><br />
<br />
<b>SAM EASTLAND</b><br />
2010<b> </b><br />
278 pp.<br />
<i>Historical Suspense</i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
Introducing Pekkala: a man with a near-photographic memory and an ironclad determination to do the right thing in any situation. Under the Romanovs he was the Emerald Eye -- the Tsar's infamously incorruptible chief investigator, accountable to no one but himself, with the authority to question or arrest anyone -- even the Tsar. Now he is a prisoner of Stalin's regime, sentenced to labor in a remote gulag.<br />
But the state has need of Pekkala still. Released from the gulag, he is tasked with a final investigation: find the bodies of the Romanovs, their rumored still-living child, and their hidden treasure. If he scores this coup for Stalin, he will finally be free. But Pekkala is not the only person seeking lost treasure, and there are those who wish to ensure that the truth of what happened to the Romanovs is never known. Can Pekkala find the answers before he loses his life?<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<ul><li><b>Plot:</b> 2 (2.5? 3?) plots are semi-interwoven throughout the book. One plot deals with the characters in the present, and the other deals with Pekkala's backstory, including a romance.</li>
<li><b>Plot (?):</b> There is a mystery, but much more time is spent on character development than on unraveling the mystery </li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Character-focused book; much of the novel is about the main character, his past, and his relationships with others</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Pacing is fairly slow for a suspense novel/thriller; generally, a major event happens every few sections, with a lot of slower filler dealing with character development and backstory </li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Pacing increases markedly at the end; the book shifts more toward an emphasis on plot than characters, and the characters are put in increasing physical danger</li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> Periodic moments of levity/humor break up the more serious tone of the rest of the book </li>
</ul><u>Other notes</u><br />
<ul><li>The mystery is fairly predictable for readers who are attentive to foreshadowing and hints. Readers who enjoy mysteries that force them to solve puzzles, as well as readers who don't like it when the main character(s) remain clueless for some time after the reader has already figured something out, may not be good matches for this book.</li>
<li>My Noting: Books entry on <i>Eye of the Red Tsar</i>: <a href="http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/5638-Eye-of-the-Red-Tsar">http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/5638-Eye-of-the-Red-Tsar</a></li>
</ul><u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul><li>Sherlock Holmes? (I have sadly not yet read any Conan Doyle so I don't actually know if this is a match at all...)</li>
<li><u> </u><a href="http://heatherbrarian.blogspot.com/2010/05/read-something-child-44-tom-rob-smith.html"><i>Child 44</i></a> (Tom Rob Smith) -- similar setting; both are thrillers/suspense novels; pacing, focus on characters vs. plot, and general content are quire different; level of suspense in <i>Child 44</i> is much higher and is sustained throughout the book; <i>Child 44</i> deals with the ethical issues related to working for a totalitarian state whereas <i>Eye</i> glosses it over; <i>Eye</i> is much better written, stylistically (the phrasing and flow are more evocative and less awkward)</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-1425524784548609162010-06-08T22:10:00.001-04:002010-06-08T22:10:36.810-04:00ReadingI used to be an obsessive reader. I would have two or three books going at the same time. Every spare moment would be spent reading. My parents would admonish me to set the book down at the breakfast table, worry that I would crack my head open coming down the stairs because I would read while walking around the house. (Years later I put that skill to good use to get homework done while walking to class at Stanford.) I always seemed to need another bookcase in my room, and that was for books on top of everything I read that I got from school for assignments or checked out of the library.<br />
<br />
Then I got to college. Homework assignments were much more time consuming there than at my high school. I had brought books with me to read, but I found that between academics and my extracurriculars, I didn't have much time for pleasure reading. And once I started my English major, I was reading for school constantly. I loved my major (and chose it because of the extent to which I loved books), but reading became homework, and I wanted to do something different during my downtime. This feeling only got more intense as I progressed through my BA and earned a MA as well. I loved reading, but I already did it constantly for school -- I didn't feel the urge to read for leisure anymore.<br />
<br />
After I graduated and started my MSI, I slowly began to read for leisure again during vacations (there was still no time during the school year!). Mostly I was reading from the bookshelf-sized backlog I'd acquired during the past five years, but occasionally a different book would slip in. Still, since I only really had time for pleasure reading on vacations, I didn't get much done.<br />
<br />
But now. NOW. This is definitely one of the ways in which being temporarily semi-unemployed is a blessing. I have so much time to read! I have started devouring books again like I used to -- not three at a time anymore (I stopped that when I realized I couldn't keep all of the plots straight at once!), but with the old easy rapidity. And here in Ann Arbor I am half a country away from that daunting loaded bookshelf, so I feel remarkably free to choose my reading materials. I am trying to select books from a broad range to reacquaint myself with what's out there, especially what's new. So far I've gotten through both <i>Persepolis</i> books, two thrillers set in Stalinist Russia (hopefully a blog post on those is forthcoming), a book of poetry, and <i>Joy Luck Club</i>, among others. And lined up I have a work of modern literary fiction, a horror novel, a YA book, <i>Tinkers</i> (whenever I get far enough up in the hold queue at my library), and <i>The Passage</i> (ditto the note on <i>Tinkers</i>). Going to my internship is dangerous because right now I don't have much desk work, so I spend a lot of time reading book publications like <i>PW</i> and the <i>New York Times</i> book reviews -- which just gives me more things I want to read...<br />
<br />
It feels so <i>good</i> to be getting back to reading for pleasure like I used to!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
(You will see reviews of some of the books I read on this blog, and you can find notes on many of them as well at <a href="http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman" target="_blank">my noting: books page</a>.)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-25823911889574669052010-05-30T12:22:00.003-04:002011-03-15T13:37:04.546-04:00Read Something! -- _Child 44_ (Tom Rob Smith)<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Child 44</b></i></span><br />
<br />
<b>TOM ROB SMITH</b><br />
2008<br />
439 pp.<br />
<i>Historical Thriller / Suspense</i><br />
Sequel:<i> <a href="http://heatherbrarian.blogspot.com/2011/03/read-something-secret-speech-tom-rob.html">The Secret Speech</a></i><br />
<br />
<u>Summary</u><br />
<u></u><br />
<u></u>Leo Demidov is an investigator for Stalinist Russia's State Security Force. Idealistic and loyal to the state, he has always performed his job well. But a botched case, a scheming underling, and doubts about the system he's always worked within put Leo's family, career, and life in jeopardy.<br />
<br />
Exiled and demoted, Leo discovers a series of murdered children who begin to form a disturbing pattern. In Soviet Russia, crime is officially nonexistent. But Leo knows he is on the trail of a serial killer. He and his wife must work against time and the State to find the murderer before he strikes again. And as they get closer to the killer, they approach a revelation about Leo's past that will change the face of the case entirely.<br />
<br />
<u>Appeal characteristics</u><br />
<ul><li><b>Characterization: </b>Plot-focused book; character development does occur over the course of the story but typically happens for plot purposes</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Characters' motivations and internal states are generally not explored beyond the superficial</li>
<li><b>Characterization:</b> Some minor characters, but they largely matter only for their relation to Leo or the case </li>
<li><b>Frame:</b> An atmospheric book that strongly evokes the feeling of living in a totalitarian society</li>
<li><b>Frame?:</b> Explores questions of morality and ethics -- what is worth doing in the name of the greater good? What if you begin to doubt that the greater good is truly good?</li>
<li><b>Pacing:</b> Fast-paced plot -- something big happens in each chapter</li>
<li><b>Pacing: </b>The magnitude (significance, dangerousness, ...) of events increases swiftly toward the end of the book, along with the pace</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> No substantial subplots</li>
<li><b>Plot:</b> Happy ending</li>
<li><b>Plot?:</b> Possibility of a sequel is left open (though there are not substantial loose ends)</li>
</ul><br />
<u>Other notes</u><br />
<ul><li><u></u>There are some disturbing scenes, including moderately explicit torture and murder.</li>
<li>Plausibility is somewhat sacrificed to the needs of suspense and thrill in later chapters (especially the twist regarding Leo's identity); readers who have trouble suspending their disbelief may take issue with the last quarter to third of the book. (The storytelling is quite compelling, however, and may enable readers to gloss over the improbabilities while they are still reading.)</li>
<li>My Noting: Books entry on <i>Child 44</i>: <a href="http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/5621-Child-44">http://notingbooks.com/users/hbackman/readings/5621-Child-44</a> </li>
</ul><u>Readalikes</u><br />
<ul><li><i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i> (George Orwell): similar strongly evoked atmosphere of repression and totalitarianism, with a few characters who dare to covertly or semi-covertly resist an oppressive government; similar plot arcs in terms of how the main character develops (from agreement/collaboration to uncertainty to disagreement to arrest to release...)?; <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i> does not have a happy ending and is generally much more hopeless in tone</li>
<li>Further reading listed at the end of <i>Child 44</i> in an appendix -- these books are nonfiction, used by the author for research, and provide a further window into the time period and subjects covered in the novel for those who are interested in learning more</li>
<li><a href="http://heatherbrarian.blogspot.com/2010/06/read-something-eye-of-red-tsar-sam.html"><i>Eye of the Red Tsar</i></a> (Sam Eastland): similar subject matter (disgraced investigator in Stalinist Russia investigating cases that have been or are being shrouded in secrecy by the state), similar concern with the main character's past; however, all other elements of style and tone are very different -- <i>Eye</i> does not concern itself with the repressive atmosphere or with the ethics of working for the Soviet state, is much more interested in the characters than in the case they're solving, emphasizes its main character's past much more than <i>Child 44</i> (in <i>Eye</i> it is integrated through the story rather than a twist), is (frankly) better written stylistically (author has a better grasp of language, imagery, style that flows instead of jerks along)</li>
<li>[ETA 7/27/10] John Grisham books? I have not read any Grisham but the Novelist description of his appeal suggests similar interest in ethical conflicts, similarly idealistic characters wrestling with whether they should go against the system, similar fast pace. Grisham notably does not have explicit sex and violence; the more disturbing elements of this book might present a barrier to enjoyment for some Grisham fans.</li>
</ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-37728129252279437282010-04-27T10:16:00.000-04:002010-04-27T10:16:20.476-04:00Well hello there.<span style="font-style: italic;">(note: this post was actually written about a week ago and didn't actually make it to the site until now... oopsie.)</span><br /><br />It's been a while, hasn't it. My goal is to post here at least once per week, but I confess that between doing all the work for my last month of school ever and trying to get a job at the same time, I haven't had a lot of time for much else. Now that I'm done with school, hopefully I will get going on this blog again.<br /><br />Yes. I said it. I am done with school. This is an odd sensation after 20+ continuous years of being a student, and I don't think it's quite sunk in yet. The next step is to find full-time employment. I'm sure you will be hearing about that in future.<br /><br />I suppose I've still got one school-related commitment (other than going to graduation!) -- this Saturday is the last ALA Book Club I'll be running. We're holding it at a local restaurant and it looks like turnout will be pretty good. The book we're reading is interesting. It's called <span style="font-style: italic;">The Design of Everyday Things</span>; it's basically about how designers should consider how people might make errors in using an artifact, and design accordingly to make use easy. It seems like a straightforward principle, but I think everyone can think of times when "good aesthetics" have actually made something less usable. The book itself is actually more psychology than design. It's a fun little throwback to my college days, when I was almost a psychology minor. Since the book was published in the 1980s the science is slightly out of date, but only slightly. (For instance, the author says that neural network and schema theories are still not widely accepted, and I'm fairly sure that by now they are well-acknowledged in the scientific community.)<br /><br />It's interesting trying to come up with discussion questions for a nonfiction book. I haven't Googled yet, but I think it's fairly likely that no one will have discussion questions for this book online. That puts me somewhat on my own. But I think I'll do okay -- hopefully people will just be talkative!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-30255331204550630332010-03-24T23:12:00.003-04:002010-03-24T23:37:10.267-04:00AssumingThis post is going to be fairly short, because I am on the reference desk for six hours on Wednesdays, which leaves me pretty much braindead afterward. But a big ol' lesson whacked me upside the head today, and I thought it was worth recording.<br /><br />At one point tonight, a phone call came in. The patron had a fairly heavy accent and the connection wasn't the best, but I heard enough of his initial request to realize that he had a question about his eligibility for the Earned Income Tax Credit.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Uh oh,</span> I thought, <span style="font-style: italic;">tax question</span>. I explained that I couldn't give him much aid with this, as librarians are not tax professionals and cannot make judgments that might leave them legally liable for an error. Instead, I offered the TeleTax(?) number, and then (as the conversation progressed) another number I found that he could use to talk to someone at the IRS for live tax help. However, he was not satisfied. He kept saying that he had been told to call our number, and that we should be able to help him. I kept trying to explain that librarians cannot interpret tax requirements for our patrons. Finally, because he clearly wanted me to do something more, I told him I could read off precisely what was written about the EITC on the IRS website, which should be the same thing as was somewhere in the instructions he had.<br /><br />I read the paragraph about eligibility over the phone, and he thanked me. He'd gotten precisely the information he needed from that.<br /><br />Afterward I realized I had made the fundamental reference mistake: I had not fully understood what the patron wanted and had not conducted a reference interview to figure it out. Instead the keyword "taxes" had set off all sorts of red blinking lights in my brain and I'd gone on autopilot. I'd assumed that I could not help the patron, and tried to refer him away.<br /><br />It was a rookie mistake. But I suppose that all of us make beginner-level mistakes now and again, regardless of experience level. Sometimes we need a wake-up call. This was mine. I'm trying to think, now, about the other, subtler assumptions I might make in a reference transaction. What else might I be missing by unconsciously assuming instead of asking?<br /><br />I was lucky this time, because not only does this anecdote provide a learning experience, it also belongs in the Annals of Great Patrons. The gentleman on the other end of the phone was clearly frustrated. He'd been referred to the library by 211 and now I was trying to refer him elsewhere again. But even though I could tell he was not happy, he kept his voice level (if insistent), clearly telling me why he was frustrated and what he wanted me to do to help fix it. He never raised his voice or directed any negative remark specifically at me. And after he'd gotten the information that he needed, he was quite congenial and even thanked me sincerely. In retrospect, his patience and good humor were remarkable. It's unfortunately too common for irritated patrons to make one feel like something less than a full person. I have never had a frustrated patron make me feel, in the end, so much as though I have been acknowledged and respected as a <span style="font-style: italic;">complete</span> person -- mistakes and all.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-43464484855994220862010-03-13T20:51:00.005-05:002010-03-14T19:27:43.730-04:00Donor-Centered Fundraising and LibrarianshipMy program requires students to take at least one "cognate course" outside of the School of Information as part of their degree.* To fulfill this requirement, I chose a course in grantgetting and fundraising through the School of Social Work. It was a great choice -- the professor is fantastic; I'm learning things that I know will be very useful in public library work, particularly in later years when I begin to take on administrative roles; and it led to the opportunity for me to write a real grant proposal for the library where I intern (we're still waiting to hear from the funder... it's nervewracking!).<br /><br />Recently we were assigned the book <a href="http://www.librarything.com/work/2028703"><span style="font-style: italic;">Donor-Centered Fundraising</span> by Penelope Burk</a>. This book proposes a new paradigm for fundraising based around conscientious, regular, two-way (informing and listening) contact with donors. Burk argues that rather than trying to recruit new donors again and again to make up for attrition, fundraisers and development officers should work on building relationships with donors by staying in regular contact, thanking them personally, and keeping them informed of the results of their donation, among other things. She argues that it is much better spend time on building these relationships and using the stronger connections to move donors "up the ladder" to higher and higher donation levels than to spend the time constantly recruiting new, low-level donors. The book is aimed at nonprofits in general; public libraries are obviously in a different situation from many nonprofits because we are funded largely with tax and other public dollars. But I have been thinking about how Burk's philosophy could be applied in libraries. I am particularly interested in smaller libraries which almost certainly will not have their own development staff.<br /><br />One might ask: when there is a Friends of the Library, might they not be more appropriate fundraisers than library staff? I'm not sure that in all cases they would. My understanding of how Friends groups and libraries interact, financially and otherwise, is still rudimentary. However, I would think that even if a library has a strong Friends group, there might still be situations in which it would like to solicit donations to itself rather than to the Friends. Furthermore, library staff can support donor-centered fundraising initiatives regardless of whether they are headed by the Friends or by the library.<br /><br />How? To my mind, the key is this: <span style="font-style: italic;">A good library is already in the business of building strong relationships with our patrons</span>. Good libraries listen to what their patrons want and need, and provide responsive, relevant services and resources. Good librarians try to build rapport with the people with whom they interact. I have had the opportunity to work with and at some excellent libraries, and the most striking common factor among almost all of them has been the ways that many of their patrons felt connected to the library on a personal level.<br /><br />Building this kind of relationship, where the (potential) donor connects with the organization in a way that feels personal and meaningful to him/her, seems to me to be the core of Burk's donor-centered philosophy. I do not know whether the libraries I have in mind fulfill the specific tenets of the strategy (e.g. contacting donors quickly and in a way that feels personal, keeping donors updated on the impact that their money and the program/service it has funded is having, cultivating donors no matter the size of their original gift). But whether they do or not, I believe they've already come closer to creating a donor-centered atmosphere than many of the nonprofits Burk describes. (Perhaps this is in part because libraries' potential donors are the same as their service population?)<br /><br />We all know that when community members feel good about their library, they have the potential to be active supporters. But people often need a nudge to move from appreciation to action. How can libraries leverage the strong relationships they build with their patrons to get their supporters to act to the benefit of the library? To use a phrase I've often seen and heard while taking this class, how can libraries ethically and effectively "make the ask" to their patrons? Is it better to target specific patrons who are known to be particularly strong supporters? Should the library make a blanket request on its website or in its newsletter and hope that some people will be inclined to respond? And when supporters respond to "the ask," what mechanisms need to be in place to ensure that they are communicated with at the (potentially time-intensive) level that donor-centered fundraising requires, or at something as close to that level as the library can possibly get?**<br /><br />What is also interesting to me is that many of the principles of donor-centered fundraising seem as though they can be applied to supporters who, for instance, offer their time instead of their money. Could we use similar techniques and ideas to move volunteers "up the ladder" in terms of the time and energy they commit to helping the library?<br /><br />It is in fact somewhat surprising to me that this book needed to be written at all. So much of what it advocates -- communicate in a timely fashion, and in as personalized a way as possible; keep supporters up to date on the organization's activities; etc. -- seems like common sense and common courtesy. That is part of why I think libraries are ahead of the game. As service organizations, we've been following constituent-centered philosophies for a while. It just seems to me that we haven't quite figured out whether or how to effectively connect what we're already doing to our need to secure continuing support in times of economic difficulty.<br /><br /><br /><br />---------------------<br /><br />* This is actually a requirement that comes from Rackham, the University of Michigan's Graduate School, not from SI in particular. SI is soon becoming its own school external to Rackham, like other professional schools at UM, but I really hope that they keep this requirement -- it is a fantastic opportunity for students to broaden their knowledge in an area relevant to their careers but not directly within the domain of SI.<br /><br />** Burk does not ask for perfection, but rather advocates gradual uptake of the principles and practices of donor-centered fundraising for those who do not have the time or resources to pick up the approach wholesale (as I am sure most libraries, particularly small libraries, do not). She suggests that while some increase in resource investment will definitely be necessary at the outset, eventually the increase in funds obtained through donations will offset the greater time requirements. Of course, this somewhat presumes that the organization can hire development staff. If the entire fundraising operation must be conducted by volunteers or by other library staff, the issue of how much time is available in which to perform these activities becomes even more pressing.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-75095485072843395022010-03-09T21:05:00.004-05:002010-03-11T17:48:00.896-05:00Readers' advisory for a "bad" book?<span style="font-style: italic;">(I have been suffering from pretty severe writer's block (blogger's block?) recently -- my apologies for my absence.)</span><br /><br /><br />Opening a new book by an unfamiliar author is always exciting to me. Usually by the time I begin a book I know a little about the story it will tell, but how that story will be told is still a mystery. I love getting to know a new author and learning how he or she speaks to me -- his/her style, vocabulary, and all the little idiosyncratic quirks that make an author's works truly individual and that will make me feel as though I'm coming back to a wonderful, familiar place should I ever read another work by the same person. Unfortunately, sometimes the experience is not as enjoyable as could be hoped.<br /><br />The book selected for an upcoming ALA Student Chapter Book Club is <span style="font-style: italic;">Shanghai Girls</span> by Lisa See. I'm organizing the book club, so I need to come up with some good questions. I'm also trying to think about it from the perspective of a readers' advisor, seeing if I can think of elements of the book that might appeal to some readers. (I try to do this with most books that I read these days; I think I could use the practice.)<br /><br />The problem is that I found this book to be... let's say <span style="font-style: italic;">extremely disappointing</span> (I hesitate to ever call a book "bad," since I consider evaluations of a book's "goodness" to be situational and individual). I don't know whether it's more unfair to say I really didn't enjoy it and not explain why, or to go into a long discussion of all the things I didn't like, so I'll try to hit middle ground with a brief summary of my major comments:<br /><br />1) <span style="font-style: italic;">S</span><span style="font-style: italic;">how, don't tell</span> is violated over, and over, and over again. Sometimes authors do this because it's truly difficult to show what they want us to know. But almost everything we're told in this novel could easily have been shown.<br /><br />2) Character development occurs largely either a) out of our view, in the long gaps (years!) between chapters -- all of a sudden we come back into these people's lives and are told (<span style="font-style: italic;">not shown</span>) that they've changed -- or b) in sudden, revelatory moments where a character dramatically changes in a paragraph, with no buildup or background that helps us understand what about this moment has sparked the change or why.<br /><br />3) Largely as a result of the two points above, I just couldn't bring myself to care about the characters. This was a shame because the story itself could have been interesting -- but the story's impact really rested on the reader's ability to empathize with and care about the characters, particularly the two sisters at the center of the novel.<span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /><br />The problem I now face is: How do I lead this book discussion, and how do I attempt readers' advisory, for this book which I really did not enjoy?<br /><br />The first part of this question is actually not as much of an issue. I got plenty of experience leading (academic) book discussions in the course of obtaining my degrees in English literature. I know how to put aside my feelings for a book long enough to ask a question that isn't blatantly leading in one direction or another. (I'm more concerned about whether I'll be able to restrain my own urges to dissect the book enough to avoid overwhelming the discussion, but I had a similar worry last time and I did fine.)<br /><br />However, the second part of the question is presenting a real dilemma for me. I have tried to be a good readers' advisor and think of things that people might like about this book. But my own negative feelings about it keep getting in the way. I honestly do not see how <span style="font-style: italic;">anyone</span> could like this novel, though I know there must be people out there who do. I have come up with exactly two reasons why people might like it (for the dramatic events of the plot, for the historical setting) and even one of those is strongly tempered (the plot is one dramatic thing after another; it feels like a soap opera -- though I suppose there are people who would not have a problem with that). I'm hoping that at least one person who comes to the book discussion will have enjoyed the novel, and that I can pick their brain a little about why they did.<br /><br />As a readers' advisor I believe, with Ranganathan, in "every book its reader." I believe that I should help readers find and select this book, if they would really like it. I find it strange that I am so happy to help people find books they want to read that might be considered "trash"* by those who like to consider themselves the intellectual and/or literary elite, but that I simply cannot imagine bringing myself to recommend this novel to anyone.<br /><br />How does one, as a readers' advisor, recommend books that one profoundly dislikes to people who might enjoy them? Do you just not recommend those books at all? Do you consult colleagues for their input? Do you candidly admit "This wasn't really my thing, but it sounds like the kind of book that you might love"?<br /><br />Thoughts?<br /><br /><br />--------------------<br /><br />* Please note "<span style="font-style: italic;">might be considered</span> 'trash'". I love a good "trashy" book and don't believe that genre or other nonliterary writing is inferior -- just different (often in a good way!).<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-69372583302892882722010-02-14T23:40:00.004-05:002010-02-15T00:05:46.769-05:00Twitter, ambient awareness, and librariesLots of libraries are getting on Twitter. But I doubt many of them are using Twitter in the way <a href="http://andyburkhardt.com/2010/02/12/ambient-awareness-in-twitter-for-reference/">this librarian</a> suggests.<br /><br />To sum up the blog post linked above: the writer set up a series of Twitter searches for words like "cite", "citation", and "need" AND "book", geographically limited to a relatively small radius around his library. This allows him to monitor the stream for tweets that describe needs that his library could answer without actually containing a reference to the library within the tweet. He can then respond to tweets that express a need that the library could fill.<br /><br />I think that this is a really, really smart idea.<br /><br />I am aware of libraries that monitor Twitter for mentions of themselves. This allows them to keep track of what people are saying about them, and to respond when necessary. But the only people who are going to be tweeting about the library are those who already know about it. An important question to ask for any marketing effort is how we reach not only the people who already are aware of us and use our services, but how we reach our nonusers, the people for whom we are not the logical place to go for information. An intelligent set of searches on Twitter, geographically limited to the library's service area, is a great example of how we can use our presence on Twitter to reach out to nonusers as well as users.<br /><br />This idea then begs the question: What other social networking tools are libraries using that can facilitate ambient awareness? How can those tools be used to discover the needs of nonusers as well as users, and how can they help us fill those needs?Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-38242432184702680402010-02-05T23:25:00.003-05:002010-02-05T23:27:14.974-05:00Thanks / GratitudeShortly after my last post, I came across the following entry in Indexed (a sort-of webcomic consisting of graphs drawn on index cards). I think it relates to my post rather well.<br /><br /><a href="http://thisisindexed.com/2010/02/thanks-a-lot-2/">Thanks a lot.</a>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-76974313058967425632010-01-31T19:59:00.003-05:002010-02-02T00:21:58.297-05:00Just a storyI think it's important to record and share the things that make us smile. So I have a story I'd like to tell.<br /><br />While I was working the reference desk at my internship the other day, an older woman came up who needed some help signing legal documents electronically. I went over and spent some time helping her open her e-mail, find the right messages, and navigate through the first iteration of the signing process. She had very good mouse skills, but it was clear she didn't understand a whole lot about interacting with things over the Internet. I stepped her through the first of a few documents she needed to sign, then had to get back to the desk. When I came back to check in, she was frustrated -- she didn't understand what to do next, or what had to happen next -- but still wonderfully polite and patient with me. I helped her figure things out, and found the document that she then needed to print. Our printers are sometimes a little cranky with .pdf files, and after a few tries the file consistently refused to print. She was clearly somewhat perplexed and frustrated, but her demeanor was composed as I explained I'd save the file to a flash drive and print it for her from my computer at the desk.<br /><br />I finally handed the document to her, and she and my supervisor and I chatted a bit about how she was learning computer skills, and how it was hard but she was going to keep at it (good for her!). As she was leaving, she said something like, "I'm going to have to bring you all cookies or flowers or something to thank you!"<br /><br />I said, "Ma'am, as a reference librarian, what always makes me feel best is just when a patron sincerely says 'thank you'."*<br /><br />"Thank you," she said, looking me in the eye and smiling, and then she turned to go.<br /><br /><br />This interaction made my day for a couple of reasons.<br /><br />- First, the way the patron kept her cool despite clearly being frustrated with some aspects of how things were going. Usually, when patrons get frustrated, their irritation shows in their body language and their tone of voice even if they're still speaking politely, and they can become impatient and less willing to listen to me if I need to explain something a little more complex. The frustration is rarely aimed directly at me (and I certainly can't blame patrons for getting frustrated sometimes!), but even if there is not an intent to express negative emotion toward me, it definitely makes the entire interaction a little more stressful as I try to find ways to satisfy their need. This woman's calm demeanor, and her patience as I tried to find ways to explain things to her that she would understand best, were really wonderful.<br /><br />- Second -- and this is really what is going to make this memorable for me -- the "thank you." People usually thank me when I've helped them, with varying levels of attention and sincerity. I always appreciate being thanked, even if it's the throwaway formality "thanks" as I hand someone a guest pass to use the computers. But I've had a handful of times now when someone has thanked me in a way that has made me really feel that whatever I've done for that person has been really important to them and made a big difference. What I've actually done doesn't seem to matter so much. I've gotten these kinds of thank-yous for something as simple as finding a book on the shelf. What makes them really powerful for me is the feeling that I have done something that has great significance to the patron, and that they recognize that and deeply appreciate it. I got into this profession because I wanted to change the world by changing individual lives. When someone says "thank you" as if I've just opened doors for them, or as if I've made their week, I know that I'm in the right job.<br /><br /><br /><br />-------------------------<br />* Yes, yes, yes, I know that sounds cheesy, but it's absolutely true!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-6441071996670479252010-01-21T20:45:00.004-05:002010-01-21T21:27:05.095-05:00Book clubs!Last Monday, the ALA student chapter at my school (in which I am an officer) held its first book club meeting. The book we selected was <span style="font-style: italic;">In Cold Blood</span> ("Read Something" readers' advisory summary will hopefully be forthcoming at some point; I am slowly working my way through the book for a second time, and it is a little tricky to fit in "fun" reading time around academics, work, internship, and significant other). I thought it was a mostly absorbing and rather disturbing read, and was excited to get the chance to discuss it. I haven't sat down with other people specifically to talk about a book since I was an English major/Master's student, and I've been missing doing that.<br /><br />But I was also a little nervous. I had never run a "casual" book discussion group (though I have experience leading in-class academic book discussions); neither had the officer who was co-leading the group with me. I wasn't sure if some of my questions and ideas were too academic for this setting. I wasn't sure if the other attendees would find the questions I had made up and found online interesting. What if no one talked? What if no one <span style="font-style: italic;">came</span>?<br /><br />As it turned out, I shouldn't have worried so much! We had a small turnout but a very engaging discussion that lasted about 45 minutes. I think everyone had a good time. And when we were winding down they insisted that we make sure we'd gone through all of my questions! (That was pretty flattering.) After a couple of minutes I was able to relax and just let things flow. In the end it was not all that different from leading an academic book discussion -- we talked about the book more broadly, and with less reference to specific passages, than we would have in a seminar, but otherwise it felt pretty much the same. And it was a joy to be doing this kind of thing again after a year and a half break. I hadn't realized just how much I had missed it. I think that we will try to do another book club this semester, and I'm already excited for it!<br /><br />This was also a good experience for me at this point in time because I have applied for a job that includes book group leadership among its duties (and I'm sure I'll find other positions with that responsibility as well). Should I get interviewed (*crossing fingers*), it will be good to be able to say that I have <span style="font-style: italic;">some</span> experience leading casual book discussions, even if it's only one or two events. Helping to lead this book group has also confirmed that I enjoy doing so -- not exactly a surprise, given my background! -- which makes me think that I should improve my skills and knowledge in this area. That way I can be even more qualified for leading book groups, which will increase my changes of getting to do it in the future! So if anyone reading this happens to know of a good resource (book, website, or otherwise) for book group facilitators, please drop me a note in the comments to let me know.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-54795503588425466132010-01-13T23:11:00.004-05:002010-01-13T23:26:30.448-05:00Reflections on some informational interviewsOver vacation I had a great opportunity to talk shop with the reference supervisors at the Cambridge and Newton libraries, and they have been so kind as to give their permission for me to reflect on these conversations here.*<br /><br />I came in with a set of questions largely pertaining to how their libraries are making sense of and coping with changes in society, technology, the ways in which people view libraries, what people expect from libraries, and how librarians are conceptualizing what we do. I also had some questions about community engagement in their libraries, spurred by the great class on information use in communities that I just completed. The interviews didn't always stay "on script," but whether we were discussing my specific questions or not, I got a lot of valuable information that helped to fill in my picture of what is actually going on in the real world of library practice right now.<br /><br />In what follows I'm not trying to be comprehensive; I'm more attempting to hit the high points of the interviews and reflect on what stood out most to me from what we discussed.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Cambridge</span><br /><br />On the whole, Cambridge seems to be in a pretty good position right now. They've just moved into a beautiful new facility (an expansion and renovation of the original main library). I was told that the library garners consistently high rankings by residents, and they definitely seem to be well-positioned for some exciting growth in the coming years.<br /><br />In part since I just completed a course on community information use and community engagement, one thing that really stuck out to me is the high level of community support. I'm definitely interested in trying to figure out what libraries do that makes them central figures in their communities. High-quality service is of course a factor, and from my brief time in the library (the interview was actually performed behind one of the information desks, so I got an especially good look at how the library provides reference service!) it seems to me that Cambridge staff are making a good effort to provide useful and relevant services to their patrons. But high-quality service is just a start. I had some speculations on other factors that might affect community support for this library:<br /><br />One interesting characteristic of this library that may be a factor is its physical accessibility. Part of their website states that "Cambridge is unique among Massachusetts libraries in that most residents of the City are within walking distance of their public library." I learned that people from adjacent towns sometimes use the Cambridge branches because they are closer than the libraries for the towns of which those patrons are residents (there is a regional consortium; cards from any member library are valid everywhere in the consortium). One of the keys to public support is certainly getting people to come in, interact with the library, and use its services; I wonder if the accessibility of branch libraries increases library use in Cambridge, and therefore community support?<br /><br />Something that came up as a definite factor in the support that the Cambridge library enjoys is the fact that many people who work in the city government are regular library users. This makes sense -- if the people who control the funding perceive you as valuable, then you are likely to be funded. The next question, of course, is how one gets the people in control of funding to perceive the library's value. In Cambridge it seems as though the situation may be self-perpetuating at this point. Other libraries may need to cultivate this perception in local leaders.<br /><br />Another interesting thing that we discussed was the library's connection to various other community agencies (e.g. the historical society, legal information organizations, etc.). This didn't explicitly come up as a factor related to the library's community support, but from what I learned in my community information class, I think that the connections that the Cambridge library has built with these other organizations probably play into its community support as well. (The support of institutions and organizations in the community is as important as the support of individuals.) These connections don't seem to be made in a formalized or structured way. My interviewee said that his communication with outside agencies is often informal, and driven by what library patrons need or are asking about. He described it as a matter of knowing where and/or when to refer patrons to places that can help them better than the library -- for instance, he said, he is not a business reference expert, so if someone has a more complex question he may send them to the Boston Public Library's business librarians.<br /><br />But there was definitely a sense that these referrals could be used for the benefit of the library, too. My interviewee noted that when you speak well of others (e.g. "You should try these folks, they are really helpful and great people") and they hear of the praise, they tend to think well of you in return. He also said that he engaged in some informal networking, just getting in touch with people at various organizations occasionally to catch up and to tell them that they should let him know if he could help with anything. I tend to think of networking as a very formal, structured thing. But it's clear how a friendly offer to help if anything is needed, and referrals coming from the library to an outside organization, could build a perception of the library as useful, helpful, and open to connecting with other groups. In fact, building connections in this way might help to make the library seem more sincere in its desire to help and more actually useful than press releases or meetings or whatever else libraries do to try to connect with outside organizations (clearly I am still fuzzy on this, but that's why I asked about how it works to begin with!).<br /><br />A couple of other interesting ideas from this conversation:<br /><br />One thing that came up a few times, and that I hadn't thought about in this way before, is the ways in which libraries can discourage unwanted behavior by small changes in the space and the atmosphere. I think that for many people, the impulse in dealing with bad behavior is to create policies to say that patrons can't do certain things and procedures to sanction them if they violate policy. These kinds of policies and procedures are definitely necessary, but some comments that my interviewee made suggested a supplementary approach -- why not change the affordances of the environment to make it harder to engage in undesirable behavior to begin with? For instance, when one library (I cannot remember if this was the Cambridge library or a different one) had problems with inebriated patrons passing out in the large, comfortable armchairs, his solution was to remove those chairs and replace them with hardbacked ones that were not so easy to fall asleep in. He also saw staff as very important in creating an atmosphere in the library. Even staff who are not physically large can have assertive body language that garners respect for the librarians, the physical facility, and the institution, in that way encouraging patrons to behave well.<br /><br />This was a way of thinking about shaping patron behavior that I hadn't deeply considered before. I generally prefer the carrot to the stick, but it's often hard to think of ways to encourage people to behave well vs. discouraging them from behaving poorly. Now I've started to think about how creating an appropriate physical space and an atmosphere marked by welcoming yet assertive librarians could stem many problems before they start.<br /><br />Our conversation covered much, much more than this, but in the interests of keeping this post to a semi-reasonable length and of not spending all evening writing, I will stop there.<br /><br />Except... the building. I <span style="font-style: italic;">have</span> to talk about the building. It is very, very new, and it is beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't have time to see it all, since I had to run off to my next interview -- but I got a mini-tour of the first floor, and that was enough to get a sense of what the library as a whole is like. The new expansion is huge and airy -- lots of glass, high ceilings, overall a very open feeling. The furniture is pale in color, which adds to the sense of lightness and openness. In contrast, the renovated older section is all wood-paneled and dark. I really feel that it has recaptured the rich, sedate beauty that it probably had when it was first built. I wanted to go sit in the reading room and just soak in the atmosphere. And though the two sections are nearly polar opposites, somehow the transition between the two doesn't feel strange. It is just moving from one beauty to another. I only hope I get to work in a library so gorgeous one day. I want very badly to get back sometime to have a more thorough look around. And if anyone reading this is ever in Cambridge, I encourage you to go visit the library!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Newton</span><br /><br />One thing that we talked about a fair amount during my Newton interview was the importance of technology skills. My interviewee encouraged me to try to get on the cutting edge of technology. In addition to understanding technology, it's important to be able to discuss it on many different levels: she noted that librarians deal with patrons who have a wide range of technology skills, from people who can't use a mouse on up to people who probably know much more than the librarian. (This is something that I have definitely observed in my time on the reference desk; I'm still practicing how to quickly get an idea of the patron's skill level and how to tailor my own instruction to their skills.)<br /><br />Technology skills involve much more than Microsoft Office and Internet browsing or even Web 2.0 skills: my interviewee said that libraries are moving towards information provision via methods that are online but not the Internet, such as databases and ebooks. It's going to be important for librarians to have proficiency with these technologies, which I think should include knowledge of how to evaluate them (since they are often purchased resources) as well as knowledge of how to use them effectively.<br /><br />One thing I really wanted to ask about in this interview was a community information database, sponsored by the regional consortium, that I'd found linked from Newton's website. It looks great -- it's a searchable resource of various organizations and groups in the consortium's member communities. However, I learned that the database isn't used much, at least not at Newton. (I would say that this is probably true more broadly as well: I haven't found another link to the database on other consortium library websites I've visited, and I spent an entire summer at the Brookline library -- which is also part of the consortium -- without learning about this resource.) One of the major issues that my interviewee mentioned is that it is very time consuming to make entries -- up to an hour per organization. Also, she said that while this kind of resource was very useful before the Internet became widespread, now Google is a fairly good substitute. I was a little sad to hear that something I'd gotten so excited about actually wasn't terribly useful, but in light of my interviewee's comments, it made sense. With limited staff time, and the value of having that information collocated in that way diminishing due to the existence of powerful Internet search engines, I can see how it is worth spending perhaps a small amount more time and effort finding information via search engine in order to save the large amount of time and effort that it would take to enter the information into the database in a usable way. This got me thinking about how we have to connect our big ideas to the reality of our situation as early in the planning stages as possible. I thought the database sounded like a wonderful idea, but in light of resource constraints (in this case, largely staff time), the value it provides is not sufficiently great to justify what it would take to maintain it. Furthermore, this kind of balance can change over time. In the past, the database was more valuable because it collocated information that could be difficult to find. Before most organizations had webpages and before good search engines existed, the database was probably sufficiently useful to justify the resources spent on its upkeep. Now, however, the kind of information it contains is fairly easily available for someone with a little bit of knowledge, so it may not be worth the time and effort to keep it up to date. To me this suggests the importance of continued evaluation of the services we already provide, to see if they are still worth the effort invested.<br /><br />(I have further thoughts related to this, but they are no longer specific to the conversation on which I am currently reflecting, so I will save them for another post.)<br /><br />But I've gone on a bit of a tangent. Returning to what we actually spoke about in the interview, one other thing that came up almost as an aside was the importance of trying to just get people into the library and break down barriers as much as possible. This idea arose in connection to some brief discussion we had about a teen fine forgiveness program at another library. Fine forgiveness can be a pretty radical step -- but if it gets someone to return to the library who otherwise might never have come back (and if it isn't given over and over to the same person or people!) then I think that it ultimately will create net benefit for the library. A patron who is given a second chance has the potential to become a library supporter instead of someone who feels indifferent or antagonistic. And a strong group of supporters is very important to ensuring that libraries have the funding they need. A library may gain more from a formerly delinquent patron who becomes a supporter than it would have by forcing that person to pay old fines. (Of course, this can be a politically touchy issue -- fines are revenue. We noted that it can take some courage and willingness to stand up for what one thinks is right to try to get superiors to agree to such a program.)<br /><br />After concluding the interview, I had the chance to explore the building. The Newton library is very classy -- sharp lines, black furniture, white walls, red/rust carpet. The building was built in the 1990s, and it seemed well kept up, and very comfortable. It has a central atrium which extends up three floors, and given the propensity of such architectural features to cause echoes, I was surprised at how quiet the library was. There are plenty of windows affording pleasant views of the surroundings, and comfortable armchairs are placed in groups of two to four throughout the building. I felt it would be a lovely place to come and curl up in a comfortable chair to read or knit for a while. There were also tables and hardback chairs, of course, as well as study carrels -- something I haven't seen in great quantity in many public libraries. The building has an art gallery, which is a nice touch. In terms of physical layout, I was a bit surprised to find A/V on the third (top) floor. I would expect this to be a popular, well-circulating collection, and thus to be placed closer to the library entrance. However, when considering the physical space I'm not sure how easily it be put elsewhere in the building. The library doesn't have a teen room, but there is a YA area which is clearly marked with a colorful sign. I was pleased to see that an effort was being made to create a space especially for this population.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size:130%;" >Overall Observations</span><br /><br />Finally, here are some things that I noticed in both interviews.<br /><br />I'll start with something that seems true in every public library I've become familiar with, not just these two: There is never quite enough staff. Everyone is busy, and as a result there isn't always time to get to extra things that might be fun or interesting but are not crucial. This issue particularly came up in relation to libraries' ability to do new things with technology; new technology has to be investigated, and if it is adopted then it becomes someone's responsibility to set it up and maintain it. Sometimes there isn't time to add this responsibility on top of all the others that librarians are juggling. I feel as though this issue is exacerbated due to the economy and the resulting budget issues nationwide, but it may always be a problem to some extent. There's always something more that <span style="font-style: italic;">could</span> be done. It seems to me that there will always be a balancing act between old and new responsibilities when a library considers adding any new kind of service or programming.<br /><br />Another commonality I discovered between the libraries was that at both, keeping track of user needs depends a good deal on informal practices, particularly the day-to-day interaction between users and staff. This is not to imply that other procedures don't exist. In some follow-up e-mails, my Newton interviewee described some of the more formal ways that the Newton library evaluates its programs and services, including questionnaires distributed to the public, a Teen Advisory Board, and paying attention to what's being said in literature in the library field. My program puts a fair amount of emphasis on more formal evaluation and research (we are required to take one class in research methods, and the importance of evaluation has come up many times); informal evaluative methods are not discussed as frequently. I think I'd like to know more about how different libraries integrate informal ways of evaluating into what must of necessity be a more formal decision-making structure in the administration. Ultimately, it seems that there would usually have to be a formalized way to collect and use these informal evaluations. I think that it would be useful to know how libraries do this -- whether there are a few typical methods or whether the ways in which this is done are more idiosyncratic.<br /><br /><br /><br />Overall, these were great conversations with two interesting and engaged librarians, and I was grateful that both took the time to meet with me. I've got a lot to chew on as a result of these informational interviews, and I hope that I can take some of what I learned back to the classroom next semester to fuel discussions with my classmates!<br /><br /><br /><br />-----------<br /><br />* Just as a note, they have both read and approved the relevant portions of this post before I made it public. I have not used their names to protect some amount of their privacy.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-3703076608087540962010-01-05T21:08:00.003-05:002010-01-06T00:28:08.617-05:00I return!Hello there. I hope you had wonderful holidays! I was home with my family for Christmas, then came back to Ann Arbor for New Year's with my boyfriend. It was a nice vacation!<br /><br />Now I'm preparing for my last (wow!) semester to start tomorrow morning. I'm excited and stressed all at once. The need to find a job is definitely looming. I've started applications for a few positions that look good. It's a little nervewracking -- since this is my first "real" set of job applications, I'm realizing that there's a bunch of etiquette and strategy I don't know (thank goodness for great career counselors like the ones at my school!) -- but I feel that I'm a really strong candidate, and I hope that I'm able to get that message to come through effectively in my application materials. I'm also trying to network as much as I can, when I can squeeze the time for that into my day. I had a couple of great informational interviews back home over vacation (more on that is hopefully forthcoming), so I'm at least starting to get my name and face out there.<br /><br />Other than job applications, I'm mostly just thinking about my classes. I'm planning on taking courses on:<br /><br /><ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Grantwriting and fundraising.</span> This is my cognate (we're required to take at least one graduate-level course outside of the School of Information). It's a popular cognate for SI folks offered through the School of Social Work. It sounds like it will be a lot of work but also really informative and useful. We'll have to actually write a real grant and make a real fundraising plan; I've already got a couple of ideas in mind...</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Library/nonprofit management.</span> Another requirement I need to fill. I think that it will be useful. The first iteration of this course was last year; I shopped it and decided to take something else at the time. I think that this is a better time in my program for me to take it; I have a broader understanding now of how libraries work as organizations, and I think that that understanding will help me fit management concepts into context.</li></ul>I'm also deciding between a course on graphic design and a course on information-seeking behavior. I will probably take the latter; the syllabus for the graphic design course makes me think that it's really going to be more about learning Adobe software than about the fundamental design concepts that I want to learn. But I'll shop it, at least. It's always worth giving something a chance.<br /><br />And with that... it's 12:30 and I should get some sleep! Class and my internship await early tomorrow morning... (yay for getting back to the reference desk!)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-86678579851739102082009-12-09T22:59:00.003-05:002009-12-09T23:17:35.248-05:00My life right now<ul><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">End of the semester<span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span></span>I just have a little more to go... some assignments are not so fun, some are more interesting. Nothing unusual. My big paper (the needs of prisoners, in the context of what prison libraries can provide) is done, turned in, and presented upon. My big group presentation (the representation of thanatology as a subject in LCC/DDC/LCSH/various databases) is mostly ready, though we keep going over time so I need to practice my section to try to cut it down. A few little piddly things (minor paper evaluating a class, Design of Complex Websites assignment and final) remain... then I'm home free. Which means...</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Preparing for vacation.</span> The apartment is a mess. Our kitchen is truly disturbing. We still have things from Thanksgiving in the fridge and they're probably about ready to develop sentience by now. We need to clean the apartment, pay rent, pay bills, pack up, and oh yes, have some time to actually see each other before we go to our respective homes for the holidays, because I've been sequestered in the bedroom with my computer for the last two weeks (see previous bullet point).</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Work. </span>Both my library internship (my last day for the semester was yesterday) and my paid work. These have generally been going pretty well. I feel like I'm finally starting to settle in to my internship. My supervisor there has a management style I've not really encountered before and it gave me a little pause at first but I think I'm getting used to it. I'm getting experience in some new things, like planning a program (we're having a mother/daughter tea party in the spring!) and using some new databases. Next semester I'm going to start another project... I need to think about what I want to do! It might be good to get some collection development experience... I've also been thinking about developing a community resource database (thanks to "Information Use in Communities", a course I took this semester). Paid work is pretty much same old, same old -- I spend most of my time doing research on various topics for a digital preservation group at a data repository, and writing up summaries of what I find. It's usually fairly interesting. Right now I'm learning about cloud computing!<br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Job searching.</span> I am beginning this in earnest when vacation starts. Right now I'm setting up some informational interviews. This would be the big anxiety-causer in my life right now... I've been tracking job postings and feeds for a few months now and it doesn't look like there are any entry-level positions in public libraries... everything requires at least two years' experience! I'm hoping that when I begin looking more deeply, this will end up not being an issue. I also need to come up with an overall strategy and write it down, just to settle myself down a bit. I think it will help for me to feel like I've got a solid plan.</li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Snow!</span> SNOW! SNOW SNOW SNOW! I grew up in the Northeast, then spent five years in California for college and one year of grad school. This is my second winter back in a place where seasons actually exist, and the first snowfall of the year (and the second... and the third...) is always so exciting!<br /></li></ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-62302091602104941832009-12-02T17:18:00.002-05:002009-12-02T17:43:38.132-05:00The freedom to read, the freedom to talk, the freedom to thinkYes, I'm still alive. It is finals time, and quite frankly my brain isn't really functioning 100% even with caffeine. I've not posted here for a while because I haven't had the energy to put in the thought required for a quality post.<br /><br />To be honest, I still don't think I actually have the energy, in general. But I was so impressed and energized by what I've just come across that I found some extra reserves somewhere.<br /><br />I just read the ALA's <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/statementspols/ftrstatement/freedomreadstatement.cfm">Freedom to Read Statement</a> for the first time.<br /><br />Wow.<br /><br />I don't think that many librarians (I wish I could say "<span style="font-style: italic;">any </span>librarians", but there are always a few who don't get it) would argue in favor of censorship. I have always felt that restricting the information that other people can access is deeply wrong, even if the information in question is morally repugnant. But it's been difficult for me to articulate why this is wrong, other than that it just <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span>. The Freedom to Read Statement says, quite eloquently, what I've never quite been able to articulate well enough.<br /><br />In one of my classes, we did some reading a few weeks ago about the deliberative democracy movement. This movement contends that citizens need to be able to debate issues with each other, considering them as objectively as possible from all sides, in order to come to an understanding of all of the different positions on an issue and, depending on who you talk to, to either make the best possible collective decision about the issue or to have more informed and rational personal opinions (which may still not be in agreement). I think that the thrust of the philosophy behind the Freedom to Read Statement and the deliberative democracy movement are largely the same. If I could sum it up in a sentence, and add a little of my own spin to it, it might go something like this:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Communities (/democracies) derive strength from the consideration of many diverse viewpoints, not from enforcing the availability of a few "acceptable" opinions.</span></span><br /><br />That, to me, is a very powerful idea. It is a shame that so many people do not seem to understand the roots of community strength in this way.<br /><br />Certainly there is some value to groups of people who do all hold the same opinion. I read an article for another class recently that discussed "bonding" and "bridging" social capital. The former is social capital that arises from ingroup interrelationships, and it serves to bring group members closer together. Shared opinions can foster bonding social capital. Bridging social capital are connections between ingroup members and other groups that create social capital. <span style="font-style: italic;">Both </span>of these kinds of social captial are important. It is important to have an ingroup with which you are bonded, but people, and the ingroups to which they belong, are strengthened by their relationships to other outside groups as well. I think that for these relationships to form, it is important to be able to have open, honest communication about differences of opinion. If a group censors everything it doesn't agree with, it will be hard for that group to connect with others, and the group members will suffer as a result.<br /><br /><br />(I feel as though this isn't quite a complete post. If there are missing bits, please refer to the above mention of finals having killed my ability to think, and forgive me. (And ask about it in the comments! This whole set of ideas is really interesting to me and I would love to discuss/think about it more.))Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-7195414015643004222009-11-02T09:55:00.007-05:002009-11-04T00:01:00.359-05:00Revisiting the centrality of the collection questionI was all set to write a post about why I hadn't been posting. I will admit to not feeling particularly reflective lately. Life (and final paper/project assignments!) seems to have come crashing down all at once, and my brain has mostly gone into "cope with the thing in front of you right now, and then move on" mode.<br /><br />But I've found that often I'll get whacked over the head with a reflective moment even when I'm not especially inclined to have one -- last Friday being a case in point. I was part of a group giving a presentation in my Community Informatics seminar. The project was an educational technology policy proposal (before you ask, no, this doesn't strongly relate to the class...), and we made it relevant to our own interests by including a recommendation to adequately support school library media centers. Indeed, we argued that SLMCs should be the centerpiece of the four recommendations we proposed to improve information literacy education in the United States.<br /><br />During the question and answer period, the outside person who'd been brought in to comment on our presentations asked us (and this is obviously a paraphrase): You say the school library media center is vital. But the SLMC is just a place. It's the librarian who has the training, who takes actions to support teachers, students, and administrators. Should it be the library or the librarian that is central to your policy?<br /><br />...well, hmm, good point.<br /><br />I wrote a little while ago that I think better services, and better marketing of ourselves as service providers, are vital to ensuring the library's continued relevance. This person's question has made me reconsider the way the whole question is framed. Are libraries important as places? Yes, I think so -- but only because of the people who gather there. And I include both patrons and staff in that. Staff are trained to assist patrons with problem-solving by finding and organizing information; and they help to enrich people's lives through provisions of services and programming. In addition, some patrons interact with each other and the staff in mutually beneficial ways, helping all parties to learn and grow.<br /><br />I feel like there's more of a thought there but it needs some time to percolate through my brain before it emerges. (I am a processor -- I ingest information, and then it sits in my head for a while and stews, and a few hours/days/weeks/months later it comes back out as something (hopefully) new and interesting.)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-2173240861655084162009-10-23T14:17:00.003-04:002009-10-25T18:13:56.375-04:00What we own / what we makeLast Friday we had a group of people from a local library in to speak to our class. One of them* made a very interesting comment that I've been mulling over ever since, especially after Tim Spalding, the founder of LibraryThing, posted <a href="http://twitter.com/librarythingtim/status/5096097307">this thought</a> on Twitter. This librarian said (and this is obviously rather paraphrased) that he doesn't see the future of libraries in what we collect, but in what we produce.<br /><br />He was advocating a move toward libraries as producers of information and tools, and I'm not quite sure I can follow him that far, but both he and Spalding have a point. Libraries have been essentially known <span style="font-style: italic;">as</span> their collections for centuries. People think that you go to a library for books or materials -- to get your hands on the information that the library has accumulated in one place. But in a world where information and entertainment is becoming electronic, this model of library-as-collection no longer seems viable. As Spalding says, when e-books become ubiquitous, why not just replace libraries with a citizen-wide e-book subsidy?<br /><br />I feel strongly -- as do, I'm sure, many of my colleagues -- that libraries do have a place in this emerging new world. But discovering and articulating that new role is extremely difficult.<br /><br />I came into this profession with a strong interest in public service, so it probably makes sense that I see the solution lying in that direction. To me, the value of the library is the added value we provide on top of our collections. We don't just provide information; more importantly, we help people effectively find the information they need. We provide guidance when people don't know what step to take next to solve their problems. We provide spaces for people to interact with each other, to learn things and participate in activities that hopefully enrich their lives. We provide quiet places where people can settle in and get some work done or just read a book. We offer access to technological and other resources that people can't necessarily afford at home. We offer reader's advisory to help people discover new things to read (or watch, or listen to, ...) (this seems to be dying in a lot of places -- I think that the trend should be going in the opposite direction); we keep records of our communities' history; we are sometimes safe spaces for children whose home lives are not pleasant or for people who just have nowhere else to go. I believe that a well-run public library enriches its community and changes lives.<br /><br />The problem is that we don't articulate that very well. I think a segment of the profession doesn't even really think of things this way. (How can we market ourselves in this way to our constituencies when we don't believe it ourselves?) Libraries have to move away from the focus on the collection and toward an understanding of what they have to offer their communities as a <span style="font-style: italic;">service</span> or group of services -- and then make that understanding known and felt to the community.<br /><br />As I said, I have a hard time going as far as viewing libraries as content <span style="font-style: italic;">producers</span>. That's getting us into the publishing business, as far as I can tell, and I don't know that I feel that's an appropriate place for us to really go. Perhaps as content <span style="font-style: italic;">collocators</span>, yes. That's an extension of what we already do (not just in the sense of creating collections -- we write bibliographies, etc.). Take us farther away from that, though, and I wonder if we're moving too far into another realm.<br /><br /><br />* (I'm not identifying this person or the library more precisely because I'm not sure about the etiquette of quoting/mentioning someone's comment made during an informal class discussion in a public forum without their explicit permission.)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-77784595646440689112009-10-11T23:01:00.002-04:002009-10-11T23:05:12.268-04:00What we do.I think <a href="http://thisisindexed.com/2009/10/needles-and-haystacks-and-such/">this image</a> encapsulates it.<br /><br />The purpose of librarians is to hit the local minimum of that function, where there is enough information to help someone understand something without there being so much information as to be overwhelming.<br /><br /><br /><br />(Of course there are exceptions. In academic research, for instance -- though this may be a bias of my background in academic English -- I think there's value to being at the right-hand side of the graph, with lots of information and lots of confusion. The point there, after all, is to move through the confusion to a new synthesis of knowledge that explains and incorporates the information you have.)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-44996181000221507032009-09-29T23:30:00.002-04:002009-09-29T23:52:28.999-04:00The tradeoff of leadingI had a conversation today with a colleague on the reference desk (I am currently doing an internship at a local library. It started last week and they are being just <span style="font-style: italic;">fabulous</span>). She spent some time in administration, even at the assistant director level -- and now she is back to being a regular reference librarian.<br /><br />I don't recall her precise words, but one comment she made spoke to a conflict I'm still struggling with. She said something to the effect that managers in libraries do very different things, and have very different kinds of contact with patrons, than non-managerial staff.<br /><br />Eventually, I intend to become a manager, maybe even a director. I want to have the chance to shape policy, to guide the growth and development of a department or even a whole library. I enjoy leading people, and I feel as though if I were in a supervisory position I could foster meaningful growth, both personal and professional, in the people I supervised. I've rarely been one to sit in the backseat. I enjoy guiding, directing, organizing, managing. I don't see myself being a "front-lines" staff member forever.<br /><br />And yet what draws me to this work is precisely what we do on the "front lines", in direct interaction with the patrons. It's why I could never work in archives -- too much back-room stuff, too little interpersonal contact. It is such a good feeling to see and talk with the people I'm helping, face to face. And I love the problem-solving aspects of reference work, the variety, the fact that I can learn something new and interesting with every reference transaction. I love having my hands physically on the books. I love watching the wide swath of humanity that walks through a public library.<br /><br />Therein lies the crux. Because it seems to me that it's a rare library director who gets to spend any significant time interacting with patrons other than those who've been referred to the top because they have some sort of problem that the lower echelons can't deal with. But I don't <span style="font-style: italic;">ever </span>want to stop doing reference. <span style="font-style: italic;">Ever.</span> I suppose there are probably library directors out there who carve out some time to do that kind of work. Certainly the director of the library I was at over the summer spends some time every day doing some of the same things as the rest of the staff (although he's never scheduled for desk shifts or anything like that). Maybe a very small system is the answer. Or perhaps a branch library where I could take on a managerial role. Those kinds of situations bring their own stresses, of course. When the director/branch manager is on the desk regularly, it is probably because there's not enough staff for the director/branch manager to do otherwise. And understaffing of course has all sorts of bad consequences.<br /><br />I suppose I'm jumping the gun a little bit... I have no idea what the timeline is supposed to be to move from entry-level librarian to library director, but I'm sure it's relatively long. (Though I am aware of someone who apparently got a director's job right out of library school! There's an exception to every rule...) And given how much things seem to vary from library to library, this may just be something I have to work out in whatever library I end up in. But being a future-oriented, planning kind of person, it's hard for me to sit back and let it go. So I keep poking at it, wondering where the balance might lie for me.<br /><br />On the other hand, thinking about it now means I get to pick other people's brains on the topic -- my coworker today being a case in point. Thinking ahead (waaaaaaay ahead) isn't all bad...Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-86550735735780407782009-09-18T16:22:00.008-04:002009-09-24T21:35:04.373-04:00Does "informatics" automatically equal "technology"?One of the courses I'm taking this semester is the Community Informatics seminar. I'm hoping it will provide me with a theoretical grounding to help me be more effective as a facilitator for community building and enrichment when I get a job in a public library. CI is a specialization here, and I've been on-and-off involved in it since I arrived last year. It's a bit of a frustrating relationship. It draws me, but never seems to actually offer chances to get deeply engaged with what I'm really interested in.<br /><br />But perhaps I should provide some background. Let's start with the most fundamental question.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What is Community Informatics?</span><br /><br />This is a bit tricky to answer since the field itself is very fluid and still emergent. The blurb about the Community Information Corps from the SI website reads as follows:<br /><br /><blockquote>Information specialists are needed to deal with the complex issues of community building in the emerging "new economy." Globalization, digital information, and evolving definitions of community are changing the ways in which service-minded individuals engage in work and social transformation. In an effort to answer the difficult questions raised by these changes, students, faculty, and partners at the School of Information have created the Community Information Corps -- an interdisciplinary group of information professionals who learn, share, and apply new techniques in the service of public goals. </blockquote>To my mind, CI is the facilitation of information flow to serve the public good and to meet the needs of a community, in the context of how our world is changing in the age of the Internet. That could mean anything from designing more effective library services to providing smartphones to people in Africa to intelligently tracking disease patterns in poor communities, depending on how far you want to extend the definition.<br /><br />Unfortunately, what CI <span style="font-style: italic;">actually</span> seems to mean at this school is "using our programming skills to create apps and tools that will help facilitate information flow." That's certainly a part of CI, as far as I'm concerned. But it is not the only part, not by far. I am not a programmer, and I'm not really interested in creating software tools or web apps. Nor am I terribly interested in working on high-level policy, which seems to be what most of the rest of CIC activities here involve. I understand that these things are necessary, and for the people who want to do them, I say go right ahead. But what I'm interested in, on the most basic level, is just how to discover and fill people's information needs -- whatever form that takes. If a web app is the most efficient way to do it, sure, I'm fine with that. But people seem to not remember or recognize that jumping to technology as the first, "obvious" solution is not always the right way to go. Why program software if running a meeting to get people to just talk to one another, or creating a library program, or running an educational campaign, or doing something else non-technological would be more efficient? The non-library folk at SI are so tech-focused that I feel like other things often just get lost in the shuffle. I wish, when CI projects were posted to the list, they were phrased more like "we need to look at x problem and propose some solutions," rather than the inevitable "we need to program this thing to solve x problem." I would love to work on a project, but as someone with no complex coding skills and a desire to really interact with people, I feel like I don't really have a place in most of the projects the CIC asks for help with.<br /><br />I know that I should make my own opportunities rather than waiting for them to come to me. But I unfortunately just don't have time to get involved with CIC at the depth I think would be necessary to actually effect a change here. I have a lot of other things on my plate that need to take precedence. CI is, for me, an enrichment activity, not a major focus.<br /><br />That doesn't mean I can't do <span style="font-style: italic;">little </span>things, of course. The seminar seems as though it will be influenced fairly strongly by student interests, and I'm hoping that through my contributions I can steer it a little more toward the social-consciousness side of things and away from the technological side. I know I'm not the only student who is a little distanced by the heavy emphasis on technology, technology, technology, and I hope that together we can find a balance between the theory and social consciousness that I really feel is at the true core of CI and the other interests that revolve around that core, whether they be policy or technology or interpersonal interaction or...<br /><br />We will see.<br /><br />--------------------<br /><br />The other night, my boyfriend and I watched <span style="font-style: italic;">Be Kind Rewind</span>. It's a comedy movie where Jack Black accidentally becomes magnetized and erases all the VHS tapes in his friend's* video rental store. The pair try to fix it by taping their own versions of each movie. Eventually the copyright people come down and put a stop to it. Meantime, the building that the store is in has been condemned. The bootleg videos have been the source of income that the store's owner was going to use to fix up the building and keep his store; when they are destroyed, the situation seems hopeless. But the community is now behind him. He used to tell fairy-tale type stories of how Fats Waller was born in his building and grew up in the neighborhood; they were false, but now the community decides to come together to make a "documentary" about Fats Waller's life and times as though he <span style="font-style: italic;">had</span> lived in that neighborhood. They hope that they can show it as a fundraiser that will raise enough money to save the building. The last scene is of many people watching this movie together, laughing, enjoying themselves, and feeling proud of their contribution to this group project.<br /><br />The movie ended and I thought, "That is the essence of Community Informatics." I didn't mean it in the sense that I thought that particular project would have been an exemplary CI project. What resonated with me was the spirit of the whole endeavor. Community members saw that one of their own was in trouble and they came together to help him, in the process growing closer to each other, investing in their community, and gaining community pride. To me, that kind of dynamic and process is the key thing about Community Informatics. It's about <span style="font-style: italic;">what happens</span>, not about <span style="font-style: italic;">how it is made to happen</span>. The people, their growth and interaction, will always be more central to my conception of CI than the technology or any other means used to facilitate that growth.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">* It's actually slightly more complicated than that, but it isn't important for our purposes, so I simplify.</span>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-6174140877751219952009-09-11T15:56:00.002-04:002009-09-11T16:52:14.062-04:00My last EVER year of school is beginning!I don't know whether to say "finally!" or flip out about having to actually get a real, full-time job. (It's not that I'm not looking forward to a long, fruitful career as a public librarian. I'm really excited about being able to go out and do this stuff in a real-world situation. It's more the <span style="font-style: italic;">finding</span> of a job that is stressful. But that's a topic for another time, anyway.)<br /><br />Anyway. The job stuff is just beginning to loom on the horizon. Right now what's taking up much more of my time is getting started with school and figuring my classes out. So far there are two classes I'm definitely taking, one I'm almost certainly taking, and two I have to make a decision about. They are as follows:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cataloging:</span> Definitely taking. I don't plan on being in technical services, but a) it's good to have the skills if I need them, and b) understanding this stuff will make me a better reference librarian and eventually a better manager, should I end up in a management position where I supervise tech services staff. It's going to be a ton of work and a bit of a slog, but I regard it as a thoroughly necessary class. And the professor entertains me (as well as being a good teacher in general).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Information Use in Communities: </span>DEFINITELY taking. This ties directly in to my interests, as it's taught by a professor with a research interest in how public libraries can most effectively and directly serve the communities in which they're embedded. It also was cancelled due to budget cuts, and only reinstated because of student protest, so beyond the fact that I'm really interested in it and think it will be good for developing my thinking in certain domains, I feel a bit obligated to swell the head count this semester (having been one of the protesting students). I absolutely adore the professor; she's this warm fuzzy grandmotherly lady who is just really knowledgable and nurturing and with whom I feel very comfortable, which isn't always the case with me and professors. This is one of two classes that I am most looking forward to.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Community Information Corps seminar:</span> Almost certainly taking. It would be another good one for getting to think about libraries in a community setting. My only real concern is that a lot of it will not be library-centric; Community Informatics tends to draw people from a range of specializations. But that might not be a bad thing. I could use to do a little more thinking about policy and current problems outside of information science.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Design of Complex Websites:</span> Thinking about it. The teacher is awesome, and I could use to improve my programming. It would also probably look fairly good on my resume. However, I question how much I'd really be able to use many of the specific skills from the course in my career.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Theories of Social Influence: </span>Considering it, and yeah, I will probably end up taking it. I could use it in my career! I could use my knowledge of social influence to get people to come to the library, and support it politically, and attend programs! And I'll be a better manager if I understand how to influence people! ...yeah, so I <span style="font-style: italic;">can</span> make arguments like that, but really? The professor seems really nice, and the subject matter is INCREDIBLY COOL. I deserve a "just for fun" class, don't I?<br /><br /><br />On top of all this, of course, I'm working 10-12 hours a week, performing duties as an officer in the school's ALA student chapter, attending the SI fiber arts group, being with my boyfriend, seeing friends, keeping the apartment clean, starting a job search, and hopefully also getting a public library internship. I foresee a busy semester...Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-62636807330486731372009-09-09T23:41:00.002-04:002009-09-09T23:44:13.802-04:00Where have I been, you ask?(which is a bit of a silly question, since anyone who actually reads this blog probably knows me and therefore already knows the answer...)<br /><br />I have been packing up my stuff and flying to California, from whence I have been road-tripping back to good old Ann Arbor, at which point I moved into a new apartment with my wonderful boyfriend. And then school started. Needless to say, I have been busy. And without strict requirements to write blog posts for my internship, this blog may languish. I'm hoping not. I certainly intend to keep writing, especially since classes this semester look interesting. But we shall see what happens...Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-47499778886668898982009-08-08T23:03:00.002-04:002009-08-08T23:37:36.218-04:00ALA Annual recap: Correctional facility librariansHere's the first of my (by now slightly belated) summaries of the various sessions I attended at ALA Annual.<br /><br />The first thing I attended was a presentation on being a librarian in a correctional facility (which seems to be the politically correct term for "prison" these days). I will admit to some curiosity about prison librarianship. There was an option to do an internship in a prison library during SI's Alternative Spring Break program last year, and I nearly chose to do it. I'm intrigued in part because I don't know much about that kind of career, and in part because it seems like an even more focused way to perform service and advance social justice through libraries than working in a public library does. But it is also something I'm pretty tentative about. My impression is that prison librarians work in isolation compared to most of their public-library colleagues. Working in a prison would also, obviously, be inherently stressful.<br /><br />I unfortunately came in a bit late to this presentation, so I missed a lot of the stuff about the typical working conditions in a prison library. The part that I was present for confirmed both my tentative interest and my reservations. The presenter argued that prison libraries share a lot, philosophically, with public libraries. She also noted that prison library patrons tend to be much more appreciative and polite than public library patrons (a point which I could believe, upon a little consideration). Prison libraries often are havens or "neutral zones" where conflicts that may exist elsewhere in the prison are temporarily shelved (no pun intended). And of course, they are vital for helping to educate and improve the literacy of prisoners, through programming and through their simple existence, thereby contributing to the rehabilitation of offenders such that they are more likely to be productive members of society when released.<br /><br />But of course, the job has its stresses. Beyond the evident stresses of working in a prison (enclosed space, potential of going into lockdown if something happens, etc.), funding can be extremely scant or totally nonexistent (even for materials!), it can be difficult to build a rapport with other prison staff, the librarian is often isolated from colleagues in the profession, and the librarian must always be "on" -- there is usually no one else to manage the library or take over supervision for a bit if one is having an off day, and it is vital to be able to keep control of every interaction.<br /><br />I'm debating whether the potential interest of the job for me is outweighed by the potential stresses. In particular, always having to watch what I say and maintain control of interactions could be quite stressful for me. I am also concerned that I'd feel too isolated from colleagues. I discovered in my two summers in archives that I really need interpersonal interaction as part of my work day, and I don't know if interpersonal interaction with patrons (as opposed to coworkers) would be sufficient to keep me from going stir crazy.<br /><br />On the other hand, I am excited by the possibilities to effect real change. My interest in public libraries remains very strong, but in many ways running a prison library does not seem all that different from running a branch library, which is something I think I am quite interested in as well. And I do want to keep my options open, given the economy. Public and prison libraries are sufficiently similar that, should I be able to manage the stresses specific to work in a correctional facility, I think I would probably enjoy either career. Perhaps it is time to look into scheduling some informational interviews. Or perhaps I could get the ALA student chapter at SI to sponsor something on correctional facility libraries. (Other SI LIS folk: any interest in this?) At any rate, it's definitely something I'll keep in the back of my mind as an option to explore.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-75742352861614520572009-08-08T22:06:00.000-04:002009-08-08T22:08:03.012-04:00Nearly done...The day at the branch library went pretty well (except for when I circled the entire building in the morning, trying to figure out how to get in... it's the details that get you sometimes!). I had a great time and now feel pretty confident doing basic circulation tasks. I also got to help with the hold list that morning, so I was able to see for myself how that works. It was also good to observe some of the differences between a branch and a main library.<br /><br />It's hard to believe I only have three days left! Most of what I'm doing is ongoing kinds of things, but I do have one big project still incomplete: dealing with the local history archives. Unfortunately, there are some boxes I just can't get to in time. They are the ones whose contents aren't even included in the master list of documents in the collection (some of them aren't even organized). But I'm reorganizing the part of the collection I could deal with, creating finding aids (by folder and by subject), and hopefully also getting some of the more delicate items into Mylar. If I have time I'll also write up a little scope and content note. We'll see...Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-42038172211221143072009-08-02T22:55:00.002-04:002009-08-02T22:58:53.197-04:00Read Something! -- _The Husband Habit_ (Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez)<span style="font-size:130%;"><i>The Husband Habit</i></span><br /><b><br /></b><span style="font-weight: bold;">ALISA VALDES-RODRIGUEZ</span><br />2009<br />370 pp. (ARC) / 384 pp.<br /><i>Romance / Chick Lit</i><br /><br /><u>Summary<br /><br /></u>Vanessa, a successful chef, has a problem: She keeps inadvertently becoming romantically entangled with married men. Trying to break the pattern, she swears off dating -- only to meet charming, sexy Paul, a war veteran haunted by what he's done overseas. Vanessa's mind (and sister) says no; her heart and body (and dog) say yes. But what if Paul isn't all that he seems to be? Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez tells an enchanting story of romance, the bonds of family and friends, and a woman finally coming into her own.<br /><br /><u>Appeal characteristics</u> (pacing, story line, characterization, frame)<br /><ul><li><b>Pacing:</b> Very fast, and increases tenfold in about the last quarter of the book -- this reads quite quickly</li><li><b>Pacing: </b>Quick wrap up of the plot<br /></li><li><b>Story line:</b> Straightforward resolution of most conflicts (the minor ones often just disappear entirely with no official resolution other than the implication that they've been solved)</li><li><b>Story line: </b>A couple of subplots, but they are not fully developed and usually just feed into the main romance plot at some point</li><li><b>Story line:</b> Nothing overtly left dangling at the end (though there are some themes, conflicts, etc. that are never resolved because they just drop out of the book by about the three-quarters point)</li><li><b>Story line: </b>Happy ending<br /></li><li><b>Characterization:</b> Intelligent, independent-minded female protagonist</li><li><b>Characterization:</b> Female protagonist appears strong but never actually acts on her own; she just reacts to or acts because of other characters</li><li><b>Characterization: </b>Male romantic interest with a troubled and somewhat mysterious past</li><li><b>Characterization:</b> Male romantic interest who comes in and mostly fixes the majority of female protagonist's problems</li><li><b>Characterization:</b> Characters are very human; they have real, believable problems and issues, and nobody's perfect</li><li><b>Characterization:</b> Fairly small cast of characters, and characters appear only when they need to do something to move the plot forward<br /></li><li><b>Frame?: </b>Quite erotic in certain scenes (but no actual sex is depicted)</li><li><b>Frame: </b>Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico; lots of local detail and strong evocation of a sense of place</li><li><b>Frame: </b>Lots of detail related to food and cooking</li><li><b>Frame?:</b> Metaphor is important, both to Vanessa and as an element of the style of the prose</li><li><b>Frame?:</b> Prose is carefully chosen, somewhat literary -- it is acoustically attractive and precise in imagery and meaning</li><li><b>Frame:</b> Subtle, sly sense of humor underlying much of the book</li><li><b>Frame:</b> Mentions of Victorian English literature throughout<br /></li></ul><u>Similar titles/authors</u><br /><ul><li><i>Possibly</i> Jane Austen? (I haven't read enough of her to really judge, but from what I <i>have</i> read and heard, the plot structure sounds somewhat similar, and the language/style may be similarly polished; also, the mentions of Victorian English literature throughout this novel suggest that Valdes-Rodriguez may have had something like Austen in mind while writing.)<br /></li></ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-68574194155896014552009-07-31T22:47:00.001-04:002009-07-31T22:49:43.515-04:00Finally, circ!<p>I've gotten some experience with the ILS system in use here (Millennium, in case anyone cares ;) ) via my work on the reference desk, which involves a lot of renewing, checking patron records, putting things on hold, etc. -- all of which is done through the Millennium interface. But even though I've been here for a couple of months, I still hadn't actually been trained in how to check things in and out! Tomorrow I'll be spending the day at a branch library, where basically my whole time will be spent in circulation, so on Wednesday I finally got some circ training. It was a lot of fun, and in some ways even more fast-paced than reference! I only have a basic understanding, but it's enough to get me through tomorrow -- I'll just refer people who want new cards or who have really complicated issues to the more experienced staff.</p><p>The branch library is apparently going to be pretty intense -- I'm told I will be on my feet and constantly doing something from 9:30-5 straight, except for my lunch break. It will also be a challenge because there are a <span style="font-style: italic;">huge</span> number of immigrant Chinese who come from all over to that branch on Saturdays, due to its high-quality Chinese language collection, and I honestly am not that good with accents. I always feel really bad when I have to ask someone to repeat himself or herself because I couldn't interpret his/her accent well. And I think a crowded, high-pressure situation will probably make things a bit worse. But I'll never improve if I don't get practice!<br /></p><p>Today was actually a good warmup -- I was on desk for two hours and never had a chance to breathe (including one twenty-minute session with a gentleman who wanted to log into his e-mail and download and print some photos someone had sent him but who couldn't correctly do a single-click with the mouse... I got good practice being patient and calm with that one -- and I think I did fairly well, considering my level of frazzledness at the time), and in the middle of the day some repairmen set the fire alarm off THREE times, once just before my second desk shift and then twice more during the shift! If I could keep my poise intact through all that, I have confidence I'll do all right tomorrow.</p>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-27878073736503894622009-07-24T21:57:00.001-04:002009-07-24T21:58:29.931-04:00Drawing lines...<p>Several of the presentations I attended at ALA Annual mentioned the importance in public service positions of drawing a line between your personal and professional lives. A line I heard suggested more than once was, "I'd be happy to talk about anything related to the library with you, but I cannot discuss my personal life."<br /></p><p>Sounds sensible and easy in principle, doesn't it? But I'm finding that in practice it's rather blurry. And it's compounded by the fact that when a patron isn't actually breaking rules or being disruptive I'm not always terribly socially assertive, and tend to want to be polite rather than have someone think I'm being rude for no good reason.</p>For instance: When I was running the teen gaming program on Monday, one of the teens found me in a quiet moment in the kitchen as I was cleaning up and asked me if I am religious. That is clearly a line-crossing question. But I couldn't quickly think of a way to handle it that would be polite and avoid possibly damaging the rapport I was beginning to build with him, so I answered truthfully, "No, I'm not religious," trying to be a little brusque in hopes that that would discourage him from saying anything further without hurting his feelings.<br /><p>Of course it didn't work. He proceeded to very earnestly and naively (as in, without a lot of knowledge about the religion himself -- he couldn't even explain the Adam and Eve story in a really coherent way) attempt to convert me to Christianity. An apocalyptic, end-times-are-coming strain of Christianity, no less. I was pretty uncomfortable. You just do <i>not</i> debate theology with a thirteen-year-old who clearly hasn't begun thinking critically about anything yet, let alone the beliefs he's clearly been indoctrinated in since childhood. Especially if you are working in a professional capacity in relationship to said thirteen-year-old. (Nor would I have particularly felt comfortable revealing my own thoughts on Christianity to him if he had been capable of engaging in a reasoned debate at a fully adult level. Again, that's crossing a professional line.)</p>I should've known better than to really answer that first question, because it got me into a situation that made me feel really uncomfortable and because really, my religious beliefs are not the business of my library's patrons. But still, it's taken me days to come up with something that I could've said that might have worked. (I feel as though in this situation, even the line I got from ALA Annual would be too abrupt. But I did finally decide I could have probably modified it to something like, "That's a personal question, and it's not really appropriate for me to be talking about my personal beliefs with library patrons. I'd be happy to discuss a library-related topic with you." -- maybe even following it up with, "Did you know we have a lot of books on religion? Maybe sometime we could try to find something interesting for you to read about religion.") So frustrating!<br /><p>Then there's the question of how much it's appropriate to reveal in casual chitchat as you go about your job. Sharing personal information is a social lubricant, and I do find myself talking about my academic program, sometimes my future career, and how I grew up in the area with random people. Is that crossing a line? Or is it just polite? I still am not sure on that one...</p>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-45609271894145177302009-07-16T17:42:00.002-04:002009-07-16T17:50:52.466-04:00Read Something! -- _Dr. Johnson and Mr. Savage_ (Richard Holmes)<span style="font-size:130%;"><i>Dr. Johnson and Mr. Savage</i></span><b class=""><br /><br />RICHARD HOLMES</b><br />1993<br />260 pp.<br /><i>Biography</i><br /><br /><u>Summary<br /></u><br />Samuel Johnson has come down to us through Boswell's biography as an imposing, established figure of legendary status. But in the late 1730s he was an unknown, troubled young poet wandering the streets of London. At this time he met and befriended Richard Savage, a mesmerizing and charismatic yet controversial and himself quite troubled figure on the London literary scene. Only a few years later, Savage would die and Johnson would publish a biography of his friend that would launch his own distinguished career. Holmes constructs a meticulous and intricate portrait of the friendship between these two men that is at once a double biography, a psychological excavation, an extended work of literary criticism of Johnson's biography of Savage, an exploration of how we construct our own and other's identities, and a "biography of a biography" -- the story both of how one biography was created from a brief period of intimacy and of the launching of a new literary form.<br /><u><br />Appeal characteristics</u><br /><ul><li>Psychological focus, with psychoanalytical overtones (though not strongly pronounced)</li><li>Moves fairly slowly; carefully examines key events from multiple angles</li><li>Frequent literary criticism interwoven into the text (interpretation of an author's works to shed light on his psychological state)</li><li>Centers on a controversial figure with a mysterious birth and troubled life, who is also a charismatic genius</li><li>Investigative/speculative -- attempts to elucidate a relationship about which next to nothing is known</li><li>Does not delve into great historical detail unless necessary to do so for dicussion of the Johnson/Savage relationship or one of their own lives</li><li>-- <i>but</i> does give brief, 1-2 paragraph biographies of some minor figures who appear in the text</li><li>Stylistically, very readable; straightforward and almost conversational<br /></li></ul><u><br />Other notes</u><br /><ul><li>Not a thorough biography of either man (although Savage's life is covered in a fair amount of detail due to necessity of doing so in order to analyze Johnson's biography of him); Holmes is more interested in the relationship between the men and why Johnson wrote his biography the way he did</li></ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-84319617231106767942009-07-15T23:19:00.004-04:002009-07-17T00:25:16.337-04:00ALA Annual 2009Well.<br /><br />...That was interesting.<br /><br />This past weekend, I went to my first ever professional conference -- ALA Annual in Chicago. It was huge and overwhelming, and I am glad that it was held in Chicago because if it was in a city with which I was unfamiliar it honestly might have been a bit too much. But I think I navigated it pretty well, and I sat in on some interesting sessions (and got a bunch of free stuff! -- including three more books which I had no business acquiring, given my current backlog...).<br /><br />More detailed comments on individual sessions will probably follow later, but here's a summary of my weekend:<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friday<br /></span><br />Arrived, got into city, checked into hotel, met up with roommate. Registered, and discovered that the booklet I'd been sent didn't even include everything that was happening at the conference! (So... many... committee... meetings... *gasp*) It was kind of frustrating because my whole experience with trying to pick what to go to was constantly complicated by discovering that yet something <span style="font-style: italic;">else</span> was going on that I wanted to do, so to arrive and find that there were tons of other things... I gave up on even browsing the book listing the schedule, and decided to stick to the schedule I'd drawn up before leaving home.<br /><br />That night, my roommate, another classmate from SI, and I went to the gaming event. It was fun, and there was yummy food. We played one round of a really weird trivia game, and then went on to this game where you get prompts (e.g. "mysterious power tool") and try to come up with the same response as other players -- usually writing, but sometimes doodling. That one was tons of fun and we played it twice. Then it was back to the hotel for bedtime... lots to do in the morning!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Saturday</span><br /><br />The buses, my roommate and I discovered, were a mess. We waited 20 minutes at one stop and none even came by. Then we walked to the Hilton, which was one of the headquarter hotels and on the same route as the bus we were waiting for. Of course, <span style="font-style: italic;">there</span> we immediately caught a bus. It was kind of ridiculous and seemed poorly organized/implemented.<br /><br />Due to the bus thing, I got to the first session 20 minutes late. I felt embarrassed walking in late, but then a lot of people came in much later than me. As the conference went on, I learned that this isn't unusual. The first thing I went to was a talk on what it's like to be a librarian in a correctional facility. It was really interesting, and confirmed that that's a career I might be interested in, although it presents some very difficult challenges.<br /><br />After that I went to the exhibit halls. At the NMRT booth, I ran into another new attendee. We bonded over trying to figure out where the heck the Placement Services stuff was (why was a conference book put together by LIBRARIANS so difficult to find information in?!), then she discovered I was going to the Unshelved booth and got excited, so we went together. (I got a t-shirt, and signatures. It was <span style="font-style: italic;">awesome</span>.) We wandered around the exhibition hall, into and out of a session on gaming in libraries (standing room only, and hard to hear from the back), and down to the Placement Services area. It was pretty neat to meet someone and just get along with her for a couple of hours.<br /><br />Next stop was the event I'd actually had to come to ALA Annual for: the orientation for the LLAMA mentoring program to which I've been accepted. That was, unfortunately, held at a hotel at some distance from the convention center. But I made it up there okay, and finally actually got to meet my mentor in person. I was a bit nervous, but he's very personable and we got along great. I'm looking forward to seeing where the relationship goes. (I'm sure more posts about that will be forthcoming over the next year -- and yes, I do have his permission to blog about it.) We chatted, listened to a brief presentation on mentoring, and filled out a form to outline our initial expectations and needs (at which point I had <span style="font-style: italic;">major</span> SI 501 flashbacks).<br /><br />I got out of the mentoring program orientation right when the next session I wanted to go to was starting. Unfortunately, I had to get all the way back to the convention center! A very nice bus driver stopped for me as I was jogging up to the stop, so I didn't lose too much time and was only about half an hour late. This session was on disengaging from talkative patrons, and while it wasn't fantastically useful, I did get some good things out of it.<br /><br />After that, there was (eventually) dinner. We (the same three of us from the night before) wanted to get pizza, but there were huge long lines at Giordanio's (sp?), Gino's East (sad... I have good memories of dinners there with my boyfriend when we were in Chicago in January), and Due's (we didn't even <span style="font-style: italic;">look</span> at Uno's). We ended up at Chile's. But I had a mudslide, which was desperately needed after a long day, so that was good. We'd been planning to go to the storytelling event that evening, but by the time we were done with dinner the event had started, and we were pretty tired. We ended up hanging out in Grant Park listening to a free concert for a while, and then went back to our hotels.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sunday</span><br /><br />I started out Sunday with the exhibit halls. Picked up tons of free stuff (including one of those incredible huge red totes by... was it McGraw Hill? I can't remember), and entered a lot of contests. I dread all the mailing lists I'm going to have to unsubscribe myself from...<br /><br />Next I went to the Paranormal Fiction panel. It was <span style="font-style: italic;">awesome</span>. There were three writers there (including Charlaine Harris!), and I love listening to writers talk about their work! All three were intelligent and witty and very interesting. I think the panel was theoretically for readers' advisory purposes, but I didn't get very much out of it that way. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun and I'm really glad I did it.<br /><br />Then I had an hour or so free, so I grabbed lunch, made some phone calls, and dove back in to the exhibit halls for a little while until it was time for the presentation on dealing with challenging patrons. (Are we noticing a pattern in my session attendance?) This was a bit more useful than the talkative-patron panel, and I picked up some really good tips and ideas. There was also more of a discussion than in other sessions I'd been in, and although I didn't speak up, it was really cool to feel like I was sitting in the middle of and engaging in a real discussion about professional issues with other working professionals. It made me wish there were more opportunities for that kind of thing at the conference as a whole. (Maybe there were and I just didn't discover them...)<br /><br />Next, my last pass through the exhibit halls. I picked up more free stuff, entered more contests, wandered up and down almost every aisle, had a lovely chat with the woman at the Hoover Institution booth (Stanford is my alma mater, so I had to stop by there!), met a woman working at the same library as my roommate for the conference... and went to the post office five minutes after closing. Oops. At least there was a FedEx downstairs, though they really stiff you there (they charge a "handling fee" on top of shipping -- $10 for packages 2-10 pounds -- ridiculous, and they totally do it just because they know they can and people will have to pay it). I also ran by the Bookcart Drill Team competition, which was mildly entertaining. I have visions of incredible bookcart routines which I <span style="font-style: italic;">know</span> I will someday choreograph...<br /><br />And that was it. I picked up my duffel from coat check, waited ages yet again for a bus (Gale has not made a good impression on me, due to their very prominent sponsorship of a very poorly functioning shuttle bus system), and went to meet up with a friend from Chicago who was letting me crash at her place that night.<br /><br />In retrospect I wish I'd stayed one more day. I missed some sessions that I really wanted to attend (e.g. the RUSA program on readers' advisory -- perfect for the paper I'm revising for publication!), and felt so rushed to do everything in the exhibit hall that it was a little stressful and probably more tiring than it needed to be. But overall I think it was a pretty good first experience. I owe a lot of that to the advice of the wonderful teen librarian at the Brookline library, who's been to tons of these things and spent about 40 minutes one day telling me what to do and what not to do. I only wish I had the money to do this every year!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-37142605290683566232009-07-09T17:46:00.004-04:002009-07-09T17:54:12.630-04:00Read Something! -- _Death In Spring_ (Merce Rodoreda)("Read Something!" will be an ongoing series of posts in which I make public the readers' advisory notes I'm starting to keep on many of the books I read. I would greatly appreciate suggestions for other things to call this because I am very bad at naming things! ;) )<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><b><i>Death in Spring</i></b></span><p><b>MERCE RODOREDA</b><br />(trans. Martha Tennent)<br />2009 (orig. published 1986 in Catalan)<br />150 pp.<br /><i>Literary fiction</i><br /></p><p><u>Summary</u><br /></p><p>As a teenaged boy grows into a man, he struggles to come to grips with the strange, brutal rituals of his village and with his own increasingly marked sense of being an outsider. This dreamlike book explores love, desire, the individual's place in society, and the meaning of living.<br /></p><p><u>Appeal characteristics</u><br /></p><ul><li><b>Pacing/Frame?: </b>emphasis on language over plot</li><li><b>Pacing:</b> plot moves very slowly</li><li><b>Pacing?:</b> patterns and recurring images appear but are not explicated<br /></li><li><b>Story line?: </b>events themselves are often less important than what the narrator says about them?<br /></li><li><b>Characterization: </b>characters' emotions rarely shown; their actions are generally described without delving into their motivations (this goes for the main character too)</li><li><b>Frame?: </b>heavy on metaphor and imagery</li><li><b>Frame:</b> worldbuilding -- author creates a society</li><li><b>Frame: </b>tone is heavy, serious; even somewhat depressing</li><li><b>Frame:</b> first-person narrator</li><li><b>Frame?:</b> most things are not laid out clearly for the reader; readers must be attentive, dig into the book, and think (and even then may not arrive at firm conclusions)</li><li><b>Frame:</b> individual vs. society themes<br /></li></ul><p><br /><u>Other notes</u><br /></p><ul><li>violence -- not particularly graphic, but often unusual and still disturbing</li></ul><br /><u>Similar titles/authors</u><br /><ul><li><i>W, or The Memory of Childhood</i> (Georges Perec): similar building of an increasingly menacing and violent world with strange rituals; similar exploration of the darker side of human societies; similarly is meant to provoke thought more than tell a story; Perec and Rodoreda seem to both be interested in language (though Perec more in wordplay, Rodoreda more in evocative prose?); more complex plotting (there are multiple stories and part of the book is how they interact (or don't); faster pacing?; there is no central character in the main storyline of <i>W</i></li></ul>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-41177429744014594932009-07-03T23:58:00.002-04:002009-07-03T23:59:13.062-04:00Surprise, I CAN do readers' advisory!<p>I've been getting frustrated with my readers' advisory skills. The ref desk is upstairs and the RA books are downstairs, so when I get asked an RA question Novelist and whoever else happens to be on desk are pretty much the best resources I have to go on. With most questions I am immediately and acutely aware that I just don't know of any other books that fit the patron's preferences (and that's when I remember to elicit preferences in an interview instead of freezing up and automatically heading straight to Novelist, eep). Most people seem to be satisfied with Novelist's readalike suggestions for an author, but I really don't feel like I'm providing the best service. It's frustrating.</p><p>Today, however, I actually got through one RA interaction in a way that made me feel proud! It was a young gentleman who came up and said he liked historical, intense novels like <i>The Wave</i>. Using the handy local school summer reading list as a prop, I was able to suggest some authors who I'd read as a teen and others who had caught my eye as I was weeding YA books earlier this summer (yet another confirmation that it is absolutely vital for librarians to work with the books themselves!). He also found some books on the list that looked interesting. Unfortunately they were all out!<br /></p><p>But then the darling boy (and I really do adore him for this) mentioned Narnia. He had only read <i>The Magician's Nephew</i> (and I am restraining myself, with great difficulty, from repeating my mini-lecture (which he took in good humor) about the <b>correct</b> order in which to read the Chronicles of Narnia). The Narnia books are among some of my fondest memories (I still own my box set!). We popped on down to the teen room, found most of the books right on the shelf, and he asked me for my thoughts on the order he should read the books in, which I happily gave. Interspersed with all of this was some very pleasant chitchat about books in general and the Chronicles of Narnia in particular. He left happy, and I felt like I really had helped someone looking for readers' advisory for once.<br /></p><p>It was a badly needed confidence boost. Now I feel that I am indeed capable; it's just that I need a wider knowledge base and better familiarity with the resources available to help with RA.</p>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-48457146382601777472009-06-27T16:23:00.003-04:002009-06-27T16:27:59.615-04:00I do say I like public librarianship because of the variety...This... was quite a week on the reference desk. In no particular order, here are some of the various encounters I had/events I observed:<br /><ul><li>Patron put on criminal trespass notice (not for anything safety-threatening, more for repeated public disturbance kinds of things, but the police had to come to serve the notice nevertheless)</li></ul><ul><li>A patron who came up to me and said, "I'm looking for a book, I can't remember the name or the title, but it was narrated by a dog." (Yes, I found it. <i>The Art of Racing in the Rain</i>, if I remember correctly.)</li></ul><ul><li>Patron who came up to the desk as I was wrapping up, <i>after the announcement saying the library was closed</i>, to ask about a book he'd put on hold</li></ul><ul><li>Report of a patron screaming at other women in the bathroom about invading her privacy, when apparently they weren't actually doing anything</li></ul><ul><li>Patron who called to ask a question and, while I was looking up the answer, kept saying things like "You don't like me? You want to take advantage of me?", apparently to herself<br /></li></ul><ul><li>Patron who I spent the better part of an hour intermittently helping to find books with good photos of places in Africa and the Middle East; he essentially asked me to come to his house for dinner where he "could show [me] things [I'd] never seen before" (erm... no thank you)</li></ul><ul><li>Patron who I ran into while walking around the library, who for no apparent reason just wanted to tell me a joke</li></ul><ul><li>Kids on a scavenger hunt who needed to find a book by a particular author</li></ul><ul><li>A man who came up to the reference desk on my shift after I had just finished sorting all of the donated books upstairs -- "I have some books to donate; where should I leave them?" -- "Well, how many books do you have?" -- "About four boxes." -- *mental headdesk* (I love sorting donated books, but some days it really feels like an exercise in futility)</li></ul><ul><li>A woman who had somehow managed to get two library cards, with two separate patron records, without being aware of it (though I wonder if she really wasn't, because the one she didn't have anything checked out on had a fine on it)<br /></li></ul><p>And those are just the most interesting ones... It was pretty nonstop for most of my shifts. Still fun, but suddenly I understand why everyone says that you really need to take breaks from being on desk!</p>Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-219200246652483382009-06-22T21:31:00.009-04:002009-06-22T21:51:34.032-04:00What is a librarian?I was going to post a response to something from <span style="font-style: italic;">American Libraries</span>. And then just before I started to write, I was reading a thread called <a href="http://www.librarything.com/topic/64973">"The Word 'Librarian'"</a> on LibraryThing. The thread opens with the question that I think many of us ask -- do people without the ML(I)S degree count as "librarians?"<br /><br />It's a question that brings up all sorts of issues: issues of professionalism, of respect, of our ability to promote ourselves in our field... etc., etc., etc. But I think one poster made a very astute comment:<br /><br /><blockquote>I think that some people automatically assume that working in a library makes them a librarian. I also think that some people think having a fancy piece of paper makes them one too. I really think that being a librarian is something above and beyond both of those things. When I was in law school, a professor always used to tell us that graduating from law school doesn't make you a lawyer. It just means you have a degree in law. I feel the same way about librarians. I know some librarians with MLS degrees that I don't think have any right to call themselves librarians. On the other hand, I know a lady who has no MLS, but is the most amazing librarian I have ever met, and I would not be upset if she called herself a librarian (which she won't).</blockquote>I think this comment cuts right to the heart of the matter. People dither about what a degree means, when really the degree shouldn't be an end in itself but a means to an end. I'm certain that ML(I)S programs are turning out some graduates who aren't really going to be good library professionals. (There are even one or two people in my own program about whom I often wonder why, precisely, they're putting themselves through all this <span style="font-size:78%;">(and other SI folk who read this blog, let's keep speculation of/discussion about precisely who and why out of the comments here, because it's not really the point of this post. ;) ) </span><span style="font-size:100%;">) The point of the program is not (or should not be) just for you to get the fancy piece of paper. The point of the program, as it should be with all education, is to give you skills and knowledge, to make you a more effective and learned person, in hopes that doing so will change how you live your life/perform your job/etc.<br /><br />The degree doesn't make you a librarian. The ability to perform the work intelligently, conscientiously, and effectively does. The degree is supposed to help you do that, but it is not always necessary or sufficient. It's (sadly) very easy to get through two years of school and not really pick up anything useful. It's also possible for someone who is sufficiently driven and self-guided to pick up everything s/he needs to know without going to school.<br /><br />Of course, that's my own perspective, which is probably biased by my humanistic educational background. And in reality, when making employment decisions, degree holders </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >should</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span>generally get preference over non-degree holders -- simply because you are more likely to have the skills, knowledge, and ability to think necessary to be a good librarian if you have been given one to two years to learn, to practice, and to consider the important issues of the field. But I do believe that many people who work in libraries are not really librarians, no matter what their job title says.<br /><br />The next question, of course, is: What makes a librarian, if it isn't the degree? That is perhaps one to take up next time... or in the comments. I'd be very interested in hearing what other people think about all this.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-76202761764107656152009-06-11T17:51:00.002-04:002009-08-02T22:59:38.299-04:00Renewed faith in humanity ;)I've been thinking about the people I'm interacting with on the reference desk. I subscribe to a number of librarian boards and mailing lists, and as a result I read a lot of horror stories/venting about "bad" patrons. I recognized that these stories were not representative of the vast majority of library patrons (among other things, I subscribe to the <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/library_mofo">library_mofo LiveJournal community</a>, which really skews the sample ;) ), but I still came into this internship a little nervous about having to deal with people who were rude, angry, or indifferent.<br /><br />I have been so wonderfully surprised. I certainly didn't expect people to be consistently awful, but neither did I expect so much gratitude. Nearly every shift, I am profusely thanked for doing something that's really quite simple and part of my job. People smile, they are polite, they seem to generally appreciate what I do (which goes against all the angsty library scholarship I've been reading recently...). The woman who tried to quibble over her inability to renew two magazines was more than counterbalanced by the woman who calmly and politely accepted that she couldn't put something on hold because she had $30 in fines and said she'd pay them as soon as she could.<br /><br />I definitely think much more highly of people in general because of this job!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-67308090880859192912009-06-03T22:37:00.000-04:002009-06-03T22:38:12.591-04:00Today I realized......that if two hours on the reference desk is sufficient to make my day wonderful when I've been in a real funk for 18 hours, then I'm probably heading in the right direction with my life.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-15414231837274221482009-05-29T23:35:00.001-04:002009-05-29T23:36:49.825-04:00Reflection on my second week at BPLMy second week has come to an end. I became a lot more proactive at the reference desk this week -- having gotten my bearings with basic information about the library, I felt better about starting to take patron questions. In another week or so I start being one of two instead of a third observer of the two people "officially" on desk! I'm excited to get the "official" responsibility for reference, but I'm also very appreciative of the slow introduction my supervisor has provided for me. I was expecting to just get thrown in and have to sink or swim, but having a graduated experience where I could just observe first and then ease my way into practice really made me feel more confident.<br /><br />Today was actually interesting because I took a patron question when the other two reference librarians were busy and ended up spending about 45 minutes with her (and we weren't done; it was just the end of my shift and I had realized that if I didn't leave then I wouldn't leave until the library closed). Afterward I learned she is a "regular." One of the librarians and I had a good talk about how to end a reference transaction when it is really going on for too long. I didn't mind spending a long time with this patron because we were finding things that were useful to her, but had I been one of two staff members on desk instead of one of three, I almost certainly couldn't have spent that kind of time with her -- the other librarian would have been swamped. On the one hand I'm a little disappointed that things have to be that way; I suppose I'm still clinging to the theoretical ideal and having a bit of trouble adjusting to the realities of practice.<br /><br />Speaking of theory vs. practice -- I have to apologize to my wonderful professors, but I have definitely become a "pointer" in certain situations. When the patron seems competent and the desk is busy, there is just no way I can walk every person out to the stacks. I do always tell patrons to come back if they can't find what they need; I figure that this is a happy medium, and if someone can't find something, I definitely will help them go look for it.<br /><br />This week I also continued with some shelf reading and shifting Government Documents materials. In addition, I learned how to use the CD/DVD buffer to clean scratched AV materials (it is kind of fun and surprisingly effective!) and I got started on another big project. The library has a manuscripts collection which is in some semblance of order, but there is no good finding aid available. Since I have an archives background, I've been asked to get the collection in usable shape. Right now I'm just familiarizing myself with what's there. Some of it is pretty interesting -- there are a lot of essays about and personal reminiscences of Brookline in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Parts of it are physically not in the greatest shape in the world, but it is mostly intact, and they've made some basic preservation efforts (putting everything in acid-free boxes and folders, and for the most part also encasing everything in Mylar covers, which is perhaps excessive but certainly not a bad thing). I'm probably going to reorganize it slightly, and I'm thinking about the best way to create a finding aid or finding aids. I probably will do a "traditional" archival finding aid by folder, but since this is for public library use I will also probably create some sort of subject-based finding aid. My supervisor said she was looking at Library of Congress finding aids and really liked those. I haven't seen them yet, but I'll also look at those for models.Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-43240043674761769072009-05-24T23:21:00.004-04:002009-05-25T14:58:18.595-04:00Imperfect iterationsI'm catching up on my professional reading this summer -- ALA materials come to my home (my parents' house), not my school address, so I had a 3" stack of magazines when I got back. Which is why I was reading the January/February 2009 <span style="font-style: italic;">American Libraries</span> just a few days ago.<br /><br />The article "Working in Beta: LibraryWeb Labs Let Users Shape Service" caught my eye. My personal philosophy of library work includes an emphasis on user participation as a way of increasing patron involvement with and investment in other aspects of the library, so I liked this article. Not only would I expect these kinds of online "labs" where libraries test new web services to help participating users feel greater ownership in the library, but it helps the libraries to make sure that their services really do respond to user needs.*<br /><br />But what I found most interesting was the article's opening:<br /><blockquote>"Something libraries have not been great at historically is experimenting in public," Ken Varnum, web systems manager at the University of Michigan Libraries,** told <span style="font-style: italic;">American Libraries</span>, noting the urge to make services 'perfect' before release.</blockquote>I suppose my first question is: is this assertion correct? I quite frankly don't have the experience to know yet. We hear so much about innovations by this or that library these days, and I never thought to pay much attention to whether the staff and management/administration had invented these innovations in a back room and planned them out in detail before implementation or whether they had, to borrow Mr. Varnum's phrase, experimented in public -- invited and encouraged patrons' feedback during the process, listened, changed things mid-course. Of course I don't mean to draw the dichotomy that that sounds like. I would hope any innovation would spring at some level from observation of patrons' needs and wants. But for me, "experimenting in public" means something more than just being aware of what patrons want, and perhaps making <span style="font-style: italic;">small</span> changes in response to feedback post-implementation. Experimentation involves a much more uncontrolled process. You think you know what will happen if you do something, certainly, but fundamentally experimentation is a process of discovery. A library experimenting in public is one that has plans, but permits flexibility in new programming or services to shift rapidly in response to patron feedback and staff and administration/management observations of the effects and effectiveness of the program/service. When you experiment you find out what's really the right thing to do as you go along. You make mistakes. To make mistakes in public is a brave thing to do -- especially when half of your profession seems to be suffering a crisis of identity/relevance.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />* Of course this has to be taken with a grain of salt, since the specter of representative sampling rears its head here. But as long as the feedback through these labs isn't considered the be all and end all of patron input, I imagine it could be quite useful.<br /><br />** (woohoo!)Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-39212741853464279532009-05-22T23:10:00.003-04:002009-05-22T23:18:40.060-04:00First week of the internship is over -- I'm EXHAUSTED! (but happy)My first week was definitely an orientation week. Two people who are in charge of projects I'll be doing are on vacation, so I couldn't get started on those. I spent a lot of time moving books -- shelf reading in the local history room, shifting the Government Documents collection about ten feet to the right (current shelving is too crowded and they need to move things around), and pulling books from the YA shelves for weeding. I have become thoroughly convinced of the value of shelving and shelf reading for knowing the collection -- I feel much more confident in my awareness of the contents of the areas of the collection I've been physically working with this week.<br /><br />I've also been spending time observing and sometimes helping out on the reference and information desks. Mostly observing right now, but that's fine because there's a lot I don't know about the library systems and resources, and that means right now it's hard for me to answer many questions effectively. I have taken some reference questions, mostly directional things or things where I could just take the patron to the catalog and help him/her out there. It's a lot of fun to help someone find just what they were looking for. :) And if I start flailing it's nice to know that I can always direct the patron to the librarian sitting right next to me! (I will never be allowed to sit on a desk alone this summer, due to union rules. I actually appreciate that, though -- it takes a lot of pressure off of me to know that I have help right there if I need it, and my colleagues seem happy to let me take questions.)<br /><br />During downtime on the desk, I've been talking a lot to the other librarians. I've been introduced to the Millennium internal library system (though I haven't used it myself yet) and to basic procedures within the system like searching, looking up information in records, placing holds, etc. I've also learned a bunch about my colleagues' paths to librarianship, library policies and procedure, the good and bad of membership in a consortium, and a lot of other miscellaneous but interesting and useful things. Some people are more talkative than others, but everyone has been very helpful and responsive when I have questions or express interest in something. All in all, it's a pretty cool bunch of people to hang out with. I'm looking forward to what this summer will bring!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5798907985863991225.post-16580707576048636632009-05-18T22:27:00.001-04:002009-05-22T23:18:26.431-04:00A good start!Today I finally began my internship at the Brookline Public Library in Brookline, MA!<br /><br />I sort of got plunged right into the middle of things. After a library tour (I got introduced to about 20 people and don't remember any of their names! >.< ), I spent two hours shadowing my supervisor and then another librarian on the reference desk. I inaugurated what is sure to be a grand reference career by that most traditional of reference librarian activities: directing a patron to the restroom. After a lunch break, I was told that Steve Kluger, author of <span style="font-style: italic;">My Most Excellent Year</span>, was about to give a talk for librarians on extended families in literature. I got to skip out on "actual" work to listen to Mr. Kluger talk for two hours about his family life growing up and as it stands now, and how it ties into his writing. It was funny and touching and extremely interesting, and I now feel compelled to go read all three of his books.<br /><br />By the time all that was over with, it was getting close to time for me to leave. To fill the last 45 minutes, my supervisor asked me to help with shelving, since I hadn't been started on my projects yet and they were behind on shelving (are libraries ever _not_ behind on shelving?). That was a nice, relaxing way to end the day.<br /><br />The highlight of the day, beyond just being able to finally START this internship, was definitely Mr. Kluger's talk. Second to that, I have to admit... is that I discovered a yarn store (which won "Best of Boston") directly on the route between the subway and the library. Unluckily for me (luckily for my wallet and my mother, who was waiting to pick me up), it was closed when I found it!Heatherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03585079284717608083noreply@blogger.com0