tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80911560861071928862024-02-20T22:05:45.212-08:00SPL Conference BlogSPL staff blog about the learning, experiences and resources they encounter at various conferencesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-49702024381905799822008-08-21T18:45:00.000-07:002008-08-21T18:52:54.422-07:00Ref Ren part 2 - Fun ideasFor me the most exciting thing about the Reference Renaissance conference was the sharing of great ideas for getting Reference out of the "box". I know its a cliche but it seems to me that we are stuck in a box right now. Virtual Reference is great but we are currently at the comfortable limits - at least at SPL and at least right now. Technology will undoubtedly change that.<br /><br />However, in terms of P2P or live in person ref we haven't really innovated much here at SPL. And there were some great ideas in Denver.<br /><br />Predatory Reference or Ubiquitous Reference - Taking reference to the people. Using a hot dog cart to do roving reference outside the building. Going to condominums and office buildings and setting up tables. Putting librarians on city or neighborhood committees to provide reference research as needed. Even just setting up a table on the 4th Ave plaza on a sunny (we do occasionaly have these) day during the summer and catching the passerby who maybe wasn't thinking of coming into the library but who might have a question. One library even talked about doing weekends at grocery stores, complete with up to the minute hands out telling people important info like where the cheapest gas was that day.<br /><br />The Pew Foundation reported that for most libraries their "brand" was books. We know we are much more so how do we change the brand image in the minds of our public. Well one way is to confront them where they live and work.<br /><br />Carol Lo in HTM wants a Sequey (sp) and a wireless laptop. She'll roam the streets of Seattle taking Reference to the people. Amen and halleluia brother.Heather MC-Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02421227146879712271noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-6559812749586026702008-08-15T16:26:00.000-07:002008-08-15T16:43:06.474-07:00A Reference Renaissance - In Hot and Steamy DenverI was the only SPL staff person at the Reference Renaissance Conference in Denver on August 4-5. But I was far from the only Washingtonian. There were librarians from Timberland, Spokane and Sno-isle systems as well as a bunch of people from the State Library. There was also a distinctly international flavor to this conference with presenters and attendees from Singapore, South Africa, India, and Canada.<br /><br />My general impression was of a very well thoughout and organized conference. The sessions were 90 minutes with the usual panel of 3 presenters. There were 6 tracks and frankly I had to make some hard choices. (We were also provided breakfast, 2 snacks and lunch each day so I can't complain about a lack of networking time!)<br /><br />The attendees I spoke with were about evenly divided between academic and public libraries with a smattering of special libraries for good measure. The presenters were slightly weighted towards academia but that isn't really very surprising.<br /><br />I'll blog about a couple of specific session that were particularly intriquing but here are a few observations of other sessions.<br /><br />There was an entire tracking on managing reference service. It included training, staffing and interestingly 2 sessions on automating collecting reference desk statistics. There seems to be a real move into using various software programs to click rather than tick.<br /><br />An absolutely fascinating - although very theoretical presentation was Mary Cavaugh's "Reference Librarians' Personal Theories of Practice" Using methodology from Education and Social Science she discussed the differences and conflicts between the individual librarian's views about "what reference looks like" and the institutional expectations for reference service.<br /><br />There were several presentations on various 24/7 alignments and on the variations of im, chat and e-mail reference. We are pretty on the curve in this area.<br /><br />I'll post on specific sessions I really clicked with later.<br />Heather McWHeather MC-Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02421227146879712271noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-55194116017222907872008-07-29T10:29:00.000-07:002008-07-29T10:30:41.102-07:00Jen Baker's ALAMy First ALA <br />By Jen Baker, Fiction Dept.<br /><br />I was so excited to be invited onto RUSA’s Reading List Council, an ALA committee whose main objective matches my own: read everything. In this case what we read is genre fiction and as near as I can tell by my own experience so far, we really do need to read pretty much all the time in order to judge the best book in eight different genres for the current year. The genres are: Mystery, Horror, Adrenaline (suspense, thrillers), Women’s Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Historical Fiction. As the Annual conference in Anaheim drew near, I found myself skipping choir, not answering my phone, refusing to do any housework and sometimes staying up all night in order to fulfill our directive. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who didn’t finish every word of all 60 books we reviewed together at the conference, but no one admitted it! Our process involves each of the eleven members suggesting genre titles. We had about 400 accumulated by May. Then each person has to read all the books they suggest and either withdraw them from the list or nominate them. If nominated and seconded, everyone has to read the book and it gets discussed at the conference.<br /><br />But back to my timeline account of Jen’s Adventure in Anaheim…<br /><br />My boys (husband and 17-year-old son) came with me – they wanted to play at Disneyland and go surfing, etc. All three of us flew down together on John’s frequent flyer miles, so air ticket was free! When we got to the Fairfield Inn, which costs $149 per night, we were a bit disappointed. It was a bit of a dive – situated between two alleys full of parked cars and guarded by Security so the guests could park, since the Fairfield is pretty much AT the entrance to Disneyland. You can guess how crowded it was around the grounds! Not being a traveler, I was interested to note that the advertised refrigerator and microwave were stacked next to the television at the foot of our bed and the “Continental breakfast” served in the dive next door wasn’t bad (looking), though it was so crowded we had to fight surly parents (anticipating a full day at the world’s happiest place) for a seat. I think what really did it for me, though, were the crabby non-English-speaking staff and their friends hanging out in the “parking lot” (i.e. alley) at weird hours. We stayed a couple nights and then moved to a Marriott. It was better, but no Continental breakfast and no coffee… The coolest thing about being on the eighth floor facing the Matterhorn was that we could see the fireworks every night from our balcony (along with the rest of the denizens of floor eight) – just don’t lean on the railing!<br /><br />So, the second day (Thursday) after I registered in the nearly empty Convention Center, the “boys” and I went to the California Adventure Park since we’d never been. I rode my first “scary” ride: the Grizzly River Run. My daughter had told me how fun it was – as long as you didn’t have to be the one who rode the huge inner tube raft down the “waterfalls” backward. Guess who went all the way through the bumpy and stomach-dropping parts backward? Sopping wet and shaking I still had to admit afterward that it was a blast! Note to self: be more adventurous. Then I watched Nick and John on the roller coaster, California Screamin’, which John emerged from rather green in the gills! We wandered around looking for lunch and feeling like eggs frying on the hot pavement.<br />That evening, I went to the Cheesecake Factory with several of the Reading List Council members, whom I had not yet met (with the exception of Joyce Saricks). We had a blast, and I just know how well-loved we were by the wait staff, who had to figure out at least 10 separated checks while we were ordering drinks and appetizers and passing our plates around the table! THEN I scurried out to go back to Disneyland for the fireworks, followed by Mickey’s Fantasmic, which was absolutely amazing. Only Disney could come up with the 40 foot dragon that emerges from the lake, breathes fire and then burns up. They also projected Mickey’s “dream” onto sprayed fountains that rose up out of the water. Now you are thinking, “Did Jen actually attend the conference?”<br /><br />Of course I did. After staying up until 3:30 am desperately trying to finish the last five books I was supposed to have read by the conference, I presented myself at the Hilton for our refrigerated eight-hour discussion of 60 books (why is air conditioning so freakin’ cold in the small rooms and non-working in the auditorium?). Each person had to defend the books they nominated, one in each category, which meant that eleven people talked eight times. I had to go pretty much first, which was a bit daunting, given that Neal Wyatt and Joyce Saricks are on the committee and that I am new to the process. Neal was so kind and told me I was doing very well. I guarantee my notes will be more comprehensive next time! It’s hard to remember what all those novels are about. Anyway, we all ate lunch together and then closeted ourselves again for our top secret negotiations until 3:30. Note: if you want to look at last years’ genre winners, including all the top nominations, search the ALA website for “reading list 2008.”<br /><br />After that I wandered aimlessly around the Convention Center and environs, admiring all the librarians wandering around with their bright orange ALA bags. Smart people really come in interesting packages!<br /><br />That evening I attending a NoveList contributors’ dinner, hosted by Duncan Smith, where I saw David Wright, but sat at the older folks’ table. Still, we had great discussions about readers’ advisory work and books, of course. Dinner was quite good – it was in a small room with just two tables, our own private waiters and fabulous food, including prawns, salmon, filet mignon/tenderloin and three or four gorgeously presented desserts EACH. <br /><br />The next morning at 8 am we were at it again at the Hilton – finalizing our top secret genre choices for midwinter (so far) – until about 11. While I was talking about books, John and Nick moved us to a better hotel – a Marriott, where we got one night free on John’s hotel points (finally his business travels are paying off!). After the Reading List meeting, I wandered around the exhibits for awhile, then met my boys for lunch and a quick trip to Seal Beach, where there was supposedly surfing. Well, there were a lot of sunburned people, including us, but no surfing. Nick took off on his skateboard for parts unknown and returned a couple hours later – just before we ignited from the heat! That evening, we dumped Nick off in Santa Ana (or some other Santa…) at a huge skate park in an “interesting” neighborhood. John and I were meeting Tracy Li (formerly of CHI and now a children’s librarian in the Orange County Library System) and her husband, Bob, for dinner at a restaurant we thought was nearby. Ha ha! After several frantic turnings of the map and a couple cell phone calls to Tracy and Bob, we discovered we were supposed to go to Mission Viejo (Veeayho? Vielljo?), which is basically down south near San Diego. Well, not really, but man were we late. And then poor Nick had to hang out at the Seven-Eleven near the park for hours until we could get back to him. Tracy is doing very well (she even learned to drive and got her California license) and Bob is ecstatic about his new job, despite a long commute.<br /><br />Sunday was full of sessions I wanted to attend and I had great plans to sweep the exhibit hall clean of fiction! First, I attended the Literary Tastes breakfast at the Hilton, in honor of the Notable Books committee and the Reading List Council for their excellent work in choosing last year’s winning authors, a few of whom attended. The Notable Book authors who spoke were: Lisa Margonelli (Oil on the Brain: Petroleum’s Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank), Joyce Antler (You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother), and Jon Clinch (Finn). The Reading List winning authors who spoke were: Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Natural Born Charmer) and Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind). All these authors spoke glowingly of librarians and of their amazement and delight at being chosen by librarians as “best!”<br /><br />Then … I learned about the conference shuttles (there were seven different ones, color coded, to all the different hotels). I snagged a seat on the one going to the Disneyland Hotel to take in most of the Readers’ Advisory Committee’s “Book Group Therapy” session. Unfortunately Nancy Pearl cancelled at the last minute, and the committee had to come up with its own content and speakers. I must say they did very well. David Wright’s portion of the program, “Why men don’t join book groups,” was the most interesting and entertaining! The committee used Linda Johns’ and my handouts from our 2007 “Book Group Tune-up” program. If you’re curious, you can find it at: www.readersadvisory.org/bookgroups.html<br /><br />Another shuttle (after waiting through three other shuttles-worth of hot “dewy” librarians) took me back to the Convention Center for a quick bite ($8 snack wrap and water) and to attend an authors’ panel discussion of “Post – 9/11 Fiction,” led by Keir Graf, senior editor at Booklist and author of My Fellow Americans. The other authors featured were: Ellen Gilchrist (A Dangerous Age), Carolyn See (There Will Never be Another You), and Janette Turner Hospital (Orpheus Lost).<br /><br />Afterward I wandered the exhibits finding basically nothing (not even ribbons from my editors to compete with David’s colorful badge panoply – they were out!), until Neal Wyatt spied me and introduced me to some people at the Random House booth and from Tom Doherty publishers. The only free books (4 of them) I got I ended up giving (except the Rothfuss) to the hotel concierge! I didn’t feel like shipping or hauling them. Obviously I need to learn the strategies involved in getting good stuff at conferences. Maybe Hannah can give me some pointers.<br /><br />All in all I had a blast and didn’t suffer too much from being geographically challenged. I will be a bit more confident and purposeful in planning for the midwinter conference in January 2009 in Denver. Brrr.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-27955407724332053862008-07-17T15:39:00.000-07:002008-07-17T15:46:21.538-07:00Post ALA Brown Bag and NewsWe had a great post-ALA brown bag discussion today! I'm sorry that we couldn't find a date when everyone could come, but we did have great reports and good conversation today. In attendance: Julie Ann Oiye, Marilyn Sheck, Marilynne Gardner, Truc Ha, Valerie Wonder, Jennifer Giltrop, Jane Gibson, Bo Kinney, Mary Power.<br /><br />Also, in case you haven't seen it, one of Bo's posts was included in the AL Direct Newsletter: <a href="http://link.ixs1.net/s/ve?eli=n222790&si=t143054713&cfc=3html ">http://link.ixs1.net/s/ve?eli=n222790&si=t143054713&cfc=3html </a> You have to scroll down a bit, but it is there! Also, Bo added our blog to the ALA Conference Wiki: <a href="http://wikis.ala.org/annual2008/index.php/Blogging_Annual">http://wikis.ala.org/annual2008/index.php/Blogging_Annual</a>. Just so you know that now the whole library world knows how your conference experience turned out! :-)<br /><br />Thanks again to everyone who has participated so far on the blog. I encourage you to keep posting and to comment on each other's posts! Keep those good conference vibes and energy flowing!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-43423211702328450792008-07-12T12:31:00.000-07:002008-07-12T18:09:15.469-07:00David's ALA 2008<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOxGyyQC8vTzyj146Q-N5GTuLEyXrkIrCmzpp-Hz-R1RiZG5JIWSqexW_L0TDyoalgOTGfmoyqXmRs9YOYiSsx40Abe70cGQDIacPfBrsUfxg0N7xAanK0zZHuPJKv1JjVx6JPiiZSh2o/s1600-h/Calhoun+wrassles+me.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222299164141049298" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 229px" height="219" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOxGyyQC8vTzyj146Q-N5GTuLEyXrkIrCmzpp-Hz-R1RiZG5JIWSqexW_L0TDyoalgOTGfmoyqXmRs9YOYiSsx40Abe70cGQDIacPfBrsUfxg0N7xAanK0zZHuPJKv1JjVx6JPiiZSh2o/s320/Calhoun+wrassles+me.jpg" width="296" border="0" /></a>Let me give you a summary of <strong>my ALA this year</strong>. This is mostly in lieu of all those great program notes you’re waiting for, as I actually got to attend very few programs this year. The good news here is that if you look up the various ALA cognotes and <a href="http://presentations.ala.org/index.php?title=Main_Page">online program stuff </a>for the conference, you can find far more than I ever, ever could have shared with you, which is a good reminder for us that these days even when we can’t attend a conference, we can almost always get some great stuff out of it. Finding this stuff can be as tricky as finding your way around an actual conference, as ALA is a virtual ant farm of divisions and committees, and there are some very good programming found in places that you wouldn’t think to look, but it is worth the hunt.<br /><br />The main reason I didn’t get to do many programs was I’m on a committee here – the Reader’s Advisory (RA) committee, under RUSA CODES (which translates Reference & User Services Association, Collection Development Services division, or close to that, anyway). This is the committee I moderated a panel for at last year’s ALA, one of two national RA committees, the other being the PLA; both work closely and amicably together, I’m pleased to say. (PLA is undertaking a bold experiment w/ their committee structure, btw, changing traditional committees into largely virtual communities of interest and building a new website and structure for those groups to work in. They are starting off with just three of the many PLA committees as guinea pigs, and one of those is Reader’s Advisory – quite a testament to the importance and innovative spirit of RA given that this is also one of their youngest committees. It is very exciting, especially for folks who may have felt that national committee involvement was beyond them because of travel limitations, and if any of you want to know more about this, the PLA RA folks are looking for some dedicated RA people who want to participate and help figure out this model. I’m definitely in the loop: talk to me).<br /><br />Back to my committee. Owing to the unavoidable absence of our presenter (Nancy Pearl) for our program – <strong>Book Group Therapy</strong> – our committee swung into action to assemble something in very short order out of the prodigious talent of its members. It went pretty much like this: “Hey – my uncle Jeb has use of a gigantic ballroom at the Disneyland Hotel…” “Yes, and momma can sew the costumes!” “Bucky can put the handouts on the wiki, right Buck?!” “Gee, kids – Let’s Put On a Show!!” It really was inspiring how everybody pulled together to put on a panel that wound up having almost too much stuff, and all of it pretty high quality. SPL’s own Jen Baker and Linda Johns were a part of that, contributing their own Book Group Therapy handout to the effort; Jen almost certainly would have been on the speaker’s platform too, but had a time conflict w/ her own committee. Our first 8 a.m. meeting was on Saturday, and we worked on the program, talking about what we would do and kicking around ideas for each other’s portions, as well as discussing the results of a book group survey we’ve done and are still doing. The group is just great – I love and admire everyone on there, and there is a real spirit of camaraderie and a lot of laughing and play, so much so that Andrew Smith and myself have to force ourselves to stop cracking wise or we’d never get anything done. (There are a lot of surreal things about being in Disneyland, like using a urinal to the strains of “Bibbity Bobbity Boo” – are those mouse ears on the urinal puck holder? - that just require serious comment and discussion, folks).<br /><br />The program that emerged on Sunday morning was as follows: Megan McArdle (Chicago PL and our chair and a wonderful person) kicked things off with some introductory framing and a quick review of some of the survey, including a fun sampling of unexpected titles on our ‘your group’s best / worst titles’ section that included “The Yiddish Policeman’s Ball,” “Like Water for Elephants,” and “Water from Elephants.” Sharron Smith (Ontario Canada, a great person and presenter, and good pal – I spoke last year at her <a href="http://www.thepartnership.ca/data/8/rec_docs/197_RA_Day_2007.pdf">RA conference in Toronto</a>, and will be going back next January to speak there again) took the main section of Book Group Therapy, and the part of her piece I liked best was how she modified the tenets of readers advisory – appeal characteristics like story, language, character, etc. – to her book group, helping readers to see books not just as a matter of taste, but of various storytelling styles, and encouraging them to view each other with the same tolerance and respect that advisors strive for in working w/ the public. (One great tactic here was asking members to go around and talk about the ideal book for them now & then, again helping them to know & respect each other’s reading differences as a good thing. Good Stuff).<br /><br />Andrew Smith then spoke about his library’s ‘<a href="http://www.wrl.org/bookweb/gabbags.html">Gab Bags</a>,’ and SPL’s <a href="http://www.spl.org/pdfs/RecommendedBooksforDiscussion.pdf">Book Group Collection</a>, as different models for that kind of service, and why this was a good thing to provide and for all the work involved in doing it, how it actually save a lot of work for library staffs while promoting book groups in a very tangible way. Andrew, if you don’t know him, hales from the <a href="http://bfgb.wordpress.com/">Williamsburg Regional Library </a>RA ‘hot zone,’ – a gravitational anomaly in our field where a bunch of really innovative folks are all working and advancing RA from a fairly small system, and he’s a great representative of their ethos of hard work, smarts and collegiality. He’s the model of a stand-up guy, and a blast to be around. Michelle Boisvenue-Fox of <a href="http://www.kdl.org/">Kent District Library </a>(home of the much loved <a href="http://ww2.kdl.org/libcat/WhatsNextNEW.asp">‘What’s Next’ </a>sequels resource, among other things) then spoke about thematic book groups of many stripes that they’ve been doing as a way of attracting members in some neighborhoods that were a fairly “saturated market,” – too many of those ideas to go into here – you can check our online handouts @ <a href="http://www.readersadvisory.org/">http://www.readersadvisory.org/</a> later on - but all really good stuff. Aside from being a partial doppelganger for an old theater buddy of mine who went on to join the Secret Service, Michelle is really smart and insightful, and I look forward to working more w/ her in future. Next Julie Elliott spoke about book groups and one-reads at college libraries. ALA is a huge tent, and public libraries just one part of that, and Julie’s contributions from that angle were really valuable, and got folks thinking both of things that Academic libraries can do to support leisure reading, as well as ways public institutions can work w/ academics (summer reading club for college folks, anyone?), so this was really great. In fact, in our follow-up meeting, her ideas about RA in non-public libraries got us all really excited about potential future programming and article ideas, and much-needed outreach to other ALA divisions who don’t have RA on their agendas. Great stuff.<br /><br />Lastly, I spoke. Those who know me know that I’m hardly qualified to talk about book groups, hence my topic: <strong>Why Men Don’t Join Book Groups</strong>. 51% of our survey respondents so far said they wanted more men in their groups, so this was definitely an area of interest for many attendees. I spoke for about 15 minutes (without aid of Powerpoint sight gags, btw) about various factors that might or might not come into play here, reflecting on my own experiences moderating one group (outside SPL) that turned into a meeting of the She-Woman-Man-Hater club (“…present company excepted, of course…”), and talked about the inclusion of ‘male’ among the great diversity of views we often find in book group selections, w/ suggested authors. I mentioned other strategies that can help groups become more co-ed, such as adding more non-fiction to the mix, non-fiction only groups, Media tie-ins (book & a movie), Great Books, online book groups, and father/son groups, as well as – of course – the wonderful variety of men’s book groups out there, many of which are quite ‘non-traditional’ in their approach, including feats of skill, trivia contests, beer, and atypical book group reads such as sports or periodicals. I talked about the benefits of gender diversity in a library book group, how even the most homogenous of communities have men in them, and referred to a few areas where differences in communication styles can prove challenging (e.g. you think we’re too argumentative / we think you’re avoiding conflict. Or the differing yet equally valid styles of talking about feelings, or around feelings.) Finally a plea about how one man in a book group is very scary (for the man), and two men in a book group is often a contest, even if nobody realizes that. The answer: <em>more men!</em><br /><br />The program went very well, though we didn’t wind up w/ time for Q&A. ALA is quite far-flung this year, so we were a good half-mile from the conference center, which worked in our favor in terms of reducing the exodus that might have otherwise occurred when folks got there and saw that Nancy wasn’t on the bill. We did have her action figure there, and all touched on it in some way. I felt it appropriate to my hirsute topic to use it as a ‘talking stick,’ or conch. Almost everybody stayed, and we have a pretty good turnout. Afterwards we went for lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant, and had lots of fun and beer and sang Happy Birthday to Michelle in about three keys. To wrap up committee business, we had another 8 a.m. meeting on Monday, where we did brief postmortem, followed up on next steps for the book groups survey (<a href="http://www.readersadvisory.org/">http://www.readersadvisory.org/</a>), and planning our program for ALA 2009, which is on Paranormal fiction, a very hot and very broad topic embracing lots of areas. We discussed moderators and speakers for this, and are now going after some A-listers (Gaiman, Meyer, etc) to see what we can get. We also talked about future programming ideas, and some other business; it was a full meeting. I’m sad to be one of the (rather too many) folks rotating off of this committee after my quick two-year term (mainly owing to the expense of going to all these conferences – almost all my cohorts in the RA pond are more fully-funded that we are for this), but do intend to keep plugged in to their work as an ex-parte virtual member for the year ahead, and also to be a presenter for them – and PLA – in the not too distant future.<br /><br />As for the rest of the conference, much of it for a jaded attendee such as myself (or aging roué, as I like to think of it) had to do with touching base, chewing the fat, or breaking bread with a whole lot of folks that I collaborate w/ in various ways, but only see at these things. This includes editors and assorted others at Booklist, Library Journal, NoveList, Kirkus, ALA and Libraries Unlimited, as well as admired colleagues/pals w/ things like LibraryThing and Unshelved, and wonderful contacts in the publishing world such as <a href="http://www.earlyword.com/">Nora Rawlinson</a>. It is attending the annual dinner thrown by NoveList’s Duncan Smith for NoveList contributors, where we got into a really lively and laughter-filled discussion about the changing shape of the online world and libraries’ role in that, between salad, steak and sorbet. It is catching up with Joyce Saricks, or Barry Trott, and mapping out the future of the He Reads / She Reads column w/ Kaite Stover as we walk one of those long walks between venues. It is bumping into old classmates and workmates - like bumping into Kristin Buxton at Target where I’d gone to buy a toothbrush - and it just wouldn’t be ALA if I didn’t run into Tracie Hall and get very real with her for five minutes – we always run into each other and have these great little mind-melds that we both love. It is going to the iSchool reception to see a few old pals, and meet some new ones, and watch vegans attempt to navigate the House of Blues bar snacks. It is gawkish fanboy approaches to folks like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GydbXaquQZs">Jessamyn West </a>or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLe-4pDAruQ">Jon Scieszka</a>. It is talking with a couple of New York library systems about the possibility of my coming out there to do some talks some time – an East Coast tour. It is talking with a number of other SPL attendees such as Marilyn Sheck, and it is checking in with and throwing out little unasked conference tips to a number of iSchool & SPL newbies and ALA first-timers who were in attendance, such as Bo Kinney and Jay Mann. This whole species of thing gets lumped together under the mildly derogatory term <strong>"schmoozing,"</strong> but as you can see it is so much more complex than that. Also, oddly enough, it takes a huge amount of energy – sort of like working a busy 12 hour at DTH or BAL – so I was pretty zombied out by the 3rd day.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSFxOyc6juiKoCYNYOXzdgFrws3bcSjiO0U-dVLapevCpOfeXM-WXfKRyr_CYUL0Z4nW5noKcJxjfCvPhIlVZjSqWpj12YFMFxnEwpCQRYhQ8uI8cIOxgm-YR7RCH67KJ94b-sgfLewWs/s1600-h/book+cart+drill+team.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5222233769398225186" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSFxOyc6juiKoCYNYOXzdgFrws3bcSjiO0U-dVLapevCpOfeXM-WXfKRyr_CYUL0Z4nW5noKcJxjfCvPhIlVZjSqWpj12YFMFxnEwpCQRYhQ8uI8cIOxgm-YR7RCH67KJ94b-sgfLewWs/s320/book+cart+drill+team.jpg" border="0" /></a>Speaking of zombies (you’ll see), probably the best unasked conference tip I threw out to those newbies was to be sure and attend the <strong>Book Cart Drill Team Nationals</strong> on Sunday afternoon. I don’t think many of them had planned to go, and it would necessitate the tragedy of missing at talk by Joe Janes, but I think we’re all glad we did. This year was a much stronger and larger field that last, with eight entrants, and three serious contenders for the prize: a small all-woman team in glittering coats who did a live-miked version of Hey Big Spender (Hey Big Reader, actually) that included <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AtxqDbrE60">a lot of sashay, bump & grind </a>and a spectacular move with one librarian going under another as she did the splits between two carts(!!); a very creatively costumed group with books on their heads that spun, who did a great medley using <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh27C1dkNgg">sultry sign-language </a>(on the whole it was a pretty sex-drenched contest this year), and a costume extravaganza that went from a Weird Science thing w/ dry ice reactions to a full-on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guJrnBxFees">Thriller Zombie Dance</a>. (This group – ‘the Well-Stacked Scibrarians’ from Santa Monica, took the gold cart.) In the bottom five was a sweet number to Bjork’s ssshhhh song; a very adorably unpolished group of California Raisins; a complicated James Bond routine that was sort of like one of those elaborate Gene Kelly mimetic dance numbers, only with no actual dancers involved, and book carts in the middle; a feel good California Girls routine that had everybody bopping and clapping; and a younger group that kicked serious butt with an ambitious surf-rock hip-hop routine that just missed the Bronze cart: I predict great things for those kids. The whole thing is hilariously emceed by Jon Scieszka and Mo Willems, who have several running gags, and at one point looked like they were going to get into a free form rap using just the words 'DEMCO' (who sponsors) and a Flava Flav-esque ‘<em>Daayyyymm!”</em><br /><br /><strong>Why am I telling you all this?</strong> Because in truth, I think that aside from the aforementioned schmoozing, things like the Book Cart Drill Team Nationals are really the heart of conference going. The more, shall we say, content-centered programs vary wildly in quality, and with a very few exceptions are the sort of thing you can pretty much get out of reading our professional literature. Those of you haven’t been to conference can approximate much of that by taking a few days an immersing yourselves in Computers in Libraries, The Progressive Librarian, RUSQ, Library Journal, and things like that, plus a few books. The part you can’t do from home is stuff like the drill team event: an utterly joyous, deeply silly, thoroughly heartwarming celebration of our mirth, our spirit, and our place in the American pageant. It makes me cheer, and tear up, and laugh. (Laugh almost as hard as the guys I flew down here with – two perfect strangers in the plane’s back row, where we convulsed over our favorite South Park sketches and stuff like that). It is a welcome opportunity for hundreds of librarians to not take ourselves seriously, while bursting with pride over who we are and what we do. This is where I truly recharge.<br /><br />A similar not-well-attended but deeply special program I attended was <a href="http://blog.booklistonline.com/2008/07/07/what-we-did-at-our-summer-conference/">a stellar panel of authors </a>assembled by Booklist – Carolyn See, Janette Turner Hospital, and Ellen Gilchrist, all talking about their post 9/11 novels. I had to miss the first part of this, and came in during Hospital’s remarks, and was transfixed and deeply moved by what she was saying. You know I’m not always crazy about author events, but here were three really outstanding author events, strung right together. Fantastic. Likewise, the crowd was not huge for the <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/alscevents/alscannual/poetryblast5.cfm">5th Annual Poetry Bla</a>st (right next door to the Young Native American authors awards, you could hear beads shake through the wall, and I grabbed Sherman Alexie’s hand in passing and thanked him for the Sonics thing), where a wonderful diversity of children’s poets read their works. How special and moving this was, in how many ways, I’m a bit powerless to convey: profound, delightful, sensuous, inspiring, wonderful, awesome – all words meant their truest sense. And I had to leave early, to get waaay over to another hotel for the <a href="http://libr.org/amtf/">Alternative Media </a>Reception – formerly SRRT’s Free Speech Buffet – a paid event w/ a handful of radical presses and bookstores and libraries, and, of course, really cool librarians. It was down the hall from a big posh crowded Gale’s Best Library event w/ a free bar (ours was pay), so a number of us dropped in on that in our tshirts and shorts to brazenly get a free glass of wine and take it back to our own event. There was good cheese and desert and I got in a very intense discussion with a couple of folks active since the sixties/seventies and a nice librarian from <a href="http://www.plcmc.lib.nc.us/">Charlotte Mecklenburg PL </a>(a super visionary system that is the home of <a href="http://www.plcmc.org/readers_club/">Readers Club </a>and many other great online features that were 2.0 before anyone was calling it 2.0) who is stepping in as SRRT chair (four idealists: a socialist, an activist, a pragmatist, a skeptic – we scared off the atheist) over God, human nature, tribalism, complexity, political effectiveness… (yeh, one of those conversations. All we needed was some Pink Floyd and something stronger than the Gin & Tonic). That went pretty late, and was so much more satisfying than the more typical ‘Look how wild and crazy we librarians can get on someone else’s tab’ kind of thing that seems the norm.<br /><br />As far as traditional programs I caught, the only one really worth mentioning here was the ACRL President’s Program – Bo Kinney was there too – featuring <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ5baAOrxXY">Dan Ariely</a>, titled after his book: “<a href="https://catalog.spl.org/?menu=search&aspect=power&index=.TW&term=predictably+irrational">Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions</a>.” You can get a full sense of this by reading or looking into his book or reviews of it: basically it is a pretty head-spinning look at just how deeply susceptible we are to some pretty astonishing errors. He was a very good speaker, and had some fun exercises w/ visual illusions to help illustrate how we miss things. Not sure what I’ll do with it – though it came in handy during my conversation with the activist, the atheist, et al, later that day.<br /><br />By the way, all that I said earlier about those special programs that are the most inspirational? The good news is, it is pretty much the same inspiration we get when we just stop a moment and see each other at work and give due value to what we see, all around our branch, our department, our whole library system. So watch a children’s storytime, read a really complex and expertly-handled Questionpoint, look beside you at the kindness and skill of your own colleagues, and the indefatigable support we get from our hard working, service-oriented crew, and you’ll be inspired too!David Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03605386900144746176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-62000426560478940652008-07-12T11:16:00.000-07:002008-07-12T11:29:20.335-07:00One More Thing...JosieI also attended a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">workshop</span> on Collection Management and mostly the discussion was about floating collections. Many libraries through out the country (and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">probably</span> world) are doing this very effectively. A floating collection is where a library does not have ownership of items, but <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">receive</span> their collection based on patron requests. The collection floats around based on what is being requested at a particular branch. I see many benefits to this, the main benefit is to the environment. It greatly decreases the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">amount</span> of delivery, which really saves on transportation costs, which impacts pollution and our use of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">fossil</span> fuels. Since it decreases deliveries, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">LA's</span> spend significantly less time processing bins. The draw backs that I see are, collections must be constantly be shifted and patrons that know how to work the system will WORK IT. My main worry is that people who know how to use our hold system will create an awesome library for themselves and their neighborhood, where as people who don't know how to use our hold system or are less proactive will end up with the old and ugly books. A solution to this would be to only float popular items, such as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">dvds</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">cds</span> and popular <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">fiction</span>. In essence, the things that take up the most space in our bins. This is a pretty hot issue right now, does anyone else have any thoughts on this?Josiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02486564342558686599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-63705481013176326772008-07-12T10:41:00.000-07:002008-07-12T11:16:19.413-07:002 More Great Workshops-Josie<em>Teens in Your Branch, From Trauma to Triumph?</em><br />I attended two great workshops that I wanted to share with everyone. The first was on "Teens in Your Branch Library: From Trauma to Triumph?"There were librarians on the panel from Queens, Oregon and Cleveland. They all started various programs like a teen advisory board and they used their computer labs and meeting rooms as a teen space in the afternoons, but the thing all three librarians stressed was the training the staff <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">received</span>. The library in Queens opted to use <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">their</span> security funding on training instead of a security guard and their incident reports have been dramatically reduced. All three library systems said that all their staff members from the custodians to the City Librarian attended a workshop called <em>Everyone Serves Youth, this t</em>raining has really helped all staff members deal with youth and other <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">librarian</span> patrons effectively. They also suggested that libraries buy yearbooks from the local <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">high schools</span>. This really helped the librarians get to know the teens and effectively identify teens who were misbehaving. All in all, the thing that they stressed was training, training, training! The Cleveland library uses their incident reports to identify what kind of training that needs to be developed and which branches need refersher trainings.<br /><br /><em>Beyond White Privilege 101: Continuing the Discussion </em><br />This workshop was a discussion about how our libraries are effected by white privilege. The speaker was George <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Lipstitz</span> who wrote, The <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Possessive</span> Investment in Whiteness: How white people profit from identity politics. The main ideas in his <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">speech</span> were:<br /><ol><li>"Whiteness" or "People of Color" issues are not really about color, but a structure that has been put in place. We need to change the structure.</li><li>The issues that exist today cannot be repaired with a 1960's skills set. Our job is to create a new skill set to deal w/2008 racism issues. </li></ol><p>Afterwards we had a discussion about how white privilege impacts our institutions. During this <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">discussion</span> and many of the other presentations I <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">attended</span> at ALA, I was really impressed with the Seattle Public Library System. There were a handful of libraries that were doing things better, but for the most part we are ahead of the curve in most areas. The issues that my table came up with that were effected by white privilege were:</p><ol><li>Librarians in low income areas may need additional or different resources to provide equal services to their patrons. We may need to look at how we allocate resources in a different way. An example of this was security. One librarians at my table was from a low income area and she felt that she not able to be a librarian because so much of her time was spent on security issues and so her patrons were loosing out valuable reference services. She felt the library needed <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">additional</span> staff because they had additional security issues.</li><li>Acknowledge subtle racism. Everyone at our table had experience with this we felt this is a 2008 racism issue and we need training on how to deal with subtle racism with our patrons and other library staff in an effective way.</li><li>When ever there is a problem that concerns race, it is viewed as a problem that people of color must deal with. A librarian from an academic library brought this issue up and he said anytime issues of racism come up it seems like a coalition of people of color are gathered to deal with the problem. Where as, white people should be expected to take part in the discussion. </li><li>What supports can we build into our human resources department that will <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">help</span> us grow new leaders from our support staff? What kind of additional training can we provide to support Library Associates and Pages in becoming librarians and eventually managers.</li></ol>Josiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02486564342558686599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-37998798134471590952008-07-07T12:11:00.000-07:002008-07-07T12:41:40.123-07:00ALA Experience-Josie<br />I didn't blog at ALA because the line was always really <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">loooong</span></span> to access the computers, and so <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">forgive</span> my late posts.<br /><br />On Saturday I dragged myself out of bed at to attend the 8:00 session, YA Literature, Graphic Novels, and Books on Popular Culture: How Do They Attract Reluctant Readers? The authors that attended were Barry <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Lyga</span></span> (The Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl), <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Kozu</span></span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Kibuishi</span></span> (Amulet) and Holly Black (the S<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">piderwick</span></span> chronicles). They all gave their definition of what a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">reluctant</span> reader was and then went on to talk about their work. It didn't seem like authors were prepared to discuss reluctant readers, with the exception of Holly Black. Part of the discussion focused on pop culture, which is always fun and trends in YA Lit. They all predict books like Steam Punk are going to be the next big thing.<br /><br />One of the best workshops I attended was on The Bilingual Mind: How Children Acquire and Use Language. This workshop <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">summarized</span> the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">research</span> that has been done on the subject and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">recommendations</span> that librarians can give patrons. This is a very controversial issue around the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">country</span> and a lot of the advise given to parents by <em>professionals </em>on this subject is false. The attendees <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">received</span> a free book, <em>The Bilingual Edge, Why, When and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language </em>Kendall King, Ph.D., which presents the newest <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">research</span> simply while using practical examples.Josiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02486564342558686599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-35391214103336111942008-07-03T13:00:00.001-07:002008-07-08T09:29:49.278-07:00Post - ALA Brown Bag discussionHi all -- awesome job with the posts! Thanks for making this first SPL conference blog a big success. It looks like you all had an awesome time. We are going to have a post-conference brown bag discussion on Thursday, JULY 17th from 12-1 @ CEN. Please try to attend, it is a great way to expand on the sharing done here. I'll let you know when I book the room. <br /><br />Also, if you talk to anyone from the group who attended ALA and they did not get the invitation to be an author on the blog, please let me know and I will resend them the invitation. Thanks! MaryUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-23450025490120716282008-07-01T16:15:00.000-07:002008-07-01T16:34:00.144-07:00Just a Little MoreI thought I was totally done with ALA yesterday, but since I was coming in to the conference center to have lunch with Josie, I thought I would stop at the exhibits hall one more time. Everyone says that they have a "fire sale" on the last day, but all the exhibitors looked like they were protecting their wares pretty well, and most of the books were for sale, rather than "free." I put the free in quotes because nothing is truly free and I will let you interpret that as you will.<br /><br />However, I did get some cool tranformation pens from the <a href="http://63.174.244.217/index.asp">Jan Way</a> booth. Most of their teen oriented products were good, although a few looked like little kid stuff. They don't have the transformation pens on the website yet it looks like, but they are in the glossy pamphlet they gave me. But, they are expensive--1.99 if you order 250, so I doubt we will go there.<br /><br />I also stopped by the Vernon booth and won a $25 coupon for their products. I somehow doubt that I will be using that. Especially since they gave me a lovely pen shaped like a syringe...seems like the worst idea ever. When I was a student teacher I was saddened to see a little boy pretending a pen was a syringe and that he was injecting himself with drugs.<br /><br />I also stopped by some of the furniture exhibits. I wish I could get some teen-centric furniture after the Teen Third Space presentation I went to. The teen space at University is so limited in what you can do. Right now we have some *cough* lovely, stiff, high-backed chairs and a couple of low stools, which are at least useful.<br /><br />Then I had a really nice visit with Josie and Truc before Josie had to leave for her flight.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-15470379598579645542008-07-01T14:37:00.000-07:002008-07-01T14:58:15.971-07:00All of ALA - CheresseI finally caught up on my sleep after four incredibly long busy days. I'll be posting more indepth information later on some of the programs I attended, but in short it was a great first time ALA Annual experience. I fit in about as much as I possibly could, and heard some great speakers on a variety of topics. This is what I'll be writing about:<br /><br />Friday<br /><ul><li>Got Tweens? Serving Younger Teens & Tweens (Yalsa preconference)</li></ul><p>Saturday</p><ul><li>PLA 101 Annual conference tips for first time attendees</li><li>Exhibits</li><li>Public Programs in a Shoebox: What if you don't have a meeting room?</li><li>Teen Parents Raising Readers: Teen Staff Making it Happen</li><li>Science Fiction & Fantasy: Looking at Information Technology and the Information Rights of the Individual (it was a PACKED house, I had to STAND for the entire program)</li></ul><p>Sunday</p><ul><li>Beyond Gaming Tournaments (I just commented on Jessi's post)</li><li>Winning Over Boy Readers w/ California's Teacher of the Year (just commented on Jessi's post again)</li><li>Exhibits</li><li>Hey! I want to do that Too!: Gaming and the Elementary Age Child</li></ul><p>Monday</p><ul><li>Reference Services to Teens</li><li>Research Fuels the Author’s Fire</li><li>The American Drea @ Your Library (I just commented on Truc's posting)</li><li>Exhibits again</li><li>Proquest's Lunch & Learn (free lunch!!)</li><li>YALSA President program and Teen Third Space (I commented on Jessi's post)</li></ul>Cheressehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03116731365791841812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-85426679907858879312008-07-01T14:18:00.000-07:002008-07-01T14:45:07.126-07:00Interview with authors- Khaled Hosseini and Jamie Lee Curtis<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Khaled</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Hosseine</span> was so great during his interview. I'm glad I read his first book "The Kite Runner" and saw the movie before I went to this section because both gave a great appreciation of his interview. The interviewer asked really good questions about the characters, the relationship of the author with his characters , author's political point of view about Afghanistan and the Taliban. I found it's so intriguing how much the author's own experiences were reflected in the story such as his relationship with his father and his <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">country. I</span> also appreciated his honest opinion about the war with the Taliban. He said, "I don't see an easy solution if there is one. When you promise the people that you'd give them basic neccessities such as clean water and shelter so that you can bomb their country and you fail to give them those, how will you offer them a solution?" This was definitely worth getting up early to!<br /><br />Jamie Lee Curtis was very funny and charming. She won the heart of the audience easily. It was a real treat to be at her section at the end of the day. It was very light-hearted and fun. She read her latest book "Big Words for Small People". This is something that I would <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">definitely</span> recommend to kids. She was not joking when she said big words. She used words like cooperate and consequences etc... along with really funny and simply examples and beautiful and colorful illustrations. I can see kids having fun and giggling throughout the book as they learn new words.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-35924382008144770092008-06-30T19:31:00.000-07:002008-06-30T20:07:17.582-07:00Outreach- The American Dream Starts at Your LibraryThis is one of the most interesting sections that I've attended. Four of the panelists were the were the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">recipients</span> of the grant. This was awarded by the <a href="http://www.dollargeneral.com/Community/Pages/GrantPrograms.aspx">Dollar General. </a>Each library was awarded a one time grant of five thousand dollars to use for programming and collection development.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Boyton</span> Beach City Library used the money to fund a program calls "Women's Circle Literacy Project". The goal of the project was to help women enhancing employment skills, becoming more self sufficient and active leaders in the cultural communities.Their participants were 1/3 Haitians, 1/3 African Americans and 1/3 Hispanics. These women also get to choose materials to learn and use at home. Bilingual cookbooks, home repair books and Oxford picture dictionary were among the most requested items. I find it's really interesting and helpful that they have teen volunteers to play and read to the children so that the mothers can concentrate on learning.<br /><br />Miguel <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Vincente</span> from Pinewoods Library mentioned that they have a health <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">seminar</span> that provide information about dental care, heart disease and other heath issues for the Hispanic community. He mentioned that a lot of patrons come from very poor communities and the health seminars help them learn to identify symptoms and look for help at the early stage.<br /><br />While everyone's programs differ a little, they all emphasized the importance of building trust when working the cultural communities.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-87147128682977841592008-06-30T19:24:00.000-07:002008-06-30T20:10:45.525-07:00The Teen Third SpaceMy final session was The Teen Third Space. There were 3 speakers during this panel, two talked about teen spaces in libraries and the third spoke about having a teen webpage separate from the library website and catalog. <a href="http://presentations.ala.org/images/d/df/Compiled_Director%27s_Responses.doc">Here</a> is a link to the handouts--it is a word doc, so don't be surprised when it asks you if you want to open it.<br /><br /><a href="http://indielibrarian.blogspot.com/">Kimberly Bolan</a> is a facilities planning and design consultant and has published a book displaying her design triumphs. She is also a librarian with 20 years of experience. She went into the history of the idea of a "third place" and summarized it as being a social surrounding separate from home and work or school, as well as an environment that facilitates community building. She argued that creating a comfortable teen space increases use of all our services, which is always desirable. In order to get teen input, she recommends showing teens the options, rather than saying "you want [this], don't you?" (Hmm, reference interview anyone?) A couple of the things she says makes teens happy in a space are food and drink and a variety of furniture.<br /><br /><a href="http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/berniera/berniera.php">Anthony Bernier</a> is an assistant professor at San Jose State University. His presentation was called, "Why Bean Bags 'Bite:' YA Seating." Obviously not a big fan of the bean bag chair, not only because they are messy and get smelly, but because teens don't like them and they are uncomfortable. He have 4 "rules" for choosing teen area furniture:<br /><ol><li>Maximize Options</li><li>Mix and <u>Don't</u> Match</li><li>Offer Movement</li><li>Explore the Floor</li></ol>What this comes to, is offer a variety and don't make teens sit the way our grandparents thought teens should sit. Offer chairs and stools that are comfortable and offer a number of ways to position themselves. Let them put their feet up, mix up the colors and don't expect things to stay where you put them.<br /><br />The final presenter was Angela Sigg, web developer of the Denver Public Library. She worked with teens and staff at her system to create a <a href="http://teens.denverlibrary.org/">teen web page</a> for the library. Her summary of what teens like in a website:<br /><ul><li>short blocks of text</li><li>one that reflects what they like and who they are</li><li>mentions regular teen patrons</li><li>features their reviews of books and movies</li></ul>What they don't like:<br /><ul><li>Boring!</li><li>too much text</li><li>using teen "lingo"--trying to be cool</li></ul>That was the last of it. Sorry to say I did not win the raffle, and neither did Cheresse--they were giving away some cool notebooks and teen read week shirts.<br /><br />Oh, speaking of <a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2008/index.cfm">teen read week</a>, the YALSA president's meeting was just before the panel, and the president urged us all to register if we are participating in teen read week. It is free and helps them report the number of participants, which in turn helps them get funding. All around goodness.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-91076777476636982812008-06-30T18:08:00.000-07:002008-06-30T18:31:30.302-07:00Ergonomics and Workplace WellnessI attended two events today addressing issues of health and wellness in the workplace—one was pretty broad and the other focused more specifically on ergonomics. These topics have come up at some of our recent staff meetings, and I know they have come up at branches and Central recently as well, so I hoped that I might learn some useful things I could bring back with me.<br /><br />The ergonomics session was led by Judy Village, a professional ergonomist from the University of British Columbia. It was targeted more toward architects and planners, and I'm not planning on being involved in any major building redesigns anytime soon, so some of it went a little over my head. But there were some very useful tips that could apply to more minor redesigns of workspace and workflow, which any of us could probably use.<br /><br />For example:<br /><ul><li>Take a "systems approach" when thinking about ergonomics. While you may think you need a new chair because your back hurts, the problem might be how you're sitting in the chair, or the amount of time you spend in it, or the kinds of things you're doing, so getting a new chair may not solve your problem. </li><li>Think about <em>everyone</em> who's using the workspace, including staff, patrons, IT services, cleaning staff, supervisors/administration, occasional visitors, couriers/postage delivery, etc.</li><li>Look at ways to revise your workspace so that similar tasks are near each other and you don't have to make a lot of awkward motions to do your day-to-day job.</li><li>Break down processes into all their component tasks so you can analyze them and question if everything you're doing is actually necessary. Village gave an example of a library shelving operation that she broke down into 24 component tasks, 15 of which were unrelated to shelving! Eliminating unnecessary steps can make the workflow process more efficient in addition to making it safer.</li><li>Try out different ways of organizing tasks and workspaces and evaluate them alongside one another. If you're reorganizing a space that is used by multiple workers, see how different configurations work for different-sized staff.</li><li>Don't try to find the "perfect" posture for your chair and then sit that way all day. You should be able to achieve a neutral posture (with a straight back, right angles of knees and elbows), but posture change and movement is essential.</li></ul>The second session was co-presented by Lois Dye and Siobhan Champ-Blackwel. They took a broader look at workplace wellness, arguing that it has seven components that need to be in balance: physical, environmental, social, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, and occupational. Their presentation was based around information that can be found at the ALA-APA <a href="http://www.ala-apa.org/wellness/home.html">Circle of Wellness </a>website, so I refer you there for some intriguing tips and tools.Bohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361039557253536285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-74477491351255991702008-06-30T12:35:00.000-07:002008-06-30T12:59:05.291-07:00Hello from Northgaters...Hi everyone-<br /><br />This is Truc, LAII at Northgate. Just want to say a quick hello to all of my fellow SPL colleagues. I'm here with Josie Watanabe, teen librarian. We're staying at the Ramada Maingate on Harbor Blvd. If you're meeting up tonight, I'd love to join you guys. Probably best to reach me at my cell phone 859-7034.<br /><br />Josie and I were at the Cultural Diversity Fair yesterday with Valerie Wonders. Many people stopped by to ask about our services.<br /><br />Yesterday, I also saw an interesting presentation from Joe Jane at a LITA's section. He used the Central Branch and NET as examples of how we identify users, their needs and how we provide services that assess those needs. It's really nice to see how our libraries are portrayed at a major conference like this.<br /><br />I've also attended several sections that focused on services to immigrants and refugees. These sections made me realized how far we have come with all the programs that are already existed at our libraries.<br /><br />Ok, gotta go to my next section. Will blog more :-) Hope to see some of you around.<br /><br />TrucUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-81106662209347366402008-06-30T12:05:00.000-07:002008-06-30T19:24:15.649-07:00Excellence in Library Services to Young AdultsThis morning I attend YALSA's <a href="http://www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog2&_pn=product_detail&_op=2611">Excellence in Library Service to Young Adults</a>. It was a great showcase of 4 different library's projects in serving unique populations of teens. There were posters from about 10 library systems all together, but only 4 presented. All were larger systems, although some of them did not have prior teen programing or services in place. Many of these projects were gateways into further serving teens, even if the programs themselves did not last.<br /><br />The first library, which I missed the name of, held a 2 day teen summit where they invited teens to come and hear speakers on different hot topics. To entice teens to the summit, they emphasized big name speakers and provided a box lunch. One cool idea I came away with was to have a sign in "sheet". When their sponsor wanted to keep track of who attended with a paper sign in, the librarian came up with the idea of putting a regular flat sheet over the tables and provided sharpies for teens to "sign the sheet". This allowed tracking for numbers and names, and ended up being a piece of artwork when teens added their tags to the sheet as well.<br /><br />Brazos Price from Austin Public Library was the second presenter. He spoke about their Second Chance program which formed a library branch inside both the short and long term juvenile facilities in their city. The teen spaces were very neat and clean, with a lot of tables and space, and had an impressive number of books. They started out with donated ARC's and second hand books, but have impressed their admin so much that they now have their own budget for new materials and have surpassed a couple of their branch libraries in circulation numbers.<br /><br />Hennepin County Library/Brooksdale Branch started an International Teen Club at their library. The program is really inspirational in its scope. Most of the members are Hmong, but they are open to any nationality. They have developed their own programs, volunteer to help the library, designed their own logo which they use on marketing and t-shirts, made a dvd to teach new immigrants how to use the library, started a peer tutoring group and give workshops to other clubs that want to start one and have cultural workshops to help keep their culture alive here in the US.<br /><br />The New Scotland Branch of the Albany Library System created a Skate Club to help bring a population of skaters into the library. The skaters had previously used the library only for internet, bathrooms and water while they spent the day skating on the expanse of concrete in front of the library. The branch librarian was smart enough to recruit a library school student who also happened to be a pro skater to come facilitate the club and they partnered with a local for profit indoor skate facility. He brought video of his own skating and encouraged the teens to do so as well. The club grew into an advisory type of group and gave feedback as to how the teen area in the new branch should look and feel, as well as helped develop their new teen employment program. The Skate Club will not be back this year since Albany is going through a lot of closures and reopenings with remodels and new libraries being built, but the group's input will live on and many of the teens that were involved with the club are now involved in other ways.<br /><br />The final presentation was really short. The Alameda County Library recruited teens to teach seniors how to use computers and navigate the internet. It sounds like it was a very positive experience.<br /><br />One thing I took away from this session was the power of giving teens a voice. Making them feel that the library is their place, instead of just a place they visit. One way that I saw this in many of the sessions was allowing the teens to come up with their own logo/graphic that represented who they are. At some point, I would like to facilitate an art contest with that in mind.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-75960947913121945032008-06-30T08:27:00.000-07:002008-07-07T13:14:05.817-07:00Bookmobiles!Since I'm here under the aegis of <a href="http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=branch_mobile&branchID=30">Mobile Services </a>(where I'm a CLA), and because I'm also a member of the OLOS Subcommittee on Bookmobiles, I've been trying to attend as much bookmobile/mobile library related events as possible while I'm here. Actually, the best part about coming to conferences like this is the fact that I get to meet people doing similar services from all over the country. This is really important, because being in a service that is unique within SPL means that I don't get a lot of opportunities to network and share ideas with others in similar positions.<br /><br />Thankfully, there have been <em>tons</em> of interesting mobile library events at this year's conference. (I believe this is mainly due to the aforementioned Subcommittee on Bookmobiles, which is in its second year and is doing a bang-up job at planning conference programs.) The highlight was a well-attended morning session yesterday featuring Masha Hamilton, author of <a href="https://catalog.spl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=dial&menu=search&aspect=power&index=.GW&term=the+camel+bookmobile#focus">The Camel Bookmobile</a>, a novel about a traveling library service that takes books to rural areas of Kenya by camel four days a week. Hamilton spoke about her visit to Kenya to see this service in action, and talked about the incredible excitement expressed by library patrons for whom this may be their only way of reading books.<br /><br />The session's other speaker was Janice Ridgeway of the Cleveland Public Library, who gave an inspiring talk about innovation and partnering between mobile services/outreach programs and other community organizations, as well as other units of the library. Many of her suggestions were applicable more broadly to any library service—thinking creatively; being politically savvy; basing innovations and partnerships on <em>causes</em> and <em>needs</em> rather than one-time <em>events</em>; and getting to know your community and your library intimately—but she stressed the particular importance of this approach for outreach programs.<br /><br />Ridgeway described outreach librarians as "the rebels of the profession," and talked about how bookmobiles in Cleveland have responded innovatively to community needs. For example, the home foreclosure crisis is hitting Cleveland hard: many public school buses have had to reroute to homeless shelters in order to pick up the large number of kids who have moved there. The bookmobile has followed suit, delivering books to shelters, but she pointed out the need for the library to adjust policies accordingly: residents are still required to show proof of a permanent address in order to get a library card, which is closing off access to a larger and larger segment of the population. Libraries need to be more flexible in adapting to new situations, and allow room for creative thinking, she said, adding "We need renegades!"<br /><br />After this talk I attended a roundtable discussion about the huge variety of options for Mobile Services programs. The facilitator of this discussion, Everett Public Library's Theresa Gemmer, echoed Ridgeway's point about mobile library programs being some of the most innovative units of a library. Bookmobiles were the first to go to shelters in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and have been used in many communities to provide a temporary library site when libraries are damaged in disasters or closed for renovation. "The options are only limited by what you can think of doing," she said.<br /><br />With this in mind, the roundtable participants shared some of the interesting things they are trying in their programs, including distributing uncatalogued reading material and medical information to hospital waiting rooms, and providing all kinds of early literacy programming. I shared some of the exciting things SPL Mobile Services is doing, including our early literacy programs in which our children's librarian invites families from the child care centers we visit to come to their neighborhood branch libraries; our home service program; our lobby stops&emdash;where we bring carts of materials into retirement homes and senior housing; and our targeted Russian service, where we work with a Russian language librarian to deliver books to Russian immigrant communities in Seattle. It was exciting to hear about what other programs are trying, and also to share the work of our Mobile Services program.<br /><br />To further this spirit of communication and collaboration, I have been working with the Subcommittee on Bookmobiles to develop and maintain a <a href="http://olos.ala.org/bookmobiles">bookmobile wiki</a>, which bookmobilers can share information about guidelines, services, vendors, and other ideas. I'm looking forward to continuing to add content to this wiki, and to encourage broader participation so it can be a truly collaborative effort.<br /><br />Finally, in the afternoon there was a parade of bookmobiles, during which ten bookmobiles from around California drove around the Convention Center and parked so we could tour them. This was really interesting, and I will post pictures and video as soon as I get a chance. There was a wide variety of vehicles to match different kinds of services, from Anaheim Public Library's tractor trailer (!) to Lewis Library's (in Fontana, CA) children's bookmobile that had almost no bookshelves but consisted almost entirely of seating space for storytimes. It was great to tour the different vehicles and to talk to other bookmobile staff about what they do with them.<br /><br />So my head is full now of new ideas for bookmobiles, and I'm excited to bring them back to SPL with me.<br /><br /><em><strong>Update #1</strong>: </em>The Bookmobile parade was featured in yesterday's <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/library-libraries-visits-2080298-anaheim-public">Orange County Register article </a>about the conference.<br /><br /><em><strong>Update #2</strong>:</em> If you click the "more photos" button on the Orange County Register article, and scroll to photo #3, you will see a photo of "man" taking pictures of the parade. That "man" is yours truly. Fame!Bohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361039557253536285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-47974382101998890082008-06-29T22:03:00.000-07:002008-06-29T23:04:10.778-07:00Sunday--JessiThis morning I got up way too early (there are many reasons why I love working in a public library, and one if them is that I hardly ever have to get up before 8am) and went to a session called Beyond Gaming Tournaments. The materials can be found <a href="http://presentations.ala.org/index.php?title=Beyond_Gaming_Tournaments">here</a>, although I noticed that all the slides and handouts aren't there yet.<br /><br />The first speaker was Craig Davis of Youth Digital Arts Cyber School. He recommended training teens to create their own digital art, music and video games. He showed us how professional sounding music can be made easily using cakewalk and nitty (sp) a music programming language. That could be combined with digital artwork and made into a video game. He suggested having a teen design a game that featured the library or website, linked to the library home page, to interest teens.<br /><br />The next panelist was Elizabeth Saxton of the Cleveland Public Library. She told us about gaming advisory boards and how engaged teens could be in the decision making concerning library gaming. One idea that I found compelling was to have teens write game reviews or news type coverage of gaming tournaments to post on a blog or publish in a zine or newsletter.<br /><br />The third panelist was Amy McNally from Ridgedale Library. Her presentation was mostly done by the two teens she brought along. They have an anime club and a cosplay costume making club. This part of the session had little to do with gaming, but it was interesting to listen to.<br /><br />I ran into Cheresse at this session, so I accompanied her to Winning over Boy Readers, next. It was a great session and Alan Lawrence Sitomer was an inspiring speaker, however, I don't think he answered the question that the title poses. We did hear lots of good reasons why boys (and girls) should read, as well as a lot of statistics linking race, literacy and success rates for teens, as well as how to make teens comfortable with reading. He said that it is important to listen to what the teen is interested in, rather than forcing what we think of as literature on them. Also, physical and mental comfort are key. These things may sound obvious, but many people miss them in their interactions with teens. I was impressed and went back to the exhibit hall after the session to pick up his arc, <span style="font-style:italic;">The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez</span>. Mr. Sitomer moonlights as a YA author.<br /><br />My last session was Fostering Youth Advocacy: How Libraries can help. There were 4 speakers at this panel from Oakland County Library, two high school students in their Youth Leadership Council, the Teen Services Librarian and an administrator. Most of the talking was done by the teens, who were fairly accomplished public speakers for their ages. The program consists of a group of around 12 teens who serve themselves and the library in different ways to advocate for their rights. Some members go every year to State "Leg" day (legislature?), where they sit in on talks and have the opportunity to be heard on important issues to teens. They also lobby for better teen areas in the branches, library improvements and take part in regular monthly meetings to discuss what is important to them. Jane was also at this session, so I will be interested in her take on it.<br /><br />I met David and Bo at the Book Cart Derby after all the sessions were done. I had never seen one before and was amazed by the level of the competition. Many teams had flashy, expensive looking costumes and cart decorations. All were well choreographed and one woman actually sang during their performance. The mad scientists/zombies won the gold cart. There was a lot of time, thought and creativity put into theirs.<br /><br />We headed over to the iSchool Reception at the House of Blues after the derby. I met up with a cohort there and had a nice time talking to iSchool students past and present. It was a really long day...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-65762652965114518262008-06-28T21:19:00.000-07:002008-06-30T09:25:05.311-07:00Serving Older AdultsThis morning I attended a presentation on serving older adults in libraries. It was centered around a discussion of a draft toolkit that the ALA Office of Literacy and Outreach Services is putting together. The presenter, Kathy Mayo, spent a little bit of time introducing and explaining the toolkit, but for the most part she led a lively discussion of ideas about the ways in which libraries serve older adults. The central organizing question for the toolkit, she said, was: <em>What can libraries do to help make lifelong learning a reality?</em><br /><em></em><br />Below are some of the questions that came up for discussion, and a few of the responses from the audience:<br /><ul><li><em>What terminology should we use when talking about older adults?</em> First the audience brainstormed all the terms they could think of: senior, senior citizen, older adult, mature, elder, seasoned, retiree, re-active. One participant pointed out that many older adults object to the term <em>senior citizen </em>because it implies that they are at death's door. Mayo suggested asking patrons what they prefer to be called, but using the most respectful term possible by default: <em>person.</em></li><li><em>Why do we need to categorize any programs based on age?</em> In many cases we don't: age may be less relevant than area of interest. For example, crafting programs are often intergenerational. However, some programs rely on funding that specifies the age of the target audience (e.g., some federally funded home delivery programs). One audience member shared information about a California statewide initiative which is called simply "<a href="http://www.library.ca.gov/lds/tlaf.html">Transforming Life after 50</a>."</li><li><em>What if your library is in competition with senior centers or other senior service organizations?</em> There are lots of ways to collaborate with other organizations: serve on their boards, brainstorm ways you can supplement each other, etc. One audience member talked about she had brought her library's Wii to an area agency on aging fair. She was the hit of the fair, she said. Other suggestions included connecting with the activities directors of senior centers or retirement homes, and telling them "You're doing a program on ___; here's what the library can provide (for example, large print, audiobooks, coffee table books, or bifolkal kits).</li><li><em>How can libraries best serve people with hearing loss or other disabilities?</em> Just because your library hasn't received complaints doesn't mean your doing all that you should to provide services to people with disabilities. Libraries need to be proactive in this area. Buildings should be accessible, with wide aisles and seating available throughout. One audience member shared an experience where a patron called to request home service because the library had removed the bench at the transit stop and she could no longer sit to wait for the bus. Libraries also need to provide solid, up-to-date, culturally relevant large print and audio collections. As baby boomers age, the genres demanded in large print and audio will change. Good lighting is another important, but often overlooked, element of service to seniors.</li><li><em>How do you advocate for seniors with your library administration? </em>Many libraries (including SPL, I can't help but noting) have designated web pages for children or teens but not for seniors. Why not? Several participants noted success with senior advisory boards, along the lines of teen advisory boards that many libraries use.</li><li><em>What kinds of programs have been successful with seniors?</em> Audience members shared tons of ideas for programming, including: gardening, travel, local issues and history, reminiscing (possibly with the help of bifolkal kits), and gaming.</li></ul><p>All in all, lots of great ideas and things to think about. </p>Bohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361039557253536285noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-69013954456229427982008-06-28T21:11:00.000-07:002008-06-28T21:18:53.179-07:00On the ALA WikiI added our blog to the "Blogging Annual" section on the <a href="http://wikis.ala.org/annual2008/index.php/Blogging_Annual">ALA Anual wiki</a>. So watch what you say: the world is paying attention now.Bohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07361039557253536285noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-29790101318245451702008-06-28T20:22:00.000-07:002008-06-29T21:59:14.936-07:00Saturday -- JessiI went to the Exhibits in the morning. It wasn't too crowded, going right at 9, and I got a few good books to read and add to my uncatalogued collection. I spent more time there than I meant to and I ended up running late to Public Computing in a Library 2.0 World. It was out at the Hyatt, which was quite a trek.<br /><br />Public Computing was not what I was expecting. It really focused on individual libraries in rural areas and how to get funding and what services their patrons needed. I really realized it didn't pertain to me when the speaker started talking about how patrons brought their towers in for her to fix...yes, the CPU for their personal home computers. I can't see doing that. Besides the privacy issues, what about liability?<br /><br />I found Dave during the break and he introduced me to Georgia, director of the Pierce County Library System. We sat and chatted about we had seen so far, then we all ran off to our next sessions.<br /><br />I attended two different sessions during the next time frame. I started off in Social Software Showcase, which was really interesting. Each of the online presenters gave a brief description of their project, then broke up into groups so that we could ask questions and see demonstrations. There website is <a href="http://www.yourbigwig.com/showcase">here</a>, and has all their presentations listed.<br /><br />After they broke up into groups, I headed out to attend Teens in Your Branch Library. Unfortunately it was all information I had heard before. They had 4 speakers from very busy urban libraries that had a lot of behavior problems, and gave tips on how to manage the behavior, help staff understand teens better and how to get teens to invest in their libraries. I am sure it was very useful to others present, but I found myself wishing I had stayed in the Social Software Showcase.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-47827106053535964992008-06-27T23:18:00.000-07:002008-06-27T23:41:20.579-07:00First Day and YALSA 101Today was the first real day for me. I got to the conference around noon, picked up my large (ugly!) orange bag (it looks like it could be a flotation device, or used to ward off a hunting incident) with all the conference information in it, and my badge, then went for lunch with Dave and a friend of his from KCLS. Later, after checking email and wandering the floor a bit, I stopped by the YALSA 101 presentation.<br /><br />The session was presented by the YALSA officers, who told us about ways that we could get involved with YALSA, through committees and publications. We also learned about Teen Read Week, Teen Tech Week and the YALSA Literature Symposium coming up in November. <br /><br />It turns out that YALSA is a big presence on the web, utilizing twitter, blog, MySpace, Facebook, Ning and a few other sites to connect with members. A new one I hadn't heard of is called Friend Feed and can be used to gather all of your social networking sites onto one page, and integrated into a Google page or Facebook. In this way, you can keep track of what all of your friends are doing from the same page, regardless of what social networking medium they use. I will have to check it out.<br /><br />I also found out about an effort called Support Teen Literacy Day. I am still a little unsure how the program works, but I intend to find out more. What I gathered from the talk was that publishers donate books and they are given to teens who are in the hospital with long term illness.<br /><br />After the 101 class I, and most of the other attendees went to Morton's for the YALSA happy hour. I was interviewed along with another librarian about our zine collection and the work we do with teens in relation to zines. That may end up as a pod cast on the YALSA site. Dave also met up with me there and we made some new acquaintances--Janine from the iSchool (UW) was one. She had a lot of good information about YALSA committees and book lists.<br /><br />I ended the night having dinner with one of my cohort today that I didn't know would be here until she texted me earlier today to say she was coming from Portland. She is an academic librarian, so our paths probably won't cross often at the conference, but I hope we will get to hang out at least once more.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-9532652291708854702008-06-18T15:14:00.000-07:002008-06-18T15:16:56.121-07:00Get together in Anaheim...Hi all,<br /><br />I just wanted to suggest that, if at all possible, you get together as a group while at the conference. Heather M-W coordinated a lunch for all of us who went to Internet Librarian in Monterey last year and it was really nice. You'll meet co-workers who you probably never see when you are back here in Seattle! It is also nice to get together with familiar faces when you are at such a huge conference as ALA.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8091156086107192886.post-12090098952227684252008-06-17T17:56:00.000-07:002008-06-17T17:59:15.268-07:00What I am doing at ALA 2008 by Jane GibsonOn Saturday, I am emceeing the LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage from noon -4PM<br /><a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/ppo/calendar/ac2008/LIVEstage2008.cfm">http://www.ala.org/ala/ppo/calendar/ac2008/LIVEstage2008.cfm</a><br /><br />Then, at 4PM I’ll attend the PPYA Business Meeting (Popular Paperbacks Committee—I am chairing the list called Journey> Destination and serving on the committee for Spies and Intrigue:<br /><a href="http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/popularpaperback/nominations.cfm">http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/popularpaperback/nominations.cfm</a><br /><br />On Sunday morning I have my PPYA Committee meetings to discuss the titles already nominated. This is an open meeting—so you should come to it—here is the schedule:<br /><br />8:00 - 9:30 - Death<br />9:30 - 11:00 - Spies<br />11:00 - 12:30 - Journey<br />12:30 - 2:00 - LUNCH!!<br />2:00 - 3:30 - Fame<br /><br />It is located in the Disneyland North Exhibit Hall J<br /><br />In the afternoon on Sunday I am attending<br />Fostering Youth Advocacy: How Libraries Can Help<br /><br />I don’t have a cell phone, but I am staying at the Crowne Plaza Resort-(714)867-5555<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Posted for Jane by Jessi</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0