Where did last week go?

Well my last blog post ended talking about my crazy week that wasn’t quite over, so I figured I’d tell you how my last week ended.

Just after writing my blog post I went over to Mountain States Early Head Start. Karen Yother has a day care that comes in once a month, and this time Head Start was at the same time. Although Karen would like to, she can’t be in two places at once, so off I went to Head Start. Obviously Head Start isn’t in my target audience of middle and high schoolers, but I still enjoy playing puppets with toddlers. We went over some colors, animal sounds, sang some songs; it was good.

Right after Head Start I jumped into our library van with some other staff members and drove over to Gonzaga University for INCOL’s spring workshop. Inland Northwest Council of Libraries (INCOL) does two workshops a year, and this workshop was on “Intellectual Freedom.” We had about thirty librarians discussing the Library Bill of Rights, Censorship, Freedom of Speech, Intellectual Freedom, the First Amendment, and obviously Intellectual Freedom. Once we got these overarching documents and principles, we got into the nitty-gritty of how these principles apply to libraries and librarians. As the Library Bill of Rights says, “materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation,” and “libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues.”

Well that was Friday, and the next day we had our award night for our Teen Film Festival that started back during Teen Tech Week 2009. Of our six entries, Ryan took first place with “Earth in Focus,” Josh and Daniel took second with, “We are the Earth,” and Matt took third with, “Life.” Congratulations again to our winners, and thanks to everyone who submitted an entry.

Well I’m already half way through my blog post, and I still haven’t talked about this week yet. My week started meeting with the Coeur d’ Alene School of Woodworking. One of our tween summer reading programs is going to be making wooden boats, and the shop said they would donate wood and materials for our program. Thank you to the CDA School of Woodworking.

I had my second meeting with the Teen Read Week Coordinating Committee. We talked about promoting Teen Read Week, and there were some really fun ideas that might get funded through the state. Stay tuned as October gets closer. Although I’m still new to the idea of meeting through the internet, I think its pretty slick that people from different time zones and from every area of Idaho can speak directly to each other through a pair of headphones and a microphone. Good stuff.

Two more quick things to mention. First, summer reading registration is coming up June 1 for all ages. So stop by the Hayden Library, or register online at ksalibraries.org.

Secondly, I’m going to be adding some new content to the blog every Wednesday, so be looking for my announcement.

Hope you all have a great week, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.

Technical Irony

Ever feel like there is too much to do, and not nearly enough time in which to do it? That is kind of what my week was like, and it isn’t over yet.

It started with a couple webinars that I decided to attend. The first one was on 24/7 book advisory. The webinar highlighted what other libraries did to get book suggestions into the hands of their patrons. It was really interesting. The next webinar was technically an online symposium, and it was about mobile devices. The presentation was supposed to be three hours long, and it consisted of different tech masters talking about the future of mobile devices. There was a panel of judges that asked questions on how these changes in the mobile universe will affect libraries. Turns out that even though we were talking about staying connected with mobile devices, the audio wasn’t reaching my computer. There is a little bit of irony for you. Luckily because I signed up for the symposium, they are going to send me a recording of it later. I like technology.

Another thing that took up a bunch of my time this week was submitting a video to the “Win $10,000 to your Idaho Nonprofit” contest. Consumer Financial Solutions was an Idaho Nonprofit that helped people with too much consumer debt. There have been several shifts and changes in the last decade, and the board of directors decided to dissolve the organization, and divide the assets among other Idaho nonprofit groups. Even though the Hayden Library isn’t a nonprofit, the Friends of the Kootenai Shoshone Area Libraries are a nonprofit group, so I submitted a video for them. The video was only allowed to be 30 seconds, but if you want to view it, it’s on my Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/KSL4NextGen.

The video doesn’t have very much time, but the gist is that the Hayden Library wants to become the first Family Place Library in Idaho. The registration fee for that status is $10,000, so we figured it was perfect. “Family Place Libraries™ is a network of children's librarians nationwide who believe that literacy begins at birth, and that libraries can help build healthy communities by nourishing healthy families. The Family Place Libraries network currently includes more than 250 sites in 25 states and continues to grow,” according to http://www.familyplacelibraries.org/index.html. Our youth services staff already has this focus in mind, and wants to continue to expand that direction by becoming a Family Place Library.

So apart from videos and webinars, there is always more planning for summer reading, details coming soon, and don’t forget about the Teen Film Festival Award Night at the CDA library tomorrow night.

Make a Splash

So our Youth Services Director, Karen Yother, is wearing a baby blue shirt with a crazy design which reads, “Make a Splash, Read!” We must be getting close to summer. Karen is a part of the CSLP, the Collaborative Summer Library Program, which is a national consortium of libraries and educators in 49 of the 50 states who come up with a theme, program ideas, and giveaways every summer. This year the theme is water related. For the younger kids, the theme is “Make a Splash.” For Next-Gen adults, the theme is “Make Waves.” For the adults, the theme is “Water your Mind; Read.” We’ve had a very successful summer reading program for our younger patrons for the past six or seven years. This is our first year of creating events and programs that are designed for our Next-Gen and adult audiences. So stop by the library this summer, and check out our awesome events!

Summer reading is a huge push for the Hayden Library and libraries in general. During the school year, school age patrons have more than enough things to read and write. But during the summer, we all just want to take a break from that kind of work. It turns out that if you don’t work out the brain for three months, it tends to lose some of the things that were learned. For that reason, summer reading has been designed to keep patrons reading through the summer months, and to also provide fun ways to learn. That way, our brains aren’t getting quite as squishy, but we also aren’t busting out a Calculus book or something.

Once again, the life of a Young Adult Librarian has included a few meetings this week. My week started with a three month review of my work as a Young Adult Librarian. Our Youth Services Director, Karen Yother, and the Director of the Kootenai Shoshone Area Libraries, John Hartung, sat down with me for an hour and we discussed what I’ve been doing for the last three months, and what I plan to do over the summer, and in the next year. They were both really excited about the direction that I’m taking, and I’m really appreciative of the support that they’ve both given me. Yesterday, just before I ran away to take my sister to the airport, I met with Kent Nelson, the director of the CDA Rock School, which runs out of the Guitar Stop on Government Way. Kent is going to talk to a few of his student bands about doing a concert for the library in July. We’re thinking of calling it, “Rock the Stacks!”

The last thing I wanted to mention is coming up next Saturday, the 22nd. As some of you might know, the branches of the Kootenai Shoshone Area Libraries (KSAL), the Coeur d’ Alene Library, and the Post Falls Library all teamed up to put a Teen Film Festival together. We have had six entries, and our award night is happening at the Coeur d’ Alene Library on the 22nd at 7pm. You can check out my video on the event at http://www.youtube.com/user/KSL4NextGen or you could check out the Facebook event at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121336761224498.

Hope you all have a great week, and I’ll be checking in next Friday.

No Pain, No Gain

Here’s to our first week, and my first blog post, in May 2010. I always like to cycle through my week on Friday, and ask myself, what did I accomplish this week? Was I effective? Was I successful? Obviously, these questions are very subjective and self-analyzing, but is that necessarily a bad thing? Maybe if we took a look at what we did each week, we might realize there was so much more we could have done, and be motivated to complete so much more the next week. Maybe we could also appreciate the work that we did accomplish, and be encouraged by what we have accomplished.

Another thing on my mind is how easy it is to spend a couple hours watching a movie, and how hard it is to spend a couple hours reading a book. As young adult librarian, I’m trying to familiarize myself with young adult literature. Toward this end, I’m reading Jerry Spinelli’s Stargirl and next week I’m planning on reading Pete Hautman’s Rash. I’ve found an hour or so already to read the book, but I find that there is always something else I could be doing. Why is that? I went and saw Iron Man 2 last night. Great movie! But, why was I so fast to spend two hours watching a movie, and so slow at reading a novel? Not that I’m not enjoying Stargirl, but maybe it’s just easier to watch something than it is to read something. The answer could have something to do with whether or not we are passive or active consumers. If we are passive consumers, we don’t have to do anything to our media. Iron Man 2 is an example. I just have to sit there and watch it. For Stargirl, I have to be an active consumer. I have to imagine what Stargirl looks like. I have to think about whether or not I enjoy Spinell’s writing style. I have to imagine based on what Spinelli is trying to get at, instead of just watching Iron Man stomp on the latest bad guy.

I find that sometimes the hardest thing to do is start something. Something that is sitting still doesn’t want to get up. Something that is moving doesn’t want to stop. There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending two hours having fun with friends and watching a good movie. But there are also a lot of benefits to reading, and we often don’t tap into those benefits because it takes effort to get at them. As the saying goes, “No pain, no gain.” Reading isn’t pain for me, but it is work. Like most work, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it. Iron Man 2 and Stargirl are very different, and there are different reasons for doing both. But it seems like we spend a whole lot of time watching movies, and not so much time reading books, myself included. I’m going to work on getting both in so I can reap the benefits of both mediums.

In addition to a lot of thinking this week, I’ve also had a meeting with a statewide committee on Teen Read Week, a national event sponsored by the American Library Association’s (ALA) Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Teen Read Week isn’t until October, but we’re getting some good ideas flowing already. I also had a chance to meet with Tim Boal from Lighting Comics. Tim is going to donate the use of some of his video games for our game night, and he’s also going to do two programs for us. One is a comic book read-along for the younger kids, and the other is a Yu-Gi-Oh training for our tweens. Although there is always something else to do, or read, here’s to what was accomplished this week, and here’s to what we will accomplish in this following week.