Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Like many other patrons, the first thing Paige wants to do when she comes to the library is to say hello to Louie and the last thing she wants to do before she leaves is to say goodbye to him. Paige + Louie = True Love.

Day 2 in Philly

Yesterday I was back to the Convention Center at the crack of dawn for a workshop called Engaging Customers in an Online Environment. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Yelp and more... all the ways that HUGE library systems connect with their patrons. Not that these aren't tools that can be useful in Freedom (hello, blog!) but the perspective was from multi-branch library systems with many, many employees. Still, I came away with a determination to stay on top of what we have in place already - website, Facebook page, blog, e-newsletter. Not sure I'll be tweeting anytime soon though.

Next up: Reaching for the Future: You've Got to Take the Risk to Get the Reward. How are libraries innovating to show our relevancy? Creativity, innovation - I thought this would be a great session but I was wrong. The first 15 minutes was an infomercial on the presenters' creativity conference coming up in  Colorado. How the conference was born, why did they choose Telluride, etc. Who cares? The space was much too small for the number of people there and when we were to break into small groups to create a new product (what will the purpose be, what materials will we need, what procedures to use...) I could see that my time would be better spent talking to vendors in the Exhibition Hall. I gave up my seat to one of the 20+ people who stood near the doors, not even allowed to sit on the floor because of fire regulations.

I made it a point to talk to three vendors of library automation systems since the one we use for circulation and cataloging has many significant flaws and is no longer being developed by the company. I found two systems that might work well for our small library and I will be spending more time learning about their pros and cons in the next few weeks.

Then it was time for lunch. Amy Friedman, librarian in Hudson, NH, organized a gathering of NH librarians at PLA and 10 of us went to lunch at a great Dim Sum restaurant nearby. We talked about our PLA experience thus far and enjoyed a delicious meal.

My afternoon was devoted to programming. My first session was Engaging Teens on a Shoestring Budget. A four person panel shared what they are doing to serve teens in their libraries. Unfortunately again, the libraries presenting were huge, not standalone libraries but library systems serving many thousands of people. So although there were certainly ideas I can modify for Freedom, much of what was discussed had no relevancy for us. Putting together program kits with materials and instructions to put on the same program in multiple branches, a whole presentation on QR codes (scan-able codes for smartphones) and creating a recognizable brand (this was more about marketing that programming), one library system's success in creating an online tutoring service. Interesting, but not a whole lot to take back to Freedom. One presenter did share particulars on actual teen programs that went over well.

My final session was Program-Palooza: 60 Programs in 60 Minutes where the presenter shared programs that her library branches had put on for participants of all ages. She shared all 61 ideas in 45 minutes so in the final 15 minutes, librarians from the audience shared their hit programming ideas. This was even more useful than the official presentation because the librarians mentioned only their greatest successes when at the mike.

After this, I made my weary way back to my hotel room to rest a few minutes before dinner with my daughter Ellie who is a senior at nearby Bryn Mawr College. A definite highlight of my day!

My first full day at the Public Library Association Conference

Hi from Philadelphia!  I am here for the Public Library Association (PLA) Conference and am very tired after a full day on the go. My hotel is a few blocks from the Convention Center, a three-level monster of a building which takes up several blocks itself.  Of course, wherever I need to be is not near where I am at the time. So I'm getting lots of exercise and I wish I had brought that backpack, Julie! My scooter would have come in handy too!

I started my day early, hearing a panel of publishers talk about their upcoming titles for children and teens, plus trends in the youth market. This session was followed by another panel of publishers talking about upcoming adult titles. Frankly, I would rather have heard from librarians about new books because it's the publishers' job to promote their titles, whether they are any good or not. Not exactly unbiased recommendations, I'd say.  Still, I got some ideas for new books that might go over well in Freedom.

I wasn't quite fast enough in responding to an emailed invitation to lunch with Nancy Pearl sponsored by Amazon Publishing. I hear the luncheon was filled in 10 minutes of sending the email! I went anyway, hoping that there might be room, and sure enough I got in. Nancy Pearl is quite famous in the library world for her "Book Buzz", her enthusiastic endorsement and promotion of books that she loves. She can often be heard recommending titles on NPR's "Morning Edition". At this luncheon, we got to hear about her new baby, "Book Lust Rediscoveries". She is the force behind this new Amazon Publishing series devoted to reprinting some of the best (and now out of print) novels originally published between 1960 and 2000. A new title will be published every other month. I won my table's door prize - the first two titles in this series: "A Gay and Melancholy Sound" by Merle Miller and "After Life" by Rhian Ellis. They will soon be available for checkout at the library!

It was my pleasure to attend the Opening General Session in the afternoon, featuring a keynote address by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who spoke eloquently for 70 minutes without a single note. His topic was the environmental, social and economic consequences of a reliance on oil and coal for energy and his conviction that we must (and will, sooner or later) switch to alternative sources of energy including solar, geothermal and wind. He gave some grim statistics about the hidden costs of our reliance on non-renewable energy and the barriers that are keeping us from pursuing alternatives, but had a positive message about how do-able the change is and what a positive effect it will have on our economy and lives.  It was an excellent speech!

A few weeks ago, I sent a message on a national email list for children's librarians, asking if anyone wanted to get together during PLA to brainstorm about the Summer Reading Program. Nine of us from all over the US met this afternoon to share our ideas, our methods, and our questions. I'm sure this gathering will be one of the most useful things I did at this conference and I think everyone who participated felt the same way. Several of us went out to dinner together afterward to continue the conversation. Fun!

Tomorrow will be a full day of workshops. In the evening, I will get together for dinner with my daughter Ellie who is a senior at nearby Bryn Mawr College. Stay tuned for Part II.  Good night!

Quite a Crowd at Storytime!

We had 16 children at storytime today, visitors and regulars alike, plus a few alums! What a blast! The craft was making pink panthers, which even the older kids enjoyed.

Louie Gets Into the Christmas Spirit

It always seems to rain on school visit day!

The 3rd graders and their teacher Chelsea Brooks braved a pretty heavy downpour to make their first visit to the library last week. Everyone chose a book or a magazine and there was time for one story. We are looking forward to their return visit next month - let's hope it's sunny this time! (click picture for larger version)

Lucky us! A Visit from Kindergarten AND 2nd Grade!

They braved the rain to visit the library. Several kids got library cards for the first time. Thank you Mrs. Pohl and Mrs. Briggs for bringing your classes here!  (Click picture to see a larger size.) 

A Sweet Soft Library Visitor

Margaret brought Hazel, her 8-week-old Chocolate Lab puppy, to visit the library. Hazel looks huge in this picture but that's only because Margaret is small. If you look closely, you will see Louie in the background taking a bath. He didn't bother to pay any attention to Hazel at all.

Harvest Crowns

Not everyone would agree to have their picture made, but here are three cuties from today's storytime sporting their fabulous harvest crowns.

Tie Dye & Patriotic Flags

We had a huge crowd at last week's Fun Friday on July 29th with about 35 kids making flags and tie-dying t-shirts. Here are some photos from that day.

Duct Tape Hula Hoops a Hit!

Take some 1/2 " tubing, cut 7/16" dowels into 1.5" pieces, cut tubing into 9'4" lengths and insert dowel piece into each end to make a circle. Use a staple gun to connect the two ends and hammer the staples in. Voila! A homemade hula hoop. Now bring lots of hoops to Fun Friday and let the kids cover them with colorful duct tape!

4th of July Crowns a Hit at Storytime

 Storytime has started up again on Wednesdays at 10:00. The craft today was 4th of July crowns. Here are the kids (and an older sibling) modeling their creations. They are all ready to march in a parade!

Owen Brooks Visits the Library

Our big friend Owen was quite anxious to come in the library, hoping to see Louie, but Louie had not yet reported to work. We were happy to see Owen, but Louie probably wouldn't have been that thrilled.

First Graders Visit the Library

We enjoyed another visit from the Freedom Elementary first grade class, accompanied by their teacher MaryEllen Holmes, parent Ann-Marie Knox and a little sister. They picked out some books and listened to some stories and then back to school in time for the bus!

Making Airplanes at Storytime

The kids worked hard on their airplanes at storytime today!

A visit from the 2nd grade

The 2nd graders at Freedom Elementary have been coming to the library every 3 or 4 weeks throughout the school year. They get to choose a book to check out and then Elizabeth reads them some stories. The day of their most recent visit was Dr. Seuss' birthday and Brianna B. asked to read Elizabeth's favorite Dr. Seuss story, "Why Was I Scared" about the pale green pants with nobody inside them. She did a first rate job reading the story (which she had never read before that day), with great inflections and feeling. Here are some pictures from the visit. Click on pictures to see their larger size. Enjoy!

A Traditional English Tea

The 2nd graders from Freedom Elementary came for their monthly visit to the library on February 9th.  Afterwards, Judy, Irene and I were fortunate enough to be invited to afternoon tea at Petula Plunges' house. She treated the 2nd grade class to a traditional English tea complete with finger sandwiches, fancy cookies, biscuits, fruit and brownies - a real feast!  The second graders had superb manners and we all had a fine time. Sounds like it may become a 2nd grade tradition - I'm already looking forward to 2012 if so!