Professional reading; "FIfty fabulous fables: beginning readers theatre"

News December 28, 2007 (mp3 file: 3.84 MB, 4:05 min.)
Professional reading; "Intergenerational Programming"

At the top of the ‘cast today: reading.

It’s funny how many people think that we librarians spend most of our time at work reading. Perhaps it’s because we do seem to spend a lot of time reading outside of work and they make the wrong assumption about when we read. And because we have little or no time to read at work, and prefer to read at least mostly for pleasure during non-work hours an important part of our reading can get lost in the shuffle—professional reading.

In an age when we never seem to have enough time to keep up with what we already know we have to do it’s difficult to find time to read about what we need to be thinking about doing tomorrow (or later today??) but it’s important that we take at least some time to keep current with what’s happening in the profession. In the new issue of “Public Libraries,” for example there are articles about promoting arts education in libraries (the summer library program theme for 2009 is about the arts…); an Idaho library that uses a 5x8 foot trailer pulled behind their eleven year old Subaru wagon as a bookmobile; part 3 of a series about youth, public libraries and the Internet, describing who visits the library and what they do there; and columns about reader’s advisory for teens (be careful not to try to push your own tastes on teens); and how to encourage participation by readers in your library’s blog.

OK, time is at a premium, there’s not doubt about it, but with the use of tools easily available we can do professional reading more efficiently, keep up with what’s going on and what’s ahead, we can serve our customers better.

Many of you can’t afford print subscriptions of professional journals (and a number of you borrow our copies) but the web offers great resources: blogs and wikis of librarians that you can subscribe to and have delivered to your desktop in an aggregator, and EBSCOhost. The Professional Development Collection database includes American Libraries, Library Journal, Library Trends, Library Technology Reports….and EBSCOhost enables you to set up alerts, so you’ll get an e-mail when articles about particular subjects—that you specify--are added to the database. So you don’t have to remember to go out and search periodically—so to speak. I receive regular alerts on Library 2.0 from EBSCOhost, for example; a colleague gets alerts on reader’s advisory.

We can’t create more time for you, but we can make good use of those tools to help make effective and efficient use of the time we do have. --Karen

Book reviewed by Marcia:
Fifty fabulous fables: beginning readers theatre, by Suzanne I. Barchers. Teacher Ideas Press, c1997.

News & Views December 21, 2007

News December 21, 2007 (mp3 file; 5:14 min.)




Book Reviewed by Marcia on Today's Podcast:

Library 2.0: A Guide to Participatory Library Service by Michael E. Casey and Laura C. Savastinuk, Information Today, Inc., 2007.

"A Day in the Life...;" Post-holiday display ideas for youth areas; "Intergenerational Programming"

News December 14, 2007 (mp3 file: 4.8 MB, 5:08 min.)
"A Day in the Life...;" Post-holiday display ideas for youth areas; "Intergenerational Programming"

This morning as I was showing some examples to the participants in our Computerside Chat on flickr and photo sharing I thought it might be fun for us to take a page—so to speak-- from Allen County’s “Day in the Life of Allen County, Indiana” book—or, website, actually—and do our own “Day in the Life of SW Iowa Libraries.” I often hear librarians say that people don’t know all that librarians do, and this would be a chance for us to show them. We could all take photos during our day and post them on flickr, where they could all be gathered in the photo pool for a group I’ve created there. It would be good PR for libraries, and give us a chance to work with flickr and see what’s possible.

We also took a look at some third-party tools that you can use with your photos on flickr—there are more of them all the time. You can create items like monthly calendars, posters, collages, magazine covers (wouldn’t that be great for an annual report cover) and trading cards (wouldn’t that be fun for the kids or teens to do, or the library to do; have kids gather all the trading cards you create….) There are so many more possibilities, but “A Day in the Life…” would be good start. I’ll let you know when a date is decided, sometime after the holidays, but get your cameras and your happy smiles ready! --Karen

Links from today's podcast:

• Flickr
• Flagrant Disregard's Flickr Toys
  
• A Day in Allen County, Indiana 2007
  
• SWILSA Youth Services webpage

Book reviewed by Marcia:
Intergenerational programming: a how-to-do-it manual for librarians, by Rhea Joyce Rubin, Neal-Schumann, c1993.

Business as Usual, in Different Ways; Teen Library Events; "Promoting Reading with Reading Programs"

News December 7, 2007 (mp3 file: 6.14 MB, 6:33 min.)
Business as Usual, in Different Ways; Teen Library Events; "Promoting Reading with Reading Programs"

This morning our colleague Ken Davenport forwarded a link to a post on the “Musings on Information and Librarianship” blog: “Today’s digital information landscape.” The author, Eric Lease Morgan, says, “The main point of this lecture is to bring home a single idea, namely, the what of library and information science has not changed so much as the how.” He provides examples, in a powerpoint presentation—something you might like to check out—but his point is pretty simple. We are still developing collections, helping people find books and information, and providing programming. We are adding new formats to those collections, using new tools to select materials and let our customers know what we’re doing for them….the HOW we do it is changing—but then, it always has changed as new things came forward. I think that it seems like it’s new and different because it’s changing so fast. New tools and ideas are appearing at a rate that could be alarming if we forget why we are looking at these tools. How will we use them? Will this mean better service? Which can we use more effectively in OUR particular community? We’ve always been able to open new vistas for people, and if we look at it that way then it’s less daunting. Still a challenge to learn it, to figure out how to adapt and use it, but oh, what it can mean for providing our services in ever better ways, that reach more people, help more people! Change can be a little scary, but it can also be very exciting if we are willing to reach out and grab a new tool or two—don’t worry about doing everything at once—and put them to good use for our customers.

Speaking of new ways to do things: a webinar about SW and SE LSAs' downloadable audiobooks consortium, BASIL, is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 10. This consortium will make audiobooks available for member libraries’ patrons to download onto their computers and mp3 players. As consortium members, the cost to libraries will be a fraction of what it would be if a library were to off the service on its own. All SW libraries should have received an e-mail with information about joining us for the webinar. If you need me to send that to you again, let me know.

And I hope you’ve marked your calendar for the first Iowa Small Libraries Online Conference, or ISLOC, as we’re calling it, on January 16, 2008. It will ALL be online, in Wimba Live Classrooms, so you won’t have to travel.

Links from Today's podcast:

• “Musings on Information and Librarianship” blog: “Today’s digital information landscape.
• BASIL FAQs
• ALA Website
• SWILSA Youth Services
• YALSA Wiki
• Tune In @ your library Wiki

Book Reviewed by Marcia:
Promoting reading with reading programs, by Robin Works. Neacl-Schuman, c1992.

Holiday Ideas for Libraries

News November 30, 2007 (mp3 file; 3:25 min.)




Links from Today's Podcast

• SWILSA Current Announcements
• SWILSA Sites of the Week
• SWILSA Die Cut Collection

Book Reviewed by Marcia This Week:

Something Funny Happened at the Library: How to Create Humorous Programs for Children and Young Adults by Rob Reid, American Library Association, 2003.

Just ask; "Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library"

News November 16, 2007 (mp3 file: 4.25 MB,4:32 min.)
Just ask; "Readers' Advisory Service in the Public Library"

It’s been one of those weeks again when several things come together to start me thinking. I’d been pondering, on a back burner, a study I heard about in a webinar, and then an article appeared in Library Journal, “Know Your Students.” It describes Rochester’s two-year ethnographic study of what students do on campus and how the library fits in. They discovered some interesting things. It’s an academic library but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have ideas and implications for those in public libraries.

Then a couple of days ago I was doing a video walk-through at one of our libraries and as we talked after the “filming” we thought about what they might do in the teen area to make it more ‘their” place. And I thought of this study. It’s a bit different for high school students but he underlying idea is the same—take a good look at that they do, when, and how. We think we know, but do we? Maybe yes, but….maybe no.

Then I got an IM from a librarian in a very small community: 15 teens had just come in after school Two things here: 15 of any group, much less enthusiastic, energetic teens, is a LOT in this small space and, 2) the librarian was excited that they were there. They were mostly waiting for computer time and I suggested that she take advantage of their presence—“Just ask.” What books are they reading? What would they like to read? What would they like for their space in the new building? Yes, they want computer time, but what else? And what do they want to do on computers? What about a computer game club? What kind of seating and furniture would they like for their space? Ask them to draw their ideal library space (Ask *adults* to draw their ideal space.)

Physicists and mathematicians like elegant solutions. Me, I like simple solutions. And sometimes we just run right over the simplest solutions. Sometimes we should just ask. --Karen

Book reviewed by Marcia:

Readers' advisory service in the public library, 2nd ed., by Joyce G. Saricks and Nancy Brown. ALA, 1997

Library Story Times

News November 9, 2007 (mp3 file, 4:35 min.)




Links from Today's Podcast:

• Early Childhood Literacy site
• Susan Dailey's website

Book Reviewed by Marcia on Today's Podcast:
Travel the Globe: Multicultural Story Times by Desiree Webber, Dee Ann Corn, Elaine Harrod, Donna Norvell, and Sandy Shropshire; Libraries Unlimited; 1998.

Exponential change;

News November 2, 2007 (mp3 file: 4.9MB,5:14 min.)
Exponential change; more thoughts about early literacy and reading to children

Change. I've talked about it in previous podcasts, and it continues to come up. Earlier this week Sharon sent me a link to a video, "Shift Happens" that one of her patrons (who is also on the library's long range planning committee) sent to her. It's a great video, illustrating the world in which our children are growing up, and in which they will be living--the ever-growing ubiquity of technology and these new (well, not so new anymore) methods of communication. The final point of the video is to urge parents (and presumably other adults who care about children) to make sure educators are preparing our children to live and work in the world that is evolving.

That's an important message, I agree completely. But it started me thinking....what about us, in my generation and older? Two things about us, actually. We are working in that wold NOW, and it's a bigger change for us than for the young people, who were born into that world and have been growing up with it. We have had to learn it outside of school, after we were already living and working in a different world. And I think this was Sharon's patron's point in referencing the video--lifelong learning is essential, not ony for all the reasons is always has been, but because the way we will be learning through the rest of our lives is different, the delivery mechanisms are changing. We have to be ready to learn how to learn with those new mechanisms.

AND we need to know about them because we can't expect the educational system and "someone else" to be the only ones preparing kids to live and work in the world. It's always been the responsibility of parents and caring adults to help children prepare for life in the world on their own. It's just that there has been, what seems to us, a huge change in the world and maybe we sometimes feel like we're sliding down the learning curve as we try to catch up to the technology comfort level kids have. They are comfortable using the technology, we need to help them with the pieces about good judgment and ethics and impact of decisions they make. That's what our parents passed on to us, after all. It's not so different--it's the context that is changing, and sometimes seems overwhelming to us. We have to understand that context in order to be able to give them what they REALLY need to operate in the world. We need to know how to operate in that same world--because we live in it, and it just isn't going to back to "the good old days" (whatever those were) and because our children need to learn how to live successfully in it in the future.

We have to learn the technology to communicate with the next generations if we want to pass on our experience and any wisdom we might have developed. It’s triply important for us, then, to learn about the changing world, or at least changing communications; we need it to live in the world that has embraced it, we need it to continue to learn about our world, and we need it to communicate to those who will be taking care of that world in the future.

Hang in there! We’ll get there together. --Karen

Bits and Pieces; "Managing for Results"

News October 26, 2007 (mp3 file: 6.49 MB, 6:55 min.)
Bits and Pieces; "Managing for results"

Today I’d just like to remind you of a few things going on and coming up.

First, the LSA Early Childhood Literacy Initiative is underway. Marcia and Sue have been working on storytime kits for you to use, and there are 5 complete kits, ready to go. Remember, each of these kits contain what you need to do a storytime featuring one of the 6 specific developmental skills, such as print awareness or letter recognition. These storytimes aren’t so different from those you are doing now, they just add a couple of things for parents or caregivers, and they have that specific focus. Because these kits will be available statewide we’re asking that you use them not for the traditional storytimes but if you plan to do those couple of extra things—such as short asides to parents about the skill you’re focusing on and why it’s important, and take-home sheets for parents. It’s not difficult, and the kits are designed to support you in doing that.

There are two kits that are more for the lapsit crowd: “Moonbeams” and “Bounce Me.” The others are for 2-3 year olds. And they’re just darn cute!

We’re working on kits to loan to parents and daycare providers, and Sue is also working on some bi-lingual kits. The kits are listed on the Early Childhood Literacy website, and most of the contents of each kit are also downloadable from there. Call SWILSA to borrow the kits, or check the website for downloads.

We’re also asking you to keep some statistics for us. (Yes, more stats!!) We’d like to know how many people attend your ECL storytimes, and how you use the awareness materials, such as the posters and table tents. For example, Creston let us know that they used the table tents and posters at the county literacy forum, attended by about 150 people. Sue said they wished they had made several table tents for each table, as people were reading and commenting on them. That helps us to evaluate the initiative, as well as give us ideas for how to help you more in the future.

Secondly, please remember to keep checking our CE page (and your e-mail box) for upcoming CE events. We have several workshops coming up in the online Wimba classroom, as well as a couple ICN sessions—one for trustees, as a matter of fact. You can find them on our CE page, or on rolling 30-day calendar on SWILSA’s home page. (You could have your own rolling calendar on YOUR library’s website, by the way. If you want to know how, give me a call or an IM and we’ll get that done for you!) -Karen

Links from today's podcast:

Iowa LSAs' Early Childhood Literacy website
SWILSA's CE page
SWILSA's home page

Book reviewed by Marcia:
Managing for results: effective resource allocation for public libraries, by Sandra Nelson, Ellen Altman and Diane Mayo. ALA, c2000

Reading Incentives; Early Childhood Literacy Resources; "Books, Babies and Libraries"

News October 19, 2007 (mp3 file: 6.22 MB, 6:38 min.)
Reading Incentives; Early Childhood Literacy Resources; "Books, Babies and Libraries"

At the top of the ‘cast today: reading incentives.

Earlier this week I received a catalog from Heifer International, an organization that gives animals, such as heifers, goats, pigs, llamas and chickens, to needy families in the U.S. and throughout the world. They also provide training in animal management and, in the spirit of passing it on and growing the gift, families give offspring of the animals to other families, or perhaps of a percentage of production goes to a local orphanage.

What does this have to do with reading incentives? As I read stories about the individuals, families and villages that have benefited from Heifer’s program a recurrent theme was children who are now able to afford to go to school, and to buy the pencils and paper needed. One girl, whose widowed mother sold the milk from a goat she had received described her first day of school, and said it was the happiest day of her life. A young man whose mother had died now has a heifer and sale of the milk enabled him to send his younger siblings to school. (Heifer does a tremendous job of telling their story, and we could take some cues from them, but that’s another subject.) I began to look through the “Get involved” section of the website and found “Read to Feed,” and this is where reading incentives come in. As a fundraiser, they suggest that children find sponsors for their reading—sections of reading, or minutes, or whatever—and the money they raise goes toward buying a heifer or goat or llama…..Libraries give t-shirts and pencils and other incentives to encourage kids to read; why not a different sort of incentive, one that helps others? Heifer has curriculum for 3^rd and 4^th grade, so it would make a good collaborative project with the school. Teens might do it, also—they are perhaps more aware of their global citizenship than some of us in earlier generations, and they are looking for ways to serve the community and make a difference. Maybe you would choose another cause, a local organization or charity instead of Heifer. But what a great opportunity to participate in the increasingly global community of ours, and “pass it on.” --Karen

Links from today's podcast:

Heifer International
Read to Feed
Early Childhood Literacy website

Book reviewed by Marcia:
Books, babies and libraries: serving infants, toddlers, their parents and their caregivers, by Ellin Greene. ALA, c1991.

New All Iowa Reads Book

Digging to America, by Anne Tyler

News & Views October 12, 2007

News October 12, 2007 (mp3 file, 4:05 min.)




Book Reviewed by Marcia This Week:
Excellence in Library Services to Young Adults by Mary K. Chelton

A few "Books About Books" (borrow through SILO interlibrary loan!):

So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson. Nelson's entertaining look at the experience of reading -- Why does a book suddenly grab you the third time you pick it up? Does the setting in which you are reading change the book's impact? -- would make for interesting discussions for a book club.

Bound to Please by Michael Dirda. A collection of essays by the Pulitzer Prize winner who many consider to be the best book critic in the country.

The Book Group Book by Ellen Slezak offers lots of book club ideas. In particular, it will help your group choose a theme to make its discussions more interesting (and allow members to read different books at the same time!).

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. This book includes discussions of works by Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, etc. If you look up this book on Amazon, you will find a list of all 47 books mentioned by Nafisi.

Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman.

The Most Wonderful Books: Writers on Discovering the Pleasures of Reading by Michael Dorris.

Reading in Bed by Steven Gilbar.

Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books by Lynne Sharon Schwartz.

Friday at the conference

GENERAL SESSION; Stephen ABram, a futurist from Sirsi-Dynix, is speaking "Social Libraries: the 2.0 Phenomenon." Libraries are important-studies are prvving what we've long known. Content isn't king--if it were, there would be long lines at libraries because we have so much content. *Context* is king--social context, community context, etc. We build websites and libraries and services around what we do well (read) but only 20% of our users have reading as a learning style.

What does it all mean, this 20 stuff? We have gone from communication-based web and are moving into context-based web, where socal context matters. If we don't use the technologies that he young are using we become irrelevant to them. We're at a tipping point, and change is going to come very quickly.

Abram articulates well what we've been talking about for some time; a good summary for what continues to be ahead for us is a traffic sign in Paris: "Changed Priorities Ahead," with a sign below it: "No stopping allowed." THings are changing fast, and sometimes we miss patterns when they change rapidly. We need to pay attention, and be there; be where your users are. Make it local.

More and more is online--books, journals, information. Google may work for many "who, what, where" questions but we librarians need to help them with "How" and "Why" questions.

TECH-SAVVY BOOKTALKS
blogs, wikis [do you begin to see a pattern??]
Powerpoint books talks (old library as a kiosk with ppts on it; sends to public access channel)
podcast (post them, and put them into the library's catalog)
PhotoStory
[We have had classes and/or tutorials for all of these--see our CE page: http://www.swilsa.lib.ia.us/CE/Online.htm]
Voice Thread
Video booktalks (by teens, too!)

Hi to Southwest

I have enjoyed visiting with everyone from Southwest and hope that those who are not at ILA are doing well. I have been homesick but am enjoying Central Iowa. Take care and I hope to see you soon.
Sarah Willeford

Thursday at the conference

It's been a long, busy day!

Author Chris Crutcher was the keynote speaker, and there is no way I can do his presentation justice. One of the key points was at the end, when he talked about intellectual freedom and kids and teens, and their emotioanal development. Some say the want to protect teens but they really are preventing them from talking about issues and questions they (or their friends) are dealing with. Books can help them, if they can find a haracter who is like them, or can speak to them when no one else will talk about it, then they don't feel so alone. When we censor books about topics that teens are facing or have questions about then we are telling them that those feelings or questions aren't important, that they aren't important.

I did 2 presentations so can't objectively make observations about them, but I did attend a session on boomers and their future in and for libraries. I'm going to have to absorb and do more reading and followup. An institute that she talked about sounds enticing....I'll have to see.

Off to the banquet; more tomorrow. -Karen

Awards at ILA conference--one of our own!

The Iowa Library Trustee of the Year Award goes to John Teget, former SWILSA trustee! Congratulations, John!

Mary Jo Langhorne received the ILA Member of the Year. Mary Jo has been instrumental in all good things that are happening with school libraries in the state. Congratulations to Mary Jo, too!

Hello from Sharman!

Hello everyone! I'm back at least temporarily (I'm at the ILA conference in Coralville.) I can't tell you how good it is to be here! I am hearing very good things about all of you and the things you are doing, but I am not surprised! You always do good things. Iowa will always have a very special place in my heart! I can only hope that anyone coming to MS would be made to feel as at home as you have made me. Continue to do good work and know my heart will always be with you.

ILA Conference: Preconference: "Blog and Pony Show"

Louise Alcorn, Reference Technology Librarian at West Des Moines Public LIbrary, always does a great job—seh's thorough, shows many examples, is very practical, and can give you all the nitty-gritty you need for doing...whatever!.

Of course, I’m going to look at it from the Library 2.0 / social perspective, and blogs are an easy way for a library to get started—and with Blogger, it’s free! Louise pointed out all the reasons to have a blog. The conversation and PR aspects are the key pieces (for me) of what Louise discussed. The style is more conversational; it's easily updated; you can “feed” the blog info to your users on your website—or to their disktop in an aggregator; comments allow you to interact with your readers. Don’t be afraid of comment! Uusers self-censor, and other users will “police” others; Ann Arbot DL has had over 4,000 comments and nly one or two inappropriate words—and other users said, “No, we don’t do hits on the blog.” If the comments are negative or critical you have a chance to respod and talk with users immediately, rather than having those comments out in the community and you don’t hear about them until damage has been done. Blogs build an online community in a way that a static website can't. You allow users to come and talk to you in their comfort zone, in their space

The thing libraries should fear about blogging, I think, is success! It’s important that you keep the blog up to date, and allow that conversation with your users. Then the sky is pretty much the limit—and even that is becoming less limiting as technology advances and more options become available on these free services such as Blogger. Let people comment, talk to your users, let your staff talk to your users in a blog. The library is theirs, after all. Converse with others in the community, let them know what you’re doing with their taxes. Let them talk with you.

RSS can be used to bring information from blogs directly to your desktop (using an aggregator) or to republish on a website. This has many uses for a library--library news items, new books, calendars...all can be delivered to your users' desktops, or "plugged into" the library website. We use several feeds (or sometimes widgets, really, but close enough for our purposes) on the SWILSA website: our Sites of the Week, the rolling 30 day calendar, and the photos of our member libraries are all "fed" to the website from other blogs or sites. It keeps your website fresh without having to continually update the page manually.

Online Conference; "Serving Families and Children through Partnerships"

News October 5, 2007 (mp3 file:4.15 MB, 4:32 min.)
Online conference; "Serving Families and Children through Partnerships"

On January 16, Southwest and Northwest LSAs will sponsor an online conference for small libraries. Knowing that librarians from smaller communities often find it difficult, if not impossible, to attend ILA, PLA, or ALA conferences we are planning to provide that opportunity virtually. (Many of you will be able to attend the ILA conference this year for the Libraries on the Prairie Reunion, which is a great opportunity; this is yet another opportunity, one that we hope to continue in future years .)

This first year the conference will be one day, from 8:30 am to 3:00 p.m., with a break for the after school rush and some dinner (and maybe on line demo or two), then there will be an evening session for trustees. Each hour time slot will feature 3 concurrent sessions, including one session each time with some demonstrations of software or services that have been discussed during other sessions, and that libraries might find useful.

Many of the topics are about technology and Library 2.0—how to communicate with your patrons online and RSS feeds, for example—but others will have less focus on technology: time management, for example. (Though I’m sure the presenter will give you some ideas for using technology to help you manage your time.)

We’re also planning a Virtual Exhibits Hall, and a lounge area where you can go and “network” with your fellow conference-goers. We have a dynamite keynote speaker lined up, but we don’t have his signature on a contract yet so we won’t announce it in print just yet.

All of this will be happening online, of course, in Wimba classrooms. For those who haven’t attended a class or session in the Wimba room yet there will be orientations of various sorts, so you’re ready to go, and hit the conference venue running!

Be looking for more details about the conference in the next few weeks. And, if you want to get your feet wet with online learning, take a look at our online classes, listed on our online CE webpage, and join us for a Computerside Chat, a RACE session, the e-rate series, or PowerPoint II. See you in the Wimba room! --Karen

Links from today's podcast:

SWILSA's Online CE webpage

Book reviewed by Marcia:

Serving families and children through partnerships, by Sandra Feinberg and Sari Feldman. Neal-Schuman, c1996.

Choices;Hispanic Heritage Month; "The reading connection"

News September 28, 2007 (mp3 file: 6.48 MB, 7:05 min.)
Choices; Hispanic Heritage Month; "The reading connection: bringing parents, teachers and librarians together."

This week, it seems, it’s all about choices. Everywhere I turned, in articles in professional journals, webinars, a discussion with a student, an instant message with a colleague, it was choices.

A great deal of debate has been going on about the relative value of Library 2.0 connections vs. traditional library services and methods of delivery. Frankly, that baffles me. It doesn’t have to be either-or.

Take tagging, for example. On the one hand, skeptics suggest that we need the traditional classification schemes, and if we let users add their own tags to the library’s catalog or website everything will go to you-know-where in a handbasket. I happen to disagree with that notion—that’s a subject for another podcast—but the point is: we have the choice, and we can give patrons the choice. There IS value to classification schemes but there is value, also, in letting people find items in our catalog in the way they want to find them. We can offer them both. (And I would argue that we should offer them both)

Or, take continuing education. There are those, both providers and consumers, who resist online learning, saying it just doesn’t work for them. True, different people have different preferred learning styles. I went through elementary and high schools, college and graduate school forced into the in-person classroom/lecture style. It’s not the style I prefer—in fact, it’s pretty awful for me, but that's the only choice we had in those days and I had to adapt to it. I would have LOVED to have online and self-paced learning as an option. How glorious that now we DO have that option. It doesn’t mean the in-person opportunities go away, it means that new opportunities open up—that’s the beauty of it: choices for you.

And we, as librarians, have choices about the choices, of course. We can choose to not offer the choices to our patrons, for whatever reason, or we can choose to start giving them more choices for how they use our services. It doesn’t have to happen right now or tomorrow or all at once. After all, if you offer choices it means there are new things to plan and learn, and you have one or two things to do already. (I know it can be done, though; I’m seeing many of you offering those choices now.) That’s what we’re here for, to help make it easier to offer those choices to your patrons. The days when we can expect them to take the services we offer in the way we want to offer them are gone—our patrons have MANY choices now for where they get information and books and videos.

It’s all about choices—our patrons’ choices for where they go for the services we provide, our choices about how we provide and deliver services. It IS all about choices, and isn’t it grand that we live in a world and time in which we have those choices to make and offer. --Karen

Links from today's podcast:

• New Early Childhood Literacy Website
• Dia de los Ninos/Dia de los Libros
• Colorin Colorado
  

Book Reviewed by Marcia:

The reading connection: bringing parents, teachers and librarians together, by Elizabeth Knowles and Martha Smith. Libraries Unlimited, Inc. c. 1997

Video as a tool; "Programming for Libraries"

News September 21, 2007 (mp3 file: 3.6 MB, 3:56 min.)
Video as a tool; "Programming for Libraries"

This week we received a toy, er, tool that I’ve been wanting to get for some time—a digital camcorder. The final impetus for the purchase was the early childhood literacy initiative, so we could do some short video clips that demonstrate reading to very young children. But we have other things in mind, and I expect that we will be thinking of more things.

So, video as a tool. To do what?

My first plan, that’s been in my mind for a few years now is to video-record a walk-through of a library, as a tool for the staff and board to use when thinking about the physical appearance of the library. When you walk past something every day you tend to not “see” it, and the video camera helps to see things through new eyes, as a new patron (or even an old, faithful patron) sees that signage, or the box of sale books right at the front door, or that easy chair that looks pretty tattered…

And I’ve also wanted to use it to record tours of new libraries, or buildings that work very well, highlighting features and ideas for those libraries that are contemplating a building project and want to see what other libraries have done—what they have liked, and what has not worked as well as they had hoped.

Video might also be used for short library virtual tours, or short tutorials on using library resources. Or video book reviews. Or even a short welcome message from the library director. Perhaps an author talk.

I think there are many options for using video in libraries—from planning to promotion to learning. Tell us some of your ideas, and if you’d like a video walk-through of your library, let me know! --Karen

Book reviewed by Marcia:
Programming for librarians: a how-to-do-it manual for librarians, by Barbara J. Brown. Neal-Schuman, c1992.

Librarians at the Table; Privacy, Policy and Intellectual Freedom,

News September 14, 2007 (mp3 file: 5.6 MB, 6:08 min.)
Librarians at the Table; Privacy, Intellectual Freedom and Policy; "Working With Library Boards"

At the top of the ‘cast today: Librarians at the Table.

More and more we are hearing about ‘A librarian at every table,” working to see that librarians are included in conversations and planning about all manner of things, from education to city planning. It’s not that we’re experts on those things, but we are at the heart of our communities—talking with and working for people in all walks of life, in all stages of life. If the library is the center of the community—and it usually is, particularly in small communities—then it makes sense for the library staff and trustees to be “in the know” and involved in the community and what happens there, and how it comes about.

I’ve been thinking about that in relation to teacher librarians in the schools and public librarians—if ever there was a table to be shared, that is it! Though school and public libraries have different missions, different governance, and different funding we also have a great deal in common. So, sitting down at a table together seems a good way to support each other, and learn from each other. My equivalent to teacher librarians here at SWILSA are the AEA media consultants, and I learn a great deal from Deanna and Karen. We do projects together (and Deanna is on the SWILSA board) but even when we don’t it’s helpful to talk with them, hear about what’s going on, and get perspective on what’s happening with libraries and teacher librarians in schools.

Since the return to the Code of the requirement for a teacher librarian in each district there is a great opportunity to build a new working relationship with colleagues in schools; many districts that have not had a teacher librarian for awhile will have one—or be getting one. And in districts that continued to employ a teacher librarian even when not required, it’s a good time to continue the connection with colleagues.

And “at the table” may be, literally, the best choice—have lunch together once a month. If it’s difficult for the teacher librarian to leave the building, join her at the school for lunch sometimes. Or maybe an afternoon snack, or a Saturday lunch. Share something you’ve learned, something you’re thinking about trying, glean ideas from each other, be sounding boards for each other. Maybe you’ll find some things to work on together. And together is better when it comes to serving the people of your community. --Karen

Link from today's podcast:

ALA Privacy Tool Kit

Books on today's podcast:

Protecting the right to read, by Ann K. Symons and Charles Harmon, Neal-Schuman, 1995.

Intellectual Freedom manual, 5th edition, Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, 1996.

Working with library boards: a how-to-do-it manual for librarians, by Gordon Wade. Neal-Schumann, 1991.

Downloadable audiobooks; Censorship and multiculturalism; "Creating a financial plan"

News September 7, 2007 (mp3 file: 5.8 MB, 6:11 min.)
Downloadable audiobooks; Censorship and multiculturalism; "Creating a financial plan"

Southwest and Southeastern Library Service Areas are working to put together a consortium of our member libraries to provide downloadable audiobooks to their patrons. .

Users would be able to download audiobooks, for free, from the consortium’s website. The books could then be transferred to mp3 players (except iPods) and some could be burned to CDs, depending on publisher’s restrictions. So many people now are listening to books—as they drive, or work around the house, or just to relax.

Participating libraries would contribute a monthly amount to cover the providers service fee and to build the collection of audiobooks. The monthly fee is larger than any of our individual libraries could afford and the consortium will enable many more libraries to offer this service. States and consortiums around the country are offering this service, including a new consortium in Iowa, through North Central, Northeast and East Central LSAs. A link to the website for their consortium, NEIBORS, is on the blog.

SE and SW libraries received an e-mail earlier this week, asking you to complete an online survey if you’re interested. The survey also asks you to estimate the amount that you could afford to contribute to the project each month—we need to assess the interest & feasibility of the project. If you haven’t visited the survey, please do so soon. If you’ve misplaced the link to the survey, just let me know and I’ll send it again.

I hope you’ll consider the consortium—I know that audiobooks on cassette and CD are popular in your libraries and this is another way for you to provide that valued resource to your patrons.
--Karen

Link from today's podcast:

• NEIBORS Downloadable audiobooks project in NE Iowa

Books:

• Protecting the right to read, by Ann K. Symons and Charles Harmon. Neal-Schuman, 1995.
  
• Creating a financial plan: a how-to-do-it manual for librarians, by Betty J. Turock and Andrea Pedolsky. Neal-Schuman, 1992.
  

Reaching out;; Book: "Blueprint for Your Library Marketing Plan"

News August 31, 2007 (mp3 file: 5.2 MB, 5:41 min.)
Reaching out; Banned Books Week; Book: "Blueprint for your library marketing plan"

A young, brand-new colleague and I were talking yesterday about many things, but quite a bit about community and libraries and making a difference.

There is so much to do in the library building that it’s a stretch to find time to reach out, yet taking the library out is an important part of belonging to the community---and of getting people to feel that the library is theirs. For those who can’t get to the building for one reason or another, or those who just don’t, for one reason or another, the library can still be a part of their lives. The library building, as “place” is important to a community; so, too, is the library as a concept, a service, an idea, really.

Libraries take programs to daycares, presentations to clubs and organizations, books to care centers. And it doesn’t always have to be the librarian who does those things—volunteers can help with that outreach.

It is also increasingly easy to reach out virtually, so the library is open and available 24/7. If you aren’t automated you can still show your patrons the new books, using Library Thing or a page on a website. (And you have 2 options for free webhosting now, plus the assistance to build and maintain a website.) If you don’t want to maintain a website you can do a blog—or, you can do a blog AND a website. You can do a book discussion online, or an author visit in a chat. In fact, earlier this week I talked to an author whose fifth book just came out and she’s building an online presence; she says she’d like to do an online chat with her readers. And I say, why not a library as the host for it? (If you think your library might be interested let me know and I’ll see what I can do about getting you connected, and setting up a simple—free—chat.)

You all do outreach. What do you do? Who does it? Please share your experiences and ideas in a comment on the blog. And keep reaching out! --Karen

Links from today's podcast:

Library Thing

Book reviewed by Marcia:

Blueprint for your library marketing plan: a guide to help you survive and thrive, by Patricia H. Fisher and Marseille M. Pride, ALA c2006

L2 Manifesto; Teen Read and Children's Book Weeks; "Programming for young children, birth to age 5"

News August 24, 2007 (mp3 file: 5.94 MB, 6:29 min.)
L2 Manifesto; Teen Read and Children's Book Weeks; "Programming for young children, birth to age 5"

“A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto” from Laura Cohen's blog, Library 2.0: An Academic Librarian's Perspective, (and featured in American Libraries August 2007) offers 17 resolutions to help us as we approach the changes that L2.0 represents. For example, one resolution is:
"I will avoid requiring users to see things in librarians' terms but rather will shape services to reflect users' preferences and expectations.”

I was discussing the Manifesto with one of my trustees (via instant messaging, by the way) and we realized that it is a LOT, and sounds a little overwhelming if you are just beginning with Library 2.0's ideas. So, look for just one or two to think about and absorb--maybe one that worries you a little because it will be a challenge for you. Talk with your trustees about it.

I have my two chosen. I’ve been excited about L2.0 for some time, and "embrace" the concepts, as they say, and my board is very supportive but that doesn't mean that there aren't things that the Manifesto has to say to me.

A few more that I’d like to highlight:

“I will become an active participant in moving my library forward.”
Even the wording of this is very to part of SWILSA’s vision for librarians and trustees-- that you are “change agents, and active participants in positive movement toward the future.” So we're here to help you however we can.

“I will recognize that the universe of information culture is changing fast and that libraries need to respond positively to these changes to provide resources and services that users need and want.”
One of the goals of SWILSA’s strategic plan is: “Communities look to their libraries to take the lead in awareness and use of appropriate technologies to achieve enriched lives and economic vitality.”

Again, we’re here to help.

“I will take an experimental approach to change and be willing to make mistakes.”

As the SWILSA Board has discussed various projects that we’ve undertaken (and a couple of new ones coming up) we have noted that we think part of our function is to give you a chance to offer—or try--new things, with us assuming as much of the risk and cost as possible, so yours is reduced—the webhosting on the SWILSA server that we began several years ago, for example, or the ebooks project, or the upcoming downloadable audiobooks project.

In short, we’re here to help with any Library 2.0 ideas and activities you want to discuss or try out.

And remember this one: “I will enjoy the excitement and fun of positive change and will convey this to colleagues and users." Enjoy, and have fun. --Karen

Links from today's podcast:

• Laura Cohen's blog: Library 2.0: An Academic's Perspective
  
• Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto
• SWILSA's Youth Services webpage
• Children's Book Council

Book reviewed by Marcia:

Programming for young children: birth through age five, prepared by Carole D. Fiore. ALA, c1996.

Upcoming Continuing Education; Small things in sync make a difference; Weeding Library Collections

News August 17, 2007 (mp3 file: 7.43 MB, 7:55 min.)
Upcoming Continuing Education; Small things in sync make a difference; Weeding Library Collections.

With 2 Random Acts of Continuing Education under our belts we’re ready to tackle more subjects “on the fly;” we’ll be on the lookout for timely topics to discuss in the Wimba online classroom. (More than a third of you have been in the classroom now, and we’ve had some participants from around the state; we’re happy to see all of you trying the online learning experience.)

There are 2 “regular” workshops coming up in the Wimba classroom: the next monthly Computerside Chat is September 12, and the topic is RSS. (If you aren’t sure what that is, drop in on the Chat and learn what it is--how libraries can use it.)

Then, on September 13 we’ll be learning about PowerPoint presentations—sort of “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” PowerPoint presentations can be useful and good, or they can be counter-productive and, well, just plain awful. We’ll talk about best practices as well as the “how to.” And because you’ll be attending on your own computer you’ll be able to “practice” and start to develop a presentation during the workshop, on your own computer. Part I will be September 13, the date and specific topics for Part II will be determined by the participants in Part I. (Well, all right, I have an outline ready, just in case.)

Fall Subcenter meetings are scheduled for the first week in October. This fall they’ll be in Sidney (you’ll get to see the new library!), Guthrie Center, and Chariton. The meetings aren’t in the CE catalog yet but they soon will be. During these half-day subcenters we’ll be talking about libraries as destinations: you may have heard about “third place,” “library as place,” “libraries as destinations,” and they’ll all figure into our conversation about destination. If successful in cultivating the library as a destination, then the people of your community will be answering the question, “Where shall we go, what shall we do?” with ‘Let’s go to the Library!”

And we don’t have details or registration quite yet for this one, but you’ll want to mark your calendars for a workshop with Saroj Ghoting on March 3. If you missed her at Kids First—or if you saw her at Kids First and want more—you’ll want to attend this. Saroj, co- author of the book, Early literacy storytimes @ your library; partnering with caregivers for success, will be emphasizing story times for 0-3 year olds this time. Saroj has effective (and practical) methods for presenting story times that are helpful not only in the development of children’s readiness to learn, but also in helping parents and other caregivers to continue to nurture that development in the children they care for. And Saroj is a terrific, dynamic speaker.

The Library Service Areas are bringing Saroj back to Iowa as part of our Early Childhood Literacy Initiative, and she’ll be doing 3 workshops in the state. SWILSA is planning a second day of early childhood workshops the following day, March 4. Since the PLA conference in Minneapolis pre-empts Wings Youth this year we’ll be making these 2 days our Wings Youth. Stay tuned for more details, but mark your calendars!

We’ll be working with Michele at the State Library again to repeat our “Reader’s Advisory” course—later this fall, we hope! This course combines online, ICN, and self-paced modules, and it got rave reviews when we did it last year. Stay tuned for that one, too!

Northwest and Southwest LSAs are planning an Iowa Small Libraries Online Conference this winter—we’re lining up a terrific keynote speaker, and there will be breakout sessions on a variety of topics of interest to librarians in small communities. We’re pretty excited about this, and the opportunity for more librarians to attend a conference—this one online! --Karen

Tune in to the podcast for Sue's take on small things--in sync-- making a difference in libraries, and Marcia's review of "Weeding Library Collections."

Book reviewed by Marcia:
Weeding library collections: library weeding methods, 4th ed., by Stanley J. Slote. Libraries Unlimited, 1007.

Mentioned by Sue:
Divive secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells
Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell

Early Childhood Literacy Initiative; Selecting books for preschoolers and toddlers

News August 10, 2007 (mp3 file: 3.16 MB, 3:27 min.)
Early Childhood Literacy and Libraries; Selecting books for preschoolers and toddlers.

As you probably know by now, the Library Service Areas are working on an early childhood literacy initiative this year, and right now we’re working out specific objectives and activities. Our overall goals are to have at 1000 more Iowa children better ready for school, and 500 parents better able to help their children to be ready to learn. We’re talking about storytime kits, workshops for you, collection development tools, grandparents’ fairs….We’re very excited about this initiative, and you can expect to hear and see much more about it.

Sue has been giving you information and ideas already, in her portion of the weekly podcasts, and here at SWILSA we’re already started on some storytime kits and resources, some items to help you get the word out to your community about the importance of Early Childhood Literacy—and there’s a library—or two—already interested in a Grandparents’ Fair.

On a related note: Wings Youth will be a bit different this year. The usual time, at the end of March, has been pre-empted by the PLA conference in Minneapolis. The LSAs are bringing in a national presenter on early childhood literacy, likely in March, so we’re thinking that we’ll just build around that workshop for Wings Youth this year. Stay tuned! --Karen

News & Views August 3, 2007

News August 3, 2007 (mp3 file; 5:13 min.)



Links from Today's Podcast

Storytime Crafts, Printables and Take-Home Materials

Sue's email

Book Reviewed by Marcia on Today's Podcast
Used Book Sales: Less Work & Better Profits by D. Keith Crotz

News & Views July 27, 2007

News July 27, 2007 (mp3 file, 3:09 min.)

Links from Today's Podcast

Wimba Room

SWILSA Current Announcements

Book Reviewed by Marcia on Today's Podcast

Attracting, Educating, and Serving Remote Users Through the Web: A How-to-do-it Manual for Librarians, by Donnelyn Curtis.

Just a correction!

The URL for the SWILSA RACE page is http://www.swilsa.lib.ia.us/CE/RACE.htm!

Random Acts of Continuing Education; Early Childhood Literacy and Libraries

News July 20, 2007 (mp3 file: 5 MB, 5:26 min.)
Random Acts of Continuing Education; Early Childhood Literacy and Libraries

At the top of the ‘cast today: Random Acts of Continuing Education. At SWILSA we often get questions in “clumps”—questions from several libraries that are around the same topic. Sometimes a workshop or meeting on the topic would be helpful, but if we go through our usual CE planning process to find a date and a location, then the need for the discussion has passed by the time the workshop actually happens. And many librarians may not be able to attend because of their schedules and distance to the workshop. (And how ‘bout those gas prices right now??) Sometimes the question or topic doesn’t really need a full day workshop at that point in time, and if you’re going to drive 2 or 3 hours, it hardly seems worth it for a couple of hours of workshop.

Hence: Random Acts of Continuing Education, or RACE, for short. (They aren’t really Random, more "spontaneous," so I suppose we could have called them SPACE, for Spontaneous Acts of CE, but I liked Random, so there we have it. ) RACE sessions will be periodically scheduled—at relatively short notice—one hour sessions on a current topic of interest to you; they’ll be held in the Wimba online classroom so you won’t have to invest time and money in travel.

We’ve been doing some classes—notably Computerside Chats—in the Wimba room but we’ve been using the room for technology-related classes, and we want to expand that. Our first topic is: Salary and Pay Equity for Librarians, and our guest presenter will be Sandy Dixon of the State Library of Iowa. (See our website—and an upcoming e-mail) for more information about it.) The Wimba classroom, available to us through the State Library’s Community Partnership with Web Junction, opens up a great many opportunities for us to “get together” online. One hour isn’t very long, but for some questions and topics that will be enough when it’s what we call “just in time” learning. Or, we may find out after that hour that we need more time to cover the topic and your questions and we can schedule a longer workshop, face-to-face, if need be.

At this point I’m speculating that there will be fairly short notice—just a “Meet in the Wimba room at such and such a time and we’ll talk about X topic” sort of thing. If we schedule them very far out then we lose the timeliness of the information. Not everyone will be able to make it, but not everyone can make the face to face workshops, either. So, let’s give it a try. Many of you have experienced the Wimba classroom, many of you have not. Our website page about RACE has information about the Wimba room, and my e-mail to you will include a link to the room, so you can run the setup wizard (which you do just one time) and enter the room ahead of time, to make sure you’re ready. Because this will be a new experience for many of you, we have a little more lead time for this first RACE: the salary RACE will be August 9 at 9 a.m. You can attend on any computer with a broadband connection to the Internet—you can attend at home in your jammies, if you like!

All the sessions will be in the CE catalog, so register if you can. I will not, however, turn you away if you find you are able to just drop in at the time of the class! If you’re a little uncertain about attending something online, or getting your computer set up to use the room, just let me know and we’ll do a practice run together. (And don’t stress about it—it’s not that difficult to set up, and even easier to use!)

We’re very excited about all the things we can provide with the Wimba room. (A couple of you have already experienced computer troubleshooting via the room’s interface.) It doesn’t mean we’re going to stop doing in-person workshops and meetings, it just means that we can provide more opportunities to discuss and learn, in a convenient way. I hope you’ll join us. --Karen

Links from today's podcast:

• SWILSA's RACE CE page
• SWILSA's Computerside Chats CE page
  

News & Views July 13, 2007

News July 13, 2007 (mp3 file, 3:45 min.)

Book Reviewed by Marcia This Week:

Preparing Staff to Serve Patrons with Disabilities by Courtney Deines-Jones and Connie Van Fleet.

Teens, Technology and Literacy; Bulletin board sets; Projects and activities for YAs

News July 6, 2007 (mp3 file: 6.55 MB, 7 min.)
Teens, Technology and Literacy; Bulletin board sets; Projects and activities for YAs

I’m reading again—or, still. While my plumber was doing some work at my house I sat down to read “Teens, technology, and literacy; or, why bad grammar isn’t always bad, ” by Linda W. Braun. The title seemed to me to indicate that the book would support what I’ve long felt to be true: teens aren’t less literate than earlier generations just because they use acronyms, lower case letters and what we consider bad grammar in some of their communications. The author says it more eloquently and completely than I –she suggests that we need to re-think and update what we define as literacy: not only the ability to read and write within the traditional constructs of the mechanical skills of reading and writing and the school context, but also within the context of the world and their lives.

I have often heard librarians—public, school and academic—lament that teens and students just aren’t reading and writing as they should be, and instant messaging and texting encourage them to use bad grammar. I see it as reading and writing, still—and they use skills that some of us older adults just don’t have. (Maybe we’re jealous!) When they blog, or text, or IM or send e-mail they are reading and writing. AND, as author Linda Braun points out, in order for reading and writing to be meaningful they have to be connected to the reader’s/writer’s real world.” That falls into the definition of literacy as a social and school construct (which became popular in the late 20^th century. “This definition of literacy focuses on recognizing that literacy practices and skills vary based on economic, social, political and cultural associations.” They are actually reading and writing a lot outside of school—they are more comfortable writing for having e-mail and texting: they are doing it all the time.

All right, but really, are they reading and writing CORRECTLY when they use the IM shorthand and acronyms? …..Well, let’s give teens some credit---they do know the difference between the style they use in instant messaging or texting and that of more formal communication. (They are more formal in e-mail than in texting—e-mail, to them, is for communicating with old people—that would be….me.) They know that they should use a different style when writing a paper than when IMing a friend. I love a quote from one teen interviewed for a study of that issue: IM shorthand, this high junior says, “is just to shorten stuff up It’s not like we’re doing it in real life.” And if you’ve ever texted, you know that sometimes you have to be pretty creative in trying to keep a text message 160 characters or fewer. I am trying to break myself of having to use full sentences, type out every word and use proper upper and lower case. Just a few text messages and you learn quickly that the teens have it right—and that’s a skill some of us are still trying to develop

The author also provides examples of how teens are communicating with new technologies, how it advances their literacy skills within the context of their world and lives, and how libraries and schools can assist them with that—and join in with them.

She describes, in addition to defining, technologies such as blogging, podcasting, instant messaging, and provides ideas for us to use in connecting with teens and providing service. For example, libraries have been doing virtual reference for years now, and some have been using instant messaging to do it for some time. What about new book notices to teens using text messaging? An IM reader’s advisory service?

She also has hints for how we can help them with such skills as decision-making, organizing and presenting content, and critical thinking regarding information they put on the web.

The book is a good read, with much to think about, and ideas to try. Give some thought to what you think about teens and literacy; do we need to change how and what we think about that? --Karen

Links from today's podcast:

• SWILSA's Youth Services webpage
• American Library Association

Book Reviewed by Marcia:
What a novel idea! Projects and Activities for Young Adult Literature, by Katherine Wiesolek Kuta. Teacher Ideas Press, c1997.

Creativity; Literary maps

News June 29, 2007 (mp3 file: 5.77 MB, 6:09 min.)
Creativity; books on bulletin boards and other library displays

This morning I was reading a newsletter from Quilt University and the author was discussing the value of naps, noting that Thomas Edison took 15 minute naps, awakening refreshed and ready to invent something. That started me thinking about creativity in general. Too often I hear people—including librarians—say they just aren’t creative. I think we're all creative when we start life, we just somehow “unlearn” it along the way—perhaps we’re so busy learning the concrete “facts” and dealing with the tasks of life that we push creativity aside for later—and later never comes for it. Creativity isn’t just about painting or drawing or composing symphonies, it’s also thinking about new ways to do things, looking at something differently, and trying something that hasn’t been done before or done that way before. And I think it may be largely about being willing to try things—even if you’re not much of a risk-taker you can try something small. You can even just THINK about the “what ifs” and imagine what might happen.

I think it requires exercising your creativity. Edison used naps (though I’m sure he used many other things, too; his creativity seems to have had a great deal of exercise!) but naps might not be a practical method for you during your work day; putting your head down on the circ desk for a snooze after school as the kids are coming into the library probably isn’t the thing to do. But maybe as you’re shelving books or doing some of the more routine tasks, or driving to and from work, you can play “What if?” Or take a look at some books about creativity—A Whack on the Side of the Head, or How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci (now THERE was a man whose creativity was well exercised), or Thinkertoys. Each has exercises to stimulate new ideas and creativity, and are especially useful if you’re just not sure how to get started. Try thinking creatively about new programming (or re-vitalizing established programs) or new services or classes or how you manage your time or…shelve books. Even if you end up not doing most of what you think about, it will strengthen you ability to think creatively—and you may become so intrigued by what you’re thinking up that you want to try some of them out.

One creativity exercise that I’ve seen in several creativity discussions, and that seems to work pretty well, is to take two concepts and then look for relationships between the two, or force them. This example might not be the best, but I’m just doing it off the top of my head—and I’m sure all of you will be able to better me at it. Take teaching people how to do good, effective searches on the Web and compare it with playing golf. You might start with listing characteristics of each—in golf a hole in one is a good thing, you use irons and woods and drivers and putters and a golf ball…(I hope it’s not TOO obvious that I don’t play golf…), you have to take into account wind, the course, etc. Now, if you force relationships with teaching searching skills….a hole in one is like getting the search result you want at the top of the hit list, on the first search. It can be a rare thing, in both instances. The clubs and ball are tools—what tools do you use for searching.? There are skills you need to practice—addressing the ball (choosing search terms?), knowing the course and the layout of the various holes (what search engine are you using, and how do you construct search strings in that search engine?), and adapting your game as you progress, analyzing your position on the green (what kind of results am I getting, and how might I refine the search to get better results?)…etc., etc. Maybe it ends up with something as basic as approaching the teaching of searching by making it a game. (So, what’s the game called, what are the rules…)

Here’s one I just thought of, though I haven’t done any of the relationship forcing—shelving books and drive-in restaurants. Perhaps you won’t wear roller skates to take the books to the shelves, but it’s kind of fun to think about, and it opens up that part of your brain and gives it permission to think about different and fun things.

When you let your mind exercise some creativity it’s a lot of fun, it’s a relief from the stresses or the routine—and you just might come up with some ideas you want to try. And if you don’t want anyone else to know what you’ve been coming up with, they don’t have to. But I’m betting you’ll come up with some ideas you like so much that you can’t wait to tell someone about them. My money’s on you! --Karen

Book reviewed by Marcia:
Literary maps for young adult literature, by Mary Ellen Snodgrass. Libraries Unlimited, c1995.