NYC Hug
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NYC Hug1.jpg 2011-06-04
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NYC Hug2.jpg 2011-06-04
This photo blog is for librarians that serve youth and need a place to exchange ideas, events and library updates. With all the state cuts happening to libraries and library systems, it is feared that information will not be as forthcoming as it should be. The Librarian Post is to help counteract this condition. In most libraries, youth services provide the majority of programming and in some cases conduct the most circulation. We have a strong voice let's make sure we use it! Become a member, share your great ideas and be inspired by others!
I am presenting at the 2011 Fall Into Books conference this Thursday. I tried to pick books and a theme that would fit for both school and public librarians. Bullying in books seemed to be a pretty timely subject and after asking my two teenaged daughters they heartily approved. The books I have selected to discuss are; Bystander by James Preller, Freak by Marcella Pixley, The Skin I'm in by Sharon G. Flake and The Truth About Truman School by Dori Hillestad Butler. I had not read any of these books before I choose them for the conference but after reading each one my selections were dead on. Hope the attendees think so too!
Here are some additional resources for Bullies in Books:
Bullying in Young Adult Fiction (Comprehensive List)
Teens: Fiction about Bullies and Bullying
Annotated Bibliography of Books by Bullying Behavior
Resources and Teachers Guide about Cyberbullying
More Bullies in More Books by C. J. Bott
The Bully in the Book and the Classroom by C. J. Bott
No Kidding About Bullying: 125 Ready-to-Use Activities to Help Kids Manage Anger, Resolve Conflicts, Build Empathy, and Get Along (Bully Free Classroom) by Naomi Drew M.A.
After the initial shock wears off of not having that personal, direct line of resources and information either an email or phone call away, you can do one of two things; cry or get angry and start to advocate for your rights as a Youth Service Librarian! In the meantime you still have to do your job and maintain the excellent level of service you have always supplied your customer. There are a lot of resources out there in the ether to help librarians create well rounded programs. Much of this material comes from YALSA or ALSC. Many librarians have turned to these sites or blogs for book and material review. Check out the links to the left for some really spot on youth service bloggers from around the world. Don’t write off trade magazines for acquisitions completely but it is nice to have some alternate points of view. Blogs such as The ‘M’ Word and The Bubble Room are good for marketing tips. Programming Librarian has information about grants and financial resources. As we tell our customers, information found on the internet does not always replace information from peer reviewed sources. It will take some time to discern what information is viable for your needs and what is just crap that you can live without. Unfortunately this also takes a bit of time. So carving out an extra half hour a day to spend online is a must. To make things a bit easier, set up RSS feeds from your favorite blogs and websites directly to your email. This will help cut down the amount of time spent searching.
Another important step is to keep your own personal network of colleagues and coworkers up-to-date. This may also require a bit more time spent online. Keeping up profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin as well as providing prompt email responses. This is just as necessary maybe even more so in our profession. However, no amount of social networking beats attending conferences and workshops. Librarians are rejuvenated when personally meeting with others and sharing ideas (even if they are old ideas repackaged). It is important to keep active in library organizations such as YSS and continuing education for yourself and for the health of our profession. In addition, area Youth Service Providers need to get together with peers as much as scheduling will allow to discuss; programming ideas, collection development, resource sharing and other day to day activities. This assists newbie librarians as well as helping to give a lift to older programs run by seasoned individuals. Contrary to stereotypes, librarians are not solitary creatures. It is wonderful that social networking has connected us with great ideas and with others from around the world but this does not replace the one to one contact from a consultant at the state or system level. Until these positions are either reevaluated or reinstated, the individual librarian will have to reinvent the wheel yet again.
Listservs are sort of becoming an antiquated idea. With all the blogs, wikis and internet resources available having an email conversation with peers seems superfluous. However, I will give a plug for the listservs offered (and there are quite a lot from ALA). Connecting with a group, and in most cases generating instantaneous feedback, can be more gratifying than reading someone’s blog, which can be one-sided. Take this blog for example, maybe there is someone out there reading The Librarian Post (maybe not) but the actual connection with the reader is not there unless someone posts a comment or asks a question. How often does this happen? And if the blog is really popular, how often is the author replying to the comments and questions posted? A listserv covers a wide range of people, usually someone will answer a query posted opening up a conversation between any and all members who wish to join. Being on several listservs myself, I try not to get embroiled in some of these debates that can become rather heated. I have stupidly done this once or twice and it is quite exhausting. However, I will say that there have been times when I need an article for research, cannot remember the title or author, have only the subject and a few abstract points, post this to the listserv group and within minutes someone responds with the correct answer. This type of query also opens up a discussion of other related resources I may not have thought of to begin with. Downside, listserv emails can clog up your inbox. There are settings when you sign up that can alter the way you receive your listserv email to help combat this problem. If you are interested in joining some listservs remember to keep initial settings in mind and keep all your passwords to be able to access the archives.
Youth Service Listservs:
PUBYAC: Online discussion forum for issues relating to providing library services to children & teens. Subscribe by email, send the message “subscribe pubyac” (no subject line necessary) to listproc@prairienet.org
YALSA: Young Adult Library Association offerings
ALSC: Association for Library Service to Children offerings
ALA Lists: This is a comprehensive link to all the listservs offered by the American Library Association.
NYLA Listserv Walk-through: You have to be a member of NYLA/YSS. This link is a walk-through of how to join their group.
*Note: Some of the listservs above are only available to members of parent organizations.
I recently attended a new student orientation for Syracuse University’s Masters of Library Sciences Program. In an effort to help you get to know your fellow students, they held a gaming night. Admittedly I sort of dreaded this. We are all familiar with the silly bonding games involving ball tosses or trust games where you fall into each other’s arms. I attended enough of those to know all they accomplished was uncomfortable giggles and little actual bonding. So I was happily surprised to have had a great time and to have made friends with a few people. I even left armed with new gaming ideas for teens in my library. I couldn’t have more excited about this.
I sometimes resent gaming in my library because it feels unrelated to literacy and I have to drive an hour for work, which means driving an hour to play the Wii. But after my weekend at Syracuse I realized I just didn’t know how to use them in my programs. Now with a few quality games in my repertoire I can’t wait for my summer reading gaming program to begin. Our gaming night at Syracuse was run by none other than Scott Nicholson, Gaming Master and Associate Professor at Syracuse University. For those who are unfamiliar with him, he is a Gaming God. According to the Syracuse’s website he is a libraries scientist who studies recreational gaming activities in libraries. So this guy knows everything about every game. He was recently on CBS morning show and next year he will teach a year MIT. That said I was extremely excited to learn he has many You Tube videos on gaming. So after watching hours of his videos and attending his gaming night I compiled a list of a few games that are simple to learn and fast and fun to play. They can be used as time fillers, or even as full programs.
Scott Nicholson divides gaming into categories and for teens I focused on social interaction games. My main goal is to have fun so these games are easy to pick up and engage in. My first game is Wits and Wagers Family Edition. In this game everyone write a guess down to a fun question. Then everyone tries to pick the closest guess to the correct answer. The questions really make you think and kids will connect over the funny questions and answers. In fact when I played this we laughed so hard we forgot that we didn’t know each other and relaxed immediately into the game.
Next we played Tsuro. An awesome strategy game that has an element of sci-fi/fantasy with dragon characters. Players follow a path and try to be the last man standing on the board. This would be sure to please an anime group as well. I am sad to say though that the game has been out of stock on every website I have been on. So if you see one, buy it!
This next game I learned from watching You Tube videos of Scott and have not played yet. But because of its popularity with teens, I really want to get it. Fluxx Card Game has a few versions; the one based on Monty Python is a big hit. Players draw a card and follow the instructions on the card to make your play. Each card can quickly change the face of the game but the game still involves some strategy.
Finally, Kaker Laken Poker, which has everything to do with bluffing and little to do with poker. This game is versatile in that ages 6 and up can play it but teens will like it too. This game reminds me of a card game I learned in college with an inappropriate name. The children’s game involves cards with cockroaches (which just cracks me up) and other bugs on them. A player puts a card face down on the table and states the kind of bug. The next player has to decide to accept or pass the card. The game ends when a player has no cards to pass on his turn or when a player has four cards of the same critter on the table in front of him. In either case, this player loses and everyone else wins.
All of these games (except Tsuro) are inexpensive, under $20.00, and can be found online or at a local store. Look in the near future for another installment of gaming recommendations. I hope this help reinforce existing programs or give you new ideas. Good luck gaming! For those of you who want to explore more on your own here is the website for a gaming glass that Scott taught online – Also you can search You Tube for other videos, just type in his name.
Below is a list of the games I mentioned:
Fluxx Card Game
Tsuro
Kaker Laken Poker
Wits and Wagers Family Edition
By Sarah Bellora
Youth Service Provider
NE Millerton Library
Millerton, NY