Cathy the Librarian

Let me set the mood.

I somehow mentioned that I would put on DDR programs at other libraries for $100. I’ve gotten quite a few requests, which is nice because we are going to Disneyworld in January and it would be nice to have some extra money. Plus I’d like to buy an mp3 player with a hard drive so that I can 1) listen to my whole collection of cds 2) listen to audio books, and 3) have pictures of Jack at the ready.

So there it is, I am given $100 to go around from library to library and make a fool of myself and let the teens play DDR.

Today I went to Fairport. If you remember past posts, I applied for a job at Fairport. I really really wanted this job. And I didn’t get it. Therefor I really wanted to make those people at Fairport jealous. Really jealous. I wanted them to think I was this super-cool, put together librarian that knew what she was doing. My husband and I had figured out what the best settings were and how to set everything up. If it had been a PS2, there would be no problems, however I was using a PS1 that belongs to my sister, and I’m still not completely sure of the settings.

I spent about 30 minutes working out the settings, and then a couple of times in between players. I saw that Betsy stopped in once, and some of the other librarians stopped in a couple of times. I tried to give off a cool/laid back vibe, but I’m not sure how well I did.

I did meet a woman from the Pioneer system, (who I didn’t know was going to watch the program) that wanted to get ideas for bringing DDR to her library system. She asked me quite a few questions and I eventually gave her my business card. That was pretty neat.

I’m not too sure what Stephanie thinks of me, I guess I’m pretty consumed with making a good impression on other librarians. I really work on being involved with and well liked by other librarians.

Well, even though I felt like an ass, I know that the teens had a really good time. I think Stephanie’s going to get one for Fairport. Quite a few of the teens even said that if she buys one, they would come back every day! I would say that was a hit with the teens.

Beginning to fall asleep at the laptop. Time to go to bed. Good nighty-night.

Let me set the mood.

I somehow mentioned that I would put on DDR programs at other libraries for $100. I’ve gotten quite a few requests, which is nice because we are going to Disneyworld in January and it would be nice to have some extra money. Plus I’d like to buy an mp3 player with a hard drive so that I can 1) listen to my whole collection of cds 2) listen to audio books, and 3) have pictures of Jack at the ready.

So there it is, I am given $100 to go around from library to library and make a fool of myself and let the teens play DDR.

Today I went to Fairport. If you remember past posts, I applied for a job at Fairport. I really really wanted this job. And I didn’t get it. Therefor I really wanted to make those people at Fairport jealous. Really jealous. I wanted them to think I was this super-cool, put together librarian that knew what she was doing. My husband and I had figured out what the best settings were and how to set everything up. If it had been a PS2, there would be no problems, however I was using a PS1 that belongs to my sister, and I’m still not completely sure of the settings.

I spent about 30 minutes working out the settings, and then a couple of times in between players. I saw that Betsy stopped in once, and some of the other librarians stopped in a couple of times. I tried to give off a cool/laid back vibe, but I’m not sure how well I did.

I did meet a woman from the Pioneer system, (who I didn’t know was going to watch the program) that wanted to get ideas for bringing DDR to her library system. She asked me quite a few questions and I eventually gave her my business card. That was pretty neat.

I’m not too sure what Stephanie thinks of me, I guess I’m pretty consumed with making a good impression on other librarians. I really work on being involved with and well liked by other librarians.

Well, even though I felt like an ass, I know that the teens had a really good time. I think Stephanie’s going to get one for Fairport. Quite a few of the teens even said that if she buys one, they would come back every day! I would say that was a hit with the teens.

Beginning to fall asleep at the laptop. Time to go to bed. Good nighty-night.

I received a letter in the mail today letting me know that the author for a book on getting teens to read, highlighted my blog for teens! I don’t remember the title of the book and the letter is, of course on my desk at work. I will post the title (and the ISBN) so that you can buy it if you want. I emailed all the teen librarians in my system almost immediately, because I was so excited. Chris, who is the teen services woman for Brockport emailed me back to let me know that I would have to sign her minutes of the meeting. Of course, I should have let her know that if she bought a couple of the book, I would sign that too.
Sally said that she bets a bunch of librarians got the letter so that they would buy the book… rrr… but she says that she’s still happy for me (and the library.)

Needless to say, the Parma Library will be getting a copy soon.

Somehow the Art Director from Gemstone Comics happened upon my blog of graphic novel reviews. Then he emailed me and asked me to be an official reviewer! Unfortunately, no money will pass hands, but at least I get free comic books! Plus they’re all Disney comics, so Jeff will love them too! He and I share different views on the merits of manga, so he never reads them, but enjoys scoffing when I read them.

I actually applied to be a reviewer for Tokyopop manga, but I don’t think I had enough experience (or writing skills) for them. Oh well, I guess its all about babysteps.

Maybe someday I could be a full-time reviewer and have time to actually write books, which is my dream someday (the writing part)… yeah right. I love being a librarian too much, who am I kidding.

At least I get to read cute Scrooge McDuck comics now. Reviews will definately be posted!

I finally had some time to read some new comic books! I read Grey Horses, Bumperboy loses His Marbles, The One I Love, Tarot Cafe, Salamander Dream, and the first volume of The Walking Dead. I loved Grey Horses and Salamander Dream. They were so sweet and refreshing, plus the author, Hope Larson, went to school at Rochester Institute of Technology! Her illustrations are quirky and flowy, which is very different from the manga or the super hero art. I must say that I’m glad people are expanding the subject matter of comic books. It makes it a lot more accessible to a wider variety of people. Good examples are Fashion Kitty and Baby Mouse. Pink illustrations, need I say more?

On the other hand, I’m reading the Walking Dead. Talk about your gore fest! I mean I understand that its zombies, but this is way violent, which helped in the decision to put older teen stickers on them. This is not to say that they aren’t good. They are really good. The author decided to go the more philosophical zombie route, a la George A. Romero. I think this was an excellent decision because its kept my attention a lot longer than a plain old slasher type zombie comic would.

I will keep you posted on how wonderful the Walking Dead series is, however I think I may continue to like it, if the first one and a half books are any proof.

My boss, wonderful lady that she is, keeps telling me that I should do school visits. I have absolutely know idea what to do at one. I know that I might want to read a book to the younger kids and for everyone tell them who I am and let them know what wonderful books and programs we have. I think I’m supposed to do some book talking and then let everyone ask me questions like, “Did it hurt to get your nose pierced?” and “How many piercings do you have?” and “Why don’t you look like a librarian?” and “Why did you just read a book about a farting pig to a group of juniors in high school?”

As you can see I have no idea on how to go about this, so tips and hints are greatly appreciated. All I know is I am definately wearing my booger pin at all school visits!

I’ve been having problems with story times. For some reason, no one’s been coming. I don’t think I’m awful. I know I’m not the best, but I don’t think that’s a reason for no one to show up. I try my darndest! Maybe I should have a pro come in and critique my story time to give me tips.

Anyway, I do all this preparation to get a theme together, find coloring pages, create finger people, get myself all worked up and then… only five people will show up! Last spring I did two 3 – 5 year old story times and two 1 – 2 year old story times. Only one kid showed up to one of the 3 – 5 year old story times and I think I basically cancelled one of the 1 – 2 year old ones. Then people get mad because I don’t have enough story times! What can I do? I’m only one person doing the work of two (or sometimes 3 – 4) people! I love my job, but I can never seem to make people happy. I even put out surveys and put them on the kids blog, but even then only five people have filled them out, even though they’re only four questions long, and its just a check the box kind of survey. Jeeze!
This fall I decided to cut one of the 1 – 2 year old story times and I made one of the 3 – 5 year old ones an evening drop in story time. I guess we’ll just see how many kids show up.

I’ve added new programs and made some existing programs available to more age groups. We now have a drawing group and a permanant yugioh group. I hope that if I do a lot of regular programs instead of merely special programs that the kids will know to be at the library at a certain time and I can get to know more of the kids. We shall see.

I love the kids, teens and summer reading, but boy am I glad summer reading is over! I have to have enough enthusiasm for everyone. Trying to get some people to read, is like trying to pull teeth. Big fat teeth that have roots so deep that they are attached to their toe nails. Who is the big meanie that mad reading so freaking horrible. I’d like to pull a big book shelf full of… anvils right on top of their head.

I was actually able to convince about 300 people to sign up for summer reading, but no matter how many times I mentioned that they could win slices of pizza as big as their head or king chocolate bars, most of the kids didn’t go much farther than signing up. I used all sorts of ways to entice them: the food, prizes… I showed them books about poop for gods sake! Sometimes I feel its hopeless. However I will continue to buy comic books and books about poop, farts and boogers, because I am convinced that some day there will be hordes of children running into the library… not to use the internet to go on their myspace account or to play runescape, but to read all the wonderful books I buy for them.

Okay so its not all that bad. The kids that do participate read tons, but its sad that there are so few kids that see the joy of a book. I partially blame the parents. If kids don’t see parents reading, and if their parents don’t read to them, why should they bother reading? Kids want to do what their parents do. I should know by the way, because my 16 month old son tried to help me clean the toilet by grabbing the toilet brush. EEEEWWWW!

I had two end of the summer parties, one on Thursday for the teens and one on Friday for the kids. The one on Thursday was at Brockport. We had a reading competition between Brockport, Ogden, Hamlin and us at Hilton. Brockport and Ogden read over 2000 hours and even Hamlin read over a 1000. We read 750. PATHETIC! So we had the party at Brockport and two of my teens showed up. It really is sad, but it gave me a chance to share my exhuberance with other teens.

It also gave me a chance to meet the new children’s librarian at Brockport, who just graduated from University at Buffalo. She is super sweet, and I think that I will check on her to make sure that she’s doing well. Right now Brockport is having some staffing issues, and I hope that it doesn’t work on her nerves. I think that her enthusiasm is something that more librarians (besides a select few of us) need to have.

Friday we had our kids’ party. There were about 50 kids and we ate pizza and bagels and I gave them treasures. After they stuffed themselves, we had a very cute lady, Accordian Pat, who came and… played the accordian! That’s right,  I bet you’d never have guessed it! Even some of the parents danced, so I think she was a hit.

Needless to say, I’m exhausted, but happy. Now I get to start all my planning for Fall programs. Yippee!

I was googling my name and found an article from a local newspaper that quoted me. Neat!

It’s never too soon to start reading – Westside News

Parma Public Library offers blog site for Young Adults – Westside News

Japanese comic books are the topic of new book club – Westside News
Fascinating, isn’t it?

I just finished up listening to Me Talk Pretty One Day. This is both very interesting and bizarre. How to describe this book? David talks about his family, friends and about moving to France with his boyfriend. He talks about growing up and knowing he was different. He didn’t like sports, beating people up or doing other manly things. He’d rather bake banana bread and singing jingles in the voice of singer Billie Holiday. The title of the book stems from David’s lisp. A speech therapist tries to “correct” his problems with pronouncing s. He eventually learns to use words without the letter s in them, sometimes having to be extrememely creative in what he was saying.

He also talked about how he wanted to be an artist, and how he needed to use drugs in order to do so. It seems sad to be in such a state, and reading it, I can’t imagine how no one in his family noticed his abuse.

Eventually, he cleans himself up and falls for a guy named Huey. They move to France, and much of the later half of the book discusses his inability to communicate with the French. He take French classes, but it sounds like they don’t help too much either. It makes for quite the interesting story however.

I’m listening to Dress Your Family in Courdoroy and Denim now. Its another really interesting book, and I’m happy that I picked them up at the Ogden’s Farmer Library when I was consoling Roberta (teen services librarian) about the terrible anime selection that ADV Advocates had given us for the month.

There were TONS of boobies that month… don’t they know that public librarians are trying to show these? One of the clerks asked me if I showed that kind of disgusting pornography at my library. Of course she didn’t exactly say it like that, but I knew she didn’t like it, and I’m pretty sure that she was sizing me up with her eyes.

I keep thinking that I should write them an email. The teen librarian from one of the Irondequoit libraries took me aside at a program we were both involved in and asked me if they were all like that. I told her that USUALLY there were some save episodes to show, but you really have to be careful. Try to have a backup.

Anyway, I love David Sedaris now. Me Talk Happy Now!