Last year, I had a 6th grade student return a book to me that had been damaged. His explanation was that he had spilled iced tea on it. I took the book from him, placed it on my desk, and sent a letter to his parents requesting payment for the damaged item. Since I like to make sure I follow up on the payment for damaged items, I usually leave the item on my desk as a visual reminder to collect the funds. The library clerk and I picked the book up many times over the course of the next few weeks while moving stacks of things around on my desk, etc. After the item had been paid for, I proceeded to thank the student for taking care of his responsibilities. His response? “No problem, Ms. Bell. It’s the least I could do since my dog peed on your book.” …
Month: December 2008
Professional Reading: Show & Tell: Exploring the Fine Art of Children’s Book Illustration
Dilys Evans, author of Show & Tell, states in her author’s note that this book is not a “best of” list. Instead, she has selected twelve different artists to showcase the variety of fine art in children’s book illustration. According to the blurb on the book jacket, Evans has advised Caldecott committees in the past. By writing this book, her hope is to “help all of us who value children’s books to find a universal language to use to talk about art on the page; a vocabulary that helps describe this unique form of artistic expression with greater clarity and common understanding. And that we will then take that vocabulary and use it to explore the many other wonderful books that are on our shelves.” (p. 7) Evans does an excellent job discussing the selected illustrators and describing their works to offer interested readers ways to move beyond “I like…
What I Wasn’t Taught in Library School: the Importance of Great Customer Service
It seems obvious: if you are a librarian, particularly in a public or school setting, you better love people. As librarians, we handle, read, review, and spend a good deal of time with books (and DVDs, CDs, websites, video cameras, construction paper, puppets, and a myriad of other inanimate objects). But our profession is more people-centered than book-centered. Librarianship is about connection. It’s about that one-on-one interaction with a patron: showing a student how to research their first major term paper; helping a senior citizen download pictures of the grandkids; finding the best potty-training video for a new dad; hearing, “hey, there’s the storytime lady!” in line at Dunkin’ Donuts. Librarianship is also about diplomacy: keeping a smile on your face while Conspiracy Theory Dude explains to you for the 11th time how the aliens stole his favorite loafers; learning the best (and most kind) way to deal with the…
The Best Book You Ever Got (and the Worst?)
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the best books to buy my relatives (and thus procrastinating before actually having to venture out onto the bitterly cold and jam-packed city streets of New York). I’ve made a list of some of my favorite kids books to give as gifts. (Looking at books published this year, I’m a big fan of Dinosaur vs. Bedtime and Alvin Ho.) It got me wondering- what was the best book you have ever received? (For me, it was a copy of The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians, given to me by two sisters who were regulars at my library. I was leaving that branch and the girls and their mom gave me a copy as a goodbye gift.) Book gift-giving also makes me think of all those sad, cast-off book gifts that wind up as library donations. Have you ever gone through your…
The 2009 Youth Media Awards
Join thousands as ALA, ALSC and YALSA unveil the best of the best in children’s and young adult literature and media. The American Library Association (ALA) will provide a free live Webcast of its national announcement of the top books and media for children and young adults on January 26 at 7:45 a.m. MT. The award announcements are made as part of the ALA Midwinter Meeting, which will bring together more than 10,000 librarians, publishers, authors, and guests in Denver from January 23 to 28. Unikron, a streaming content provider, will host the ALA Youth Media Awards Webcast. Online visitors will be able to view the live Webcast the morning of the announcements by going to the Unikron Web site. ALA will instantly announce winners of the 2009 Youth Media Awards using the micro-blogging service Twitter. For the first time ever, members can follow the Youth Media Awards via Twitter and receive live…
What I Wasn’t Taught in Library School: Library 911
I wish I had gone into my school librarian position knowing how to mend those popular and cheaply-made books! Sure, I could build wikis, create student podcasts and collaborate to meet curriculum standards… but I didn’t know a thing about how to deal with loose pages, let along broken bindings. In my current job, my first school library position, I replaced a librarian who had been there for decades. Along with a fully-updated paper card catalogue, I inherited a mysterious drawer full of stitched, Army-green binding tape, that strange heavy-duty colored tape, and razor blades. It wasn’t until the very end of my fist year that I attended a professional development training with a DEMCO rep who taught us to deal with cuts, tears, falling-out pages, and demolished spines. By that time, my book hospital had taken over half a book case, and I’d scotch-taped my most popular “patients” in…
Episode 8: Author Spotlight on Jim Gill
Download the podcast. Episode 8 Author Spotlight on Jim Gill For this 15-minute podcast, Teresa Walls, ALSC Blog Manager, interviews Jim Gill, a musician, author and child development specialist with a graduate degree from the Erikson Institute of Chicago. So far, three of his works have been recognized by ALSC committees: Jim Gill Sings Moving Rhymes for Modern Times, a 2007 Notable Children’s Recording. Jim Gill Makes it Noisy in Boise, Idaho, a 1997 Notable Children’s Recording. Jim Gill Sings the Sneezing Song and Other Contagious Tunes, a 1994 Notable Children’s Recording. Jim shares how he began his work in music play, workshops with adults, the importance of adult/child play, as well as his current project, A Soup Opera. Below is an edited transcript of the podcast: [beginning of “Oh Hey Oh Hi Hello” by Jim Gill] from Jim Gill Makes It Noisy in Boise, Idaho © Jim Gill. All…
What I Wasn’t Taught in Library School… what to wear, what to wear?
My advice for new children’s librarians would be to only wear “machine wash” clothing to work at the public library. I discovered this the day the kindergartner locked herself into the bathroom stall in the public bathroom during their class visit to the library. Since her teacher was a man, he wasn’t comfortable going into the women’s room to rescue her. So guess who got to wriggle under the stall to calm the crying girl and unlock to door? Nothing like contact with the floor of a public bathroom and your dry-clean-only blouse to change your shopping patterns… Jennifer Duffy Kingsgate Library