Pop Goes the Library

Friday Fun with Pancake Mountain

eli@eliworks.com (eli) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 10:12:00 +0000

What could be better than a Pancake Mountain? How about a tv show, ostensibly and mostly for kids, featuring live performances by some kickass bands, an amblyopic host called Captain Perfect, with the nonexistent "board" of the show as his enemies? What if that show was called Pancake Mountain? Well, it is, and it beat the also-awesome Yo Gabba Gabba to the party for kids shows that don't suck by several years on public access TV in Washington DC.

The show was created by producer Scott Stuckey (yes, of those Stuckeys) and features Captain Perfect and a goat puppet named Rufus Leaking who attends band press briefings and music festivals, plus cartoons, music videos, and footage from several Pancake Mountain Dance Parties, which are basically concerts for kids where no "kid's music" is actually allowed. Pancake Mountain has featured acts like Thievery Corporation, Arcade Fire, Steel Pulse, M.I.A., The Melvins, and even legends like Billy Idol, Henry Rollins, The B-52s, and George Clinton. Rufus is a hilarious interviewer, rude without being crass, and the amount of awesome kids get exposed to in just one episode of Pancake Mountain handily offsets a Wiggles Marathon's worth of suck.

Pancake Mountain episodes are available on DVD and would be great in the youth video -- or the non-youth video --- collection, because the show only airs in a few cities and full episodes aren't around much online. Plus, these discs are a slam dunk for the emerging hipster parent demographic who has already torn through Here come the ABCs and Here come the 123s and have been given hope that children's tv doesn't have to stink all the time.

Because the show airs on cable access, you can also consider trying to get Pancake Mountain to be broadcast in your community, especially if you're colocated or affiliated with your cable access channel. At my library, we've been able to bring Pancake Mountain to the good children of Ann Arbor, Mondays at 6PM, and we hope to get Rufus out someday to stage a PM Dance Party of our own.

Check out Pancake Mountain, but realize that you may never look at kid's TV the same way again. In a good way!

Friday Fun: To Boldly Go...

noreply@blogger.com (John Klima) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:45:00 +0000

While much of my childhood has been served up to my adulthood in great big steaming piles of garbage, occasionally there's something that comes up that's worthwhile (or at least as fun as the original).

Now, one of my most cherished bits of my childhood, classic "Star Trek" is due up for a remake. You see, classic "Star Trek" is one of the few things my older brother let me do with him when we were kids. We even had "Star Trek" books and watched the movies in the theater (at least the first three movies). To be completely random, the first time I ever had Doritoes was while watching classic "Star Trek" so whenever I eat Dorito's, I often think of Kirk and Spock.

I know the show is campy with low production values. But a lot of the stories were great (the problem being that they are now so entrenched in our mindset that it's hard to remember that sine if tge okit devices weren't used until the show). If I run across a show while flipping through the channels, I'll stop and watch it. I should probably get them on DVD, but I haven't. It's one of the few science fiction things that I really geek out about. And I don't think I've ever said that out loud before.

So, I was understandably concerned when a "remake" was announced. Of course, it's not a true remake, but the new movie will be using "Star Trek" canon figures played by actors other than those who made them famous. Would these new stars do justice to Shatner, Nimoy, Takei, Doohan, Kelley, Nichols, and Koenig?

Vic Holtreman of Screen Rant shares many of the same concerns that I do. Here Holtreman created a nice image putting the classic actors next to those of the new film. I honestly think they've done a great job of casting, although I agree that Karl Urban as "Bones" and Simon Pegg as "Scotty" seem not quite right, but I think both actors are talented enough to do a good job. Chris Pine as Kirk might be just about perfect.

You can get to the official website for the new movie here. And the trailers for the new movie are here. In trailer 2, there's a bit of exchange between Kirk and Spock that makes me more excited than I should be about the new movie:

Kirk: Are you afraid or aren't you?
Spock: I will not allow you to lecture me
Kirk: Then why don't you stop me?

This quick back and forth shows me they have the characters right. Hopefully the rest of the movie is this good.

Paging Dr. Horrible

noreply@blogger.com (Carlie Webber) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:48:00 +0000

During a writer's strike, what's a group of cult favorite actors to do? For Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, and Nathan Fillion, the answer was "Make a short musical, put it on the internet for free for a while, and create a geek phenomenon!"

Okay, so maybe that last part is stretching it a bit. But along with Joss Whedon and a dedicated crew, they did bring Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog to life. The premise: Dr. Horrible, applicant to the Evil League of Evil, falls in love with frozen-yogurt addict Penny. The problem? Penny is dating Dr. Horrible's nemesis, Captain Hammer. There are laughs! There's tragedy! There are very funny lyrics! You can watch the whole thing on Hulu.com, but I'm kind of excited about the Dr. Horrible DVD release, because my TV is a lot bigger than my computer screen.

With all the High School Musical sing-alongs going on at libraries, maybe a comparable Dr. Horrible program this would be fun for older teens and/or adults. Just a thought.

crossposted at Librarilly Blonde

Twilight In Fifteen Minutes

noreply@blogger.com (Liz B) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:03:00 +0000

Those of you who attended the Fandom Presentation by Carlie & me (or is it me and Carlie? I need a beta) know that I don't like Twilight but love reading all about Twilight.

Whatever does that mean?

Much as I am not a fan of the book, I adore things like Twilight in Fifteen Minutes. It's made of awesome, and can be enjoyed by all.

Pop Goes the Book: Angelina Jolie

noreply@blogger.com (Sophie Brookover) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:08:00 +0000

Are New York Times writers reading Liz's & my book?

From a recent article about Angelina Jolie and her Carefully Orchestrated Image (which, if she is looking for a supporting band name, in case this whole international film superstardom doesn't work out for her, Her Carefully Orchestrated Image would be a great one. You can have that one for free, Angie!):

While all celebrities seek to manipulate their public images to one degree or another, Ms. Jolie accomplishes it with a determination, a self-reliance and a degree of success that is particularly notable. The actress does not employ a publicist or an agent. The keys to her public image belong to her alone, although she does rely on her longtime manager, Geyer Kosinski, as a conduit.

[...]

But more recently, she has emphasized her philanthropic work, and her growing family. Ms. Jolie, with Mr. Pitt, now has a clan of six. There are three adopted children — Maddox, Pax and Zahara — and three biological children: Shiloh and the twins, Knox and Vivienne.
But she cut a very different, wilder figure in Hollywood during her marriage to the actor Billy Bob Thornton. After their divorce in 2003, Us magazine asked Ms. Jolie if she would agree to an interview and be photographed. According to two people involved, she declined — but then offered the magazine another photo opportunity. Ms. Jolie informed it what time and place she would be publicly playing with Maddox, essentially creating a paparazzi shot.
The resulting photo, the origin of which was not made public to Us readers, presented Ms. Jolie in a new light — a young mother unsuccessfully trying to have a private moment with her son.

Meanwhile, here's what we wrote, about a year ago:

Pop culture is overflowing with examples of people who successfully combine advocacy, marketing, and public relations -- they're called celebrities. Few celebrities acknowledge or admit the degree to which they create their own "spin," and not all do it well. And, of course, while celebrities can spin, they cannot control the media [though that NYT article puts the lie to that assumption]. What they can do is decide how and when to release photographs (Suri Cruise's Vanity Fair cover) and give smartly timed interviews in magazines like InStyle, Us Weekly, and People.

Look at Angelina Jolie: In the early 2000s, she was Hollywood's "wild child", giving interviews about her bisexuality and fondness for S&M (Lindsay Lohan looks tame by comparison!). Now, Jolie is the beloved mother of a growing family, giving interviews about playdates and humanitarian issues. We're not saying that Jolie is not a loving mother or a dedicated worker for various causes, just that she recognizes how the public reacts to the story of her happy family. With each additional child she has, by adoption or birth, Jolie tells a story about how that child entered her lief and how that child adds to and completes her family. This involves advocating and marketing an element of herself that the public reacts to favorably. As for public relations, open almost any popular magazine and you'll see a photo of Jolie as a proud mother walking her smiling child to school or with her children playing contentedly together on the beach. If Angelina Jolie can do it, so can the library. [p.63-4]

Indeed. Perhaps ALA could schedule an advocacy @ your library preconference with Ms. Jolie the next time we're in New Orleans for Annual?

Cross-posted at Pop Goes the Library's book blog, which we'd love for you to read. (The blog and the book, that is.)

Thankfulness: Chinese Democracy, At Last

noreply@blogger.com (Sophie Brookover) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:16:00 +0000

In all seriousness, I would be truly grateful for actual democracy in China, but today I'm tongue-in-cheekily grateful for the release of Guns n' Roses' looooooong-anticipated album, Chinese Democracy. Hipsters who love GnR in a semi-closeted, ironic way; metal fans; and 1980s nostalgics alike can now breathe a sigh of relief as the great opus from W. Axl Rose and company is released to conflicting critical assessments (Jon Pareles is disappointed; David Fricke is enraptured; Pitchfork has not yet weighed in) and free Dr. Pepper, (today only -- bizzarely, the coupon makes no mention of the album tie-in, though it was kind of a big deal a few months ago) through Best Buy only.

Which makes me wonder: how are libraries going to get this album on the shelves for their patrons? Will Best Buy accept Purchase Orders? Of course, Best Buy & libraries may be utterly beside the point, as Chinese Democracy has logged over 3 million listens on MySpace Music to date, making it the the site's most listened-to album ever. I also have to wonder if all those listens will translate to similarly huge sales, and if they'll be enough to launch a tour (which would be considerably more lucrative than album sales), and if they do, if Rose will be mentally up to such an endeavor.

Mad Men and Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Liz B) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:02:00 +0000

At the presentation Carlie and I did at the YA Lit Symposium, we mentioned people not connected to Mad Men who Twitter as Mad Men characters. Want to find out more? The person behind @don_draper tells all.

A mashup of pop culture and YA lit

noreply@blogger.com (melissa) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:22:00 +0000

I was lucky enough to attend the YA Lit Symposium, and to see our own Liz and Carlie present Fandom, Fan Life and Participatory Culture. It was a great program, giving newbies the info they need to present fandom programs in their libraries, as well has giving old-school fans some new ideas.

Beginning with a brief introduction to fandom and its terminology, Carlie and Liz focused on how libraries can use book-based fandom as a launchpad for library programs, running the gamut from fanfiction workshops or library conventions to LOLBook covers. For those concerned about the legality of these issues, Liz used her legal background to explain how libraries can present fandom-based programming while living within copyright's restrictions.

Attendees also went away with a great handout, full of definitions and further reading suggestions. Those of you who didn't get a chance to attend this great program, fear not! The PowerPoint slides are available, and there's also my post at Librarian by Day with notes on the presentation. Liz also leads off this video, talking about the presentation. With all these great resources, hopefully it'll be like you were right there in Nashville with all of us!

Book Winners!

noreply@blogger.com (Sophie Brookover) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:08:00 +0000

Thanks to all of the people who entered our impromptu book giveaway contest! Across comments to both blogs we had a total of 13 viable entries, so I used a random number generator to produce the following results (drumroll, please):

#5: Loonstone
#6: Julia
#11: Peter Alsbjer

Come on dowwwwwwwn! Or, really, just send your snailmail particulars to popgoesthebook[at]gmail[dot]com. I'll mail your books out over the weekend.

Thanks once again to all of our lovely contestants, and fear not! We will be holding another contest in weeks to come. This one will be decided based on feats of pop strength, not chance!

And party every day

noreply@blogger.com (Carlie Webber) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:44:00 +0000

A few months ago, I was chatting with some co-workers and they started talking about music. Many of the people I work with are really into classical music and opera, and they were comparing favorites. Now, I enjoy classical music and opera as much as everyone else, but I also, as many of you know, really like rock. So I had to ask, "Am I the only person in this room who listens to Led Zeppelin?"

Because I was the only person in the room who listened to Led Zeppelin, I was recruited to put together a list for November's BCCLSVisor, a monthly reader's advisory feature that offers lists of books on every topic from autism to the modern-day vampire. The list is now available for your perusing/collection development/rock music debating pleasure: Rock and Roll all Night. It has albums that represent the sounds of the past five decades, plus books on musicians and the rock genre.

Break a Leg, Carlie & Liz!

noreply@blogger.com (Sophie Brookover) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:13:00 +0000

As I type, fellow Pop Tarts and dear friends Carlie Webber & Liz Burns are attending and preparing to present a fantastic-sounding program at the first-ever YALSA Young Adult Literature Symposium in Nashville, TN. The theme of the Symposium is How We Read Now, and Carlie & Liz's program topic is:

Fandom, Fan Life, and Participatory Culture
A teens' experience with a book doesn't just begin on page one and finish with the book's conclusion. From birthday parties and proms to fan fiction and role-playing games, teens find many ways to recreate a book's universe in their lives, forming fandoms.

Sounds great, doesn't it? I am clearly biased, but I also truly believe that this is a topic just waiting to explode in librarianship, and it ties in so beautifully with many of the themes we explore here at Pop all the time -- assessing community needs and providing services, programs, and collections tailored to meet those needs; marketing the library as a place to pursue personal as well as academic interests -- so I'm excited to hear all about their talk when they return, and want to wish them as many broken limbs as it takes to rock the Millenium Maxwell House to its very foundations.

Review Copies Out The Door

noreply@blogger.com (Sophie Brookover) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:53:00 +0000

Some of the Review Copies
Originally uploaded by sophiebiblio

Liz & I hope you're following the progress of our book, Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect With Your Whole Community, at the book's blog, but I thought it'd be fun to cross-post a little bit about some book-related updates.

This is a photo of some of the review copies we sent out recently. But wasn't the book published in August, you ask? What took you so long? Well might you ask! There's a story, of course, which you can read here.

We've got 3 more comp copies to give away -- if you want one, leave a comment, and we'll pick three random commenters to receive one, signed by Liz & me! Ready? Go!

Fun Friday: This is Halloween, everybody make a scene!

noreply@blogger.com (Carlie Webber) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 10:00:00 +0000

Christmastime is nice, but I've always been of the opinion that fall is the most wonderful time of the year. Colored leaves, new sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, and my favorite holiday, Halloween. Goblins and ghosts and ghouls, oh my! (And also, free candy.) This year, I'll be dressing as Jenny from the short story "The Green Ribbon" from In A Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories by Alvin Schwartz and Dirk Zimmer. Some green ribbon, a dress I already own, and poof! Instant costume. Hey, you gotta be creative when you can't sew.

For all of you who read Pop Goes the Library, I wish you the most spooktacular of Halloweens and offer these links for your Halloween-themed web browsing pleasure:

The Skull Font from the Skull-A-Day blog. Skulls: They're the new polka dots.
7 Burning Halloween questions answered at Mental Floss. If you're a connoisseur of trivia and fun facts and you don't read Mental Floss already, definitely consider a subscription.
Pumpkin carving at Halloween. Everyone does it, but no one does it quite like the people at Extreme Pumpkins. They've got a second book now of pumpkin tips and tricks: Extreme Pumpkins II: Take back Halloween and Freak Out a Few More Neighbors.
DIY Halloween (via Lifehacker)
Entertainment Weekly's Scariest Movies of All Time
2008's Most Popular Halloween Costumes. What are YOU dressing as?
In the Seattle Times: Spine-tingling books for teens and tweens
Looking for something to do other than the standard Halloween party where you stick your hand in a bowl of grapes and pretend they're eyeballs? Why not go through a haunted corn maze?
If you're like me and you don't trust your cat not to eat your jack-o'-lantern, you can always build a pumpkin from Legos!
Eight easy Halloween costume and makeup ideas, if you're a no-fuss no-muss Halloweener. (from BellaSugar)
Even your computer gets in on the fun with Halloween desktop wallpapers (link from GeekSugar)

Have a fun Halloween, everyone, and remember to stay far, far away from the house that gives out toothbrushes.

Sherman Alexie

noreply@blogger.com (Liz B) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:31:00 +0000

Sherman Alexie, author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, was a guest on the Colbert Report last night. It was very, very good. See for yourself at the Colbert Report website.

Fun Friday Make-up Exam: Election Addiction

noreply@blogger.com (Sophie Brookover) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

My last post was a lame cop-out, so here's what I had planned to write about: Elections A Go-Go!

My friends, you may need to stage an intervention. I am reading and listening to little other than election coverage, and almost every single other person I know is in the grip of a similar mania. When SNL is creating midweek specials on the election (fueled in equal parts, I believe, of the following: wanting to capitalize on Tina Fey's unimpeachably perfect impression of Sarah Palin; wanting to leverage the popularity of said impression into a ratings boost for Fey's show, 30 Rock; and wanting to make the most of the awesome chemistry between Weekend Update's Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers before Poehler went on maternity leave after giving birth to her son, Archie Arnett -- if you're reading this, congratulations, Amy & Will!), when you can view a really well-edited Obama vs. McCain dance-off (which I will not spoil for you -- it's work-safe, so click away), and when Jon Stewart & Steven Colbert's respective shows are pulling down better ratings than they ever have before, you know an election isn't just an election. It's a Pop Culture Event.

I know you didn't need me to tell you that. I'm just indulging in a little rhetorical flourish.

I'm curious about what libraries around the country are doing about the elections -- Presidential, Congressional, and local -- for their communities. At my school, the senior high library is one of the locations where students, faculty, and staff can purchase McCain/Palin or Obama/Biden t-shirts, so we have a display case decorated with sample shirts, along with student-produced information on the candidates and red, white, and blue decor of various types. We're holding a mock debate later this week, and I created a wiki for one of our Sociology teachers for her and her students to use in conjunction with a poster assignment she gave them for this week.

It's really all about the Presidential election at my school -- here in NJ, incumbent Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg is presently up by an average of 17.4% (you'll have to scroll pretty far down to see the NJ polls, but all Senate races are included there!) -- but your community may be more focused on a state or local election.

I hope you'll leave some information about and links to whatever your library is doing to celebrate Election Day. Meanwhile, here are some of my favorite resources, which tend towards blue & purple:

FiveThirtyEight.com -- this is probably my favorite site right now. I check it several times a day, because it's updated so frequently. Nate Silver, statistical wunderkind, breaks down, analyzes, and explains in plain English what frequently conflicting poll results actually mean. He's an Obama supporter, but this is a site about numbers, not about policy. While most of the site's coverage is specific to the Presidential election and how it will play out in the Electoral College, Silver & his team also offer comprehensive coverage of all of the Senate race polls, too.

The Christian Science Monitor's Patchwork Nation -- this project bills itself as "The American voter beyond red and blue, and how you fit in." You can take a survey to see how well you match your county's community type (there are 13 types, and each is represented by a blog written by a community member), follow project director Dante Chinni's blog, and evaluate the project's statistical methodology.

The Cheat Sheet from The Daily Beast -- I am not exactly cutting-edge these days, so I'll cop to not having heard of The Daily Beast -- Tina Brown's latest venture -- until Christopher Buckley's Obama endorsement in its pages got him kicked out of the National Review. Now that I have found it, though, I am a big fan. I love the variety of opinion, I love the intelligent irreverence, and I love love looove The Cheat Sheet, which is kind of a political Buzzfeed.

Campaign Stops -- This NY Times blog is written in the form of conversations between Gail Collins and David Brooks, two of my favorite columnists. I cannot wait for Brooks to publish another book. His 2005 book, On Paradise Drive, is one of my favorite works of popular sociology of the past 5 years.

This American Life -- Ira Glass & Company have been doing some truly stellar reporting lately on both the election & the economy. Great stuff!

My favorite historical perspective on elections & presidents & American political thought in general comes from Sarah Vowell, whose interview on this week's Studio 360 was, unsurprisingly, as illuminating as it was delightful.

Watching TV without the TV

noreply@blogger.com (melissa) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:47:00 +0000

I was on vacation for part of last week, and once I got home and started to get back in the swing of things, I thought to myself, "I missed seeing Countdown a few days . . . thank God for the Internet." Because MSNBC has the last few aired shows available to watch--in easy-to-watch clips rather than the whole show--on their website. Thus, I was easily able to get my Keith Olbermann fix.

And that made me start thinking: are we at a point now where you don't even really need a physical TV anymore? Sure, there's still events that you're not willing to wait for the show to be available online, and Internet watching removes some of the community feel of TV watching. Yet for the most part, I think we're getting close to a tipping point. Between sites like Hulu and individual network websites, I think a large portion of the mainstream TV audience could let their TV sets gather dust while their broadband Internet connection gets a real workout.

However, there's a few caveats to this, and if you read that last sentence, you should be able to see the big two: "mainstream TV audience" and "broadband Internet". If you live in part of the US that doesn't have broadband access, and there's still a lot of places like that, you'll probably going to be using your TV still. And for those people who don't just watch CSI and Lost and 24, the restricted access to more unusual shows would probably be a deal-breaker.

Since I fall into the latter group, while I don't think I'm ready to give up my TV set quite yet, I have to say that I'm using the Internet more and more to watch TV. And in tough economic times, if I can find a way to live with waiting to see shows once they're online, I'd definitely dump my cable TV and use my TV to watch DVDs.

How about you? Do you think TV on the Internet is only going to keep growing, or will this be a flash in the pan? And what does this mean for our library services?

Friday Fun: If You Have Twelve Seconds To Spare

noreply@blogger.com (Karen) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:05:00 +0000

I just got back from the EXCELLENT Internet Librarian 2008 Conference, sponsored by Information Today...and yes, I did indeed **squee!** aloud to see Pop Goes the Library, The Book, on the cover of the catalog tucked into my nifty tote.

My brain is filled right up to the top, and I hope to have much more to share with Pop, The Blog, over the next few weeks concerning the conference and the amazing people there, but for Friday Fun, here's a quick little snippet.

Connie Crosby gave a great talk on Instant Audio and Video in which she discussed all sorts of very cool, cheap-to-free sites that allow online production and distribution of, yes, audio and video. One of my favs? 12Seconds.tv, which might be described as "Twitter with video." Each post is only, you guessed it, 12 seconds long. I searched the word "library" and came up with 89 returns, including a series called Biography of the Day, Cupcake Library TV (!!!), and, of course, a very nicely done SHHH! It's in "public alpha," so go request an invite! I just did!

Friday Fun Substitute: American Libraries Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sophie Brookover) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:05:00 +0000

George Eberhart, Editor of American Libraries, asked me to share the following with you all, dear readers:

I wanted to let you know about some important news about American Libraries.

1. Our weekly e-newsletter, American Libraries Direct, is now available to anyone who wants to sign up for it, not just ALA members. The sign-up form, as well as the FAQ, is at http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/aldirect/aldirect.cfm .

2. American Libraries has launched its own blog, AL Inside Scoop, http://www.al.ala.org/insidescoop/ . Editor-in-chief Leonard Kniffel offers an insider’s view of goings-on at ALA headquarters and what hot topics ALA staffers are talking about in the hallways. Associate Editor Greg Landgraf offers his perspective from “the lower floors” of what many see as the ALA ivory tower.

3. Login is no longer required to view the current issue of the American Libraries print magazine online (in PDF format), or to view the archives, which date back to the January 2003 issue. Go directly to http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/alonlineebrary/alonlineebrary.cfm . First-time viewers will need to install the ebrary reader to view issues. To download, go to http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ala/Download . Firefox 3 users installing the reader for the first time will need a workaround, http://www.ebrary.com/kb/users/ff3install.jsp , to make the ebrary reader work with their browser.

I realize that while this information is useful & timely, it doesn't really meet our usual standard of fun for Fun Fridays, and I have only the following to offer by way of apology: your correspondent is beyond exhausted due to participation in her school's Spirit Week, including chaperoning the Homecoming Dance last night and yelling her lungs out during the Field Events in support of the Class of 2010, who donated over 400 books to the Library Club's book drive. I owe you all one, is what I'm saying.

Work Like a Patron Day? Which Patrons?

noreply@blogger.com (Sophie Brookover) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:54:00 +0000

LizB: Posts such as Work Like a Patron Day bring out Devil's Advocate in me.

To start with, I do like the idea that we should look at our library with not just fresh eyes, but the eyes of our public, both old and new patrons, and customers of all ages. So making sure signage is accurate, facilities and equipment are clean, places are inviting and well kept? All good. Wondering, "if I were new here and wanted to do x"...

But, I'm leery of certain things. I don't think we can be, or should be, every thing for every person. And all too often, I think we as professionals are all too quick to second guess our fellow professionals to point out how they are doing it wrong.

For example, part of the original post was that "it was hard to concentrate with people walking
and talking around us." Which brought out a huge sigh. Because not a day goes by that there isn't a "silly patrons, asking for quiet! We aren't shushers anymore"post in the library blogosphere or listservs.

Does it take a Work Like a Patron Day for us to acknowledge that yes, some of our customers want quiet, even tho they tell us that every day?

And see -- that is some of our customers. To the person who did the original post, people are walking and talking. To the teen librarian, perhaps, they saw a bunch of kids at a computer enjoying playing games and talking to each other and thought "yes! this is not your grandma's library." To the reference librarian, they saw members of their bookclub chatting about next month's title and where to find discussion questions.

My question is, when we Work Like a Patron -- what patron do we work like?

Sophie: That's an important question -- what patron, indeed! Since libraries are open to every member of a given community, "patron" means many individuals representing many demographics. What you say about what "patron" means to different members of staff is actually a good way to look at it -- if every member of staff chooses a particular patron group to emulate on Work Like A Patron Day, then a given library should have a pretty decent picture of what different people are hoping to get out of their library experiences.

I think it would be a mistake to craft new rules around the observations gleaned from WLAPD, though: I'd rather see libraries using those observations as a way to open a conversation between library and community about what is expected, and what is possible, given the library's budget, staffing, hours, and space. I'd also like to see libraries use those WLAPD observations to implement small changes that would improve the overall atmosphere of the library. After working for a day at stations where keyboards aren't functioning properly and screens are all smudged up, I bet the in-charge-of-computer library staff would add "clean computer screens" to their daily routine and would ask the IT folks to fix or replace the keyboard. That's not rules, that's making the library as functional & clean as Kinko's, where their patrons might also be doing some computing.

Ditto the business of shushing/not shushing. I think many libraries are so into making internet-accessible computers available to the public that they aren't thinking as much as they could be about the realities of libraries as mixed-use public spaces. As you say, depending on the time of day and day of the week, the library is serving many functions to many different demographic groups, from quiet-seeking scholars to rambunctious families spilling giddily forth from storytime. I think the person Michael quotes in the entry you link to is really asking us to look at how & if we're offering spaces that are well-suited to the needs of our communities, rather than asking our communities to make do with the spaces we offer them.

LizB: "The needs of our communities" versus "the spaces we offer" really strikes a chord with me. My idea: the physical library would be something that did offer something for everyone. It would think about things like noise flow, so that children's storytimes and teens after school would not be a bother to patrons who need quiet. After reading the initial post, I also wonder about multiple internet rooms: one with enough space for 2 or 3 to work on a computer (be it games or projects) and one that is a quiet study computer room. Meeting rooms, information center, my dream list would go on and on and on, with, truth be told, the traditional library (books and other traditional resources) being a part of a larger community center complex, with professionals besides librarians being part of the center.

But, right now, especially with the current financial outlook, I don't see brave new libraries happening anytime soon. I think we are all going to have to "make do" with the spaces we have. Plus, I think we need to really think hard about what the mission of the library is: is it to have meeting space for business people, for example? Where is that funding coming from? What is going to be cut back to make that happen?

The sad thing is, sometimes? The staff computers are just as bad, broken, and filthy as what the public uses.

"Making do" doesn't have to mean "put up with it." Making do can mean having the meeting room program-free for certain days and times, so that people can have quieter spaces, or having quiet times in computer labs. And, I think, it means being honest with both ourselves and our customers that we cannot be all things to all people. How can we engage in that dialogue in a productive manner - meaning, it's much than saying "no, we cannot do it."

Sophie: Oh, I agree -- "making do" is making lemonade out of lemons, not saying, "well, we're budgetarily screwed, so, sorry, folks! You're SOL, too!"

This fits in well with what we wrote about in our book (warning! shameless plug for Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect With Your Whole Community, available for purchase now!) about the importance of library services being specific to a given community, and being engaged in ongoing conversations with their communities. Just as we need to take a look at what pop cultural trends are speaking to our communities, so we need to look carefully at what usage needs are now, and how they may be changing. Maybe Community A sees a spike in homeless usage of the library and its bathrooms because local shelters are crammed, while Community B sees their computer usage going through the roof because once-spendy community members aren't replacing outmoded home computers because their budget can't stretch to afford it, and then Community C finds that its patrons want more fiscal health programming.

I think what Brian Herzog is getting at in his original post is that libraries are never done. Our policies are (or should be) always evolving, because the communities we exist to serve are changing, too. We're not going to please all of the people, all of the time, and that's hard to swallow, because as a profession, we like to meet our communities' needs. But by speaking honestly and working collaboratively with our community members, we can serve most of the people really well nearly all of the time. And that's what we should really be shooting for.

LizB: Absolutely! I can get behind that. I just hope that people see "work like a patron" day as a way to be constructive, with both the good and the bad, as well as figuring out who your partrons are and what they want and need; and that it's not turned into a "you're doing it wrong" day.

Beyond Leveled Books

noreply@blogger.com (Liz B) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Beyond Leveled Books: Supporting Early and Transitional Readers in Grades k-5 by Karen Szymusiak, Franki Sibberson, and Lisa Koch; foreword by Sharon Taberski. Stenhouse Publishers. 2008. Copy provided by author.

A few months back, there was a conversation on Yalsa-Bk about reading levels. I had a couple of questions, so did what people usually do; turned to friends who are experts, Franki Sibberson and Mary Lee Hahn of A Year of Reading. In addition to answering my questions, I found out about Franki's new book, Beyond Leveled Books, and Franki kindly sent me a review copy.

In the foreword, Sharon Taberski says, "Leveling does have a place in our classrooms - a practical one. It can help match a child with a range of books he's likely to be able to read on his own and during guided reading, and it can play an important role in helping struggling readers become more proficient. . . . [T]here's a lot more to teaching children to read than finding their levels and moving them upward. Children need to plateau in their reading. They need to consolidate their skills and strategies, to read widely and deeply, to increase their vocabulary, and to experience life and gain humor so that they have more knowledge and insight to bring to texts and consequently understand them better."

Libraries have books. And librarians. And librarians are very good at matching a book to a reader. But what we don't learn in library school is how to teach reading or how reading is taught. Which means when a kid comes in looking for a book, it's great. But when a parent (or teacher) comes in asking for level this or that, it's a blank, because for us it's about the book, not the level.

Beyond Leveled Books is also about the book, not the level. Aimed at teachers, it is a must read for librarians. While showing teachers why it is good to go beyond leveled books, it also works as a great primer as to what is a leveled book and how reading is being taught in the classroom. Yes, as public librarians we focus on the book; but it's also good to know what is going on in the child's classroom.

I'd further suggest it to parents who are trying to understand what is going on in their child's classroom and what is happening with their child's reading skills and how those skills are much more than a "level." What about comprehension, understanding what is going on in the book, etc? The authors and other contributors, all classroom teachers, explain some of the "critical needs" of their students, using examples, including how and when an adult can help the student meet those needs. The parent who complains about a teacher using picture books or graphic novels, or who doesn't use books grades above the child's grade, needs to read this book to understand better how reading is much more involved than learning how to read words.

The book is full of articles, reading lists, lesson plans, and suggestions to address a child's reading as something much more than a vocabulary level. Over and over, I found examples and illustrations of reading being more than words. When a child reads "right" in a sentence, do they understand they are being directed to look at a photo to the right of the text? Or do they think the author is saying "right!" How does a child learn about the use of flashbacks in a text?

I especially liked the ideas of grouping books by authors, characters, genres, series -- a wide assortment of ways that kids can find the book they want, rather than obsessing about what level they (and their classmates) are at. These suggestions for classroom libraries can easily be used in public libraries, for displays and booklists. The chapter on series books is perhaps my favorite, because I read them as a kid and read the grown up versions now (Nora Roberts is my comfort read).

The authors address one of my pet peeves about levels and reading above levels. When books are viewed as simply the sum of their vocabulary words, kids are given books above their age level that are best left for a few years down the road. The example in the book is The Giver, with a well-meaning teacher using this book with third graders. (While the book uses all school examples of this "reading up", I also see it happen with parents and relatives selecting books for kids). The teacher writing about this notes, "I understand the importance of giving children books to read that support their growth and development as readers. They won't make progress as readers if they read only easy books. However, there are better options for young advanced readers than young-adult books. Teachers need to look at more than the readability level of the book when book selections." She then notes that the theme of the book is just as important, if not more so, than vocabulary. When children are pushed into books that are above their comprehension, the result is books they won't reread once they do have "the life experience, cognitive development, and emotional maturity to truly comprehend the book." They also miss out on the books they missed in the hurry to rush them into older books.

Stories about reading include the authors mentioning their own children and their students. I am very thankful that in doing this, the authors presented a variety of types of kids and readers; there is no "this is how I raised a reading genius and so can you." Instead, this is about teaching reading, and teaching a love of reading, with a huge emphasis on how reading is more than just vocabulary and grammar.

As Franki wisely reminded me in a comment to a post of mine at Tea Cozy, "I have worked with lots of kids over the years who really struggle with reading and it is hard to love something if it is never easy enough to enjoy--thus the teaching how to read being essential. It is the teacher's/librarian's job to know books and kids well so that a child can find books they love--and books they can read. They go through the motions, and say they love lots of books, but when you talk more, they never actually finish the books or they've not understood the book. So, for me, it is a combination of the two--always."

Looking for how that combination works? Read this book.

Cross-posted at Tea Cozy

Friday Fun: Think before you post!

eli@eliworks.com (eli) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:47:00 +0000

It's a modern conundrum. The web never forgets, especially when you post drunk. Or email drunk. Or leave unfortunate comments drunk, or tired, or on youtube. The fire-and-remember habit of information posted to the web or emailed to colleagues can make for some embarrassing mornings after one clicks that send or submit button when one really shouldn't have. But no matter what the problem, software is the solution! Right? Obviously, especially this week, which saw the release of two new tools to help combat the menace of post-posting regret.

First, the geniuses at Google Labs have unleashed Mail Goggles. Why they didn't call this breakthrough new service 'Mail Googles' or 'Google Goggles' is unclear at this time. By default, when you try to send gmail late at night on the weekends, Mail Goggles will require you to answer 6 math questions before you can actually send the message. The hope is that when you see how slowly you subtract, you'll realize that it's really not the right moment to tell your coworkers, relatives, or supervisors exactly what you think of them. If you are also frequently intoxicated on weeknights, Google's got you covered; you can adjust your Mail Goggles settings to best reflect when you're most likely to send email you later regret. While there's no doubt that this new service ushers in a entirely new era of judgmental software, it does make sense, given their history, that Google released this service just about as far away from April 1st as they possibly could.

But it doesn't end there. Recently, webcomic genius Randall Munroe, creator of the simple but sublime and ultranerdy XKCD posted this comic suggesting a virus that would force youtube commenters to hear their comments read back to them aloud before they could be successfully posted. Youtube comment threads can be repulsive pits of unintended hilarity at best, and horrifying indictments of the direction of our society at their worst, and obviously someone at Youtube thinks so too, as the feature that XKCD proposed last week was rolled out this week. While this breakthrough new feature falls clearly short of Randall's vision of compulsory readability, the addition of the Audio Preview button to the Youtube comment form not only establishes Webcomics as the primary driving force in web application development, but also quietly advocates for heightened readability of youtube comments, which can only make the world a better place. Or, in the immortal words of Canadia420's comment on the infamous Leave Britney Alone video:

"Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahah ahahahahahahahahhahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahhahahahahahahahahah ahahahahahahahah!!!!! You lack intelligence."

Librarians on The Colbert Report

noreply@blogger.com (Carlie Webber) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:49:00 +0000

As comedian/pundit Stephen Colbert knows, the greatest enemies of America right now are the Communists. Where are the most pervasive Communists? In the library, of course! Books free for all? Internet free for all? The horror! Colbert tackles this tough issue and encourages Americans to fight Communism on last night's episode of The Colbert Report, braving the trenches of the Rutherford, NJ, Public Library to interview some of the most dedicated Communists of all: LIBRARIANS.

To see Colbert's chilling account of Communism in today's libraries, click on this link and download the video. Then go out and shop.

Fun Friday: Morning Television

noreply@blogger.com (John Klima) — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:20:00 +0000

My daughter probably watches too much television. And it's a poor excuse, but she is so busy, that sometimes it's nice to have her be distracted for twenty minutes by Dora the Explorer, or Handy Manny, or Little Einsteins or My Friends, Tigger and Pooh. In fact, my daughter is a big fan of all the Playhouse Disney shows (and I have to say we all love Charlie and Lola!), which makes me feel less bad about the fact that she's watching television.

You see, these shows have educational content. They teach shapes, colors, foreign languages, music, sharing, helping others, and so on. And there's something to be said for that. I view these shows for what they can impart to my daughter, not whether I find them palatable as a viewer. And she and I, and her mom, talk about the shows a lot. I can see her taking what she's learned on the show and applying it to the world around her.

I remember little about what I watched for television when I was 2 1/2 years old. I know there was Sesame Street, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Readalong (you would not BELIEVE how hard it was to find this show!), Schoolhouse Rock (not really a show per se, but analogous to Emily Yeung or Captain Carlos), and The Electric Company (which is such a 1970s show it's not even funny). And I know that I watched some of those shows more attentively when I was older.

I also know that there was a lot of stuff that I watched on tv that had no redeemable educational content. Stuff like Speed Racer, Battle of the Planets, Sid & Marty Kroft shows, Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape Show (with some dreadful animations), Hong Kong Phooey, Shazam!/Isis Hour, Wonder Woman, and lots of things lost to time. Really, lots of Hanna-Barbara cartoons in the 1970s were pretty bad.

A lot of this stuff is available now on DVD, and this could be a great thing to promote in your library to draw in people my age (35+). I would love to watch some of those shows again, and see if they stood the test of time. I'm not about to buy a DVD set of Thundarr the Barbarian just to be disappointed (even if it did mean I would get to see the episode that got pre-empted by the return of the Iran Hostages in 1981). But seriously, Thundarr's not available that I can tell, so I'm not trying to make some sort of announcement.

Paul Newman, RIP

noreply@blogger.com (Sophie Brookover) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:29:00 +0000

I've long been an admirer of Paul Newman, but not a huge fan, so I was a little taken aback at just how touched I am by the news of his death yesterday at age 83. Maybe it's because I am so used to seeing his handsome, cheery face on bottles of salad dressing & cookies at the grocery store every week. Maybe it's because in every one of the 5 or 6 movies I've seen him in, his work consistently struck me as both charming and authentic. Maybe it's because of the Adam Sandler lyric from his first Chanukkah Song: "Paul Newman's half-Jewish; Goldie Hawn's half, too / Put 'em both together: what a fine-lookin' Jew!" Whatever the reason, I am tearing up over here, and I'm indulging my very mild dose of grief by reading & viewing the following:

Paul Newman, A Magnetic Titan of Hollywood, is Dead at 83 (NY Times)
A Late, Great Movie Star (slide show w/Manohla Dargis from the NY Times)
RIP, Paul Newman (The AV Club, including a priceless clip from Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid)
Paul Newman & James Dean screentest footage (YouTube -- there's TONS of this stuff there, if you just search "paul newman")

Now's the time to showcase Paul Newman's work at your library -- maybe an impromptu week of his films, with snacks from his Newman's Own line? -- so go through your DVD collection & generate some flyers!

Friday Fun: All Kinds of Fun Time-Spenders

noreply@blogger.com (melissa) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Note how I don't call any of these sites "time-wasters". All of us here at PGTL would never advocate that you spend some time on this Friday looking at frivolous websites!

[removes her tongue from her cheek]

Woot!: This site is for all of you who don't want the tension of eBay, who'd rather have a relative bird in the hand. Each day, Woot posts a new product, one that is available at typically substantially reduced prices. And once they're gone, they're gone! Although most items are electronics or appliances, there's certainly some whimsical choices. How about a toilet paper dispenser with a built-in FM radio?

Fine Lines: Reminiscing about those books you read when you were a teen? So is Jezebel, in their weekly feature where, in their own words, they "give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wizened look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth." I particularly liked the recent look at Cheaper by the Dozen/Belles on Their Toes, by noted mystery author Laura Lippman.

Firefox News: No, this has nothing to do with the browser--although they'd certainly recommend it to you. Firefox News is a site for tv discussion, articles about fandom topics, and even info about technology and the paranormal. It's a nice little niche site, and is mostly free from the frenzied politics of fandom at large. I really like their coverage of Supernatural.