And because I completely forgot to blog it earlier: the henna program last week had 22 participants: 21 people signed up, 6 didn't show up, and 7 extras dropped in. Everyone had a good time, and we already have 5 or 6 people signed up for the next session, which isn't for nearly a month yet.
I got myself a henna tattoo (photo at right), on the grounds that I can use it as a marketing tool. Teens comment on it, and I tell them all about how THEY can get a cool henna tattoo, too, and all they have to do is sign up! So far, I've gotten two girls to register that way, and a third is checking her schedule.
Tonight is Teen Movie Night at the library! I’m very fortunate in that the library has a license to show actual movies, so each month there are three movie nights (kids, teens, and adults). Tonight is my first turn.
I’m showing Princess Mononoke, and I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of attendance. The movie is showing now (there’s a volunteer who runs it, and YES I’d love to be in there, but I’m stuck out on the desk tonight), with 5 kids in the room. 4 are girls, approximately 15-16 years old. The last is a boy of about 19 or 20. He seemed a bit disinterested in the girls, except insofar as they’re other people interested in the same movie he’s watching. I’m told he’s active in the D&D group when he’s off from college, and that he comes to most of the movie nights.
I should mention at this point that all the promotional material for this movie announced that it’s the popular Miyazaki animated film. All the flyers and postcards used cover art from the DVD.
Anyway. Flash-forward to a little before 7 pm. The movie has been on for 20 minutes. A woman, mid-30s, wanders in, looks around quickly, and asks where the movie is. We direct her down the hall. Less than a minute later, she’s back. “Are you looking for someone?” I asked, assuming that’s the only reason she’d peek in and leave again.
“No,” she said. “I came to see the movie. But I didn’t know it’s a cartoon. I’m not going to watch a cartoon.”
Sure is a good thing we didn’t pick this title for the adult movie night, then, isn’t it?
I should have all sorts of things to blog about the new position, and yet … I don’t.
In part, it’s just been too hot to really think about something interesting to say.The past couple of days were in the mid-90s, and the AC here in the youth room has been broken.Well, one of the three units in the room was broken.It was spilling water all over the floor, so we had to keep it turned off until it was fixed.It’s finally fixed now, but these last few days were just sticky and humid and hot and horrible.Last night brought a horrible thunderstorm through Providence, though, and it seems all of New England was cooled by it.(Horrible, in this case, means 60-75 mph winds, floods, downed trees and power lines, and a tree from the driveway blowing down across the neighbor’s 2-car driveway behind us.Nobody was hurt, but both cars are totaled.)
Anyway, it’s cooler today, and hooray for that.I have a program tonight—a henna tattoo program.About 20 people are signed up for it, and I’ve been assured that some people will drop in without signing up, so we should have it pretty full.I have a check on my desk for the artist, so it’s under control.I have a book discussion on Friday, and I’ve already finished the book (Feed) and took several pages of notes that I can distill into a discussion, if people show up.My programs are under control, and I don’t have much to report on them.
I updated the Teen web site here, taking it from kind of awful to only a little awful.There’s only so much you can do with Frontpage.But it’s updated, and it’s only meant as a stop-gap until the new site goes up in September or so.
I’m on the committee for our one-town-one-book program that will happen in early 2007.The next meeting is at the end of August, by which point I’m supposed to have read a couple of books I can recommend.I’m on the committee to represent the teens, though, because whatever book is chosen needs to appeal to men, women, teens, adults, and seniors.The catch?Most of the committee is campaigning to do a mystery this year.And I hate mysteries.I’ve tried to like them; I really have tried hard.It just didn’t take.I don’t really see a mystery going over too well with the teens, especially if it’s a generic whodunit. Right now my nominees are William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition (which I’ll have to re-skim; I don’t remember much of it) and maybe Sean Stewart’s Perfect Circle (which is more of a ghost story, but at the end you realize you should have been trying to figure it out all along).And I found one at the bookstore last night—a book called Case Histories, by Kate Atkinson—that was billed as a whodunit-meets-family-drama book.I like family dramas, so I’ve requested it from the library.In the nominating, we were told that we get bonus points if it’s available in different formats (cassette, CD, trade paperback, hardback), been made into a movie, and/or has a lot of programming that can be done around it.Books nobody’s heard of by authors nobody’s heard of get strikes.I think I’m out before I’ve even given my first booktalk.Poor unknown Sean Stewart.Anyway, this isn’t taking up much (any) of my time yet, since I haven’t read any mysteries yet or started thinking about booktalks.
I’ve been working on a Dystopian Fiction booklist.It’s coming along, though I could use more titles.Recommend something!See if I already have it!(I have the major players (and their sequels, when appropriate): The Giver, City of Ember, Uglies, Among the Hidden, Mortal Engines, Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, plus some others.But if you have more favorites, tell me!)
And yet I couldn’t seem to figure out what I’ve been doing lately that has me entirely too busy to blog stuff.Commuting, I guess.I finally finished listening to Jane Eyre, and while I’m glad I’ve “read” it, I wasn’t really all that interested in it.I guess classics just aren’t for me.Sigh.I also listened to Gregor the Overlander, though, which I quite enjoyed.I’m thinking of finding the sequels on audio, too—GtO was a fun way to pass the time.My commute home today will start The Gunslinger, mercifully read by someone who isn’t Stephen King. As for ink-on-paper reading, I don’t think I’ve done much of that recently, either.Feed, for my book discussion.Lois Lowry’s new books, Gossamer.(Reactions: a charming, uplifting story; very well written but lacking in the power books like The Giver had.A minor work with a lot of heart.I’d put it on par with The Silent Boy, and better than Messenger.)I’ve now read all three Babymouse graphic novels, by Jennifer and Matthew Holm, and I’m enchanted with them.They’re a little less cute than Owly, but I’d give them to the same kids.I also read Jennifer Holm’s Newbery-honor book, Our Only May Amelia, which was excellent.It wasn’t Dustbowl, but it had a very similar feel to it.Obviously I’m too lazy to write actual reviews, so I’ll just say “yay!” to the whole bunch.(Next on my list: sequels galore! Prophet of Yonwood, Among the Free, Wizards at War!I expect none of them to be good!)
I’m thinking of doing minor updates to the Teen page of the library’s web site.It’s horrible, frankly, and needs a major update, but there’s some official web designer guy working on it, and it should go live in September.But I don’t want to look at this eyesore for that long.Unfortunately, only when the new site comes will I have access to a copy of Dreamweaver.Until then, I’m stuck with Frontpage.I think I might use Notepad instead—it will certainly be less painful.
I’m also working on converting some of my booklists to tri-fold brochures, which should allow me to put my old publishing background to use.But—it’s been about a million years since I last used MS Publisher, and I seem to recall making fun of it then, for being a low-end counter-intuitive craptastic program.Ugh, it can’t do anything.What kind of software developer includes a “your text has overflowed the text box” button, but hides the “link text boxes” several levels deep in the menus?What the hell kind of crap is that?
The second week is just about over. I’ve already placed more holds than I can count on Hatchet and A Long Way From Chicago, the required summer reading titles for sixth and seventh grades. We own about 30 copies of each, since they are required books, but when there are significantly more than 30 kids in each grade, the books go pretty quickly. The high school has an easier time, since they just need to pick something off the NYT Bestseller list.
What’s interesting is that I have not met a single librarian who thinks required summer reading is a good idea. All of us are all for encouraging kids to read over the summer. I’ll even go so far as to say that the schools should require every kid to read at least one book, and turn in a journal entry or something on it when school starts. But. I don’t like the everyone-has-to-read-this-one-title-and- too-bad-for-you-if-you-hate-it. Having certain required titles just makes kids not want to read that book.
The only year I ever had any required reading was the year I was starting AP Literature and Composition. And that year, I was supposed to read five books: Madame Bovary, The Trial, Robinson Crusoe, Farewell to Arms, and something else I can’t remember because I never bothered to read it. (To be honest, I didn’t read Robinson Crusoe, either, and I only skimmed The Trial. I’m sorry, Mr. Rowland.) I was reading all summer long, but it was probably around August 15 that I remembered to go to the library and find the books I needed for school. So, the summer reading list didn’t really do me any favors—I was very eager to read all summer, but I did not want to tackle that list.
Where was I? Summer of 1995? What was I doing there?
Anyway. The new job is mostly going well. The children’s librarian is on vacation this week, so I’m basically doing a combined job again, children’s and teen. At least I don’t have to do storytimes! I’ve been working on planning out new programs—I will be doing the All-You-Can-Read Buffet on August 14, plus all other stuff that was already planned. I do need to start thinking about what actual new programs I could do for the fall, what sorts of things haven’t been done here before. I might start with the book-and-movie discussion, as a way to jazz up the regular book discussion and maybe get some kids to come to it. Maybe try the Game Night that never got off the ground back in Providence.
I’d like to try some kind of candy-making workshop closer to the holidays (because putting “FREE CANDY!” on a sign should be a big draw), but I can’t figure out what I could do that (a) isn’t lame and (b) doesn’t require the stove. I mean, there are lots of “make this and chocolate-cover it” options, but… blah. Unfortunately, all the cool stuff requires cooking to high temperatures, and while teens COULD handle that, we don’t have a stove they could use. I might have to pull out the big guns and do cherry cordials—I can cook the fondant in advance, and then leave the kids to do the wrapping and dipping of the cherries, but (a) that’s a lot of work for me, and (b) it seems too grown-up to have the right teen appeal. On the other hand, things that would have big teen appeal are kind of lame to make, though I might do it anyway—pretzels, peanuts, balls of chilled peanut butter, raisins, even popcorn. Maybe if I have some warm caramel, too, I can make it interesting. I don’t know. But it’s food and it’s messy, so I’ll think about it.
I’m trying to get a good feel for the collection here, but honestly I haven’t had a chance to look at much that isn’t on the summer reading lists. What I’ve looked at, looks promising. There’s a lot of fantasy and a lot of manga, and a handful of other graphic novels. I think that’s the part I’ll focus on buying, for the time being—a lot of the more Western comics are landing downstairs in the adult collection, or over in the children’s collection. But I know there are a lot of GNs with teen appeal that aren’t manga—I just have to hope they’re still in print!
I’ve been reading a lot—I plowed through a bunch of books in Alaska, but hit the wall when I came home. I’ve stalled out in Rick Moody’s Ring of Brightest Angels—I don’t know if I just don’t feel like reading it or what, but I’ve been completely unable to concentrate on it. I read The Ice Storm, though, and enjoyed it (I think it might have been his easiest book, ever!). More Jonathan Carroll (Land of Laughs and Kissing the Beehive, which was probably the most enjoyable mystery I’ve ever read—since I generally don’t like mysteries). I read the new Michael Cunningham novel, Specimen Days, which I’d been very excited about. Unfortunately, it was horrible. Three stories that are sort of almost thematically related, in three different time periods (past, present, and future). And, wow. There are some people who should never be allowed to try writing sci-fi, and Michael Cunningham is one of them.
That’s probably enough blathering for now; this is a pretty lengthy post about nothing. I do, however, have one last question while I’m trying to organize my new desk, and the files from my predecessor: what the hell kind of screwy file cabinet is a half-inch too narrow to hang file folders? (Answer: the kind next to me, apparently. What the hell??)
That's about it for my commentary on the first week of the new job. I spent pretty much all of Day 1 listening to other people "orient" me--this is where this is kept, this is for this purpose, here's how we do XYZ, etc. One thing that was REALLY helpful, though, was that the previous holder of the position came in to help out--to explain the notes she left, tell me what sorts of programs were popular (and what wasn't), and just generally give me a solid overview of the job.
Wednesday I stayed pretty busy--by the end of the day I already have a bunch of programs lined up through the summer. Some were scheduled before I got there, and are ongoing programs that pretty much run themselves (a biweekly Dungeons & Dragons group and a monthly comics club), and a couple of other monthly things (Teen Movie Night and Teen Book Discussion). I had to pick out titles for both the monthly things (Princess Mononoke for the movie night and Feed for the book discussion), but I should be able to handle it. I've also already spoken to a woman about coming in to do henna tattoos, so that's 2 more programs (one session at the end of July and one in late August). And I'm mulling over some other suggestions. Yesterday I had TWO kids ask ifI was planning to do the All-You-Can-Read Buffet again. (The buffet was a program done last year, where teens come in, bring something comfy to sit on--beanbag chairs, body pillows, whatever--and settle in to read quietly for 6 hours. There's a pee break at the top of each hour, but otherwise they have to stay quiet or be disqualified. If they're hungry, they raise a hand and someone comes over to bring them chips, cookies, a sandwich, juice, or whatever else we have.) There's demand for this. How cool is that?
This library is such a change from the old one--first off, I can DO programs here! There's an established audience here who will come to stuff! (I've been warned that the book discussions get very few kids, sometimes none, so I'm prepared for that, at least.) My predecessor left all kinds of contacts, notes, and suggestions, so it shouldn't be TOO hard to move on a lot of it.
So... phew! I'm keeping REALLY busy so far, just trying to get on top of things--I'm not even thinking about "ahead" at this point.
