Today at Work...

Sometimes I find myself doing some pretty interesting things at the library.  Today, I spent a little time playing with magnetic poetry.

I promise, this was a completely legitimate use of my time!  The poetry and easel arrived in today's delivery, and I just had to open it up and play try it out as a way of getting ready for an upcoming passive program in honor of National Poetry Month in April.   Stay tuned for the full story!

Book Christmas Tree

Have you seen one of those pictures of a Christmas tree made out of books?  Well, I made one of my own:

We had a teen event at the library today (more on that later).  I placed my Teen Advisory Group in charge of planning decorations for the party, and they really wanted to create one of these trees.  The books that we used ended up coming from our Reference collection.  It's a set of law resources, including state statutes, court records, and who knows what else.  The collection is almost never used, so no one missed the books while they were in use for the afternoon.  We'd originally planned to use books that we had in storage to use as prizes during summer reading or books that had been donated to our Friends of the Library group for our book sale.  But this set of books worked much better since they were all fairly thick and all the same size.  Even better, the books are green and red - perfect colors for a Christmas tree.

It was the teens' idea to find a copy of Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl to place at the top of the tree.  Genius!

Here are a few tips for anyone out there who may want to construct their own book tree:

• You need lots of books to make a tall tree.  My tree used 123 books, and they all were fairly thick (2-3 inches).  You'll need more books if your books are thinner, and fewer books if you make a smaller tree on a tabletop.  I didn't measure the finished tree, but I'd estimate that mine was about 4'8" tall (including our Stargirl topper) and about 3' wide at the base.
• Paperback books are generally much thinner than their hardcover counterparts, and they're also much slicker.  This makes them more difficult to use for a project like this.
• The tree is much easier to construct if your books are all more or less the same size.  Different sized books can make for a very interesting-looking, eclectic tree and that's lots of fun too.  It just takes a little bit of extra work to fit everything together.
• Getting the height that you need is the hardest part.  Be sure to make your layers fairly tall (I recommend at least 4-6 inches per layer), and you'll probably need to have a few layers of the same width before you start to narrow the tree.  Having three or four layers all of the same width not only gives you lots of extra height, but it also makes the whole tree a little bit more stable.  If you look closely at my picture, you'll see that my tree has 16 layers of books, with each layer consisting of two books stacked together.  The layers taper in as the tree gets taller and there are five different widths.  If I would do it again, I would actually include a few extra layers of the widest widths at the bottom  to give it more height and stability, and possibly use fewer layers of the narrower widths at the top.
• The inside of my tree is totally hollow.  There's nothing in there supporting the books as the layers become more narrow.  This was achieved just by being careful with how the books are arranged and by having several layers on top of each other that were the same width.  
• I decorated my tree very simply with a single string of white lights.  You could certainly include other decorations if you wanted, but I personally like how the books themselves are highlighted with fewer decorations.  

New Cart

Today at work I got a present:

It's a brand new cart!

Those readers who do not work in libraries might not understand, but having my own cart is a very big deal.  If a librarian does not have a cart, s/he has no place to to store or no way to move a large number of books.  And do you know how often your average librarian needs to work with and/or transport a large number of books?  Fairly often. 

I'm so excited.  No longer will my monthly book orders simply be piled haphazardly on top of my desk.  No longer will I have to beg for my co-workers' permission to borrow their carts, which they're probably trying to use themselves.  No longer will I be left wondering how to transport books (or other library/program supplies!) from one end of the library to the next.  No more tall armfuls of books blocking my vision as I try to carry them up the stairs. 

Have I mentioned that my new cart is purple?  It definitely stands out from all of the other carts in the library, that's for sure.  All I need now is a shiny sticker or magnet to give my cart a little additional personality.

And I think that my cart needs a name.  Suggestions welcome.

Librarian's Purpose

The Children's Reference Desk sits in the children's area of the library, and there is always a staff person there ready to help patrons with whatever they need. Tonight I found myself at the desk as a young boy, about 5 years old, brought over a few books that we wanted to check out. I told him that I couldn't check out his books, but he could take them to the "Big Desk" (the Circulation Desk) just outside of the children's area. The boy looked at me, squinted in confusion, and asked:

"Then what are you there for?"

Fair question, my friend. I explained to the boy that I was there to answer any questions that someone might have and that I could help people find the books they were looking for. Since neither of these situations seemed to apply to him, this kid was severely unimpressed.

I can't decide if this whole exchange was hilarious or vaguely insulting to my career.

Tell Me About Your Picture

When I was a kid, I was really into the Baby-Sitters Club books. I read them obsessively. Maybe my reading horizons weren't exactly broad as a child, but I've recently been able to apply a valuable lesson in childcare learned from these books to my work at the library.

Kristy, Claudia, Mary Anne, and company were always very careful in their phrasing when taking care of their baby-sitting charges. When a kid drew a picture that, to the baby-sitter, just looked like a bunch of scribbles they would always ask the child to "tell me about your picture" rather than asking what the picture was. Author Ann M. Martin explained that asking a child what their picture is could be potentially offensive. After all, it's probably obvious to the artist what he/she has drawn, so why can't everyone else see it? "Tell me about your picture" can be a gentler, more productive way of talking about artwork that doesn't imply that the artist isn't good at drawing, and in my mind it is also a better frame for opening an extended dialogue about the picture's subject.

How does this relate to what I do at the library? During the summer months we have an activity table with different small projects available for kids to try. This week we are asking kids to draw a picture showing a dream that they have had. When the child brings their artwork to the children's desk and shows it to us, they earn an extra raffle ticket that they can use to enter our big end-of-summer drawing for prizes. This week I've looked at about 200 drawings - many of which are easily interpreted, but many more of which make a lot more sense with a little explanation. Needless to say, I've been putting Ann M. Martin's advice to good use this week!


The interesting thing that I have noticed is that it's even beneficial to use use the phrase "tell me about your picture" with older children who draw very well. This week I have often found that the story behind the finished picture is actually a lot more complicated than the image implies. It's great to hear kids of all ages talking about their inspiration and to hear the details of their sleeping and waking dreams.

So thank you, Ann M. Martin, for your sound advice. It's amazing what little details from books will stick with you!

Keva Planks

We have several fun programs planned for this week while the kids are off on Spring Break. One of them was a LEGO and Keva Open Play event.

Most people are familiar with LEGOs - those little bricks that can be used to build houses, vehicles, the Millennium Falcon, Hogwarts, or a variety of other original sculptures. We've known for ages that LEGOs are cool, and LEGO clubs have been hot programs at libraries for a couple of years now.

But Keva Planks are not nearly as well known. Actually, I'd never heard of them before starting this new job. But they're super cool! These simple wooden planks look a lot like the blocks used to play the game Jenga, but they are actually kind of ingenious in their construction. They're engineered to all be the exact same size and weight, which means that they will stack and balance perfectly. There's no need to sort a million tiny pieces because all of the planks are the same. And you can build anything!

Here are a couple of pictures of projects that I completed during our open play program. One of them was copied from the idea sheet that comes in the box, and he other was more or less my own design:











I have to say, building with the Keva Planks was incredibly relaxing. I found myself building repetitive geometric patterns and it proved soothing, much like a zen garden. It's so simple that anyone can do it no matter what their age or how shaky their hands are. And the planks have that great wood-smell too.

I'm a great advocate of just having fun with blocks like Keva Planks and LEGOs, but of course there are those who need to see that an activity like this is worth something "more." Fortunately, playing with blocks really is good for you! It's a great way for kids to learn skills in art, architecture, engineering, mathematics, and team building. Kids will literally build all of these skills without even trying as they construct new towers and sculptures with simple toy blocks.

Window Chalk

When you were a kid, did you ever imagine that your handwriting would be on display for all to see as part of your job? I never did. But clearly I was mistaken in this childhood assumption - children's librarians find themselves showing off their penmanship skills all the time! With only one week remaining until my library's Summer Library Program begins, I flexed my handwriting muscles today to pull together a lovely window display.

My library is quite lucky to have such a large, lovely window to let in sunlight, while the large "pit" area in front of the window prevents our books from taking on any sun damage. It seemed a shame to not take advantage of the window as a display area to promote the Summer Library Program. The challenge? The sheer size of the window dwarfs normal posters. The solution? Window chalk!

Have you ever used window chalk before? It's awesome stuff. With this mostly-washable paint you can draw or write on glass surfaces. With a little water and a rag, the paint comes right off. You can also use window chalk on other surfaces for a permanent effect.

This was my first time using window chalk, and I'm very happy with the result. Since I have very little in the way of real artistic talent, I chose to do more writing than drawing. Simple wording and big, bold letters seemed ideal for this large space with just a few simple images to add some punch. I also displayed two of this summer's large posters for viewing to help promote this year's theme.

But in this case, pictures are way more fun than words. Take a look at my handiwork!



Apologies for the glare on these pictures. Very little to be done for it when photographing glass though. I'll edit this post if I'm able to get glare-free shots later.