Intermission #2 - My AZLA 2007 Adventure: Part 2

AZLA (Arizona Library Association) 2007 Annual conference
Theme - "Sharing Common Values"
Wednesday 11/15/07 (Day 2)

Day 2 was a mixed experience. There were good points and bad ones.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hip Hip Hooray! It's Family Literacy Day!
Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford

This didn't really seem to have much information on Family Literacy. It seemed to mostly be a plug for the author's books (kid looking non-fiction picture book of home remedies). There were some shared stories about audience member's experiences with home remedies and memories that can be invoked by different smells and sounds.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KIDS Interest Group
Chris Gall

This was an author session where he regaled us with the tale of how he went from childhood writer (7th grade) to illustrator (covers for Atlantic Monthly, US News and Terry Pratchett book covers) to artist and then to the present where he is a writer/artist/illustrator.

****A bit of trivia: His grandmother wrote the song "America the Beautiful"*****

This was an interesting and fun speaker.

The steps Chris takes when creating his books:

1. Think of a title (some of his unpublished ones are pretty funny)
2. Create the cover
3. Write the story
4. Send the manuscript to the editor (and re-write when it comes back -- Trust your editor)
5. Create storyboards
6. Research what will be illustrated (What is it really like on Mars or at the bottom of the
ocean, etc.)
7. Sketch the illustrations
8. Create engravings from the illustrations
9. Scan the artwork into Adobe Illustrator
10. Add color in the software program (yup. no more had drawing/coloring)

His works can be found at www.chrisgall.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A "Ruff" Guide to Storytime
Bill Landau

"Mr. Bill" presented his method for doing storytimes using movements and his guitar.

The key is to make children want to read and learn. Freshen up the sessions with new books, songs, etc. Be sure to say please, thank you and you're welcome. This teaches the children good habits. A librarian (at least a childrens' one) needs to many different hats; nurtuing, teacher, role model, psychologist, referee, discipline and loving.

There were some tips on grants (whereever to get them, remember to thank the people who give them to you).

Create your own characters for storytimes, celebrate special days (Dr Seuss bday, your bday, first day of spring, etc).

Sometimes you have to learn to say "no". Don't try to do too much and overwhelm yourself.

Many childrens songs only require the guitar chords C, F and G <--- this is important for people like me who are just now learning to play the guitar.

This was a fun session where we got up, sang a couple songs and learned about storytimes from another person's perspective and experience.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Wild, The Wacky, The "Funderful" - Creative ways to make books matter to kids
Corey Green and Terri Fields

This one started out pretty good with the teacher/author (Corey) giving some good examples and tips on how to inspire young readers. I had some issues with part of the five finger rules:

* Thumb - Microphone (telling the story)
* Index finger - Points to the main characters
* Middle finger - this can only lead to conflict
* Ring finger - People remember the setting
* Pinky finger - Least important is the plot (I disagree with this one writing for old children)


She also gave a tip on forming book clubs. Kids read the same book. Set aside some space at a certain time for them to just sit and read together (to themselves or out loud).

The second speaker (Terri) was a bit out there. She likes to be very animated when we read stories to children we should do the same. I agree with this, although she seemed a bit extreme.

She gave us an example as she read from one of the books she wrote. This one was about a mother who has two small boys who like to fight and wrestle with each other. One day mom stops a the gas station and purposely leaves the keys in the ignition while she goes in to pay (it gets worse). The kids are wrestling around and stop when they realize it isn't mom who got back in the guy but some man they don't know. There is then a car jacking (keep in mind, she's fully animating the kids here to show us how to read to children). She ends her example when the carjacker points a gun at the face of one of the children.

In my opinon bad parenting and carjackings are not appropriate topics for childrens books. Also, even though I was in the fifth row with a buffer of four full rows of people between us, her characterizations were scaring the bajeezus out of me.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall Conference Impressions

All in all, I did learn some interesting things at AZLA 2007. Met with some vendors (always important when they come to town), saw some of the new books that we'll hopfully be getting soon (including "Mythology" the lastest in the "ology" series (Egyptology, Dragonology, Pirateology, Wizardology). I learned some new things I can add in to my storytimes and inspired me to even add some flannel board components to Shake Rattle and Roll.

The downside was an obvious lack of programming. There were one and two hour periods between sessions and some time periods has empty rooms with no programming at all. This was a first for me based on any other conference/convention I've been to int he last several years. The exhibit hall was unusually small. Maybe 2/3 the number of vendors that usually are there. At any given time it seemed that the poster session hallway was half empty. Also, the food vendor/kitchen apparently decided not to be open for the conference forcing people to either grab vending machine food or go outside to grab some grub.

The negatives It won't stop me from going next year though as it is still a useful tool for local librarians.

Learning 2.0 - Thing #15

I thought there were a lot of good ideas presented in the five perspectives. It's a little scary to think that people are now exploring Library 4.0 and we've just begun Library 2.0. We definitely have some catching up to do if we're going to stay up on the trends that will help our customers do what they need to do or retrieve the information they need quickly and efficiently.

Learning 2.0 - Thing #14

Technorati is a pretty good way to search for blogs of interest. I found that many of the "top searches" had zero results and the "featured bloggers" seemed mostly political in nature. I'm not sure how one becomes a "featured" blogger.

I was able to search for things like "Library 2.0" (remember to put the phrase in quotes or you'll get way more results than you want/need).

Learning 2.0 - Thing #13

This "thing" was absolutely delicious :)

I can see where it could be useful. Many people have books marks on their computer for sites of interest but what happens if you're out of town at a conference and you need some information from one of the sites. Chances are you didn't book mark it on both your desk PC and your laptop. So you must re-research the topic to once again find the information. Depending on what you're looking for you could come up with hundreds of thousands or millions of hits. If you bookmark through Del.icio.us then your bookmarks travel with you.

Plus you can see what others have bookmarked which could save time on future knowledge quests.

Intermission #1 - My AZLA 2007 Adventure: Part 1

AZLA (Arizona Library Association) 2007 Annual conference
Theme - "Sharing Common Values"
Wednesday 11/14/07 (Day 1)

I kicked off the conference with a Snickers bar and a coke. Breakfast of champions. After beating myself up over this I went to the Keynote address.



** Note: Our very own Kathy Coster and Yvonne Murphy won the AZLA President's Program Award for their presentation "Design for Change and Change by Design" (read further for a program description). The award is given to a program that best embodies the theme of the conference. Congrats to Kathy and Yvonne!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Keynote Topic - "Understanding Culture and Building Community"
Keynote Speaker - Dr. Matthew Whitaker

Dr. Whitaker was an energetic and entertaining speaker. He spoke eloquently about the how truly important it is to recognize and understand the diverse groups of people out there not just when making policy but also when just going about our daily lives. It's especially important to acknowledge all races, genders, classes, etc. when looking towards the common goals in the institution.

Some things you can do to fight sterotypes --
* Have an open mind
* Expand your comfort zones
* Value both official and unofficial education
* Share your experienced; both good and bad
* Be humble
* Take action through organization
* Commitment

I hope I will have the opportunity to hear Dr. Whitaker speak again in the future.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Division meeting - Grand Canyon Reader Award, National Board Certification, and Advocacy Updates

2007 Grand Canyon Reader Award for Non-Fiction Book: "Georgia Fleas" by Joan Holub

2007 Grand Canyon Reader Award for Intermediate Book: (tie) "Dragon Rider" by Cornelia Funke and "Molly Moon and the Incredible Book of Hypnotism" by Georgia Byng

2007 Grand Canyon Reader Award for Teen Book: "Son of the Mob" by Gordon Korman

2007 Grand Canyon Reader Award for Picture Book: "Pinduli" by Janelle Cannon

Also discussed and encouraged was calling our government representatives to stop just voicing their support for H.R. 2864 "Skills Act" and actually sign on it. So far the only AZ rep to do so is Rep. Raul Grijalva [D-AZ]who introduced it back in June 2007.
Information on the bill can be found here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-2864

On a Learning 2.0 note, there is an RSS feed to track the progress of the bill.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beyond the Basics: Making the Most of your Library Website
Marylaine BLock

This was an interesting session. The speaker gave quite a few good tips on making the library more useful to the customers. It seems many people are having trouble with IS departments and getting permission to access some of the Library 2.0/Web 2.0 tools that are needed by staff.

Here are some of the tips and insights:

* The middle third of the webpage is "prime real estate". The most important items should
go here.
* Offer a virtual tour of the library
* Offer tutorials on how to use library services
* Offer links for voter and community issues
* Post stategic plans and annual reports
* Have a recorded video or sound byte greeting from the Library director
* Offering a blog gives the library a more "human" face. It allows for interaction between
the library and its customer (the ones who do come to the library as well as those who
don't or can't).
* Offer a sick kids kit. Downloadable stories, coloring pages, etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Design for Change, Change by Design
Kathy Coster and Yvonne Murphy

This presentation (AZLA President's Award) gave details on the new Customer model concept being tested at the newly built Arabian library.

Thinking outside the box starting with a building hat is not shaped like a box.

Much of the space is adaptable and many of the shelves are mobile.

Many of the concepts are taken from the "bookstore" model.

There were many good questions from the audience and I think this new concept will be watched closely.

Learning 2.0 - Thing # 12

I really like both MySpace and Facebook. MySpace seems more customizable and fun. It appears authors, performers, musical groups, organizations and younger people are the prime users. Facebook seems more for older/grown-up and serious crowd.

My relatives are on Facebook and use it for genealogy and brief life event updates.

Here is link to my MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/corwyndriscol)

Learning 2.0 - Thing #11

LibraryThing seems to be a great resource not just for organizing my own books but, also to see what others are reading.

Here is a link to my library (first 5 books):

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Mikeschor