Eleven is Heaven - Happy Birthday TTFLF!

If it's fall, it means it's time to celebrate!!

Pixabay image

Begun in the wild digital learning days of Web 2.0, this blog grew from an assignment into a place to think, share, learn and ponder over the past decade plus.

It has been an extraordinary opportunity to reach out and meet many colleagues and friends -  peers who work so tirelessly everyday on behalf of kids and families. The networking, linking and opportunities that resulted have enriched my practice of the profession and my life in a deep and profound way.

Thank you, dear readers, for being part of the blogging community as writers and readers and for reaching out to me and for sharing this amazing passionate journey we call youth librarianship. What an extraordinary adventure!

Happy 10th Birthday to Tiny Tips!

Happy 10th birthday to the blog. It's always a surprise to think it's been around, albeit vaguely lately, for such a long time. It has connected me to you, and for that I am forever grateful.

During all those years, I've been so excited to see the growth of blogs about creating innovative youth services join in the conversation.

Again this year, I can't promise more regular posting but like a comfortable old pair of shoes, I think Tiny Tips has a few miles left to go yet!

Thanks, dear readers, for your support!

Seriously, Libraries ARE for Everyone

Colleague Rebecca McCorkindale, who blogs mightily at Hafuboti, and shakes things up from her home base in Nebraska, is doing some great graphic (and writing) work around diversity and inclusion.  Best of all, she generously shares with people.

Her current series is based on amazing graphics that expand on her original adaptations of the universal library symbol to bring attention to the many, many communities we serve. Here is one of the graphics:

Not only does she provide a beautiful inclusive vision, but she is publishing the graphics in multiple languages and inviting people to use her generously provided graphics to extend our library welcome in our communities. Besides the many languages she is also providing B&W graphics for those of us who need to watch our pennies and ink budgets! Take some time to browse all the great posts (including a n excellent recent series on really re-thinking holidays) and get to know her.  Stop by her blog, read all about it, SUBSCRIBE, and share.

Spanish

Czech

Russian

(4/4/17 note: Rebecca continues to post new new languages including: Japanese, French, Arabic, German, Vietnamese, Dutch, Filipino, Icelandic, Malay  Hmong, Mandarin, Tamil,Swedish, Georgian, Bengali, Armenian Braille, Portuguese, ASL, Hindi. Telugu, Italian, Polish, Malayalam, Wolof, Greek, Dine Bizaad, Thai , Korean, Serbian, Turkish, Belarusian, Hebrew, Danish, Farsi, Basque, Klingon, Irish Gaeilge, Latin, Chinese, Somali, Haitian Creole, Amharic, Esperanto, Afaan Oromo, Sugs'tun, Hungarian, Khmer, Nepalese, Southern Sotho, Xhosa, Ojibwe, Siswati, Zulu, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Bulgarian, Karen,, Finnish, Kurdish-, Norwegian, Romanaian, Marshallese, Lithuanian, Croatian, Turkmen so stay tuned to her blog!)

Nine Years Old!

Pixabay image

Every year as September winds down, I like to give a little birthday party for the blog. She's nine years old now and half a million views from her beginnings in 2007 as a class project.

The blog has connected me to you, dear readers, over the years and continues to call me - even if I resist her siren song far more in semi-retirement.

Thanks for all your support and friendship. I still can't promise more frequent posts but we shall see what next year brings.

Tiny Tips is Six!

It's the blog's birthday - six years old!  My little baby has had some explosive growth, doubling readership from last year (83,000 views) to over 167,000 views - with over 10K views monthly. From it's humble beginnings to this - whoa!

Thank you for reading Tiny Tips and sharing your thoughts with me here and on Twitter and in person.  You all make me think lots in return. I don't know how work in children's librarianship can get more rewarding but meeting so many of you online and in person and delving deeply into discussions about how we do our work good has really made this a dazzlingly fun run!

Thanks so much, my friends!

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

ALA - Let's Get Together Yeah Yeah Yeah

With ALA slamming up at breakneck speed, I feel the need to make sure I connect to each and every one of you who come to Chicago.  Logistics tell me I'm nuts. But then again, it's worth the try.

Although there are some great social events in the offing, I think another youth services blogger and readers of blogs and twitter -peeps gathering would be fun to do especially if you're thinking of being at the Newbery/Caldecott awards banquet on Sunday June 30 at the Sheraton or the speeches after! It struck me that lots of us would be hanging around this premier youth services celebration, so...

....if you plan attend the banquet or just drop by the speeches after the dinner (there are chairs set up and you can listen to the speeches free and gaze upon the glitterati in the audience!), we can do a meet-up!

Traditionally, at the conclusion of the banquet, a receiving line with the honorees takes place right after the speeches outside the hall. There is always a cash bar. It's a great spot to gather and chat late night (caffeinate early to be up late!).

So consider this for your schedule and say hi!

Post N/C Youth Blogger/Blog Reader/Tweep Meet-up
Sunday June 30
Sheraton Chicago banquet area
10:30-11pm-ish start (or whenever N/C speeches end)
 

Flannel Friday Fiesta! A Civilian's View

Flannel Friday is fast approaching it's second anniversary. As the auspicious day approaches, participants in Flannel Friday are sharing what this movement has meant to them. Sharon over at her blog Rain Makes Applesauce is gathering the posts of participants. All are worth reading.

I myself am not a flannelist anymore. Or a prop-meister. Or a storytime provider. I once was and enjoyed that part of my work more than I can say. But even as a manager, I love and appreciate the efforts in the field of storytime and early literacy and the great places people are taking them. So, though I am not an active participant and really just an observer, let me still share with you what these intrepid folks and their blogs have meant to me and my professional life.

The blogs that participants are encouraged to start have often blossomed well beyond sharing flannel stories and patterns. Many of these new bloggers have expanded their content with thoughts about their work, programs, children's services and issues swirling around youth librarianship. When I celebrated the linkiness of my life a few weeks ago, it was also a homage to FF folks who have jumped into the blogosphere with both feet and enriched my thinking and work life so profoundly.

The FF community also led me fully into the world of Twitter. Many of these bloggers were the first tweeps I followed and chatted with. They have become a community of friends that I rely on and learn from.

I am in awe of the founders of (thank you, thank you) as well as the participants in this amazing grassroots effort. You have affected a sea change in youth librarianship and connectivity.

Big fireworks for you all!

Image: 'Fireworks 04'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/53139634@N00/472327992 Found on flickrcc.net

Women and Youth Librarianship

On this the first day of Women's History month, the issues of gender and power are much on my mind.

Hi Miss Julie just wrote one of the most powerful posts I have read on the issue of the politics of this power and how woman are pushed towards silence. She turns a burning light on this in particular in her own life and then in relation to the world of children's work within librarianship.

This post links directly with her earlier post on recognition and youth work. For those in youth work who read this earlier post's comments section, it was stunning how utterly and completely some of the comments missed and blew past the point of her post. Dear Abby advice on how to "put yourself out there" wasn't where Julie's post was going. My read was she was calling out the larger world of librarianship for the disregard and disrespect for the marvelous and powerful work youth librarians are doing (although one commenter insisted that youth librarians don't really do anything innovative...oh, why yes, that *is* the sound of my teeth grinding).

There have been some ugly bullying of women bloggers, FBers and tweeters in the recent past - most swirl around the picayune-ness; the paltry-ness; the unimportance of our concerns - from Arcgate to our observations on how we appropriate cultural touchpoints. It's ok to provide book recommendations for another librarian's offspring but shut-up will you in the world of politics and opinion. Smile and be nice.

It is the subtle and not so subtle pushing women back and down - and in youth work, where our clientele is devalued because of their powerlessness in the larger society, we work under the burden of powerlessness by association in the eyes of some in our profession. Is it reflective of the larger society that so devalues women by insisting our little minds can't handle our own decisions on our lady parts? That continues to put roadblocks to upward mobility and insists that we need to be uber people that parent, work, achieve, clean, and look fetching and smile, smile , smile all the time? Um, yes.


The discussions on blogs and twitter have been painful and eye-opening. Here are some of the links that have particularly made me think deeply and know I - and many other women and youth library workers - are not entirely nuts in thinking "What the deuce is going on with our colleagues?" I thank Kelly Jensen and Sophie Brookover for some of these links.

Kelly over at Stacked
Kristin at Action Librarian
Ingrid at Magpie Librarian
Nicolas at information.games 
Jacob at Beerbrarian
Me (I know this is so self-regarding)

There are more posts out there on the issues of women and librarianship, power and gender. Please share and let's keep this conversation going. These are issues of long standing, my friends, and battles that have been going on since long before I was a SLIS student and young librarian decades ago (I'll share those stories another day). I am just discouraged that 40 years later, we see the same poor behaviors.

Gender matters. Being supportive matters. Making sure there is an interlocutor between brain and mouth or fingertips matters. Let's get started on supporting each other and celebrating the work we all do on behalf of varied clienteles. Nobody is better than anybody. We are all in this together. Like that.

Image: 'The Hidden Beauty!'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/44345361@N06/5929570738 Found on flickrcc.net

How Did I Get So Lucky?

I ran across an extraordinary post....

How many times lately have I been tweeting or doing blog posts about some amazing thing I've read from Youth Services bloggers I follow? So much of what I read takes me to places of discovery that I have never been before. And it clearly inspires my blogging and TTFLF's content.

This post is completely happening because I was blown away by Amy Koester's Peer Sourcing post at Show Me Librarian. In the post she acknowledges the power of collaboration and learning from others to build the scaffolding to new programming and thinking paradigms in her work. As I've said before, everything comes from somewhere - whether hatched in our brain or sparked by something we read or hear or collaborate on.

When I started blogging five years ago, there were mostly kidlit blogs - lots of reviews of and thoughts about children and teen books. Only a handful of bloggers shared programs, initiatives and opinions on youth services. And that was what I was really after. 

As the years have gone on, more youth people have joined the conversation. From robust posts at ALSC, YALSA, and the Hub to individual bloggers inspired by Flannel Fridays or a desire to share their professional journeys in working with youth, I now have over 100 blogs that I follow. They  are ripe with opinions, storytime ideas; teen program mojo; cool initiatives and more. Who knew?

I agree with Amy that we learn from others in a way that informs and improves our work. This is really a shout-out to all the youth services bloggers for putting it out there and sharing. I learn every day and in every way from you all. You all make me a better librarian. And you inform what I write about here.

Really, I am so lucky!

You Picked That Up From Where?!?!?

A recent post from a widely read blog, which will itself remain uncited, described a library's program for  kids. It looked fun and had a ton of good ideas. It is a program we have done too. All was well and good until I reached the point in the post where I read about an activity that I had created and originated and blogged widely - and more than once - about. Sadly, I didn't see a link back here. Sigh.

I definitely like to scatter idea seeds - both ones I've thought up and ones I've learned from others.  I let them fall where they may. I always hope for fertile soil;  for sprouts and gardens to grow that let kids experience something amazing that they couldn't if their youth librarian didn't try something new they heard from me - or discovered on a listserv, blog post, workshop or book .

But truly, as much as I have scattered, I have also gathered from others. I have learned and borrowed and recreated ideas that others have pioneered. Each time I do, I have said, "Hey, I found it here; or this library or librarian was the founding mother or here was the acorn that produced this oak." Everything comes from somewhere and I appreciate the person that hatched the first egg of the idea.

Every time I read a post that describes a program, I love to see where it came from (the writer's mind; another colleague; a chance conversation; an adaptation of an article; like that). It leads me to that first place and adds a colleague and their work to my blog roll, my reading pile or my bookmarks.

I have been mellow about seeing stuff I've created go viral ("Oh, there's my little baby," I coo proudly, "all grown up") even if my hand in it is long gone. I rarely pitch a fit.  But, somehow, this time, this missing link bothered me. I will totally get over it. I understand how in this world of Pinterest and links to links to links, things can easily fall between the cracks. But I send out a plea to my sister and brother pinners and bloggers and blog administrators - please remember to ask yourself and your writers to link to original content or at least lay a path that helps others find their way.

After all, everything starts somewhere.

Note: I composed this post last month and scheduled it for next week. But three incredible posts of the last 24 hours moved this up since they touch on aspects of support for each other in what I am writing: Hi Miss Julie's questions about who gets tapped for rock stardom vs. the librarians truly working in the trenches of youth librarianship; Kelly over at Stacked who thoughtfully and reflectively explores how we support each other in our work and blogging; and KM Librarian who thinks about networks and support that matter. All these posts are knock-your-socks-off thoughtful.


Image: '382e nestled in'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/25171569@N02/6298805160 Found on flickrcc.net

Aaaargh! Five Years Old! Aaargh-some!

I'm celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day today - and the blog's fifth anniversary! 

What a fast year - hard to believe it's already time to celebrate such an argh-picious occasion!  When I looked back last year, it was with amazement and surprise at how the blog has grown.  Only a year later, and the pageviews for the blog have gone up over to 83,000 views (from 32,000 over the first four years!). That astounds me.

Thank mateys for sticking with the blog and being part of my library family online. It means the world. Now back to plank-walking!

Image: 'AAAAR2D2'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/95492938@N00/3519678477   Found on flickrcc.net

Who Are You Really?

Kelly over at Stacked recently wrote a post on authenticity and blogging that perked me up. She spends time exploring why we blog, how to be true to yourself and your voice and how to let the outside clamor stay outside while you follow your own path. Putting pressure on yourself about how you blog, how frequently or what your content is leads away from authenticity.

Her thoughts resonate with me. I have heard many bloggers over the last few months feeling publicly bad about not blogging enough or feeling like they are being neglectful. I always chalk this up to the pressure of summer reading months. No matter how swell things are, these months are very intense and take the creative juice right out of you. It's tempting to put just anything up on the blog to let people know you aren't dead - yet.

But I find that lack of posts from bloggers I follow doesn't bother me. I know life happens. And when they return with a post it is often thoughtful and something they feel passionate about - it is authentic in a way that those who post frequently rarely reach.

I tell myself that as I go through dry periods too (sometimes I must speak sternly to me).  I write what I care about. I write what I believe in.  But there is a special children's librarian muse who simply must visit me first.  The blog waits for me to hear the muse and write. And I hope my readers will as well.

Image: 'Incognito'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/22074118@N00/997415862 Found on flickrcc.net

Blogsy - Are You My New Conference Friend?

So I'm fretting about how much digital tonnage I will need to take to ALA conference this week. Iphone - check. Ipad - check. Hulking heavy 5 year old laptop that breaks my back - gulp, check. I always need my laptop because, although I heart my Ipad, it is a bear to post with. Formatting means nothing to it and my posts have to wait until I get a computer at ALA to fix the monkey formatting.

While lamenting this on twitter, tweep @mciszek, suggests Blogsy, an Ipad app that could make my life bright and free at conference. Laptop dog could stay home? Ooooh. Ahhhhh. I have never been an early adapter (still waiting for contacts to be perfected - it's only been forty- nine years since Brian Belisle got his in fourth grade and I'm waiting to hear whether he's gone blind yet). I am always appreciative of friends and colleagues who plunge into the scrum of new tech/apps and etc and find goodies that they share with me to make life better.

Soooooooo. App downloaded. Video how-to guides quickly perused. This test post almost written. Launch!!!

Blogger Heaven - Wisconsin Style

When I started my blog almost five years ago, I wanted to talk specifically about children's services in libraries. However, I didn't just want to talk.  I wanted to listen to others too.  I thought about how the pubyac listserv served that purpose wonderfully. Still, I wanted to read longer pieces so my blog search was on.  It was a bit lonely there for awhile.  I could find lots of book reviewing blogs but it was a struggle to find blogs that talked about my passion - how we do our children's public library work good. 

As the year's have rolled on, I slowly built up more and more blogs on my RSS feed where lots of content addressed programs, planning, behaviors, thoughts and issues in youth public library services that I could learn from.

I want to list a few of my favorite local blogs about youth services here in case you don't know them and want to add them to your arsenal of great stops. They don't do much book reviewing but spend lots of space talking about issues in our youth library world. Here is where you can read about youth services - Wisconsin style!

Heart of a Child - I'll start with the newest first. Good friend and colleague (and writer, humorist, former children's librarian, storyteller, youth lit prof and raconteur) Rob Reid steps up and into blogging through the Children's Literature Network.  He hopes to blog 3-4 times a month.

S. Bryce Kozla - in the interest of full disclosure, Sara is one of my YS team members. Brand new to public children's librarianship (but not to kids - she has been a 2nd grade teacher and received a Masters in Reading as well as her MLIS), she brings a fresh and quirky eye to everything from delving into chapter books as a selector to the thought processes behind fun programs she has developed that are wild successes. No punches are pulled.

Future Librarian Superhero - a chance meeting at a conference brought me into contact with Anna K, a thoughtful, funny and hard working youth librarian/assistant director in a small community in Northern WI. Active in Flannel Friday and in the twitterverse, her blog is mostly quiet but when she has something to say, you want to be reading it.

Come into Delight - my dear friend and colleague, Georgia Jones works in a small library up nort' in WI.  She is inventive, creative and shares her program ideas complete with pictures and tips. Many of my programs that have been born from and built on her creativity and that of her library co-worker, Cynthia.

Jen the Youth Services Librarian - again, in the interest of being honest, Jen is my protege in We Lead, a great initiative sponsored by our WI Library Association. She is a year or two into her job in a small suburban library outside of Milwaukee and is rocking it out.  Although the blog isn't uber active, each time she posts, there is something exciting being thought up, reported on or experienced. Always worth a visit.

Keeping Up with Kids - this blog is administered on the system level by Leah Langby at the Indianhead Federated Library System in west central WI. Librarians share ideas and content and I always find gems here that start me on my way to new and better service.

YSS blog - This is the blog of our state library association's Youth Services Section.  Since January, when four member administrators (yep, one of 'em is me!) joined forces to provide content, the blog has taken off and is full of not just announcements of events but news about programs, services and initiatives that matter to public youth librarians.

Image: 'Cheesehead Bot'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/7315825@N04/5419614313

Brews and Book Reviews

Recently, Sara, my renaissance-woman colleague at the library, wrote a thoughtful piece at the Ladies of Craft Brewing blog about the importance of reviewing craft brews responsibly. As I read it I thought, "Jeez, this could pretty much be said about book reviewing as well."  Then I saw a link of Madigan Reads where an author really let a reviewer know what she thought right back (before the author took the post down) and things clicked again for me.

Until recently, I was a long time book reviewer for School Library Journal.  I often thought about the power of my words when considering what to say about a book I had before me. Ranganathan's Five Laws always spoke to me. In particular, his second and third laws really yakked:

• Every reader his/her book
• Every book, its reader

Because I found the plot strange for my tastes (after all, isn't the Marge-centric view of the universe the way everyone should look at life?), the characters rubbed me the wrong way (maybe one reminded me of my nutjob relative or another kept me in mind of the sneering, stink-eye-giving teen that I don't much care for), the writing not elevated or bright (but would reluctant readers find it a bracing and fun read), did that give me carte blanche to trash the book or dismiss it out of hand? What reader was the book truly speaking to? It didn't have to speak to me but I needed to know who it might speak to. I thought carefully about the audience for the book, about how it might be used in a library setting or in a home, about how it might speak to a reader quite different from me.

I also thought in a larger way about the fact that many people found value in this book - the publisher, editor, promotional department - and put their considerable heft behind it. So somewhere, somehow, someone thought this book had worth. And I went about finding it.  I was honest in my opinion, not Polly-annish, but also willing to explore who best fit with this book. It was certainly analagous to the work I do daily at the library with kids finding just the right book for each individual reader.

As a "citizen-librarian" reviewer for SLJ (no pay), I have felt great kinship with the other citizen-reviewers who blog for the love of youth literature throughout the Kidlitosphere. I have learned whose opinion I trust the most to give clear-eyed insight into the books they read.  I have also learned to be leery of  those who sometimes like to talk but have little to say; and those who occasionally are pretty darn sure they could write a better book. I learned who actually speaks to the book before them and knows how to imagine the many different readers that book might have. Unlike journal reviewers who are assigned the books they review, my sister and brother bloggers can choose to review or not review a book. By their silence, a book can certainly be judged.And in that very silence, I have certainly listened and known much about books.

Our words have power, my friends, just as Sara writes about in her blog on reviews of craft beer and what they can mean.  I am wondering if we are thinking about this as we write or a sense of divine privilege and insight dictates what words we share on the life work of others?

Just wondering...

Image: 'Friday: 1.2.2008'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/7721141@N07/3164270664

Blow Out the Candles

Exactly four years ago, I was involved in a wonderful experience late in my career. My library system, along with two others in the state worked together to create Project Play. The multi-week, online course was set up over two semesters to help library staffers learn about the potential and reality of 2.0 technology and apps. Week 2 immediately challenged us to set up a blog. I did and Tiny Tips for Library Fun was born!

I didn't have a fancy-dancy name for it. So Tiny Tips it started as and Tiny Tips it remained. I didn't know quite what I was doing . There were already so many blogs reviewing kids and teen books so I didn't really want to go there. And then it struck me! I just wanted to talk about children's librarianship and how we run our libraries good..

Now 199 posts and 32,000 page views later, I am happily blabbity-blabbing along, thinking about why we do what we do and sharing with and hearing from my peeps near and far (hello my Australian and New Zealand friends).  I am so grateful for the work my Wisconsin colleagues did to create this learning opportunity for us and so grateful to learn so much to help me navigate technology with ease. Thanks all of you for coming along for the ride!

Caution - Rut in the Road

Even the most committed youth staffer runs into stale times in creative-land.  Burn-out can happen after a long string of successes.  It can hit when you're working in a non-supportive library. It can leap at you when your energy reserves are just plain low. It can descend on you when you feel isolated in a one- or two-person library. It can sneak up on you for no reason you can think of.  What do you do?

For me, staying fresh and involved is a basic part of what makes work fun for me - and keeps me out of a rut.  I need something new - a new way to create efficiencies; a new way to reach out to kids; a new conversation with a youth colleague (whether they are old friends or new acquaintances); a new thing to learn; a new program; a new approach....a "new"!

I have been roundly chastised by some for that changeability and malleabilty.  Working with me can be a crazy experience...perhaps it can be compared to trying to walk on quicksand or through a temblor. Verrrry tricky.  If stability and an even keel is what you're looking for, I am not the co-worker for you. But change keeps me fresh.

Short of driving co-workers insane, though, what can you do to stay out of a rut? There are lots of great ways to get inspired when inspiration seems out of reach. It can be as simple as looking for a new blog to inspire you (check out the ALSC blog -it has reinvigorated itself and is chock-full of ideas or Keeping Up with Kids); joining a listserv like PUBYAC or getting in touch with a colleague near or far to pick their brain. With email, IM, Skype and Facebook, everyone is close. Or check out the #libchat on Twitter Wednesday evenings (7-8:30pm Central time). Ideas will flow and something might sparkle for you. That's where I got turned on to a great post by Meredith Farkas of Information Wants to be Free that addresses ways to stay bright and involved when you work with, well, slackers.

Heading to system level workshops, continuing education and conferences are other fan-tab-ulous ways to get re-invigorated.  And its not just the content of the sessions that can do it.  Time spent talking to people next to you at lunch, in the hallway, before and after the program can introduce you to new folks who love to share ideas and work they are doing.  I never leave these sessions without bumping into strangers and friends who have something new in youth services to chat about. I can't help thinking, "Wow!  I have to try that!"

Chatting with your community members, family and school and organizational colleagues is another amazing way to stay fresh and check for ideas. Even if you can't implement all the suggestions, it gives you direction on where you might want to go and can start the creative juices flowing. 

And if you don't have a mentor, reach out.  It doesn't always need to be an ancient crone paired with a sweet young thing relationship.  You can create a compadre relationship too. Find that idea generator; that enthusiast and that committed youth librarian and partner up to share ideas and creativity.  They can inspire you and you can inspire them.  I think all my best mentor/protege/compadre (yep, been all three) relationships have been give and take from both parties that enriched our work equally.

Ruts are out there to get stale in....but with enthusiastic delving into what's new and what works, each day can be a powerful one with smooth driving and even a challenging hill or two to keep things fun!

Short-Staffed! Lunch with a Friend, Part 2

So we are at lunch, my out-of-town friend and I, and she asks what is happening with this blog. A librarian friend had wondered if it still existed and was I still writing it.  I started to say how tough it's been over the past five months while we've been down a position. And, wise woman that she is, she said "Blog about it!"

I'm not sure I have anything insightful to say about what it's been like. I know so many of my colleagues across the country have been under such extreme duress with positions, funding and hours slashed. Short-staffing affects us and our communities on so many levels.  This is just a personal reflection on what we were able to do and not do (um, this blog) while work-time marched on, minus 40 hours per week in our department.

Everyone in our department shouldered extra responsibilities and desk shifts. They covered for our lost colleague (and me during the lengthy interview process which stretched over holiday closures, vacations and ALA; essay question answering and analysis and final interviews).  Our able desk assistant became uber-Jill of all trades and showed a welcome acumen for all things YS. We cut back on our programming and outreach frequency but developed early literacy initiatives like 1000 Books Before Kindergarten; Early Literacy centers; "Between-Storytime" coupon books and a new summer reading club for birth - 35 month old kids (thank you Naperville (IL) Library for sharing the Rubber Ducky Club with us). We also worked hard to partner with our schools and colleagues including a highly successful collaboration with the high school to bring in an YA author and have a "One Book, One Community" reading program.  These initiatives involved advanced planning but literally ran themselves once developed.

Little things were hard to keep going. We kept up with collection development and weeding but our PR was tough to cover. We field newsletters, Facebook accounts, webpage event updates, info to the schools, handouts and etc. Much of that was on a "way-beyond-deadline-whew-we-made-it" schedule, if it happened at all.  We felt lucky to have fewer programs so our lack of PR fabulousness maybe wasn't noticed. I, for one, got even more rushed and sloppy and 40 hour weeks, crept into 42, 45 and 50 hour weeks just to keep things going. The storytimes I covered weren't as good as I like to have them and though I kept all appointments, I stayed awake nights trying to keep it all in order.

This blog...hah!  Lucky if I got anything in. The hardest thing for me, though, was finding time to work with and support my colleagues.  Time spent with each of them meant time away from deadline-specific work and that was a balance I couldn't find. These are strong, tough people and they brought amazing resilience to the fore during this stressful time.  While we were getting towards the end of our short-staffed period, our much appreciated half-time outreach librarian announced her retirement.   With budget constraints we knew we couldn't fill this position, but the team stepped up again. 

And now, as of six days ago, we have a new full-time team member. She will bring new skills and perspectives into the department. We will re-assess what we can realistically do and move forward to serve our public.  And I wouldn't want to be anywhere else and working with anyone other than the team at my library.   

Image: 'Ivi is crazy -20080804_0233edbw'   http://www.flickr.com/photos/99037763@N00/2805780029

Two Great Blogs That I Hope You Follow

Travis Jonkers has been creating great content at 100 Scope Notes for awhile now. He does great links, creates great fun and I always discover something new in his short succinct posts.

A new blog that is a must stop now for me (thanks Travis!) is Read.Connect.Watch. created by John Schumacher (otherwise known in the blogosphere and on Twitter as Mr. Schu). The blog posts book trailers as well as related media for children's literature titles.  There is a rich depth to this blog which will help create endless content for school and public librarians.

Image: 'Two friends!!'  http://www.flickr.com/photos/13937854@N00

Pertinently Pert?

Eva over at Eva's Book Addiction kindly conferred a Pertinent Posts Award on me and my tiny blog!  It's a first ever award and I'm glad it's for being pert...inent!  Thanks for the shout-out Eva.

According to the rules:

• Thank who gave you the award and link to them;
• State what is is you look for in a blog;
• Give the award to 7 people whose blogs pertain most to you.

now I get to recognize seven of my peers! 

This is a tough choice to winnow down all my faves so, let me share just a few. I love looking for blog content that makes me think about libraries, working with kids there and ideas for programs and storytimes that keep me fresh.  So here are my favorite go-to blogs:

Come into Delight - Georgia always has a unique view of kid's library work and great ideas.
Keeping Up with Kids - a brand new blog of a neighboring Wisconsin Library system has great tips and info
100 Scope Notes - playful, tasty info tidbits and links from Travis on children's literature make this a go-to spot for me
Hi Miss Julie - a blog that is new to me but full of thoughtful insights plus fun from a perspective of a children's librarian
Imaginary Librarian - great teen programming tips complete with pictures and instructions
Almost Librarian - I j'adore Valerie's booklists - they are hands down some of the best choices for books within a theme - but i also appreciate her insights.

One more, one more, one more...ok, I HAVE to choose the next one - I must have a laugh each and every day and when things are most dire, Cake Wrecks (with sassy commentary on cakes gone wrong) always fill the bill! What could be more pertinently impertinent?