Archive for February, 2008

I’m on another committee.

Sunday, February 24th, 2008

I don’t know how those librarians do it. They look at me with their big doey eyes and tell me what a good thing I’ll be doing for the less fortunate librarians of the world. And I’m suckered in every time. This time I didn’t even actually see them. They emailed me soothing emails and told me that I would be doing a wonderful thing for librarians around New York State. I’m only a member of New York Library Association and not American Library Association, since ALA dues are so expensive, so I’m assuming that ALA wouldn’t ask me to do anything… yet.

Anywho. I was still slightly on the fence, although quickly being guided (to the dark side some might say), when one of the other librarians who joined the committee emailed me in a very convincing manner that swayed my decision. Darn you and your hypnotic ways Lisa! I’m glad I don’t work at Webster, because I’m sure that she’d convince me to do all sorts of things all the time. 🙂

Unfortunately, I’m only one person, so I won’t be able to take on this committee and stay on the Teen Book Festival committee as well. Two intense committees at once? That is a sure sign for divorce. So that means that I will have to go on hiatus from TBF for a while. I’m sure that I will still volunteer for the day of, but that’s about it.

Starting in March, planning begins for the NYLA conference in Geneva… now I have to figure out if this is the Spring YSS conference, or the Fall NYLA conference, of which I’ll be helping plan the YSS part. I’m still in shock, and trying to figure out how I’ve gotten noticed… I may be too much of a Chatty Cathy, but oh well, I can’t help it.

I’ve also got this thought in the back of my head that I’m giving a presentation at one of the conferences with some other librarians about programming for Tweens, but I can’t remember when or if it was just a figment of my imagination… we’ll see. I’ve actually been offering programs for kids in 4-8 grade for about a month now, but no one has been showing up. Its probably time to do <shutter> class visits. I am such a baby. I don’t know why the idea of class visits freak me out, but I just don’t know if I can handle them.

—-Couple of days later—-

Okay I looked it up. I was asked to help give a presentation at NYLA this October, but I haven’t heard anything else, so maybe they’ve forgotten me. I’m helping to plan the Spring 2009 YSS conference in Geneva. I can handle that. 🙂

The wii is…

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

In my possession as we speak! I got to Toys R Us at 9 am to wait in line for an hour. There had been people waiting since SEVEN AM! I don’t know why people do this. They may be crazy. I thought I was crazy waiting for an hour.
It was snowing and blowing and FREEZING! My goodness was it freezing. But I got in there. I was Wii 26 of 35. I also got Wii Play (with the extra wiimote) a nunchuk, and the charging station. After that I was warm enough to leave the store. Only to get out of the store and realize that I couldn’t see a foot in front of my face. Yuck.
I had somewhat of a cold late last week, but today I’ve felt horrible. Absolutely awful. Those patrons better appreciate how much I’ve suffered. Ah, who am I kidding? They’ll be mad that I didn’t get the right wii games.
Next week: a trek back to Toys R Us for Guitar Hero III.
Just so you guys know, even though we play a lot of games and watch Anime, I do encourage the youth to read too. Sure I do! Manga and the Halo series. Oh and thanks to Bob, my new favorite: Scott Pilgrim.

The Flu has struck with a vengance!

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

Both Jeff and Jack have the flu. Jeff got it a couple of days ago… hmm he’s been out since Wednesday. And Jack started feeling not so good this morning. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to take Jack to the doctor’s “open hours” this morning, and I told her how Jeff has the flu. At the time, Jack only had a sinus infection, and wasn’t showing signs of the flu, but she gave me a prescription for some flu medicine. We went to “Cookie Wegmans”, filled the prescription, got our cookie and went home. We all went upstairs to take a nap together.
A little later, I wake to Jack crying a little, then he starts coughing and yuck, brings cookie wegmans up all over the bed, his clothes and my shirt. I get him naked to cool him off, but even after a couple of minutes, he has a temperature of 102. We give him a bath and it goes down, but up it comes again (luckily not food) so I decide to fill the medicine. They didn’t have it at the first place I went to, and the man who helped me said that I could wait until Monday. MONDAY! My son has a fever! There was no way that I was going to wait. So I had to go across town, because two Wegmans nearby didn’t have anything… that’s scary. Lots of little kids in Rochester with the flu. Poor things. Of course, all I had on my mind was that I needed to get back to my little man. 🙁 Then I get to the Wegmans across town, and I wait FORTY MINUTES, so that they can open a box, crack open a bottle, put it in some machine that shakes the medicine really good, put it back in the box and hand it to me. Hello people, my (almost) three year old son has a FEVER! I want to comfort him and cuddle with him!
So I get home, give him the disgusting stuff that he doesn’t want to take and we cuddle up and watch Sense and Sensibility (and play the Cars game on his leapster).
Weekends can be so lovely!

The things I do for my teens

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

I found out a couple of days ago that a certain store is getting a new shipment of Wiis. So guess who is going to try and get there an hour (hope that will be enough time) early to get one for the library? Yup that would be me. I don’t know what I’m thinking, but I’m hoping that no one else has heard about it… yea right. We’ll see. The worst that could happen is I’ll have to go home wet and empty handed. I’d better not though. I may have to take down some little old lady buying a Wii!

six more weeks of winter

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

According to Phil, we have six more weeks to endure. Not that its been a very awful winter or anything. BTW, how could poor Phil she anything let alone his shadow, surrounded by all the masses of crazy people?

Those shameful teens.

Sunday, February 3rd, 2008

I just realized that after the two last posts, one might think that I hate teens or something, when, in fact, the exact opposite is true. I mean, I’d be lying if I didn’t say they don’t drive me crazy sometimes, but I love their free spiritedness, emotions and individuality. I think that teens are so often given the short stick, because people just expect the worst. Here’s an example (and then I’ll get on with my reason for the post): on Saturday the page that was working (high schooler) said that one of the older patrons kept following her around and giving her dirty looks. She was furious, and rightly so I think. She went on to say that she’s on National Honor Society, she does extracurricular stuff and she gets really good grades.

Why should this older guy think she’s up to something? And really, why should he? 1. She’s in the library (of course, that often doesn’t mean anything anymore). 2. She was hardly dressed like a gangsta or other kind of hardened criminal, unless you count a gray sweatshirt and jeans gangsta material. 3. She was quietly putting books away.

Sometimes I really don’t understand adults. Its like as soon as they hit a certain age, the forget what it was like to be a teenager. They forget that you don’t need to talk to small children like they are completely mindless… you know what I’m talking about. Loud, high pitched and slow. Sometimes with that cutesy sing-song voice that I absolutely abhor. When I write it out, I realize that people do that with old people too. Talk to them really loud and slowly. I guess that’s why I like working with old people too. I like working with those people that really appreciate what you do for them, because the vast majority want nothing to do with them.

ANYWAY. After all that, all I really wanted to say was that on twitter, one of the people I follow is “youthlibrarian” and she found this site called lazy library. Its a site that finds books on different topics under 200 pages. Any more than 200, it won’t be on their site. They even rate it, tell you how much it costs and where you can buy it. Of course I had to look up librarian. High schoolers around the world rejoice.

Tweens.

Saturday, February 2nd, 2008

There. I said it. The dreaded “T” word. Not as dreaded as actual teens, but close enough. I made the decision at my library about a month ago to add tween only programs at my library… I’m considering tweens 4-8 graders. Some people say 3-6, but I can’t bear to go as low as 3rd, and my high schoolers don’t want middle schoolers at the teen programs. So starting on Monday, I will see who shows up. Probably not many or any at first, but once I start going to the schools and talking to the kids, people may start making an appearance. I’m sort of hoping that it works out the way my teen programs did. Word of mouth. The programs are pretty similar to the teen programs and family programs, but I’d like to give these kids a time of their own to relax and hang out. Most of my programs are just that. Relax and hang out with a thin facade of actual programming. I think if it gets too structured, the kids get scared and run away.

Once I get a small group of regulars, I’d like to see if I can get a grant to create a tween zine. … Oh that’s catchy! I’d get money for a camera, scanner, copier, maybe for a beginner class on writing (in general or journalism style). I think it could be really exciting. Of course, I’ve got to get them in first.

Wish me luck. I’ll need it, especially since my story times start next week too, and I NEVER have any luck with those. … I’m thinking that I may have to start traveling for story time, by going to preschools, daycares and kindergartens. Ack. Oh well. The life of a librarian is never dull. NEVER. Don’t believe the fairytales. Quiet and peaceful. Time to read novels. Bun and sensible shhhhoes. None of its true. Well except for the sensible shoes. Usually. Oh and I do have my shushing librarian action figure when I need her. (I even have the deluxe one with the book cart that doesn’t steer straight) Although I usually tell the kids that its my nose picking librarian. I think they like that better.