YSS Conference

April 26th, 2007 by cathy

I went to the conference. The sessions that I went to really didn’t blow my mind. In fact I don’t think that I gleaned much new information from them. 🙁 There were three sessions:

If teens want to listen, why do we shut up? or Reading Aloud to Teens Presenter: Alison Follos, Author and Lake Placid Media Specialist
This was seen from the school librarian’s point of view, and much of the talk was wasted on me. She was a school librarian, and therefor had an outlet where she could “force” the students to listen to her if need be. I think that if I had a program like that, no one would show up. She suggested having local “celebrities”… coaches, mayors, teachers… read to the teens for the first time, however I think that could be as much of a disaster as anything. It really takes a special person to be able to read out loud and not make things dull. Oh well, she did what she could. I had the same problem when I spoke to some school librarians and they said the same thing about me. The biggest complaint was that I “focused too much on public libraries”. I think I talked about comics in general, but I didn’t talk about how they could use it in their curriculum. Oh well.
I have been toying with the idea of an all ages read-aloud. I would read a short story or selections from a classic novel to anyone that showed up; kids, teens, adults and the wee old people. ;^) I really like the idea of reading to senior citizens, I’m just wondering if I could pull it off. I know that I like being read to, why shouldn’t they.

In regards to the teens, I was thinking that I might take a selection of next month’s book for the discussion group and read to them, in order to wet their appetites.

Energize Your Image
70% of first impressions is visual and 90% of that is what we are wearing. The image you project is what you want people to know about you. You make an impression before you say a word, shake a hand, or begin a presentation. What does the way that you dress say to the world?
Presenter: Certified Beauty & Image Consultant, Rebecca Kopcienski, Mount Sinai

I really hoped for more from this one. I’m not totally sure what I expected, maybe more about the image of librarians and how we can change our image as a profession. What it was, was a presentation about body shape, face shape and what clothes we should be wearing. However we only dipped into a little bit of what we could have gotten into. I felt really bad for the guys in the group, because they benefited even less from it than I did. Men don’t tend to have hourglass figures, if you know what I mean.

The Lost Art of Flannel Boards: a hands-on workshop
Check out this demonstration of some flannel board stories and make a flannel board to bring home.
Presenters: Raquel Cavalcanti and Terry Rabideau, White Plains Public Library, NY

I took a course at Brighton Library taught by one of the children’s librarians and I went to a couple early literacy programs. All of the stuff that they talked about in this program was covered in the other programs. However the librarian’s seemed A LOT more animated than I ever am in my story times. Baby voices and everything. I don’t care to talk in the baby voice, because I feel its demeaning, even to babies. However, I guess it was a little useful, because Jenny was with me and she got to learn about flannel boards, as well as make her own which she hadn’t done. I’m not sure that she was into it enough that she changed her mind about not wanting to be a children’s librarian, but I think she had fun.

The most fun at the conference was when I talked to the other librarians and when I listened to Libba Bray. OMG! How much fun were some of these librarians? Tons. They had lots of energy and a great love for their jobs. How much am I in love with Libba Bray? OODLES! I loved her book “A Great and Terrible Beauty”, and I couldn’t wait to meet her. After listening to her speak, I think I could listen to her talk for hours. I clung to EVERY word. She was fascinating and extremely humorous.

The Pinkwaters also spoke. They were very sweet and you could tell that they really loved each other. However they paled in comparison to Libba Bray. I LOVE YOU LIBBA! I embarrassed myself thoroughly at her talk, but it was well worth it. I screamed “I LOVE YOU” at a quiet moment during questions, but I did, so I said it. SO THERE. Phht.

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