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More Thrifty Gifts

20 Dec

Metalworking Books

I wanted to tell you all about my library’s Thrifty Gifter workshops all in one shot, but then I blew it last week when I got too excited to hold back any longer.

Library Metalworking

Last Tuesday and Thursday we had our third installment of crafty events: Metalworked Bookmarks!  This was the largest of any of the Thrifty Gifter workshops, with 40 total students sawing, punching and hammering all at the same time.  We made some serious noise.  Lessons learned?  My library’s auditorium is surprisingly soundproof.  Also?  Although the class worked well and most people wrote that they loved it, next time I would keep the size down to 25 or 30.

Metalworking Father and Son

This was our most diverse group yet, with teenage twin sisters, fathers and sons, little old ladies who were best friends. (more…)

I Could Get Used to Working Virtually.

15 Dec

This morning I skipped my shower and slept in a few extra minutes, because I knew I’d be spending the morning working virtually, in Avination! Two months ago I, too, had no idea what Avination was. But now, as an Avination n00b, I know that Avination is basically a reincarnation of the virtual world Second Life — only less populated and also less weird.

My virtual mission this morning was to meet-up in Avination with graduate students at the University of Iowa to help referee their end-of-semester projects. Five masters candidates were presenting and defending their research on pedagogical topics as diverse as: evidence based practice (EBP), scaffolded learning in “edutainment”, the projective stance in videogaming, participatory learning and convergence culture, and consumer health information seeking. They all did fantastic jobs, and it was a “participatory learning environment” for all involved! My co-referees were PhD candidates, school librarians, academic library directors, and instruction and outreach librarians, and I think I can speak for everyone when I say we all got a few kicks out of the experience.

My big take-away from the presenters’ research this morning is that physical and virtual learning environments do share many parallels, and that the key to learning in either is to create an environment that allows students to take ownership of their work and their creativity in a mentorship-style situation that provides both practical and theoretical learning. We agreed that it’s difficult to assess this kind of learning with mainstream tools that privilege quantitative measures, and tried to tease out some of the barriers to constructing other models for assessing learning.

And finally, because I’m never happy until I’ve found something to critique, the Avatars!!!!  Oh my god the Avatars.  One of the morning’s presenters discussed the problematic portrayal of race and culture in Grand Theft Auto, and can I just add that these problems persist in Second Life and Avination, too?  I had three choices for my default female avatar: white and fully clothed, brown and sorta clothed, or black and kinda sexy-naked.  What does that tell us about race and virtual representation?  I was pretty annoyed that I had to pick the blondie in order to be classroom appropriate.  And even so, my default outfit was a cloying schoolgirl-plaid miniskirt.  Point being, I would rather be able to choose my sexy personas rather than having them chosen for me.

Thanks to all who hung out with me in Avination this morning, and thanks to the instructor for the invitation!  I hope my boss will let me work virtually at the library from now on…

Thrifty Gifters: Keeping It Real

12 Dec

Last month’s 10,000th blog visitor called for a bit of a bananasuit vacay.  Besides, my little running joke lately is that I’ve become an indentured servant here at the library.  Only 8 more years til my student loans are forgiven!  Ha… Ha.

Seriously, this month I’ve been working like crazy on our super fun, super thrifty gift-giving series, Thrifty Gifter.  Spectacularly talented artists from the Lawrence / Kansas City area have been donating their time to teach community members how to sew upcycled pillowcase totes, knit simple accessories, make metalworked bookmarks, and wrap wreaths in pretty yarn at the library.

I could pretend that everything is always perfect, but my intent is to keep it real here at Librarian in a Banana Suit.  Guys, we blew out the circuit breakers in the library auditorium the first night when we powered up all the sewing machines and irons.  Did you know that irons can draw as much electricity as a refrigerator?  Neither did we.  Thankfully, my volunteer that night was a Navy vet, and took charge of re-rigging the extension cords.  15 minutes later, and it was nothing a few pieces of chocolate couldn’t smooth over.  Thank goodness for a renovated library in the works.

(more…)

Ten, and Ten Thousand

30 Nov

We hit some major milestones this November, guys.  Earlier this week, my cat Lupa turned ten years old.  We sang her Happy Birthday and gave her a spoonful of cream cheese.

And, just a few weeks ago, Librarian in a Banana Suit welcomed its 10,000th visitor.  Welcome to the library, everyone, the librarian is in!

Being a Librarian in a Book Club

23 Nov

Readers, I’m going to let you in on a dirty little secret.  Today’s librarians cringe a little when you talk to us about books and reading.  Come on, guys: it’s the Information Age, and all of your librarians went to “Library and Information Schools.”  Maybe even just an “Information School.”  Many of us came into librarianship because we liked to read, but left “professionalized” with all these fancy ideas about how our core calling is to bring Information to the people.  That’s what happened to me.

These days, I am what I’m beginning to think of as a rehabilitated reader.  Sure, my heart still palpitates over social media, government docs, and information literacy.  But there’s one thing you just can’t shake when people find out you’re a librarian.  They really wanna talk about books.

A few months ago, my buddy Nog and I formed a little book club on a lark.  If you want to witness the saltier side of your friendly neighborhood Librarian in a Banana Suit, head on over to our PBR Book Club blog.  It’s a group for bookish hipsters, and we are actually mostly boys.  That’s what happens when you combine books with beer.  At our inaugural meeting there were only five of us, and we were discussing David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas.  We started by shotgunning a few PBRs to ease any tension, and then Nog — who teaches college English courses — cleared his throat.  “Umm, I don’t really know how to do a book group.”  And then he turned expectantly to me.

“Oh my god,” I realized, “they expect me to know what I’m doing because I’m the librarian.”

(more…)

What I Sent Out Today

16 Nov

Sent this invite out today to the agent of our (hopefully) 2012 Read Across Lawrence author.  Holding my breath!

Pop-Up Library

15 Nov

Readers, the idea I’ve been completely consumed by lately is this:

Uni Portable Reading Room

For several months now, I’ve been plotting a “pop-up library” to sprout up at venues and events around Lawrence.  Why not check out some DVDs featuring street performers while at Busker Fest!  Books on brews at the Replay!  Jayhawk vanity publications at Allen Fieldhouse!  The idea is that an LPL librarian will curate a small collection of great titles for the occasion and then haul them out food-truck style in a tiny cart via book van.  Don’t have a library card?  No problem — we’ll get you signed up for one on the spot!  Our library already offers remote services at select retirement communities to serve seniors, but this would extend that model, taking the library out guerilla-style into the thick of the action at the most unexpected times and places.

So, that seemed like a pretty good idea.  And then my colleague introduced me to the Uni “portable reading room”.  Uni is a project based in NYC, funded by Kickstarter donors, and built at f-ing MIT.  I want one.  And I’m going to get one.

I’m in love with the idea of the portable reading room, because it takes the pop-up library one step further.  The concept becomes more than just a way to get books and other materials into the hands of a new audience, but morphs into a public space for community members to come, stay, and sit for awhile.  As my library school mentor would say, it shifts the library from a “bibliographic” to an “educational” model; a “third space” away from home and work where people can be together and read.  Hopefully even talk a little.  We’ll see.

Kickstarter, here I come.

World Premiere: Sexy Librarian Music Video

6 Nov

Chip from The Larryville Chronicles has declared it “the most important thing the library has ever done.”  Meanwhile, lady librarians across the nation are rubbing Purell hand sanitizer uncomfortably all over their hands, sussing out whether this is a clever third-wave feminist marketing ploy or just straight up librariansploitation.  Readers: why not both?

Presenting the world premiere of the “Sexy Librarian” music video, featuring Mike Anderson, aka Gustin Gingerlake, host of the 6 News Not So Late Show.

I especially love this video because it was shot on location at the public library where I work.  See if you can spot the Lawrence Public Library tatt!

 

via http://6lawrence.com/entertainment/the-not-so-late-show/the-not-so-late-show-sexy-librarian-music-video/

Pinterest and Zombies

4 Nov

Aside from meeting the fabulous Nancy Pearl at Wednesday’s Staff Development Day, I also got to sit in on a couple of sessions by two of Kansas’ hippest librarians: tech wizard Heather Braum, and Matt Upson, mastermind behind the Zombie Guide to the Library.

HEATHER BRAUM is Technology Librarian at NEKLS, and she introduced us to 5 tips, 5 resources, and 5 tools to help manage professional information overload.  Heather started out by reminding us that “information overload” is as old as information itself, and that we have to dip in and out of the ocean instead of trying to drink it all in.

A few of my favorite librarian goodies of the session included American Libraries Direct, Dropbox, Mashable, and Lifehacker.  Lifehacker has showed me how to make a fridge out of a flower pot before, but now I’m inspired to try using it as a fun, user-friendly interface for approaching DIY library projects, too, like learning Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. (more…)

Nancy Pearl Admits She Plays Angry Birds

2 Nov

Our guest speaker at my library’s Staff Development Day yesterday was none other than world-famous librarian Nancy Pearl!  You may already know her from the “Shushing Librarian Action Figure.”  Or, for you more literary types, NPR’s Morning Edition. Yep, my library’s pretty hip.

At our staff day, Nancy described herself as a “reader” who comes at books from both a library and a bookstore background.  But public librarianship is near to her heart — she calls it one of the only two democratic institutions left in our communities, the other being public schools. They remain places where people from all walks of life and all ages can come get the information they need.

And Nancy is all about her readers.  When I was first initiated into the field of librarianship, I really loathed the idea of “Readers’ Advisory.” Too prescriptive and authoritative, gross!  But Nancy and her peers call it “Readers’ Services,” and she describes her work as collaborative: a conversation and a relationship between readers.  Ooh, I like that — sounds a little more Freireian!  And, argues Pearl, “people are desperate for ANY kind of direction about what to read… and that’s the role librarians can fill.”  Consider me a convert.

The heart of Nancy’s talk was the so-called Three-Legged Stool of Librarianship. She identifies three functions that are so important the stool will wobble unless they’re balanced: (more…)

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