I hope that everyone had a great conference. Please add anything you like to this blog once you are home and have taken a nap. Have a great weekend! Hope to see you soon!

Nancy Pearl signed action figures and Booklust after her talk last night. She began her speech with “I am a reader. For Better or for worse, that has been my life.” She asked the audience: “How many of you brought a book with you today, in your purse, right now, in case things get a little boring?” Over half the room raised their hands.

Ms. Pearl grew up in Detroit. Home, she said, was not a pleasant place, nor a safe place to be, and as a child she knew that. She stayed at the library from opening–she would wait outside in the morning for the doors to be unlocked–until close. Sometimes, she said, the librarians would drive her home, knowing that “she wouldn’t go back home if she had a choice.” She said as a librarian she understands what it is like having young people stay at the library all the day long, but she also knows what it’s like to be that child.

She went to University of Michigan and became a children’s librarian at her hometown library system–the same library that she spent all of her days at. She still dreams of her childhood library quite frequently.

Ms. Pearl described her adult life: “I’m known as the hermit of Seattle. I don’t like social encounters because I have no small talk.” She described some of her quirkier encounters at conferences, sometimes stuck at the head table with a group of men in certain shoes. “I am struck dumb in the face of tassled loafers.” She talked about a time that she tried to break the awkward silence with this admission: “I dream of my childhood library quite frequently.” Then, she told the audience, “if no one has looked at you in horror recently, don’t worry, you will know it when you see it. It is unmistakable.”

She told us about her path to writing Booklust. When she was asked to write it, it was on the condition that she include a section for Civil War fiction–she wrote that section first and used it as a template. One of her favorite sections was “Great first lines.”

She wanted to call the second book “Booklust: The Morning After,” but the publisher wanted “More Booklust.” The books are sets, companions–it is not a sequel.

Ms. Pearl discussed the “hazard” of being a reader. She has a “reading vocabulary,” not a speaking one, and often mispronounces words as they are spelled. She also “never knows if her memories are mine, or if they’re borrowed from a book she’s read.” She told us a few stories about times she’s misappropriated details from the lives of various characters from stories she’s read…without realizing it (“I remember our Christmas trees so vividly. But I also know that I am Jewish.”)

She told us that “a good book is any book that you like,” and not to worry too much about “the classics.”

A few other “pearls:” “Any book that you haven’t read is a new book to you.”

Here’s what those interested in blogging for their libraries are experiencing right now.

here is the Hammons room…

… with your host Grace Hammond.

have fun blogging!

(Pictures to come!)

Contributed by: Marjorie Brekke

click on the image to see a larger version!

Greta was right when she said that it is an absolute pleasure to…well, be exposed to someone who is not only a wonderful, amazing author, but one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard. Sue Grafton is FUNNY. She is smart, she is original, she is many things and personalities…and last night, she was simply excellent company.

The room was packed and overflowing into the hallway. It was standing room only, but everyone was so excited that they squeezed in anyway. Greta Chapman introduced the Mayor, who introduced Ms. Grafton. She began by telling us that “I was never a good student.” Some of the best advice she received from her father: “It is not your job to revise the English language. Spell correctly, and use punctuation.”

She spent what she calls her “ten to fifteen in Hollywood.” She learned action writing, how to get into a scene and to get out. She also learned that she is “one, not a team player, and two, not a good sport.” She left Hollywood and wrote three novels that remained unpublished. Then, she wrote “A is for Alibi.”

Mystery writers, she said, are “the last great moralists.” They are interested in honor, goodness, and revenge. “We’re also magicians.” She pointed out that the mystery genre is interesting because “it is the only form in which the reader and the writer are pitted against each other.” She described the 3 elements of a mystery novel: 1: What really happened, 2: What appears to have happened, and 3: How the detective figured it out.

She keeps a journal for each book that she writes, logging what her feelings were that day, if she had a headache or her cat was sick, etc–it effects her writing, and I thought it was really interesting that she kept track that way. At times the journals have been longer than her books.

She talked about “ego vs. shadow” and that shadow is the creativity side–you shouldn’t hide it, and that women in particular try to hide it to “be nice.” She pointed out that “most people in life just want to avoid criticism.” She’s “scared every day,” but she nurtures her “shadow.”

She took some questions from the audience, including a question about how to get published after your first novel. She talked about how a lot of writing is just suffering, and that your first one, two, three, etc novels might be flawed, and you have to be willing to recognize that. “Most people don’t publish their one, first book,” she said. You have to keep writing and writing and maybe put those books away and then look at them objectively.

She stayed and signed books for the long, long line that waited to meet her. I think the audience felt that they were all so much the better for having seen her. I know I did.

He opened with the quote, “We are who we are not because of our talents and skills but by the choices we choose to make.” Albus Dumbledore

Dr. Madaus shared a number of examples of mobile devices and the capacity for storage of information. He referenced studies identifying impacts to all types of libraries. He asked if the reality is the far future or moments from yesterday and that if libraries ignore the user’s needs they will not use the libraries. Their culture is good enough – people don’t care about the authenticity but the information answers the questions is good enough.

Recognizing how people live is not about how we grew up but what they are doing. Libraries need to move away from the illusion of site bound librarianship. The challenges is can libraries move fast enough without no additional resources because we are not going to change popular culture. Libraries can add value. Digital Immigrants use the equipment for tasks and Digital Natives use the technology to connect.

§    Access

§    Assistance

§    Instruction

§    Collection Building

§    Information no longer Site Bound

§    The more available the more that is expected to be available

§    Why do we think our users want information in the containers we provide

§    Provide services to users we will never see

§    Collaboration is the long term key for libraries to survive

§    Packaging content in multiple ways and multiple access points

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives nor is it the most intelligent but those who are most responsive to change.”

Charles Darwin

Recommended Sources:

http://catalogablog.blogspot.com/

Santa Fe Public Library Blog http://santafelibrary.blogspot.com/

Pew Internet and American Life Project

Statistics 2001-01 M. Kyrillidou and M. Young (200) www.arl.org Research is moving away from the print

–Notes from Greta Chapman, RCPL

SDLA Executive Board Session: “Incoming and Outgoing Members.” (The 2006 Board is pictured above.)

Notes from this session:

I attended this session as an incoming member of the Intellectual Freedom Committee. The session began with introductions of the incoming and outgoing board and committee members.

Mary Bushing, the keen “question-asker” that is infamous at our library and many other libraries around the world, initiated dialogue about our membership. Why do people join SDLA? Why do people choose not to join SDLA?

Several thoughts came up. Some librarians may not understand the difference between SDLA, SDLA, MPLA…etc. Other librarians feel like SDLA is not “for them” or does not have anything to offer their type of library (academic, school, etc). There have been strong marketing campaigns, but perhaps SDLA needs to take a more active approach toward recruiting new libraries. At the RCPL, new employees get a year of free membership. Mentoring is also a good draw for SDLA. We should facilitate mentorship and support new members of the library community, when known. We could contact them initially, maybe by mail, electronically, or with an in-person visit. They need to know what we have to offer and what SDLA is, specifically.

 Why do people join SDLA? It’s not just a “pass the crown” organization. Some shared that they had joined for networking, others were new to the library community and it brought them “into the loop.” Mary Bushing pointed out that Conference attendance may not be a direct benefit since you can attend if you are not part of SDLA. Others noted that they enjoyed the committee work. Some join professional associations in general, and pay dues because they want to “give something back” to organizations that have advanced their careers.
 
MB also brought up the issue of our 101-page bylaws, and if we may want to consider if we could “simplify.” In general.

Then, the outgoing Board took care of their business, as to be announced, we took a photo, and the new year was ushered in!