It’s ok to be jealous
April 1st, 2008 by Sarah Day
Friday was my day. I won an unbelievably good prize at the exhibits and I arrived to the Nancy Pearl Young Adult Luncheon an hour early and therefor got to hang out with Nancy Pearl herself for about 45 minutes. It was probably the most “star struck” I’ve ever been. I’d be surprised if she didn’t think I was a complete idiot, but come on! It’s Nancy Pearl. She’s probably used to inciting idiocy, especially around librarians. She’s pretty much a rock star. At least in my book.
I had never heard Nancy speak before, but I just had a feeling I was in for a treat. She prefaced her talk by warning us that she is uncomfortable with crowds and public speaking. I say, if that’s true, the woman deserves an Oscar. She was eloquent and funny and gracious and sweet and kind and I don’t mean to keep fawning over her, but it’s pretty hard to do anything else without lying.
I’ll conclude with a few little nuggets that I thought were especially grand:
• “[Librarianship] is an opportunity to do good in this world.”
• Carnegie libraries have stairs because he believed you must ascend to knowledge. (I particularly liked this bit, because I work at a Carnegie library.)
• “In this world, we are given one life; but through books and reading, we can have any number of lives.”
• “Validate what kids read and be genuinely interested in what they choose to read.”
Nancy Pearl made my PLA!
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