PLA Blog

Sorry yesterday I have to do from my notes because I flaked after supper and  had to miss breakfast to make 8:30 session today. I’ll try to be brief as burning the midnight oil just isn’t my style anymore. I think the scarcity of seating, except in the lecture halls is contributing to fatigue - or it could be that I ‘fell’ for too much from the exhibitors and ended up draging it all to the post office to send home in great big boxes. Sorry to those of you who spent hours waiting in line to send stuff from the convention site but it really was worth the haulage as the price at printed matterials rate was absolutle incredible! The second box - and second trip was because I was there when vendors were ‘unloading’ their displays after three on Friday. Wow! Okay what did I cover that no one else has commented on? I seem to be one of the few blogers that goes to the youth sessions…

8:30 sessions every day - I must be crazy! Where’s a YA Librarian When You Need One? Teen Readers’ Advisory for the Library Generalist had good advice and has an updated handout at www.ra4ya.pbwiki.com

• teens want to be welcome in our libraries
• brain development means teens have a lot in common with the terrible twos - and we encourage the later to visit and hang out in our libraries, we even develop lots of programs for little ones!!
• teens need the concrete so tell them exactly what you mean
• if parents are in to pick out books for kids offer things off the YALSA lists as that gives credance to the choices - magazines with lists also work
• if the audio books you bought for them aren’t circing interfile with the books (I had several sessions talk about changing the look of things to get items moving

Non-Fiction for Kids

If you were’t there you missed a show! Go find Kathleen Baxter’s list of reccommends but nothing will give you the insight her performance provided. We were all giggling and commenting all through and her singing at the end was a hoot!

Science Quest was a good idea to catch the interests of kids early - hopefully to have that interest retained through the school years. Why science in the library? Promoting literacy is what librarians do best and our kids need science literacy!

Dealing with Teens Virtually

• The main idea was ‘radical trust’ - if you put it out there it will come back!
• Three main rules, respect yourself, respect each other, and respect the space
• the now generation is into networking so meet them where they are
• if your older patrons have a problem being around teens try teen nights after usual closing times - then they get to be on all the computers available
• make the case for social networking because that is where teens are at - the other services you offer will get used as well as they find them
• vertual reference gives teens the privacy and anonimity they often need to be able to ask for help
• be where they are so they can reach us when they need us

Friday gets done in the morning - if I’m lucky!