Internet Librarian 2014

It's been a busy week to say the least. On Sunday I flew with my Mom and daughter to attend and present at the Internet Librarian Conference in Monterey, CA. This was my first time to present at a conference (I'm not counting standing by a tri-fold or reading a paper), my daughter's first time to fly, and my Mom's first time to see sea lions. We now have a checkmark by all three!

I presented Getting the Word Out About Ebooks. Everything from using LibGuides as our website to creating our library app was discussed. After running through the presentation several times for family members and countless times in my head I was worried about filling the 45 minutes with useful information. Thankfully, I ended with a couple minutes for questions (phew!). My presentation was the second of the first day, so I felt that I could relax and learn. 

As the sessions continued, I began to see some trends: social media, memes, infographics, big data and eBooks were all hot topics. However, one that I didn't expect, but trended throughout the sessions and keynotes was the power that tactile (print) materials and face-to-face contact had and have on all ages. 

Brendan Howley, a content designer, discussed the power of stories. As libraries we must tell our own story in such a way that people make a connection and spread that story within their networks. We must aim to "Share the why of the how of what we do."

Evelyn Schwartz, a librarian at Georgetown Day School, discussed ways in which big data can be personalized, noting we must make information multipurpose, accessible, and participatory. I was blown away by Ngram Viewer, Wolfram Alpha Facebook Report, and how to Twitterize Yourself. 

Nina Simon, Director of Santa Cruz Museum for Art and History, brought her organization back from the brink in a couple of years by making use social capital by way of bridging relationships between people who's paths wouldn't usually cross at "deliberately unhip" events held throughout the city.

Carolyn Foote, a librarian at Westlake High School, who did a big ebook promotion in her library, reported the dishearteningly low ebook usage statistics from her campus alongside the 2013 PEW reading study. Mirroring our own observations that many students prefer print over electronic.

Josh Hanagarne, a librarian at Salt Lake City Public Library and the final keynote speaker, discussed the social media addiction sweeping the world and the ramifications of people no longer reading and writing for extended periods of time, but consuming and producing minute bits of information; information that is often useless, leading to the question, "Is something useful if it's not being used?"

As we made our way back to Texas, my head was filled with more questions than answers, but one thing I know for sure is that just because something is new, doesn't necessarily mean it's better. Also, if you have to pick one location to have a conference year after year, Monterey, CA is a good one.

Celebrating Writers and Writing

We're celebrating NCTE's 6th annual National Day on Writing, October 20, this week by finding out more about authors using the ThingLink mentioned previously and reading biographies and books about writing.  

Authors on ThingLink to Celebrate National Day on Writing

A Sudden Light, by Garth Stein

"Everything is everything is everything" is how Trevor now views the world; years after his perception of his family and the line between the living and dead was brought into focus and blurred simultaneously. People, places, plants, and time are all connected. Trevor begins to put the pieces of his intricate and ill-fated family history together when he visits Riddell house with his father, Jones, in the summer of 1990. The massive estate, situated by Seattle's Puget Sound, is all that remains of the Riddell timber fortune. Jones hasn't been back since he was 16 and returns with his son in tow, intending to only stay long enough for his father, Samuel, to give him the power of attorney in order to develop the estate. This is a last ditch effort by Jones to save his marriage that is on the brink after his boat-building business went under.

Thus, Trevor is thrust into the odd world of Riddell house, unprepared for what he will find. From the beginning he finds himself intrigued and (uncomfortably) attracted to his Aunt Serena, who has stayed in the crumbling mansion to care for Samuel, diagnose by Serena (not a doctor) to have dementia. Trevor unearths old newspapers, letters, and diaries found in the local library and stuffed between the pages of books and the bottom of ancient trunks that reveal the series of events that led to the sinking of the Riddells. However, the clouds of his family's legacy part when the spirit of his deceased Great-Great Grandfather, Benjamin, visits him.

Ultimately, the fate of the family and the sanctity of the land is put in Trevor's hands. Elements are so organically intertwined by Stein that the mechanical tone at various moments in the book is odd. The gradual unveiling of the extent of Serena's insanity is exquisitely unsettling and the notion that all will return to the earth is played out to the end, as the flames rise and the ash settles.

Fall Break

Modern Mythology

Kids have been asking about Rick Riordan's fifth book in the Heroes of Olympus series, The Blood of Olympus, since LAST SPRING. I'm not even kidding. Many of them keep up with series and authors like it's their job...making my job a lot easier.

Today was the big release day and I went to B&N to pick up an armful of books around 9:30 (over an hour after a student had already asked for the book). I wasn't all that excited until I came upon the Riordan table, with a book spread like a Thanksgiving feast! Everything from graphic novels to mythology books were piled deliciously high. The store had only been opened thirty minutes and they were already having to replenish the supply.

Suddenly, I realized this is a big deal. Sure, it's just the most recent release of a teen author, but the fact that people, kids at that, are still buying and checking out books, not only in e-format, but in print, is noteworthy.

Though, I'm a proponent of reading in any format, I think the idea that print should be done away with entirely is short-sighted. The electronic format is not preferred or economically viable for all and that includes the younger generation.

Pew backed up this idea with research findings discussed in"Younger American's Library Habits and Expectations" in which they noted that Americans under 30, "are now significantly  more likely than older adults to have read a book in print in the past year (75% of all Americans ages 16-29 say this, compared with 64% of those ages 30 and older). And more than eight in ten (85%) older teen ages 16-17 read a print book in the past year, making them significantly more likely to have done so than any other age group."

This could be explained away by saying they are required to read for school, but I know plenty of kids (and adults) that don't complete required reading. One could also say that they simply have more financial constraints and must checkout print rather than purchasing eBooks. Yet, both formats are made available by libraries, so that doesn't quite work. Why not, instead, accept the facts at face value: young adults read a lot in a variety of formats.

Pew also noted that the younger crowd has, "a broad understanding of what a library is and can be-a place for accessing printed books as well as digital resources, that remains at its core a physical space." Maybe, we should all take a queue from Riordan, who makes modernizes mythology in his books, and realize that we too,young or old, can have the best of both worlds: print and electronic/ physical library and virtual library.

Works Cited

Zickuhr, Kathryn, Lee Rainie, and Kristin Purcell. "Younger Americans' Library Habits and Expectations." Pew Internet and American Life Project. Pew Research Center, 25 June 2013. Web. 7 Oct. 2014. <http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/06/25/younger-americans-library-services/>.