23 Things on a Director's Mind

The Best People in the World

2011-11-13T08:34:00.001-08:00

Saturday I gave my staff the day off. Because we were going to be closed on Friday in honor of Veteran’s Day, I thought it would be a great opportunity to reward their hard work and dedication with a four day weekend as we are closed on Sundays and Mondays.

I should preface this story by telling you that I have a staff of four – two paid employees and two Interns. My team of volunteers is larger than my staff! When I got to the library Saturday, one of my staff, Jenni Geist, had already been there before me moving a ton of stuff out of one of our meeting rooms and back into the storage room. She knew someone was scheduled to use that room the following day. She also knew I had pulled something in my side a couple of days prior and wasn’t totally up for humping heavy boxes of books. She came - and enlisted her fabulous, willing kids to help - even though I had "forbidden" her to come in to work. She left me a lovely note. I texted her a very grateful message when I found it and realized what trouble she had gone to.

In the meantime, I braced myself for a busy afternoon alone. Silly me. Four of my fantastic volunteers, Nick Thompson, Mike Weise, Ashley Larson and Sharon Kes showed up one after the other. Mike finished organizing the storage room then worked on weeding this week’s donations. Nick shelved, labeled and boxed up all the transits. Ashley shelved, ran and retrieved the pull list, checked patrons in and out and worked on our Dewey Day project. Sharon kept everyone straight - the biggest job of all - and helped Mike with the weeding. Everyone pitched in, the guest computer use log and wait list were up to the minute all day long and we laughed and had a lot of fun teasing and joking together. It was a busy, great day.

Later in the afternoon, my second paid staff member, Darlene Smisek, turned up as well! When I asked her why she was there, she said she wanted to help me close so we could get out of there on time. I took a picture of her and the four volunteers who were happy to give up their Saturday afternoon to help at the library. I am posting it here for you all to see them - the best people in the whole, wide world! I wish everyone who works/volunteers at the library could be in the picture. Maybe we can have a photo shoot and include everyone sometime.

Why are so many people so willing to give up their Saturday afternoon to work at the library? Love of books? Maybe. Love of the library? Hopefully. Love of doing a great service? Likely. Lovely people? Definitely. I could not, would not do it without them. Would not, could not, Sam I am. Lonsdale is so fortunate to have each and every one of them. You guys are the best! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Some Things You May Not Know You Can do at Lonsdale Public Library

2011-09-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

Most every Lonsdale resident knows we have our own library in town by now, located in the Villages of Lonsdale building on Birch St. NE, but there may be some things you can do at the library that will surprise you.

If you are a resident of the state of Minnesota, your first library card is free because some of your taxes help support the library. Temporary residents from out of state can pay a small fee and use the library for the duration of their stay in Minnesota. At the library, you can not only check out books, but also movies on DVD, audio books, music CDs and laptop computers (for use on the premises with a deposit). If we don’t have the book or other item you are looking for, you can request it from another library in the state of Minnesota and it will be sent to your home library, in most cases free of charge.

The library has eight computers available for the general public’s use—three PCs and five laptops. These have Internet access and the basic Microsoft Office programs available for creating documents such as letters or resumes. We also offer wireless Internet access. We have a Ricoh copier and a fax machine and we charge .25 per page for printing/copying and $1 per page for faxes.

We offer two story times each week. Tuesday evening Bedtime Story Time begins at 6:30p and is geared towards preschoolers while Friday morning Baby and Toddler Story Time is more for younger children. All children are welcome, no matter what age they are.

The library offers a sales shelf with many books and other items available for purchase. Currently our prices are very low as we are offering paperbacks for .25 and hardbacks for .50. The proceeds from the sales go to our Friends of Lonsdale Public Library group who help promote and support the library.

The library also offers over fifty databases which are accessible through our web site, lonsdalepubliclibrary.com, under the databases tab on the home page. If you are looking for product reviews, information on how to fix your car, health information, obituaries, magazine or newspaper articles, movie reviews, etc., we have a database that will help.

Since this past January, the library has been offering both electronic and audio books available for download. After a simple initial software download, you can access quite a few titles in Overdrive (also a tab on our web site home page) which you can read on your computer, many e-readers and smart phones or listen to on many mp3 players or other platforms.

With your library card bar code number and your four digit pin, you can access your library account from any device with Internet access at any time of day. In your account you can request books or other items, see which items you have checked out and when they are due, renew items and pay fines, among other things. Simply enter any term into the search engine on our web site’s home page, click enter, and then click on the tab at the top of the results page that says, “My Account.”

Registering for a library card takes about 5 minutes and all you need is a driver’s license or a piece of mail with your address. Stop in and get your card soon so you can start taking advantage of all the free services offered at your local library!

Book Review - "The Confession" by John Grisham

2011-08-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading John Grisham's latest book (at least until October), "The Confession." (I know book titles should be underlined, but Blogger doesn't have that ability as far as I can tell, so I'm going with quotation marks as the next best thing.) Grisham tackles the death penalty with a good, solid premise, but the plodding recitation of facts and occurences failed to rouse my blood as I hoped it might.

His treatment of the topic is thorough and thoughtful, but, after reading his author's comments at the end that "overly observant readers" who "may consider writing me letters to point out my shortcomings" instead "conserve their paper," I begin to wonder if his fame has made him think that he should be immune to criticism. If I were his publisher, I think I might feel the need to remind him that graciousness is the best weapon against both critics and admirers.

If you're looking for a gripping death penalty treatise, this isn't it. Instead, watch "The Life of David Gale" starring Kevin Spacey.

397 Kids Participate in the Summer Reading Program!

2011-08-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

The One World, Many Stories themed Summer Reading Program at Lonsdale Public Library ended Saturday, July 23, but the excitement didn't end there. The four grand prize winners, Drew Buckingham, Cohl Paggen, Kendall Schmoll and Tyler Langford received coupons for free admission to the inflatables at the August 12 & 13 Lonsdale Community Days along with a free face painting there. In addition, they each were given a $25 gift card from Barnes and Noble. The library is a great place for everyone to come and borrow books to read, but there is nothing quite like being able to pick out a book of your own to keep tucked away for always to read whenever you want.

We reached my goal, topping last year’s number of children signed up. Last year we signed up 382 kids, and this year, we had 397 participate. Of that number, 98 completed their reading logs by the end of the 5 week program and made it into the grand prize drawing and onto the “wall of fame” – the wall behind the circulation desk at the library which was virtually wall-papered with beautifully colored, finished reading logs. Each log represents 12.5 hours of reading and that comes to a total of 1,225 reading hours, not including the hours put in by the 299 other participants. In a town, population not quite 3,000, that is a lot of kids reading!

LPL's New Bike Rack!

2011-06-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

Lonsdale Public Library wishes to sincerely thank the Friends of Lonsdale Public Library, in conjunction with Minnesota Valley Electric Authority, who have purchased a new bike rack for the library! It was installed on June 10th, just in time for the summer biking season.

The Friends provided $299 toward the purchase while the remaining $250 came from a grant from Minnesota Valley Electric Authority. The Weatland Wheaties 4-H group brought the grant to my attention last year.

This has really been a team effort. The Wheatland Wheaties got the ball rolling by telling me about the grant opportunity, MVEC came through with a nice check toward the purchase, the newly formed Friends group made up the difference and Friends member Terry Rogers volunteered to install the rack the day after delivery with small assists from me and Jake Tallent.

Prior to having the bike rack, kids and families who pedaled to the library were leaving their bikes parked harem-scarem on the sidewalks making pedestrian navigation sometimes perilous. Now it looks so safe and orderly out there, I can't help but smile every time I walk by!

A Compromise for Harper Collins

2011-04-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

The buzz in the library world about Harper Collins’s recent move to limit e-book checkouts is huge. It seems that everyone objects to the HC proposal to limit checkouts on e-books. Why? I think primarily because it is counterintuitive. An e-book has the potential to last forever! Anyone who loves books – and that is most anyone who works in a library on any level – is saddened when a good book comes to the end of its life. And they ALL come to the end of their lives eventually, even when the very best archives are built to preserve them with the proper storage, gloved handling, temperature, lighting and humidity. Making a book into an electronic file will not keep rare, old books from their fates, but it at least preserves the idea or the story contained in the writing. Why, then, would we voluntarily kill them off by limiting the number of check-outs per book purchased?

Publishers like HP are surely considering the loss of revenue if an e-book lives forever. If I buy it for my library and check it out ad infinitum if it’s popular, they do not get to sell it to me over and over again like they used to do when my regular books wore out. That will be offset, however, by a couple of things. First, when I buy an e-book, I can’t pass it around to 10 of my closest friends like I used to do with a regular book. In fact, I can hardly pass it around at all. The Nook books I buy for my personal library cannot all be lent and the ones that can, I can only lend out once for a maximum of fourteen days. That is a far cry from the dog-eared, broken-spined tome me and my sisters-in-law, my mother-in-law and all my friends eagerly share and then trade at the used book store for the next great read.

It seems to me that a compromise is in order. I propose that I buy the e-book for my library at a fair price and pay a small fee to the publisher upon each checkout. Are you listening, Harper Collins?

I have a small public library and that means not a lot of space to house the approximately one million books which are published each year. E-books don’t take up space, so that makes them very attractive to me from a practical standpoint. Not only do they take up no space, but I also don’t have to figure out what to do with them once they are outdated or in poor condition like I do regular books.

Sure, I don’t kid myself that everyone is going to embrace e-books. People resist change. But no one can deny that being able to buy a book over the Internet any time and any day is wonderful. I personally love that! Yeah, I’m out of luck if the power is out or the Internet is down, but that happens infrequently.

Will e-books ever entirely replace regular ones? I don’t know, but the green revolution will likely push us that way. Why cut down a tree to make a book when you don’t have to? What percentage of our landfills do books make up? Some are recycled, sure - but not all. Every book I have purchased for my personal library this year has been an e-book, but not every book becomes an e-book and there are some publishers who have yet to put a single title into e-print.

Just as the printing press made books accessible to the masses, electronic books have the potential to expand readership again and who doesn’t want that?

AgStar Fund for Rural America Awards Grant to City Of Lonsdale

2010-09-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

$5,000 awarded to purchase computers for library

Lonsdale, MN (September 8, 2010) Lonsdale Public Library celebrated its six month birthday on September 2, 2010. The addition of five new public access laptops, two days prior — made possible through a generous grant from the AgStar Fund for Rural America in the amount of $5,000 — added to the excitement and celebration.

Prior to the addition of these new computers, library staff had to keep a waiting list for patrons wishing to use a computer. A one hour time limit was enforced in order to accommodate everyone who wanted to use a computer. Often the waiting list was five to ten people long all day.

As soon as the grant was awarded, Library Director Diana Tallent placed an order for the new laptops with Southeastern Libraries Cooperating (SELCO), which negotiates special pricing from Dell to help meet the computing needs of its member libraries at a reasonable cost. Laptops were chosen to complement the previously purchased pc’s because of their portability and because they may be checked out on site for use in meeting rooms for PowerPoint presentations.

Since installing the new Dell laptops, the wait for a computer has been almost completely eliminated and the library now has one more computer - eight public access and three staff - than initially planned for. Tallent says, “AgStar’s extraordinary generosity allowed Lonsdale Public Library to double patron and staff computer access. Everyone is excited about the advancement and especially about not having to wait, except rarely now, for a computer.”

AgStar Financial Services, ACA, headquartered in Mankato, Minn., employs more than 600 full-time team members. The company is part of the national Farm Credit System and has a public mission to serve 69 counties in Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin. Since its inception in 2001, AgStar’s corporate giving program, the AgStar Fund for Rural America, has donated more than $2.9 million to organizations working to improve the future of rural America. The Fund’s mission is to “enhance the quality of life and future opportunities for rural residents and their communities.” The Fund focuses on one of the four key areas of support: Education, Technology, Environment and Quality of Life. Visit AgStar.com for more information.

Lonsdale Public Library Grand Opening Celebration April 10, 2010!

2010-03-13T07:10:00.000-08:00

The Lonsdale Public Library Grand Opening celebration will take place on Saturday, April 10, 2010 from 10a to 2p at the library. There will be many fun activities for the whole family including a silent auction, a magician, a Lonsdale heritage presentation, face painting, demonstrations, balloon animals, refreshments and much more. The library is located in the Villages of Lonsdale, 1006 Birch St NE. The phone number is 507-744-3977 and the hours are as follows:

Sunday & Monday - closed
Tuesday - noon to 8p
Wednesday and Thursday - noon to 6p
Friday - 10a to 6p
Saturday - noon to 4p

The library opened to the public on March 2, 2010. It has four public access computers and free wireless Internet available, as well as many books, magazines, DVD’s and newspapers.

Lonsdale Public Library Opening March 2, 2010!

2010-02-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Lonsdale;

Lonsdale Public Library, located in the new Villages of Lonsdale building on Birch St. NE, will be opening on March 2, 2010! Your patience is about to be rewarded. Our shelving and circulation desk have arrived and we are expecting the reading chairs, café table and chairs and the rest of the furniture to be here shortly. The library staff is working to finish adding items to the catalog and to get them processed and shelved. The shelves will not be full to begin with – we have concentrated on adding all the new items first and will then begin on many of the fabulous donations you have generously provided. Even so, my initial goal is to fill the shelves no more than 35% full. We need room to grow. If your favorite book is not on the shelf, let me know. This is your library and I want you to love it as much as I do.

My heartfelt thanks go out to my fantastically hard working staff members, Kym El-Wailli and Deanna Jones as well as to the persevering library board members, Sean Buckridge, Debbie Zellner, Cindy Furrer, Penny Matchinski and Patricia Langer. Also to City Administrator Joel Erickson, who has worked tirelessly on this project for a very long time in order to bring it to fruition. Mayor Tim Rudd's optimism, advice and encouragement, too, have been invaluable. The many volunteers and others who have willingly lended a hand here and there have proven to me time and again that Lonsdale is a little town with a big heart and a willingness to help. Some of the folks who have contributed their aid in the last few weeks include Kayla Davies , Kristy Hegberg, Dale Stepka, and Lions members Fritz Duban, Myles Malecha, Don Sticha and Steve Jakebitz. Also, a sincere thank you to all the willing members of the Lonsdale Public Works department who helped recently to prepare for and clean up after the shelving installation. Last, I want to thank my wonderful family - my husband Harold, my son Jake and my daughter Caitlin – who have devoted so much time and energy to helping me whenever and however I needed them. I couldn’t have done it without their love and support.

LPL's hours will be as follows:

Sunday & Monday - closed
Tuesday - Noon to 8p
Wednesday & Thursday - Noon to 6p
Friday - 10a to 6p
Saturday - Noon to 4p

Come in and come often. I can’t wait to welcome you all to the library!

Why Northfield Needs its Bookmobile

2009-12-04T18:52:00.000-08:00

This was originally published in the Northfield News on December 2, 2009. Because of the extraordinary response I have received from it, I decided to post it here in its original, unedited form.

Believe me, I did not set out to become a bookmobile librarian. When, at age five I had the tired (not a typo) and true question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” put to me, my answer was “veterinarian,” definitively. The most aspiring answers - president, astronaut, doctor - do not encompass bookmobile librarian however much the title deserves to be there among them. Why it isn’t thought of as glamorous, meaningful, exciting, rewarding and fun, I do not know. Okay, okay, so glamorous I must give you, but all the rest? Indeed.

Exciting? You bet! You try being stuck in -25 degree wind chill near-blizzard conditions with a bus whose fuel has gelled due to the extreme temperatures when the city mechanic is 30 minutes from you and 15 minutes from quitting time. Which one will he choose?

Meaningful? You squat patiently next to a four year old coaching her as she painstakingly scrawls her signature on her first library card after she has spent months practicing writing her name – and it’s a long one, Beatrice, with only 1 repeating letter – because your library’s only criteria for getting a card is the ability to write your name. You watch as she finishes shakily, but triumphantly and flashes you a grin that lights up the whole bookmobile.

Rewarding? Yes, you come home from aforementioned day stuck in the blizzard frozen solid and in need of a long soak in the tub in order to thaw out. Yes, you’ve lost weight because there’s no bathroom on a bookmobile and eating and drinking normally is out of the question. Yes, you’ve been sick with every cold little Hunter and Ellie have come on board with and gone to work anyway because you are the only person on the library staff who is licensed to drive the bus. But… when 5 year old Parker throws his arms around you and tells you as he leaves that he wants to come live with you, you know the love you have brought to him and the 300 other kids you see regularly has been returned to you exponentially.

Fun? Well, you go tell the story of how you saved a skunk from death by yogurt cup to a passel of kids during story time and then, as they line up to march back into their school, be on the receiving end of “Ms. Diana, you rock!’ and “Ms. Diana, you’re a rock star!” and see how much fun life can be. Being a rock star in a preschooler’s eyes is also pretty glamorous, come to think of it.

So why didn’t I become a veterinarian? Because I was meant to do something else when it was all said and done. Bookmobile librarian, homeschooling mother, etcetera, etcetera. As my favorite poet, Robert Frost, so wisely put it, “way leads on to way.” Sadly, the number of bookmobile librarian’s is dwindling. Happily more and more small communities are realizing that the Internet is not the perfect substitute for a great library staffed with a knowledgeable librarian, so they continue to build libraries where there were none.

There are still, and always will be, however, people who cannot go the library for one reason or another. No car, no money for public transportation, disabilities or illnesses that hamper travel and access, one car that seats five and a family of seven, no money for gas except to get to work and back. The list goes on and on. Even in New York City there are people who can’t get to the library. For that reason, I can only hope that the bookmobile will soldier on, because, despite the considerable expense of bringing it to the people, the bookmobile provides an even more invaluable service. Promotion of literacy, love of reading, knowledge and empowerment are just a few things a bookmobile provides the community it serves. Oh, and don’t forget the glamour!

I parked Booker in the city garage a few weeks ago with many tears. Leaving her and a job I loved so much behind was very painful for me. The enticement of birthing a new library as its director is probably the only thing that could have spurred me to leave despite the fact that, due to budget constraints, my hours and benefits had just been slashed.

Northfield, please don’t leave Booker to rust away in the city garage. She is worth more than that. Get in touch with your city council members and let them know that you want them to approve the proposed budget that will have her driving around town again very soon. Even though I won’t be the one behind the wheel, that’s still going to be a sight for sore eyes. Choose Booker! Just like the city mechanic did.

"So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Good-bye"

2009-11-04T21:41:00.000-08:00

I’ve been singing a foreshortened version of the good-bye song from "The Sound of Music" at the end of many a story time for almost four years now as the Outreach Coordinator for Northfield Public Library. Tomorrow, sadly, is going to be the last refrain, because I have taken the position as Director of the not-yet-open Lonsdale Public Library.

I am very excited to be steering the ship out of the harbor on its maiden voyage. Not many people get the opportunity to bring a library to life. I am one of the lucky ones. The folks in Lonsdale are so ecstatic about getting a library that their enthusiasm is palpable. I am honored to be at the helm.

A reporter asked me the other day, “Why did you take the job?” It was a startling question and a good one. The answer is I am ready to stretch myself. It’s what I’m compelled to do and it has become a recurring theme in my life. Even though I love my job as Booker, love the people I have come to know through that outreach as well as the ones I have worked with, I know it is time to move on, to become more, to serve even more folks.

I cannot ever thank the great staff at Northfield Public Library and the incomparable Street Shop for their unfailing support, encouragement, patience and devotion to me and Booker. There are so many people who have lent a hand and cheered me on from almost every city department that just thinking about the scope of their commitment humbles me. The City of Northfield has my heart.

It also has my favorite bookmobile, so you can bet I’ll be back to visit her and everyone else who is near and dear to me. Come see me in Lonsdale once I get the library open - or sooner. I’m counting on it because I love you.

Where Did Summer Go?

2009-10-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

It's good to be back in the saddle, so to speak, after a nice, long vacation. When it started near the end of September, we were having a stretch of Indian Summer. It was great, because we had such a slow-starting, cool one this year. But the seasons do roll and winter in Minnesota is inexorable. When I posted a note on my wall on Facebook about the snow we got just a few days into October, one of my friends who lives in Georgia had to tease me that he thought we should be shoveling paths through the snow banks by now. Another friend from Minnesota teased me about waxing poetic. She's a native and I'm not, so I had to defend my delight at the sight of the season's first offerings. Her comment jogged my memory about a poem I wrote almost four years ago now. I dug it out to share it with you. For my warm-blooded, southern friends, here's a glimpse of what it's like to be knee-deep in the powder. To my cold-blooded, "It ain't cold 'til it hits 40 below!" north star state friends - you know you love it, too. For the first month anyway....

The Vagaries of Snow

It comes down in giant flakes, sideways
It comes down as glitter, shiny
It comes down hard, blinding
It comes down
It piles up

We push it off the driveway with our shovels
The snowplow driver pushes it into the driveway with the plow
The wind pushes us around - the devil!
Doubling the cold
But helping us throw the snow

2009-09-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

Booker at the Minnesota State Fair

2009-09-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

Booker went to the Minnesota State Fair this week to be part of the Minnesota Reads Together parade. I admit I was a little nervous. What if she broke down on me on the way there or on the way home or (God forbid!) DURING the parade? I annoyed the city mechanic so much about whether she was fit to go that he actually left on vacation so as not to have to hear about it anymore. He did NOT come back in time to come rescue me. (Duly noted.)

I took our library's Children's Programming Librarian with me. I figured if I had to chance breaking down in front of a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people, I had to have moral support. She's a real trooper, and a pretty good navigator, too, and we were determined to have some fun. I proposed eating our way through the fair, but she was the voice of reason and only let me eat every other thing on a stick I could find.

Come parade time we lined up with the MELSA folks and the Radio Disney Dancers. What a great bunch of people! They were all happy to wait inside the bookmobile with the generator, and therefore the a/c, running full blast so they didn't have to endure the heat and dust of the parking lot. On the right are some pictures. Take note of the one of the kids in the bus. And look - they're reading!

The moment of truth arrived and the parade began. We had just pulled into the fairgrounds when lo and behold, one of my Lapsit dads with his 15 month old son on his shoulders, was standing a couple feet out in the parade route with a broad grin on his face making sure I would see them! I was so excited to see someone I knew in the massive crowd, I hollered, "Hey W---!" to the little dude as I waved, grinning madly. I'd give anything for a picture of W's face at that moment. His brow was furrowed and you could see the wheels turning in his little head as he pondered what in the world Ms. Diana was doing driving that bus in this place. Can't wait to see him and his dad at the next Lapsit and give 'em a big high five.

We saw the M's from Lonsdale next and my navigator screams at me, "There's the M's!" and got so excited she pushed the wrong button on the camera and missed getting their picture. I waved wildly at them and yelled, "Hey M's!" though I doubt they could see or hear me from their seats on the curb.

Well, you get the picture. We did NOT break down - Booker carried us valiantly all the way there and back without a hitch. Mechanic Man said to me when I saw him the next day, "I told you she would make it." (Yes, but he wasn't the one in the hot seat now was he?!?!) Next time - if there is a next time - I get that in writing. (I know you're reading this and I am not kidding!)

I sure hope we get invited back. The cool indoor comfort afforded by the generator and a/c alone should clinch it.

Singing the Babies to Sleep

2009-08-14T15:14:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite things about my job is all the adorable babies I get to spend time with. This week Ellen fell asleep sitting up during story time! I saw her start to wobble and put my hands out to catch her. Her day care provider was right beside her and scooped her up as she drifted off.

The next day, Tristan, (aka Chunky Monkey), got fussy toward the end of story time. I started to sing, "Hush Little Baby," which is a lullaby my mom used to sing to me, and he immediately stopped crying, turned and looked at me with his wide blue eyes, laid his head against his day care provider's chest and listened intently while I sang the song. By the time I got to the end, his eyelids were getting heavy.

Music is my secret weapon. It soothes the fussy baby and captivates the raucous preschool crowd. If you want to get their attention - sing. It doesn't have to be perfectly on key as long as your heart is in it. Sing them a fun song and they will beg to hear it over and over again.

Some of the kids I go to see try to tell me they don't like to sing. I think they must have watched too much American Idol. Simon Cowell is wrong - everyone can sing and everyone should sing. Once I start singing to the kids who insist they don't like to sing, smiles begin to emerge from grumpy faces and laughter wells up and overflows. I can't explain the power music has to reach people, I just know it does.

Remember the song they used to sing on Sesame Street? It's called "Sing" and it was written by Joe Raposo. He says it better than me in this excerpt:

"Sing - sing a song,
Sing out loud,
Sing out strong!

Don't worry that it's not good enough
for anyone else to hear,
Just sing - sing a song!"

Trust me. Trust Joe. Sing!

Time Off

2009-06-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

I will be taking some time off in July while my niece is here visiting from Georgia. This means there will be no day care or neighbrohood stops on July 22nd or 23rd. I WILL be at Books and Stars on Wednesday, July 22nd, however, so if you are desperately missing me, come and see me there. You might even get to meet my adorable niece who has a charming southern accent!

Books & Stars & State Fair Parade Update

2009-06-06T19:15:00.001-07:00

Summer is almost here and you know what that means. Books and Stars every Wednesday! That's eight weeks of free, family entertainment. Booker will be open at 6:00p at a different location each Wednesday evening beginning June 10th through July 29th. You can check the calendar below to see where we will be each week along with who will be performing.

The shows begin at 7:00p, with one exception - the July 15th show has a special late start time of 7:30p. Come and cool off with Hawaiian Shaved Ice from the Cocoa Bean, who will donate some of the proceeds from those sales to children's programming at the library. Please note that this year we have a new rain site, which is room SS103 at the Northfield Community Resource Center located at 1651 Jefferson Pkwy. Come rain or come shine.

Next, I promised to update you when I got new details about the State Fair Minnesota Reads-Together Parade which I will be driving Booker in on Wednesday, September 2nd. This week I got word that it will begin at 2:00p. I still haven't been given details about where the best vantage points might be, so be on the lookout for another update!

Booker is Going to the Minnesota State Fair!

2009-05-09T07:17:00.000-07:00

This week Booker was invited to participate in the Minnesota Reads-Together parade at the State Fair on September 2nd! I am very excited to report that we have accepted the invitation. I can hardly wait!

Booker is of course always in the Defeat of Jesse James Day parade in Northfield every September where she is well-known and beloved, but to be invited to the Great Minnesota Get-Together is quite an honor. I guess the old girl's fame has preceded her!

Such big doings demand to be shared and naturally require a fanfare announcement, so I rushed to blog about it as soon as was humanly possible. I have no details regarding time and place as of yet, but will share those with you as soon as I receive them. In the meantime, put Wednesday, September 2nd down as the day you plan to go to the fair this year and come cheer Booker on as she makes Northfield proud.

Behind Every Bookmobile Librarian is a Great Mechanic

2009-04-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

Booker, to my dismay, has a track record of almost constantly needing repairs - but, she’s not alone. The current bookmobile I drive is actually Booker II. Booker I broke down on me so much it almost got to be comical. Also, I ran across a bookmobile song on the Internet not long ago that made me laugh out loud because of the shared experience. Here is an excerpt of it for your entertainment:

"(To the tune "Up On The Housetop")
Out on the sidewalk patrons pause
Then shout out some big guffaws
The bookmo is broken down in the road
Tipped to the side with its heavy load.

Chorus
Oh no no!
It won't go!
Oh no no!
Mechanics are slooowww.
Trapped for repairs
Wait wait wait
Give it back
We're running late!"

--penned by Michelle Pfost, Tech Services Dept. Submitted by Jan Meadows, Bookmobile Supervisor, Pikes Peak Library District

I feel really bad for the Pike’s Peak Librarians. They bemoan the slow mechanics all through the song. The silver lining for me is having a mechanic behind me who almost always drops whatever else he is doing and gets Booker back on the road as soon as he can. Only, week before last, he had just left for Hawaii when Booker decided to take a little mini vacation of her own.

Yet, I still wound up losing only one day of service because I had seven different people from the City of Northfield Street Shop and the local repair shop rallying behind me. Booker went in for repairs on Thursday and was back in her garage stall on Friday afternoon. Yes, I do keep those guys in muffins and cookies and stuff, but that isn’t why they scramble to get Booker back on the road. They do it because they are big-hearted, go-to guys who know that Booker brings joy, not to mention essential services, to lots and lots of people around Northfield/Rice County. I guess I should change this post's title to, "Behind (Almost) Every Bookmobile Librarian is a Great Mechanic" in consideration for the Pike's Peak folks, but I won't, because for me it is true the way it stands. It sure warms my heart to know I am the luckiest bookmobile librarian in the whole world to have such overwhelming support.

Booker is Back!

2009-01-22T21:36:00.000-08:00

Booker is back on the road! I got so many warm hugs and beautiful homemade cards from everyone this week and last – thank you! It’s good to know you all missed me and Booker and it’s even better to be back at work and seeing your smiling faces.

Last week was my first week back, and, of course, I picked the coldest week of the winter so far to take Booker out. She started reluctantly (I told you she doesn’t like the cold) and had to run all day both Tuesday and Wednesday so her fuel wouldn’t gel in the sub-zero temperatures. The city mechanic had to come thaw her out once last winter, so I am trying to avoid calling him out to work in -30 wind chill weather again. He’s a really nice guy who comes and saves me and Booker when we need him to, so I try not to make the same mistake twice. I much prefer making all new mistakes with regularity. (I can see him shaking his head and smiling now.)

Last Thursday school was called off because of the cold, so Booker got to stay in the garage for the day. We follow the school closing schedule since it usually makes sense to not be driving Booker around when the weather is severe. She was glad. She thinks because her mama is from the south, she is a southerner, too. Also, she was partially built in Georgia where I was born and raised, coincidentally, so she tends to be warm-blooded. She’s such a high maintenance girl.

I want to say a big thank you to Amy Sack who wrote a great article about the library and Booker at Northfield.org! You can read it here:

http://northfield.org/content/the-northfield-public-library-2009

On a sad note, Booker visited Warsaw and Morristown for the last time this week due to budget cuts. I will miss all of the wonderful folks I met and served at those county stops. It was a pleasure bringing the library to you for the last three years.

My daughter is getting better every day. Thank you for the cards and letters and things you sent her while she was so sick. She has them up on her wall.

It’s good to be back in the driver’s seat.

Where is Booker?

2008-12-15T20:42:00.000-08:00

Booker is enjoying a well-deserved rest in the relatively warm City of Northfield garage. She does not like the cold, so she is happy to while away the sub zero temps indoors. She will reluctantly go again as soon as I am ready for her. The reason she is sitting idly by for the time being is because her mother (meaning me) is tending to another, sick child. I am sad to be away from the job I love so very much, but my daughter needs me to help her get well right now. Returning her to health is the most important thing I have to do and it is currently an all-consuming task. I know you understand.

I hope to be bringing Booker to see you all again very soon. In the meantime, thank you for your thoughts, prayers, letters and messages and support. I miss you!

How I Got to be a 10 Year Old's Hero for the Day

2008-11-02T15:03:00.000-08:00

I really love my job. Just a few weeks ago I was at one of my busiest afternoon home daycare stops. I was in the middle of story time in a basement on the floor with about 20 kids in attendance and a couple of the boys were horsing around a bit in the back. Suddenly one of the boys yelled, “Oh, no! My library card!” When I asked what was the matter, I found out that another boy had slid the library card between the floor molding and sheet rock. I made the mistake of laughing about it, at which time the owner of the library card burst into tears. He couldn’t see any way we could retrieve the lost card, and, honestly, I wasn’t sure what to do about it either. I reassured him as best I could - assuming the day care provider might not object too badly to us pulling her molding up so long as we re-secured it again – and told him I would get it out for him once I finished story time.

Well, as you can imagine, the pressure was on. I don’t usually make promises I can’t keep and these kids know that. They fully expected me to come up with the card at the close of story time. I had no idea how I was going to do that, but my back-up plan was that I could always call an excellent mechanic I know and beg him to come help me out.

Story time ended and I went over to the wall to examine the problem. There was enough of a gap for a card to slide down between there, but nothing any wider. Just then, out of the press of eager onlookers, I saw another boy with his library card in his hand. Eureka, I had figured it out! I asked the library card wielder to loan me his card for a moment, which he very reluctantly did after I promised him his card would not meet with the same fate as the previous one. I then used the one card to slide the other up against the nails that were holding the trim in place and levered the first card up and out of its prison.

You may be aware that 10-year-old boys are not usually very demonstrative, but when I handed that one his rescued library card, he flung his arms around me and gave me a mighty hug that made my eyes smart. He was so relieved and choked up he couldn’t say a word, but that hug told me everything I needed to know.

Thing Six: Online Image Generator

2008-03-01T08:24:00.000-08:00

Creating a trading card for Booker - why hadn't I thought of that before? I want to contact all bookmobile librarians and get them to make ones of their own so we can give them out to our
patrons to trade. Booker's would be the ultimate card in this scenario, of course.

I can see how creating author or book cards would be fun, too. Tie them into a summer reading program or create a new trend! Kudos to Carleton College of Booker's hometown, Northfield, MN for getting a mention in the 23 Things program for their inventive use of trading cards in their library.

How about a mashup that ties Flickr (book or author images) with Big Huge Labs' Trading Card function to create cards as you go? Once I finish reading a book, I go to the link and upload a picture of the cover or an author's image and create a card. They could be amassed in a virtual collection or printed out for "trading" except that instead of trading them in the ordinary way, people could give them away as reading recommendations and/or as proof of reading for a rewards program. (No problem to add a quiz to check that the book was actually read.)

I'll put my IT crew right on it...

Reading in the flowers

2008-02-29T09:01:00.001-08:00

Reading in the flowers
Originally uploaded by Norby

This picture by Norby from Flickr says it all.

Thing Five: More Fun with Flickr

2008-02-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

Mashups integrating Flickr are fun to play with. It's cool how imaginative people are. Being bored is a thing of the past when you have so much to explore on the Internet. I did the obvious and spelled out Booker at the bottom of the blog. Scroll down to see it.

Thing Four B - Part Two

2008-02-25T18:44:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Vanessa, my go-to girl for this link that answers the question of how to find those elusive picture url's. Here it is in case anyone else is interested:
http://www.flickr.com/help/photos/#68

Thing Four B: Photosharing with Flickr

2008-02-24T20:00:00.001-08:00

Picture 011
Originally uploaded by dlwtjr

Booker II was looking very plain before we put the hand prints on her. I took this right after she got her name put on, so at least she wasn't completely naked.

I already had a Yahoo account, so I logged in and at that point it was easy to create a Flickr account and upload to it, then add it to my blog. Now I have pics of both my girls!

I am having a hard time figuring out what to use for each photo's url. If you know how to get at that info, I'd like a clue. I am thinking there has to be a url for the picture, not just the whole flickr page, right? I shouldn't work on these things at the end of the day when I am tired, clearly.

Thing Four A: Photosharing with Flickr

2008-02-24T18:27:00.000-08:00

Imagine my surprise when I searched Flickr for "Booker" photos and found one I didn't even know existed of Booker I at a school carnival two years ago. Here it is. I did not know that Booker was such a unique name for a bookmobile, but apparently so. I stopped when I got to the first one, so I am curious to see how many more pictures Flickr may have of my current ride and/or her predecessor.

That really brings home how all-encompassing photo sharing has become more than anything else. I sure do miss the old girl. The photo is by Northfield.org, by the way. Thanks for the memories!

Thing 3: Learn About RSS

2008-02-21T09:38:00.000-08:00

I'm on Thing Three and I have yet to come across something that my 17 year old son isn't already an expert on! Having him show me his RSS - he uses Sage through Firefox - helped me understand what I was doing in this process. I Ixquicked "Compare Bloglines and Google Reader" and came across this web site http://lifehacker.com/software/google-reader/geek-to-live-from-bloglines-to-google-reader-205786.php. I didn't want to leave it to chance that I would choose the best of the two RSS options and I figured if this woman had helped build a feed reader herself, she should know what she's talking about. She recommended Google, so I went with that.

Imagine my surprise when I tried to add my own library's web site and it did not have a feed! I will suggest that we create one so we can better serve our patrons who are interested in library news.

This was a relatively simple process for me. I can't wait to find and add more bookmobile blogs so I can have that touchstone. I have not yet been able to attend the annual bookmobile conference and I would like to be more connected to those other unique librarians who also do what I do. It would be nice to see how others have solved some of the problems we face as mobile librarians.

FYI - Two things I have discovered about Blogger as I have added more posts: The spellcheck doesn't work for some reason and in order to copy and paste to use spell check elsewhere, you have to highlight the text and hit Ctrl + C.

Thing Two - What is Libray 2.0?

2008-02-18T20:19:00.000-08:00

Wow. Watching Stephen Abram and reading John Blyberg's blog on Library 2.0, both made me feel way behind the eight ball as well as really stupid. When I came to "The Ongoing Web Revolution" I was so grateful to find a well-written, non-presumptious elucidation on the topic that I am sorry to say figuring out who the author was is going to take more than just the few minutes I have before I need to go to bed. Unfortunately, I chose to post a few pertinent thoughts as a priority. I'm not sure I chose well.

Never mind the distractions disrupting Abram's video, the niggling question of the lack of an Australian accent and his obvious penchant for loving to hear himself use little-known vocabulary. He made some good points. At least I think he did. He was awfully sure of himself.

And never mind Blyberg's disregard for proper grammer and blithe disdain of spell-check as well as his presumption that his reader is going to know whatever acronym he tosses off. His closing sentence was so compellingly simplistic, ("It may not be the right label, but whatever IT is, it IS") that I had to forgive him.

The biggest question I can think of to ask now is, "What should a librarian be in the midst of all this?" Merrian Webster's definition of a librarian is, "A specialist in the care or management of a library." Seems to me that definition falls way short. It makes me think of someone who is tending a machine and ignoring the person who needs that machine to save his life.

Maybe my problem lies in the assumption I am making about the definition of a library. Let me check. Nope. Good old Merriam backs me up. It says, "a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are kept for use but not for sale." This is where I would normally gloat about being correct in my assumption, but, sadly, I think Merriam and I are both missing something here.

Shouldn't libraries be places - real and/or virtual - which provide people the information and resources they need? Wouldn't that then make librarians people who help other people access, understand and use these resources and information? The role of collection caretaker, inherently understood, then takes a backseat to the role of enabler.

I'm not sure I've got a firm grasp on it yet. It bears thinking about quite a bit more. Perhaps Library 2.0 (and beyond) is the toolbox I can fish around in to become the enabler I envision.

Thing One

2008-02-18T10:52:00.000-08:00

Right up front, I'm going to tell you that titling this post Thing One makes me laugh. Let me explain. First, I created this blog solely because I am participating in the "23 Things on a Stick" program for Minnesota librarians. I am supposed to use it to post my thoughts about each step in the program. While I understand that this is a way for the 23 Things folks to tell whether or not each participant has completed each step, it does seem like it would get really boring for them to read the same things over and over again, even if it is fun for each of us to rave about how interesting and/or informative we are finding the process.

Second, I am unabashedly planning to use this blog in the future as a place to talk about my job as a bookmobile librarian. It just seems strange to create a blog that will be obsolete in a few weeks. Plus, I love a challenge, and creating a blog that would be pertinent for the program as well as beyond was simulataneously challenging and appealing to my practical nature.

So what's fiunny about that you're wondering. Nothing! I often ramble around before coming to the point. Here comes the funny part. Any Dr. Seuss fans out there will recall Thing One and Thing Two from The Cat in the Hat. They were twin helpers who contributed to the general havoc wrought by The Cat upon Sally and her brother's (did he have a name?) home one rainy afternoon. Every time I think about Thing One, my pea brain remembers those Things from that book and I chuckle inwardly while mentally composing a post about Thing One as opposed to Thing one. I can't be the only person out there who secretly wishes they could unabashedly run amok like Thing One and Thing Two do. Do you?

So, before I descend completely into a rhyming, off-topic diatribe, perhaps I should stop wasting my 23 Things (can you imagine if The Cat had brought that many?) reader's time and fulfil my duty by saying that creating this blog has been a really interesting and informative process! Perhaps the statement is uncalled for since it's obvious I am having a good time here. I may not be entertaining anyone else, but I am clearly enjoying myself.

Who knows, I may feel compelled to flesh out the formative rhyming couplets in my brain as I contemplate Thing One. In the future, at least for the time-being, I will indicate when a post is going to be off-topic, i.e., does not pertain directly, (or in some small way at least), to the "23 Things" program. And if you see a new post titled "Thing One Revisited" you may want to steer clear.

Valentime's Day

2008-02-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. At least, I think it was. When I asked some of the kids at my day care stops what day it was, they told me "Valentime's Day!" Close enough. When I asked them what Valentime's Day was about, the most frequent reply was, "Candy!" Not quite close enough.

Oh, a small minority knew it was about love. (And by small, I mean one.) I kept it simple. I didn't tell the candy lovers they were wrong, because they weren't, but I did say that what Valentime's Day is mostly about is letting the people you love know you love them. They generally blinked their surprise as they mulled this over. Their average age is 4, after all. This was a simple idea, easy to understand, and it made perfect sense. When you're four, of course you tell the people you love that you love them! Doesn't everybody? They don't yet know that this honest expression of emotion often becomes stilted as children grow up. I sure do love those kids, and I told them so.

Assuming that someone knows you love them is okay on the surface. Letting them know takes the guesswork out of it. Sure, I know my grandmother loves me, but every time we part or finish a telephone conversation, she tells me, "I love you." There's no mistaking the truth and the depth of her feeling. I can hear it in her voice. I can see it on her face. I can feel it in her hug. She really loves me.

I hope the people I love know it. I think I may need to work on telling them and showing them. I read a book in which some of the characters had worked out a secret signal to say "I love you" without having to say it out loud. As they held hands, they would gently squeeze the other person's hand three times. I - love - you. It's not a perfect system, but it's a place to start.