Gangster Shrinky Dinks

For an anime/manga club meeting I had the teens make "anime shrinky dinks." I ordered fifty sheets of the special shrinky dink paper and printed out as many well known anime characters as I could think of. The teens traced their favorite anime characters on the paper, popped them in the oven, watched them magically shrink, and made the coolest key chains out of them.

The activity was a big hit and it attracted teens from all around the library. My boss jokingly told me beforehand that some of our urban teens would want to make "gang sign" shrinky dinks. "Ha ha" I said "gang sign shrinky dinks? That's hilarious." Well soon enough we attracted the rough and tumble crowd of teens that are up and coming in gangs. I didn't expect to see them at an anime club activity but they thought the shrinky dinks were cool. And sure enough they created their own gang sign shrinky dinks, drawn with black sharpies.

So the 80s toy that was originally made for children was used today to make gang sign keychains. I'm just glad they're making gang sign shrinky dinks instead of spray painting their signs on buildings.

Forever Young

This week we had the teens make Christmas cards for the local senior center. Many of the teens were enthusiastic about making the cards, creating almost 40 cards for the seniors. However, one teen flatly refused to make a card for the seniors. He told me that he did not like seniors and thought they were creepy. I reminded him that one day he was going to be old and wrinkly and that probably one day some punk kid like himself was going to give him a hard time. This teen replied that he was never going to be old. Well, if you're not going to be old, then the alternative isn't that great.

Teens seem to think that they're going to stay young forever. The senior citizen years seem eons away. Yet constantly my fifty three year old mother tells me she remembers when she was my age "just like it was yesterday." So although those teens think that old age is forever away, the years will go quickly.

I have to add that my favorite card the teens made for the seniors was a happily decorated one that read: "Merry Christmas Elderly People." It was made in all seriousness but it gave me such a laugh.

Toilet Troubles

I've decided to put on my resume, right next to my masters degree, "professional toilet unclogger." The past two weeks I've unclogged our library's stupid toilet four times. Each and every time it's been disgusting. As I pumped the plunger through the putrid mess I couldn't help asking myself, "My God, what did you people EAT?" I can't understand how a single person can create so much crap at one time.

It turns out our toilet troubles are due to some dingbat flushing a sharpie down the flusher. We couldn't figure out why the toilet kept clogging. The Roto Rooter man came out and found nothing. It still kept clogging. Then after repeated e-mails and frustrated calls we had another investigation and found the offending marker. If I find whoever threw that marker down the toilet I'm going to lock them in the bathroom with a toothbrush and make them spit shine that toilet for all the grief I went through.

Stolen Car?

The other week a woman came into the library frantically saying her car was stolen. We called the sheriff's office and sure enough her car was not in the parking lot. Curiously though, there was a car that looked exactly like hers, make and model, parked right next to where she was parked.

It turns out that another woman mistakenly drove home in the wrong car. The cars were so similar and parked next to each other that there was a mistake. Apparently many identical models of Saturn cars can open with the same key. (Scary thought.)

So as this woman was at our library all upset thinking her car was stolen another woman came back to the library all flustered because she had driven home in the wrong car. The cars were switched and there was no charges or anything pressed.

My question is: how could you have driven so far in the wrong car and not have noticed? Sure, the cars may have looked alike but seats are pushed at different levels, items are hanging from the rear view mirror, things are in backseats, the radio would be at different stations etc. I'm glad the woman eventually noticed that she was driving in the wrong car or she might find herself driving her new car and suddenly be pulled over.

No More Favors

There is a teen that's a regular in my library that's chosen to do his community service hours at the library. His crime? Breaking into a church. It was done on a lark with his friends. I overheard our cop on duty tell him "Now, if any of your friends say 'I have a great idea', it's usually not a great idea." Good advice.

This week has been a struggle with him to get him to do his community service hours. Monday went fine, except I had to drag the girls away from him while he worked. One girl whined to me, "Why can't I talk to him why he works?" I explained that it's not really community service hours if you get to talk to your friends.

The rest of the days have been more difficult. Tues-Thurs he's claimed he doesn't have his sheet so he can't do the work. I told him that he can still do the work and I'll just sign off for the work when he brings his sheet in. This solution doesn't work too well for him because it interrupts his internet time and although I repeatedly told him I had work for him to do, I PLANNED work for him to do, he said he couldnt' do it.

This teen doesn't seem to understand that I'M doing him a favor by LETTING him work at the library. He thinks he's doing ME a favor by working at the library. It's not easy to come up with 20 hours of work for a 13 year old to do unsupervised. That is work in itself. I'm drawing the line tomorrow, he works for me tomorrow or he doesn't work at the library at all. No more favors.

Reading Hamlet by Playing Halo

Frankly I'm tired of hearing the same old talk in library circles about the so-called links between literacy and gaming. In fact, "skeptics point out that psychological research consistently shows that skills often don’t transfer from one setting to another." This quote is from an interesting article from the New York Times on video games and reading.

Playing three hours of Halo a day is not going to help you read Shakespeare. What WILL help you read Shakespeare is actually picking up a book and reading.

This is a wicked thought but part of me thinks that librarians jump onto this "literacy in gaming" bandwagon to make themselves feel better about offering video games in libraries. Deep down there might be some hesitation against it but if some expert is talking about "critical thinking skills" they acquiesce and bring the games into the library.

I have no problem with gaming if your purpose is to bring patrons into the library. Games are great for that. However, don't gloss gaming up with the high and mighty title of "literacy", call it what it is: digital bribery.

Dia de los Muertos for the Teens

In our library every afternoon these large groups of Hispanic teens come in and hang out. They sit and talk, never read a book, attend a program, rarely get on the computer; the library is just a hang out place for them. I have tried to invite them to programs but they look at me in a mixture of annoyance and confusion when I ask them to come.

Recently I communicated with other librarians in the state on possible ideas to get the Hispanic teens involved. They offered some good ideas but the main response I got back was "don't bug them."

However, finally I got the Hispanic teens interested in something! This week we celebrated Dia de los Muertos or "Day of the Dead" at our library. It is a holiday celebrated in Mexico around the same time as Halloween. One of our staff created this wonderful display (pictured above) and the teens contributed to it. The flowers on the display are made simply with crepe paper and pipe cleaners. I offered the supplies to make the flowers to the Hispanic teens not expecting a response but they went into it enthusiastically. They created whole bouquets of crepe paper flowers.

It has made me think that maybe the key to get the Hispanic teens involved is to offer more activities ethnically centered. Perhaps my programs are too "white" for them. Why I don't know what my exact next step will be, seeing the Hispanic teens interested in something has given me hope.

The Psychology of Teen Fights

A few weeks ago some teens planned to fight in front of the library. To plan a fight in junior high you must do three things:

1. Pick someone bad and cool to fight with to up your status
2. Make sure everyone in school knows where and when you're going to fight
3. Make sure everyone coming to the fight has video capabilities on their cellphones in order to post the fight up on YouTube

Usually the places picked are very public such as malls, public parks or in front of libraries. These are places where you won't even get one punch in before the fight is broken up by an adult. I have thought about why the teens pick such public places like the library to stage their fights and then I realized that they WANT to get caught. They are really having these fights for show. They want to prove they're big and bad without getting hurt. The teens that really want to do damage pick different locales for their fights and they don't want anyone to bring their cellphone cameras.

Books with Byte

Last week for Teen Read Week a few libraries in our system participated in this "Books with Byte" program. We videotaped teens talking about their favorite books and put it up on YouTube. You can see them at the link here. The ones in front of the bookcase are another library's.

It was a struggle getting most of my teens in front of the videocamera to talk about books. I bribed them all with candy and incentives such as waivers. Still, "talking about books?" one asked me and made a face. Perhaps if we talked about movies, boys, or internet there would be more interest. One was more interested in talking about skateboarding and I had to prompt him to list a few books. A few girls got the giggles and could barely keep it under control in front of the camera. One insisted that the reason that she liked Twilight was because "Edward was hot," which I guess is a valid point.

The other library down in a "better" neighborhood had some nice sedate teens who talked fluently and longer. I couldn't help but notice the contrast. But I guess the point is not that my teens talked longer or well it's that they talked at all.

Clever Babies

Babies are clever little buggers.

I do a baby storytime for newborns to toddlers once a week and those little tots keep me on my toes. This week there was a pair of twins, a boy and girl who I believe had devised a devious plan with each other before the start of storytime. These twins were a dynamic duo, moving around stealthily out of my vision while I did the songs and stories of the storytime.

I believe their twin conversation before the start of storytime went like this:
"Okay, now I'll go for that thing that makes the music that she's always messing with while you go around the back for those wonderful shiny things that Mommy always plays with."

So one twin distracted me by pounding on the CD player nearly stopping the songs and whilst I was paying attention to him the girl went around the back of the small table which the CD player was perched for my keys which were under the table. Their mission was completely successful. The little girl grabbed my keys and went back to her seat to (literally) drool over her trophy.

This has taught me two lessons: One is to put my keys in a higher place, and also that babies are clever little buggers.

Megaphone Jealously

Today there was a rumour of a fight buzzing around the junior high so half the school decided to congregate on the lawn in front of the library. (Because what better place to have a fight than in front of the public library which is across the street from the Sheriff's office?) So dozens of kids were gathering in groups waiting and waiting for the fight to begin and it was a regular lawn party.

Unfortunately as boring grown ups have to do, the sheriffs came in and broke up the party. They walked in with these megaphones and ordered the kids to either leave or come in the library. The kids immediately listened to the sheriffs and there was no rumble today.

Upon hearing of these megaphones I became jealous. I really need a megaphone at work. I tell kids to leave the library in my normal tone and they reluctantly comply but if I had a large amplified tone behind me I'm sure they would jump to attention. Also, at the end of the day I could get on my megaphone and say "There is five minutes to closing, please gather your items and head to the front desk." I would be sure to get out of work on time everyday if I had that power behind my voice.

Of course some people would say that megaphones shouldn't be allowed in the library; it's supposed to be a quiet place. For those naysayers I would have them try to get a half dozen hyped up 14 year olds to leave without raising their voice.

Bad Mothers

The people that cause the most trouble in storytime are often not the little squirming children but the mothers. Some treat storytime not as a concert hall but as an open air performance where they can chat and socialize all they want.

The mothers don't seem to realize that there is a librarian/performer who spent time preparing the material they are presenting and is working extra hard to get the children's attention and doesn't need further distractions.

I heard a story of one mother who brought her cell phone into the storytime, left it on and when it rang she picked it up and began talking loudly in it. Other mothers disrupt storytime by letting their kids roam free, scream loudly and pull the cord out from the CD player.

I am blessed with good mothers (for the most part) in my storytimes but I hear tales of terror from other librarians. The trend seems to be that the more upper-class neighborhood the library resides in, the worse the mothers are. Maybe because these mothers are blessed with more amenities in life they are less appreciative for free public services.

A Sad Departure

Adieu Susan!

Monday was our beloved Susan's last day of work. She had done so much for our library and we will miss her. The teens will especially miss her because she touched many of their lives. This picture is Susan hugging our manager on her last day.

I found the teen's behavior interesting on her last day of work. They found out and signed the card we bought and gave her hugs. Even though Susan had poured her heart out to some of the teens they seemed too preoccupied with their lives to be noticeably shaken over her departure. They laughed and joked as always. In fact, two of the teens most closest to Susan came to me crying afterwards upset over the other teens not being "sad enough" over Susan leaving. I thought about this and determined it must be one or both of two things: Either they don't want to show their emotions, or they are too self absorbed to notice the departure of a someone important in their lives. Teens are remarkably self centered, it is just part of being a teen.

Whatever the case was I was upset with Susan leaving and will miss her stories and enthusiasm.

Racism in the Library

This week a group of Pacific Islander teen girls told me I was a "racist bitch" when I kicked them out of the library for misbehavior. Now teens have called me "racist" and teenage girls who I tell to leave love to throw the "b" word at me but I had never had the two words strung together before.

I have given some thought to why teens might call me, a white individual, racist when I discipline them. I have kicked out plenty of white people in my time. Even though the teens know the rules of the library they don't make the connection between their disruptive actions and the consequences. They simply see a white person punishing them, a person of color. Race supersedes all other factors in the situation.

Perhaps this is due to a process of over-generationalization/stereotyping of white people. They might have been mistreated before and they assume all white people are racist. The media or their families might be an influence.

I'm wondering how I can relate to these teens that I am not picking on them because they are of a different race. If they see that white teens are being kicked out too will that help? Perhaps if I explain more to them the rules and the consequences of those rules they will see that it is not a matter of race. However, if they are telling adult figures in authority that they are "racist bitches" it might already be too inbred in them.

Age is just a (Big) Number

Teens seem to have no conception of people's age. Two incidents this week have confirmed this in my mind.

First, I had one teen, a regular, ask me: Do you have a kid that my friend can date? I am 25 and I know I look 25. I asked the teen "how old do you think I am?" He went..."uh..." and stared at me with confusion. I told him, "I'm 25; do the math." (And by the way if I had a child there was no way I would let this kid knock at my door.)

Also, this week my coworker kicked out two giggly and overexcited middle school girls. They were not pleased to be booted out and on their way to the exit one shouted, "Grandma!" My coworker is not a grandma and does not even look like a grandma.

It appears that teens think that anyone over the age of adulthood has arthritis and are carting around their grand kids. No wonder they think we're horribly uncool: they think we all lived during the 50s.

Super Happy Fun Orientation

The teens have returned to our library. They are like a pack of locusts, sweeping in, causing chaos and then flittering away as quickly as they came. For now our library property is protected by the nice weather; they stay outside to guzzle their Mountain Dew but as soon as it gets nippy they'll take the party inside.

Right now we are going through Library Orientation to teach the new students the library rules and refresh the regulars on what they're supposed to be doing. To get a teenager to come to anything that has the word "orientation" in it you have to resort to the time honored tradition of bribery. Perhaps we should have named our orientation the "Super Happy Fun Time" but then the teens might think we were hosting a Japanese game show in our auditorium and be gravely disappointed.

To bribe the teens we tell them "we promise it will be VERY short" and say "there will be treats." This convinces most of them. To get the rest in we refuse to let them get a guest card to access the Internet.

In the orientation we speed through at an auctioneer's pace the rules of the library accompanied by PowerPoint. We stress that the library is a public place and we want to have them there but not causing havoc. Most of them respond well but when I finished with one group and paused to have them ask questions they stared at me expectantly and asked: "So where's the candy?" Oh well, I tried.

Scaring Little Children

While many of the children think our library's pet tarantula Charlotte is the "awesomest" most are firmly convinced that if you are bitten you will die in agony frothing at the mouth and if I released her she would go on a bloody rampage in the library cruelly biting everyone with her razor sharp fangs.

I have to admit, I have done little to allay these superstitions. Kids are so much fun when they're scared.

When a child peers over to look at the tarantula I might tell them the story of how she escaped around a group of children. Or if I really wanted to scare them I might say how she bit me (and I'll leave out how I had gloves on.) The parents will stand on smiling by (because parents enjoy picking at their kids too), but the kids eyes will open wider and wider. They'll gasp, "She bit you!" They are in shock that I'm not underneath the ground. I'll nod sagely like a war torn veteran and tell them "never to pick up a tarantula."

Now after all the school visits with Charlotte and her proudly on display a whole community of kids will never approach a tarantula. But maybe I should have told the kids that Charlotte bit me when I was running and screaming through the library...

Dance like a Teapot

I went to a conference the past couple of days where I gave a few presentations. I try to make my presentations as interesting as possible but let's face it, if you've been to one work presentation you've been to them all. There's always the brief introduction with a poor attempt at humor. Perhaps you'll make fun of yourself at your technological incapability's or jokingly comment on the locale. Then you'll begin your presentation. There's the requisite power point with its bulleted, simplistic slogans with things like "The Five R's" or a quote by some authority in the field. Then you'll sum it up with an inspiring message that "yes you too can do this!"

I think we need to have library presentations like we do storytime. We first stand all the adults up and let them shake their wiggles out. This will get everyone's attention. Then we'll get to the meat of the program but instead of power point we'll do it in rhyme with colorful images like a picture book. After that we'll sing a song. For my topic on teen programs we could sing (to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot) "Make your teen programs short and fun/ Videogames for everyone/ If they are rowdy don't you shout/ "Pack your bags and get on out!" In conclusion to the storytime/presentation we could all do a craft. I would love to see all the middle aged women fingerpaint with shaving foam. Yes, everyone would love to come to my presentations if I threw out the power point and had them dancing like teapots.

Free Puppies to Every Child!

Our library is part library, part day care center. People come at ten when we open, leave their kids in the corner and do whatever they want for five or six hours letting their kids roam about freely. Some even drop their kids off and leave the premises. We are not the only library suffering from this problem; it happens everywhere. While the library is a welcoming place for the community, destructive toddlers and children screaming and tearing up the place does not make it a haven for the rest of the community.

One time a father left his 18 month year old alone in the children's section while he sat on the opposite end of the library at the computers. The toddler did what toddlers do, cause havoc. She promptly pulled as many books off the shelves as she could get her chubby fingers on. Today there was a pair of seven or eight year old boys ignored for SEVEN hours by their caregivers and left to make as much noise as they could.

I have come up with a solution. I made a sign today. It read: "Parents please watch your children. Unattended children will be given free puppies and coffee." Of course I'm flexible. I'd be happy to give them Mountain Dew instead. Perhaps I'll throw in a few Super Soakers they can take home. Maybe some of them would like kittens instead. I think it's only fair that the home of these children should be as quiet and peaceful a place as our library is.

Working for Vacation

I've been on vacation for the past week and a half. Although it has not been difficult vacationing, it was difficult getting to the vacation part.

Taking time out for vacation, at least in the library field, is a process one must start months ahead of time. Our county wishes us to start a year ahead. They pass around a calendar at the beginning of the year and request us to mark all of our vacation days for the entire year. Who knows in January if they are going to be taking off in October? Not me.

Then once the dates are set one must get all the work done for those weeks ahead of time. All ordering, projects, programs etc must be taken care of. This can require extra hours to take hours off.

Then when one returns they are faced with hundreds of e-mails, calls to return and projects to do. One time I left for five days at a previous place of employment. My supervisor, let's call her Black Lagoon Lady or BLL went crazy with the post-its and covered my desk in an intricate design of pink and yellow pieces of paper. Then BLL made stacks of paper littering my desk, chair and on top of the keyboard awaiting me for my arrival. I could feel her evil grin as soon as I entered the room eight am Monday morning.

So for that stress-free week of vacation one might have to go through a stressful month in preparation and recovery. Hope you enjoyed those pina coladas.

Why Authors Really Write

I went to a conference today with several authors talking about what inspired them to get into writing. One mentioned having a mind bursting with creative and imaginative energy that needed to come forth. Another expressed a passion of writing since childhood that developed into a career. One writer said that he wrote to inspire young minds. At a previous conference I went to writers gave similar reasons as these. All these motivating factors are very uplifting and noble. However, they leave out one very important motivation: money.

I cannot believe for one second that all these authors write either out of the pure goodness of their hearts or simply because they have too much creativity. Everyone has to make money to survive and writing is a business like everything else. I believe the reason that they leave the monetary motivating factor out of their lofty speeches is that it sounds morally repugnant to say you write for money. People would look down on writers as greedy if they said they wrote for money. Writers that write for money are not artists but are given another name: journalists. But why does this have to be? Almost any other profession can say they work for money except writers. You don't see starving engineers romanticized like starving artists. We need to let our writers not be afraid to say they want to eat.

Go, Worm Go!

Our summer reading program, and the summer reading program of many libraries is all about bugs. For an activity this week I wanted to have a "worm day." We would have a worm craft, worm snack (chocolate pudding, oreo 'dirt' with gummi worms), and I wanted to attempt a worm race. My boss was a little worried how he would put "worms" on the purchase request slip that we turn into the county. He didn't need to worry because worms are 'dirt' cheap. You can get two dozen for three bucks.

So I bought the worms and after the large gaggle of children had eaten their chocolate 'dirt' I told them we were having a worm race. I didn't know how this was going to go, I didn't even know which was the front or the back of the worm. I made several concentric rings on a large sheet of paper and had the kids each pick a worm. I thought the kids would be squeamish about touching worms but they reached in and dug their hands into the big squishy pile. They each put their worms on the outer edge of the circle and then with as much fanfare as a worm race could have I said "Go!" The worms, not realizing this was a race, squiggled and some tried to race off the table. But a few valiant ones made their way to the center. Soon it was a neck in neck race between two pink worms. Who would win? The kids were wide-eyed in anticipation. Finally we had a winner and the kid with the worm held it aloft like an Olympic torch. Who knew that worm racing could be fun?

Talking, Dancing, Clothed Animals

I am going through all my picture books one by one and I have noticed that roughly one half or more has either a talking animal or an animal dressed up in human clothes. There are every type of creatures imaginable in these books from aphids (Anna Aphid by Christine Goppel) to wombats (Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French). To tell the truth I'm not exactly sure what a wombat is and I don't think a five year old would know.

My coworker and I were talking as I was weeding through these books one by one. I mentioned how adults how ascribe emotions to animals. They think their pet hamster feels sad when they go or their bunny feels such complex emotions as jealously. Not only do adults think their pets feel this way but they dress up their pets in costumes. Does this have something to do with the massive amounts of picture books with talking, dancing, clothed animals? From day one children are taught in books that animals talk, feel, and have families and lives just like they do. Does this belief continue in some way into adulthood?

Snakes in the Library

A couple of weeks ago for our summer reading program we had an animal expert bring an assortment of wild life into our library to show the kids. He brought scorpions, a tarantula, a skink, monitor lizards, tortoises, and other fun bugs. But what the kids were really salivating for was snakes.

He asked for a volunteer and a girl about aged 10 raised her hand. He then brought out a large albino boa. He wrapped it around her neck. The girl froze. She wasn't expected to be a volunteer for this. The boa's head kept creeping up to her face and she kept hitting it down again. I was getting really nervous. I didn't think it was good to hit a boa in the face. She continued to do this 5-6 times. The animal expert did not notice she was so nervous and she was swatting the boa in the face. The audience was gasping. Finally, he saw that she was petrified and took the boa off. She didn't volunteer again.

Disaster was averted that time but then he brought out a ten foot reticulated python. He had eight kids stand up and hold the python from head to tail. They were okay for about three seconds. Then the python started moving and the girl at the front dropped its head. The other kids couldn't support the weight of the heavy python and they started falling. The kids were desperately trying to hold onto this python while they were holding themselves up but then they fell into the black backdrop hiding the other animals and knocked it down dropping some of the ten foot python on the floor. Luckily, this particular python was a professional and did not attack anyone. I don't know if any of those kids from the audience will be volunteering at any more animal programs any time soon.

Is the Internet Making Us Stupid?

I read an article recently that forewarned that the proliferation of media such as the Internet has changed our reading capacity, thus our thinking capacity. Is Google Making Us Stupid?

The author of this article describes the change in his reading processes from reading deeply to only skimming materials. He writes:

When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances—literary types, most of them—many say they’re having similar experiences. The more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing. Some of the bloggers I follow have also begun mentioning the phenomenon. Scott Karp who writes a blog about media recently confessed that he has stopped reading books altogether. “I was a lit major in college, and used to be [a] voracious book reader,” he wrote. “What happened?” He speculates on the answer: “What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?”

I can see this in my library sometimes. I have patrons that specifically request the short reads and I had one balk when I suggested a book of over three hundred pages. I think one reason that graphic novels are so popular with teens is that the way teens think is differently. They think in short, visual bursts, not in long methodical passages. What does this mean for libraries in the future? I can't say exactly, I think that libraries will have to continue to adapt and change for anything, even if people's way of reading dramatically shifts.

High Expectations

The Internet has radically changed people's perception of what libraries have within their walls. People seem to believe that since they have access to any sort of information that they want through the Internet that the brick and mortar library also has access to this sort of information in book form. In many ways they are correct and perhaps when you are dealing with academic libraries they will be even more correct but I get strange requests from people and when I don't have five books on the topic they want they get upset with me. I have been requested to find books on: a 1963 Ford Fairlane, triplanes, books on tiny, unpopulated counties, obscure Western explorers and the list could go on. I've also had people upset at me when I could only retrieve one book on our shelves on pet rat care, platypuses, and thyroid disease. I'm sure every librarian at every public library could come up with a exhaustive list. Public libraries are more popular lending libraries but not all people understand that. Perhaps we should be flattered that people think we can provide all this information. But flattered is not the feeling I have when a woman says, "Is that all?" to me in an annoyed voice.

Tarantula Tales

The last three weeks have been very busy for me, my coworker and our library's pet tarantula Charlotte. We have been going to schools to talk about our Summer Reading program. The theme is all about bugs so we bring Charlotte in, (I wear gloves in case the kids scare her as you can see in the picture above), give ten interesting facts about tarantulas, and then give our spiel about summer reading. The kids have just eaten it up. But there have been some interesting times with Charlotte...

Once I took Charlotte out and put her back in but did not completely close her cage. I thought there was no way for her to escape because she never had before. Then she started creeping up the side of it as I began giving facts about tarantulas. The kids interrupted me and started shouting, "she's getting out!" I said "she can't get out" and continued on with my program. They continued to shout and Charlotte crawled higher up the cage. Then as I wasn't looking she completely crawled right out of her cage a few feet away from some of the children. The room was filled with screams of terrified children. I had to act fast and grab her and put her back in. I bet that was all they talked about in school for the next WEEK.

Another time I took Charlotte out for the kids to see her and she started walking up my arm, she went up and up to my elbow, my shoulder then down my back. The kids were screaming. I couldn't see her down my back to put her back into her cage. I didn't want to push her off and drop her because tarantulas are very fragile. My coworker, who is frightened of spiders had to rescue me because no teachers were even thinking about coming to aid me. She gingerly grabbed Charlotte and put her back in the cage. She was not too thrilled about that.

Finally, one time when we were doing grade level after grade level back to back I reached in to pick up Charlotte and then she reared back and bit me. I was quite surprised, she had never done that before. Luckily I was wearing gloves but she put a nice hole in the leather. I liked telling some of the kids that Charlotte bit me, their eyes would always widen and some would say "No way! You didn't die?"

I told my coworker I don't know what I'm going to do next year for Summer Reading to top holding a tarantula. The only way I can top this is if I jump in there and light myself on fire. Although I don't think that fits with next year's theme.

Graffiti "art" part two

I published in my last post how our graffiti "artists" had not figured out that writing on the door lasts a lot more permanent than on the walls and bathroom fixtures. Apparently either I have more blog readers than I thought or the "artists" have gotten smarter because this afternoon days after I write that blog there was a HUGE gang symbol written on one of the doors. It won't come out of the door no matter how much my manager scrubbed and we might have to get a new door. Bravo guys...your work can now be admired for years by the many hundreds sitting on that toilet seat.

Graffiti "Art"

Yesterday our bathrooms were "decorated" with graffiti two times in a matter of hours. The first time it was gang signs written five times all over the bathroom. What surprises me with this graffiti artists is that they keep putting graffiti on our bathrooms and we keep taking it off but they usually keep putting it on the same places, the walls, mirror etc. Those places it's very easy to take off, just a quite swipe with a spray. Most of them haven't figured out that if you put it on the door it doesn't come completely out. Maybe they don't care if their "art" can be seen for future generations.

The second batch of graffiti yesterday was a spray painted red frog in the other bathroom. (Why they spray painted a red frog I will never know.) I saw a bunch of kids hanging around the bathroom, going in and out and laughing. Whenever I see kids going in and out of the bathroom laughing I know its never a good sign. I have to admit that the frog was rather cute but it didn't belong in the bathroom and the red spray paint did not come completely out. I kicked the laughing kids out of the bathroom but I couldn't prove it was them.

That's one thing about these graffiti "artists." We never can catch them. It's always after the fact. Just once in my library career would I love to walk in the bathroom and catch the kid red-handed. He would look up at me with complete fear in his eyes, looking left and right for a quick escape. Maybe he would try to tuck the marker in his pocket and deny it to my face. Whatever he or she did, catching them would make my day.

Crossing the line

One thing I have been troubling myself over in recent weeks is what to do when I hear things reported to me by teenagers. Some teenagers in my library confide secret, sometimes dangerous things to me and I don't know what my role is as a librarian. There is no policy at my library for this sort of thing and after hearing about that librarian who got fired for reporting on someone who was looking at child porn it makes me a little nervous about saying anything. Librarian arrested

But the question is, what is the role of a librarian in this matter? I want to help these teens but I don't know if suspensing advice or calling someone is crossing the line. Where is the line exactly? I'm not a trained therapist but these kids talk to me like I am one. I know librarians aren't supposed to give legal advice or tax advice; does this extend to relationship and personal advice too?

I believe if a crime has been committed something needs to be done. But should I look for personal information in the library record to report the crime? Is that crossing the line? When does the a person's right of privacy get pushed out of the way for another person's right? A law enforcement officer can't get into someone's home without a warrant, so should I be looking in someone's personal record at all without law enforcement?

One librarian told me that you have to take each situation into separate consideration. That's probably good advice but it still leaves me with many questions.

Dangerous Felt Mascots

I added some pictures to the slide show on the blog of the felt mascots the teens made in an anime club meeting a couple of months ago. Felt mascots are these cute, handmade stuffed animals that are very popular in Japan. People take them everywhere with them. We made our own in the club meeting and the teens "gothed" theirs out. I have absolutely no sewing ability, I can't even sew on a button so I was relatively helpless in making the mascots. However, I had to keep the semblance of authority and knowledge so when one of the teens would come ask me for help I would study the instructions and pretend I knew what I was doing. The one thing I could do was thread a needle and so this somehow convinced them that I was skilled in sewing. Luckily, a few of the teens knew what they were doing and the mascots turned out very dangerous, and cute.

Pet Tarantula

Last week we got a pet tarantula at our library. It is a Chilean Rose Hair tarantula which you can see pictured above. Our summer reading theme is about bugs so I convinced my manager to let us get a tarantula. It was all donated by a local pet shop and they're giving us free crickets and letting us change out the tarantula if we want to.

I thought we would get more negative reactions about the tarantula at the library. More "ewwwws" and "eeeeks" but instead we got "ah cools" and "wows." The kids really like her a lot. I would have to say they like the tarantula more than the staff. Some of our customer service staff won't go anywhere near the cage.

If any library is looking for a pet I would recommend a tarantula. They don't smell. You feed them once a week and they are very easy to care for. You can even pet and hold them. I've taken her out and let her crawl on my hands (although some people don't recommend doing that.) Tarantulas are not a pet somebody sees everyday so they have a "wow" factor. They have different types and some are more colorful than the rose hairs although rose hairs are very tame and easy going. So why not try a tarantula?

The Art of Name Dropping

Librarians are skilled in the art of name dropping. I went to a conference the other week with librarians from several states. Whenever I was in a group of several librarians I found that one or more of them loved to insert as many names in the conversation as they could. Some examples of this are:

"I heard ______ before, she's (insert descriptor such as 'great' or 'wonderful')."
"I met ________ at (esteemed place you were probably not at) they were (exclamatory phrase.)
"I read ______ before; I think (insert opinion you didn't ask for.)"
"I know _______ we go way back." (Actually the two are minor acquaintances.)

It seems librarians think the more people they know (even if tenuously) the more impressive they are. I'm sure this is not unique to librarians. In the vast network of librarianship where it is often "who you know" rather than "what you know" the need to drop as many names in as possible seems dire for some individuals. But it seems they will mention anybody even if they just shook the other person's hand just to sound a little more important. I just wish they could stand back and listen to themselves and hear how annoying they were sometimes.

Old MacDonald had a...Whoops!

I made a major flub today in my storytime. We were singing Old MacDonald, going through the animals and we reached the rooster/hen. I began singing..."...And on that farm he had a rooster...E-i-e-i-o" "With a cockle-doodle-do0 and a cockle-doodle-doo" then I wasn't thinking and accidentally said, "here a cock, there a cock...everywhere a..." then I caught myself and said "cluck, cluck." The mothers found it very funny but it went entirely over the kids heads. I guess I should have stuck to hens and not to roosters. Hopefully, the preschoolers don't go home singing about Old MacDonald's farm with "here a cock, there a cock, everywhere a cock, cock."

Stressful Sushi Scenario

This week our library's anime/manga club had a professional sushi chef give a demonstration on how to make sushi and he provided free samples to a large crowd of excited teenagers.

However, getting this event to happen was not an easy task. I live in the "sushi district" of the city so I knew which places to scout out for a chef. I personally visited each restaurant and politely explained the situation and our library's need for a sushi chef. I got a very chilly reception. To even talk to a sushi chef in person was a feat since they were well protected by their staff. I even got a very rude brush off from one server saying "our chefs don't do that." After a few weeks of sending out my card and looking I was feeling down when one of the chefs from a well-regarded restaurant called me back and said he would be happy to do the demonstration. I was ecstatic.

I immediately began advertising for the program and soon I had teenagers asking me almost every day, "when is the sushi chef coming?" When the chef told me he was coming it was two weeks before the event. As the day drew closer I had heard nothing from him. He didn't tell me anything he needed; he didn't ask for directions. I heard nothing. This week I started to get anxious. I called over at the restaurant and was unable to talk to the chef personally; I kept getting nervous. The day of I paced the floor imagining hordes of teenagers with pitchforks chanting "sushi, sushi!" My back up plan was feeble: it consisted of Japanese snacks and DVDs. I knew it would not pacify them.

Then suddenly. He shows up and puts on the most wonderful program with his daughter. They educated the teens on how to use chopsticks, what the ingredients were for, and even taught them some Japanese. I later found out he faxed the library he was coming but no one checks the fax machine and I never received the fax. I hope he agrees to come out next year.

Online Databases vs. the Internet

In our library system, as I'm sure many others, there has been great emphasis on using the library's databases. These libraries pay big bucks for these things and I know they want them used so I understand their concern. Currently in our system we're going through database training in order to know all the myriad numbers of databases out there.

My problem in using these databases is that they just take too long. When you have a patron sitting there waiting for information, sometimes with three screaming kids, what they are most concerned about is how quickly you can get it to them, not how many citations the article has or how many times it has been peer reviewed.

The databases take too long because first I must access them through our library's home page. Then I must select out of many dozens of databases which one to search through. Sometimes the answer isn't easy: is what the customer wants a history question or should I be looking for magazines and newspapers? It is difficult to find the right database. Next, after hopefully finding the right database usually I must hone down my search :select full text, use delimiters, narrow it down by type of resource etc. By the time I get to this point the patron is usually tapping their heels. After all this sometimes I don't even end up with something the patron wants. I have to go through page after page of sources.

Perhaps in academic libraries databases are much more beneficial but in public libraries speed is of the essence and for speed you need the Internet. I have found that a patron is happier with a inferior article that I attained in a minute rather than the superior article I attained in five. Isn't pleasing patrons the most important thing anyways?

Child Computer Genius

A young girl came up to the reference desk a few weeks a little girl and asked to put a few items on hold. She couldn't have been older than 8. She was using her mother's library card and I told her that when her books came in the library would send an e-mail to her mother's e-mail address telling her that the books were there. The girl then looked at me very seriously and said "Well I'll have to help her with that, my mother doesn't understand computers." I could not help laughing a bit and after I laughed she looked even more stern. She told me, "It's not funny. It's a real serious problem." The encounter made me wonder how many eight-year-olds are the computer geniuses of their households.

Just Twenty Minutes

I had a "rain" storytime this week. I was really hoping the weather would work out for me but it snowed instead. Still the kids enjoyed making a thunderstorm with their hands and their feet and making the sun and rainbows come out.

Despite the fun they were having I started losing them at about twenty minutes. That seems to be the cut off point for their attention span. I have more to do but at that point I usually have a third playing with each other or running around. The first part of storytime they are all very attentive and focused on me but twenty minutes seems to be their breaking point. However, I'm sure with continued reading and more storytimes their attention spans will increase. Reading increases children's attention spans. Maybe by the end of the year I can make it to thirty minutes.

Abundance of Angst

I was on our library system's Teen Tech week committee and for Teen Tech week we had a song lyric contest. This week we all met all judged the lyrics from all the entries. Although there were many talented entries, they were almost all heartbreaking tales of woe. Song after song detailed breakups, unrequited love, infidelity and sometimes death. The few songs that spoke of love as a beautiful, happy thing were few and far between. One committee member commented that if she saw the rhyme "heart" and "apart" one more time she was immediately taking points off.

The lyrics of all those sad songs brought me back to my teen days when a breakup truly was the end of the world. I tried to look at it through that perspective as I shuffled through the loneliness of the words. In the end though the best originality and imagery came not through heartbreak but from a thoughtful poem about music. It had perfect scores from all the judges.

Unscripted Anime

At an anime/manga club meeting a few weeks ago at my library the presidency wanted to have an activity where the members would write scripts with anime characters and themes and then act them out at the next meeting. So between the meetings I gently reminded the kids to work on their scripts. They all told me they were hard at work.

At the meeting I asked, "So, who wants to share their script?" There were no scripts, even from the presidency who came up with the idea in the first place. I knew the Japanese snacks would not hold all these energetic teenagers for long. I had to think fast. "Okay," I said, "Everyone pick out what character you would like to be and then just make up whatever you want." I held my breath and hoped this wouldn't be a total bust.

The teens immediately got into it. They first picked out characters for half an hour. There were fights over who could be Sakura from Naruto, we had a surplus of ninjas, someone insisted that they be a dog, and everyone else changed their characters half a dozen times.

Once that was finally figured out they could finally act it out. I expected half the teens to stand at the sidelines looking cynical but everyone participated. Somehow the story devolved into a giant ninja fight with a barking dog. I had to remind some teens several times that we are "play fighting." They were a little too into it. Next meeting they want to do it again with full costumes, props and a video camera. Let's just hope they don't bring real swords.

Introducing He-man!

Our library has a pair of pet gerbils. After a very popular "gerbil-naming contest" our patrons named them "Zap" and "Zoom." (We had over 400 patrons participate in this contest.) I love these little gerbils as much as our patrons do and after seeing them day in and day out I wanted a little pet of my own.

While driving around to pet stores one day I found a store that sold hedgehogs. I had never seen a hedgie before and I was blown away by how adorable they were.

Ever the librarian, I had to do some research first. Turns out, hedgehogs make great pets. They do not smell, they are quiet, and they are inexpensive to take care of. So my husband and I adopted little "He-man" into our family.

We are hand-taming him right now because he is a little timid. When He-man is more comfortable around people I will be sure to bring him to work. The kids would just love him at storytime.

Chocolate Bunnies

At storytime this week we celebrated Easter by talking about bunnies. When I asked the kids what was happening this weekend one particularly vocal child yelled "I get candy!" For a 2-5 year old all they understand about Easter is that a giant bunny comes to their house and leaves candy. Even if they did understand more there was no way I would open up that "Easter egg."

So along with talking about bunnies we made "chocolate bunnies" by finger painting chocolate pudding on cardboard bunny shapes. It left an bunny imprint on the paper when you pulled off the bunny shape as you can see in picture of the chocolate aftermath of the activity. I think a lot of the pudding ended up not on the paper but on little kid's faces.

Monsters in the Library

There are some clever thieves in my library.

A few weeks ago my darling stuffed cow went missing. Someone suggested she "jumped over the moon" but after scouring the library I knew she was stolen.

I was using the stuffed cow for my display in the children's department on cow books. (You'd be surprised how many books about cows there are.) So my coworkers and I put the word out to get my cow back. We found a picture of it online and made up "Missing Cow" posters. We asked all the teens that came into the library "have you seen her?" After only one day a teen girl came up and said she "found the cow in the snow." Of course we didn't believe her especially after we saw the snickering of teens around the library but we played along and said "Thank you so much!" We thought that she might have learned a lesson that when she takes things it affects others. So we hugged her and gave her a box of Milk Duds as "reward."

I thought things were hunky dory until the pirate hat went missing a bit later. It was for a pirate display and it had only been up two days before it was hatnapped. A week later a little stuffed frog has mysteriously vanished. I believe the teens have figured out that if they steal something and return it they get candy. Even if they don't return it they get to keep what they stole. It's a win-win situation for them. I told my coworker I thought I had created a monster. My coworker told me the monster was already there.

Evil St. Patrick?

A lady came into the library today asking about St. Patrick. I retrieved information about the holiday and the man, trying to please this very grumpy woman. Nothing seemed to satisfy her and then after ten minutes of searching she clarified her request: she wanted to find "bad" things about St. Patrick so she could get her child out of celebrating that holiday at school.

This led me on a fruitless quest over the Internet trying to find a reputable source bashing the Irish saint. I found nothing until the woman spotted that St. Patrick was once a pagan in Britain before he was sold into slavery and came to Ireland. (Never mind the fact that this was about 400 A.D. and that region was full of pagans. Even if he was a pagan does that make him evil?) However, this information made her happy and she took it and left. My coworkers told me I should just wait for Halloween, she's here all the time then.

Anime Art Contest

We had the judging for our anime art contest last week. I had the anime club vote for the best art. I was concerned it would turn into a popularity contest since many of the entries were from the club. However, I was pleasantly surprised when the club members did not choose their friends as the grand prize winner but someone completely out of the club. A picture of handsome man holding an attractive dying girl won the contest. The picture was full of emotion. The girl was slumped against the male and he had tears running down his face. I think the picture really spoke to the teens and they voted for it over thirty something other entries. I included pictures of some of the notable entries including the first, second and third place winners on this blog. I never knew the teens in my community were so talented. They just needed an outlet.

Happily promoting childhood obesity

There was a debate a few weeks back in our library system about giving children and teens candy for incentives. ONE patron complained and then a whole uproar of intelligent, terse, angry, and sometimes pompous e-mails were exchanged across all the libraries. Everyone had an opinion on the subject. One claimed we were making them sugar addicts and others claimed we were promoting childhood obesity. (Never mind that we were giving them out sparingly, one piece at a time and only for good behavior.)

No one ever stopped to ask the children and teens what they thought of this reward system. So in the last few weeks I have done my own informal survey of the children, mothers of children and teens in my library. At storytimes I sometimes have edible crafts. The other week we decorated cookies. I asked mothers what they thought of this and some of the other crafts. They all thought it was great and had no problem with it. I asked the children and between mouthfuls of cookie they thought it was wonderful and were eager to come to more storytimes. I also asked a number of teens what they thought of the candy incentives. I asked them if they would prefer a bookmark, or healthy snacks which were other alternatives suggested in the flurry of e-mails. I liked the response of one teen who comes in very regularly. He looked at me disgustedly and said "Hell no!"

Chatty Moms

Usually the moms in my storytimes are very good. They listen attentively, actively participate, and get their children when their toddler wanders behind me to knock over the piano bench or pull out the cord to the CD player. I'm very grateful to them for their politeness but this past week I don't know what happened but it was as if this storytime was the social event of the season and a good part of the ladies gabbed the whole way through. When over fifty people are in a room and a good percentage of them are talking the noise compounds on itself and during this storytime I was wishing for a microphone.

I'm pretty good at getting the kids to be quiet. I can do a wiggle rhyme: "I wiggle my fingers/ I wiggle my nose...etc. until "no more wiggles are left in me so I'll be as quiet as I can be." They really like that one and they are very quiet after it. But the adults don't respond to that. (Why would they?) I've heard of one librarian who does not let the adults in the storytime at all but I don't agree with that. A good many of the adults in my storytime really like to participate and I believe they learn a lot by being there.

One librarian suggested that I have the children turn to their neighbor and ask their neighbor to be quiet. That might work; I'll have to try it. Maybe a short talk at the beginning of storytime for the children AND the parents might control the behavior. I understand why the moms want to talk. Some of them don't get a chance to go out too much and this is one of the opportunities they get to meet other moms. They are probably bursting with things to say. So I should probably make a point that they can have all the time they want AFTER storytime to talk with the other parents while the kids are working or playing with their crafts.

An Interesting School Assignment

About a month ago I was sitting next to my manager and two girls came up to him with an "assignment" from school. They needed to do a book report on herpes. So being the dutiful librarian that he was he promptly asked them how many sources were required, what kind of sources they needed etc. etc. They hesitated and then said that a web source was fine so then my manager turned to the web and found information on herpes. He then asked them what they needed to know for their "book report" as they both fidgeted in front of the computer. They said all they needed to know was how it was spread, nothing else. So my manager told them and they went on their way.

At least the two girls went to a reputable source of information for their "book report" instead of one of their "classmates."

A Community full of rockin' Michelangelos

For the past month I've sponsored an anime art contest at our library. The response has been overwhelming. We've put colored paper on the walls and then taped the art around the teen section but we've just about run out of room. I think if we had just said we were having an "art contest" there would not have been as much response. I think "art contest" sounds a little elitist and it's too broad. But by giving the teens something specific, and something so popular they've really come through. They love having them on display. I want to keep them up there as long as I can. I hope they don't want their pictures back because honestly I want to take them all home and put them on my fridge.

I've put up some pictures on this blog of other art projects they've worked on. What really impressed me was the gingerbread men they made back at Christmas. Now if I made a gingerbread men he would have buttons down his middle, cute little eyes and a perky smile. The teens went completely out of the box on this assignment. There were very few "cute" gingerbread men. Actually, we had "Naruto/gingerbread men", "cat/gingerbread men", and ones of all different bold colors instead of the traditional brown. One teen made one with a pistol in its hand but then he later claimed it was a "candy cane." (Yeah right.) Some gingerbread men even had googly eyes all down their bellies instead of bright, black buttons. The teens really used their creativity.

Gruff from Grandmas and Grandpas

The last few weeks I've had some gruff from our area's senior citizens. Now I love senior citizens and have volunteered numerous times for them but these patrons are not your kindly grandmas and grandpas. They cut in line, order me around, and one yelled at me when he didn't get his way. I've given some thought to why these senior citizens are so cranky and argumentative and what I've come up with is that perhaps the library is one of the few places that they CAN be push others around and get their way. At the library we are polite and kind to everyone no matter how we are treated. In a society that calls these individuals "old fogeys" and says that anyone who forgets something has a "senior moment" these disenfranchised older members of the population probably feel powerless a lot of the time. They're often ignored by the media and even their own families. If they can berate me it might give them a sense of control and power in a society that gives them no authority. Of course it might also be because they don't feel very well and they're dealing with many aches and pains. I try to tell myself this when I get one on the phone ordering me around but I admit it's hard to keep a perspective sometimes. Maybe it won't be until I'm in their shoes that I will entirely understand.

Putting my pinky toe in

I felt inspired to join the blogosphere write about my own experiences after I read "Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library." I thought to myself: "well this happens in MY library, why is someone not writing this down? I work in a disadvantaged neighborhood right next to a junior high. We're a very busy library and every afternoon we are flooded with teenagers. High school kids visit too but 7th, 8th, and 9th graders come at three and often don't leave until we close at nine. We kick some of them out every day and we often start off preemptively which I would recommend. We give the ones we know cause trouble an hour to clear out and they usually head out on their own. These kids need borders and rules although they would never admit it. We have a good system going with the kids and offer as many activities as we can. Thursday on Valentine's day we hid hearts in the library and had the kids find them for treats. I only suggest this if you can withstand sustained chaos for about twenty minutes. (You'll need to have a very understand manager.) You can do this activity for every holiday: four leaf clovers for St. Patrick's day, little flags for 4th of July. The kids love it but they often bump around and run around like pinballs in a machine for a while.