People-Eating Book

I had a group of elementary school students come into the library this week for a booktalk and a little craft. Among the books I introduced was The Book that Eats People by Mark Fearing. It's a very cute book that (as the title says) that eats a variety of students and adults. The book warms that you shouldn't handle it with "syrupy fingers" or it might get you too. I played up the book, dramatizing the scariness of the book. After I was through booktalking my selection a little girl timidly raised her hand. She said, in complete seriousness, "Does that book REALLY eat people?" I had to try not to laugh because this child was genuinely scared of the book sitting innocently on the table. I explained that "no, the book does not really eat people." She seemed somewhat consoled. I reminded myself that maybe next time I should play it down a bit.

Beach Party in December

For my last anime club I decided to have a "Bleach Beach Party" for no other reason than that the two words rhyme. At the words "beach party" the girls in my club immediately asked: "Can we wear our bathing suits?" I immediately thought of 14 year old girls walking around in bikinis in the library with all our leering older male patrons. I put a stop to that train of thought but the girls were disappointed.

At this "Beach party" I decided to have the teens make their own smoothies. I bought strawberries, blueberries, orange juice, vanilla ice cream and bananas in bulk from Costco and let the kids have at it. But I specifically told them that I would control the blenders and that I would do the pouring. This of course was ignored by most of the 30 teens scrambling for smoothies. So the inevitable happened: one teen poured smoothie all over the blender, table, and their hands.

At the same time some of the girls got it in their head that they would put makeup on the boys. One boy consented and so the girls assumed that ALL the boys would want eyeshadow, eyeliner, base, mascara, the whole works, slathered on their face. While I was trying to deal with the smoothie situation girls were forcefully pushing boys to the ground so they could apply makeup. One boy was crying "no, no, no" as three girls pulled on him. So I had to rescue these hapless boys from the girls and explain to them that not every boy wants makeup on their face. Once again, I disappointed the girls who if they had it THEIR way would be dancing around in bikinis putting makeup on every boy in the room.

Sparkly Teens

It's been a while since I've posted! Things have been so busy.

Anyways, I had an anime club meeting this week and we were having a Death Note day. Death Note is a popular manga turned anime that's about a notebook where if someone's name is written in it that person dies. So I had the teens decorate their own mini Deathnote notebooks. I had paint, stickers, fabric markers etc all laid out for them.

I had also bought glitter spray as a finishing touch. The girls were extremely excited about the glitter spray and they liked making their notebooks sparkle. I carefully supervised the using of the glitter spray because it is similar to spray paint with toxic chemicals. However, my attention wavered for a minute because there was a commotion in another part of the room and I left the glitter spray for a moment in the hands of 14 year old girls. Big mistake. I turn around ten seconds later these girls are spraying these toxic chemicals on their hair and all over their bodies just like it was a perfume. I had to snatch the glitter spray up and lock it in the closet. Thank goodness that we only had sparkly teens and not half blind ones.

Dark Dark Box

This week I had a Halloween storytime to celebrate the season and my second favorite holiday. Attending were an assortment of costumed kiddies from fairies to pumpkins to Captain America.

During the storytime I told the story "In a Dark, Dark Room" The story goes "In a dark, dark woods there was a dark dark house where there was a dark dark shelf" well you get the picture. At the end there is a "dark, dark box" where in the book a ghost pops out. I didn't have a ghost but I had a box and I found a stuffed witch in the closet. However, the box was full of dozens of frisbees and I did not want to dump them all out so I just stuffed the witch on top of the frisbees and closed the box. At the point of the story where I said "and in the dark dark box was a..." I pulled out the witch and all the kids clapped their hands in delight. But they all wanted to see what else was in the box. I thought kids pulling frisbees ouf of the "dark dark" scary box would kind of ruin the mood and they probably would start throwing them so I whisked the box away. Of course a toddler was pawing through the box and as soon as I pulled it away she let out a screech...kind of like a witch. The scary mood was over.

Cosplay!

At my anime club the other week we had a cosplay. I was hoping more would come and dress up but as I've learned working with teens, they have very short memories and if you tell them something at a meeting two weeks before they are most likely to forget it. However, some remembered and we had fun playing anime charades. They were screaming and laughing so hard (teen girls have this scream that is a particular pitch that can't be duplicated by anyone else) that by the end of it my ears hurt.

I even dressed up for the cosplay the other week. I wore cat ears, a black shirt, black leather skirt, fishnets and black leather boots. I found the fisnet stockings extremely uncomfortable. My feet were in pain in those boots by the end of the afternoon. My coworker told me you're supposed to wear little socks with the fishnets so they don't hurt your toes so much. It's amazing the things you learn at the library!

Toilet Turtle

Our library made a strange discovery this week. Thursday morning we found a small green turtle in our bathroom. We have absolutely no idea how he got there. Did some kid bring his pet turtle to the library and leave it accidentally? Or did the turtle somehow wander into the building, crawl (slowly) past the DVDs and sneak into the bathroom? Or was it a prank of some sorts? A few kids tell themselves: "Hey, I got an idea, wouldn't it be funny to leave a turtle in the library!" Each scenario is unlikely and the turtle could not have crawled up from the toilet, it would not have fit. We are stumped about how he got there but either way we ended up with a small water turtle swimming in an aquarium in our staff room. We named him Lou after the name of British toilets.

Chopstick Races

This week for my anime club's first meeting of the school year we had a chopstick program. For the last few weeks I have been sneakily stealing chopsticks from the local Teriyaki Bowl each time I go. I would go up to refill my drink and slip several pairs of chopsticks down my purse. After a few visits, I got 22 pairs of chopsticks. I was ready for the races.

I divided the teens into two lines and set an empty bowl at the end of the line. Then at the other end was a bowl full of mini marshmallows. The teens were to take a marshmallow with their chopsticks and then pass it to the person on their right down the chain and into the empty bowl. This proved to be difficult and I had to reprimand a few teens for their cursing. So then they decided to curse in Japanese, and I had to reprimand them again.

Eventually they got into it and we did the race a few times before they had enough and wanted to resume eating the food I brought with their chopsticks. I made a bowl of jello for them to eat just to watch them struggle to pick up the wiggly stuff with their chopsticks. The challenge of the jello only spurned them on. It was an entertaining and successful afternoon especially considering that some of the teens wanted to throw their chopsticks and no one's eye got put out.

Empty Libraries

It's going to be tough for me to post as much since I'm back in school this semester and my professors are loading me up with tons of papers. But I'll try.

Our library has decided to delete all VHS, Books on Tape and Book Cassette kits by the end of the year. Then CD-Roms will be gone by the end of next year. I read in American Libraries that they estimate that CDs will be mostly gone in the next decade. 75% of Americans have internet at home and the number is increasing and eventually there will be less need for computers at the library. DVDs are streaming too. With all of these things fading. What are we going to do with all this extra space?

Libraries can fill their extra space with a cafe, or couches and make the library more like Barnes and Nobles or a Starbucks. But will people really go to a library to get their coffee or hang out? I really wonder what the future of libraries are going to be, I imagine they will be more like community centers.

Whatever the case may be I suggest to all librarians to start working on a second degree so they can have a plan B in place. It's what I'm doing. You really never know what the future is going to bring.

Two Week Accent

I was talking to a cute teen girl at the library the other day. She was talking to me in a British accent. She has never stepped a foot in England in her life. I asked her why she was speaking in a British accent. She said that she had been speaking in the accent for a week and that she had a week to go. She was convinced that if she spoke in the British accent for two weeks straight it would stick.

I know that people say that you can develop a habit in two weeks but I do not believe you can develop an accent in two weeks. I did not want to burst this girl's bubble since she was working SO hard at it so I just smiled and said, "Wow, you're really good." I'll see her this week and we'll see if it "stuck." I'm more than doubtful.

Dye Disaster

It's been a while since I've posted. First I went on vacation and then the DAY that I was supposed to return I got a jury summons and out of 40 people they summoned they were to pick 8 for the jury and lo and behold they picked me. So finally, today I returned my normal schedule.

This afternoon I had a "Be Creative with Food" activity. I love food crafts and think as many crafts as possible should be edible. So I pulled four of them together for a giant craft feast. First, were marshmallow sculptures, very simple, just different sorts of marshmallows and toothpicks. Then I bought red licorice strings online and gave the kids cheerios, fruit loops, and life savers to make their own candy necklaces. Another station was corn syrup mixed with food coloring that makes an excellent paint that you can lick. Finally, the most complicated project was a "make your own" gum kit.

The "make your own" gum kit had food dye gel in it to color the gum. I had never seen food dye gel and did not know its potency. Apparently cake decorators use it in icing and they only put a tiny drop in to color a whole lot of icing. Well, the kids used a lot more than drops to color their gum. We had four small vials of it and one child dumped a whole vial of blue gel in her gum and then chewed it getting blue all over her hands, lips, hands and the table. Of course there were spills and blue and red streaks were over the table that I (stupidly) forgot to cover with a tablecloth. Blue and red were streaked on children's hands, lips and it got on my skirt which I still haven't gotten out.

Of course the children didn't care that they were messy, they were having a ball. But I'm sure some mothers will be mad at me as they struggle to get blue dye out of their children's clothes tonight. When the children left I was faced with a blue and red streaked table only armed with chlorox wipes. I wiped and wiped until my arm was sore but there is still a blueish tint to it. Oh well, perhaps with all the other stains from all the other projects I've done on that table not many people will notice. But next time, definitely a tablecloth.

Publicity is Publicity

I had a simple summer activity this week: provide the children with chalk and popsicles and let them decorate our library sidewalks. This was the easiest and most UN-elaborate activity I had this summer yet the local paper called and asked if they could come to the activity and photograph it. I told them it was basically an "open house" of kids coming to draw and eat popsicles and suggested a more involved and exciting activity coming up soon they could attend yet I suspect there was a deadline involved.




So they came late AFTER most of the kids had left and after I had left for a meeting. Thus they had to gather the kids who drew the art back from inside the building to pose in front of their art. They later called me for a quote which I had to give them while a patron stood in front of the desk, staring at me, waiting for help. Oh well, publicity is publicity.

I Can See Into Your Future

To celebrate Harry Potter and the Half-blood prince movie coming out, our library had a Harry Potter party last week. We divided the activity into several classes based on the books: "Care of Magical Creatures", "Defense against the Dark Arts", "Potions", and "Charms and Divination."

I was to be Professor Trelawney over Charms and Divination. I took three pie pans and filled them up with a mixture of laundry detergent and milk. Then I had the children put a few drops of food coloring in and spin the mixture with their hand. It makes a cool, dreamy, effect in the pan. Next I would peer into the mixture and pretend to think deeply. Then I would come up with the most outrageous fortune I could think off the top of my head: "you will take a trip to Paris...Paris, Idaho", "You have a long lost twin sister in Australia," "You will have three visitors, young men, The Jonas brothers will visit your home," "You will get a new pet, a pet that likes water, a very big pet, You will get a pet hippo." And on it went.

The children really enjoyed the fortunes. They kept clamoring "me next! me next!" Although there was one boy who didn't like his fortune. I decided to have a little fun with this 7-8 year old boy and said he was going to meet...a girl...who would like him. This, of course, disgusted him and he went stomping off. Maybe if he was just a few years older he would be asking me: "Now what does she look like?"

Goodbye Charlotte

After more than a year of having our library pet tarantula Charlotte, next week we are bidding a fond farewell to her. Or should I say I am bidding a fond farewell to her, the others are not too sad she is leaving. She was my pet more than anyone else, I fed her, changed her bedding, gave her water and took her out on presentations. I have to admit I will miss the big creepy gal.

But now we are getting a new pet. After months of deliberations, and then a split second decision in the pet store, we decided on a water dragon. I am abdicating responsibility for this pet's care. I am done with taking care of library pets and worrying if they will be dead when I come back from the weekend. I am going to do hardly none of the work and take all of the glory talking about the water dragon to the children as if I'm some expert on lizardology. I really know nothing about water dragons now, I should bone up on information since children always ask SO many questions like: What does it eat? Is it a girl or a boy? How big will it get? Hey, that last one is a good question. Hmmm...

What troubles librarians most

I'm on this committee who's purpose is to draft policy to deal with extreme library behavior. We're going to individual libraries to talk to them about how to use library policy to handle patrons and circumstances that are "out of the ordinary."

What it seems that most of the libraries want to talk about, what is troubling them most, is unattended children. This is a problem that is striking every library, from the ones who serve the upper middle class to the branch in the poorer areas. At a staff meeting last week we did not get to finish everything we wanted to say because the library staff wanted to focus on the issue of unattended children.

How do you deal with an unattended child who's causing a ruckus? What happens when a parent does not handle their own children? What happens when a parent simply isn't there? Library policy DOES address these issues but a librarian has to ACT on the policy and that is never simple. Some librarians are simply content to sit behind the desk and have the problem sort itself out or ignore it entirely. You cannot ignore an unattended five year old roaming around the library, asking questions every five minutes and pulling books off the shelves. Yet it seems like some librarians are trying very hard to do so.

"Planting" Summer Flowers

Last week I had an activity where the children planted their own summer flowers. I bought these 80 cent flower pots at Walmart and had the kids decorate them with paint. Then they filled the pots up with potting soil and put seeds in them then watered them. I had marigolds, zinnias and sunflowers.

I learned quickly that children have no concept of planting things. They would put a few of each plant in the pot instead of just one plant in the small little pot. Or they would dump twenty seeds into one pot before they covered it up with dirt. Some kids would fill the pots up with dirt and then sprinkle the seeds on top of the dirt like mozzarella on a pizza. I ended up having to stand next to the seed station and instruct the kids on the proper planting techniques. I have a feeling that lots of kids are going to be disappointed when they get home and no flowers sprout from their pots.

The Power of Storytelling

During the end of May I visited the local elementary schools to talk up our Summer Reading program. I visited around 3800 students at various assemblies around the area. With me I took the very accomplished storyteller Rachel Hedman to get the children excited and then I gave the "boring" part of the assembly where I talked about the summer reading program and what they needed to do to sign up.

Where children are endlessly entertained by videogames and TV I was not sure that sitting still and listening to someone tell a story would go over well. But these children were entirely riveted to every word that Rachel spoke. When she gestured to the back of the room and spoke of a "glowing book" "far in the distance" half the children's heads turned to the back of the cafeteria to see this imaginary book. It was great to see the YouTube generation sitting so quietly, hands in their laps, eyes forward, listening to simple, well-told stories.

The Psychology of Meetings

I go to countless meetings. Some are small 3-4 person informal group meetings and others are formal 20 member board meetings. Despite the differences between the meetings you will always find the same types of people at them. I have put them in these categories:

1. The Tyrant: This person dominates the meeting. In every single topic they have to have their say no matter how irrelevent it is. Sometimes these people are "overtalkers" and will speak while other people are talking to get their words across.
2. The Name Dropper: This person is here at the meeting to make themselves look good. They will bring up in things they've done no matter how off topic it is to make themselves look accomplished. Anytime they can mention the name of someone they know (usually they've just shook this person's hand and said "hello") they will do so.
3. The Random Story Artist: This person cannot stay on topic. They will bring up random personal stories or events from years ago unrelating to the discussion that leaves the rest of the group scratching their head.
4. The Statue: This person sits in stony silence. They may have brilliant things to say but the aforementioned people do not allow them to say it.

We all lie in these categories at some time or another, sometimes all of them in one meeting. However, usually distinct individuals claim the category for their own and another roundabout, long meeting begins again.

Locked in the Bathroom

We've been having problems with our bathroom locks the past few weeks. We have two public bathrooms and a few weeks ago we had to remove one of the doors because the bathroom lock completely broke. So we had one bathroom left and a week or so ago one unfortunate man went to use it and locked himself in.

I was alerted by a staff member: "Someone's locked themselves in the bathroom." I at first thought it was a child but it was a grown man and upon inspection of the lock we found it was completely broken. We at first tried to pry it with a screwdriver then some pliers. Nothing worked. Then I tried to call the maintenance people for the library, no one answered. I went across the street to their facility and knocked on the door but no one was there. At this point the man had been in there for about twenty minutes. So helplessly we told the man: "Would you like a magazine?" It took several more minutes but finally the maintenance people showed up with a giant saw. They sliced off the lock with an earsplitting noise that filled the library. The man ended up being a prisoner in the bathroom for 20 more minutes.

Poor guy, he just wanted to use the restroom and he gets locked in there for 40 minutes. I hope he at least enjoyed his magazines.

Anime Art Contest

firstplaceanime
Originally uploaded by kearnslibrary

We had our second annual anime art contest a few months ago. I finally got around to taking down the pictures and scanning them all in the other week. We had 44 entries, up from 33 last year. I was running out of space on the wall to put the pictures! I was so impressed with the teen's artistic talent.

I've linked all the pictures onto "our library's teen art." This picture here is our first place winner.

Buttons, Buttons, Who's got the Buttons?

For my anime club activity a few weeks ago I had a button maker and I had the kids make their own buttons. I printed out numerous anime pictures they could choose from, some kids printed out their own pictures and others drew their own button designs. Then they cut out the circles handed them to me and I pressed them into the button maker. After the end of it I had blisters on my hands from all the buttons.

I must have made a 100 buttons for all the 20-30 kids that showed up. They all wanted several buttons. I found out after an hour into it that I was running out of the button backs, when I had only about 6-7 left I told the group that I could only make buttons for those who did not have any or only had one.

There was a girl (not the girl pictured) who was pressed next to me and had five buttons but insisted on more. She pleaded with me for more buttons and I explained to her that I could not make any more for her since I was running out and some people had not gotten any buttons. She continued whining. I explained again: "It's not fair for me to make you more buttons when some people don't have any buttons and you have five already." This did not seem to make logical sense to her and she pressed right up on me in my face and got aggressively whiny begging me for more. After 4-5 times of telling her "no" she walked off in a huff and got angry, completely forgetting all the 5 buttons I had made for her before. The week afterwards she gave me cold silence.

I understand that this is typical "me", self-gratifying adolescent behavior. But it still did not ease my annoyance. This girl is going to be disappointed in life when she discovers she doesn't get everything she wants.

Suicide Poem

This week I was a judge for a system-wide teen poetry contest. Almost all the teen poems were dark and "angsty" but one poem stood out from the rest, it was entitled "Suicide." The poem detailed the way this teen wanted to die and how much they wished to kill themselves.

I was disturbed by this poem and started contacting the other judges in the contest about it. To my surprise, they did not share the same reaction. One said she was not disturbed by the poem and another said that the teen was just "angsty" and being emotional. I insisted that this poem was a suicide threat and should be taken seriously but while I found agreement among my immediate coworkers the others who had judged the poem saw the situation differently.

I knew I could not just sit still and do nothing so I took the poem up to administration. They took the poem seriously and told me to contact the writer and provide them with the number of the employee counselor. I did this and also gave the writer the suicide hotline number. I have not heard back from this individual but I could not help from being unnerved from the whole incident. Have some of us as librarians become so jaded that we dismiss a teen's wish for death as "angst"? It is true that teens write depressing prose every day but it is also true that teens kill themselves every day.

Monsters Under the Bed

I had a "monsters" storytime this week. After I read a story about a little monster who has humans under his bed I asked the kids "Do any of you have monsters under your bed?" I didn't expect a response but several hands shot up in the air, "I do, I do! Me, me!" They were so excited to have monsters under their beds. I guess their monsters weren't that scary.

I also read a book about 10 things to do with your monster. Among the activities to do with your scaled or slimy friend were living next to a pet store because monsters eat lots of food and never naming your monster Fluffy. (It suggested you name your monster Bob or Biff.) After the storytime we made monster faces with paper plates, tissue paper and other various odds and ends. I asked a child what he was going to name his monster and he said (in complete seriousness) "I'm not going to name him Fluffy!"

Sick Story

I've stayed home from work today. This is thanks to my wonderful husband who has been sick for a month yet refuses to go to a doctor. (Typical male.) I felt sick the other week but got over it but then it came back with a vengeance yesterday afternoon. My throat got sore, I started sneezing and my nose turned into a faucet. I would just be sitting there typing at the computer when drops of snot would roll out of my nose at indiscriminate times. Very nasty.

At one point in the afternoon a patron called me over to help her with the computer. I leaned over her shoulder to look at the computer and then suddenly a big droplet of snot fell out of my nose and dropped onto her pants leg. I held my breath in shock. What do I do? I was presented with two options: a. Apologize profusely for my bodily fluids falling on her or b. Pretend it never happened

I took the coward's way out. After a millisecond pause I pointed at the screen. "Click on that there to save it," I said and then walked away. I do not know if that woman noticed the snot on her leg. I pray she didn't but I'm not sure since that was the last time she asked for help from me.

Four Little Words

I am turning into my parents.

The other day there were a group of rowdy teens who needed to be shown the door. I approached them and told them to leave the library and welcomed them to come back the next day. Of course, teens want to know WHY they're being punished so they questioned me "Why are we being kicked out?" I answered the way my parents would always say "Because I said so."

The most infuriating four words a teen can hear is "Because I said so." This is because those words leave no room for argument. The adult's word is law and there will be no debate. Teens love to debate and if they can get you to explain why they're being disciplined they will try a weasel a way out of the punishment any way they can.

I heard those four little words frequently as a teen and they made me want to bash my head against a wall. Now here I am using them against others. I have truly joined the ranks of uncool adulthood.

Sushi!

Last week for my anime club I brought in a professional Japanese sushi chef to demonstrate to the teens how to make sushi. He made cucumber rolls, California rolls, hand rolls and there was something else that I can't pronounce or spell if you paid me. Sushi is not something everyone likes, it's kind of an acquired taste. However, these teens gobbled up roll after roll of it.

I'm glad they enjoyed the sushi. It's good to expose the teens to something other than cheeseburgers, Red Bull and those flaming hot Cheetos (where they come in and spread Cheeto dust everywhere.) It was also fascinating watching the chef roll the sushi in his special bamboo mat. Making sushi truly is an art. I just hope the teens don't expect me to feed them like this all the time. I already had a teen ask me the other week for a cheeseburger...

Roaming 'Rovers'

Over the past two weeks we've had two stray dogs roam right into the doors of our library. The first time I saw one it took a second to register that the mass of fur jogging among the stacks was not an unshaven patron but was a four legged animal.

Having a dog inside the library excites the teens who immediately adopt the dog as their own and want to start petting it. I'm sure some of these teens would pet every stray dog they saw even if it was foaming at the mouth.

The first dog was caught by our security officer who leashed it to the bench outside the front doors amassing a crowd before animal control arrived. The second dog was much smaller and cuter. It was a tiny brown chihuahua who wandered behind the reference desk and growled at us whenever we approached. We barricaded the entrance of the reference desk with trash cans so he wouldn't escape and prayed he wouldn't use the bathroom. The little guy was rescued by animal control soon after.

One staff member suggested we keep the chihuahua as a pet but after all this I have learned that you can't get any work done with a dog in the library.

Library Daycare

Our library is many of our patron's own personal, free, daycare center. Why pay childcare when your child can go to the library for free and stay until you feel like picking them up?

For the past two weeks on Friday night there have been packs of children left stranded when we close at six pm. Last week there were two ten year olds who were at the library for 4-5 hours and told me that their parents worked and could not pick them up. When I inquired how they would get home they said they would walk but that it was far.

This week there was a larger group of a 7, 8, 5 and I believe a four year old who were left at the library for 3-4 hours with no adult supervision. As kids are wont to do, they were destructive and left the toddler books in complete disarray. When the library closed at six pm there was no adult coming to pick up this group of children. I asked when their parents would pick them up and they said it would be any minute. Six o'clock came and went, the staff was getting ready to go. I told the staff I would give it one more minute and then I was calling the sheriff. Just then the pack of kids darted out the door and ran off. I called after them and they yelled at me that they would walk home. Then they continued to run down the street, four year old in tow.

What do you do in a situation like that?

Food Coloring Faux Pas

Last year I had a craft with food coloring. At storytime we made marshmallow snowmen and decorated their faces with black food coloring. All was going well with this cute, sugary snowmen and the kids really enjoyed it. Then came the teens. Later that afternoon I had some supplies left over for teens to make snowmen, big mistake. The three year olds could handle the food coloring but with the teens the food coloring promptly was spilled all over the carpet. Black food coloring does not come out of carpet.

So I decided to use food coloring again in a storytime craft. You take food coloring and put dots of it on paper, fold the paper over and then get a colorful Rorschach design. It was for our 'Colors' storytime and the kids really liked it. I wasn't thinking and I didn't put anything down underneath the paper, I thought the food coloring would easily come out of the table. Turns out I was right, with the exception of pink food coloring. For some reason every color comes out of tabletops except for bright pink colors. Now there are little pink droplets on the tables. You think I would have learned my lesson the first time. The allure of food coloring was just too much.

Gorilla in the Room

Last week our children's computer was stolen. Someone simply walked through the door, unhooked the computer from the monitor and idly sauntered out the front door. Our security cameras were not aimed at the children's computers and no one on the staff remembers seeing anyone walking out with a computer.

I believe that we at the library get so used to people walking in and out of the door, carrying things, talking, asking for things etc that it would be simple if someone acted casual and simply walked out of the door like he owned the computer. Patrons would simply think he was a tech person and ignore the situation. Society gets so used to ignoring the scene around them that it takes some highly unusual disturbance to shake them out of their day to day goings on. And sometimes even that is not enough...

I heard on a talk show that people are so oblivious to the world around them that when they did a test with random subjects and put a gorilla in a normal room full of everyday things ten percent of people did not notice the gorilla. The speaker on the show said these ten percent are those that do not survive disasters.

Chocolate Fun

We had a "Chocolate Fun" activity last week with the teens. During it we had the teens make art with chocolate syrup and Q-tips. You can see some of their work above and another picture in the slide show.

Some other "chocolaty" activities we had were "Don't Eat Pete" where you can win lots of M and Ms, a cake walk with Reeses peanut butter as prizes, chocolate trivia musical chairs and a chocolate dipping station. The kids were way revved up on sugar running around and giggling with syrup smeared around their lips. One boy ran in circles yelling "I love chocolate!" and ate seven or eight chocolate cookies by himself. The kids have asked when we're going to do it again. I was telling my friend about the chocolate activity we had at work, she works in the health field bent over test tubes all day and she told me, "I can't BELIEVE you get to do that at work!" She's right, I'm pretty lucky to work at a place where I can eat chocolate dipped marshmallows and get paid for it.

Teen Violence

This week was a sad one when a boy from the local high school up the road was shot and killed by his fellow students. He was only 15 years old. The shooting was gang related. The teens that came to our library were affected in different ways. Some were subdued and in shock, putting pictures of the dead teen with "You're in our hearts" on their notebooks. Other teens from the high school thought the whole situation and the media coverage was cool and one girl told me she wished she was disappointed she didn't get to see anything because the school was in lockdown.

The reaction from some teens that "violence is cool" was the exact same kind I saw when I was in high school during the Columbine massacre. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 students while wearing dark trench coats. Some students at my high school thought this was cool and started wearing dark trench coats to school to show that they were "dangerous." The trend spread and more students wore the trench coats leading the principal to institute a school-wide trench coat ban.

I guess we can't really completely blame teens for thinking "violence is cool." They are raised with their gangsta heroes glorifying shootings and movies and TV with death all the time. Let's just not hope, as in this unfortunate case, that other students realize in real life, there is nothing cool about young students dying before their time.

I'm Famous!--Not Really

I almost forgot to mention that last month a reporter came by to take pictures of my anime club for the Salt Lake Tribune. That was the time we were making anime shrinky dinks. They also asked me questions about teens in the library. They put the article in the paper a bit ago:

Here's the link: Libraries get rad for teen audiences

My pictures in there with some of my teens but after all the questions they asked me about teens they never quoted me once. Perhaps they wrote the article first and then took the pictures, or I'm just not very "quotable."

Kicking out Teens

My manager has been gone for the week and will be in and out for a while and I have been placed in charge of the library in his absence. This means that I am the official toilet unstopper and also that I am going to be the person kicking the teens out of the library. Now I have kicked many teens out of the library but my manager and a former employee have been a great help in that. Now it's up to me and this week 13 unruly kids have been booted out into the cold.

In case anyone out there has troubled teens and needs help disciplining. Do not be afraid of kicking them out of the library. Like a bad penny, they will turn up again the next day. Here is a step by step instruction for any librarian needing some help getting those teens out the door.

1. Make sure they all know the rules and which rules are "kick-out-able"; this can be done through an orientation at the beginning of each semester
2. Give them a warning first: "You are being too loud and if I have to come back here one more time you will have to leave." Some offenses like hitting don't get warnings.
3. When you kick them out be sure to let them know that they are welcome to come back the next day.
4. Escort them to the door and make sure they leave the premises. Do not let them go to the bathroom or get a book. Make them leave immediately.
5. Do all of this in a firm, clear voice but do not be condescending.

You can't catch me I'm the Gingerbread Man

I've been gone for a bit on vacation. I went to Texas to visit my family and went to the Sugarbowl. Go Utes!

This week I returned and had a storytime. It was a cookie storytime and in it I had a felt story of "The Gingerbread Man." I'm sure you all know the story of The Gingerbread Man how he jumped alive out of the oven and ran away from everyone exclaiming gleefully "you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man." Unfortunately this sugar-coated character met his demise from the crafty fox who told the Gingerbread Man "Come here friend and hop on my snout so your feet don't get wet as we cross the river." The Gingerbread Man did so and the fox ate him up in one gulp.

I was telling the story to the children and got to the point where the fox ate the The Gingerbread Man. I concluded, "and that was the end of the Gingerbread Man." There was silence from the children. Then one small voice asked, "the Gingerbread Man's dead?" The children were distressed. No child was smiling at the end of the story. The cute little character who ran from everyone met a horrible death in the jaws of a carnivore. I had to make an awkward segue into the next book with "Okay kids, uh, let's hear more about cookies in this next book..."

This made me realize that to kids, everything's alive, talking bears, dancing dogs, running Gingerbread Man, they're all equally real to them. So the story of The Gingerbread Man is probably not a gentle bedtime story to a three year old but a tragic death of a whimsical cookie.