Some Thoughts on WLA 2009

Keynote Speech with Jan Sanders

Very nice breakfast buffet! Jan was enjoyable and inspirational. Loved hearing about libraries where there is a room for homeless people to store their belongings! Her enthusiasm and creative spirit are energizing, and got the conference off to a fine start.

1. WorldCat.org: Where Libraries and Users Connect:

I’ve been using WorldCat as a registered user, learning about creating lists, and generally poking around with the .org version. This workshop explained the difference between the higher levels of subscription through OCLC and the free public version. Much of this was somewhat familiar to me, but I wasn’t clear about the different subscriptions, so that was good to learn about.

2. Squeaky Clean, Part 2 (Theresa Gemmer & Bonnie Gerken)

After looking in vain for Part 1, I was pleased to learn that it was a workshop done a couple years ago, at a conference I didn’t attend! I was hoping to learn about books for children and teens, but this was primarily about books to offer Outreach customers. There was a handout, but since I assumed it would be posted on NWCentral, I didn’t pick it up. Now, I can’t find it there, so that was a mistake. The criteria they used for including a title on their list, was No Swearing (one “Damn” in Gone With the Wind was allowed; two would have disqualified that one), No Sex, No Violence. It would be good to have a list like this for youth as well as seniors!

3. Hot! Naked! Social Marketing. (Dean Marney & Dan Howard)

This was one of the best programs I attended. The two presenters were from North Central Regional Library, and they combined humor with lots of good information that they had learned from Nancy Lee, a social marketing expert from the Seattle Area. They described how they changed the way they promote SRP. In the past, they went out to all the schools, and pushed the program in whatever way they could (class visit, assembly, parent letter, etc.) As a result of their new technique, which involved figuring out their target audience, defining and getting rid of obstacles, and training staff to make effective presentations (booktalks), they now push the program only to second graders (audience who is the most interested, and is capable of reading and actually participating). They do booktalks, and have enough copies of the books purchased, that any second grader who comes in with excitement, and asks is given a copy of the book they are interested in to check out, no reserves needed. The second graders naturally bring in siblings/family/friends, so their numbers are up, up, up!

They do “anything for their many book clubs” and in turn, their book clubs will “do anything for the library.” They said the book clubs are bigger library supporters than the friends groups. For instance, if a book club indicates that a particular title will be discussed in two weeks time, and they need “x” number of copies of the book, the library goes right out and buys that many copies of the title, and hands it over to the group for their discussion.

At this time, they are preparing to promote their Homework Help Center service, and they will not be talking to students, especially not remedial students (who could probably benefit, but lack interest.) Instead, they will be going out to talk to AP (advanced placement) teachers and Math teachers. Those are the people who will spread the word to students who will be inclined to use this service. The students these teachers work with are the ones who will be motivated to make use of the program.

Talk to people who can make an impact. Don’t put up posters and bookmarks; talk to people. If there is an obstacle, find out what it is, and do what you can to get rid of it. Don’t try to change the world, and get the person who doesn’t use the service to use it. Instead, go after the ones who just need to hear about it, to become users. Use their word of mouth and enthusiasm to get the non-users interested.

The presenters of this program recommended inviting Nancy Lee to do a staff development workshop, at least for management level staff. Based on what they shared, I believe this would be a great idea, but might also be interesting for an all-staff workshop.

4. Advanced Searching & Beyond Using Google’s Search (Erin Gordon)

What a great program! Erin Gordon is an i-School student, and did a wonderful job explaining what Google’s Custom Search engine is useful for, and how to create one. Her handouts for this program are here. Google’s Custom Search is a little bit like Rollyo, only way more flexible and useful, because you can put it on any web page you are editing. When you go through the wizard to create a search, you specify which websites, and how much of each website should be searched, and how those results can be displayed. I immediately thought of how useful it would be to have a custom search engine at the top of each section of SCLD’s web picks, to assist users in finding the information they look for, without having to poke through all the websites and sub menus. I created a Custom Search Engine for one my web-picks assignments, which is Local School Districts. The above link will take you to the page where it resides, but it can also be integrated into a different web page, as a small search box. I have it linked as such on my Web 2.0 blog, Spokaliciousness. If you want to play with it, try the following term to search for: “Accelerated read*” or look for lunch menus, or superintendents, or calendars…

5. Non-Fiction Book Talking Extravaganza (Susan Veltfort & Kirsten Edwards)

This program was somewhat mis-named because part of the booktalk was actually to promote award winning books. The non-fiction books were fun, mostly the ones that would be fun to share with kids and teens for recreational reading. There was nothing there that would be great for learning about a new reference source.

6. Autism Awareness in the Library (Julie Ashmun & Jennifer Fenton)

Because this program was sponsored by CAYAS, its focus was on recognizing and assisting families with an autistic child. I was hoping for a little more information on how to deal with the autistic adults that come into the library independently, often to use the computers. Some of the points made by the presenter included, making signs very clear and “to the point.” When instruction is given, be very direct, i.e. “You may use the computer for 5 minutes,” rather than “please share the computer.” In storytime, instead of instructing children to sit in a circle on the floor, provide carpet squares so that the autistic child can know exactly where he or she is supposed to be. Libraries have so much to look at, and so many different sections, that it is quite overwhelming for someone with autism, who cannot filter visual and auditory input. She suggested color coding and simple descriptive signage to assist autistic customers to navigate their way. She also urged extra care and compassion for the parents/caregivers, because they cannot necessarily control the behavior of their autistic family member, and where we have to deal with it on a short term basis when they visit, for them it is an endless ordeal of embarrassment and judgmental looks from strangers who don’t understand. If libraries make them welcome with their children, we do these families a tremendous service.

7. Paula Poundstone.

Because we sat with Frank and Carolyn Payne, and he is a bit hard of hearing, we sat at the table right in front of Paula’s dais. We knew there was a good chance she would pick on us, as she likes to include her audience in her humor, and we were right! She spent some time picking on my husband who is a high school teacher (she doesn’t think too highly of teachers’ teaching abilities because her eldest daughter hasn’t learned much except lying). She was also delighted to learn that the former teacher who sat on the other side of Chris was named Mrs. Failing “Failing students, line up here!” She also had a great time picking on the other gentleman at our table who is the director of the Camas Public Library, and had the audacity to come to WLA without bringing any of his staff along for the fun. He was a good sport about it, and gave her some great lines to work with. The food was pretty good too, so it was a very enjoyable evening.

Programs I wish I could have attended:

Captivating & Communicating with One-Year-Olds: Tried True Teachable Ideas
Storytime Showcase
Dealing With Workplace Bullies
Looking At Picturebooks
B’Tween the Pages:Getting Tweens Through Your Doors & Into Books
Beyond Books: Using Flannelboards & Music at Preschool Story Time
Ask-WA: Or How I learned to Stop Worrying & Love Virtual Reference
Teen Program Showcase
Book Talking the Best

2009 WLA Conference

Please take this opportunity to share with fellow staff about the sessions you attended at this year's WLA conference.

Welcome!

Because people have been asking for a place to discuss their training and conference experiences--and in light of all the fun we're having with the Learning 2.0 assignments--we thought it was time to create a new forum for sharing these experiences.

Most of you have already been blogging as part of your Learning 2.0 participation, so this format should be familiar. Here you can post a new topic relating to a conference or training session you've attended, or you can respond to someone else's post. (If you want to post a new topic, you'll need to be an author of this blog. If you aren't one already, please contact Stacey and she'll add you to the author list. You'll need to have a Gmail account to complete the author authentication process.) Please remember that followers of this blog will find it helpful if you use a descriptive title for your entry--that way, they won't have to guess what you're writing about.

As you can see from the above post, we're expecting WLA attendees to weigh in first with their thoughts and experiences. However, the purpose of this blog is for staff to share all their different training and conference experiences, such as next month's INCOL workshop, the Confidentiality and Privacy training, and all the other wonderful things we're not even aware of yet.