Sartorial diversion

It's been a long and trying week. First I botched a lecture on collection development to my Library Services and Programs for Children class (a topic I know and love!! It was like one of those nightmares in which you're slogging endlessly through mud, knowing you're asleep but unable to wake up), then there was the whole Newbery situation, and then I got rained on during my run today. Twice!

In response, I've decided not to get dressed today and am lounging about all day in a frayed robe, pink flowered long johns, and ancient orange mukluks, a look that I sport so often at home that my kids both whispered "That's so YOU" during the latest Harry Potter movie - referring to the eccentric (even for a wizard) Xenophilius Lovegood and his limp-cardigan-over-saggy-leggings style.

Comfortable this look may be, but it makes a person feel rather shabby, especially while reading the latest Foundling (previously Monster Blood Tattoo) book by D.M. Cornish, Factotum. The fanciful and ornate clothing of his characters is so lovingly described and illustrated that one can only long for the glory days of vests and jackets and overcoats and buckles and stockings and breeches and scarves and gloves and tricorn hats and about a dozen other articles of clothing (or "halter") - all worn at the same time. This is my heroine Europe, looking fabulous as usual.

Or perhaps those days are here already. In the paper today was a brief description of designer Thom Browne's Fall/Winter 2011 menswear collection, which struck a chord in my fantasy/steampunk soul. Clothing like this would certainly enliven the ol' Central Library...

Heaven must wait

Foiled by bad timing!

A book that I read as a manuscript way back in 2009 (when the 2012 Newbery Committee wasn't even a twinkle in my eye) will be published this year and will be eligible for consideration by - yes - the 2012 Newbery Committee.

After discussing the matter with my Chair Viki Ash and with the ALSC Executive Board, I have voluntarily resigned from the 2012 Newbery Committee.

Phew. I don't know what has been worse - realizing that I had a Serious Problem, screwing up my courage to tell Viki about it, resigning from the committee, or writing this post. Viki, the Board, and my ex-Committee members have all been wonderfully supportive and kind.

It's horribly disappointing and sad. I've been waiting my whole life to be on this committee! But in this situation, there was no way to remain on the committee. I couldn't bear it if there were any taint on the Newbery - especially if I had been the cause of it! So resigning was clearly the right and only thing to do.

Because this is my year of half-full glasses and silver linings, I will try to look at 2011 as a year in which I will unexpectedly be able to read all kinds of YA and adult books and not just Newbery-eligible books, and I will be able to discuss and review them all on this blog. And I will be cheering louder than anyone when the 2012 Newbery is announced next January.

Anyway, there will be other Newbery Committees! And in that light, I plan to sing this song at our next Ladies of the Library karaoke evening, dedicating it to Those Who Appoint Newbery Committee Members:

March Madness

School Library Journal's Battle of the (Kids') Books has announced the list of books that will be contenders, although the brackets have not yet been assigned as of today. As usual, this is a very YA-heavy list, making the name of the contest something of a misnomer. I've read 9 of the 16 titles - luckily there's still time to read them all.

And those of you who read books for grown-ups might want to follow the 2011 Tournament of Books. I've read 3 of the 16 titles (well, those grown-up books are so darned LONG...).

Outreach - how to get it done

There were a number of thoughtful comments to my post a couple days ago on the idea of having "outreach librarians" at the LA Public Library.

Mainly, librarians are leery of the idea, as in some library systems this has led to branch librarians not getting to do outreach in their own communities. And as Martha points out, "I love outreach. If someone from Central would come down here, it would be less contact that I have with the community. When they come in my branch they know me and have worked with me. If it was someone from Central they really have no connection to this community."

I agree that children's and teen librarians should be given ample time to get out of the branch and into their communities in order to visit schools and other institutions and organizations that serve youth. They make connections with the kids that are meaningful - and every librarian has experienced the pleasure of a child who comes into the library for the first time and says excitedly, "You visited my class yesterday! I loved that book you read!" This wouldn't happen if only centralized outreach librarians did all the outreach for the whole library system.

But that's not what I'm envisioning. Los Angeles is a really huge city. Even an army of outreach librarians couldn't get to all the thousands of schools, preschools, recreation centers, etc. - and certainly not the 3, 4, or 5 librarians I imagine would be in our outreach department. And certainly our 72 children's librarians and 72 teen librarians in branches can't get to them all on their own right now, what with also having to staff the information desk, offer programming, and so on.

So I imagine that each branch children's and teen librarian would have priorities and goals. For instance, if I worked at a particular branch, maybe I might try to get to all my schools at least once, plus get out to at least 4 early childhood centers/preschools to do storytimes and early literacy workshops. But there would be all sorts of other organizations I wouldn't have time to visit - and I would tell the outreach department about those, so that hopefully an outreach librarian would visit.

So - just another way to get the word out, not taking anyone's duties away.

Not that there has been ANY talk about this possibly happening at LAPL - this is just me wondering "what if?" That said, this discussion is helpful for identifying concerns and possible pitfalls so that if we do ever contemplate forming an outreach department, I'll be aware of how best to do it right and also what to avoid.

Review of Pegasus by Robin McKinley

McKinley, Robin. Pegasus. Putnam, 2010.

Like many a dragon tale, this is the story of a close mental and emotional bond between a human and a member of another species - in this case, the pegasi. The pegasi - a horse-like people with enormous, gorgeous wings - inhabit a remote land that a group of human explorers settled a thousand years before. At that time, a formal Alliance was struck that the humans would rid the land of the monsters who had been plaguing the pegasi, and in return the humans would get to found their own nation in a prime part of the pegasus lands.

The Alliance still holds, and royal humans are bonded at age 12 to royal pegasi in an elaborate ceremony - but that bonding is just a ritual. Humans and pegasi can't really learn each other's language and must rely on rare human magicians to interpret for them, and the "bonding" seems to be a tradition only and not a true meeting of minds and souls.

That is, until 12-year-old Sylvi is bonded to a male pegasus named Ebon. During the ceremony, Sylvi and Ebon discover they can communicate directly with each other merely by thinking, something unheard of and startling to both kingdoms. The bond of the two is immediate and strong. Ebon flies Sylvi on his back (so taboo that they never tell a soul, human or pegasus), they talk for hours - and when Sylvi is 16 years old, she becomes the first human ever to visit the pegasi nation, where the pegasus king and queen hold court.

This is a tale of the struggle to bridge vast cultural divides and to be a trailblazer in a society that is mired in tradition and under threat from dangers within and without its walls. But more than that, this is a love story. Sylvi's intense feelings for Ebon (she can barely stand to be parted from him) sound just like any teen's first love - and yet, because they belong to utterly different species, there is no hint of any physical aspect to their love. The two young people are so close and connected that they can't imagine existing without the other.

One does have to wonder what will happen when either Ebon or Sylvi finds a love interest of their own species, as one assumes they will someday (although it's very hard to imagine, so intense is their relationship). What if they just cling to each other until old age? It does seem a bit weird - if I were either of their parents, I'd be a trifle concerned.

There isn't a lot of action or plot in the book, but McKinley is an able enough writer to make that work; Sylvi's perceptions of Ebon's people are fascinating. Also, Ebon is a breath of fresh air, irreverent and unselfconscious - the opposite of solemn Sylvi. However, we do get way too much of Sylvi's thoughts, and when she speaks, she often says things sadly or wistfully. This lack of energy causes a drag on the story that made me impatient more than once. Perk up, Sylvi! Sure, there could be a lot more understanding between your people and Ebon's - but your royal parents are super cool, so are Ebon's, and... you can talk to pegasi!!!!!!!!

The book ends abruptly and is rather a downer, but it's quite obvious that another volume must be on its way. Will Sylvi and Ebon, cruelly separated, ever be allowed to be together again? Will humans ever embrace pegasi for who they really are, not just what humans think they are? Will Sylvi find a human guy to love? Stay tuned!

Recommended for ages 12 and up.

Big Ideas

At a meeting yesterday, in addition to the suggestion to remember what excites us about our jobs, we were asked to ponder what about the library we would change or create if we had the chance (meaning the time, the money, the permission, whatever it would take).

I'm sure most of us instantly thought, "Hire more librarians! Go back to 6 and 7 day service! More staff development!" And definitely, we want and need all those things - and will get at least some of them if Measure L passes.

More intriguing is to imagine not just improving what we already have or wrenching our libraries back to the level of service we provided before all the 2010 cuts, but rather doing things differently than we've done them before.

In our system, we have a Youth Services coordinating office (consisting of a skeleton staff of one Acting Principal Librarian - moi, one Librarian III, one Library Assistant, and one clerk-typist), a Children's Literature Room in our Central Library (one Senior Librarian, one LIII, and three Children's Librarians, plus support staff), a Teen'Scape room at Central (one Senior Librarian, one LIII, two Teen Librarians, plus support staff), and 72 branches (one Senior Librarian, one Children's Librarian, one Teen Librarian, plus support staff and in some cases an Adult Librarian).

With such bare-bones staff, outreach is very difficult. Children's and Teen Librarians are finding it very hard to visit any of their local schools, preschools, early childhood centers, and youth organizations, let alone most or all of them. And yet these visits are essential if we are to reach out to our communities and especially to those who don't use our libraries.

Even if we receive additional funding and are able to increase our staff and service hours to their pre-2010 levels, outreach will remain difficult for librarians in branches. So much of their time must be spent simply making sure the information desk is staffed - and then there is programming, collection development, and so much else to consider. And let's face it, not every Children's and Teen Librarian is necessarily great at outreach. We all have our different strengths, after all.

So - I would love to see an Outreach office or department at our library. It might be totally a totally separate department with its own staff, overseeing outreach for all levels and all parts of the Library and the City, or it might be part of the Youth Services office, concentrating on outreach to youth ages 0 to 19 and their families, teachers, and caregivers, as well as the organizations that work with youth.

If a part of Youth Services (which I'd prefer, control freak that I am), a Senior Librarian would coordinate and supervise a staff of 3 (or 4? or more?) librarians - well-trained professionals with an enthusiasm for getting out into the community, a gift of persuasion and communication, and preferably Spanish-language skills - whose mission it would be to visit all those preschools, daycare centers, teen and family homeless shelters, WIC agencies, Head Starts, centers for teen mothers, Boys and Girls Clubs, and all the rest of the organizations that branch staff don't have time to visit.

And these Outreach Librarians would offer storytimes and early literacy workshops and information literacy workshops, and they would offer presentations on all the services and resources the library has to offer, both at branches and online. They would be the ambassadors of our library, bringing essential services directly to the community, but also luring the community to the library.

It would be SO AWESOME!

No, it's not a new idea - plenty of library systems have this kind of outreach department. But we don't. And we need it desperately, because Los Angeles is one huge and needy city.

So that's my Big Idea for LAPL. With some luck and hard work, it might even become a reality some day soonish.

Thinking good thoughts

I started this year fully committed to seeing a half-full glass, to accentuating the positive, to not sweating the small stuff, and in general to enjoying my life and my job even when faced with less-than-optimal circumstances.

While I will draw a veil over how well this resolution has served me in my personal life so far, it was working like a charm as far as work was concerned - up until last night, when I lay awake during the wee hours, heart pounding as I obsessed about the monumental tasks in front of me and the gigantic barriers in my path. And that was just the Summer Reading Program I was fretting about, merely one of the programs I am in charge of planning and coordinating for my library system!

Because my hours at work are so filled to the brim, there isn't any time for necessary planning and reflection, so it's natural that there must be some out-of-work-time ruminating; in fact, I get some of my best work-related thinking done while jogging. But when the thinking takes the place of sleeping or is accompanied by cold sweat and a racing pulse - well, that just ain't on.

In fact, I realized I had reached a nadir of Bad Thinking when, during my commute home, I found myself clenching the steering wheel and breathing too rapidly because I was stressing about the tiny details of - a staff karaoke night I've organized for next Wednesday. How ludicrous is that? I'm totally looking forward to yowling Shangri-La songs into a microphone in front of a bug-eyed audience of my colleagues!

Jeez, Eva - LIGHTEN UP!!!!!!!

During one of several meetings today, someone suggested that we "remember what excites us" about our jobs. And while what excites me about my job also stresses me out (because of the lack of time, staff, money; because of the impossibility of ever achieving the perfection I dream about), that is damn good advice nevertheless. Which I will now try to take.

What excites me about my job - the short version:

• Being in a position to bring about positive change in my library system and by doing so, being able to bring about positive change in my community.

Specifically:

• Working to strengthen the children's and teen summer reading clubs, improve the quality and quantity of our early literacy storytimes and parent workshops, increase opportunities for teen participation and leadership, offer first-rate children's and teen materials collections, and ensure that kids and teens have access to homework resources at the library and via the Internet.
• Offering training, resources, information, guidance, good cheer, and moral support to all the children's and teen librarians at our 72 branches and Central.
• Getting the word out to the community about the Library and its amazing, indispensable services, resources, and staff.
  

That boils my job down to some basic, very broad strokes - and yet, these are very tangible things that give me great joy. This is the best job in the world. And as I kept repeating to myself last night, "There is plenty of time; there is plenty of time." And as several wise folks have pointed out to me, this is not brain surgery. If I screw up, no one is going to die!

So - time to relish my job's opportunities, not dread the possibility of failure. Time to have fun doing a job I love.

Time to plan what ABBA song to startle my colleagues with this Wednesday!