:The Young Librarian Series

Mike Campagna is a 25 year old Assistant Librarian at the Barrington Area Library in Illinois.  If you have any questions you can email him at: mike.k.camp[at sign]gmail[dot]com or follow him on twitter.

One of the best aspects of working in a library is the diversity and individuality of library employees. We span a large range in age, attributes and interests. However, there are many different perspectives represented within our generation as well. This project, Putting a Face on Young Librarians, shows the differences we all have, but unifies us around the same passion.

Putting a Face on Young Librarians is a two part project. The initial part of the project requires a little help from other young library employees. I am asking you to submit photos of yourself to a Flickr group and add a title from the listing (see Flickr group) or make one of your own. The second part of the project will be a compilation of the photos presenting who young librarians are, what we represent and what we want to achieve. The goals of this presentation are to create an active community, provide an open forum to express ourselves and build a foundation for the future.

Creating a community is difficult, but creating an active community is even more challenging. Many library employees have the desire to contribute, but may not have time to start a blog or get a new idea off the ground. This project serves as a convenient way to become an active participant in the Young Librarian Series. The Flickr group will also allow us to see each other and interact with peers by posting to the group’s discussion board.

Building a foundation for the future is a bit…ok…EXTREMELY idealistic. After all, how are a bunch of pictures going to do ANYTHING for the betterment of libraries? This presentation is a starting point in defining what it means to be a modern librarian. Modern librarian is a term that should be used across the spectrum of librarians and is not necessarily synonymous with young librarian. Librarians in different generations have provided us with great ideas and resources and now it is time we help ourselves and the next generation.

Thanks and I look forward to seeing your submissions!

Do you have a concept you would like to be featured on the Young Librarian Series?  Send an email with your idea to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or visit the SUBMISSIONS page for more details! Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week!

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Andy Woodworth is a 32 year old librarian in New Jersey.  You can read his blog at: http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com or email him with questions at: wawoodworth[the 'at' symbol]gmail.com.

On Monday August 31st, I would like to propose a blogathon to raise funds on behalf of the Louisville Free Public Library. Earlier this month, the main library fell victim to a flood which put over four feet of water in their basement. As you can imagine, a lot of stuff got ruined. Steve Lawson, a member of Library Society of the World, was moved enough by their plight to set up a PayPal donation account so as to collect fund and write a check to the Library on September 1st. (Update to his post here.) I thought that, through a combined effort on the part of the library blogging community, we might push the fund raising campaign up a notch. And thus was born the idea of a blogathon.

What is a blogathon?

For this event, I am borrowing liberally from Bobbi Newman’s “Day in the Life of a Librarian“. Rather than ask people to write on a common account over a specified time period (typically 24 hours), I’m asking people to write an entry on a common theme and post it on their blog MONDAY AUGUST 31ST. (In looking around at the web, this would be a non-traditional blogathon.) These events are done to raise awareness, to engage in fundraising, and to bring the blogging community together around a single cause.

So, what do I do now?

A few things before the big day on MONDAY AUGUST 31ST:

(1) You can make a monetary donation directly to the Louisville Free Public Library Foundation. There is no such thing as a donation that is too small! Everything counts! In the alternative, if you are in the Louisville area, donations of time or materials work in lieu of money to help out the library.

(2) Register your name & blog at the wiki:

http://lfplblogathon.pbworks.com/

(3) Advertise your participation and pass the word to other librarian bloggers of this event through your blog. Here are some graphics to help.

“Flood them with money!” as inspired by Steve Lawson.

Change your Twitter, Myspace, and/or Facebook icon. (Link to the picture in Flickr)

Share this wiki on Myspace and Facebook. Tweet about it on Twitter (hashtag: #lfplblogathon). Throw the icon in your sidebar with a link. Let it be a presence on your blog for the now.

(4) Between now and MONDAY AUGUST 31ST, please write a post for your blog on this carefully chosen theme:

“Why Libraries Kick Ass”

(Or the PG version: “Why Libraries Rock”. Or the very G version: “Why Libraries are Awesome”.)

I would request that the theme (whichever variation of it you have chosen) be the title of your post. Aside from that, interpret the theme as you will. Since this is about raising money on the behalf of a library, it bears saying why libraries are so important to our society as a whole. So, give it your all! Because the next library that you are soliciting support for might be your own.

Also, be sure to include links to the Louisville Free Public Library Foundation (http://www.lfplfoundation.org/) in your post so your readers can donate!

(5) On Monday August 31st, place your carefully crafted post on your blog! Tweet it, share it on social media, and email it to your friends/colleagues!

That’s it!

The Louisville Free Public Library gets a donation, you get a fun post to write (to train yourself for future advocacy), and the library blogger community unites for a good cause! It’s a win-win-win situation!

Can’t wait to read them all on the 31st!

Do you have a concept you would like to be featured on the Young Librarian Series?  Send an email with your idea to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or visit the SUBMISSIONS page for more details! Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week!

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Erika Earp created an awesome resource and a cool book group that she would like to share on the Young Librarian Series.  She is 29 years old and is an Information & Referral Librarian in North Carolina.  If you have any questions you can contact her at earpel[at]gmail[dot]com and you can also check out her blog, Erika STILL rules the blogosphere.  Thanks for contributing Erika!

My friend, and coworker, Linette showed me an awesome website.  I thought it was great and thought it might be a good idea for a book club.  Linette and I decided to make a teen book club where the teens created the facebook plot feed.  We put together a list of the books we thought would be good to do.  We had a short list of requirements.  Things like no flashbacks, since that would be more complicated, not too many characters, in case not a lot of teens showed up.  We decided to do Twilight as our first book in the hopes that that would bring in a good number of teens.

We made a set of guidelines like only plot points from Twilight are to be included, nothing from New Moon, Eclipse, or Breaking Dawn.  Our publicity campaign for the book club included not only signs and posters up at the branch library, but also mailing the information to the high schools in the area.

Our first meeting only two girls showed up.  We figured this was because of the branch where we were doing the book club–it’s hard to get people to come to programs there.  We had made cupcakes that were filled with cherry pie filling, so they looked like they were bleeding when bitten into.  We also made a beverage called something like Vampire Blood or something like that.  (If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll send you the recipes.)

We decided to go ahead and still do the next month, where our book was New Moon–we had decided to do the entire Twilight saga.  That meeting had higher attendance–three girls showed up, yay!  Those girls were also more involved in the process.  The first month, the girls hadn’t read the book recently, the second month, the girls had just read the book, so it was fresh in their minds.  Since so few girls attended each month, Linette and I each got to do a character’s facebook feed.  The first month I was Jessica and the second month I was Alice.  Unfortunately, Linette’s husband got re-stationed (or whatever it’s called) from Fort Bragg to Fort Knox, so she and her family had to move, which meant we were going to cancel the next two months.

Now that I’m back at my normal branch (that’s a whole other story), where we have better turnout for teen programs, I’m tempted to try it again, but I’m involved in two other book clubs that are starting up this fall.  I don’t have the time to do a third one.  Perhaps at a future job…

To view and/or download the twilightbook feed for Twlight click here.

To view and/or download the twilightbook feed for New Moon click here.

You can also view full screen by clicking on the small display icon on the bottom right of the viewer on Slideshare.

Do you have a concept you would like to be featured on the Young Librarian Series?  Send an email with your idea to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or visit the SUBMISSIONS page for more details! Thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week!

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The Young Librarian Series #1 from leah white on Vimeo.

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