Category Archives: Librarical

I read the story Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? which involves making various zoo animal noises.

Does anyone know what noise a flamingo makes?

I had no idea, and we discussed it during story time, and decided that flamingos, like bunnies, don’t make a lot of noise. So when I asked “What noise does a flamingo make?” we’d all just sit quietly and look side to side, and then crack up. It was awesome.

But still, I want to know, Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle, just what noise we’re supposed to make. Also, walruses too.

My day at work was similar, but I burned dinner tonight. I had popped buns in the oven to toast, then got distracted subscribing to some magazines.

Now I’m viewing a couple of DVDs I’m considering weeding from the children’s section.


It’s by the creators of Triplets of Belleville. I have high hopes for this one.

May or may not suck, but it does have interviews with Diana Wynne Jones, who wrote Howl’s Moving Castle.

Weed, dude. Totally. Bra. Yeahhhh.

My first day at the library went well. My morning was spent learning about the children’s and young adult sections, and poking through my desk. Luckily, the last librarian left me a lot of info, so I’m not starting from scratch.

In the afternoon, after school let out, I met a bunch of the Fairhaven kids. Lots of 4-6th graders. There’s a sign above my desk that has my full name, but they’ve decided to call me Mrs. G. I didn’t have the heart to correct them, although I will tomorrow. As my sister advised, if I’m going to buck the patriarchy, I have to take on the little things.

The moment of the day came when a 6th grader asked me to help him find the authors of the constitution of Jordan. As in, Kingdom Of. We found the constitution, in English, with all the signers’ names, but no information about the authors. The CIA World Factbook wasn’t working, and none of our print resources had that much information. I forgot what it’s like to think so literally about school assignments. The point was that this kid learned about a new country, and found where to find information. He was so concerned about finding the right answer, and he left with the scrap of hope that if he can just call a Jordanian embassy …

I’m so so so exhausted, in a way I can’t describe. After work, I had to take a nap. Then I went to the trustees meeting, which was actually quite fun and informative. I now know what the annual budget looks like, and I know that one of the trustees used to date a girl from Iowa. Back in the 40’s.

I’m feeling full of optimism for this job. I think there’s a lot I can do to make the collection better, and that’s a good place to start with, as I get my bearings and start to figure out the community and the library.

My mom (a LIS student and librarian) emailed this to me. I’d like to know how big the library is, and if they have an estimated number of trouble makers out of the quoted 50 students that show up each day. If the library isn’t equipped to manage that many junior high students, and safety becomes an issue, I can see shutting down as an option. Creating a rec center looks like the best option. I hope things get figured out quickly.

Lock the Library! Rowdy Students Are Taking Over
By TINA KELLEY
January 2, 2007

MAPLEWOOD, N.J., Jan. 1 — Every afternoon at Maplewood Middle School’s final bell, dozens of students pour across Baker Street to the public library. Some study quietly.

Others, library officials say, fight, urinate on the bathroom floor, scrawl graffiti on the walls, talk back to librarians or refuse to leave when asked. One recently threatened to burn down the branch library. Librarians call the police, sometimes twice a day.

As a result, starting on Jan. 16, the Maplewood Memorial Library will be closing its two buildings on weekdays from 2:45 to 5 p.m., until further notice.

An institution that, like many nationwide, strives to attract young people, even offering beading and cartooning classes, will soon be shutting them out, along with the rest of the public, at one of the busiest parts of its day.

Library employees will still be on the job, working at tasks like paperwork, filing, and answering calls and online questions.

“They almost knocked me down, and they run in and out,” said Lila Silverman, a Maplewood resident who takes her grandchildren to the library’s children’s room but called the front of the library “a disaster area” after school. “I do try to avoid those hours.”

This comfortable Essex County suburb of 23,000 residents, still proud of its 2002 mention in Money magazine on a list of “Best Places to Live,” is no seedy outpost of urban violence. But its library officials, like many across the country, have grown frustrated by middle schoolers’ mix of pent-up energy, hormones and nascent independence.

Increasingly, librarians are asking: What part of “Shh!” don’t you understand?

About a year ago, the Wickliffe, Ohio, library banned children under 14 during after-school hours unless they were accompanied by adults. An Illinois library adopted a “three strikes, you’re out” rule, suspending library privileges for repeat offenders. And many libraries are adding security guards specifically for the after-school hours.

In Euclid, Ohio, the library pumps classical music into its lobby, bathrooms and front entry to calm patrons, including those from the nearby high school.

A backlash against such measures has also begun: A middle school in Jefferson Parish, La., that requires a daily permission slip for students to use the local public library after school was threatened with a lawsuit last month by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Librarians and other experts say the growing conflicts are the result of an increase in the number of latchkey children, a decrease in civility among young people and a dearth of “third places” — neither home nor school — where kids can be kids.

“We don’t consider the world as safe a place as it used to be, and we don’t encourage children to run around, hang around and be free,” said Judy Nelson, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association, part of the American Library Association. “So you have parents telling their kids that the library is a good place to go.”

Rowland Bennett, who served as the director of the Maplewood Memorial Library for 30 years and is now president of the local school board, said libraries had become “the child care center by necessity.”

Linda W. Braun, a librarian and professor who has written four books about teenagers’ use of libraries, said the students want only to be treated like everybody else.

“If there are little kids making noise, it’s cute, and they can run around, it’s O.K.,” Ms. Braun said of standard library operating procedure. “Or if seniors with hearing difficulties are talking loudly, that’s accepted. But a teen who might talk loudly for a minute or two gets in trouble.”

She added: “The parents don’t want them, the library doesn’t want them, so they act out.”

That leaves librarians doing a job they did not sign up for: baby-sitting for kids old enough to baby-sit.

The Maplewood library has created a gallery space for young people’s artwork, put on an anime film festival and formed a Teen Advisory Group that attracted 30 youngsters for a recent pizza party.

But problems persisted.

In consultation with a lawyer, the library board came up with behavior guidelines in May 2005 that prohibited activities like “hairdressing or grooming of another person” and “refusal to leave the building.” The policy includes some politely precise language common to those who speak softly from behind a reference desk: “If a patron seems to be placing a staff member in the position of providing a nonlibrary-related function, the staff member may bring the interaction to a prompt conclusion.”

But library officials felt that a bigger stick was needed. Last week, the board posted a notice on its Web site and library doors saying it had “struggled with this problem for over 10 years” and voted “with great reluctance” on Dec. 20 to close after school.

“Having as many as 50 young people with nothing to do creates an untenable situation,” read the note, which pointed out that many students did not use library resources but simply socialized in the building. “It interferes with patrons of all ages who want to use the library and with the staff members who are there to serve them. The library can no longer deal with large numbers of students who come after school and wait, sometimes into the late evening, to be picked up.”

The decision has not been popular in town. In a posting on Maplewoodonline.com, the community’s Internet bulletin board, one resident, Joan Crystal, said an alternative needed to be developed before closing the library. “I also think it improper to close the library during hours when adults, older students and M.M.S. students find it most convenient to use the library,” she wrote.

David Huemer, who represents the Maplewood Township Committee on the library board, said he would like to see the current police station, which is being retired in favor of a new one, converted to a youth center.

“What we have to do now is build some long-overdue facilities and fund some programs so kids can have alternatives to hanging out,” he said. “To the extent that the vote of the library board is going to wake people up and get them to do something about kids from sixth grade to high school, that’s a good thing.”

About eight years ago, the library in nearby Irvington, N.J., struggling with similar problems, was shuttered for an hour each afternoon. But it was only for three days, until the students managed to settle down, officials said.

Veronica Morton, who was returning a Magic School Bus book to the Maplewood library the other day with her 8-year-old daughter, Alexandra, said she had become a “shush mommy” after watching librarians struggle to “get kids to calm down.”

Outside the library, students who use it gave the new hours two thumbs down, way down.

“Kids will get into real mischievous activities” with the library closed, warned one teenager, Jonathan Brock, a student at the district’s alternative high school program.

“I’m kind of annoyed,” said David Carliner, a middle schooler who was rushing up the library steps ahead of his father. “It closes right when my school gets out, so I can’t check out any books.”

Happy Blitt contributed research.

I’ve already sent out an overenthusiastic mass e-mail, shouting this to the rooftops, but I got a job!

I’ll have my MLS in a week, and I’ve accepted the youth services position with the Millicent Library in Fairhaven, MA. Let’s talk about the job:

1. Youth services means people age 0-18, so I get to do babies’ laptime, as well as book discussion groups.

2. I’m the only YS staff, so I’ll have a lot of autonomy. The director is amazing, and I have the impression that she’ll be very supportive.

3. This is what I’ve always wanted to do. Even when I was in high school, when I was asked the ever-popular “what do you want to be when you grow up”, I answered “I’d like to be a little old lady librarian (with tattoos), who sits in the children’s section waiting for school to let out.” I’m not little or old yet, but there’s not a lot I can do about it. Maybe watch more Golden Girls.

4. The library was built in 1893 by a steel magnate, in an Italian Renaissance style. That’s right. I’m going to work in a CASTLE.

5. This is no ordinary castle. This is a haunted castle.

6. This is no ordinary haunted castle. This is a haunted castle by the sea. There is an ocean four blocks away.

7. There is a yarn shop two blocks away.

I’m trying to remain realistic in my goals for starting this job. I know that my first impulse when I first get there will be to change a bunch of stuff, and that’s exactly the wrong thing to do. I’ve been trying to remind myself of that, and I know that I can spend all that energy in the first few months unpacking, exploring the area, and maybe – just maybe – using the expression “doughty old salt” with a straight face.

I’m finally home from my week of interviews. I’m tired, and at the same time recharged. My ability to make decisions has returned, which I’m grateful for.

After leaving Kate y Ade, I had a two-hour delay at the airport, which ate up all the precious time I had between landing and getting to the library where I was interviewing. I had to forgo the bus option (and I was all prepared with printouts of each route available) and go with a taxi. Boo.

The interview was the most rigorous questioning I’ve experienced with an interview, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I performed a story time for two grown adults who did not work in children’s services (awwwwkward!) but managed it.

The whole thing took just over an hour. I changed out of my professional wear, and into utilitarian gear. I was to be picked up by one of my best friend’s boy friend – a guy I have known about for five years, but never met. Luckily, he’s rad, so there was very little of the adjustment needed to meeting someone you should have meet years ago. It’s not my fault – he’s a Kiwi, and always in exotic places like Texas.

Dr. Kim (to differentiate from Librarian Kim) had to work during the evenings I was there, so it was up to Steve to be my Seattle guide. We walked down a long hill to a happy hour, then blissfully stumbled up it back home. I’d been feeling like I wanted to get rip-roaring drunk ever since I finished The Devil in the White City, and Steve helped obligingly. We ate happy-hour-priced appetizers, and he explained the rules of rugby. I immediately forgot.

Kim and I haven’t seen each other in at least a year and a half, and I didn’t know I was going to Seattle with enough time for her to change her schedule. I feel like we’ve managed to catch up, but it’s going to take more hanging out – and soon – to get the satisfying feeling of a close friendship going again. That’s another pretty good reason to want the job in Seattle.

I’ll know whether or not I made the preliminary cut for Seattle and LA soon after Thanksgiving. By then I should also know whether or not I got the job in Fairhaven. You’ll be impressed to know that I haven’t tried figuring out what to do before I know what I have to work with. I can’t wait to find out who wants me – and then choose a place to start being a librarian. This is so so satisfying.

Here’s the best thing I’ve seen in a while – Karla sent it to me:

Kidding. It’s cold and dreary. My plane got the mopes, and my flight has been delayed. That’s why I’m posting at 6 AM. I’m eating waffles and peanut butter (a culinary trick Aden taught me – don’t think of them as waffles. Think of them as … exciting bread.) and getting ready to brave Chicago public transportation to O’Hare.

It’s nice to think about all my friends are asleep right now in their beds. (Except Allison. She’s in Japan. Oh, and [Librarian] Kim. She’s on her way to China.)