I do want to get back into blogging here more seriously, but it might be a while. As you can see, the site’s a bit outdated; my resume and credentials are untouched since moving across the country, starting a new job, and becoming involved in my professional interests. But, I will be back. Until then, check out my other site to see what’s going on in the book world.

This is just to say that work is going splendidly but it’s been busy. We’re gearing up now for winter reading, so there’s a lot of details to finish up to make it run smoothly. I’ve got a book talk coming up, too, and I’ve a few titles to still get through.

At some point, this little website will need some work - an update, a facelift, what have you. Stay tuned.

Here’s a glimpse into the day in the life of a reference and teen services librarian at a suburban library district.

8:15 am: Get into work a few minutes early since traffic didn’t snarl up nor did I hit construction. Spent the first 15 minutes of my Monday planning out what I hoped to accomplish for the week.

8:30 am: Edit, format, and print a list of remade classics/fairy tales to put into the teen reader advisory binders I have been updating.

9:00 am: Reviewed my budget allocation for collection development and then began marking up Booklist for titles I wanted to purchase. This issue had a focus on science fiction and dystopian novels, which I made note of to copy for my own files for future RA. The library opens at 9 am, but I’m off desk for now. I notice a typo in one of the award lists I put together and printed a couple of weeks ago. I make the change, and I put printing them again on my agenda for later. I’ll keep the mistake laden ones in the event the perfect ones run out later; I’d rather hand write the correction later on than waste all of the paper.

9:30 am: My boss trained me on purchasing through Baker & Taylor.

11:00 am: I fiddled around in B&T, looking at the site’s features since I’d never used it before.

11:15 am: I head up to the public service area and begin to refill the teen displays (this month’s display is mysteries, and we have another display of new titles that’s always up). I also put books back onto the face-out displays at the end of almost every row of books on the shelves. I went to the reference desk and saw I had a few extra minutes, so I went back to the teen section and just did a little straightening up.

11:30 am: First shift on the reference desk. I helped a patron find a book on drawing mythical creatures, then a book on origami. I helped another patron find a book about Cisco systems, and I placed holds on a couple of titles for a patron who called the library. Then a patron from a system outside ours asked for help locating materials on government grants for home improvement, and I pulled aside a few titles for her. Another patron brought me a lost library card, and when I called the patron, I got no answer and no machine. Boo. I helped a regular patron spell “honest.” As a librarian, I am also a de facto spell checker — seriously! I’ve never spelled so much for other people, and my spelling skills leave a bit to be desired.

12:30 pm: Lunch! I sadly forgot my meal today in the midst of Monday morning madness at home, so I enjoyed a diet coke and got through about 30 pages of Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

1:15 pm: I’m back on the desk. This time, I juggle starting a book order for teen fiction, as well. This time, I helped a woman find out all of the bike paths throughout Illinois and directed her to the department of transportation’s website and capital office — the state has a fantastic resource with maps of every bike path. I helped a patron on the phone who was using our genealogy database (with which I’m unfamiliar) and wanted to locate newspapers within it. There was some luck, but I directed her to the library of congress’s digital newspaper project (the joy of having worked on that project leads me to show it off whenever I can!). I had an older patron ask for help with her email, but I wasn’t able to help too much since she had no idea what she did wrong, and a search through her email was inconclusive. She was grateful anyway because I sat down with her and tried to help her to the best of my ability. And the patron with the missing library card came back for it!

2:30 pm: I have some more practice on Inter Library Loan and put a request in for a title that a patron called in with earlier. Fielded a number of computer related requests, including adding money to patron printing accounts and helping an out-of-town patron grab a few minutes of computer access.

3:00 pm: My shift on desk is over. I head down to my cube and put my nose to the grindstone on putting together a purchase order of teen fiction. Since I so intelligently passed on VOYA before writing down titles of interest, I pulled it up within the system and read through reviews again.

3:45 pm: I’ve been emailing back and forth with my boss about a ton of questions relating to teen services, so now I’m taking a few minutes to reread and get my mind wrapped around a couple of projects.

4:30 pm: After reading reviews, I’ve put together a list of about 45 books for one library and 30 for another to purchase. Many are from our state award lists, but many are ones that either we needed for a series we had, had great reviews in the journals, or sounded like they’d be of interest to our patrons. I had a couple of patron requests, too. I printed the lists and made sure there was a good mix of material, noting that I should make a concerted effort to locate more boy-friendly books in the next few months (are there none out there recently?!). I spent the previous hour looking for boy books, including investing some time with good Googling, GuysRead.com and then the Guy Lit Wire blog. Frustrating!

4:45 pm: As in starting my day, I spend the last 10-15 minutes reflecting on what I got done, followed by what I hoped to accomplish tomorrow. Today was thick with purchasing teen fiction, and tomorrow will be thick will purchasing for the adult 800s area — I recently weeded quite a bit there, and I need to beef up our general writing area before schools gets back in session. I also plan on breaking down a budget into monthly allocations, as well as working a bit more on some RA and reprinting the handouts with the mistake (sigh!).

5:00 pm: I head home.

6:00 pm: I came home to an ARC of “Beautiful Creatures,” sent from the Little Brown publishers. Woo hoo!

Like the last quarter, I thought it would be fun to do a recap of what I’ve read from April 1 through June 30. In that time, a lot of my life changed, so my number is a little lower than I wished. My grand total this quarter? 30. That’s down from 50 first quarter, but makes for 80 so far in 2009. That means my “lofty” goal of 120 will be no problem!

My entire list of second quarter reads can be found here. Some highlights include:

• Genesis by Bernard Beckett, reviewed here. This dystopian novel kept me asking what was going on, but it was totally worth it in the end. It was a very quick and engaging read.
• Because I am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas, reviewed here. A novel in verse that looks at life in an abusive household from a girl who is seen as furniture in the family. Powerful read and the verse was well crafted and utilized.
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman. This is a very emotional tale that concentrates on the life of the main character, told from the past and the present. It was a very short and quick read, but it was definitely one of the best written I’ve read in a while. The writing and style is spot on.
• Honolulu by Alan Brennart. I loved Brennart’s Moloka’i and the same can be said for his newest. It’s a life story of a girl who leaves Korea during the world war in order to become a picture bride. Of course, her life doesn’t go as she dreamed, and Brennart elucidates what happens to her dreams as they’re derailed or changed completely. This was like a flower opening bit by bit and in the end, the full bloom is well worth the wait.
• The Oxford Project by Stephen G Bloom and Peter Feldstein, with my full review available here. I loved this oversized book, complete with pictures and life stories of ordinary folks in Oxford, IA. Some are heart warming and some are downright depressing, which is why this is such a great read. It’s real and raw.

Certainly, my range of reading this quarter wasn’t what I hoped, but now that my routine is settling in, I’m excited to have a strong third quarter. I’ve really taken an interest in audio books because of my daily commutes, so I have made it my goal to try to listen to some more classics. That’s not to say I haven’t read them — and in fact, as I was looking up what to read, I was shocked how many of these “classics” I HAVE read — but I would love to bone up some more.

Moreover, I am making it a goal to read more genre fiction, particularly in teen fiction. With the responsibility for teen stuff at work, I want to make sure I’m reading more widely so I can be a better reader advisor.

And of course, there has been a deluge of GREAT non-fiction published lately.I’ve got my hands full.

Keep your eyes peeled. I’ve got some fodder for blogging here again, and as I’m settling into my new life, I’m finding the desire to bring this blog back to snuff.

I’ve accepted a fantastic position as a reference librarian and have been in the process of packing and moving. At the same time I accepted a position, my husband was offered a position as a 2-year intern in the same area I was for his future career. Onward and forward we both go with really exciting prospects for our professional lives.

With that, I’ve also decided that my time with this particular blog will likely be significantly cut. I plan on still offering some interesting fodder periodically, but I think I am going to keep this website as my digital portfolio more than my professional blog. I’ve been investing my time into projects like my collaborative book blog, STACKED, where I’ve come to discover I love not only book blogging, but working with two excellent librarians on the project (the diversity and creativity are motivating). In addition to STACKED, I’ve been asked by some of my colleagues to invest time and energy into a blog that documents what it’s like to actually be practicing in the field — there’s a dearth in the blogosphere in the “lessons learned” category. I’ve not gotten it off the ground yet, but the purpose is NOT to identify things that are annoying or difficult or troublesome (there are plenty of those blogs out there) but instead, to discuss some of the “ah ha” moments or helpful insights for others new to the field.

On top of those personal projects, I plan on becoming as involved in my profession and my communities as possible. I’ve always been excited about community engagement, so going somewhere near just further enhances that desire.

This is all very exciting, and it is certainly plenty reason the ol’ catagator has been a little quiet lately. But never fear: those things worth saying will still be shared here. Just with more time between and more real life experiences to fill in the space.

Do you have a personal information management plan? Have you ever thought about how important or useful having one in place could be? I constantly debate writing one up, and I will likely do so. The thought of having loose ends floating around the information super highway bothers me for a number of reasons.

When I think about personal information management, I think not only about the messy computer desktop I keep or the files that sit around in folders (or not) on my hard drive but I also think about those old blogs, the unused Twitter accounts, unused or underused delicious accounts and aol instant messager accounts, abandoned gmail accounts, and more. In an era where we have more and more digital toys to play with, it gets overwhelming to keep track of everything — how many times have you gotten locked out of an account because you can’t think of the password you created years ago? How many people have you met through digital networking on one social site but failed to connect with on another site? Or how many people do you know exclusively through one site and thus only maintain a presence because of them? Do you avoid new sites because you’re overwhelmed with what you have now?

In the physical world, we have some heuristics for cleaning and purging: we know the milk is sour after a certain date, that the sweaters you haven’t worn in two years should likely be donated, and that you need to change your car’s oil every 3,000 miles. The same should happen in the digital world, though it’s certainly something we should each think about and plan out for ourselves. For example, my desktop gets cluttered very quickly because when I download a .pdf file, it’s easier to keep it on my desktop than to put it into a deep folder construction. But a week or two later, my entire desktop is covered. It would make sense for me to set a timeline for keeping items on the desktop and then taking action on each item, whether it’s to remain on the desktop, move to a folder, or be purged. Of course, the same would go for items within the folders on my desktop, and then from there, items that should be backed up on remote storage.

With my digital information, the same should be done for these old email addresses, web 2.0 tools and accounts, and websites. While I love the fact I still have access to the livejournal I created when livejournal first started, all of the files within those journals should be downloaded and backed up elsewhere if they’re that important. All of the important emails in abandoned accounts should be either downloaded and stored elsewhere or forwarded to one account where they can be properly archived and tagged. Delicious bookmarks? It would make sense to either put them all in one place and use tags or bundles to denote the bookmarks. That MySpace account I created 5 years ago I deleted after realizing my only use for it was keeping in touch with one person who had refused to get on board with facebook (which is a much more secure, less buggy, and more user-friendly site). But more than just doing these actions, it makes sense to me to write a plan of future action to ensure that I am regularly monitoring my digital activity so that my trail is clean and controllable.

Although online reputation isn’t the first thing I think about when I think of personal information management, I do think about the impact of my information management on productivity and  control over my own digital footprints. There are so many fantastic tools and toys out there to play with, but without being conscious of how wide your footprint is, you can easily become overwhelmed. I know I have. I’m constantly on the search for new tools to streamline my digital life and while some are really useful (including, but not limited to the vast amount of Google’s tools), I get way leery of letting one or two or three companies/products/tools have control over my digital life. While it’s convenient and a very streamlined process for allowing Google, et al. to do the information management for me, it’s also putting myself at the whim of any of these companies to exploit, lose, or manipulate my digital life. With, too, the advent of things like profiles in Google, this becomes a bigger and bigger reality of the ever-expanding world wide web.

I care deeply about what I do online and I care enough to worry about how to maintain my information. For me, it’s my job to be in control and on top of what I’ve got out there and what I want out there. I plan on a thorough cleaning soon, followed by the development of a personal information management policy. And not only will I develop it, I plan on following it. I suspect not only greater leaps in productivity, but more willingness to try out new things (knowing that I’ll have a plan for deleting those abandoned accounts after a certain time frame) and more overlap in the people with whom I cross digital paths. That’ll only lead to better network building, stronger connections, and more utility from my online presence.

All of this got my gears going about a missing library opportunity. While college students have their college libraries or perhaps local town library from which to acquire materials and take in a program or two, what happens when college kids graduate and either move to a new place or have to move back home with mom and dad? What about the folks who forgo college?

I think libraries are missing a service sector. I know as a 20-something having moved across the country that I often feel lonely and disconnected, even though I have met people through school. Going to the bar isn’t really my scene, so what is there for me to meet people who have similar interests? Where can I go to learn new skills? What about a place to discuss a good book? While this is an age group that falls under adult (maybe young adult, even) I think there is still a major gap between adult and young adult for the 20-somethings. I go to my library regularly and read their programming schedule but rarely find something that piques my interest; while many adults really benefit from technology sessions, for example, those in the 18-26 bracket have had to learn technology quickly to make it through school, so the basic courses on how to use computer technology is not relevant to them.

I think libraries have a great opportunity to develop programming to draw in this age group. Libraries provide programming to infants, to children, to teens, to adults, and to older adults, but why aren’t they reaching out to the age group that often feels lost, lonely, and confused amidst incredible life changes and uncertain futures, not to mention cognitive shifts? There is ample room to build a community, and by reaching out and connecting with this age group, libraries can and will continue being relevant and useful to them in the future. How about a regular program of career-related guidance? The US Department of Labor suggests that between the ages of 18 and 38, the average person can change jobs up to 10 times. Moreover, now that we’re in such a shifting time socially and economically, I think those in their early to mid 20s are now lost without role models — the one job, one mortgage model of generations past is not necessarily the way things are or will be in the future. Providing programs to connect these patrons with those who can help them or with others like them, they network and they can develop meaningful relationships with others in their own community. What libraries may be offering in this realm now for adults is not going to be relevant to those in their 20s and may simply not attract them. Likewise, programs targeting young adults are likely too young, reaching those in their mid to late teens. The 18-26 sector is really a bridging time between youth and full-on adulthood, and libraries can play a significant role for this age group in helping with this transitioning period.

Beyond job-related programming, there are opportunities for book groups, film nights, educational programming (crafts, arts, carpentry, auto repair, budgeting, etc.), and life skills. Perhaps a librarian’s dream come true is the fact that it’s likely those in this age group know what they want and would speak up, ask for it, and then pitch in to make it happen. Harvest the creative energy and the programming can build itself.

All of this is not to say that adult programming and book discussions are not relevant to 20-somethings, but instead, it’s meant to suggest that there are definite unique needs and desires in this age group that the library can easily serve. I’ve been searching, and virtually no libraries are offering these sorts of services. Pierce County, Washington’s library offers something similar, but it, too, targets the program at those in their 20s and 30s. I think there are major differences socially and mentally between those in their 20s and those in their 30s. As psychologists know, the brain is still growing and changing significantly up to age 25 or 26; why not develop the target group as those age 18/19/20 through 26? What Pierce County is doing program wise for this group, though, is exactly what I think could be done for this bridge age group. Following the model of teen services that have developed over the years would make this a real goldmine of potential — reach out, build a reputation, and see lifelong patronage.

Programs and services would not need to be pricey, require a new position, nor tax too much time. While putting together any program requires a time investment, a once a month social event (a book club, a hobby event, etc.) and/or a once a month networking/skills development program would not be too difficult. The return on investment would come through seeing a new body of patrons, as well as a population that will speak with their wallets and their experiences when tough choices need to be made in a community. If libraries connect with them, they remain viable, vibrant life forces in a community — precisely what many of those in this age group want for themselves.

A very important caveat I want to suggest here is that going “2.0″ is NOT enough. I found plenty of sources in my search that too easily pray to the virtual gods for social networking and reaching out to this age group. Maybe it’s just me and the people I know, but I’m actually quite tired of only being reached to virtually (I’m assuming not, though). I seek physical services, physical events, and physical networking. Start by developing the physical programs but push out the information about these programs virtually. Don’t just offer reader advisory or blogs online; do relevant, thematic book talks in the library and push the information about the event out virtually. I think in an era where we are increasingly chained to a desk and virtual environment 8-10 hours a day, there is nothing more exciting that getting out and about and interacting with people face to face. I think there is a misconception by older generations that the younger generations want everything virtually and that this is the only way to reach out.

Do you know of any libraries doing anything like this? I’d love to see what they’re doing and I’d love to ask how and why they decided this was important enough to develop.

I took my idea to a couple of people I knew who were also interested in reading and reviewing, and STACKED was born. From our mission statement:

“STACKED, on the surface, is interested in reviewing books for readers while simultaneously enticing non-readers to think about reading in fun and interesting ways. That means we’re not just about reviewing books; we’re interested in providing reader advisory, reading adventures, interviews with writers, publishers, and other bloggers, round robin reviews, and exploring more aesthetically-driven aspects of reading, including cover reviews, bookish websites, blog roundups, and interesting digital libraries. As librarians, we are aware that literacy comes in many formats, so we strive to include not just physical book reviews, but also reviews of audio books, digital books, videos, music, zines, graphic novels, and other materials easily found in the stacks.

You can’t watch a morning talk show, watch the news, or read a magazine without coming across the horror stories: teen girls, away on their dream spring break, gone missing or coming home having been through traumatic experiences because of letting their guards down or drinking too much. Feathered by Laura Kasischke is a cautionary tale but is wrapped in incredible layers, imagery, and symbolism.

Three high school girls, Anne, Michelle, and Terri, hop a plane from their Chicagoland suburban home to their first spring break alone in Cancun, Mexico. All three expect to have a fun break, and all are acutely aware of what can happen being alone in a foreign country on spring break. Michelle’s mother repeats the warnings prior to the trip and as she drops the girls off at the airport; while Terri soon develops an itch about something going wrong, Anne and Michelle are confident that their intelligence and common sense will keep them safe. Interspersed in these cautionary conversations are Michelle’s mother’s stories about visiting the historical ruins of the Mayans, and all of the girls develop an interest in seeing the mythical Chichen Itza when not enjoying their time on the beach surrounded by hordes of other young students.

As a reader anticipates, something indeed goes terribly wrong. Anne and Michelle’s trip to Chichen Itza changes the tone of the entire trip. Although three girls boarded the plane in Chicago, only two will come back to their safety in suburbia. Will it be Terri who quickly turns to partying on the beach and meeting strange boys? Will it be Michelle, born of artificial insemination and thus in search of a father figure in her life? Or will it be Anne, the one who came up with the idea to go to Mexico?

Feathered is a predictable story. Any reader with a little knowledge about the world knows precisely what could and might happen on this trip; however, Kasischke does a marvelous job of twisting the predictable. The plot is simplistic, fast-moving, and relatable.

What Kasischke does that it worth delving into, though, is layering the story. First, the story is told through two different narrators: Anne and Michelle. Though there are three girls on the trip, we never hear Terri’s perspective; more interestingly, Anne’s perspective is told through first person and in the past tense. Michelle’s perspective is told in limited third person and is told in the present tense. Although I would have loved to hear Terri’s perspective and debated with myself during and for a couple days after finishing the story, I think I’m satisfied in not hearing her side.

Perhaps most stunning to me was Kasischke’s use of imagery and symbolism throughout. The story draws upon the idea of the past and the present, juxtaposing modern Mexican resort life and the historical ruins of the indigenous. Within even that there is the drawing upon ideas of the phoenix and feathers to describe and symbolize girlhood, exposure, and rebirth.

Though the storyline is rather simplistic, this book is smart. Kasischke initially disappointed me, as I finished the book thinking that it was a predictable story, despite some of the twists. I wanted there to be more, and I thought that the entire story was given away within the first few pages — I mean, come on, three girls who are in high school going to Cancun alone and one of them has a bad feeling about it? We’ve heard it. I stepped away for a bit, then reopened the book, drawing the ties between the symbols and images, and I unearthed something entirely different within the multiple layers. This book just yearns for a good discussion.

Indeed, this book is a cautionary tale, but it’s much more than the cautionary tale you will hear from your parents or from the news. It goes deeper, and it’s rooted well into history. Target age readers will not have trouble understanding these lessons, either, particularly as they let this story sit and begin to think about what the point of certain aspects of the plot were. Feathered does not have a superfluous detail.

If anything bothered me at all throughout the book, it was some poor editing. It seems to me that copy editors are pushing these books out too quickly and overlooking the grammatical details. I found the overuse of commas tiresome and frustrating, as they really and truly slowed the story down. I was also hoping to hear more from Terri in the story; however, I think there is ample opportunity for Kasischke to tell the story from Terri’s perspective.

I would love to see this book get some sort of nod from ALA this year. It is well-deserving because it is quite deceitful in its simplicity. It is a great book group book, as it begs to be discussed. I’m looking forward to seeing what Kasischke does after Feathered, as her writing is intelligent and refreshing.

The NEH, though, suggests that 84% of internet users are still reading books (with credit to library hero Stephen Abram for the report dissection). I’m constantly excited and pleased to see people engaging with great book-related websites, including LibraryThing, Good Reads, and Shelfari, among others.  Not only that, but there are hordes of book blogs, and as someone who loves reading other people’s reviews, I’m constantly surprised just how much these people can read in a week (let alone a month).

Although the report doesn’t speak specifically to non-fiction reading, I suspect that reading non-fiction is also high. Unlike literary or popular fiction, though, I think non-fiction often gets the wrap as not reading, since many readers read part of, and not necessarily all of, a non-fiction work (or they simply don’t see reading a book on how to crochet scarves as being reading in the same sense reading, say, Crime and Punishment is, even though all reading is reading).

Perhaps my favorite sign of people reading is the vast number of reading challenges in any given year. Google “reading challenges 2009″ and you will not believe the number of interesting, book-driven reading challenges. And it’s not just for hard cover books, either, as some of the challenges are specific to reading ebooks, listening to audio books, and other means of acquiring literary exposure.

Personally, I’m a Good Reads addict. I’m sad to say I’ve never done a book group outside my college’s literary society, but that’s something I certainly plan to seek out when we’ve settled in our new home town. As for challenges, I plan on participating in the 2009 classics challenge, wherein I plan to read 5 ‘classic’ novels between April 1 and December 31 (I’m a bit late to the game, but it’s better late than never, right?). I’m formulating my official list, which I’ll blog when I’ve got it, but so far, I’ve already finished my “bonus” book, The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dumus.

Are you participating in any challenges that are “officially” sanctioned by someone on the web? Are you participating in in-person or online book groups and discussions?