Our Branch has been hosting a Life Skills class for immigrant women for the past few months (you can read more at the blog post I wrote for the Library system). Today I was amazed once again when I was told that some of the women in the class had no concept of money. Either they have always bartered for what they needed or some had been raised in a refugue camp for the last twenty years and there was no money. Truly an eye opening reminder of how different everyone is.

This next week I’ve been invited to represent the Library system at an event the DFW International Community Alliance hosts with local mayors. I’ll be attending in the stead of our Assistant Director. Her invitation to go was a surprise, but I am quite honored to go and represent us.

Dear Readers:

The blogging hiatus is over! I’ve settled in at my new job, found an apartment and loving being back in America. I do miss Taiwan but it is nice to be home.

I had the chance to attend ALA Midiwnter Meeting here at Dallas and reconnected with some dear friends. I spent a nice time talking to my dear friend Buffy Hamilton [Click here for a pic!]. While at ALA Annual a friend convinced me to apply for an ALA committee. So I threw my hat in the ring and wouldn’t you know, I got picked.

I am pleased to accounce that I will be serving on the Stonewall Book Awards Committee. I am very excited about this assignment. I know it will be a challenge but I am up for it.

Dear Readers:

I am pleased to announce I have accepted a position at the Dallas Public Library as an Assistant Branch Manager. This means that I’ll be leaving Taiwan and moving back to the US sometime in December. It will be hard to say goodbye to Taiwan, but this new position presents some exciting challenges and growth professionally. In my new position I’ll be responsible for the day to day operations of one of their 27 branches.

I’ll still maintain my blog, although the focus will certainly shift from international school librarianship to public librarianship, I wont be changing the name. After all, it is still an adventure.

There is a certain excitement in learning who you are. Whether it is discovering something about yourself, or following your passion, no matter how often it happens, that thrill never wears off. There is something even more exciting and that is discovering the part of you that is your past; Maybe not your past, but the past that in some form makes you who you are.

I believe that we are made up of those who have gone before us. Take me for example. I am a Librarian. Yet, I am not the first in my family to be a Librarian. In my fathers family, >his mothers cousin was the Librarian of their small town in northern Utah and my cousin is studying to be an archivist. In my mothers family, her cousin is a Librarian (who in fact gave me some advice that helped me to find my current job), and her mother, as a teenage girl worked at her public library and helped on the bookmobile:

I am lucky that I know all these things. Lucky that these things have happened in the lifetime of people I know and lucky they were able to share this part of my history, my story. But what if I wasn’t lucky enough? What if that picture of my Grandma in front of the Cherokee County Public Library Bookmobile wasn’t something she could give to me? What if I wanted to know about my family but didn’t know where to find out?

October is Family History Month and so I think its fitting to put a plug in for Libraries. America’s public Libraries have vast resources to help you. Many libraries have subscriptions to Ancestry.com. Others have local records and newspapers. Some have more than others, but wherever you live, you can use your public library to begin your search to find out where you story began. You can also utilize a Family History Center near you.

My grandfather, during the last number of years, was a large proponent of family history. He understood the link that bound together the generations was an important one. Our past is what allows us to understand out future. Only in knowing where have come from can we know where we are going.  We can draw strength from the stories of those who have gone before: of their faith, courage and determination. We can see that we are not the first to face challenges, we can see that others have done it before, and that can give us hope and fortitude to do what we need to do.

America is a country of immigrants, of those who sought a better life of opportunity and freedom.  In learning their stories of struggle, and hardship and determination, we can better appreciate what they have given us.  Celebrate Family History Month and discover part of who you are.

Last year I taught the students how to use Follett Destiny. I gave them their barcodes and allowed them to create their own accounts. There was some difficulty, and as we only have 2 catalog computers in the Library, having a class of 20 kids (the largest class last year) all try and make accounts and navigate the program in 40 minutes was a challenge.

So this year I made a handout for them. I took screen shots and gave step-by-step instructions on how to use the Catalog. We’ll try it this week and see how successful it is.

I’ve uploaded a PDF of the document. If anyone wants a copy to use, email me and we can arrange for it to be modified for your Library.

Last year I decided I wanted a fun way to encourage our students to read. They have a scheduled class Library visit once a week. They are allowed to have 2 books checked out at a time. However, I noticed that was the only time I was seeing kids in the Library. A few of them came to get new books here and there at various other times, but by and large the only time I see the children is during there weekly visit.

I had originally thought would having them make a bookshelf in the school walls to see how long we could make the line. But the architecture of the school doesn’t have a long continuous hallways. Plus, I was afraid students would compare how many books they had on the wall versus their classmates. I wanted a way that was equal because students in each grade are at varying reading levels, especially since we have a high percentage of English Language Learners/English as a Second Language Students (ELL/ESL).

Over the summer I discovered a kit Highsmith sells (or sold, when I ordered it they only had 6 in stock. I am not sure if its discontinued or not) that went along with a book they sell called “Fire Up for Reading.” The idea is that the kids at a scale to the Dragon for every 30 minutes they read. I immediately fell in love with the idea because it fits in culturally (since we are in Asia) and is an equalizer because I count the aggregate number of minutes versus the number of books.

So the first week of school I have the kids calendars to keep track of the number of minutes and so far they’ve done great. The older grades did a better job of keeping track than the younger ones, but I suspect after seeing the progress of the Dragon so far, I’m sure next week will see a lot more counting.

I’ll post pictures of the Dragon from the first week soon.

We have on week left in school. In preparing to close the Library for the year, I’ve learned a few things about doing inventory, mostly that you CAN undo making 2,000 books “lost” in Follett Destiny. Hallelujah!

I’ve also learned that teachers are indeed as giddy to get out for the summer as has been rumored. Me? I’m excited to go home for a few weeks, see my nieces and hang out. I’ll also be spending some time volunteering at my local library.

But before I even do that I’ll be landing in New Orleans for the 2011 ALA Annual Conference. I’m excited to see Library friends that I haven’t seen since last conference and to learn more things to make me a better Librarian.

I expect a few blog posts will come out of my sessions, conversations and impromptu discussions. But if you don’t see any blog posts for a few weeks, It’s ok, I’m on summer vacation.

A few days ago the Wall Street Journal published an article by Megan Cox Gurdon called “Darkness too visible”. What they called a “book review” on young adult literature questions the fact that this genre is “rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity” The subhead of the article further posits, “Why is this considered a good idea?”

Ms. Gurdons main point, is summarized by her this way: “Reading about homicide doesn’t turn a man into a murderer; reading about cheating on exams won’t make a kid break the honor code. But the calculus that many parents make is less crude than that: It has to do with a child’s happiness, moral development and tenderness of heart. Entertainment does not merely gratify taste, after all, but creates it.”

What Ms. Gurdon fails to take into account is the history of young adult literature. While she does mention S.E. Hintons’ 1967 The Outsiders which deals with street gangs and a few other “controversial” works, she fails to mention some others: Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning “To Kill A Mockingbird” which deals with the false rape accusation of a disabled black man, J.D. Salinger’s 1951 “Catcher in the Rye” in which the protagonist drops out of school, smokes, swears and generally pontificates against “phoneys”, or Pulitzer Prize Winner William Golding’s 1954 “Lord of the Flies” about a group of boys who fall into a kill-or-be-killed mob mentality. Certainly these topics are not Instead Ms. Gurdon focuses on more modern titles that deal with real work issues: cutting, suicide, rape and other topics. Yes, these are not for the squeamish but they are real world issues.

She also neglects to take into account the audience and what they want. Young Adults want authenticity. They don’t want to read “Pollyanna” because to them the world isn’t that way. They live in a world where terrorism is now in our daily vocabulary, Viagra is on the front page of national magazines, where a President has lied about oral sex in the Oval Office, where a congressman has tweeted a picture to a co-ed of his underwear clad crotch. This is the world they live in, this is what they read and see in the news. There is a reason this audience is called “young adults”, because they are. They want to be treated like adults because they live in an adult world. They want to be heard and understood. This literature does that. It allows them to feel like someone understands, someone hears them. For whatever reason this literature speaks to them.

This past summer I had a chance to go to a book signing with John Green and David Levithan who were signing their new novel “Will Grayson, Will Grayson”. I expected a handful of people: maybe 15-30 teenagers. I arrived an hour early to get a good seat. As the clock ticked on more and more young adults arrived. The bookstore moved us to one location. The time got closer, more young people arrived. They moved us a third time. By the time John Green and David Levithan arrived there were over 200 teenagers in the room waiting to hear them speak and sign copies of there books. When they went up to them, many of them handed them notes, or little gifts. Some spoke of there favorite part of the book or related a story to them. I was amazed at the level of interest these young people had. It struck me at this point that these young adults needed these stories. It gave them a sense of purpose, a sense of community. Later, I learned that fans of John Green gave themselves the nickname “Nerdfighters” and have banded together in a loose federation, but together they have raised money for projects worldwide. If Ms. Gurdon wants to see the power of young adult literature, she needs to look no further than this group of committed young people.

Ms. Gurdon’s last salvo comes in her closing: “So it may be that the book industry’s ever-more-appalling offerings for adolescent readers spring from a desperate desire to keep books relevant for the young. Still, everyone does not share the same objectives. The book business exists to sell books; parents exist to rear children, and oughtn’t be daunted by cries of censorship. No family is obliged to acquiesce when publishers use the vehicle of fundamental free-expression principles to try to bulldoze coarseness or misery into their children’s lives.”

Perhaps Ms. Gurdon doesn’t realize that the desperate attempt to keep books relevant for the young, is the same attempt to keep them relevant for the old. Louis L’Amour was in vogue for many years. Now? Not so much. I can’t remember the last time I saw an old style western published. Is this a bad thing? No. It’s called taste and style. It comes and goes in music, in art and yes, in publishing. She does have a point, however, that no family is required to read a book. But to accuse them of bulldozing coarseness or misery? Young people want to understand the world around them. They are curious and so they do things that we often think are crazy, stupid, or that we know better. Why do we know better? Because we are older, have seen more, and probably have done some of the crazy things ourselves. But that is how we gain understanding.

Young people are insatiable. They need to know, they need to feel. Imagine reading on the news about a student your own age (14 or 15) who was caught having sex with a teacher (age 24 or 25). What goes through your mind? Is this event the publishing industries vast conspiracy to bulldoze coarseness or misery into your life? No, its front page news. But what has the publishing industry tried to do: explain it in a way, from the perspective of a young person so that the audience (readers age 14+) can understand. It’s called “Boy Toy” by Barry Lyga published by Houghton Mifflin in 1997. This is just one example of how young adult authors try to help their readers have a voice, an understanding so they can contribute to the conversation of life.

Certainly, Mrs. Gurdon is allowed to have her opinion about books and publishing. I think they are wrong. No author, no publisher has set out to foist misery, darkness or evil upon the readers of their books. It’s already there. They don’t want more young adults to cut themselves, or have bulimia, or be raped or abused or molested, or have friends murdered or disappear, or overdose or get pregnant, or be made to have an abortion or give a child up for adoption or be kicked out of their house because they are gay. These are dark things that exist in life. Young adult literature seeks to shed light on this darkness, to give hope to young people who don’t have the benefit of life experience to give them the perspective to deal with it. It gives them a voice in the darkness that says: you are not alone, other people understand you. Yes the voice might have to speak through hard, uncomfortable topics, but the topics were there before the books were. Rather then castigating the publishers and authors, Mrs. Gurdon should find someone else to castigate. Young adult authors are not the enemies, they are the heroes. They are the ones who have heard the desperate voices seeking hope, help and answers. They have answered. And what has Mrs. Gurdon done? Well read her article and see for yourself.

Other articles about this topic:
Cheryl Ranfeld, author of “Scars”
Laurie Halse Anderson
Los Angeles Review of Books

There is a student who comes into the Library quite often. He is pretty specific about what he wants. If I don’t have what he is looking for, he then asks for something different.

Today he came in and asked for a book about a prehistoric animal, the megalodon. We don’t have any on that particular animal, but I took him to the books we have on prehistoric animals (just 3 or 4) but they were not what he was looking for. He then asked for books on sharks (since the megalodon was a prehistoric one). He then asked for books on aliens, I showed those to him, again not what he was looking for.

He then wanted books on whales and I showed him what we had, but he wanted a book on Blue Whales. I don’t have specific books on species of whales.

He looked at them and then looked at me and said, “What I really want is a drawing book on how to draw whales.”

I have those!

I am beating myself up over this because we spent 20 minutes looking through different books and searching the catalog for things he didn’t want. I am reviewing what I asked him and I can’t find a different way to do what I did to get the original answer. Maybe if I had asked him what he wanted to learn about the megaladon, I could have found out he simply wanted a drawing book. But how often do we ask our patrons what it is they are wanting to learn?