The Book Charmer

Whenever I read a book and think that it's good enough to blog about, I never get around to it. It's intimidating. What do I know about evaluating books?

But I finished a book last night in a sleepy-yet-determined haze and felt like I needed to speak up about it. I first noticed the spine of National Book Award Winner Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine in Edison's new books section. I felt really unsure about a book featuring a 10-year-old girl with Asperger's, grappling with the loss of her older brother after a school shooting. I don't read about death or "difficult issues" very often. A dramatic break-up or called-off engagement is usually as difficult as it gets in my household. But after reading a chapter or two, I realized that I was sucked in and checked it out.

I would recommend Mockingbird to anyone dealing with the loss of a loved one, of course. But there are plenty of other lessons to learn from this book, such as having tact, being respectful, and learning empathy. Caitlin's classmates think she's weird or autistic because they don't understand her. Caitlin's P.E. teacher makes an inappropriate comment about autistic kids, and some of the girls take him to task. Learning to be mindful of all of our differences is really important for kids to learn early on. As an adult, you forget how cruel young people can be...

The biggest lesson I took away from Mockingbird was seeing the world from other people's points of view. Halfway through the story, Caitlin finally understands the weight on her dad's shoulders and how much the entire community is hurting - and that's a lot to handle. But her brother, Devon, had always taught her to "keep working at it." Every day, she works to understand people, emotions, situations. She doesn't always get it right, but slowly, she begins to get it.

It's time for me to learn how to get it again. As an introvert who often works alone in front of a computer, I tend to forget my interpersonal skills sometimes. I've felt a bit of anxiety over this ever since I've become more serious about librarianship. I want to be around people and help them, but I've been criticized in the past for acting condescending to strangers. (My first customer service job was as an area desk assistant in a residence hall.) In a way, I'm a lot like Caitlin. I can be too honest, and I also don't understand how my language may sound. And yes, I have my arrogant moments. Trying to mask my opinions, I've struggled throughout college with being two people. I don't think I can do that in my professional life too. So somehow, I need to figure out how to be more innately kind.

How do I treat every person's problem as a valuable one? How can I teach someone how to do something like navigate the Internet without talking down to them? How do I act more welcoming?

Where can I learn these skills?!

Man, I'm just not that good at blogging anymore. I have so many thoughts but rarely do I get a chance to consider any of them longer than the length of a shower. I have plenty of spare time, don't get me wrong, but I always feel compelled to catch up on my reading: blogs, articles, tweets - and then, oh hey, it's 10pm? I absolutely cannot wait until I only have two classes next term!

But...I have exciting news! I've recently been accepted for two virtual internships with Indiana University East Library and the San Francisco Chinatown YMCA. In my job search, I've found the most interesting and applicable opportunities to be outside of Eugene, unfortunately. Volunteering at Edison has been amazing, but it's only one environment that I'd like to explore. I'm doing social media/outreach work for IUE (not the Hoosiers) and will get to learn about databases, academic libraries, and subject guides. Most interestingly, I'll get to experiment. Obviously, some social media basics apply everywhere, but how can I apply my skills to this unique environment (commuter college, first-generation students)?

As for the YMCA, I just had my phone interview earlier today, and it went swimmingly! It was half interview, half project lowdown, and now it's time to figure out the logistics. I haven't publicly announced the news, but we are moving forward, so I think it's safe to say I'm excited :) I'm going to be the Oral History Collections Development Intern, which sounds very library-technical haha. Two volunteers - a recent San Jose State MLIS graduate and Federal Reserve Bank archivist - have been interviewing Chinatown community members for the YMCA's centennial this year. Now that 2011 is almost over, they want to make the project more sustainable and extend beyond a branding initiative. So they need someone to help edit, transcribe, and import interviews into a database, making the stories easily accessible to the community. Since I'm not in the city, I can't help interview, but I'm going to learn about the methodology and protocol. I'm most excited to learn about databases since I can't get that sort of experience here, and even if I don't go into archiving or cataloging, databases are an essential part of library work. The last part is building awareness about the project, where my marketing will again come in handy.

As I get started with both internships, I hope to blog more on what I'm learning about the profession and how I will fit into it - and not just about books since this is definitely not a site about book reviews.

Here we go!

I'll be honest: I haven't been very good at accomplishing my goals for November. Hey, we're all human. The midterms just kept rolling in. But I've been lucky to stay involved at Edison Elementary, and I hope I can take on more hours, now that my class load has been reduced by half next term!

What I've gotten done recently:

- THIS MAP! I spent a few hours designing this in Illustrator, while my friends screamed at a college football game out in the living room. It's absolutely not perfect, but much better than the map created in Microsoft Word out of circles and rectangles. I improved on the original by making all of the text as easy to read as possible. I wanted the volunteer to be able to look at it straight on and be able to read all the section headers. With the exception of the Reference and Ready, Set, Read books on the left side that I had no control over, none of the text requires you to turn your head around to read what it says.

Patti was thrilled at how it turned out and is thinking of blowing it up for the children to use! I may have another map to make over break...

Edison Elementary Library Map 

- Oregon Battle of the Books is a statewide reading motivation and comprehension competition sponsored by the Oregon Association of School Libraries for students in 3rd-12th grade. Students form teams to read a set of books for their grade level and answer questions about them in rapidly paced school, regional, and statewide tournaments. It's like trivia or debate for bookworms.

Edison is holding mock battles in December and January, so I'm reading as many of the 16 books for 3rd-5th graders as possible, in order to create practice questions for the students. I've read Charlotte's Web, 11 Birthdays, and am now onto Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Who Are The Beatles? (lol, right?) for Thanksgiving break. I wish we had this kind of project when I was young! It's nice to see so many kids clamoring to participate in a competition about books. I'm a little concerned that they place too much focus on memorization, but if it gets kids to read and leads to analysis, then alright.

So a month in, and I'm still loving it.

This morning, I received this comment from Ms. Yingling Reads:

It's good that you have strong feelings, but as a former Latin teacher who became a librarian when I couldn't find a Latin job, I can't recommend your course of action. If our school levy fails, they could lay off all the librarians in the district. Since you're young, you might want to consider a career in the medical field! Of course, my advice is not the best. I almost double majored in Latin and ... home ec. Which no one teaches anymore!

I was tickled to hear thoughts from someone I'm not even connected to, and she gave me some food for thought. Not everything here is directed to Ms. Yingling, but please forgive me if I sound defensive or flippant.

1) Medical field? I am obviously not a person who makes sensible actions :)

2) While I'm beginning to lean towards school librarian services, that's primarily because, well, I volunteer in one. Of course I'm going to start loving the environment and envisioning myself in it. However, that doesn't mean that I am exclusively preparing myself for school librarianship or even librarianship in general. I already have a marketing and writing background, which I plan to keep using wherever I go. I also hope to expand into HTML and email marketing, eventually. So don't worry. I plan on having plenty on my utility belt.

3) Is this how we're encouraging young professionals? I've read enough about what you should know before entering the field. I've read enough to scare me off. Be real, but never discourage someone from following a dream, if that person has thought it through. (I'm not sure I've been clear on this blog about the research I've done.)

(On a side note, I feel like this "scare the youngins' away" tactic occurs more often in librarianship than in journalism. Why is that?)

by DieselDemon

4) Have some guts and optimism.

5) See past the picture. Just because I'm a journalism major doesn't mean that I'm entering the "dying" newspaper industry. If I become a librarian, I'm not confined to a library.

I appreciate advice from anyone who takes the time to give it. But I take offense when someone thinks I am blind to the potential consequences of pursuing a career path. (This happens so often that sometimes I leave out my major when introducing myself to people who aren't in college.) That probably wasn't Ms. Yingling's intent, but it no doubt happens when people give advice to young people.

What are your thoughts?