Before I Get On To

... Marianne Moore, I'd like to quote some Billy Collins. Can't help it. I just enjoy his stuff so much:

Introduction to Poetry
by Billy Collins

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to water-ski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin by beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

This reminds me of when I was teaching Spanish and the beginning students were still stumbling through the idea of conjugation (of which there is precious little in English). "Just keep stumbling around in the dark room," I told them, "soon your eyes will be accustomed to the dark and you will see a crack of light around the door. Grope around and find the handle! Then you can open that door and step out into the light and it will become clear to you!" And they laughed at me.
One day, one girl said, "Oh, Profesora! I think I see the light! I think I see the light!" and started getting all excited. Or maybe she was just kidding.

SPLASH Luncheon in Columbia

I drove all the way to Columbia listening to Tim Dorsey's Atomic Lobster. Them audiobooks sure make the driving go faster. I barely remember the trip at all except that there seemed to be a lot of cars in my way. Audiobook + cruise control = Little Old Lady from Pasadena. Gracious goodness, there was a parking place right in front of the State Library in the shade! Sure, I had to fill the meter with quarters, but it was right in front and in the shade!!!! For some reason it would not take the maximum amount of quarters and I figured I'd have to hop out towards the end of lunch or during a break and refeed. In the end, I didn't need to. It didn't last quite as long as I thought (or else I got more for my money than I expected) and when I returned to the car, I had two minutes left. I was tempted to sit there for it. Ha ha! Love getting my money's worth!

The program started with a sharing of ideaaaa of programmmm (to be fair, our speaker barely had time to cover her material in the amount of time given). Someone had done a Dora the Explorer themed program and had dressed up like her. Hmmm, sounds like a job for Bren. I was asked by my neighbor if there wasn't a copyright on that character that would be a problem and I opined that as it was PBS, they were probably more lenient than, say, Disney, who will hunt you down and squeeze the life out of you for painting Mickey on the wall of your daycare. Anyway, this program had dancing and exercise as a part of it. The kids were excited as all hell to see Dora. She hadn't realized the popularity of the character. Yes, well, Arthur was just about swamped when he was at our library.

The speaker at the luncheon was Oralia Garza de Cortés who had many recommendations for children's books in Spanish (quite a few of which we have already). She gave us the history of Día de los niños, which started during tenure of the most progressive of the Mexican presidents ... in 1924. I suppose Woodrow Wilson wasn't available to prevent it.

Garza shared with us things she has learned in her experiences with bi-lingual educations. Oh, sorry. We aren't allowed to use that term anymore because it's politically charged. Ahem, her experiences in Early English Learning. That's better. She went to school herself at a time when Spanish was forbidden in school. Hmm, I wonder how that worked in Spanish class. Studies Have Shown (I love that!) that language abilities transfer from one language to another. It is perfectly fine to use your native language in speaking to your young children because they will acquire language abilities along with the specific language. She regrets that the Every Child Ready to Read program does not translate to Spanish. She thinks ALA and PLA should work on that. That's not to say that the materials such as posters have not been translated into Spanish, but the practices used in storytimes are not adapted to the Spanish language and good books to use that are in Spanish or English/Spanish aren't listed.
A quick review of the ECRR practices in my head along with what little I know about Early Spanish Learning yields the following examples. In Spanish, you don't really separate consonants from vowels. Words are broken down by syllables: di -fí -cil. Rhymes in Spanish aren't quite the same as in English. You rhyme the vowel sounds, not the combination of vowel and consonant. Vida and encima rhyme. Besides, Spanish is just sooo much easier and more organized than English. There are actual spelling rules that are in force all the time. The letter "I" will always be pronounced the same way, like our long E. Spanish is almost understandable with 50% of the consonants missing: ¿’Omo e’tá u’té? Whereas in English, we can throw out most of the vowels: Djeet? Whadjeet? I had a German teacher who waved her hand airily and said that all you had to do was substitute some slightly different vowels to go from German to English and back. It doesn't quite work that easily, but every now and then I see what she meant. The point I'm making is that you're listening for different things in these languages. Translating ECRR into Spanish would require a whole separate system. Maybe they can just swipe something from Spanish education.
Garza adds that is it not just the home language that needs to be taken into account, but the cultural background and she directed us to the NAEYC statement which goes pretty much as follows:

The acquisition of language is essential to children’s cognitive
and social development. Regardless of what language
children speak, they still develop and learn. Educators recognize
that linguistically and culturally diverse children come to early
childhood programs with previously acquired knowledge and
learning based upon the language used in their home. For
young children, the language of the home is the language they
have used since birth, the language they use to make and
establish meaningful communicative relationships, and the
language they use to begin to construct their knowledge and test
their learning. The home language is tied to children’s culture,
and culture and language communicate traditions, values, and
attitudes (Chang 1993). Parents should be encouraged to use
and develop children’s home language; early childhood educators
should respect children’s linguistic and cultural backgrounds
and their diverse learning styles. In so doing, adults will enhance
children’s learning and development.
...
Each child’s way of learning a new language should be
viewed as acceptable, logical, and part of the ongoing
development and learning of any new language.
Responding to Linguistic and Cultural Diversity Recommendations for Effective Early Childhood Education A position statement of the National Association for the Education of Young Children Adopted November 1995

Or something like that.

She suggested that we provide brochures on the Rights of Immigrants (because they do have them, no really) as well as information on financial literacy. The Bank of America no longer requires a driver's license to open an account. Something like that would be helpful for guests in our country to know.

She provided lists of books for "noches de cuentos" (evening storytimes), suggested "ferias del libros" (book fairs) and pointed out that a parent literacy workshop has to be café con cuentos and that the café part is essential. None of this filthy iced tea. (Hough!)

Interesting point: Because she knows Yuyi Morales, author of Just a Minute! that we used recently in our puppet show for Día de los niños, she was able to ask her where the idea for Grandma Beetle came from. I mean, why Beetle? Apparently, in Xalapa, where Morales is from, there is this large, dark beetle she wanted to commemorate. Silly me, I thought she was a ladybug and when I tried to translate the story a couple of years ago, I called her Mariquita.
And I'll end with a quote from Gabriela Mistral (not the one about "Cuando una espina me hiere ..." that I usually go on about) she shared with us:
"Many things can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is Today."

Notable books:
Family Pictures by Carmen Lomas Garza
Nochecita by Yuyi Morales
From Here to There by Margery Buyler
Cri Cri by Francisco Gabilondo Soler
The Pot that Juan Built by Nancy Andrews-Goebel

SCLA 2007

The link is to the program ... which took me four clicks to reach from the SCLA homepage. Heads up, guys! When I was looking for information, I had to really hunt for it. Four clicks is the minimum for someone who knows exactly what they're looking for because they already found it once. I can't tell you how long it took me to find the program when I first hunted for it. If you have a big annual event coming up, there should be a direct and obvious link on your homepage.
The same thing applies to us, I guess.
Ahem.
Next time remind me to drive myself - or to check to see when people think they are arriving and leaving.

South Carolina in Second Life

[Sigh. There she goes about Second Life again!]. I had been asked by Catherine and Kevin to be on the panel, for questions at the end (so being there at the very beginning wasn't necessary). Then when Catherine batted the ball to me, I choked and had to pass. Hmm, mixed metaphor there. I don't think every library needs a presence in SL, but when the question was asked, "Why at all?" I thought it was self-answering. "Is there any reason for being in SL other than because people are there?" You could ask the same question about any branch library or bookmobile stop. Why scatter yourself all over? Make the public come to you. Haven't they got legs? Doesn't everyone have a car? If they have a computer with internet at home, surely they also have a car and you have a website. Why add this new interface?
Why do telephone reference? Damned technology, messing up our lives!
Why provide materials for the handicapped (they're useless anyway), non-English speakers (they should learn the language!), children (most can't read), or any specialized group?
Why stay downtown when you could move out to the suburbs, have a lovely library without the pesky homeless people walking in and spoiling the ambiance?
We go where there are people! It's our job!
Kevin showed that you could have a storefront in SL for the total cost of Zero United States Dollars ($0.00). Lemme see, how much is that in Linden Dollars ... dum-de-dum, carry the four ... uhhhhhh, Zero Again (0.00L)! And he has a conference room with a video uplink. Of course, he doesn't have any puppet shows going on ...
It was also brought up that you get a certain amount of anonymity in SL you don't get when you bring Home Remedies for the Clap up to the giggling women at the circ desk. There's a medical library on SL with live staff to direct you to better websites, and if they giggle, you'll never hear it. An avatar's face remains pleasantly frozen.
And I didn't remember to point out that I wouldn't have had to travel over two hours to get there if the sessions were simultaneously on SL. I could have slept to a normal time, sat in front of my computer in my jammies with a mug of tea, and not missed a thing. Well, unless there was a technical glitch. And then I might have connected late and ... oh, hmmmmmm.
I was able to give Kevin a real hug when it was over. Bless him, he has the energy and conviction of a Pentecostal preacher.

Serving SC Latino youth

I took a page and a half of notes on this and got an 8 page handout. Jamie Naidoo started by reading one of my favorite stories, Just a Minute! by Yuyi Morales. He went over the statistics on official and undocumented latinos in SC. We don't need to do any research, we can see them every day. Latino culture is based on four core values: familia, pertenecia, educacion, and compromiso. Note that the family one is first.
Intergenerational programming is best. They will come as a family.
Find someone in the latino community to assist in planning.
Survey the community before doing anything.
Naidoo is concerned about stereotyping, inaccuracies, and omissions. Bi-lingual books can have bad translations or the Spanish may be represented in a way that diminishes it (placement, font style or color that makes it difficult to read). We should be on the look-out for these things in choosing books.
The hand-out was loaded with resources, printed and web, that will take ages to sort through to glean info useful to our particular situation.
Tidbits:
When doing a bi-lingual storytime and you have the book in English and the book in Spanish - should you read the whole book in one language and then in another? At Lexington they are able to double-team for bi-lingual storytime, so one person reads one page in one language and the other person follows up with the same page in the other language. That's handy! [So, if you just have one person? Use the Spanish book and translate page by page. It may have to be a very simple one such as Oso pardo, oso pardo, or you might just have to memorize it.]
Idea for a program: make a dia de los muertos altar! (There's one in SL, as a matter of fact!). Do holiday programming, on Saturdays (hush my mouth!), once a month.

Lunch

I hadn't meant to stay for lunch. I didn't see an afternoon session I was interested in, but everyone else was staying for lunch. I wasn't even hungry until the vendors kept talking about lunch. Is everyone going to the lunch? Was the lunch extra? What are they having? We might go somewhere. After listening to all of that, I regretted my decision to not have the lunch (although there is really nothing worse than convention food - and I saw that the dessert was already sliced and drying out on the tables). I decided to eat at the hotel, and I ran into Annette from Abbeville at the bar. Ahem ... I mean, we ran into each other at the hotel restaurant. We ate and had a nice chat and she talked about some YA programming she had done that sounded like a lot of fun (instead of having everyone make the duct-tape wallet, she had instructions for that, another duct-tape craft, and then threw out the rolls of tape and let 'em have at it!). We agree at how much you can plan for a craft and then see that the kids will take it to another degree. I told her about the people pens we made one year with round-stick Bics and embroidery floss. One teenager just couldn't deal with it and one 9 year old boy made what he said was Britney Spears, complete with long blonde hair and exposed midriff. I made a Sammy Sosa. I should send her that page from American Girl where I found that craft.
It makes me think I should turn the wiki into a craft info center where we can share ideas and photos of crafts.

21st Century Literacy

This was far more interesting than I thought it would be. It was the closest session to my field, and I didn't expect much. Deborah Yoho (not about to forget that name) works for the Organization Formerly Known As Literacy Council. They merged with some group and now call themselves "Turning Pages." Things like this only inspire a rant with me about how names of companies these days just don't make sense. I am suspicious when companies change names (often to shake off bad publicity). Gone are the days when someone's name meant that a genuine person or family took pride in their business. But I'll save that rant for another blog.
Part of the problem with learning to read in schools today is the "tension" between the three methods: phonics, whole language, and sight word. When dealing with kids with learning difficulties and especially with adults, you have to find the best method to use with them. That will require some one-on-one teaching which is expensive.
In SC we are still dealing with the legacy of the denigration of education. Education was not compulsary for all SC children until the early 1960s. I ran into a more in-depth view of education in SC, particularly in the upstate, in Kathy Cann's history of Spartanburg Methodist College, Common Ties. SMC started up as a school to teach textile workers, some who had had no education or school experience prior to attending.
You didn't need any school to work in the textile mills and children were often brought to the mills to watch their parents work until they were old enough to be doffers or take on some other paid job. This was in the 20th century.
We babyboomers are the last generation to reach a greater education level than the one before us. I see in my notes that I don't say we are better educated. Or smarter. There's this synergy between a lost generation (education-wise), immigration, and shrinking resources that is creating "The Perfect Storm." [I'm so glad she brought that up because I hadn't heard of that movie/book and it was part of the answer to a question on "Says You!" last night. That made me look soooo smart!]
Literacy needs: volunteers, space (we'll have more space in the new library), and resources such as books and magazines for new readers. It would also be nice to have a private audio-visual space. Math books. (This is so hard for librarians. If we could do math, we'd be in industry making the big bucks.)
An important lesson she learned is that It's About Story. She had to relinquish her animosity toward the furry animals in stories when she discovered that the adults could relate to them because they were in stories. Go figure!
It is about stories. It is the stories that engage children and adults. A story makes it worth puzzling out to the end of the word, the end of the sentence, and all the way to the end of the piece. Did it turn out the way you expected? Was it satisfying? Was it worth the effort? It made me want to tutor ... although the idea that it took Yoho four years to get her group up to a second grade reading level is pretty daunting.

Update on Livemocha!

Boy, you need a pretty thick skin to do the writing assignments. I did my first writing assignment, clicked the button, and sent it off to be trounced upon by native speakers (I hope they are, anyway). There's nothing like instant humiliation! I had prattled on like I knew what I was talking about (or writing, anyway, or how I was writing it) and then five people leaped on it like a school of piranhas! Okay, one of them took back part of what he said, but Holy Cripes!
Bravely, I assayed yet another writing assignment and although I was very careful and didn't write as much, and the comments were brief, it was still like being stabbed through the heart. It actually brought hot little tears to my eyes!
You can say I'm over-sensitive ("You're over-sensitive!" Thanks a lot), but it was really hard on me. This is actually what makes it so hard on people visiting a foreign country. They remember what it was like in school to have every little thing marked wrong and they are afraid to say anything for fear of that humiliation of being wrong.
My husband recently played at a local music festival and did great, but all he remembers are his goofs. He was Mr. Pouty for almost a whole day after. It's no surprise that musicians become addicted to drugs from the pressure of performance. But I could identify with his feelings. I came out from reading the comments on my writing assignment and told him what I felt. "Why do you do it then?" he asked me. "I have to learn," I replied.
Of course, the difference is that he is thwacking himself over his own goofs and I have a whole social network of people sharpening up their red pencils to get at me.
And just like he will forget the goofs of this weekend when the new goofs of the next gig fill his mind, I will eventually toughen up my skin and forget the perceived criticisms of my attempts to communicate ... once I get the new corrections for the third assignment I've turned in today.
Is this a good way to learn a language, wincing and cowering? That remains to be seen. I will keep y'all posted.

LiveMocha!

Where was this LiveMocha idea forty years ago when I still had brain cells? When I was still branching, instead of pruning? What a great idea this is! Well, it's a great idea for those of us who want to speak another language.
I signed up for Spanish. Okay, okay - y'all think I already know this stuff, but you don't really know it until you have to use it day after day with, like, real speakers and all. I wanted to see how this works and I should have kept in mind that it's in beta-test because there are some little niggly things that annoyed me.
I went for Intermediate because I'm definitely not a beginner but I'm nervous about my abilities. So I started with Spanish 202. And what are they teaching? Telling time ... People, I'm telling you, it was Math!!!!! I have no trouble with the Spanish. I've taught telling time in Spanish. But I have to figure out what time it was a half an hour ago, etc.! Talk about sweating!
First they showed clock faces and had written underneath (there was probably some audio that went with it, but I don't have a way to actually talk so I was going to ignore the audio portions) the time, then what time it was such-and-such amount of time ago (which is the "it makes so much time" construction in Spanish). Then it showed people being in certain locations (use of the correct verb for location is a tricky thing for non-Spanish speakers) at certain times. Then they were in those locations a certain amount of time ago. Then you were asked if it were such-and-such time, with the response being, "Naaa, that was three hours ago!" Fine. That was just showing you what to do.
Next came the finding the correct response portion. You had to pick from four possibles the correct time or phrase represented by the sentence. Not too bad, I only screwed one of those up because the photo was missing and I wasn't sure if I'd clicked it. Tch - beta-test!
Then there was the magnet board: you translated a sentence by clicking on separate words made available. It was easy enough to find the first and last words in the sentence because they were capitalized and punctuated. I messed up once when I used the right words with the wrong punctuation in the "Is it blank o'clock yet?" "Naaa, it was blank o'clock fifteen minutes ago." Obviously, in Spanish the word order is different:

¿Ya son las 7:15? Hace treinta minutas eran las 7:15.

And I screwed something else up being careless. sigh. So, you ask, what's the point of this? It doesn't sound like such a great system. Ahhh, but you forget the social aspects. You are also required to make friends. When you sign up, you are given a few people to ask to be friends that either are taking the same language, or are native speakers. If you are the misanthrope I am, this is a painful process. I rooted about and clicked on three people that looked safe (female). One of them has already contacted me! She sent me a simple note in Spanish and I have replied. She's a nice granny, semi-retired, and brushing up her old skills.

Well, hot damn!

I also had the opportunity to look over someone's written composition (only about 7 sentences). Shhhhhugar! Her English is worlds' better than my Spanish! As a native speaker, I could correct it and/or give comments. What could I say? It was all excruciatingly correct, if overly careful. So I told her it was perfect and gave the full five stars. Other people had been giving marks as well and it showed her average star tally.
Oops! I had written a short piece as well. I hope people are kind.
Also, I've noticed that there is a tote board that shows the rankings in each class of how many points students have accumulated. I guess that's for the terminally competitive. Me, I'm glad I didn't bite off too much by aiming too high in levels. Phew!

Hmmm, perhaps I should look into the German as well. Then again, Germans grade really hard. "Och, ja - nice of you to zend ze note, but ve don't use ze datif in zat case, you know ..."

Added later: Horrors! Someone graded my short written piece! They walked all over it! Then they sent another note and said they had misunderstood something and that other than a little tiny bit, it was good. Phew! You need a thick skin for this! Next time I will write le minimum. Fewer words, fewer mistakes.

shelfmonkeys: The Nightmare

A total rip-off of Jayson's cartoon. I mean, inspired by Jayson's cartoon. Great hoppin' horney toads! It's like being back in school!
Actually, the woman who helps us is very nice and would never laugh at us. We hope.

Marketing on a Shoestring Workshop in Columbia

9 March 2007

Marketing on a Shoestring

with Padgett Lewis of the Richland County Public Library

which has 10 locations plus one book-not-mobile

that will soon be replaced by a storefront branch,

and a $16 million budget,

a Public Relations Department

with their own color printer for doing anything 1,000 or less.

Shoestring? Suuure.

Ms. Lewis is a journalism major who is part of a 4-person permanent public relations department at the RCPL. Their department consists of a PR manager (Ms. Lewis), a PR specialist, and two graphic designers. The RCPL does no paid advertising. That, apparently, is a slippery slope. If you pay once, they think you will pay again. They rely on building relationships with the media. Their PR is done by Staff, Media, and Community Partnerships.

Everyone wants to know how to get their message about, but the library has many messages. As it is easier to sell one on one, she recommends prioritizing. So, the overall goal is to prioritize. What is the most important message you want to get out? Whom are you trying to reach? Are you trying to increase usage of resources (which resources)? Are you trying to attract new users?

The RCPL has won national recognition, but Ms. Lewis says that national recognition means diddly-poo if one person at the grocery store doesn’t use the library. They started with a community survey to develop a true marketing campaign. They found out that while everyone had a favorable impression of the library, they still didn’t use it. (What? Doesn’t Google have everything? Okay, they have a lot, but they don’t have Personal Assistance. The main problem? The Library just isn’t “cool.”) They changed their domain name from the “rcpl.lib.sc.us” to something easy: myrcpl.com. RCPL needed to be a Brand, and they needed to be consistent with it. They wanted to make the library into a community gathering spot (develop community).

On Branding: can use graphic arts students to develop a logo. [We did this with the Born To Read sticker.]

Use every opportunity to showcase your resources. Tailor existing programming to events (Black History Month, Women’s History Month). Capitalize by seeing a need in the community at a certain time and telling the community, “We have something!” Identify Your Audience, and find the best way to reach them. [Example: Hispanic Community distrustful of things that smack of government and filling out forms. Reach them through their children at the schools, where the children are more familiar with the concepts of library and forms.]

They started a Teen Advisory Board (Dana and I were chuffed that we already had an active TAB). They asked the TAB what was the best way to contact them. They said e-mail. Okay, but if we e-mail you info on upcoming events, will you forward that info to all your friends? Yeah, but don’t make it longer than one line. Teens don’t like to read a lot of stuff. So, they send teens one line with a link. They like their pictures on things. They put photos of TAB members on their website (with signed releases). Do they like to be called “teens” or “young adults?” Ask ‘em. And let your signage reflect their preference. [Okay, okay, we’ll call you “teens,” but would you like to check out a YA book?] Use technology to reach teens. They love it. On cards given out at desk or programs put a “Yes, please send me info on programming by e-mail.” On a program evaluation form add that and “How did you learn about the programming?” and “your comments count.” RCPL uses the Excel database for e-mail addresses (need to tell people to okay the library’s e-mail address so that their notices won’t bounce back or go to the bulk files).

They asked the TAB what sort of programming they would like. They said a Teen Idol contest. [We’d need an auditorium and sound equipment for that.] Everyone from RCPL rolled their eyes and tried to weasel out of it. It sounded like a nightmare. But because it was their idea, the TAB took ownership of it (a tremendous pay-off), and even handed out fliers. RCPL found sponsorship for the prizes (an hour’s recording time in a studio and one got to sing the national anthem at a major venue … and kept getting asked back to do it). Attendants were quizzed on library usage. This will be their fourth year of Teen Idol.

RCPL was going to open a wi-fi coffee shop. Teens got a special preview night all to themselves.

Ms. Lewis says to tell county council how teen programs cut down on teen violence. [Hmm, we’d need statistics for that, wouldn’t we?]

Sure, you have lots of vegetables for teens (SAT test info), but try to balance notices about that sort of stuff with stuff they want (graphic novels? Cool programming?). Video game contest: rent the machinery. Carnival games. Henna tattoos [been there, done that as well]. They sent a bitchin’ info packet to the media (with a poster of a middle-aged librarian with tattoo photoshopped on) and the tv stations showed up.

Lowe’s and Target have grant applications on line. Don’t let the manager sniff that they only give to their own community (you are a part of their greater community). Just slip in, get the manager’s name from the front and fill out the form on line. Sneaky, sneaky.

You can get e-mail info from the state schools website to use for contacting media specialists, music teachers (Teen Idol), art teachers, etc. [This is true. I got e-mails for principals for mailings I did.] Communicate with the schools. They are used to communicating with parents. Communicate with Homeschoolers [We used to keep a list of them and their addresses.]. Blog. Conduct polls on line. Post book reviews. The media has blogs as well [they do? Must check the Index-Journal. Seems so unlikely.] The RCPL puts out 20 news releases a month.

RCPL has a very popular handout on “10 reasons to come to the library.” It “flies off the counter.” Ms. Lewis will e-mail that to us. We can use that any way we want and let patrons know they can use it any way they want (church newsletters, personal websites, etc.).

The RCPL raised Friends dues from $10 to $25 (because the dues didn’t even pay for the mailings). They lost people who couldn’t afford it, but gained money. [Yeah, but then your notices go to fewer people.] They had some fancy tote bags made. [These really were beautiful. They were capacious, black, with the trademark green printing. Must have cost a bundle.] Next time they will add the website.

They use local kids’ artwork on brochures and promotional materials. They just went to the art teachers and asked to look at some stuff. The ones they used they had framed and made a presentation at the school (with the brochures to go home with the kids). Very uplifting. And put that in the newsletter as well (photo of kid being presented framed art and story about art on brochure). [You know, this sounds like such a great idea if you have a huge printing budget with full-color brochures.] The booklet bibliographies have photos of local kids. A release is always signed. No names of children are ever printed. If media arrives, they are escorted (to “facilitate,” a euphemism) and must get signed releases. Yes, the library is a public area, but what people are reading is private. This is a written policy at RCPL.

[Note from other participant: “Don’t put a bathroom in the staff room. It’s disgusting.”]

If you have self-check-out with self-holds-pick-up, and the books are covered in paper (for privacy), use it for PR! Print info on it. It’s worth spending a little more money to tell them about more stuff they might be interested in.

Most important thing we learned: Bribe the media with food. Take them out to lunch. Or, here’s what they did for the Augusta Baker’s Dozen. It happens year after year. Media Person thinks: “Oh, here’s another news release about that d@mned story thing!” They got some Krispy Kreme donuts (no tax dollars were used) with colorful sprinkles, photographed the top and bottom, enlarged it, and used that for a cover for the press info. Then they ate the donuts. This was delivered with a dozen donuts (dough-nated) to local media (including radio stations that held the deliverer and made her talk on air … she was upset about this, but you can’t buy publicity like that).

If a vendor provides publicity materials and they are generic, ignore them. See if you can get them to tailor them to your library. Why just advertise them? Morningstar has a newsletter with “Library Notes.” The RCPL created some 10-minute on-line tutorials for their databases and that was written up.

The end of the workshop concentrated on one goal. Services to Hispanic Community was chosen.

Recruit from the community and engage them in dialogue. What do you need? [Queremos más gente de la comunidad hispánica venga a la bibioteca. ¿Qué podemos hacer? ¿Qué necesita la comunidad hispánica de la biblioteca? ¿De cuál modo podemos servirles?] Be a presence at latino festivals. RCPL has as much trouble as we do, actually.

In summation: prioritize. Pick one thing and hammer it.

For Children’s Services: programs, fliers, survey (hard copy or on website) asking for e-mail address. “Do you want to be part of …” nice wording. “We won’t share!” Cull out dead ones. To ensure delivery, add this address to your list (or it will turn into spam).

Hand out program info stuff when doing storytimes or other programming away from the library.

Every person in the library is Public Relations. You are library PR. No one should enter the Children’s Room without being greeted.

Start each program with “Who has a library card?” Tell them how many items they can check out. After a program, “Don’t you want to check out a book today?” And have some available.

At RCPL they pre-select books for the age group targeted (by the program) so that after a program, they can walk out with a stack. Of course, they have RFID (you can just set the stack on a thingie and the machinery reads the titles and checks them out to you), lucky so-and-sos.

They also have Library Pals, volunteers from the rising 3^rd grade to age 15 to help with puppet shows, simple shelving (easy and paperbacks), and pre-cutting crafts. There is a brochure with an application.

Coupon for “free” library card. Okay, we know it’s already free. Hand ‘em out anyway.

Who is your audience? Focus on something. Focus and prioritize.

So, what did I actually learn that I can use now?

For all programs:

Have some books on display.

Ask who has a library card.

Talk up the library card.

Encourage people to check out books after the program.

Not worry too much if the books aren’t on the program theme.

Approach members of the Hispanic community to see what they want/need from the library.

Keep an eye peeled for events (esp. in Hispanic community) that we can piggy- back on.

Work up press packages for local media and deliver them in person with food.

Example: press package for summer programs with Mystery theme accompanied by jelly donuts (surprise!). Of course, donuts will need some quality control … That’s radio stations, cable company … hmm, may need to bake cookies instead.

Revive Homeschoolers Mailing List and use it.

Survial Spanish for the Library

I have spent an entire hour with this quick course on Spanish for use in the library. It is excellent. Nothing lasts more than two minutes. You'll need headphones and you should probably also download the pdf file that goes with it. That said, there are a couple of inconsistencies between the print and the audio and one ... incomplete piece of information. The inconsistencies are not of great importance. There isn't a whole lot of difference between "de nada" and "por nada" in saying "You're welcome." The difference is regional, like "y'all" versus "you'uns" or "youse guys." There was another one ... what was is? Oh, saying "se vence" instead of "expira" for a card that has expired. Again, it doesn't make a difference, but if you are following along the printed version while listening to the audio, it might confuse you.

One minor thing I'd like to make clear is that, "Excuse me" in English is used for all sorts of things, but there are two ways to translate that into Spanish and they only show one. And there is a difference. You would say "Disculpe" after you have done something rude (bumped into someone, spilled their coffee, interrupted them). If you are about to do something (trying to get someone's attention who is talking to someone else, trying to pass between people or between someone and a wall, say), you use "Permiso." The former apologises for something done, the latter begs permission to do something.

Let's practice this.

You and your co-workers are chatting and don't notice a patron has walked up. They clear their throat. What do you say, dear?
Desculpe. You were being rude and you are asking for forgiveness (literally it means to take away the fault, as in "culpable").

Someone has asked you to find some information for them, but when you are done, they are talking to someone else. What do you say, dear?
Permiso. You ask permission to interrupt their oh-so-important conversation to give them whatever they asked you for. They should say "Disculpe" to you at this point for ignoring you.

You want to put away some books, but there is a crowd of people in the aisle. What do you say, dear?
To self: Hmm, I'll come back here later.
But, as you turn to go back, you bump into someone. What do you say, dear?
Disculpe. Forgive me for bumping into you.

You are in a big hurry to get from one end of the building to another and there is a whole crowd of people in your way. What do you say, dear?
Permiso. Permiso. Permiso, permiso, permiso, permiso.

Having said all this, we also have to take into account discrepancies between the printed part and our specific library. Our bathroom is not near the entrance. I bet you could construct the proper response from the information given. For instance, in the main branch, the bathroom is next to the circulation desk. Our fines are five cents a day, not fifteen. And you can't take out "as many books as you can carry."

If you only learn, "I will go get someone who speaks Spanish," this will be worthwhile. Unlike the French (and sometimes the Germans*), people who speak Spanish are delighted to hear someone attempt their language and appreciate the gesture. After all, we will only be getting more and more people who speak this, not less.

Besides, it's fun. The fidelity of the recording is so good that you can even hear the speaker's stomach growl. No, really.

*Actually, while the French will roll their eyes and start speaking English at you if you even slightly mangle their language, the Germans will think you're cute, but spend hours working on you trying to improve your German ... while speaking perfect English at you. (Oh, ziss iss a common error of zeh English speaker. Zat verb takes zeh Datiff case ant you haff used zeh Accusatiff. Also, zeh adjectiff iss different if you are using zeh definite article. Here, let uss review ...)

WebJunction and Spanish Outreach

I was just wasting ti- I mean, I was checking my professional feeds on bloglines this morning when a new one came up for LibraryTrax (the SC State Library blog) that linked to the updated WebJunction site, a site for library staff. Hot dog! Or, rather, perro caliente! They have a whole section on Spanish Outreach and what amounts to a "short" course (less than an hour) on Spanish for library use. There's mucho mas. Like, dealing with Spanish speakers at the computer. I'm at the CR desk right now, so I can't really investigate it thoroughly (as I'll need sound and ... oh,yeah, I need to be alert to customer interaction, if one comes in today - Heavens, it's been slow) at the moment. Visit the site yourself (link is above in the title). I'll give it a look-see perhaps this afternoon (once I get my programming for next week under control) and report back!