Please excuse a little bit of a braggy post today:
Oh, what’s that? You can’t quite make out what it says? No, don’t be silly, of course I don’t mind: “To Rachel, Great to meet and eat deer together in Lawrence. Dl Woodrell.”
Just a few weeks ago, my library played host to the phenomenal Daniel Woodrell and his wife, author Katie Estill. Continue reading
There have been too many things to love about the library this spring. At least five of them have to do with beer:
In March I headed to my first ever PLA conference, in adorable Philadelphia. I roomed with my boss, and we watched “Friends” reruns in our hotel room. So, it was pretty rad. These Amish women at the Reading Terminal Market made the best sticky buns I’ve ever had in my life. Beer was consumed. But my favorite was the Fabric Workshop and Museum, where I met the very awesome Chicago librarians Vicki Rakowski and Ben Haines, and scored some pink plastic tentacles and a bunny with a moustache. Then we saw Betty White.
Nate Hill, web librarian at San Jose Public Library, is my new favorite librarian — I saw him speak at PLA in Philly. Imagine: self-published books by library patrons that could be instantly cataloged and then vetted by upvoting, like on Reddit. And check out that sexy color coding on their website. These are some of the brain children of Nate Hill, who makes jokes about dogs and burritos.
Also a Philly highlight: talking about smutty books with about 100 fellow librarians at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. I learned that many erotic novels have purple or red covers, and I placed a hold on Fifty Shades of Grey.
One of my favorite Kansas colleagues is headed to San Fransisco next month to give an “ignite talk” on lifelong learning in libraries. I have no idea what an “ignite talk” is, but I already love it!
To prep for her talk, she put a call out to Kansas librarians to share ideas about how lifelong learning happens in each of our libraries, whether it’s programs, events, spaces, training, web events, materials, etc. She’ll be turning our feedback into a word art slide show that shows all the different ways we’re getting at this key library function.
As I sat down to answer her question and shoot some photos her way, I was just really proud of what my library’s been working on. Our Thrifty Gifter series, which taught our community about hands-on DIY crafting, upcycling, frugality, metalworking, and knitting. Our recent “Meat and Greet” Kansas Day celebration which ditched the butter churning and anthems, and instead introduced community members to local ranchers, who talked about animal husbandry and sustainable food while the audience enjoyed free tasting portions of their meats. We’ve had fun teaming up with local foodies to offer events like Coffee Tastings, where we talk about how coffee is grown and techniques for tasting, roasting, and brewing. And currently we’re in the middle of a series of Financial Wellness Clinics, which cover budgeting, saving, investing, love & money, and more.
The more I hone the practice of librarianship, and especially events and programs, the more I’m convinced that libraries thrive when we offer what our communities actually want to know, instead of what we think they ought to know. In my community, that means arts, local foods, sustainability, civil war history, basketball, and lit… and the weirder, the better.
What event have you loved at your library, lately?
I wanted to tell you all about my library’s Thrifty Gifter workshops all in one shot, but then I blew it last week when I got too excited to hold back any longer.
Last Tuesday and Thursday we had our third installment of crafty events: Metalworked Bookmarks! This was the largest of any of the Thrifty Gifter workshops, with 40 total students sawing, punching and hammering all at the same time. We made some serious noise. Lessons learned? My library’s auditorium is surprisingly soundproof. Also? Although the class worked well and most people wrote that they loved it, next time I would keep the size down to 25 or 30.
This was our most diverse group yet, with teenage twin sisters, fathers and sons, little old ladies who were best friends. Continue reading
Last month’s 10,000th blog visitor called for a bit of a bananasuit vacay. Besides, my little running joke lately is that I’ve become an indentured servant here at the library. Only 8 more years til my student loans are forgiven! Ha… Ha.
Seriously, this month I’ve been working like crazy on our super fun, super thrifty gift-giving series, Thrifty Gifter. Spectacularly talented artists from the Lawrence / Kansas City area have been donating their time to teach community members how to sew upcycled pillowcase totes, knit simple accessories, make metalworked bookmarks, and wrap wreaths in pretty yarn at the library.
I could pretend that everything is always perfect, but my intent is to keep it real here at Librarian in a Banana Suit. Guys, we blew out the circuit breakers in the library auditorium the first night when we powered up all the sewing machines and irons. Did you know that irons can draw as much electricity as a refrigerator? Neither did we. Thankfully, my volunteer that night was a Navy vet, and took charge of re-rigging the extension cords. 15 minutes later, and it was nothing a few pieces of chocolate couldn’t smooth over. Thank goodness for a renovated library in the works.
Remember a few months ago when I got really excited about hanging out with Civil War buffs? It’s about to get real next week. And there are John Brown Paper Doll & Disguise Kits involved.
This is a tale of how our library mined a rich social information network to discover an amazing piece of local history and local art that had converged and was just begging to be curated by the public library. From a librarianship standpoint, I’m completely geeking out about this. Hello there, Important Cultural Resources.
A few weeks ago, Lawrence Magazine sent out a tweet with a link to download your own John Brown paper doll and disguise kit. This tweet showed up in our @lawrencelibrary feed, and we loved it. We often retweet Items of Cultural Importance, which is exactly what we did with the John Brown Paper Doll tweet:
In short, this initiated a dialogue between Lawrence Magazine, Lawrence Public Library, and the artist Jason Barr, which ultimately led to a John Brown Paper Doll giveaway that we’re doing in conjunction with three Civil War events at the library next week. Even better? We’ve produced a giant version of the paper doll, cut out & with velcro, that is now an interactive, hands-on display in our lobby that celebrates and curates our local history. Win win win win win.
This is all part of Civil War on the Western Frontier (CWWF), a neat slate of annual community events organized by the Lawrence Visitor’s Bureau. Cultural historic landmarks like the Eldridge Hotel, Watkins Community Museum, Theatre Lawrence, and Black Jack Battlefield have all got neat things up their sleeves this week and next.
And of course, everyone’s invited to come on down to the Lawrence Public Library on Aug. 17th (John Brown’s Raid lunchpail lecture), 18th (Dark Command film screening) and 20th (Thomas Ewing Jr. book signing) to commemorate CWWF and get your very own John Brown Paper Doll & Disguise Kit. See if you can spot me in my John Brown disguise!
So we’re trying this new thing at my library. We’re starting a monthly poetry night for the fall and spring, and are pretty excited about the opportunities and challenges this presents. Main opportunity? Poetry is awesome. And main challenge? Poetry’s got a little bit of a dusty reputation. We’re hoping to do something about that.
And so taking to the ever-amazing Internets to get some ideas, I typed “awesome poetry events” into my google search bar, and discovered this beautiful little poetry tumblr that I’m now obsessed with: Manic Mouth Congress. Manic Mouth Congress! I want to be everything that is the Manic Mouth Congress. In reading more about the Mouths, I learned that they do things like a Night of Erotic Poetry. Yowza! Continue reading
So, I pretty much have to share this article with you from today’s local paper. Hey, if this were 1995, I’d be cutting you a clipping and sending it to you in the mail!
About a month ago, one of our library’s favorite reporters from the Lawrence Journal World called us up to pitch a story about tips on getting through mammoth Summer Reading projects. I think we surprised her with our unanimous advice: if you need tips to slog your way through it, then you’re reading the wrong Summer book! Far from the retro “shushing librarians,” we suggest saving the Tolstoys and the Melvilles for December.
For more on why our library thinks you should read what you want (and to rehash an infamous War & Peace Bookclub incident), read on: LJWorld: “Failed Summer Reads”
When kids in Lawrence, KS, are in second grade, they go out to the banks of the Kaw River to build mud huts and learn about the time Quantrill came over from Missouri to burn down the Free State. 15 years later, this Kansas-Missouri rivalry matures into college students chanting “Muck Fizzou” at basketball games. And then there’s the civil war re-enactors…
This Wednesday, I met my first true Lawrencian Civil War Buffs! My library plans to be involved with the Civil War on the Western Frontier Festival this August, which commemorates the anniversary of Quantrill’s bloody raid. And so I was in the thick of it all, sitting at a planning meeting with the most hardcore of a town full of hardcore buffs. When we went around the table for introductions, half introduced themselves as their civil war persona: “John Brown.” “Reverend Cordley.” “The Honorable S.A. Riggs.” Later someone suggested a Civil War movie, and a hush fell over the room: “That one’s from the Missouri perspective.”
I’ve never lived in a place that took such pride in its Free State Civil War roots. It’s one of the things I love about living here — slowly learning the culture, understanding what makes this community tick. The arts. College basketball. Civil War re-enactments. Who knew?? I think public libraries are in a great position to vitalize our communities by offering programs that really mean something to the people who live there, and I’ve been doing my best to learn what that means in Lawrence! I can’t wait to see what the CWWF festival brings this August. And I can’t wait to build my mud hut.
Last night at my library I attended a great book discussion about Kansas Poems by William Stafford, edited by Denise Low. Denise was Poet Laureate of Kansas from 2007-09, and she was our discussion leader last night!
Denise talked to us about William Stafford, a Quaker poet from Hutchinson, KS, who published his first collection of poems when he was almost fifty, in 1962. That collection, Traveling Through the Dark, went on to win the National Book Award, and he was named U.S. Poet Laureate just a few years later. His Kansas poems are written in plain language and reflect on death, loss, and rural poverty, but with a deep sense of acceptance and even twinkle-in-your-eye humor. He was also a noted pacifist; in 2007, NPR’s All Things Considered ran a National Poetry Month feature on him called “A Pacifist’s Plainspoken Poetry.”
And yet! Most of us in the audience had never even heard of Stafford prior to the book group. But how could that be ~ a U.S. Poet Laureate and National Book Award winner, from our very own state? And a KU grad, no less?? Continue reading
Rachel Smalter Hall 