In just a few hours I get to hang out with a great group of librarians who are working on choosing a title for next year’s Read Across Lawrence series.  And although picking a title that pretentious beer-guzzling hipsters will love is one thing, picking a book for the whole community feels like a whole different animal.

This past spring, our community read To Kill a Mockingbird, which set the bar pretty high.  Amazing events were held all over town, including Theatre Lawrence, KU Libraries, Liberty Hall, Signs of Life, Watkins Museum, and the historic downtown courthouse; and twitter buddies @larryvillelife, @THERaymondMunoz and @nuthousepunks even used the hashtag #TKAMB to explore the hipster dilemma: “what can Atticus and Boo and Scout still tell us about ourselves, as contemporary scenesters?”

Next year, we want to make sure we do just as great… maybe even better.  To accomplish this, of course, we set some goals!  First, we want our selection to be a title that our community will instantly recognize and love.  Second, we hope our selection will have inter-generational appeal.  Third, we want it to grapple with challenging, timeless questions while tying-in to current events or issues.  Also on our wishlist is for the author to be living, and for ample stage, screen, and audiobook adaptations in order to support and celebrate multiple literacies.

I don’t want to give too much away, but so far we’re considering over 35 titles, replete with zombies, apocalypse scenarios, local food, and dysfunctional families.  There are even a few pretentious postmodern titles in the mix.  Check back soon — can’t wait to share more!

Sorry, guys — today I’m taking a break from my usual fare of silly library stories to reflect on something just a little bit bigger.

A few days ago I gave a presentation in front of our library board.  Preparing it was a great opportunity to step back from day-to-day ops and reflect on the big picture of what I do.  I got to share my philosophy of public librarianship, which, in a nutshell!, is that public libraries are spaces for community-centered learning & dialogue.  And when I say learning, I mean it in the lovely Freirean sense of praxis: true peers coming together to act and reflect upon their world in order to transform it.  For me, public libraries can and should be all about the discovery, exploration, and creation of ideas that happens when people have access to information.

And from environmental action to LOLcats (or John Brown Paper Dolls…), this takes the shape of whatever’s meaningful to the community. Continue reading →

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!