Leah L. White

Hello everyone,

As you can see The Young Librarian Series has slowly come to a halt and it is now time to put this project to rest. We had a truly awesome run and I just wanted to take a few seconds to thank everyone who read and supported the Series. Also a huuuge THANK YOU to those who participated.  Truly this project wouldn’t have worked without the willingness of our community to participate, write and create. You all give me so much hope and happiness for the future of libraries. That is priceless.

Please note that Tame the Web has agreed to keep the site here as an archive, so as always, thank you Michael. So if you have links to content here from your own site, don’t worry! That won’t be changing.

If you are still anxious for some content of mine online, check out the Chicago Deskset, follow me on Twitter or check out my personal blog La de da which gets updated…nearly….monthly :::grin::: If you are looking for more info on the individual contributors, each page has a bio with contact information.

Again, thank you everyone. It truly has been a great ride, and it makes me so excited and hopeful.

I’ll see you in the cloud,

Leah the Librarian

Hello everyone!

Well it looks like Good Day Maine totally copied the Young Librarian Series and decided that Justin Hoenke is a man with a plan who just needs a platform! In all seriousness, congratulations on the excellent interview Justin! It’s so exciting that you are spreading the good word on teen librarianship and your new section (at your NEW JOB!) at the Portland Public Library. So head on over to the Fox 23 website to check out Justin’s interview with with Good Day Maine:

http://www.myfoxmaine.com/good-day-maine/93668324.html

And in case you missed it before, here is the interview from the Young Librarian Series:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anthony Molaro is the 30 year old Head of Tech Services and Automation at the Messenger Public Library in Illinois, co-founder of the Chicago Deskset and a Doctoral student at Dominican University, Graduate School of Information and Library Science. He was interviewed for The Young Librarian Series, just after this article was originally published in the December 2009 issue of American Libraries. You can read his blog or you can follow him on twitter.

On a recent and blistering cold Sunday evening I found myself flipping through the cable channels.  As I surfed the channels, I landed on the USA cable network.  During a commercial break the cable channel ran a brief blip on their Characters Approved Awards.  These awards are given to defining characters that “are changing the face of American Culture,” people who “surprise and inspire us with fresh ideas.”

The focus of this particular message was Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia.  I leave the debate over the merits or lack thereof of Wikipedia to other authors and articles.  However, Wale’s goal of creating a system that gives access to “the sum of human knowledge” is noble and lofty, one that few librarians would dispute.  The philosophical undercurrent that is the foundation of Wikipedia is to make information freely accessible to all.

The cable network described Jimmy Wales as an information activist, a person who is “giving the power of knowledge back to the people…”  The old adage is true, knowledge is power.  Librarians have been doing this for centuries, and few would debate that issue.  However, I was surprised that he is described as an information activist.  Wales stated that access to knowledge is a fundamental human right and that Wikipedia’s goal is to remove the filter of old white men to information.

“Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge,” Wales said.  He wants Wikipedia to be a “sledgehammer to break down the barriers of censorship, of ignorance, of apathy about the state of the world.”

Are we librarians information activists?  Just what is an information activist?  The Random House Dictionary defines information as the “knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.”  It defines activist as “an especially active, vigorous advocate of a cause.”  Thus an information activist is a vigorous advocate of knowledge gained through study, communication, research or instruction.

Another cable network recognized the type of information activist just described above, but this time it was a bona fide librarian.  CNN’s Heroes for 2008 included a librarian, Ethiopian native Yohannes Gebregeorgis.  Gebregeorgis was working for an American library, and he was charged with the acquisition of children’s literature in foreign languages.  He found that no books were written in Amharic, and that no books represented people or places of Ethiopia, prompting him to write the first bilingual children’s book, “Silly Mammo”.  The proceeds of the book’s profit were used to fund and create a library in Ethiopia.  At one point, Gebregeorgis left his job and family to bring 15,000 books from the San Francisco’s Children’s Library to Ethiopia.  He also started the Ethiopia Reads program. He even opened a library in an extremely poor area in Ethiopia, which provided children with their first safe place for both reading and fun.  Gebregeorgis is truly an information activist.

While the notion that an information activist as a “fresh idea” is not entirely true, it an inspiring idea.  Librarians and the libraries they work in have always valued the access to information.  We have strived to remove barriers between the users and the information.  But maybe we have let that message, that grand and noble truth, take a back seat.  I don’t know if we are information activists or not, but I believe that we should be.

What would the world, and Libraryland, look like if we pursued vigorous advocacy of knowledge gained through study, communication, research or instruction?  How would the world views us differently if we hold this truth to be self-evident, that all persons are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the free access to the sum of human knowledge so that we may attain Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?  What would the world look like if we succeed in giving every single person access to the sum of human knowledge?  How many of the world’s problem would be solved by such a movement?  If that threshold was reached how much would the world’s GDP increase?  How much faster would knowledge grow?  How much would poverty and starvation decrease?  How many new technological and medical breakthroughs would occur?

There is little doubt that the attainment of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness would be far easier to attain if the sum of human knowledge were within any person’s grasp.  Did the Characters Approved award succeed?  I, for one, am deeply inspired, and I hope that you are too.  I hope that if we ever meet we introduce ourselves as librarians and information activists, and that we live up to that noble truth that access to knowledge is a fundamental right of all people.

Thank you for reading the Young Librarian Series! Do you have an idea for a post? Send an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or check out the Submissions page. See you next week!

John M. Jackson is a 28 year old MLIS student and cataloging supervisor for the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He blogs about academic libraries and information literacy at Ink and Vellum. You can follow him on Twitter as johnxlibris.

When people ask what I do, I love to give them my official title: Grand Inventory Cataloging Supervisor. How many times in my life will I get that chance to say the word “grand” in the title of my job!? Ok, the name of the library is “Grand Library” but most people don’t know that. Many of our students don’t even know that! Grand Library is USC’s offsite storage facility for low-use materials: in the words of one of my colleagues, it is where books go to die.

But they don’t see the wonders that I see every day! I once came across the Library of Congress catalog from 1860. The other day, I stumbled across a volume of Diderot’s famous Encyclopédie. These books are not entombed. I prefer to think of them as waiting. Or simply misplaced. They just need the right person to find them. As Steven Jay Gould famously said, “There’s no way it will interest more than eight people in the world, but those eight people really care.” I catalog with those eight people in mind.

That is my reason for being as the Grand Inventory Cataloging Supervisor: find our books. Over the last ten years, Grand Library became the dumping ground for materials weeded out of other collections and for acquisitions that couldn’t be processed fast enough. As a result, hundreds of thousands of volumes were never cataloged properly or at all. So it is our 4-year mission to boldly go where no cataloger has gone before: into the stacks to live, to dwell, to rebuild.

Literally. I have a desk in the middle of 81,000 square foot room containing over 2 million volumes and growing every day (it’s in the PQ7000 section: Spanish literature). I supervise a team of student workers and day-by-day we work to create and edit bibliographic records in order to properly reflect our monographic and serial collections. We are fond of calling call our job “guerrilla cataloging”.

I did not always want to become a librarian. In college and in graduate school at the University of Virginia, I studied medieval literature (hence the name of my blog). While I was there, I worked part-time for one of the electronic archives and saw, for the first time in my academic life, the raw power of information: how it can be created, enriched, and shared. I wanted to be a part of that environment and actively contribute to its goals and objectives.

I have aspirations of working as a subject specialist and reference librarian for the institutions of higher education. I half-jokingly like to say that I’m a cataloger who wants to be a reference librarian who wants to be a cataloger. I love both aspects of librarianship, but the public services aspect of reference work pulls much harder on the drawstrings of my heart. I love nothing more than to see that look in a student’s eye when “they get it.”

This may explain the topics I choose for my blog (which is very young and I’m still unsure of what it may grow up to be). I started the blog in January of this year with the goal of setting up a professional space where I could talk about information and academic libraries. So far, it’s been a very efficient way to learn about information literacy, instruction, and reference work and to keep up to date on current research. Ideally, this will contribute to a future job as a reference librarian, but life has a way of taking you to unexpected destinations. So until then I will be diligent and I will blog: contributing, sharing, and networking with other librarians like the spectacular ones highlighted here in the Young Librarian Series.

Please take a moment and visit John’s blog Ink and Vellum. Would you like your blog to be highlighted on the Young Librarian Series? Send an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com Or check out the Submissions page. See you next week!

Amber Woodard is the Library Technical Assistant at the Vise Library at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee. As one-half of the “Vise Squad,” Amber is constantly trying to think of clever ways to draw students, faculty, and staff into the library. She’s 26 going on 15 and can be reached at awoodard[at sign]cumberland[dot]edu.

I worked in the public library world for close to two years, so I was used to summer being the busy season. When I began working in an academic library, I experienced a bit of a culture shock. The Monday after graduation was S-L-O-W. We have a fair amount of students who take summer classes, but somehow the appeal of sitting in a study room for the entire day is not as great as taking a laptop outside to the gazebo. In between our “must do” projects, such as weeding the Reference collection and shelf-reading the stacks, I, along with Reference and Instruction Librarian Claire Walker, decided to make a couple of videos about the library.

We wanted our first video to be geared towards the students and would help them learn more about a library service. I absolutely love parodies (imitation, sincerest form of flattery, and so on), so we chose to have our video parody those “4 out of 5 people recommend this product” commercials. In this case, our product was going to be EBSCOHost, and the “4 out of 5 people” would be our professors. Cumberland has five academic schools, so we chose a professor from each school. Next, we had to work on a script for each professor. We wanted to highlight the idea that students could find scholarly full-text articles that professors would accept as research sources. We also wanted to make sure that the “fifth person” did not dismiss library resources but still stay within the theme of 4 out of 5 people agree. Using a borrowed video camera, I began filming. Our professors were great ad-libbers (especially our education professor!) and came up with good material Claire and I did not consider. The filming went very smoothly thanks to having a clear concept and plenty of time to plan. After filming, we embarked upon the monumental task of editing, including adding music and captions and adding an introduction and conclusion from yours truly. The editing process only took about a day-and-a half, and though I may be biased, the final product is fantastic!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Our second video was for the faculty in-service at the end of the summer. We wanted to tell them about library services without standing at the front of the room and lecturing to them. We knew which services we wanted to highlight but we did not know how to present the concept. After a couple of days of brainstorming, we came up with the Good Idea/Bad Idea concept. This video would show faculty members a good way to utilize the library and a bad way. The good ideas were easy, but the bad ideas were a little trickier; we wanted them to be humorous and clearly horrible ideas, but we did not want to offend any faculty members who may have actually done some of these things. We finally thought of ideas that were either outlandish or neutral enough not to offend faculty but that could still show our point. Claire and I filmed this video in one day. Thanks to my theater background (and inability to feel more awkward on film than I do on a daily basis!), I did most of the “acting” in this video with cameos from Claire and Justin Bradford, former Alumni Relations and Online Media Coordinator for the university. The faculty enjoyed the video and we saw an increase in the usage of services highlighted.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Recently, Claire has begun making video tutorials, which is a nice addition to our quirkier fare. Her first foray was a tutorial on using Ebooks, and she has plans for more over the next few months. I would also like to make another video during the next summer semester. It has proven to be an easy process, and I feel it makes a better impact than telling patrons about our services. We have considered a library rap video, so that may be our next project. Check out our other videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel to see what we come up with next!

Thank you for reading the Young Librarian Series! Do you have an idea for a post? Send an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or check out the Submissions page. See you next week and don’t forget to share!

Jason Dean is a 27 year old MSLIS student, working at the Amon Carter Museum library. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas with his wife, Jen, and their cat, Cosby. You can check out his blog, The Dean Files, or send him an email to jason.dean[at]me[dot]com.

Hello fellow young librarians! My name is Jason Dean, and I am currently an MSLIS student at Syracuse University. I plan to graduate in December, and then my wife and I are off to Austin (so if you are in the Austin area, I’d like to hear from you!)

I have a passion for architecture, one that predates my passion for libraries and librarianship. In fact, I think this first came together for me when Jen (my wife) and I went to the Seattle Public Library on our honeymoon. I loved the space and how people interacted with each other, and the resources in the collection. Jen is a former architecture student, and we live in Fort Worth, home of some wonderful architecture (for example, the Kimbell Art Museum, the Amon Carter Museum). Those experiences planted within me this question:

What makes a library building great?

And so, on my blog, The Dean Files, I try to look at one library I really feel is great, and point out why I think it is effective – primarily for the user, but also in terms of aesthetics and architectural significance. I have already talked about two of my favorite libraries, The London Library, and the library at the Phillips Exeter Academy by Louis Kahn. I plan to look at the Seattle Public Library, the Morgan Library, and many others. What then, has examining these great library spaces taught me, beyond the building “looking nice?”

Well, first, light is incredibly important. I think Louis Kahn said it best: “A man with a book goes to the light. A library begins that way. He will not go fifty feet away to an electric light.” Good lighting is essential to any activity in the library, and by good lighting I don’t mean fluorescent bulbs – I mean natural light. Of course, this presents some problems for the preservation of our collections – but not an insurmountable problem for creative and effective architects.

Second, the library should have a strong identity in its building. Even though the purpose and usage of libraries has changed dramatically over the past twenty (or so) years, there is a very strong cultural idea of what a library “is.” Books are a large part of this, but also community and individual workspaces.

Those workspaces are the third “key” to a good library building. Individual, semiprivate workstations are very important, with all the right ingredients included: power outlets, network plugs, and an OPAC interface nearby. Also, there need to be semiprivate work spaces for groups in a variety of sizes, from small to large. These areas should have the same amenities (power, internet, OPAC) but should also have to varying degrees, presentation materials and gadgets (projectors and white boards come to mind). Beyond these meeting rooms, there is a strong need for large community spaces, where users can feel free to talk, mingle, et cetera.

The best libraries combine these elements in different ways, but all have these three elements. And this is not to say that these are the only three important common threads in great library architecture – I feel sure you have some thoughts as well – so please let me hear your thoughts on my blog!

This is just one in a series of blog highlights from young librarians in the blogosphere. If you are interested in having your blog highlighted on the Young Librarian Series, please send your blog’s URL and a brief description to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com. Or just head over to the Submissions page. Thanks! ~leah

Elizabeth Davis a 28 year old children’s outreach librarian at the Lackawana County Children’s Library, in Scranton, PA.   You can follow her on twitter, or on facebook or email her at elizabethhdavis[at sign]gmail[dot]com.

Being a children’s librarian is an amazing job that requires a lot of patience, flexibility and is never boring.  For one minute though, pause and gather your mental image of the species known as the children’s librarian.  What do you see? Is it a brightly colored sweater vest with animals, or something seasonally themed? Is it the super-caffeinated or sugary voice that breaks out into song at the drop of a hat? Do they look like your cuddly grandmother? Do they look like they haven’t seen a wardrobe change since the Reagan administration? Is it a craft centered train of thought? Do they knit at conferences?

For these reasons, I tend to say I’m a librarian who works at a children’s library. I realize to some it’s a matter of semantics, but to me it’s a huge difference.  I prefer to work with children because are amazing human beings who have unique and interesting ways of seeing the world.  They are startlingly honest without malice and know what they want.  Oddly, children’s librarians tend to be looked down upon within the profession.  There are so many librarians that I have meet that make snide comments about how they can’t stand children and how they feel bad that I’m stuck in the children’s department.  It’s disheartening to feel like the gum on the bottom of someone’s shoe. It’s really not fair considering the amount of work we actually do on a daily and the importance that is placed on that work.

We have the distinct honor and responsibility to aid families and children through some of the most important times in their development. We help prepare and enlighten them about the world around them.  We stress the importance of early literacy and school readiness skills so that children are prepared when they enter preschool or kindergarten.  We help them find the best books to get them excited about reading and to keep them reading. We plan programs that make the library a place where kids want to be for fun or for when they need help with a school project.  We get them excited about learning new things and introduce them to the world outside their town.

Today for example, I had story time with the neighborhood day care center, then filled collection requests for area teachers and homeschoolers. I worked on our Flat Stanley program that we are doing with an infantry battalion going to Afghanistan. I picked up and dropped off new books we are getting Brailled by our local Association for the Blind.  I answered reference questions from confused moms, curious kids and made snow out of diapers.  This was just one day.

I have a very loose job title that allows me to do things that I don’t think many other children’s librarians do.  I serve on our Emerging Technologies Committee, co-chair of the city wide community reads program, do Ask Here PA Virtual Reference and pretty much anything else that interests me.  I’m really interested in UX and am constantly wondering if the services we are providing are helpful and easy to use.  It’s helpful that upper management is excited when I get excited about something.  They give me and my coworkers the freedom to try new things, whether it be broom hockey or Drupal.

I sometimes think about why I refuse to accept this title of ‘children’s librarian.’  I think it is because I don’t want to be clumped into a stereotype.  I want to be taken seriously even though I to jump around with five year olds and read stories that rhyme aloud.  I want people in our profession to see that while we may have fun at our jobs that doesn’t mean we’re not doing important things.  I want librarians to see that being a children’s librarian isn’t a demotion but rather a promotion.  A promotion to holding the future of the library in our hands because if I don’t do my job, the rest of you won’t have a job.

My mom always says that I am the only person she knows who loves their job.  Can you say honestly that you laugh at your job on a daily basis? Can you say that your job is rewarding just because you found the perfect book for a picky reader? Can you say that you learn something new every day and a new way to see the world because of another person, even if they are 10 years old?  I can and that’s why I’m a librarian.

Thank you for reading the Young Librarian Series! Do you have an idea for a post? Send an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or check out the Submissions page. See you next week!

This is part 2 of Jim Peterson’s post On Educating Your Peers. To read Part 1 and learn a little about Jim, please check out On Educating Your Peers, Part 1.

Best Practices for Slides
The information on your first slide can several things: introduce yourself, introduce your topic or both. As you can see, I put only my name and job title on the first slide along with my major talking points. At the end of the show, I have a slide that has my contact information, which I usually leave on the screen at the end so people can send me contact me.

Since this slide makes the first impression on your audience, it is probably your most important slide. It needs to be informative, but not overly so, and aesthetically pleasing. Text on the screen needs to be easily readable, and the background needs to be unobtrusive. In other words, you don’t want a navy blue background with bright yellow accents and screaming orange font colors. For most presentations, a conservative approach is the best. Here’s an example of a bad slide – the web links are difficult to read now, and even worse on an LCD projector!

Your second slide is also pretty important, especially if you are a newcomer to the presentation circuit or a relatively new employee in the industry. On this slide you can give a brief bio of yourself, which helps to establish credibility. Also give hints of your presentation style here: formal, with questions after your talk, no questions at all, or informal, where attendees can ask questions at will. Personally, I prefer the last option of taking questions at will, but if you choose to do this it is important to remember what point you were making and get the presentation back on track should the questions stray too far.

After your second slide, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. You can make them as simple as black text on white background, or as elaborate as a custom-designed background with pictures and animations.

Pictures and Web links are important in a presentation as well. Pictures help illustrate a point visually and can sometimes do far more than just telling the point. Web links give you the flexibility of being able to go to a site for information on the fly. This can also lighten your presentation by not having to store that information on your slides and as an added benefit all but guarantees the freshest information. One caveat, though. You will be limited to the available bandwith provided. At LinuxCon in Portland, the Wi-Fi was clogged by attendees downloading and surfing, and presenters who had external links had to improvise or do without sometimes because of that.

In the following picture I was making the point that smart phones are becoming integrated into library catalogs through applications and that even the bookmobile librarians may be asked how to access the catalog from a mobile device. Not only is there a picture of the iPhone models available, but also a link to the App Store to see the applications. Once on that site, I did a quick search for e-book readers and showed how there are apps for specific public library systems. It really is something all librarians have to think about!

The final slide comes after your summary slide, where you have recapped for the audience your main points and supporting arguments.

Putting together a presentation is fairly easy but it does take time, especially if you are adding photographs. For this I suggest a photo-editing suite like PhotoShop Elements by Adobe, which is a paid program with a free trial; the GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program – it’s what I use), which is open-source and free to use; or Google’s Picasa, also free. At the very least, your editor should allow you to remove “red eye” and crop the photos.

Stage Presence
The best advice I can give you for getting up there in front of those people and giving the presentation is to believe in yourself. You know your stuff! Don’t be afraid to move away from the podium, especially if you are not tied to a corded microphone. Movement makes you interesting, especially if you can demonstrate a point by changing perspectives. For instance, in the bookmobile presentation, I got down on my knees to demonstrate line of sight for a short antenna, vs. standing up on a table to demonstrate how much better it is for a tall one. In the same presentation, I had everyone imagine that a fire alarm in the ceiling was a satellite, while I roamed around the room demonstrating what a satellite-tracking system does while on a bookmobile. You might even want to read this article about presenting like Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple. Certainly he knows how to wow a crowd!

Make it interesting. Move around. Raise your voice. Ask questions and get the audience involved!

So How Did You Do?
The only way to know if you got your point across is to ask. A question and answer session, while not necessary, is helpful in evaluation of your presentation. This can be tricky, as the evaluations may not be allowed at some conferences. Some conferences handle the evaluations for you and send you the results, while at others you must handle the evaluation yourself by passing out the eval forms and collecting them at the end.

But it is very important to get feedback; otherwise, how are you going to improve? I admit that I talked way over some heads at the bookmobile conference – sometimes it is very difficult to talk technology on a level that EVERYONE can understand – and that is a very important thing to remember! Not everyone will like you. Not everyone will like your voice, what you’re wearing, or what you have to say even! They just may not be able to comprehend what you are saying because it is a difficult concept or issue to which they have never been exposed. But you have to know where you are falling short in your presentations in order to make them better.

In Conclusion
You are a presenter, or want to be, because you are passionate about your job. You have information that can help another person achieve the same goal you had. You are not afraid of speaking in public, or maybe you are, but what you have to say is important enough that you have to get up there and just do it. Whatever the reason, take your time and do it right! Make sure you cite your sources and provide links if they are from the Internet. Use pictures, animations, bells, whistles or whatever it takes to make your point. Don’t be afraid to move around the stage. Mingle in the audience if you can. And finally, get feedback from the crowd. You need to know if your point was clear and if the audience understood you.

As librarians we have the insatiable need to collect information and store it somewhere in our noggins, often forgetting that others may need to know that also. Even if it’s a regional library training session, you can help others in your state by passing on that which you have learned. And, you might just learn a little something yourself.

Thank you for reading the Young Librarian Series! Do you have an idea for a post? Send an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com or check out the Submissions page. See you next week!

Jim Peterson is a 39 year old Technology Coordinator for the Goodnight Memorial Library, a very small library with a staff of 10, including the custodian! You can follow him on twitter, read his blog or check him out on Facebook.

Also please note that this submission will be one of two parts to be posted over two days.

First off, let me start by saying that I am no public speaking trainer. I’m not a motivational speaker, at least not in my mind. I am a geek; defined as:

geek [giːk] n Slang

1. a boring and unattractive social misfit

2. a person who is preoccupied with or very knowledgeable about computing

3. a degenerate

tr.v. geeked, geek·ing, geeks

To excite emotionally: I’m geeked about that new video game.

[probably variant of Scottish geck fool, from Middle Low German geck]

So I guess that makes me a foolish, boring, unattractive, social misfit degenerate who is very knowledgeable about computing. But my inner geek cries out in pain, “But there is so much more to me than you see!”

I am also a librarian by way of luck. I didn’t go to library school. I was let go from my previous job as a tech support person at a major computer manufacturer. I was just totally lucky that my local library had need for a Technical Services Librarian. I hadn’t been inside a public library in 10 years and knew nothing about how they worked. That was a little over 2 years ago. So why am I doing presentations?

The answer is fairly simple. I care. The state of Kentucky is full of small towns, in which there are small, tight-budgeted public libraries – libraries that can’t afford their own tech guy. In this market so many citizens are underserved by big corporations, such as phone and cable companies, big-box stores, etc. These folks turn to their libraries for help with online job searches, filing for unemployment, and keeping up with friends and family through services like Facebook. I have the knowledge to make things work on the computer and networking side and pass on my knowledge to those who listen. If this sounds like you, then please read on!

As my example, I’ll be using one of my presentations available on Slideshare. It is a presentation I did for the KY Department of Libraries & Archives‘ (KDLA) Bookmobile & Outreach Services conference last September.

Getting Started

To do a presentation, you will first need to receive a CFP from a conference, symposium or training session. A CFP is a Call For Proposal, Papers, Participation, whatever P-word works, in which you submit a basic outline of what you intend to discuss. For example:

Now click on the screenshot above and you will be taken to the full CFP page. This page includes the proposal guidelines, some suggested topics, what types of presentations are offered and submission requirements. At larger conferences that draw an international audience like LinuxCon, you may also be given guidance as to preferred languages.

Choosing a topic

Once you have chosen a conference, you should have an idea on what topic you will speak about. For example, there are challenges associated with creating a reliable mobile Internet connection in a rural library. So I knew I had something to offer the KDLA Bookmobile and Outreach folks since I had just recently installed mobile broadband on our bookmobile.

I can’t overemphasize enough the importance of experience when it comes to choosing a topic. If you have experience in your topic, you will have a calmness and confidence that translates directly to your presentation. Your body language will display comfort with the topic and the audience will be able to recognize you as an expert. And by volunteering your time as a speaker/presenter at a conference workshop, you will be considered an ‘expert’ on your topic unless you prove yourself wrong!

As an example, I have been playing with computers in one way or another since around 1981, when PCs were starting to become affordable enough for the home market. I have built and broken, fixed and sold, and have an IT degree. But that degree means little if there is no experience to back it up. After all it is just a piece of paper that says you know how to pass tests, and that’s how many event coordinators look at them.

Creating the presentation

Personally, I create on the fly and tweak it into shape as I go. I’m not one of those who can sit down, write an outline and then fill in the blanks. So while my style of doing things may differ from yours, remember that there is no one correct way of doing things! For example, with the Bookmobile presentation, here is a link to my Slideshare page where you can see this PowerPoint deck in its entirety. The first page gives a rough outline of the major points to be made:

When you’re creating a PowerPoint, think about who you will be talking to and the message you want to get across. I chose this slide background because I was going to be telling these folks how to bring the World Wide Web to their patrons, so a global theme seemed subtle and appropriate.

Part 2 of On Educating Your Peers will be posted tomorrow. It will include best practices for slides, how to evaluate your performance and more! Stay tuned!

Do you have your own idea for the Young Librarian Series? Shoot an email to: younglibrarianseries@gmail.com See you tomorrow!

As you can see, I am no longer actively posting on La de da. If you would still like to read my rambling thoughts, please find me on Twitter.

Thanks for reading <3

Hello fair readers,

Today, big stuff happened on the libraries and ebooks front. And I tried to write an eloquent and stern “open letter to HarperCollins” type post. But so many people are doing it much better than I can. So instead, I will do something I am good at and point you towards the resources to educate yourself about what is going on and what you can do about it.

First, read the Library Journal article written by Josh Hadro who broke the story. It’s really great reporting. Thank you so much Josh.

HarperCollins Puts 26 Loan Cap on Ebook Circulations

Next, check out the hashtag that started the uprising of librarians in response to that great piece of reporting.

#hcod

Now read the really amazing blog posts popping up all over the libraryland blogosphere.

The Publisher That Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by theanalogdivide

Library eBook Revolution, Begin by the Librarian in Black

Publishing Industry Forces OverDrive and Other Library eBook Vendors to Take a Giant Step Back by Bobbi Newman

I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further. by LibraryRenewal

Questions That Need Answers by David Lee King

Okay you should be pretty briefed by now and also angry/upset/disappointed — however you choose to process this.

Finally, there is this:

library.ebook@harpercollins.com

That right there is the email HarperCollins has obviously set up specifically for our complaints and suggestions. So let them have it. Tell them what you think and what you have to say about it. Give them any suggestions you have for how to make this right and more importantly if you are angry about this decision (that’s right Librarians, it is okay to be angry) that was made without libraries and librarians having any place or opinion in the matter tell them about it.

You can also @ them on twitter. They live here: http://twitter.com/#!/HarperCollins

And that’s all for now. Have a lovely (but activist filled) weekend.

It seems the things leading me to blog recently are consistently musically motivated. So sorry for any library-land folks who miss my rantings about the field. But hey, there’s always my twitter.

So, fair readers, today I am here to write about a nifty little group I heard about on Studio360 (which is, btw, a NPR show you should probably be listening to, if you don’t already). What happens when you mix classical music nerds and indie pop?

BEAUTIFUL THINGS!

Just watch this and then purchase all her albums. You know you want to:

Hopefully the snow won’t prevent you from doing so.

Stay warm! Stay safe! And have a wonderful weekend fair readers.

So I had the day off today and while reading for my book club, I became inspired. I made a soundtrack for the book Tess of the d’Ubervilles. You can view it here:

http://8tracks.com/leahthelibrarian/tess-of-the-d-ubervilles-a-soundtrack

But it might not be in the right order. So here is the breakdown:

Phase the first: The Maiden
1. The World is a Very Scary Place – The Gothic Archies
2. Unfortunate Few – The Ditty Bops
3. Wolf Like Me – TV on the Radio

Phase the second: Maiden No More
4. Sad, Sad Song – M. Ward
5. Lady Sings the Blues – Billie Holliday

Phase the third: The Rally
6. Love Love Love – The Mountain Goats
7. I Want To – Best Coast

Phase the Fourth: The Consequence
8. I’ve Got A Secret – Kate Nash

Phase the Fifth: The Woman Pays
9. I’ve Got Hurt Feelings – Flight of the Conchords
10. Sully My Name – The Marked Men
11. Brakes – De La Soul

Phase the Sixth: Convert
12. Troubled Waters – Cat Power
13. The Great Escape – Patrick Watson
14. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – The Beatles

Phase the Seventh: Fulfillment
15. Monster – Kanye West
16. Wholehearted Mess – Bear in Heaven
17. Stonehenge – Spinal Tap
18. Shit Luck – Modest Mouse
19. Falling Down – Tom Waits

Enjoy!

An old friend of mine is looking for help. Davis Silis is a director and is looking for support for his new short film We Come From The Sea. Watch his video here:

Even $1 will help their cause and if you can give more, then please considering doing so. Their kickstart page can be accessed here:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fromourshores/we-come-from-the-sea-an-ambitious-short-film

Support the arts and consider giving Davis and Co. a helping in hand to create their beautiful short film.

Have a great weekend, fair readers.

I am sitting here thinking about one of my first musical memories. This was really the moment when I realized the time how much music could make me feel and how truly emotional listening to music can be. It was when my Mom played The Great Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd for me. It was Christmas, a long time ago. My Dad had bought her the album on CD when we first bought a CD player (I was pretty young). She put the CD in and put it on this track. I remember feeling a little afraid of the song. The woman wailing…why was she so upset? But I also remember my complete awe. Understanding the relationship between the music and how I was being made to feel at that moment. I think its safe to say that was a pivital moment in my childhood, especially when it comes to my relationship with music now. Just one of those great and amazing memories that shapes us.

Thank you Mom for introducing me to the emotional side of music. And thank you Dad for re-buying her the album that introduced me to this concept. Now that’s what I call good parenting.

Hello fair readers,

I never get these things up on time! Just like last year…

2010 was special. It was my year of change. I moved in with my boyfriend and headed to a new neighborhood—got a new job, in a new type of library, in a field I never imagined myself specializing in–I published my very first featured article in Library Journal–I turned 28, moving just a bit further into my late twenties–co-founded the Chicago Deskset. Also my little nephew Oscar turned 1 and started to walk and talk and become a tiny little person. There have been lots of big moments.

But as usual, this has been a year of good reads, great concerts and complete loves. How could it not? Here are my favorites…

Cut Copy at Lollapalooza

I wish I could find the perfect youtube video to show you how completely in the palm of Cut Copy’s hands we were…it was just amazing. He said jump, we jumped. A lot. It was a total blast. Everyone danced. Everyone leaped around. We just fed off each other. I haven’t been to such a perfectly in sync concert with the musicians and the crowd just vibing off each other like that in years. Made Lollapalooza definitely the best concert experience of 2010.

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

What can I say, other than: Go read it. Now. You can thank me later. Don’t worry that it was picked by Oprah for her book club. Who cares? Just get to a library and grab a copy of this book. Seriously….now! Stop reading this silly blog and go!

Grand Canyon National Park

Sometimes I think about how much I underestimated the power and majesty of the Grand Canyon…and then I laugh at myself. This was simply the best. We did a great deal of hiking at the canyon. I have done small hikes but this was a whole new level. It was so challenging and so incredibly rewarding in ways I never knew possible. Nothing compares to hiking on an unmaintained path, up the edge of the Grand Canyon. It changes things. Going to the Grand Canyon was a much needed reminder for me. I cannot wait to go back and discover more. Some people feel patriotic when they see an American Flag? Well this makes me feel patriotic. America the Beautiful, indeed.

There’s more. More moments and songs and books and words. 2010 was pretty good to me, looking at it overall. Funny how each year just brings more surprises. More depth. I can hardly wait.

Happy New Year, fair readers. To the days to come!

Let me give you another reason to vote for my library:

This video was created by one of my very talented co-workers. Watch it. Like it. Share it. And please, vote.

http://vote.playaway.com/v/

As many of you know, I recently took a position at the Morton Grove Public Library as the Readers Services Librarian. The first major project I planned was our participation in the Playaway Picture This Contest. Playaways are a relatively new style of audiobook and as a promotion, they are awarding $10,000 to the library who created the best display. I coordinated with every department in the library, borrowed some mannequins from Turin Bicycle in Evanston, IL and got to work on creating the best display we could possibly get together. Its not very often that you have a chance to win 10 grand with no strings attached! It is just money that will go directly to the library.

Now we have made it to the top 10 and the rest is up to an online vote. And I am asking for your help. It is very simple. Just go to this link:

http://vote.playaway.com/v/mortongrove/

You can view our photographs, which I’m pretty proud of, enter a valid email address, and click on “vote for this library”. There is one vote per valid email address. And please, once you have done that, please share the link on facebook, twitter, or forward this email. Post it to your blog or your website. Please pass it on. The way this can be successful is through word of mouth. And I know that I can count on you to spread the vote.

So help us (and me) out and please vote for the Morton Grove Public Library. Again, the link is:

http://vote.playaway.com/v/mortongrove/

Here is one of my favorite pics from our contest submission — in case you need a little extra motivation

Thank you so much for your help. And have a lovely day.