Last week I attended the Missouri and Kansas Library Associations Joint Conference Libraries without Borders. In addition to attending some sessions that were really great, I presented with my friend and co-worker on writing about books for your community as a librarian in a session entitled Readers’ Advisory Toolkit: Writing Book Reviews, Blog Posts, and… Continue reading Readers’ Advisory Toolkit: Writing Book Reviews, Blog Posts, and Annotations
Category: library life
Beyond the Bestsellers: Building Diverse and Balanced Collections
Yesterday I got to meet lots of librarians at the North Central Kansas Library System Teen Workshop. I spoke about why it’s so important to have a diverse collection (even if you don’t live in a diverse place) and resources for discovering and evaluating books. A pdf set of the slides can be found here: Beyond the… Continue reading Beyond the Bestsellers: Building Diverse and Balanced Collections
Why Librarians Don’t Want to Buy Your Self-Published Book
When a self-published author contacts someone in the collection development department at my library, we let out a collective groan. Inevitably, our answer to the request to add their book to our collection will feel personal, which is awkward. It will definitely mean more work for us no matter what, and for acquisitions and cataloging staff… Continue reading Why Librarians Don’t Want to Buy Your Self-Published Book
Library Displays: Merchandising Tips
Last week I went to a Library Journal Lead the Change Workshop. The main speaker was David Vinjamuri, a guy from outside the library world. He’s a marketer who teaches branding at NYU, but started writing about libraries and the book world for Forbes and is now speaking at continuing education workshops for librarians. The different… Continue reading Library Displays: Merchandising Tips
Library Program: Solar-Powered S’mores Ovens
Full disclaimer: this program was not my idea, I just happened to be working in the teen zone the day it was scheduled, and Miriam, our awesome teen librarian, said she’d work the desk and I could help with the program, which was presented by the environmental studies club at KU for Earth Day. It was… Continue reading Library Program: Solar-Powered S’mores Ovens
wrapped up in books 