WISHES

Just wanted to wish everyone in the OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder?)...Oil Creek District a Happy New Year! =)

50th Book for Book Club Celebration

This is the picture from our 50th book celebration at book club at Reynoldsville Public Library last October '07 that I had told everyone about. Pictured here is Karl (me-Reynoldsville) Ruth (book club member and 50th book cordinator) David Parrott (guess speaker and author of the books we read for the 50th book) Sharon (Reynoldsville) and guest Rose Pituch (Brookville). Finally got the picture up and wanted to share with everyone. Thanks!

Philip Gulley Field Trip

I forgot to mention in previous blogs, that our book club had it's first field trip. Four members from "The Breakfast Club" at Reynoldsville Public Library, trecked not to Gobbler's Knob to see the groundhog, but to the Presbyterian Church in Punxsutawney to see New York Times bestselling author Philip Gulley.

We go to hear him speak about his "Home to Harmony" series. A master storyteller, he enthralled us all who were listening about the adventures of his characters who live in a small town called Harmony. They are feel good books that you can relate to. Very humorous stories as well, and you didn't even notice the time going by.

The one thing I wish was that more members could have joined us on the beautiful Sunday afternoon. As one of our book club members who went said, "When do you get an oppurtunity to see an author and he virtually in your backyard?" I agree, and the four of us jumped at the chance. At only (I believe) $8.00 a person, you got to hear him speak, and a dinner was held afterwards. Very delicious might I add. You can't go wrong supporting local communities, hanging out with good people and friends, and hearing about what we all in the library profession love to hear and talk about...books!

I wish that those types of programs could make it more often to our corner of the world. I know that I would attend, certainly try to push and advertise, and try to make it a fun and successful event.

A good time was had by the four of us. It was held on April 20th, 2008.

Happenings at RPL

Just to let everyone know what is happening at Reynoldsville Public Library. We will take part in the community open house on Sunday, Nov. 30th, with "Cookies With Santa". Stories, crafts and, of course, Santa will be part of the holiday kick off from 1:00 to 4:00. Also, for the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas we will be doing our "Food For Fines." Patrons with overdue fines may donate a nonperisable item for each overdue item. The collections go to the local food pantry. I got this idea off the internet so I can't take credit. It may be cumbersome for a large library but it works for us. Happy Holidays already.

Quiet, this is a library

Hey Dan!

So I was on Google Maps getting directions to the Brookville library when I noticed someone had written a review. I went ahead and read it (it was from August of 2007) and felt compelled to write a ‘reply’ review, tee hee hee. Is it something you could possibly copy and post up on the District blog? If you can here is what the first review said, and then my ‘review’ follows. Just thought I’d see.


Rebecca M Arthurs Memorial Library

Quiet,this is a library‎ - David Brosius‎ - Aug 20, 2007

"I recently went to this library to study and was appalled at the noise level of ignorant people talking over at the internet computers as if they were in a truck stop and not a library. I left disgusted. Non of the employees said anything to them. I didn't see any signs saying to be quiet. Mrs. Crist would never have put up with that when the library was on Main Street. She made sure it was quiet. PLEASE do something about this and thank-you."

Response to "Quiet, this is a library"‎ - Rachel‎ - Today

"I am the director of a small public library in Pennsylvania. I do feel badly that the person who previously posted had such an unsatisfactory experience at the library, but I hope they learned something about the changing environment of libraries in this new technological age. The old stereotype of libraries as quiet, dusty, dim tombs reserved for haggard old ladies and elderly men reading newspapers is obsolete. You won't find many libraries anymore that employ little old ladies running around shushing everyone. Even in smaller libraries nowadays you can find all kinds of new technological gadgets from video game systems (XBox and Nintendo Wii's) to laptops to audiobooks on MP3 players.Libraries today are quickly becoming the hub of their communities (if they haven't already earned that title) as the economy continues to shrink and resources become tight. Many rural communities do not have the resources to provide other centers where various age groups can go and just 'hang out' or socialize. A lot of communities don't have a YMCA, a rec center, etc., and the public library has quickly become a suitable substitute as more and more focus is given to technology. If a library has internet (and nearly all do) then they will have a constant flow of patrons of all ages. Online games, social networks like MySpace and Facebook, and email are free ways for people to connect and keep in touch with friends, family, and the world at large. Libraries offer programs ranging from yoga to knitting to video game tournaments. We are all-encompassing.In all honesty, as a library professional I have to smile at the thought of a library bustling with patrons ~ it means we are doing our job. If you need a quiet place to study ask the library staff if there is a location in the building away from the computers, or ask them if they could address the patrons who are being too noisy. Don't look for signs in libraries anymore restricting noise. That is a thing of the past.And the very last option: Bring a set of ear plugs:)"

GREAT WEB SITES

Speaking of great web sites...nice intro huh?
Check out our book club blog at:
www.breakfastclubbooks.blogspot.com

Its for our library's book club.

Ok, so it isnt "that" great, but I would file it under good. =)

A Great Website

I just wanted to let you know of a great educational site out there and better still it is free! I am referring to a service put out by SirsiDynix called the “SirsiDynix Institute”. It can be found at http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/ Click on the Event Archive and there you will find wealth of podcasts from some of the great thinkers in the library profession. It is a wonderful way to explore some cutting edge ideas and to brush up on some of your skills.

WHERE?

Dan? Where is a new post? I was looking for one, and I haven't seen one...

PaLA Conference 2007

Since we are at the training with the Web 2.0, I am learning to post photos. Here are two photos from the conference last year in State College. Enjoy! It's Darelene from Brockway, Jenn from Summerville, Rose from Brookville, and myself from Reynoldsville. Also, Sharon at Reynoldsville and Rose waiting to have lunch.

A fun time!

Reynoldsville Breakfast Club celebrates 5 years & 60 books

In July, our book club celebrated 5 years of reading books. I can't believe that we have lasted that long and continue to have a good turn out each month.

Our book club started by Sharon and I just discussing how we should have a book club. It happened that Oprah was doing the book "East of Eden," and we had got about 4 copies and decided to start with that particular book. Our first book club had about 7 people. It grew in popularity, and now about 10-12 people come every month.

I really can't tell you how to successfully have a great book club turn out. You just have to make it that way, and have the right people. Without our great discussions about the book, and emotions and real stories that are brought out from reading the book, it wouldn't be successful.

A big event was our 50th book. A book club member choose the book, and had the author come and talk to us. She also treated us to a buffet breakfast to celebrate such an occasion. She also invited other local librarians, and community members to join us. It was a celebration and a chance to highlight our club.

And just this month, on the 23rd of August, we read our 60th book. For our library, it is an achievement. They had a book club before, but it only lasted unfortunately a little while. Now 5 years later, and 60 books under the belt, it still keeps moving along.

Our next selection for book club is "A Map of the World," by Jane Hamilton. I will tell you all about it after the meeting on September 20th. In the meantime, I am all ears for possbible suggestions for what book I could pick for book club. Any suggestions? I really want to pick a young adult book this time. I have a few in mind, but want to hear what your ideas are.

Hello from Blogland 2

It's the sequel. Thanks to Dan for inviting me to be a part of the OCD blog. If I get the hang of it, I will try and keep people updated on what's happening at Reynoldsville. If anyone cares to read it. See everyone at the training with Web 2.0 tomorrow.

Lost in Blogland

Hi all: Karl and I are getting ready for our Web2.0 training tomorrow and are having problems. I'm just writing this to see what happens. I'm here today, see you tomorrow. Sharon

Books: a Memior

Larry McMurtry has recently added a memoir of book collection/dealing to his literary canon. While not a book that will be appreciated by everyone, it is none the less a good insight into the man as well as an interesting analysis of the state of "readership" in the United States. Below are some excerpts from this meandering and personal narrative:

Chapter 89:

Regarding the loss of many small town booksellers....

"What does any of this say about the most important factor of all, when it comes to books: reading? Book selling will never quite expire unless reading expires first. The secondhand book business, both as a trade and as a subculture, has existed for centuries because people want to read, and the assumption book dealers work on is that people will always want to read. But will they? Seeing the changes that have occurred in the last few years, I sometimes wonder. Civilization can probably adjust to the loss of the secondhand book trade, though I dont think its really likely to have to. Can it, though, survive the loss of reading? That's a tougher question, but a very important one."

Chapter 91:

"A chapter or two back I brought up the matter of reading. What if it does stop? Even now the very successful rise of the audiobook suggests that nearly as many people are being read to as actually read. I dont like the audiobooks but at least they preserve the human longing for narrative, and for a certain linkage between the author and the reader. A story gets told, and loyalties to authors might be developed. The complex truth is that many activities last for centuries, and then simply (or unsimply) stop. We rarely bleed people now, although it was a common therapy for centuries. (Now in some quarters, leeches are coming back, which is a hopeful sign.) In commerce extinctions happen often. It didnt take electricity long to kill of the kerosene lantern."

Chapter 92:

" Today the sight that discourages book people the most is to walk into a public library and see computers where books used to be. In many cases not even the librarians want books to be there. What consumers want now is information, and information increasingly comes from computers. That is a preference I cant grasp, much less share, though I'm well aware that computers have many valid uses. They save lives, and they make research in most cases a thing that's almost instantaneous. They do many good things. But they dont really do what books do, and why should they usurp the chief function of a public library, which is to provide readers access to books? Books can accommodate the proximity of computers but it doesnt seem to work the other way around. Computers now literally drive out books from the place, that should, by definition, be books' own home: the library."

Justin Checks In

Justin Hoenke, one time Teen Librarian at the Clarion Free Library has checked in and included an article about his video game program at his new library. He also attached a link to his new Teen Site. I know many of you were fond of him and admired his work at CFL and that he assisted some of you with your library's Teen Programs. Below is a link to his new Teen Site.

http://cmclibraryteens.blogspot.com/

Revolution in the Stacks

The City Manager of Oil City sent a copy of the article "Revolution in the Stacks" from the journal Governing to the Oil City Library; Bruce was then kind enough to share it with me. It is about making the public library more appealing to Teens, an effort many of you have already successfully undertaken. The journal Governing goes out to many of the elected & non-elected officials in Pennsylvania. It might be a good idea to draw your local officials attention to both the article and how your library is implementing the recommendations made therein.

A particularly bright feather in our cap is that the article quotes Kim Bolan who the District had the pleasure of hosting for the creating Teen Spaces Workshop last Autumn. I know many of you attended and enjoyed that session.

Please see the link below.

http://www.governing.com/articles/0806libraries.htm

Letter in a Library Book

Esquire Magazine, one of my favorite publications is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year and every issue has a list of 75 things a man should do, try, experience, etc. They are mostly entertaining tidbits, but some of them are really quite interesting. This month's edition is "75 things every man should do at least once in his life".

Number 12 is as follows:

"Leave yourself a letter in a library book. Look for it twenty years later. Pick an obscure biography in a college (in our case public library), since no one there wants to insult obscurity by de-cataloguing a book, and the library will most likely always be there. One page. Be discreet. Type it on erasable bond, tuck it in the back, and hope no one ever notices. As for the content, skip the hopes & dreams. Mention the weather, tell yourself what you ate that morning, make a list of friends, note how much you weigh and whether you feel fat, remind yourself of a secret you want to keep.''

This is pretty neat advice on several levels; it acknowledges that libraries are notoriously bad a weeding their collections (but sometimes you wonder, is it a bad thing?). It also makes the assumption that libraries will always be there....that cheers me considerably; at last there is someone other than librarians who sees the permanence of libraries and their contents. Finally, it alludes to the value and the mystery of a book....you never know what gem of information might be contained therein, what kernel of memory is preserved for the generations, or better still who might pick it up and influenced by it. I hope you will all take the magazine's advice, slip a note to yourself in a library book....it might not change your world today, but it definitely couldn't hurt.

Teen/YA Summer Reading

One of the requirements of the District's Summer Reading Grant ($500/library) was that each library do at least one Summer Reading Program for Teen or Young Adults. Has your library done this yet? Was it successful? What would you do differantly? What would make your Teen Summer Reading better in the future and what can the District do to assist you?

Please respond with your tales of Teen Summer Reading.

Adult Summer Reading

I just got my edition of "Behind the Bookcase" the Franklin Public Library newsletter and was cheered to see that they continuing their Summer Reading Program for Grownups. The program allows adults to write a short book review on any library book they've read and submit it for a weekly prize drawing. What a nifty way to stimulate summer time reading in the adult population! Way to go Franklin!!

Remember, incorporating family activies and opportunities for reading across generations into standard Children's Programing is a great way for libraries to illustrate that they are Community Centers & family friendly places.

Multi-District Workshop

If you werent able to make it to the Multi-District Workshop in Titusville today or if you need a refresher, the information from the Grantwriting portion of the workshop is located on a wiki; yes, thats right more of that new Web 2.0 technology. The presenter, Rhonda McMillian-Toth has put it together for us. She will be answering questions on there and will be posting more information as time goes on.

Check it out at:

http://grantwritingoilcreek.pbwiki.com

Have you Written your Legislator Yet?

Public libraries in Pennsylvania need to make their voices heard in Harrisburg. If you have not already done so please call, write, email, or fax (heck do all four!) your local State Representative & Senator; ask them to support an appropriation to public libraries of $79.4 million. This may be a tough sell in shrinking economy, but we must make clear to them that without an increase in appropriations that will allow the State Funding Formula to be run again with current data, libraries in the state will continue to fall behind the rest of the nation. To ensure adequate local support we must have State dollars as leverage. I wrote my letter this morning, it took me 20 minutes. Are you willing to spend 20 minutes to ensure the future of libraries in Pennsylvania? Or are you willing to live with the consequences of another year going by without the formula being run?

Please write today.

http://palibraries.org/issues-adv/view.asp?id=99&page=&cid=3

http://palibraries.org/issues-adv/view.asp?id=98&page=&cid=1

2009 PA One Book

Just in case you want to jump start your Children's Program planning for 2009, next year's selection for the One Book Every Young Child Program is "If You Were a Penguin" by Wendell & Florence Minor. The book will be published by HaperCollins and should be available for order by Christmas. It seems Penguins are back in vogue.

For more information about the authors (who previous collaborated on "Christmas Tree!") see their website http://www.minorart.com/about.htm

Marketing to Teens

Take a look at this great article in School Library Journal about Marketing to Teens.

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6555544.html

Be sure to check out the "If you're over 30..." link, some of that is pretty interesting too and whats more, some of it I didnt know about and I am still in my early Twenties.....ha ha

A Little Wisdom

A small feature of this blog will be occasional little Pearls of Wisdom that we might run across in our daily work and life. The source or the content of this wisdom need not be related to librarianship or libraries. Some of the "best" librarians I know are also the most eclectic of people, they engage in a multitude of experiences, they read a variety of materials, and find inspiration in a even the most mundane places. Case in point is Janice Trapp who is perhaps the model of public library administration in Pennsylvania, one morning she was in Williamsport at a McDonalds getting a cup of coffee and noticed all the old men just hanging out there, having coffee and shooting the breeze, she also noticed business people and office workers buzzing in and out on their way to work and the idea struck her, why not have library card sign ups at McDonalds? By doing this, she was able to tap into an existing audience of people who may not normally come to the library or encounter a librarian. See, inspiration in a mundane place. Anyhow, apart from that anecdote I have only the following quote to give you as this week's pearl of wisdom.

"You hear all this whining going on, “Where are our great writers?” The thing I might feel doleful about is: Where are the readers?" -Gore Vidal

This was taken from Gore Vidal's interview in Esquire Magazine the June 2008 edition. Please see the full article for more.

Making Feudalism Work

Bill Schell the Director of the Martin Memorial Library in York likes to compare Pennsylvania's system of local government to Feudal Germany (Bill isnt the only person to make this comparison, but he does it the most articulately). Feudal Germany had at its peak was not 1 nation, but rather 365 petty prinicipalities each competing with eachother for scarce resources. Pennsylvania is similar in that we have a huge collection of municiaplities, townships, counties, school districts, etc all trying to govern a shrinking & aging population. Because of stagnant State Library Subsidies, public libraries across the state are begining to refocus their advocacy efforts on local government in the hopes of receiving greater local government support and in the process they are starting to become frustrated by these fragments of local government in their service areas, simply because the sheer number of entities makes advocacy and efforts to raise local government support for libraries a challenge at best.

To illustrate this, I have counted up the various local governments across the District. I only counted those entities that have elected representatives and those that have taxing authority. I did not count the various (100's) municiple authorities, agencies, commissions, and councils.

Jefferson County: Population 46,086
1 County Commission
23 Townships
11 Boroughs
3 School Districts
1 Education Agency


Clarion County: Population 41,651
1 County Commission
22 Townships
13 Boroughs
7 School Districts


Venango County: Population 57,562
1 County Commission
20 Townships
9 Boroughs
2 Cities
5 School Districts

It sort of makes you weary just thinking about all these potential audiences for our message, but if we want to improve funding for libraries and expand our services we must go out and gain the support of our local government entities. If anyone has any tips or success stories about local government advocacy, please share them.

Does Anybody do Booktalks Anymore?

When the Oil Creek and Seneca Districts did our Summer Reading Training this Spring the evaluations showed that you enjoyed Sandee Lalley's BookTalk the best. Well it came in second behind all the freebies, but we're not counting those. So I was thinking maybe we need some resources so we can do booktalks as part of our marketing of Summer Reading.

By coincidence, I went to a workshop called Connecting Boys with Books and the presenter Micheal Sullivan has a website, where he has over 400 prepared booktalks free for the taking!!! Take a look at his site, and feel free to use his booktalks for when you present at schools, preschools, etc. Once you do some of his, try writing a few of your own and see how it develops.

The site is www.talestoldtall.com/booksforboys

Welcome to our blog.

Welcome to the Oil Creek Pipeline. I hope you will all use and explore our blog. Look out for upcomming postings. We expect to have new and exciting content on a regular basis. In the meantime, I am including a link to the PowerPoint of yesterday's Web 2.0 presentation. Hope you will find it as enjoyable & as informative as I did.

http://www.lancasterlibraries.org/lslc/lib/lslc/training_docs/web2.0wowforstate.pdf