An eBook Challenge

Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the library was full of people who received ereaders as gifts. We have gladly helped each and every patron and provided service in whatever way we can. In some ways, though, it is difficult because we (librarians) are learning about ebooks right along with the patrons. During the past week, I started thinking about my use of ebooks and my personal Kindle Touch and NOOK Color. Yes. I had 2 ereaders until I gave my younger brother my NOOK Color for Christmas. 

I’m more likely to check out a traditional print book than go onto my account and check out an ebook. I think this is because I spend the day being surrounded by print books in the physical library. So I’ve created a challenge for myself.

• Every novel I purchase for myself this year will be an ebook.
• When borrowing a book from the library, I will borrow the ebook if it is available (even if that means I have to put it on hold and wait for it). If no ebook is available for the title I want to read, I will check out the print copy.

That’s it. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? We’ll see! Look for an update in a few months.

Married! (10.22.2011)

I attempt to avoid writing personal-life-related posts, but I wanted to give a little update about one of the best days of my life. I married my best friend on October 22, 2011. His name is Jeremiah and here are five reasons I fell in love with him:

• He spends each day trying to make the world a better place.
• His family is his number one priority.
• He watches Wheel of Fortune almost every evening.
• Not a day goes by when he doesn’t smile, laugh or thank someone.
• He buys me lunch. sometimes. And he lets me pay. sometimes.

In any event… here’s our holiday card and some wedding photos. My cousins did an amazing job at photographing our wonderful day. Enjoy!

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

 

Veterans Day Story & Craft

Since the school year began, I’ve held a Story & Craft hour one night a month. In September we read The Little Scarecrow Boy by Margaret Wise and painted scarecrow suncatchers. We had 17 students participate. In October we read That Terrible Halloween Night by James Stevenson and made monster magnets! That night got a little chaotic because we had 23 students participate and we didn’t have enough eyes for everyone’s monsters – good thing some people wanted to make cyclops monsters anyway!

Since our Story & Craft hour was scheduled the week of Veterans Day, we read America’s White Table by Margot Theis Raven and then created our own books about Veterans Day using these instructions for an Accordion Index Card Book by Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord. We had 9 students participate – a perfect number for this more difficult craft.

The smaller number of students also allowed us to talk about Veterans Day and what it means to our community. I heard all about family members who were in the Navy or Army, but I also heard about the programs at school and how they didn’t have school on Friday.

In the story, the words of the song My Country Tis of Thee are included. I asked the students if they knew the song – they gave me blank looks. So I used the best voice I had and started to sing the song I sang every single morning in second grade. After the first few lines and uncomfortable blank faces watching me, I stopped and asked if they knew it. Nope.

So I told them maybe I’d serenade them and sing it while we did our craft. One little boy raised his hand and said, “Maybe you should look it up on YouTube so we can hear it from someone that can sing.” The way he said it was so thoughtful – he didn’t say it to be a smartypants or to offend me. I just laughed and laughed and laughed with the moms in the room; the other students thought he had a great idea!

And this is why I love my position at Muir Library…

[Series] A librarian’s bookshelf – August

I’ve been in my position as Library Director for a couple of months now. While in library school, I made an effort to keep reading “for fun” books. I blogged about them here! One of the ways I’m getting to know my patrons and my collection better is through reading! And today marks the last day I will allow myself to read YA or Junior Fiction… for a while, at least. I usually read a balance of non-fiction, adult, YA and J fiction, but this summer I’ve been focusing on the last two.

Here’s why: I feel my library’s YA and J fiction collections are somewhat outdated and I wanted to read what my younger patrons are reading to become a better collection manager and readers’ advisor.While I haven’t read *everything* my patrons read this summer, I do have a better understanding of both what I may suggest for them to read next and what type of YA and J fiction I personally enjoy.

Now that the Summer Reading Program is finished at our library, I have decided I need to work on moving back to adult fiction and non-fiction because the majority of my Sept – May patrons are adult (and many are retired). Before I start the beautiful journey of reading what my adult patrons are reading, here’s a list of the top 7 most popular* reads this summer. For everything else I read this summer, check out my GoodReads!

One of those mornings…

It’s just one of those mornings!

A librarian’s answer: Which ereader should I buy? #libday7

Yesterday I spent a good portion of my day talking to several people about ereaders and ebooks. I had people call the library to ask, text message me, catch me in the library and also outside of the library. Ereaders are a hot topic in Winnebago!

The biggest question: Which ereader should I buy?

My answer: I’m a librarian. I can’t tell you which one to buy, but I can tell you what I know about different ereaders, and then I can answer your questions by finding out more information. And I’m ever-so-excited to hear your interest in ebooks at the library!

And here’s what I told them: It really depends on how you’re going to use it. If you already buy books from Amazon or Barnes and Noble, you might want their ereaders. If you want to check out books from the library, you’d love the iPad’s Overdrive for Libraries app which allows you to download ebooks from the library wirelessly. If you are concerned about tired eyes, dry eyes, glare, etc. from reading off of a screen, you might want to look at e-ink technology and the e-ink-friendly-ereaders (Kindle, NOOK original and new, some knockoffs).

I have an Apple iPod touch and have downloaded the NOOK and Kindle apps to my device to just try them out. I received emails from both Barnes and Noble and Amazon yesterday that said Apple had removed the ability to purchase books from the apps. While I think this is absolutely absurd and somewhat misleading on Apple’s part, I also understand why they made this decision. They want to make money.

Just like the NOOK and Kindle will never have “check out from a library” options because the companies want you to buy their books, Apple wants you to buy ebooks from their store – iBooks.

What it comes down is money. Apple, Amazon and Barnes and Noble want to make money. While I can’t tell my patrons which company to give their money to, I can tell them how much I value something I’ll USE rather than something that’s COOL. That’s why it’s important to be informed about the different options of ereaders – and that’s what I’m going to advocate for at the library.

Of course, if a patron asks me which ereader I would buy, I’d gladly tell them I want the new NOOK and then explain my reasoning:
(1) e-ink technology
(2) battery life
(3) I was able to try it out at the store
(4) library-lending-friendly (as much as it can be)
(5) touchscreen!! (albeit a bit slower reactions than my brain is used to…)

I honestly believe there’s nothing wrong with sharing my opinion, but I do want to give the patron the opportunity to get as much unbiased information from me as they can before my gadget-envy-techno-lust-librarian-side shows too strongly.

 

Monday – #libday7

Today’s #libday7 post is sponsored by the word WATER.

wa·ter/ˈwôtər/

Noun: A colorless, transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid that forms the seas, lakes, rivers, and rain and is the basis of the fluids of living organisms: chemical formula H2O.

WATER is the basis of the library.

A living organism

right in downtown

Winnebago, Minnesota.

Here’s a recap of my day: