WLA 2013

October has been a whirlwind of presenting and traveling. It was great, but I'm excited for life to settle back down. This past week, I was in in Green Bay for the Wisconsin Library Association Youth Services Pre-conference and Annual Conference. Those Wisconsin librarians know how to do a conference right!

I had a great time presenting, "Engaging Early Literacy Storytimes: Props, Puppets, Flannels and More" at the pre-conference. The main problem I encountered was that I didn't bring enough handouts! If you missed a handout, or just want a taste of what I did, you can find it here.

I also had the pleasure of co-presenting, "Making Social Media Work for YOU: with Sara from Bryce Don't Play. Our slide deck was more humorous than helpful, being GIF-filled, but we also created a Google Site to help people get started building their own personal learning networks.

I also got to co-host WLA's first Guerrilla Storytime! It was loads of fun. Keep an eye on the Storytime Underground for the low-down on how it went!

Overthinking It

I'm so thankful for other bloggers who inspire me to complete and actually share things I've been sitting on forever. Sometimes I get very frustrated with myself for being such a slow processor. I get an idea and I need to think about it and just let it be for a long while before I put it into words. Mostly I am learning to appreciate that about myself, but it's hard sometimes when I see people who are so talented at just getting things done quickly and efficiently.

I recently attended my first ALA, and it was amazing. I was able to have some great conversations with Melissa and Kendra about being a slow-processor, and I also sharpened some of my thinking about my approach to programming through Marge and Amy's session on Unprogramming.

One of the pivotal slides from Marge and Amy's Unprogramming session

I have DEFINITELY struggled with over-planning programs, and I have a few posts I've been sitting on that I feel like I can finish now (yay!). I love when I read a blog post, connect with colleagues, or attend a session that sharpens and focuses the amorphous blob of thoughts I've been sitting on forever. It feels like magic. 

Michigan Library Association's Spring Institute

Sara, Anne, and I had a fabulous time presenting at Spring Institute over in Michigan last week. I love the idea of a state library association sponsoring a whole conference just for youth services (I noticed when I arrived that it was the most fashionable conference I'd ever attended. At first I wondered if Michigan was an underrated fashion mecca, but ultimately I decided that we YS folks are just a particularly fashionable branch of librarianship).

If you're interested in seeing the slides from our presentation they are available here. Most of our jokes only work in person though. Sorry!

Anne has a collection of the ideas gathered during the interactive portion of our talk over at So Tomorrow. 

Enjoy!

Conversation Starter 2013

Holy moly there are a lot of awesome conversation starter topics for ALA Chicago in June! I must admit that I'm feeling a little intimidated, but I have a topic on the table myself (with of my coworkers). If it's something you'd like to see, please make sure to vote for it waaaaay back on page 12 (see--so many great topics! I don't know how I'll ever decide which two I'm going to vote for).

Program on a Plate: Serving up Successful Visual Literacy Programming for Pre-Readers

by ALAConnect Helpdesk (staff) on Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 10:07 am Description: Besides storytime, what literacy programs is your library feeding hungry pre-readers? Visual literacy programming offers pre-readers and struggling readers a way to hone this crucial skill through collaboratively interpreting visual data and creating narrative. VizLit, like STEM, gives parents value-added programs with direct results.  Parents love it, kids love it; it’s a recipe for success! Join the conversation as we share our basic ingredients for visual literacy programming and help you develop strategies to implement these easy programs in your library.

Who else has an awesome proposal out there? Let me know in the comments so I can narrow down my choices!

Pro-tip: Making the Most of Conferences

Totally what my desk looks like post-conference. Source

You know that thing where you go to a conference or workshop and have an amazing time? You get all fired up with awesome new ideas, avenues to explore, and procedures to implement. You take frantic notes, collect handouts, and network like a champ. You've got everything in your conference folder and head back to work ready to take on the world.

Then you get to work and all the happy conference thoughts fly out of your head due to about 10,000 emails in your inbox, notes from coworkers, damaged items, messages to return etc.

Your regular job momentum kicks in, and your conference folder full of hopes and dreams gets set aside, never to be opened again until your CE forms are due at the end of the year.*

The best thing I've done to combat this phenomenon is to literally schedule time to organize myself post-conference. Once you head back to work it's so easy to get sucked into the daily routine, but taking the time to prioritize conference follow-up makes a big difference.

Before leaving the conference, or ongoing during the conference, I like to sit down and make a list of:

1. Follow up list--People to contact post-conference, and why
2. Inspiration list--ideas I want to explore, further reading, professional development goals etc.
3. Implementation list--things I can bring back to my library right away, or things I want to share with my boss. 

Once I'm home or back to work, I enter these things into my calendar/to-do list just like I would for any other task. I decide what things need to be taken care of right away, and what things I want to come back to at another time and just plug them into my calendar. This works well for me because instead of a whole folder to deal with, I have a series of small manageable tasks that can easily be accomplished over time. Task management...revolutionary, I know.

If I don't make sure to prioritize and schedule post-conference tasks, it ends up just being a distraction from my regular job, and a fun waste of time. I owe it to my employers to maximize what I get out of conference attendance, because even if they aren't paying for the conference, they're allowing me to attend on work time.  

*for example. I think this has happened to a friend.

Stop Duplicating Efforts! Creating a Unified Online Community Calendar

source

Have you ever planned a program and no one showed up?

Ever worked hard laying groundwork for a new idea only to find halfway through that some other community group already does that?

 What about discovering (after you've published all your PR) that your big event conflicts with another big event in town?

I know I have. Imagine my delight when the head of Parks and Rec contacted me about starting a project to create a single unified calendar for the whole community  YES YES YES!

If you'd like to view the calendar we created, you can do so here, Antigo Community Calendar. In a nutshell, instead of many different organizations publishing event calendars, and event coordinators  needing to contact multiple sources to advertise programs, we're all using the same calendar. No matter what organization's website you're on, they're using the same calendar.

I recently spoke at the Wisconsin Library Association's annual conference about this project. I was only one part of a team that worked on creating the calendar, but I think it is such a great idea that I support it wholeheartedly, and think it's something that other librarians--especially those in smaller communities--might benefit from as well.

Our presentation was a success, and if you're interested here are some links to more information about the project.

Our presentation
Handout/Worksheet
Example of PR and category breakdown
Sample PR business card
Our funding was sourced by the local hotel/motel tax--see the application form

Minnesota Library Association Annual Conference

Come join us!

Minnesota Library Association

 
The fabulous Sarah of YA Librarian Tales and I are presenting at MLA tomorrow, Thursday 10/4 at 11 am. Our talk is called "Connecting with Online Communities: Beyond the Social Media Buzz"* and is all about how to use the internet and social media to connect with other librarians and grow professionally despite time and money limitations.

Make sure to say hi even if you can't make it to the program--I'm really looking forward to meeting some of my online colleagues in person!

*The name we submitted is different than the name used in the conference materials. This is the name you'll see on the conference schedule if you're looking for us.