If, at the end of this article, you’re still unsure whether or not Mr. Snicket cares about libraries, there’s always this.

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Keynote Speaker Henry Rollins
Henry Rollins was an amazing speaker with so much to say it’s hard to get it all down. On top of being a musician and actor, he is a librarian in his own right. An avid reader and advocate of libraries, Rollins grew up in D.C. reading books from the public library where he says he felt like a grownup for the first time. Upon moving to California and joining the burgeoning punk music scene, he began to collect show posters, original art, sheet music, and original vinyls to create what is now a huge music library. Rollins has traveled the globe finding records of all types of music and adding them to his collection. Rollins is also a huge history buff; he was featured in the documentary television show “Ten Things You Didn’t Know: Presidential Assassinations.” He talked about how amazing it was that he got to see actual items from Lincoln’s assassination while on a visit in the White House. Rollins’ enthusiasm was infectious and he kept the audience interested and laughing throughout his speech. I can’t find footage of the speech from CLA but I highly encourage everyone to watch some of his other videos about history, libraries, and the education of our children.

Make Some Noise- What kind of Noise are YOU making? Engaging, Embracing, and Practicing Diversity
Presenters Beth Wrenn-Estes, Arglenda Friday, Sophia Duran, and Sharon Tani (with special guest Patty Wong who, unfortunately, could not be there in person, thoughBeth Wrenn-Estes presented the information in her place) each offered short presentations about how to recognize, assess, and improve diversity in their respective libraries. Arglenda Friday discussed Collection Management Services and their part in diversification. She suggested altering existing programs to be more diverse instead of creating new ones in hopes of not draining programming budgets. She also suggested getting out into your community and seeing who is really there: peruse barbershops and salons, churches, big box stores, etc. By getting to know the demographics in your community, you can more effectively serve the populations there.

A consensus that ran through each presentation was that diversity needs a broad definition; not only is it about racial representation but also sexual identity, dis/ability, residential status, religious affiliation, and other potential markers of minorities. Friday vehemently advised session-goers to translate the word “free” to as many different languages that exist in your community in hopes of bringing those people into the library. Patty Wong’s vicarious presentation was on the six most common diversity opportunities on a library setting. 1) Strength-based staffing model that embraces the inclusion of the diversity of all staff members. 2) Staff should be cross-trained on jobs and given partners and projects and any languages they speak should be exploited for the benefit of the patrons. 3) Sustainability should come in staff/student internships with budgets accurately reflecting wiggle-room for those internship opportunities. 4) Your mission and/or vision statements should include progressive diversification. Get out and talk to your community to see what the library isn’t doing for them and decide how best to change that. 5) Every staff member has the opportunity to be a leader. Discuss and offer grants and scholarships with young library staff and allow them opportunities to take the lead in projects. 6) Turn a challenge into an opportunity. Offer things like youth-specific library cards, gender neutral library cards, and take book-challenges and strict budgets and find ways to turn them into creative, educational processes. Sophia Duran’s presentation focused on dis/abled patrons in your library and how you can best assist them. She suggested there be some staff with knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL) and that libraries offer Kurzweil products such as descriptive audio movies, closed captioning, and Braille books. Not all patrons with disabilities are obvious and as library staff, we should be accommodating to the best of our ability. Sharon Tani focused her presentation on the new Adaptive Learning Technology used at Le Cordon Bleu to customize curriculum based on each student and adapt to his or her specific learning needs. While not all teaching methods are efficient for everyone, each person learns individually and that’s something that could be adapted into OPACs and patron accounts. Such technology could act much like Amazon.com in that when it recognizes a patron’s reading habits, it can make recommendations.  For more information, the PowerPoint used at this session is located here

Comic Book Petting Zoo: Best Graphic Novels of 2013:
Presenters Jack Baur and Amanda Jacobs Foust  presented their top picks for graphic novels at this program:

I don’t know if I can do their fun, enthusiastic booktalks justice but I can say each and every title they presented was something I would want to read at least once. I went back to work the next day and put in a request for each of the ones we didn’t have. Check them out at inthelibrarywithacomicbook.tumblr.com.

A Conversation about eBooks: An Inclusive Critique of eBook Service Models, Vendors, and Publishers
This diverse group of presenters covered the range of topics under the eBook umbrella from eComics to self-publishing. Mark Coker, the genius behind Smashwords, discussed going from a number of publishing rejections to creating his own eBook publishing company that now partners with libraries and has allowed thousands to self-publish their own works. He said that while self-publishing has a negative connotation; he believes that stigma is dated and that self-publishing is the way of the future. Other distributors such as Inky, Califa, Axis360, and TumblrBooks were all also mentioned and I’d recommend looking into each one of them to see if they’re the right distributor for your library.

Off About Teen Lit: What’s New and What’s Next?
Possibly the most enthusiastic presentation of the weekend, these three librarians definitely knew their teen lit. Randee Bybee, Courtney Saldana, and Allison Tran all booktalked their favorite YA novels of 2013 and discussed emerging trends they see in YA books. To start off with, they recommended teenreads.com, foreverya.com, yalit.com, and the YALSA app to keep your finger on the pulse of YA lit. Some of the books they talked about were The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle, The Naturals by Lynn Barnes, Hideous Love by Stephanie Hemphill, and White Space by Ilsa Bick. Some of the emerging trends in YA lit they noticed were mental health, genetic engineering, serial killers, horror (in general) and Russia/the USSR.

By Any Means Necessary: Who’s Not in the Library?
This might have been the most inspirational session I attended. It began with the panelists asking us whom we do and do not see in the library. After an eye-opening glance at whom we weren’t serving (those with high fees, people who disrupt the library/drunks/vagrants, the homeless, veterans, foster youth, people who can’t access the library, business men, etc) we asked ourselves how we could bring those people into the library. The room broke into groups and each group chose a demographic and brainstormed on how best to serve these people. The group I was in came up with incarcerated youth (my idea). Since they’re incarcerated, they need a library to come to them. We decided they needed people to listen and care about them, they should learn that reading can be fun and that libraries aren’t always about books. Two of the members in my group were librarians at correctional facilities so they had interesting insight to offer about what it’s like inside of a prison. There are so many  services libraries can provide for incarcerated teens and although there’s a lot of bureaucratic red tape, we have the power to turn these kids into lifetime patrons.

The post A Quick Look at CLA Conference first appeared on Public Libraries Online.

After the campaign went live it was broadcast by sources like Geekosystem and The Huffington Post. With a final goal of $30,000, the Northlake Public Library finally started on their chance to get a Hulk. Although they were only able to raise just over $4,000, Steve Williams of L.A. Boxing in Orange, California was kind enough to donate his old Hulk statue for a great cause. With that out of the way, the majority of their funding went to purchase a new iMac as well as Cintiq (the new frontier of digital comics creation). The remainder went to shipping prices, taxes, and a hefty load of new graphic novels

So what’s the importance in all of this? Websites like Kickstarter and indiegogo have enabled people to fund their projects for a few years now and this Hulk campaign is one of the first examples of what a public library can achieve. Patrons, librarians, and even complete strangers to Northlake donated  from $1 to $100 in order to help achieve their goal. Tom Mukite was nice enough to answer an email with questions about the project in which he said, “I would absolutely recommend libraries using crowdfunding to get stuff that they want. I can imagine a trend where libraries using it becomes the norm and just becomes a normal tool for libraries next to book sales. When you think about it, libraries are already crowdfunded. This is just a way to spotlight certain projects and reach more people.” What is your library in need of? New chairs for the reading room? A better graphic novel collection? What’s stopping you? Get a group together, create goals, and start a campaign. The word will get out and you just might make your library’s dream a reality.

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Freedom Ticket
Hennepin County Library in Minnesota has a program called “Freedom Ticket” that offers a wide variety of events and classes that are intended to help incarcerated persons successfully reenter into their community. Library workers go to the prison to offer assistance with job resumes, housing facilities, and education. By teaching the inmates how to reenter society after being locked up for an extended period of time, they are giving them a chance at staying out of prison. Librarian Daniel Marcou also keeps up a blog called Freedom Ticket, which offers links to information, updates on past attendees, book reviews, and other things that are relevant to Freedom Ticket’s cause[1].

Reading Is A Great Escape
The Jessup Correctional Facility (Jessup, MD) offers literacy programs, instructional videos, book clubs, and access to law and medical books and records. Some inmates read for the sake of reading: it otherwise keeps them out of trouble. While many people find reading to be an escape from the drone of everyday life, inmates find it keeps them sane while they’re incarcerated. Others seek to expand their knowledge of the law as to assist in their own court hearings. In Jessup Correctional, some inmates use the medical books to ensure that “when the clinic prescribes something, they want to make sure they’re not part of some medical experiment[2].” Many inmates have never stepped foot in a library prior to incarceration so offering this kind of access to information can greatly increase their chance of adapting back to normal societal behavior.

Reading with Children
Both Hennepin County and Jessup Correctional offer programs in which inmates are offered a chance to read to their children. During visiting hours, inmates are encouraged to read to their kids, which allow them to spend time together, to bond, and to improve literacy for both parties. Eddie Connally, an inmate at Jessup, said, “You know, and it actually changed a lot of prisoners’ lives because the one thing that happens in all too many cases is that we only get to see our children in the visiting room[3].”

Welcome to the Internet
I think it’s safe to say that if a person has been in prison since the mid- to late-80s, or even the early 90s, they might not know much about technology. With the rapidly changing technology these days, it’s hard for even a tech-savvy person to keep up. Since many documents and applications are digital these days, it’s understandable that people who leave the prison system have a hard time adjusting. Some public and prison libraries, such as Bonita-Sunnyside Public Library in San Diego, CA, and the Colorado State Library program offer classes in technology to inmates and formerly incarcerated persons. They don’t just want to teach them how to use the Internet but they’re giving them potential job skills, boosting their knowledge and their resumes, ensuring they can be financially independent, assisting them with housing, and making them comfortable in their local library. In Denver, MLIS student Melanie Colletti helped implement Free to Learn, a program to assist the recently released with their re-entry into society by helping them with technological skills. She collaborates with prison libraries and halfway houses to, “provide free space for former inmates who are often residents in transitional houses and helps them to learn computer and Internet skills[4],” so that they can function successfully and retain their freedom.

While this is just a small sample of what public and prison libraries have to offer to incarcerate persons, I encourage you to see if your library offers any similar services. If so, what can you do to improve them? If not, is there a way you can encourage your branch/system to create one? Since the library inside a prison may not be all it can be, the opportunity is present to help change a person’s life for the better. Do you know of any innovative public library/prison programming? Share the details in the comments below.

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Aides, pages, and assistants: whatever you want to call them, they usually always fulfill the same job positions^[1]. We are the lowest rungs of the library ladder. We are the grunts, the soldiers on the front lines, battling every day with ornery over-sized books and piles of unrelenting discharges. We are the unseen elves making sure the shoemaker is able to keep his business in tact. We are high-schoolers, college students, working moms, retirees, grandparents, and everything in between. We work as hard as we can and make a national average of $14.00 an hour^[2]. Some of us have dreams of sitting behind the beloved reference desk one day. In the case of the library staff in Mesa, Arizona there was a time when all there was were library aides. Although not in the public library sector, school librarians in Mesa faced a tough decision when their monetary allowance was cut back in 2008^[3]. With the slow removal of certified librarians, library aides took initiative and kept the libraries in public schools afloat. Although they weren’t technically qualified for the job they wouldn’t let their libraries sink.

One thing you can be sure of is that many library aides are dedicated to their job. In the case of Lyda Thanh, a library aide from Long Beach, California, her dedication[1]  took her all the way to Cambodia^[4]. When librarian Susan Taylor found trouble ordering books in Khmer (a language that many Long Beach Cambodians speak) she and her trusty Khmer-speaking aide Lyda took their funds to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Together they were able to stock over 1000 books for the Khmer-speaking Long Beachians. That, comrades, is dedication. The willingness to travel halfway across the world to help out your library and your community speaks volumes.

All merits considered, library aides are too often underrepresented. We see articles, month after month, dedicated to librarians, directors, and students but so rarely is there a shining moment offered to an aide who went out of their way to help. [2] I can say that in my time as a library aide, I’ve had the privilege of working with many lovely people who cared about their jobs as much as any MLS professional. To say that library aides are necessary would be doing them a disservice; they are an integral part of any library. I’m not asking for special aide holidays, just that next time you see an aide doing something beyond their job description, give them a pat on the back.

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How Do I Register?
Although you do not need to be a member of ALA to attend ALA conferences, becoming a member makes it a bit easier. Joining ALA is a mostly painless process that includes an annual fee and filling out some information. It may seem pricey but honestly, it’s worth the money. Becoming an ALA member allows you to obtain discounted conference registration fees and you will also get incredibly helpful emails and magazines (which I look forward to all the time). Check to see if your library system/business/school can compensate you for conference registration. I was lucky enough that the system I work for selects a few people to represent us so they paid for my ALA membership as well as my conference attendance. Also, students tend to get discounts so I would take advantage of that if you are a student.

Travelocity
Plane? Train? Automobile?  I made the eight-hour drive to Anaheim because I wanted to have my car with me, just in case. Plenty of people fly in, some take trains or local transportation. Once you are onsite, ALA offer shuttles to-and-from some hotels around the area so you don’t have to trek ten city blocks before your day has even started. Check the ALA website to see which hotels feature this shuttle service.

Home, Sweet Home
If possible, stay with friends or family who live around the conference center. I know this is a stretch but it never hurts to pinch pennies here and there. There also are networks of librarians on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. who may be looking to share hotel rooms. I found my hotel room through a friend’s friend on Tumblr. We split the room four ways, which kept the five-day stay on the lower end of the money spectrum.

The Good Book
When you get to the convention center (I recommend getting there a day early if you can, to scope the place out) you’ll have to first go to the registration counter to get your badge and other registration information. At registration you’ll receive a very large program book. You don’t have to read the whole thing, or carry it around, but it will help you to know where you’re going and in deciding which program you will attend. I opted to carry the book around with me until someone told me to just rip out the pages pertaining to which day of the conference it is. Five folded pages and a red pen is better than a 200-page tome with annotated notes in the margins. There’s also a nifty app for iPhone and Android that make scheduling your time at the conference easy.
Exhibits Excitement
The first night of the conference is the Exhibits Grand Opening. There is typically an Exhibits Opening Gala with limited amounts of tasty food and many galleys (aka ARCs/Advance Reader Copies). As you wind through the aisles of book vendors, you’ll find ARCs of various kinds of books from kids to mysteries. While this continues throughout the conference, the majority of ARCs are handed out that first night. If you’re far from home only take ARCs you know you’ll read. There’s a USPS outpost in the exhibits hall, so you can send your goodies back home to yourself. For example, by the end of the conference I bagged 54 books, ten of which were signed. It turns out it’s a good thing that I brought my car after all.

The Daily Grind
You’ll want to pack light on a daily basis if you can help it. Stay hydrated by bringing your own water bottle. There should be jugs around the conference rooms you can refill with. Some panels offer snacks but if you can, pack a lunch so you can munch through the day without paying an arm and a leg for food at nearby eateries. Before your conference have some business cards made. It doesn’t matter if you’re a grad student or if you’ve been a librarian for ten years, you’re going to meet lots of people and you’ll want to stay in touch and network with them. It never hurts to have friends across the globe. I went to my first conference not knowing anybody and by the end I’d met several friends I still keep in touch with today.

I hope this encourages you to take the leap and attend a conference. The things you’ll learn and the people you’ll meet are well worth the money. If you have any questions feel free to contact me. It never hurts to make friends in the industry.

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Bullying is of no surprise to most of us any longer, as the topic has been featured in the media regularly.. In these days when youth are bullied so harshly for any perceived differences, there are steps we must take to ensure that no harm will come to them inside the sanctuary that is the public library. This is especially important with LGBT youth, who are often targeted by both adults and other youth.

We are not therapists, counselors, or social workers, but many librarians find themselves becoming well acquainted with their frequent patrons. If you see a patron, especially a young one, who is being taunted or abused for any reason, you can offer them a place in the library. There should always be someone present with the power to remove any abusive patrons. Even the smallest gestures toward those being abused can make the biggest difference. If you’re unsure what to do, groups like GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network) offer packets on ways to ensure that your library is a safe space, complete with stickers and pamphlets.

Growing up I was luckily never taunted or teased, but the library gave me a special place to go where I could find books about “people like me.” There I was assured that I was not a freak. I could read Annie On My Mind or Rubyfruit Jungle without so much as a blink of the eye from anyone around. It was wonderful to have somewhere to go where I could see familiar faces that wouldn’t judge me and even see people like myself. In a society where we can be ostracized from our own families or abused by strangers simply for who we love, it is important to create and maintain a haven to which people of all kinds may flock.

Now that I work in a library and carry some power, I feel it is my duty to offer the same safety that was offered to me many years ago. I wear a rainbow Mickey Mouse pin on my work lanyard so as to subtly inform people, “I’m like you,” and so far it’s worked. I smile at kids when they come in and make sure to speak up when I hear people using hateful epithets. No one, especially children, deserves to be attacked with malicious words. Sticks and stones may break bones, but no matter what anyone says, names can still be hurtful. With a little bit of effort, we can make sure that no harm ever befalls a child inside the walls of a library.

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Graphic novels have changed since the 1930s. The characters have gotten more complex, the stories are more detailed, and the art has gotten more diverse. Graphic novels deal with more difficult topics from being lost in a foreign land to serial killers to eating disorders. People from every age can find and connect with one story or another found in a graphic novel. Simple comics like Owly or Korgi are great for young kids just bridging the gap from picture books to chapter books while older folks may find sympathy in Welcome To Tranquility: a graphic novel about retired superheroes.

While on the topic of kids reading, groups like Reading With Pictures¹ and people like Nathan Hale are constantly pushing the boundaries on how beneficial graphic novels really are. Nathan Hale (the author, not the historical figure) wrote a pair of books giving the comic treatment to historical events and figures like Nathan Hale (the Revolutionary War spy, not the author). Reading With Pictures advocates the use of comics in classrooms and libraries as a teaching tool for kids who find themselves uninterested in or have difficulty with lengthy textbooks. Many kids who have difficulty with reading comprehension find solace in connecting pictures they see to words they read. Kids who are also learning English as a second language find it easier to identify and connect words and symbols than to procure images from their minds based on a string of descriptive words. Reading With Pictures was recently funded for their very first graphic textbook, which they hope will breach the standard for classroom texts.

Sure, they’re good for kids, but the majority of people who read comics are men and women from ages 18 to 45² Maybe you have to read Pride and Prejudice for a class but you find Austen’s writing too overdrawn and stuffy. Why not try the graphic novel adaptation? It’s not a verbatim transcription but you’ll have an easier time understanding what’s going on. Some people enjoy the quick-yet-compelling stories found inside graphic novels of all types. It’s important to keep graphic novels in libraries because they are such a joy to read but many people can’t afford to go out and buy a comic or graphic novel every week. Do you know a child who comes in with his parents and is afraid to take the step up from reader books to chapter books? Give him Bone. What about a teenager who has to write a report on the Gold Rush but doesn’t quite understand all the words in her textbook? Recommend the Graphic Library series. Or maybe there’s that patron who wants to read a biography on someone who has lost a lot of weight. Try Fat Free: Amazing All-True Adventures of a Supersize Woman!

You don’t have to want to read about superheroes to enjoy a graphic novel. You can continue reading stories about your favorite TV show that was canceled or get a shorter version of that book that the New York Times won’t stop raving about. Graphic novels are a bridge between art and literature. Libraries are haven of art and literature. It only makes sense that libraries would serve as a platform for the new era of graphic novels.

1. Josh Elder, Reading With Pictures, “About Us.” Last modified 2012. Accessed November 17, 2012. http://readingwithpictures.org/about-us/.
2. Brett Schenker, “Who Are The Comic Book Fans On Facebook?,” Graphic Policy (blog), April 27, 2011, http://graphicpolicy.com/2011/04/27/who-are-the-comic-fans-on-facebook/.

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There are different protocols for different types of disasters but there are also many overlapping procedures as well. I work in a low-laying area, merely 20 feet above sea level. After the 2011 earthquake that rocked Japan; Santa Cruz, California was put on tsunami alert. The coastal road that the Live Oak branch of the library rests on was shut down. The tsunami wrecked the local harbor but the library went untouched ¹. As well as tsunami warnings, we also have an extensive list of what to do during an earthquake. If we are of sound mind after an earthquake we are to shut off gas and water mains, extinguish small fires, evacuate the building, and even–if possible—carry out a person in a wheelchair.

Renee Blalock, Director of the Birmingham Public Library (BPL) in Alabama, versed me on what her libraries, located in Tornado Alley, do in case of such emergencies. The Pratt City branch of BPL was hit by a mile-wide tornado back in 2011 and lost its roof ². Luckily, nobody at the library was hurt. Blalock said that if the city closes the library follows suit, but if a tornado were to hit out of the blue, “We have designated safe areas at all of our libraries such as basements, hallways with no windows and away from the exterior, bathrooms, etc ³” (Blalock 2012). While rebuilding the Pratt City branch, they intend to install a safe room that will house 25-30 people.

Jessica Styons, Director of Branch Services at New Orleans Public Library in Louisiana says that before hurricane season, they ensure their branches are stocked with necessary goods. The Director and Administrative staff members meet and set up an emergency closing plan and also then work together to reopen as quickly as possible. Since many libraries on the coast and down south are at the mercy of hurricanes it is good to know there is a solid plan of action. Styons says that in addition to “opening whatever facilities we can ASAP (regardless of whether city offices have reopened)… we allow relief agencies such as FEMA to set up in our meeting rooms to serve the public ⁴” (Styons 2012).

Of course every library is going to have a different idea of what to do during a natural disaster but one thing that we all have in common is the safety and well being of our communities. Some city employees are encouraged to come into work after a disaster to help tend to the sick, injured, and helpless. Others give out donations of food and shelter. Some libraries, such as the ones near Pratt City and others—more recently—on the east coast offer extended hours and many, many plugs for people to charge their electronics and contact loved ones ⁵. It is important that every employee understand how to act effectively during an emergency situation so using staff meetings to refresh staff about disaster preparedness is a good thing. You can also improve on your branch’s own plans by talking with other local branches and even other library systems in your same disaster-zone. Public resources such as www.fema.gov and www.cdc.gov also provide tips on how to protect your business ⁶. While we can’t stop a disaster from happening we do have the power to make sure our libraries stay as safe a possible. After all, aren’t we always told, “Safety first?”

REFERENCES AND NOTES

1. Stephen Baxter, “Authorities Reflect on Tsunami Response,” Santa Cruz Sentinel (2011),  (accessed November 4, 2012).
2. Goldberg, Beverly. “Tornados Rip Apart Several Libraries in the South.” American Libraries, May 4, 2011. (accessed November 4, 2012).
3. Renee Blalock, (Director of Birmingham Public Library), interview by Jennifer Hooker, Gmail.com. November 2, 2012.
4. Jessica Styons, (Director of Branch Services), interview by Jennifer Hooker, Gmail.com. November 4, 2012.
5. Patrick Stapleton, “Harrison Library Open Post-Sandy,” Harrison Daily Voice (2012), (accessed November 4, 2012).
6. http://www.fema.gov/protecting-your-businesses

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