Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

I love this song. And Josephine Baker's voice! This song has been stuck in my head since 1a.m. this morning and it's still there. It makes me want to get into a convertible and drive under a summer sun down a lane in Tuscany. Specific, right? In no time I will be driving toward Cleveland with my sun roof open and this blaring on the radio...guess it's the closest I can get to Tuscany.

Like many folks I recently read, "Sex every day for a year," in HuffPost and since reading it and sharing it was steered to the author's (Brittany Gibbons) blog, "Brittanyherself." I started reading the blog and laughing out loud and loving it! I feel like I've stumbled upon a kindred spirit out in the blogosphere. Inspired by a recent post on her blog entitled, " Adulthood. You're not doing it right. " I decided to post my take on her categories: "I feel like there are tons of things about being a woman or an adult or even a mom, I should know. And it’s only when I come into a situation in which I should clearly be able to effectively function, that I realize, I have no idea what I’m doing..." --Brittany Gibbons Domestic Shit.  I like living alone. More than I ever thought I would. I'm a big time extrovert, but I like my little quiet space. I don't want to live alone forever, but I'm enjoying it for now. Lady Shit...

As I've mentioned before, Sticks is fortunate in that it has Sticks College in town, which brings a flair and energy to this sleepy, rural town (for at least 9 months out of the year). Though the natives seem to enjoy summer and the sleeping university--void of most of its noisy inhabitants--I prefer the school term and even the loud and sometimes annoying college kids. I love the excitement of watching the cars coming into town bringing nervous new students, as well as tested old hands; love watching as students in pairs and packs roam about this sometimes boring town, breathing life into it just by their very presence, their very differentness. So, it was with much excitement that Prairie Dawn and I headed over to Sticks College recently to set up a table for the Freshman Welcome--a day where students can acquaint themselves with all the various students organizations and groups--which gave us the opportunity to meet and greet new students, but most importantly of all, to give ...

If you haven't seen this video (which a few of my friends shared with me via FB), you're missing out. It's great. Librarians take on Beastie Boys' " Sabotage ." Also, bestie, Mummy Dearest, posted this gem on FB--can't wait to tackle some of these books Was sick Monday night and yesterday, feeling better, just a little weak. Glad I got it out of my system before this crazy, busy weekend...more soon!

We have a firm fines policy that no one in a family may check anything out if even one member of the family has fines in excess of $10--it sounds strict, but we find that we only have problems with families that wind up being the ones who run up multiple cards, so it works. Today we got one of those really special patron phone calls that had us all cracking up. It went something like this: Patron: "I know that I have fines on my card, but my daughter keeps begging me to go to the library and check out some books for her to read." *After checking the patrons card, her sons card, and the daughters card it was discovered that the mother and sons fines totaled over $300, while the daughters fine were only just over $10. After being informed of this, the patron asks, Patron: "So, can I just pay off my daughter's fines so she can use her card." *The staff again reiterated our policy about family fines, etc. Patron: "Well, every time I came to the librar...

Now that Summer Reading is over and vacation--beautiful, sweet, wonderful vacation--is behind me I can finally focus on this tugging feeling I've been suffering from as of late, a being called to write kind of feeling. I used to journal nearly everyday, and aside from this blog, seldom do. And there's that "great American novel," I've been joking about writing for 20 years now--20 years! I've recently began editing a friends very hefty first draft of a book, and then another friend gave me a first draft of a children's story he wants to publish some day. Just as I've finished and sent that back, this week another friend and fellow blogger has asked me to edit something for her...the COSMOS ARE SPEAKING! All of this editing for others is making me hungry to again write furiously; pen smeared fingers, exhausted and creaky knuckles, sore hands. But write what? Should I dabble in the silly scribbly poems I used to love to write. Do I begin some sort of...

Over 10 years ago when I was winding down in my Bachelor's program I decided that I was going to do what I couldn't do when I began college--I was going to move away from home. Like really move away; somewhere where I didn't know anybody and had no family nearby; begin a life that sounded more exciting than my own, but most importantly do Americorps work which would allow me to give back and help others. After talking to a friends brothers, who were then themselves immersed in Americorps work, I read and reread the Catholic Network of Volunteer Service 's RESPONSE book, writing down my top 15 choices, narrowing it down to 10, 5, and then 3. Fortunately my first choice of Nome, Alaska fell through at the last minute and I wound up in Monterey, Massachusetts, but more specifically working at Gould Farm . Reading their website will give you a great picture of the wonderful things this place does, and because I am due back in the kitchen soon--I'm part of a team prepa...

After being at a conference and hearing a fellow librarian sing the praises of Pinterest and how libraries can utilize it to their benefit, I am debating starting a page for Sticks Library. Why I wouldn't do it: another time commitment to social media (we're on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads), why I would? Well, read these awesome articles: "20 Way Libraries are Using Pinterest Right Now" and "More on How to Optimize Pinterest"

Holy cats! I found a great site the other day which had some great recommendations for grants which libraries can apply for, so guess what I've been doing this week?! GRANTS! For anyone else out there doing library grants . Also, LEGO had some good suggestions--who would have guessed? Speaking of holy cats--my friend Erin had a pregnant stray cat deliver 6 ADORABLE kittens at her house. They're 2 weeks old now and will be given away at 6 weeks...anyone looking for a kitten!? I really want another one...umm...

As promised, covers of the original GrandPre design (top) and the new Kibuishi (bottom) cover. Not a big fan of the way Harry or Ron look.

As promised, the original by Mary GrandPre (top) vs. the 15th anniversary new illustrations by Kazu Kibiushi (bottom).

As promised, the original by Mary GrandPre (top) vs. the 15th anniversary new illustrations by Kazu Kibiushi (bottom)...I might like Kibiushi's cover better than GrandPre's. This is pretty bad ass.

As promised, the original by Mary GrandPre (top) vs. the 15th anniversary new illustrations by Kazu Kibiushi (bottom).

As promised, the original by Mary GrandPre (top) vs. the 15th anniversary new illustrations by Kazu Kibiushi (bottom). What is interesting to me about these designs is how Mary GrandPre's colors make her covers seem almost hazy and dreamlike to Kibiushi's bright and engagingly vivid covers. I love both!

As promised, covers of the original GrandPre design (top) and the new Kibuishi (bottom) covers for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ...keep checking back for the rest!

The Harry Potter series is getting a makeover, when on August 15th the books will be re-released (can you hear those cash registers clanking?) with new illustrations by Amulet series author and illustrator, Kazu Kibuishi--the new covers are celebrating the 15th anniversary of the HP franchise! The new covers definitely do something a little darker and more sinister than Mary GrandPre's softer originals. I like both illustrators covers...don't make decide which I like better! Keep checking back, I will share the originals and the newly illustrated covers over the next days... In celebration of 15 years of Harry and Hogwarts and happiness...and the new covers, we're hosting a Harry Potter read-in! I've ordered multiple copies of all the books, now we're just looking forward to people of all ages popping in, plopping down, and returning to Hogwarts. Ice cream will follow as our Butterbeer machine is broken...

We receive a monthly update from SEO (our FANTASTIC consortium); reading over the statistics, I was impressed by the 12 Most Popular Juvenile Fiction e-books in July within our consortium: Mockingjay , Collins Catching Fire , Collins Miss Peregrine's School for Peculiar Children , Riggs Divergent , Roth The Lightning Thief , Riordan HP and the Sorcerer's Stone , Rowling The Hunger Games , Collins The Sea of Monsters , Riordan The Maze Runner , Dashner HP and the Chamber of Secrets , Rowling The Book Thief , Zusak HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban , Rowling Why is this pertinent?--you ask. Welp, it helps when, like us, you have an insanely small budget and want to make sure that when you do your e-book ordering you have a smattering of some of the more popular titles available, particularly the ones which have the most holds on them! And for the record, I hate doing the e-book ordering...I wish we had a librarian just for that job!

This is my lady jam as of late--stuck in my head all weekend, even bestie L's 3 girls were singing it (we're all in love with the Pitch Perfect soundtrack). It's there again right now and it's acting as a reminder of the great weekend I had; a busy yet restful weekend. Weekends like that make wish that I lived closer to the gang again...who knows? Maybe I will live in the Mitten state again one day. Just not now. Keeping my nose to the grindstone in Sticks until, like Mary Poppins, I know when it's time to go. 

Today marks my 10 month anniversary of when I started here at Sticks Library! I can't believe how fast the time has flown by and how much fun I've had since I started, and so many fun things ahead of us!  Thought I would share some more Summer Reading fun (since I was so remiss about doing it during SR!) A big push in libraries and schools in the past couple of years has been projects which fall under the category of S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math)--as we all know the U.S. is so painfully behind the rest of the 1st world in these subjects--so Prairie Dawn and I scheduled S.T.E.M. projects for K-12th graders one day every week during our 6 weeks of summer reading. I say we, but all I did was put it on the calendar and Prairie Dawn did an awesome job of finding interesting projects for the both groups, which we split up into K-6th, and 7th-12th grades. Simple fun on our Make & Take Monday: water bottle bubble makers Not a S.T.E.M. project, ...