A Library's Approach to Books that Offend

In case you haven't seen it already, NYTimes wrote an article about BPL's locked vault containing TinTin au Congo.

I have nothing new to say about this, except to share my favorite comment that has been posted thus far:

I am Czech. The citizens of my country, and many more people in nearby countries, have suffered for generations under various dictatorships and autocracies that, among other things, enjoyed telling them what they could or could not think, say, read, or listen to.

The sight of a locked vault full of banned books has problematic associations with the years of occupation. It makes me very uncomfortable. Therefore, I submit to you that the vault is racially and culturally offensive to Czechs and the entire room should be locked up inside yet another bulletproof vault.
— Marenka

Courses Complete!

I am proud to announce that I have completed all my requirements for my Masters of Library and Information Science at Pratt Institute. Although I don't get my physical diploma until October, I am done! Yay!

It's been a crazy year and a half juggling work and school (and fun) all together. I started at Pratt in January 2008 while working as a part time circulation clerk at my childhood library. When we had a Pratt Grad come to visit my Information Professions class in February to speak about working at Brooklyn Public Library, I decided to apply.

I became a Young Adult Librarian Trainee and now understand what the phrase 'trial by fire' is all about. My first summer at BPL, I took a Young Adult Lit class with Jack Martin which introduced me to so many wonderful YA authors (some in real life) and got me revved up for working with this never-a-dull-moment age demographic. I was able to instantly implement theory into my work.

A little over three months ago, I took my current position at West Orange Library as their Teen Services Librarian. It's an incredibly busy library with a lot of town support. Now that I don't have to leave early to attend class, I am working 3 late night shifts (1-9) so I can be here when the teens will be here as well.

It's great to be done, but there is a little worry in the back of my mind that without Pratt's academic atmosphere of sharing and questioning elements of libraryland, I'm slowly going to become removed from the beat of modern libraries. I know this is not going to happen, because I don't want it to happen.

My plan:

- Keep up with this blog (haven't been so good as of late)
- Keep up with other library blogs.
Although many seem to exist in order to get free materials and some even to propel the bloggers into the center stage, there a bunch that always hit up their users with sage advice, important news, and big questions. Library Garden and In the Library With the Lead Pipe are the two that come to mind immediately.
- Get involved with NJLA
I'm most looking forward to meeting once every two months to help decide the Garden State Book Awards for 2010. Meeting with librarians in different situations will no doubt keep me current with what's happening elsewhere
-Keep doing my job.
Especially the part where I listen to what the teens in my community need and want their library to do for them.

Self Googling

I google myself fairly frequently. While one of my reasons for doing this is high self esteem (ok, I guess we could call it vanity), I also want to keep tabs on my online footprint. It's pretty easy since to my knowledge, I am the only Emily Chornomaz in the english-writing online world. I recently had to get in contact with an old friend from high school - the webmaster of a site where a group of friends posted poetry.

During a selfgoogle, I discovered that one of my poems on this website was pretty risque (in fact, entitled Risque) and send a message for him to remove it. (The poem wondered if certain letters got upset that they were used together to form the mother of all curse words). He was happy to help and I'm glad it won't be available on a live internet search. But let's face it, it's likely still available on internet archive. I think I'm pretty lucky though, if this is the 'worst' of me on the web.

So imagine my surprise when just minutes ago, I found a half-naked picture of myself online. haha! Don't freak out just yet, it's a baby picture my parents submitted to a Ukrainian newsletter. But really, that's a little jarring. Before the internet, I assumed the Ukrainian Weekly had a pretty tiny (but commited) community of readers. With its digitization, any content published is just a google search away from anyone with internet access.

This is obvious, and I know that I've talked about this before...but people! The internet is changing our world in so many ways on so many levels. There are a lot of potential awful information that can become available online incredibly easily. Librarians are such perfect candidates to inform users about these risks and how to attck a problem when it comes about. Does your library offer any internet safety/privacy workshops or materials?

Growing up tech

from Micah Sittig

Has everyone read Texting May Be Taking a Toll in the NYTimes already? Did it kind of freak you out? American teenagers are sending out and receiving (on average) about 80 texts a day - almost double from the year before.

An older item from the CBBC Newsroom said in 2002 that kids' thumbs are getting bigger and stronger. Some young people are even using their thumbs to ring doorbells or point. Motorola calls them the 'thumb generation.'

These are pretty significant changes in thumbs and in personal accessibility! NYTimes points out that the physiological, physical, and psychological effects of this constant connection to peers and parents using the upper extremeties is not fully known.

I have considered my lifestyle as it relates to technology pretty close with teenagers, as it wasn't that long ago that I graduated from high school and only 2 years ago that I graduated from college. Yet the more I read about modern teens tech habbits...it seems absolutely unrelatable.

I shut my cell off. I don't look at it for entire weekends sometimes. It's acceptable by my family and friends for me to go off the grid sometimes. Doesn't seem like it is for these teens.

This is a significant change and must absolutely be considered by libraries providing teen services. What do you all think about this?

Safe Teens = Safe Streets

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending Safe Teens = Safe Streets: New Jersey’s First Working Forum on Community Collaboration at the Mercer County Community College Conference Center. The conference was sponsored by the New Jersey State Library and developed in collaboration with a bunch of groups, namely the East Coast Gang Investigators Association and the New Jersey Library Association Urban Libraries Section. Check out the flickr.

From NJLA: The purpose of this one day working forum is to bring together legislators, county prosecutors, youth services commission directors, county social services board directors, educators, gang prevention professionals, librarians, and representatives of other community agencies serving children and their families, to develop strategies and a call to action to prevent New Jersey’s children and teens from joining gangs.

Gangs are a fact in New Jersey’s rural, suburban, and urban areas with gang presence growing in all areas. The State Library is sponsoring this conference in collaboration with several other agencies and organizations to raise awareness of the role that all can play in helping to fight the problems of gangs in our state. It is hoped that this working forum will present an opportunity for collaboration for the participants and provide a stimulus to the development of new ideas and strategies that can be presented to the Office of the Attorney General’s Prevention Coordinating Council.

Cool idea, and pretty well executed! There were a lot of great discussions going on and a lot of resources and methods being shared throughout various agencies.

What left the biggest impression on me was a 'break-out session' presented by the Ocean County Library System. The librarians of Ocean County, determined to unite their community in promoting the prevention of gang activity, involved a number of entities in their towns to create the meaningful and effective 'Gang Wise Project.' Gang Wise educates the audience about the history of gangs, warning signs, and offers advice to parents and teens about avoiding them. Working with the Ocean County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Ocean County Youth Services Commission, NJ Governor's Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, NJ Superior Court Intake Unit Ocean County, Ocean County Health Department, Ocean County Municipal Alliance, and the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, the library pooled together the area's collective knowledge and support to make citizens aware of what's going on - and how to deal with it.

I was really impressed by this program and not only because of the dedication and meticulousness of the library staff. Libraries are not alone - there are other agencies working towards the same goals as we are. We must collaborate with other organizations to accomplish these goals whether they are about providing education or recreation. Yes, we could do it alone. But it isn't a matter of being a one-stop shop. It's about providing superior services. Use other organizations as resources, as means to amelioration. Build community.

Stepping outside the library is now an intrinsic part of being a successful librarian. Ocean County Library System's Gang Wise Project is a model of collaboration I would like to duplicate some day.

Newness

My apologies for not posting in much too long. In the past month, I've finished up the spring semester, left Brooklyn Public Library, moved, and started a new position as Teen Librarian at West Orange Public Library in Essex County New Jersey! Way cool!

I learned so much working at Brooklyn Public Libraries and met some wonderful people. Unfortunately, BPL and the other 2 library systems that serve New York City are facing massive budget cuts. Layoffs are looming. Join the Save NYC Libraries! facebook group to find out how to offer your support.

Gender roles

From the blog Sociological Images: Seeing Is Believing:



Wow. I saw this a couple days ago and was hoping it was a joke. While the post received clarification for the context of this illustation (via comments), it's still quite shocking. A cartoonist and humorist named Whitney Darrow intended this page and the book it belonged to (I’m Glad I’m a Boy! I’m Glad I’m a Girl!) to be a satire of gender roles. Phew. But wait...

Intention and reality can be glaringly different.
A commentor, Ellie, quoted some reviews of the book:

From School Libraries, published by the American Association of School Libraries, 1969: ”This warmly humorous book makes everybody glad they are what they are.”

From The Horn Book Magazine, 1970: ”He’s glad he’s a boy and she’s glad she’s a girl. In this warmly humorous book, they tell each other why and conclude that the best reason of all is — because they need each other!”

From the “Books for Children” section in Childhood Education, 1970: ”Simple drawings with line captions designed to help the young child discover his or her appropriate sex role.”

That is just nuts. Three resources librarians use and rely on to assess if materials are worth purchasing seem to have brushed over the satire, embracing the content as serious. How often does this mistake happen - not only in reviewing, but in cataloging? I've been to more than one library that has Borat's Guide to Kazakhstan in the travel section instead of with the humor. I would be devestated if a child picked up I’m Glad I’m a Boy! I’m Glad I’m a Girl in the non-fiction section amongst books like Amazing you: getting smart about your private parts and What to tell your children about sex. Thoughts? Examples?

To end with an upbeat thought ( because I always feel inclined to :) ), it's pretty great to see blogs use their medium to the fullest. Before any comments were added, the image was without author and without context. Readers were able to share their knowledge and complete the thought. What a perfect example of what this tool can do for information.

a case of borrowed identity

Since all types of librarians and information professionals have been blogging about facebook lately, I figure it's ok to add to the mix.

This past weekend, my boyfriend Joe got an unusual update on his facebook news feed. Facebook wanted to let him know that someone from his graduating class had just joined facebook. Interesting enough, this user displayed his name as Joe's full name, which admittedly, is common enough. Yet as the day progressed, the news feed updated Joe that this new user now had 10 friends in common....30 friends in common...and the profile pic of Joe2 was now a picture of him (the real Joe) and me. Whoa!

At first, we thought it was someone being clever...a goofy thing to do to a friend. But the more the imposter became friends with Joe's friends, the more we both began to feel uneasy. After texting a friend or two about it, someone let me know that a second Joe had added her on myspace too! She, and everyone else, figured that Joe had simply created another account - after all, it was the right name, right face...a little scary!

We surmised that the profile picture was taken from my myspace - which I keep public for the teens at the library to look at and add me. A coworker who had added Joe2 let us look at his profile, and the imposter barely added any information...

So what was the point of this? No one claimed responsibility with a 'gotcha!', no information was sent out, no new labels were attached... but the threat of those last two remains. Joe (the real one) eventually invited everyone he had in common with Joe2 to an event - telling everyone to delete the 2nd Joe. Joe2 suddenly made his profile pic and friends private, so we can only hope that our friends listened to the event's request.

It's pretty freaky how easy someone can be mimicked online. What kind of protection can we set in motion? Making things private helps a little, but it sure isn't foolproof. Information literacy - critical thinking - this should be emphasized when dealing with interactions online. I have a feeling stuff like this will become more commonplace, and people need to get used to being skeptical about whats going on in facebook.

So just who would be great at information literacy training/ instructional technologies? Why...public and school librarians!

A Happy Little Tale

I thought I'd share a sweet story of excited patrons who visited the library yesterday. It's not every day you meet teenagers so excited about the print collection of your branch.

Three Freshmen I hadn't seen before came up to the reference desk and asked for a Blue Bloods book. We had it on the shelf, so I brought them over to our YA section and picked it out for them. I introduced myself at the Teen Librarian and told them about two upcoming programs - our craft for March (discarded book journals) and Nintendo DS day. Their eyes lit up and they almost squealed.
"Oh my god, that's so cool! I have a DS!"
"Me too! I'm definitely gonna go to the craft thing!"
"Guys, now we have a place to go after school!"
They took my flier for all of March's YA programs. I was thinking to myself, these are the coolest people ever, haha. Then I remembered I should mention RIF to them, aka Reading is Fundamental. For those not familiar, it is a program that encourages young people to read books through incentives - ours being free books, to keep. The young women were almost jumping up and down about that! Haha! Only one of the three had her library card to sign up for the program, but the others promised they'd be back today.

It's a thrill to meet patrons so enthused about reading and excited about programming. Unfortunately, this kind of thing is probably not going to happen every day. It sure beats getting ignored, having your programs called nerdy, or simply having a deserted branch!

If you feel so inclined, post a heartwarming tale of excited patrons in the comments section. Librarians, like everyone else, have to remember and cherish the positive so we can use it to lift our spirits during a day that isn't so grand.

MLS programs...barriers to entry?

I attended two parties this past weekend, with two different groups of people and a lot of different ages. Interestingly, someone from both groups posed the same question: Is 'library school' really necessary? Not in the sense of securing a job, but for preparing for that job?

My friend Laura, who recently got her masters degree in Economics from UDel and whose mother is a librarian suggested that the MLS requirement seems more like a barrier to entry rather than an indespensible education for future librarians.

From Money Terms: Barriers to entry are anything that makes it difficult for a new entrant to break into a market. They make companies already in the market more valuable as they reduce the risk of new competition.

As we continued in the conversation, I listed some of my course topics and she argued that most of the skills I've been trained in could easily be taught through on the job training or professional development. Laura felt that the MLS is required mostly to limit the number of applicants to librarian positions... to filter all those interested down to just those who are very interested (and i should add those with the means to begin an MLS program). I had to agree somewhat. However, I do believe in the importance of librarian indoctrination that should be taking place while getting an MLS. The reiteration that libraries are to be user-centered, supplying free and easy access to all is critical.

Web design, systems design..these things are probably best taught in a classroom setting...but does it have to be through a masters program? For collection development, young adult services, cataloging... a hands-on experience seems to me to be of infinite more value than a paper or lecture.

Thoughts? Do you strongly agree or disagree? Besides fulfilling requirements on job postings, what makes an MLS essential?