One of many people's favourite sessions at any Canadian library conference are the Dewey Divas and Dudes. A group of passionate librarians, they put together their picks for their favourite upcoming titles and present them to the session attendees in booktalk fashion - an overview of the book and why they loved it, in a way that makes you want to run out and read them all immediately. I attended one of their sessions at ALC this year and thought I would pass along some of their favourite adult books for spring/summer 2010.
From Oxford University Press:
A Cabinet of Roman Curiosities: Strange and Surprising Facts from the World's Greatest Empire, J.D. McKeown, June 2010, $21.95, 9780195393750
Cleopatra: A Biography, Duane W. Roller, April 2010, $27.95, 9780195365535
Plundered Planet, Paul Collier, June 2010, $29.95, 9780195395259
Angels: A History, David Albert Jones, April 2010, $24.95, 9780199582952
Secret Language: Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols, Barry J. Blake, April 2010, $27.95, 9780199579280
Sense and Sociability, Lorne Tepperman, May 2010, $29.95, 9780195439298
Theodor Seuss Geisel, Donald E. Pease, April 2010, $24.95, 9780195323023
On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears, Stephen T. Asma, November 2009, $33.95, 9780195336160
How Fantasy Becomes Reality: Seeing Through the Media Influence, Karen E. Dill, October 2009, $34.95, 9780195372082
Racism in Canada, Issues in Canada Series, Vic Satzewich, August 2010, $16.95, 9780195430660
Crime in Canada, Issues in Canada Series, Diane Crocker, August 2010, $16.95, 9780195432473
From Random House of Canada:
Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker-in-Training, Tom Jokinen, March 2010, $32.00, 9780307355683
Everything Flows, Vasily Grossman, trans. by Robert Chandler, Elizabeth Chandler and Anna Aslanyan, December 2009, $19.95, 9781590173282
Wish her Safe at Home, Stephen Benatar, January 2010, $19.95, 9781590173350
The Patience Stone, Atiq Rahimi, trans. by Polly McLean, January 2010, $19.95, 9781590513446
The American Girl, Monika Fagerholm, trans. by Katarina E. Tucker, February 2010, $19.95, 9781590513040
The Unspoken Truth, Angelica Garnett, February 2010, $34.95, 9780701184353
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, Bill McKibben, April 2010, $32.00, 9780307399182
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell, June 2010, $32.00, 9780676979299
One Day, David Nicholls, June 2010, $17.95, 9780307474711
From HarperCollins Canada:
Beneath the Sands of Egypt: Adventures of an Unconventional Archaeologist, Donald P. Ryan, Ph.D., July 2010, $28.99, 9780061732829
Juliet, Anne Fortier, August 2010, $29.99, 9781557684991
Locavore: From Farmers' Fields to Rooftop Gardens How Canadians are Changing the Way We Eat, Sarah Elton, March 2010, $32.99, 9781554684182
Mr. Peanut, Adam Ross, June 2010, $31.99, 9781554688371
Skin, Mo Hayder, April 2010, $22.99, 9781554686414
The Dark Vineyard, Martin Walker, May 2010, $27.99, 9781554682669
From NYRB Classics:
The Long Ships, Frans Gunnar Bengtsson, trans. by Michael Meyer, June 2010, $21.50, 9781590173466
Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham, April 2010, $17.95, 9781590173480
The Jokers, Albert Cossery, trans. by Anna Moschovakis, July 2010, $17.95, 9781590173251
The Mountain Lion, Jean Stafford, July 2010, $17.95, 9781590173527
The Murderess, Alexandros Papadiamantis, trans by. Peter Levi, June 2010, $14.95, 9781590173503
Pedigree, Georges Simenon, trans. by Robert Baldick, July 2010, $21.50, 9781590173510
Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking, Jessica Mitford, July 2010, $18.95, 9781590173558
A Posthumous Confession, Marcellus Emants, trans. by J.M. Coetzee, August 2010, $17.00, 9781590173473
I highly recommend their sessions if you ever get a chance. But in the meantime you can follow their blog "for ongoing book recommendations, book lists and rep adventures" at http://www.deweydivas.blogspot.com/
Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
What do you NOT want to learn?
At this year's LAA Conference, I had the privilege of attending Lauren DeBruin’s session “Willing Engagement: Overcoming Learner Resistance in Library Staff.” Some of you may remember Lauren from the Southern Alberta Library Conference, where she presented a session on the language learning software AuralLog. With her enthusiastic speaking style and thought-provoking topic, Lauren started me thinking about why we choose not to learn and my own resistance to learning.
In Lauren’s presentation she explained that learning is actually a crisis experience. People react to learning by going through the same steps associated with a large upheaval in their lives: destabilization, disorientation, and re-orientation. When a change (ie. learning) occurs our way of thinking or doing something is disrupted and, therefore, destabilized. We then become lost and yearn for the way things used to be as we wade through disorientation. Finally, when we have had some time to become comfortable with something, we accept the new material and, eventually, start to engage with it in the last stage - reorientation.
As a technology-focused librarian, I have struggled with learning new things many times. I was a late adopter of Facebook, have only recently started using SiteJot and Bloglines, and am still working up the courage to create my own blog. And why, might you ask? Because learning is scary – especially learning new technologies! Luckily, in my learning travels, I have also run across some amazing resources that have helped familiarize me with new technologies, especially in the area of social networking.
While at Oakville Public Library, I learned about 23 Things, a list created by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County for their Learning 2.0 Program. The list includes challenges like set up your own blog, explore Flickr, and discover Del.icio.us. 23 Things is laid out in a 10 week program so you can gradually do each thing. Even if you have no idea what these things are, these easy-to-use guides will show how to begin playing with these tools, even if you choose not to us them indefinitely.
The other wonderful social networking resource I know of is Common Craft. Common Craft is a company that makes short videos about social networking tools and posts them to YouTube. They use paper cut outs to explain things in the simplest terms and the videos are super fun to watch! My favourite videos from them are:
So if you want, check it out! Even if you don’t end up signing on with one of these tools, you might learn enough about them that the next time you hear something new mentioned it won't be so scary. Now, to start writing my blog …
In Lauren’s presentation she explained that learning is actually a crisis experience. People react to learning by going through the same steps associated with a large upheaval in their lives: destabilization, disorientation, and re-orientation. When a change (ie. learning) occurs our way of thinking or doing something is disrupted and, therefore, destabilized. We then become lost and yearn for the way things used to be as we wade through disorientation. Finally, when we have had some time to become comfortable with something, we accept the new material and, eventually, start to engage with it in the last stage - reorientation.
As a technology-focused librarian, I have struggled with learning new things many times. I was a late adopter of Facebook, have only recently started using SiteJot and Bloglines, and am still working up the courage to create my own blog. And why, might you ask? Because learning is scary – especially learning new technologies! Luckily, in my learning travels, I have also run across some amazing resources that have helped familiarize me with new technologies, especially in the area of social networking.
While at Oakville Public Library, I learned about 23 Things, a list created by the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County for their Learning 2.0 Program. The list includes challenges like set up your own blog, explore Flickr, and discover Del.icio.us. 23 Things is laid out in a 10 week program so you can gradually do each thing. Even if you have no idea what these things are, these easy-to-use guides will show how to begin playing with these tools, even if you choose not to us them indefinitely.
The other wonderful social networking resource I know of is Common Craft. Common Craft is a company that makes short videos about social networking tools and posts them to YouTube. They use paper cut outs to explain things in the simplest terms and the videos are super fun to watch! My favourite videos from them are:
So if you want, check it out! Even if you don’t end up signing on with one of these tools, you might learn enough about them that the next time you hear something new mentioned it won't be so scary. Now, to start writing my blog …
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Better Together
A number of Chinook Arch staff were lucky enough to be able to attend the Alberta Library Conference last week in Jasper. As usual it was full of comraderie, food and good information. I learned about some new and upcoming books from the Dewey Divas (always a great session), Copyright Basics (which Lauren will be leading a session on May 31 at HQ) and building community partnerships. Brent Buechler and Jan Sahibzada, from Calgary Public Library, shared their experiences with building community partnerships in their session Better Together: Strategic Community Partnerships. I heard some great points at their session and thought I would share them here.
Brent started the session by sharing a great quote: 'When spiderwebs are woven together they can catch a lion'. What a great analogy for the power of partnerships.
So, why partner?
1. To reach more people; you might even create new library users
2. To find and better utilize resources
3. Funders (like granting agencies) like to see evidence of partnership
4. The community likes to see evidence of partnership for publicly funded institutions
Did you know that libraries make great partners? Why?
1. Because you already have established public trust and credibility
2. You have a wide customer reach - every age and every segment of the population uses the library
3. You have a wide geographic reach - especially libraries who are part of a System (or similar). You have the potential to reach a much larger audience than most local organizations.
4. Libraries are known for having knowledgeable and passionate staff who care about the community.
So, SELL YOURSELF as the ideal partner - because you are!
In partnering with other organizations, you will want to first determine what you want to achieve:
1. Development of the partnership
2. Delivery of the resulting service/product
3. Evaluation
4. Celebration
The partnership process:
- Put it in writing. Partnerships are negotiated in good faith and confirmed in writing.
- Consider the 5 W's
1. Why - what community needs are you supporting?
2. Who - what are the roles and responsibilities of each partner
3. What - which organizational priorities (for your library) are you supporting?
4. When - determine timelines in regards to key activities
5. How - define the parameters for working together [okay, that isn't a W)
- Consider the risks involved; are there legal issues; will you need insurance?
Some things to consider about partnerships:
Brent started the session by sharing a great quote: 'When spiderwebs are woven together they can catch a lion'. What a great analogy for the power of partnerships.
So, why partner?
1. To reach more people; you might even create new library users
2. To find and better utilize resources
3. Funders (like granting agencies) like to see evidence of partnership
4. The community likes to see evidence of partnership for publicly funded institutions
Did you know that libraries make great partners? Why?
1. Because you already have established public trust and credibility
2. You have a wide customer reach - every age and every segment of the population uses the library
3. You have a wide geographic reach - especially libraries who are part of a System (or similar). You have the potential to reach a much larger audience than most local organizations.
4. Libraries are known for having knowledgeable and passionate staff who care about the community.
So, SELL YOURSELF as the ideal partner - because you are!
In partnering with other organizations, you will want to first determine what you want to achieve:
- Review your Plan of Service - what are your needs? Your areas of focus and opportunity?
- Identify how partnerships will deliver value. Why do you want to partner? What will you get out of it?
- Conduct an environmental scan - you don't want to compete with what's already being done in the community, you want to compliment it.
- What is the purpose of the project/partnership and what resources are needed?
- Which organizations serve a similar clientele?
- How will both organizations benefit?
- Does the organization you are approaching have the capacity to meet your partnership needs/ambitions?
1. Development of the partnership
2. Delivery of the resulting service/product
3. Evaluation
4. Celebration
The partnership process:
- Put it in writing. Partnerships are negotiated in good faith and confirmed in writing.
- Consider the 5 W's
1. Why - what community needs are you supporting?
2. Who - what are the roles and responsibilities of each partner
3. What - which organizational priorities (for your library) are you supporting?
4. When - determine timelines in regards to key activities
5. How - define the parameters for working together [okay, that isn't a W)
- Consider the risks involved; are there legal issues; will you need insurance?
Some things to consider about partnerships:
- Partnerships take time, clarity of focus, trust and a spirit of collaboration
- The partnership process is open, inclusive, accountable and consistent
- Both partners must have a mutual commitment to strategic results
- Common goals and open communication must exist
- Benefits to both parties must be clearly defined
- Decisions made should reflect all views and needs
- Each partner must retain its own identity and work towards its own goals
- There must be a commitment to ongoing review and evaluation
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