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Just a cute tattoo. Certainly a good sentiment! Also, that girl's hair really brings out her eyes. I've thought about getting a tattoo but have never been able to think of something so important/meaningful I'd want it on me forever.

Job Shadow

I got to job shadow at a public library today! My day included:

• Stamping things
• Folding pamphlets
• Talking to schoolkids about a summer reading club
• Eating pizza and cookies
• Riding around on the bookmobile

I had crazy amounts of fun. Maybe it's sad, but I like stamping stuff with a real inkpad and folding pamphlets. It's tangible stuff you can finish. Look, accomplishment! Right there! Plus I suspect I have always harboured a desire to stamp things in an official manner. I imagine doing either of these things for very extended periods of time would be less fun, but there's enough to do that you could break it up enough to be good with it.

Seeing the kids was pretty fun. They really do say the damnedest things. And it's great to see them enthusiastic, especially about reading. They seemed to enjoy my modeling swimming trunks for a guessing game, and I'm a sucker for getting a few giggles.

Supposedly library staff do not have pizza every day for lunch but I secretly suspect they do. That must be why they're all so funny and nice.

The bookmobile is a monstrous vehicle crammed full of books. Good books! The people who use it really really use it. The third seat in the back provides a bumpy ride. Sadly, the incinerating toilet does not make a FWOOSH sound when you press the button, but that was the day's only disappointment.

My feet hurt! Sneakers next time.

Working at a public library has a lot going for it, and I am very, very tempted.

A Publisher's Postbag in Pictures

From guardian.co.uk:

During his 30-year career as a children's book publisher, Klaus Flugge received almost 100 beautifully illustrated envelopes by artists including Posy Simmonds, Tony Ross and Axel Scheffler. Here he introduces some of his favourites.

Closed Stacks on Library Dating and Curriculum Suggestions for Library School

Closed Stacks is on an awesome run right now, with a post about a New York Times article about a library-based dating scheme and another with suggested courses for library school curriculum.

I suppose I would bring John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, since it is legitimately my favourite book. On the other hand, maybe I should try to game the system with something like Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow, which would be more along the lines of truth in advertising.

My favourite curriculum suggestions include:

• LIS710 – Introduction to Library Perverts
• LIS738 – Mechanics of Photocopier Machine Repair
• LIS770 – Internship with Passive-Aggressive Note Leavers

If there was a training course for photocopier repair, I would probably take it to make my resume more appealing. Also, I like fixing things.

Good Night Reading Quilt

Snagged from the Facebook feed of a delightful classmate, The Geeky Goodnight Reading Quilt. I meant to post this earlier with a 'witty' comment about how it's Monday and we all wish we were back in bed, but man, it's past nine and I should really be in bed.

Anyway, this looks neato but the thing where you can turn pages and read sounds like a lot more bedding for me to twist up crazily during my madcap dream adventures.

Teen Spaces in Libraries

Kelly Czarnecki summarizes the teen areas of five different libraries for School Library Journal.

And huzzah! Libraries with teen sections for gaming lead to teens using other, more traditional library services.

Kaitlin Hoke, teen services coordinator at the East Library, a branch of the Pikes Peak Library District in Colorado, also finds that teens at her library take advantage of other library services as well as gaming. She says she’ll never forget the day that one of their notorious gamers asked a librarian to help him with a school assignment. This is exactly what librarians hope for—kids come to the teen center to play a game and then are comfortable enough to ask for homework help or check out a book.

Bestsellers On the Day You Were Born

From Miss Kathleen at MentalFloss: find out what books were on the New York Times bestseller list on the day you were born! (Or any other day, really.)

Mine, fiction only:

1. THE COVENANT, James A. Michener
   
2. FIRESTARTER, Stephen King
   
3. THE KEY TO REBECCA, Ken Follett
   
4. THE FIFTH HORSEMAN, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre
   
5. LOON LAKE, E.L. Doctorow
   
6. RAGE OF ANGELS, Sidney Sheldon
   
7. THE TENTH COMMANDMENT, Lawrence Sanders
   
8. THE ORIGIN, Irving Stone
   
9. COME POUR THE WINE, Cynthia Freeman
   
10. THE SECOND LADY, Irving Wallace
    
11. FANNY, Erica Jong
    
12. THE SPIKE, Arnaud de Borchgrave and Robert Moss
    
13. THE RING, Danielle Steel
    
14. KANE & ABEL, Jeffrey Archer
    
15. RANDOM WINDS, Belva Plain
    

Shelving in Sims 3

I just realized that when I play The Sims 3 I organize their books into different bookcases based on content: skill books, fishing books, recipes, kid and pregnancy books, and general reads. And when they're all asleep I go over their shelves and reshelve if necessary.

Grover In the Library

I stole this from a student presentation in one of my classes:

Little Librarian

Little Librarian is a kid's kit to aid budding librarians. Just add books! I'm kind of tempted to label and organize all my books, except I think I'll refrain because that might be ever so slightly crazy and also my bookshelf holds other things, like pictures and wedding favours. And I have to stack books of weird sizes, which is why I always ask that books on my wish lists be paperback if possible. Trade paperbacks kind of mess it up, too, but somehow I get by.

National Gaming Day in Libraries

Libraries in the United States, Argentina, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Pakistan and Puerto Rico will be celebrating National Gaming Day.

Libraries will offer a variety of activities throughout the day, including modern board games, traditional games (such as chess and checkers) and two national video game tournaments that will pit players at dozens of libraries against each other for bragging rights to the ultimate Rock Band and Super Smash Bros. Brawl crowns.

Why is this good for libraries?

Lots of kids play games at home – alone, with siblings or with friends. At the library, kids socialize with their friends and play board and video games while surrounded by books, librarians and knowledge. Gaming at the library encourages patrons to interact with diverse peers, share their expertise with others (including adults) and develop new strategies for gaming and learning. Families can join others in making time to play together at their library while meeting new people and trying out new games in a safe and friendly atmosphere.

There's even one in my city! I am tempted to go.

More information (and a map of participating libraries) can be found at ilovelibraries.org.

All Hallow's Read

Blah blah blah Neil Gaiman blah blah blah All Hallow's Read blah blah blah give a scary book this Halloween. Post complete! Now it's time to cowboy up a Halloween event.

Sir Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite authors. He's the creator of Discworld, a fantasy series with too many interesting and hilarious characters to count. His books take up the majority of one of my shelves; I own more books by him than I do any other author. And he got knighted! And then he forged himself a sword with meteorite ore! I love that guy.

Maybe I Should Move to Calgary in a Couple of Years

The University of Alberta is compiling a video game library. It works just like any other library and has enclosed multimedia rooms where students and researchers can rock out with Rock Band or play other games. Which is pretty much awesome and wow now it's more tempting to live in Alberta!

I imagine a lot of technical expertise would be needed, like 'just blow on the cartridge' and identifying the inevitable red rings of death. AND I AM THERE.

Also awesome: Video Games and Young People: Learning, Literacy, and Libraries, a paper by Heather Robinson.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

'Tis a pitiful showin' on the blogs t'day fer Talk Like a Pirate Day! All ye librarrians must be swashin' their buckles an' such to post about it. Here be Matt Stagg's list o' pirate books over on Suvudu!

As fer meself, I be recommendin' 'On Stranger Tides' by Tim Powers fer yer readin' delight, an alternate history involvin' Blackbeard, voodoo magic, an' puppet shows.

Fer yer viewin' pleasure, here be Flickarrr's Talk Like a Pirate Day photostream.

I looted the Pirate Name Generator from Dundee City's library's page. 'Tis not Lagomorph Watson today, lads. 'Tis Gangrenous Evelyn Napier!

Bless the internet fer allowin' us our made-up holidays!

Yarrr?

Order in the Library Game

Order in the Library is a site with three games - a sorting game, a shelving game, and a rearrangement game, all as the tasks occur in a library setting, only with repetitive pointing and clicking instead of repetitive back strain. It amused me! Let it amuse you.