#library programming

It was one of those 5-Minute Crafts style videos, so I said something like, "Oh yeah those guys are charlatans but we can still do it, let me look up a real recipe", and found a likely-looking kid science blog and got to work. And then she just got more and more annoyed as I kept, to her eyes, overcomplicating things, probably thinking I was misguidedly trying to Ultra-Optimize The Crystals or something, as I directed her to boil some water and dissolve some Borax in it, and find a container to put the eggshell in.

Something was kind of twigging by the time we got to putting the eggshell in the water, when she kept asking why we couldn't just pour some water on, but it didn't quite land unti I said something about "several days" and she said something to my dad and he just sorta reexplained the Borax experiment as he understood it to her, in the context of "this is the only way I've ever seen it done".

Then I realized I had to clarify that no, really, when I said charlatans I didn't mean they were assholes, I meant they were literally faking the video. So then she (entirely naturally) wanted to know why they would do that, how on earth would you make any money like that, and did you know, 9 pm on a Tuesday the day before your period is due is not actually the ideal time to explain to your actually extremely intelligent - perhaps entirely too rational? - mother the vagaries of the turtles-all-the-way-down Facebook clickbait economy. Her reaction was, "Well, I hate that."

Need:

Dried flowers

Mod podge (matte is best)

Brushes

Plain glass jars

Tea lights

Twine or ribbon

Directions:

I know, I can hear you saying "more dried flower crafts??" Just trust me. I don't know why, but teens are just obsessed with these crafts. I don't blame them, they're very pretty.

This craft does require a bit of patience just because you're working on a round surface with wet glue. The process itself is simple: pick which flowers you want, apply a thin layer of mod podge to the jar, press the flower onto the glue, apply another thick layer of mod podge on top.

Similar to all the other dried flower crafts, the flowers are very delicate, so make sure the teens aren't being too aggressive with the brushes or the petals will fall off.

I tried this with a few different jars. I thought it could be cute with a mason jar that had a design on it, but it was just too much. Applying the flowers was difficult and the final result was so busy. It's best to use clear jars with a flat, clean surface.

2022 Library Zine Launch Event

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Next question, what did they use to teach?

I am currently working on independent research to finish my masters degree and I am focusing on the role that libraries have in teaching social justice awareness and themes. I plan on using graphic novels to do so (more specifically Batman White Knight to focus on incarceration/mental health/police reform).

I want feedback on what you would feel seeing programming like this. Would you be interested? What would help persuade you in going? What would turn you away from going?

Well, it depends on how you’re using the terms! I have usually worked in Special Collections in academic libraries, which usually have archives. The one I currently work in has history of plastics collections and significant collections of objects. So I don’t find those terms as separate as they seem in the question. 

The best ways are ideas where the Venn diagram of your followers and the other institutions’ followers are interested in the same thing. The most important thing is to figure out where your collections or your fans’ interests overlap. Medieval stuff? Cooking history? Sci-Fi? History of the book? Civil War? Whatever fits the Venn Diagram is where you start to brainstorm.

Here are some examples from work I did in the past as an Outreach Librarian in Special Collections:

1. Co-curate an exhibition. I partnered with the education coordinator for a history museum on campus to put together an exhibit about food history in the state utilizing historic culinary materials in Special Collections and exhibiting them in the history museum. We co-sponsored the opening reception. Got a huge turnout because all the advertising went out to both of our interested communities.

2. Co-found a community group. Our collections, our fans, and our followers had a shared interest in culinary history, particularly in the state. We co-founded a community group the Historic Foodies. Special Collections would provide recipe inspiration from history as the local cooks would prep historic dishes each month around a theme. We met sometimes at the library, sometimes at other community spaces. The history museum helped coordinate starting a food history contest at the state fair and providing transportation for the group to travel there and serve as judges. (The group went on to be self supporting and still has events catering local history events!)

3. Join an existing event! Campus museums partner to put on a fun Halloween event that has a huge turnout of all the local kids. We worked with them to make the theme overlap with our collecting areas, and co-ran some of the programming one year

Collaboratively partnering with third parties:

4. Archives Crawl. Local museums, archives, and libraries in walking distance all have an open house the same day. Have passports and prizes for going to multiple locations. Other institutions that are too far away in distance can have tables at the open locations. 

 5. The public library has a local history speaker series each year that books both museum and library guest speakers.

6. The local brewery has a history speaker series that books local librarians, archivists, historians, and museum curators to be speakers.

7. Ren Faire! Comic con! One of our local public libraries hosts a comic con and a Renaissance Faire. Speakers from departments at the college, from Special Collections (pop up exhibit!) and from a local museum all added some history talks to the event. (For the Ren Faire a campus English Professor and I gave a talk about Medieval books and I brought facsimiles and binding models). 

Other ideas: 

8. Share a hashtag or even share an Instagram account and cooperatively represent your town or neighborhoods cultural heritage riches there. 

9. Share your metadata. Can you get your records into one catalog? Can you share information about their relevant collections in the related section of finding aids? Through a libguide? Think about how to point people from one place to the other when you have collection in common? 

10. Pop-up exhibits! Can you pick a holiday, event, anniversary, and pick less rare items and meet up in a high traffic area on campus for a pop up exhibit? Bring a button maker. Maybe a popcorn machine. With or without vitrines. (Shameless plug for the newsletter edition I co-edited on this subject. Like and subscribe!: https://mailchi.mp/fa25d4b94a04/primary-source-news-and-notes-teach-the-teacher-2019update-326525?fbclid=IwAR2rW5cF-HnG_9pe_oOLPpf_lqWip25fxqe3kgiCzD3MA_8d-JH0knGBSyQ).

Exhibitions, speaker series, lectures, events of all kinds. Pretty much anything!

[Image description: against a Facebook-blue background, white letters read “Learn how to conduct a LIVE social media session for your library!”]

There’s technically only 100 people who are currently work for the library region. 9 people were spared. The director, the administration/payroll person, the tech guy (who’s on contract), the community services librarian, the other city librarian, Our city librarian, our city assistant librarian, our city reference person and me. The children’s librarian.

Only reason the assistant librarian, the reference person and I were spared? Because I’ve been doing a good job on online programming and I will be required to amp it up. We’re looking at moving to 3 programs a day, 5 days a week.

I thought I was doing good with 1 program a day, 5 days a week for kids. Now I have to come up and do 10 more programs and spread them across kids and adults. Yes, I get help from 2-4 other people but still. I’m doing programming for the entire region and if we do well at it, it might mean the difference between the library region getting our funding from municipal governments, and not.

I’m feeling very overwhelmed. Yes, I’m grateful I still have a job but this is a lot.