Monica Erickson, SELCO-PLA Scholarship Recipient
Chatfield Public Library

Wow!  What a full day!  I'm exhausted but can't say there was a single thing I would have skipped in today's schedule.  Thank heavens we have access to all of the presenter handouts online because I was agonizing that I could only choose one session to attend in each time block.  Some much to learn and so little time!

Trading Spaces:  Everyday Transformations to Maintain Merchandising Momentum @ Your Library was a fantastic session that really got me fired up about transforming spaces and attitudes about "merchandising" our materials and services.  One thing they really emphasized was keeping your displays looking full and that everyone on staff should help with this.  Just walking by every hour or so and sliding a couple new books over into empty display spots can make a difference in keeping a display looking fresh and appealing versus "picked over."  One thing they said that I could really identify with once I thought about it was that "The physical environment really drives behavior."  They gave some great strategies, emphasizing that staff should "expect continual change."  Ah ... not easy, perhaps ... but well worth the effort it seems.

Utilizing Youth Volunteers After School @ Your Library provided some great practical tips on how to make such a program actually work.  They had some great success stories, examples of suitable tasks, and advice for success based on their years of tweaking their program.  I hadn't thought of looking at utilizing youth volunteers as a form of actual programming for youth (a way of fulfilling some of their needs) until I listened to what these folks had to say.

Weeders Attract More Readers! was fairly calling out to me ... or maybe it was more of a case of yanking me by the collar since the whole topic of weeding is something I usually like to slink away from and avoid.  Belinda Boon made me feel as if "Yes, I CAN weed my collection and gosh darn it will be fun and rewarding!"  Okay ... maybe not fun, but indeed necessary and very beneficial.  She referenced a website I can't wait to check out called SUNLINK Weed of the Month.  Its archive provides help in weeding every main Dewey subject area.  Check it out at http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/weed/.  Actually, weeding might even be fun if one could only memorize and sing Belinda's "Weeding Song" (sung to the tune of "Rawhide") to bolster enthusiasm during the whole painful ordeal.

Creating Dynamic Library Atmospheres:  What We Can Learn from Theater, Retail, Museums, and the Container Store was a delightful chance to watch Ted Swigon (Museum Development, Chicago Scenic Studios) rip on atmospheric mistakes so painfully obvious in photos of other libraries.  The less delightful part was realizing, "Oh, I have a similar setup or display in my library right now.  Yeeks ... it does look terrible now that I think about it."  Along with Sally Decker Smith, he then went on to show how such display or arrangement "Yuks" can be turned into "Oh, Yeahs" without a tremendous amount of money, effort, or upheavel.  My favorite quote from this session:  "Everything that is a problem is an opportunity."  (I'm gonna try that one out on my Board.)

I also enjoyed a super Children's Author luncheon with guest speakers author Pat Mora and Illustrator Raul Colon.  The day ended with a really wonderful dinner with 3 fantastic speakers:  Jacqueline Winspear (author of the Maisie Dobbs novels - boy, was she an eloquent speaker), Dan Musselman (Books on tape Executive Producer), and Scott Brick (actor, screenwriter, and audiobook narrator).  I especially enjoyed Scott Brick - he confirmed a suspicion that I've long held that audiobook narrating has to be one of thee most fun occupations in the world!  My favorite quote from him was that he is a "book addict" which pretty much makes all us librarians "enablers" or basically "dealers" for people like him!  He thanked us for that.  Stories about the lengths that he has gone in researching correct pronunciation in narrating certain audiobooks resulted in a recorded demonstration of the worst curse you can possibly say in Flemish.  He was very funny (you had to be there) ... a great way to end an intense day.

Imagine me ... getting so wordy here.  I better wrap this up and get to bed so I can be fresh for another long day of great sessions tomorrow!