Nothing to do with libraries...

...just pure awesomeness.

Librarians make me giggle.

While I found this rather enjoyable, I'm glad I graduated from Rutgers without impersonating Lady Gaga whilst lauding the benefits of proper searching.

Link via Boing Boing (found on facebook via Jess T).

Twittle Dee

A while back Gina from WebYA inquired about a Twitter flyer after viewing the Facebook flyer I made for Teen Tech Week 2010. It took me some time, but I believe I finally got it. Behold:

Background: SG_Refresh paper

T icon: Jankoatwarpspeed.com

Bird: unknown origin :(

Header font: Action of the Time A L

Secondary font: Helvetica

Since beginning my new job I've dropped off the blogospheric planet much to my dismay. Sadly I don't think that is going to change anytime soon, as I tend to take a while to adjust to new situations. I wanted to kick off my hiatus on a high note (e.g., the Twitter flyer) and demonstrate a taste of what you will find when I return. I plan on creating a lot of new graphics and tutorials to join the funky craft sites I discover. Take care until then!

Libraries = Opportunities

Hey guys! Long time no post. I wish I could tell you that I was off preparing for the rally tomorrow in Trenton to support New Jersey libraries, but alas I haven't been. I'm only doing lame things like getting acclimated at my new job and the like. While I am not awesome enough to be one of the proactive librarians fighting for funding, I did wake up really early one morning to get onto the Today show with fellow bad-ass librarian, Jessica, for 2.2 seconds to advocate for libraries (New Jersey in particular):

For more information on the May 6th rally to protest the grotesque 74% budget cuts proposed by NJ Governor Christie get educated about the situation and visit the facebook page! Good luck tomorrow everyone!

STAC it up: Teen Advisory Councils

I have touched on my experiences with my former library's TAG group on this blog before but I never realized how much work my predecessor had to put in to create the group in the first place. Upon starting at Suffern, I've found this massive library that has all kinds of programs and groups does not have an advisory council of any sort in place. Well OBVIOUSLY I need to correct that, and thus the Suffern Teen Advisory Council was born (STAC for short).

Recently WebYA posted a fabulous list for someone looking to start a teen advisory group (and by recent, I mean it was March 2010 so recent enough). I've done a lot of research on these groups in the past year (Tuccillo's book Library Teen Advisory Groups, YALSA's TAG resources* and then there's always the TAGAD-L listserv) and I have to say I really like this list a lot! It's succinct and yet every detail is important for someone starting a TAG. It even has ideas that I didn't come across in any of those numerous resources. Check it out if you are starting a TAG or even if you've just celebrated the 4th anniversary of your library's group.

*Which could use work, to be honest with you. Some links are dead and many of the "Still in development" sections were in development when I looked at them last summer

Booktalks

What book do you find yourself booktalking over and over again? Why that particular book? For me it's The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I just booktalked it for the third time this week and I only got in to work 15 minutes ago.

I'm looking to build up the short list of my go-to books as they're all getting checked out slowly but surely. What will I do when they're all off the shelf? Rely on you, that's what! Leave a message in the comments about which books you think should be included because only one book on the list below is checked in.

The List (thus far, as I remember it):

• The Hunger Games -- Suzanne Collins (duh)
• Marcello in the Real World -- Francisco X. Stork
• Alice, I Think -- Susan Juby
• The Mortal Instruments series -- Cassandra Clare
• All Alone in the Universe -- Lynne Rae Perkins
• Ordinary Ghosts -- Eireann Corrigan
• Hold Still -- Nina LaCour

The list also includes books that sell themselves due to popularity amongst teens or their connection to a movie (such as Inkheart).

Teen Tech Week: Facebook fanpage flyer

Teen Tech Week just so happened to land on my first full week at my new job. I'm torn between wanting to do something for TTW and trying to figure out how to place holds on books with a new system. Something that I've been able to do with spare moments at the refdesk with no problem was to create a facebook fanpage for my new library.

So in honor of Teen Tech Week I have a large format jpeg of the promotional flyer I made up for the fanpage (sans library name, of course!):