Learning Stuff IS TOO Cool: In Which I OFFICIALLY Show the Awesome #30awesome

Artwork by John LeMasney, lemasney.com

When I first heard about Show Me the Awesome, the online librarian 30 Days of Self-Promotion party, I thought, "Well, that's just what I need. I need to learn to promote myself, because I've been doing some cool things and nobody really knows about it. But on the other hand, what do I really have to TELL OTHERS in a blog post on the subject?" So I dithered about it, and finally filled out the application to participate in a rush. THERE. That would FORCE me to find a way to write a brag-blog.

But it was SO spontaneous that all I remembered was the dithering part. I forgot I'd actually made a decision.* And so the month began and I read the first few posts and I thought, "Gee, I'M utterly unimpressive." So just to sort it out, I wrote this blog post, which turned into a #30awesome post in its own right. I could do it after all!

And then I got the official "Is the following week good for you to post for #30awesome?" email, and only then realized I DID have an OFFICIAL post to write.

I'm afraid I got all my heartfelt awesomeness out in that other post, but I can elaborate. The one thing I'm MOST proud about? Making reading look exciting.

At some point somebody decided that reading isn't cool.

Well, sure, to some people it isn't. But not to ALL people. And it's not going to keep me from trying to CONVINCE the doubters that there's something for them in books.

A lot of my coworkers, though? Not so much. My original director discouraged us from using words like "learning" and even "reading" in our program fliers: "We don't want to give the impression that the library is a BORING place," she said. And Summer Reading Club. OH DEAR. We use the abbreviation "SRC" whenever possible, because OUR Summer Reading Club is about FUN! Really, we have an amazing summer program, unique experiences at a minimal price. But we may have the only "Summer Reading Club" in the world that doesn't actually incorporate independent reading. No reading goals or time charts or book clubs or reviews. Our old director didn't like time charts and reading records because she figured people would cheat-- IF we were going to reward reading in the summer, we'd have to tie it to Accelerated Reader tests (our public library is linked to the school district's AR system, so students can take tests outside of school). But I have strong feelings about that.

I'M a novel reader. But I know not everyone is. And it's shocking how many people still insist that "reading" means "reading novels," and if you don't do that then it doesn't count. My old director wanted to change perceptions about the library, that it was more than JUST books. I wanted to change perceptions about the books themselves. Books aren't there just for the bookworms and the school-report-writers. There's a book for everyone!

I KNEW we had so much cool stuff that wasn't being discovered. The nonfiction section, in particular, has its popular spots: wild animals and pets and drawing books and sports. It has a few sections people might visit for school assignments: usually state books. But what about the stuff no one ever thinks to look for? The history of espionage! How to build your own camera! Studies of paranormal activity! Autobiographies of non-famous people who did jaw-dropping things! Magic tricks! How to upcycle your own clothes and bake dessert! Dessert cookbooks alone take the nonfiction section out of the "dry facts for boring school reports" pit.

So I started to subvert things: subtly, one family at a time, through readers' advisory, proving every mom who muttered "he doesn't like to read" under her breath wrong. I'd set up book displays on themes, with fiction, nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels... anything we had to highlight the subject. Then I made subject posters-- not a basic Dewey "300s: Social Sciences" and "600s: Applied Technology" sort of thing, but "001.944: Monsters" and "743: Drawing Books." Suddenly we'd hear exclamations from the nonfiction section: "There are books about MONSTERS here?!"

Finally I got asked to set up a program for elementary students, and I created Library Explorers: each week we'd explore a completely new topic through hands-on activities and, yes, related books. At the end of each session, the books I'd pulled would get scooped up and checked out. The activities were booktalks in themselves. "How do you KNOW all this, Miss Amy?" a mother asked me after several months. "How do you keep coming up with all these ideas?"

"I don't know it all," I said. "Usually I just think of a topic that might be interesting. Then I go to the shelves to see what we have on it, and the ideas start flowing from there. You don't need to know everything, you just need to know where to find it!"

I hope my enthusiasm is catching. Maybe it doesn't ALWAYS work ("Word Games Week" bombed with my group), but the successes might be enough to carry it.

Want to catch up on ALL the official Show Me the Awesome posts?: Liz B. is rounding them all up: here's this week's, with links to all the past weeks, which means basically all of them. Unless there were other people who wrote Unofficial posts out there, too.

*It's a good bet that, if I'm not sure I made a decision, I probably didn't. But then again, I think I've been growing lately.