I meant to write this last month, but I was kind of busy writing my novel....

If you are looking for more ways to reach teens in your library, look into National Novel Writing Month. A lot of teens participate in NaNoWriMo either through the Young Writers Program where they get to choose their word count goal or through the regular NaNoWriMo, where they aim to write 50,000 words just like the rest of us.

How cool is it that the Young Writers Program has a virtual library with a very real librarian?

It makes sense that teens would participate in large numbers since many of them have more flexible schedules than many adults. But teens also have unique challenges -- many of which the library can help them address.

Lack of transportation. It's hard for teens to make it to write-ins. Even teens who drive might be discouraged from driving to areas they are unfamiliar with. (Parent: You're going to drive all the way across town to meet a bunch of strangers?!) The library can help by providing a location for write-ins, either teen-specific or for all ages. Your local population of teen writers have probably already figured out ways to get themselves to the library.

Lack of money. NaNoWriMo is free, but they do ask for donations. Every one who gives gets a halo over their avatar on the forums. Teens feel guilty and left out if they can't figure out a way to donate. Perhaps the library could set up a sponsorship program: "Sponsor one of our teens while they write a novel in a month! It only costs $10 to buy a kid a halo!" All you need to donate for someone else is their NaNo username and a credit card. I made a teen in Texas pretty happy last week. And, the Office of Letters and Light, the organization behind NaNoWriMo is a real honest-to-goodness nonprofit. When you donate, even for someone else, you get a nice response suitable for showing your accountant.

Also, of course, writers read. They read in their genres and they read books about writing and they read for research. NaNoWriMo is an excellent time to promote the library's collection of books to teens -- all free!

Parents who don't get it. A lot of adults, including me, think it's very cool that a teen would choose to spend their November writing a novel. But then, a lot of adults think the whole idea is crazy for any one, especially their teenage son or daughter, to spend so much time producing quantity instead of quality. There is also a big can of worms regarding the safety and security of young people involved in meeting strangers on-line and in-person through NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo helps out a bit with A letter to parents. Any thing that the library does to promote NaNoWriMo or to support their teen patrons engaging in NaNoWriMo will help comfort parents that their teens haven't gone completely over the edge and that NaNoWriMo is legitimate, if a bit strange.

The best thing that could happen for teen writers, although they may not realize it at first, is for one or more family members to do NaNoWriMo right along with them. "NaNo with your teen" could be part of the message that the library promotes to parents.

Lack of privacy. I don't have to worry about anyone reading my mess of a manuscript. Part of the point of the quantity over quality approach is to go at this with abandon, constantly reminding oneself that no one else is ever going to read this. I don't want anyone to mistake this for my best work. Teens worry about parents mistaking their fiction for their real life and judging them because of what their characters do. If the library helps to legitimize the process (see the above about parents not getting it), then perhaps parents won't feel a real need to read their teens' output. Also, it might help to have a display for teens and their parents about the writing process with a prominent section and quotes from writers about how it's good to write first drafts that no one else reads.     #    (0) comments

2008-11-30

I'm a novelist!

If a novelist is defined as some one who writes novels, you are looking at one! My NaNoWriMo novel is 50,346 words long and the last two words are "The" and "End." The manuscript is a total mess, but we're not looking at that now, we're looking at my shiny winner's badge.

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2008-11-28

NaNoWriMo and Research, Part 2

Remember when I said that there is no time for research in November? If you are trying to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, taking the NaNoWriMo challenge, you really can't stop for research. However, that didn't keep me from one of my favorite procrastination activities: using the on-line request button of my libary's catalog to select stacks of books on my current research interest -- for the novel, the research interests are Cahokia Mounds and the New Madrid earthquake.





I picked up the black bag of books almost two weeks ago and filled the Mary Engelbreit bag a couple of days ago. Neither of the bags have been opened since I left the library. Opening the bags and looking through the books will be one of my rewards for getting to 50,000 words. My current word count is 47,018.     #    (2) comments

2008-11-24

NaNoWriMo Write-ins

My National Novel Writing Month project has a word count of 40,110, which puts me right on track to get to 50,000 words on November 30. This is only about the third day all month that I've been on track, but now that we're near the end, I'm pretty confident that I can complete it.

One of the reasons for my confidence is that I still have two more write-ins left. A big part of the fun of NaNoWriMo is that it takes what would normally be a lonely activity and makes it a social one. I have surprised myself by making more use of the in-person social opportunities than I have the NaNoWriMo forums. The forums are a bit overwhelming, especially when I'm already performing the overwhelming task of writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. But the write-ins have been a guaranteed way for me to get a lot of words written and to commiserate with people who have similar problems to mine (I keep running out of plot!).

From the first time I heard of NaNoWriMo, I have thought that libraries would be a good place for write-ins. Nearly all of the St. Louis area write-ins happen at restaurants. The only exceptions that I have noted are one person's apartment and a church basement. The restaurants have some advantages--easily available food and drinks, table space, reasonably comfortable chairs. But there's also a built-in disadvantage. We all feel obligated to buy a little something since were taking up so much space for so long. Libraries could provide the tables and chairs while allowing but not obligating the presence of food and drinks.

The most effective way for a library to become involved in the local write-in scene is to have one or more staff members participate in NaNoWriMo. Then, they could set up write-ins at the library the way the rest of us would set one up at a local coffee shop.

Barring employee participation, a library would want to contact the Municipal Liason. Volunteers in each region take the responsibility to be the ML -- a liason between regional participants and the NaNoWriMo organization. The MLs answer questions, provide encouragement, and set up at least one weekly write-in. The ML Contact Form has a drop-down box with all the regions that have Municipal Liasons. Early in December might be a good time to contact the ML of your region. Right now, they are madly trying to complete their own NaNoWriMo project while encouraging everyone else in their region to do the same. By early December, they might be willing to have a conversation with a library staff member about how the library could help with next year's NaNoWriMo.     #    (0) comments

2008-11-17

Dewey, the Library Cat

I'm enjoying Vicki Myron, librarian and author of Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, on today's Diane Rehm Show. Play-back of the entire show is available on the website. Meryl Streep will be playing Vicki Myron in the movie!     #    (0) comments

2008-10-30

The Outgoings of a CIT SIG Chair

I've nearly completed my responsibilities as the 2008 Computer and Information Technology SIG Chair of the Missouri Library Association. Still left on the to do list:

• Submit the Annual Report (I just sent a draft to the other officers).
• Attend the Conference Debriefing Meeting.
• Respond to the message I'll get asking for materials for the Archives. I expect to see this in January and it will require producing print materials since that's how the MLA Archives is set up at this point. Probably all that I will submit will be the minutes from our meeting since pretty much everything else we produce ends up in some other publication that is archived.

This seems like a good time to compile all of my CIT SIG posts together, creating a kind of instant hand book for future SIG Chairs. So, here we go.

2008-02-01, New year organization for a SIG chair

2008-02-02, 2008 Calendar for MLA CIT SIG (I printed this and kept moving it along in my Tickler file to help me keep track of what needed to be done)

2008-03-13, Call for proposals

2008-04-15, A passel of programs (with advice about how to get lots of proposals)

2008-09-18, Session hosts and evaluation forms

2008-10-09, MLA debriefed

2008-10-19, Many hands make light work (where I suggest that if we sponsor more than 4 or 5 programs that the officers split up the work of summarizing the session evaluation forms)

2008-10-30, MLA 2008 CIT SIG programs

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MLA 2008 CIT SIG programs

In preparation for the Conference Debriefing meeting on November 7, I compiled a list of all 16 programs that the Computer and Information Technology SIG sponsored or co-sponsored at the 2008 Missouri Library Association Conference. The times are as they appeared in the Conference Program (I know at least one was changed to a different timeslot during the conference). I thought this list might be useful to more people than just me, so on the blog it goes.

I put in the attendance numbers that I know of (if anyone attended the sessions without attendance numbers and has a rough estimate, let me know). I'm not sure how much weight to give attendance. I was at the session with the smallest attendance. It probably captured everyone at the conference who deals with the nuts and bolts and keys of computers and was likely very valuable to those 10 people. If nothing else, they had the opportunity to meet the other 9 people at the conference who work with the guts of computers. We were in a small room and didn't take up much space, so I think it was probably an important service of the CIT SIG to offer that program.

Wednesday, October 1

• 8:15 – 11:45 Get Your Game On! (preconference) -- Beth Gallaway (cosponsored by YASIG and YSD). Attendance = 14
• 2:45 – 3:30 Collaborating in the Cloud -- Robin Hastings. Attendance = 60
• 3:45 – 4:30 Beyond Library Learning 2.0 – Library Learning 2.1 – Bobbi Newman. Attendance = 50
• 3:45 – 4:30 Securing Public Access Computers – Sheila Dennehy. Attendance = 10
  

Thursday, October 2

• 7:30 – 8:15 Home is Where One Starts: Designing a New Web Home for Saint Louis University Libraries – Mikael Kriz. Attendance = 13.
• 8:15 – 9:00 Three Low-Cost Usability Evaluation Methods for Library Website Redesign – Kim M. Thompson, Hsin-Liang Chen, and Sanda Erdelez. Attendance=20.
• 8:15 – 9:00 Wireless Service for the Public: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – Randy Raw (MOREnet)
• 9:15 – 10:00 Missouri Digital Heritage: A New Portal to Missouri’s History – Carl Wingo. Attendance = 30
• 11:15 – 12:00 Meeting without Meeting – Tom Peters. Attendance = 40.
• 11:15 – 12:00 Research 2.0: How Zotero Can Save Your Day or at Least Your Research – Joshua Lambert (cosponsored with MACRL)
• 1:45 – 2:30 Digital Television is Coming! – Jack Galmiche (President of KETC Channel 9). Attendance = 14

Friday, October 3

• 9:15 – 10:00 Information Literacy: Using Technology to Reach and Teach Students – Erin Lanham and Theresa Flett (cosponsored with MACRL). Attendance = 50
• 9:15 – 10:00 The Virtual Book Scene – Joy Weese Moll (cosponsored with RISSIG). Attendance = 60
• 10:15 – 11:00 Introduction to Learning Objects: Use in the Classroom and Consequences for the Library – Marcus Richter (cosponsored with RISSIG and MACRL)
• 1:30 – 2:15 Free and Open Source Software – Steven Pryor. Attendance = 20
• 1:30 – 2:15 Reaching Your Patrons in the Brave New World of the Social Web – Bobbi Newman. Attendance = 20

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