Things change

At the FLA conference, I attended Dr. Christine Koontz's workshop on the U.S. Public Library Geography Database where she mentioned FSU's GeoLib program. I approached her afterward to discuss the GeoLib program, and now I am off on another path. Although I received my acceptance letter from FAU's Geography department upon my return, I am now applying to the FSU College of Information doctoral program. If I get in, I'll be moving to Tallahassee in August to head off on a new academic adventure. It's exciting and scary all at once.

Florida Library Association

I am off to the FLA Annual Conference in Buena Vista this morning. I doubt I will access the Internet while I am there so I will try to keep notes and write about it when I get back. The conference has many interesting sounding workshops (there's a large variety this year), and I will get to meet with Stephen Abram from SirsiDynix while I am there so I should have something to write when I return.

In the meantime, I am certainly looking forward to 4 days off work. 32 days until my real vacation (in the Caribbean).

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Yesterday, Alex and I hosted our second Yu-Go-Oh tournament at the JFK Library. Last year, we held the tournament in the summer after we asked the YAs hanging out in the library what programs they would like and they all said a Yu-Gi-Oh card tournament. We learned a lot from our first tournament: make sure "Pre-Registration Required" is prominent on our flyer, separate kids by age so 10-year-olds don't have to play against 18-year-olds, kids may hate rules but they need them anyway, and pizza turns kids into savages. Last year, we allowed 16 kids to play in the tournament and we had many more than that register and end up on the waiting list. On game day, several of the registered participants did not show so we took kids from the waiting list. But 60 kids showed up that day, a lot more than we expected.

This year, we decided to hold the event during Spring Break. We allowed 32 kids to register and we held two tournaments concurrently, one for kids 12 and under and one for kids 13 and over. We had 15 kids on the waiting list, even after we had doubled the size of the tournament, which turned out to be a good thing. It rained yesterday, a phenomenon that usually means an empty library. However, about 40 kids showed for the tournament (not all of whom were registered) so almost everyone got to play. Sure, some of the registered participants didn't show so we got to everyone on the waiting list plus some of the kids who simply showed up.

Everyone had a great time, even me and Alex. After the first round, we held the second round on one side of the auditorium and let the other kids play for fun on the other side. This way, even the kids who were unable to participate in the tournament got to play Yu-Gi-Oh. We served sandwiches and chips with juice for lunch instead of pizza and soda like last year. The kids still liked what we served, but they weren't as crazy as they get when the pizza guy shows up. The comment cards we had the kids filled out showed that they 1. want us to continue to offer Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments, 2. want us to offer them more often, and 3. want a tag team tournament. 1 and 3 are very likely possibilities. Not sure about 2 though. Maybe Alex and I will think about it when the memory of yesterday fades.

My library

I guess before I write anything about what my library does, I should say which library it is. I work at the main branch of the Hialeah Public Libraries in Hialeah, Florida. HPL serves a population over 200,000 with the main John F. Kennedy Memorial Library and four e-Libraries (with a fifth to open this summer). I am currently supervising reference and children's services and library programming.

My main focus since starting at JFK a little under two years ago has been expanding our teen services along with my co-conspirator Alex. So far Alex and I have started a Teen Advisory Board, hosted Yu-Gi-Oh and video gaming tournaments, redecorated the YA area of our library, and started several art-based programs for YAs. Alex has also started an extremely popular Anime Club that meets monthly (weekly in the summer). What's really great about our library is the support we get from the administration; our Director is fully behind us in our efforts to increase programs for teens.

My upcoming goal is to focus on increasing services for adults, both seniors and all those adults who fall into the area between YA and senior.

Once upon a time, there was a college graduate who didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up. So she tried this and tried that until she got bored and decided to go back to school. But what could she study? Something that related to her undergrad history major, maybe, but what would that be? And then it came to her...library science, with a concentration in archives management. Fast forward two years......now there was an MLS-degreed person in a part-time paraprofessional library position in Boston looking for a full-time professional library position. Preferably something in archives. But what she found was a job as a librarian in a public library in South Florida. Not exactly what she had imagined when she enrolled in library school, but it was worth a shot. Fast forward another two years........I still work as a librarian in a public library in South Florida, and I'm happy. I never would have thought this job was what I wanted when I started library school, but this turned out to be a happy accident.

So this is my blog. I'm not sure what I'm going to write about but I guess libraries, librarianship, Florida, and whatever else comes to mind.