Blackout Poetry and Knockout Doodles.

Don't be surprised if your tween and teen writers turn their newspaper blackout poetry into something like this along the way....

The thing is, it can add some flavor to their writing.

On the same note, I had 11 - that's ELEVEN - tweens and teens at writing club today! They all participated and truly came up with some stellar pieces. Feeling pretty pleased:)

Merry Colorado Christmas to all!

...but how can these neighbors of ours sleep?

I heard this could happen...

The ALA puts out a "Top Ten Banned Book" list every year to represent the most challenged books in school and public libraries across the U.S. Though I am against censorship, like any decent librarian, I can sympathize with parents or other library users on why they may be offended by a handful of books that make it to that list. Of course, I would never sympathize enough to take them off the shelf but I do see why people would want to have their kids avoid some of these titles, especially until they are the appropriate age to read them.

But a few of the titles that make it onto the Top Ten Banned Book list are truly baffling for me to understand where the offense lies. For example, did you know that the following books have been challenged in a public and/or school library collection?:

1. Bridge to Terrabithia
Okay - so this is certainly a boring and heavy handed book that few kids can even enjoy. But offensive content? Do you want to guess why it was banned? It's has been seen as "paganism" in reference to the imaginary world that Jess and Leslie create.

2. To Kill a Mockingbird, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, etc
Indeed these are the "racist" books. Too many "n-" words to be decent reading. Of course, these are for the most part canonized school reading fare but challenged nonetheless.

3. Captain Underpants
Stupid - even intellectually offensive but to be censored from a collection based on it's potty humor? Truly...

4. Lord of the Rings, A Wrinkle in Time, Harry Potter
Yep. These are in the "occult" challenge category.

I always found this fantasy/"occult" category to be among the most disconcerting and even baffling of challenges. Okay, so you are looking for an excuse not to have to read "Bridge to Terrabithia" - fair enough. Okay so you aren't keen on exposing yourself to the uncomfortable realities of racism. Okay so you think potty-humor is offensive in its own right - but to basically rule out the fantasy genre because of your backwards sense of imagination v. religion? This is hard to wrap my mind around. Surely this doesn't happen - and if it does, it is in a land far from me.

But this last week I feel as if I have been officially christened into professional public librarianship. While placing a hold on Fablehaven (a fantasy series by a BYU grad Mormon) for a customer, I made a passing remark how this was a fun series. She asked me what it was about. I began explaining it was sort of like Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe meets Harry Potter. Kids get thrown into an alternate universe while visiting their grandparents where they have adventures with magical creatures, etc. "Oh really? Maybe we shouldn't get that afterall. I don't want him reading that kind of stuff."

I then attempted probe her a bit, as a chance to turn this into a "reader's advisory" moment, assuming that she thought the book might be too much fluff or something. Perhaps I could find a happy medium for her agenda and her young son's taste...

"What kinds of things would you like him to read? Maybe we could find a good series that would have the escapism and fantasy in it that he would like but would suit more what you are interested in him reading."

Diplomatic enough right?

"Well, we just don't believe in that kind of stuff. We don't read Harry Potter and those types of books that have magic and satanic stuff in it like that."

?....Wasn't sure how to respond to that immediately. I couldn't help but pause briefly to ponder how we lept from magic to "satanic stuff" in reference to Harry Potter. When I came to, I tried to play up the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe  thing, thinking that no one can accuse CS Lewis of being satanic. In the end, she decided that she would read the book before deciding whether it was appropriate for her son.

Though I got the feeling that she left feeling satisfied with our interaction, I was a bit rattled. Could it be that here in Colorado there are library going folk that would find as much issue with their kid reading HP as they would in having them play a Ouiji board? I can't help but think living in a world where fantasy is not only taken seriously but challenged on religious grounds would prove to be an exhausting lifestyle after awhile. In spite of how unfortunate I find that thought to be, there is something really satisfying about having my own ALA moment where I witnessed the need for "intellectual freedom". I am thanking my lucky stars that the librarians who served me while I was growing up didn't let people like that filter out what I could read.

Traditionally Unconventional

It's funny how living in lots of new places during the holidays makes you less loyal to maintaining traditions. I know people who have an annual obligation for every day of the week leading up to and the week following a holiday. It becomes overly ritualistic and though I have a handful of promises I keep to myself for events from year to year, lately I have really embraced the freedom of knowing that I really don't "have" to do anything the same this year as I did last. When I think about it, I have spent the last three Thanksgivings in unconventional ways:

2009 - Austin, TX  - Matt and I went to Fredericksburg and stayed at a B&B, ate at Rather Sweet bakery twice, watched movies, rode a tandem bike around (how hipster of us - I know) and then hiked Enchanted Rock.

2010 - Edinburgh, UK - Ran on the Chariot's of Fire beach, explored St Andrews and ate fish and chips with Matt and my mum, as it were.

2011 - Denver, CO - Did a crazy holiday workout with the Jeffco Aquatic Master's swim team in the am, enjoyed a heaping bowl of Pho at one of the many Vietnamese places in town, made and ate Maple Pecan Pie and watched The Outsiders.

The one aspect of this phenomenon that is proving to be a bit painful is that each year I am pining for past experiences. Perhaps this is how traditions start. A tradition is the closest, the next best, thing to making sure you get to relive all that was great and memorable from the year before. When every year offers something different, that means there is something to miss. There's the rub. Still, I imagine that future eras of my life will offer the same-ness, the tradition moreso than my life does now. In the meantime, I am going to collect a heap of limited time only experiences that add to all that I have to be grateful for the next year. I believe that would be under the umbrella of "grateful for such a fulfilling and opportunity filled life".

Big Library News!

I don't want to sound like a pessimist or anything but when I heard about how we were applying to for the IMLS computer learning grant I didn't let myself get super attached to the thought of us getting it. Maybe it was because I got an email before my first day of work saying that I would be on the project planning team if we were to get it. Not to be overly self-deprecating or anything, but I am not used to be associated with stuff as objectively cool and exciting as this. Tell me, do you have to be a public youth services librarian to think this is awesome?!

Let me also say that the types of places that have received this $100,000 tech grant have been library systems like:

Chicago Public
San Fransisco Public
Nashville Public
Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation
Da Vinci Discovery Center (a big name in the modern library world)
etc

Do you see the trend? In other words, these are all places that are more readily recognizably on the map than Adams County or Thorton Colorado. But the thing is, out of the 98 applicants for this grant, we were one of the 12 chosen to do something exciting with this money. And we have big plans for it - and I get to be a part of it! Not only will this mean paid training opportunities with all kinds of cool Apple film and music software but there are even rumors that the project team will need opportunities to "research" the ways this grant is used in places like Washington DC and Chicago. Three cheers for lifelong learning!



Want to learn more? Check out this article Anythink put up announcing their big library news...

Onion inspired writing

Though many may think that a 4 person turnout isn't much to be excited about in a program, I was thrilled last Wednesday to have that many show up for Huron Street's first writing club. They were all in middle school so it was easy to target the exercises for about the same age group. We open up with a game of "Death By" which basically is an association/word vomit game to help get things verbalized. It begins with everyone writing a noun on a scrap of paper (or maybe several nouns on separate slips of paper) and putting it in a bowl. Then each kid is responsible for saying the first thing that pops into their head. If they hesitate or falter then we draw a paper out of the bowl and say that they experienced "death by....." It is perfect for the tween crowd and I kept it a secret until someone actually experienced "death by" what the slips of paper were for. Then someone was appointed to describe how this death happened and as we were eating cookies through the game it turned out that the funniest inspiration was "Death By Cookie Monster". That ended up be a recurring theme in everyone's writing that day. Great fun. Below is what I typed up as fast as I could of their associations in the game.

Let’s go ride some ponies. Okay I love some ponies. I love tacos. I want to play some tacos. Wow.Awesome. I heart doors. Flying tacos. Cool. Awesome. Unicorns. Let’s go eat a car. Let’s go to mcdonalds. I’m loving it. Halloween crunch. Candy food. Hungrayu. Braces hearts. You’re mean. Awesome cool. I’m loving it. Think outside barn. Hearts. I love me. Cookies. Heartache. Chocolate. Crunch. Trash can. Banana. Fun? Bag. Tree. Omg pickle carroyt. Banaa. Picking my nose. Ew yummy. Hairthings. Anybody have chocolate. Sorry. Capri sun. I hate it. I love it. Trains fire drill. Duh I hate that orad. Suitcase. Trees. Traintrack. Life. Popcorn. Chair. White board. I do complete sentences everyday. Alexis is a weirdo. \I love roads. I hit my head with a door. I hurt my finger. Ow my ankle. My tooth is missing. Who hates braces. I do. I love cups. I love chocolate. I love eating. Braces. 

My favorite bit: I love eating. Braces. Sums up what I remember about middle school in 2 sentences:)


After the warm-up, we moved onto writing fake newspaper headlines and accompanying stories. Though a lot their ideas involved talking toilets (probably the biggest hit of the day) and other like-minded prompts, I have to say that I was utterly impressed with their tireless sense of inspiration. At one point I even tried to touch on the notion of "writer's block" and most of them let me know that they simply never get it. They always know what to write about. Impressive - right?

I participated in the exercise to be a good sport and although my article didn't get nearly as many laughs as the talking toilet one, I was glad I did it. Here's what I had time to put down in the 10 minutes we had:

Scientist realizes that he is a nerd.

After years of working at the top of his field, noble prize winning scientist John Malgrem realizes that he has nerdy tendencies. Suspicions arose after his interest in the Lord of the Rings trilogy grew into an obsession. “It all happened so quickly. One minute I was a fan of the books and the next minute I started critiquing how well Peter Jackson movie adaption was.” Things quickly started adding up after that. His bad haircut, thick glasses, high rise pants, and his love of jokes that usually included the periodic table as the punch line. 

So yeah. It was a good kick off for our monthly Huron Street Writer's Club. It warmed my library heart when, on the way out, one of the wee writers let me know, "This was great! I can't wait until next time. I always want to read things that I am writing for other people but my teachers never give me the chance to do it..." Of course he didn't at all realize it but he just validated the role of my profession in his community, in his life:)

Not everything needs to be made from scratch...

Thus begins the month of gratefuls and I have an overflowing list. Just below the gratefuls of health, Matt, jobs, gospel comes great friends. After several years of being transplanted to new places with foreign faces, I grew accustomed to starting from scratch in making new friends. In the last while I have become "fit" for moving to new places, much in the same way one would get in shape to make a routine out of running up a sturdy hill and getting the adrenaline rush that comes with it when they reach the top. It isn't an utterly comfortable process but there is something thrilling and exciting about it. In this way, going to a new place and making new friends is a great adventure to be sure and not one to miss out on. But it takes a good push of effort and energy when trying out your sense of humor on a new personality and the like. And like exercise, it always takes so much more time than you want, expect or would hope.

All that said, I was prepped, ready, open-minded and determined to set out and find me some new friends when we moved out here to Colorado. I kept reminding myself that they come in unlikely places, often when you least expect and who you would not necessarily have thought would have been someone you would "get on" with so well. In Austin it was fellow swimmers in lanes next to me at the Amherst pool, in Edinburgh it was a spunky Polish housekeeper I worked with and an ex-Sailor Welshman (about 75 years old) who greeted me every time I made it through the rain to the Dalry Public Baths. So I anxiously looked around me in my first months here to see who I would make my new friend out of.

True to previous experience, it was in a most unexpected way that I found a great friend. What struck me as most surprising about it though was that it was a dear friend I already had! What luck! What surprise! For all you Anne of Green Gables fans out there, my "bosom" friend of yore, Claire, just lives an hour north of me in Fort Collins. And, like all best friends, though it had been an age since we had chance to reconnect, we picked up right where we left off. And though a visit can make for a bit of a pilgrimage, I have to say that it is an easy thing when meeting up and having a laugh is utterly effortless. And once again, I am amazed at the mysterious ways that good friends come about in new places - and there is something really lovely about when they don't always have to be built from scratch.

A perfect example of this, is when Claire gave me a tour of her Chemistry lab on campus and showed me around all her PhD projects, I immediately knew what there was to appreciate about the moment when in her torn and faded Princeton running clothes she reached in the fridge and pulled out a vial of orange crystals. With a shameless smile and great pride she shared with me: "Hey Cate! Check out these crystals I made this morning! Chemistry can be artistic you know." Such an utterly Claire-moment. And I had to agree - there was something artistic about the crystals and the event of her showing them to me as well.

So a tour of the CSU Chem lab, a wintery walk in Fort Collins and dinner with a bunch of nerdy Chemist friends of a great friend this last weekend is a perfect start to a grateful month.

The Bowler Derbies Take Silver!

In the team costume contest that is. Our bowling score bottomed out but we made up for it with team spirit.

I often refer to October as "the most wonderful time of the year" and it seems I work for an organization that has much the same sentiment. Apparently, costume bowling night is the biggest Anythink social event of the year. All kinds of people showed up to it too - including:

David Bowie

the Tooth Fairy (Rosie the Riveter too)

and The Dude (*gold star to anyone who can guess what she made her beard out of...)

Matt originally planned to go as Alex DeLarge from the Clockwork Orange (as he had white temple clothes and a bowler to work with) but he opted out when his eye makeup failed and went for this look:

Though we originally thought that he would be my "sugar daddy", we decided that he was way too under dressed to match my flashy look and perhaps even a decade too late. We decided he could be the middle class banker look of the 30s. An interesting costume in today's economic context I think but it just came together on its own when we found a cheap waistcoat at Unique Thrift Store and a black tie at TJ Maxx not more than half an hour before bowling time. Still, we were told more than once we made a dynamite couple's costume. It was fun hanging on his arm with one hand with my straw cigarette in the other. I felt absolutely smashing.

So indeed, it made for a most wonderful time this autumnal season. There are still many festivities to anticipate too! Glow-in-the-dark party with my tweens and teens on Thursday, ward Halloween costume and chili event on Saturday (they asked us all to dress up from the scriptures. Matt is planning on going as the iron rod and me the mist of darkness. perhaps more on that later), and library movie night on Halloween itself. Oh and we have been eating squash and pumpkin everything these last few weeks thanks to our friends garden. A very happy October to us all!

*Karo syrup and tea leaves...

And in other news, I have officially joined a master's swim team. I now swim in the wake of Amazon women and am learning all kinds of things that are wrong with several of my strokes. It is humbling and inspiring and I believe the best way to improve. Though I find myself constantly reminding myself what my cross country coach used to say "what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger". Hopefully I can remember that the day we swim 4K.

We've Reached the Star Trek Threshold People...

The week before Matt and I left for Scotland, we had only just finished the 1st season of Mad Men and had all kinds of Instant Queue shows waiting for us once we got back to a stateside IP address. When we first got back we had a bit of a smorgasbord of television series to catch up with. And with the new seasons of Parks and Recreation, Modern Family, and The Middle it seemed like there would be plenty to keep us busy. But it turns out that when you move to a place where you don't know anyone (read: don't have many friends) and have limited funding, well, you can burn through that kind of stuff pretty fast.

And so, we have reached a new avenue in our lives together (or should I say a new frontier?) and have climbed aboard the Star Trek wagon (or should I say space ship?). You know things are intense when you hear "Whoa, cool! They just added "Deep Space Nine" to Instant Queue. They took it off for awhile but then put it back on." I made fun of Matt until I realized it was my turn to come up with an idea for a show to watch before we went to bed tonight and I couldn't come up with anything. Matt offered "Hey, well. Star Trek is pretty good if you can get over the space thing."

So here we are tonight, watching Star Trek: the next generation. Disclaimers aside ("Yeah the special effects aren't good, so that is kinda distracting sometimes." Matt admits. "And their uniforms are kinda funny..." etc)

Other than that, we have reached the Star Trek threshold. And so far, I have to say, it is an okay place to be in life. Maybe we can add this to our list of things that make us more "adult" (afterall, we do own a Subaru and have 9-5 working schedules...) Either way, it has spurred a number of questions we are now seeking to answer like:

"What do the different colors of uniforms refer to?"

"Is Data sentient afterall?"

"What happened to Jordi Laforge's eyes anyway?"

"Do some of these characters have X-Men-like powers? What's the deal with the lady that can read minds?"

Full Immersion Language Learning

When I moved to Texas, I learned the art of using terms like "y'all" and "fixin' to" and "mess of..." etc.

When I moved to Scotland, I learned the art of British English. "Y'all" became "Yous" and "Pants" quickly became "Trousers" (the learning curve was much sharper on the later).

Though Colorado is not known for its rich culture and linguistic intrigues, Anythink makes up for it three fold. And being culturally committed to where I am planted, I am immersing myself in the "Anythink" way so that I can count myself not only a "team player" but also be part of "The Revolution of the Rangeview Library District".

And so these are things I am learning to say:

 - I am not an "employee" - I am an "Anythinker"

 - I don't serve "patrons" - I serve "customers"

- I am not a "Librarian" - I am a "Guide". This one was a wee bit tricky for me as I worked hard for two years in school to earn the official "librarian" title but a "Teen Guide" I am.

 - Nonfiction is not organized by Dewey or Subject, rather it is "Wordthink".

- I don't do "book talks" - I do "book pitches" or give the latest "book buzz"

- I don't wait for questions at the "reference desk". I hang out close to the "front perch" or "tech perch" or "children's perch" etc so that I available to answer questions when they arise.

It may all sound funny at first but I think I am finally starting to get the hang of it. One thing is for sure though. The easiest way to adapt to a new culture, no matter how foreign, is simply to embrace it. I am a full immersion learning when it comes to things like this (judging by my last 3 moves in the last 3 1/2 years). Though that may give you some kind of explanation if all of the sudden my terms for things get a wee bit "hip" or "Anythinky" for the likes of myself. I am not a poser. It is just that, at the moment, I am an Anythinker...