Texas Library Association Conference 2012 - Thursday

8:00 AM: Surviving the Public: With the Help of Unshelved. The guys of Unshelved did not fail in making the early morning session an entertaining one. With the utmost in sarcasm, Bill and Gene gave us ways to "make our own entertainment" while we are the front lines of customer service.

10:00 AM: Stories Alive! Using Creative Dramatics in Storytime.We were taught how to be more dramatic when telling stories by two veteran storytellers. This class was a Get-Up-and-Move type, and it was nice to have the opportunity to chat with other librarians. We also witnessed one of the funniest and out-of-control story with audience participation ever. Whoever said librarians are quiet has never sat in a room full of children's librarians! My coworker was in a session next door, and he said we were so loud, they couldn't hear the presenter over us. Now THAT'S the sign of a good session!

Quick shout out to Rachel from the Euless Public Library. She was my partner-in-crime during the session and my first in-person blog fan. Hi Rachel!

12:00 PM: Bluebonnet Award Luncheon. One of my superiors scored me an extra ticket to the Bluebonnet Award Luncheon. The Texas Bluebonnet List is an annual list of books for 3rd through 6th grade. Children are encouraged to "Read five, then decide," meaning they read five of the titles on the list and pick which one they think should win.

This year's winner was The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda by Tom Angleburger. Children from around the state were invited to the luncheon to introduce Tom. I couldn't believe how professional the children were. They all acted like public speaking naturals. One boy even gave out Cheetos to all of the people at the head table!

Angleburger discussed why he wrote the book. He admitted that two characters, Dwight and Harvey, have something in common with him: All three have Asperger's. Tom wanted to write a story that would have been useful to him back when he was in middle school. 

Tom revealed that the librarian plays the part of a hero in the next book, The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee, and also shared with us his new idea for a bumper sticker: Aspergers is not a syndrome it's a super power, but school is kryptonite & the library is the bat cave.

At the end, Tom told us to grab a piece of the green paper that was on every table. He demonstrated, along with a volunteer, how to make our own "Emergency Origami Yodas".

Side Note: It's no secret that librarians are predominately female. At gatherings, it's not
uncommon to see long lines at the ladies room, while the men have no wait at all. Thankfully, some quick-minded women remedied that situation real quick!