It Should Already Be In Your Pocket (Reprised)

Time to reprise a blog posting from a year ago.

The American Library Association (ALA) calendar tells moi that September is Library Card Sign-up Month.  I know that my alert, intelligent readers already have their library cards safely pocketed for quick use, but if you're not among those who are card-carrying library patrons, then you should make haste to your favorite library and get one, pronto!

ALA likes to use promotional videos for these sorts of events, so we should fit in nicely.  Here are our promo trailers, music videos, and other such like encouraging patrons to sign-up for their library cards.  Long-time readers will have already seen these videos, so please bear with moi, for those who haven't yet had the viewing pleasure.

Library cards are your passports to the world of learning adventure.  What better value could you get for free?

I Always Carry Mine, But I Won't Say Where,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

ALA Library Promo News Beat

P.S.  Signing-up for something is often a good idea.  Sometimes, it doesn't quite work out as one might expect, as in the case of signing a music performing or recording contract for Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan, who co-wrote "Sign on the Dotted Line," which was released on Rafferty's album Can I Have My Money Back? (1971).

A New Breed of Librarian

Modern librarians must wield many simultaneous skills to deliver informational resources to those in need.  Increasingly, this requires sophisticated acumen in Internet research, website management, online social media, ebooks (or other emedia), database maintenance, digitization, and metadata coding.  Such librarians could be called webrarians, given their frequent use of web-based technologies.

My Library now has one of these librarian types.  Can you guess who it is? Allow moi to give a hint.

That Trademark Scowl

Five years ago (almost to the day), Scowl-Face was hired at MPL as the Indiana Room Librarian.  A couple of years later, he also became the Adult Reference Coordinator.  Then, sometime last year, his first title morphed into Indiana Room Historian.  Then the second title (but not the workload) sort of disappeared.  A month ago, he became the new Website & Online Media Manager.  Now he wants to call himself a Webrarian. Suits moi.  I was never much for titles anyway.  One of my minions by any other name, I'd venture.

Ol' Scowlly still oversees the Indiana Room collections, pokes around in collection development, handles our digital camera work (videography and photography), stumbles over reference questions, and does odd bits at circulation.  Plus he is one of my many minions.  That last job duty is most important, surely.

Actually, Scowl-Face would never had undertaken any of this web-based stuff if it hadn't been for Broadway Gal's initiatives begun in late 2009 and early 2010.  She was the driving force launching our presence on YouTube, Blogger, Twitter, Flickr, and other online social media nearly three years ago.  Scowl-Face did a lot of the grunt work, but that's only to be expected.  He grunts an awful lot anyway, no matter what work he's doing.

Broadway Gal also led the charge at our Library into live-action videography.  Everybody knows about her music parody video, Librarians Do Taio Cruz (2010).  Never seen it?  What planet have you been on?

So perhaps Broadway Gal should have been called a webrarian first. Well, she already has a much more important title:  Head of MPL Youth Services.  That's like the number two job (behind Boss Lady) around here. It's like being associate director of the library without more pay.

So ol' Scowlly gets the webrarian moniker.  No new business cards, however.  That costs money, and, frankly, nobody cares what we call him.



Whatever You're Called, Get To Work, Scowl-Face,

Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Library Staff New

P.S.  Cybrarian is another term used to describe web- or technology-oriented librarians.  Marilyn Johnson wrote a book about them (in part), as our book trailer above elaborates.

P.P.S.  Title Update:  Scowl-Face's official title (as of the end of January, 2013) is information director for adult services.  He's not allowed to use the term librarian in his title because he lacks a Master of Library Science (M.L.S.) degree.  (He has a doctorate, though.)  The title police are really strict in this state!

MEG-A-RAE, the TARDIS, and Grimm Talk

Episode three of MEG-A-RAE, the Library's new vlog or vblog (video blog) series, features a round-table discussion about the BBC television program, Doctor Who, plus Rae and Meg discuss some time travel reading suggestions.

Episode four gets Grimm when Meg and Rae talk about fairy tales and folklore stories.

Lots of great reading suggestions, plus Doctor Who.  That's a full plate, I'd venture.


Nice Special Effects,

Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Library Vlog News Beat

P.S.  I know that there was a new Doctor Who theme song recorded in 2010 for the modern series (now beginning its seventh season), but you probably haven't heard the theme music from the original (or "classic") series, which ran from 1963 through 1989.  Here's the TV theme used during 1963-1969.

Meet the "New Wild Thang"

Meet Michelle Peltier, my Library's new early literacy associate for the MPL youth services department.

Miss Michelle comes to MPL from Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library, where she served as a librarian assistant.  Prior to that, she was banquet room manager at Chateau Thomas Winery.  She is a graduate of Indiana State University and Plainfield (Indiana) High School, and she resides in Monrovia, so she is nearly a “Mooresvillian.” (Plainfield is about seven miles north, and Monrovia about five miles west, of Mooresville.)

Miss Michelle will be undertaking all early literacy programs and initiatives at the Library.  Coming from Plainfield library, she is already well-versed in Evergreen Indiana, our online open-source integrated library system (or catalog, in the traditional librarian parlance).

Welcome, Miss Michelle!  Our staff and patrons look forward to working with you in our youth services programming.

Of course, Michelle's "Cauli name" can't be "Wild Thang" or even "new Wild Thang" (because Miss Jaymi is the one-and-only Wild Thang).  So we'll have to wait to see what "Cauli name" best fits Miss Michelle.  One good thing about my nicknames:  They can make you famous.  Or infamous.  Right, Scowl-Face?

Welcome, Miss Michelle!  Now Get Moi Some Din-Dins,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Library Staff News Beat

P.S.  Speaking of names, "I Got a Name" (1973) was a big single hit by Jim Croce and was the theme song to the movie The Last American Hero (1973).  It was one of the few songs that Croce recorded that he did not himself compose.

Sammy's 2012 CYPD Conference Interviews

Sammy the Toucan has made some great video interviews (or viderviews, if that were a real word) at the 2012 CYPD (Children & Young Persons Division) annual conference.  CYPD is a division of the Indiana Library Federation (ILF).

You may watch them on Broadway Gal's YouTube Channel.

Enjoy!

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Library Youth Services News Beat