Since my first Flow Chart Display at the Clemens Mill branch of the Idea Exchange has been hanging on the wall for a couple months now, I thought it was about time to design a new one. Patrons stand in front of the wall, and answer a series of bright (and sometimes sassy!) questions about… Read More Interactive Readers’ Advisory: Try a New Type of Book Flow Chart
Ah, poetry. The beautiful, less popular older sister of prose. April is National Poetry Month, which means it’s time to give poetry all the attention it deserves. There’s something about the raw, condensed language of a poem that makes us feel connected on a whole different level. As American poet Paul Engle says, “Poetry is… Read More 10 Ways to Celebrate National Poetry Month
What I Read The thing about working in 2 library systems is…that there’s just so much more to read! I’ve read so many books this month – I’ll just have to give you bite-sized reviews of each of them. 1000 Feelings For Which There Are No Names by Mario Giodano: New to our non-fiction collection,… Read More What I Loved #6 – Belzhar, Zita the Spacegirl, Meditation, Uptown Waterloo, and Graduation
This month as I begin my career as a public librarian at two different libraries, I’m doing a few things. I’m moving to a new city and buying a car. I’m memorizing piles of important information about the different systems. I’m meeting dozens of new (amazing) coworkers. I’m trying to master the “neat” bun hairstyle.… Read More 3 Best Librarian Characters in Fiction
“How impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children,” says author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her powerful Ted Talk “The Danger of a Single Story.” Adichie grew up in Nigeria, reading mainly stories about white children who ate apples and played in the snow, and believing that literature, by… Read More How Should Libraries Respond to “The Danger of a Single Story?”
I’ll admit it: as a former student of both English and Psychology, and a perpetual sucker for personality typology…I’m a little bias. I can’t help but read YA novels from a psychological perspective. This isn’t to say that I’m actively seeking out a moral “lesson” to assign the book value. But I believe that the… Read More Psychology and YA Literature
Ontarian Librarian 