Programming Librarian

From the Library

Author Events Made Easy
Ah, author events at the library. Is there anything more fun? Author events can also be perplexing, frustrating, and sometimes hair-raising, but mostly when I think of author events I’m primed for a good time—both for myself and my patrons.

Bringing Writers to Readers: A Partnership That Works
The future of bookselling often seems cloudy in this rapidly changing digital world, but the future of reading is clear. As publishers struggle to determine the best way to produce and market books in this new digital era, non-profit organizations whose mission is to encourage reading must continue to find ways to connect writers and readers. As resources shrink, creativity and partnerships become even more vital.

Navigating the World of Publishers for Author Programs
Ah, author events at the library. Is there anything more fun? Author events can also be perplexing, frustrating, and sometimes hair-raising, but mostly when I think of author events I’m primed for a good time—both for myself and my patrons.

Systemwide Training for Programming Librarians: Palm Beach County Library’s Approach
If only there was a class in library school on how to select, plan, coordinate, and publicize a library program! Some schools may teach storytelling techniques to future children’s librarians, but not how to organize and prepare for the storytime. Still others may touch on library programming in classes dealing with services to seniors or special populations. Yet, these courses don’t teach the nuts and bolts of providing programs to their patrons, whether for adults or kids.

From the Blog

A Week of Great Stories: Hate List Author Jennifer Brown
Last August, I learned that Hate List had been chosen for ALA’s Great Stories CLUB theme Second Chances. I was so thrilled about this, partly because the theme so perfectly fit what I believed the book to be about—healing and letting go of the past and moving forward into a bright future—but also because this program was going to be geared toward troubled teens.

A Week of Great Stories: The Brothers Torres Author Coert Voorhees, Part I
Earlier this month I had my first visit to a juvenile detention center. As part of the American Library Association’s Great Stories CLUB, my novel The Brothers Torres was selected (along with Jennifer Brown’s debut Hate List and Dope Sick by the incomparable Walter Dean Meyers) for inclusion in this year’s theme “Second Chances.”

A Week of Great Stories: The Brothers Torres Author Coert Voorhees, Part II
A week after my ALA Great Stories CLUB visit to Green Oaks Juvenile Detention Center in Monroe, Louisiana, I met with the boys at the Gardner Betts Juvenile Justice Center in Austin, Texas. Librarians Heather Schubert and Kathleen Sullivan—and countless others, I’m sure—have put together a remarkable youth library.

A Week of Great Stories: Tyrell Author Coe Booth
A week after my ALA Great Stories CLUB visit to Green Oaks Juvenile Detention Center in Monroe, Louisiana, I met with the boys at the Gardner Betts Juvenile Justice Center in Austin, Texas. Librarians Heather Schubert and Kathleen Sullivan—and countless others, I’m sure—have put together a remarkable youth library.

A Week of Great Stories: Library Media Specialist Francie Clinton
I have spent some time pondering the programming for our library at the Southwest Oklahoma Juvenile Center in Manitou, or should I say the lack of programming. When you are the library media specialist at a secure juvenile center, programming is not an easy task.

Author Paul Volponi Talks to Great Stories CLUB Teens
When author Paul Volponi learned that his book Black and White (Penguin, 2005) was included in the ALA Great Stories CLUB (GSC) grant program, he headed online right away to see how he could get involved. After finding the list of participating libraries, he contacted a few personally, offering to conduct conference calls with teens.

Authors @ your library
The past week saw another great thread in the Public Programs Office’s Public Programs Forum electronic discussion list, this time started by Marie Slaby, Urbana Regional Library, Frederick, Maryland. She wrote, “I’m looking for recommendations of famous living authors you’ve seen or hosted in your communities and would appeal to a broad audience. If money were no object, whom would you choose? Who not only gets them in the door, but also wows them once inside?”

Happy Holidays!
We’re in the midst of the holiday season, and I thought I’d pass along The Guardian’s gift of short stories read by leading authors. Many of my favorite authors are included here, both as writer and reader.

Host Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
A new documentary film and biography, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women, will help audiences explore Louisa May Alcott’s extraordinary life and times.

LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage at Annual
If you’re attending Annual Conference, be sure to check out some of the poets and authors reading on the LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage, located at the end of the 2600 aisle in the exhibits hall. Every year, the Public Programs Office presents readings on the LIVE! Stage in keeping with their mission of promoting cultural programming as an integral part of library service.

Not Your Typical Talk at Hennepin County Library
In December 2011, Hennepin County (Minn.) Library (HCL) offered two unique programs: the “Talk & Taste” series and “An Interview with Scott Sigler, Paperless Author.”

Shopping for Authors
Booking authors for programs is trickier than ordering their books because you’re looking for a good reader, besides a good read. You may occasionally decide to book a less than great speaker that thrills your audience with their very presence, but you at least want to know what you’re getting into if at all possible.

Twenty-six Acclaimed Poets and Authors LIVE!
The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office will present twenty-six critically acclaimed and best-selling authors and poets on the LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage in the exhibits hall at the upcoming ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Two of a Kind
This is one of those too-good-to-be-true things. If you think it would be impossible to book one of you favorite authors for a reading at your library, what would you think if it became possible to get not only one, but two?

Visiting the NYC Great Stories CLUB
On June 8, 2009, the ALA’s Great Stories CLUB sent me to Crossroads juvenile detention center in East New York, Brooklyn. The ALA’s Lainie Castle put out a call to Penguin, my publisher, looking for the wonderful YA author Paul Volponi, to whom I am sometimes compared—a great compliment to me but maybe not so great for Mr. Volponi. Alas, Penguin’s author appearance coordinator, Emily Heddleson, said, “We don’t have Paul Volponi, but I can get you Paul Griffin. He will be more than happy to go.” And I was.