Google buns

I was just reading from The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton -- well, some hours ago, obviously, as it was Beatrice's bedtime story. I kept thinking about the Google Buns and thought it would be fun to try to make some. The food in this story, about four children who climb up the aforementioned tree where different lands float by -- you get to them by climbing an ladder that rises up through a hole in a cloud and presto! you're in the Land of Sweets, or the Land of Topsy Turvy or the Land of Dreams.

If you want to be regaled with Blyton's description of Google buns, check this out:
http://inkscrawl.blogspot.com/2006/05/google-buns-ink-scrawl-nugget-12.html

And yes, it did make me hungry to read about Google buns, so I had to eat a handful of chocolate chipped, nicked from the freezer while I read my Collection Development textbook. The kids thought it was cool and unusual that I had homework like them when I first went back to school (yes, library school at UWO!) but now they have come to dislike it. I was monopolizing the Oxford English Reference dictionary today -- just when Beatrice needed it. Nasty mother. But she did smile when I returned it promptly. No quips today about late fines.

ideas

i used to jot down ideas i have on pieces of paper. I still do that but hey now there's my laptop sitting right in front of me. Why don't' I use that more? Because i usually have "ideas" -- maybe even Ideas with a cap, in the early hours of the morning. I lie in bed thinking about all the things I could be doing if I just hopped up and got to work. this comes from living with someone who does get out of bed at 4:30 or 5:30 a.m. and work.

instead I think. And sometimes an idea pops into my head and I have to write it down. It ends up on scraps of paper which I often tape to my wall above my des. Or I scrawl them into the white space on a page of any journal or magazine I am reading. I had to carry issue 39 (spring 2004) of sub-terrain mag (www.subterrain.ca) cause I wrote a research idea in the blank spot beside a poem entitled "the difference between a martyr and a suicide" by maurice mierau. (published by brick books...his collection's called Ending with Music).

but i have progressed into 2007.

I just typed up that idea on the computer. and then printed it off.

and taped it to the wall.

IDEA ON THE WALL THIS WEEK: Dialogic Story Delivery in a Public Library Setting: is there a place for dialogic story delivery in the public library story hour? How do children's librarians or program leaders perceive their role in story delivery? Does a child's experience of storytime change if the program leader uses the dialogic style of delivery? If so, how? Does story delivery take longer? Is sense-making encouraged in a library storytime setting? If so, how?

What's on your wall?

birthday daughter & another year older another year wiser

My daughter Beatrice will turn 12 tomorrow. Twelve. Douze. Tolv. 12. She was born in Montreal, of course in 1995, at the Maison de naissances in Cote-des-neiges neighbourhood. When my water broke and I realized the achey twinges were the beginnings of labour, all while on my hands and knees picking up duplo in my 22 month old son and 4 1/2 year old daughter's room, I went to tell my husband.

I found him in the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirrow, with a thermometer stuck in his mouth. He had a fever. However, babies wait for noone, nothing. Not fevers or traffic. I called my mother and she hopped in the car in Ottawa and raced to Montreal. She arrived as we stepped out the door. But Beatrice wasn't ready to be born on January 16. Labour slowed down, and while I sweated and peeled off layers, Brian put them on, as his fever made him feel chilly. He fell asleep, the midwife fell asleep and I stared the the Banque de nouvelle ecosse sign glowing red onto the snowbanks of Cote-des-neiges.

Beatrice was finally born about 10 a.m. on January 17th. She shares her birthday with her paternal grandmother, Jacquie, born in 1938.

I shared my birthday with my maternal grandmother's father, Bill Wilson, until his death of course. At age 91 and nearly 92 -- in 1981 or so (I could look this up in my files (non-computer ones... but the records are nowhere handy...I'm going to be a librarian not an archivist).

Do you share the same birthday as a family member? What are the chances?

Meanwhile, the table is set with balloons and tiny bowls of jelly beans and gifts for tomorrow's morning celebration. The start of celebrating Beatrice, born 12 years ago. And yes, I do feel old. My "baby" is 12...?!?!

mentors and mentees

I signed on for the third time as a peer mentor in my library program. My first experience with a mentee (it reminds me of the word goatee too much, but I believe it is the correct word!) was positive but the student already had a great handle on things and didn't require any advice -- at least she never asked for any.

My second mentee was an animated student, also a mature student like me. She did email me several times during the semester to ask questions about particular assignments and course work. I was able to send on articles or links or once or twice, actual copies of essays I wrote, which made me feel useful. There was no question of plagarism, as the essays were topic specific, but at least could give a reasonable idea of what the end product might look like.

There isn't much sharing of papers in the MLIS program. I did request a few students papers -- Jason posted a few on his blog, and I downloaded them from there. Quinn's done a similar thing on his website. I asked one student for a copy of an annotated bibliography he did on minority recruitment in LIS programs and in the library profession.

I regret that Cantilever never quite got going. But since it did not, I think the best we can do is share information whenever possible. So... here I am -- mentor for a third round. And I'm hoping that sharing info and essays with my mentees will be a tradition they'll carry on as they progress through the program.

Anyone wanna read an annotated bibliography on the ethics and strategies of provision of service to immigrants & minorities in public libraries? Or maybe an essay on presenting poetry to pre-schoolers in a public library storytime?

Love, love, love; Share, share, share...

yipeee we're patrons -- at least in the GLobe & Mail

So, I might be a customer at my local public library, but at least the Globe & Mail refers to me as a patron.

I've been reading lindsay's LIFE AFTER LIBRARY SCHOOL posts and looking forward to her upcoming piece on PATRON vs CUSTOMER vs USER...

http://lifeafterlibraryschool.blogspot.com/

Meantime, there was an article on the front page of the Globe & Mail on Wednesday, Janaury 10th, 2007 called LIBRARIES TURN NEW PAGE TO THRIVE IN DIGITAL AGE that had an inside headline of LIBRARIES CHANGING TO MEET NEEDS OF PATRONS. You can read the article at:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/freeheadlines/LAC/20070110/LIBRARIES10/national/National

I was quite the patron at my university library today -- I could barely cycle home my backpack was so heavy. I'm backtracking in my work a bit -- despite having completed my data collection -- a 6 week multicultural storytime for pre-schoolers in a public library, I'm still interested in developing a bibliography of multicultural materials suitable for read-alouds and storytime setting for 3 to 5 year olds.

And yes, I could still cycle. It's LONDON, ONTARIO after all & I have my year-round-cycling husband's tire tracks to follow. There's snow on the ground, sure, but it was lovely and sunny and mild today. Nothing like Jason in Saskatchewan, who has a great YouTube piece that shows you just how cold it is...

http://blog.jason.hammond.net/

yep, minus 40. My friend who lived in Red Lake for ten years said that when it got to be minus 15 her kids would whip off their mitts and hat cause it felt "warm"....Wow! Hang in there, Jason. And I'm glad he keeps posting. It's my daily TV cause I don't watch the real boob tube. It's getting me into trouble with my 16 year old though. Apparently, we're living on the fringes of society and she and her siblings will not be able to properly socialize without TV, MSN and cellphones. I'll report back on this soon...Right, Lucy?!?! Oh, she can't hear me, she's watching a Tool video on her iPod (bought with her own $$$ earned from babysitting and tutoring...). Ciao...for now.

haiku & mastering a CD

well, Father it's been too long since my last confession...

buttonfly are poised to finish a long awaited, long-in-the-works CD entitled "HOT DRAMBUIE NIGHTS"...it's going to be mastered this coming week at THE HOUSE OF MIRACLES in London, Ontario...then pressed and printed. So keep checking in our myspace for CD release party dates

http://www.myspace.com/buttonflys

The last track on the CD is a song I wrote during library school. Haiku.

HAIKU

I wish that I could understand haiku, maybe then I could write you
a thousand hypotheses about Dante
i never wanted this anyway, I never wanted this

woo me, prove it to me
I'm still obsessed with you
though you tell me not to be
i get down on my knees
i get down on the cold ground even though
she's not around

i wanted you to know
to know know know know
i wanted you to no
to no no notice
me
i just wanted you to know

i wish that i could understand haiku
maybe then
i could write to you

i'm still obsessed with you
i'm still obsessed
i'm still