"Faking Nice," and the Allure of the Mean Friend

If you haven't read Sarah McCarry's Huffington Post piece "Faking Nice in the Biblioblogosphere," you might not want to. It is, as Colleen Mondor and others in the illustrious kidlitosphere has discerned, it looks like evidence of the worst sort of girl-on-girl negativity:

Is it just me, or is there some undercurrent in McCarry's post suggesting women can't support other women without an ulterior motive?

I keep running into references to "mean girl culture." I suppose this is shorthand for the kind of preteen backstabbing that has been around since time immemorium, not incarnated in which Gossip Girl and The Clique, but in my day it was SVH and Canby Hall. And as far as the meanness goes, well, it works. About a year ago, I listened to This American Life episode called Allure of the Mean Friend. In a scientific experiment, mean waitresses get better tips than obliging ones. Like the mean waitress, I'd rather be feared than liked, but not at anyone else's expense.

Liz Burns at Teacozy did an excellent job dissecting every nuance of McCarry's allegations, which seems to have a really superficial understanding of the bookblogging universe.

And though I'm not writing those types of reviews, I do get books that I don't know what to do with. My strategy: I just don't review those. It's easier for me to find something to write about which I really liked rather than to put negativity out into the universe.

I thought Liz Burns had the stellar tweet of the exchange:

 "...not all bloggers want 2 b critics, OK to blog abt books in other ways."

I think writing about reading, like reading itself, is a strange combination of the intensely personal and the sometimes social. McCarry's confusion of interpersonal dynamics and the public aspect of book blogging does ignore those with altogether different motives for sharing. How much of bookblogging is about documenting the experience of reading, preserving it in amber? Remember reading log journals? Well, how much cooler is that when invested with the audience and interactivity of the read/write web? I have just read Jessica Hefland's Scrapbooks: An American History (see associated website), and I keep coming back to bookblogging as a 21st century extension of that unique and personal process of squirrelling away what is important to us.

Regional reading, post-ALLA

I sat in a on a few classes of something called Recommender Systems at Michigan's iSchool, before it became glaringly obvious, with all the talk of algorithms and databases, that predicting whether someone would like something based on the other things that they liked was a bit beyond me. And Recommender Systems cannot take into account the heady effect of being in the same room with the writer. It has almost been enough to convince me to read Lisa Scottoline, but not quite.

Right now, my place is cluttered up with books from writers I heard about at the Alabama Library Association a couple of weeks ago. I heard Susan Gregg Gilmore at the Southern Writer's Lunch. Of course her debut, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is brilliant and incredibly sweet, Gilmore had Lee Smith as her grade-school teacher. What an advantage! Extra points for Davidson's department store as mecca for rural Southerners.

It was looking at The Improper Life of Bezellia Grove, Gilmore's forthcoming title which wil be featured in Southern Living in Amazonia, that I found Girls in Trucks by Katie Crouch. In a story too familiar to be comfortable, Tiny moves North and is unhappy. Score one for Recommender Systems.

I heard former school teacher Ginger Rue at the Young Adult Services Roud Table/Children's and School Library Division's breakfast, where I won a signed copy of Brand-New Emily a PR-laden mean girls romp. I thought it was cute, but I'm not sure it strikes the right tone. "I would never sell a diamond bracelet," one of my teens said solemnly, when I book-talked it. Emily's issues may be more typical of middle school.

The Alabama Author Awards introduced me to Martin Wilson's What They Always Tell Us, better than but similar to one of my favorites from last year, Vast Fields of Ordinary. Anyone who has ever spent time in Tuscaloosa will appreciate the fidelity of the locale.

Still on order: Ace Atkins' Wicked City. Because I have grappled with cultural issues related to Phenix City myself.

Hostess Frenzy

The Alabama Library Association is in town this week, and on Tuesday, 37 of my colleagues visited my corner of the library world. For the day. They ran the gamut from school to public to academics including --gasp!-- the closest thing I've had to a mentor, the director of my library school... that wasn't exactly what I envisioned when I was asked to host a preconference last spring. I tried to resist, I really did, but somehow was overridden by the wonderfully persuasive Steven Yates, now president-elect of the Alabama Library Association and a stellar high school librarian himself. I also got to serve as a liaison from the convention committee to media specialists everywhere. The work of the committee was absolutely Herculean, so I was gratified to see so many local library media specialists did turn out for the convention.

I hid all the books languishing, waiting for reviews, UNDER MY DESK. Removed anything anywhere in the building I spotted with a misspelling. Had my two best student aides create show-stopping displays. And I recruited Buffy Hamilton, one of the most dynamic and innovatve media specialists anywhere, to come do her thing. I drove 100 miles, in the dark, to pick her up, where she had heroically traveled immediately after two Computers in Libraries talks. Laura Pearle skyped in from New York, and despite technical difficulties with the webcam that left her speaking into a void, she spoke persuasively about the shortcomings of rote adherence to Dewey in meeting the needs of our students. I have trouble asking for milk for my tea, but I begged doorprizes from Linworth (thanks, Paula Jackson!). My favorite part of the day was the teen panel, which really engaged the audience and even sparked some questions from the twittersphere. Thanks, Buffy, for live-tweeting that.

It won't be over 'til I settle the bill with our culinary department, but hosting definitely pulled me out of my comfort zone. I'm not sure my presentation -- rework of Flip Your Collection from YALSA's preconference at ALA Midwinter -- was coherent in the least, given all the stress, but here's a peek:

Then, yesterday, I geeked out and presented on my absolute favorite tool, Twitter, to our state organization, alongside Marianne Lennox (@MLx) trainer extraordinaire from Huntsville-Madison County Public Library and Cheryl Burnette (@WeKnowBooksETC) of Homewood Public. It was a public library division session, so I am extra-grateful they let me share an overview of how Twitter works. Here are those slides:

Today, I get to go back to the Alabama Library Association, but just to spectate and enjoy the company of my fellow librarians. And I slept through the night for the first time in three days!

Now I just have this YALSA preconference for ALA Annual to cobble together....

Too Little, Too Late?

We've all see Shonda Brisco's map of self-reported school librarian firings. How I wish there was any other topic that got librarians as energized as the prospect of losing their jobs. To be fair, I know that many school systems are in crisis and looking to save money through whatever reduction in forces they can come up with...but I have to wonder how much that is a reflection of inert library media programs not doing their best to support teaching and learning.


View A Nation Without School Librarians in a larger map

I stopped teaching graduate courses because I was too depressed about that caliber of students going into the profession. I found that the majority of these nascent school librarians were not willing to put forth more than a minimum level of effort. And this was not the case with the students I encountered going into public libraries, but, unlike the school librarians, most of them were not already working in professional positions. And the vast majority of K-12 educators, on the whole, shock me at their refusal to spend a moment on prep outside of contract hours. I've heard this rationalized as a labor issue -- if you do extra, they imply, you are essentially doing what would be someone else's job, and thus removing their opportunity for employment.

But I don't see an equivalent justification for so many educators' failure to invest in their own professional development. A school librarian in our state sent a scathing message to a state listserv after several people indicated planning on going to ALA Annual this summer. She said she would rather spend $2000-$3000 (quite the lavish conference budget!) on library materials. She clearly did not appreciate the librarians in question were funding their own travel rather than using local school money.

I am lucky to be in a state where the budget isn't in quite the dire situations of many others, in a system which is not in as dire a situation as many in the state. Next year's education budget just passed the house without any reduction in state-funded teacher units. It does not provide for classroom materials, technology, professional development, or library enhancement funds. The lack of materials budget has been challenging. I'm writing a review column for Gale, so I'm getting some really top-notch informational books from them.  Nonetheless, I've been averaging around $100 out of pocket each month for must-have fiction and office supplies. Just this morning, I bought a copy of Ellen Hopkins' Tricks for $8 in cash from a sophomore boy. We don't have a PTA, and fundraising is not a real option -- we've had three events year, netting $300 total.  But we still have heavy circulation and waiting lists for dozens of titles, and multiple classes every block. I get to school almost an hour early every day to prep. I work most evenings, too. If I slavishly followed my contract, I could do a lot less, but then I might feel a lot more anxiety about advocacy and keeping my job.

What I'm Up To

I've been away for a while, but I'm hoping a prose-style GDT "brain dump" of what I've been up and what I'll be working on will help me center and focus a bit. I spent part of my spring break with my school's administrators, who are among the most progressive and visionary people I know, at the National Association of Secondary School Principals conference in Phoenix. We were speaking on systemic and personalized professional development. Of course, I worked in some school library-specific talking points.

Also at NASSP, I heard Todd Whitaker speaking about manging difficult teachers and learned about student conflicts in ethical literacy. My personal conference highlight was Kipp Rogers' presentation on using mobile phones to support learning. Rogers divided cell phone use into three areas one, the first of which -- like calculators, cameras, and calenders --did not require service. The second area involves simple texting, allowing for students to use the technology like student response or polling systems, while the third incarnation uses web-enabled applications for full-on backchanneling and authoring. Rogers has donated handsets to bridge the digital divide.

This month, I'm looking forward to reading about some more interesting classroom applications of technology. I'm on the award committee for ISTE's SIGMS Technology Innovation Award, which highlights a collaborative project between a school librarian and content area teacher. Applications are open until the end of March, if you are considering applying.

Next month, Buckhorn will host a pre-conference for the Alabama Library Association on April 13. We were lucky enough to lure Buffy Hamilton next door from Georgia to do something really thoughtful on Transliteracy for a keynote, then Laura Pearle, Buffy, and I will reprise our presentation from the YALSA 3.0 Institute at ALA Midwinter. That afternoon, one of our librarians is sharing her trip to Forks, them my admins will talk about adolescent literacy before a teen panel on library use. It's only $15 with conference registration, which includes a plated lunch from our culinary students. Advanced registration closes for ALLA this week.

May 5th, I'm hosting a talk for YALSA in its monthly series in ALA Connect. The topic is Using Web 2.0 Tools to Promote Reading. 

If that topic interests you, be sure to register  for the half-day YALSA preconference before ALA Annual. This started off as "WTF? They ARE Reading!" but the work-friendly title is "Promoting Teen Reading with Web 2.0 Tools." It's all about electronic texts, multimodal books, and ways to engage with readers in new, digitally-facilitated ways. Eliza Dresang will be opening the afternoon, talking about Radical Change, and then we will ahev some top flight authors -- John Green, David Levithan, Malinda Lo, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl are confirmed -- as well as amazing practitioners to share their transliteracy success stories. At $99, it's a bargain, too.