Hello readers! …there are readers for this blog? 🙂 Its been a while since I posted. I just wanted to post something quick so that everyone knows I am still here! My library is in Hoboken, NJ, which you may know had some inclement weather last month; AKA Hurricane Sandy. I won’t go into the specifics of all the challenges that were faced by our library, but here’s a quick breakdown:
- the town was flooded with several feet of water/storm surge, which includes the library basement
- most of the town was without power for 1-2 weeks – the library was down for about a week and a half
- the National Guard and FEMA were present in town, there was a curfew for over a week, mass transportation was not functioning for a significant period of time, etc, etc.
- in short for the library: no power for a week and a half, flooding damaged the boiler and were closed as a result for another week, our elevator is still out of order
So, there was a bit to get through resulting from the storm, including significant confusion among staff given the power outages and loss of communications (no cell phones, landlines, etc.). Also, here’s a boat I found on the bike/walk path that I take to work everyday. A boat….
As such, I have not been really able to post anything to my blog recently. I’ve had to re-schedule a ton of programming (basically the whole month of November) and have been busy getting the library back up and functioning. There are two quick things I do want to say with this post:
- One additional consequence of Hurricane Sandy on library programming
- Theater programs at a public library – partnerships with local schools
Consequences of Hurricane Sandy on library programming: Of course, there were many big problems associated with Hurricane Sandy, which I won’t try to compare to library programming in terms of importance. However, being that this blog is mine and I mostly do library programming, well, I’m going to discuss it (thrilling, right?!). Here’s something to bring your back to attention before I continue:
Brisco County Jr. – aliens, time travel, cowboys and Bruce Campbell – how is this not still on today??
Moving on: In the month of October the library had its busiest month of adult programming with some me putting some specific effort on comic book based programming for adults. We also had one of our biggest and most time consuming (planning, setup, promotion, booking, etc) programs of the year: Senior Day also in October. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Senior Day (65 attendees) – 3rd annual (started by me) – we bring in about 60-70 senior citizens in Hoboken to the library for a 3 hour event. We start out with staff offering tours of the library along with a station where people can sign up for library cards. We also have coffee and tea setup for them to start. After everyone is seated I then gave a 15-20 minute Powerpoint Presentation on library services and answered questions (really the whole point of the event haha). After that we had lunch (catering from the local Shop Rite) with sandwiches, cookies, etc. We had a live musician to play music while they are eating lunch. The final hour of the event is a trivia contest/Powerpoint that I created and give where we give out gifts for correct prizes – crossword puzzle books, gift certificates to local businesses, etc. Leading up to the event I put all of the aforementioned stuff together as well as doing outreach/promo events at the local Senior Center. That part is like shooting fish in a barrel: I go to the senior center just before Bingo starts (tons of them there), I bring free dunkin donuts munchkins and then I tell them that there is going to be a free event with free food and prizes that they can go to – 50 people signed up right there.
- Comic Book related: DIY Comic Book Drawing and Writing – two-part hands-on workshop (about 10-12 attendees each)
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Local GN artist Jake Cohen teaching drawing methods.
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Samples of Jake Cohen works on display at the event.
- Video Game Tournament and Comic Book Trivia event (25+ attendees) – had a tournament of Tekken Tag Tournament 2 on a 10ft projector screen + free pizza + a gift certificate to Game Stop for the winner of the tournament + one-shot comic prizes for answering questions in the trivia contest – it was pretty sweet!
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10ft screen sucka!
- Jack Kirby Presentation + Original Artwork/Materials – Jack Kirby Museum – RESCHEDULED due to the hurricane
The reason I did so much comic book related (and video game) programs is two fold: First, I just finished re-cataloging the entire comic book/graphic novel/manga collections at the library (I develop those collections and for the most part started a serious collection of these at my library). Instead of all being a variation of 741.5 (yikes!) they are now separated into Comics, Manga, Graphic Novels Fiction and Graphic Novels Non-fiction. We also started a new video game collection at the library (Wii, PS3, XBOX360). I wanted to promote all these new awesome things so I designed these programs. All the programs were pretty successful and got new patrons. I also got to chat with some patrons who are comic book enthusiasts and really talk up the collection and such. I also put out feelers for starting a comic book club at the library, which I got a positive response.
ANYWHO….the whole point? – Hurricane Sandy totally interrupted all the momentum I created for comics, video games and the library. Guess all I can do is more comic book based programs and video game tournaments 🙂
Theater program
Just wanted to quick mention a program I held today at the library. I had a one-woman live theatrical performance of a piece called “Tea For Three” (http://www.teaforthree.com) starring Elaine Bromka – the mother in Uncle Buck!!! 🙂 I have done 3 theater programs at my library – one each year in November. I have brought in a performer (twice for Elaine Bromka, and once for Chinese Opera – http://www.chinesetheatreworks.org) to do a live performance each time. Also for each time I partnered with the local high school to arrange for the drama class to attend the event. A local charter school has also sent over some students. In the past 2 times (including today) the teacher included the performance in her lesson plans for the students. This has been a pretty nice partnership and I’ve gotten about 50 students for each performance + some residents, mostly seniors as I have to the program during the day to get the students.
This partnership has pretty much come up organically – first time I booked the program I thought maybe I could get a high school drama class to come to fill seats haha. While this is the 3rd year of this arrangement its still somewhat informal. I think that I should make it more formal with the school and put a plan together for incorporating it in lesson plans and working together to select the type of performance. I think this could be an example of the type of community engagement and educational partnerships that I think will be important to the future of the public library. So, we’ll see where this goes! 🙂 Only one problem: I’m not suppose to be the young adult librarian as well 🙂 opps.
Some shots from the Chinese Theater from last year…
That’s all for now. A more substantial post to come shortly!
P.S. I seem to listen to a lot of afrobeat when typing out these posts. Today, Antibalas:
beratedlibrarian 