Children's Lit Challenge

The other day I was looking over a list of quotes by my English 315 professor Dr. David Sprunger, which included the line “If you work with children or have children or remember children. . .” At this point in time I have no idea what subject matter he was referring to, but still the quote makes me smile. You see I work in a small academic library where our collection is fairly evenly divided between professional materials relating to library and information science and juvenile literature with a special emphasis on multicultural, international, and award-winning books.

Many students will walk in and--- struck by the school media center in the 1970’s décor-- assume the books here are not for them. Granted, I am under no illusion that library science texts are applicable to all, but I do believe in the universal value of children’s literature. Regardless of whether people have their own children, teach or work with children, or have some other kind of obvious connection; the fact remains that we were all children at some point and at the end of the day good literature is good literature. After all as my favorite author C.S. Lewis stated, “A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.”

So, it is from that vantage point that I begin my first “librarian-in-training” reading challenge. One of the most frequent questions people have for librarians is “can you recommend a good book?” Big question and the answer depends on a lot of variables—taste, information needs, and so on. Although there are many resources where it is easy to find titles based on genre, similar plots, writing style and so on; nothing really replaces the need for a librarian to be well-read. I have a big stack of reading lists begging for my attention, but I’m going to begin at the beginning as it were.

By January of 2010, I am determined to read all of the Newbery and Caldecott award winning books since the annual honors were bestowed in 1922 and 1938 respectively. One hundred and sixty books, but since a little less than half of these are picture books I believe it is a doable goal. As I plow through the titles I will share my observations with you here. First of all to keep me honest and on-track and second of all if you have children, or work with children, or remember being a child you might find some titles worth checking out.
Let me know what you think.

A Librarian and a Cab Driver

I live a car-less existence here in Tallahassee, which means that I get around via the public transportation system, a cab, my own two feet or thanks to the courtesy of friends. So, it goes without saying that I have had the "so, student at FSU, eh? What are you studying there?" question more than once with the cab drivers of the greater Tallahassee area. Whether I answer "information science", "library science", "to be a librarian" or some combination of the three the responses I receive generally fall along these lines:
- Oh. *silence*
- You're going to graduate school to check out books?
- Wow, you must really love books.
- I heard there is just crazy money in that.
- Huh. Why are you doing that?

I've accepted the fact that my future professional does not elict the type of responses I would get if I were pursuing a higher teaching degree, becoming a doctor/lawyer, or studying something in the "hard" sciences. I don't believe people think much about the kind of education librarians go through, other than the vague idea of reading a lot of books. Sometimes, depending on how tired I am and how interested the cabbie is, I will go on to explain in general terms that it's all about how information is organized and accessed whatever the format--books, DVDs, Web sites, etc. My goal, in a matter of speaking, is to help people find the information that is relevant to their needs in a world where the sheer volume of it can be rather overwhelming. Just think of me as a tour guide to the world of information.

A few of the cab drivers find this interesting and relevant. I smile. Some just cannot abandon the idea of an old lady with a bun that lives her life (with one or more cats)behind and through a stack of books. I sigh and figure that there is little I can do to change that perception in a 7 minute cab ride. And of course, every once in a great while there is a cab driver who believes libraries are the place to be for really raking in the cash. I find this hard to believe, but I suppose this could be true depending on what one's perception of a good salary is. I imagine librarians who work for large corporations and those who lean more towards the IT end of things may indeed make a decent chunk of change, but I did not get into the library field to make a financial killing (nor do I believe that was a motivation for most of my colleagues).

So, why am I doing this? It's not because of an inordinate love of books. I am a former English teacher and though I very much enjoy reading I am not under the mistaken impression that librarians get to sit and read all day while waiting for someone to check out a book or ask a question. At the end of the day, the reason I'm getting into libraries has a lot to do with this quote by Jan Bowman, "The more I learn, the more I learn there's more to learn. Therefore, I find that boredom is a state of mind one choses over useful activity." I'm a curious person and there is always something new and interesting to discover within the stacks or databases of your local library. Sharing information and skills with others-- whether it's how to use an internet search engine or recommendations for books to read after you finish the Harry Potter series-- is rewarding and never dull.

So in essence, I'm studying to be a cab driver on the information super highway. My services are free (in a matter of speaking) and it's always interesting to see where people are looking to go. Best part? I can go off-roading. Whatever it takes to get you to your information destination.