librarianista

2005-10-25 - 8:52 a.m.
Diary, darling. It has been too long.

Let's see, what's been going on. Last week, I did a booktalk to a group of middle school students--the first one that I set up and carried out all by myself, rather than in conjunction with another librarian. Booktalking means taking a bunch of books to a school and trying to sell them to the kids, which ends up meaning sucking the kids in in by asking them questions and telling them stories, and then tricking them into being interested in the books.

These middle school kids were in a re-entry program, which means they were kicked out of their regular schools for some fairly serious issues, and now have to complete one semester in this program before going back to those schools.

I was afraid I would be nervous, but I just wasn't. The kids were having trouble sitting still at first, but after ten minutes I really had those little criminals(1) in the palm of my hand, and they actually fought over the books once my discussion was over. They all wanted to know when they could come to the library, and when I would be coming back.

The nervousness thing is just weird. Sometimes I'll think I'm perfectly comfortable in some speaking/performing situation, but my body will totally betray me and I'll start to shake all over the place, which makes it hard to focus on what I'm supposed to be doing. But I got a pass this time, which was lucky because my experience working with the kids in the juvie library last summer showed me that they can really smell fear.

I talked to my mom about later, and told her that I wasn't naive enough to think that I was changing these kids' lives in one fell swoop, but that I did think I had given them a positive, library-related experience, and that was worth something.

My mom pointed out that really, I just gave them a positive experience, period, which is something some of them don't really have a lot of. Which is true, I guess.

At the risk of rambling on about these kids way too long (too late!), it's interesting to see the library's attitude towards them. Other classes from this same school have been coming into the library lately, and although it's our stated mission to serve people like them especially, I can tell that a lot of staff would just as soon they stayed away. A couple of the kids have been kicked out before, so why drag them back in here just so they can tag the computer in the teen area and steal Chapelles Show on DVD?

Of course, even more than that, most people just don't like teenagers. They really don't. As a teenager, I thought maybe it was just paranoia, but it's a solid fact. **
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What else? Oh, I finally decided on a Halloween costume, but only Buffy nerds will get it. I'm not doing all the crazy face stuff, of course. I just saw some plether pants at the Goodwill yesterday and in the absence of any other good ideas, I figured I would go with the plether pants. I've never worn a bustier, though. We'll see how that goes.