MLA 2008 HIGHLIGHTS

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  I was most impressed with Dr. Forni’s presentation about his book titled “Choosing Civility”. His book is absolutely relevant to the daily work in the library, whether we deal with customers, or with co-workers.
  Much of what he said is logical and common sense, but how easy it is to forget when we are in the midst of a challenging situation. Reminders like Dr. Forni’s words are essential and his book should be required readings to all staff who deal with the public.
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  Another session which was eye opening was the Web 2.0 workshop which clarified many previously mysterious technical terms such as blogs, flicks, vadpods, widgets, firefox, del.icio.us, and gadgets.
  We learned about services such as Box.net, Meedo, Tag.com, Mashup, Wordpress, wikkies, wedging, creating blogs, Google analytics, and many more new concepts that are popping up new every day on the web.
  At the last part of the session we created a Blog using Wordpress.
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  Building up services for Teens was the subject of one of the workshops. I brought back many good ideas how to attract teens to the library, and shared them with our Young Adult librarian, who incorporated some of the ideas right away. Some of these ideas were:
  Use teens as volunteers, and set up Wiki to communicate with them
  Plan programs that would be of teen interest, such as Kareoke, Teen Flicks, a Movie and Popcorn, Driver’s Safety for Teens, Computer Games, make-up Make- Overs, tips for babysitters. Invite in psychologist to present workshops about getting along with parents, teachers and/or siblings. Also ask them what they would like to see in the library.
  Work with schools, ask teachers to promote the library, and have heads up about their upcoming assignments. Suspended students can be sent to the library.
  Set up Gaming Clubs for teens, using computer games. Try to get a grant to fund these games and computers. Teens are great setting up, managing and troubleshooting these games.
  Give them more responsible tasks such as evaluating websites.
  Set up separate areas where teens would feel comfortable. Pick DVD’s from the Adult collection rated PG and PG 13, and display them in the teen area.
  Teens don’t like to read brochures or flyers, have publicity on 3x5 cards with colors and graphics.
  
  Over all I found the conference very stimulating, certainly worthwhile to attend, and came away many good ideas, which I shared with staff, individually, and also at a staff meeting.

Vera Ramaty,

Twinbrook Library

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