1 Working with Authors

As Ally so beautifully put it, the League is back! We kicked off the spring semester by working together on a very special event: Marissa Meyer, YA author extraordinaire, came to Jackson, MS! Marissa's Lunar Chronicles has been a smash hit here at Lemuria and we were thrilled to host her. (Check out my friend Lizzie's post on Cinder and mine post on Scarlet)

Now, you may be asking, "What does that mean? How does getting an author work?" It really can work a number of ways, but it all comes down to who's paying for the event. Usually, if a school or library requests an author, an honorarium must be paid, as well as travel expenses and all publicity and sales are on the school to generate. However, when an author comes to a bookstore, the publishing house is paying for that author to go to different cities and promote their book. We at Lemuria cherish this marketing tool that the publishers give us. I mean, what better way to promote an author's book than with the author?

This is where the awesomeness of the League comes in, for while that author is in town, as the children's manager at Lemuria, it is my responsibility to get that author in front of as many people as possible, and often the store event just won't cut it. So I take that author into schools: FOR FREE. I know, crazy right? I complete my goal of selling books and audience, and the school gets a free author, something that usually costs thousands of dollars. And what is really cool about this whole process is that it is built on partnerships.

In the case of Marissa Meyer, we visited Ridgeland High School where she spoke to a very engaging group of 50 and then a classroom of 20. For the store event, the beautiful Ally helped me brainstorm and even talked to some of her teacher contacts to encourage teachers to give extra credit to students who attended the store event and voila! We had a successful event! (and yes, Ally and I on the far right have capes on:))

1 A Day in the Life (Library Style)

Y'all! The League is back!!  Emily and I have gotten our act together and we sincerely want to share some of our fun times with you.

Tuesday is storytime day at my library, and I wanted to take you through my day.  There's no such thing as a typical day in the life of a children's librarian, but this is what today was like.  Enjoy! 


7:45 – Arrive at library. My storytime room has no vents, so on cold mornings I try to come in a few minutes early and put space heathers in there so it will be warm enough for my babies.  I also get the books out that I’m reading and get my music ready.

8:00 – My employee D. gets here and she straightens shelves and clears the cart of the books that are left over from last night.

8:15 – We’re having our annual “Come in From the Cold” program starting this morning where we provide coffee and snacks for our patrons, so I go into the kitchen and make fancy coffee in this mammoth industrial coffeemaker that one of our sponsors lent us.

This thing is behemoth, y'all. But the coffee is SO GOOD.

8:30 – I take a phone call assuring a worried dad that yes, we are having Baby Bookworms, even though it’s storming  Since it is raining, my numbers probably will be much lower than they usually are.

8:40 – I sit at my desk with a bowl of grits and a giant cup of fancy patron coffee (sorry I’m not sorry) and answer an email from a teen. I update the Facebook page for the Mississippi Children’s Choice Award.  I also talk on the phone to K., the youth services coordinator for the system, about the open position in my department that we’re trying to fill.

9:30 – Baby Bookworms! I had 8 kids, which is actually quite a lot for when it’s raining.  This program is for kids up to 3 years old.  I read two books about Valentine’s Day and I sang some songs with them—Laurie Berkner, Dr. Jean, the usual ones that they love.  Afterwards, we pull out some large toys, board books, and manipulatives for them to play with.  Between storytimes, D. cleans and sanitizes these toys.

10:25 – Answer a quick reference question at the desk between storytimes.

10:30 – Preschool Story Time! We have 5 kids, which is down a LOT but it’s thundering and lightning pretty hard.  I’ve had up to 22 for this group.  We make a fun Valentine’s craft and some of the kids pass out little Valentine’s happies to the others—it’s super cute. I’ve had a lot of these kids for several years and this group is great fun.

11:30 – I need to write a letter to some high school students that took a survey for me.  Their teacher wants me to make it a powerpoint or a Prezi so she can present it to them instead of just reading it. I have to really push through on Tuesdays to get work done after storytime, but I get a good start and I also get some SRP prep done.

1:00 – even though it’s pouring rain outside, I still venture out to meet a friend for lunch. I usually eat in my office, but sometimes I just need an hour away from the building!

2:00 – back to my desk. Sort through a few emails, check social media, take a quick peek at NetGalley/Edelweiss to see if there’s anything I can’t live without.

2:05 – Keep working on presentation for the high school, trying to figure out how to incorporate a panoramic photo of the teen center. Meet with D. about SeussFest, an upcoming program that is usually one of our biggest of the year. I ask her to finish up displays and make craft examples. I direct a teen volunteer to my colleague J. who is setting up for adult programming.  I do research about passive programming that might work in my branch, then continue planning storytimes for April, May, June, and July (D. pulls about 40 additional picture books for me to look at). 

Not even halfway though with ST planning.

 3:15 – a regular family that we all love has braved the rain and come in, so I stop to say hi!

3:30 – I fully intended to do more storytime planning this afternoon, but my brain cannot look at it anymore today.  I switch to collection development and start working on my order for next month.  Necessary, but also my favorite part of my job!! Not only do I prepare a cart for my branch, I do a cart to help K.  send suggestions to all the youth services staff in my library system. I'm reading reviews and looking at prepub sources today.

4:00 – Maggie Stiefvater reveals cover and title for the Raven Boys sequel. I do the children’s librarian hop and squeal, and am giddy for far, far too long. Pretty sure this is the beginning of the end of my productivity for the day.

4:30 – take a peek at my google reader to see if anything exciting has happened today that the twitter hasn’t informed me of.  Read several book reviews (they're my crack).

4:50 – Check and make sure J. is all set for the evening and then head out!

So, fellow librarians, are your days comparable?  Let us know in the comments!  And watch out for Emily's recap of an awesome event she had last week that will be posted in the next day or two!

Ally

0 This and that

Things have been very busy in our Batcave. Wait, that's probably trademarked. League cave? Super-secret hideout? Let's go with that one for now. We'll come up with something better later. There have been author visits, festivals, signings, gearing up for my Printz Watch 2013 (click here to read through Printz Watch 2012), programs, committee meetings, planning for conferences...it could wear a league member (or two) out. Really, let's be honest: Emily has been a rockstar the last couple of weeks and she's worn herself positively ragged making awesome things happen for the children that live in our neck of the woods.  Suffice it to say, The League has been fighting crime...er...advocating children's books...all over the place.  You'll hear about it soon, I swear. This is our life and we love it.  But to tide you over, here's a peek of what's been happening lately.




This is Anna Dewdney of Llama Llama fame at her reading/signing at Emily's store.  She was so much fun! And very good with the kids, not even batting an eye when a three-year-old asked her how old she is.



The League with Anna Dewdney. What a lovely person, even after she had terrible travel trouble and her luggage was misplaced.



Emily's store has a children's first editions club, and this month all the members not only received signed copies of Llama Llama Time to Share, we also got this adorable print of Llama Llama wearing a shirt with the store logo! My print is also signed...can't wait to get it framed!!

 


This is the League with Obert Skye, who wrote the Leven Thumps series and is now promoting his Creatures from my Closet series. Emily and I coordinated to bring him to one of the elementary schools that's in the town where my library is.  He was wonderful with the kids at this visit (pictures of him and the kids not shown to preserve the privacy of my sweet little patrons!), and I hope we can have him back sometime soon!


So you see, minions, we've been keeping busy. Questions? Concerns? General declarations of our excellence? Lay 'em on us in the comments.

Happy reading!

0 Lest you think we forgot you

Greetings, minions. The bookselling and library businesses are quite busy in the fall with events, programming, signings, collection development, committee meetings.  More on all of these things when The League has a chance to catch our collective breaths.  But for now, we leave you with this picture of The League with the lovely author Myra McEntire at a school visit this past week. Myra (whose books we both adore) is part of our Origins story, too. Which we will reveal, in due time.  Enjoy your weekend!

0 A League Event

Ally wrote about this week's awesome Shannon Hale school event over at her library's blog.  You should check it out.  This was such a fun event that we did together.  We partnered with the school to bring this author to the kids, and they had a blast. Stay tuned for Emily's post about the Shannon Hale event at the bookstore. Happy reading, minions!

Shannon Hale School Event at Upper Elementary