Teen speak – or you know you work with teenagers when ….

Let me count the ways – with a little bit of help from a blog post over on TLT: Teen Librarians Toolbox.  Have a look at their post

English: SPOG students (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

and then if you are a secondary school librarian you might want to add a few of your own.  Here are some from me.

1. You greet student librarians with Yo G!  Or it’s alternative What up G!  Instead of Hello there sweetie!
2. You know major players in various bizzarre sporting codes despite having little to no interest in anything remotely related to sport.
3. You are as obsessed with 4 Pics 1 word as your students and you are constantly being asked for help, “cos Miss you know everything right?”
4. Given that the library is gossip central you know the details of far too many teenage relationship breakdowns/startups/on holds, and constantly surprise the students by saying “oh yes I know her Mother!”
5. You have become incredibly sick of telling the students to “Go ask your Mum if you can borrow her copy of 50 Shades of Grey, because no, we will not be having it in here!”
6. You have to guard your Mockingjay pin because even though other staff have no idea what it is, you know that if you take your cardigan off with the pin still on it, you may not ever see it again.  In general you are prepared to have your fashion sense critiqued every day by the fashionista crew who are always hanging in the library – at least that is how it seems at our school.
7. You are well aware that even though the adults may have moved on from vampire romance that is isn’t dead in the hearts of some of your most loyal clients.
8. You know exactly how cool you are if you show year 13 students a clip that they haven’t seen yet, but which is ridiculously funny.
9. You keep having to tell the students that “versing someone is quoting them poetry, not going against them in a match!”  This is a pet bugbear at the moment.
10. Your students stop you in the street and say “hey Miss remember that time when …..”  and you laugh and laugh.

This is *so* me – is it you, too?

You may already be a fan of the blog/Facebook page “Librarian Problems”, the brainchild of library director William Ottens. Hilarious. Case in point: I see teens making out in the stacks.

Like it? Well if you’re a school librarian like me, then you might love this one just as much:

A little treat for Halloween

Halloween is a recent addition to the New Zealand festival calendar, our house has had only a couple of visits from children on the hunt for sweets tonight.  They left disappointed as we are a little grinchy in the Halloween department here, and besides if there are treats in the house they are not for sharing with anyone but us, and that is that.  Halloween is a chance for all your spooky books to get an outing though!

I do recognise a good costume when I see one and here are some goodly booky ones.  Click through the slide show to see them all.  Love the Book Fairy below!

The most enthusiastic teacher you ever saw

Just imagine being in a class with this guy!   I dare you to role model him in your library tomorrow!

(via School Library Journal A Fuse #8 Production)

TGIF Put your feet up with a literary cocktail

Or alternatively celebrate that today is Friday and there will be two whole days before you head back to your library coalface.  I believe that a literary cocktail may be in order at my place.  The sun is finally out, the birds were even heard to be singing and I’m hopeful of at least a modicum of sun this weekend (although I will be working at a minder at the Storylines Dunedin Festival on Saturday).

Should a cocktail be your thing, I think that you should head on over to this page and have a look at the inspired concoctions they have listed for your pleasure.

I think I’m in for a Gryffindor.  Perhaps with a Gin Fitzy to follow.  That would probably do in and would be followed promptly by a weekend appropriate lie in.

Further suggestions welcomed.  Thanks to Carole for the link.  While we are here you could enjoy this flashback to the classic movie Cocktail with a much younger Tom Cruise. Oh the memories of lost youth come flooding back… pensive sigh …

Maintaining staff morale

While we were having a tidy-up in my library this week, we found a folder of information prepared in the very early 1980s by the then librarian for the incoming Teacher with Library Responsibility. Inside it were some absolute gems, the first of which I present here today for your edification and amusement:

Without libraries we’d be dumb!

Daniel Handler and Maria Kelman who have written the book Why we broke up, are seen in this video singing an ode to libraries.  Sing it loud and sing it proud!

When you’ve finished singing along go check out the Tumblr for Why We Broke Up.

Two funny things

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been rather busy working on the next incarnation of the SLANZA website, which – fingers crossed – is due to go live very soon. As a result of that, I’m not spending so much time online, as I’m finding I just want to turn the computer OFF! Maybe there’s a future post in that – internet exhaustion.

Anyway, for now I’ve got nothing much that’s useful to share. So instead I have two completely random offerings.

Case #1: Scholastic’s Listen and Read site

This actually could be useful for primary school librarians, but I have to say it gave me a good laugh. Check out the “Librarian” title.

Primary school librarians – do you wear cream slacks to work???
I chose silly answers for the quiz at the end and was told “At story time, the librarian reads and children do not cry. Try again!”

Case #2: A 6 year old  judges classic books by their cover

Over on Babble, SunnyChanel blogs, “What happens when this recent kindergarten graduate judges a book by its cover? Here are the results.” And they’re hilarious! Lord of the Flies, for instance:

“This is all about a tiny town, beneath the ground. And it looks like it has a lot of people in the town. I think they live in Africa. It looks like a fun book for kiddies! Teens! All ages!”

Hunger Games merch

OK this is a long shot – given that it’s 3:30pm already. But if you are reading this before midnight on June 21st, and if there’s a distinct lack of Hunger Games  jewellery in your life or that of someone near and dear to you, then hie y’sel over to here post haste! Go on, you know you want one!

Card Catalogue Coolness

This is cool.  This video was made to draw attention to the enormous card catalogue at Stirling Memorial Library.  It came to me from Bookable. Just imagine how long this took to make!  Have you still got a card catalogue in your library, they have become collectable these days which is cool, making me wish I had kept a rather lovely one I once had in a former life.  Have you got one?  What do you do with it these days?  Gold star to the most creative idea!