Politics and change, I’m finding out very quickly, are an inevitable part of any job– even being a happy-go-lucky children’s librarian.   Take, for example, my little library system.  Staff changes and moves have been anounced effective within the next couple months.  No one I have talked to seems particularly happy about this series of events, but this isn’t exactly an optional activity.  The director has spoken, and that’s that.

But lest we forget that there is in fact a silver lining to every bad situation, I would like to declare that this now means I’m going to be supervised for my practicum by one of my favorite librarians in the world.  And I’m pretty cool with that.

As in the piece commissioned by Jackie Kennedy for the opening of the Kennedy Center in memoriam of her late husband JFK.  The Western New York premiere was this past weekend, and anyone in the city who knew anything about music was there.  It was quite a big deal.  I went with three of my friends (all musicians of some sort or another), and ran into a handful more in the audience (again, all musicians.) 

And while I do admit that the piece was very good, and everyone did a very good job on it, I have two major complaints.  One is that I could only hear half of the text (the acoustics of the church are great for an actual mass, but not for a full musical production.)  The other is that the “priest,” at the climax of the piece, hurls the “mostrance” and the “wine holder” onto the ground and totally loses it.  Even though it was not real, and involved props, I still got very angry.  Also, the monstrance is not used for communion– the monstrance is strictly for eucharistic adoration.  Still, as a Catholic, it was hard to watch that.  But again, it might have helped if I had understood what they were saying the other 50% of the time.

I wonder if JFK would have rolled over in his grave if he’d been alive to hear that.

Moreover, the irony of a gay Jewish man writing a mass amuses me.

a million.

In the past two weeks, in addition to my own grandfather who is terminally ill, I’ve had one friend get kicked out of her house AND had her grandmother die, another friend whose guide dog died AND is getting started on dialysis, and my roommate and long time friend’s grandmother had a stroke, and died earlier this morning.

We’re just doing great here.  Luckily, Thanksgiving is steadily approaching, and that should give everyone some time off.

Counting the days!

Dear Librarian Friends,

I am doing a paper in my Young Adult Services class on christian teen fiction.  If you have a library, I am asking for your help.  Do you have christian teen fiction?  What prompted you to buy it?  How well does it circulate?  Who are the popular authors?  Have you gotten any backlash about having christian fiction?  Is it identified somehow (ex. spine stickers, separate shelving, etc.)?

All help is appreciated.  Feel free to leave info in comments, or let me know you can help and I can email you to get info.

Many thanks!!!

P.S- Does anyone know how I can get in touch with Melody Carlson?  She is THE GODDESS of YA Christian fic and I’d LOVE to interview her.

Last week, the mother of a little girl in my preschool storytime came up to me after class and said “You are my daughter’s hero.  She walks around the house all the time saying how she wants to play the guitar just like Miss Sarah when she grows up.”

How can you not love your job when you are a child’s hero?

In other library related news, it’s National Book Week, which my library system has been promoting this week by instituting a prize system– any child under the age of 11 who checks out 3 or more books gets a form to take to the reference desk and pick out a prize, usually a free book.  I was instructed to promote this at my storytime last night, which I did.  After a successful and quite full storytime (where I debuted “5 Little Monkeys Jumpin’ on the Bed” to excellent reviews and let several little children play my purple guitar) I went outside to see a line a mile long at the reference desk, entirely comprised of my storytime kids and their families.

It’s nice to see young people reading.