What I Wish I Learned in Library School

I have been working in libraries since 2012 and graduated from library school in early 2015. I love serving the public, and have been doing so since 2016. And while I (mostly) enjoyed my library school program, I wish I learned these three things:

–Weeding is a never-ending process. No matter how often I browse and review my branch’s YA collection, there often is not enough room for all the books on the shelves. Sometimes it’s because we have too many duplicate copies. On other occasions it’s because the few teens coming in are not borrowing books. Weeding needs to be done (at least at my branch) monthly. My branch is just too small.

–Some patrons are terrible at taking care of library books. They return them wet, smelly, stained and sometimes, with bugs in them. It’s awful, and uncomfortable, and anger inducing, but it’s an issue many (if not most) public librarians have to deal with.

–You can be super enthusiastic about a program you’re leading or hosting, and publicize it well. But that doesn’t ever guarantee teens will come and stay or participate. They might pop in for a few minutes and then leave early. You really never know what will happen and as a young adult librarian, you have to be prepared for that.

 

 

Most Anticipated 2022 Reads

 

As I was making this list of my most anticipated reads for 2022 I looked back at 2021 and I noticed I had a strong trend going. Last year I also had a Courtney Summers book, I had the book before Furysong and the book before Curse of Shadows. I also had another fantasy and mystery on my list. Something to be said for consistency, eh?

Anyway, here are the Goodreads links for all 5 of my book! 2 of the them are part of fantasy series and the other 3 are standalones. Happy reading everyone!

1. Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor
2. I’m The Girl by Courtney Summers
3. Furysong by Rosaria Munda
4. Curse of Shadows by A.K. Wilder
5. Four Came Back by Chelsea Sedoti

ICYMI: Some 2021 Favs

Being on an award committee pretty much guarantees that I can’t slack off on my YA reading! Before we get too far into 2022, here are a few 2021 books I recently read and really enjoyed:

New girl Rachel Chavez is eager to make a fresh start at Manchester Prep. But as one of the few scholarship kids, Rachel struggles to fit in, and when she gets caught up in a prank gone awry, she ends up with more enemies than friends. To her surprise, however, the prank attracts the attention of the Mary Shelley Club, a secret club of students with one objective: come up with the scariest prank to orchestrate real fear. But as the pranks escalate, the competition turns cutthroat and takes on a life of its own.
When the tables are turned and someone targets the club itself, Rachel must track down the real-life monster in their midst . . . even if it means finally confronting the dark secrets from her past. (Goodreads)

A story of love and duty set in San Francisco’s Chinatown during the Red Scare.

Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can’t remember exactly when the question took root, but the answer was in full bloom the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.

America in 1954 is not a safe place for two girls to fall in love, especially not in Chinatown. Red-Scare paranoia threatens everyone, including Chinese Americans like Lily. With deportation looming over her father—despite his hard-won citizenship—Lily and Kath risk everything to let their love see the light of day. (Goodreads)

As an African tightrope dancer in Victorian London, Iris is used to being strange. She is certainly a strange sight for leering British audiences always eager for the spectacle of colonial curiosity. But Iris also has a secret that even “strange” doesn’t capture…​ She cannot die.
Haunted by her unnatural power and with no memories of her past, Iris is obsessed with discovering who she is. But that mission gets more complicated when she meets the dark and alluring Adam Temple, a member of a mysterious order called the Enlightenment Committee. Adam seems to know much more about her than he lets on, and he shares with her a terrifying revelation: the world is ending, and the Committee will decide who lives…and who doesn’t. (Goodreads)

(I recommend the Audiobook!!)

Aideen has plenty of problems she can’t fix. Her best (and only) friend is pulling away. Her mother’s drinking problem is a constant concern. She’s even running out of outlandish diseases to fake so she can skip PE.
But when Aideen stumbles on her nemesis, overachiever Meabh Kowalski, in the midst of a full-blown meltdown, she sees a problem that—unlike her own disaster of a life—seems refreshingly easy to solve. Meabh is desperate to escape her crushing pile of extracurriculars. Aideen volunteers to help. By pushing Meabh down the stairs.
Problem? Solved. Meabh’s sprained ankle is the perfect excuse to ditch her overwhelming schedule. But when another student learns about their little scheme and brings Aideen another “client” who needs her “help,” it kicks off a semester of traded favors, ill-advised hijinks, and an unexpected chance at love. Fixing other people’s problems won’t fix her own, but it might be the push she needs to start. (Goodreads) 

For centuries, witches have maintained the climate, their power from the sun peaking in the season of their birth. But now their control is faltering as the atmosphere becomes more erratic. All hope lies with Clara, an Everwitch whose rare magic is tied to every season. In Autumn, Clara wants nothing to do with her power. It’s wild and volatile, and the price of her magic―losing the ones she loves―is too high, despite the need to control the increasingly dangerous weather. In Winter, the world is on the precipice of disaster. Fires burn, storms rage, and Clara accepts that she’s the only one who can make a difference. In Spring, she falls for Sang, the witch training her. As her magic grows, so do her feelings, until she’s terrified Sang will be the next one she loses. In Summer, Clara must choose between her power and her happiness, her duty and the people she loves… before she loses Sang, her magic, and thrusts the world into chaos. Practical Magic meets Twister in this debut contemporary fantasy standalone about heartbreaking power, the terror of our collapsing atmosphere, and the ways we unknowingly change our fate. (Goodreads)

YA Romances for Foodies

This Valentine’s Day, let’s get into the spirit by celebrating what we really love: YA romance and food! Here are a few fantastic titles that feature both:

A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow – Laura Taylor Namey

After a series of unfortunate events, Lila, a Miami native who dreams of running her family’s bakery someday, gets sent to England to visit her Tia Cate. Though England is nothing like her home, new friends, new opportunities to show off her baking skills, and (obvs) a cute boy, all help ease her heartache.

Happily Ever Afters – Elise Bryant

When rom-com writer Tessa experiences a crippling case of writer’s block, her best friend devises Operation Happily Ever After, a sneaky plan designed to get Tessa to experience some firsthand romance. Tessa’s kind but nerdy neighbor attends the school’s culinary program, and the descriptions of his baked goods will leave you craving something sweet.

The Heartbreak Bakery – A.R. Capetta

In this work of magical realism celebrating all types of queer identities, Syd, a baker, inadvertantly bakes negative feelings into a batch of brownies, causing a slew of breakups. The book features recipes for Syd’s baked treats, such as Very Sorry Cake.

Love à la Mode – Stephanie Kate Strohm

Henry wants to prove to his strict Korean parents that he can make it as chef, while Rosie dreams of leaving her small town home to become a pastry chef. The two meet at an elite culinary school in Paris, but they must reconcile their budding feelings for each other with their growing rivalry.

A Pho Love Story – Loan Le

High school seniors Bao and Lin have a lot in common. They are both Vietnamese-American, and their parents both own restaurants that happen to be right across the street from one another. Unfortunately, their families are long-standing rivals. A chance encounter between the pair leads to a clandestine friendship, then develops into something more.

Pumpkinheads – Rainbow Rowell

Best friends Deja and Josiah spend a wild night running around the pumpkin patch where they work together, on a quest to find Josiah’s elusive crush, Fudge Shoppe Girl. while enjoying all the delicious autumnal snacks the patch has to offer.

Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet – Laekan Zea Kemp

Pen loves working at her family’s restaurant in Texas and dreams of owning her own bakery someday, but her parents want her to finish nursing school. When Xander, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, begins working at the restaurant, the two grow clase. 

Tweet Cute – Emma Lord

In this retelling of You’ve Got Mail, overachiever Pepper and class clown Jack become close friends IRL, but things get complicated when they start a viral twitter war over their families’ restaurant businesses

Food-filled l’ve stories are a growing trend in YA. This list gives you just a taste! (Bad pun TOTALLY intended, sorry not sorry!). Feel free to share your favorites in the comments.

YA Media Tie-In Books

As we all know, a good way to often hook reluctant readers, but also fans of a particular franchise, is through media tie ins. In the last decade or so, it feels like many media tie ins are choosing popular YA authors (and authors for other age groups) to write their tie ins where years ago, things were often ghost written or by successful authors of that kind of book who might not be known much for their other writing.

I want to take a look at a run down of some YA novels that hit up some pretty popular fandoms.

Buffy

I’m starting here because the newest series, by Kendare Blake (the very popular author of Three Dark Crowns series author), just released last month. This franchise continues to chug on between the comics and the nostalgia many millennials feel for it (I honestly can’t say anything either way, as I’ve watched exactly one episode ever). Kiersten White, popular YA author, also penned a series set in the Buffy universe.

Aliens

Mira Grant aka Seanan Mcguire wrote an Aliens tie in a few years ago (Echo). I’ve been told it is both very good and very queer. Despite it’s ‘age’, it makes this list partially because the franchise is using it for at least some Easter Eggs. The recently released and popular Aliens: Fireteam Elite video game makes reference to Echo and you can have a conversation with one of the characters from the book.

Star Wars

This could be it’s own post (and might be later) but there are a lot of YA Star Wars novels out there. Some tie in to the movies (prequels like EK Johnston’s Queen’s series, originals like Claudia Gray’s Lost Stars or sequels like The Force Collector.) Others take place between the movies, telling backstory, like Ahsoka by EK Johnston or Leia, Princess of Alderaan also by Claudia Gray. There are also new stories like Into the Dark and Midnight Horizon (out last week) which tie into the current media story of Star Wars: The High Republic, which crosses all ages of books and comics, telling a story 150 years before the prequels. The next one due out is the final in EK Johnston’s Queen’s series in May.

DC

DC commissioned a series of YA novels on their characters from many popular YA authors including Marie Lu and Sarah J Maas. There have not been any new ones as they focus on instead getting popular YA authors to pen new graphic novels on many of these characters. For me, the novels proved to not be very popular but the graphic novels (from authors like Kami Garcia and Laurie Halse Anderson) are very popular.

Disney

Disney has at least two younger YA series. One, Twisted Tales, is a fascinating experiment where the author Jen Calonita plays off one point of classic Disney stories where things go differently or wrong. The second is a series starting Disney’s most famous Villains. Both are good bridge from MG to YA and also are clever takes on Disney properties.

Video Games

There are a whole host of video game tie in series. The most well known is probably the Minecraft books (both authorized and not) that are mostly aimed at the MG crowd. But there are others. There are a whole host of books based off the game Five Nights at Freddy’s and Assassin’s Creed. There are also some more obscure books for franchises like Halo, which is currently back in vogue due to the new game release.

 

What franchises and tie in books and series am I missing? What are your favorites and the favorites of your teen? Let me know!

Looking at 2022

When I first picked this topic, it was being Omicron was picking up, but I’ll admit like others I feel like I’m just in a stand still. While some school are allowing me to come in via outreach, now doesn’t seem to be the time to send lots of emails or push too hard. On top of that, my building is going through a major renovation, which is also a bit of chaos. So instead, here is what I’m trying to focus on…

Deep delving into collections. I used to do this a lot, but the pandemic and low circ numbers made it too depressing. However, circ numbers are back on an upward swing, so it’s time to get back into that groove of deep delves. Also, since my one collection is about to make a major move, a deep weeding & cleaning up the collection is in store there.

Reminding myself it’s okay. Times are still tough and uncertain. It’s okay to do less and not feel guilty. It’s okay to realize that what would have been okay a few years ago may be a breaking point now. It’s okay to have off days…or weeks…or months. It’s okay to tell my supervisor when I’m struggling and be honest about it. I still strive to being my A-game, but know it may slip here and there.

Self care. I need to remember that self-care is still super important. I want to continue the road of exploring what brings me joy. And some days that may mean just watching TV all day—but that’s okay! I’ve already found pottery is my happy place & continue to spend as much time possible there as well—-but I hope I find a couple other things that bring me the same joy.

Above all, I think I just want to give myself grace. To realize that library trauma is real and that it’s okay to take a deep breath and take it one day at a time.

 

New Year…Mostly Same Me

2022….it’s already been off to a wild start and I just hope that at some point it decides to take a chill pill and calm down!

This year one of the really big things I’m focusing on – at work anyway – is our youth services diversity programming committee. We are working on creating and gathering programs for ages 0-18 for all sorts of diverse programming and working on holiday programing guidelines. I’m really excited to be part of this and to make an important and lasting impact in my district.

My department has also had a lot of staff changes and there a lot of smaller, branch level projects we’ve been discussing and changes we want to make that we’re hoping to complete this year. Those range from programming, to fixing up our not so ideal teen space, to just general ways we do things.

Personally, I’m just trying to keep safe and healthy and enjoy the time I get to spend with my loved ones.

I hope everyone is having a happy and healthy new year so far and if anyone else is working on similar things or has suggestions for fixing up a small, pretty public teen space – I’m all ears!

Working on the Self-Care Thing

During the Covid lockdown in 2020, I bought a needle felting kit on Etsy and then never opened it. This past August, I finally decided to try it and I immediately fell in love! I’m not that great at it, but I really enjoy it. Since my hobbies had mostly consisted of playing candy crush, scrolling on Pinterest, and shopping online, this was a big step for me! I love crafting, especially with my 7-year-old daughter, but this was something that was my own thing. (Although I am teaching her now!)

The best thing was that it gave me something to do during my breaks at work while I listened to my audiobooks (instead of shopping online.) There have been MANY times that I would work through my lunch break for some reason or another. And while it seems fine, it’s really not. It definitely takes its toll. Especially when I work 40 hours a week and still have a house, animals, and a child who demands my undivided attention (oh, and a husband!) to take care of before I get to do anything for myself. My lunch break is sometimes the ONLY time I have to myself and I have been forcing myself to stop working and relax. I have even tried to limit doing any errands on my breaks because it really is that important.

The other thing I did for myself (which technically increased my workload but whatever) was to join the committee for a new state teen choice award. This is my first award committee ever and I absolutely LOVE it. I’m definitely way behind almost everyone in my reading because I’m limited to about 2-3 hours a day to read/listen to books, but I’ve discovered that increasing the speed of the audiobook helps a lot!! Being a part of something bigger than me or my library has made me feel like I’m doing something really important and I can’t wait to talk more about it!

To sum up: take your breaks, listen to audiobooks, get a hobby, join a committee – do something for yourself!

 

Serving in the Wake of Community Tragedy

I am the Teen Services Librarian at the Louisville Public Library in Louisville, CO. Our town, situated between Boulder and Denver,  used to be known for its small town charm (I affectionately call it Colorado’s Stars Hollow). Now, this community has been made infamous by the devastating Marshall Fire that occurred on December 30, 2021. 

My community has been absolutely devastated by this disaster. Over 1000 homes were lost, and many homes that weren’t destroyed are uninhabitable. Everyday I communicate with patrons who lost everything or are displaced, and even those whose homes are fine are feeling traumatized by what happened. I was in middle school when the Columbine shooting happened a mere 15 minutes from where I grew up, and this situation is the only comparable thing I can think of. Just as we were back then, we’re shocked, we’re grieving, and we’re a little lost.

It’s hard to know how best to serve my community. Does anyone care about Anime Club right now? Is my Take and Make a waste of time and energy? Does it seem frivolous? My day to day has not changed much, but other City employees have been tasked with working overtime helping to assess, remove debris, etc. It’s hard to feel like we’re doing enough at the library. I have heard from adult patrons who repeatedly say that the library is a sanctuary, and how wonderful it is to feel a sense of normalcy when walking through our doors. I take comfort in that. While teens have been reluctant to talk about what happened, my teen space is full again after school each day. It’s the busiest I’ve seen it since the COVID lockdown in 2020 in fact. At the library we like to say we’re the community’s living room, and my teen space is starting to feel that way again. I’m just doing my best to be welcoming, and taking things one day at a time.

This month at TSU, we were asked to write about our goals for the year. Mine are obviously looking very different than I originally expected. Instead of just focusing on continuing to rebuild teen services in the face of COVID, now, I’m also working to figure out my role in helping the teens in my community recover from this tragedy. If any of you have experience working in a community that’s experienced tragedy or a natural disaster, I’d love to hear from you. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

What I Hope to Do in 2022!

I am tired. No, exhausted. We’ve had COVID-19 exposures at my library left and right. I just spent two weeks taking care of my 99-year-old grandmother who tested positive and thankfully only experienced mild symptoms. I miss indoor programming with my teens and wonder if/when we’ll ever get to host them again. I’m so done with adults who won’t wear their masks properly and then fight me on it.

I’m hoping to offer some additional virtual gaming programs this year – we just received a $500 budget for games and accessories.

I’m hoping to increase attendance at my weekly virtual creative writing program. I usually only get 2 or 3 teens each time.

I’m hoping to read at least 100 books this year – with at least 50 of them being YA titles.

I’m hoping to feel less guilty for not doing as much as I used to. I need to be honest and patient with myself. I need to spend some quality time assessing what my real work priorities are outside of my day-to-day tasks and responsibilities.

Last but not least, I’m hoping 2022 turns out to be at least a little less awful than 2021 was…