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Greetings! As part of this year’s Emerging Leaders cohort, we are a group of public and school librarians from different libraries around the country (Arkansas, California, Missouri, Ohio, and Washington) working with the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association, to conduct an environmental scan of current trends in children’s library services.
We hope that you can take approximately two to four minutes to answer this quick survey. Our goal is for this survey to give us a more detailed sense of what trends are the most relevant and important to librarians serving children and youth and how ALSC can best support librarians’ professional development needs. If you have any questions or would like to talk more about the survey and/or the project, please email us at: [email protected]
Take the 2016 ALSC Environmental Scan Survey2016 ALSC Environmental Scan Survey
The post Take the 2016 ALSC Environmental Scan Survey appeared first on ALSC Blog.
2016 ALSC Emerging Leaders Team D (photo credit ALSC)
Today I got a chance to finally meet the 2016 ALSC Emerging Leader Team D face-t0-face. Over the next six months, these five individuals will be performing an environmental scan for ALSC. I’ll be working with them in the capacity of staff liaison and it’s one of the favorite parts of my job. Every year, Emerging Leaders bring so much energy and passion to the work of our association.
Their project is for them to analyze “trends, ideas, and influences to help ALSC prepare for the future needs of members and the direction of the profession.” Who better to do that then a group of forward-thinking and Emerging Leaders!? I can’t wait to get started. By the way, this project may sound familiar. An ALSC Emerging Leader project team performed this same environmental scan back in 2010. We liked it so much we asked a new group to do it again!
The post 2016 ALSC Emerging Leaders Team D at #alamw16 appeared first on ALSC Blog.
By: Laura,
on 7/26/2011
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It’s Vacation Time around the office lately, especially now that ALA is over. But one of the delights of being offline is getting to catch up once you’re back online: it’s always fun to see that the electronic world has continued to spin even in your absence. Here are some of the posts I’ve read and loved since being back in the office:
- From Abby the Librarian: first, I loved her discussion of summer reading clubs – she’s had a phenomenal turn-out for hers…further evidence that libraries and librarians provide vital and popular services. I also enjoyed her post on ALA’s Emerging Leaders program. I was an ALA Emerging Leader (Class of 2008) and agree with everything Abby had to say – it really is a great program and I encourage librarians who meet the qualifications to apply (you still have a little time left – the deadline is August 1st!).
- Jenny Brown (of Shelf Awareness fame) over at twentybyjenny wrote a lovely reflection of Kevin Henkes’ JUNONIA: “For a child, sometimes the small shifts can feel like tectonic plates realigning their world. That’s certainly the case for Alice. And with Alice as a companion, children know that if she can survive all these changes, they can, too.“
- The Reclusive Bibliophile created a booklist “if you like cooking, baking, and candy making…” Some of my favorite foodie books are on there, and I’d love to add THE KING’S TASTER by Kenneth Oppel, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, and just wait until you read our upcoming BLISS by Kathryn Littlewood (February 2012)!
- Jennifer Hubert Swan over at Reading Rants reviews Candace Bushnell’s SUMMER AND THE CITY, the sequel to THE CARRIE DIARIES. It’s the perfect summer beach read (both Jen’s blog and SUMMER AND THE CITY)!
- Melissa Rabey at librarian by day has a fun cover comparison post that involves Chris Crutcher’s DEADLINE, and she also posted a review of P.J. Converse’s SUBWAY GIRL.
- A lovely review of
I recently had a chance to interview a 2010 Emerging Leader at my library, Jason Hyatt, who is the manager of the Children’s Department at ImaginOn. Since the applications for the program are due soon (July 30), I wanted to know what it was all about and to share the information with others.
Why did you decide to fill out an application to be an Emerging Leader?
JH: I read a blog post about the Emerging Leaders program back in 2008. At the time I considered applying, but library school was taking most of my spare time and I did not think I would be able to participate fully if chosen. As my classes wound down I saw another blog post about the program and decided to apply. I was personally interested because I wanted to strengthen my leadership skills. Since I was finishing school, it seemed like the perfect time to keep moving forward.
Which ALA Division sponsored you?
JH: I was not personally sponsored by an ALA Division. The project I worked on was sponsored by the Library Leadership and Management Association Division (LLAMA).
What kind of (non-monetary) support from ALA were you given as an Emerging Leader?
JH: The EL program has a coordinator who is in touch regularly to make sure participants are registered for both of the required meetings-annual and midwinter conferences. We also receive discounted registration for both events. Online support includes Facebook groups as well as an ALA Connect group where people can network and share their experiences. Even more support comes once you have been assigned to a team project. The sponsoring organization (ALSC, YALSA, etc.) assigns a mentor who works closely with the team over the six month project period. Throughout the year there are also webinars related to leadership development. Perhaps the biggest boost came from ALA President-elect (at the time) Roberta Stevens, who spoke at both of our meetings. She promised that any ELs who contacted her would be offered opportunities for additional involvement with ALA. True to her word, she selected me to serve on one of her presidential initiative task forces after I contacted her.
What was the most challenging part of being an Emerging Leader?
JH: The most challenging part was working on a major project with a group of people after only one face-to-face meeting. From January through June we coordinated all of our work through ALA Connect.
Did you have a project idea in mind while you filled out the application? Did it completely change once you got started?
JH: I did not have a project idea in mind when I first applied for the program. Once the EL participants were selected, we were all given a chance to vote on potential projects to work on. There were at least six projects from the list that all excited me. The one I wound up working on was a project to reinvent the LLAMA Staff Development Clearinghouse. It was previously a paper document listing outdated resources for library staff development. We turned researched new sources on various topics related to staff development and integrated our findings into the existing LLAMA wiki.
If people want their applications to stand out from one another, what would you recommend?
JH: This is good advice for everyone – keep your resume updated. That
By: Beth,
on 7/9/2010
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Save $10 on next Thursday’s webinar If you register for YALSA’s Risky Business webinar by July 14, , taking place next Thursday at 2 p.m. Eastern, you’ll save $10 over normal registration rates. That means the webinar is just $29 for individual YALSA members and $39 for all other individuals. Register today at www.ala.org/yalsa/webinars.
WrestleMania: We’ve made the Challenge shorter and simple. The WrestleMania Reading Challenge has changed this year to take place during just one week, making it simpler for you and your teens and tweens to particpate. Registering automatically enters you into a drawing for one of five sets of books from Penguin — and it gives teens and tweens at your library the chance to win tickets to WrestleMania and $2,000 for your library. It’s a surefire way to get new YA readers into your library. Don’t believe us? Then find out what happened at Bambi Mansfield’s library. Register today at www.ala.org/wrestlemania.
Win cold, hard cash from YALSA. Do you have an idea to make YALSA’s awards and booklists into household names, ensure young adult and school librarians have access to important research, help YALSA better advocate for quality library services for every teen in every library, develop continuing education or career services that librarians need or engage YALSA’s current membership and recruit new members? Of course you do. Well, YALSA will pay you $250 for that great idea (and YALSA committees are eligible to submit an idea, too). But you have to submit your idea to the Great Ideas contest by July 15.
New Books from YALSA Now available in the ALA Online Store: Risky Business: Taking and Managing Risks in Library Services to Teens by Linda Braun, Hillias J. Martin, and Connie Urquhart and Multicultural Programs for Tweens and Teens, edited by Linda B. Alexander and Nahyun Kwon. Order your copy today!
After the jump, find out how you can win FREE BOOKS simply by registering for Teen Read Week, be a 2011 YALSA Emerging Leader, and more!
Want to win free books? Sign up for Teen Read Week If you haven’t already, register for Teen Read Week In addition to showing YALSA that you support this program — which encourage teens to read for fun — there are major benefits to doing so.
When you register for Teen Read Week, you’re automatically enrolled in a contest to win a collection of titles from Cinco Puntos, 25 manga titles from Viz Media, and a full set of the Fall 2010 launch list from Carolrhoda Lab. Register today!
Apply to Be a 2011 Emerging Leader YALSA will sponsor t
By: Beth,
on 7/2/2010
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Summer Course Registration Ends Tuesday Registration ends July 6 – that’s Tuesday – for YALSA’s summer online course, Power Up with Print! Instructor Jamie Watson will show participants how to boost the library’s circulation through the development of teen-centered programs, material evaluation and selection, booktalks and more, as well as discuss the latest trends in YA lit. Course registration now open at www.ala.org/yalsa/onlinecourses. Courses cost $135 for YALSA members, $175 for ALA members, and $195 for nonmembers and will take place July 12 to August 9.
Congrats to YALSA’s Newest Spectrum Scholar! Congratulations are in order for Hoan-Vu Do, YALSA’s 2010-2011 Spectrum Scholar. Do will attend San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science.
WrestleMania Reading Challenge Registration You only have 30 days to register for the 2010-2011 Challenge! Remember, the Challenge has changed this year to take place during just one week, making it simpler for you and your teens and tweens to particpate. Registering automatically enters you into a drawing for one of five sets of books from Penguin — and it gives teens and tweens at your library the chance to win tickets to WrestleMania and $2,000 for your library. Register today at www.ala.org/wrestlemania.
Register for our July webinar! Registration is open for YALSA’s July webinar! Our July 15 webinar (Risky Business, hosted by Linda Braun) offers participants insights into effectively taking risks to manage and improve services to teens at your library. This in-depth, one-hour webinar will be held at 2 p.m. Eastern. Registration costs $39 for individual YALSA members, $49 for all other individuals. A group rate of $195 is available. Learn more (and find out details on our August and September webinars) at www.ala.org/yalsa/webinars.
After the jump, see how to win $250 from YALSA for your Great Idea, how you can get a free copy of Excellence in Library Services to Young Adults, 4th edition; how to win books simply by registering for Teen Read Week (it’s free!); who’s speaking at the Bill Morris Memorial Author Luncheon at the YA Lit Symposium, and how you can be a 2011 Emerging Leader!
Win $250 from YALSA for Your Great Idea We’ve extended the application for YALSA’s Great Ideas contest to July 15, 2010! YALSA needs your Great Ideas – and you could win $250 in cash! We’re looking for creative help from you to help YALSA achieve its goals. Download an application at the Great Ideas webapage and send your questions to Sarajo Wentling at [email protected].
Free Book Offer! For a limited time only at the
Posted on behalf of Team U.
Team U from the Emerging Leaders program is working on a project for YALSA to develop a job shadowing initiative for teens to promote teen librarianship (in school or public settings). Because of Skype and other wonderful technologies we can cheaply connect teens who cannot participate in in-person job shadowing to fabulous practicing librarians. We are working on a video that will be about a half hour long to show teens before they attend a Skype or video conference with a librarian. It would be a busting-myths-about-librarians-look at the activities of librarians who work with teens.
Are you willing to grab a video camera and get one of your kids/co-workers/significant other to film you showing us what your job is *really* like in a way that would appeal to teens and bust those bun-cat-shushing myths? Or do you already have something we could cull from (maybe on YouTube or something your TAB created)? Even 60 seconds worth of footage that shows teens what librarians really do on the job is appreciated and needed!
We will accept footage of any length. Please know we will be editing for time and relevance, but respecting content and context. We prefer AVI or MP3 or MP4 format, please.
We do not need anything slick & professional, already-edited or perfect. We are including statements from YA authors telling teens what is so great about libraries/librarians. Authors like Sydney Salter and LK Madigan have already given us footage taped from their Macs to use.
This is a great opportunity for you to promote the cool programs and other activities you do in your library. All participants and their libraries will be credited. And because we know we are asking you to do something during a busy time of year, the first five folks to send footage get a free signed book from Candlewick Press.
The rough draft will be shown at ALA Annual on June 25 from 3-5pm at the Emerging Leaders poster session. The aim is to create a final piece that can be used and posted on the YALSA web site.
Any questions/concerns/ideas? Email me! [email protected]
Deadline for me to receive footage is JUNE 10. How can you give me footage?
1. Burn on a CD and send to: Lizz Zitron, Hedberg Library, Carthage College, Kenosha, WI 53140
2. Email to: [email protected]
3. Put in an online dropbox (includes video tutorial for how to use.)
By: Beth,
on 10/29/2009
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Congratulations! YALSA named its two 2010 Emerging Leaders! Anna Koval, teacher-librarian at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, California, and Amy Barr, youth services librarian and assistant director at Kilgore Memorial Library in York, Nebraska. Both will attend the 2010 Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference. The Emerging Leaders are funded through the Friends of YALSA.
E-Chat Next Week! Mark your calendars! YALSA’s monthly online chats return next week in ALA Connect. On Nov. 4, we’ll be discussing inexpensive programming and ways to stretch your programming dollars with Jenine Lillian, editor of the new YALSA book, Cool Teen Programs for under $100. To join us, visit YALSA’s area in ALA Connect. YALSA members should use their login for the ALA website. If you’ve lost your password, you can recover it through the ALA website. Once logged in, head to the YALSA area (it’s http://connect.ala.org/yalsa or you can navigate there within Connect by choosing “YALSA” from under “My ALA Groups”) and then click “Chats.”
Lit Blog Applications and CE Proposals Due 10/30! Interested in editing YALSA’s new blog, focused exclusively on teen literature? Read the announcement to see the qualifications and find out how to apply. The deadline to propose new continuing education (online courses and face-to-face institutes) is tomorrow as well; see our announcement for topic ideas and the proposal form. Applications for the new blog manager and the CE proposals are both due to Beth Yoke at [email protected] tomorrow.
After the jump, find out how you can sign up for special events at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting, apply for $40K in grants and awards, promote the Teens’ Top Ten at your library, or receive a stipend to attend the 2010 Young Adult Literature Symposium.
Register for YALSA’s pre-Midwinter events Registration is now open for YALSA’s pre-Midwinter events! Sign up for the Midwinter Institute, “Libraries 3.0: Teen Edition” (featuring Cory Doctorow and others) and Midwinter Social Event, ”Games, Gadgets & Gurus.” Register for both and save! Register through Midwinter registration or, if you only want to attend these two events, by downloading this form (PDF; skip section I) and following the directions at the YALSA wiki. Want to add these events to an existing registration? You can add events two ways: (1) By phone: Call ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084 and ask to add a workshop to your existing registration.; (2) Online: Add an event to your existing registration by clicking on this link. Use your log in and password to access your existing Midwinter registration and add events in the “Your Events” section (screen 6). Then simply check out and pay for the events you’ve added. You can see all of YALSA’s plans for Midwinter at the YALSA Midwinter Wiki, http://bit.ly/yalsamw2010.
Apply for $40K in awards & grants from YALSA YALSA members can apply for more than $40,000 in grants and awards! This year, we will award up the YALSA/Baker & Taylor Conference Grants, theYALSA/BWI Collection Development Grants, the YALSA/Greenwood Publishing Group Service to Young Adults Award, the MAE Award for Best Literature Program for Teens, the Frances Henne/YALSA/VOYA Research Grant, and the Great Books Giveaway. Applications for all YALSA member awards are due by Dec. 1. Details on all the awards and grants are available online at www.ala.org/yalsa/awards&grants.
Promote the Teens’ Top Ten with bookmarks! By now, you’ve read that teens cast more than 11,000 votes for the 2009 Teens’ Top Ten and seen that John Green’s Paper Towns topped the list. YALSA created bookmarks (PDF) to promote this year’s ten winning titles; you can customize and distribute them at your library.
Apply for a YA Lit Symposium travel stipend! Join YALSA in 2010 for the Young Adult Literature Symposium, Nov. 5-7, 2010, in Albuquerque, N.M, with a theme of “Beyond Good Intentions: Teens, Literature and Diversity.” We’re also giving away two stipends to offset travel costs, one for someone whose worked directly with teens in a library setting for ten years or less and one for a student in an ALA-accredited MLS program (you must be enrolled in an MLS program at the start of the symposium); stipend applications are due by Jan. 4, 2010. Details on both are available at www.ala.org/yalitsymposium.
That’s it for this week’s update! To stay up to date on the latest from the YALSA Office, sign up to follow YALSA on Twitter or become a fan of YALSA on Facebook!
Happy first day of spring! -- on which it's been snowing here in NYC. Weird. Spring is undeniable, however, and with it a young bookseller's thoughts turn to raising a pint with fellow industry professionals. That's right, folks: it's time for another Emerging Leaders Night Out!
This coming Wednesday, March 25, at 7 PM, we'll be gathering at Swift, one of my favorite Irish pubs, for some professional networking with fellow booksellers and industry folks. This time, we'll also be joined by members of HarperCollins program for young folks, HarperCollins Emerging Professionals (HCEP). It's a great chance to learn about what the publisher is doing, and meet some fresh faces coming up through the ranks. And the Independent Booksellers of New York City (IBNYC) will also have a presence, so you can learn about what that organization is doing to promote indie booksellers to consumers in NYC. EL, HCEP, IBNYC -- it will be an evening of acronyms, and beer. (This one is just for booksellers and HCEP folks -- sorry, other publishers, we'll get ya next time.)
With everything else that's been going on, I'm a little late in promoting this event. I just sent an email to our Emerging Leaders list, and Kelly at IBNYC will be doing the same to the many indie stores on her list. I'm gonna start spreading the word on Twitter, too. This will be an interesting experiment to see how fast we can gather a mob of booksellers in this connected age. Let's show them how it's done.
You do need to RSVP via email to [email protected] -- do that now, while you're thinking of it. And see you for a pint on the 25th!
The lack of posting around here should not be construed as a lack of activity. This has turned out to be a week with high demands from other aspects of my bookish life: Emerging Leaders, McNally Jackson (we -- by which I mean me -- are on Facebook AND Twitter now), a new blogging project (info TK), and mostly, working on Greenlight Bookstore. I've tidied up that other blog of mine (and Rebecca's) to reflect the evolving reality of our project, and in hopes that we'll be seeing some more traffic soon. We've also got a real estate lead that involves so many unknowns I can't even explain it right now, but it's potentially really exciting. So I've been kinda distracted.
I do, however, have a pile of recently read graphic novels I want to write about, and not one but TWO thrilling not-yet-published books in my bag: the new Kate Christensen, Trouble (out in June) and the new Jonathan Lethem, Chronic City (out so long from now I don't even know the date -- the book is still in manuscript form). So as soon as I'm done frantically tearing through those two I'll be posting frenzied fangirl reports. I'm also meeting one of my contemporary author heroes Jim Lynch, author of The Highest Tide and Border Songs, tomorrow afternoon, so I hope to report on that as well.
So with renewed promises I beg your forgiveness, and hope you can be satisfied with more to come. Happy reading!
* As the world of indie booksellers knows, this coming weekend is the eagerly awaited Fourth Annual Winter Institute! Due to the uncertainty of my own plans months ago during registration, I won't be there in person... but I'll be jealously following the schedule of every educational session, party and rep picks meal throughout the weekend. If anyone is live blogging, let me know...
* And if you're at WI and of the under-40 persuasion, don't miss the Emerging Leaders Reception, Friday night at 9 PM in the charmingly titled Deer Valley room. Your intrepid Emerging Leaders Council will be meeting throughout the weekend to plan upcoming projects and programming, but on Friday night they'll do what they do best: drinking. I mean, networking with fellow booksellers, of course. The event is hosted by Unbridled Books, an emerging up-and-coming publisher itself, and will feature two of their promising new authors. The winners of the Emerging Leaders scholarships from Ingram and the ABA will also be recognized and cheered, and I expect a good time will be had by all. Toss one back for me!
* The NEXT weekend, already, is the also eagerly awaited New York Comic Con! I managed to score the highest prize for a comics geek: a press pass to the Con, courtesy of Shelf Awareness (where I'll be reporting on the festivities) and the illustrious Lance Fensterman and his crack convention staffers. The ALP and I will be wandering the show floor, snapping pictures and reporting on the madness and excitement from the bookseller's perspective. I'm also going to try to catch some of the programming for Thursday's ICV2 conference, in between my bookstore work schedule. Let me know if you'll be there too -- maybe we can meet up and share stories of our favorite costume sightings.
* And on Saturday at 11:00 at NYCC, in Room 1A18 at the Javitz Center, I have the additional awesome privilege of moderating a panel of heroes of the medium, discussing nonfiction in comics. Here's the actual panel description from the NYCC website:
"Telling A Story With Imagined Pictures: How can there be non-fiction comics when every image drawn is representational? This panel examines the non-fiction comic, looking at photographs, non-fiction prose works, and non-fiction comics as each is uniquely able to portray different aspects of non-fiction. Four creators will discuss how the element of representation and construction continually present in non-fiction comics work impact the stories they tell."
The illustrious panelists are Mike Dawson, creator of the fantastic memoir of Queen and adolescence Freddie and Me; Sabrina Jones, creator of the forthcoming biography Isadora Duncan on the groundbreaking dancer; Dan Goldman, co-author of the Iraq war satire Shooting War and the forthcoming presidential campaign mem
oir 08 (also, his webcomic on Obama and the singularity is fantastic); and George O'Connor, creator of Journey into Mohawk Country, using a 17th century traders' journals as text for his true adventure story. It's an amazing group of folks to talk about the potential and challenges of telling true stories with the comics medium, and I can't wait to hear what we talk about. Props are due to comics girl-about-town Gina Gagliano of First Second Books for bringing us all together. Check it out, along with the rest of NYCC's fascinating programming.
* And if you're not going to any of these gatherings, despair not: the illustrious Kelly Amabile of the Independent Bookstores of New York City has compiled a list of 25 fantastic happenings at bookstores throughout our fair city this month. Most of them are free, and all of them sound intriguing (Scott Pilgrim midnight party, anyone?) Check it out, and enjoy getting together with your fellow booklovers!
Review of an imaginary book
As I was delaying getting out of bed this morning, I had one of those weird morning dreams. I was reading a YA comic book about a boy and a girl who were left in the woods for dead. They somehow returned to civilization with a mutant superpower: if you got too near them you sickened and died. But it worked very slowly, so for most people it just manifested as a faint nausea. Then the boy and the girl became rockstars (apparently inducing nausea added to their mystique), and played a kick-ass show in which one of them played a Smashing Pumpkins song and the other simultaneously played some hip hop anthem, producing a harmonious chaos. As the kids were both either black or Latino, it was in a weird way a positive depiction of teens of color, influenced perhaps by Ivan Velez' Dead High Yearbook, and maybe by the animated comic (the ALP says "We used to just call it 'cheap animation'") in the extras of the Hellboy 2 DVD I watched last night. I specifically remember thinking in my dream, "I have to review this comic on my blog!" And now I have.
Emerging Leaders Scholarship winners
Last week, the intrepid members of the ABA Emerging Leaders Council looked long and hard at the 50 or so applicants for the Emerging Leaders Scholarship to Winter Institute. Since each of us represents a region, we shuffled things around so that we weren't judging candidates from our own region. And with very little trouble (well, except in narrowing it down among the stellar entries) we chose six awesome young booksellers to represent the Emerging Leaders generation at Winter Institute and have their travel and lodging paid for. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Ingram Book Group, the following booksellers are going to Salt Lake City!
NAIBA:
Alison Haimson
Carnegie Mellon University Bookstore
Book Department Manager
NEIBA:
Kate Robinson
Brookline Booksmith
SIBA:
Rich Rennicks
Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe
NCIBA/SCIBA:
Jess Ridout
Books Inc. Burlingame
MPIBA:
Joe Eichman
Tattered Cover Book Store
PNBA:
Emily Adams
Third Place Books
Congratulations to all these winners! And thanks to my fellow council members Caroline, Megan, Sweet Pea, Emily, Jenn, and Jenn for being awesome and helping to make this all happen.
Riggio on the 4th Quarter
The Millions blog does their quarterly report on the Barnes & Noble quarterly report, which (though we indies may have mixed feelings about it) potentially offers insights on the state and future of the book industry. Steve Riggio comments thoughtfully on the decreased media coverage of books during election season, which will hopefully reverse itself now, but my favorite part is his articulation of the books=gifts strategy we've been talking about for weeks now:
"Books are fairly affordable and we hope that as consumers get into the holiday season they recognize that a purchase of $15 or $20 or $25 can give someone a fairly memorable gift."
"Fairly" used twice in the same sentence? Way to hedge your bets, Ridge old boy. But the silver lining is real enough, and it's good to hear it from the big boys.
Bookselling in hard times
Despite that silver lining -- or perhaps rather, in order to take full advantage of it -- we booksellers need to be at the top of our game right now to deal with the current and predicted hard times. Bookselling This Week has gathered all of their articles and other materials on "bookselling in hard times" - you can see them all together here. There's also an open invitation from American Booksellers Association CEO Avin Domnitz to arrange a one-on-one consultation with him. If you're having a hard time taking a hard look at your bookstore's weak spots, I highly recommend getting in touch with Avin. He's a successful bookseller from way back AND a lawyer AND a finance expert, and I've consulted with him a number of times as I've developed my business plan. I often feel a bit disheartened at first by his merciless practicality, but then I find I'm armed with the perspective and the tools I need to make necessary improvements. We can all use all the help we can get -- and talking with the ABA is free.
Obama and the book trade
Freelance book critic John Freeman (until recently president of the National Book Critics Circle, and a great friend to indie bookstores here in NYC) writes in the Guardian about how Obama's presidency will affect book sales. His prediction: we'll see bumps in the backlist titles that Obama, a great reader of history, mentions as influences, which will hopefully take the place of the anti-Bush administration books that have dominated our nonfiction shelves for years. That's not to mention the books by and about Obama, of course. The global news agency AFP has a similar story, which begins with the encouraging statement "The literati are back in charge of Washington." My fellow NAIBA board member Mark LaFramboise of Politics and Prose has a typically wry quote in the piece: after expressing gratitude that we have "a reader in the White House again", he notes "John McCain books are dead now. And we can't sell an Iraq war book now to save our souls."
At McNally Jackson, we have a display table sometimes referred to as "the Obama shrine": a dozen or more memoirs, audio books, photo retrospectives, hard policy analysis tomes, and children's picture books about the 44th president. And the shrine is selling very well, thank you. It's topped by our home-made signage using a photo of Obama and a quote from his election night speech: "Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."
Books = Happiness
As if you didn't know this, you joyful booksellers. "A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as 'very happy' spend more time reading and socializing." Maybe we can use this in our marketing as social proof?...
That's all for this Monday, kids. Happy reading!
It has come to my attention recently -- when sending out events emails, calling publisher customer service, inquiring of publicists, talking to my friends, etc. -- that virtually the entirety of the publishing industry takes some portion of the month of August off. Next to that week between Christmas and New Year's, it's probably the deadest time of year in the echoing offices of the publishing houses.
And gosh darn it, I think this bookseller needs to get in on some of that lack-of-action. So I'm declaring the month of August a hiatus from The Written Nerd. Half of my readership is somewhere in the Hamptons or the Caribbean or Canada anyway (ha, or the roofs of their non-air-conditioned apartments -- who am I kidding?) I've got big plans for September, but I feel it's gonna be a really good thing for me to take a little time off in the meantime. I'm not going anywhere myself -- but loafing in the grass this morning in Prospect Park, I couldn't think of anywhere I'd rather be than right here in Brooklyn.
Not that there's nothing going on, mind you. I will be taking part in some cool activities coming up, which I have mentioned before. I'm posting their details here, so you'll have that to refer to in my absence, and you'll know where I can be found.
Thursday, August 7, 7:00-9:00 PM
Name Change Celebration
McNally Robinson becomes McNally Jackson! And Kate Christensen, Nathan Englander, Joseph O’Neill, Peter Sis, Matt Weiland, Sean Wilsey, Colson Whitehead become booksellers for a day!
McNally Jackson Books, 52 Prince Street, NYC
Open to anyone, but RSVP in advance required; RSVP by emailing the bookstore.
Tuesday, August 19, 7:00 - 9:00 PM
Emerging Leaders Night Out: IndieBound Edition
Networking, drinking, and learning about the new buy local initiative from the ABA. Free t-shirts to booksellers who RSVP by August 11!
Flatbush Farm and Bar(n), 76 St. Mark's Ave., Brooklyn
Open to young booksellers, publishers, and other book industry professionals; RSVP by emailing me.
Monday and Tuesday, August 25 & 26
ABA Emerging Leaders Council meeting with Ingram
Your reps of the national Emerging Leaders Council fly down to Nashville to meet with the nation's largest book wholesaler and discuss our goals and strategies
Just us 7 -- but we'll report back from our Southern rendezvous!
Sunday, September 14
Brooklyn Book Festival
Author readings, booksellers, publishers, lots and lots of Brooklyn book culture!
Brooklyn Borough Hall & Plaza
Open to the public
Saturday-Monday, September 20 - 22
New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Fall Trade Show: NAIBA Con!
Education, author talks and signings, discussion sessions, trade show floor, bookseller insights, galleys, networking, yoga, cocktails, and much more!
Crowne Plaza Hotel, 2349 W. Marlton Pike, Cherry Hill, NJ
Open to booksellers from the mid-Atlantic region; register or find out more by emailing Eileen Dengler
Happy lazy days of summer, everyone. Hope you've got some good books to relax with. See you in September!
I'm off to spend the weekend with A, Mom and my three sister's.
I'm bringing my writing along . . . but I'm not sure if it will see the light of day. You know how sisters can be when they get together!
A's play is going well. She's loving the college theater life! The stage and theater she's working in is new to her, seats on all four sides, I hear. I won't say too much more because she hopes to take some pictures and blog about it.
I'm bringing her the camera to do so!
Poor B . .. . he hates it when I go away without him. Look at what he built to replace me . . .
Pretty clever, huh?
All with recyclables.
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hey i stumbled upon your blog and i love indie bookstores in brooklyn too! i'm currently working as a book publicist for workman. i'll keep an eye out for your bookstore project in fort greene!