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Again with the library tracking! This is now six years in a row. Previous years: 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and some reviews from 2003

I went to twenty-two different libraries in seven states and one non-US country for eighty-two visits total. Did not intend this but it’s the same number of visits (though many fewer individual libraries) as last year. A few things influenced this: I did a lot less distance traveling this year but did a lot of work in local libraries, I also taught at a college where the library was a major hangout for me (thanks VTC Librarians, you are the best) and I worked a lot at my local public library. Here’s the short annotated list of what I was doing in libraries last year.

• Kimball Library – my local public library, I work here and I am a patron here
• Hartness at VTC – the best academic library anywhere near here and I worked at VTC this year
• Carney Library UMass Dartmouth – probably my favorite library building of all time (still!)
• Chelsea VT – helping with tech planning and visiting my friend Virgil
• Westport MA – the library where I summer, trying to warm up to this library
• Fletcher/Burlington VT – did consulting here this year and spent more time here
• Canada Water UK – the closest public library to where my sister and I stayed in the UK, nice busy library
• Cranston RI – visiting my friend ed, great renovations!
• Springfield MA – did some work on the way to CT, neat building with a weird vibe
• Cary Library, Lexington MA – did a talk earlier in the year, really nice place and great people
• Tiverton RI Main Branch – lovely new building across from the Sip n Dip, great to see it!
• RUHS Library – high school library in my town
• Bangor ME – a neat classic library which is getting renovated
• Greensboro VT – the quintessential Vermont library
• Roxbury VT – taught an ipad class and saw how it’s been growing and changing
• East Granby CT – killing time bfore a CT talk, this was a great place to get some R&R
• Pasadena CA – there was a fancy event here for CLA and we had a nice time hanging out and talking to people in the theater.
• Bethel VT – another place I taught an iPad class
• Springfield NH – did some consulting for a library having growing pain challenges as they make decisions on whether to automate or not
• Kellogg-Hubbard VT – went to a slide show given by a friend of mine, great to be here again.
• Norwich University, Northfield VT – sropped by and saw their renovations and excellent art exhibits.
• Orono ME – a pretty and small library

The bigger deal was really the Passport to Vermont Libraries project, a summer program put on by VLA which got hundreds of Vermonters visiting their local libraries and getting passport stamps and other fun adventures. I worked on this with a team of a few other people and it was a very successful program and I think a chunk of that was all of our enthusiasm for our library visits. So I didn’t get my further in my personal project, but professionally I helped get this idea to take off. If you just like library photos, I have more on Flickr.

I tracked the libraries that I visited this year, like every year. Previous years: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 (and this little list of reviews from 2003)

I went to thirty-six different libraries in seven states and two non-US countries for eighty visits total. A bunch more than last year, but some were just for ukulele practice or tech planning sessions at a friend’s library. Here’s the short annotated list of what I was doing in libraries last year. Top three libraries are: my local public, my local academic and my summer local.

• Kimball – my local and also the place that hosts Ukulele Club
• Hartness at VTC – the best academic library anywhere near here. Good hours, great place to hang out.
• Carney – UMass Dartmouth – probably my favorite library building of all time
• Chelsea VT – helping with tech planning, I go here often
• Somerville West – did a talk and stopped by here another time. Lovely upstairs.
• Goddard – did some VLA website work here
• Fairfield/Millicent – One of the most amazing looking libraries in MA with some cool local lore
• Aldrich/Barre – Went to a few meetings, my favorite local library renovation story
• Mackinac Island MI – small and lovely with a great book sale and classic furniture
• NYLP/SIBL – keep waiting for them to close this but they haven’t yet
• Southworth/Dartmouth – they have a harpoon display here!
• Pierson/Shelburne VT – went to a meeting, small with a great puzzle collection
• St Ignace MI – killing time while stranded here, this is a great building where you wouldn’t expect it
• Atwater/Montreal – my favorite Canadian library
• British Library – got an awesome tour from Stella Wisdom
• ULU Senate Hall UK – got a great tour from Simon who no longer works there
• Rockingham VT – dropped off some things, stuck around to take a peek at this great place
• Guilford UK – one of the smaller local publics, nice with a watch museum next door
• Roxbury VT – helped with the automation project
• Artizan St UK – community center, small and busy
• John Harvard Library UK – had an odd section for Black Titles and a security guard
• Sunderland MA – great place to pass the time en route to or from Amherst
• Somerville MA – the other little library
• Boxboro MA – wifi to check email if you are early to visit Mom
• Boston Public – got a great tour by Tom Blake and saw some great stuff
• Sun City AZ – hanging out while visiting Jim’s folks
• UM – Duluth – Chihuly sculpture!
• NYPL/Epiphany – I always love the huge staircase in here
• Duluth MI – bizarre design but fun to hang out in
• Westport MA – great DVD collection, sort of an odd place
• Barbican UK – inside the funky Barbican, lots of great UK history books
• Varnum, Cambridge VT – stopped by randomly, folks were so nice and friendly
• Ashfield MA – gave a talk, enjoyed getting to see the place
• NYPL/Kipp’s Bay – small and in need of renovation but warm and welcoming
• City University, UK – stopped to check email en route to dinner, nice place, square dancing outside
• Vicksburg MS – neat renovation, fun kids area

Did not get to as many Vermont libraries as I had wanted to as part of my 183 project. Working slowly on maybe getting a statewide 183 project up and running with other members of the VLA. Looking forward to another year of library visiting.

Skyping with 115 first-graders at A. Blair McPherson School in Edmonton, Alberta

Although I've used Skype before, I resisted doing Skype classroom visits until recently because I wasn't confident about the technology working properly. Since I first tried Skype, however, broadband services have improved and more schools are starting to do Skype visits with authors and illustrators.

Other reasons I decided to explore visiting schools via Skype:

- I lack the time and finances to visit schools outside of the Toronto area. I also don't drive, which makes transportation more of a hassle and time-consuming.

- I had so much fun talking to young readers during my NAKED! book tour (thanks, Simon & Schuster!) that I want to do more often than I have in the past, but am limited by the reasons mentioned above.

- Although I know it can't replace in-person visits, virtual school visits enable me to use more props in my presentations, a wider range of art supplies, show students around my home office, be able to pull out musical instruments (I have many) on whim.

- I know some schools can't afford a full school visit, so I decided to offer a 15-20 minute quickie visit. Those who want a longer visit can pay my regular fee. I'm also relatively new to school visits, so this also gives schools an idea of what I'm like in person. When I do my next book tour, whether sponsored by one of my publishers or funded on my own, hopefully some of these schools will be interested in having me visit.

What I did before my first Skype visit:

- I researched a TON, searching online for blog posts by children's book authors and illustrators who have done Skype visits, as well as posts by teachers and librarians about Skype visits. I was especially interested in posts by children's book illustrators, since we have the advantage of being able to do drawing demos. :-)

- I talked to my friend Lee Wardlaw, who was also my first children's book writing mentor. Lee has a huge amount of experience presenting at schools and bookstores in person as well as via Skype. Do check out her Presentations page as well as her Secrets To A Successful Skype Visit for educators.

- I worked with teacher-librarian Arlene Lipkewich and A. Blair McPherson for my very first school Skype visit. I started with a Skype test call with Arlene and another teacher, then a Skype call with Mrs. Brooke's second grade class. Arlene gave me useful feedback which I used to tweak my setup and presentation before I Skyped with five classes (115 students) of first-graders the following week. Thanks you, Arlene and A. Blair McPherson!

- I collected some of the useful resources I've found on my Skype School Visit Page for teachers and librarians as well as children's book authors and illustrators.

What I learned and what I'd do differently next time:

- It's sooooooo much more fun than I expected!

- I strongly recommend doing a Skype test call in advance of each Skype visit as well as just before the visit itself. I found this a great way of identifying potential problems and fixing them.

- Make sure you leave time for a Q&A, and coordinate with the teacher ahead of time so that he/she is able to have students prepare questions in advance.

- Figure out how to make my own screen bigger so I can see what the kids are seeing. Try to place this screen behind the webcam so I'm looking at the camera, not away.

- If I do painting, I will NOT set the paint cups on my desk where it's way too easy for me to knock them over in the middle of the Skype session (fortunately I didn't have much liquid in each)!

- Figure out how to mute the audio on my computer so I just hear it on my headphones. I found the echo a bit confusing, and was also worried about the echo leaking through into my microphone.

Some useful resources:

Please do check out the resource list I've compiled for teachers/librarians and authors/illustrators to my Skype page; I'll be gradually updating it.

Interested in having me do a Skypevisit with your school or library? Please see the info on DebbieOhi.com/skype. Hope to visit with you soon!



Photo by Tom Uhlman http://www.tomuphoto.com/

Christina, Kathy, and Mary Kay with our bat friends.

I’m a nerdy list-maker. This should come as a surprise to no one. In addition to all the other reasons I enjoy the end of the year, it’s also when I make my year-end summaries. I did a guestroom wrap-up on my personal blog. I have two bookish wrap-ups to put here. This first one is about library visits. 2009 was the first year I kept track of all my library visits in an orderly fashion. Longtime readers of this blog may remember I did library reviews in 2003. I found I had a difficult time with constructive criticism if I knew the people who worked at a library, so I stopped doing this.

This year I made 65 library visits, about one every five days. A lot of these were for work [either local work or giving talks] and the rest were either fun or curiosity. I used a website called Daytum to track my visits which was really easy. So, here’s a short annotated list of what I was doing in libraries last year.

• Aldrich/Barre (1) – killing time before dinner with friends in town. The first library in Vermont I did any work for.
• Austin (1) – LBJ library, sort of a flyby right beore it closed for the day.
• Belfast, ME (1) – a small pretty library we stopped at while on vacation
• Belmont, MA (5) – my boyfriend’s local library
• Boxboro, MA (1) – my mom and sister’s library
• Cambridge, MA (1) – got to see it after the renovations were done. It’s nice!
• Camden, ME (1) – another fancy little Maine library
• Chelmsford, MA (1) – home of the Swiss Army Librarian
• Concord, NH (1) – stopped in here during a rainstorm
• Des Moines, IA (1) – I helped change their photo policy!
• Elko, NV (1) – A small library with a great mining collection
• Hartness/Randolph VT (7) – my local college library
• Howe/Hanover, NH (4) – one of my favorite all-time libraries
• JFK Library, MA (1) – mostly a museum and a general disappointment
• Kimball/Randolph VT (6) – my town library, a great place
• Library of Congress (1) – thanks Dan Chudnov for the tour.
• Long Branch, NJ (1) – fun to poke around in while I was at NJLA
• Montreal, QC (1) – ducked in here during a subway bomb scare
• NYPL (2) – hiding out with good wifi in the periodicals room, highly recommended
• NYPL/SIBL (1) – fancy library, right downtown
• Portland, ME (1) – another hideout from the rain
• Portsmouth, NH (1) – gave a talk and stuck around
• Rochester, VT (1) – classic small-town library in a funky old building
• Toronto, QC (1) – no wifi, sort of surprising
• Tunbridge, VT (21) – where I work most of the time
• Westport, MA (1) – my Dad’s library.