Targeting Autism, library service to autistic patrons

A stakeholder forum, held March 4 to 5 in Springfield, Ill., addressed library service to people on the autism spectrum and their families. From its Wordpress site, Targeting Autism posted links to videos on its YouTube channel, mid-month.

We Need Diverse Books: LJ ‘Mover & Shaker’

For the first time since Library Journal began recognizing the profession’s “Movers & Shakers,” an organization is included among its annual honorees.

How do you treat job applicants?

In its online application, an employer asks applicants to address what good service means to them. To be considered as a candidate, the applicant must successfully communicate an understanding of good service, and how she/he will contribute to good service at the company.

Children’s literature: ‘Too white’ among other things

At Call and Response/UUA Blogs, Susan Lawrence raises a thought-provoking and timely question, “Is Children’s Literature Too White?” The statistics she cites concerning racial and ethnic authorship and representation in children’s literature suggests the answer is a resounding “Yes!”

Bellview Elementary School library ‘Top 10’

Bellview Elementary School library ‘Top 10,’ March 24, 2015
from Cynthia M. Parkhill

Oregon Battle of the Books is behind us, but in Bellview Elementary library, I’ve been promoting student participation in the Beverly Cleary Children’s Choice and Oregon Readers’ Choice awards. I’m gratified to see award nominees on this most recent “Top 10” list.

Spring break

It’s spring break at the Ashland schools this week and I already miss working in Bellview library.

‘Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate’

I could thoroughly relate to Cynthia Kim’s experiences in Nerdy, Shy, and Socially Inappropriate, A User Guide to an Asperger Life (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2015). Kim and I grew up during a time when our condition was not understood or documented to the degree that it is today.

“Like a lot of autistic adults of my generation, I made it well into middle age before realizing that I wasn’t just shy or weird or nerdy. That I wasn’t going to outgrow my quirks and wake up one day to suddenly find I was ‘normal.’”

With candor and honesty, Kim writes about early challenges: about being bullied and then later becoming a “mean girl” herself.

Cat stuffie from repurposed sweater and socks

This little cat-like creature came home with me after spending an enjoyable “Teen Crafternoon” in the teen department, Ashland branch library. I constructed the cat’s body from a repurposed sweater and fashioned it a couple changes of clothing from the legs of socks. Watch for regular teen activities during the school year and during Jackson County Library Services’ summer reading program.

‘Platinum Rule’ requires perspective-taking

I’ve been thinking about the “Platinum Rule,” ever since a religious educator wrote about it on her blog.

‘Teen Crafternoon’: We’re making ‘sock creatures’

Source of image: Ashland Teen Library on Facebook

Check out all the colors and patterns in these socks and now imagine the possibilities: making “sock creatures” during “Teen Crafternoon,” noon to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Ashland library, 410 Siskiyou Blvd. I’m looking forward to it.

‘Sam and Dave Dig a Hole’ by Mac Barnett

In mid-February, a woman named C.L. Murphy donated a copy of Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett to Bellview Elementary School library, given in observance of “International Book Giving Day” on Feb. 14.

The book depicts a quest by the title characters to dig until they find something spectacular.

Teacher-librarian Lauren Hall read the book aloud during classroom visits to the library. And her listeners got really involved: groaning and shouting, “No!” at each wrong decision by the characters. Definitely a read-aloud success!

Seed libraries: Gardeners ‘check out’ seeds

There’s been an interesting confluence of energies around the subject of seed libraries. I’ve encountered three references from unique sources in recent weeks.

Facebook groups for library professionals

Spent a couple minutes adding myself to Facebook groups for library professionals. Thanks to Jess Bacon (5 Minute Librarian) with Patrick Sweeney, Laura Hollister and Austin Stroud for compiling the “big HUGE list.”

Seeking 15 to 20 more hours of work each week

With part-time jobs as Library Assistant at an elementary school and Administrative Coordinator for the Religious Explorations program at a local church, I work 25 hours per week. I am immediately available to work afternoons/evenings and weekends, 15 to 20 hours per week, and will be available to work full-time hours when school is on summer break.

‘The End of College’ by Kevin Carey

In an essay printed March 5 by the New York Times, Kevin Carey writes about the effect that “open badges” or low-cost online degrees will have upon four-year colleges’ current “near-monopoly upon verifiable academic achievement.”

“Free online courses won’t revolutionize education until there is a parallel system of free or low-fee credentials, not controlled by traditional colleges, that leads to jobs.”

Carey’s essay was adapted from his book, The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere (Riverhead Books, 2015).

Pizza dinner was on Friends of the Library

Our dinner from The Great American Pizza Company​ was courtesy of Friends of the Library. For each reading log filled out and completed for Jackson County Library Services’ 2015 “Winter Reads” program, we were entered in a prize drawing and I won a gift certificate to the restaurant of my choice. (I could also select a free “gently used” book for each reading log turned in. In that sense, everybody won.)

Yarn-bombed bicycle

On Facebook, I accepted an artist’s invitation to post photos of my own art (in a sort of art-sharing chain called the “Facebook Art Challenge”). Today I shared an image about “yarn bombing.”