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Friday: Illustrators Marketing Intensive

There was lots of great advice about marketing your work and the workshop was geared towards people that had books out or would have them out soon. I think there was a lot of info that’s useful to pre-published illustrators as well. Here’s a smattering of my notes and the points I thought were particularly useful. Some people talked faster than I could write, so the quotes are paraphrased.

John Rocco:

*Put your website URL in your trailer so people can find you after watching it.

*Expect nothing from your publisher (for promotion) and think of things that you can do to help the book (trailer, bookmarks, coloring pages, local contacts, etc.).

*Book trailers don’t have to be snazzy. You’re an illustrator; tell the story.

*Be kind. Be generous with your time and work, with bookstores and at signings. Be sincere.

Dan Santat:

*Build a network of peers: sincere relationships are very important.

*Blog consistently, at least once a week, so people will keep coming back. Talk about your work, but talk about other stuff too.

*Uses or has used different sites to promote his work (Flickr, Tumblr, Blog, Facebook, Illustration Friday), but says: You can do as much social networking as you want, but your work is what’s going to get you jobs.

*Handmade feel makes trailers more appealing.

Sophie Blackall:

*If you like doing something, find a way to call it work (like her blog to book: Missed Connections).

*If your stuff isn’t out there, it won’t be seen.

 Dan Yaccarino (on giving presentations):

*Know your topic (research even if you think you know it).

*Know your audience (kids, adults, kidlit people) and tailor the presentation accordingly. Sometimes the ideas/content for audiences overlaps.

*Don’t sign a cast or anything else or you will have to do it for everyone. Kids have a keen sense of fairness.

*Don’t shake hands with the kids. Fist bump and then Purell so you don’t get the flu.

*Be flexible (what if your computer goes out?).

*Drawing during a school visit is like a magic trick to a kid. If you can do it, do it.

 Michelle Fadlalla:

*Make the package you send stand out so that people will be interested and will review it. It’s also good to know who the right person is to send it to, instead of blanketing everyone in the industry.

*Anything that the publisher offers, take advantage of it.

Deb Shapiro:

*Have patience. It takes a long time to build and develop your presence. It’s about the long run, not the sprint. Patience and hard work will get you there eventually.

Jed Bennett:

*Let your publisher know what you can do for them. You have to be the biggest champion for your book.

Saturday and Sunday: General Conference Notes

Jean Feiwel:

*This is a bestseller business. You have to make money for the compa

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The conference was wonderful! Seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and hearing Judy Blume speak!! OMG, Judy Blume! Oh, and at one point, I saw Judy Blume and Fonzie (Henry Winkler) together. Whoa! That was strange, but so cool!

There’s usually a theme emerges when I go to conferences. It’s not anything planned by the speakers, but arises from the sessions I attend and the advice I need at that moment. I’m not sure what the theme for this conference is, yet. But if I had to pick a theme, I might go with Heart (making sure your stories have it), or Embracing the Suck (of first drafts), or Specific=Universal. Here are the notes (cross posted to my other blog).

Bruce Coville: He started off the conference with a keynote that was both funny and serious. Some of his advice was:

“Marry rich.”

“Take your art seriously but also take yourself seriously as a business person.”

“Make your own rules.”

“Don’t be afraid to show your heart; put it on the page.”

Liesa Abrams: (Aladdin/S&S) She talked mostly about middle grade. Her list focuses on fantasy.

On Plot, Theme, and Voice: Think about what matters to a twelve-year-old, what they see and care about, and what’s at stake.

Sees too many subs where kids are really self aware (keep them believable, even when they do stuff out of their age range).

Hook is just as important in MG as it is in YA.

Young vs. Older MG is about tone and sophistication.

Libba Bray: keynote and breakout session

“Embrace the suck (of first drafts). Your book is there, buried under the one you hate.”

“You don’t have to make it perfect; you just have to make it better (one little bit at a time).”

“In the particular is contained the universal.”

“Mediocre fiction is usually where the character isn’t well developed.”

“It should cost you something (emotionally, to write the novel). You want to be a different person on the other side of the book than when you started writing it.”

“Be who you want to be/allow yourself to play/explore humanity.”

“Think of characters like nesting dolls with many layers.”

On revision: It’s like “standing on the edge of the plane waiting to jump, thinking, ‘this could all end badly, but it’s a good day to die.”

Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler: talking about writing with humor and heart – I missed the beginning of the session because of my critique, but the end was well worth going to. Lin’s voice was going out, so Henry did most of the talking. One of the highlights was when he talked about how he created the character of Fonzie. “Aaaaaaa.” But they both  talked a lot about writing and making things funny. The biggest take-aways:

general=not funny / specific=funny

“If you don’t laugh, cut it.”

Emma Dryden: talking about the digital landscape

“The story matters most.”

“Adults have to re-educate and re-tool to maneuver new landscapes. Children have nothing to unlearn about digital. It’s where they live.”

Judy Blume (talking with Lin Oliver): During her talk, it became clear that Judy Blume is a writer’s writer. She’s one of us.

“I’m so sucky at plot. That’s not how it comes to me.”

When she begins a book, she knows where it starts and thinks she knows where it’s going. She doesn’t know anything else and loves the surprises along the way.

“The stuff that’s going to matter, going to work, and touch the readers has to come from someplace deep, deep inside.”

“The first draft is

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Here are my notes from the LA conference (finally). They are a mix and jumble of inspiration and tips on craft and are not direct quotes unless you see quote marks (and even then, a word or two could be missing if they talked faster than I could scribble notes). I would have posted them earlier, but I’ve been traveling. The pictures with this post are the doodles I drew in my notebook while taking notes. There were birds on the cover of the notebook and a bird on the back side of each page, but there weren’t any birds on the front of the pages, you know, where I was writing and would have been able to actually see the birds. So I drew my own birdies on top of and around the little non-birdie flower design.

M.T. Anderson (keynote)

- Does some things just for artistic pleasure, not necessarily for the book or for marketing.

- “Those books that take us away from what we expect show us the world anew.”

- “Don’t be afraid of your eccentricities.”  (Love that quote!)

Courtney Bongiolatti (on boy books)

- Recommended Guys Read website.

- She also recommended that you know your genre. Are you writing Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery, Humorous Mystery, Sports, School Stories, Historical Fiction, Combination of Genres, Relatable, or Out of the Box?

- Boy books should have a boy main character, be about a kid that the reader wants to be like, and have series potential.

Carolyn Mackler (on characters)

- Quirks, details and language help define characters. Make them consistent throughout the book.

- Writing exercise: What does your character keep hidden in their underwear drawer, and if nothing, where do they hide things and what do they hide?

- “Number one challenge is figuring out what to omit. What you omit is more important than what you keep in the story.”

E.B. Lewis (keynote)

- “Keep forging forward – there is life after you feel like the inspiration has died.”

- “As artists you need to fill yourself up to overflowing and then give it all back.”

Gail Carson Levine (keynote)

- If a character is going to change, we have to see how it happens (the set up) or understand later how it came to be.

- Grow in the writing – as you write you get to know your characters better and develop them through writing.

- Writing exercise: 3 characters are getting ready for school. How does each one prepare? Reveal the thoughts and feelings of each; they should all be different.

Jon Scieszka (stories across multiple media)

- Websites, blogs, etc. that are mentioned in the book are live and each character has their own online presence. (Talking about his Spaceheadz books.)

- Multimedia platform books are a hard sell even for an established author, but more publishers are starting to look for these books.

- Fully half of hi

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Shauna Dunn (one of my new favorite people) from That Amazing Dunn Family spoke on Saturday about how she encourages a love of learning in her home. She had so many amazing ideas. I don't know how she does half of them!

-Once per week, she meets with her husband for a SPICESS meeting. They talk about the spiritual, physical, intellectual, creative, emotional, skills, and social well-being of each of their 5 kids. Twice a year, they go on a SPICESS retreat, where they discuss how they are doing in each category and go out to a spicy restaurant.

-She wakes up each child with individual read-aloud.

-Once per week, each child gets a Daddy Day in the morning. It may be running an errand or doing something simple, but it's alone time with Dad.

-Scripture Snack- Everyone gathers for family scripture snack and a treat before bed. (It's the only treat of the day, so if they miss scripture snack, they don't get one.)

-Decide what you want your family culture to be and work toward it intentionally.

-On the day of each child's birthday every month, they get a birthday date with either mom or dad or both.

-Family Clappings: When someone does something good, they get to stand on the counter and everyone claps for them.

-You are the expert in you own home.

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I attended three illustration workshops in January and February. The talks were given by Steve Metzler (Dutton), Patrick Collins (Henry Holt), and Regina Griffith (Egmont). Here are some notes from those sessions that I thought might help both illustrators and writers.

Steve Metzler gave a talk about Dutton, then reviewed several portfolios, including mine. I learned almost as much from what he said about other portfolios as I did from what he said about mine. If you have a chance to have him review your portfolio, take it.

- Characters are selling in picture books and graphic novels, especially quirky characters (like Fancy Nancy, Skippy Jon Jones, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Baby Mouse).

- A good character leads to a good story.

- He likes to see people in portfolios, not just animals.

- 2012 is supposed to be the height of the new PB market (baby boom in 2006).

- If you’re an illustrator, also be a writer.

- He works on everything from PB to YA.

- Sees a need for graphic novels for boys (7-9 year olds).

- Don’t ever do a PB dummy where it’s all the same (all full page spreads, all vignettes, all single pages, etc.)

Patrick Collins gave portfolio reviews to three lucky people, followed by Q&A at a local SCBWI meeting. He didn’t review my portfolio, but I learned a lot from the portfolios he did review.

- A publisher might choose your art or your writing, but not always both – even if you do both.

- Try to have a focus in each image. How do you get the focal point of the image to come forward and have everything else fade into the background? Try varying the tones/values.

- Kid’s books are all about characters and storytelling.

- Pay attention to how you draw people and animals and how you incorporate them into your backgrounds.

- You really need to put in the time to make progress if you want to have a career in art.

- Make sure you have character in your characters. They should look like living people, not mannequins. (You can achieve this through expressions, body language and interaction between characters.)

- Need to have more than one perspective/point of view.

- Think about how you can show focus in a busy image. You don’t want people to miss the important part of the scene.

- The reason an art director looks for a consistent style is so they know what you can/will do if they hire you. You can always market a different style later. Show your best style at the time.

Regina Griffith gave a talk about Egmont, then reviewed several portfolios, including mine. As with Steve Metzler’s talk, I learned almost as much from what she said about other portfolios as I did from what she said about mine. Regina was really great about reviewing a portfolio and then talking about what was working or not with the whole group. If you have a chance to have her review your portfolio, take it.

- Not publishing many PBs right now. Focusing on older books.

- She’s looking for a broad range with real kid appeal.

- Most of the books on their list right now are US books, but they do have a couple that are foreign books.

- No graphic novels yet, but maybe in the future.

- Can’t imagine not liking animals in clothing. It depends on the text though. (In response to a question about anthropomorphized animals.)

- Picture books should have a plot.

- In a crowd scene, everyone should have different personalities.

- Page turn surprises in picture books are a good thing.

- It’s good to show you can fill a page with spots/vignettes or with full page spreads.

- It’s good to have black and white images in your portfolio when picture books are in a slump.

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I realized the other day that I forgot to post my notes from the SCBWI NY conference in January. I can’t believe it’s been a month already; it seems like last week. So, here are my notes from the conference – finally!

* Check back tomorrow for notes from illustrator workshops this year: Steve Metzler (Dutton), Patrick Collins (Henry Holt), and Regina Griffith (Egmont).

SCBWI NY Conference Notes:

Friday – Illustrator’s Intensive

There were really great speakers and a portfolio exhibit. This was a good year for the illustrator’s intensive. The only bump in the road was not finding out we had an assignment until the day before the conference. Lots of other people didn’t know either.

Paul O. Zelinsky (my favorite speaker of the day – even if it was too early in the am):

- He uses the style/medium that fits the story he’s illustrating and not just the style that people expect him to use.

- When he’s inspired by something, he doesn’t do a copy of that picture or style, he finds his own unique way to do it.

- Did the art project with us later, when Kevin Hawkes was speaking. Paul gets the creativity award for the day. He didn’t have any glue for the project, so he used the mints on the table … brilliant!

Lisa Desimini:

- It’s important to do personal work and what inspires you. It will find a way into your work.

- After reading a poem/story to illustrate, she circles the main concept words. Then she takes those words, or phrases, and brainstorms about them to figure out what to illustrate for each scene or poem. (*This is something I’m going to try in the future to illustrate something other than what’s expected.)

Kevin Hawkes:

- Curved lines are not static.

- Curved diagonals have a lot of energy.

- Figure out where the emotional center of the story is going to go, then try not to hijack that (especially when working with another author’s text).

- Shapes that come to a point can be scary to a 5 year old.

Art Director Panel (All said they don’t look at source books – look online instead):

Ann Bobco (Atheneum, McElderry and Beach Lane):

- Make sure pictures are not redundant to the text. The example she showed was from Seven Hungry Babies (out this spring). The story the illustrations tell is why mama bird gets so tired by the end of the book. Each time she gets food for the baby, she faces some kind of challenge, which is not in the text.

- Art samples need to speak to her as if they are coming from a real person or tied to an individual working in that voice.

Chad Beckerman (Abrams and Amulet):

- Likes illustrators that don’t need to be pushed, but come up with ideas, character sketches, etc.

- Passion – give more than is expected. Don’t settle just to get the work done. Picture books are a continuous job. It’s a job.

- Art is a constant exploration, not, “I’m done./This is all there is.” It’s easy to work with and give feedback to artists that are used to evolving and exploring.

- He likes what entertains him now and would have when he was a kid/teen.

Lee Wade (Schwartz and Wade):

- Asks all new illustrators, “are you up for this?” There’s a steep learning curve for illustrators of picture books. It’s par for the course to get four pages of illustration notes as feedback on the dummy or sketches. Every round of sketches/illustrations has this kind of feedback from them.

- Consistency is one of the biggest challenges in picture books.

- hear/read the feedback comments and process them/interpret them in your own way.

- Questions she asks when looking at an art sample: Does she feel something? Know that kid? Kn

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Welcome to my blog. This week I continue to interrupt my series on novel writing for conference notes. Last week I went to the SCBWI Western Washington annual conference, and because I'm scoring "the not to be named" test, I've decided to jump in here with conference ramblings on the many agents and editors at this conference. I will get back to the process next week.

Here is my disclaimer: my notes are just a small part of the story. I've noticed everyone hears something different at these conferences, so what ever you find here is my slant on the universe. Just want to keep it real, folks.

Stephen Barbara, Literary Agent, Donald Maas Literary Agency

* only represents novelists.
* a real taste for high concept stories
* track record of launching new novelists on a regular basis.
* likes a book that plays to the heart.

Marcia Wernick, Literary Agent, Sheldon Fogelman Agency

* wants a deep connection with the work
* looks for fresh talent
* hopes for versatile authors
* seeks excellence

KT Scahefer, Literary Agent

* middle grade and YA fiction
* no picture books
* check out her website and blog

Laurent Linn, Art Director, Simon and Schuster BFYR

* educate yourself on the style of the house
* believes there is room for everyone
* thinks you should get out there and read

Jessica Garrison, Dial BFYR

* character driven stories
* write from you heart, but use your brain
* find a new way to tell a universal story

Arthur Levine, Arthur Levine Books

* a writer, too.
* publishes a range of books connected by an emotional core
* delves into the mythic questions: Who are we? What do we want?

Randi Rivers, Editor, Charlesbridge

* loves comedy
* likes to cry, too
* interested in the story of science and math

Nina Hess, Mirrorstone, Wizards of the Coast

* interested in stuff that will turn conventional stories upside down

Gary Luke, Sasquatch Publishing

* love of natural history
* seeks stories with a regional connection

Lisa Abrams, Editor, Aladdin

* note the reorg, this imprint now has hardcovers
* focus on high concept
* likes books that push the limits

Well, I hope something here has been helpful for you.


On another note the final cover for Rembrandt has shown up. Yay:



Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Seneca

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Aaron Schmidt, Adina Lerner, John Blyberg, Carol Bean, Allan M. Kleiman, Glenn Peterson, Marilyn Turner

question: bookspace page is great, looks great; I wonder about these lists, because blogs are self-correcting, but the lists seem to be more static; how do you know the lists are doing their job and accomplishing what you want them to accomplish?
answer: glenn - recently noticed that on one of the lists, someone said “here are the titles that I like about such and such and if you have favorites, comment below,” but we don’t have offer comments on the lists; so there are ways we can make the lists more organic and dynamic
Marilyn - there’s a list called “all pink book covers,” so you can’t really correct everything

question from allan: we haven’t been very successful to get our staff to adapt to 2.0, although we’re playing with sites; how did you actually motivate your staff - with or without a stick - to blog? reference staff don’t see this as part of their job
answer: Marilyn - can’t pretend we haven’t had people kicking and screaming, but feels that if you can snag new librarians who aren’t afraid of doing these things and see this as part of their job, try to harness them; had trouble getting people to contribute content for the web back in 1996; saw that staff started to rely on resources their colleagues were maintaining, which helped; something collaborative finally happened, but not sure it can be described easily; they use statistics to show usage of the web resources; staff will update their blog if you tell them you are going to feature it on the home page; something is making it real for them, but it didn’t happen overnight
Glenn - have had their intranet for a long time, which helps, because they were able to start their in a controlled and safe environment

question: why did you use coldfusion instead of php?
answer: we selected CF in the mid-1990s, one of the few developmental languages at the time; rapid development environment, can use dreamweaver with it, easy to learn, similar to HTML in the way it uses tags; might have made a different decision of making it later

question: when I go home, my coworkers will ask the “what if” about user-generated content - how you deal with the bad stuff, who deals with it, etc.
answer: john - it’s a good question; need to understand it could happen, but can have a plan for how to deal with it; you won’t get a flood of participation to begin with; aaron - noted that you can moderate comments so that they have to be approved by the person who is worried about this happening
glenn - comments go live on their site unless they get trapped by their “naughty word” filter (eg, “title” gets blocked because of the first three letters - about one of these a day gets trapped and has to be approved); trapped comments are sent to a group of employees via email every couple of days - can click on a link to follow-up

question: NJ library where user-generated comments are approved before going live; has never seen a problem; if anything, people think they’re reserving a book; have a home-generated chat room for book discussions, staff meetings, etc.; can see the number of lurkers, which is pretty high - they don’t have anything to say; in the web 2.0 world, really likes the SOPAC, how do you get the lurkers to participate? he recently put up a “suggest a new title” box on their website, and it’s been a flood; thinks all of these people never thought to participate or contribute until they saw that box
answer: john - by lurkers, you’re really talking about people who are not predisposed to using those types of services; no better way to get someone to participate than to make them mad, but in the end, you really need to create incentive for them to participate; eg, if you put in 10 reviews, we’ll waive your fines; the end game is to build a community around the core elements of the social software, get that network effect rolling
allan - one of the issues that came up a few years ago is that the ILS vendors looked at 2.0 and were going to incorporate all of these features, but that’s come and gone so we have to implement it; it’s the vendors who really need to be the ones working on this, rather than us recreating the wheel

question: how do you measure and report value? we can all agree that there is inherently good value in these things, but how do you measure that value and report it out so that it is useful for decision-makers who are not librarians?
answer: aaron - at a very basic level, you can take your website statistics and look at hits from other sites where you have a presence
john - it’s also important to remember that you can look at metrics but your ultimate goal is enhancing the user experience in a way that changes the face of librarianship
allan - has been doing workshops around the state about the value of libraries using a web-based calculator that highlights the value based on your usage; gives annual reports to customers
Marilyn - it’s important to put modesty aside and send comments up the chain; she is constantly surprised how many users leave positive comments on the site; leave modesty aside and promote those comments

question from Michael: can each of you tell us a challenge you’ve faced and how you overcame it?
answer: aaron - he’s the director of a small public library with a small budget and limited staff, and the social software they use has been of immense help to them; was able to get a decent website going using free blogging software, staff collaborates with google docs, etc.
adina - is trying to find ways to bring more people into the library and offer more challenging classes, so at the end of next month, she will be offering a new class on web-based image editing software
john - oftentimes, we reach for the stars and we climb the highest peak we can find, and that leads to failure because we’re not focusing on the bedrock of our services (the backend, the foundation), so recognizing that fact we can’t innovate for a year because we need to lay the foundation and put the groundwork in is a way of acknowledging our limitations; so when you present a project that really works (like SOPAC), that’s a culmination of not just that project, but also laying the foundation
Carol - when she was first hired, she was the only one who understood the problems of having to get a mouse to teach how to use one; she just went out and did things (buying a mouse); when other staff didn’t like what she did, other staff pitched in and did something different, which helped move things forward; if others aren’t doing it, just do it yourself
allan - the biggest resource we have is our staff, and the biggest hindrance to going to the next level is our staff, so our biggest challenge is to get our staff to realize that their jobs have changed and they are all now technology specialists; he himself has this challenge because he tries to stay out in front of his staff, which seems impossible; the challenge is what we are as librarians to keep up with technology
glenn - our biggest challenge is with staff, not the public; patrons don’t have high expectations for library technology; it’s a great challenge to have when people figure out what technology can do for them, but then we have to manage expectations for what we can do; they see the magic in front of them but they don’t always have an understanding of what it takes to make that happen; so emphasizing communication (what projects they are working on, what information they need to make something happen, etc.)
Marilyn - her biggest challenge has been to be at the table of system-wide planning; because they’re not in each building, people plan without considering the web services components; her staff goes to a lot of meetings in order to contribute to these discussions and be part of things

aaron schmidt, adina lerner, allan kleiman, carol bean, glenn peterson, il2007, john blyberg, marilyn turner, public libraries, seniors

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- Allan M. Kleiman (Old Bridge Public Library)

internet is not gray yet
“while you were whale watching, some of us were watching the salmon spawn”
whale watching = myspace, facebook
salmon spawn = cranky & other senior sites
sites that are spawning and going upstream to die
what has spawned is something “new” and “exciting” in social networking
comparing the whale and the salmon is interesting

when people think of senior sites on the web, they only think of AARP, but that’s not really a social networking site
most of all, you need to share today’s information with your colleagues and the boomers and older adults who use your library

the numbers are confusing
22% of seniors 65 and older use the internet (Pew)
fastest growing segment of internet users are those 85+
- well, if you have no one 85+ using the internet and then you do, it’s the fastest-growing segment

currently 35 million older adults and by 2020 the older adults population will double
big business in developing & “hooking” the baby boomers now
they’re trying to hook them into social networking sites, but how? no idea because don’t see any ads, flyers, etc.
older adults are not attracted to these lifestyle websites
sites that are connected to another organization are doing well, while independent sites are not doing so well
they all have the same colors and design and look the same after awhile

SeniorNet was the first organization to develop senior sites around the US, but you had to pay to join and that usually doesn’t work with how libraries operate
Allan’s library is working with SeniorNet to expand their services into libraries
their website is good for viewing structured online learning; they have book clubs, blogs, etc.
everyone else’s site looks the same, but they did it first

Third Age was the “first” social networking (learning) site in 1997

all of these sites are intended for upper to middle class, white, women
no comparable site for men yet

Eons site
they know nothing about their users’ lifestyles and don’t market to them
focus on people, fun, love, money, body, lifepath, obits (ha!), games, travel
was founded by Monster.com CEO Jeff Taylor, but he’s not a boomer so he doesn’t get it
most of the boomer websites are looking at people with money, hoping you’ll click on companies who can help you travel, invest money, etc.
Eons has $32 million investment
half of their staff was let go, though

beginning to see the collapse of the new hope of social networking sites
let the competition begin
if a site is not allied with an organization, it is running on venture capital investments hoping to reap rewards

what is useful?
- more friendly versions of myspace and facebook
- “Eons, Rezoom, Multiply (a fancier Flickr; don’t even mention money, life, etc.; only site that shows people of different ages and colors), Maya’s Mom, Boomj, and Boomertown. They look like Facebook - with wrinkles.” NYT 9/12/2007
- also said “old people are sticky,” meaning brand-loyal
but boomers are not brand loyal

new search engine - http://cranky.com/
it’s an outgrowth of eons
found the 5000 most popular websites among a group of 500,000 web users aged 45 and older and rated each site
possibly based on ask.com’s search engine
about once or twice a day, they change the rankings on the home page
#1 search was about sex
which isn’t surprising, any good social networking sites for seniors will include companionship
(at his library, they’re requesting a speed dating night for seniors!)
also high in rankings
- longevity calculator
- sudoku
- eat healthy
- jobs after retirement
- wallpapers
- online dating
- retirement community
- work from home

the search here is nonthreatening and easier to use, easier to read because of lower starting set
results are comparable to yahoo
almost 80% of what he picks up on cranky duplicates what he gets on google
they only display 4 results per page
heading = cRANKy
because it’s connected with eons, their content is listed and linked to at the bottom of each page

what’s new out there?
eldr.com - mission is to help baby boomers and their aging parents deal with the challenges and opportunities of aging by providing the most useful thought-provoking and trusted information available anywhere
one issue is out
website looks the same as the other senior sites
believes this will stay around because there is a complementary magazine and because it was started by a builder of homes for older adults; he wants to give back to the community for the people he works with

others
- redhatsociety.com; 40,000 chapters in US/worldwide; wear red hats, purple dress
- “all my life I’ve done for you, now it’s my turn to do for me”
- another site that’s based on an organization
- Boomers! TV: Redefining life after 50
- producing shows on PBS about growing older, retirement, etc.; site has a little social networking

graying of the internet is really about blogging
AP found that seniors love blogging because it helps them keep their minds going, keep yourself up-to-date because you’re ready other blogs, can share life experiences, can meet other people from across the world
in some cases, senior blogs give the authors a bit of fame
3% of seniors in the US have created a blog
17% have read someone else’s blog
22% of americans aged 65 and older use the internet (1 in 5)

The Ageless Project
a website that lists blogs or websites of people in order of their birth year; there are 2 sites for people over age 90!
(sites with no commercial content)
Allan’s library is starting a blogging class next month
will try to market the blogs of the class participants

so what do we do with all of this information?
there’s life beyond myspace
- we should show people Cranky in computer class training
- link some of these resources from your library’s website (libraries usually link to negative sites, whereas social networking sites are usually positive
- join the sites and test them; otherwise you won’t really understand what they do
- become a participant
- add web 2.0 technology to your web classes
- provide feedback, both positive and negative to the sites

social networking sites for seniors are here to stay, even if these specific sites don’t survive

things that Old Bridge PL can do that you can, too
- have created a “senior space,” possibly the first in the US (users can listen to records)
- phase one set up the area
- phase two is to develop a web 2.0 classroom where seniors can also use computers on their own
- adding a “let’s try it” laboratory
- adding to their class list based on their Advisory Board
- first library to launch Wii for older adults on November 9
- teens will teach the older adults to Wii
- planning for a Wii NJ tournament in spring 2008
- are re-training their librarians to train 2.0

keep looking for information about what’s going on with older adults and social networking

his presentation will be at libraryolderadults.blogspot.com or infolink.org/seniorspaces

question: you didn’t mention AARP, why not?
answer: AARP is still an informational site, not a social networking site; it’s not the site I think of when I want to go somewhere and have fun; I use it a lot and link to it, but doesn’t see it as a true interactive site where people can meet

question: ABA is looking at implementing MyABA; do you have pointers for how to get people to use these sites?
answer: you’ll have to do a lot of hand-holding and tutorials; train the assistants (paralegals, secretaries, etc.) to help them

question: do you know if webmasters at these sites are talking to boomers and seniors?
answer: doesn’t think so because the sites don’t reflect these groups; that’s why we need to join these things and comment on them - help them change the content to make it more useful for us and for the community

allan kleiman, il2007, public libraries, seniors

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