National Libraries Day is today (Saturday 7th February 2015) and it is the culmination of a week of festivities and celebrations for the extraordinary work that our libraries and librarians do.
This is a chance to say thank you to our nation’s librarians for the wonderful work they do. It is an opportunity to get people out to visit their library and see the amazing services our libraries offer - and join up if not already a member.
Most of all this is a reminder. This is a loud reminder that libraries matter to us all. On this day we can bond together and send a collective, public message to the decision makers. We can show them that we love and value our libraries and that we recognise that no one else can do the work of a professional librarian,
This is an election year, and so National Libraries Day is an opportunity to show the various political parties that we are a powerful, bonded and supportive group – and we will not stand for the destruction of something that is so vital to all of our communities. This is our chance to celebrate what we value, and what is so essential to the literacy of our entire nation.
National Libraries Day is a grassroots celebration led by library staff and library users. It is supported by CILIP and a coalition of leading literacy, reading, library and education organisations including the Reading Agency, the School Library Association and the Society of Chief Librarians – and you!
In 2014 NLD was hugely successful, but we can make it even bigger this year.
We want to top this list from 2014….
§ Over 603 events were registered on the website,
§ Over 17,000 tweets were made using the hashtag #NLD14 (3 - 9 Feb)
§ It had a social reach of 286,000 through the Thunderclap
§ Nearly 31,000 Facebook users reached
§ Over 8,200 website visits (3-8 Feb)
….and we are well on the way towards beating these figures in 2015
Philip Ardagh knows exactly how to support librarians!
What can you do right now to show your support?
Email a quote or comment: approve a comment on what public libraries mean to you giving permission for us to use it on the NLD website and social media (include a pic we can use) Post this on social media and send to @CILIPinfo or via the NLD comment form.
Retweet our main message: “I’m sending a message that I love libraries & the wonderful work done by librarians.” RT to celebrate National Libraries Day #NLD15
Share your support on social media
Share a library #shelfie or two with caption /comment and upload to the NLD15 Flickr pool or send to us for uploading or tweet it using #NLD15
Lend your talents - Write or create something - could you find the time to write a blog, letter or create a piece of work about what libraries mean to you?
Find an event near you – get out and get into your local libraries (with our without chocolates!). Tell them who you are and let them know that you support them. The NLD map will show you where the registered events are.
We all know how important libraries are, but we can’t save them unless we put up a fight. All over the country both school and public libraries have been saved by public campaigns. Not many, but some. This is just the beginning. It’s not going to be easy, but we have to stand up and fight for what is right. We need to fight to make sure that our communities all get what they deserve; the essential service that only a library staffed by a professional librarian can provide.
Make a noise for libraries, before the silence falls forever.
Dawn Finch - Vice President CILIP
Children's author and library consultant
Those all-important links again...
Links
When I first started doing author visits as a published author, it wasn't really new to me. I’d been doing them for a very long time, but it had always been from the other side of the table (so to speak) as I spent ten years as a school librarian. During that time I’d learned a lot from the good visits, and even more from the bad ones. One day I'll blog about those, but only if I'm so rich and famous that the people concerned won't be able to afford to come after me!
I’m the vice-chair of the London and South East School Libraries Group and early in 2014, we had our annual LibMeet. Part of this day was taken up with a workshop about author visits. Money is tight in schools and, even though librarians know how inspiring an author visit can be, they find it hard to convince their leadership team to stump up the costs. One of the key things that came out of this discussion is that whilst a freebie is great, it’s genuinely not the deciding factor. All of the librarians said that they had turned down free offers from authors that they felt had little or no merit or who looked “poor quality”. It was very reassuring to discover that they are looking for quality and will pay if they can convince their head teachers and business managers that it is worth it. |
| When librarians gather....not a "ssshh" in the house! |
So, what are they looking for? All of the librarians agreed that they were looking for pretty much the same things from an author visit. Some of these points will probably seem completely obvious to you, but I hope that you find at least a couple of useful things!
Before the visit and from the first approach….
· An author who knows the school and has taken the time to find out the librarian’s name.
It sounds like a minor point but every librarian liked it when an author emailed them in person, and mentioned something about the school.
· A package.
It sounds obvious but a clear package for your visits can make you stand out. School librarians get dozens of emails and flyers each year offering author visits and most are clearly sent out as a bulk email and are ignored. Please put the price on, and include your expenses in the amount. All of the librarians said that they prefer seeing a clear package and would be far less likely to follow up an author who is cagey about the price as it creates awkwardness all round!
· An author who offers something to contribute to lesson plans.
Time is short in schools and they don’t know your books as well as you do. If you can offer some ideas for lessons relating to your books then they are more likely to invite you in. Think about the key curriculum areas and refer to them in your plans. If your books don’t tie in to specific curriculum areas then look at PSHE (personal, social, health and emotional) issues instead.
· A pre-visit pack
Librarians are very keen to have the children prepared for author visits and appreciate linked materials in advance. If you can spring for a copy of your latest book as well as some publicity material that can often be the clincher for a booking. If you are not able to send a copy of your book, extracts are appreciated. (Don’t forget to check with the librarian which extract they have read so that you don’t repeat it on the day!) Offer this material in both disc and email format. Include a pre-order form for your books in this pack so that the librarian can tweak, add school branding, and send it straight out.
· Competitions
As part of your visit offer a competition – a free signed copy of your book for a story competition is usually the favoured one among both children and teachers. Offer to host the winning story on your blog or website, and interview the winner. If you include the details of the competition as part of your package the librarian can start that off with the English department long before you arrive.
On the day… |
| Feel the fear...and do it anyway! |
During the visit the librarians and literacy coordinators are looking for key things that will make them consider the visit useful and purposeful (“purposeful” being one of Ofsted’s favourite words!)
They are looking for an author who…
- · relates to students the importance of good and accurate research and how they accomplish it
- · communicates with the students well and in an unpatronising way
- · talks about the work of other authors, and about books that were an influence in their lives
- · is able to show that they got where they are by working hard, and that working hard is enjoyable and rewarding
- · is able to do a presentation with or without technology (not all schools can afford it)
- · gives a presentation that is lively, engaging and witty (even for more serious books they are still looking for lively performances)
- · shares the hardships of their lives with the pupils in an appropriate way (I won’t write here about the author I once booked who shared way too much….!)
- · talks about other media and not just books. They like you to talk about comics, movies, plays, blogs, social media – not all children want to talk about books
- · gives the same level of performance to ten children as to a hundred...or more.
Things that the librarians found helped the visit along…
A little bit of bribery helps! Authors who had badges, bookmarks or little treats as rewards for asking a “good” question, coaxed much better questions out of the pupils and were remembered for longer. |
| Bribes (ahem..sorry) incentives. |
Repeat the question. Most children are a bit mumbly and confused when asking a question and often can’t be heard by the rest of the room. If you repeat their question loud enough for the other children to hear you can tidy it up a bit, and make sure that no one else is sitting with their hand up and the same question in their head!
Trying to be cool does not help at all! The “cringe factor” can be the death knell of an author visit. Children have an expectation of mild eccentricity (ahem – speak for yourselves!) with authors and the ones who are a little like that are generally better received.
Keep moving. Make use of the stage or the area that you are presenting in and keep moving about. Young people drift off easily and if you keep moving, you are more likely to keep them engaged. Nothing wrong with being a little bit of a windmill at times!
Involve the pupils. Get them up to demonstrate something, or to be dressed up, or to wear a hat or hold a sign – anything that makes them part of the show will get all of the others sitting up and paying close attention. (I have a monk’s habit and pick a child to dress up, they love it, even very surly teens) |
| It's a bad habit, and I've no one to blame but myself. |
After the visit… |
| "sooooo excited!" I love this picture. |
Stay engaged after the visit, offer to help with a short story competition, or be interviewed for the school website or magazine. A few days after the visit (or when you send your invoice in) email the head teacher and thank them for inviting you to the school. (You’d be amazed how few authors say thanks after an event. I know you were working, but if you enjoyed it, please say so!) This is also a good time to email the librarian and send them a “further reading” list of other authors who write in a similar field to you. You might also like to create an A4 poster of the books that influenced you so that the librarian can print this and display it in the library. After a successful author visit the pupils want to know more about the author and a couple of posters of “what influenced me” and “my favourite books” always go down well. If a visit doesn't go very well it can often be saved after the event by an author being lovely and by staying engaged. I remember one visit when the author was not very well and he was obviously exhausted and not properly engaged in the process, and the children just didn't click with him. After the event he apologised and we did some online interviews and he sent some hilarious photos of him reading the children’s stories and in the end it worked out rather well – despite a terribly awkward visit!
Now, I can hear some of you screaming from the back, “what?! I don’t have time for all that! You've lost your mind woman!” Well, that is your choice of course and, if you are getting masses of bookings and repeat visits, then clearly you are already giving what people want. If you are GREAT BIG NAME, then you will be booked anyway and are possibly drowning in offers, but not all of us can claim that.
The bottom line is that librarians talk to each other. Most school librarians work alone and so to survive (and stay sane!) they have an extensive virtual network. There are almost a thousand members of CILIP SLG, and that's only a fraction of the school librarians in the country – and they all connect through various closed forums. If you are giving a fun, engaging, lively and purposeful visit then it will come up on the networks – and the same goes for a visit that doesn't go as well! The forums are often buzzing with “I've had an email from Miss Doobery Whatsit, children’s and YA author, anyone know what she’s like before I book?”
If you pitch it well, and give the librarians and schools what they need then your ears will burn as the forums light up with positive comments about you, and your email will run hot with bookings, and everyone wants that!
by Addy Farmer
The blog that never ends. More choices of words that move from me and you...
Behind the tired old words, Tog heard the harsh grate of fear and loved Allanza even more for his stupid bravery, even though the prat had got them into this mess. J.P. Buxton - I Am The Blade
I love this book and I love these words. Here, we arrive just at this point when our hero, Tog realises what
by Addy Farmer
Then Bella did something very kind.
'Would you swap this Teddy for my brother's dog then?' she asked.
Just look at Dave - heartbreaking. Shirley Hughes' illustrations perfectly match the tone of the text
What is it about this bit of Dogger by the genius Shirley Hughes that moves me so much? What is it that makes my voice wobble? First of all, there's Bella's kindness
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Thanks, Addy. And that's more books to add to an already impossibly long list! My favourite is still the last line in 'Little Boy Lost' by Marghanita Laski, but I can't say it here as it would give the story away. It has me blubbing every time. I even stole the name of that character for one of my own stories as an homage to the book but it didn't get picked up. (Still might
This post began with a conversation between Addy and me about a moment in Millions by Frank Cottrell Boyce that takes you emotionally by surprise. Addy said, I can do a post on that! And she did - in the most inclusive way! Thanks, Addy! Notes from the Slushpile really feels like a lovely community with this post! Such a blubworthy list!<br /><br />... er but what happened to Millions?
Re Grandfather's Bench - was this the grandfather married to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkBnHri8oHE" rel="nofollow">fighter pilot gran</a>?
Aw - thanks, Clare. I will have to read it!
I've lost Millions! I love Millions! Shame but now an excuse for a future blog for all those lost words.
Ha! No! This grandfather was more Private Peaceful!
Made me cry - a lot. <br />I can't read The Selfish Giant (Oscar Wilde) or the moment in The Children of Green Knowe ( L.M.Boston) where Tolly & his great grandmother hear 'Lully lullay' on Christmas Eve " and four hundred years ago, a baby went to sleep."<br />Thanks hive mind.
Oh, that's lovely, I'd forgotten Green KNowe - there is soooooo much beautiful writing.
Ridiculous to blub just at these tiny fragments, isn't it? But lovely too. Beautiful selection, Addy. I just finished A MONSTER CALLS and was beside myself with grief and wonder. "I don't want you to go." *lays head on table and sobs self stupid*
Oh I KNOW!
I've cried more at that book than any other!
I have two book moments. The first has taken a bit of finding, it's Mrs Weasley. She's trying to get rid of a boggart from a wardrobe but it keeps turning into her dead children - 'I see them d-d-dead all the time!' Mrs Weasley moaned into his shoulder. 'All the time! I d-d-dream about it.' It was a great way to show the seriousness of the fight against evil has real