Atticus Rocks

Early arrivals at the luncheon on Tuesday afternoon had the pleasure of meeting Atticus Finch, yes Tom's Atticus Finch, up close and personal. Atticus can teach us all a few lessons in life: keep cool, look good and love the hand that feeds you.

Author Tom Ryan kept his luncheon audience enthralled with his heartwarming and honest story, Following Atticus: Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship (September 2011). Atticus kept the audience equally enchanted with the absolute comfort he finds in the arms of his owner and his calm, childlike demeanor. Well, perhaps not childlike. Any child would have been bored to tears and itching to get down on the floor. Atticus snuggled up in the crook of Tom Ryan's arm and laid his head on the comforting shoulder. Both these guys had us entranced and there were many 'awwwwwww'esome moments.

Tom's story isn't just another "man loves his dog" story. Sometimes it is hard to believe that Atticus is a dog. He is truly Tom Ryan's best friend.

Ryan shared many things besides the obvious stories of finding this furry guy and bonding with him. He shared honest and painful stories from his life at home as a child and as a young man,

as a rogue small-town reporter, as a square and awkward peg in a round-hole society, and as a man finding his way in life and on the trails of the peaks of New Hampshire's mountains. Like his articles in Yankee-town Newburyport's newspaper, Tom Ryan pushed the envelope. He hiked all forty-eight 4000' plus peaks. He hiked them as a overweight man not used to the physical strain. He hiked them in the winter. He hiked them twice and with his four-legged friend.

Those who stayed behind also had an opportunity to visit Atticus. Tom inscribed his books with his own signature and with a very special pawprint of one very special dog.

I loved the movie of Marley and Me. Ok. I'm hopeless but I can't wait to watch Following Atticus. Here's hoping Hollywood agrees.

Read Tom's blog and follow them on more New Hampshire adventures. Or Friend them on Facebook at Following Atticus to see where their latest book signing will be.

Charlotte Canelli, Library Director, Morrill Memorial Library, Norwood, MA

Mission Morale: Cultivating a Caring Work Culture

Jennifer Sabatini Fraone from Boston College Center for Work and Family began the conference hoping that we'd bring back some good ideas to take back to our own organizations. BCCWF is a global leader in workforce effectiveness and resources are available. Hot topics for BCCWF are Millennials in the workforce and the role of fathers in the home.

What makes a great workplace culture? Among them are a leadership who inspires, gives trust and autonomy; an environment that encourages teamwork, employee engagement, recognition and reward and loyalty; a climate that values the employee as a "whole person" who gives back to the community and who has an opportunity for advancement.

Creative ideas from the corporate world: speed networking events; leader luncheon; fun atmosphere; volunteer events; small celebration; regular recognition. Fun, caring and collaboration can be wonderful, low-cost, high impact initiatives.

Sarah McGinley Smith from King Arthur Flour in Norwich, VT shared that KAF is 100% owned by employees and is the oldest flour company in the world. See website for the video.

Sarah brought a laundry list of ideas from KAF. Cross-company themes of safety, employee stewardships, marketing, surveys, brainfood classes (employees teaching other employees), monthly town meetings, orientations, open book management (think financials), intranet, free classes, snacks and product, Tablespoon (weekly newsletter), brown-bag lunches, kudos, essay contests, community service, teambuilding. Ownership behaviors are important. KAF is proud to be 100% employee owned but is 100% committed to quality.

Mara Neufeld Rivera from Resource Systems Group in White River Junction, VT. The company is focused on producing. It is an employee-owned (ESOP) consulting company that provides high-quality information, analysis and insights for a broad spectrum of public and private clients and have experienced 40% growth in the past year and has been awarded the Best Places to Work in Vermont in 2006, 07, 09, 10 and 11. Casual dress, dog-friendly offices, flexibility, professional development (RSG Institute) including $2000 a year to spend on education, showers on-site, PTO donation bank, and environmental sustainability benefits.

Last up Karen Waylen from Wells River Savings Bank, Wells River, VT with six locations across Vermont on the New Hampshire border. Karen belongs to a writing group and has worked on a novel since 1986. Wells River began in 1892 and is a mutual saving bank - employee owned. 60% of the workforce is 50 and over. WRSB won first place in 2010 Best Places to Work in Vermont. WRSB promotes from within whenever possible and work as a team. The CEO of the bank supports all the initiatives that support high employee morale in these areas: Communication - informal quarterly pizza lunch meetings; an intranet; daily email updates from the CEO; excellent rapport with staff. Recognition - birthdays, milestones, anniversaries. Opportunities - exposure to senior management, interaction with other locations, bank intern and job shadowing opportunities, consistent promotion from within, recognition luncheons and Halloween contest. Flexibility - much like libraries, there are problems with flexibility but it is integrated into the schedules. Paid Time Off - benefits added: one day of service to work at a non-profit organization; paid time for family medical appointments or family meetings; prizes and contests with the awards being time off. Good things flow from the top down and it is apparent to Karen that this is crucially-important to the foundation for high morale.

The panelists opened the discussion to questions from the audience for the last 20 minutes. Participants directed inquiries which included library environments of layoffs and shrinking budgets, employees of retirement age, flexibility of schedules of staff who serve at public desks and succession planning for the event of the CEO or main personality.

Best NE Books in Two Minutes or Less!

As the chairperson of the Massachusetts Center for the Book Non-Fiction Award committee, I know the work that goes into reviewing of books in a few short months. The process includes whittling down the pile (nearly 80 in the non-fiction category), whittling down it again, making tough decisions, arguing for your favorites, making concessions and choosing a winner. Long sentence - too short of a process.

Booktalking is an art and some people do it so well. Sticking to two minutes or less takes even more effort and talent. (In one light-hearted moment, Sally Anderson of Vermont backtracked to add more about Jay Parini's Promised Land that had to be said.)

Directors of the New England Centers for the Book began these high-speed reviews of their states' outstanding books at 8:30 in the morning - none too easy an hour for any of us. Sharon Shaloo of Massachusetts, Sally Anderson of Vermont, Karen Valley of Maine, Ira Revels of Connecticut and Mary Russell of New Hampshire. Mary Engels had the unpleasant task of being timekeeper - a responsibility she took seriously.

The Massachusetts Center for the Book awards winners in several categories each year Its website include the criteria for each prize and the lists of books. Several of the other states choose award winners, as well.

Massachusetts 2011 Must Reads: Reading, Discussing & Celebrating Books Published in 2010

2010 Connecticut Book Awards

New Hampshire's Ladybug Picture Book Award and Granite State Reads

Rhode Island's Reading Across Rhode Island

Affiliates of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress are a network of 50 state-center affiliates to promote books, reading, literacy and libraries locally, regionally and nationally.

Check the NELA Conference website for the complete list of books discussed.

Dreaming Big and the Magical Flame of the Story

It doesn't matter that I can't read much children's literature anymore ... or that I'm not a fantasy-reader. I always know that attending the annual NERTCL luncheon will inspire me. And T.A. Barron did not disappoint.

Thomas (I learned on the Web that his family and friends call him Tom) Archibald Barron's accent does not give away the fact that he was born in Boston, MA where his first years were spent among the Eastern Massachusetts apple orchards. His family moved, lock, stock and [apple] barrel to Boulder, Colorado where it was apparent that his mother's love of learning and and writing and reading followed him. Years later he created a very special award for young people and he named it after his mother, the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes.

Barron's story is so much like so many other authors and is one the I never tire of hearing and he tells the story well. It is one of success that is often achieved only after years of perseverance. He sent his first novel off to 26 publishers and received 26 rejections. It only after a serendipitous acquaintance with Madeleine L'Engle, his continued writing and finding the love of his life, Currie, that Barron was able to leave his other successful life - that of Princeton and Harvard graduate, Rhodes Scholar and a investment company president behind. And he has never looked back.

"What was scary to me," says Barron, "is knowing that I had a dream that I didn't try hard enough" to reach. Follow your passion, is his advice.

Barron himself tells us that the recipe of a wonderful life is to ask yourself 'what you love in the world and give the 'world what it needs.'

During the luncheon talk which was rich with story and personal history, T.A. Barron shared his initiatives of Dream Big (a video that we all received) and the concept of The Heroes Trail (and book by that name, also received by each luncheon participant.) His ideas that young people can be inspired by 'the glimpse of heroic power that comes from stories' and by the example of others is immensely powerful. His metaphor of the flame ran through his entire talk reminding us that as librarians we are responsible for carrying that flame to our readers and for passing it on and on and on.

Mr. Barron shared an emotional moment with his audience with a story of a little girl and a starfish. Overwhelmed by an unfathomable amount of starfish washed up on a beach, this little girl realized that all the starfish might all die unless they were returned to the sea. While she despaired, she was taunted by an observer who told her that there were too many starfish on the beach and that she couldn't possibly make a difference. Holding one starfish up in the air, and reaching inside for wisdom that all of us really have inside us, the little girl tossed that one starfish into the sea. "I have made a difference. I have made a difference for that one." A story told by a master storyteller with words that we need to be reminded of all the time.

Had I had the silly idea that fantasy and children's literature are irrelevant to me, I would not have had the chance to listen to T.A. Barron, to be inspired by his work and his life story, and to realize once again that I have the power to make a difference. "The sharing of stories," Barron says, "is as essential to being alive as breathing. They are uniquely powerful vessels that carry big ideas."

Emerson Greenaway Award: Shelley Quezada

Shelley Quezada, librarian, professor and consultant extraordinaire, is the worthy recipient of NELA's Emerson Greenaway Award 2011. The award was presented at the Sunday, October 2 NELA banquet by Rick Taplin, Past President of NELA and Head of Systems and Networking, Minuteman Library Network.

Shelley Quezada wears many hats. Biographical information and the photo at the right is courtesy of the Simmons College Graduate School of Library Science website:

"Shelley Quezada is a consultant for the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (the state library agency) where she manages grant funded projects to libraries using Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds. She coordinates and develops library‑based literacy and ESOL programs in Massachusetts libraries; promotes outreach to special needs populations including the educationally and economically disadvantaged and people with disabilities; promotes library service to multicultural populations and works as liaison with Massachusetts correctional libraries. She has developed and manages many popular grant programs including "Serving Tweens and Teens," "Mother Goose on the Loose," "Conversation Circles " (for English Language Learners), "Serving People with Disabilities," "On the Same Page" (One Book/Community Reads), and "Readers' Advisory." She conducts numerous workshops on proposal writing, evaluation, developing literacy/ESOL programs, services to multicultural populations, readers advisory services and outreach to diverse underserved target groups. With a background in library service in Brazil and Mexico, in recent years she has been active in conducting program evaluation of library programs and services in both Indonesia and West Africa. She has taught the course "Literacy and Services to Underserved Populations: Issues and Responses" and "Children's Literature and Media" . A longtime advocate of library support for family literacy, she was a recipient of the Massachusetts Library Association "Hall of Fame" award in 1998."

Delaney Delights

The NELA Banquet Sunday night, October 2, featured author Frank Delaney whose latest book is The Matchmaker of Kenmare. (The third book in this standalone 'series', will be published in January 2012, is The Last Storyteller.)

What a delightful guest and talk - full of humor, perspective, retrospective and advice for librarians.

From his own website: 'The Most Eloquent Man in the World', says NPR, about the writer, broadcaster, BBC host and Booker Prize Judge, Frank Delaney.

"As natural as the night follows the day, I would become a writer", reflected the author who grew up in a small village of Ireland where his father taught the older students and his mother the youngest of the school. His tale of being present when the boxes of books arrived at the school each month, padlocked and opened to the wonderment of Frank, was rich storytelling and also spoke to his pride of being an author. "To write well, a sculpting process has to be started."

Some of the themes of Mr. Delaney's talk revolved around our important role as librarians in the process of reading, in encouraging reading, in pursuing reading and in ensuring that the culture of reading will continue in this country. "Librarians are the curators of the culture of the world of books and reading." They are its future. The process is dependent on librarians sharing reading - through readers' advisory at every level.

"The best kind of librarian is the librarian who takes a writer's passion and conveys it to his/her customers."

A second theme is that of eReading, eBooks and eReaders. Like many of us, Frank Delaney owns an eReader and purchases books from Kindle. Like many of us, however, the Kindle or the eReader will NOT replace the book. Instant publication, self-publication, instant-access to books - this new world of publishing will ensure that Mr. Delaney and others will have to be the best writers that we all crave. He does not seem afraid of the future but he embraces it is his quest to be that writer we want to read.

Who Moved My Chi?

Think Paul Ruebens, Mr. Bean, Garrison Keillor and perhaps a bit of George Burns rolled up in one. Perhaps you might then have a picture of comedian Brian Longwell who presented a rip-roaring, albiet irreverent, routine on a drizzly, foggy, freezing afternoon at NELA. If you came for cute references to libraries, this was not the place! If you came for polite language it was not the place either.

No yawns here though. Mr. Longwell used the unlikely tools (technology?) of and overhead projector and transparencies. Imagine if you will.

The conference program "Books I Never Returned" (a lighter side of libraries) was NOT what Brian Longwell presented but it was funny nonetheless. A few references to the profession were made but they were few and far between. Instead, Longwell surveyed the spotty crowd (well, about 1/5 full with a huge emptiness near the center) and asked "Is there an open bar somewhere in the building?" We were laughing within the first few minutes, though, when one of his only references to librarians was "I don't have to ask you to turn off your cell phones while I'm in the company of THIS profession!"

He looked like Mr. Bean, his timing was reminiscient of Burns, his inflections sometimes a bit Keillorish and his expressions more like Paul Ruebens (Pee Wee Herman.) His presentation included hand-drawn graphs, rough sketches, overlays and explanations all on those silly transparencies. But it worked. We ended on "Who moved my Chi?" and laughed our ways out of the room.