I am currently sitting at the desk of the Teabrarian herself and I am struck but how much I miss writing.  It is one of those things where this website became something I wanted to do, but I felt pressure to have it be something that was spectacular when at the end of the day as much as I hope others enjoy this website it really is for me just as much as it is for others if I am to be honest.  I hope I can continue to write when I am no longer able to sit at Laura’s desk, but this does seem to help.

So this post isn’t entirely self-promotion here two of my favorite infographic videos that I have found while searching the Internet.  Enjoy!

Ghostbuster Agents Hines, Purnell, Lathan, and Scordelis at the New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is facing budget cuts, and they recently had a pesky ghost problem on top of it!  Remember, without a budget, they wouldn’t be able to pay the Ghostbusters!  Think about it.  Here is the video.

Think you would like to make a public spectacle?  Well, certainly you could do one yourself, but if you want to call in the pros, who you gonna call?  How about calling Improve Everywhere.  You can read much more about the ghostbusting at their website.

Spurlock to host festival for the first time (2010)

This week is National Library Week!  What better way to celebrate than to live in Champaign-Urbana!  My goodness!  There always are cool library related activities!  Tomorrow, Saturday, April 17 at 7pm is the Storytelling Festival from the Center for Children’s Books.  This year it is being held at a new venue, The Spurlock Museum Auditorium (600 S. Gregory St. in Urbana, IL).

Come listen to some tales!  Not all are appropriate for children, so consider yourself warned, and have fun!

Students pay $5 with a Student ID

General public pay $8

Tickets can be purchased at the door.

For more information, contact the Center for Children’s Books at 244-9331 or ccb@illinois.edu.

Click here for audio from past Storytelling Festivals!

"Dark Night" by Dorothee De Monfreid

Every week I volunteer at the Center for Children’s Books and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.  As such, I see a lot of great books for kids and young adults.  The Center for Children’s Books has a great non-circulating collection, and the Bulletin gets boxes upon boxes of books every week filled with the latest books before they are published.  I am going to try to be better about posting reviews of some of my favorites that come through.  Here are just a few quality picture books that are beautifully illustrated, have fun stories, and teach kids in an entertaining way.  These are of course viewpoints endorsed by Librarians are Weird, but are not to be confused with reviews of The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.  For those reviews please consider subscribing!  As of this posting it is only $15 for students!

Pepi Sings a New Song by Laura Ljungkvist is the story of a parrot who goes on a little adventure to different places around the city to learn new things so he can make up a new song to sing for the little boy that owns him.  He goes to the bakery, the dog park, to an artist, to a musician, etc.  The illustrations are fantastic and I thought the selection of words was a nice mix of the ordinary and less ordinary.

Dark Night by Dorothee De Monfreid is another really cute one that came in awhile ago, but is out now.  I love the color and the style.  It is about a little boy that goes into the woods and there are all kinds of scary animals, but with a help of a woodland friend he overcomes his fears.  It is a beautifully styled book.  I just love the look of it.  It is a great picture book for kids that are afraid of the dark.

With a lot of hidden creature books it is easier to find all the creatures.  Where in the Wild? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed Revealed by David M. Schwartz really made me look hard to see them, and it was very cool to learn about these amazing creatures.  The book has poems, shows the picture, and you try to find the creatures.   Then you lift the flap and it highlights just the creature.  Adults will have fun with this one, too.

Moon Rabbit by Natalie Russell does not feature a rabbit from the moon.  While this could be disappointing, it really wasn’t.  I loved that the little rabbit loves living in the city, but longs for a friend.  She ventures out to find a little brown rabbit that plays guitar. They form a fast friendship, and while the new friend wants her to stay she goes home.  It is a sweet tale of friendship, independence, and of knowing what makes you happy.

The Octonauts & the Great Ghost Reef by Meomi is the first I’ve read in the Octonauts series, but I am absolutely hooked.  Not only are the team of creatures beyond adorable, but they have a mystery to solve!  The team is on the case to find out why a large and bustling reef city has become a ghost town.  Not only is the book engaging as a mystery and kids will learn the names of all kinds of creatures, but kids will learn something when the mystery is solved!  Scooby fans will love The Octonauts, which is good news since The Octonauts will soon be an animated television series.  For more information check out the official website: The Octonauts!

Find these items at a library near you!

• Pepi Sings a New Song by Laura Ljungkvist
• Dark Night by Dorothee De Monfreid
• Where in the Wild? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed Revealed by David M. Schwartz
• Moon Rabbit by Natalie Russell
• The Octonauts & the Great Ghost Reef by Meomi

Today is the release of the much anticipated first trailer for the upcoming multimedia librarian game show Celebrity Librarian DeathMatch. You can watch the trailer here and check back for more CLDM updates!

The graphics for CLDM are by Mardis Bagley and the sound is by Jason A. Brown.

Eric Sizemore and myself, Jenny Veile, have been working on the concept and creation of the game together for some time now, so I am very happy to finally be ready to talk about it on Librarians Are Weird. The basic reason for the game is to shake off the stereotypes of librarians, while at the same time creating a fun and informative game that can be played at home. Two sets of reference librarians will go head to head using various technologies to answer reference questions sent down from Command Central. The audience at home can listen in to the live podcast show as well as try to beat the librarians to the answers by typing in their responses. Every 5 minutes our teams of librarians will get another reference question. If they answer before the 5 minutes passes up than they will get a time bonus. Answers will be scored on correctness, sources, time, and politeness by a team of judges made up of reference librarian faculty at library graduate school programs. Please check out librariandeathmatch.com/about for more details on this new and exciting game – Due 2010.

Now that I have been kicked out of my blogging rut I think I owe it to you all to tell you what weird librarian activities I have been involved in.  First and foremost, I have been working a lot on a multimedia game show to be played online: due January 2010.  But you don’t have to wait so long to get a taste for the game. Currently, we are working on putting together a promotional trailer for the show as well as a video to better explain the show.  Both will be released by Veteran’s Day (November 11, 2009) here and on the official website that is currently being created.  Don’t worry!  Stay cool my babies!  I’ll update more about the game and how you can be involved as things progress.

I also have been planning for some other video projects that will no doubt end up here, so stay tuned!  I have been spending a good portion of my time networking on the video production side and getting more involved with videography work.  I also have been doing random weird librarian activities such as attending food themed festivals, being in a video for Live Karaoke Band starring librarian/actor Eric Sizemore (which I also am editing), fighting censorship during Banned Books Week, and participating in a zombie crawl to promote Haunted House 9: Mystery of an Asylum Behind the Museum.

I also would like to use this space to promote a new blog by Lizz Zitron, Unintentionally Funny Books.  The blog is fantastic and while the books themselves are, well, unintentionally funny, it is Zitron’s wit and humor that makes the blog a new must read.  Lizz Zitron is a current student at my Alma Mater, the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Also, from another favorite GSLIS blogger, please read Laura Rancani’s review of the graphic novel of Fahrenheit 451 (see, not everyone is a terrible librarian that doesn’t even post a blog during Banned Books Week…I’ll try to be better).  Laura Rancani is focusing on youth librarianship at GSLIS, so, her blog is especially going to be of interest to anyone interested in youth services (YA books galore!).

Fear not.  I will try to keep my little hater away and continue to update on a regular basis again.

P.S.  Rest in peace Patrick Swayze.