RA in a day 2010: Poster sessions

Several vendors had exhibition booths at the conference (Library Bound, Novelist, and the OLA Store). Six libraries also had booths for poster sessions; these included:

1. Haliburton County Public Library: Book trailers on the radio (pictures here and here) Haliburton County Public Library records regular book “trailers” (eg. short reviews which promote a book, rather than critique it) for a local radio station. This poster session supported 1/3 of the afternoon session about book trailers in general; the audio component of a video book trailer being one part of it. During the afternoon session, we played an audio interview between two HCPL staff members, describing the process of writing a script and recording a book trailer; contact me for more info. The poster session supported the interview by offering suggestions about what books to talk about and how to write a script.
2. Toronto Public Library: Tips on creating a staff picks publication (photo)
   TPL has been releasing their “Great reads” since 2008; they are now on Volume 5, and recently released both a “Best of” reading list and a “Great reads for the reading man” volume. The latter is a result of the “Reading man” project TPL had on their website from 2006-201, in which they asked 12 men to talk about their favourite books. Some famous authors participated (Andrew Pyper, Giles Blunt, Lawrence Hill), as well as actor Paul Gross, bookstore owner Peter Birkemoe, opera singer Brett Polegato, and several regular guys! TPL’s poster session involved suggestions about schedules, editorial guidelines, and the design and production of a staff picks publication.
3. Toronto Public Library: Readers’ advisory wiki for staff (photo)
   The TPL wiki is hosted on PBWorks, and was intended to be a place for staff to share expertise, and also have access to the booklists created by TPL by subject area. A handout for the poster session included tops on starting, maintaining, and promoting and training staff for a wiki, as well as examples of how TPL used their wiki.
4. Mississauga Public Library: Books to go – book clubs in a bag
   What I liked about MPL’s book clubs in a bag was the bags themselves, at right (I know - I'm that shallow) and the way their reading guide was structured: the supporting material (author info, book info, reviews, interviews, and discussion questions) were all cleanly presented in one document based on a template. MPL provides book clubs in a bag for any title in the collection, including large print and books on CD. A list of the “Books to go” reading guides already available included over 120 titles, ranging from the obvious (The Lovely Bones) to the more obscure (W. O. Mitchell’s Roses are Difficult Here) to the classic (Howards End).
5. Kingston-Frontenac Public Library: Reel fun – Readers’ advisory programming meets the silver screen (with the lovely Alice and Sarah, at left below)
   KFPL obtained a movie license and organised movie screening series in the library. The series planned included a “Vampire film festival,” a “Lights, cameras, strollers” series for parents of young children, “Movie morning Mondays,” and, of course, “Harry Potter and the Marathon of Movies.” I have to say that their graphic designer is amazing; the publicity posters for each series were really appealing (see photo). The tip sheet they circulated included information about the two companies offering public performance site licenses (Criterion and Audio Cine Films), and information about screenings (they cannot be publicised outside the library, but can be publicised through online profiles such as the library website, Twitter or Facebook). Suggested programs included a classic movie series for seniors in the afternoon, “Read the book, watch the movie,” “Stitch and bitch” movie night, “Julie and Julia” plus a cooking lesson, and documentary discussion series.
6. OPLA RA Committee Core Competencies (they can speak for themselves!)