Darien Library

  1. thisisaadl:

    Tomorrow, Wednesday April 17, 6:30-8:30, the Downtown AADL hosts a screening of High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music, followed by a discussion of Bluegrass with UM Music Professor Mark Clague. 

    Filed under: programming I would love to host here. We’ll just have to settle for our own bluegrass concert this Sunday.

  2. This harmonica player just sent me a program proposal.

    I can’t make any promises, but I am at the very least going to inquire.

  3. One of our kids made a comic strip featuring all of our children’s librarians and…donuts. My favorite part? “TEEN DONUT MAKEOVER!”

    One of our kids made a comic strip featuring all of our children’s librarians and…donuts.

    My favorite part? “TEEN DONUT MAKEOVER!”

  4. Some Exciting Events We Have Coming up:

    Coffee Brewin’ at the Library:Learn the fundamentals of selecting, storing, grinding, and brewing while sampling some delicious coffee.

    Introduction to Microcontrollers: Learn microcontroller programming to let you sense real world properties such as temperature, illumination, and magnetism

    Meditation Monday: Bring a little quiet, meditative space into your daily life.

    Predicting the Weather: Find out how local 17-year-old weather savante predicts the weather.

    Homegrown String Band: An evening of American roots music.

    Cake Baking Competition: Local food bloggers will judge cakes based on taste, appearance, texture, and creativity.

  5. I am sorry this photo is of such poor quality but we had to eradicate as much light pollution as possible in order TO SEE THE RINGS OF JUPITER THROUGH THIS HANDMADE TELESCOPE OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY SATURDAY NIGHT.

    I am sorry this photo is of such poor quality but we had to eradicate as much light pollution as possible in order TO SEE THE RINGS OF JUPITER THROUGH THIS HANDMADE TELESCOPE OUTSIDE THE LIBRARY SATURDAY NIGHT.

  6. togatherinc: Erin Shea is Head of Adult Programming at Darien Library in Darien, CT. She tweets from @erintheshea and manages Darien Library’s tumblr, where she recently wrote about hosting author events in libraries and how to find audiences for them: “Do not neglect niche groups! For example we recently hosted Becky Aikman, author of the memoir Saturday Night Widows. I reached out to local widow support groups. We had the CEO of Weight Watchers talk about his weight loss book and I reached out to local Weight Watchers centers. Sometimes I go undercover on MeetUp.com and join MeetUp groups and invite members. I have reached out to local magicians when we had a magician author visit. Get out into your community! Also invite a local blogger to be “in conversation” with an author. That way the blog’s readership finds out about the event and the blogger promotes the heck out of your program. Get your staff excited and interested so they promote it to patrons. How do you get them excited? Involve them in the planning of your event.” We talked to Erin over email this week and learned more about the ins and outs of author events in libraries: how they are planned, what makes them successful, and why libraries and author events make a perfect match. Read More Tricks of the trade y’all.

    togatherinc:

    Erin Shea is Head of Adult Programming at Darien Library in Darien, CT. She tweets from @erintheshea and manages Darien Library’s tumblr, where she recently wrote about hosting author events in libraries and how to find audiences for them:

    “Do not neglect niche groups! For example we recently hosted Becky Aikman, author of the memoir Saturday Night Widows. I reached out to local widow support groups. We had the CEO of Weight Watchers talk about his weight loss book and I reached out to local Weight Watchers centers. Sometimes I go undercover on MeetUp.com and join MeetUp groups and invite members. I have reached out to local magicians when we had a magician author visit. Get out into your community! Also invite a local blogger to be “in conversation” with an author. That way the blog’s readership finds out about the event and the blogger promotes the heck out of your program. Get your staff excited and interested so they promote it to patrons. How do you get them excited? Involve them in the planning of your event.”

    We talked to Erin over email this week and learned more about the ins and outs of author events in libraries: how they are planned, what makes them successful, and why libraries and author events make a perfect match.

    Read More

    Tricks of the trade y’all.

  7. cheshirelibrary:

    Our Builders Brigade is rolling ahead full steam! This week, our 55 participants quickly jumped on board with our theme for the month:  TRANSPORTATION.  Trucks, cars, boats, planes…anything that transports something else fit the bill!  And don’t forget to check out the projects in-person while they’re on display at Cheshire Public Library (on display through March 16th).

    My favorite is the lady on the bottom right: not only is she engineering but she’s doing it in velvet.

  8. Because it’s Friday, here’s some excitement: our new graphic novel collection and an Intro to Microcontrollers class confirmed for March. Our afternoon is coming along quite swimmingly.

    Because it’s Friday, here’s some excitement: our new graphic novel collection and an Intro to Microcontrollers class confirmed for March. Our afternoon is coming along quite swimmingly.

  9. Danablr: Anatomy of a Library Author Event →

    libraryjournal:

    thedanaash:

    Tumblarians, help me out here. I reached out to the ALATT facebook group earlier about planning author events in libraries and got some interesting answers. It seems like the biggest concern among everyone is drawing a decent crowd, which is fair. How disappointing is it to spend so much time planning and marketing to have a low turnout?

    Now I’m trying to figure out how it all works, step by step. It seems like you 

    • get contacts somehow - either through the Center for the Book or a state humanities council or going to an author website
    • ~insert mysterious event planning here~
    • market the hell out of it, which includes cool protips like 1. encouraging public school classes to visit if it is a teen/YA author 2. discussing the author’s most well known work in book groups before the event 3. lots and lots of press and word of mouth promotion 4. making sure it isn’t at a terrible middle of the day time
    • hope for the best
    • if all else fails, target local history groups because they will travel in packs

    Any thoughts? Additional steps? Things that work? Things that don’t work? Anything to make it easier to plan this stuff?

    Thanks!

    I know our own darienlibrary is a bona fide expert at author events.

    Oh! This is my bag, baby. I am going to speak specifically about adult authors because that is what I am most familiar with. There is typically a different process for childrens’ authors…they charge money.

    1. Many publishers, especially the Big Six, have library marketing reps. Here is a list of the adult reps. Contact the rep to make a pitch and then the rep will forward your pitch on to the author’s publicist. A good pitch will include a description of the event space, who will sell books at the event, an estimation as to how many will attend (give a range), how many people your venue holds, and how you will promote the event.

    2. You want to catch an author when he or she is on tour. This means you want to catch that author a month or two after the book has released. You will want to plan this event 3-6 months out. How do you find out about books that have not yet published, you ask? Well, I suggest you start stalking EarlyWord, join their #ewgc on Tuesday afternoons, and attend or get a colleague to attend book buzzes at national conferences. The Association of American Publishers also hosts several regional book buzzes, including a CT Book Buzz right here at Darien Library every Fall.

    3. Yes, market the bejeesus out of it but do not neglect niche groups! For example we recently hosted Becky Aikman, author of the memoir Saturday Night Widows. I reached out to local widow support groups. We had the CEO of Weight Watchers talk about his weight loss book and I reached out to local Weight Watchers centers. Sometimes I go undercover on MeetUp.com and join MeetUp groups and invite members. I have reached out to local magicians when we had a magician author visit. Get out into your community! Also invite a local blogger to be “in conversation” with an author. That way the blog’s readership finds out about the event and the blogger promotes the heck out of your program. Get your staff excited and interested so they promote it to patrons. How do you get them excited? Involve them in the planning of your event.

    I have so much more to say about this but this is officially the longest thing I’ve posted on tumblr. Email me at eshea at darienlibrary.org. I am here for you.

  10. The pole fitness session is a fun and interesting way of encouraging more people into our libraries, trying out all the services on offer and ultimately borrowing more books.

    — 

    Free pole dancing classes at Dalkeith’s Mayfield library ‘a success’ | News | Edinburgh | STV (via infoneer-pulse)

    I think a pole would fit perfectly right next to our Bloomberg Terminal.