The Daring Librarian

Do you ever get stuck clicking around Amazon buying random stuff you may not really need but suddenly desire? Do you have a mountain of Amazon boxes in your kitchen waiting for each recycle day? Yeah, me neither! [cough] Like today, among other things, I got a Misto Brushed Aluminum Olive Oil Sprayer for my roasted cauliflower & Brussels sprouts addiction and a set of 4 Le Creuset Silicone French Coasters for the Coastal Cottage . You never know what you might find! But sometimes I stumble across something that sparks my creativity and I'm like - SO COOL!....Now what can I do with it?  This was the case with a set of 100 antique looking keys I found that came with raffia cords & brown card stock tags....all for only $20.99. Officially, it's called: SL crafts Mixed 100pcs Skeleton Keys & 100 pcs Kraft Tags Antiqued Brass Bronze Charms Pendants Wedding favor 34mm-68mm I mean, 100 fancy keys, 100 custom cut out tags, and 100 raffia cords? Bargain!   The...

Sometimes, when you're sharing the benefits of a professional Social Media presence, it can become a bit bewildering and overwhelming. I get that! With so many choices, it can make your head swim and quickly turn intimidating, and it's easy to say "no way, not yet, not now, no how!"  And you let it slide for another week, month, or year! I've been there! So, I wanted to create a cheat sheet, an At-A-Glance Worksheet that would demystify the steps to crafting your Social Media presence with continuity across several platforms, making it easy to follow while still making sure you're not missing anything important. I wish I had this when I was starting out 10 years ago!  Yes, this is a Paper Handout, What? I created this as a PDF to share even as a .....now, don't be too shocked, a printed hand out . Honestly, I admit I like to check off things on a hard copy when I'm working on a project. It makes me feel like I'm accomplishing stu...

 How to be a Teacher Librarian Rock Star - Branding Tips & Tricks First thing I gotta say, I don’t know that I really love the term Library Rockstars because I think ALL Teachers, Librarians, Teacher-Librarians, Educators....we're all rock stars or each of us has an inner rock star just waiting to come out.  I also think it sounds a wee bit elitist. OK, a whole heck of a lot of elitist.  But who doesn’t want to rock it at their job? (BTW, I was asked to write this "Rock Star" article for another publication and using the Rock Star theme was their choice - So, I'm answering their questions - I did the best I could! They highly edited my responses, and I think I ended up sounding like a total prat, but here they are in their entirety.)  To what do you attribute your success? I try to...... Work hard Be Reliable Be Reflective Be Positive Hard work, a sense of humor, tenacity, and a stubbornly fought for positive mental and professional attitude. Yes...

This is a really nice FREE offer from our friend Katie at Capstone!* Tis the Reading Season!  When I first heard this, I thought it was too good to be true!  I thanked her vaguely** on Twitter (unless it was a secret just for my school district) but then I thought – could I possibly share it with everyone? Could I Tweet this out? So, I called her office out of the blue to double check that I could share it with you, the world, and his wife – and she said YES! And it was great talking to her on the phone. You know, sometimes it's nice to have a conversation - rather than a Tweet, text, or email. Give it a try! Surprise someone out of the blue to say hi, ask a question, or give a compliment this holiday season or next year! Just throwing that out there. Students (and your kids!) can choose FREE eBooks from a library of over 3,200 to download & read over the break*** From Mythology, Scary Stories, Fiction, to Graphic Novels – there’s more t...

Tis the season to be grateful. A couple weeks ago the On Our Mind blog by Scholastic shared an article featuring 15 Librarians to Follow on Instagram . I was so thrilled and honored to have been included on this list of librarians. I shared it on Twitter, took a screenshot, made the graphic above for my Annual Report, & of course called my Mom & Dad!  But I never thought to blog about it (because, like bragging, right?)  until I saw that my fellow ginger librarian and sweet friend Shannon Miller had blogged about it, so I thought - heck, why not? (that's us on the right below - a pic I took 8 years ago - I look tired, she's just gorgeous! I wish I could say I was better at selfies today, sadly - not so much!) But, why not? I'm always trying to urge other librarians to not "humble themselves out of a job." So, I'm totally shamelessly copying her right now! (At least I'm honest!) While reading this article, I discovered s...