5 Easy Tips to Organize Your Library Life with Trello

Trello is one of my favorite apps to use to stay organized, both professionally and personally. It is really intuitive and fun to use. You can also access it both on your phone or computer, which was really important to me.

When I first tried it out, I wasn't sure what was the best way to use it, But after a year, I now have a system in place that has worked really well. If you are curious about Trello, want to organize your life better, or see how an online organizer could work in a library setting, this post is for you!

1. Make a Column for Each Month

I have 12 columns (called "lists"), one for each month. I added tasks (called "cards") to each month to remind myself what needs to be done. As new tasks come up, I add them to the list. Anything that was a one time deal, I archive/delete when I complete it. If it is a yearly task, I move it to the bottom of my list so I know it is done, but it remains on my list for next year.  For example, I would always forget that my Director asks for my program numbers in August for her yearly report. So, in May (my last "quiet month" before the Summer Reading craziness) and in July (to catch my Summer Reading stats), I give myself a task to make sure I have a list typed up with all of my numbers. Now, when August comes around, I'll be expecting her to ask AND I already have the work done, completed at a time that's best for me.

2. Utilize the Deadlines Feature

You can enable Deadlines on your tasks. When you get close to the due date, Trello will email you a reminder. The deadline will also turn to yellow when it is due in 24 hours and then red after the deadline has passed, so you can easily see at a glance what you need to get done for the day. Recently, Trello has added a feature in which you can cross out a deadline after you complete it, so you can now see your progress, too, on the calendar as a strike-out.

 

3. Streamline to Decrease Clutter

I have learned two simple ways to decrease clutter and help me plan ahead. Trello recommends that you make a column to move your completed tasks, but I don't do that. When I complete that month's task, I add it to the bottom of the list for next year. If it is a reoccurring task (say a reminder to email members that your monthly meeting is coming up next week), I update the deadline and then move it into the next month's column. So when I look ahead, I don't see these minute tasks and can easily plan around my big projects.

My second recommendation is to utilize their Checklist feature. For tasks that have multiple steps, I make just one task and add a checklist breaking it down into smaller parts. You can even make generic checklists so you aren't constantly creating a new one. For example, I have a generic checklist for programs. When I create a new program, I can pull up my Program Checklist and it will fill in with my advertising, material shopping, etc. and then I can customize it for specifics.

4. Plan Ahead for Next Year

I add new tasks to each month as they come up. If it was a one time task, I delete it when I complete it. If I need to do it yearly, I leave it in that month's queue (dragged to the end of the list) and update the deadline for next year. When the month ends, I move the whole column to the end (far right). Now my first month in the list would be February and January 2018 is already planned out.

5. Collaborate with Your Colleagues

Trello allows you to share your boards with anyone. In my previous job, I had a Teen Staff board and an All Library Board, sharing it with the appropriate people. We could work together to shelf read sections of the library (we had a task for each section and people wrote where they ended in that section), build book display lists, keep track of when we pulled off the new book sticker. Every time someone posts, it is time stamped. There is also an option to write comments to each other (you can also tag specific people) and attach documents.


These tips can really work for almost any other program (Google Calendar, Asana, and others!) and you can also do some of them with a paper calendar. For my daily tasks, I do reference my Trello board and then write them down on paper. So, feel free to mix and match online and paper techniques. It doesn't matter how you do it, just that you find a process that works for you.

5 Ways to Stay Passionate Working in Libraries

Our post about librarian burnout was really popular, so we thought we'd start off 2017 with five tips to help any librarian renew their passion to their profession:

1. Each month, make sure you take time to learn something new

We wrote a blog post a few months ago with a great list of  webinars and courses. But even taking the time out to read a library journal or listen to a library podcast would help keep new ideas and information coming in. Don't be afraid to broaden beyond the library world, too -- social media tips that are geared for nonprofits and small businesses will also work for libraries. Design programs will help you make a great birthday card will also make a wonderful flyer. 

2. Connect with colleagues 

Go to conferences and roundtable discussions. Sign up for library email lists like ALA's electronic email lists (If it is too overwhelming to keep up with daily, carve out a weekly time in your schedule to go through the emails). Join librarian Facebook groups. Do whatever you can to connect with colleagues outside of your library, even better if they are working with the same age group as you. In my previous position, I started a YA Collaborative Group, where we met just three times a year. It was invaluable to see people face-to-face, and learning from each other's successes, sharing our future plans, and commiserating with the rough parts of the job.  

3. Keep a folder of comments, praises, positive feedback

This suggestion was shared by one of our readers, MsFrisby, on the Burnout article and we think it is fabulous! Start a folder where you can collect comments, praises, and positive feedback. Don't forget to include drawings from kids, great photos of your patrons having a good time, and those thank you notes. I even take screenshots of positive comments on social media and save them on a folder in my computer.  If you are having a rough day, go to that folder and browse through. You are making a difference in people's lives, keep up the good fight! 

4. Use Your Stats for Competitive Fun

I know most libraries keep track of how many people are coming to their programs and how many programs they've held. But go a step further -- every year, make a list of your top programs. Compare them to years prior. Keep track of your highest attended program and try to beat it the next year. Find books in your collection that haven't circulated and book talk them everywhere. Every month, check up on their stats. Which one is circulating the most? It is even more fun if everyone in your department picks a book to "sell" to patrons. Or find a different small goal and make that your focus for a few months. Think up new ways to beat your previous number, and even carve out some time to research fresh ideas.

5. Bring your hobbies into the library

What do you love talking about? What do you enjoy doing? Find ways to incorporate that into your library programming. Even something as simple as enjoying coupons could lead to a great coupon sharing program. Cooks have brought cookbook programs to the library. Writers run writing workshops. Animal lovers have done collaborative programs with animal shelters and teen/kid volunteers. One of my favorite parts about public librarianship is that it is really easy to justify any idea for a library program. Even if you don't normally run programs or it is for an age group you don't work with, talk with the head of programming to see if it is a possibility. When I was a YA librarian, I was given permission to run a monthly adult writing group. Five years later (and even though I no longer work at this library), we're still going strong. So you never know!

Happy new year, everyone! We hope these tips help. If you have any other tips, please share in the comments below.

Literary Holidays to Celebrate All Year Long

It's almost the new year, and you know what that means - planning for next year! I love planning almost as much as I love celebrating, so I've gone ahead and compiled a list of holidays to celebrate all year long, so I can get my 2017 calendar in order. If you have more literature-based or library-friendly holidays, please let me know and I will add them!

Please note that, while many of these holidays are officially sponsored by (and you can purchase posters and such from) the American Library Association, many of them are made up just for fun, and there is no official, cohesive, governing body. As such, you can celebrate them however you like. I have linked to official sources where I was able.

January 

National Braille Literacy Month (Louis Braille was born 1/4/1809)

1/18 – Winnie the Pooh Day (A.A.Milne’s Birthday)

1/19 – Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday

1/29 – “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is first published

February 

Love Your Library Month

2/4 – Take Your Child to the LibraryDay (first Saturday of February)

2/14 – Library Lovers’ Day

March

First full week – Return of Borrowed Books Week

3/2 - Read Across America (Dr. Seuss’s Birthday)

3/4 – National Grammar Day

3/5-11 (First full week of March) – Read an eBook Week

3/5-11 Teen Tech Week

3/15 – The Ides of March (Julius Caesar is stabbed, 44 B.C.)

3/16 – Freedom of Information Day

April 

National Poetry Month

4/2 – International Children’s Book Day (Hans Christian Anderson’s Birthday)

4/9-15 – National Library Week

4/13 (Thursday of National Library Week) – Celebrate Teen Literature Day

4/11 – National Library Workers’ Day

4/12 – D.E.A.R. Day (Beverly Cleary’s birthday)

4/18 – National Columnists Day (in memory of well-known columnist and 1944 Pulitzer Prize winner Ernie Pyle, who died in WWII)

4/21 – Poem in Your Pocket Day

4/22-29 Money Smart Week

4/23 – Shakespeare’s birthday

4/23 – World Book Day

4/27 – National Tell a Story Day

4/30 – Children’s Book Day/El Dia de los Ninos

May

5/1-7 Children’s Book Week

5/2 - Harry Potter Day (May 2 was the day of the Battle of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series; many also celebrate July 31, which is both Harry's and J.K. Rowling's birthdays)

5/4 – Intergalactic Star Wars Day ("May the Fourth be with you.")

5/6 – Free Comic Book Day (first Saturday in May)

5/9 – Peter Pan Day (James M. Barrie’s birthday)

5/20 – Eliza Doolittle Day
5/21 – National Readathon Day

5/25 – Towel Day (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Day)

June 

LGBTBook Month, Audiobook Appreciation Month

6/12 – Anne Frank’s birthday (on which she received her diary)

6/19 – National Garfield the Cat Day (strip is first published, 1978)

July 

Read an Almanac Month

7/16-21 (third week of July) – Hemingway Days takes place in the Florida Keys

7/30 – National Paperback Book Day

7/31 – Harry Potter Day (July 31is both Harry's and J.K. Rowling's; many also celebrate May 2, which was the day of the Battle of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series)

August

8/9 – Book Lovers’ Day

September

 Library Card Sign-Up Month, Be Kind to Writers and Editors Month

9/6 – Read a Book Day

9/8 – International Literacy Day

9/22 – Hobbit Day

9/22 – Dear Diary Day

Last week of Sept. – Banned BooksWeek

Wednesday of Banned Books Week – Banned Websites Awareness Day

October 

National Book Month (no longer sponsored by the National Book Foundation, but we can celebrate anyway)

10/6 – Mad Hatter Day (because his hat says 10/6)

10/9-15 (week of Columbus Day) – Teen Read Week

10/16 – Dictionary Day (Noah Webster’s Birthday)

10/16-22 Friends of Libraries Week

November 

Picture Book Month, National Family Literacy Month, National Novel Writing Month

11/1 – National Family Literacy Day

11/6 – National Non-Fiction Day (it's "national" in England; let's spread it internationally!) 

11/14 – Astrid Lindgren’s birthday (author of Pippi Longstocking)

11/15 – I Love to Write Day

11/18 – High-Five a Librarian Day

Third Saturday of November – International Games Day

December 

Read a New Book Month

12/1 – Sherlock Holmes Day (“A Study in Scarlet” was said to have been first published 12/1/1887 - this is actually in dispute, but we can still celebrate)

12/16 – Jane Austen’s birthday

3 Amazing Ways Libraries Have Helped Their Communities

Libraries are doing amazing work for their communities and we wanted to highlight a few today that makes us proud to be a librarian. Keep up the great work, everyone!

Mental Health First Aid Training for California Public Library Staff

http://www.library.ca.gov/grants/lsta/mentalhealthtraining.html

Due to a mental health initiative by the state of California, librarians from across the state are being trained to on how to work effectively and compassionately with people living with mental health issues. This new initiative isn't intended to replace professionals, but designed to connect people to the help they need, either it is finding a book or finding a professional to speak to.

Prisoners Video Chat With Relatives After Expansion of Library Program

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20161130/east-harlem/harlem-inmate-video-chat-visitation

Prison visits are in the midst of a big change. Instead of in-person visits, they are now installing technology for video chat visits. This is great for relatives who live far away but it comes with lots of costs, including the fees families have to pay to use the service and leaves out those who don't have the technology to connect online. To solve this problem, New York Public Library collaborated with the city's Department of Correction, putting the technology in every library where anyone can book an hour to talk with a loved one incarcerated at Rikers Island.

Assisting micro-enterprise businesses in success in Kings Mountain

http://statelibrarync.org/ldblog/2016/03/09/3588/

Back in 2012, small businesses in Kings Mountain, NC were closing as fast as they were opening. The city investigated the problem and realized that new business owners weren't equipped with the knowledge and experience to run a successful business. So, Kings Mountain Library applied and won the LSTA grant, hired a Business Librarian who ran classes for these small businesses on topics like using door counters, having secret shoppers and learning from their experiences, having the police do a free safety and security audit (which they already do), technology access and education (especially all the great tools offered at the library), graphic designers to develop logos and helping them update their basic info on Google Maps. The program was a success!

Bonus Story:
Shelter dogs feel lonely and abandoned, so children practice reading books to them

http://shareably.net/children-read-to-shelter-dogs/

Ok, this isn't a library story, but we think this is so cool and a great idea for libraries to adopt! In Missouri, children volunteer to read to shelter dogs. This encourages the dogs to hang out at the front of their kennel, which helps them to get adopted quicker. It also helps children improve their reading and public speaking skills.

Do you have any great library stories to share? We'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Ready to Go Display: Read Dessert First

Welcome to our series, "Ready to Go!" Book Display. Once a month we'll highlight the latest or greatest for every age group that you can promote within your library or order for your collection. Here's some tasty books without the calories.

Recommendations for Adults:

Sprinkle with Murder by Jenn McKinlay (Mar 2010)

In the first book of Cupcake Bakery mystery series, Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura, the proud owners of the Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery, race against time to save their business and catch a killer who used their cupcakes to kill a famous fashion designer.

Éclair and Present Danger by Laura Bradford (June 2016)

When her elderly neighbor, a widower named Bart, is found dead, smothered by a pillow, bakery owner Winnie Johnson, while comforting her frightened and grieving neighbors with baked goods, decides to stir things up to catch a killer who preys on the helpless.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (Oct 2010)

Discovering in childhood a supernatural ability to taste the emotions of others in their cooking, Rose Edelstein grows up to regard food as a curse when it reveals everyone's secret realities.

How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue (Mar 2012)

When childhood friends, Annie and Julia, reconnect as adults and decide to open a cupcakery, they must overcome old betrayals, first loves, and a dangerous threat.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke (Mar 2011)

Cookie-baking sleuth Hannah Swensen must protect her reputation when a popular delivery man is found murdered behind her bakery with Hannah's cookies scattered around him.

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street by Susan Jane Gilman (June 2014)

Russian immigrant Malka arrives in 1913 Manhattan, where she struggles to survive and learns trade secrets from an Italian ices peddler before setting off across America in an ice cream truck with a handsome, illiterate radical to seek their fortunes.

The Cake Therapist by Judith Fertig (June 2015)

A pastry chef with an uncanny ability returns to her hometown to make sense of her future while delving into the past.

Wicked Business by Janet Evanovich (June 2012)

Dazzling her patrons with scrumptious cupcakes at her Salem, MA bakery, Elizabeth Tucker continues to fall for the irresistible Diesel, who protects her from a villain who is seeking mystical stones tied to the seven deadly sins.

Recommendations for Teens:

Dessert First by Dean Gloster (Sept 2016)

High school sophomore Kat struggles with her twelve-year-old brother's recurring leukemia and likely death while coping with mean girls at school and possible romance.

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler (Jan 2012)

Hudson Avery gave up a promising competitive ice skating career after her parents divorced when she was fourteen years old and now spends her time baking cupcakes and helping out in her mother's diner, but when she gets a chance at a scholarship and starts coaching the boys' hockey team, she realizes that she is not through with ice skating after all.

Cake Pop Crush by Suzanne Nelson (Feb 2016)

While working at her family's small bakery making her specialty cake pops, Alicia develops a secret crush on the son of the new coffee-shop owners from across the street who are threatening her family's business.

The Cupcake Queen by Heather Hepler (Sept 2009)

While longing to return to life in NYC, thirteen-year-old Penny helps her mother and grandmother run a cupcake bakery in Hog's Hollow, tries to avoid the beastly popular girls, to be a good friend to quirky Tally, and to catch the eye of enigmatic Marcus.

Close to Famous by Joan Bauer (Feb 2011)

Twelve-year-old Foster McFee and her mother escape from her mother's abusive boyfriend and end up in the small town of Culpepper, West Virginia, where they use their strengths and challenge themselves to build a new life, with the help of the friends they make there.

Recommendations for Kids:

The Cookie Fiasco by Dan Santat (Sept 2016)

There are only three cookies and four hungry friends to share them with. This is not good. This is not equal!

Katie and the Cupcake Cure by Coco Simon (May 2011)

Disappointed because she's been ostracized by the popular girls' club that has given entry to her best friend, Katie forms a new baking club with fellow outsiders Mia, Emma and Alexis.

A Fine Dessert by Emily Jenkins (Jan 2015)

This book follows families from England to California and from 1710 to 2010, preparing and enjoying the dessert called blackberry fool.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff

A young and very accommodating boy discovers you can never tell where it will stop if you give a lively, but demanding, mouse a cookie.

The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems (Apr 2012)

Pigeon is very angry when the duckling gets a cookie just by asking politely.

Ice Cream Summer by Peter Sis (May 2015)

A little boy writes a letter to his grandfather about all the reading and studying he is doing this summer - but all his activities revolve around ice cream.

Save the Cupcake! by Lisa Papademetriou (May 2012)

Hayley's world is far from perfect: her parents have divorced, her mom has lost her job, and she and her sister Chloe are stuck sharing a bedroom in their grandmother's apartment. Luckily, Hayley has a knack for baking cupcakes - and cupcakes always make life just a little sweeter.

The Candymakers by Wendy Mass (Oct 2010)

When four twelve-year-olds, including Logan, who has grown up never leaving his parent's Life Is Sweet factory, compete in the Confectionary Association's annual contest, they unexpectedly become friends and uncover secrets about themselves during the process.

12 Tips to Make Facebook Events Successful for Your Library

Lisa Waite Bunker, the Social Media Librarian from Pima County Public Library, posted a great Facebook post about how Facebook Events have worked for her library. With her permission, we're sharing her post below. We hope her stats will convince you to use Facebook Events, and the tips at the end will help you get started!

Without further ado, here's Lisa's post:

I knew FB events were pretty successful, but now I have numbers!

Our stats in context:

• no ads or boosts
• almost 10,000 Likes on the primary page, 26 branch pages are much smaller

Over a sample period of 5 months, we entered 134 events on Facebook, and had 160,307 reach (awareness, or the number of individuals who saw the event in their newsfeed).

For example, events that were widely shared (by people, bloggers, other pages) the reach could go as high as 7,952 (a career day for teens, co-sponsored by the university). Some events have gone even higher.

Average event reach per month: 32,061. Extrapolated over 12 months that would be event reach of 384,736 people per year.

Events have always been possible on Facebook, but in late 2015* they became much more effective, more discoverable. As a result I’ve been encouraging staff to enter more events, and going in after to add the primary system page as a co-host, which vastly increased the exposure beyond the branch’s page. The rumor is that FB will add a new events app, in an attempt to compete with Eventbrite and Meetup.
*Source: https://www.wired.com/2015/11/inside-facebook-events-updates/

If you go into your Insights, you can see your own stats on the “Events” tab.

I hope your takeaway is that you want to add more events!

Some other things to keep in mind

• Facebook launched a brand new Events app that appears to be direct competition with Meetup.com. If this is like other new additions they will incentivize event creation. 

Example of the new Facebook App from Pima County Public Library

Facebook's advertisement of the new Event App

• Events can be saved as drafts, and scheduled.
• Your following can subscribe to your page’s events. I notice that a lot of bloggers have done this.
• Events can also be easily duplicated if they are a series.
• You will need a good image for the banner.
• Be sure you check the box for “free” and/or “family-friendly” when applicable.
• If the event requires registration I highly recommend you add that in the event name. People assume that if they say they are going on FB that we know they’ll be there.
• Once you create an event you can invite personal friends. (Don’t spam them tho!)
• Everyone who is invited, or indicates interest, will get all event updates regardless of Facebook’s algorithm.
• Facebook *automatically* sends an event reminder the day of the event.
• If a programming partner creates a FB event for an event you are co-hosting you can easily add that event to the branch’s calendar without asking for access to their page.
• I don’t recommend adding A WHOLE BUNCH of events, just the ones you really want to promote; also, it gets spammy.

Thank you, Lisa, for sharing your wisdom on the 5 Minute Librarian. We hear you are working on a chapter about social media for a book that'll be coming out soon. We look forward to it!

How GoodReads Makes Me a Better Librarian

I am not shy about talking up the things I love. Library pets, NoveList, zombie makeup - you all know me pretty well by now. You know what else I love? GoodReads. We all know it, many of us use it for our own personal reading. But it's only recently that I really sat down and thought about how it makes me a better librarian.

How Can it Work for Me? 

You can use GoodReads for so many things!

Reviews/Book Talks 

The #1 thing I use GoodReads for is to write reviews of books that I've read. When I've finished a book, I take a few minutes to write up a booktalk for that title. That way, when a year has gone by and somebody asks me about it, I can pull up my review and - BAM! Booktalk!

The big debate here is actually whether to give negative reviews or not. If it's a library account, I would say not to - someone is going to want this book, regardless of whether I personally enjoyed it - but if it's my personal account, I just go ahead and do it. As librarians, we can't read every book, and we rely on the reviews of others to help us out in collection development and recommendations. If people aren't upfront about it - at least with the number of stars they'd give - we don't know how good a book actually is. So, go ahead. Be honest.

Recommendations

When you go to a book's GoodReads page, you'll see other book covers over to the right side, with the label, "Readers Also Enjoyed." (Click on that to get a whole list.) You may know the recommended books, or you may not, but even looking at them will likely jog your memory. 

When you have read enough, GoodReads will recommend books based on your personal reading history. Since I log in with a personal page, this is nice for me personally, but not as much professionally. It does help in seeing books I hadn't known about that I can consider to add to my collection (or TBR pile), but unless you have a smaller group with similar views (say, a GoodReads account for your book club), it might not be as useful. 

Listopia

There is a list for everything on here, from the very broad ("Best Books of the Year") to the very specific ("Lesbian Science Fiction"). Anyone can make a list, so you may or may not agree with the items that are chosen, but even looking at them can remind you of others. You can also vote on some lists, so they're a compilation of many viewpoints. (You can also discuss your choices in the comments.) I have heard complaints that nonfiction books are under-represented, but I find that it's a good resource for fiction books.

What Comes Next?

There are lots of places where you can find out what book comes next in a given series, but I've found that GoodReads is the easiest to use (though NoveList is also awesome). Find your book, click the name of the series, and it'll give you all the books in that series, in order, and their date of publication. (In fact, GoodReads is so on top of this that I have found out the name of the next book in a series there, when it doesn't seem to be listed anywhere else.)

Get Connected with Groups

If your book club is online, you can create a group for them. Make a bookshelf of books your club has already read, so you don't duplicate. Have online group discussions about books - the current selection, or not - and make the group seem more like a group of friends, and less like a bunch of people who get together for an hour once a month.

I am also a member of a group that does a Mock Newbery Award every year. I'm sorry to say that I'm not very active in the group, but I do go take a look at what others are thinking might be the best books of the year, so I can consider adding them to my collection (and my TBR pile). 

The GoodReads Blog

The GoodReads blog is great for keeping on top of new releases, and ideas for books to recommend to people. At the time of this writing, the blog is featuring some great holiday gift guides (yeah, what DO I get for coworkers?), but also has articles such as, "7 Great Titles Hitting the Shelves Today" and opinion pieces such as "10 Book Families You Wish You Could Invite to Thanksgiving Dinner." If you need ideas for displays or seasonal recommendations (in addition to Allie's great lists), you're covered.

News & Interviews

Check out the News and Interviews page (from the Browse menu at the top, click "News and Interviews") and see what's new on the site. Read author interviews, and check out a list of the titles people have been reading and rating as the best books of the month, and don't get surprised when you have seven people ask you for a book that you've never heard of.

GoodReads Choice Awards

How cool is this? Anyone and everyone can vote for the best books of the year, separated into various categories. These awards are actually voted on by readers like us, and our patrons. If the best book of the year is voted on by actual people who enjoy that genre, it's a fair bet that it's a pretty good one to consider adding to your collection - or, at least, to be aware of.

And also...

There's more. There's a lot more: Q&As with actual authors, ARC giveaways (you can set your preferences to alert you when an author you like, or books in a genre you like, have new giveaways - great for prizes!), discussion groups. There are even fan-made trivia games! If you have the Chrome Library Extension set up, it will tell you whether the book you're looking at is available in your library/consortium right there on the page. If you follow GoodReads on Twitter or Facebook, they also post some great content that you can share on your own social media.

I'm sure there are ways to use GoodReads professionally that I haven't even thought about. What do you use it for? Tell us here in the comments, on Twitter, or on Facebook.