I Had No Idea: National Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Eating disorders are not something to be ignored.  In order to shed light on them and help those that might be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help in a one-on-one manner, we have planned a couple of things to raise awareness of eating disorders.

Amy has been working with the school social worker to sponsor a Uni Period talk about eating disorders, and a registered dietician will be in attendance to lead the talk/discussion.  This year's NEDA focus is I Had No Idea. 

 Signage on our library doors for our Uni Period talk on eating disorders that Amy created.

I also did my best to create a display with information and fiction texts on eating disorders.  One student said that she is concerned with fiction texts that focus on eating disorders, because she fears that they give students who are in the throes of one ideas.  This is a valid point, and after this I was hesitant to put any fiction texts up.  However, after thinking about it for a bit, I felt that these fiction texts could help those recovering to know that authors are aware of eating disorders, and that if needed, they can find themselves reflected in some texts.

I sourced some titles from a Goodreads list on YA Eating Disorders, but this list was filled with books that would do more harm than good (giving "ideas," as the one student who raised concerns stated).  I tried to find some fiction titles in our collection and other collections from around the university that would give a more realistic picture of what eating disorders entail.  The signage posted here was downloaded and printed from the NEDA website.  

Eating disorders are easy to ignore, can be easy to hide, and easy to push to the side in order to worry about other diseases.  They are still life threatening and affect many more than one may realize.  This week, we hope to offer guidance, help, and hope to one, two, or many who may be grappling with an eating disorder. 

Teen Read Week!

It's Teen Read Week!  

I promised I'd let you know about the shenanigans I'm trying to get our students to participate in, so here we go:

1.  FLASH US YOUR BOOKS!  I'm collaborating with friend Kristi Danger Murray Costello at Arkansas State University Writing Center for this one, everybody.  Her group had the great idea that everyone should flash their favorite books.

They are meeting at their campus' fountain, by the student union, on October 22 at noon.  Everyone will read aloud the first line of their favorite book.  Sounds awesome, right?  Well, we might not have a fountain to gather round here, but I am hoping students AND staff will come take a picture holding up their favorite book, so I can create an iMovie/slideshow.  So far we don't have any takers, but it would be a great way to participate with A-State's Writing Center, and I'd upload the iMovie to our YouTube channel at noon on 10/22, as the A-State students are reading.

2.  RECORD A BOOK TRAILER!  Supervisor Amy and I are hoping that this week's recorded book trailers are just a jumping off point for a year-long trailer drive.  We want to post these on our YouTube channel.  We ask, however, that the students have a small index card to consult during their reading/recommendation recording, so it's not just a bunch of rambling.  We'd like them to have a bit of structure and to have their book with them.  We want to continue to record these throughout the year.

3.  TEEN READ OUT!  We want to end the week with a read out.  During our Uni Period on Friday, we want students to come in and read their favorite poem, short story, or the first chapter of their favorite book.  We will have snacks to try to lure those teens in....MUHWAHAHAHA!

Didn't like my ideas?  Well, for Teen Read Week Inspiration, visit the official website.  There are programming ideas, products for purchase, and other information for this awesome week of reading.

I'm super excited about all of these activities, and I hope there's a high level of participation.  I'd love to have at least ten students present for the Teen Read Out on Friday.  We'll just have to wait and see!  Read on, Teens!  Read on, EVERYBODY!!!

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Here's a lesson for student advisory groups: If you ask for something or make a suggestion, there's a good chance that your librarian will in fact listen!

My supervisor has a student advisory group, and so far we are doing our best to implement what they desire.  Their requests are reasonable, well thought out, and will make their library a better place.  The first thing they wanted was a book to movie display.  I have started working on this, but with limited display areas in our library I haven't quite found a "home" for it.  My vision is for it to be a rotating display, constantly updated as the movies are released throughout the year.  More on this if I actually get it up and displaying.

The second thing they want is to know about the new books.  We try to do this with our New Books display, which is constantly updated, but the shelving unit we have is well...kind of horrible.

It's really hard to see the books through the black bars, so I decided to do another new book bulletin board.  (This is another Pinterest idea.  I've simplified it a bit, but I still think it looks good.)

The display has pictures of all of the library's newest acquistions since the school year started.  I will have to do this "new book" bulletin board throughout the year but with different themes.  I like this one: it's bold, eye-catching, has a fun border, and includes a text message and rhetorical question that will hopefully gets students' attention.

Finally, they asked for games (games, games, games, GAMES!).  No, not these games:

These games:

We tested this out for the first time today during Uni Period, and though it might not look like a lot of students attended, I thought it was great for a first go.  I love this programming idea from our student advisory board.  I want to keep the games coming.  Maybe once a month?  First Friday Game Day?  I'll work with the title.  Maybe by the end of the year we could even have this game to play:

Oh, a librarian girl from the late 80s/early 90s can dream, eh?