College Career Track and the Three Little Pigs

Eighth graders are in the library all day today hearing a presentation helping them prepare for college and eventual gainful employment. It is first period, and I am sure from the giggling faces I see through my office window that not everyone is exactly interested in this hot topic. The same school who has sixth graders searching YouTube for SpongeBob Squarepants and Bugs Bunny is trying to excite these kids about college and some job in the future.

This takes me back a bit to the days when my step-son was much older than them, but a young adult we were hoping to engage in an employment experience outside the family. He spent a lot of time outside the house looking for a job, and I am sure I alluded to the quickly passed over message of Mrs. Sow in "The Three Little Pigs": "It's time you seek your fortune." If you read this book enough times to a young person, they will subliminally absorb the message to identify with the brick and mortar pig as a means of avoiding the proverbial wolf at the door. I also thought that with a young person that if they stumbled along in the dark long enough, they would eventually land a job. As some time was going by, and no job was appearing on the horizon, I began to investigate. While I had prepared myself for all sorts of self-identifications that might arise in relation to the Puberty Book, I was unprepared for issues arising from "The Three Little Pigs."

"Mom, I've been trying to find a way to tell you and Dad that I am a Wolf; I am not a pig. Better odds of eating as the wolf. Two out of three pigs end up as wolf chow. Not to worry about the pot of boiling water. I've worked that out, too. Just grab Dad's bankroll and snag my carnitas from the local taquerias."

" You're a WHAT?!" Okay, you're a wolf, and if you're not going to hunt, you need to find a way to generate some money of your own." (Parental Conference in the works.)

Parental Conference

Old Business: Report on Son's job search

New Business: Findings on Son's Job Search

Petition to change name to Wolf

Cost/Benefit Analysis of bankrolling his burritos

Prospect of his employment

It's not my fault I read him "The Three Little Pigs."

Tales from the Trenches: Library Life in the Big World of Books

We are missing YouTube videos of SpongeBob Squarepants getting blown up and Bugs Bunny becoming Bunny Stew after over 60 years of successfully evading Elmer Fudd all because the district is busy protecting you from questionable content over the internet. Don't worry! Just find your nearest middle schooler with a cellphone, and your learning curve can take off, too. While we're on the subject, eblogging is now a less subversive activity as the district filters are letting you read this.





Let's see, On this inauguration of "Tales from the Trenches," so far today, the door frame has swollen from recent rain thus preventing the back door from closing properly. When you have a problem, hand it off as quickly as possible to someone else, which I have done so successfully. (Those guys looked like they're happy to do it, too.) That should be in the Library Manual.





I'm putting together book wish lists for which I have no money, but I truly believe in the magic of making lists and thinking, and voila, in comes a solution. Example: Librarian Magic:I woke up thinking about how I needed to drop a note to one of the artistic-types around the school to unload the old card catalog, and do you know what happened? Before I even wrote the note, she came down with a student looking for information about Bahrain, asked about the card catalog, and I told her that the card catalog is the computer, and that the old card catalog is sitting around in pieces. "Can I have it? I'm an artist, and I love those things!" Sold! See how the universe works, and why we need more magical books in the library!





Productivity:I get so much done around here, even if no one knows about it, and never mind the methodology. Things do get done, in a lifetime of living magically.





Special Request of the Day: (something like Soup de Jour): Can I barcode Yu-gi-oh cards? Can I barcode Yu-gi-oh cards! You bet, and I bet we can get a Noodletools citation as well, but I think that is for someone with a more advanced knowledge of Noodletools.





Special Challenge to Librarians: Let's see you do a Noodletools citation for a Yu-gi-oh card.