The Guy

Don't kid yourself. School libraries are businesses. We have budgets, we are accountable to our school administrators, we have curriculum standards and benchmarks, and most important of all, we have customers. Without the kids we have no business. If we do anything less than make ourselves indispensable, we are on the cut list and our programs are lost. It is really the students who lose.

So what does a global business marketing guru have to do with school libraries?

Everything.

• Delivering relevant product (our 21st century curriculum)
• Shipping every day (student and faculty service with a SMILE!)
• Innovation (staying cutting edge)
• Dominating our niche (being the go-to person for information technologies)
• Visionary (inspiring and leading change)
• Product (preparing our students for productive lives in the information economy)

Godin has just released his latest book as a vook. For $4.99 you not only get to hear from an exceptionally smart man, but also experience the quickly approaching environment of the hybrid book. This is an example of what our collections will soon be accommodating.

How do we catalog this? Curate this? Manage this? I sure as heck don't know, but I'll be scrambling to find out in order to be ready.

So, go on, take a look at the Vook...

Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus

"In a world where an Internet video of a piano playing cat can get more public attention that a multi-million dollar television advertising spot, how do marketers, business or anyone who has an idea they want to spread get the right attention? Seth Godin might not have a quick fix or a miracle solution, but his Unleashing the SUPER Ideavirus Vook will bring you completely up to speed on the tactics you need to survive and thrive in today's fast paced information economy."

For a little more Seth, check out his recent TED Talk.

(Source:  Seth Godin: This is broken | Video on TED.com)

Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

Friday, the last day of classes, and final exams are scheduled for next week. Everyone is frayed at the edges. The media lab is choked with students finalizing multi-media projects. The printers are giving off heat, we are churning out so many papers.

Frenzied? Yes. Creative? YES! As buried in work as students are, many are looking beyond the rubrics and bringing creativity and craftsmanship to their work. It is incredibly inspirational to work with students who care about doing well, but who also care about adding their own voice and creativity to their work. When you consider the obstacles so many kids face in the course of their school career it is all the more impressive.

What about us? As school librarians how do we feed our creativity? Does our creativity give us new ideas? Connect us to the world? Do we let our creativity out to play, or do we allow it to be stifled by budgets, colleagues, and maybe by a sense of  frustration that we are not recognized for our work?

On my desk is a heavy stainless steel paper weight that asks "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?"

This question feeds my creativity. It gives me courage to try out new ideas, to go for grants, to approach teachers with ideas for collaborating on units, to work with students trying out new platforms to give them options to show their learning. To showcase their creativity.

Let Out the Creative Beast is a great cartoon by Betsy Streeter that cleverly gives a peek into the working lives of students. And us, as well. Enjoy! And nurture your creative beast.

Let Out the Creative Beast

View more presentations from Betsy Streeter.

Photo credit:
Flickr Creative Commons

Where does creativity hide? ~ Amy...
from Abby Lanes