Reader's Advisory - SEPLA Workshop Thoughts and Such

For two months now I've been toying with the idea of dusting this place off. I told myself I would think about it...indefinitely because I think I have good ideas that turn out to be too much work and I only have so much time. Also, right now, I really don't need to add something into the mix.

Right now, I'm working on NaNoWriMo and am slated to reach my count by Nov. 23. (Side note:it has been so entertaining/wonderful to see librarians getting into this. I'm happy but it's like shiny and new to librarians but I've been aware of it since 2000-something and this is my second official year participating). Also, I have an orchestra concert this week which means my next two days are this: morning routine, work, hour-ish dinner break, rehearsal until who-knows-when (2-3 hours), NaNoWriMo, with Friday being the concert. (I'm pretty stoked, honestly. We sound great and it is awesome to be part of the community this way). Not to mention, we have a toddler of a 1-year old cat who thinks it is a great idea to do things to get us up between 3-6 AM.

So why now? Why did I decide, "sure, I'm going to give it another go and if it doesn't stick, I seriously need to consider giving up for good?"

I attended PaLA's SEPLA annual meeting and workshop today. Our special guest was Becky from RA for All. At this workshop/meeting, she talked about RA and how we have all the tools to be "virtual superstar librarians." She spoke a lot on "bridging the physical-virtual divide" and brought up lots of points I hadn't considered before. Some points are:

• take your RA in the the library to virtual spaces to create a seamless experience
• keep your voice the same or similar to how you are in real life (something I've been struggling with on this blog) 
• RA really highlights your backlist. The new stuff gets enough attention when it comes out; don't worry about it now.

Other takeaways I had from looking at the blog and from the workshop included blogging for yourself, that the review format I have is very similar to what was on other RA blogs, and well, I have this energy that I want to use now, but can't (not a bad thing. I just would hate to jump in only to discover I have to shift gears quickly).

I honestly started this blog because I always seem to get fellow librarians in real life (irl) saying "You know about graphic novels, can you help me with XYZ." So, I wanted to share what I read. What stopped me recently (apparently in May) is that I was forcing myself to read new stuff and was growing annoyed I couldn't read what I wanted to read that was new because of money (yes, I'm on Netgalley, but when you have a manga fix, Netgalley doesn't always work). I want to buy manga but at $10 a pop with 15 volumes to a series easily vs. my 16 year old cat with asthma (in May it was the 17 year old Orange Cat with cancer who we lost in July) vs. the car REALLY needed new tires vs. music stuff and other stuff, the comic money I had as a teen is just not there (helloooooo adulthood).

But I still read comics and I am currently, sorta on a manga kick. My original intent was to blog about whatever I was reading graphic novel-wise. More recently, I thought I had to read what was new. I also felt that I couldn't cover YA because it is so overdone (in my opinion).

Thinking about the workshop and exploring the blogs today shows me I should just go back to my original intent: covering graphic novels (and YA occasionally). Eventually, I want to cover my idea of a "core collection." I want to index the reviews by titles (OMG). I have a few other ideas too...so...

OK Go - Here It Goes Again from OK Go on Vimeo.