Another fundraiser

Trey Simmons plans to host a Red Dress Party for the John Trigg Ester Library sometime in February. This is an event where all attendees must wear a red dress or dress-like garment (toga, kilt, smoking jacket, bathrobe). "Red" can be anything from pink to burgundy. There's music and food, and you pay money to get in. Apparently these fundraisers are quite successful in Logan, Utah (where the original Red Dress Party was held) and Portland, Oregon, where each year the organizers choose a different charity to donate money to, and the parties have grown to the size where they raise tens of thousands of dollars.

It sounds like a lot of fun!

Grateful @ Your Library

In her American Libraries' Working Knowledge column for May 2008, Mary Pergander offers some helpful advice to stressed librarians everywhere:

How much better might we serve ourselves by letting up on the relentless disappointments and focusing, if just once per day, on all that we love about our jobs, our profession, and the libraries in which we have the privilege to work?

She takes her own advice to heart and offers a number of reasons why she enjoys her library and being a librarian. I identify with several including being surrounded by knowledge and interesting and friendly coworkers. I also greatly appreciate having a license to be curious about everything. No one asks why you should be interested in "topic x" when you're a librarian, whether it's quantum gravity or Peter Rabbit.

What are you grateful for in your library or in the library field as a whole? Will you commit to finding one thing to be grateful for each day? It could improve your morale and through you, the morale of your whole library.


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Cited Article:

Title: Living the Dream.
Authors: Pergander, Mary
Source: American Libraries; May2008, Vol. 39 Issue 5, p69-69, 1p
Full Text via Digital Pipeline - http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=31873328&site=ehost-live

Know a deployed staff member or patron? Show their blog

Here's an interesting idea I ran across. The Public Library of Westland (Michigan) front page features this link to a blog of a local resident currently with a Styrker brigade in Iraq:

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The Blog of Adrian Massey

Westland, MI poet and soldier Adrian Massey has started a blog to share his thoughts and experiences while stationed in Iraq with his friends and the Westland community. He is the author of A Soldier's Poetic Response: A Slice of his Life by Robbie Dean press in Ann Arbor.

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According to anecdotes, there are a number of military bloggers who are deployed overseas. If one is from your community, consider featuring his/her blog. It is one way of showing your support for the soldier and highlighting their continued connection to your community. It's a good idea to check with your prospective milblogger first.

Do you know of other libraries working with/highlighting deployed personnel in some way? Let us know in a comment.