Giving my brain a kick in the pants

I like making things. I'm a librarian, but I would also edge myself toward "artist" as well. Someday I will feel confident enough to take the quotation marks away from that word, but for now I try as best I can to spend some of my free time messing about with paints and pencils and bits of string and whatever else strikes my fancy. But sometimes... it happens. The dreaded CREATIVE BLOCK. It's not uncommon. It's the time of year, it's waiting for the sunshine to return, it's being busy with work, and housecleaning, and all sorts of tasks that fill our days. Eventually we notice that a number of days have gone by, and our brain feels a bit rusty. Imagine it like so:

It helps to have something to reach for, something to give our brains a bit of a kick in the pants. It's not surprising that for me, it's often books. Picture books, art books, science books, all types of books. Books with pictures and sometimes not. This week's "Things" are to do with Bibliocommons lists, so I decided to make a list of what I call "Creativity Boosters". That's kind of a lacklustre name, but maybe once I have kicked my brain around I will come up with something better. Christin pointed me toward Rainey's book list carousel tutorial! So GET READY FOR IT:



Look at that! Pretty sweet. I might add some more books to this at some point.

And books are great, but what about while you're waiting for those holds to come in? Let me present you with some YouTube videos. I find watching creative profiles of artists and authors from far and wide really inspires me to push forward with what I want to do. Here we have library-favourite Oliver Jeffers: Butcher Baker Picture Book Maker



And Alaskan garment artist Enzina Marrari:

Twitter Twatter

A friend of mine once described Twitter to me as "Facebook status updates without all the wedding and baby pictures". I think that's pretty fair, all things considered, and though I like being able to keep up with the life events of my friends and family, I appreciate Twitter's simplicity. 140 characters for commentary, ideas, links, and yeah some pictures too - but it's not always personal.

If Facebook is you and your friends curled up on the couch in your pyjamas with a photo album, Twitter is the you walking down the sidewalk: in public, in the world, maybe having some thoughts about stuff, maybe also following Neil Patrick Harris. (From an acceptable distance that is not considered stalking, along with 7.6 million other people - it's a big sidewalk.)

Twitter mashes up all kind of perspectives. On my feed I've got some friends, some people I kind of know, some people I don't know, some celebrities. Organisations, radio stations, art projects, bands, and of course some bookish and library-related stuff. Here are some of my favourite twitter accounts to follow:

Early Word (@earlyword)

Early Word is a website billed as “the publisher / librarian connection”. It’s a great place to get news of new releases, bestsellers, and which books are getting a push from their publishers (which often translates into patron requests).  It is US based so we loose on the Canadian angle, but it’s still a useful tool, and there are two monthly “galley chats” where librarians from all over talk new books under the hashtags #ewgc (for adult books) and #ewyagc (for YA)

Rita Meade (@ScrewyDecimal)

Rita is a public librarian in Brooklyn, NYC, and she’s a great example to look at for how many librarians are using twitter these days. Part personal account, part library advocacy, often hilarious, Rita makes wry observations about library life with both a sense of humour and a passion for her job.

 

Lawrence Public Library (@lawrencelibrary)

I have never been to Lawrence, Kansas, but I’m ready to say their library is awesome solely based on their amazing Twitter account. They achieve the perfect balance of programming, community news, cultural commentary, and humour.

Fake Library Stats (@fakelibstats)

This twitter is exactly what it claims to be and I love it.

 

Weird Canada (@weirdcanada)

Weird Canada describes itself saying: “We exist to encourage, document, & connect creative expression across Canada” and that’s pretty much it – they tweet about independent music, art and culture.

Louise Brealey (@louisebrealey)

Celebrity tweeting is a hard thing to get right. Louise Brealey, known best as the actress who plays Molly Hooper in BBC’s Sherlock, is a master with equal parts humour, culture, feminism, wry observations, links to great music and responses to fans.

And for some context, by request:

 

Night Vale Podcast (@NightValeRadio)

Welcome to Night Vale is a popular podcast in the form of a community radio broadcast for the fictional American town of Night Vale. Healthy doses of the eerie, the hilarious and the absurd. Same goes for their twitter account.

 

WW2 Tweets (@RealTimeWWII)

In one of the most ambitious Twitter projects I have ever seen, a history student from the UK (I think he’s probably graduated by now) is “live-tweeting” World War II. All dates and times are as they were, and he’s currently making his way through 1942. I’ve been following this project for at least a year and a half, and no history class previously has ever really allowed me to grasp the vast and prolonged scale of WWII before seeing it played out over the course of years (and years to come).

So. There are some THINGS, I am told. 23 of them, actually. This blog is Thing #1, and I will be blogging along through the next 12 weeks, as we learn about web tools and resources and all that stuff. What wonders and delights await us?!

My biggest hurdle so far was deciding which of the (far too many, really) google accounts in my possession to use for this blog. And also to find an appropriate .gif with which to welcome you to my newest corner of the internet. I have settled for David Tennant-as-Doctor wiggling his regenerated hand at you. I hope that is okay.

You'll find some professional musings here, but you'll also find some silliness. The most important ingredient of any training experience is (in my opinion,) making it fun. So I'm doing my best, "be the change", so on and you know.

[EDIT]: Wow okay, this post and then my tags are also Thing 2 and Thing 3! Oh Yeah.