So, within a week or so of returning to Australia last October, I found myself attending the ALIA NSW Library Unconference in Sydney. After 18 months working for the UN overseas, I thought I'd give the library industry another decent shot, and had a couple of good opportunities open up to get my foot back in the door of the library world. I figured that an ALIA event would be a good chance to get a feel for the professional community again.
There were a number of familiar faces - one of whom was a former colleague and now ALIA staffer, who encouraged me to join ALIA again. I promised that I'd join as soon as I'd landed a permanent job in the industry. I neglected to mention that it had been over eight years since I'd had a permanent job. But, on the whole, it was an interesting crowd - and I was surprised at how optimistic everybody felt about the state of the industry and the future of their careers. It was nice.
A few months later, I attended an ALIA event, where it was announced that ALIA were making some changes to their constitution - specifically "To endorse the principles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19, and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals in response to the many challenges faced by the world today and into the future."
This was something new, and it certainly caught my attention - especially as somebody who had spent the previous three years immersed in work that was intrinsically tied to the SDGs. Furthermore, when I spoke at the ALIA conference in 2014, one of my main points was on the similarities between many of the core objectives of library and information work and capacity-building in the developing world.
With this inclusion in ALIA's core aims, it felt like they were making a very deliberate shift toward professional values that were already important to me.
At the same time, my career had taken a turn for the better, working in one of my top employers of choice, which I found enjoyable and stimulating and challenging in a good way - BUT - it's the kind of place where one can easily disappear into a well-insulated bubble that keeps its focus on internal operational functions.
So, for me, I now feel like ALIA involvement can provide that opportunity to make the connections between the operational work I do as a professional in the workplace and the opportunities to interact with the wider community, especially in the field of International Development. ALIA has its Asia-Pacific Spectial Interest Group (APSIG), and I'm curious to see how an increased focus on the SDGs will prompt further opportunities to perhaps form regional partnerships. And I'm keen to use these opportunities to connect with others who have worked with others who have worked in the space where libraries and international development intersects.
Furthermore, as a new employee in a large organisation, I'm hardly going to be an agent for substantial change in that part of my professional world. But getting involved in ALIA, once again I can pursue the areas of the industry that interest me that I wouldn't necessarily have the opportunity to pursue in my work.
It's not the most common reason for joining ALIA, but it's one that works for me. It feels like an organic convergence of everything that I've done in my career so far.
When I first joined ALIA, I did so because I thought it would be good for my career, that it would help me find a job, and that by banding together with other librarians, it would make us a more "serious" profession. I believed that all librarians should contribute to their professional community, supporting each other in career development and lifelong learning and, in the process, create innovation in their work and futureproof the profession. That's what ALIA membership meant to me back then.
Honestly, I don't care about those things so much anymore. But the idea of ALIA as a development organisation - in similar ways to IFLA with last year's International Advocacy Programme - that's definitely something that I can get behind.
That said - I got that permanent job, so I pretty much had to keep my promise and join.
Also, ALIA membership is tax-deductible. Strangely enough, also a deciding factor.
Tuesday, 6 June 2017
Monday, 5 June 2017
Day 5: Why I cancelled my ALIA membership...
So, two and a half weeks ago, I joined the Australian Library and Information Association. It wasn't a decision that I took lightly. You see, there was a time when I was once an ALIA member, and I cancelled my membership, with no intention of ever re-joining.
But before I can explain why I left, I need to first explain why I joined ALIA in the first place.
It would have been about eleven years ago - back in early 2006, when I was working as a Serials Officer with a public library service, and studying to become a librarian - when one of my librarian colleagues encouraged me to join the ALIA NewGrads mailing list. It opened up a world of ongoing discussion amongst students and new graduates, and all of a sudden I was connecting with a whole bunch of my peers from around Australia in a way that my university's online subjects never seemed to manage to do, despite their best efforts. It was through the mailing list that I found out about the New Librarian's Symposium, and I was determined to go there in December, and meet a bunch of these other librarians I'd been chatting to.
In September of that year, I got my first professional librarian job - in Darwin. When I arrived, the local librarian community was welcoming, and were keen to get me involved in the ALIA Top End Group, but I would need to become an ALIA member first!
It turned out that the difference between the member and non-member registration for NLS was actually greater than the cost of ALIA new graduate membership, so I was saving money by joining - so that was that!
In the following two and a half years of living in Darwin, ALIA membership meant that I was an active part of a professional community. I was Secretary of the Top End Group, and was involved in the organising committees for the Top End Symposium in 2007 and the New Librarians Symposium in 2008. It was a big part of my life - I was particularly passionate about creating events and spaces where library professionals could come together and share ideas.
And then I moved back to Melbourne in mid 2009, and became the convenor of the New Graduates Group and took up a role on the New Generation Advisory Committee to the ALIA Board. I think it was somewhere in 2010 when I started hitting the wall. I still had a few good friends from the ALIA scene, but I also started losing that sense of community. The more I pushed, the more I started to feel like the library industry didn't care - that I was surrounded by librarians who just treated their job like a source of income, rather than a life-long calling that they should be pouring all their energy into like I felt that I had to. And I started to resent them for it.
Furthermore, as much as I hate to admit it now - I kinda started to hate libraries. I hated that we lived in a world with such scope for innovation and creativity, and yet libraries were still, on the whole, stuck in 20th century attitudes.
And here was ALIA - an organisation that I felt was responsible for inspiring and facilitating vibrant communities for professional development and knowledge-sharing... and yet, from what I could see at the time, did none of this.
Whether I was justified in feeling this way at the time is certainly questionable - looking back now, I recognise that I was often impatient with an industry of professionals who often have to juggle work with managing a family and a household, whereas here I was, a early thirty-something year old with all the time to do all of the things. And, for all its scope for innovation, it's still a relatively conservative field, all things considered.
But I figured, in spite of all my efforts, I'm not really making much of a difference in the industry, and I'm not feeling connected with my community or inspired in my work. It's time for a change.
So I left in mid-2011. Left the country and lived in the Japanese countryside for a while. Let my ALIA membership lapse after five years of membership, and told them I'd left the country and the industry. That year off did wonders for my perspective - not just on my career but my life.
A year later, I came back to a library job - tentatively - with more of a focus on community development and arts programming, which I didn't really consider "real" librarianship. I worked in fringe and literary festivals, and then spent a few years working in international development programmes. There were huge challenges and frustrations, but the achievements were extremely rewarding.
Looking back, I think ALIA membership was important to me as a new graduate in the industry, trying to find my feet and connect with the real issues in the industry - but it could only get me so far. I needed to hit that wall in order to realise the limitations of what I can expect from a professional community and industry. The industry does not owe me job satisfaction, and my peers don't have an obligation to care more about the professional community than their own non-jobby lives.
And yet, six years after cancelling my membership, I've joined up again. My reasons are different now........ (to be continued tomorrow)
But before I can explain why I left, I need to first explain why I joined ALIA in the first place.
It would have been about eleven years ago - back in early 2006, when I was working as a Serials Officer with a public library service, and studying to become a librarian - when one of my librarian colleagues encouraged me to join the ALIA NewGrads mailing list. It opened up a world of ongoing discussion amongst students and new graduates, and all of a sudden I was connecting with a whole bunch of my peers from around Australia in a way that my university's online subjects never seemed to manage to do, despite their best efforts. It was through the mailing list that I found out about the New Librarian's Symposium, and I was determined to go there in December, and meet a bunch of these other librarians I'd been chatting to.
In September of that year, I got my first professional librarian job - in Darwin. When I arrived, the local librarian community was welcoming, and were keen to get me involved in the ALIA Top End Group, but I would need to become an ALIA member first!
It turned out that the difference between the member and non-member registration for NLS was actually greater than the cost of ALIA new graduate membership, so I was saving money by joining - so that was that!
In the following two and a half years of living in Darwin, ALIA membership meant that I was an active part of a professional community. I was Secretary of the Top End Group, and was involved in the organising committees for the Top End Symposium in 2007 and the New Librarians Symposium in 2008. It was a big part of my life - I was particularly passionate about creating events and spaces where library professionals could come together and share ideas.
And then I moved back to Melbourne in mid 2009, and became the convenor of the New Graduates Group and took up a role on the New Generation Advisory Committee to the ALIA Board. I think it was somewhere in 2010 when I started hitting the wall. I still had a few good friends from the ALIA scene, but I also started losing that sense of community. The more I pushed, the more I started to feel like the library industry didn't care - that I was surrounded by librarians who just treated their job like a source of income, rather than a life-long calling that they should be pouring all their energy into like I felt that I had to. And I started to resent them for it.
Furthermore, as much as I hate to admit it now - I kinda started to hate libraries. I hated that we lived in a world with such scope for innovation and creativity, and yet libraries were still, on the whole, stuck in 20th century attitudes.
And here was ALIA - an organisation that I felt was responsible for inspiring and facilitating vibrant communities for professional development and knowledge-sharing... and yet, from what I could see at the time, did none of this.
Whether I was justified in feeling this way at the time is certainly questionable - looking back now, I recognise that I was often impatient with an industry of professionals who often have to juggle work with managing a family and a household, whereas here I was, a early thirty-something year old with all the time to do all of the things. And, for all its scope for innovation, it's still a relatively conservative field, all things considered.
But I figured, in spite of all my efforts, I'm not really making much of a difference in the industry, and I'm not feeling connected with my community or inspired in my work. It's time for a change.
So I left in mid-2011. Left the country and lived in the Japanese countryside for a while. Let my ALIA membership lapse after five years of membership, and told them I'd left the country and the industry. That year off did wonders for my perspective - not just on my career but my life.
A year later, I came back to a library job - tentatively - with more of a focus on community development and arts programming, which I didn't really consider "real" librarianship. I worked in fringe and literary festivals, and then spent a few years working in international development programmes. There were huge challenges and frustrations, but the achievements were extremely rewarding.
Looking back, I think ALIA membership was important to me as a new graduate in the industry, trying to find my feet and connect with the real issues in the industry - but it could only get me so far. I needed to hit that wall in order to realise the limitations of what I can expect from a professional community and industry. The industry does not owe me job satisfaction, and my peers don't have an obligation to care more about the professional community than their own non-jobby lives.
And yet, six years after cancelling my membership, I've joined up again. My reasons are different now........ (to be continued tomorrow)
Sunday, 4 June 2017
Day 4 - Most popular titles and authors in #yamatterschallenge
I know you're all wondering which book was featured most prominently in the #yamatterschallenge, so here it is...
Yes, I'm sure it's no surprise to anybody that Harry Potter made the top spot. It's never failed to be massively popular, and applies to many of the daily themes in the challenge. It was posted a total number of 27 times across the month.
As for the rest of the titles, here's the next twenty:
Yes, I'm sure it's no surprise to anybody that Harry Potter made the top spot. It's never failed to be massively popular, and applies to many of the daily themes in the challenge. It was posted a total number of 27 times across the month.
As for the rest of the titles, here's the next twenty:
| 1st | Harry Potter Series - Rowling |
| 2nd | Words in Deep Blue - Crowley |
| 3rd | Laurinda - Pung |
| 4th | Illuminae - Kaufman / Kristoff |
| 5th | The Sidekicks - Kostakis |
6th
| Summer Skin - Eagar |
| The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf - Kwaymullina | |
| 7th | Starbound Trilogy - Kaufman / Spooner |
8th
| Begin, End, Begin. A #Love OZYA Anthology |
| Clancy of the Undertow - Currie | |
9th
| Frankie - Plozza |
| I'll Give You the Sun - Nelson | |
| When Michael met Mina - Abdel-Fattah | |
10th
| Looking for Alibrandi - Marchetta |
| On the Jellicoe Rd - Marchetta | |
| The Flywheel - Gough | |
| The Hunger Games - Collins | |
11th
| Tomorrow when the war began series - Marsden |
| Wildlife - Wood | |
| Zeroes - Westerfeld, Lanagan, Biancotti |
Now there's a great reading list right there! Best of all, other than Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, they're all Australian YA literature. To see the full table of raw data (and see how the other books fared) see the table here.
However, I was also curious to see which author was featured most prominently over the month. After the painstaking task of re-counting everything by author, there was one author who stood out from the rest... Melina Marchetta - whose books were featured a total of 42 times! The other top authors were:
| 1st | Melina Marchetta |
2nd
| Jay Kristoff |
| Randa Abdel-Fattah | |
| Jaclyn Moriarty | |
| 3rd | Margo Lanagan |
| 4th | J.K. Rowling |
5th
| Amie Kaufman |
| Ambellin Kwaymullina | |
| 6th | Garth Nix |
| 7th | Cath Crowley |
8th
| Fiona Wood |
| John Marsden | |
| 9th | Alice Pung |
10th
| John Green |
| David Levithan | |
| Lili Wilkinson |
I've also prepared an extensive (but not comprehensive!) list of the top authors here.
So, any big surprises here? Anybody that you think was tragically missed? I'll definitely be using this list to top up my to-read list for the next time I visit the library / book store...
Saturday, 3 June 2017
Day 3 - The rest of the month of #yamatterschallenge
Okay, so I've got a lot to get through in this post, so I'll get straight to the results:
Read Muslim Oz
Unsurprisingly, Randa Abdel-Fatah got a lot of love in this category. Possibly because there still aren't a huge number of other high profile Australian YA writers from Muslim backgrounds...
1st: Does my Head Look Big in this? - Randa Abdel-Fattah
2nd: When Michael met Mina - Randa Abdel-Fattah
3rd: Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia - Various
Middle Grade:
Equal 1st:
A Different Dog - Paul Jennings
Wonder - R. J. Palacio
Completed Trilogy:
1st: "Every" series - Ellie Marney
2nd: Lumatere Chronicles - Melina Marchetta
Read Asian Oz
1st: Laurinda - Alice Pung
2nd: Freedom Swim - Wai Chim
Equal 3rd:
Little Paradise - Gabrielle Wang
Preloved - Shirley Marr
Rules of Summer & The Arrival- Shaun Tan
Weirdo - Anh Do
Historical:
1st: Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
Equal 2nd:
If blood should stain the wattle & Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies - Jackie French
Playing Beatie Bow - Ruth Park
Rose Under Fire - Elizabeth Wein
Invented Worlds
Equal 1st:
The Curse Workers series - Holly Blacke
The Medoran Chronicles - Lynette Noni
2nd: Crown of Glass series - Sarah J. Maas
3rd: The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien
Collaborations:
(By this point, I'm getting lazy and just copying-and-pasting it out of my spreadsheet!)
Equal 1st:
Starts with an S
Equal 1st:
Equal 2nd:
Indigenous Oz YA:
Equal 1st:
Equal 1st:
Equal 2nd:
Happily Ever After:
Equal 1st
So, you're probably wondering which titles and authors had the most mentions overall across the whole month? I'll have some more results tomorrow.....
Read Muslim Oz
Unsurprisingly, Randa Abdel-Fatah got a lot of love in this category. Possibly because there still aren't a huge number of other high profile Australian YA writers from Muslim backgrounds...
1st: Does my Head Look Big in this? - Randa Abdel-Fattah
2nd: When Michael met Mina - Randa Abdel-Fattah
3rd: Coming of Age: Growing up Muslim in Australia - Various
Middle Grade:
Equal 1st:
A Different Dog - Paul Jennings
Wonder - R. J. Palacio
Completed Trilogy:
1st: "Every" series - Ellie Marney
2nd: Lumatere Chronicles - Melina Marchetta
Read Asian Oz
1st: Laurinda - Alice Pung
2nd: Freedom Swim - Wai Chim
Equal 3rd:
Little Paradise - Gabrielle Wang
Preloved - Shirley Marr
Rules of Summer & The Arrival- Shaun Tan
Weirdo - Anh Do
Historical:
1st: Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
Equal 2nd:
If blood should stain the wattle & Miss Lily's Lovely Ladies - Jackie French
Playing Beatie Bow - Ruth Park
Rose Under Fire - Elizabeth Wein
Invented Worlds
Equal 1st:
The Curse Workers series - Holly Blacke
The Medoran Chronicles - Lynette Noni
2nd: Crown of Glass series - Sarah J. Maas
3rd: The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien
Collaborations:
(By this point, I'm getting lazy and just copying-and-pasting it out of my spreadsheet!)
Equal 1st:
| Begin, End, Begin. A #Love OZYA Anthology |
| Illuminae - Kaufman / Kristoff |
| Let it Snow - Green / Johnson / Myracle |
| Will Grayson, Will Grayson - Green / Levithan |
| Zeroes - Westerfeld |
Starts with an S
Equal 1st:
| Sabriel - Nix |
| Sister Heart - Sally Morgan |
| Spark - Craw |
Equal 2nd:
| Shield - Craw |
| So much to tell you - Marsden |
| Songs that sound like blood - Thomas |
| Stranger than Fiction - Colfer |
| Saving Francesca - Marchetta |
Indigenous Oz YA:
| 1st: The Interrogation of Ashala Wolf - Kwaymullina |
| 2nd: Sister Heart - Sally Morgan |
| 3rd: Becoming Kirrall Lewis - Harrison |
Multiple POV:
Equal 1st:
| Feeling Sorry for Celia - Moriarty |
| Finding Cassie Crazy - Moriarty |
Equal 2nd:
| Dreaming of Amelia - Moriarty |
| The Betrayal of Bindy Mackenzie - Moriarty |
Same Universe:
Equal 1st:
| Six Impossible Things - Wood |
| Wildlife - Wood |
| Cloudwish - Wood |
Equal 2nd:
| Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda - Albertalli |
| Song of the Lioness Series - Pierce |
Rainbow books:
1st: Clancy of the Undertow - Chris Currie
Equal 2nd:
| Words in Deep Blue - Crowley |
| Frankie - Plozza |
| The Hate U Give - Thomas |
Happily Ever After:
Equal 1st
| Words in Deep Blue - Crowley |
| Isla and the happily ever after - Perkins |
So, you're probably wondering which titles and authors had the most mentions overall across the whole month? I'll have some more results tomorrow.....
Friday, 2 June 2017
Day Two: More #yamatterschallenge statistics
So, I'm definitely starting to regret tallying these results, but I've gone past the point of no-return, so here goes...
Auto-buy Author:
So, if we go purely by book title, the equal-first winners are:
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
In-between days - Vikki Wakefield
Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Every Breath - Ellie Marnie
Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi
However, if we consider that this category is about the author, then if we count the total number of books posted by author in this category, we get:
1st: Margo Lanagan
2nd: Tahereh Mafi
Equal 3rd: Vikki Wakefield and John Green.
Villains:
Predictably, Fantasy and Dystopia dominated this category...
Equal 1st:
Young Elites series - Marie Lu
Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Equal 2nd:
A Court of Mist and Fury - Sara J. Maas
Chaos Walking Trilogy - Patrick Ness
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Yellow books:
Most people focused on the cover art, and the yellowest of all was...
1st: Bro - Helen Chebatte
Equal 2nd:
Clancy of the Undertow - Chris Currie
I'll Give you the Sun - Jandy Nelson
Yellow - Megan Jacobson
Zeroes - Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti
Maps:
Obviously, Fantasy ruled this category...
1. Lumatere Series - Melina Marchetta
2. Cracks in the Kingdom - Jaclyn Moriarty
3. Harry Potter (Marauder's Map) - J. K. Rowling
Cross Fan Shipping
1st: Harry Potter (which we can thank HP fanfic for inspiring such talents as Sarah Rees Brennan and Cassandra Clare...)
Equal 2nd:
Frankie - Shivaun Plozza
Words in Deep Blue - Cath Crowley
Summer Skin - Kirsty Eagar
The Diviners - Libba Bray
Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas
Siblings:
1st: I'll give you the Sun - Jandy Nelson (and I am so glad that this came out in front!)
Equal Second:
Fangirl - Rowell
In the Skin of a Monster - Barker
Words in Deep Blue - Crowley
Three Dark Crowns - Blake
Most reread:
This one was the most difficult to identify - there was such a strong and wide range of books posted on this day, that rarely did any book get posted more than once. There was one, though, and it was Harry Potter!
Squad Goals:
It seems like there's nothing like harrowing conditions to rally young people together!
1st: Tomorow Series / Ellie Chronicles - John Marsden
2nd: The Tribe Series - Ambellin Kwaymullina
Equal 3rd:
The Sky So Heavy - Claire Zorn
Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Pretty in Pink:
As with Yellow Books, this category focused on the colour on the cover.
1st: Summer Skin - Kirsty Eagar. This came out a mile ahead of the others!
Equal 2nd:
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
Queens of Geek - Jen Wilde
Green Valentine - Lili Wilkinson
Under rose-tainted skies - Louise Gornall
LGBTQIA+
The equal-first places here are two of my favourite reads from the last year, and I'm glad we don't have to pick which one we liked better!
Equal 1st:
The Sidekicks - Will Kostakis
The Flywheel - Erin Gough
2nd:
Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Equal 3rd:
Tell me again how a crush should feel - Sara Farizan
You know me well - Nina Lacour and David Leviathan
Kissing books:
Four books came out ahead in equal first place - and one of them didn't have the word "kiss" in the title!
Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins
Frogkisser - Garth Nix
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Two Boys Kissing - David Levithan
Political Books
I have to confess, I haven't read most of these, so they're going straight to my to-read list!
Equal 1st:
When Michael Met Mina - Randa Abdel-Fattah
One True Thing - Nicole Hayes
2nd: Noah's Law - Randa Abdel-Fattah
Equal 3rd:
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Graphic Novels:
There was a wide range of graphic novels and comics posted in this category, and the only book to come out ahead was Ms Marvel, specifically the series that debuted in 2014 with Kamala Khan taking up the titular mantle. However, books by Mariko Tamaki also featured strongly in this category.
So, that's 18 days down - thirteen to go! I'll give you the rest tomorrow, and the final results on Sunday! :)
Auto-buy Author:
So, if we go purely by book title, the equal-first winners are:
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
In-between days - Vikki Wakefield
Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Every Breath - Ellie Marnie
Shatter Me - Tahereh Mafi
However, if we consider that this category is about the author, then if we count the total number of books posted by author in this category, we get:
1st: Margo Lanagan
2nd: Tahereh Mafi
Equal 3rd: Vikki Wakefield and John Green.
Villains:
Predictably, Fantasy and Dystopia dominated this category...
Equal 1st:
Young Elites series - Marie Lu
Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Equal 2nd:
A Court of Mist and Fury - Sara J. Maas
Chaos Walking Trilogy - Patrick Ness
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Yellow books:
Most people focused on the cover art, and the yellowest of all was...
1st: Bro - Helen Chebatte
Equal 2nd:
Clancy of the Undertow - Chris Currie
I'll Give you the Sun - Jandy Nelson
Yellow - Megan Jacobson
Zeroes - Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti
Maps:
Obviously, Fantasy ruled this category...
1. Lumatere Series - Melina Marchetta
2. Cracks in the Kingdom - Jaclyn Moriarty
3. Harry Potter (Marauder's Map) - J. K. Rowling
Cross Fan Shipping
1st: Harry Potter (which we can thank HP fanfic for inspiring such talents as Sarah Rees Brennan and Cassandra Clare...)
Equal 2nd:
Frankie - Shivaun Plozza
Words in Deep Blue - Cath Crowley
Summer Skin - Kirsty Eagar
The Diviners - Libba Bray
Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas
Siblings:
1st: I'll give you the Sun - Jandy Nelson (and I am so glad that this came out in front!)
Equal Second:
Fangirl - Rowell
In the Skin of a Monster - Barker
Words in Deep Blue - Crowley
Three Dark Crowns - Blake
Most reread:
This one was the most difficult to identify - there was such a strong and wide range of books posted on this day, that rarely did any book get posted more than once. There was one, though, and it was Harry Potter!
Squad Goals:
It seems like there's nothing like harrowing conditions to rally young people together!
1st: Tomorow Series / Ellie Chronicles - John Marsden
2nd: The Tribe Series - Ambellin Kwaymullina
Equal 3rd:
The Sky So Heavy - Claire Zorn
Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Pretty in Pink:
As with Yellow Books, this category focused on the colour on the cover.
1st: Summer Skin - Kirsty Eagar. This came out a mile ahead of the others!
Equal 2nd:
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
Queens of Geek - Jen Wilde
Green Valentine - Lili Wilkinson
Under rose-tainted skies - Louise Gornall
LGBTQIA+
The equal-first places here are two of my favourite reads from the last year, and I'm glad we don't have to pick which one we liked better!
Equal 1st:
The Sidekicks - Will Kostakis
The Flywheel - Erin Gough
2nd:
Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe - Benjamin Alire Sáenz
Equal 3rd:
Tell me again how a crush should feel - Sara Farizan
You know me well - Nina Lacour and David Leviathan
Kissing books:
Four books came out ahead in equal first place - and one of them didn't have the word "kiss" in the title!
Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins
Frogkisser - Garth Nix
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Two Boys Kissing - David Levithan
Political Books
I have to confess, I haven't read most of these, so they're going straight to my to-read list!
Equal 1st:
When Michael Met Mina - Randa Abdel-Fattah
One True Thing - Nicole Hayes
2nd: Noah's Law - Randa Abdel-Fattah
Equal 3rd:
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Graphic Novels:
There was a wide range of graphic novels and comics posted in this category, and the only book to come out ahead was Ms Marvel, specifically the series that debuted in 2014 with Kamala Khan taking up the titular mantle. However, books by Mariko Tamaki also featured strongly in this category.
So, that's 18 days down - thirteen to go! I'll give you the rest tomorrow, and the final results on Sunday! :)
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Day One: from #YAmatterschallenge to #blogjune
So, it's June again! But, unlike the last few years, I'm already in the swing of "doing a bit of something online every day"... yes, I've been participating in the YA Matters Challenge.
For the uninitiated, the YA Matters Challenge is a bookstagramming challenge that was set by SLV's Centre for Youth Literature. Each day in May, participants post an image on Instagram based on a set daily theme, and use the hashtag #yamatterschallenge (and #yamatters and sometimes #loveozya).
I took on the challenge, and posted every day, but also followed the #yamatterschallenge hashtag to see what other people posted. What ensued was a fantastic celebration of YA literature that I have come to love, along with recommendations for books that I have yet to read.
But as the month came to a close, I started to think... what if I decided to table up statistics for the books that people posted? Which title and authors would come out on top? Would any surprise me?
So, I foolishly scrolled back to Day One of #yamatterschallenge, and it didn't seem too daunting a task. I did cheat a bit, and have counted a few books as a series (most notably Harry Potter). But then people started posting pictures of piles of books, and I'd gone too far to quit.
Now, I've recorded all the books for the first 16 days of the challenge, and there are a total of 592 titles!! Which, really, is not that surprising, seeing as the hashtag was used for a total of 920 posts (as of Thursday evening).
Here are a few interesting stats so far...
Day One - One-word Title.
Equal top picks were:
Cracked - Clare Strahan
Illuminae and Gemina - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Lirael - Garth Nix
Spark - Rachael Craw
Stolen - Lucy Christopher
Zeroes - Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti
Day Two - Pages to Screen
In first place was Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta
Equal second:
The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak
Tomorrow When the War Began - John Marsden
Equal third:
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
Me before You - Jojo Moyes
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Day Three - Favourite Fictional School
So, wayyyy out in front here was Hogwart's, from the Harry Potter series.
But in a strong second place was the Jellicoe School from On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, with Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy coming in third place.
Day Four - #LoveOzYA
So, throwing out some love for Aussie YA literature:
First: Words in Deep Blue - Cath Crowley
Second: The Sidekicks - Will Kostakis
Third: Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology - Edited by Danielle Binks
Day Five - Outer Space
So, it'll be no surprise to see that Illuminae came out a clear first, with Gemina coming in third. Let's just count them together as The Illuminae Files in this case so that we can share the love...
Second: The Starbound Trilogy - Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Equal Third: Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil and Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
----
So, that's all I'll share for this post. Once I've finished tabling all the results, I'll also share the dataset for other people to do cool stuff with, if they so desire. :)
But for now, I need to go crunch more numbers.. probably for a few days. :( In the meantime, if you have any predictions on which YA books and authors will be the most popular overall, then feel free to post them in the comments!
For the uninitiated, the YA Matters Challenge is a bookstagramming challenge that was set by SLV's Centre for Youth Literature. Each day in May, participants post an image on Instagram based on a set daily theme, and use the hashtag #yamatterschallenge (and #yamatters and sometimes #loveozya).
I took on the challenge, and posted every day, but also followed the #yamatterschallenge hashtag to see what other people posted. What ensued was a fantastic celebration of YA literature that I have come to love, along with recommendations for books that I have yet to read.
But as the month came to a close, I started to think... what if I decided to table up statistics for the books that people posted? Which title and authors would come out on top? Would any surprise me?
So, I foolishly scrolled back to Day One of #yamatterschallenge, and it didn't seem too daunting a task. I did cheat a bit, and have counted a few books as a series (most notably Harry Potter). But then people started posting pictures of piles of books, and I'd gone too far to quit.
Now, I've recorded all the books for the first 16 days of the challenge, and there are a total of 592 titles!! Which, really, is not that surprising, seeing as the hashtag was used for a total of 920 posts (as of Thursday evening).
Here are a few interesting stats so far...
Day One - One-word Title.
Equal top picks were:
Cracked - Clare Strahan
Illuminae and Gemina - Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Lirael - Garth Nix
Spark - Rachael Craw
Stolen - Lucy Christopher
Zeroes - Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti
Day Two - Pages to Screen
In first place was Looking for Alibrandi - Melina Marchetta
Equal second:
The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak
Tomorrow When the War Began - John Marsden
Equal third:
Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
Me before You - Jojo Moyes
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Day Three - Favourite Fictional School
So, wayyyy out in front here was Hogwart's, from the Harry Potter series.
But in a strong second place was the Jellicoe School from On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, with Richelle Mead's Vampire Academy coming in third place.
Day Four - #LoveOzYA
So, throwing out some love for Aussie YA literature:
First: Words in Deep Blue - Cath Crowley
Second: The Sidekicks - Will Kostakis
Third: Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology - Edited by Danielle Binks
Day Five - Outer Space
So, it'll be no surprise to see that Illuminae came out a clear first, with Gemina coming in third. Let's just count them together as The Illuminae Files in this case so that we can share the love...
Second: The Starbound Trilogy - Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Equal Third: Life in Outer Space by Melissa Keil and Defy the Stars by Claudia Gray
----
So, that's all I'll share for this post. Once I've finished tabling all the results, I'll also share the dataset for other people to do cool stuff with, if they so desire. :)
But for now, I need to go crunch more numbers.. probably for a few days. :( In the meantime, if you have any predictions on which YA books and authors will be the most popular overall, then feel free to post them in the comments!
Wednesday, 17 May 2017
Once were New Grads: Part IV - Matthias and Jennifer
Finally, we've reached the last instalment of this series, and to finish up, I contacted two people who, like myself, were absolute newbie new grads at NLS 2006 - Matthias Liffers and Jennifer Creese.
Back then, in 2006:
They both started their first librarian jobs in mid-2006, Matthias at the University of Western Australia and Jennifer at the University of Queensland, and this was their first New Librarian's Symposium.
...and now:
Ten-and-a-bit years later, Matthias has had a varied career, recently finishing up as Coordinator, Research Services at Curtin University, and returning to UWA as a Library Manager (Science) - "I have come full circle!" Jennifer, on the other hand, is currently taking a break from libraries. "I'm using the research skills I learned in my training and experience to complete a PhD in Anthropology and work as a consultant professional Historian."
On how NLS 2006 influenced their expectations of their future career path...
On the recurring issues for NewGrads, and how NLS has addressed these and continues to do so...
Matthias notes that, ten years ago, there were many predictions that tech skills were going to be important for librarianship, and having seen the changes in emerging technology over this time, he acknowledges that this has largely become true. Not only that, but digital literacy is a serious issue right now. "It's not just 'tech' skills we need any more, but we also need more expertise in the social issues that arise with technology, such as privacy and challenging copyright laws that were written last century."
Back then, in 2006:
They both started their first librarian jobs in mid-2006, Matthias at the University of Western Australia and Jennifer at the University of Queensland, and this was their first New Librarian's Symposium.
...and now:
Ten-and-a-bit years later, Matthias has had a varied career, recently finishing up as Coordinator, Research Services at Curtin University, and returning to UWA as a Library Manager (Science) - "I have come full circle!" Jennifer, on the other hand, is currently taking a break from libraries. "I'm using the research skills I learned in my training and experience to complete a PhD in Anthropology and work as a consultant professional Historian."
On how NLS 2006 influenced their expectations of their future career path...
Matthias recalls the opportunities that came from networking at NLS: "I met a handful of excellent people who have been great contacts in the ten years since." Eventually, the convenor of the New Graduates Group roped him into becoming the WA Coordinator, which started him on the "slippery slope" of volunteering for ALIA. "The skills and experienced I gained volunteering for ALIA has led directly to my career success."
Jennifer found that attending NLS helped her build confidence as a new graduate, and realise that "new grads didn't need to be quiet little workplace "babies", and that we could make opportunities, take initiatives and do significant new things." She was able to take this attitude back to her workplace - "it got me into lots of new opportunities within my institution, even outside the library, that I'd never have been assertive enough to try for before."
Jennifer feels that new graduates are coming into a field where professionalism, and the professional network, is going to be more important than it ever was. "I think the NLS of the future would best serve new graduates if it encouraged and enabled partnerships and collaboration as much as possible, and really established presenters and attendees as professional experts." Though she also adds that the conference dinner should still be a total party.
Both Jennifer and Matthias have had their share of twists and turns in their ten-year career path so far. "I certainly didn't expect I'd jump to the other side of the academic fence!" Jennifer explains. "I think NLS was my introduction to the idea that not only do librarians have the ability to say something and make a contribution, but also have the skills to support it in an evidence-based rigorous manner. That was probably the main push that got me first into evidence-based research on what I was doing professionally, and then developed that love of research that saw me jump to academic research when the opportunity came up."
Matthias also admits that his career has taken a few strange paths over the years, ranging from non-librarian work to taking leaps of faith, such as moving overseas without a job to go to. "Sometimes the leaps paid off, sometimes they didn't, but they all gave me valuable experience. There's more to being a librarian than 'Being a Librarian' - there are jobs for people with our skills in all sorts of different places.
Jennifer also notes the value of her skills as a librarian being complementary to her research work - "having been a librarian makes me a better researcher, and having completed the research experience I hope I'll be able to come back to libraries with better abilities to connect our practice with what our clients do, and to ensure our practices are well-grounded in evidence."
On their own career's pathways and possibilities...
Matthias also admits that his career has taken a few strange paths over the years, ranging from non-librarian work to taking leaps of faith, such as moving overseas without a job to go to. "Sometimes the leaps paid off, sometimes they didn't, but they all gave me valuable experience. There's more to being a librarian than 'Being a Librarian' - there are jobs for people with our skills in all sorts of different places.
Jennifer also notes the value of her skills as a librarian being complementary to her research work - "having been a librarian makes me a better researcher, and having completed the research experience I hope I'll be able to come back to libraries with better abilities to connect our practice with what our clients do, and to ensure our practices are well-grounded in evidence."
Finally, some advice to new graduates in the library and information industry...
Matthias: Don't be afraid to rock the boat. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Don't be afraid to fail. Share your successes. More importantly, share your failures. Librarianship can be a very conservative profession and it's up to you to shake things up and and bring fresh ideas. Crusty, old managers like me are going to need your joie de vivre.
Jennifer: Increasingly, libraries and librarians across all sectors are going to be on the front lines of the fight for knowledge - whether you're a public, academic or corporate librarian, it's a crucial time for knowledge to fight disinformation, prejudice, "alternative facts" and Google Syndrome. And you're going to have to do it with less support, less funding, fewer staff and a constant need to justify your profession and even your position, over and over again. Be brave, be confident, be proactive, be flexible and be rigorous!
---
And what better way to finish up?! If you're a new graduate reading this, I hope you're feeling inspired and emboldened. I'd encourage you to register for NLS8, but it's recently sold out, so if you haven't, then you're already too late. And if you, like me, were once a new grad, I hope that this has also provided you with an opportunity to reflect on your own pathways, recall our hopes and dreams for the future when we started out, and perhaps tap back into that inspired motivation that has led us to where we are, and into our future careers.
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