Thursday Afternoon

This afternoon, I attended a lecture from children's picture book author, Mo Willems. I was debating between this and attending a program on dealing with difficult patron situations, but since we saw that excellent presentation by Sarah, last week, I figured I would channel the former children's librarian in me and see the author of the very adorable Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. He was a lot of fun and I'm glad that I decided to attend this. I also got some books autographed for some friends' children.
I also attended the Book Cart Drill Team Competition. (The Conference Committee wisely did not schedule this against anything else). This is pretty amusing, for those of you who've never seen this. Basically employees of a library dress up, and choreograph a routine incorporating book carts. Demco, which sponsors the event, awards money to the top three winners. (Since only three libraries participated this year, well, then all three were lucky). Entries were from Memorial Hall Library in Andover, the Nevins Memorial Library in Methuen, and the Plymouth Public Library. Andover's routine featured characters from Batman, Methuen's a dance routine from A Chorus Line, and Plymouth's a cowgirl routine done to a Shania Twain song. (They were the big winners, by the way.) I really don't know how to describe this, for those of you who have never seen it, so check it this video of this year's winner (Plymouth) at last year's MLA Conference