Archive for the ‘Program Ideas’ Category

The New Age of Storytelling

Tuesday, April 14th, 2015

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After the breakout success of Serial, the “audio media space” industry (a mix of radio and podcast producers as The Hollywood Reporter describes it) is scrambling to satisfy a newly discovered audience for long form narrative storytelling.

Serial and Invisibilia, both hot properties on NPR (Invisibilia created a best seller of the book it’s based on), are examples of the new direction towards multi-part, lengthy, story-based nonfiction segments that hook listeners and supply them with episodic fixes similar to The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones.

Second seasons of both shows are in the works but producers admit that finding follow-up topics is a challenge, “It’s uncharted territory. Invisibilia and Serial broke into new audiences and opened up the space a bit, but we’re making it up as we go.”

The shifting audio landscape may be a new challenge for producers, but many librarians have already figured out how to take advantage of the trend.

As we reported earlier, librarians have supported Serial with booklists. Others offer podcasts of library programs, such as those from the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and the Seattle Public Library, Libraries are also partnering with programs such as StoryCorps to help archive and build story collections.

The DC Public Library even offers their own class on how to create audio stories and posts student’s projects on SoundCloud.

The new attention to podcasts is an opportunity for storytelling librarians to reach out in new ways and for readers’ advisory and collection development librarians to expand their services. Let us know in the comments section what your library is doing.

Holiday Crafts & Programs

Tuesday, November 17th, 2009

Hold the presses! When I did my recent round-up of holiday craft books, I let one slip through the cracks.

My favorite cookie baking book of all time has been Rose’s Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum. Really; it was all that anyone needed for the holidays.

Rose’s Christmas Cookies
Rose Levy Beranbaum
Retail Price: $29.95
Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Cookbooks – (1998-11-04)
ISBN / EAN: 0688101364 / 9780688101367

Then last year came Cookie Craft: From Baking to Luster Dust, Designs and Techniques for Creative Cookie Occasions by Valerie Peterson  and Janice Fryer. Sweet! I learned how to make fancy cookies like those you see in pastry shops; how to make cookies in beautiful shapes and cool designs that not only looked good but were tasty too. The price of the book was worth it just to for the tips on how to roll out the dough, and when to put it in the fridge. Plus, the professional design techniques are inspiring.

When I was at the Brooklyn Public Library, we had a cookie decorating program that was an amazing success. We could have used Peterson and Frye’s tips on how to make and freeze quantities of cookies for decorating.

With Cookie Craft Christmas, my new rolling pin and a couple of gingerbread people cookie cutters, I am ready to go.

Cookie Craft Christmas: Dozens of Decorating Ideas for a Sweet Holiday
Valerie Peterson, Janice Fryer
Retail Price: $14.95
Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company – (2009-10-07)
ISBN / EAN: 1603424407 / 9781603424400