{"id":83126,"date":"2015-04-27T13:05:40","date_gmt":"2015-04-27T18:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=83126"},"modified":"2015-04-27T13:03:52","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T18:03:52","slug":"librarians-are-superheroes-literally-and-figuratively","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=83126","title":{"rendered":"Librarians Are Superheroes (Literally and Figuratively)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Claire Schmieder, Volunteer Coordinator
\npreviously published 10\/22\/14
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Librarians Are Superheroes (Literally and Figuratively)<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"Comic<\/a>

Comic Con Crowd- Photo by Kate Kosturski<\/p><\/div>\n

Last year, I spent just one day at New York Comic Con<\/a>, and it was absolutely not enough time\u00a0for me to take it all in. This year, I snagged a four-day Professional Badge<\/a>. During those four\u00a0days, I spent a lot of time at the American Library Association\u2019s booth, both as a volunteer\u00a0and as an overwhelmed con-goer. This year\u2019s NYCC set attendance records with over 151,000\u00a0individual tickets sold<\/a>. Crowds were intense, especially on Saturday, and I often needed a place\u00a0to decompress. Despite being in the middle of the exhibit hall, the ALA booth was an oasis\u2014a\u00a0place where I could find friends to talk to, where I could sit and relax, and where I could people\u00a0watch to my heart\u2019s content.<\/p>\n

All my time at the ALA booth led me to this conclusion: librarians are community builders\u00a0and public servants wherever they go.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Claire

Claire Schmieder (right) and Leigh Milligan (left)-Photo by Kate Kosturski<\/p><\/div>\n

Here\u2019s how this happened at NYCC.<\/p>\n

REFERENCE SERVICES:<\/strong> So many people came to the booth with questions. (We joked that\u00a0we should be\u00a0keeping data on the questions we were asked.) Here are questions I was asked or\u00a0overheard while volunteering:<\/p>\n

– Where is the nearest bathroom?
\n– Can you help me find an exhibitor booth? (The NYCC guide<\/a>\u2014we had several copies\u00a0stashed behind the booth\u2014or the NYCC app were crucial for this question.)
\n– What time does the convention open\/close?
\n– How do I get a wristband<\/a> for one of the Main Stage panels?
\n– How can I get my children\u2019s book into libraries?
\n– How can I learn more tech skills to be qualified for other jobs?<\/p>\n

\"JP<\/a>

JP Porcaro, Our Fearless Booth Leader-Photo by Lanora Melillo<\/p><\/div>\n

BOOTH AS MEETING SPACE:<\/strong> At least one exhibitor (a publisher) approached the booth\u00a0and asked if they could meet with another exhibitor in our booth later that day. \u201cOur booth is\u00a0so slammed right now and you\u2019ve got such a nice space here. Is it OK if we have a 30 minute\u00a0meeting later on this afternoon?\u201d Yes, of course it was totally fine.<\/p>\n

PROGRAMS:<\/strong> This year, the booth offered con-goers the chance to take a selfie with a real, live\u00a0librarian. And plenty of people actually took advantage of the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\"Craig<\/a>

Craig Anderson as Batgirl-Photo by Lanora Melillo<\/p><\/div>\n

Beyond these standard library services, we also engaged people in conversations about why\u00a0libraries\/librarians matter and why the internet isn\u2019t a substitute for a librarian. When people\u00a0approached the booth, we often asked them, \u201cDo you love your library?\u201d Nearly every single\u00a0person answered with an enthusiastic YES. Some con-goers even told us stories about why their\u00a0library was so important to them.<\/p>\n

We also had a lot of fun together, talking about costumes, making plans with each other for\u00a0the evening,and catching up with friends that we may not see on a regular basis. I came away\u00a0from the event feeling more connected to librarians who I hadn\u2019t been exceptionally close\u00a0with, even though I had admired them from afar. Because I don\u2019t work in a library, or have the\u00a0word \u201clibrarian\u201d in my title, this was important to me. Sometimes, I have to be creative about\u00a0networking and NYCC turned out to be an ideal event.<\/p>\n

By the end of NYCC, I felt professionally energized, inspired, and re-engaged\u2014an ideal\u00a0outcome for an action-packed four days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Claire Schmieder, Volunteer Coordinator previously published 10\/22\/14 Librarians Are Superheroes (Literally and Figuratively) Last year, I spent just one day at New York Comic Con, and it was absolutely not enough time\u00a0for me to take it all in. This year, I snagged a four-day Professional Badge. During those four\u00a0days, I spent a lot of…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":83128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,3858,4544,6617,3665,3655,3658,6616,5526],"class_list":["post-83126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-claire-schmieder","tag-comic-con","tag-importance-of-librarians","tag-inalj-new-york-state","tag-inalj-nyc","tag-inalj-texas","tag-librarians-are-superheroes","tag-new-york-comic-con"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Claire-Schmieder-and-Leigh-Milligan-.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-lCK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}