LWC: Arts and Religion Day

On Friday, April 12th, I attended Leadership Washington County's Arts and Religion Day and it was by far my favorite of all the LWC class days.

The thesis for the day was, "What opportunities are there for active participation in the arts in Washington County, MD?"

The short answer is: where aren't there opportunities for active participation in the arts?

No, it's not for sale ... unless you want to buy it.

We started our day at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts where we split into small groups to go experience different artsy activities. My first stop was at the Mansion House (home to the Valley Arts Association) where we learned about the local artists' exhibits that are on display and how inexpensive it is for local artists to display their works of art there. Then we got to do what ended up being my favorite part of the whole day: we learned how to paint with watercolors. I enjoyed it so much that I kept worrying that we were going to be told at any minute that we need to leave and go to the next part of our day!

The artist who taught us is a professional watercolor painter and has created some astounding pieces for which I now have a much, much greater respect and appreciation for because I had a hard enough time painting the tulip you see above.

After we painted, we went back to the museum and enjoyed a fascinating, albeit brief, tour of the collections given by a Master Docent. Much like with the watercolors, I found myself not wanting the time to end. There was so much to see and learn. One bit of information I picked up is how to appreciate a quality portrait. As it turns out, it's all in the eyes. I don't mean the "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," but rather a good portrait is measured by the quality of the painting of the eyes. Are they realistic - both up close and at a distance? A skilled portrait artist can paint extremely realistic eyes that are lifelike no matter where you stand to appreciate the work; if glasses are in front of the individual's eyes, that's even further evidence of an artist who is particularly gifted in this type of painting.

Image courtesy of rockwellpaintings.org

The last little bit of our time at the museum was spent in their vault learning about their preservation and collection development efforts. The museum has roughly 7,000 pieces but only 10% are on display at any given time. When they aren't on display, the pieces are hung neatly in sliding metal cage-like slats, arranged solely by size. We got to hear stories about how the museum came by its one Norman Rockwell piece. A bastardized version of the story is pretty much the director of the museum at that time wrote a letter asking for it and Mr. Rockwell said, "Ok, give me a thousand bucks for it and it's yours."

Moral of the story is: ask and ye shall receive...if ye has the money.

Ok, so I'm being more than a bit flippant but it is amazing how much of the collection has been received simply through donation, and through folks and especially European institutions, selling pieces cheaply (especially after WWII) and wanting them to be in a safe place. I am looking forward to going to back to the museum and spending more time there.

During lunch we were treated to a few performances by local poets and musicians, two of whom are the stars in the upcoming Barbara Ingram School For the Arts' musical, Legally Blonde.

After that, the LWC class 26 was taught, by BISFA students and faculty, how to sing and dance to the Bend and Snap piece of the musical, which we rehearsed over and over again so we could actually perform it with the students during their afternoon rehearsal. I hear there is a video of us somewhere...

In the end, I found this day to be quite personally serendipitous because I had just that morning started to read Seth Godin's The Icarus Deception. One of the very first lines in the book is, "We are all artists now."

I consider myself an artist - both in the traditional and non-traditional sense - I write haiku, I melt bottle caps into other forms that I'm not quite sure what will happen with them but I'm convinced something artistic will become of them. But I think I'm most pleased with my non-traditional art - the way I am able to facilitate groups and use my words to craft emotionally intelligent and visually stimulating emails, articles, and Facebook posts (that actually move people to take my surveys, participate fully in brainstorming sessions, and buy 50 Get-A-Way raffle tickets).

This actually got me thinking about our previous LWC days and how I wish we could do it all over again - knowing what we now know - and incorporate a little bit of each of the days into each other. For example, for the Cultural Heritage day that's coming up in May, I wish we could focus on cultural heritage but examine it through the lenses of human services AND education AND literacy AND local gov't AND business and economics AND arts and religion, etc. Do you get the idea?

Hmm, wait a minute, aren't I a part of the cultural heritage group?

"To Sell is Human" - Dan Pink also says ...

Dan Pink also says ...

• Have an empty chair at meetings to remind you what the customer would think
• Social Cartography or an attunement map is a useful tool to identify the power players in a meeting
• In meetings, avoid the vortex of the "talker" who offers a one-sided barrage of questions and comments without receiving responses (there's always one!)
• Make time to use effective subject lines in email correspondence
• Prepare for sales pitches by asking yourself questions to overcome objections
• Questions are active and engaging and help identify the source of resistance and offer solutions 
• Questions help us summarize our own reasons and create a path to sustained behavior
• Look for common ground with people
• Start with small changes
• The new movement in sales and management is toward Servant selling and Servant leadership
• Upserving is the new upselling (humane and effective)
• Treat everyone you meet as if they were your Grandmother
• Always ask and answer these 2 questions
• 1. "If the person you're selling to agrees to buy will his/her life improve?"
• 2. "When your interaction is over, will the world be a better place?
• "If your answer to either of these is no, you're doing something wrong."

COPYRIGHT (confusion) for Librarians and Archivists!

Attended by Elizabeth Howe on Monday, April 1, 2013.

Just kidding.  This workshop was really called "Introduction to Copyright for Librarians and Archivists."  I added "confusion," because this subject is often confusing!  Nevertheless, I learned or reviewed a lot of "rules" and was supplied with the best handouts ever for future reference.

Peter Hirtle (copyright guru), from Cornell, is an excellent instructor.  He kept the day "fun" with interesting stories of lawsuits that have occurred or are occurring over copyright issues.  He also had asked us to email specific questions ahead of time that we discussed during his presentation.

My questions were about copyright of actual newspapers, and newspaper microfilm, so Mr. Hirtle helped me understand those issues.  A couple other points he made that I remember are that libraries and archives rarely get in trouble with copyright, and if they do, they often just receive a request to "cease and desist."  If needed, it is wise to protect ourselves with messages such as "in good faith I did my best to find the author or artist or photographer, etc. -- to get permission from the copyright owner."  Also, this workshop has inspired me to put up signage in the WMR that puts responsibility on the patron for how copies made in our repository are used.    

One of the most awesome aspects of this workshop was the venue.  It was held at the Buena Vista Conference and Reception Center in New Castle, Delaware.  The Conference Center is a state-owned historic property built in 1842, formerly the governor's mansion.  Also, New Castle is the location of Oak Knoll Books, so I had the pleasure of visiting their rare book shop after the workshop was over.  

Charlie "Noiseguy" Williams

Charlie Noiseguy's presentation was certainly entertaining- I didn't really even look at the clock.  I thought that this would be a good workshop to attend to help me improve my storytimes.  Noises really can make a difference.

Some of the noises, like the horse and the airplane, will definitely prove useful.  Some, like construction noises, with a bit of practice, might just come to me.  Unfortunately, there were many that I couldn't make (I will never, ever, be able to whistle!)  Still, it was a great afternoon of training.

Dan Pink - "To Sell is Human"

Dan Pink says...

• Everyone sells
• Some of us are "non sales" sales people. We may not directly work in sales, but we still sell.
• Business Schools do not teach sales
• Due to the current accessibility of information, the market has shifted  from "buyer beware" to "seller" beware (buyers have as much, or more information than sellers)
• We have also shifted from problem solving to problem finding
• If you cannot find your problem or you incorrectly identify it, you need outside assistance
• If you find and correctly identify your problem, you will probably also succeed at finding the solution to the problem
• If you decrease your power, you will be better able to have "other" perspective and viewpoints (what is the other side thinking?)
• We are either introverts, extroverts or ambiverts (visit danpink.com/assessment to find out what Dan thinks you are)
• Ambiverts are the best sales people

Charlie Williams the Noise Guy

I really enjoyed this presentation it was so unique. In my opinion it's one of the best ones I have ever attended. Some of the noises he made I couldn't do in a million years, but some of them I can, and will use in my story time programs. Thank you Julie for finding him for us. This is the kind of training that helps us grow as children's librarians. If I ever have the chance, I will go to see him again.

Charlie 'Noiseguy' Williams Reviews

Image source: http://www.noiseguy.com

On Monday, April 8th, 27 children's specialists from Allegany, Garrett, and Washington counties' public libraries, health departments, and higher ed extension offices came together in the LaVale library to participate in, Sound Advice with Charlie 'Noiseguy' Williams.

I must have been feeling uncharacteristically quantitative because I actually asked the participants to fill out ... wait for it ... evaluation forms. *gasp*

This does not mean they are immune to the email that is destined to arrive in their inbox one of these days soon, asking them to share their learning reflections to the blog.

I wanted to share the aggregated results of the evaluations with you because both the numbers and the free-responses are fairly insightful.

Participants assigned a 1-5 rating to the following questions, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.

Question 1: How well did the presenter keep you engaged?
Average:  4.7 (no one said they were bored)

Question 2: How well did the presenter display knowledge of the material?
Average: 4.9 (Perhaps a 5.0 was out of reach because there's always room for improvement)

Question 3: How helpful was this material to your work at the library/school/organization?
Average: 4.3 (pretty helpful)

Question 4: How good a use of your time was this training?
Average: 4.4 (pretty good use of time)

Question 5: How might you use what you've learned at work?
For this, I created this word cloud.

 

Question 5: Additional questions or comments.

For this, I created another word cloud.

 

Final thoughts:

All in all, I'd say this workshop was a success and for any other trainers/staff development folks out there who might be reading this review, I highly recommend working with Charlie. He communicates well, is sensitive to the financial constraints of working with public library budgets, and has an abundance of energy and enthusiasm.