We had a wonderful day last year. The 10 girls spent the
afternoon in the library. I started out by asking them what they thought
a librarian looked like (old ladies in buns and sensible shoes) and talked
like (SHHHH!) The I talked about the history of librarians as a privileged
class (mostly men) and how we became a career primarily including women
(mostly Dewey's attraction for cheap labor).
Then we talked about the incredible variety in the kinds
of jobs librarians do. I have a huge list of film companies, zoos,
newspapers, etc. that employ librarians.
Each girl had a 6 different pages of stickers and I asked them to sort
them into sets. Some sorted them by color, or type of object pictured
(alive or inanimate), etc. Then I talked about how we organize books and
other materials so people can find them.
Finally we split into two groups. Half played with internet and CD-Rom
while the other half made bookmarks with rubber stamps. After an
hour, they switched.
AND - both Lexis and Westlaw made products available as "treats":
T-shirts and gym bags were VERY popular.
I was exhausted but the girls had a good time.
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