07.10.09
Posted in 2009 ALA Annual Conference at 10:27 pm by George Eberhart
The crowd of 400 teen-services librarians cheered wildly as their colleagues strutted and posed along the catwalk in the Westin River North Hotel Friday night for YALSA’s happy hour and fashion show. The event was hosted by New York Public Library Young Adult Librarian Jack Martin, but the big draw was Chicago fashion designer Steven Rosengard, who emceed the fashion show.
Steven Rosengard talks with Youth Services Librarian Lauren Knowlton
Rosengard was a contestant on the fourth season of Bravo’s Project Runway series in 2007 (where he lasted five episodes), but he also works as a textile curator in the Exhibits and Collections Department of Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry.
After some 20 librarian contestants showed off their finest leisure and work couture, Rosengard called on the audience to choose the winner by applause.
Rosengard calls for the applause meter
Modeling a dapper gray suit, New York Public Library’s Chris Shoemaker–one of the only two males in the lineup–received the loudest ovation and thus claimed the prize, a black velvet and charmeuse scarf that Rosengard had designed for one of the Project Runway episodes.
Chris Shoemaker, fashion show winner
Kelly Czarnecki, completely made over
Also on the program was Kelly Czarnecki, young adult librarian at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, who showed off her YALSA-sponsored makeover earlier in the day that included a hairstyling, eyebrow shaping, and complete makeup session at Macy’s. Czarnecki told American Libraries that she “highly recommends the procedure in case YALSA does this again next year.”
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Posted in 2009 ALA Annual Conference at 2:32 pm by Greg Landgraf
The action at Annual Conference is still ramping up, but the first event I attended–yesterday’s taping of NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!, was a sell-out success.
The Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends, and Foundations (ALTAFF) bought out the taping as a fundraiser, and drew a sell-out crowd of more than 500 librarians. Host Peter Sagal said it was the show’s first buyout of any kind, and certainly its first time playing to such a biblioaudience.
The show itself was a regular show, covering the news of the week, rather than anything audience-specific. But there were a few references to the profession. Christine, one of the phone-in contestants, declined to take an opinion on the proposed change of Rhode Island’s official state name, saying “I’m not sure what the crowd is–those librarians can be pretty harsh!”
At one point, while panelists Julia Sweeney and Paula Poundstone discussed the death of Michael Jackson, Sweeney observed that the funeral provided an opportunity to go through Jackson’s old albums and memorabilia. Poundstone argued that there was no need to wait for a celebrity death, retorting “The good thing about the library… Whenever you feel that way, go pick it up!”
Poundstone is ALTAFF spokesperson, and before the taping, she took some time to speak with AL Associate editor Sean Fitzpatrick and me. A video from that conversation is posted at AL Focus. We also spoke to journalist and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! judge and scorekeeper Carl Kasell, and a video featuring him will be coming shortly after Annual.
As an early icebreaker, host Peter Sagal asked everyone wearing glasses to take them off and whip our hair around while he admired the view. And after the taping, the cast took questions from the audience, one of which inquired if the show would want to hire a librarian solely for the show. After Sagal pointed out that they do use NPR’s library, he acknowledged the low level of his library humor. “We would be annoying to work for,” he said. “We’d constantly be making librarian jokes and making you do the hair and glasses thing.”
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