In early October I posted about a knit with the librarians program I learned about at Reed College here in Portland. The librarian that made the flyer and hosts the group saw the picture I uploaded on flickr and commented on it.
I thought this was great, so I emailed her some questions about the program. She just checked her flickr mail and sent a reply.
Yes, just a random idea – I was hired at Reed through a digital initiatives grant to build digital collections to support teaching. Currently I’m uber focused on this project, don’t do much instruction (though I do work reference), and thought of a knitting group as a way to get to know students, and get more in touch with the general flow of the library and campus. That’s my side of it at least!For students, I wanted to hone the image of the library as a warm place, librarians as non-scary compadres, encourage study breaks, and just in general…provide an opportunity to knit together!
…the group has indeed been very successful. My colleague and I (the Reed Science librarian) started it together earlier this semester, and have developed a core following of half a dozen students or so. As to spreading awareness about the library, it may be too soon to say. …but I think it has certainly spread fun in the library!
Like many good programs in the library, the knitting group is good for both staff and patrons. Joanna uses the knitting circle to learn about the students and the library as well as humanize the librarians and promote fun in the library.
As a former employee and patron of that library, NOBODY has a warmer feeling about libraries than reedies. I mean, the students wish it was open 24 hrs a day. The rite of passage for seniors is dancing on its reference desk. And, I have seen people order strippers TO the library. Not because they were causing a ruckus, but because they didn’t want to leave the library (they had to study, you see?). I am friendsters with the library.
I was a tour guide at Reed, and part of the speech was, “If you stand in the library lobby for 24 hours you’d see every Reed student pass you by.” As a student that was more a commentary on how hard we worked. As an employee/librarian-damn that’s a captive audience!
There is some knitting action in the John C Fremont Public library:
http://wordpress.shanachietour.com/2007/10/28/october-24th-11120-km/