Nogo on the ogo!

Or on the internet for that matter .....

Renee has had a parade of three different men in her room to try and fix the internet connection. No go on the google. At any moment we could loose connection. While they were working on Renee's connection I lost mine. That sums it all up.

For the record - I tried the ogo with an open mind. I do love my seaweed on sushi and the tasty snack sticks. The ogo was cold and slimy, probably fresh from the ocean - I just couldn't do it. So ... no go on the ogo! The salads were delicious! However, we were limited to a preselected menu (Renee overlooked the tasty salmon) and the ribs were not on our menu - darn. And we forgot yesterday - we had sandwiches for lunch and a buffet dinner. I have had salad at every meal, but there has been a wonderful smorgasbord of cookies, chocolate, chips, pretzels - heaven! That wraps up the food.

Ok, on to what we are actually doing for a million hours a day the good and interesting stuff! The big event today was a field trip (our final one) on the party bus to the Compton Library, to observe a parent child workshop and view their family place. We also got ten minutes of internet time (kind of like yard excercise in prison - very exciting). We saw wonderful furniture, manipulatives, handouts, and space arrangements. We both loved an alphabet centipede http://www.amazon.co.uk/Large-centipede-caterpillar-alphabet-design/dp/B001JSNNLA
and a stuffed frog. I felt inspired and Renee is motivated. We can really see how we can make this work for us. We have photos, but the iBAHN is not the autobahn and will not load them :(.

We have two piles of c**p - I mean resources - they're just sooo heavy - to bring back. Renee is concerned about gas mileage from hauling them back. They offered to ship it, but we'll just drag it home - we're troopers! Including all of the videos that we saw at the program. I liked today's video because it really showed the impact that this made for the children and the parents.

We also covered space design for all sizes of libraries. An interesting side note - Middle Country in NY is working on an outdoor, hands-on "nature exploration space" - called Explorium. They are partnered with a group that is concerned about children's connection to the natural world. All of the exhibits are to be designed out of natural materials and include: planting, water feature, theater, messy art space. We also got a good tip about the new Monterey Children's museum, which moved from Cannery Row towards downtown. Apparently it is not huge, but has some great exhibits.

Also of note in relation to space, is the mobile Family Place that the Oklahoma City library has created. They have a "playmobile" that they will take with toys, books, etc. to Dr.s waiting rooms and what not. Tempe, AZ is also offering their programs offsite at community centers and then encouraging people to visit the library.

And the rest of the afternoon was spent on collection development - pretty standard stuff that we already know, emergent literacy and programming, which may be very useful as we look at the second floor. We liked a program for toddlers called "The Young and the Restless."

We sadly boarded the party bus for the final tour back to the DoubleTree - which I am calling the bald trees due to internet trouble, showers that don't drain properly and pool around my feet, and too early wake up calls. The staff has been really nice here and it is has been relatively ok; I'm just a whiner.

We went down to the dining room and joined our colleagues for dinner and Renee happened to sit next to Sara from Yolo County (near Davis) and heard her tale of a recent opening day collection delivered by Baker and Taylor. Their patrons have a wonderful selection of travel books to the Pacific Northwest at least it's closer than Georgia. A nice woman from the Beverly Hills library traded travel tips on France and recommended a site for rentals "entravel" although it could be "enboard" - we're tired. It's been two nights of no sleep, so hopefully the third is the charm.

This our final blog post from Carson (we know you are crying). We are supposed to check out first thing (all of us - like 35 people - yeahhhhhhhh) before breakfast at 8 am. So it will be another early day tomorrow ;). Tomorrow we'll be covering: outreach, marketing (we've got that down), Family Place Network Support (we're part of a listserv now), and the all important LSTA grant application. We are supposed to adjourn at 1:00 and we'll hit the road soon after (I have to pick up my car from Renee's). Then the final stop will be VG for a storyteller meeting about Spark of Love to try out our book selections and props. Thanks to everyone for handling those details.