We were lucky enough to bring James Kennedy from Chicago (which in itself is cool enough) to South Carolina as the presenter for our teen exchange. The Teen Exchange brings together librarians or staff who work with or have an interest in working with teens and young adults. We've done some great programs in recent years--Teen Spaces with Kim Bolan Cullin and Collection and other cool stuff with Erin Downey Howerton. That was where I learned about James and the 90-second Newbery. (www.jameskennedy.com)
We have spend some time developing a rotating group of technology so that libraries across the state can borrow movie making and editing equipment. It is a great way to build skills and develop creative approaches for marketing and highlighting programs in the libraries. We have encouraged the teen librarians and their teen advisory board members or teen/preteen patrons to develop short films for contests that have been recently sponsored by the Collaborative Summer Library Program (CSLP or what we often call Summer Reading program) and ALA, the American Library Association. If you think that kids aren't super talented, it is amazing what they can do in a day. Take a peek here. The first is the runner up video for the ALA contest and the second is the SC winner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXeoYdb31vk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szcdTRZLIIw
James Kennedy has developed the 90-second Newbery film festival. If you are a book person, teacher/librarian, or have kids you probably are pretty familiar with the Newbery awards. They are the best in juvenile fiction as determined by a committee of professionals each year. I have to say that although I absolutely loved this past year's winner, Moon over Manifest (and wasn't really sure until I read it), there have been some less than interesting winners in the many many years of the awards. I was given one in the late 70s when I was devouring books. It was a journal. I didn't really understand the style and it was super boring to me. I am sure it was a great book. If I was to go back and read it as an adult, I might even like it now; I certainly always appreciate them. But every winner will not always be for everyone, and that's ok. However, making it into a 90 second film, as James says, can make anything seem silly. Those that came had a very creative day where they looked at the books, made choices about how to write the script. For example, Hatchet written in the style of Twitter with hashtags. The Underneath was done as a puppet show. Lots of mashups, cross overs and adaptations to styles like reality or talk shows. Some of them were able to complete their films, others are still in progress. The afternoon focused on James' book "The Order of the Odd-Fish." He showed all the fan art and tributes to this unique fantasy book. It reminded me of Comic Con. He's done it as a program for ALA for the past few years and our own librarians also got a chance to recreate a sort of fighting scene. Super creative. I'll have some pictures. Mostly I think everyone got to envision themselves using the technology to highlight books and create programs that appeal to teens. Eli Neuberger from Ann Arbor just talked during the Ebook summit this week about how we as libraries MUST start to highlight and focus on things that are not just books. This is the perfect time for these kinds of creative, skill building programs. Keep your eyes open. I feel a 90-second Newbery Film Festival in Columbia SC will happen.
