Juneteenth and Book Club

Daily Hours: 7

Total Hours: 61

Today was the annual Juneteenth Celebration in South Madison in honor of the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.  Every year the event is organized by local community groups and activists, beginning with a parade from the Fountain of Life Church.  The rest of the event is celebrated all afternoon in Penn Park, just on the other side of Park St. from the Goodman Branch.  There are speeches, music and dance performances, and informational tables and activities run by local organizations.  Every year the library has a table at the event, as Chris makes it a seamless part of her work as a librarian to be embedded in the community.  This year we “served” an estimated 80 or so adults and children at the event, signing up kids for the summer reading program at our table in the children’s tent where we had a tick-tack-toe lawn game and an Easter egg musical shaker craft.  It really cool to see how many people Chris knew at the event: parents, children and organizers!

Part way through the afternoon I walked the short way back to the library to attend the monthly book club meeting.  And I have to say, more than anything I have done so far in my practicum, being able get a behind the scenes look at the club has reminded me the most why I wanted to be a librarian.  I love talking about books, and I can’t wait for the chance to organize and lead my own book club someday!  Even though I didn’t particularly connect with the book we read this month, I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion and it felt great that Lori (the book club leader) later told me that by the points I brought up and the questions I asked, she could tell I was a natural book club leader.  There were about 11 women there, all over the age of 50 or so.  It was really cool to realize that the conversation had flowed pretty seamlessly for an hour and a half, and Lori never had to do any awkward prompting to keep things going.  I was especially interested in the group dynamics after what Jim Ramsey, the head of Adult Services at Middleton Public Library, said when he came into our Reading Interests of Adults class last semester.  He talked about the different book club member characters like the “conversation derailer” or the “ranter.”   I saw a bit of those personalities and behaviors, and it was informative to see how Lori guided things back on track in a totally non-obtrusive way.  Also, it was cool that some members actually checked out more circus books from our display!  Afterwards Lori talked to me more about the dynamics of the group and how the group selects their books.  Next month we are reading Gone Girl, which from everything I’ve heard about the book, will make for quite an interesting discussion!