Awhile ago Bryce asked a few people she knew if they’d be willing to make a Summer Reading pep talk video, just for fun, that she could share with the staff at her libraries to cheer them on.
Cheer???
Yes, please!
Here’s my entry: me and my teens in our backyard, performing The Library Cheer. I love this cheer. I taught it to my storytime team last December when I gave everyone cheap pompoms and we cheered for our accomplishments in 2015. Plus we ate cookies. Anyway, I *swear* my first library boss taught this to me (which would have been mid-90s), but now I can’t find it online except for here (mid-2000s): Library Cheer (on the no-longer-updated Library Advocate blog), so if you have an earlier citation, I’d love to know about it!
PS: If there’s one thing that I knew but I really truly finally learned for sure in the last 2 years of New-Supervisordom, it’s that saying, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.” Exhibit A is this video! Getting the good (or not-so-good even) thing done is a solid first step and will give you something to revise and polish as you go. So many times, doing something imperfectly-but-well-enough-for-now beats not doing anything…OR beats doing something SUPER well but kind of chewing yourself up in the process. (Trust me, I’ve tested both alternatives.)
I hope your summers are giving you something to cheer about–I’m cheering for YOU!
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I know that cheer! I’ve done the Prime Time Family Reading Time (a 6 week series aimed at low-income, low-reading skills 3-5th graders and their families) that originated in the 1990’s in Louisiana, and the l-i-b-r-a-r-y cheer is included in the guidebook they produced. They cite Judy Boyce as the author in their support manual, published in 2014.
This is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing this, Kathy! I love knowing more about the cheer. Thanks!
I first heard it from a colleague in 1989 and was told it was written by Garrison Keillor of NPR’s Prairie Home Companion fame, but can’t find a citation that gives the full cheer and precedes 1997.