A Week in the Woods with NELLS

by Beth Strauss

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." - Henry David Thoreau

Deep Change was the title of one of the books on the NELLS (New England Library Leadership Symposium) reading list. I had no idea how prophetic that would be. I innocently filled out my application, asked colleagues and supervisors for references, and hoped that I would be accepted. It seemed as if life had been sending me many clues about how I was supposed to grow and help others, but I was still on the fence, hemming and hawing, thinking about how to crystallize my good intent into a career I couldn't live without. NELLS sounded like a great opportunity to stop procrastinating and focus on who I was and where my profession was headed. If nothing else, I'd get a week off from cooking, driving, and work. Ha!

NELLS was work, but of the best kind: mind-stretching, humorous, engaging, supportive, and risky. I dove in, staying up late at night to do my personal inventory and forcing myself to look deep inside, no stone unturned. The setting was perfect, a huge forest to hike in, a beautiful lake to reflect upon, delicious food, and intelligent, experienced, and articulate colleagues to learn from. We studied effective leadership, risk-taking, challenges for the profession, communication, conflict resolution, transforming libraries, the leader's role as mentor, coach, and catalyst for change, achieving your potential, and much more. We identified our strengths and weaknesses, and set goals to shoot for, detailing starting points, resources, steps to take, and how to measure success.

My main goals were to grow professionally, focus my career path, and visualize a supportive work environment. As a starting point, I listed my values so that the path I chose would have meaning. I investigated resources that would support that path, and made plans based on where I could make the greatest contribution.

Two months later, I found myself on Wilson Street in Manchester , reporting to my new job as Media Generalist for the Henry Wilson School . It was a world away from the public library I had just left, only thirty minutes down the road. There was no book budget and a mostly old and scruffy collection squeezed into a dark basement room. I had five classes to teach each day, 510 underprivileged students each week. It was then that I realized there would be a whole new meaning for the word success. Measuring success for me would not be buying thousands of dollars of books, presenting at a conference, or scheduling another program. It would be in the faces of kids like Jesse, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Tour de France bicycling champion Lance Armstrong. Jesse's home life was traumatic; his father had abandoned the family, his mother's boyfriend was abusing her, and Jesse's emotional state and his learning disabilities made it almost impossible for him to behave well in school. Together, we wrote a letter to Lance Armstrong, telling him about Jesse's bike, his dreams, and enclosing his photo. I gave him his own copy of "On the Bike with Lance Armstrong" by Matt Christopher, which we read together over lunch. We are anxiously awaiting Lance's reply.

Then there is Anna, a tall, red-headed pixie of a girl, who reminds me of Pippi Longstocking. This is what she wrote for her Library of Congress "Letters about Literature" entry:

"Dear Lematy Snikt,

I like your books because the Botolou Orfens are just like someone I know, me. I'm going to be an orfen. Someone is trying to tell the state to take me away from my family. If he goes to your home tell him to forget it. Pleace help me. I don't want to be an orfen."

Manuel, who was well known for his belligerent attitude and rebel without a cause demeanor, wrote two whole pages to R.L. Stine for the contest. When his teacher found out, she was stunned - it was the most he had ever written. When the fifth graders made library passports to enter the world of learning and keep track of their travels, he was the first to have his finished, and decorated his folder with his favorite RAP and Mexican recording artists. When I refused to accept his friend's folder because it had the word PIMP scrawled across it, Manuel took him aside and helped him redesign a more appropriate one.

On the day before Thanksgiving, (thanks to Diana Greenleaf, the Media Generalist in the Windham School District ), a big yellow bus from Windham pulled up in front of Wilson School . Out jumped 35 kids, with 3,273 very gently used books in tow! Our students were astonished and delighted, and spent weeks sorting the books by copy condition and age level, thrilled that they would each be able to take one home to keep. They skipped recess to come in and sort, and one student told another "Be careful you don't hurt your back, or you'll have to go to the hospital and miss library for two whole weeks!"

Our population is very transient, so I try to make the most of each lesson, connecting with each child as quickly as I can since I don't know when they might be gone. I want each child to feel that I care about them, that there are many other children like them, and that books will be there for them no matter what else is happening in their lives. My aim is not just to entice them to like reading, but more importantly, to like themselves, respect themselves, and feel valued. Books are the perfect accompaniment to this journey.

Professionally, NELLS was a dream come true for me; Maureen Sullivan's expertise and Lucy Gangone's and Pat Holloway's no-holds-barred support provided an unequaled opportunity to widen my horizons. The mentors were invaluable in providing the tools I needed to move forward. Without the financial support of The Nesmith Library I would not have been able to attend. Thoreau wrote, "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." That is NELLS in a nutshell.

I thank the staff of NELLS and NELA for filling my sails and pointing my rudder in the right direction, and highly recommend the NELLS experience to every librarian. As they say at NELLS, "Lean into your discomfort!"

(Wilson School student names have been changed; Anna is still living at home.)

Beth Strauss

Beth Strauss is Media Generalist at Wilson School in Manchester NH.