Dry But Important

I think many of the things that we do in the library are fun.  I definitely do not believe in the old-fashioned stereotype of the silent library where the librarian spends all day behind the desk shushing anyone who speaks.  Like any classroom, sometimes the library is quiet and sometimes a visitor should hear lots of excited voices talking about what they are learning.

Even though we do lots of really engaging interesting things, not everything is fun.  Sometimes, it's "dry."

A few weeks ago we worked with the 6th-8th graders on the Newbery Award as the 6th and 7th grade POD prepared for their CAC unit.  As we discussed some of the older Newbery winners the kids noticed that some of the book covers looked, for lack of a better word, boring.  I don't think there's really anything wrong with a kid saying a book is boring except that the word itself is a little boring, but I thought perhaps it was time to try a different word.

I explained that rather than saying a book is boring it might sound nicer to say that the book is a little bit dry.  It's like saying the book is not very interesting.

When I started grading their Newbery papers I smiled every time one of the students mentioned that a book looked dry (or was dry after reading a chapter.)  Dry did sound nicer than boring.

All of that to say that sometimes we have to do things in the library that are not that interesting, but are important.  The magazine The Week has a small column called "Boring But Important" so this is a nod to that.  Dry, but important.  

Next up: what is dry but important in the library? I would say middle school students are working on it right now: citations.