Nerdy Librarian Friday!
I know that librarians happily tend toward the nerdy side, but this is a whole different level -- the book cart drill team.
The NYTimes recently ran a story on these drill teams, and it is something to behold.
"What sport demands the precision of synchronized swimming and the book smarts of a librarian? Book cart drills, of course, the choreographed routines performed by librarians and graduate students in library science. The activity was popularized in the mid-2000s by Demco, the book-cart manufacturer, which sponsored a world championship competition at the American Library Association’s annual conference for several years."
Why should librarian and future librarian take part in these teams? "Drill teams promote the library and build morale and teamwork, explains John Ison, who hosted competitions before retiring from Demco."
And these drill teams do take some training. "'It’s harder than it looks,' says Janelle Wertzberger, director of reference and instruction at Gettysburg College’s Musselman Library. 'You have to have hand signals and visual cues to keep everybody together.'"
"A signature Gettysburg move: the pinwheel, in which 10 carts line up, five facing forward and five backward, and pivot around a center point like a propeller. Gettysburg won the bronze cart in the 2010 world championship."
The NYTimes recently ran a story on these drill teams, and it is something to behold.
"What sport demands the precision of synchronized swimming and the book smarts of a librarian? Book cart drills, of course, the choreographed routines performed by librarians and graduate students in library science. The activity was popularized in the mid-2000s by Demco, the book-cart manufacturer, which sponsored a world championship competition at the American Library Association’s annual conference for several years."
Why should librarian and future librarian take part in these teams? "Drill teams promote the library and build morale and teamwork, explains John Ison, who hosted competitions before retiring from Demco."
And these drill teams do take some training. "'It’s harder than it looks,' says Janelle Wertzberger, director of reference and instruction at Gettysburg College’s Musselman Library. 'You have to have hand signals and visual cues to keep everybody together.'"
"A signature Gettysburg move: the pinwheel, in which 10 carts line up, five facing forward and five backward, and pivot around a center point like a propeller. Gettysburg won the bronze cart in the 2010 world championship."
Link to image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unirodlibrary/10536032775/
License information: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
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