Connections: A Podcast of the James L. Hamner Public Library

To commemorate the first episode of Connections' second year, Jill and Josh each tell a story about how going to the library changed them. Spoiler alert: It wasn't the books.

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Featured Resource: www.hamnerlibrary.org

Other Resources: Episode 43, "I Like Them Short"

Inspired by observing youth vie for each other's attention in the library, Jill and Josh can't be serious as they think of date ideas that take place at the library.

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Featured Resource: The library building: 16351 Dunn Street, Amelia Court House, VA 23002

Sunshine makes Jill want to travel, so in this episode, Josh talks about his trip to Yellowstone and Jill tells a story about camping in southern Wyoming. Travel stories are relevant to libraries because libraries exist to help people learn and people tend to learn when they travel.

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Featured Resource: A to Z the USA

Places Mentioned:

• Gardiner, MT
• Grand Teton National Park
• Jenny Lake
• Laramie, WY
• Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests
• Yellowstone National Park

Jill wanted a way to indicate to patrons what areas were staff-only spaces. Instead of a practical solution, her idea relies on futuristic technology. From there, the plans get even more aspirational.

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Featured Resource: Botley Robot

Other Resources:

• AuRoSS (Autonomous Robotic Shelf Scanning System) 
• I, Robot
• Issac Asimov
• Pepper Robot

In a previous episode, In Which I Hire a Mercenary, Josh explains what tabletop role-playing games are. In this episode, he leads Jill through a sci-fi adventure that includes Martians, libraries, and robotic bulldogs.

Characters: 

• Denny Dovan, the library user 
• Janet, the office manager 
• Lisa, the book hunter 
• Meevis, the Martian 
• Tara, the library director 

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Featured Resource: The library has a printer that the public can use. It prints in black and white or color and in sizes up to 11 x 14 inches.

Other Resources: 

• Episode 48, "In Which I Hire a Mercenary" 
• The Tearable RPG 

The importance of reading is touted so pervasively, that sometimes it seems as if reading is counted as a virtue like honesty or compassion. In this episode, reading educator Amy Alvut and Jill attempt to explore this idea, but constantly return to ways in which reading is beneficial. For this episode, "reading" refers to reading for pleasure, not functional reading. Functional reading is the ability to read and understand bills, job descriptions, and the like. Pleasure reading indicates voluntarily reading a book as a form of entertainment.

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Featured Resource: Notary Services

Other Resources:

• The Benefits of Reading Out Loud to Your Kids
• Episode 42, "I Like Them Short"
• Everything You Know About Passion is Wrong
• Fakers by H.P. Wood (J 364.16 Woo)
• On the Dangers of Reading
• Reading Won't Make You a Better Person
• Small Big Project (The end of the fourth paragraph)

Josh plays tabletop role-playing games. Jill has never played an RPG. In this episode, Josh describes how his group's typical RPG evening goes and summarizes the different types of tabletop role-playing games.

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Featured Resource: A to Z Maps

Other Resources:

• Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual (793.93 Dun)
• Pathfinder Role-Playing Game: Core Rule Book (793.93 Pat)
• The Tearable RPG

In the episode "What Do I Like to Read," Jill and Josh attempted to define what readers' advisory is. In this episode, they work through two readers' advisory questions.

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Featured Resource: Acorn TV

Other Resources: 

• Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
• The Nightshade Chronicles by Hilary Wagoner
• Novelist
• Redwall by Brian Jacques
• The Six Crowns by Allan Frewin Jones
• Warriors by Erin Hunter

Youth development can take many forms, but a common thread tends to be helping youth grow as a person. In this episode, Thomas Woodson, a 4-H Youth Development Extension Agent, talks about the programs he operates for Amelia County and why he chose those particular programs. If you think 4-H is all about raising livestock or canning produce, this episode will show how much more is available.

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Featured Resource: A to Z World Travel

Other Resources:

• 4-H Training Helps Save Girls Lost in Woods
• Amazement Square
• Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center
• Richmond Metro Zoo
• Virginia 4-H
• Virginia Cooperative Extension
• Waves of the Future (Tufts University 4-H Research)

Sensitive Topic: Sex

Readers' advisory is a library term that might not describe exactly what it means. Does readers' advisory mean providing warning labels about the topic of books? Does it mean helping people find things they want to read? Does it mean advising people that they will have better lives if they read for pleasure? In this episode, Jill and Josh define readers' advisory as it is practiced at their library.

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Featured Resource: NoveList

Other Resources: 

• Fantastic Fiction
• Good Reads
• Stop, You're Killing Me!
• Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators