NCompass Live: National Book Festival Near You!

Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I am your host Christa Porter here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Uh Encompass Live is the commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central time. Uh but if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. We do record the show as we are doing today and um you'll be able to watch it later at your convenience and I will show you at the end of today's show where you can access all of our show recordings. Both the live show and the recordings are free and open to anyone to watch. So please do uh spread the word uh share with anyone you think might be interested in in any of the topics we have on Encompass Live. Uh for those of you who might be watching who are not from Nebraska, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries. So similar to your whatever state library. So we provide um consulting and training and databases and resources and grants to all types of libraries in the state. So you will find shows shows on encompass life for all types of libraries, public, academic, K12, corrections, museums, historical societies, [sighs and gasps] etc., etc. Uh really our only criteria is that something to do with libraries. Uh we have presentations uh we do um sessions uh that um we bring in guest speakers um and we do some sessions that we have Nebraska Library Commission staff on um to do for us for programs and resources and things we do through the library commission. And uh today we have a mixture of that. Um this is a program from the we're gonna be talking about the National Book Festival and the Book Festival near you. Uh that is uh Nebraska. Um but we also have a guest speaker with us. So um we have uh Tessa uh Tessa Temperly here from our communications coordinator here at the library commission. Good morning Tessa. >> Morning. and um Melissa Larson, who's the author of one of our uh great reads, our great reads youth selection for 2026 uh for the book festival is with us as well. Good morning, Melissa. >> Good morning. >> All right. Um so Tessa, I'm going to hand it over to you to tell us all about the um National Book Festival and our local activities. >> Yeah. So, the festival near you is a branch off of the National Book Festival, which happens every year in Washington DC. It's normally happens around Labor Day weekend or a week before, a week after. They kind of change it a little bit every year. This year it's August 22nd and we always send the Nebraska Library Commission and the Nebraska Center for the Book always send a Nebraska contingent to staff our booth in the great reads section of the festival in the exhibit hall. So each state has a booth from their center for the book and we all get to pick a youth and adult great read each year to represent our state as well as just have literature and bookmarks and activity pages to kind of share the authors and books that are coming out of our individual states every year. So it's a really great way to connect with people outside of Nebraska about authors and stories about our state. So, we love to go and kind of just represent Nebraska every year. And this year, my Lisa my Lisa is going to join us and um her book Quagmire Turello couldn't be better is our great reads youth selection. So, um Melissa, do you want to introduce yourself? >> Sure. Um, I'm here as as the author of Quagmire Tiarelloa couldn't be better, which is a book that I really enjoyed creating. Quagmire is a kid with formidable survival skills and the attitude to match. He has been keeping secrets for a long time and has discovered that sometimes the best defense is a really spiky offense. Um, so he but school's out now as this book begins and he is looking forward to a long summer of not doing much. Um, and that what he's not planning on is being the unwilling passenger on a wild cross-country road trip that his mom takes him on. um as her mental health kind of gets worse. He's not planning on meeting an uncle that he didn't know exists and he's not planning really on looking at the way he's been running his life and starting to think about is this the way I want it to be. So, he is one of the favorite car my favorite characters that I've ever created even though he is a bit of a punk sometimes. Yeah. So, just to give a little background, um, the great reads from great places has been going on for over a decade now. And how Nebraska picks our books is we choose our adult book is always the one book, one Nebraska from that current year. And then our youth book is always the previous year's Nebraska Book Award winner in our children's and youths um category. So Mila, I'm gonna say your name wrong so many times. >> It's okay. I think my parents spelled it wrong for how they wanted it said, which rhymes with Teresa, if that helps. So it's Melissa Teresa, but not spelled anywhere near that. >> I knew I'm gonna I'm gonna just fall over that all morning. >> No worries. your book won the youth um teen novel selection and that was last year and we got to to meet at the Nebraska book festival. So that's how we choose our book each year and that's how Quagmire became our great read collection and I have up on the screen last year our books that we took last year. But um this year we're going to be going and there's always a bookstore at the National Book Festival where they sell the great reads from each state. We've got stickers, you know, we put on the books that say these are the state's great read. Um, so that's really fun. And we're going to have a booth. I have a slide for that as well. So here's last year's author. So we have a booth that represents Nebraska like I talked about. And our author was able to come last year as well. And it's a really fun event to get to see a lot of different people in a very short amount of time. But >> one day, it's only a single day. Correct. or anything. Yeah, >> it's a Saturday from about 8 to 6:30 that the exhibit hall is open >> and you just see person after person after person, but they're all book lovers. They're all readers. Um, sometimes they're librarians and teachers looking for curriculum about all the states. Sometimes it's parents with their kids just trying to do something fun and indoors on a potentially very hot day in DC. >> So, it just goes sometimes it's just adults who want to come talk about [laughter] books with other book lovers. So, we see a lot of great people come by our booth and ask us about the books we're talking about and want to know why this book represents Nebraska. Can you tell us a little bit how your book um represents Nebraska? >> Sure. It's a little bit atypical, I think, for someone who lives in upstate New York, which is where I lived when I wrote this book, to be writing about Nebraska. But it's not as it's not as out there as as it would seem because my uh my children, two of them, uh lived in Lincoln for many years and it's and Nebraska is one of the dear places to them and so of course I've been there to visit them and I thought, you know, I feel like upstate New York and Nebraska share a little bit of uh um I'm not going to say identity crisis, but just a what we are is not what people think we are. So I feel like when you say, "Oh, you're from upstate New York." For most people, they say they they flash immediately to New York City and the skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty and you're kind of like, "No, not not that part of New York. It's the part with the lakes and the cows, you know, and they're like, and I feel like that sometimes Nebraska has that same kind of like you say Nebraska to 98% of the people and they think corn and maybe Huskers and and if they're into volleyball, that amazing volleyball team that, you know, the women's volleyball team that can, you know, >> uh but if you're from Nebraska, Nebraska, you know that Nebraska is a big place and there are sections that are unlike other sections and there's topography that you didn't know about from the outside and there's whole ecosystems that you didn't know about from you know networks TV like fly over kind of like so I felt like these two places they kind of have some things in common and so taking Quag who is fictional but seems real to me sometimes from one place that people don't quite understand to another place that maybe people haven't looked at as closely as they might felt interesting to me. >> And of course the tie-in with, you know, me having been there and having been like, "Wow, oh wow, oh wow." You know, [laughter] so that's how that happened. >> I didn't realize, but Chris is also from New York, so >> Oh my gosh. Yeah, I was going to say Melissa, you are speaking to me. Um, [laughter] I am I am originally from upstate New York myself, Saratoga Springs. >> Oh, yeah. >> And I moved here 20 25 years ago. Um, and yes, that it is it is very similar. I get that. um the the preconceived notions that people have about you when you say where you're from and that you really have to be open-minded when you go somewhere that the what you think isn't always going to be what it's like, you know, be open to the fact that you're going to learn new things about this new place, >> right? And I think taking a 14-year-old character who did not ask to come here, >> um, >> it did make me a little nervous because it doesn't matter where he is. Quag is a is not the most he doesn't censor, you know, and so I was kind of like I hope like that they can see and I think from talking to people afterwards that that we did manage that we can see that this kid is slowly falling in love with this new place that when he first comes he's like he feels lost in for for several reasons. But by the end he's telling you about the storms that roll in in this way and these birds that are almost like up to your shoulder and these you know so uh so that kind of falling in love with a new place even though you may have not as many children don't have had say in that move right as a kid we often don't say you know what time for change let's like let's move it's what happens is one of our parents gets a new job and so we're moving or the landlord raises the rent again and this is not sustainable and so we're moving or you know we're going closer to family cuz grandma needs more help and so we're moving and so often kids don't have a say in that and the change that happens as you at first resist and then start to see all the beauty and the the cool new things and the ways that this might make different things possible in your life than the patterns you had set up in the old place I think was interesting to me at least. >> Yeah, I love that answer. I think people coming to the Nebraska booth are going to be really pleasantly surprised by an author who's not from or currently living in Nebraska representing Nebraska. It's it's a little different for us, but also just the way you talk about it. I think they'll be pleasantly surprised about how this book is connected to our state, honestly. Yeah, >> you you have a gorgeous state and I love that there aren't you haven't been overrun, but I feel like some people have missed out on some things. You have the sand hills. You have these amazing like flyovers where cranes just sort of pour out of the skies. You have when you I mean you have these trees and these ravines and these rivers and that have >> Yeah. So >> if you're coming through Nebraska, you need to get off the highway I80 that goes through. >> Yes. >> You go through and you say, "Oh, it's all it's just open and wide and flat." But it's not. And and I think anyone from any state can identify with that too because I'm sure you know we're talking about New York and Nebraska, but I bet people in other states have the same thing. People always think of my state as just this, but there's so many other things here. >> Right. Right. It's a big world and and within that world, there are so many pockets and ways of being and just gorgeous things to discover. if if Yeah. you get off the beaten track a little bit and don't just through, you know, on [laughter] the the straight line that the interstate makes. Yeah. So, >> yeah. One of the one of the things we always have kind of ready to go for the National Book Festival is our favorite thing about our state because that's a question a lot of people ask us like, "What's your favorite thing about Nebraska?" >> And then also, do you have any fun facts about your state? So, we always try to have some fun facts. And my co-orker, Gabe Kramer, who also goes to represent our state from the library commission, he always says his favorite thing about Nebraska is that there aren't very many people here. He loves that it's not crowded. I think his fun fact is always there are more cows in Nebraska than people. [laughter] >> Nice. But but yeah, that's what you were making me think of. So I'm gonna move into from the National Book Festival into our festival near you programming which is connected to the National Book Festival. We got some grant money from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Cosa to help promote the National Book Festival in our state as well as our great reads collection. And the way we're doing that this year is taking Quagmire and turning it into some book club kits and author visits for schools and libraries. So this year we will have 50 books available for schools, classrooms, and library groups to check out from the Nebraska Library Commission as book club kits. and we will have some discussion questions and activity pages that they can do along with that book as well as eight uh virtual author visits that Meliss Melissa is going to offer for those schools and libraries who check out the book club kit. So that's just a little bit information about the festival near you in general. And let's see, I've got too many slides. I think >> book club kits and author talk. Um, so book club kits, how we do them is they are available to any librarian or school library in the state of Nebraska. They can check them out for free. And if you've ever checked a book club kit out from us before, you know how that process works. But we try to make it as painless as possible. >> And you get those books for a certain amount of time, usually I think 30 days, and then you send them back to us when you're done. So you don't have to buy, you know, 25 new books for your classroom or 15 books for your teen group at the library. And then when you're done with them, you send them back to us and we get to share them with a whole new group of people. >> So you said there were, so here's a question. said there's 50 books that are available. >> Um, so do people request how many? People don't a library wouldn't get all 50 at once. They would say how many they want, >> they need. So if somebody needs 10 books and then a classroom also wants to do 25 books at the same time, we wanted to get enough books so that they could go out to multiple places, >> multiple places at the same time. Right. Okay. Nice. Especially with this being a chapter novel and not a picture book, we wanted to have a avenue that people could have it for, you know, a decent amount of time and be able to read the book >> just like a book club would, >> right? And you can schedule you can um you there's are these just going to be a available through our regular book club kit page or is there a special place to go to order these particular ones? They are going to be available through our regular book club kit page. So it's should be the same process as every other book club kit you check out. It will be similar maybe to the one book one Nebraska where you may you get some bookmarks and you get some discussion questions and an activity page kind of a thing along with it. So it's a little bit more comes with it than just maybe a regular book club. But the the process should be exactly the same. They are not currently live yet. We our tracking says the books come today and our book club kit person is out this week. So my hope is that next week they will have time to process the books and get them in the collection ready for checkout. >> Right. >> So we will put out a post and probably do a press release when those books are live. And those are things you can um usually you would when you [clears throat] request them you decide when you want them. So if you're planning a discussion at your library or your school you'll say this is going to be in you know August September. So that's when we want this many books to come. So you would pick the date when you dates when you need them for. Um, now are these only going to be available some so this year or is this going to be then just an ongoing permanent one of our book club kits? >> So the after this program um we use the grant money to purchase the books because that's pretty big expense always and then also to facilitate the author visits. But after this year is over those books will remain in our book club kit collection. So they will be able to be checked out by schools and libraries as far into the future as those book club kits survive. >> Great. >> Yeah. >> Nice. >> And then moving on to the second half of our our grant program this year is author visit. So we love I think hearing an author talk about their work really brings that work alive. It opens up more topics for discussion. it maybe brings up things that people didn't think to connect that book to. So, we love that Melissa is willing to offer those and they are for the first eight libraries or schools first come first serve and you'll contact her directly to set those up and once we hit eight she'll have to start charging you for them. But >> we have funding for eight of them. No. So, if you go to my website, there's a contact um page and just reach out. I've already had a couple of teachers before before we started this just reach out about, hey, do you have a couple extra copies? We're trying to share them around the room kind of thing. And so it's been really nice to along with as long as I have author copies to like send a couple but also to say if you want like everyone to have a copy here's a resource. So it's really lovely. Uh it's a really lovely program that you have going here. I will say that I came last year for your your Nebraska festival and while I was there I thought well I'm here you know and so I visited 15 schools um in the two larger cities um over three days which I was tired I will say but I will also say that those kids had the best questions. I was really impressed especially with it was it was everywhere from because I also write picture books. It was everywhere from like elementary youngers to fifth grade to I did a high school. I did several middle schools, junior highs. Um, but especially in the junior high and high school um, ranks, I thought the questions were just so interesting and especially um, there were a couple of writing clubs at the junior highs that I I met with and the questions from those kids just like knocked my socks off because I thought these are questions that actual writers ask. They weren't just like, "Oh, I have an unrealistic, you know, picture of what this is like and I'm asking you like these kinds of questions." They were I'm doing my own work and this is a problem that I'm running up against and how do I like make my characters I know they're too flat, but I don't know how to make them, you know, real and just such good questions. And so we were able to go over some of those things where it's like, well, part of it is just like skill building, right? But here's three things. Here's three things to start with. If you've got a character and they're seeming too flat, you as a writer can try this or this or this, and that's a place to start. They were just really really perceptive and I'm actually doing this work kind of questions. And yeah, I was kind of like, whoa, okay, [laughter] a little miss sixth grader who's going to write me under the table in the next four years. You know, [laughter] it was great to see that because I feel like as I was growing up, it did not occur to me that real people wrote books. I don't know what how I thought we got into the library, but just I'm from a very rural background. We never had an author visit. >> It just didn't connect for some reason, even though I was a very bookish kid. And I feel like there's a much higher level, at least from what I saw when I was in Nebraska, of kid kids actually doing their own writing in a pretty serious way. So, that was cool to see. It's nice to see that's the future of writing, a future of >> you're gonna have like you're gonna have so many like people vying for that like spot, you know, over the next bit. So >> maybe one of those kids will be uh our our book award winner in like 10 years or something. [laughter] >> Yeah, they will. >> I didn't realize you did so many school visits when you came last year for the book festival. I love that. Well, I figure if you're going to be someplace, you may as well go do the thing, right? So, it really >> that's a lot in three days. [laughter] >> I worked with I worked with a local book store there and so they were very helpful. And then some librarians that I was just like, >> we're going to do this for not very much. Are there places you want to send me? And they were like, yes, there are. >> [laughter] >> Yes, I do. >> Yeah. So, this festival near you is just going to be I think more of the same and super fun. Excited about it. >> Yeah. >> I think it's great that we can do these virtual author visits too now. Yeah. I mean, you were saying um Melissa that it's like when we were kids, we didn't it was hard to have these because they would have to actually come to the and that really >> harder to travel, you know, across the country or, you know, the cost. But now that these thing these visits can be done virtually and so interactive with program you know things like this like zoom or go to webinar or whatever um I love that we're able to get connect uh people and authors so so much easier now >> right and to have the kids be able to go back and forth in such a >> I mean it's live right they're asking the question I'm answering the question kind of thing so um >> yeah it's it's a really nice new layer to what you can too. >> Yeah. >> In 365 days, you know, >> and going along with that, just we've talked about how big the state of Nebraska is and >> you know, you were able to come in person and you were able to do, I'm assuming, Lincoln and Omaha, >> right? >> So, and and that's pretty common. So to be able to do virtual, you know, out in Sydney or Scottluff, um, or Shadron, you some place that you probably would be much more expensive and timeconuming to go visit personally, you know, if you're only in the state for three days, that's not really an option. So to be able to have these virtual visits that can span our entire state and not just a couple of our cities is really what the festival near you is about. It's about bringing it to the entire state of Nebraska and and not just the capital which is >> Right. Right. Because those of us that are growing up in in small town America, it would be nice if we knew that this was an option before we were 30. you know, [laughter] it would be great. [cough] >> And I also like your point that your author visit doesn't have to be, it could be different things for different groups. So, if a school wants you to come in and do a traditional author talk, if a writing group wants you to come in and do more of a author, you know, what it is to be an author kind of talk versus talking about the book specifically. That's a possibility and we're leaving it up to the organizations that want to book you to let you know what they want. So, there is some flexibility there. >> Yeah, absolutely. We'll have those conversations because I feel like you have [clears throat] if you're asking for a visit, you have you have an idea of why you want that. And I would much prefer to fit into that idea because you are the one that knows your kids that knows the audience that will be there. And so we can do a Q&A if your class has read the book and kind of dig deeper into the text. We can be talking about mental health if we want to because that's a part of the text. We can It's a text that has some interesting structural things going on in in it where there are traditional linear chapters, but in between those chapters, there are short um pieces where Quag is using both some sound files and some things that he's noticing about birds. how he gets into that is accidental. But yeah, to kind of comment on his own life in ways that even he is not quite prepared to handle directly. And so that's led to some really creative teachers coming up with some interesting projects that use like a structural element to comment on some of the kids writing that they're doing. We can talk about creativity or Yes. Writer groups very welcome. So, whatever you want to talk about, I'm up for that. >> Yeah, I was. So, I'm going to pull up the website really quick that people can go to to learn a little bit more. So, if you go to the Center for the Book website and pro under programs, there is a National Book Festival tab and that will take you to this page where we talk a little bit about the National Book Festival in general, but also our festival near you programming. We will eventually have a link to where you can reserve that book club kit once they're live. We have some discussion questions and after today, after this episode, we will have a link to the recording of this so that people can hear us talk about it in person a little bit. We also have some information about author talks where we'll have a link to Melissa's website so you can contact her and then just a little deeper dive into the great read books, the adult and the youth collection. So, I love the uh discussion questions and activity page you came up with. And after I looked at yours, I don't know why I was expecting just some basic discussion questions. And it's a lot more interactive than that. So, I'm going to pull it up really quick. I did add I I love the artwork of your book so much. I did add a little bit to the [clears throat] top of your page with the artwork from your book. But, you know, you talk about where he travels through the United States and kind of mapping out his journey and then you have a fun section about book or about about birds which plays a huge role like you already mentioned that he gets into birding a little bit. But just thinking about how people can interact with this a little bit more than just, you know, your basic book club discussion questions, especially from a kid's point of view or a teen's point of view. I really enjoy that and it's made me think about even more activity pages we could make for this book. [laughter] But yeah, um, do you want to talk about those discussion questions at all? um the discussion questions. It's always hard when you're trying to make up um a discussion question page for a book festival because as Tess has pointed out, you're going to see everybody there and the different constituencies that you're going to see are going to have different needs. So, um, public libraries are often looking for something different than school librarians slightly, you know, um, and parents and kids are looking for something different entirely. And grown-ups who just really love to read in the, you know, middle grade and YA space because there's some really fun stuff going on there are looking for something yet again. And so the the activity page I think is kind of pitched more for upper elementary and um and junior high, middle school um kind of area, but um I guess I've been a little bit surprised about who's reading this book. Um, some books you write and they're pretty solidly like if I were a kangaroo, you know, [laughter] it it pretty solidly stays in the preschool range, you know, uh there's some facts in the back for the older brothers and sisters, but like that's where that one parks. This one I guess I was aiming for where I often write novels and that is you know um the twins the they never call themselves that so I don't know how we got that term right but the the kids that are in the 13 to 15 16 age was where I'm thinking okay this is the sweet spot. I'm not surprised that there are kids in fifth grade reading it. There's no reason why they shouldn't. It's certainly, you know, accessible and all of those things and appropriate for them. And I expected that. I did not expect the older kids >> to be reading it as much as they are. But, um, when I think about it, it makes sense to me. Quag is a pretty old 14-year-old just because of what his life has been like and the themes that are in there certainly many many kids in high school are dealing with these kinds of things. Um and and he's funny so it never h hurts right. So, so I've been surprised, I guess, at the range, but yeah, I think that we've got this activity page, but there's also resources on my website if you're in one of the other groups, right? >> So, um, so yeah. Yeah. I think it's just been a book that I've been a little bit surprised at the range. >> Yeah, I think it could easily be a a high school book club book. >> Yeah. the topics like you said it covers and the idea of forced change is a I mean honestly that's a probably a huge one for any like middle school through high school and even college age kid >> right and there are there is an older teen character um named Maggie that he meets when he's in Nebraska who's 17 so in that sense it's like oh Well, Maggie was just there when I showed up and so she's in the book, but you know, I didn't really think that through, but I Yeah. So, it's not just a 14-year-old, which sometimes older kids like resist, you know. >> Oh, yeah. >> Yeah. >> No, I think that makes perfect sense. And I I really enjoy that about that. This is not, you know, a super narrow book as far as it >> really span a good I mean I think adults would even enjoy and have enjoyed this book for for a book club. >> Yeah. You've met this kid. >> Yeah. So, those of you that are in education, um, I feel like quag is many kids that I've met over the years, um, who present as, "Oh my gosh, kid, do you just have to make every single thing hard?" You know? Uh but as you get to know these kids, you often find that they are holding up a whole lot of their world >> and there is a reason for some of the stuff, you know, and that once you get to know them, they're often just some of my favorite people and I just have such respect for what they've done um in their young lives to like manage circumstances. that we all come up against. I mean, it's not unusual to have to deal with mental illness either in ourselves or in our family. That is statistically just going to be a thing that is going to be there, right? It's not it's not rare. No. >> Um, [clears throat] >> but sometimes, uh, I think we're doing better with that in this generation certainly, but sometimes because of past stigmas, um, you need a spot to talk about that that is somebody else that's a kid named Quagmire instead of you. >> It helps. gives you a little bit of psychological distance to to to say, "Oh, yeah. [clears throat] Yeah, I recognize that." Right. So, >> Oh, definitely. And just the idea of seeing I mean, there's been so many studies and examples of the act of seeing yourself or your situation in a book is so transformative and helpful for both children and adults that >> Yeah. >> Yeah. in so many ways. And I think um that there's there's a great movement to like make all those stories available. Um and and even within that, like we still have a long way to go. And I think one of the spots where um you don't get to see a lot of kids in books is rural >> and it's you know and I don't I don't quite know why that is but um there's a lot of us that grow up on farms you [laughter] know so but um yeah it is it's good to see yourself and it's good to see other lives very unlike yours >> because um seeing that in a book helps you when you connect in real life, right? >> And seeing that in a book helps you ask questions that maybe you hadn't known to ask. And seeing that in a book, I think um helps you manage relationships in in real life in ways that are more healthy just because Quag isn't easy. He isn't easy. He's not the kid that like makes it easy. And so when you meet that kid, maybe or maybe not, but maybe there's there's a question in your head now about why and is this all there is or is this just here because I am dealing with some stuff, >> right? >> Yeah. Well, I know reading is a huge pathway towards having more empathy towards different types of people and being able to just like you were saying, not understand, but at least have a point of access to somebody else's point of view and >> right >> because otherwise we're just going around with our own individual point of view. ever. You can't you can't dive into somebody else's life like you can in a book, >> right? It would be a little intrusive when you Yeah. [laughter] when an author's like right in the head. If you try and do that in real life, they're like, "Hey, you know, personal space, [laughter] you know." So, so yeah, I think that is a place that we can look kind of through each other's eyes >> um and have more empathy. Sure. >> Yeah. [snorts] Absolutely. >> Well, we're getting really close to the end of this session. Krista, do we have we had any questions pop up? >> Um, there was some at the beginning about what we're doing um that we did answer about the process and what's happening with the the books and whatnot. Um, but yeah, does anybody have any other questions? Anything else you want to ask um about what we're doing with these book club kits and the author visits? Um, any questions to Tessa about the book festival? Um, or, uh, questions to Malisa about writing or books or, [laughter] uh, this book or any other things she has, you can type into the question section. Uh, for anyone who hasn't, it's the, uh, looks like the speech bubble, the question mark on it. That'll open up that section for you if you do have anything else that you want to ask. Um, >> while we wait for that, have you ever been to the National Book Festival before? >> I have not, which is a little ridiculous, but um I have I haven't. So, I'm super excited about that because what could be better? Um, a book festival is kind of my idea of a great Saturday afternoon personally. And you know, I've been to many, you know, state or and local ones. >> And [clears throat] I'll just tell you one of my favorite things about a book festival, and that is that you watch. It's a little odd because you're across a table that's only like this wide, right? and people are coming by and they're looking at the goods as they walk by, right? And one of my favorite sort of sociological experiment kind of things about a book festival is that you will see kids react to the cover positively and or negatively and make a choice before they ever touch the book. And it's just so fascinating to see for me to see how those book designers did that and who they pull in and who picks it up and who picks it up but doesn't want anybody to see that they picked it up and you know [laughter] so that whole thing of people watching is fabulous and I love love talking to the kids about you know there's another novel where um a lot of the kids are in a jazz band thing And people will come up and be like, I play I play the clarinet. I'm like, cool. Just like Jake. You know, and then they're telling me about their concerts and whatever. You know, it's just really fun to just see >> the things that kids want to talk about. It's just you never know. It's always a surprise >> what what they react to. And then books >> just like an entire convention center full of books. Yes, please. you know. [laughter] >> Have you had a chance to look at the um author list yet? >> I have not. I'm sure it's I'm sure it's going to be like oo, [laughter] you know. >> Yeah. Can you bring that up on the on there? Because I know it also said when you were showing the um National Book Festival about being live streamed too. Some of the sessions are going to be >> lived from the from the National. I know they've done that before. So, the National Book Festival has its own site obviously and you can learn all about it. They are requiring tickets this year. I think they just want to get a better headcount. So, in order to enter the festival, you need a ticket. They are free tickets. It's not like a paid ticket. They I think they just want to keep a better track of attendance. So, Meliss, I have your ticket already. I did this. Well, I was just thinking, "Oh, better get on that." >> So, this is something. Yeah. If someone is pl is still planning, you still have time to go to it. It's on August 22nd, so you've got like a month to plan your trip to DC if you want to. >> Um, just get yourself some free tickets. >> You can see festival information just in general. They have tons of information about getting there. Um, the metro, what you should maybe look for. They always have free posters this year. And the poster this year is so cute. I'm I love it. It's very I have it um up on several of my flight. It's very colorful, very graphic, and it's one of my favorite posters from the last few years for sure. And then authors and speakers. They have a whole list a toz. They have a huge number of speakers every year. There's multiple author sessions going on throughout the day. So, it's a huge lineup. You can go through and see all the authors that are going to be there um just by last name. But >> because just like Nebraska, each state may be bringing their authors along provide. Yeah. As well. >> Yeah. So, we'll you'll have authors that aren't listed on this that are there for their great reads table just like Melissa is. So, um, here's some of the general roundup they've got, um, this year. >> Is one of the big ones. >> Yeah. But obviously and then Ann Patchet is the I am not MC the >> only one author who is their sort of big um Oh my gosh, my mind's blanking on the word. Did you say something? >> Keynote speaker or something like that or um sort of like their Oh, they're calling them headliners on the page there. >> Headliners. She's been in a lot of their their um media about it. I think she's kind of like the host author who's who's overall this year. >> But >> it's it's a great lineup. It's always a great lineup. And I also love that they have huge author names, but they also have author names that aren't maybe, you know, your huge huge name that people just want to people love their books. They've got non-fiction, fiction, poetry. I mean, it's just all over the place. So, >> I like how they do have their I got the after reads author in parenthesis like showing how there's so many different genres that they are representing. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, and like we mentioned, um they they live stream some of the the headliners, but then they also record and have recordings of the author talks available after the festival. So, you can always go back and watch an author talk. They keep those up. And throughout the day, they will have uh book span going. They'll have C-SPAN talking to authors and attendees throughout the day. So, that's really fun. >> Yeah. >> Very exciting. I'm excited to be both at that and to meet some of you virtually in Nebraska in whatever corner of Nebraska you may be in. So, >> we do have a comment that came in. Um, a librarian from Lexington says, "Um, I lead a Golden Sewer book club at the middle school." Golden Ser is our children's choice awards here in Nebraska. So, the kids vote on, um, different book award winners. Um, and she's I lead a Golden Ser book club at the middle school and we purchase the books for the kids. We will definitely be reading Quag. >> Well, thank you. >> Yeah, you should you should sign up for one of the author talks. You sound like a group of kids who would love an author talk. >> I'm originally from Kad. So I love Lexington, Goththingberg, Kosad area. To hear people from my part of the state. >> All right. All right. I don't see any other comments or questions that have came in while we were talking about the book festival. So, um, yeah, if anybody does anybody has anything else urgent, we could, uh, wrap things up here. Any last things you want to say, Tessa uh, or Melissa? Check out [snorts] the website, I guess, for all those links and contact information, and we'll have everything you need up on that National Book Festival Nebraska Festival near you page. >> Next week, the books should be available to start um requesting the book club kits. >> Yep. Drop me a line if that's something that you're interested in. We'll make it work with the schedules. >> Yeah. >> All right. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much, Tessa and Melissa. Um Lisa, thanks so much for, you know, doing this for us. This is going to be, I think, some great programming we have this year and um thrilled to have you be participating in it. >> Thrilled to be here. >> Yeah. All right. Right. I am going to if I can get There we go. [clears throat] uh pull presenter control back to my screen here and do my wrapup for today's show. So, thank you everybody for being here with us. Thank you Tessa and Melissa for being here too. Um as I said at the beginning, the show is uh being recorded. Um this is our event page for today's show. But if you use whatever is your search engine of choice and type in Encompass Live, you'll find our main page here with our upcoming shows and our archive page. There's a link right here to the show archives. Uh most recent ones are at the top of the page here. Uh the recording should be ready by the end of the day tomorrow at the latest. Uh it is posted to our Nebraska Library Commission's YouTube channel. And when that's ready, I'll send you Tessa the link so you can get that added to the uh Center for the Book page. Um we will have the recording and um Tessa's slides will be there as well. Um, I think we did have Yeah, here's last week's where they had recording slides and some additional documents um that they shared, but we'll have links to both of those for everyone. Uh, everyone who attended today's show and registered for today's show will get an email from me letting you know when it's when it's ready. Um, we also push out onto our mailing lists here. We have a Nebraska mailing lists, our social media. We have a Facebook uh page for Encompass Live. So, if you'd like to use Facebook, give us a like over there. We do reminders about um shows, meet our presenters, and when the recordings are ready, we post here as well. Uh we also use the Library Commission's Instagram. I put things out on my uh LinkedIn. Um anywhere we can think of to promote our um shows, so you'll be notified there too when the recording is ready. Uh while we're here on the archive page, I will show you there is a search. if we've done a show on a particular topic that you may be interested in. You can search our full show archives or just most recent 12 months if you want something very current. And that is because this is our full show archives as I said. And I'm not going to scroll all the way down because it's a gigantic list as you can see as I scroll here. Um, but this is our full show archives going back to when Encompass Live first premiered, which was in January 2009. 2009, which means, and I always have to do the math, I always have to do the math every year because it just kind of blows my mind. Um, 2026 is the 18th year of the show. We're still going strong. And we have all of our shows, recordings here. So, do just be aware when you are watching any of the recordings to the original broadcast date. You see everything is a date. So, you know, um, some things will be fine to watch, stand the test of time, be good, useful information, but some things will become old and outdated. resources may have changed drastically or not exist anymore. Links might be broken. People will work at different places than when they presented for us 10, 15 years ago. Um, but this is something libraries do. We keep things for historical purposes. And as long as we have somewhere to keep that, which right now is the library commission's YouTube channel, we will always have them available for people to watch for just information or just for historical interest. Um, we do, um, you can receive continuing education credit for watching our live shows or recordings. Um, if you watch a live show, it's automatically given to you. If you are in Nebraska library, if you watch an archive show, you'll submit in a form. If you are from some other state, you need to work with your CE granting office. Um, whoever is in charge of that to receive contin education hours or credits for watching recordings or live shows. Um, anyone who watches a live show, you will receive an email um, within the next hour or so of confirmation that you watched the the live show. Um, shows your proof of attendance and has a certificate even attached to it for you. So, you will get that. All right, so that wraps it up for today. Um, next week it is pretty sweet tech day. Um the last Wednesday of the month usually is pretty sweet tech day when our technology innovation librarian Amanda joins us to talk about something techrelated. Uh we may have other shows during the month that are techreated too, but um you can always depend on Amanda to be here at the end of the month. And next week she's going to be talking about libraries building AI literacy. AI is a big topic now of course and it can be very overwhelming I think and scary to to many people. and she's going to try to make it a little bit less less stressful for you to just peek make sure your staff and your community is um aware of what's going on um in the AI world. So um do join us for next week's encompass live. You can register for that or any of our other upcoming shows we have coming up. We've got our August dates getting filled in there as well. So thank you everybody for being here. Uh we got some thank yous coming in to the questions that I pop back over here. Thank you to the presenters today. Um, and I hope some of you will uh watch the Nebraska or the National Book Festival or attend it if you're lucky or participate in our activities here with the book club kick book club kids. Hard to say and um have Melissa do a author visit for you. All right, thank you everybody and hope we'll see you all in a future episode of Enco Compass Live. Bye bye. Bye.