Like all good Minnesotans who have moved away from the homeland, I see it as my duty to inform the rest of the world about my home state. If a MN company is mentioned in conversation, for example, (Best Buy, Target, Aveda, Hormel…), I make sure everyone knows it’s a MN company that has been mentioned. In conversations about music, I can almost always find a way to make a connection to Prince or The Replacements or Husker Du or Bob Dylan or some other Minnesota music maker. People often bring up Garrison Keillor, but I make sure they know Louise Erdrich, Leif Enger, and F. Scott Fitzgerald are MN authors, too. It is very important to me, therefore, to make sure you know how cool the recent Minnesota library learning program, 23 Things on a Stick, is. Even if not from MN, I’m sure I would be impressed with the way the Minnesotans have taken the idea and run with it in a big way.
Many, many moons ago my friend and hero Ruth Solie of the Northern Lights Library Network told me about an idea she and the other multi-type directors were considering… taking the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County’s 23 Things program and running it statewide. That little idea sparked a hugely successful project. During the first round of 23 Things on a Stick, many participated in the program and a good share of them completed it. By popular demand, a second round will run from May 15-September 15, 2008. Check out the project website to view some of the blogs and other projects that are the result of this program.
Brenda Hough 
Hi Brenda–Thanks for telling people about 23 Things On a Stick. We have a had a great time with the program and are off to a great start with Round 2. If anyone is wondering whether all the time and energy is worth it to plan and run such a program in their library, region, state, I suggest they read some of the Thing 23 posts on the Finishers’ Blogs (which are easy to find in the sidebar of the 23thingsonastick.blogspot.com mother blog). Really great testimonials to how much people learned and even some job, if not life, changing happenings. It is definitely worth the effort. We hear that those who didn’t finish in Round 1 have banded together in their workplaces to support each other to the finish in this Round. Lots of cool results. Hope to see you soon back in MN or in Anaheim.
Ann,
Thanks for stopping by! It’s just so cool how well the 23 Things on a Stick project is going. Kudos to all of you! Reading the blogs is fun and inspiring! I will be in Anaheim and would love to see you! WebJunction’s reception is on Friday night. Maybe there?
The official blogsite of 23 Things on a Stick is
http://23thingsonastick.blogspot.com
and there you’ll see that over a thousand (!!) people registered their blogs and more than 200 completed all 23 things in the first round. Participation in round 2 is going well — it must be fun if folks are willing to do it around summer library programs, vacations, and out door activities.
Wish I were going to be in Anaheim, but will look forward to seeing you back in MN when you get here!
Hi, came here via the Library Leaning Google group. This statewide program is a great idea. My library did our own version of the 23 Things, only we had 10 Things, and it went very well. I’m hoping to eventually do something similar for our patrons (actually, we call them members now) soon. One library near us has already done this.
Hi Ruth – I can’t wait to see you in July! Such a great time of year to be in Minnesota near the lakes.
Hi Rich – thanks for visiting the site! Do you have a link to the 10 Things project your library completed? And I LOVE the idea of doing patron/member training this way, too. So much potential!