Booktalker Nancy Keane had just started her job as library media specialist at New Hampshire's Rundlett Middle School in 1995 when a teacher asked her to booktalk—something that Keane had never done. She searched the Internet for scripts and found nothing. After that, but long before anything Web 2.0, she put her booktalks on a web site, believing that librarians should share resources.
Today, nancykeane.com, with nearly 8000 free booktalks, thousands of reading lists, and daily podcasts, is a “truly collaborative” wiki, says Keane. Along with Keane's many published books, including The Tech-Savvy Booktalker: A Guide for 21st-Century Educators (with Terence W. Cavanaugh), her site is an invaluable educators' resource.
Though the energetic Keane has also hosted a call-in radio show, a community-access TV show, and served on numerous committees (she currently chairs the 2010 YALSA YA Literature Symposium), she still treasures one-on-one readers' advisory. She is so good at it that her students once played a trick on her. A girl asked Keane for recommendations but refused every one. After half an hour, Keane discovered the joke: the kids had placed bets on how long Keane would persevere. “It was a setup! But the girl did take out some books,” she says.
After the school day, Keane teaches computer skills at the local community college, instructs classes online, and works toward her Ed.D. “I like to make the most of my time,” she understates. What else sets Keane apart? She isn't a dedicated shusher. “The library is certainly not a quiet place,” she says. “There is talking and laughing and learning.”
