TRANSCRIPTION 🔗
WEBVTT
00:02.757 --> 00:06.909
Good morning, good evening, good afternoon. Welcome back to another
00:06.925 --> 00:10.708
episode of On the Same Page KCPL Podcast.
00:11.157 --> 00:15.245
I'm Evan and I'm Tanya, and today we're
00:15.745 --> 00:19.109
going to be talking about cryptids. Before we
00:19.609 --> 00:22.491
do that, I want to mention, as soon as you're done listening to this episode,
00:22.716 --> 00:26.082
go to our website, click on the banner for the podcast and
00:26.582 --> 00:30.233
scroll down and there's a survey you can fill out. We do want
00:30.733 --> 00:34.127
to hear from you guys if you're listening, so please fill out that survey.
00:34.559 --> 00:37.668
Let us know what you think. We hope we can keep making this better and
00:37.700 --> 00:41.931
better and better for you, our listeners. So do
00:42.431 --> 00:45.985
that as soon as you're done listening to this episode. We would appreciate that.
00:46.578 --> 00:50.568
The reason we're talking about cryptids is September is Library
00:50.584 --> 00:53.905
Card Sign-Up Month. Which we do every single year in the month
00:54.405 --> 00:57.791
of September. Cryptids has been our theme for the past several years.
00:58.385 --> 01:01.404
People seem to love it, and it's the same this year. I love it.
01:02.720 --> 01:06.783
I mean, it is fun. It's like a— it's almost like a prequel to
01:07.216 --> 01:10.042
the spooky season. Spooky soft. Like, it's, you know,
01:10.588 --> 01:14.377
it's not full October and fall yet, but we're gonna, you know, have a
01:14.442 --> 01:17.942
little bit of spookiness with some cryptids. So You know, it's kind of
01:18.199 --> 01:22.035
a soft launch in that, uh, if you will. Now in
01:22.131 --> 01:24.908
this episode, we're going to be saying the word cryptid a lot,
01:25.181 --> 01:29.098
and just in case you don't know what the word cryptid means,
01:29.451 --> 01:33.095
it is an animal or creature that people claim to see but science
01:33.207 --> 01:36.546
has not proven to exist. The most famous one
01:36.883 --> 01:39.709
from our region, the Mothman.
01:40.447 --> 01:43.513
There's also other ones like Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster,
01:43.802 --> 01:47.425
and those kind of things that people claim exist, but we
01:47.925 --> 01:51.640
can't prove it. And so that's what a cryptid is, if you did not know
01:51.656 --> 01:54.556
that already. Tanya, if I'm correct,
01:55.262 --> 01:58.338
marketing department, we're doing the same thing we've done in the last couple years with
01:58.386 --> 02:02.248
the library card sign-up month. Yes, we have cryptid
02:02.748 --> 02:06.190
stickers. There's Bigfoot, there's Mothman, there's the Flatwoods Monster,
02:06.559 --> 02:09.684
and then there are lanyards in a few different colors that have all
02:10.184 --> 02:13.948
the cryptids on them. Perfect. So we will have those available at the library
02:14.448 --> 02:17.683
for you if you renew your card privileges, if you sign
02:17.779 --> 02:21.931
up for a card. We'll have those while supplies last. So you
02:21.947 --> 02:25.970
definitely want to stop on by in September. That's kind of the theme of
02:26.470 --> 02:30.122
today's episode. This is our first time doing 2 guests. Today we're
02:30.622 --> 02:33.953
going to have 2 guests on from the Sissonville Library because they have something
02:34.001 --> 02:37.320
special that they're cooking up. If you haven't already noticed, this episode
02:37.416 --> 02:40.782
is a little bit early and you'll find out why it's out a little bit
02:41.282 --> 02:45.662
early later on in the episode. So, uh, welcome Kathy Mason
02:45.839 --> 02:47.992
and Kayla Stamper from the Sissonville Library.
02:49.293 --> 02:52.009
Hello! Thank you. Thanks for having us.
02:52.989 --> 02:57.295
Oh yeah, we're glad to have you because I know Sissonville is known
02:57.568 --> 03:00.926
for your guys' decorations at spooky time and
03:01.102 --> 03:04.284
all of those things. So I think you guys are the perfect branch
03:04.316 --> 03:07.802
to have a Cryptid Con. Yes. Yeah, I completely agree. And we're
03:08.302 --> 03:11.881
super excited about it. Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about like
03:11.946 --> 03:15.943
what your day-to-day roles are at work, and then maybe
03:16.443 --> 03:19.251
a little bit about yourself just in general. Just tell us a little bit about
03:19.751 --> 03:23.184
you. Hi, I'm Kathy Mason, and I am the branch
03:23.684 --> 03:26.990
manager of the Sissonville Library. Day-to-day is hard
03:27.490 --> 03:30.923
to describe because it feels like everything changes
03:31.052 --> 03:34.889
at the library. A lot of it is working with staff to
03:35.258 --> 03:39.265
keep the library rolling. This isn't the library.
03:39.474 --> 03:43.145
Also planning programs and attending an
03:43.722 --> 03:46.832
awful lot of meetings. I would rather spend time in programs
03:46.928 --> 03:50.134
personally, but you know how that goes. And about
03:50.634 --> 03:53.965
me, I crochet. I crochet a lot, do a lot of
03:53.981 --> 03:57.043
different crafts, but that's the top one. And yeah,
03:57.460 --> 04:00.682
I'll pass it off to Kayla now. I'm Kayla Stamper.
04:00.874 --> 04:04.305
I am the branch administrator here. A lot of my day-to-day varies.
04:05.459 --> 04:09.067
I do a lot of different stuff here. Between helping patrons,
04:09.441 --> 04:11.427
staff, keeping things running, like doing scheduling.
04:12.630 --> 04:16.099
Also the makerspace here, a lot of fun stuff. And I
04:16.115 --> 04:19.616
always try to do arts and crafts, which, um, it's always been
04:20.116 --> 04:23.148
a day-to-day part of my life because I love to do art. I paint,
04:23.196 --> 04:25.917
which is why I'm really excited about Crypticon because I do a lot of cryptid
04:25.965 --> 04:29.394
paintings, Mothman, Halloween.
04:29.909 --> 04:33.509
Like Evan said, you know, it's like a soft launch I soft launch in
04:33.557 --> 04:36.908
July for
Load full transcript
Halloween, and then
04:37.100 --> 04:40.354
we're going full horror starting August, and then in September,
04:40.867 --> 04:44.234
cryptids. We definitely like the cryptid stuff at Sissenbell.
04:44.747 --> 04:47.969
Kayla's fantastic. Her creativity is off the charts. Oh,
04:48.145 --> 04:51.415
absolutely. I agree. Kayla and I, uh, were— I mean,
04:51.768 --> 04:55.343
we're all technically co-workers because we work as part of a system,
04:55.455 --> 04:58.549
but Kayla and I did work at the same branch
04:59.046 --> 05:02.145
Uh, once upon a time. So in the old days, yes.
05:02.755 --> 05:05.902
And if you come to St. Albans— St. Albans, right here. Oh, okay.
05:06.351 --> 05:09.032
Uh, if you've seen on our second floor, if you've been here to St.
05:09.080 --> 05:12.420
Albans, you'll see on the back wall, on the chalkboard wall,
05:12.564 --> 05:15.807
there's some artwork that was drawn with some different characters and things.
05:16.337 --> 05:20.046
That is, uh, Kayla's artwork still here. I've seen
05:20.078 --> 05:23.401
that and it is fantastic. That was— that
05:23.786 --> 05:28.006
was Kayla's. Originally the idea was that it was going to change out periodically,
05:28.183 --> 05:32.289
but it's kind of a staple here now. It's kind of made its home on
05:32.789 --> 05:36.218
that wall. Same thing. So, and any of the ghost pictures that
05:36.718 --> 05:40.084
I've shared on social media, that's you all, right? We had a great
05:40.584 --> 05:43.997
time with that. It was fun. Those pictures are
05:44.497 --> 05:47.975
great. We know that you, you all like spooky things in Sissonville.
05:48.151 --> 05:51.070
You guys have this thing that is coming up. You guys are going to be
05:51.570 --> 05:55.033
doing a Cryptid Con, which As far as I know,
05:55.290 --> 05:58.390
it's like the first con that
05:58.663 --> 06:02.276
the Kanawha County Public Library has, has done, at least it's been called
06:02.776 --> 06:05.906
a con on anything as far as I'm aware. We really just wanted to try
06:06.406 --> 06:10.242
to do something different. Everybody loves cryptids around here, especially, you know, Mothman stuff.
06:10.322 --> 06:13.791
So we really wanted to hone in on the idea to
06:13.855 --> 06:17.710
bring in people to share their love of cryptids. I hadn't
06:18.210 --> 06:21.371
actually even thought about the fact that it was the first con, and we're doing
06:21.404 --> 06:24.695
it as kind of a soft con. Easing into
06:25.337 --> 06:28.500
the thing, hoping to make it pretty regular, I would say. Well,
06:28.773 --> 06:33.380
I can say that, you know, anytime you're doing something new, there's always bumps
06:33.880 --> 06:37.698
in the road. So doing a soft, you know, version of it is a
06:38.198 --> 06:42.257
good way to kind of get in there and see what— see how people respond,
06:42.273 --> 06:46.110
see what people like. And so that's a really good way
06:47.073 --> 06:50.685
to handle it, I think. So tell us a little bit
about like
06:50.942 --> 06:54.744
what's going to happen? Like, what are you— what's going on that
06:54.872 --> 06:58.161
day of the CryptidCon? What does that look like? I am
06:58.661 --> 07:01.546
really hoping to dress up as Mothman. I've got, I've got a costume that I
07:02.046 --> 07:05.268
got earlier this year. It's flowy, not too Mothman.
07:05.942 --> 07:08.797
Work appropriate Mothman. Yes, corporate Mothman.
07:09.695 --> 07:12.920
I imagine Mothman in a suit and tie for sure.
07:13.161 --> 07:16.337
Yeah, we're encouraging people to dress up,
07:16.369 --> 07:20.428
you know, as your cryptids. Crafts, of course. We've got some little watercolor paintings
07:20.476 --> 07:24.230
of mothman we're going to do, some cryptid notebooks where
07:24.730 --> 07:29.060
they can either draw cryptids on the front, or I've actually
07:29.560 --> 07:33.424
used our 3D printer and cut out mothman shapes where they can make clay mothmans
07:33.616 --> 07:36.889
and then put them in notebooks themselves. Whatever they want to do,
07:36.905 --> 07:40.643
really creative freedom with it. We're also going to try to make mothman
07:40.675 --> 07:44.656
antennas that they can create. To wear around as
07:44.688 --> 07:48.510
well. So I remember when I was growing up and coming to the library,
07:48.767 --> 07:52.524
like, a particular series about a young boy wizard was
07:52.557 --> 07:55.608
very popular at the time. You know, they would do these kind of things where
07:56.108 --> 07:58.964
they'd have different activities and stations set up, and like,
07:58.996 --> 08:02.352
it wasn't really a con, but it was opportunity experience,
08:02.368 --> 08:05.901
like where there's different things you could go do. And like, sounds like you guys
08:06.401 --> 08:09.964
are doing the cryptid version of that kind of experience.
08:10.430 --> 08:13.610
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to incorporate, um,
08:14.110 --> 08:17.110
making some fun snacks, some drinks.
08:17.610 --> 08:20.950
Um, I make a lot of to-go craft kits too that a lot of patrons
08:21.450 --> 08:24.550
like to come in and get. So I'm also doing those. I've got a
08:25.050 --> 08:28.950
UFO one planned out where they can make their own little floating UFOs. Even if
08:29.450 --> 08:31.170
they come and they don't, you know, want to stay the whole time, they have
08:31.670 --> 08:34.950
something they can take with them. Nothing stays behind. They, they all get a set.
08:35.450 --> 08:39.409
Yeah, nothing is left behind, that's for sure. So how was like the
08:39.909 --> 08:43.369
prep for all of this has been going? Like, how long have you guys been
08:43.869 --> 08:47.489
working on putting this together and all the, all the pieces
08:47.989 --> 08:51.569
of it? I think we first started talking about it probably,
08:52.069 --> 08:56.069
would you say almost last year? Yeah, we definitely started the idea last year.
08:56.569 --> 08:59.929
And then of course trying to figure out, you know, yeah, the logistics, how much
09:00.429 --> 09:03.709
we want to plan into it. You know, this being the first con,
09:03.729 --> 09:06.909
soft beginning, kind of a mashup of con and a bunch of crafts and stuff
09:07.409 --> 09:09.249
like that to see how people respond to it first. But yeah, it's definitely been
09:09.749 --> 09:13.157
a year in the works. Of planning. I think it's going to be a good
09:13.189 --> 09:16.385
one. That's exactly why this episode's releasing early, is because we're
09:16.885 --> 09:20.785
telling you that this is coming. This is something that's happening, and it's happening on
09:20.961 --> 09:25.040
the 29th, is that correct? Yes, uh, August 29th.
09:25.153 --> 09:28.525
It's a Saturday from 11 to 2. Okay, so from 11 to
09:29.025 --> 09:32.572
2, and it does have some drop-in elements, like you can just come in,
09:32.764 --> 09:36.233
you know, at noon, or, you know, you can be
09:36.733 --> 09:39.812
there at 11 when it starts. Uh, it's kind of a come at your own
09:39.908 --> 09:42.761
pace and see what, see what's going on.
09:43.851 --> 09:47.282
What would, what would your, like, if you were gonna go hardcore,
09:47.362 --> 09:50.568
like this goes well and you're gonna do it next
09:51.068 --> 09:53.838
year, what, what would you like to see happen?
09:54.111 --> 09:57.541
Definitely, you know, we mentioned before trying the vendor
09:58.041 --> 10:01.420
route or even getting maybe some speakers from the Mothman Museum or Flatwoods Museum.
10:01.485 --> 10:04.370
We've been, you know, just getting some people to speak about things and then we
10:04.870 --> 10:07.752
can have things people can stop in and do. I made cryptids in the window,
10:07.961 --> 10:11.110
like out of cardboard and stuff, so they can do photo ops. I think it
10:11.610 --> 10:15.010
would be also fun to maybe have somebody actually dress up as cryptids,
10:15.510 --> 10:18.090
and we can like print pictures out for them and different things like that.
10:18.590 --> 10:21.410
Just kind of expand on some of the ideas that we've already started and,
10:21.910 --> 10:25.530
um, just make it even, even bigger, even better. Will there be any guests this
10:26.030 --> 10:29.430
year? So not, um, speaker-wise for the actual
10:29.930 --> 10:34.070
CryptidCon, but after, um, on September 1st
10:34.570 --> 10:37.850
at 5:30, we are having a virtual author event with
10:38.350 --> 10:42.260
Paige LaVoy. She is from Florida and she wrote I'm in
10:42.760 --> 10:46.743
Love with Mothman and the 2 following books. I believe it's I'm
10:47.243 --> 10:50.728
Engaged to Mothman and I'm Marrying Mothman. Her newest book,
10:50.744 --> 10:54.054
I'm so excited, is My Boyfriend is a Swamp Monster.
10:54.295 --> 10:58.617
I have already downloaded it. I saw she released that and I
10:59.117 --> 11:02.297
believe got on a bestseller list for it, was doing really
11:02.393 --> 11:06.330
well with it. So I bought the
I'm in Love with Mothman book
11:06.830 --> 11:10.423
when she came to library last year, but I have not read it yet.
11:11.065 --> 11:14.594
It just keeps getting pushed back, so I need to, I need to start
11:15.094 --> 11:18.477
the trilogy. There we go. I got the book a couple years
11:18.541 --> 11:21.798
ago when she was here for the Mothman Festival. I think the library didn't have
11:21.846 --> 11:24.814
it then. We do now, by the way. I thought it was really cute.
11:24.943 --> 11:29.082
It is about a content creator who takes a hiatus
11:29.098 --> 11:32.499
from, from the social media life and moves
11:32.999 --> 11:36.057
into a little cozy cabin in the woods and meets Mothman,
11:36.346 --> 11:39.246
gets rescued by Mothman. I love it. I knew I would,
11:39.454 --> 11:42.387
but it was a good read. I enjoyed it. Yeah,
11:42.996 --> 11:46.168
well, the reason I asked what your stretch goals were is because
11:46.745 --> 11:49.918
maybe that will entice some of the people that are listening to just having one
11:49.966 --> 11:53.203
more reason to come and check out your guys's CryptidCon
11:53.267 --> 11:56.904
so it has a good turnout. And maybe, uh, some of those stretch
11:56.920 --> 12:00.253
goals can be something that does happen, uh, next year.
12:00.622 --> 12:03.799
I mean, I know other libraries have done cons.
12:04.489 --> 12:07.410
Several years ago during one of our summer library clubs,
12:08.084 --> 12:12.256
the theme was like involved with like space and stuff
12:12.756 --> 12:15.513
like that. And I did an event, I called it The Impact of the Stars.
12:16.011 --> 12:19.798
And it was about Star Wars and Star Trek and how they've
12:20.298 --> 12:23.890
influenced culture. And one of the things I learned is the
12:24.034 --> 12:27.789
very first like fandom con
12:28.704 --> 12:32.480
was centered around Star Trek, and it was at
12:32.625 --> 12:35.903
a library. It was a small group of people at a library.
12:36.562 --> 12:40.177
So, you know, libraries have a history when
12:40.677 --> 12:43.519
it comes to the con scene from the very beginning,
12:44.194 --> 12:47.906
and they've grown and grown and grown and, you know, become even more popular.
12:47.986 --> 12:51.746
But I think it's really cool that you guys are getting back in,
12:51.859 --> 12:55.037
and we're gonna have a Cryptid Con and And we're going to do that.
12:55.134 --> 12:58.580
I think that's an awesome thing. So I wish you guys
12:58.644 --> 13:02.427
all the luck and I hope you get a turnout
13:02.927 --> 13:05.921
and I hope at the end of the day you're absolutely worn out from all
13:05.953 --> 13:09.367
the amazing fun you had. Yeah, that's always
13:09.399 --> 13:12.781
what we're striving for. Yeah, because we
13:13.281 --> 13:15.538
know when we put these kind of things on, it's going to be exhausting.
13:16.195 --> 13:18.968
There's going to be a lot of little things and you've got to do this
13:19.096 --> 13:21.965
and that to get ready, clean up, you know, all the fun stuff.
13:22.687 --> 13:26.441
It's worth it to see people come and enjoy the library
13:26.473 --> 13:30.082
and give them something to do. And in this regard,
13:30.099 --> 13:34.558
a way to, you know, not only have fun but to be creative with
13:35.058 --> 13:38.232
some of the things you guys are doing. So I think it's a great opportunity
13:38.280 --> 13:40.959
for people to come check out what we do at the library.
13:41.937 --> 13:45.723
Yeah, exactly. We want to hone that creativity and then also, you know,
13:46.670 --> 13:50.022
have people learn about the library, what resources we have
13:50.071 --> 13:53.760
as well while they're here. So it's definitely important.
13:53.824 --> 13:57.257
And where we're a smaller branch, sometimes it's harder to get
13:57.757 --> 14:02.150
people out there to know what we're doing. Um, hopefully the KCPL podcast
14:02.650 --> 14:05.743
helps, uh, promote that. So we're excited about it.
14:06.481 --> 14:10.315
All right, well, that is the end of our part 1 of
14:10.347 --> 14:12.994
the episode. Uh, stay tuned,
14:13.299 --> 14:16.218
and, uh, the next part will come out after,
14:16.908 --> 14:20.278
uh, the Cryptid Con has happened. But, uh, We're going to be
14:20.778 --> 14:24.506
keep talking about more things cryptid in the next episode. This has been
14:24.715 --> 14:28.267
part 1. My name is Evan and I'm Tanya.
14:28.605 --> 14:29.345
Thanks for listening.