Saturday, March 3, 2012

This week at the library; Or, we celebrate Dr. Seuss with even more snow

Monday - Belatedly began work on March publicity. Official circulation numbers from the annual report are in - my children's circulation went up 7,929 last year, more than the 7,000 I estimated. Left early to pick up the rest of the Dr. Seuss program supplies and sample t-shirts for spring break at Wal-Mart and to go to the comic shop to pick up the library's monthly orders. Got home a little past six, which wasn't bad at all. Favorite question of the day: "Is the library open to the public?"

Tuesday Bad start to the day with a popped lens, but happily found a place only a few blocks away to fix it before I went to our youth services meeting. We toured Yerkes Observatory, discussed possible collaboration, and went out to lunch and worked through our agenda - summer reading, grants, and other stuff. We also had good librarian time - you know, where you can talk to people with similar issues and problems, laugh at our insane stories, and enthuse about the merits of various storytimes. Anyhow, I have to admit in all honesty, that astronomy leaves me cold. Probably because my glasses get in the way of telescopes, binoculars, etc. and I have pretty bad eyesight. Kind of the same way I feel about birding - while everyone else is shouting "look at the purple-beaked tick picker with spliced tails!" I'm staring at anonymous little black dots - assuming I see anything at all. However, stars make excellently easy decorations, so I'm not complaining about this summer's theme at all. I did get some work done when I got back, but not enough to really make a dent.

Pause while I consider my to read list:
  • 3 books on my to read - search list (still looking, can't find them)
  • 10 books on my to read - request list (waiting for library holds to come)
  • 31 books on my to read - nonfiction list (reading one by one at lunch time)
  • 53 books on my to read - list list (stuff I haven't looked for yet, just dumped it on the list)
  • 70 books on my to read - new list (waiting for them to come in at a library so I can request them)
  • 87 books on my to read - shelf list (actually on a shelf, waiting to read. Includes library books, review copies, and more)
  • 313 books on my to read list (I know a library has it, I just haven't moved it to a more immediate list)
I need to read more. I'm not sure if that's physically possible, but there must be some way to do it...

Wednesday A good day, but crazy busy. Had a large crowd for Preschool Interactive and realized once again how annoying it is that the post office refuses to allow the library to put events in the school newsletter sent out by Miss Pattie. Parents are confused, thinking that she is the library and her programs are all we have. Sigh. We are going to try to work around this again. I actually got lunch today, which was awesome, because I had somewhere between 40 and 50 people for Messy Art Club!

Thursday - My first visit from a class of 2nd graders at a local elementary school. We've been planning this for a while; this school is a little farther out so it takes longer to walk. Everything went really well - we did a quick tour, I had pulled books for them to look at and pick from, and then they made butterfly masks. Next visit, they'll return their books, I'll take them on a tour of a different part of the library, and we'll try picking from the open shelves. Evening desk shift, getting ready for Seuss party, etc.

Friday - I came in around 10:45 and started setting up for the Dr. Seuss party. I had several hours of desk time, but luckily it was very quiet so I got all the little decorations cut out. A gazillion calls from people wanting to know if we were closing and/or cancelling the party. There was no way we could cancel - all the food had been purchased and by the time I got the room reserved again it would all have spoiled. I am fascinated by native midwesterners' reluctance to drive in snow. Come on, people! If a Texas girl can do it, so can you! Anyhow, we ended up with 50 people, which is pretty good. We only expected 70 and the weather really was pretty bad. We had green eggs and ham, a choice of juice or milk, and cake while watching The Lorax (the old one. we were going to watch Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham - the old ones - but the movie that played perfectly when I tested it an hour before died when I tried to play it with an audience). Then it was 6pm and the library closed. We all went over for a special after hours tour, featuring the amazing microfilm machine! The inner workings of the bookdrops! The Magnifying Machine! Then at about 6:30 we went back to make a craft - I had beads and pipecleaners and popsicle sticks. Most people stayed for the tour, but only about 20 stayed for the craft. It took me about an hour to lug everything back over to the library, where I dumped it all in my office and Storyroom to await Monday.

Cost of the program (not including time of all the people involved)
  • $55 for three cakes (one of our librarian's neighbors cut us an awesome deal and they were SERIOUSLY YUMMY)
  • $70 for the food (one of the ladies who cooks for Rotary/Kiwanis volunteered her time to cook)
  • $40 for clean up (so instead of paying her we paid her assistant)
  • $20 for decorating supplies/tablecloths/etc. (estimate)
  • $20 for craft supplies (pipe cleaners, etc.)
  • Total estimated cost - $200
Everyone really loved the program and I couldn't have done anything about the weather. I would like to do things differently next year though. We ended up with too much food and it was too expensive, the tour didn't really work with that number of people, and I think there were too many things and people were flagging. I'm thinking of doing a Seuss Sampler party next year, with a table for each book. So Ten Apples Up On Top would have apples to sample. Cat in the Hat would have a craft to make a hat. Scrambled Eggs Super would have eggs to decorate. Green Eggs and Ham would have, you know, to sample. If I Ran the Circus would have a circus craft and so on. Then I wouldn't have to limit registration, which I always hate.

No comments: