Saturday, January 17, 2015

This week at the library; or, Let's program!


What's happening in my head and at the library
  • Monday - still finishing Neighborhoods. I was going to be done with this by the end of December, but, well...I'm in the Ws! I'm nearly there! Also I pulled books for the bigger remote collections for my new outreach groups. 5 baskets is a lot more complicated than 2! and the rest of my supplies came in - my desk is a total disaster area. I also did a quick tour/explanation of the catalog/history of the library for some cub scouts that showed up.
  • Tuesday - Back on the children's desk! I spent a lot of time working on sorting through the youth services associate position applications. I was worried that we had a really small applicant pool, but a lot of applications came in right before the deadline yesterday and we had several people who looked good. I stayed until 5:30 to have time to make the final decisions on interviews/rejections/possibles to set aside as backup before I left.
  • Wednesday - First Winter Wigglers and two outreach programs. I wasn't sure how this would work - the schools are outside town at the opposite ends (yes, I know our town is only about 4 miles long at the extreme edges, but still) so the first one is at 1:30, finish at 2, and I told the second group I'd be there next, probably 2:15 (time for hauling all my books and such and the heavily slushed streets in town). I got there only a minute or two late and it went very well - a bit long actually, so I didn't get back until just after 3. I called to schedule interviews, hauled some tables out for the Friends book sale, dealt with a number of things that had accumulated (although you couldn't tell from my desk) and left at 4:40. Pretty close to 4:30, when I had planned to leave!
  • Thursday - I got through a bunch of stuff on my Neighborhoods cart (not all Neighborhoods, but the accumulated detritus around it) and then went on the information desk early so my poor director could make a trip to the dentist )-: then, after lunch, I opened new book boxes and unpacked my year's worth of manga order! I ordered all the year's manga at once - filled in series that were neglected last year and preordered all the new volumes. I hope. Our winter book and bake sale is in session, so I crammed Lego Club into the smaller half the community room. I had originally thought I'd have to put it in the Storyroom but that's really not ideal as it's a very small space for the attendance we get and a lot of our attendance comes from people walking by the community room. Not to mention Legos on the floor where we have baby storytime! This was also the first session I did with the new times - I extended after school clubs to 5:30. This means that it's a two hour program and also that I have to have absolute trust in my aide to clean up as I leave at 5:30. I had almost 40 people, which was really good, we all fit comfortably into the small room, I got some absolutely perfect publicity shots of different ages and genders working together, and I left at 5:40! One of the highlights of the evening was a kindergartener who had asked me if he could play with the Legos earlier this week and I said no - those are only for looking you have to come to Lego Club to play with them. His mom said he's been asking and asking all week! Another family said they wanted to get out of the house and the kids picked the Elkhorn library to visit and they were really happy when they found Lego Club was going.
  • Friday - Back out to my new outreach venue for three more storytimes; this went very well, although there is an adjustment to doing storytimes for a class of 23 four year olds as opposed to 12 or 13! Then I met with the director and adult services librarian to discuss scheduling the information desk (conclusion: we do not have enough staff and I cannot do regular shifts b/c of outreach and varying programs. I don't want them anyways! I've got to staff the children's desk sometime!) then grabbed some lunch, then two interviews. I had time to finish a couple things before I left at 5. Pattie did We Explore Science, again in half the community room, while I was gone. I'm working Saturday but I wanted to take a half day next week instead so I came back to work this Friday.
  • Saturday - It was Saturday. It was the last day of the book and bake sale. It was busy.
Programs
What the kids are reading
  • Bilingual books - a mom said her boys had really liked the Spanish Cinderella they got from my Cinderella display and wanted more books like that.
  • Helped a kid pick a book he'd like from his reading list - No More Dead Dogs
  • A "classic" for a homeschooled teen - recommended Dickens, Twain, or Verne.
  • Yolen dinosaur books - need to finish neighborhoods!
  • How to play the piano, specifically with letters on the keys
  • Horse picture books
  • Peppa Pig books (we don't have any)
  • Chuggington books (we don't have any)
  • Amelia Bedelia
  • easy readers - a little girl wanted a picture book but her grandmother thought she should be only getting books she could read. I showed her some picture books that she could easily read and she was happy.
  • a very shy boy visiting his grandma wanted Rocket books (turned out to be Tad Hills' Rocket so we found those) and we looked at a couple other things as well.

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