Saturday, July 2, 2016

This week at the library; or, Week 3

What's going on in my head and at the library
  • Monday
    • Open Garden (Jess/aides)
    • Read with Pearl
    • Tiny Tots (Pattie)
    • We had to re-evaluate the open garden program - the garden has not gotten to the point where we can safely offer a program. So now it's "come help Ms. Jess with the garden" time!
  • Tuesday
    • Toddlers 'n' Books (2 sessions) (Pattie)
    • Storywagon: Great Scott
    • We had 165 people at Storywagon. I am re-evaluating our summer programs and outreach. I realize that's a weird reaction, but this is the thing - more than half of those people were school groups. Do we need to gear our offerings more towards school groups? We could do this, easily, with a few small changes. Do we need to change the way we do outreach? Summer reading registration is, I am fairly sure although I have not counted, down. I think the community is changing - more people in school, daycare, on vacation, in sports, etc. and we need to change with it or our summer programs will die. Or it could just be the weird schedule the school had this summer and if we stick with a reliable starting date regardless of the school, all our problems will be solved....Lost track of time and went home late.
  • Wednesday
  • Thursday
    • Books 'n' Babies (Pattie)
    • Mad Scientists Club: Mixing Magic
    • This summer is just so...discombobulated! I want to hide in my office and do collection development! Making vast amounts of slime for two hours cheered me up, not least b/c I got to watch my staff help out and they simply loooove slime. Mwa ha ha ha.
  • Friday
    • 1st and 2nd grade field trip
    • Maker Workshop: Carpentry
    • The kids are doing an "Explore Elkhorn" class - I took them on a tour of the library from the oldest part to the newest, talked about how things change, and we even visited the basement! They wrote and drew pictures about the library yesterday, today, and tomorrow and then got to play in the puppet theater, sign up for summer reading, and explore the children's area.
    • I had a good group for carpentry. It was a very long day. My feet hurt. We talked about glue, pre-drilling holes, etc. but I wanted to keep it as simple and hands-on as possible and encourage the kids to problem solve and plan on their own. Also, I did not have time for all that. I am working to keep these truly "maker" activities, not just crafts the kids put together. Did the kids get frustrated and need help? Yep. I am ok with kids being frustrated - I find myself frequently swooping in to alleviate the slightest waiting, impatience, or frustration and that's just not healthy. There were a few things I would change - our hammers were too big and I think a different kind of nails would have worked better and also a workbench instead of sitting on the sidewalk in the sun! - but overall I think it was successful.
    • Argh, I simply cannot get the board book circulation up! It was always averaged around 400, but last December it dropped to 200 and I haven't been able to get it up over 300 again. I need to brainstorm this.
What the kids are reading: A selection
  • Read-Alikes for Angleberger's Rocket and Groot book - some questioning turned up DK Adventures superhero books were what they wanted.
  • Most reluctant reader I have ever had has been hooked on Dragonbreath. SCORE.
  • I wonder if we really need that many Cupcake Diaries books and then they get checked out in giant armloads and other kids come in and are very sad they are all gone.
  • Adults are starting to look for Harry Potter.

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