Saturday, November 1, 2014

This week at the library; or, This is winter? Oh, there it is.

What's going on, in my head and at the library
  • I finished my class on youth services management this week. It was really helpful - I learned a lot of useful things, both theoretical and practical, and I am going to be working on creating a general mission and goals as well as some concrete objectives for my department now.
  • I really need to remember to just block out the end of October for outreach. I tried contacting all the teachers at the beginning of the school year, but I guess their schedules are too iffy and it seems like they all show up at the end of October at once!
  • Our school district is working on an initiative called Project R.E.A.D. They had Dr. Navsaria this Tuesday as part of the program and I set up a table to promote the library as a resource. I had orange butterfly masks to decorate and lots of orange pumpkins and orange and black circles. I mostly reconnected with a lot of families I hadn't seen in a while, so that was good.
  • We are lucky to have a staff work day and even luckier that it usually lands on October 31 or thereabouts so I don't have to decide whether or not to do anything for Halloween! Our big project this year was getting started on RFID. Well, it's better than the year we cleaned the basement...I was working on neighborhoods anyways. I conquered the Cs and several miscellaneous stacks! We work from 9-3, which gives us an early day. 
  • Unless you're working Saturday, like me, in which case you work a 40+ hour week. I went in early after breakfast with my friend. She got breakfast, but then she had to help move tables and computers. I'm still trying for a good layout of the teen area. I also put out table tents trying to tactfully steer teens out of the children's area and adults out of the teen area.
  • We also had a special...thingy...for donors on Sunday. I volunteered to give behind-the-scenes tours, as long as I wasn't expected to get dressed up and mingle with the fancy people or anything (this is why I'm not the head of a department in a larger library system. I have no social graces)
  • BLOG NEWS: I've decided to simultaneously start a new feature but also cut back a little. Read, Read, Read said the Baby (my board book reviews) will now be posted on Wednesdays and alternate with Small Readers (my new easy reader series) which is a nod to some of my favorite childhood easy readers like Small Pig and Little Bear. So, my review schedule will look like this:
    • Monday: Nonfiction (easy to middle grade)
    • Wednesday: Read, Read, Read, Said the Baby (board books) OR Small Readers (easy readers)
    • Friday: fiction (picture books, beginning chapter books, middle grade)
    • Saturday: This week at the library
    • Sunday: RA RA READ or other features (irregular)
Programs
What the kids are reading
  • Animal books for a kindergartener - yay neighborhoods!
  • Uh....I know I was asked for other stuff but this week was a little exhausting, so I don't really remember...

2 comments:

Ms. Yingling said...

Don't feel bad if school librarians don't get back to you. I don't use our public librarians much as resources because I feel that I should be doing everything myself. Foolish, perhaps, but the way it is! And my public library is completely awesome!

Jennifer said...

My school librarians are actually really good about getting back to me - we only do stuff a couple times a year, but we plan it in advance. It's the teachers...I get that their schedules are complicated, but really, I have a hard time believing that they're not even thinking about scheduling field trips until they call me the week before. You couldn't contact me in September and say "hey, we're thinking of coming at the end of October blank out a week for us?"