Monday, June 1, 2026

May 2026 in review, looking forward to June

Field trip kids hanging out in the Storyroom

 I should probably change the tag for these to "this month at the library" instead of "this week at the library" as I doubt I am ever going to do weekly reviews again. However, it's been labeled that for many years, so I might as well continue.

I finished off the field trips, mostly the week of the 18th, a total of 11 visits. I also made a visit to our third elementary school outside of town and presented to 5K through 5th grade. Most of the responses from teachers were positive, although I think some miss the more structured pre-summer events I've done in the past. The kids were very enthusiastic and pretty much universally did not want to leave. Whether or not that will translate into actual summer library visits I can't tell - we did have a couple immediate returns after school though.

The week of the 18th I also rewrote all of our summer reading materials and my associate redid the graphic design as well as making lots of signage. Everything is now ready for summer reading to begin, except the programs. We started working on the kick-off and programming during the short week at the end of May (holiday, several people had days off) and will finish the first week of June.

We finally got training on the new HVAC system. I've said many times that if we TRULY had "ground-breaking technology" it should be used to create environmentally-friendly and working a/c, especially for large buildings. However, we do not. Anyways, we were able to adjust the temperature to allow for the inexplicable higher temperatures and high humidity in certain areas, so I am satisfied. Unfortunately, our public works department has not been able to install the shelves waiting in one of my program rooms (although it is promised to be done by the kickoff on June 6), so I will not be starting the teen programs I had planned for the kids in June. Even if they do get to it the first week of June, we won't have time then to organize and put away all the supplies piled in there. I am getting furniture and am looking forward to that arriving. We had another leak, this time inexplicable, and immediately over the cataloging computer so until we can figure out what's going on there is no catalog computer in the YS area.

After we tested out some programming in May, it looks like we will need to hold any messy programs requiring the sink in the Storyroom and I am not quite sure about how the activity room will be used. As mentioned above, the Create Space will not be available for some time. I foresee a lot of adjustments in how we use the programming rooms as we figure out what works and what doesn't.

The first week of June we will be finishing program planning and then the summer reading kick-off and grand reopening will be on Saturday June 6. The following Monday, programs will start in earnest and we'll just be flexible and see how things go.

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Friday, May 29, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Community-Issues


 A lot of the titles in this collection were originally in my Parenting collection (I wanted to call it Tough Topics but I was overruled and it's been so long now that it's not worth changing it back). These are generally books that focus on community issues like poverty or more serious family issues like abuse as opposed to divorce.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Community-History


 This section hasn't changed much since I first created it. I originally had the all the biographies together, and separate Dewey numbers for different places, but as I looked at how the collection grew it made more sense to group world history together and separate out the US history more. Biographies are intershelved, but given a cutter of the subject rather than the author. US holidays are included in US history with an additional cutter of HOL and I also have some series nonfiction about US symbols that are together under SYM. Originally I had Wisconsin only in 977, but the limited number of state-specific books made it easier to just put general Midwest-themed items here.

900 - World History, fiction, nonfiction, and biographies

970 - US Sports - historical

973 - US History - nonfiction and biographies

977 - Midwest history - fiction and nonfiction

US historical fiction and tales



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Saturday, May 23, 2026

Summer Reading 2026

I kept the basic outline of summer reading from last year, but I made a few changes to make the programs more self-sufficient and sustainable.

Our adult summer reading program is separately run, with different dates - it's a fairly traditional program with a log to fill in and tickets for drawing prizes solicited from local businesses. High school students can opt to join the adult program and a few do every year, but I don't particularly track it.

We're using iRead's theme, Plant a Seed, Read, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

The general "Youth Summer Reading" brochure is an 11x17 page, folded in half. The front page lists all the summer reading programs and the main change I made to this was to take away the specific dates so I could print a large number of these and reuse them every year. I also received permission from the Friends of the Library to include a coupon for a free book from their bookstore. The other three pages are summer reading logs from Everyday Reading.

This brochure is distributed to all three elementary schools and the four year old kindergartens. There's no registration or staff component - people just take it and fill in the reading logs as they choose. Part of this main program is that there is a choice between two activity kits each week during summer reading. We try to make one aimed at older kids and one at younger kids. My associate is largely in charge of these - in the past, the teen volunteers have helped pack them, but we are not really doing that this year b/c of *waves hands* everything going on.

The Youth Summer Reading Challenge was changed from a booklet to individual bookmarks this year. Most of these can be completed and turned in for croc shoe charms, but I have a few tickets and passes, provided via our consortium. There was one that I used to handle and I turned that over to our consultant this year and I am SO GLAD I did! I completely overhauled all the challenges and my associate then reworked all of the designs.

The other way I adapted these this year was making them double as tickets for drawings. In the past, I've had a lot of misc. prizes donated and I did a raffle drawing with tickets in August. I have always detested any kind of prize drawings for kids and thought I had gotten rid of the whole concept years ago. However, very nice people persisted in giving me prizes. I think (hope?) I have finally got a workable solution - I will put out a picture of a prize each week and kids can put their reading challenges in as tickets then the winner will be drawn the following week. No lengthy anticipation, no prize sitting there to be cried over, short, sweet, and simple. I hope.

For the tweens/teens, I made a few tweaks. I've gone back and forth on what age can do the teen program - most of our participants are middle schoolers and they're the ones who are most interested in it. However, we had a lot of issues with younger kids wanting the teen prizes, teens giving their prizes to younger siblings, and kids wanting to spin the prize wheel. This year we kept our bingo sheet, with some minor changes in content, but most importantly in the new space the teen prizes will be kept in a storage room so they won't be visible to the younger kids.











The teen prizes are all pretty small - I have books (I couldn't find most of my stash of prize books so I got some new ones from Book Depot), stickers, candy, fidgets, etc. Most items are around 50 cents apiece.

I am hoping the updates will stay good for the next several years, or until I've run out of all the summer brochures I had printed! We may not have drawing prizes every week, but I'm ok with that. I do get occasional requests for a more "traditional" program, but one of the great things about being in an area with a lot of libraries is that folks can find just the right one for their needs and wants and there's always something for everybody.

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Saturday, May 16, 2026

Mid-May Update


 Well, we're two weeks into May and we have survived. I still have not even started any of the summer reading prep but oh well. Our department to-do list was becoming unwieldy and I and my staff were getting overwhelmed, so I broke it down into smaller increments, put a lot of things on the back burner, and reminded them (and myself) that we do not have to have the entire summer planned and ready to go, just the first week or two!

So far this month we have cleared out the Activity Room (the construction project manager moved out of the temporary office he was using and we moved the last of the furniture in there), repainted the Quiet Room (twice - turns out the paint was NOT the same color as the walls and we couldn't just touch up sections), and cleared out the last of the supplies that were lying around. Mostly by shoving them into the Create Space.

I rewrote all of the text for the website, our welcome to the department brochure, and wrote material for the new newsletter. My associate then completely redid all of the youth sections of the website and updated the brochure. She's in the process of creating the newsletter. I also realized that there was a lot of confusion over summer events - we partner with a school organization and this summer we are doing a lot with our rec department and people were confused that some events were listed and some weren't and anyways we bumped up a back burner project and my associate created a community calendar. This is just a beginning - we eventually hope to add more community events in general, and she did an amazing job!

I finished the sports in my nonfiction weeding - only the 800s and 900s left to go, and I whittled down the pile of YA nonfiction as well (I went from 5 ranges to 1 and all the extra books have been in storage). I also managed to send May orders, with a separate order for teen materials after the TAB meeting, and also ordered the last of the replacements for our damaged items from the roof leak several months ago.

We've had 14 field trips so far, ranging in age from 4 year old kindergarten to 5th grade and in size from 10-75. It's been exhausting, but the kids are very excited about the new department and it's good to see them enjoy free play time. We debuted a new afternoon storytime - two of our Board members who are also teachers are running it and they went from 6 at the first one to 26 at the second! I also had a big group of (mostly middle school) teens at our Teen Advisory Board meeting and they had lots of suggestions for programs, displays, and decorating the Teen Space and they all took piles of books. Our school collaborator offered the first storytime at the library - she will resume in summer. Unfortunately, all of the issues with the program spaces that I've previously brought up were front and center and although people enjoyed it and we had new faces, it was definitely not ideal. The spaces are workable for a small group like 26 kids and parents. They're not functional for 70 kids and parents, with most of those being toddlers. We spent a long time looking at different resolutions and figured out a solution so she will still be able to offer the planned programs at the library this summer.

In building news, the new HVAC system is running! Unfortunately, we can't touch it until we've been trained on it, so temperatures vary widely. Even more unfortunately, for my temper and well-being, the hotter areas include, of course, the youth department. We've had to open windows to keep things bearable, especially in the program spaces, but there are no screens. Wasps at storytime are exciting, but not in a good way.

Left to do this month - one more week of programs, finish the collection projects, update all of the summer reading materials, plan at least the first weeks of summer reading programs, and the rest of the field trips. We still have giant piles of supplies in the Create Space, but we can't do anything about that until the city has time to come over and install our shelves. Everything else is on the back burner and we'll get to it when we get to it!

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Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Community Helpers


 This contents of this collection have generally stayed the same. The labels have not! The main audience for this collection is teachers doing units on community helpers - the only exception to that is firefighters/fire trucks, which I've moved to vehicles and back again. To be honest, I'm still not 100% happy with this collection, but it's going to be at least another five years or more before I can bring myself to move anything around again here. All of the category, including fiction, is organized under Dewey numbers - the only exception is the firefighters/emergency workers, which is numerically at the end and followed by all the fiction books on this subject.

This collection is primarily composed of nonfiction series - Lerner has some excellent choices. Liesbet Slegers also has a series of community helper picture books that are popular.

020 - Fiction and nonfiction about libraries

331 - General community helpers, including fiction, nonfiction, and biographies

335 - US Government workers, How the government works, and the US military

  • Goodbye hello by Angela Dale (military family)
  • Hero mom by Melinda Hardin
  • Lost package by Richard Ho
  • My American Story: Making the rules by Jehan Jones Radgowski (series)
  • Cookie vote by Margaret McNamara
  • Free for you and me; Supreme Court and us by Christy Mihaly
  • Trusty town hall; White House; Capitol by Lindsay Ward

340 - Police

  • Officer Buckle and Gloria by Peggy Rathmann

370 - Teachers - nonfiction only

  • Sunnyside School by Lindsay Ward

610 - Doctors and medical workers, fiction and nonfiction

628 - Nonfiction about firefighters and rescue workers

Fiction about firefighters and rescue workers



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Saturday, May 9, 2026

This month in the collection: April 2026


May 2026 New Book Spotlight
Library Pinterest - new materials
Unless otherwise noted, all items were purchased for or added to the library collection

Board Books
Picture Books
Early Readers and Transitional Chapters
  • We dig fossils by Alliah Agostini
  • Beep Bop Boop by Ethan Long
  • Wisdom of the woods by Rachel Piercey
  • Let's have a sleepover by Salina Yoon
  • Bug on the bus by David Catrow
Beginning Chapter Books (new series)
  • Ly-Lan by Ha Dinh
Juvenile Fiction
  • No way never sisters by Acevedo
  • Cupcakes and camp by Coco Simon
Juvenile Nonfiction
Young Teen
  • Kid like me by Norman Feuti
  • Breakout by Christina Wyman
Young Adult - new graphic novel series
  • Beware the villainess
  • Not-sew-wicked stepmom
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Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Picture Book Neighborhoods: Community-Farm


 This subheading has moved around a bit - at one point I had farm animals in the animals, farm vehicles in the vehicle section, plants in the nature section, etc. In my last update of the section I moved all the items together and while it's hard to judge because of the movement of the collection and our renovation, it seems to have worked out well - at the very least, it's made it easy for me to pull books for displays and teacher requests.

Recommended Nonfiction about farms, farmers, farm animals, and farm machinery

Recommended fiction about farms, farm animals, and farm vehicles

Recommended Fiction and Nonfiction about food and gardening

Apples and Pumpkins

Other farm titles reviewed in the past

Other titles
  • Otis the tractor series by Loren Long
    • I personally dislike these, but they have been very popular. I think that popularity is waning.
  • ... to the rescue series by John Himmelman
    • I love these, but they're mostly out of print. Still amazing storytime choices though.
  • Turkey series by Wendi Silvano
    • These are very popular and there's one for most mainstream holidays. They're not specifically farm-themed, other than the main character of Turkey and other farm animals.
  • Minerva Louise series by Janet Stoeke
    • I love this series, but it's out of print and it's just not used much anymore.

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Saturday, May 2, 2026

April 2026 in review; Looking forward to May

Marcie and Giraffe by Kim Gregory

 I am still very much feeling SMOOSH-FACE. Everything that was stored in the basement last summer, then hauled up into our program spaces, then hauled out into the general youth department, had to be sorted, discarded, cleaned, and stored. Mice got into a lot of stuff, birds pooped on it, and most things were coated with detritus from the basement construction.

The new space has less storage and what there is generally doesn't fit any of the containers or materials we have so carefully accumulated, labeled, and organized over the years. We also had to paint our program spaces, put shelves back up which required breaking the old shelf pins out with pliers and hammer, then gluing new pins in, painting the old shelves, and refitting them, since of course every single shelf is a unique size.

Meanwhile new carpet was being installed (yay fumes!) we had torrential storms, tornadoes, and heat waves, and of course the new HVAC system does not work yet. Needless to say, I have not finished any of the prep work for summer that needs to be done. We didn't even manage to get everything stored away in time for our reopening on April 27th, but we had gotten through enough that the rest could be moved out of the way so people could get to the main part of the youth department.

However, we have survived and managed to keep things functioning. Field trips start on Monday and I've scheduled a handful of programs to run in May. In between field trips and programs, I will be finishing all of the summer planning, the nonfiction weeding I've been in the middle of for almost two years now, and the rest of the preparations for our "official" reopening and kick-off on June 6.

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Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Mid-April update


We were completely closed the first week of April. I ended up working... way too much. Too much anxiety and other things causing me stress. I thought I didn't have that much to do and could just focus on a couple things but more and more stuff kept popping up. We had a couple meetings and ended up with an all-day program on Saturday (while we were also preparing for a partial re-open on Monday) running a program with an inflatable whale.

Right now we're trying to meet deadlines for marketing and summer reading plans while also painting our programming rooms and reorganizing all the stuff. We've had an unexpected heat wave/storms and, of course, the a/c hasn't been fully installed yet. We are sticky and tired.

I have a lot of review copies I thought I'd get to, but it's not looking likely. I am so mentally and physically tired that I'm just not in a space to write reviews. But there are cool books that I will talk about eventually! Meanwhile, you can all go read Marcie & Giraffe. SMOOSH-FACE!


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Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Collection Development: USA 250th Anniversary


 There's a lot of discussion and different perspectives in libraries around the commemoration of the United States' 250th anniversary. I have my own thoughts on this, but since I don't generally do programs with specific themes that particular aspect is not relevant. I have been looking at books on the topic of US history, geography, and in general and here I have to focus very firmly on putting on my librarian hat.

  Whatever my own thoughts and perspective, my professional responsibility is to purchase items that are of interest to my community and that include accurate information. This seems straightforward, but it's actually really tricky; if a book's information is accurate but it limits or ignores some perspectives is it truly accurate? But if I purchase books that are accurate and cover all perspectives and they don't circulate, am I really meeting the needs of my community? It does help that my library is part of a larger consortium so there is access to more materials than are just in my library.

Anyways, this is a list of US-themed materials I have purchased so far this year. I will be updating this periodically and it will be interesting to see the total at the end of the year. I actually have a lot of juvenile nonfiction that hasn't been added yet because I'm currently weeding that collection too.

Picture Books

  • 50 states of love: A celebration of America 9781836006077
  • Copland: A story about America 9780593693711
  • Make a pretty sound: A story of Ella Jenkins the first lady of Children's Music 9781452170640
  • The 50 states: Things that go 9781419779725
  • Land of the free: America's ABC 9781668979020
  • The Navajos 9780823460977
  • America the beautiful 9781836008774
  • Baseball for breakfast: A (mostly) true story 9781623545703
  • Main Street: A community story about redlining 9798217002672
  • You are the land 9798217003495
  • Once a wasteland: From toxic dump to national park 9781534113480

Juvenile beginning chapters

  • Where is Arizona? 9798217053407
  • Where is Florida? 9798217051373
  • Where is Michigan? 9798217053285
  • Where is New Jersey? 9798217053315
  • Where is New York? 9798217051403
  • Where is North Carolina? 9798217053254
  • Where is Tennessee? 9798217053438
  • Where is Virginia? 9798217053346
  • Where is Washington? 9798217053377

Juvenile nonfiction

  • History Comics: Ellis Island 9781250768780

These are items I have read/skimmed and plan to purchase

Picture Books

  • Teaching for change by Yvonne Clark-Rhines 9780063251601
    • This is a powerful biography of a Civil Rights luminary. I'm very pleased to see more biographies of women and behind-the-scenes people from history and large-scale movements which are usually tied to a single man as leader.
  • When Paul Revere Rode by Sarah L. Thomson 9781662681387
    • A collection of poems from the different people involved in the events of "Paul Revere's Ride". Quotations from original sources and a brief explanation of each event are also included. Two enslaved men are quoted and there is an oblique mention of other riders.
  • It takes a family to serve by Lisa Wheeler 9780063283473
    • The subtitle is "A tribute to military families" and this does a really good job of showing a variety of different families and military personnel. POC and women are shown serving and a child is shown being raised by his grandfather.
  • Honor Flight by Jeff Gottesfeld 9781536230154
    • An honor flight as seen through the eyes of the author and the veteran he escorted.

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Saturday, April 4, 2026

This month in the collection: March 2026



Library Pinterest
April New Book Spotlight

Unless otherwise noted, all items were purchased for or added to the library collection

Board Books
Picture Books
  • Butt or face? Ador-a-butts! by Lavelle
  • How to hatch: A gosling's guide to breaking free by Ackerman
  • Monarch and mourning cloak by Melissa Stewart
  • Rhea's rodeo by Laekan Kemp
  • Baseball for breakfast: A (mostly) true story by Judy Campbell-Smith
  • Big kids by K. L. Going
  • Short stories by Silvia Borando
  • My Tiger by Joy Cowley
  • Simone Biles by Ebony Wilkins
  • Plenty of pancakes by Carrie Finison
  • Exca-gator by Brooke Hartman
  • Formula fast : your ultimate guide to Formula One racing! by Matt Ralphs
  • Is it spring? by Kevin Henkes
  • Dropbear by Philip Bunting
Early Readers and Transitional Chapters
  • Beep Bop Boop by Ethan Long
  • Wisdom of the woods by Rachel Piercey
  • We dig fossils by Agostini
  • Let's have a sleepover by Salina Yoon
  • Bug on the bus by David Catrow
Beginning Chapter Books (new series)
  • Branches: Super Villains in Training
  • Fairies Welcome by Bea Jackson
  • Scrapper by Cam Higgins
  • Desmond Cole, Ghost Patrol graphic novel
Juvenile Fiction
  • I know your secret by Daphne Benedis Grab (patron request)
  • Speed Reader by Matthew Cody
  • Love rolls in by Erin Downing
  • Study in secrets by Debbi Florence
  • Camp Monster by Kate Messner
  • Small wonder by Ross Montgomery
  • Lions' Run by Sara Pennypacker
  • Snowy owl rescue by Heidi Stemple
  • Each and every spark by Claire Swinarski
  • One for the dogs by Weisfeld
Juvenile Nonfiction
  • Zombie spiders and asteroid blasters by Okereke
  • Forest revealed by Kosek
  • Extreme birdwatching by Loree Burns
Young Teen
  • Red star rebels by Amie Kaufman
  • Academy: Cup of nations by Layton
  • Magnitude by Jennifer Nielsen
  • Burn the water by Billy Ray
  • Aftermyth by Tracy Wolff
Manga (new series)
  • Shugo Chara! (new edition)
Young Adult
  • Steam by Garrity (graphic novel)
  • Sun and the starmaker by Griffin
  • Beth is dead by Bernet
  • I don't wish you well by Emill


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