This week at the library; or, It all begins again

This week is the beginning of our winter/spring session of programming (although with the weather we've been having, it's more like our spring/spring session)

Monday - Last-minute planning, tidying, gazillion questions, meetings, etc. etc. Long day - 9am to 8pm, because I did Tiny Tots (Miss Pattie was at a school board meeting) at 6:30. For Tiny Tots we...

• Danced to Pop 'n' Hop by Funky Mama (cd - Moo Juice)
• read Under the snow by Melissa Stewart (the pictures were too small)
• did Five little snowmen with my new flannelboard (will be added to flannelboards soon!)
• read Sneezy the Snowman by Wright
• did my new snowflake rhyme, adapted from the leaf song we like (five little snowflakes fat and round were floating about without a sound, the wind came whooshing through the town and one little snowflake came tumbling down)
• read In the snow by Tafuri
• made snowmen by taping circles of white paper to a sheet of blue paper, decorating with markers and crayons
• and played with the giant boxes.

I'm never going to get a really good response from subbing, because so many people have an automatic reaction of "we expected Miss Pattie!" it would take a long time for me to build up a following among this toddler age group. Plus, I admit I'm not at my best in the evening, especially after being at work since 9am. But everyone was satisfied with the knowledge that Miss Pattie would be back next time and they liked my rhymes and stories (except Under the Snow, the pictures were too small for this group) well enough. I had about 14 kids and parents, mostly ages 2-4.

Monday was also enlivened by a patron informing me that he is now going to come to our library because the other neighboring library he has been attending has a "psycho chick" and he doesn't like her. I soooo want a t-shirt "psycho librarian chick!"

Tuesday - other than a pounding headache and constant interruptions, it was a good day. Started back with toddler storytime today, lots of enthusiasm welcoming back Miss Pattie! Ended the day with a 2 hour meeting and then onto dinner with Sara the Librarian and a discussion of Bearport's recent catalog and SLJ's fall 2011 Series Nonfiction (yes, it takes that long to get to us).

We have decided that what OUR libraries need is more books on weapons. Not tanks or aircrafts - got those. More books on guns, bows and arrows, knives, swords, etc. both medieval and modern. Sara the Librarian says extreme sports books no longer circulate in her library; they're still popular in mine. We both want craft books that are longer than 32 pages and do not contain 6-10 crafts and cost THIRTY BUCKS. We both hate publishers who I shall not name who try to palm off 32 page nonfiction books with about 200 words total in library bound format only, especially when they're on subjects that will be outdated in a year.

We both love Bearport - I've already placed my order this year, received the cuddly bear cub puppet, and cooed over my new books, now in the back being cataloged. Sooooo beautiful. Every one of them will be checked out and loved and still look nice and shiny several years from now - and my budget did not collapse in shock after I paid the invoice.

Wednesday - the BIG DAY. This is the day programs really start back for me. Of course, it's also the day we're expecting 2-4 inches of snow, after an unbelievably mild winter.

Preschool Interactive at 10am - I am now going to be posting my Preschool Interactive plans (complete with take home handout) every Thursday, with notes on how they went. Tell me what you think!

Visit from Lakeland School primary class. Lakeland is our county's special education school. It is an utterly amazing building with fabulous teachers and they have just gotten more transportation this year, so are visiting me! It's a great learning experience for us all - me to learn the best way to offer programming for this group with their special needs, the kids learning to interact in a community, public setting, and the teachers get to learn about all the amazing things we have to offer - plus new books! The primary class is the one I started with last fall and they're my faves - so well-behaved, they could give lessons to some of the other classes that visit! I am gradually figuring out the best way to offer stories and what crafts are suited to their skill levels. Today, we...

• Practiced library voices
• Read Chaucer's first winter by Stephen Krensky
• did Five little snowmen (I didn't use the hats because we had a rover with touching issues (-:)
• Read Sneezy the snowman by Wright (the kids repeated the phrase and the teacher checked it out afterwards - a hit!)
• Read In the snow by Tafuri
• Sang Sunny Day by Elizabeth Mitchell
• Decorated snowmen pictures - I just glued three white circles to blue paper and they used markers and a little glue and some sparkles.
• Played in the children's area.

Lego Club - I stretched the time out over 3:30 - 5 and had about 35 people total, which was good. Of course, I'd like to have back our 50+ numbers, but it depends on weather and after school activities, and this is a really good number.

Thursday - another BIG DAY, now with SNOW included! I had a visit from a another Lakeland group, this time the junior high kids. I had already visited their class at their school, and now they came to see me! It was just four guys, not responsive, but I think they enjoyed themselves. We did a short tour of the library and then read some stories Wild boars cook, Duck soup, and There are cats in this book. No one had a meltdown, and they were mostly attentive and even turned some pages!

Then it was time for the debut of the Elephant and Piggie Kids' Club!!! Of course, with the weather, it was...not as wildly successful as I had anticipated, given the number of people who had planned to come. I had...1 little girl and her mom. She loved the stories and puppets, and then was delighted to paint a piggie bank, her dad and younger brother joined us to paint a piggie bank, and another dad and son showed up. They all loved the painting and playing with puppets. I'm just going to use the same program again next time.

and evening desk time and a drive home in the snow...

Friday Was a half day for me, since I'm working tomorrow. I came in around 1:30pm in the afternoon and got set up for our special program of the month - Back to school with books and butterflies!

15 people came. I think this was not so much because of the big snowstorm yesterday, but because it was the first snowstorm. If it had been snowing since December, people would be antsy to get out. Usually, we are packed Friday afternoon. But...winter programs are always iffy. Anyways, a few things I will do differently next year

• Plan it at the end of January. We didn't have enough time to catalog and process all the new books.
• Decorate the butterflies with collage and glue instead of paint - or have a paint section for older kids and a collage section for younger kids. However nontoxic it is, I don't think toddlers should eat acrylic paint.

Saturday Was Saturday. No more need be said. Time for a trip to the zoo...I need a stress-relieving session with the octopus.

I feel less organized than...well, than I can remember in most of my previous semester starts. I said earlier this week to my coworker, Angela, "is it just me, or have our jobs DOUBLED in the past month?" and it certainly seems that way. Increased program attendance, the larger, more spectacular programs I have planned for the spring, more school visits - and school visits that involve more planning and preparation, like the Lakeland visits, increased circulation and an insane number of questions about ereaders (come on folks, at least try turning it on before you bring it in to us!!) seem to have left me exhausted before I even began the winter/spring session (then again, that could be the result of the combined efforts of Cybils, moving, and the massive weeding projects I did over the winter "break"). I am resigning myself to planning a couple weeks at a time, trusting to luck that my budget averages out and I still have money at the end of the year, and trying to keep my head above water. I'm also hoping to hit the 10,000 mark in program attendance this year! Here we come, 2012!