This week at the library; or, Dreaming with the frogs and fishes

Rather to my surprise, this week was...well...normal. Crazy busy, but not crazy, if you know what I mean. We had a staff meeting on Monday (highlights - patrons who want to check out their neighbors' holds, how can we get Spanish magazines to circulate? the mysterious and numerous stains on the community room carpet, and the continuing problems with our patron computer software which is driving everyone nuts). Got a few more storytimes planned. The toner exploded as we were trying to close, but happily on the staff member wearing black pants and not me (wearing light khaki)

On Tuesday our gate broke during storytime in the morning, but hopefully someone will donate another before all the happy wanderers escape. We had our second Storywagon in the afternoon with an old favorite, David Stokes. Best attendance ever, 200! 50 of them were a daycare, but it's still an awesome number. Maybe I should have live bullfrogs at my storytimes...I got a really good setup for the room that allowed everyone to fit in comfortably (mostly).

It's the second session of summer school, which has fewer attendees, but my Preschool Interactive is still pulling level at 35. Quite a few new people, and a few old friends as well. Spent most of the afternoon making book bundles. Time-consuming, but that's how I get those awesome circulation numbers!

Lots of babies Thursday morning and no gate! Oh the horror! However, we survived. Mid-sized crowd, 40, for Lego Club in the afternoon.

Closed on Friday - traded this out with another staff member who was properly grateful, although I spoiled it by pointing out that I had closed pretty much every Friday for the first two years I worked and really didn't care that much. I have no life. Plus, it's nice to start a little later the day after a late afternoon program like Lego Club, since I often don't leave until 6.

Finally, the numbers for June...I see lots of library programs shown online where the librarians gush about how successful they were - but I don't see any attendance numbers. Now, for some people this doesn't matter. If a few kids show up and have fun, it's a success. At my library, numbers MATTER. If my numbers drop, or a program is not well-attended, questions will be asked. So, just to put things in perspective, here are the statistics from my monthly report for June:

• Statistics
• Programs: 24
• Attendance: 1324
• Circulation: 11, 333
• Programs with Pattie Woods
• Tiny Tots: 1/20
• Toddlers ‘n’ Books (Tuesday session): 3/114
• Toddlers ‘n’ Books (Friday session): 3/142
• Books ‘n’ Babies: 3/60
• Programs
• Preschool Interactive: 3/100
• Messy Art Club: 1/65
• Lego Building Club: 2/125
• Summer Reading Kick-off: Welty Environmental Center: 1/85
• Fancy Nancy party: 1/135
• Star Wars party: 1/150
• Girls’ Night Out: 1/18
• Storywagon: Great Scott, magician: 1/110
• School Visits and Outreach (*counted as programs)
• *Jackson Elementary 5th grade school visit: 1/80 
• *Westside 2nd grade school visit: 1/20 
• *Summer School pre-kindergarten programs: 5/100 
• St. Patrick’s School summer reading promotion visit 
• Summer promotion/outreach at Frank’s 
• Westside summer reading promotion visit
• Stealth Programming
• Lakeland Animal Shelter joined us for the summer reading kick-off. A number of children and parents enjoyed meeting the friendly dogs.
• We now have a fish tank, maintained by Christopher Wells. It’s been a great attention-grabber, especially pulling people towards the reading suggestions on the bulletin board.
• Summer Reading
• We currently have approximately 420 children participating in summer reading.