Saturday, November 17, 2012

This week at the library; or, Things are back to crazy normal

Programs
  • Tiny Tots (cancelled - Miss Pattie is sick!)
  • Toddlers 'n' Books 10 and 11am session (I did them this week, Miss Pattie was gone)
  • Preschool Interactive
  • Learning Curve (off-site)
  • Books 'n' Babies (Miss Pattie)
  • Learning Curve (2 sessions) (off-site)
  • Tibbets Kindergarten (off-site)
  • Messy Art Club
  • We Explore Healthy Snacking/Kids in the Kitchen (Miss Pattie)
Random Commentary
  • As you can see, when Miss Pattie is gone our world falls apart! I came in on Monday to a message that she was sick and the vision/hearing screening she does had been rescheduled to Tuesday morning. Panic!! Fortunately, I had some books I had pulled for her, so I just took them for myself.
  • Monday night, I put out some crafts in the storyroom (can't sub for Tiny Tots, I'm on the desk), turned on some music, and about 25 people showed up. They were (mostly) pretty understanding and had fun making die cut puppets and chatting for a while.
  • Tuesday morning I had the staff at the reference desk hand out the registration stickers and I did a rather abbreviated animal sounds storytime. This is what we did, as best as I can remember, for both sessions. It's a real measure of how much I've grown and relaxed as a librarian and in storytime that these were fun (if tiring) storytimes for everybody. No kids collapsed in tears b/c Miss Pattie wasn't there, I didn't end storytime in shame and mortification after 10 minutes for lack of attention and attendees, and I had good rapport with the parents and kids.
    • Shakes and The Tempo Marches On by Jim Gill
    • Talked about animal sounds
    • Read Find a cow now by Janet Stevens (kids thought the dog was a cat, but otherwise a big hit)
    • Did a five little leaves rhyme (told parents I wasn't ready for snow or Christmas yet and got some clapping in response!)
    • Read The Wide-Mouthed Frog pop-up
    • Read Monkey See, Look at me (all the kids stood up to do the actions)
    • Read Leaf man (some kids had drifted away a bit)
    • Made die-cut puppets.
  • We are going to draw a veil over Thursday. It was mostly fun (except for the one very unpleasant patron interaction) but tiring.
Approximate hours this week
  • Monday 11:45ish to 8
  • Tuesday 9-5
  • Wednesday 9-5
  • Thursday 9:30-5:30
  • Friday vacation!

4 comments:

Ami said...

We haven't had a full staff since...since...I can't remember. No director for the past three years, and we just lost a reference librarian (shortly after going many months with none at all). Our schedules and duties have changed so many times to cover, I don't think any of us remembers what they were originally supposed to be! But, ti keeps the job interesting, right?

Jennifer said...

Ha, right! My problem is we keep thinking of interesting things to do, and then doing them...but we really don't have enough staff and it gets exhausting! I am working hard this year to cut back on programs so I can get some other work done. Or just work a 40 hour week, that would be nice too!

Ami said...

Oh, that's hard (cutting back). When someone suggests a cooking club or a Lego Club or whatever, it's so hard to say no! Another librarian and I just met with some local Forest Service folks, who are hoping to get a big grant soon. We came away with plans for everything from guest lectures to a big family camping trip in the mountains! (Didn't help that the one guy was REALLY good-looking.)

Jennifer said...

Yeah and sometimes it's hard to explain to people that even outside programmers take work - you don't just set up a few chairs and poof!