Saturday, February 22, 2014

This week at the library; or, Plodding through winter

Programs
Random Commentary
  • I've lived here for almost six years now, and in Illinois for about a year and a half before that, and this is the first winter that's really gotten to me. It's not the lack of sun - I can go quite happily for days with rainy skies. It's the endless white, the slushy roads, and the freezing, freezing cold. Happily, it looks like one of my amaryllis bulbs has said "to heck with growing tall, I'm just gonna flower and get it over with" so I'll have some color soon! Otherwise I might have to go sit in a greenhouse for a while.
  • For some reason the more stressed, overworked, and tired I get...the more I have the urge to start another blog. So I did. It's Animation, Not Cartoons will be very similar to my Flying off my bookshelf blog, but it will be movies. The title is a kind of joke I like to make - when you're an adult who watches cartoons, it's animation, not cartoons! I try to preview everything I buy for the children's section, so that will be most of it - I'm getting asked more reader's advisory type questions for movies, so having it in one place will be handy. Be prepared for snark though!
  • This week is really exhausting and blah - and next week promises to be even more stressful, since I'm subbing for two of Pattie's storytimes. Nobody can have an unstressful program if there is a 50% chance kids will cry when they see you. And, probably because of all the stress and the dismal weather, I'm having you-are-horrible-librarian vibes.
  • So, happy things!
    • One of the kindergarten teachers I visit said what an awesome reader I was - they love my expression and read-aloud skills.
    • A grandma at storytime said how much they love preschool interactive, even when there's not many people there, it's still fun! (I was stressing that we had a small crowd)
    • A caregiver at storytime said she's going to see if one of "her" kids can take a day off school, she's been sooo anxious to visit the library and come to storytime that she didn't want to go home because she thought she would miss library day!
    • Talking to a mom after storytime, she wanted to know who puts the picture books on top of the shelves - she said that they just don't look interesting when they're on the shelf and she always browses through and picks from the shelf top selection. It took me a long time to get that change made and it's been sooo worth it.
    • A 4K teacher at one of our preschools has been telling people about the remote collection I'm restarting with them - she's very enthusiastic!
    • Two parents asked for two different kids' movie series we don't have - one an older series, one a new one that's coming out soon. I went over Amazon with them, figuring out which exact titles they wanted, and told them I'd be ordering them soon. They were both really excited and one mom in particular, who wanted the older series, said how nice I was to take the time to pin it down and get it! Yay for my customer service!
    • A teen said she liked the digital photo frame upstairs - I didn't get any feedback when it was downstairs, so apparently that's a good move!
    • A kid finished 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten and they want to read MORE! I spent time showing them new areas they hadn't explored, like nonfiction, and read-alikes for their favorite books.
    • My Awards display is checking out a lot, mostly the picture books, but also the chapter books. The replacement copies I bought of the award winners make them much more attractive and several people have commented on books they remember reading as a child and encouraged their kids to try them.
    • Reader's Advisory request - a woman is planning a baby shower and as one of the activities all the attendees are going to take turns showing the new mom how to read aloud. I'm so pleased she thought of coming to the library and asking me for suggestions!
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