This Week at the Library; or, Let the outreach begin

Programs

• 5th grade outreach (2 performances)
• 6th grade outreach (visit to middle school)

Random Commentary

We say goodbye to the poultry (note - ducks are very cute but they smell pretty strong)

• Be glad I pared this down. I have hamster brain and wrote out EVERYTHING I was thinking which came out to about six pages.
• I will say, in short, that I am feeling disorganized - I wanted to do my school visits differently this year and I'm not entirely happy with how it's working out and I spent a ridiculous amount of time fiddling with lists and Pinterest boards. I ended up with a current school visit slideshow on the library Pinterest board and keeping a personal Pinterest of booktalking, as I'm thinking of repeating and not having all new books and booktalks every year.
• The fifth grade outreach this year was a program. I had the Great Scott (local magician) come for two performances, 1.5 schools at each. Despite some worry about the weather (who am I kidding, I didn't sleep for three days stressing about it and other things) everyone was able to come and had a great time. I had new books on display in the lobby. It remains to be seen if summer reading participation changes in any way due to this.
• Our sixth grade is divided into two groups - I went to see the purple team at school and did a lot of booktalking and summer reading promotion. They've had about 100 kids in the past and as they file in, I'm thinking "that seems like more..." 150! The schools here are growing! Two classes took turns after my 30 minute presentation to come back for more time with the books. Visiting the schools is as much about the teachers as the kids - I had good conversations with two teachers planning to bring their kids (not middle school age) to the library this summer.
• I spent a lot of time fiddling with outreach this week, cleaning off my desk, working on miscellaneous stuff, dealing with the chickens and ducks (long story), laying out possible shifts for moving the teen area downstairs, getting ready for new (summer) staff next week, and staff meetings - we're trying to cut down on printing for marketing etc. among many other things. Also cleaning out the storyroom. This is as far as I've gotten.