Sunday, January 10, 2021

The first week of the new year; or, What fresh horrors await?

Nobody came to virtual book club, so my associate and I had a grant-writing meeting/think session and then experimented with recording via Zoom so I could send the kids a recording instead. It's blurry and the light isn't good, but she got it to work.

I didn't do any end-of-year stuff - like most people, I'd like 2020 to just disappear into the mists as soon as possible. I feel like all last year we've been responding, last-minute, to pandemic issues and assuming that "normal" will resume any time now. I think if we're honest with ourselves and face things realistically, that's not going to happen. I am looking at long-term changes - what will that look like in the children's area? The teen area? How can we rearrange things to best serve our patron's new needs? (we are, so far, still open to the public although all seating, play areas, and STEAM labs have been removed) Do we need computer terminals in the youth department anymore (no). What will record-keeping and statistics look like next year?

I've fiddled around with a lot of different plans. Nothing is set in stone, of course, but these are the general ideas I have so far:

In addition to this more philosophical work, some projects this week included:
  • Recording unboxing and instructional videos (to be edited by my associate)
  • School and patron reader's advisory requests
  • Planning and marketing a virtual author's visit for the end of the month
  • Meetings discussing scheduling, budget, etc.
  • Virtual book club (families picked up crafts and requested books, but no attendees)
  • Virtual storytime (a family came to my first one!)
  • Shifting things around (my aides did most of the actual physical work, I mostly stared blankly at things, and then looked at statistics, and then stared at them again, and then told them to move them somewhere else... my more experienced aide gave me several Looks but I did bring pound cake and blueberry cheesecake so there's that... the other aide just cheerfully moved everything. His mom has trained him well lol.)

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